I Heart Electricity and Other Happenings

I know you're getting sick of hearing about our little renovation project-but it is the center of my life right now. I'm going to try to forget about that for a few minutes to fill you in on what else is happening around here right now. But just real quick, I have to tell you, these guys, on their own, without consulting us, painted our living room a different color. Did we even want our living room painted? No, they were just repairing a small hole in the ceiling-we just wanted that touched up after they repaired it.

Somehow (basically the paint didn't match, surprise, surprise! since they never asked us what paint we used but instead just went out and bought some on their own) it turned into painting the whole dang room white (before it was beige on the walls and white on the ceiling). You'd think they were being paid by the hour, but they're NOT. I seriously don't know what's wrong with them. (oh, and the house is still leaking like a sieve, so I'm not sure what good all this painting's going to do.)

ANYWAY, on to other things...

In the Dark

Did you here about this? Most of the big cities of Brazil lost power last Wednesday night, along with a good portion of Paraguay. You never realize how much you depend on electricity until it's gone.

It went out around 10:30 just as Guapo and I were headed to bed. Within less than 5 minutes all 4 kids were in our room. Pedro was crying over and over, "something happened, something happened". We are totally dependent on our window AC units not just for their cooling, but also to block out the noises of cramped city life. I don't know if it's all the concrete, or how close the buildings are together here, or what, but I could hear people coughing, sneezing, and talking as if the were in the room next door.

The kids have had fun imitating a conversation they heard:

Guy 1: "É quente demais" (It's too hot)

Guy 2: "É" (yeah)

Guy 1: "Vôce tem uma lanterna?" (do you have a flashlight?)

Guy 2: "Não tehno não" (nope, I don't)

Guy 3: "Puxa vida" (piece of crap) (my own translation-my iPhone translator app said it means "Oh boy", but the way the guy said it sounded a lot more like, "piece of crap" to me.)

I lay on top of my covers with sweat dripping off me (did I mention we've been having a heat wave here?) NOT sleeping for 3 hours worrying about how long it would take for the entire house to reek since we couldn't flush the toilet (our water up to our apartment via electrical pump) and I wouldn't want to waste our drinking water flushing potties.

But, thankfully, the lights came on again just before 1:00 am and I could finally go to sleep (only after flusging the toilet, of course).

My Latest Food Obsession

Homemade spring rolls:

Impressive, eh? I'm pretty impressed with myself.

Staring Julio

Julio's third grade play, "Chocolate Fever" is this week. He's got 5 different performances. He plays Mac, the truck driver.



Does he look redneck enough? The mullet with the backwards baseball cap? The "Don't Mess With Texas" t-shirt with the sleeves cut off? I think so.

It's Official- I Play Tennis

You should all be proud-I am actually playing tennis now- I know how to score and everything, well, mostly, I'm still not sure about game/matches, match/games and if there is a tie-breaker (game? match?) I still am lost as to who serves and on which side, but as long as I have a good partner, it all works out.

Here's my proof that I'm a real tennis player now, and not just a PLT (perpetual lesson taker):


(photo courtesy of Ballerina Girl who is currently sidelined with her own tennis injury)

I have an honest-to-goodness case of tennis elbow and must wear that do-dad so it doesn't get worse.

Cool, huh?

Margarita's Gone

Margarita left this morning for her 4 day field trip in northern Brazil. I miss her. :(

The only good thing about her leaving is that I have 4 days to sort out all the stuff in her room and ORGANIZE without her here to prevent me from doing so. Oh how I love a good organizing project.

That's it!