Monday, April 10, 2023

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, made a trip to the bathroom at 2:30, took an allergy pill, soon fell back asleep, woke up at 6:15, made another trip to the restroom, did my Kegel exercises, fell back asleep, finally waking/getting up at 7:15. Because of her cold, Teresa slept in the guest bedroom again.

Teresa has been taking my Hidroxicina tablets the past few days and she says she’s feeling much better. I recommended she continue taking them for one last day to make sure the cold is behind her.

I left about 8:15 for the gym, completed my exercise routine and was back at the apt by 9:30.

I left the apt about 2pm and walked down to Servientrega where I paid the Direct TV bill. I realized I forgot my keys so I quickly called Teresa and told her not to leave the apt without her keys. I stopped at Envios Market and learned through Nobraskja that Innovation Corp is the new shipping service and Gisela Rivas is my contact via Whatsapp. I understand now I will be contacted when my packages arrive in Bogota and I can ask Gisela to hold them if I know other packages are coming.

I was having a large latte in Los Porteños when Britt came by. I asked about all the traffic going upstairs and learned that Antonio’s Gelato (now owned by someone other than Antonio) stores some of their supplies upstairs.

On my way back to the apt I stopped in Eduardo Madrid and bought a small sleeve of poppy seed bagels.

I understand Teresa had a massage while I was out.

I started watching a new series called Boardwalk Empire (8.6).

Troyclough blundered a knight and now I’m up a knight and a pawn and his king has no pawn protection.

 

 

tRump’s Arrest

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, made a trip to the bathroom at 2:30, took an allergy pill, soon fell back asleep, woke up at 6:15 and got up at 6:30. Because of her cold, Teresa slept in the guest bedroom again.

I left the apt at 8:30 and took a Didi to D’Andre restaurant. From there it was a 2-block walk to Pergamino café. Glenn arrived a few minutes later. He brought me a #0 regular screwdriver and I was able to set the combination on the new Targus cable lock for my PC. I gave him an update on my progress for our Greek vacation. Teresa left me a voice mail message asking me to pick up a few things at the grocery store on my way back to the apt.

We shared a taxi back to Envigado. I got out across from Mercado Madrid and bought the 3 items Teresa requested.

When I returned to the apt, apparently I bought coconut clothes softener instead of soap. 😊 ☹

Shit! The new Targus cable lock doesn’t catch on my notebook. The old Targus cable lock expands in the slot in 3 directions and the new one only 2 directions. It doesn’t work with or without the rubber grommet that’s included.

My Acer notebook manual just says it’s a Kensington Lock Slot. I looked more closely at my Amazon purchase and it’s a $32 Targus cable lock and now I see I need a $28 Kensington Cable Lock. ☹

I ordered a few things from Amazon that are supposed to be direct to Colombia, so we’ll see.

Well, I tried to set up a Capital One account but it proved too difficult to do from here. I’ll try again next time I visit the US.

Teresa told me her sister Vickie invited us to join her at Crepes & Waffles in Palmas Grande mall. I had never heard of it before but Didi found it. Teresa took a nap, then a shower, then proclaimed it was too late to meet with Vicky.

I finished The West Wing, very good series! Now the search begins for another.

For supper, we ordered burgers from McDonald’s.

 

tRump’s Arrest

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, made a trip to the bathroom at 2:20, took an allergy pill, soon fell back asleep and didn’t wake up until 6:30 and got up at 7am. Because of her cold, Teresa slept in the guest bedroom again.

I left the apt about 9:15 and had a latte in Los Porteños for a couple hours. They do get busy on Saturday mornings, maybe I should look for an alternate plan. Teresa called and asked me to pick up jabon de coco in Ara, besides the milk I was planning on buying. When I left a couple hours later I stopped in Ara and picked up 2 bags of whole milk (they didn’t have 2%) and a bar of Dove coconut soap. When I returned to the apt Teresa informed me she wanted soap for clothes, but she didn’t say that.

I left again about 2pm and walked down to $efecty to pay the Direct TV bill but it was closed. I walked up the hill and a few blocks away and had a latte in Otra Parte. At one point I switched tables with a couple girls who were plugged into an electric outlet behind me. A couple hours later it got busy too so I paid my bill and returned to the apt.

I’ve decided to suspend my European vacation research for a little while. Supposedly I have a credit with COPA and Avianca so I’m going to try to take advantage of that with a trip to Chicago in September after we return from Europe but I’m going to try to avoid flights that leave like 5 in the morning.

For supper, Teresa wanted to order something different but we ended up ordering from Rocket Wings. I saw bonbones on the menu and they looked like boneless wings so we tried them. They arrived within 30 minutes but they were so burnt we only ate 3 each.

I watched more episodes of The West Wing. Just a few more episodes to the end.

 

tRump’s Arrest

 

Friday, April 7, 2023

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, made a trip to the bathroom at 2:15, took an allergy pill, soon fell back asleep and didn’t wake up until 6:15 and got up at 6:45am. Teresa has a cold so she slept in the guest room.

Today is Good Friday.

I left the apt at 8:15 in my gym clothes with a gym bag and walked to the mall. The streets were nearly deserted, same with the mall.

I stopped at Auros but they couldn’t find the emails I forwarded last night. While standing there I sent them again and this time I could see them arrive on his screen. No Gente newspapers today, probably because it’s a holiday. I took the back elevator up to the 4^th floor to Smartfit. Their turnstile doesn’t recognize my user-id so, like last time, I showed my cedula and the girl verified my account and allowed me to enter. I put my gym bag and other stuff in the locker and secured it with my combination padlock. I was doing the seated leg curl exercise and thought it was too easy at 40# so I upped it by 10# but felt pain on the top of my knee (very strange) so I went back down to 40#. At the Ave Poblado Smartfit I’ve been doing the treadmill at speed 4 for 6 minutes but the one I used today was so much faster I only lasted 4 minutes. When I finished, I went to the furthest shower. First, the slide lock didn’t work. Second, the water was cold! Third, when you push the button the water only came out for about 10 seconds. I guess I’ll be choosing a different shower stall next time. I changed into my street clothes.

I made an ATM withdrawal, bought a blueberry muffin in Starbucks then went to Urbania. I had my choice of tables because literally no customers were there. (As time went on it got a little busy.) I read through my vacation confirmations then tried to solve a few chess puzzles. Teresa called me and asked me to pick up chicken from Frisby. About 11:30 I paid for my latte, bought a large carton of eggs in Exito then went back to the mall proper and ordered an entire chicken to go at Frisby, sin arepas, sin guantes, sin cubiertos plastico, sin salsas, sin papas. It soon was ready and I returned, hands full, back to the apt by taxi.

Teresa is felling pretty bad from her cold, napping on and off throughout the day.

Just before 4pm we had a short shower.

I watched more episodes of The West Wing.

 

tRump’s Arrest

Thursday, April 6, 2023

Last night I went to bed at 10pm but was awakened at 1:45am by Teresa’s light snoring. I made a trip to the bathroom, took an allergy pill, moved my sheet and pillow to the guest bedroom, soon fell back asleep and didn’t wake up until 5:30 and got up at 6:15am.

While making breakfast somehow Teresa spilled some water on her cellphone and now the speaker sounds “tinny”. I asked her why she doesn’t have a case for it and she said it was old. Then why didn’t you buy a new one? A few minutes later I guess the speaker had dried out enough and it was fine.

After his early blunder of a knight, Troyclough resigned the game and my rating is now 1604. 😊 The problem now is if I lose to him I’m going to lose a ton of points.

New features opening today in Cine Colombia include;

Air: The Story Behind the Logo (7.8): I want to see that one.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (7.5): for children.

Decision to Leave (7.3): in Korean, so “no”.

The Night of the 12^th (7.1): In French, so “no”.

The Pope’s Exorcist (6.2): Uh, no!

I met Marcos in Parva with my laptop. He suggested we take a day trip to Toledo from Madrid and also recommended we see a show of flamenco (sp?) dancers. He’s getting some pushback from his girlfriend about going to Europe for a month because she’s afraid of leaving her 15-year old and 17-year old sons alone that long.

I found a map of the Athens metro that I’ll print tomorrow.

I reserved an apartment called A Painter’s House in Plaka for our first 3 nights in Greece Monday, September 1^st to Monday, September 4^th for $360 and a taxi to take us there from the airport upon our arrival. We should be close to the metro, acropolis, Monastiraki (flea market), and downtown.

On the way back to the apt I bought 2 ripe plantains and 5 limes (what Colombians call lemons).

Teresa has a cold so now she’s napping often.

I left the apt at 5pm and walked to the mall. I was shocked there were so many people in Cine Colombia. Could they be there for the new Mario Bros. movie? I waited in line to buy a preferred seat for Air for 20,100 pesos. I went upstairs to Only Roastbeef and bought a medium BBQ sandwich to go and stuck it in my tech bag. Back downstairs I waited in a slow line to buy their smallest popcorn and small soda which comes with a chocolate bar for 15,300. The salesgirl reminded me I’ve got 946 points I can use.

I managed to finish eating my sandwich before the movie started. I would say there were a couple of dozen people in attendance. I enjoyed the movie and for about a minute they played the music the United Center used to play when introducing the Bulls team.

Did I ever tell the story of running into Michael Jordan in person? It was sometime in the mid-1990s when my kids were taking Saturday swim lessons at a local YMCA. As usual after the lesson they hit the vending machines for a snack. At the same time Michael Jordan’s teenage sons were in a basketball tournament there and they hit the vending machines also. Tall dude! 😊 My best guess is he may have been playing for the Chicago White Sox at that time.

I went to Exito to buy eggs but, it being 8:30, it was closed. I waited in a short line to return to the apt by taxi. I gifted the chocolate bar to the portero.

I started reading the paperback, Wanderer by Sterling Hayden (yes, the actor) but I couldn’t get into it so I started another John Jakes novel.

 

tRump’s Arrest

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Last night I went to bed at 10pm but was awakened at 2:45am by Teresa’s heavy breathing. I made a trip to the bathroom, took an allergy pill, moved my sheet and pillow to the guest bedroom, soon fell back asleep and didn’t wake/get up until 6:45am.

Sadly, this morning I used up the last of my Knott’s Berry Farms Strawberry Preserves. Good think I bought a small jar of Smucker’s Red Raspberry Preserves last time I was in Exito.

Troyclough is back for another game and I sent him some tips on how to improve his game. We’ll see if I can continue my dominance.

I left the apt about 8:15 for the gym. My complete routine only took 35 minutes. In the future when I’m lifting more weight I’m sure I’ll need more recovery time between exercises and the entire routine will take longer. Again, when I returned to the apt by feet and legs were quite tired but it soon passed.

They guy renting our parking spot stopped by with 90,000 pesos to pay for April.

About 2pm I went to Los Porteños for coffee. It got quite busy in the afternoon. I had a large latte and a mango juice for 20mil. At one point a guy from New Orleans and a guy from England sat at the next table. Just after 4pm we had a shower that lasted about 20 seconds. Teresa called and asked me to pick up a pastel de arequipe from Parva for her. They were out of that so I got her a pastel de guayaba and picked up 2 bags of milk on the way back to the apt.

I finally heard from Laura who appears to be interested in going to the wedding. I sent her our itinerary so she can decide where and when she wants to join us. She asked if she can bring a friend. I told her the invitation will probably be for her and Lenny and she should talk to Jeannie about that.

On the 16^th move of our new game Troyclough blundered a piece.

I finished reading John Jakes’ The Seekers (The Kent Family Chronicles volume 3) on my Nook.

 

tRump’s Arrest

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Last night I went to bed at 9:45, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:45.

Teresa left at 9am for her gym class and I soon followed.

I had coffee at Los Porteños for a couple hours, returning to the apt by 11:30.

Here is a photo of the south side of IKEA I took on our way back from Mayorca yesterday, still a lot of work to do:

Teresa left me a voice message that she’s accompanying her mother to the bank for some reason (MT got her Social Security this month so all is good on that front.) and I should have the remainder of the ribs for lunch.

I watched more episodes of The West Wing.

The transit police are back chasing away illegal parkers.

Almost exactly at 5pm we had a downpour that lasted about 45 minutes.

In my latest game with Troyclough he was up a pawn, a passed pawn, but then blundered a bishop and resigned a couple moves later increasing my rating to 1599 and lowering his to 1506. Usually when one game ends, he challenges me right away to another, but not this time. Maybe he won’t be back.

 

Meanwhile in Canada