Thursday, November 21st, 2013

Yesterday was the 10 month anniversary of my move to Medellin.

Last night I went to bed at 11:30, got to sleep rather quickly and didn’t wake up until 5am.  I went back to sleep and finally woke/got up at 7:30.  Maybe it helped I only had 1 Coke last night.

My neck is a little sore this morning but its tolerable.

I read in the newspaper that NIU won 35-17 which was the score when I left.  Their next game is against a very poor (only 1 win) Western Michigan team so the next NIU game for me will be the MAC championship on Friday December 6th.  That should be different being in Patrick’s late on a Friday night or possibly Sport Wings will be open later than usual if the game is on some channel other than ESPN2.

I got another email from Chess Life magazine.  They are also going to send the previous 4 months of back issues to my new address.

Breakfast was cereal with milk from Salsamentaría Bolivar although it was warm.  On my way back I took a look in my garage where I found 2 envelopes.  One is another receipt for my pension deposit and the other is from Chess Life magazine looking for a contribution to The U.S. Chess Trust.

10:50am Dario called to inform me there wouldn’t be any chess played in his building this afternoon.  That was nice of him - that saves me an unnecessary trip there.

About 1pm I had lunch at Plato Fuente the little 3 table restaurant I plan to take Damaris to for lunch on Saturday.  First I made sure I could get an internet connection – no problem.  I ordered the Lasagna “mixta” for 8mil which means it contains a mixture of meats (probably chicken, ham and sausage) and a mango juice for probably another 3mil.  The lasagna was pretty good but could have been hotter.  On my way back, about 1:20, I passed Panaderia Los Mejores and waved at Damaris.  I’m not sure if that was the beginning or the end of her shift.

I stopped back at the apartment and switched my iPad for my Nook and chess set and spent the afternoon at Mall de Laureles looking at chess openings.  I found that Bobby Fischer’s favorite opening when playing black was the Najdorf Sicilian.

I visited briefly with Bob at Redd’s and Jhon at his office on the way back to my apartment.  Jhon tells me that the other lady at Panaderia Los Mejores doesn’t recognize him so he’s sure she isn’t interested.  I also bought another kilo of strawberries for a snack tonight and breakfast tomorrow.

For dinner I walked over to Fresco Pan about 6pm but there was only 1 table available, there were 3 elderly ladies ahead of me in line, and I noticed they didn’t have anymore of the ham & cheese pizza I was planning on having.  I walked over to Paisa Pan and had a coffee & donut there for 1,700 pesos (89 cents).  I read my Nook book until 30 minutes went by and then I took my medicine with a little water left in a bottle I bought this afternoon at LM.

I noticed there is a health club on the 2^nd & 3^rd floor of the building across the street and it was very busy.

Back at the apartment I realized I’m playing chess with Augusto at LM at 9am so I might not have time to get milk for my cereal to finish the strawberries.  I’d better eat all or most of them tonight.  I hope all that water doesn’t get up up too much during the night.

 My neck is still a little sore and I can imagine it affecting my ability to get to sleep tonight so I’m going to take 2 Excedrin Migraine before I go to bed.