Denise's Special Day

Today was Denise's birthday. OK- we don't celebrate birthdays, but we do take note of them. Denise therefore didn't expect anything special. From the moment she got up, however, the day started going wrong.

The cat was being a brat and had to be put outside (probably never to be seen again). I had forgotten entirely that my wife was turning over another year (typical of me), so I didn't even comment on how young she was looking. The milk curdled in her coffee and she had to throw it out. Finally, she thought she would just open the verticals and enjoy the beautiful sunny day- but I complained that my favorite show (NCIS) wasn't finished and the glare would ruin my morning show. So she went back to bed. When I went in to check on her- she unloaded. While she didn't expect anything special- something less than a disaster would have been nice. So we set off to have "Denise's Special Day". Now I thought we might visit an expat who just moved into a new house, but Denise informed me that a "special day" did not include things that you do on an ordinary day, so we set out to have a nice experience we could enjoy between us.

We had heard about a little restaurant in Pinamar near the ramp where the fishermen unloaded their boats. So we got the motorcycle out and headed in that direction. After a beautiful sunny ride (though a little chilly), we finally came upon a very charming little restaurant- "Grace's". Grace actually runs a little restaurant out of her house. She lives there and cooks and serves the meals. It looked the proper restaurant with nice tables and chairs.

This is Denise seated in a little private room with Graciela, our host. She speaks beautiful English, having lived in the US for some years and practices regularly with many of her customers.

We were served a lovely baked fish, with vegetables and Grace gave us a welcoming dessert on the house. While we ate, we could look out over the fishermen cleaning the fish out of their nets and occasionally a large truck would pull up and they would load it with some of the fish.

We finished off the day with a visit to a local nursery and Denise made some final purchases for our front entry planters. At home now, with a nice fire going- a day that started out to be a disaster ended up being Denise's Special Day.

No News is Not Always Good News

Well, we have finally hit the "wall" in Uruguay. After hearing about workers who never finish jobs and businesses that never return calls, we have finally experienced that. To date, we have lost 2 herreros (iron workers), 1 plumber and a cabinetmaker to the "black hole" of Uruguay. Either they have all decided to take vacations in countries that do not have cell service, some freak tragedy has coincidentally struck all of their families at the same time or (more likely) they are following the general course of business in Uruguay.

I am sure that eventually they will contact us again and eventually all of our projects will get done. The funny thing is that everybody complains about being such a poor country, no jobs and no money. However, workers show up after 9 in the morning, take off 1 or more hours for lunch and leave at 4-5 in the afternoon. They also do not return phone calls for possible work or finish work on a regular basis. Could this have something to do with the "supposed" poverty in the country?

Of course, we have a very comfortable house to live in, sufficient food and a wonderful neighborhood, so we are not greatly worried about some loose details. I mainly wanted to let everyone know why progress has not been posted.

This month is our 36th wedding anniversary. We are planning a very short day trip and should have some nice reports on that. Until then.... signing off.

Ton o' Wood

We bought a literal ton of wood, today. We knew that we needed to supplement our vast stock of pine wood, so that we don't build up dangerous deposits in the chimney. So we found a source of eucalyptus firewood. It is the first time that we have ever purchased wood in any quantity.

First we had a small concrete floor and walls built to hold the wood. Of course, we had no idea at all how much wood was in a metric ton, but we had it built so it looked like we could store a substantial amount of wood. It turned out that the storage we had built was an exact match. Each side holds about 500 kilos (1/2 ton US), so the ton of wood fit exactly into the space. I am sure that the guy who delivered the wood and stacked it into our wood area thought we knew exactly what we were doing (he couldn't have been more wrong).

We shopped all over and Syd and Gundy (expats from Atlantida) helped us find the wood for 1900 pesos/metric ton (around $80). Could we have found it cheaper? Yes- but many were charging 1/3 to 1/2 again as much, so we were happy with what we found.

Now we can burn pine during the daytime, and burn a hotter and longer lasting fire at night- the perfect mix. Judging from the size of a metric ton- I would say we have about 2-3 tons of pine left, so we are set for the winter. Good thing, because temperatures are down into the upper 30's overnight for the next couple of days. But who cares when you have a nice warm fire going and wood to last the winter?

Cachaça

Well, we have found another reason to enjoy South America. Brazil makes a liquor that tastes a little like rum and a little like tequila- Cachaça. It is 39 proof, so a very respectable drink.

In fact, a "Caipirinha" is the national cocktail of Brazil. It is very simple:

1/2 lime
1 tbls sugar (they have a special dark sugar, but regular sugar is fine)
1 oz Cachaça
Crushed ice and enjoy

They also use Cachaça and muddle any available fruits and sugar to taste. The Caipirinha tastes a little like a South American Mai Tai. Enjoy! Did I forget to mention that Cachaça is about $6.00 for a 910 ml bottle (it appeals to my penny pinching side).

Year One

Well, this will be a short post without pictures. Sorry- just not much more to post. But yesterday we did pass our first year mark in Uruguay. No fanfare, no fireworks. In fact, without a car and in cold weather, not even a trip out to a restaurant.

But we did reflect on the progress we have made here. Residency acquired, house purchased and almost all of our planned renovations completed. We are a few days away from having the house painted and all of our outdoor projects done. The next week will see significant progress on the kitchen.

All-in-all, as we sit in our warm house in our new little country- we are well satisfied with the choices we have made. We can hardly wait to see what happens in year two.

Lunch at Maria's

A few weeks ago we were introduced to one of our neighbors who had been a doctor in the US. She lived for some 20 years in Los Angeles (Denise's hometown) and now lives a block away. Her niece ran across my blog and determined that we must live near her aunt. Because I have been feeling a little under the weather, Denise had gone over for an introductory visit on Sunday and she invited us for lunch, today.

We thought it would be just a little take out meal or a sandwich. But when we arrived at "Maria Del Mar" we were pleasantly surprised that there was an asado in the making. Fortunately for us, her 2 dogs were locked up, since they have bitten people before and it is troublesome to have to make out the police reports. We will make sure that she knows we are coming in the future.

Some of Maria's friends were working on the parrilla and after some wine, cheese and salami, we were invited to sit down to a wonderful meal.

Maria is quite the world traveler and loves fishing, as well. She showed us a picture of a 40 lb bass that she caught in Brazil. She has children and grandchildren living all over the US and other countries.

Her house is quite artistic, with lots and lots of decorations, pictures from all over the world. Since she loves fishing- many of her sculptures (including iron fish on the lawn) are sea life. From her living room, where we had lunch, you could see the beach clearly. There was even a little fishing boat that was passing by on the way home. She recognized it as one of the boats that delivers fish to a shop on the Pando River. She says they have a great fish dinner- but that will be for another day.

So, stuffed with asado, we walked home, looking forward to our next visit.

Base Cabinets

Today, Saturday, the carpenter came and installed the base cabinets. Very solid installation and we finally get to see the type of kitchen we have envisioned. It is surprisingly spacious and we have designed in enough drawers to make this very practical.

Today Pedro installed the cabinets. On Tuesday, he will come back with either the drawers and doors or start on the upper cabinets (my Spanish is lacking some of the finer detail). Either way, this week will see some real progress.

The cabinets come without a bottom shelf. What happens is that the flooring guy pours concrete inside the kick plates, up to the level of the bottom shelf and installs tile for a finished look. The cabinet maker will call the local granite supplier and give him the measurements for the tops and we will be on our way.

I have put some old pieces shelving on top of the cabinet for the next few days so that we can get used to having some kind of kitchen. It looks like the work space is going to be ample and will have enough room for 2-3 people to work in the kitchen at the same time. Of course, since this is "my" kitchen- nobody will be working in it except me, but there is space, if I were to relax my rules and make an exception.

Whoopee!!!