¡Ay, caramba!

This is QUITE the welcome home for Carmen at Rochester International Airport! The rumors appear to be true -- Shakira DID perform!

Colombia slide show

MY first post on Colombia

So the last night we were there, we went to what is billed as (Steve & Laura, correct me if I'm wrong) the finest restaurant in Colombia, Club Colombia.  We took a cab there (which cost a mere ocho mil pesos - diez con tip [see, my Spanish sucks] - basically like $4 and it was a ride across town).  The ride though was crazy.  You think U.S. cabbies drive crazy?  Uh uh!  But I thought the most funny thing about this ride was the CB radio which featured a crazy woman in a trance talking crazy talk (OK, I'm sure it meant something but given the language barrier and the speed at which she spoke made it sound like something out of Star Wars... seriously, that was the first thing I thought of and I wish I could find the scene I'm thinking of to show them side by side.)  Check it out for yourselves:

GUESS WHAT PAUL GOT ME?!

For Valentine's Day, Paul got me tickets to this. I wish I could explain how excited I am. The movie was awful. I know it was awful. But I LOVE O.N.-J. I still remember the talent show at my brother's elementary school where some girl (help me out, Steve) performed "Heart Attack". It changed my life. OK, so that's dramatic, but I DO still sing it. And it's on my ipod.



ALSO -- J IS COMING OUT TO SEE IT WITH US! THAT is a surprise for my birthday! Weeeee! Presents, presents, presents!

&%#* the snow

Bogotá lies just north of the equator. What saves it from being blazing hot is its altitude (over 8600 ft above sea level). That all translates to a consistent temperature of around 60 to 70 degrees. This is what P and I came back to in Chicago.

Needless to say, we miss more than our family in Colombia.

Colombia, el primer día

P and I left Chicago for Miami at 8:10p on Monday night. We arrived in Miami just after midnight EST. Our ten hour layover turned into an eleven hour layover as we experienced a minor delay. We weren't able to sleep a whole lot. Our options were the disgusting floor or a row of armed benches. Add in the constant noise from the cleaning crew and the freezing cold air conditioning, and we were two tired hombres.

The flight to Bogotá was uneventful. We were two of the very few english speaking chaps on the flight. We arrived at 2:30p EST on Tuesday. Customs was the single most intimidating experience of the entire trip. I took several years of Spanish throughout middle and high schools. I properly forgot all that I learned when confronted with a Colombian official. After some tense moments and a stamp in our passports, we made our way to the baggage scanners. Luckily, Jorge Rico y su amigo were there to pick us up... in a black Dodge Dart. Jorge Rico also has a Dodge Dart. His is green. He had loaned his car to his wife so she could run some errands. Colombia has newly enacted traffic restrictions. Depending on your license plate number, you can only drive on certain days of the week. Jorge Rico explained that in his family, they have two cars. His wife wasn't able to drive her car that day, so he had to arrange for someone to help him pick P and I up from el aeropuerto.

That brings me to traffic in Colombia. Steve and Laura have commented on the traffic situation before on their blog. From what I can tell, very few roads have lines marking the lanes. Even when they do have lines, very few people seem to acknowledge them. Cars whip in and out (sans turn signals). Motorcycle riders zip in between cars constantly. Motorcycle riders have to wear a special vest and helmet, each with the same number. I guess that's because there are accidents all the time. The authorities need to have the same number on the head and body just in case the two aren't attached after the accident. Eek!

We arrived at Betty's Place, completely unscathed. Gloria (the live-in maid) met us at the door and ushered us to our room. This was the view from our window.

The American Embassy says that each place that houses American tourists must have barbed wire surrounding the premises. In our case, that wire is also electrified. The large barrel you see collects water for use in the house. More on the water situation in my "Day 3" post. We could also see (but did not capture in this picture) a tiny bit of the Andean mountains from our window. Each room at Betty's place has its own bathroom. Our room also had a TV, DVD player, and a white noise maker/alarm clock. Much more beautiful is the small courtyard just off the living room.


We went back downstairs and met Steve, Laura and Carmen in the living room. Quick note: the clothes you see us in in these pictures are the same ones we had on when we first arrived at the airport in Chicago.


We had a nice, quiet evening of meeting the other residents of the house, eating and drinking. In the pictures below, note the giant plate of empanadas con aji. Aji was served with every meal we had in Colombia, and is a spicy, chunky salsa. You will also see Colombian cerveza, a bowl of guacamole (look at the giant aguacate [avocado] pit!), and fresh jugo (juice). Several types of jugo were available in all of the restaurantes we visited, and Betty's Place made it fresh with every meal. Yum!



We went to bed relatively early. We had a lot planned for Day 2 of our trip. More on that in my next post!

Shameless Plug, Take 3

I am currently downloading the nearly 500 pictures from our trip to Colombia to my computer. Expect the first Colombia post shortly! In the meantime, P. D. & J. now has had visitors from all of the continents (save Antarctica)!

United States (US) 158
Colombia (CO) 13
United Kingdom (GB) 7
Canada (CA) 5
Germany (DE) 3
Italy (IT) 2
Russian Federation (RU) 1
Netherlands (NL) 1
Norway (NO) 1
Finland (FI) 1
Costa Rica (CR) 1
Belgium (BE) 1
Bulgaria (BG) 1
Australia (AU) 1
Thailand (TH) 1
Egypt (EG) 1

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Well, not really. I still need to pack. But vacation is almost here! I'm fairly certain J has posted her last message on the blog, so if something happens we don't have the time to blog from afar, we'll catch ya on the flip side. Despite how it may seem, the blog is not dead. It seems some founding members have taken on an emeritus role.

¡Viva Colombia!

Bob Fosse and junk falling out (in that order)

Oh, YouTube! Beyoncé's moves in her "Single Ladies" video were inspired by the choreography (by Bob Fosse) in "Mexican Breakfast". Obvious, no?

Also, SICK! Look for his junk to fall out about a minute in.

Condom Week

Yes, I know today is Valentine's Day.  Turns out it's also "Condom Week" (coincidence, I'm sure).  This is a picture showing how Chicago's Boystown neighborhood is celebrating. Those giant rainbow pylons run all up and down the neighborhood normally. Now they are "gloved". Funny.

!

LOOK at all those dots of people who have visited our blog from four different continents! Totals by country are as follows:

United States (US) 83
Colombia (CO) 7
United Kingdom (GB) 6
Canada (CA) 3
Germany (DE) 2
Netherlands (NL) 1
Italy (IT) 1
Australia (AU) 1
Belgium (BE) 1

Best addition to blog ever. Our official followers total still only includes the blog authors, which is a bit disappointing. *loud clearing of throat*

TEST: South Africa.  Madagascar.  India.  Ukraine. :)

Awww, then OMG, then awww

I read this story in the Red Eye today. Initially, I was all, "CUTE! Look at that koala drinking from that firefighter's bottle of water!" This quickly caused me to think, "Wait, firefighter?! OH NO!" Wildfires again. But the picture IS cute:

I'm back to thinking it's cute again because I read a follow-up story here.

Turns out "Sam", as she has been named, is recovering quite nicely and has a boyfriend (another injured-in-a-horrific-wildfire koala named "Bob")! Also, the firefighter from the picture had a neat quote:

"You can see how she stops and moves forward and looks at me. It was like a look saying, 'I can't run, I'm weak and sore, put me out of my misery' ...

"I yelled out for some water and I sat down with her and tipped the water up. It was in my hand and she reached for the bottle, then put her right claw into my left hand which was cold so it must have given her some pain relief and she just left it there. It was just amazing."

See? Awwww... well, until you read that 181 people are confirmed dead, 50 people are still missing, and the cost of rebuilding is estimated at $1.3B. Yeah right... in THIS economy?

Bookish?!

I got my hair cut tonight and it looks a little different than usual.  My stylist said he "took the weight" out of it and got it all to be a more even length throughout.  I don't know what that means but when I got home I asked what David thought and he told me it looked "bookish."  

I told him I would blog to express my righteous indignation.  You know how when someone asks your opinion on how they look you don't REALLY want a totally honest opinion?  David apparently never got the memo.  

By the way when I google imaged "bookish" this was one of the first pictures I got.  Okay, my hair doesn't look like that... and I look nothing like that guy... but... I guess that's "bookish".  

Just one small example of the crap I watch on TV

Have you ever heard of a stone baby? I had not, but thanks to TV, I now have! Turns out, this woman was pregnant for 46 years.

How is that even possible, you ask? WELL! This most commonly occurs when a woman has an ectopic pregnancy. Stone babies are formed when the fetus dies. In order to protect itself, the mother's body surrounds the fetus with a wall of calcium. I sort of came in on the tail end of the show, so I'm not sure WHY she waited so long to have it removed. I guess it started to be painful (after only 46 years!) But this is what they removed from her body, after four hours of surgery. It had fused to her internal organs.

They ended up cutting it open so you could see how thick the layer of calcium was. Suffice it to say, it was thick. And the whole thing made me glad I can never ever get pregnant.

If I were straight...

... Freida Pinto would TOTALLY be my type.  OMG, she's f***in' gorgeous!  And a great actress too.  "Slumdog" was a great movie.  

Is this incest??

Our cats are not related by blood, but have been raised together. This is what I caught them at this morning:

Granted, George was keeping his eyes closed, but I am pretty sure he was peeking.

Other fun things to do in Denver

Last Tues, Dave and I went to a Historic Denver event in the D&F Tower downtown on the 16th Street Mall. As the invitation said,

This will be the first public unveiling of the tower since it was constructed almost 100 years ago for the Daniels and Fisher Department Store. Since this space has not been open to the public since its construction, there will be members of the media as well as elected city officials that will be there to celebrate this unique moment in history.

The soiree was on the top 5 floors of the tower, behind the face of the clock. Each level had a bar and some type of food (prosciutto-wrapped shrimp & baby lamb chops on one; salmon bites on another; then my favorite: dessert cups--one with creme brulee and strawberries, another with chocolate mousse and whipped cream).

The dessert were made by none other than Food TV's Keegan Gerhard

Ok, I hadn't heard of him, but he was very nice, and especially receptive when I asked him: "Tell me if I'm wrong, but were those cocoa puffs in the chocolate dessert?" (They weren't.) He also made a cake in the shape of the tower which, unfortunately we did not stay to try. (I heard mention more than once of Ace of Cakes as people we admiring the cake-tower.)

Dave and I got bored of the people and techno music (yes, techno), and I was antsy because (again, per the invitation):

The complimentary gift bags will leave you feeling like you’ve just had Christmas all over again in February. These bags will be filled with products from Nordstrom; Halcyon House Interior Design; a copy of Modern in Denver Magazine featuring Denver’s coolest mid-century modern homes and buildings; additional pastries from Keegan Gerhard’s restaurant, d bar Desserts; Pravda Vodka; and other great items. Gift bags are limited to the first 100 guests departing the event.

YEAH. The gift bags ended up being PURSES filled with goodies, including make up and skincare from Estee Lauder. Pretty sweet. (Not much in there for guys, though.)

All in all, a pretty fun evening. We, along with the other (and much younger, I have to say) attendees are members of Historic Denver (although Dave and I already were) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation (free membership was included with our $20 ticket).

It's diet time!

Our cats recently had a wake-up call.  Just like millions of fat Americans, they were told that if they didn't get their acts together, they would have serious health problems.  Cole was naturally upset and cried that he didn't want to lose a foot because of "the diabetesis".  But when told that in order to avoid this fate he would need a strict diet, his story changed.  "How badz could it beseses?  I canz have 3 pawz.  Ever heardses of cat in wheelbarrelzez?"  (Yes, Cole calls it a "wheelbarrel")  

Sheila's reaction?  "F off!  I will cut you guyz."  

Colorado snow!

Dave is a huge snowboarder. And by "huge", I mean good. Really good. When we first started dating, I thought, "I'll be a snowboarder, too!" But... it didn't turn out so well. Kind of ironic since I am FROM Colorado (I really think every parent should put skis on their kids so they get used to the feeling), but I am just not into the uncontrollable speed (me and everyone else rushing down the slope from behind me).

So, I always THINK I will drive up to the Mountains with Dave and snowshoe, but there's usually 1,000 different reasons I don't--too early, too much to do here, no one to go with, etc., etc. So today I went with Karen and Renee. We had to drive about an hour to Georgetown and then UP Guanella Pass a few 1,000 feet before we saw any substantial snow.

(See Chicago Creek on the map??)

We stopped off at Clear Lake first. It was frozen over and was so... clear! The picture doesn't do it justice, but you could look down into an infinite number of bubbles frozen in the ice rising up from the dark underneath. You could also measure how deep the ice was by how far the frosty ribbon-like cracks in the ice went down. Karen and I ventured maybe 10 ft from the shoreline onto the ice when there was this *CRACK!* and shudder underneath. Only a slight shudder, but the crack echoed in the valley. It was crazy! (Needless to say, Karen and I were all Flintstones on the ice trying to make it back to dry land.) We had passed a lake in Georgetown on the way and there were probably 20 cars all parked near each other in the middle of the lake! Apparently they were ice fishing, but it looked like the makings of a great story about how you lost your car when it fell through the ice in the middle of a half-frozen lake.

The snowshowing was hard at first since the trail seemed to go straight up and, if you haven't been in the mountains, there's no air up there! But we made it to the top which overlooked the lake (which I guess was Naylor Lake, but we were aiming for the Silver Dollar Lake), Square Top Mtn and a huge valley. It was great! A workout with views!

P&D -- it reminded me of that hike we did when we ALMOST made it to Chicago Lakes and I am wondering if we were in the same vicinity?

Anyways, I do hope to go up snowshoeing again before winter is over and all the snow is gone. It's colder today, but we were close to 70 all week! While great, it's too early for spring!

Movies I loved that you may have missed

It's been a while since I blogged and I've been meaning to blog about some movies that I've seen in the past year or so that I really loved that most people probably didn't see.  These are in no particular order... just the order that my jumbled mind thinks of them in.  

1.  "Lars and the Real Girl"

This movie is about a guy, Lars (Ryan Gosling), that for some reason is so socially awkward and shy that he can't seem to let anyone really get close to him.  He shuts out everyone including his brother and sister-in-law who desperately want to help.  He decides to get himself a girlfriend in the form of a very real looking sex doll.  To the horror of those around him.  His brother and sister-in-law (Paul Schneider & Emily Mortimer) start uneasily playing along, allowing Lars to bring his "girlfriend" to dinner and even out in public.  Patricia Clarkson is in it too which just makes it a must-see in my book.  I know the premise sounds too weird but it's actually a very touching movie.

  

2.  "Once"

Two lonely strangers meet on the street in Dublin and soon find out that they share a love of music.  There also seems to be a strange musical connection as when they are together, songs just seem to come naturally out of their collaboration and mutual loneliness.  So the music is really good as all of the people in the film are actually professional musicians.  And the song "Falling Slowly" won an Oscar.  How about that?!

3.  "The Fall"

This movie is a cross between "The Wizard of Oz" and "Pan's Labyrinth".  A young hospitalized girl meets a movie stuntman in the hospital who fell trying to impress a woman who ended up going for another man.  The young girl asks him to tell her a story and half of the movie is the story he weaves that is tainted by his misery.  He's basically suicidal.  It's eye candy throughout.... from the director of the J. Lo vehicle "The Cell".   I highly recommend it. 

Final Demand Letter

Dear JENNIFER GRADY,

This letter serves as your final demand to submit a post to the blog. If you have not fulfilled your obligation by 5pm CST, legal action will be taken.

Sincerely,

Blog Management


UGH. WHAT ABOUT. GAH. How about you give me until Monday? Please?

No. Today. You need to force yourself to say something. ANYTHING. You have writer's block, and the only way to get over it is to write something. Even if it doesn't make sense. It can be a post through which we all learn something about overcoming adversity.

Use the final demand email as your starting point and go from there. This is what you NEED. You'll thank me later.

So, fine. I posted a blog. There are some items I want to post, but I also have pictures to go along with them which are on my camera. At home. If SOMEONE would just be PATIENT... I planned to blog this weekend. SWEAR.

Is that a rabbit in your pocket, or...

So my new favorite thing (as if you couldn't tell) is to look at the "Images in the News" section of chicagotribune.com. When I saw this, I thought... "Riiiiiiight, THAT'S real." Turns out, it IS!

Caption: (Getty photo by Sean Gallup / January 15, 2006)
Karl Szmolinsky, who raises a breed of rabbits called giant grays, shows Robert, an 8.5kg giant gray who is 74cm long and has ears 25.5cm long, in the backyard of his house in Eberswalde, Germany in 2006. Szmolinsky sold eight giant grays to a delegation from North Korea that wanted to raise the breed as a source of meat for the North Korean population. Szmolinsky said his rabbits reach a maximum weight of 10.5 kg (23.1lbs.).

There's also a video.

Ha!

I think I find this picture so funny because they look like old men! "GET OFF MY LAWN!"

But, the cutest part: their names are Shalom and Salam. Both names mean "Peace" in Hebrew and Arabic, respectively. Awww! They were about to receive vaccinations. This is exactly what Cole does when we take him to the vet.

We're Huge in Europe...

...apparently. A couple of days ago, I added a map to the blog (see left column). It automatically tracks who visits our blog. Two things surprised me. First, Steve and Laura show as being at their home when they are currently in Colombia. That was sad because I wanted it to look like we were very popular there. But then my eyes wandered to Europe, and low and behold! There are two tiny dots at two different locations! I have no idea who they might be (I assume they inadvertently stumbled across our blog because a keyword came up on google, and plan never to return), but I'm terribly excited about it.

J and I just had a gmail chat conversation about it, and decided they probably can't understand anything we're saying. They are expecting more "e's" on the ends of words and want to know why all our adjectives come before the nouns.

But, in any event... welcome, strange foreigners, with your tiny cars and even tinier apartments! We drink our soft drinks and beer cold and have turkey for dinner! Feel free to make comments about your strange and exotic customs. And we can send you some Levi jeans, if you're nice!

Help Wanted. Apply Within.

WANTED: Writers with interesting perspectives to assist one lone individual from having to write ALL posts on a blog. Applicants should be witty, entertaining and willing to write even when they have better things to do. Preference will be given to individuals with names beginning with the letters "J" and "P".

Our new dog!

Well, eventually.  But first we need to move.  When we are finally able to get a dog, we will get a Boston Terrier.  Isn't this family cute?!  That was my first reaction, too, until I read the caption.  Now I'm enraged.

Gizmo and family
(AP photo by Elise Amendola / January 29, 2009)
Four pure-bred Boston terrier puppies gather around their father, Gizmo, at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Methuen, Mass. Five puppies were surrendered along with their parents, Gizmo and Sasha, after animal control officers in Lawrence, Mass., found them living in deplorable conditions and suffering from multiple medical issues.

Amusing

Not living in NYC, I don't get all of these references, but the ones I do get are funny.

(More) Colombia!

So two things:

1. I've scheduled my yellow fever vaccination. I'm not shocked at myself. I should have just done it when I first went. But, as a result of that vaccination, I've now scared myself. It seems there have been a (very) few instances of organ failure for newly vaccinated people. Fun! I already brought up my fear when I made my appointment, and the nurse laughed at me.
2. New to the agenda: Monserrate and La Candelaria.

*kickclap*

Colombia!

Our trip is in just a few weeks! So far, the iternary includes a trip to Lake Guatavita (which is making me wish I had gotten the Yellow Fever vaccine...). Although... I expect it's too high to have mosquitoes. Bogota sits at 8661 ft above sea level. The lake is at 9842 ft! Cripes.

More details re: our trip as they develop!