I love you.

After we moved out of our last place, J and I had to wait a few months to receive our deposit money.Well, last month we remembered it’s been 3 months and decided to call our landlord, Martin.

J: Hey Martin, this is Jeremy from Park City, we rented your place for a year…
M: Oh yea, hi Jeremy, how’s your new place?
J: It’s good. Hey I wanted to ask about our deposit money, we haven’t received it yet.
M: Oh really? Ok I’ll look into that with my secretary and she’ll send your check this week.
J: That’s great, thanks so much.
M: (sounding busy) No problem… ok… bye… I LOVE YOU!
J: … Thanks… (WTF?!) bye…(dead line)

I laughed so hard! It reminded me of that Arby’s commercial, saying ‘I love you’ in auto-pilot.
When we got our money back I was kind of expecting some extra money. Maybe he had thought Jeremy was cute. But no. No, we didn’t get extra money (although J IS really cute.)
Either way…

WE LOVE YOU TOO, MARTIN.

Because it’s so hot…

…Penny and I decided to ditch the couch for the much cooler floor.

Daddy, please don’t wake us up! Mama and I are cuddling and napping…

(Or at least that’s what she seems to be saying.)

And we also have ChaCha

Oh! And there’s also ChaCha, but this time instead of a machine answering you, it’s an actual very knowledgable person!

Just type your question – whatever it is – and they redirect your txt to someone expert on that topic and you get the most accurate answer.

Or you can call – at no extra charge – to 1-800-2CHACHA and ask away!

sms Google or 466453

It’s so cool! Probably all kids/people going to college know about it, but since I’m part of the ‘older’ crowd, I didn’t know! We can text questions from our cellphones to Google (466453) like:

McDonalds, Park City UT and it will list ALL mcdonalds in the area.

ALSO, we can ask other questions like about weather, movies, directions, sports, maps, flights… etc. This includes a dictionary in English and other languages! I can type ‘Translate Hello to Spanish’ and it will text me back with ‘Hola.’

A friend that goes to university told me about it.

I’m so thrilled! (And also feel so outdated… OUCH!)

Lost in Utah.

OMG it was hot there.

J & family decided to go work on their cabin located in… somewhere in the middle of nothing. I do know we didn’t leave the state. We drove for about three hours.

We stopped in a Wal-mart on the way there and I thought I could use a book while I was there, just so I don’t get bored. The next morning – Saturday morning – I started reading my book. That’s when time stopped. Or fast-forwarded. Whatever it was, it felt like a scene of one of those movies where the person stands still in the center of the picture and the sun rises up, and then goes down, and then the moon rises and the person didn’t move at all. Just the background moves and changes.

That was me. All day. Reading my book on the deck.

Thank goodness for Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight, because I made some extra points with the in-laws. They said ‘I was a good sport’ for not complaining all day in an unfinished cabin, with no bathrooms and no shade anywhere near, bugs all over and prrretty damn hot.

If they only knew I didn’t even notice those 12 hours under the hot sun. If I had indeed noticed – oh – they would have heard my whining.

Sooo looking forward to the other 3 books…!

Where have I been?

Hi there.

I’m alive.

But I have to confess, I’ve been kidnapped by this book.

Have you read it?

Guess who’s back from a trip…

J came back last night, hooray!

This is going to be a GREAT long 4-day weekend…

::Happiness::

Amy I’m sorry…

But I have to copy your suggestion and include the website you recommended me on the comments section in a whole new post. It is THAT interesting.

Here it is, guys!

Do you see her turning clockwise or counter-clockwise?

Peru from a gringo’s perpective

As I mentioned before here, I asked my super awesome hubby to write a few things about the cultural differences he found during our trip to Peru. Well, as awesome as he is (and I’m not tired of saying awesome, because you really are, sweetie!) he took some time off his busy business trip to email me his thoughts on it. Well, here you are guys! Hope you find it useful and/or interesting. And I insist, doesn’t he have the writing gift? He should blog too!

OK, here is a list of some things I found interesting, unusual, different, and sometimes strange in Peru:

· First and foremost, Traffic. The lines in the road are barely suggestions, traffic signs may as well be written in Swahili, and medals of honor should be given to those who navigate safely through the insane and often times death-defying mess that is Lima’s traffic situation. What is really amazing about the whole disorganized ordeal is that it all somehow flows along like a well oiled machine. The gap left by each taxi darting in front of a barreling micro is quickly and smoothly replaced by someone on a motorcycle. And everyone seems to slow just enough to avoid broad siding the maniac who decides last minute to make a left hand turn from the right-most lane, swerving as if on cue in front of two lanes of traffic, then deftly weaving his way in between oncoming cars and busses to the relative safety of a Bembo’s drive through lane on the other side of the road. Much more could be said about the traffic in Lima…..just picture a bees nest……now imagine they all drive steel Ticos around each other in their tiny glass cage…..this is an overhead view of Lima during rush hour. And I loved every white-knuckled second of it.
· There are very few grocery stores like we know in the states. Those you may see have produce sections containing only a small handful of recognizable fruits and veggies. A hundred types of potatoes, peppers I had never seen before and have yet to find anywhere at home, and more types of bananas than you could shake a split at. More common are small corner stores and neighborhood bodegas. I found them much more convenient, and often their variety and selection was less daunting than a large Plaza Vea or Wong. This certainly does not mean they are lacking in inventory however. I have never seen a more efficient use of space than in one of these shoebox sized stores, with shelves so close you can hardly walk in the tiny isles, stacked to the short ceilings with every variety of South American potato chip, snack cookie package, and dried banana flavor, all piled on top of one another. Other various household items are strung up ornately in long chains of shampoo bottles, deodorant sticks, toilet paper rolls and pet treats which hang from every available piece of wall and ceiling space. Some shops it seems have accepted the fact that a customer walking through its tiny maze could either get buried by bags falling from their precarious perch atop the shelves, or may in fact get stuck in a corner, wedged between barrels of rice on the floor and large ice cream freezers shoved into the ever shrinking and claustrophobic space. So rather than subject their customers to these dangers, their entryways are barred like a jail cell and patrons may reach through the bars and point to the items they want while a highly trained acrobat maneuvers his way to retrieve them.
· On nearly every street we saw dogs, none with collars or apparent owners. Some looked healthy and even friendly while others looked emaciated and desperate. It was most interesting to me that even those which looked the most dangerous didn’t scare the young kids from walking past and even over them lying in the sidewalks, without giving them a second thought or even a cautious glance. While I would like to think of these dogs’ lives to be carefree and comfortable like the Tramp in the old Disney movie, in the back of my mind I think I know better. I would imagine that these poor animals live their entire lives without owners and fending for themselves in every back alley dumpster, and garbage that they can find. Their apparent harmlessness to humans is no doubt learned early in life with the swift kick to the chops from an angry or annoyed pedestrian. Mel said if we ever lived in Lima she would not be able to resist bringing all the dogs she saw in and feeding them, giving them a better place to live…….I think we will need to find a large hacienda with plenty of land for all the dogs she would be compelled to bring home.

· Along the lines of the grocery store/bodega differences……I really like the local markets versus the larger more commercial malls. We went to a few malls in Lima, and third world country or not, shopping in a department store with a woman is the same dreadfully boring chore anywhere in the world, I am now convinced of that. However, we also went to a few local markets which I found much more interesting and entertaining. Not quite open-air, and definitely not completely covered, the countless stalls lined the long walkways like dominoes stacked together. In each 5 foot by 5 foot cubicle the vendor had as much of whatever he might be selling crammed as high and deep as possible. Many were filled so completely that there was no room for even the merchant to stand inside. In this case they would simply stand in the walkway in front of their stall which made it much more difficult to avoid eye contact with them. Even this slight, if unintended sign of interest would spark a well rehearsed invitation to take a closer look at what they had to offer, they certainly had your size and if you like a different color, that too could be pulled from under the third stack on the left, halfway down the pile. Prices, if not written on small neon colored cardboard, were only offered upon request. And even then, only after considerable thought on the part of the merchant as to what you might be capable of paying and what the other vendor only twenty feet away might be willing to sell the same item to you for. Because of this sliding price scale, and my obvious and towering ‘gringosity’, the prices I was quoted were usually more than double what Mel was quoted only seconds later. We had the same issue with negotiating taxi fares and eventually found it more economical to have me hide behind a bush or around the corner while she hailed the cab and talked money. Then after a price was settled upon, I would reveal myself to the driver’s obvious annoyance and dismay. I sometimes felt bad about this sort of trickery, then thought about paying 20 soles for a 3 sol ride, and usually felt better about letting the native do the talking, while I hid out of sight, just undeclared baggage.

I really could go on about the many things that I found different, exciting and unique about Peru but I think that so much of what I enjoyed about the experiences was the surprise of it all. Not knowing that the sock and underwear stand was right around the corner from the bloody pigs heads in the Jorge Chavez market in Mel’s district. And having absolutely no idea what Tuna tasted like before her grandpa cut one open for me (and no, I don’t mean the fish). And not realizing that hot water is a relative term in many parts of this world. So, while I really enjoy remembering my experiences there and cannot wait to return to find more interesting things to remember, I hate to reveal too much. Besides, what was surprising for me may be shocking for some, and what seems perfectly normal for others may be completely unimaginable for myself. So my experiences and observations can only be anecdotal at best, I would hope that any traveler to Peru or any other foreign place would go there with open eyes and mind, and take in the sights, sounds, smells, and experiences without comparing them to what is “normal” in their lives. Because when you get down to it, the only thing that is normal, is that wherever you go, we are all people, and we are all just trying to live and be happy. Our means to this end is what makes the world go round and what makes traveling to new places so exciting.

And I thought I used my whole brain…

But apparently not. I took a test a couple of days ago and I use mostly the left part of it. Does it have anything to do with it that I’m a leftie?