Tuesday, May 30, 2017

For some reason it took me some time – an hour? – to fall asleep last night.  I think I got up 2-3 times during the night, always falling quickly back asleep.

The morning is mostly clear with just a few wisps of clouds.  At 7:50am its 66 degrees going up to a high of 82.

It turned out to be a very productive day!

Teresa left for her personal trainer session at 9:15.  Btw, all the exercise is working as her stomach is getting smaller and she’s firming up all over.

Laura and I left the apt at 9:30.  I was planning on taking a taxi to the main Une office in Medellin but Laura walked me about 4 blocks away to a Une/Tigo office.  She talked to a woman who got on a wall phone and after 5 minutes we were told a man will come to our apt tomorrow afternoon.  (Had I known we were coming here I would have brought my other things…)

We were back at the apt by 10am, I grabbed my things and headed over to the paper store.   I had a single chess page printed from my flash drive, printed a copy of our previous Home Center purchase, and had a new Cedula copy made and laminated (I can’t find my old one) all for less than 5,000 pesos.

On my way back I saw a couple men selling small spiral bound notebooks with a pen for 3,000 pesos so I bought one.

Back at the apt I asked Laura if she wanted to come with me to Home Center and Exito.  She did so we walked down to Home Center where I looked for a 1-cup glass jar with lid to store the 2^nd half of my batch of tea.  I forgot I needed to be able to convert a cup to milliliters.  I found a plastic 2-cup measuring cup with both ml and cups marked on the side and estimated that 1-cup was approximately 350 milliliters.  (Back at the apt google told me there’s 236 ml to a cup.)  I found a ½ liter (500 ml) small mason jar that will serve my purpose.  Officially it’s a Kilner jar, the company is British but it’s made in China.  It isn’t Pyrex so I’ll have to cool off the tea before moving it to the jar.  Then I can store it in the fridge until I finish what I have in my pitcher.  That way I won’t waste half my product.

We walked back to Exito where I picked up a bottle of Kraft Sweet Relish.  As we were walking out first we saw a flyer for a Colombo Americano school in Viva CC Envigado.  That’s the new mall they are building next door that is scheduled to be completed by November.  Second, Laura noticed they had a display for the new Samsung Galaxy 8 smart phone.  It was attached to the table and she played with it for a second.  When she got to the camera option I quickly pressed the button and it took her photo.  She wasn’t happy with that.  Lol.

Back at the apt Teresa had already returned and was preparing lunch.  Today was spaghetti and cheese with chicken – yum!

A guy from Une called about 1:30 and I understand he’s coming this afternoon instead of tomorrow.  He arrived at 2:30 and I showed him the speed I was getting from my laptop.  Less than 2Mbps for both download and upload.

Right away he said it’s not going to cover the whole house so I moved my laptop to the dining room table about 15 feet away from the router.  From there I got 9.05Mbps download and 2.20 upload (did he really have time to change anything?) but when I moved my laptop back to the “computer room” (around the corner and through the kitchen) I only got 4.65 Mbps download and 2.20 upload.

Teresa suggested I move my laptop to the dining room table when I need the extra speed.  I said I guess I could do that just for watching my Bears games and movies.

I asked the guy if I couldn’t buy something to throw the signal around the corner towards my laptop.  He said something and Laura wrote down “repetidor Marca TP Link – Monterrey”.  I understood right away he is suggesting I buy a TP Link brand repeater from Monterrey mall.  I asked him if it’s expensive or inexpensive and Laura told me about 150,000 pesos.  I thanked the guy profusely as he left.  Afterwards, Laura told me that the guy was visibly shaken for a second when he saw our dog sitting on the couch.  Lol.

Laura left – for work?  - for more college exploration?  No idea.

Teresa and I took a nap from 3 to 4pm.

We left the apt at 4:45 and immediately caught a taxi to Mayorca mall in Sabaneta.

My goal was to find a new pair of walking shoes that aren’t leather but with a thicker sole than my deck shoes.  I found a couple candidates in the first few stores but finally settled on a light grey pair for 250,000 (about $89) at Paparazzi.  The brand name of the shoe is Vans – Off the Wall.  Lol.

Teresa did some sale shopping and finally found a blouse for 112,425 (about $38) at Studio F.

We went up to one of the upper levels where we had a nice dinner at Parmessano for 72,324 or about $25.  I had the meat lasagna and a coconut lemonade and she had a shrimp and fish combo with a mango juice.

In an interesting store called Sentry I was surprised to see 6-packs of Coors Lite beer.

Teresa wanted to do some more window shopping but was surprised to find stores closed or closing.   I told her, after all it is 8pm.  She was very surprised it was that late.

We quickly caught a taxi back to the apt.

Teresa gave Laura her leftover pasta for dinner.

T-shirt of the day: Words cannot express how much I don’t care.