Did you know Martha Stewart speaks Spanish?

At least here she does (whoever handles the dubbing is very good at her job).

I caught fifteen minutes of her show on repairing upholstery in historic homes and restoring broken stained glass. I was encouraged with how much I understood.

I'm watching Spanish television to work on my listening skills. This kind of passive listening is good because I don't have to worry about responding; I can just soak it in. I'm a visual learner and listening is my weakest skill. I remember back in second or third grade when the teacher played a record and all the other kids could tell there were two female singers. I could only hear one. On a scale of one to ten, my "musicality" is probably a -1.

Now, if only I could get everyone I meet to speak as slowly and clearly as the nice folks on elGourmet TV and Utilisima :-)

In other news...
~ The House of Hoyt is somewhat healthier today, although still not back to 100%. But each day sees improvement for which we're thankful.
~ Weather conditions have been favorable for the growth of all things green. The beans we planted are staging their very own version of Jack & The Beanstalk along the back wall while the lawn is pretending to be a field of hay. We have very imaginative foliage.
~ While eating lunch and surfing home design and crafting blogs, I came across this amazing transformation of a nightstand into a play kitchen. Have you ever seen anything so adorable in your life?!

And yes, that was seriously a very ugly nightstand in its previous life. Rachel has more photos of the project on her extremely cute blog, Vintage Songbird.
~ The recently repaired dryer is not being very cooperative and it looks like parts will need to be imported for it to become a fully functional member of our household.

Not a lot of exciting things planned for the weekend...
Tonight we're making sushi rolls. Rice is one of the "safe" foods for Ivan right now, and we think he'll be able to handle the small amount of filling ingredients (nothing acidic or heavy). We may or may not take photos/video of our endeavor which may or may not be posted on this blog. This will, of course, require an executive decision, depending on (1) whether we remember, and (2) if we do remember, whether said photos/video have any entertainment value.

Do you have a favorite sushi roll? I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of raw fish so I prefer "fake" sushi with ingredients like avocado and cream cheese, crunchy cucumber and fully cooked shrimp. No matter what's inside, I really, REALLY, REALLY like loads of pickled ginger on top; maybe a little soy sauce for dipping (but not too much).

Ivan has a project he wants to get finished tomorrow and he's lined up a couple of strong young men to help. Being sick this week put him behind schedule and he is determined to get it finished before we leave Monday...

For Mendoza!

So very excited to take our first real vacation in years! I'm pretty sure the last one was in 2000 so we're right on schedule for our decennial vacation :-)

Other than a place to stay, we have no definite plans. For this control freak, likes-to-have-everything-planned-right-down-to-the-bathroom-stops southern girl, going without a plan is both terrifying and exhilarating!

In order to satisfy my need to plan something -- anything! -- I'm working on a menu for the meals we'll fix and eat in the kitchenette. Nothing complicated or fancy, with (hopefully) ingredients we can easily purchase on site. We'll be eating out once a day, leaving us breakfast and one other meal to do ourselves. It's highly unlikely we'll stick to the menu, but creating one makes me feel better and gives us ideas so we're not dragging home exhausted after a day of sightseeing and wondering what to make.

My motto: Keep it simple, make it quickly.