Sunday, May 15th, 2016

I got up feeling very stiff but moving around a bit helped loosen things up.

I tried to drill a hole to hang a picture in the dining room but my drill just couldn’t get through the cement (I mean plaster) walls they have here.  The location was just a few inches from an electric outlet and I had the thought that I was trying to drill into a metal pipe with the electric wires but you’d think they would always run horizontally and vertically so I discounted that idea.  We ended up giving up on that location.

On my way to Carbón de Leña for breakfast I saw a lot of people sitting with their dogs, walking, jogging, and riding bicycles. The main road leading into the park was closed off from vehicle traffic.  There was an exercise class working out in the park from 9am to 10am.  I didn’t seem to get a sufficiently strong internet connection to send and receive emails and do other things.  After breakfast I brought Teresa an order of calentao after making a quick stop at Exito to pick up a bag of laundry detergent.

We hooked up the washing machine – cold water only – so Teresa could start washing our accumulation of dirty clothes.  Where to dry them is another matter.  Unfortunately she set it to maximum load, noticed her mistake, didn’t like the fact that it was filling up with so much water and then didn’t know what to do.  Now it’s turned off.  I’m inclined to turn it back on thinking it’s still filling and then it will start its wash cycle but I’m hesitant to suggest that as she’s afraid the water will slosh over the sides onto the floor.

After drilling holes, and attempting to drill holes, I’m guessing that the exterior walls are load bearing and thus are made of a stronger material that the drill bit just can’t get through.  I told Teresa repeatedly that this would be much easier to accomplish in the US.

About 3pm we started getting a little hungry but Teresa announced she’s tired of chicken (me too).  I had the great idea to order a pizza.  She’s been asking to have Piccolo pizza for quite a while.  By 3:30 we had found the pizza places in the yellow pages, placed our order with Piccolo for a medium pizza with double cheese, tomato, and oregano (and whatever else Teresa may have slipped in – I did hear the word “vaca” which means “cow”) with a large Coke for 51,300 (about $17 which includes delivery - no tip).  I noticed Pizza Americana and Chicago Deep Dish Pizza were also listed.  I recall the former had a location in Itagui but I’m not sure if they have one in Envigado – not even sure if it makes a difference although the pizza would be colder by the time it got here.

Teresa sent me downstairs to get the name of the building and then she called them back.  The pizza arrived 10 minutes after she hung up the phone so I guess they have a location nearby.  Besides the pizza (with pineapple on her half) and napkins it contained 4 little packages: oregano, garlic salt, pepper, and chile flakes.  The pizza was okay, nothing special and Teresa agreed that Pizza Americana in Laureles was better.  Hopefully, we can try them next.

We left the apartment about 8pm and walked to Carbón de Leña where Teresa had fish and I had a Caesar salad (without the ham).  (A number of meals in Colombia come with ham but to me it appears to be just processed ham like you would use in a sandwich in the States that they cut into pieces.)  This time I got a strong internet connection and I got caught up on my emails.

We killed about 4 cockroaches today in the apartment.  Probably because the other apartments were sprayed yesterday they are all fleeing to our apartment.

T-shirt of the day: You don’t scare me, I’m from New Jersey.