Monday, March 13, 2017

Another overcast day.

I watched the Today show for half an hour and at 9:30 I was ready to leave for the gym.  But we waited another hour for MT to arrive and Laura to get ready.  I wore my sunglasses but brought my small umbrella.  At the gym Laura signed a form and answered some questions and we were finally admitted at 11:05.

At one point I saw a young man for the first time who had muscles on top of muscles.  Jason (actually spelled Jeison) told me he’s a body building athlete.  Later I explained to Jason that the Spanish word “entre” is differentiated into two different words in English “between” and “among”.  At one point Jose showed me how I was doing the calf press exercise incorrectly.  He also told me that I don’t need to do the prone leg curl because the other machine I used did the same thing.  He introduced me to the hip flexor machine and I added it to my list.  I saw Sondra there for the first time.  She asked me how long we’ve been coming here and I said about 2 weeks.  I had noticed that some of the machines had something like 15 pounds difference from one weight to the next.  I thought that was a little extreme but today for the first time I noticed many of them have 2 5-pound weights that you can slide on or off the machine.  Now I’m not sure if the weights I have been recording are correct.  They could have been as much as 10 pounds heavier.

I left 2 hours later.  There were a few drops of rain walking back to the apt but nothing significant.

I received an email from MBE that I have a package waiting for pickup.

Laura left about 2pm.  Teresa informed me she doesn’t like her old job anymore so now she’s working at Mercado del Rio.

After lunch Teresa and I took a nap from 3-4 pm.  I woke up feeling very refreshed so I told Teresa I was going to MBE to pick up my package.

I left the apt at 4:30.  I hit the buzzer on the bus when we were stopped in traffic across the street from MBE.  Luckily I looked to my right before stepping out or I might have gotten hit by a motorcycle.

In MBE I was immediately greeted by a Scottish terrier who jumped on me and I scratched its ears.  A few seconds later it leaves and comes back and starts barking at me.  What?  It then approached and jumped up and I scratched it again.  The young lady working there gave me a medium sized box.  I broke it open and my webbed Fossil belt was inside.  Seems to me it could have been shipped in a smaller box.  I paid an additional 18,000 pesos for it.

I took a bus in heavy traffic up to Starbucks where I ordered a medium vanilla latte and an apple spice muffin to go.  She held up a cup which sure looked like a large to me.  I questioned her if this is a medium and she said yes.  The cup size was 400ml so I’m not sure.  Is this another example of Starbucks’ bait & switch that I heard they had a problem with back in the US years ago.  As usual the girl asked for my name and when I said Terry she wrote down Teare.  I laughed and another worker there helped her correct it.  The “medium” latte was 8,400 pesos and the apple muffin another 6,300.

While waiting for my latte someone called my name and handed me my muffin already in a bag that was closed with tape.  Soon my drink was ready and for the first time I sat inside at a counter against the windows.  (Usually this space is too hot from the midday sun.) 

While sitting there drinking my coffee and reading my Nook a girl came over and asked my name and tried to hand me another bag that supposedly contained my muffin.  I looked closer at my bag and told her that I think I already have it.  A young lady sitting next to me talked on her phone and it sounded a lot like German.  A large moth about the size of my opened hand that looked similar to a Cecropia was beating its wings against the inside of the window.  I grabbed it and walked to the doorway and sent it on its way.  I think it will be happier outside than inside.

I left about 6pm and outside I noticed that Hard Rock Café had opened up nearby Starbucks.  So they moved from one end of the block to the other.  It appears to be a smaller space but it seems to me to be in a better location.  I walked across the street and up to Oviedo where I caught a Sabaneta bus after a 5 minute wait.  The bus was packed but I got the next to last standing spot.  The bus went about a block and the woman sitting right in front of me got off and I got her seat.  Yay!

I was back at the apt by 6:30 just as it was getting dark.  I picked up our latest Une bill from inside the door.

Later I had my apple spice muffin with a cup of coffee.  I gave Teresa a taste and she loved it.  I told her it’s probably so good because it contains a lot of butter.  I think I also tasted some walnuts.  She said she’ll make them in her mother’s oven and sell them in Bocados Bar.  Or she’ll walk through the park calling out “muffins for sale”.  Lol.

When Laura came back I learned that today she was just applying for a job at Mercado del Rio.

T-shirt of the day: Remember when I asked for your opinion?  Yeah … me neither.