Sunday, January 19, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6am.

Teresa sent me next door to buy 7 ripe tomatoes. When I returned, she opened the freezer and found a few she had forgotten about. 😊

I found a “Cozy Garden Suite with Kitchen in Morton Grove” on Airbnb for $2,253.37 and it has 2 bedrooms. (I may have forgotten to mention Laura will probably visit for a few days in late June.) I reserved it for June 16^th to July 15^th. Free cancellation before May 17^th.

I chatted with my brother about how to pay for using the Illinois tollway system since I don’t have a transponder. I’m going to call the rental car place (probably Budget) for advice. On the other hand, I found Pay by Plate for the Illinois Tollway so I’ll call them with a few questions.

We left the apt at 10:30, took a Didi to pick up MT and then went on to Terminal Sur. We bought 3 tickets for 10,200 pesos each but it was only 11am and the next bus wasn’t until 11:40. Time went quickly; after we each made a trip to the restroom we boarded the bus and it left two minutes early. The small bus (25 seats) wasn’t anywhere near full but we did pick up more people at the Exposiciones station, and arrived in El Retiro at 1pm. We walked up to the park in a very light drizzle, made a right and found a line outside Lomo Fino. Our wait was only about 10 minutes and we got in before others because we were only three and they put us at a small table.

Teresa ordered the chicken plate, MT had soup and a salad and I ordered the solomito (steak); it was good the last few times I had it here. When they brought it I cut it right away and saw red and a little blood in the middle and sent it back for medium well. When they returned it had a good flavor and was tender enough and I finished almost all of it. The total check came to 134,000 pesos ($32.50) including tip.

It was still misting a little so we skipped walking around the park and headed back downhill two blocks to Café Retiro. The place has grown again since last time we were there (although their bathrooms are very tiny). We each had a latte and the ladies shared an apple cake while I had a slice of carrot cake.

Later I had a 2^nd latte with the last of my cake.

I won a game against mekael965 in 32 moves increasing my rating to 1572.

We left at 4pm, walked around the park and Teresa hesitated in front of the church. She ducked in for a minute but soon came back out and we walked down the hill to the bus station. While the ladies went to the restroom a Medellin bus pulled out at 4:30. When they returned another Medellin bus arrived and we got on and it left at 4:45 and like our previous bus it wasn’t full either.

Traffic wasn’t bad coming into Medellin at 6pm. We got off at Exposiciones station and caught a taxi back to Envigado.

I received a response to my booking request. This notification from Airbnb, “Unfortunately, your host in Morton Grove didn’t accept your booking request.” And this message from the host, “Sorry the prices listed are not correct for busy season.” So now what? I guess I’ll just monitor daily airfare and Airbnb prices.

I received an email from Netflix that they are increasing their monthly price to 29,900 pesos starting February 19^th.

 

T-SHIRT OF THE DAY

Allergic to Geometry.