Thursday, November 14th, 2013

I went to bed at 11:45, got to sleep rather quickly, woke up at 5am, put some drops in my eyes, took 2 Excedrin Migraine and went back to bed.  At almost exactly 6am I heard Lionel running his blender/mixer/juicer.  I finally got up at 6:45.

I had breakfast at Panaderia Los Mejores and passed the lady there a note with my name and cell phone number.  Right away she shared it with all the other ladies and I was wondering if this might be a group project or just curiosity on their part about who I was and where I am from.  Later she passed me a note back that said her name is Damaris and she works from 5am-1pm this week and 1pm-9:30pm next week.  I assume she switches back the following week.  In that case I will probably meet her for lunch after getting off work at 1pm.

Back at my apartment I reordered Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player from Amazon for $19.13 + $3.99 shipping for a total of $23.12, this time to be sent to the Mail Box Etc. address in Miami.  Amazon estimates it should arrive there next Tuesday, November 19^th.

At 11:30 I caught a bus to Los Molinos and got a haircut from Juan at Nova Zhen (local 1067).  This time I told him to only use a #6 attachment on my head and a #3 attachment for my beard and moustache.  I feel like I finally got a decent haircut.  The price was 20mil and I tipped him personally another 5mil.  

For lunch I had the Chicken Combo #2 at Frisby in their food court.

I went to Gymtop (local 3179) and bought a Sport Fitness jump rope for 20mil.  I hope that will help improve my cardio fitness.

I stopped real quick in Payless shoes and found a pair of gym shoes I kind of like for 77,900 ($41).  One of the ladies working there, Julie, who speaks some English, told me that this month they are having a 2-1 sale.  Yeah!  That gets the average price down to $20 a pair.  I plan to go back tomorrow to buy them.

Then I took the Circular 303 bus a few blocks and walked up the hill to Dario’s apartment.  The guard there speaks English and he told me that Dario just left with his wife but would probably be back soon.  The guard and I had a nice chat.  There was a lovely young lady there in the parking lot waiting for her young daughter to get off the school bus.  I commented on how pretty she was and the guard said you have to look the other way when her husband is around because he is a big guy and he gets jealous easily.  But she likes to dress pretty skimpily and today she was in short shorts and a skimpy top.

When I got back to the apartment I found my utility bill of 99,842 pesos and communication bill of 102,151.92 just inside the front door of the building.  I’ll pay that tomorrow.

I left my apartment about 5pm and found Jhon at his office tutoring a pretty young lady.  It turns out it’s his youngest sister – 30 years old.  He had just started working with her and couldn’t take a break for a drink.  I found Bob at the Tinto store and we chatted for a while.  I asked the owner what the name of his store is and the only word I understood was “leche” (milk).

At 6pm I was at Fresco Pan having a slice of ham & cheese “pizza” and a cup of coffee.  I left about 6:30 and on the way back to the apartment I saw the house on my corner with cascading while lights on the balcony that look amazingly like its snowing.