A long winter's nap

 Sunday – Saturday, 17/12/23 – 23/12/23

 

Me and mi oso

Customs issue – resolved

Angela, the lady who bought my house, was able to stop payment on the down payment cashiers check that was stuck in customs and get a new one made, for the low, low price of $700 US! I guess that Wells Fargo ran out of widows and orphans to rob this close to Christmas, and decided that immigrants and seniors are fair game. Thanks to my grandson, Jesse, the check is now deposited in my credit union and the funds should be released by the end of next week. Then I can finish paying my contractor and I will be out of debt once again. To be fair, I was only in debt for a month, but I have been debt free for so long that it was affecting me emotionally.

Finished furnishing the house

I walked around quite a bit last week, pricing out the last kitchen and bedroom items I still needed to buy. On Thursday, I bought a nice blender, a small toaster/oven and a set of T-fal pots and pans. That was the last of the kitchen items I needed. Then on Friday, I stopped at a mattress store and bought a mattress just like the one I had bought last year in Minnesota. (I thought I had already done that, but the mattress was defective. I have converted the old one into sound treatments for the room that will be my new studio.) Because I was buying it the week before Xmas, they gave me a stuffed bear. Martha, my Atlixco facilitator, was with me to help with a few other things and she insisted on taking a picture of me with the bear. The mattress was delivered today and I expect to sleep quite well tonight.

More phone glitches

As I said in my last post, I got a new number for my cell phone and it is working great; no more bill collector calls for Sr. Fidel Cruz Santiago! However, I still can’t access the account online, so I called Martha and we went to the TelCel main store to get it straightened out. The Telcel store and the mattress store are in the same mall, so we got both done on Friday. Unfortunately, the problem is still not corrected. We were told that it needed to be escalated to the IT people, who would hopefully fix it next week, although we should expect delays due to the holidays. While I was there, I paid my phone bill in person, so I’m good until February.

When we got done with the mattress and the mobile phone issue, we stopped for a lunch of enchiladas de mole poblano in the food court and they were delicious!

Cooking lesson

I had asked Martha to teach me how she makes arroz mexicano (Méxican rice), and she said she had time to do so when we got done at the mall, so we stopped at a grocery store and bought the ingredients to make white arroz mexicano. She demonstrated how to sauté the rice first and then add the onion and garlic and slowly heat them until caramelized, then add the peas, carrots and broth and cook until the rice is done. Toward the end, she added an aromatic herb (I can't remember the name of it right now). It was delicious, but I know it’s going to take me a couple of tries before I get the sauté/caramelize technique down pat, as well as getting the feel of how much liquid to add to get the rice cooked perfectly. Next time, she will show me how to make the red variation, with tomatoes.

Coming up …

Sunday, Xmas eve, I will be going to meet some other expats and Martha for a brunch buffet at 10:00 AM. The restaurant is about 1.5 kilometers from my house, so I will walk there. Google says 21 minutes to walk it which means probably 30 – 40 minutes for me, although I am starting to pick up the pace lately.

Xmas movies

I haven’t decided whether I will watch my Xmas movies on Xmas eve or on Xmas day. I think it will be Xmas eve for White Christmas. After that, I will decide on whether to continue on to The Thin Man and/or Die Hard. Last year, I included The Ref as well, so I may put that on last if I still feel like watching movies.

And that brings us up to date; more next week.

¡Feliz Navidad! Hasta luego.