Wednesday, June 15th, 2016

So far, it’s a very overcast morning.

The MBE website shows my package (TV headset) is in transit.

Teresa sent me to Exito to buy an avocado, a head of lettuce, and broccoli.  They didn’t have the latter but while I was there I picked up a bottle of decaf coffee and a bottle of Aunt Jemima maple syrup.

I spent an hour on hold with Social Security only to be disconnected at the end of the wait.

I finished Nelson DeMille’s book Mayday and downloaded Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss.

At 5:30 we got dark clouds and it got unusually windy.  I think a storm is coming.  By 6pm it had started raining a little but it didn’t last long.

We watched Faces in the Crowd (5.7) and then Don’t Blink (4.8) on Netflix.

T-shirt of the day: Deal with it.

Tuesday, June 14th, 2016

I got up at 8:15 and the water is back on.

Well we didn’t get any rain overnight but the clouds definitely look more numerous and darker.

It rained on and off all afternoon.

After Laura came back from her English lesson we took a taxi to Santafe CC.  I had the driver drop us off at the entrance closest to the ladies shops.  While they were looking to exchange clothes in Babushka (sp?) I went downstairs to the ATM.  There has always been a free standing Citibank ATM but now it’s gone.  I walked to the Bancolombia ATM and the men had just arrived to refill them.  The guard holding the shotgun told me it would take an hour.  He sent me to an ATM in the Jumbo grocery store but when I asked a young girl there she said they don’t have an ATM.  I went to an ATH Banco de Bogota ATM and took out the maximum it allowed – only 300,000 pesos.

I went back to the clothing shop and the ladies weren’t out yet so I went up a couple more levels to Cine Colombia where I bought 3 preferred seating tickets to the 6:30 showing of The Conjuring 2 for 52,500.  Back downstairs I waited and they finally came out at 6pm.  I showed them that I had already bought tickets so they went back inside and looked around for another 20 minutes.

At the theater I bought 3 medium sodas, a bag of nachos for Laura, a bag of what looked like pork rinds for Teresa and a large popcorn for us all for 49,900 pesos (about $17).

The movie was pretty interesting – at one point the evil spirit was whistling “nick nack, paddy wack, give a dog a bone, this old man came rolling home”.  I haven’t heard that in years.

On our taxi ride home we stopped at a red light and a young man in a short sleeved shirt came into the intersection.  He took about a 2’ strip of toilet paper and stuffed it into the fist of his other hand then he opened both of them and showed us both sides and it was gone.  Then he took what looked like a magic marker and it stood up on the back of his hand.

When we got back to the apartment Laura tried to use her key to open the door to the building.  Okay, so it doesn’t work, but why did she take so long to show me?

T-shirt of the day: Let’s fly away.

Monday, June 13th, 2016

I received an email that I have a package (?) and documents (Chess Life magazine?) awaiting pickup at MBE in Medellin.  I checked online and it appears my package (TV headset) has been processed in Miami.

Nothing happened during the day.

 

We started watching Manos Sucias (dirty hands) which, for a change, was in Spanish with English subtitles but after about 15 minutes Teresa didn’t like it so we gave up.

We made popcorn and watched Brake (6.1) which had a very interesting ending then we watched Drive (7.8).

Teresa got a call from her friend Ana Maria.  She said she was crying and she wants to borrow 1,500,000 pesos (about $500) from me on July 10^th to be paid back 10 days later with 100,000 pesos in interest.  I told Teresa I don’t care about the interest I’m worried about getting the principal back.  I told her I can’t be lending money to every friend or relative who needs cash.  I’m not a bank.  She seemed to respect my opinion.  (200,000 pesos is one thing, 1,500,000 pesos is another.)

At 9:45 Teresa went to wash the dishes and found we don’t have any running water.

Just as we were going to bed Teresa said it’s going to rain tonight; I wonder how she knows.

T-shirt of the day: #1 Rule is you gotta have fun.

Joke

I just read an article on the dangers of drinking....          

Scared the shit out of me!     

So that's it!

After today, no more reading.

Sunday, June 12th, 2016

Today’s a clear sunny day; it will be interesting to see how hot it gets.

I put on my gringo outfit – shorts, sandals, t-shirt, sunglasses - and left the apt about 11:30 for Parque Envigado.  I noticed other men wearing shorts and/or sandals/flip flops, probably because it’s Sunday.  I quickly found a couple opponents but they weren’t very strong and I won 3 games against them.  My next 2 opponents were more about my strength and I lost one and won two.  While there a pigeon pooped on a corner of my sandal.

I got back to the apt at 2pm.  Later I saw I had a little sunburn on my neck, my arms and my thighs.  Next time I’ll have to stay out for a little less time, wear SPF cream or at least wear my wide brimmed hat.

I made waffles for dinner and then we went to 7pm mass at a nearby small church.  They don’t have an organ or a choir so they just use taped music.  After the first musical section ended the priest didn’t come out for 5 minutes while we all sat there.  

When we got back to the apt we watched Not Safe for Work (5.8).

T-shirt of the day: Fashion is my addiction.

Saturday, June 11th, 2016

I checked online and my package still shows “falta valor” (lacking value) on the MBE website.  I’ll keep an eye on it and if it doesn’t change in a few days, I’ll have to try some other way of getting them my purchase receipt.

Now Teresa is afraid there will be too many people at the movie theatre so she wants to go to Santafe and buy jeans.

It looks like the Colombian Peso has closed for the week at 2,971 to the US Dollar.

I googled the US vs Paraguay America’s Cup match for today and it looks like it starts about 6pm our time.

Teresa and I left the apt about 12:30 for Santafe mall.  She checked out the sales at Zara and Baluska (sp?) while I waited outside reading my Nook.  She found an inexpensive top at Zara and dress at Ela for 49,450.  We had lunch at J & C Delicias in the mall – I had their medium Caesar salad with chicken and she had some type of meat over an arepa.  We also ordered pasta to go for Laura for a total of 72,300 (about $24).

We stopped in a store with a lot of household items and Teresa bought a couple drawer knobs and I picked up a water glass for myself.

I hooked up the laptop to the TV and we all watched The Entitled (6.2) on Netflix; a good movie with several surprises.

T-shirt of the day: Girls just want to have funds.

Friday, June 10th, 2016

It started raining pretty heavily about 10pm last night.  I don’t know when it stopped as I fell asleep pretty quickly.

6:29am I received an email from magicJack informing me that “Your magicJackGO device is already active.  You can view your subscription plan by logging into your my account at my.magicJack.com .”

8:52am I received a (Falta Valor) email from MBE that they received my package without a receipt so I emailed them back my purchase receipt.

Among today’s new US movie releases there really isn’t anything I want to see but The Conjuring 2 (8.4) is playing in Oviedo and Santafe and Teresa wants to see it so we’ll probably go tomorrow afternoon.

Eddie arrived at noon and we had a nice lunch of lentil (sp?) soup, ribs, teriyaki salad, and fresh juice.  We sat around and talked for awhile.  He returns to the States next Wednesday and won’t return again for 6-12 months.  He showed me his Asus Zenfone smart phone he bought in the States for $200.  He told me he bought a Claro sim card that gives him 3G/4G service for 40,000 a month.  He left about 4:30.

I inserted my magicJack GO, went to my.magicJack.com, verified my account doesn’t expire until 2020, and I was able to get a telephone keypad.

I finished Nelson DeMille’s book The General’s Daughter and downloaded his Mayday.

I connected my laptop to the TV and we watched Runaway Jury (7.1) on Netflix.  Then Laura did some searching and finally found Basic Instinct (6.9) – which had a lot of sex in it but, like most teenagers, she seemed to have her nose buried in her cell phone.

T-shirt of the day: Wild zone.