Huéspedes

Domingo 28 Octubre - Sabado 03 Noviembre 2012.  (Dom 28^th)  Upon waking, Carmen decided this would be the day to invite Ania and Frank for an afternoon meal. They also eat mid-afternoon as we do. Carmen called them, and as luck would have it – they were free! Dinner at two. While food prep was happening, Dan, with Carmen's assistance, set up the cat “tree” we had brought down from US, getting its parts out from underfoot. Then of course he had to clean off dining room table, which Dan has been using as a work table full of parts, etc. Oh, and chairs. Well, we did not bring our dining chairs with us, nor are we ready to purchase new ones. We do have some card table chairs and a couple lawn chairs, so we will not have to sit on our thumbs. It is hard to dine, when sitting on one's thumbs you know.

Not always a good idea to try your new oven the first time when having company, but really what could be wrong? The rest of the stove works fine! Wrong, wrong. The oven needs to be 425ºF but it would not go up above 325º. Well, our Dutch Baby wasn't as good as it could have been. This Dutch Baby is done without vanilla or sugar as the dessert ones are. It is poured over thin chicken breast meat, and . bakes about half an hour. By the time the “baby” is well browned, the chicken on the bottom is done. Really is best when it browns well in a hot oven, but due to the cooler temp in the oven, it was done before it puffed and browned. Our guests called about 1pm checking on the time. Mexico went off daylight savings time at midnight last night, and they wanted to confirm we were both on the same clock schedule for the meal. This is almost the first time that Carmen has cooked for guests at home, other than for family, in many years. Since she has been cooking in a restaurant and then retirement home for the past 17 years, she had no desire to cook when home. Found out that she really enjoys it again. We also had a parmesan crusted potato/chayote dish, fried green beans, red cabbage/pineapple slaw and wholewheat bolillo rolls. Did not make a dessert.

After dinner, we watched the DVD, “Mamma Mia.” Such a fun movie with upbeat music! When Ania and Frank arrived, they had presented us with some beautiful Anthurium flowers from their home, and some of their home-grown oranges and bananas. While watching the movie, Carmen kept thinking about the fat bananas, and since she had seen the movie before, she went into the kitchen and proceeded to fry them up, as they were actually platanos (plantains). After browning, she poured in a goodly amount of a brandy type cane booze, cooked hard, then added sugar to caramelize. Meanwhile, she took some of her frozen peanut butter cookie dough from the freezer and baked a few in the toaster oven. Found some pretty dishes in the cupboard, plated the yummies with a dollop of sour cream, and we all indulged. Yum, yum. Ania told Carmen that there was supposed to be no dessert, and Carmen told her it was their fault for bringing the platanos.

What a nice relaxing day we had. Watched another movie on TV after our first huéspedes (guests ) left. With daylight savings off here and still running in the US for another week, we are now two hours earlier than the east coast and one hour later from the west coast. Will switch back as soon as their time falls back.

(Lun 29^th) Rained last night and this day there is an on and off chipi-chipi happening. This is a very light misty rain in the air with solid gray sky. Dan is spending the day with the blog, and then with trying to get our banks to get their records straightened out for our life in Mexico. Carmen is watching the weather reports for hurricane Sandy, while reading, plus writing for the blog. Today we are having beer battered fish, and it is time to prepare it. Bit chilly today. Temp is about 68º outside and only 72º inside. Quiet day. Gardi is napping on the coffee table and Smij is of course in her drawer upstairs.

Carmen plans to raise the hem lines of the living room curtains, since they are basically down to the floor now. This makes for cleaning the floor difficult, and the bottom of the windows is about 20” above the floor. So she has pinned the edges up at various heights, to see which we might like best. In doing this it has been discovered that the bottom of the curtains has stretched and is a bit wider than just above where the new hems will fall. Always makes for difficulties of making them look good.

Our new acquaintance, Alex, who lives across this block, stopped by today to see that all is okay with us. He said that if anyone hassled us, tell him about it so that he might intercede. He opined that there were some folks around who didn't care for gringos, but we have, so far, encountered nothing but politeness and smiles from our neighbors and passers by.

(Mar 30^th) Last evening we had a surprise uninvited guest. A 3 inch across (with legs extended) tarantula was walking slowly across our living room floor, maybe watching TV with us? Now how did that get in the house? (Sorry, no picture to show you.  It was Dan's first thought when he saw it, but Carmen's desires to get a great distance from it won out here.)  We put an empty quart size yogurt container over it and slid a dust pan under, and carried it outside across the street to let it go in the banana field. Later, a calmer  Carmen told Dan that we should have saved it and sold it for a pet. Carmen used to have one with its young ones living on back steps in Scotts Valley, California. It was much smaller though.

Third day in a row with moisture in the air. Guess God does not want Carmen doing laundry today. Today is actually a fine rain instead of the chipi chipi. Temp outside is merely 65 and inside 72 and holding. Wonder how long the inside warmth will hold with no sun or heat? We discovered a leak behind the upstairs toilet, and Dan determined it was the seal between the tank and the bottom half of the fixture. So he turned off the water, flushed the tank, then removed the supply hose and decoupled the tank. Once removed he took it outside and hosed it out, taking off the old gaskets which definitely needed replacement.

Carmen is still thinking about hemming curtains and Dan is sitting at computer trying to make the printer function, which just stopped working while he was printing out some bank statements. He also was communicating with HP to see if he can get some idea about what is causing the monitor to display that weird interference pattern superimposed on the screen. Today we must look up medical terms in Spanish since our visit to the IMSS clinic is tomorrow. Dan's vocabulary of Spanish medical terms is pretty inadequate, so we will be using Google Translate and the great Word Reference website to get up to speed. We will put together a translated list of meds and conditions for Carmen to have with her, just in case she has some of her doctor's consult tomorrow without Dan present.

Carmen feels her mind is being lazy today. Can not think of what to do with the thin cut pork she has thawing for a meal today. Now there are also a couple fresh tomatoes and an avocado that should be used. Then of course we must finish the ice cream in the freezer since we will have the car out tomorrow and will shop at one of the big stores, which means we'll need freezer space for some new ice cream flavors. Problems, problems, problems all day long...remember that song? Actually no major problems here, thankfully, just little ones as we get settled in. We have still not found the little outside window thermometer that we got from Merv's in Marblemount years ago. We remember seeing it, but what did we do with it?

Keeping a lookout for another tarantula visitor! Too bad we could not have let it live with us, since it lives on insects. However, so far we do not mind those cute little visiting geckos in the house, which also eat insects. Their excrement is dry oval gray specks. This just gets swept from the walls where we see it, with no wall damage. Actually we found another newly hatched baby and carried it outside. It scurried off in a panic. They do not seem to like being carried by the tail upside down.

(Mie 31^st) What a night! A dog sat in front of our house and cried til 3:30am, when we finally got out of bed to see if we could do anything for it. We think it was a mama that just had babies taken away. When we started out the door, it went down the street - apparently back home. Do wish we had done that hours earlier. Just breaks our hearts to hear an animal being so unhappy.

Since today was both our first doctor appointments at the IMSS clinic, so we drove into Córdoba today. Before leaving, we had time to chip the peeling paint we found behind the upstairs toilet tank, seal the wall, and apply a coat of new white paint. First went to the hardware here in town to buy some plumbing parts to enable reassembly of the toilet—if they have them (they did) we'd avoid having to go to a plumbing store in the city today. Still with time to spare, we next stopped at the Office Depot to check out printers, since our is insisting that there is a paper jam, which there is not. Dan has tried everything he has read about on the web to make the printer understand that it is mistaken. Nope, it will let you do anything with it because it still insists there is a paper jam.

Different doctors for each of us at the same IMSS clinic. Carmen's cita (appointment) was at 11:15am, and we arrived about 40 minutes early, and checked Carmen in. Surprise, we were ushered right into the office, where we then waited for a few minutes. The friendly and well spoken doctor, referring to her history on his computer, asked questions and checked her with his stethoscope. She had written up a list of her meds and surgical history (we had looked up all the translations for these) on the bottom of a page printed from the web, and translated into Spanish, describing CREST syndrome, aka limited scleroderma, which she has had for many years is. It made things easier for all. The doctor typed everything into the computer, and his printer generated an order for lab tests, a complete battery of blood testing to establish a baseline for him, recording at what point her health is at this time. Then he will send her to a specialist in rheumatology. Knowing that there is a specialist in town who speaks English, Carmen asked if she could be sent to that man. The doctor smiled and said no, he would be referring to a female practitioner who works with IMSS, and Dan could translate for Carmen if needed, just like we had done today. The form authorizing the labs had to be countersigned by another doctor, el jefe just down the hall. All the tests will be done at the main IMSS hospital in the city. He also generated some prescriptions she could fill at the IMSS pharmacy downstairs, if she needed some of her meds now (which we didn't, having brought enough from the US).

Dan's appointment was at 12:30pm. He was not taken early, but was taken a half hour late. His doctor turned out to be a female, whose rapid manner of speaking made it a little difficult to understand. He hopes she was just a fill-in for his regularly assigned medico. He went thru the same series of questions. He was given papers for an X-ray of his prostate, again for baseline purposes. We can schedule that next week here at our clinic. He also has to have some blood and urine lab tests at the main hospital. Off to the hospital we went, only to find that the lab closed at 2pm today; we could come back late between 5pm and 8pm, or another day. Tomorrow is the Day of the Dead here, so we expect the lab to be closed tomorrow too. We will return here Friday. We had found on-street parking a few blocks away. Hospitals here expect people to take taxis or bus, so no parking lots are provided except for the staff.

Next stop, the big Chedraui store at Plaza Crystal for some groceries. Left the car there in it's covered parking garage and walked down the street to see what the big Josefina store there was all about. We are getting pretty hungry by now, and as luck would have it, it happened that this store was all candy and cookies. Here we bought, among other things, a package of Alegria Redonda (round happiness) cakes. Turns out that they seem much like rice krispy treats. They are disks of pressed amaranth, a plant cultivated by the Aztecs and Incas and used as grain. They look like sesame seed cakes and have sugar and limon mixed with them, sort of tasting like crackerjack since the crude sugar that binds them is molasses-like. Really good. For those of you who do not yet know this – this store sells bulk candy and among the variety is semi sweet chocolate chips at US$3.80 a pound. So we can have good chocolate chip cookies here. We planned to have a buffet in the Chinese restaurant across the street, but the price was higher than we expected, so we dined at the Chedraui store in their deli/restaurant, where there were many selections to chose from, each one hotter than the other. Tasty though, if you can taste with the mouth on fire. Thereafter we did our shopping. Remembered to bring a small foam cooler with an ice pack this time, so we got two flavors of ice cream, and could not pass up the specialty cheese area, and the great variety of wholegrain bread loaves. Bought a couple more plastic storage bins for bedding or clothes. Trying to keep the musty odor out, that sets in here because of humidity. On the way back to Fortín we stopped at Walmart to get some Scoop Away cat litter, the only place we have seen it down here. We have tried other brands, but wanted to try and compare the action with Scoop Away. None in the store today. It is very much more expensive than the others, but perhaps worth it. So now, will the store ever get it in again?

Upon arriving home, groceries unpacked. Dan put toilet back together and Carmen fried some pork pieces which we just bought, to go with cottage cheese and fresh, oh so ripe, tomato. We cut into the Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead ) we had just bought. Dan wanted to wait for the proper day – being tomorrow, but Carmen convinced him that we should eat part of it when it was so fresh. Unusual taste – perhaps something like anise seed, with tiny pieces of a fruit. Rained a bit this evening. Fresh orange juice from the oranges Ania and Frank gave us. They have a different flavor than the ones we have been buying in 40 pound bags. Some TV time before bed. Another good day.

(Jue 01^st) Nice way to start a new month. Decided that after four days of mist and rain, we'd take a chance on hanging out laundry this morning. While doing so, we looked down and here is a young puppy by our feet! She had come in thru the gate. Dan assured Carmen that puppy would hear other people on the street and wander off. Not so far, after peeing in grass, checking out the laundry building which had an open door, she is now taking a nap in the liftvan sitting in our backyard

Dan is working on plywood from a taken apart liftvan to make a cat walk, running around near the ceiling above the windows. He also made some mini work platforms so we can work on the sloping tiled roof without stepping too hard in one spot and breaking more of them. Carmen worked on making curtains for the long kitchen window, which faces busy Calle 11 Sur. She does not like the passers-by watching her in kitchen and dining room all the time. She bravely talked to a lady who works next door, and found out that the woman does not also live there. Forgot to exchange names though.

And how is puppy doing after five hours; still napping. Carmen is upstairs sewing and keeps hearing Dan out front talking to passers by while working. She is determined that the cute little puppy must find another home. She pushed puppy back out thru the back gate where she had come in, but she could come back in faster than Carmen could push her out. Next she carried puppy out front to Dan and asked that he walk down the street with her and try to find puppy's owners. No go. Okay, how about asking everyone he talked to if they knew where the puppy belonged. He could do this, but that would depend on getting their attention and interest. Okay – Carmen pushed puppy thru the front gate and kept her hand on her and Dan put some boards in front of gate so puppy could not come back in. Dan explained to the folks passing by and stopped by the commotion that the dog was not ours, and we were just trying to keep it out of the yard. Just at this time a young girl, maybe 11, came by, fell in love with puppy and took it home along with the other one she had with her. Wonder how her parents felt about that? We kept expecting her parents to come charging back to our house with the puppy, but so far we have not seen or heard that little cutie again. Thank heavens it was not a dog that Carmen could not say no to!

(Vie 02^nd) Another day for new experiences. This is the day we are going to the hospital for our blood and urine tests. We got up extra early and took the bus, since the hospital we were sent to is right on the Avenida 11 bus route that we can board nine blocks from our house, and parking is very difficult around the hospital. It was good to be on a bus again. Is it strange to enjoy bussing? Took only 15 minutes from Fortin to the bus stop at the clinic. Well, we got to the laboratorio department on the second floor, just before 8am, as we had read that it is open 8-4. What we had not done when we were there a few days ago, during a closed time, was read all the signs. The sign that read that appointments must be made between 10am and 1:30pm, was pointed out to us. Oh great! We had expected to go in this morning and wait in line for the tests, so we had eaten nothing for breakfast. Since we would not actually have the tests today, but could only make appointments, so now what?

Dan spoke to the attendant for an explanation of the procedures here, and realized that our lab appointments would be made according to when our next doctor's appointment was scheduled. As we looked at our health record cartillas (booklets) we found and remembered that Carmen had been given next appointment for December 6^th, but Dan had no appointment scheduled. Obviously Dan had to get an appointment scheduled before we could get his labs appointment. We figured it was too far to walk over to our clinic (about 18 blocks, one way) so we took a taxi for 25 pesos ($1.90 US). Got the appointment and taxied back to the hospital, where we still had time enough to go to a nearby restaurant for breakfast, since there would be no tests today.

At ten minutes to ten, people got up from the chairs where they had been waiting, so we got in line too. One man tried to get in the front and a lady in line told him to go to the back of the line. He did not want to, but finally did. At 10:05, someone finally came to the window. Another surprise...she did not immediately make appointments for people. She took all our health booklets along with our lab test order sheets. After she had a couple dozen of them, she started scheduling lab times for people, one at a time, and actually kept them in order of being taken from us. She thankfully gave us both appointments on the same day and same time, Dec 4^th .

Now, when we first arrived at 8am, there was a good sized table sitting in the waiting area. It was covered with urine-filled bottles of all shapes and sizes. Apparently only a few people are given sterile sample bottles to use (depending on the testing called for), and the others are requested to obtain a clean frasco (jar) at home. All the bottles are to be filled at home on the scheduled morning, and are to be brought in between 7 & 8am, and labeled at that time. Then the cart is wheeled away and no other samples are taken that day. Bit different all the way around from what we have been used to in US. Of course, all the lab tests are performed without additional lab fees here, and we can't fault the procedures here which are designed to economize labor and use of facilities.

We now decided to walk thru Cordoba a bit, since we were but a couple blocks from the central park. Glad we did. There were many ofrendas (display of offerings) made of flowers, with some docents dressed in authentic dress. Schools around the city made the displays for Day of the Dead. Most beautiful. We next went to the city's commerce office and asked where there was a lighting store. We would like to find some covers for our downstairs ceiling lights. Yes there were a couple stores about three blocks from there, but most stores were closed today. One was open but we had no luck finding what we were after, a simple clip on translucent shade for the bare bulbs in the center of each room's ceiling. Took the bus back into downtown Fortín where we visited our local hardware for a few parts we needed. Wandered around the Dia de los Muertos display in the central park. Tapped the ATM and made a bakery stop, where we bought pan muerto baked in the shape of a rabbit. We passed on those baked to resemble cadavers. Walked home with the purchase of tomatoes from a street stand. Napped.

Dan is working on cat walk, after hanging curtain rods for the new kitchen half-curtains. A few moments ago our doorbell rang. It was friend Alex with some treats his mother Josefina made for us. A small pan muerto, some of the promised tamales, and some candied calabaza en tacha (pumpkin simmered with piloncillo – crude sugar cake – and spices). Unfortunately we had just finished a large burger on fresh bakery rolls, for lunch-supper, so the tamales will wait in the refrigerator for tomorrow. A gray day today, which was great for all our walking around. It's now 5pm and the temperature outside is down to 65ºF. Still holding 71º inside. Just tasted the candied squash. Most delicious – rather like it was candied with molasses.

(Sab 03^rd) Doesn't feel like rain today, though the sky is gray. Caught up four days laundry. We both worked preparing the wood parts for the cat walk. Dan set up the router table and we cut channels in the long 2x2s (into which the plywood floor panels will fit). While using the router, a smallish purple black butterfly kept fluttering into working area. Then Dan filled holes in them with resanador (wood filler paste), and sanded and varnished them, while Carmen primed the panels. We had the chicken tamales Alex's mother made, for lunch. Positively the best we have ever had. After lunch Carmen baked off some of the frozen peanut butter cookie dough that she had made last week. Refilled the container that had tamales in it and walked down around the corner to Calle 9 to Alex's house, where we met his mom Josefina and spent a short time visiting with them. She said she'd be happy to come to our house and teach Carmen how to make tamales. Alex said that he missed some of the foods from when he lived in the US. Perhaps if we knew what they were, we could share some of them should they be in Carmen's repertorio. On the way past their small front yard, filled with plants including some beautiful rosas. Carmen admired a small bush with tiny bright red elongated berries on it. Turns out it is a perennial piquin pepper plant (10 to 40 times hotter than a jalapeño), and Josefina uses these tiny fruits (the biggest no more than 3/8” long) for salsas. She gave us some starts from volunteers growing in soil under the bush.

Carmen put the harness on Gardi and took him out front while she trimmed some bushes. While out there, inside our fenced front yard, Gardi looked toward the front door and meowed, and headed for the door. Thought he wanted back inside, but no, he was telling us that Smij was about to come outside by herself, thru the crack inadvertently left as Carmen did not lock the door behind her. If that happened, we would never see her again. At least she would not let us catch her, and she is terrified of strangers, so who knows where she would hide out, slowly starving or at the mercy of the critters that roam about. We offered to put her harness on her, but she wanted nothing to do with that. Next took Gardi into the backyard for a look around and some grass chewing. So went another lovely day. Sun did come out for about an hour – not enough to dry clothes completely, so they are now hanging about in the house. Finishing off a papaya for snack time, along with asiago cheese which is similar to a New York very sharp white cheddar.

Yesterday a young lady pushing a baby stroller asked Dan if we would be interested in buying organic cleaners and such from her, and later in the day dropped off a booklet of SWIPE products she sells around the neighborhood, sort of like combined Avon & Fuller brush. Ever hear of this product? Has various personal and household products that sound pretty good. Titles or names of products are in English. Sold in Mexico, Canada, Great Britain and Australia. Checking the web, it appears as if the products are about half the price of those sold under the same brand in Canada, and 1/3 the price the Aussies pay, but still pricey compared to products in the supermarket. We may try some as our in home supplies we have run out. We are hoping to hear from Dan's daughter Harmony and family on skype tonight.