My pool might be closed for the season, or at any rate it hadn't been cleaned in a while, so I stopped going. But I really want to keep my swimming muscles in shape, so yesterday I swam in the ocean from Penasco del Sol to Sandy Beach. Its a long way, and probably took me 45 minutes. So proud of myself!
I saw a Great Blue heron fly over me and land on the beach, and an osprey hung over me for while.
Ok, here's the deal, if you're going to read my blog, you're gonna have to see pictures of my cute dog.
Waiting for me to throw the ball.
Coming out of the waves
Just being cute
um.. walking. Ok not so cute.
Here are just some general shots of the beach and a guy with a metal detector who's there every day.
Our friend Tina at the Sandbar goes to Mirador beach every Monday with her guy and some other friends and they hang out and swim and play Bocce ball. She's invited us, and I think I'll try to make it. Then they go to the Thirsty Parrot to watch football, where you pay a nominal price for some draw tickets and every quarter you can win a jersey or a ball cap or something, and at half time they put out a big free buffet. She said once it was Chicken Cordon Bleu, next time it was Chiles Rellenos. Sounds good to me!
The new crock pot is great for cooking beans and anything that you might ordinarily cook in the oven. I just don't cook things for 6 hours as the recipes call for, usually I halve the time for chicken, it's plenty fall off the bone by then.
It's still 38 degrees here, but it's cool at night, and that's a big relief. During July and August, at midnight it was still at least 35 degrees outside. Now it cools down as soon as the sun goes down.
Our friend Tanya who was at Rene's and then was at Jerry's is now at the Shark Bite. Coming into the Malecon, down on the main drag, it's a little place up above the shops on the left. Last night they had $1.00 cocktails! I sat and had a Screwdriver and watched the sunset and chatted with Tanya, who was amazingly unbusy.
Twice this last week we misjudged the height and speed of the tide and got our clothes and towels soaking wet. Man, it comes in fast when it's a high high tide (comes further up the beach). Oh well, that's why we have a clothesline.
Last week a man came to the door. He was saying comprar, buy, and oro, gold, but I couldn't put it together that he was there to buy any gold we might have for sale. The people here are so patient, though! They will go over and over it until you get it.
Yesterday little Diana asked if she could come to my house. So in she came, and we talked and talked. No, she talked and talked, and I tried to understand. She drew pictures, she even wrote things down, but I still didn't quite get what she was asking. She said, (this is for Cheryl) "Recordar nombre de su abuela", and she drew a picture of a woman scratching her head- ok I have to scan this, one sec. Of course I kept it! By the way, I said, yes I remembered the name of my grandmother, but that wasn't what she wanted.
The bear drawing was because I was telling her that my teacher is telling me a story about The Clan of the Cave Bear.
She would say, "shoooooo!" like a rising sound, and then say, "¿Mucho? "
Then she said something about (She spelled it gugar) but I think she meant jugar.(play) Then she said gato en la computadora. I made her laugh by doing an image search on cats. Then I opened up snood and she played a few games. She's a great kid.
Got invited to another nine-year-old's birthday party. It's a boy this time, and Carl had the brilliant idea of buying him a soccer ball. The party is tonight, and I'm going to brush up on some Spanish phrases so I can ask people questions and then not understand the answers.
