Saturday, January 18, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10, got up twice during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:30.

I left the apt at 8:30 and walked to the mall. I recycled a large pill bottle, bought a blueberry muffin in Starbucks and took a seat in Urbania before they had even opened for the day. I left at 10am because I’m excited to keep planning our Chicago vacation. I stopped in Exito and bought a 6-pack of small Cokes before returning to the apt.

I cancelled my previous Airbnb reservation and found an apartment in Des Plaines for June 16^th to July 15^th for $2,000.87 a month inc. taxes and Airbnb service charge. I was ready to reserve it when I saw “Free cancellation for 48 hours. After that, the reservation is non-refundable.” so I’d better wait on that.

I also found an apartment in Park Ridge for $2,378 total.

My concern is I won’t be able to get my place for a month if someone books a shorter stay (a day, a week) in my place of choice. ☹

I called USAA and confirmed there is no issue with my living in Colombia and renting a car in the US.

We left the apt at noon and took a Didi to Complex Los Balsos. The restaurant we’ve been wanting to try looks a little fancy and is called Son of the Tiger.

I had their chicken Cesar salad and Teresa had chicken Milanese with penne pasta and we shared a bottle of water. I also ordered a bowl of potato chips just for something different.

The check came to 134,389 ($31) with tip.

We took a Didi to El Tesoro mall where Teresa did a little shopping. She exchanged something in Zara but didn’t find anything in H&M. We had lattes in Valentina’s and shared something called Torta Vasca which I thought I heard was some type of apple cake but tasted like cheesecake to me. The total came to 37,000 pesos including tip.

We left at 4pm and returned to the apt by taxi (no wait).

I finished a quick review of my September issue of Chess Life magazine with these observations: There are more strong chess players coming out of India so I see names like GM (Grandmaster) Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. 😊 I also noticed last February’s US Amateur Team West was held in Schaumburg, IL, last May’s Chicago Open was held in Wheeling, IL and the Caveman Chess Camp was held at the Hilton Hotel in Northbrook, IL. In my time I had to go downtown Chicago if I wanted to play in a chess tournament, now they’re very close to where I used to live and work. The latter, the Hilton, has a great Sunday afternoon buffet I plan to take Teresa to. With all their seafood offerings I don’t think she’ll have trouble finding something to eat but I may have difficulty getting her to sit for 3 hours and just graze. The magazine also had an article covering the American Continental Championship in Medellin last May.

I watched a couple more episodes of Squid Game on Netflix.

 

T-SHIRT OF THE DAY

The secret is to stay cool.