Monday Meanderings

There are workers next door, starting to clear debris and prepare the lot for the houses that will soon go up. For the next who-knows-how-many months we will be greeted each morning to the noise sounds of construction. Actually we're quite excited to see the process. Ivan had a builder's license in Michigan and we built two spec homes in addition to the repairs and remodeling work he did. On the side. Because he also had a full-time "real" job with benefits and the "part-time" gig as associate pastor. The building/remodeling went by the wayside when we started deputation in 2004 though. There really are only so many hours in the day. Three jobs, yeah, he's been there, done that. But four? No thank you.

Anyway, we're interested to observe how things are done here since it's block construction rather than stick-built like we were used to in Michigan. Although the folks building next door are brothers and one of them owns the only dry construction building company in the city, and they do plan to incorporate some of the techniques in the two homes they're building on the lot.

Our living room, with all its lovely windows is on the side next to the empty lot that will now be full of workers for a good long time. So I decided to switch the living room and dining room out, so we can sit in the living room without feeling like we're living in a fish bowl. Plus it's cooler in what was the dining room and will now be the living room, a positive feature since warm weather has set in.

It was hot yesterday AND last night. We turned the ceiling fan in our bedroom on medium and it wasn't until the wee hours of the morning that I even pulled the sheet over me. And it's only early Spring. Could be an interesting Spring and Summer with the onset of hot flashes :-)

We'd been invited to a birthday party that took place yesterday; something I missed in the conversation with our friends because, HELLO, I only get 50% of anything on a GOOD day. Ivan didn't realize I didn't get it, didn't say anything about it AND forgot until half-way through said party when our friends called to ask where we were. I had just pulled the cornbread from the oven and was preparing to serve lunch.

After a minor melt-down (it is VERY frustrating to NOT UNDERSTAND MOST OF WHAT IS GOING ON) I cleaned up, loaded the cornbread onto a disposable plate and we headed out late. I've mentioned before the uncertainty we face with the way food is served (or not served) here so I ended up eating a tiny piece of cornbread (I'd cut the pone into 24 pieces and set it on the table in front of me) and shared an empanada with Ivan. Boy howdy, was I ever hungry by the time we got home at 5 p.m.!

Learned a new game. You can play with two people or two teams. A small wooden disk is thrown, then you try to throw a larger wooden disk as close to the small one as possible. There are twelve large wooden disks shared between players. I am truly AWFUL at sports. The kid always picked last because I couldn't run very fast, jump very high, or hit anything I aimed at with balls big or small. But I didn't do too badly yesterday. Okay I did do pretty badly, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been or as bad as I expected. I actually came close to the small disk TWICE. Granted that's with like a hundred attempts. But still. TWICE I CAME CLOSE TO THE LITTLE DISK. This is quite momentous in the sports history of me.

[How amusing to see how quickly the other players realized they needed to GET OUT OF MY WAY when I was throwing a disk. You could seriously hurt someone with those, and my aim was normally nowhere near the small disk -- and often quite near other players. LOL]

After all the cooking last week I am a wee bit tired of the kitchen. Hot weather and hot flashes don't help. I planned a menu of sorts last night and it is rather uninspired. And I believe I need to rethink it, to do more with the crockpot this week and less with the stove. Mainly I just don't want to spend much time in the kitchen, period.

That's because I'm in the groove with my current quilt project. Which is actually two because I'm making one for a gift and keeping one for myself. Since I don't have a lot of spare time, shaving minutes from kitchen duty translates into more at the sewing machine.

I could write a lot more about my mundane life at the moment. Like how my camera battery died while I was taking photos yesterday (I'm sure it has some kind of indicator for a low battery but I don't know what it is) or that Ivan spent a lot of time on the tiny front yard last week and it looks really nice now. But somehow I don't think you want to hear about that. And I'm fresh out of fun-new-things-that-missionaries-do-or-experience.

So hasta luego!