We found out a furniture store in town was having a big sale. So down we went, looking for furniture for the guest room. We're thinking a nice wicker seating area with table. They didn't have any of that, but we ended up buying two paintings by a local artist. These pictures don't come anywhere near doing them justice. They're not originals, but prints on canvas.
We've also been painting the lattice I bought to go up by the guest room, and one day when I was out, a neighbor named Eduardo in a cowboy hat came by and spoke rapidly in Spanish to me. I got that he had something beautiful for sale, and agreed to look. He came back with three wooden pieces, one of which was a pen:
You just plug a bic pen cartridge in the bottom. Eduardo also said if we needed any work done, to come and get him, he lives around the corner, the place with the music. Yes, the music, Lo siento! (means I'm sorry- it is very loud, I admit) I said we loved the music.
The temperatures have been in the high teens, we've had some extremely windy days and a couple of rainy days, two floods in the garage. As a matter of fact, Christmas morning was spent mopping. We never did get out on that highway, but the latest issue of www.rockypointnewsonline.com has a story by a guy who drove all the way to San Diego and back.
Christmas morning we were surprised by the neighbors delivering a pot of Pozole. This is pork soup (I'd had the seafood version before), with lots of hominy.
It was delicious! A little too much hominy for us, but really good. And it came in a pot, on the plate we sent the cornbread over on. Now, Shirl, are we supposed to return the pot filled with something good? Have we created a monster?
Christmas evening we were invited over to Rosie's. Her husband, Francisco, doesn't speak English, but Rosie translated and we had a great time. She told many stories, the one I liked best was the one where she was in the states and had an opportunity to bring Francisco up with a working visa. (This was before they were married.) Francisco's answer was, "Sorry, Rosie, but not all of us want to live there!"
She served us tamales carne and a great bean dish with oxtails. She's going to teach me some authentic Mexican dishes sometime.
We got four days off (sorta) over the Christmas season, and that was great, I'd been working way too hard. We caught up on reading and TV watching and dog walking. We have to keep an eye on Shadow because he's developed a big fear of the booming of fireworks. First thing he's ever been afraid of. Oh, except toboggans, but that was only for a year.
Over the last week, our trash barrel has been knocked over and strewn around every couple of days. I thought that kids were looking for aluminum cans, so I put a sign out (With some linguistic help from Rosie):
POR FAVOR NO DESPARRAME LA BASURA…
EN CAMBIO, DEJAREMOS LATAS DE ALUMINIO Y OTRAS COSAS EN BOLSAS A UN LADO DEL CESTO.
¡GRACIAS, Y QUE DIOS LOS BENDIGA!
It basically says please don't throw the garbage around, there are no aluminum cans in there, we'll put them out in a separate bag. And bless you to God. (what the heck, whatever works).
After some thought, Carl realized it is probably the neighborhood dogs that have been knocking it over. So now we no doubt have neighbors laughing about how we put a sign out for dogs. oh well.
We wish you all the happiest of New Years, and hope you all find time to come down to visit. There is some great Mexican music playing outside right now. Fireworks ought to start any time! Off to the Thirsty Parrot for us soon. Oh, Go Juniors against the US!! And go Flames against Oilers!!
