Month: August 2020

One of the new double towel racks came today. Hopefully the second one will be here soon.

We are going to reconfigure the pantry area, expand its capabilities, if you will. As we face the cabinet doors, there is a blank wall on either side of the cabinets, begging to have pots, and pans, hanging from the racks. Yay.

Plus, if we take the bottom shelves off of the five tier cart that is currently on the opposite wall, we could put a small chest freezer there, and still have the storage above.(I thought of that in the middle of the night, when I could not find my sleep. Have to run it by my other half, but, at the moment, he has found his sleep).

Lots of little things to do, however, no real enthusiasm, or compulsion, to do them. We are bored more than I can say.

Oh, yesterday I got the courage to start one of my sourdough starters. The culture, itself, was obtained here, in México City, so I am guessing it should work. I learned, too, that fermentation, at as high an altitude as we are, is about one quarter to one half the time it takes closer to sea level. No wonder my kombucha tastes like vinegar- I let it sit too long before it’s second ferment. I am used to fermentation taking one to two weeks before being ready to flavor it, and bottle it. This is way faster then I care for.

I will persevere, and, I will prevail. While I am doing both of those things, do not fall back to your old, bad habits. Stay vigilant, stay healthy, stay happy, and, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

We are without internet at the moment, so I am going to take a moment to post something. I really have no idea what I am going to tell you, so, we will see what happens.

I will tell you that I have started a baby blanket for Jesús and Lizbeht, and their little ”someone”. It is a blanket I made several years ago for one of the grandchildren.

I ordered a pastel mint green yarn from Amazon.com.mx. which I received just the other day. I am going to start with a pattern from RAVELRY.com, called Cuddle Me by Manuel. As I said, I made this same blanket, many years ago, for one of our grandkids, but feel it will give be a well needed boost in my “getting back to knitting”, campaign. It has stitch additions leaning to the left, and the same to the right. It also uses a cable needle to make beautiful cables all up and down the blanket.

I have not knitted a single stitch for over a year, and, probably, a half, since before I retired, and began the whole packing, and, moving part of our lives. So many of the different stitches I knew how to knit, now, I have to look them all up on YouTube again. What a bother.

I also came across the shawl that I have been knitting for half an eon, in the knitting bag of my grandmother, Momo. She was my mom’s mom. I even found some of Momo’s knitting needles, and asundry knitting things. How wonderful, to find them, a second time!

I thought that I could just pick up and go, dive right into the pattern, and be done in a few weeks. Then, I saw a video showing how to knit faster using the Continental style of knitting. So, I got some yarn, and tried knitting that way. Nope. Not for me.

I discovered that I do a form of this in my English style of knitting. I used to be a “thrower”, but have, after all of my knitting years, reduced my movements to almost doing a form of Continental knitting. I no longer “throw” the yarn over the needle, but “help” it over the needle. There is very little movement in my hands, which is always a knitters most efficient way of knitting.

It takes a lot of muscle movement to knit, not to mention ability to read a pattern, either in the typed version, or the charted version. When I was knitting my shawl, I got really good at reading the chart, which I thought a major accomplishment. Now, I can read it, kind of, but not like I could, say, two year ago.

No worries. By the time the baby is born, I should have a handle, once again, on all of the different stitches I came to know, and love. I will show you photos as I go along.

Until then, please, be happy, be healthy, be safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: have I mentioned that it is raining? Every night since the beginning of June. Marco says the rainy season is June through September. Yay, for me, anyway.

So, Ivan came up with a really good idea today. We are going to take down the really too long towel racks in our bathroom, (yes, I measured them, yes, I ordered them, but the idea was Bette in the mind than on the wall, if you know what I mean), and, put them in the pantry area, off of the laundry area.

We are going to de-bulk our five tier cart of all of the pots and pans we have hanging on it at present. Since we have no inch of space in the kitchen, at present, for anything to come off of the cart, we are going to put up the towel rack, as well as a second one, once I measure and order again. Let me show you what I am talking about.

When the guys get done with the condo, the “drawer” that contains the two garbage bins, will be another two drawers, that we can use to bring in the items we have hanging on the cart, with “S” hooks. This dang thing.

When we saw this, originally, there were no holes cut in the wood, so I texted Luis to ask why this drawer was put in upside down. We had never asked for this type of thing, and, to us, it is such a waste of our little space that neither of us can stomach it. If we had as large a kitchen as we did up North, well, it would be a completely different matter.

We need the space. We are going to have them make this into the same size drawers as to the left of it. Then, as I said, we can bring in almost all, if not all, of the stuff hanging on the cart. I will take a photo of the cart, and show you what I mean.

Until then, you know what you need to do- stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones.

Post script: happy birthday to my favorite older sister. Martha is the only older sister I have, and, I could not love her more than I do. Felicidades.

A short post today, but, an important post. I am wishing my sister, Martha, a very happy birthday. I am sure you are not allowed to know how old she is, but, I know. And I am not telling.

Happy, happy birthday, dear sister. I hope you have as many more as you can enjoy. I love you tons.

Finally. We have heard from the dealership, and, have been denied the loan. No worries. We get our down payment back, plus, we can pay off the credit cards we have had to use during all of the remodeling we have done. Win, win, as far as we are concerned.

It is funny, in a way, though, because the bank has our account information, and, can see, in black, and, white, that we have enough money in our bank account to pay for the car in cash. We were told they did not think we could afford the vehicle. Makes us laugh. We paid cash for three vehicles in one year.

It sounds like it upsets me, but, the only thing that upsets me is the fact we were denied. Silly, I know, but he have not been denied credit in twenty years. It hurt my tender feelings.

While my tender feelings are healing, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

So as not to be outdone, I did a little of my own work. No, not the laundry, (tho, those new baskets work really well, once you open them up, and actually put clothes in them), not the dishes, either. Well, it had to do with the dishes actually. Let me show you.

When we first moved in, we put our lovely Mexican dishes in the main cupboard, and our Japanese dishes in the corner. We have recently discovered that we use the Japanese dishes more frequently than we do the Mexican dishes, so I took about fifteen minutes, and changed them up. Here is what I mean.

Not much else, to show you right now. Laundry is calling me, as are the baskets, everyone crying for attention. What am I to do but respond? So, whilst I am away, working my tail off, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

I have got to show you what we did this past weekend. We have had our TV up on two large totes that came to about six inches from the end of the bed, on Ivan’s side. Consequently, he has had to sidle his way to bed every night that we have been back here in the condo. So…….

Yesterday, he got off of the “couch” that we have in our room, so, if, and, when, we want, we can watch TV. He pushed away his TV tray, (we each have one that serves as our own little “desk space”), started putting together his mise en place, asked me if I would help, for which, of course, I had been waiting, and this is what we accomplished.

We have removed all of the totes from the bedroom, purchased these TV trays, which we now use as our night stands, our computer desks, and our BluRay player station. Almost everything is out from under the bed, and our room is so spacious, just as we had it planned. We are using the TV trays until Luis and Martín can get back here to finish putting up the shelves, and the cabinets.

While we wait for that, and the storm that is coming, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I must tell you that I have become quite the computer geek.

I have a small computer arsenal at my disposal, and, on the weekends, they all come in handy, as I play in the “Wordscapes” tournaments, starting Friday evenings, through Sunday evening.

Of course, while I am doing that, I watch, or, listen to, rather, whatever show I am currently watching, on one of my other devices. So, while I have two computers working, one is charging. When one of the computers I am using looses battery power, I swap it out for a charged computer. Currently, I have my iPhone, an iPad mini, and an iPad Pro 11”. The Pro is charging, so I am using the mini to type this post, and am watching/listening to “Battlestar Gallactica”, on my iPhone, with earbuds. (Hubby is currently napping. It is hard work getting older!”

You may be interested to know that I am currently in first place in the tournament, and I won last weeks tournament as well. Yay for me. I am sure I am only competing with myself, or the computer, because, if I do not sign in until Sunday afternoon, no was has any more points than do I. It took me some time to figure out, but, that is fine with me. It keeps my mind sharp, or, I guess, sharper than if I did not play.

While I am beating the others socks off, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I just have to laugh. Ivan, and I were watching a relative of his on FB, name unnecessary, and, Ivan was talking about different things they had done as younger men. I saw his picture on FB, and I thought, I know that guy- when he was younger. But, that was not his name. I am sure that his name was not Eddie.

Actually, Eddie could have been his name, but, it was a name I could not associate with his face. Why? Because there is not a Mexican kid, in the US, that goes by their given name. In fact, I did not know my in-laws real names for years.

Let me show you what I mean.

Edmundo was Mundo (pretty close). Ivan was Néne (not anywhere close). Yolanda- Chacha (What)? Gloria- Kiki (cannot help you, not even a little), Reynaldo- Bebon- (not going to try), Miriam- (Maráya), Maria- (Mayra Galla, my favorite. Ivan was the only one to call her that), Moises- Mo (easiest to figure out, except Ivan called him Mandamientos), and last, Rodrigo – Rog.

It was years, seriously, before I knew that Chacha was really Yolanda, or, even harder, Kiki, was really Gloria.

So, tonight, Ivan was looking at some FB posts, and I saw who he was checking out and I said “I know him. Who is he?”. Well, I could clearly see that he was Eddie, but he did not look like Eddie. This guy looked like Kino, not Eddie. I said as much and Ivan said that it was indeed Kino.

Well, for crying out loud. Do you not think, that after fifty years together, I could get some sort of syllabus that could tell me who the heck we grew up with as such and such, and what their real names are? Please? There are so many family members that I knew only as their nicknames, and never their family names, that I would enjoy being with, by means of FB, but did not know their real names.

Actually, it makes me chuckle, because, I, for one, only had a nickname as far as my dad was concerned. No one else ever called me anything but Diana, or Di, except Dad. He always called me DiddleyDi. It makes my heart swell, just typing the name. It made me his, and no one else’s.

Not until you know who came along, that is. We all know what happened after I met him! So, while you contemplate all of what came after that, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

Our neighbor knocked on our door today. She spoke to me in a rapid Spanish that I could not understand. She indicated that she was going to get her husband, and I said, I’m sorry, but NO. I was not going to talk to her husband.

We have been complaining that their dogs have been bringing in so much dirt, and mud, that Jesús can’t keep up, cleaning the floor, and the stairs. He tries, but, even he feels he can’t keep up.

What are they dragging into the condo with their dogs? (Plural!!) We come up the steps, hours later, and there is mud, all over the stairs.

Ivan is talking to the administrator, and our friend, Claudia, as I type this. Hopefully, he will have some sort of impact on what is going on. He usually does.

Speaking of cleaning, we were walking through Costco the other day, when we came upon some collapsible laundry baskets. When asked if I would like a couple of them, I, of course, jumped at the chance. In our limited space, we need all of the “collapsible” we can get. So, we got two.

Though we have one hundred twenty square meters (almost thirteen hundred square feet) of living space, we are limited in our storage, as are most people. So, once the quarantine is over, Luis, and Martín are coming back to finish putting in cabinets in our bedroom, our bathroom, and shelves in the living room. That should help us unload the black and yellow totes we have all over the place.

When they finish the construction, I will post more photos of the transition. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.