sábado, el 25 de junio de 2011

Buenos noches all.

920pm and Bexico and I are allowing our stomachs to settle after eating one great dinner!! La cena was rib eyes con sabor (“with flavor”), carmalized cebollo, mushrooms, elote dorado (corn kernels) y mas verdura para mi novia.

Two 350 gramo rib eyes for $75 pesos…around $7 Cdn. Hello!!

A great sábado. The 90% chance of thundershowers turned into a 100% sunny day. Temps are back, but so far (knock on madera) the humido has not returned to the same degree as it had been.

Did some web browsing this morning and that meant a later start for el gimnasio. I must be on a regular schedule as as I strolled through town, even Daniel mentioned that I was tarde. Ja ja ja

Bexico completed her workout and then did some more work. Good news on that front as she did receive the 50% deposit from the Israeli contract, so now she has 4 projects on the go!!

Ejercicio de Bexico was a prenatal yoga DVD, lately she had been doing mainly prenatal weight/aerobic workouts. She enjoyed it and may actually look into the prenatal yoga they have in the Centro de Cultural near the zocalo.

I think that is great as she will meet some otro moms to be, but more importantly, it will maybe give níno some friends later on. Hello fiesta de cumpleaños!!

As I walked to el gimnasio, I passed Daniel headed the other direction, in civilian clothes. He said hola and then spoke more words in one meet then he has ever done before. All about not working mañana and I will see him lunes. I still need to ask if his native tongue is español o Zipotec.

Next up was Elder and I received the igualmente (equally) when I wished him a buen fin de semana. He always has peeps hanging with him and after we chat, I always hear them ask him about who I am and what we talk about. Funny stuff….happens at the gym all the time.

The gym was packed!! Rosa was done for the day and mi amigo Yeu was working. I had not seen him for 4 or 5 days so we caught up. He really wanted to practice his ingles with me and I am a-ok with that.

But every now and then he just wants to ask a question and get a fast answer, so he asks it in español. I am more and more comfortable picking out the words that I know and figuring out what is being asked of me.

Earlier in the week I had to laugh as Rosa and I were discussing my español and how come she understands me so well. I told her “mi hablo Rosa…no español” and that made her smile too. She has been so patient with my learning…Daniel from Gabriel as well. Gracias amigos!!

Good work out…#6 for the week was tough.

Headed out, did my walk, hola to Daniel and happy to hear that they won their game rapido game last night, 4-3.

Home for alberca time and the pool was all ours again!! Nice life we are leading…ja ja ja.

A good float (una hora?) and then we hit Che for the fixings. Want to put a smile on a pregnant woman’s face? Find these for the first time since we were in Vancouver in January.

Yup…salt and vinegar!! Ja ja ja

Good haul on the groceries and we are set up for a few days, including la cena para manaña…hamburguesa domingo amigos!!! Lol

The other treat? Bexico is going to successfully bake (from scratch) her very first apple pie and we are having it with vanilla helado!!

UPDATE

945pm and in the 77^th minute (of how many?) of the soccer game, Mexico is leading USA 4-2. La Crucecita probably sounds like Vancouver did in games 1,2 and 5 of the Stanley Cup.

Despues de Che it was relax time (ja ja ja) and then we spent more time on line looking at items for níno.

Late la cena and here we are….you are all caught up.

Fotos for the day.

Gato Negro coming to say hola.

BONICE has no age discrimination.

This níno is about 10 years old.

Talking about nínos. Can you spot the níno in this next foto.

Yup…under the scaffolding!!

La Cantera is a store name owned by Sol…similar to Modelorama.

Here was a foto of a hombre taking a foto of the pintor, painter.

This is a feral/wild gato.

It ran in and out of traffic chasing something, caught it in its mouth and then bolted under a car.

Just a couple on a bici.

And this hombre had his bici…and all his cleaning supplies.

Not sure where he came from or where he was headed.

From el gimnasio, the view of the montaña.

A very timido y nervioso perro.

He did not like his foto being taken…typical Mexican. Ja ja ja

And last but not least is this senorita.

She has a door front between two tiendas and manages to put all her wares out front, all to support the family.

UPDATE

Bexico just received an email from a previous client (based in Vancouver) and he has a time sensitive project he hopes she will complete for him. She is talking to him on the phone either mañana o lunes!! Does that make 5 clients on the go? Felicidades Bexico!!

Our mañana? Desayunos…hello pancakes!! Nascar at 2pm and of course hamburguesas!!

And with intensivo clase de español starting in a week...I guess a little review would be in order.

Have a great domingo amigos.

Marco y Bexico

  

viernes, el 24 de junio de 2011

Buenos dias!! Welcome to blog posting #300!! Not sure how the stats work, but they say there have been 8500 page views since we started this blog. (thanks Mom and Dad...ja ja ja). Who knew?

Not the best excuse as to why I am posting viernes update on sábado, but the night got away from me with both a later dinner (chicken and sausage jambalaya…veggie and chicken jambalaya for Bexico), and with all the níno item websites!!

Waaaaay to much time on the websites toysrus.com, walmart.com and even amazon.com (hello camo!!). Nick has been gracious enough to allow us to ship some items that we buy online, to his house in Portland. From there, I will pick them up on my way back to Vancouver in mid September.

What kind of items? Only a few things that we have not been able to find online in Canadian websites such as a travel bassinette (spelt bassinet on many American websites), the camo diaper bag etc.

Obviously one of the challenges with waiting to find out the sexo of the níno is being able to pick out some clothes. But come on folks….white onesies (when did that become a word?) will be fine!!! Long sleeve for Van and short sleeve for Huatulco as well as a few “go out” items too.

Moving on…rest in peace Columbo.

Our day was similar to many others we have had here. Ja ja ja Bexico started her day filming segments for the Paris contract and from there she needs to transfer them to her external hard drive, then compress them via my Mac and then email them. It is a full day adventure (especially with the 3mbps internet), but the actual “work” only took a few hours and the set up was a breeze.

Bexico does the filming on the kitchen mesita and for light, we move it to under the living room windows. The plastic tablecloth has tape markers on it so she knows exactly where to put the tripod and the actual paper she will be drawing on.

All the file management is not her favorite, but the actual drawing she enjoys and the money is good.

But it did take all day and that meant no skipping a workout. She is a trooper…2o’ish weeks into this pregnancy and completing her prenatal DVD workouts 6 times a week!!

Me? Off to the gym under cloudy skies. It had rained overnight and I thought our short streak of 2 sunny days was over, but…by 2pm (and alberca time) the sun was out in full force. I can handle days like that…cooler in the morning and the sun coming out after el gimnasio!!

Hoy, it is 1030am, the sun is shining and it is another blue bird day!! Ja ja ja

Back to ayer…I hit the gym and it was quiet. Rosa was busy with Galdino, but never too busy for a quick hola and a broma (joke). I found out she does have the internet in her casa and when she asked for Bexico’s email address, I thought she wanted it to send her info on the baby shower. Baby shower in español? Baby shower. Who knew?

But Rosa seems to be the one who likes to send out (or forward) those inspirational emails. Bexico now has a 10 page powerpoint email that she needs to translate!! Ja ja ja

Did I tell you about the senorita who runs the posada (inn…not a hotel though) across from our complex? She works out at the gym (sometimes), has a scowl on her face and barely registers the “hola” I give her.

Anyway, a few weeks ago she came out of her shell and actually offered to give Bexico a ride back to the condo. Both were at the gym and it was stinking hot out. Very friendly of her…even though she barely mumbled any words to Bexico on the 5 minute drive home. Anyway…a few days ago she approaches me and asks about the heart monitor I wear during workouts.

The monitor is a simple one, a watch, a calorie counter and a heart rate monitor. The senorita asked how much one would cost, when was I going back to Canada and when would I return. I can now add to my list of purchases, a monitor as well as the shoes I need to by for Memo!!

Despues de gimnasio, my usual walk through town and hola to the boys. They looked cansado (tired…pooped) and for Daniel it was because of another game of rapido (indoor soccer…6 players aside) and Sergio has a two day old hija that likes to sleep during the day…not at night.

The team is Sergio’s, but due to his surgery, he cannot play for another few weeks. They had another game anoche and I was going to go and watch them, but la cena wasn’t ready until the same time the game was to be played. Next time!!

Headed home for alberca time and after the float, we went for a quick walk. We picked up some pollo at the new roti tienda.

And we must say….this is the best one yet!! It comes with grilled cebollo y un jalapeño pepper and the flavor was rico!! We nibbled on a few bites (Bexico had a drum), and the rest was used for the jambalayas.

Bought lots of verdura y fruta and headed back.

Ate the late dinner and that was the day.

The rest of the fotos from the day.

I saw this camion as I was leaving the complex.

The sign on the door made me scratch my head. Muelles are springs but I could not figure out the word renovallantas. The word does no exist in our libro or on Google translator, but it then came to me the word is actually made up of two words…renov (from repair) and llantas (tires). This hombre may have made up his own word!!

Here are the 3 pictures from the side of his truck, showing how they repair, probably retread, llantas.

And day 3 of the human lawn mower.

Yikes.

Correo de poste.

And a perro avoiding the sun.

This foto was taken moments after I had a chat with Raphael, my new amigo, the mecánico. He is excited about the possibility of bring the supercharged camioneta to his shop!! He was working on a forklift and I asked about refraciones (parts) and he said no problem…Sector C (a section of town).

I laughed and pointed to the 7 cars and trucks waiting for parts and he got the joke and laughed too!!

Updated foto of the camioneta de cemento.

Almost there!! ja ja ja

Oh oh…tamarindo problem?

Nope, they were just looking for directions. Spanish word for “address”…dirección.

And that was our viernes!!

Sábado looks like a sunny day. El gimnasio, a walk, Che and more work for Bexico. Oh…did I mention it was rib eye sábado?

Buen fin de semana everyone!!