Cosas del horno

Domingo 02 Mar - Sábado 08 Mar 2014   Why is it that Carmen gets into a cleaning mood on sundays? Plus she weeded the front flower garden, while Dan did much watering. Also there was an unusual two layer birthday cake made. Both layers were our banana muffin recipe, plus grated carrots. The bottom layer became spicy with cinnamon and cloves, plus dates and pecans. All put together with a huge quantity of glaseado real (royal frosting). While making the frosting, Carmen did not put her glasses on 'til everything was whipping in the bowl. Oops, it looks much too wet! On with the glasses. Too much boiling water, so the whole recipe had to be doubled. Thankfully the frosting is not a really rich thing, lacking the butter most icings contain. It does not freeze well, so it was all spread on and around the cake.  The horno (oven) was busy with things all afternoon, as rolls and cookies followed the cake.

Monday was Ania's birthday and she and Frank came for a 5pm dinner of tilapia filets and chicken thighs smothered in a west African peanut sauce accompanied with a brown rice combined with cubes of yam and also fresh ejotes (string beans), left long. Carmen carefully put stems of fresh mint where she was filling the plates, to be sure she would not forget to garnish the plates. Yep – at the end of the meal she remembered the mint! She did remember to put the salads on this time. And the homemade dinner rolls both plain and some cinnamon sugar sticks, both of the same dough. When the first slice of pastel (cake) was cut from the end, the whole of it was frosting! That is how thick the frosting was! Careful though Carmen was in de-pitting the dates, Ania got a pit in her piece -- something special for the birthday girl. Carmen had also baked Ania some oatmeal cookies, all packaged up to take home, as she likes them so much. After dinner we played rummy cube. Each of the four of us won one set and Dan won the total by points. The perfect game when everyone wins.

Some needed rain arrived over night. Tuesday at our monthly doctors appointment, Dr Rendon's nurse, Luz, said that she could read english, she just could not understand it when spoken, just like Carmen and spanish. An appointment was made for Carmen's last mammogram, which would be at the hospital in the afternoon the next day. Gracious, she has reached that age already? Since she also had a wednesday morning eye exam, this seemed quite convenient.

The oftamologa (opthamologist) was two hours late arriving to her office. Possibly a staff meeting ran late (as we have seen happen before)? She, the doctor, perhaps was not happy that Carmen did not speak spanish, or was she just having a bad day? She was certainly professional, and had no trouble reading the eye care history Carmen had brought from the states, but she was just not warm like most everyone else we meet. This is the first experience we have had with anyone here who was not totally pleasant. Carmen wanted her eye pressure checked, but as one might guess, this facility lacked the equipment for this, and we'll later get an envio for another appointment elsewhere.  The uncomfortable time with the doctor and this last hassle caused Carmen to start thinking of moving back to the US. There Dan would not go to the medical appointments to talk for Carmen. While mentally listing all the positives and negatives of living in the two countries, that was one of  the few pluses for the US. If only Carmen's head would give in and learn to communicate in spanish. We now had a three hour wait until our next appointment.  We considered walking around town and perhaps having a lunch at a reastuarant, but we decided it was too much so we drove home instead..

One most embarrassing thing happened while waiting for the eye doctor. There were a dozen folks waiting. All the sudden, a lovely looking medical assistant stepped right in front of Carmen, bent down to where her face was smack in front of Carmen's. Now what! She proceeds to tell Carmen that she looks like a princess. Her daughter wants to looks like a Disney princess, and Carmen looks just like one, as she lightly touches Carmen's face and hair. Well – that woke up the dozing waiting folks and put smiles on their faces! The lady never knew that Carmen could barely understand her – though enough to know what was going on! Nor did Carmen think to tell her that she had wished for the beautiful darker complexion that the medical assistant had, when she was growing up.

We drove back to the hospital for the 2pm mammogram . First we went upstairs to the lab to clarify something – did not help. We still do not understand. Next we went downstairs for the mammogram and found ourselves 45 minutes early, and fifteen minutes before they closed for lunch break. Nevertheless, we handed in the exam order form, and low and behold, Carmen was immediately taken. Much too much pressure used, though Dan did not have to come in and interpret. After all, these tests must be the same all over the world.  We drove further east to the Soriana store to buy our favorite oatmeal. Don't know why, but theirs tastes more oatmealy. We also amongst other items bought a bag of their spicy tortilla chips. That evening Carmen asked Dan to check in the car for the chips, since she realized that they had not been unpacked. No chips any place, not even on the receipt. We know that we both handled the bag and put it in the cart. Hope who ever got them, enjoyed them, since we obviously put them in the wrong cart.

Across the street one afternoon we saw five huge turkey vultures. The dead cat is now gone. Never saw a turkey vulture that close before. They certainly do look much the same size and shape as wild turkeys. It is good to have something to clean up the decaying flesh. Lots of butterflies fluttering thru our flowers – to Smij's delight. Gardi pays less attention to them. The geckos and grasshoppers are more his thing.   Woolen socks were put away, which of course brought another cold front thru. Seems anything below 60ºs nights or 72º days is a bit fresco (chilly) to us now. But the orchids (and the cacti) seem to love the cool mornings and moderate days, and are beginning to bloom now. So far only tiny flowers. Still hoping that we have an orchid that will produce large flowers.

Another warm morning came along. We took advantage of it and dined on our breakfast of huevos escalfados (poached eggs) on toast out front on our porch at our table for two. No different than eating outside at a restaurant we tell ourselves, as folks walk by, saying Buenos Días, while we are sipping our fresh squeezed orange juice and local coffee.