Driving along the shore at the airport strip the other day we passed a man walking along the sidewalk with his nose in a book. He had the more serene smile on his face, like that was his favorite thing to do in all the world. Not only was he smiling from ear to ear, his head was also weaving from side to side, as if in agreement with what he was reading. We chuckled because it would only be a matter of time before he slammed into a post or tripped over a broken piece of sidewalk - because he was so engrossed in the book he wasn't paying the slightest attention to where his feet were going.
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Driving along the east shore yesterday, a tourist had set up his chair in the sand and settled in to enjoy the sun and surf. A stray dog sat in front of him, just looking at him...as if to say "well, I'm here now, we can start to eat any time". The look of expectancy on the dog's face was priceless.
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Near misses: a dog dashed across the busy airport strip, narrowly missed getting hit by a taxi. The owners were on the other side, they didn't even blink an eye.
Two dogs darted across the road after something in the bushes along the east coast. The second swerved at the last minute to avoid getting hit, then joined his companion over in the bushes. The dog never blinked an eye, he doesn't know how close he was to death just for the sake of an iguana.
As I sat on the cart waiting for Miguel to buy tamales at the roadside stand, a small cat ran across the road in front of me. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch - but it made it across.
We always stop when an iguana is too close to the side of the road and is pondering crossing. We shoo it away with a purse, a bag, or a cap, saving its life to that moment anyway. The number of smushed iguana bodies on the roads tells me the iguanas are going to do what they're going to do once we're not there to scare them back to safety. But we try.
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Yesterday Miguel and Loco were parked at a corner on Av Juarez waiting for me to change money. As I approached the cart I noticed Miguel was talking to a woman, and when I arrived she introduced herself. One of my regular blog readers and commenters - K from Michigan. She had spotted our dog, and went up to Miguel and asked if that was Loco. Yup, she recognized him from his pictures. Loco lapped up the attention, of course. Great eye, K - was very nice to meet you!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Which Maya?
This morning after she had her canned portion of food, and cleaned the plates of all the other cats, Maya started fussing to come in from the back terrace. Some mornings after she eats she gets up on her ledge and is content all day long. Some days Maya and Minina sleep together on the old BBQ. And some days Maya simply refuses to be left out on the terrace. Yesterday was one of those days - she tore the screen off the kitchen window, frame and all, and climbed in.
Today, with one window out of order, she tried to tear the screen off the other window, so I closed the window, which makes her stop because she knows there's no point in continuing. So then she started with the screen door. We had to put a metal mesh over the screen at the back of the door because all the cats kept jumping up and tearing the screen until they could climb in. The metal screen hasn't stopped them from jumping though - but although they may get a bit of a grip in the metal mesh, they can't get leverage. They hang from their front paws and claw at the door with their back feet trying to get a foothold, but eventually they lose their grip and they fall to the ground with a thud.
Maya makes a pretty big thud when she falls. I was in the living room on a conference call this morning when I heard her whining to come in, and then jumping, and then falling to the ground - at least 4 times. She didn't want to give up, but I just ignored her because there wasn't much else I could do.
Just as I finished my conference call, Miguel came downstairs and muttered something about checking the door, and Maya, and bathroom. I really had no idea when he was talking about, and with Maya the cat on my mind, I thought he was trying to tell me something about Maya ruining the back door. I asked for clarification, which irritated him, and he growled something about Maya and the bathroom door. So I went to our bathroom door downstairs and looked in the bathroom, and at the door - I didn't see anything.
What was he talking about? He had run out of patience trying to explain to me, but finally I understood that he wanted me to go upstairs and check out the left side of the bathroom up in the bedroom we call "The Maya Suite" (it's our bedroom but we don't use it during high season).
Oh - he was talking about Maya the room and not Maya the cat. He couldn't see why I wasn't following his thoughts, but he wasn't clear. I knew that he was grumpy because it was bad news.
When I went upstairs I saw the problem - the talavera tiles on the bathroom wall were buckled and ready to drop. A section of about 15 tiles, right at the entrance to the bathroom - and it wasn't possible to close the bathroom door. Just what we needed when guests were due to arrive in a few hours.
But no worries - as Miguel always says, "everything has a solution other than death". So he and "Chino" got busy after breakfast and pulled off the tiles, only breaking about 3 to the point where they could not be reused. We had 3 extra blue tiles from another sink counter, and in several hours Chino had the wall rebuilt and you would never know there was a problem. I happen to dislike those yellow tiles anyway, so if we ever have spare cash again, I would like to take all the tile down and redo it to my taste.
So the Maya suite was put back in order, the guests arrived to a clean room, and Maya the cat gave up picking at the back door and spent the day out there until we got back from evening rounds.
Another day is over...and the peace lily is blooming. Back to normal life.
Today, with one window out of order, she tried to tear the screen off the other window, so I closed the window, which makes her stop because she knows there's no point in continuing. So then she started with the screen door. We had to put a metal mesh over the screen at the back of the door because all the cats kept jumping up and tearing the screen until they could climb in. The metal screen hasn't stopped them from jumping though - but although they may get a bit of a grip in the metal mesh, they can't get leverage. They hang from their front paws and claw at the door with their back feet trying to get a foothold, but eventually they lose their grip and they fall to the ground with a thud.
Maya makes a pretty big thud when she falls. I was in the living room on a conference call this morning when I heard her whining to come in, and then jumping, and then falling to the ground - at least 4 times. She didn't want to give up, but I just ignored her because there wasn't much else I could do.
Just as I finished my conference call, Miguel came downstairs and muttered something about checking the door, and Maya, and bathroom. I really had no idea when he was talking about, and with Maya the cat on my mind, I thought he was trying to tell me something about Maya ruining the back door. I asked for clarification, which irritated him, and he growled something about Maya and the bathroom door. So I went to our bathroom door downstairs and looked in the bathroom, and at the door - I didn't see anything.
What was he talking about? He had run out of patience trying to explain to me, but finally I understood that he wanted me to go upstairs and check out the left side of the bathroom up in the bedroom we call "The Maya Suite" (it's our bedroom but we don't use it during high season).
Oh - he was talking about Maya the room and not Maya the cat. He couldn't see why I wasn't following his thoughts, but he wasn't clear. I knew that he was grumpy because it was bad news.
When I went upstairs I saw the problem - the talavera tiles on the bathroom wall were buckled and ready to drop. A section of about 15 tiles, right at the entrance to the bathroom - and it wasn't possible to close the bathroom door. Just what we needed when guests were due to arrive in a few hours.
But no worries - as Miguel always says, "everything has a solution other than death". So he and "Chino" got busy after breakfast and pulled off the tiles, only breaking about 3 to the point where they could not be reused. We had 3 extra blue tiles from another sink counter, and in several hours Chino had the wall rebuilt and you would never know there was a problem. I happen to dislike those yellow tiles anyway, so if we ever have spare cash again, I would like to take all the tile down and redo it to my taste.
So the Maya suite was put back in order, the guests arrived to a clean room, and Maya the cat gave up picking at the back door and spent the day out there until we got back from evening rounds.
Another day is over...and the peace lily is blooming. Back to normal life.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wordy Wednesday
I'm not sure what the Wordless Wednesday is all about in the blogging community (guess I didn't read the memo). So since I don't know about it, I'll just go ahead and blather on...
Today was just one of those days.
Our golf cart is with the mechanic - oh - I forgot to mention, we have a different golf cart. Limey finally gave it up for good last month, so we left him with the mechanic to use for parts (and some of the parts made their way back to us, like the rearview mirror). We took another used golf cart off his hands, one with the bigger tires, and boy, what a difference tires make when navigating over speed bumps and pot holes. We all (Loco included) like the new cart, but we were in such dire need we took it from the mechanic last month before he was really done fixing everything. So it's back for just a little 'nip and tuck'.
The other day I drove past Limey parked in front of the mechanic's home, and I didn't even feel the slightest sadness or nostalgia that he is now part of our past. Limey annoyed me too much at the end, I was ready to be done with him (and his costly repairs that never lasted more than a couple of weeks). Miguel was the one who hated to let go, he felt that little cart worked its heart out for him (and it did - it hauled everything you can imagine and only broke down a few times while doing so).
Miguel's cell phone bit the dust yesterday. I replaced it with a new one but didn't tell him, so he left early this morning without a phone. He had to go to get the keys from the guests from one of the homes out near Garrafon and then wait for the cleaning crew to arrive since this would be a same-day turnover of a very large home and property. Of course his phone rang here at the house, and of course I answered it.
A panicked voice of a guest checking out of one of the other homes - "I'm going to miss the ferry and I've left my passport in the safety deposit box and we've locked the keys inside the house because we're leaving. We need Miguel to come and let us in right away". I told her he was at least 10 minutes away, if I could even reach him, and felt sorry for her when I heard her sigh of dismay.
I called the house where Miguel was, except the cleaning crew had arrived and he was no longer there. He was somewhere - either looking for the yard worker in Col. Guadalupana, checking on guests at another house with same-day turnover, buying orange juice at the local market, over at the apartments checking on guests there, or simply on the road to one of those destinations.
With a spare set of keys at our house, I jumped in a cab and had to deal with an English-speaking Mexican man in the back seat who decided to get my life history in the 5 minutes we would be sharing the cab. "What's your name?" he asked. I replied - "Sue". For the life of me he couldn't pronounce it - "Sus" (no, Sue), "Susana" (no, Sue), "Sus" (no, S U E, I spelled it), "Su-eh" (no, it's really Sue but ok, Susana)". In my frantic mood, I really wasn't in the mood to chat, so was glad when we arrived at the house in question.
Nobody was there. As I put the key in the lock, the front door opened - it was unlocked. I entered, and a stiff wind blew the door shut with a bang. The kitchen window was wide open. Hmmm...I went into the bedroom and noticed that the safety deposit box was open, and the two sets of house keys were on the kitchen counter. I guessed that the woman had climbed in the kitchen window (no easy feat, the window overlooks the pool with a very narrow ledge, and is a little high - no idea how she actually managed to do that without falling in). She got her passport and in her rush to make the ferry, she forgot to lock the front door when she left. So luckily I was there to secure the house, it's located in a area known to have problems with break-ins.
When I got home the woman had left a voice message saying that she had climbed in the kitchen window, but discovered that her passport was not in the safe, it was in her bag all along. She apologized for leaving the window and door open. Poor thing - she must have wanted to kick herself, it was all for nought, but I know how easily one can panic when in a hurry and you can't find the one thing you know you must have. Sometimes the thing is right before my eyes but I don't see it because my brain is racing - she probably went through her bag several times before deciding she'd left her passport in the safe. I do hope she made her flight.
Good thing we had already arranged not to do breakfast for our guests today - that would have been one stress we didn't need. We'll see what tomorrow brings...
Today was just one of those days.
Our golf cart is with the mechanic - oh - I forgot to mention, we have a different golf cart. Limey finally gave it up for good last month, so we left him with the mechanic to use for parts (and some of the parts made their way back to us, like the rearview mirror). We took another used golf cart off his hands, one with the bigger tires, and boy, what a difference tires make when navigating over speed bumps and pot holes. We all (Loco included) like the new cart, but we were in such dire need we took it from the mechanic last month before he was really done fixing everything. So it's back for just a little 'nip and tuck'.
The other day I drove past Limey parked in front of the mechanic's home, and I didn't even feel the slightest sadness or nostalgia that he is now part of our past. Limey annoyed me too much at the end, I was ready to be done with him (and his costly repairs that never lasted more than a couple of weeks). Miguel was the one who hated to let go, he felt that little cart worked its heart out for him (and it did - it hauled everything you can imagine and only broke down a few times while doing so).
Miguel's cell phone bit the dust yesterday. I replaced it with a new one but didn't tell him, so he left early this morning without a phone. He had to go to get the keys from the guests from one of the homes out near Garrafon and then wait for the cleaning crew to arrive since this would be a same-day turnover of a very large home and property. Of course his phone rang here at the house, and of course I answered it.
A panicked voice of a guest checking out of one of the other homes - "I'm going to miss the ferry and I've left my passport in the safety deposit box and we've locked the keys inside the house because we're leaving. We need Miguel to come and let us in right away". I told her he was at least 10 minutes away, if I could even reach him, and felt sorry for her when I heard her sigh of dismay.
I called the house where Miguel was, except the cleaning crew had arrived and he was no longer there. He was somewhere - either looking for the yard worker in Col. Guadalupana, checking on guests at another house with same-day turnover, buying orange juice at the local market, over at the apartments checking on guests there, or simply on the road to one of those destinations.
With a spare set of keys at our house, I jumped in a cab and had to deal with an English-speaking Mexican man in the back seat who decided to get my life history in the 5 minutes we would be sharing the cab. "What's your name?" he asked. I replied - "Sue". For the life of me he couldn't pronounce it - "Sus" (no, Sue), "Susana" (no, Sue), "Sus" (no, S U E, I spelled it), "Su-eh" (no, it's really Sue but ok, Susana)". In my frantic mood, I really wasn't in the mood to chat, so was glad when we arrived at the house in question.
Nobody was there. As I put the key in the lock, the front door opened - it was unlocked. I entered, and a stiff wind blew the door shut with a bang. The kitchen window was wide open. Hmmm...I went into the bedroom and noticed that the safety deposit box was open, and the two sets of house keys were on the kitchen counter. I guessed that the woman had climbed in the kitchen window (no easy feat, the window overlooks the pool with a very narrow ledge, and is a little high - no idea how she actually managed to do that without falling in). She got her passport and in her rush to make the ferry, she forgot to lock the front door when she left. So luckily I was there to secure the house, it's located in a area known to have problems with break-ins.
When I got home the woman had left a voice message saying that she had climbed in the kitchen window, but discovered that her passport was not in the safe, it was in her bag all along. She apologized for leaving the window and door open. Poor thing - she must have wanted to kick herself, it was all for nought, but I know how easily one can panic when in a hurry and you can't find the one thing you know you must have. Sometimes the thing is right before my eyes but I don't see it because my brain is racing - she probably went through her bag several times before deciding she'd left her passport in the safe. I do hope she made her flight.
Good thing we had already arranged not to do breakfast for our guests today - that would have been one stress we didn't need. We'll see what tomorrow brings...
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
At the Risk of Repeating Myself...
The truth is...Facebook has stolen my blog. I have lots to say, and Facebook lets me say it quickly and in fewer than 420 or so odd characters. I know this because several times I've written a post on Facebook only to be told it's too long. Probably was a post better suited for a blog, but when I told Facebook to put my too-long story into notes, it didn't tell me to copy my text first - and when I got to my notes, it was a blank page. So, a post lost - lost on Facebook, and lost on the blog. Because I was not motivated enough to write it all over again.
My blog is blogging me down...even though it actually is a better forum for sharing stories accompanied by pictures. I need to get motivated again to write here or shut it down.
So, I will post some updates that will be repeats for those of you who are my friends on Facebook.
1. I was reluctant to write about Loco because I suspected something serious was going on with his health and I didn't want to write until I had all the details. The weekend after I got back from Canada (about 10 days ago), Loco had a fever, was listless and didn't want to eat. I found a big tick and a small tick (in the same spot) on his left shoulder, and feeling around, thought I felt a huge, hard lump behind his left ear. By Monday he was eating again and acting more like his old self, but I took him to the vet anyway.
The preliminary diagnosis was ehrlichiosis (tick disease), something he's been treated for before with limited success. He cannot take the monthly tick drops as he is very allergic, so my method of control is tick patrol over his body, which he quite enjoys because it's like a little massage. One big danger of this disease is platelet destruction, leading to uncontrolled bleeding and often, death. A year ago Loco's platelets were low, around 25,000 (they should be 10x that level), but after 2 months of treatment the platelet count did not go up so we abandoned the costly testing since there was nothing more to do anyway, apparently. We waited for signs of cancer, as that was the next logical explanation.
Blood tests this time showed a shockingly low level of 2000 platelets - a level where most animals quickly die. The vet had never seen a level this low before, and came right over to get Loco started on the antibiotic of choice for the tick disease. Along with diet, the only other thing to be done is to keep him quiet in an attempt to prevent any type of injury that might trigger a bleed.
Loco is horrible for taking pills, he can spit them out after you're sure he had to have swallowed them. I thought I had him fooled after I started stuffing them into the hollowed out center of a piece of hot dog, but now he's caught onto that trick and won't even eat the piece of hot dog when it doesn't have any pills. The battle continues, he will be on meds for a while, so I am going to win...
Unless you knew about his platelet problem, you would think Loco was a happy, healthy, energetic dog. His blood will be retested in about 10 days, so we'll see if the meds have worked this time. Fingers crossed.
My blog is blogging me down...even though it actually is a better forum for sharing stories accompanied by pictures. I need to get motivated again to write here or shut it down.
So, I will post some updates that will be repeats for those of you who are my friends on Facebook.
1. I was reluctant to write about Loco because I suspected something serious was going on with his health and I didn't want to write until I had all the details. The weekend after I got back from Canada (about 10 days ago), Loco had a fever, was listless and didn't want to eat. I found a big tick and a small tick (in the same spot) on his left shoulder, and feeling around, thought I felt a huge, hard lump behind his left ear. By Monday he was eating again and acting more like his old self, but I took him to the vet anyway.
The preliminary diagnosis was ehrlichiosis (tick disease), something he's been treated for before with limited success. He cannot take the monthly tick drops as he is very allergic, so my method of control is tick patrol over his body, which he quite enjoys because it's like a little massage. One big danger of this disease is platelet destruction, leading to uncontrolled bleeding and often, death. A year ago Loco's platelets were low, around 25,000 (they should be 10x that level), but after 2 months of treatment the platelet count did not go up so we abandoned the costly testing since there was nothing more to do anyway, apparently. We waited for signs of cancer, as that was the next logical explanation.
Blood tests this time showed a shockingly low level of 2000 platelets - a level where most animals quickly die. The vet had never seen a level this low before, and came right over to get Loco started on the antibiotic of choice for the tick disease. Along with diet, the only other thing to be done is to keep him quiet in an attempt to prevent any type of injury that might trigger a bleed.
Loco is horrible for taking pills, he can spit them out after you're sure he had to have swallowed them. I thought I had him fooled after I started stuffing them into the hollowed out center of a piece of hot dog, but now he's caught onto that trick and won't even eat the piece of hot dog when it doesn't have any pills. The battle continues, he will be on meds for a while, so I am going to win...
Unless you knew about his platelet problem, you would think Loco was a happy, healthy, energetic dog. His blood will be retested in about 10 days, so we'll see if the meds have worked this time. Fingers crossed.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Goofy Dog
This is Loco being illogical. He loves the cookie I'm offering him, he will sit and wait for Miguel to give him a piece. For some reason he wasn't sure he wanted the piece I was giving him, but he finally took it and as you can see, gobbled it up.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
It's the iPad's Fault
My daughter asked when I will be writing another blog. I told her I didn't know, except 15 minutes later here I am, writing a blog.
Why haven't I been writing? Quite a few reasons, actually - time and frame of mind are the immediate reasons that I can cite. But it may be something much simpler, actually.
I inherited the iPad after my father's death. It is so simple to use. I can get all the emails, read all the forums, research stuff on the web, and play Angry Birds. There are days I never even turn on my laptop, and even when I do I just use it for the applications I have on there. My preferred tech toy is the iPad.
The only thing I don't care for with the iPad is typing. I am a touch typist, and the keyboard on the iPad turns me into a hunt and peck typist. It slows me down and I make lots of errors as my fingers touch the wrong keys on the touch pad. If I have an email reply that will be more than a line or two, I open up the laptop so I can properly type.
So writing a blog using the iPad is a chore. Thus, I'm not writing. It's not my fault, it's the iPad.
Why haven't I been writing? Quite a few reasons, actually - time and frame of mind are the immediate reasons that I can cite. But it may be something much simpler, actually.
I inherited the iPad after my father's death. It is so simple to use. I can get all the emails, read all the forums, research stuff on the web, and play Angry Birds. There are days I never even turn on my laptop, and even when I do I just use it for the applications I have on there. My preferred tech toy is the iPad.
The only thing I don't care for with the iPad is typing. I am a touch typist, and the keyboard on the iPad turns me into a hunt and peck typist. It slows me down and I make lots of errors as my fingers touch the wrong keys on the touch pad. If I have an email reply that will be more than a line or two, I open up the laptop so I can properly type.
So writing a blog using the iPad is a chore. Thus, I'm not writing. It's not my fault, it's the iPad.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
There's a wet wind blowing
It's not really rain, it's water in the wind. Another norte (north wind). The weather has been gorgeous lately, and even the last couple of nortes only lasted a day and were nothing really - a little cloud, a little rain shower, and then they were gone.
But this fierce beast that blew in yesterday afternoon is going to make it a non-tourist day at the beach. A good day to lay in a hammock or snuggled in bed, dozing or reading or a little of both.
I laid in bed just one minute too long this morning and was left holding the garbage as the truck blew past me and wouldn't stop to let me throw my garbage up to the guys in the truck. So I borrowed my neighbor's trash can instead of putting the bags over on our platform, because the wind would toss around the unsecured bags in no time, making a mess in the street for me to clean up later.
The good thing is that I don't have to water the plants, we've had enough rain over the last week that I only watered once. Normally I enjoy watering the plants, it's something I don't do often because that's Miguel's passion, but with him away this week, it's one more chore that I had to pick up to keep everything in order.
Here's a short video I took the last time we had strong north winds like this. I stood on the shore and it was all I could do to keep my feet on the ground. Today is probably not quite as strong, but it's probably close.
As I was writing this, my sister posted on Facebook, reminding me that they just got more snow and the temperature is -8C. So I guess I'll shut up about the weather, it could be so much worse. Lucky for them they are headed to Jamaica to attend my nephew's wedding. Looks like Kyle is ready, wearing the little suit I bought him here on Isla...
But this fierce beast that blew in yesterday afternoon is going to make it a non-tourist day at the beach. A good day to lay in a hammock or snuggled in bed, dozing or reading or a little of both.
I laid in bed just one minute too long this morning and was left holding the garbage as the truck blew past me and wouldn't stop to let me throw my garbage up to the guys in the truck. So I borrowed my neighbor's trash can instead of putting the bags over on our platform, because the wind would toss around the unsecured bags in no time, making a mess in the street for me to clean up later.
The good thing is that I don't have to water the plants, we've had enough rain over the last week that I only watered once. Normally I enjoy watering the plants, it's something I don't do often because that's Miguel's passion, but with him away this week, it's one more chore that I had to pick up to keep everything in order.
Here's a short video I took the last time we had strong north winds like this. I stood on the shore and it was all I could do to keep my feet on the ground. Today is probably not quite as strong, but it's probably close.
As I was writing this, my sister posted on Facebook, reminding me that they just got more snow and the temperature is -8C. So I guess I'll shut up about the weather, it could be so much worse. Lucky for them they are headed to Jamaica to attend my nephew's wedding. Looks like Kyle is ready, wearing the little suit I bought him here on Isla...
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Incredible Hot Dog
Last night we went to Comono's for dinner. I had only been there once before, several years earlier, and it was an off night for service, and I probably didn't order well (as I recall it was some kind of sandwich).
Last night I ordered chicken schnitzel - also known as breaded chicken or pollo empanizado. We also ordered the house salad, topped with fried cheese balls. Randy ordered the meat plate.
Before the food was brought out, they gave us a plate of tostadas and a delicious dip called something like 'chimy chimy' - a parsley, onion, garlic, olive oil, balsalmic vinegar combination that was great.
We also enjoyed the house salad and cheese balls. I rolled my cheese balls in the salad dressing - yum!
My chicken came with fries, and even though they were frozen fries, they were really good, not dry and hard like so many other places.
Randy's meat plate looked interesting from my side of the table. I saw a sliced-open sausage, 3 hamburg patties with a white cream sauce on top, and then some little things that looked like upside-down animal feet. Closer inspection revealed the feet to be quartered hot dogs, cut twice across one end, sort of like you do with a radish or something when you want to make it decorative. The pieces of hot dog had been deep fried, and were a little crispy and a deep brown color. I couldn't resist trying one, and was pleased to find that they had put a little mustard and relish in the center of the decoration end - just enough to give it some flavor.
After our meal we were stuffed but a couple of desserts on the menu struck our interest, so we took home the chocolate sausage, and the chocolate tempura. Since whipped cream was placed on the side, as soon as we got home we had to eat the desserts. We decided that there was a better name for the chocolate sausage - maybe chocolate fudge roll would be more appealing. We really loved the chocolate tempura dipped in whipped cream - crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside - I would get that again in a minute.
I hate to admit this, but the hot dog was the best part of the meal, and I don't say that with sarcasm, because we thought everything was well-prepared and delicious. We decided we might go back and order the meat plate to share, and ask them to skip the other meats and just load the plate with little hot dog feet.
Last night I ordered chicken schnitzel - also known as breaded chicken or pollo empanizado. We also ordered the house salad, topped with fried cheese balls. Randy ordered the meat plate.
Before the food was brought out, they gave us a plate of tostadas and a delicious dip called something like 'chimy chimy' - a parsley, onion, garlic, olive oil, balsalmic vinegar combination that was great.
We also enjoyed the house salad and cheese balls. I rolled my cheese balls in the salad dressing - yum!
My chicken came with fries, and even though they were frozen fries, they were really good, not dry and hard like so many other places.
Randy's meat plate looked interesting from my side of the table. I saw a sliced-open sausage, 3 hamburg patties with a white cream sauce on top, and then some little things that looked like upside-down animal feet. Closer inspection revealed the feet to be quartered hot dogs, cut twice across one end, sort of like you do with a radish or something when you want to make it decorative. The pieces of hot dog had been deep fried, and were a little crispy and a deep brown color. I couldn't resist trying one, and was pleased to find that they had put a little mustard and relish in the center of the decoration end - just enough to give it some flavor.
After our meal we were stuffed but a couple of desserts on the menu struck our interest, so we took home the chocolate sausage, and the chocolate tempura. Since whipped cream was placed on the side, as soon as we got home we had to eat the desserts. We decided that there was a better name for the chocolate sausage - maybe chocolate fudge roll would be more appealing. We really loved the chocolate tempura dipped in whipped cream - crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside - I would get that again in a minute.
I hate to admit this, but the hot dog was the best part of the meal, and I don't say that with sarcasm, because we thought everything was well-prepared and delicious. We decided we might go back and order the meat plate to share, and ask them to skip the other meats and just load the plate with little hot dog feet.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Pink Skies
I love my bedroom, especially in the morning when I get to lie in bed and look out at the pink sky that signals the rising sun. I don't even have to get up to enjoy it, I just lie there and smell the coffee - literally, because Miguel has 'pushed the button' down in the kitchen. These cooler mornings make the smell of fresh-brewed coffee waft up the stairs just a little stronger. Like the smell of the tortilla factory - cool mornings bring that unique smell and remind me of my childhood when we walked to the skating arena surrounded by the wonderful smell of Shredded Wheat and Shreddies being baked in the Nabisco factory.
Riding on the back seat of the golf cart during sunset gives me an extended view of the pink skies. The other night I got lucky, we drove north when the sun first started to set and I watched it all, and then we drove south after the sun had gone down and the sky was a pink canvas. Had I been in the front seat I would only have had time for a glimpse before it went out of view.
Since Miguel has been doing property management, I sometimes accompany him on his house-checking trip in the early morning. Pink skies over blue seas, fluffy clouds, and gentle waves signal another beautiful day. At times like this I marvel that I am so lucky to live in such a place. I've become a morning person in the sense that I like to get up early, even though I don't necessarily like doing anything once I'm up. Just slowly sipping my coffee and enjoying the fresh air, the beautiful plants, the birds singing, and the other morning noises in the colonia are enough to start the day.
Riding on the back seat of the golf cart during sunset gives me an extended view of the pink skies. The other night I got lucky, we drove north when the sun first started to set and I watched it all, and then we drove south after the sun had gone down and the sky was a pink canvas. Had I been in the front seat I would only have had time for a glimpse before it went out of view.
Since Miguel has been doing property management, I sometimes accompany him on his house-checking trip in the early morning. Pink skies over blue seas, fluffy clouds, and gentle waves signal another beautiful day. At times like this I marvel that I am so lucky to live in such a place. I've become a morning person in the sense that I like to get up early, even though I don't necessarily like doing anything once I'm up. Just slowly sipping my coffee and enjoying the fresh air, the beautiful plants, the birds singing, and the other morning noises in the colonia are enough to start the day.
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