Our neighbourhood is an older established area with older homes and lots of trees. When we moved here in 2005 there was an elderly lady living sort of kitty corner from us. After a couple of years she was no longer able to live alone and family took her to live with them. Since then her home has stood empty. The home according to the landlord needed to be torn down as it was not in good shape. It has sat like that for a few years now, every once in a while someone would come to clean the front yard and that was it.
It has now been sold and on Monday a couple of guys with a sledgehammer showed up and started to de-construct the home. They worked at it for about 3 days and then when all the old windows, railings, re bar, etc. that could be salvaged had been and they had reduced the home to a pile of rubble, a backhoe showed up. He dug out part of the front rock wall and garden area to make a path up into the lot and began to pull the rubble to the front of the lot to be piled up onto the street to be loaded onto a dump truck.
Yesterday a dump truck showed up and they filled him up 3 or 4 times and the pile has disappeared. So I am assuming the backhoe will continue to pull out more until he is finished cleaning the lot. I was told the dump truck charges 600 pesos a load not sure if that includes a dumping fee.
We have been having fun watching the workers, especially when the head of their sledge hammer kept flying off and they had to keep putting it back on. Once it flew down a hole in the rubble and they had to spend some time fishing it out with a long stick. It was recovered and re-attached and work continued.
We know the new owners well, so the neighbourhood won't change a lot people wise; but it will sure look different with a new home in that lot eventually.
I'm sure there will be lots more construction posts coming as the home goes up.
Poco a poco.
Senin, 31 Januari 2011
Minggu, 30 Januari 2011
Learning Spanish With A Twist
Learning Spanish???? This might help you out or NOT !!!!
May not be politically correct; but it is hilarious. Just had to share it.
The language in it is not exactly G rated, so if you have children send them out of the room for a minute.
May not be politically correct; but it is hilarious. Just had to share it.
The language in it is not exactly G rated, so if you have children send them out of the room for a minute.
Sabtu, 29 Januari 2011
Thai Honey Peanut Chicken
Yesterday I tried a chicken recipe that I found online somewhere, can't remember where now and we both really enjoyed it; although I didn't follow the recipe exactly as I didn't have some of the ingredients. We eat a lot of chicken breast, I always buy the skinless, boneless ones, neither of us likes the brown meat so no point in buying a whole chicken or turkey. I only buy turkey breasts also.
I served it over rice with a side salad of coleslaw. I always put some chopped up veggies in my rice and when I went to the frig yesterday the veggie bin looked pretty sad. No celery, carrots all gone, lettuce ew not in rice, cabbage nope don't think so. So in the end all I had to throw into the rice was a chopped up tomato and some chopped onion, some garlic and a little ginger. I always cook my rice in chicken stock to give it some flavor.
Here is the chicken recipe, try it and see if you like it. Sorry no picture, never thought of it and it is all gone now.
I served it over rice with a side salad of coleslaw. I always put some chopped up veggies in my rice and when I went to the frig yesterday the veggie bin looked pretty sad. No celery, carrots all gone, lettuce ew not in rice, cabbage nope don't think so. So in the end all I had to throw into the rice was a chopped up tomato and some chopped onion, some garlic and a little ginger. I always cook my rice in chicken stock to give it some flavor.
Here is the chicken recipe, try it and see if you like it. Sorry no picture, never thought of it and it is all gone now.
THAI HONEY PEANUT CHICKEN
1 lb. chicken cut in cubes
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 - 2 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. lime juice
1 tsp. garlic (yah right like I measure my garlic)
1 Tbs. peanut butter (I used crunchy because that is what I had)
1/2 tsp. curry powder (didn't have, threw in a bunch of chili con limon powder)
1 tsp. sriracha (optional) (don't have so didn't use)
Mix ingredients and marinate chicken in the marinade for 2 to 3 hrs.
The recipe says to cook the chicken in the sauce for 7 to 8 minutes or until cooked. I like to make sure my chicken is cooked well so I drained it and cooked it and then added the sauce back in and reduced it until it was the consistency I wanted. I pretty much doubled more or less the marinade ingredients as I like lots of sauce for my rice.
It says you can add pre -cooked veggies if you want and heat through. I didn't.
Serve topped with sesame seeds.
Thicken sauce if desired with cornstarch. (I just reduced it).
By now I am sure that you have figured out that I pretty much don't measure a lot and kind of fly by the seat of my pants when cooking. When baking I do use measuring units.
Anyway even with my additions, deletions and substitutions it was pretty good. Not sure how it would taste with the actual ingredients; but try it and see.
On our scale of "keep recipe/make it again" it was a keeper.
Jumat, 28 Januari 2011
It's Been A Busy Week
My art teacher called the other night and asked me to bring my pictures to the Casa de la Cultura on Tuesday so he could get everything ready for an exhibition on Thursday. I took the ones from class as well as the other ones that I had done as I had some questions about the fixative that I wanted to ask him. We chatted a bit and he wanted to keep all of them for the exhibit. I went back the next day to pay him for the stuff that he was going to use to create a mat for them and ended up staying there for several hours helping get stuff ready for the exhibit. He wanted some of us to go back yesterday and set it up; but I was already committed to doing something else so I couldn't go.
Last night I debated whether I wanted to go to the exhibit or not as I have seen all the pictures anyway; but decided that I should go and make an appearance. We went down there and it was pretty laid back, not many people around, (not advertised as far as I know), we chatted for a few minutes and asked some questions about some odd things we had noticed on the front of the building.
We had noticed that all of a sudden on the front of the building it said "Hospital General" and "City of Guaymas", in Spanish of course. Really odd to say the least, there was also a sign saying, " medical specialities" or something to that effect, inside the building leaning against one wall was a sign that says, "Los Angeles, or was it San Francisco, hmm forget now, and how many miles lol. It turns out that the film company that is filming a Telenovela here and in San Carlos is going to be filming at the Casa de la Cultura one day and also on the Malecon. I think they said this morning the film crew was going to be working at the Pancho Villa restaurant that is on the Plaza. We aren't bothering to go and check it out. The name of the Telenovela is : La Fuerza del Destino, I think.
Anyway, I had taken my camera with me; but forgot to take any pictures of the exhibit.
Today is a day off which will morph into the weekend and Monday off and then off to class on Tuesday. Yah, a long weekend ha ha.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Last night I debated whether I wanted to go to the exhibit or not as I have seen all the pictures anyway; but decided that I should go and make an appearance. We went down there and it was pretty laid back, not many people around, (not advertised as far as I know), we chatted for a few minutes and asked some questions about some odd things we had noticed on the front of the building.
We had noticed that all of a sudden on the front of the building it said "Hospital General" and "City of Guaymas", in Spanish of course. Really odd to say the least, there was also a sign saying, " medical specialities" or something to that effect, inside the building leaning against one wall was a sign that says, "Los Angeles, or was it San Francisco, hmm forget now, and how many miles lol. It turns out that the film company that is filming a Telenovela here and in San Carlos is going to be filming at the Casa de la Cultura one day and also on the Malecon. I think they said this morning the film crew was going to be working at the Pancho Villa restaurant that is on the Plaza. We aren't bothering to go and check it out. The name of the Telenovela is : La Fuerza del Destino, I think.
Anyway, I had taken my camera with me; but forgot to take any pictures of the exhibit.
Today is a day off which will morph into the weekend and Monday off and then off to class on Tuesday. Yah, a long weekend ha ha.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Sabtu, 22 Januari 2011
The Latest Paintings
The picture in pastel that I did first of my friends dog Geordie was not giving me the happy glow of accomplishment and when I sprayed it with fixative it went quite a bit darker and then I was really not happy with it.
I took a different picture of Geordie the last time we saw him and worked on a painting from that picture for a bit, set it aside when frustrated and worked on it again.
I bought a different fixative and sprayed it and then realized that his tongue was not in the right position and so the whole picture looks somewhat off.
By this time I was sick of trying to get Geordie to look right, so set both his pictures aside for a week or so.
Today I got them out and tried to lighten up the first one and then resprayed it. I looked at the second one and decided that there really wasn't much I could do about the bad tongue placement as the white would never cover up the pink that was already fixed in place.
I threw up the white surrender flag and consider them finished. After today no one other than me ever has to see them so I will just chalk them up to experience.
I had my sister send me a picture of her dog Zoe who is another one of my favorite animals. She is, (I think) a Golden Retriever. I am not too good at my dog breeds. Anyway Zoe is going to be my next attempt. Wish me luck.
Here is her picture. She is such a sweetheart.
The registration is on for the next set of classes at the Casa de la Cultura so I went the other day and signed up for the class I want. Class starts on February 1 st and I am ready. I have my photo chosen for the view I want to paint and I have purchased the size of canvas that I want. My stuff is ready to pack in my bag and be off back to school. Can you tell that I am raring to go?
The first FAOT concert is on here tomorrow night, it is a "pocket" opera. I am not sure if I am going or not, Roy doesn't want to go, so I will see.
I took a different picture of Geordie the last time we saw him and worked on a painting from that picture for a bit, set it aside when frustrated and worked on it again.
I bought a different fixative and sprayed it and then realized that his tongue was not in the right position and so the whole picture looks somewhat off.
By this time I was sick of trying to get Geordie to look right, so set both his pictures aside for a week or so.
Today I got them out and tried to lighten up the first one and then resprayed it. I looked at the second one and decided that there really wasn't much I could do about the bad tongue placement as the white would never cover up the pink that was already fixed in place.
I threw up the white surrender flag and consider them finished. After today no one other than me ever has to see them so I will just chalk them up to experience.
 |
| The first attempt. |
 |
| The second attempt. |
I had my sister send me a picture of her dog Zoe who is another one of my favorite animals. She is, (I think) a Golden Retriever. I am not too good at my dog breeds. Anyway Zoe is going to be my next attempt. Wish me luck.
Here is her picture. She is such a sweetheart.
 |
| Zoe. |
The registration is on for the next set of classes at the Casa de la Cultura so I went the other day and signed up for the class I want. Class starts on February 1 st and I am ready. I have my photo chosen for the view I want to paint and I have purchased the size of canvas that I want. My stuff is ready to pack in my bag and be off back to school. Can you tell that I am raring to go?
The first FAOT concert is on here tomorrow night, it is a "pocket" opera. I am not sure if I am going or not, Roy doesn't want to go, so I will see.
Kamis, 20 Januari 2011
Cine Club Of Guaymas
Last evening we went downtown to the auditorium to view the first movie shown at the inauguration of the Cine Club de Guaymas. If I understood it correctly they will be showing a movie every Wednesday evening for the rest of the year, more or less. He said that they have 40 world class movies to show.
The movie was free as it is sponsored by the following groups: City of Guaymas, IMCA (Instituto Municipal de Cultura y Arte), Instituto Sonorense de Cultura and Program de Desarrollo Cultural Municipal de Sonora.
The movie shown was Catch 22 which was filmed in San Carlos and also Lazio, Italy. There was a fairly good turnout of people who seemed to enjoy the movie, it was in the original English with Spanish subtitles.
There are a few shows that I know of that have been filmed at least in part in San Carlos, one is the movie The Mask Of Zorro with Antonio Banderas and another one is "Lucky Lady" and a soap opera, "Por Tu Amor", there might be more that I am not aware of at this time.
Anyway it was a fun evening and we will probably be going again.
The movie was free as it is sponsored by the following groups: City of Guaymas, IMCA (Instituto Municipal de Cultura y Arte), Instituto Sonorense de Cultura and Program de Desarrollo Cultural Municipal de Sonora.
The movie shown was Catch 22 which was filmed in San Carlos and also Lazio, Italy. There was a fairly good turnout of people who seemed to enjoy the movie, it was in the original English with Spanish subtitles.
There are a few shows that I know of that have been filmed at least in part in San Carlos, one is the movie The Mask Of Zorro with Antonio Banderas and another one is "Lucky Lady" and a soap opera, "Por Tu Amor", there might be more that I am not aware of at this time.
Anyway it was a fun evening and we will probably be going again.
Rabu, 19 Januari 2011
Tuesdays Veggies
Yesterday after Spanish class I needed to buy fresh veggies. I knew that the ladies that sit outside of the Mercado are gone by that time and the veggies inside the Mercado are usually looking pretty tired looking by that time of the day, it was around 5 PM.
Tuesday is a good day to go grocery shopping as all the large grocery stores have their specials on that day. I headed to the Santa Fe grocery store on Serdan and around 20 th street, this used to be a VH until they went bye bye.
Yesterdays specials, (that I bought), I didn't look around much as only wanted veggies that I could carry as I didn't need enough stuff to warrant my "big grocery shopping taxi".
I ended up with enough stuff though that I wished I had taken a cab, why do I always think I can comfortably carry more than I can? High expectations I expect and a lack of comprehension about my present physical capabilities.
Anyway the prices on the stuff that I bought were as follows, prices in pesos for kilos.. If you are interested enough you can do the conversions. Today according to the site I watch 1 CAD is = 1.01 USD and 1 CAD = 12.14 MXN, 1 USD = 12.07 MXN. A kilo is equal to 2.2 pounds weight more or less.
I bought:
radishes @ 1 pesos per bunch ( .08 cents a bunch CAD)
lettuce @ 8.90 pesos a head ( .73 cents per head CAD)
cabbage @ 8.45 pesos per kilo ( .70 cents per kilo CAD)
white onions @ 4.95 pesos per kilo ( .41 cents per kilo CAD)
salad tomatoes (sort of roma) @ 5.95 pesos a kilo ( .49 cents per kilo CAD)
potatos @ 7,85 pesos a kilo ( .65 cents per kilo CAD)
According to their calculation on my bill I saved a total of 42.50 pesos by shopping on Tuesday. Total of the bill by the way was 85.00 pesos ( $7.00 CAD); but that also included a 370 gram box of butter, which was 32.90 pesos. The bill was actually a few centavos less; but the difference to even it off was given as a "redondeo", that is when the clerks ask you if you want to give something to whatever group/charity they are giving to that month, usually a worthwhile thing to do with your centavos to even out your bill.
So, how does this compare to what you are paying? Is it more or less?
Tuesday is a good day to go grocery shopping as all the large grocery stores have their specials on that day. I headed to the Santa Fe grocery store on Serdan and around 20 th street, this used to be a VH until they went bye bye.
Yesterdays specials, (that I bought), I didn't look around much as only wanted veggies that I could carry as I didn't need enough stuff to warrant my "big grocery shopping taxi".
I ended up with enough stuff though that I wished I had taken a cab, why do I always think I can comfortably carry more than I can? High expectations I expect and a lack of comprehension about my present physical capabilities.
Anyway the prices on the stuff that I bought were as follows, prices in pesos for kilos.. If you are interested enough you can do the conversions. Today according to the site I watch 1 CAD is = 1.01 USD and 1 CAD = 12.14 MXN, 1 USD = 12.07 MXN. A kilo is equal to 2.2 pounds weight more or less.
I bought:
radishes @ 1 pesos per bunch ( .08 cents a bunch CAD)
lettuce @ 8.90 pesos a head ( .73 cents per head CAD)
cabbage @ 8.45 pesos per kilo ( .70 cents per kilo CAD)
white onions @ 4.95 pesos per kilo ( .41 cents per kilo CAD)
salad tomatoes (sort of roma) @ 5.95 pesos a kilo ( .49 cents per kilo CAD)
potatos @ 7,85 pesos a kilo ( .65 cents per kilo CAD)
According to their calculation on my bill I saved a total of 42.50 pesos by shopping on Tuesday. Total of the bill by the way was 85.00 pesos ( $7.00 CAD); but that also included a 370 gram box of butter, which was 32.90 pesos. The bill was actually a few centavos less; but the difference to even it off was given as a "redondeo", that is when the clerks ask you if you want to give something to whatever group/charity they are giving to that month, usually a worthwhile thing to do with your centavos to even out your bill.
So, how does this compare to what you are paying? Is it more or less?
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| Grocery bill. |
Jumat, 14 Januari 2011
I Am A Grandma Again
My oldest son and his wife become parents this morning. They are the proud parents of a baby girl who weighed in at 7 pounds and possibly 21 inches long.. My son says mom and baby are both well and baby will be named Tessa Michelle.
I am glad all went well and look forward to the new person in our family.
Yippeeeeee. Shopping time.
I am glad all went well and look forward to the new person in our family.
Yippeeeeee. Shopping time.
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| Tessa Michelle. |
Rabu, 12 Januari 2011
Skating In Guaymas
OK I confess, I have been a bad blogger!!
I think I mentioned in one post about the city hiring a company from Chihuahua state to set up an artificial skating rink for the Christmas Season.
The night of the Christmas Parade you couldn't get close to the rink to take a picture and since then I have never had the camera with me when I stopped to watch the kids learning to skate and having fun. They were having trouble keeping the ice frozen so they rigged up a tarp over the rink at one point, unfortunately they tied part of it to the viewing stands. This later caused a mishap when a very strong wind gusted one day/night and tipped the viewing stand over with some minor injuries to some of the people in the stands.
I have been meaning to take pictures of the rink; but kept forgetting and yesterday I realized that the rink was supposed to have closed the day before. Darn, as usual a day late and a dollar short, story of my life. I took my camera with me anyway when I headed to centro for my Spanish class and the rink was still up or part of it anyway. I guess the city must have owned the boards around it or the company hadn't taken them down yet. It was definitely closed and the rink sat melting in the sun, looking rather forlorn without all the laughing happy children on it.
So the rink is done for this year, who knows what they will come up with next year, perhaps a man made hill to slide down on inner tubes like Mexico City had this year?
I think I mentioned in one post about the city hiring a company from Chihuahua state to set up an artificial skating rink for the Christmas Season.
The night of the Christmas Parade you couldn't get close to the rink to take a picture and since then I have never had the camera with me when I stopped to watch the kids learning to skate and having fun. They were having trouble keeping the ice frozen so they rigged up a tarp over the rink at one point, unfortunately they tied part of it to the viewing stands. This later caused a mishap when a very strong wind gusted one day/night and tipped the viewing stand over with some minor injuries to some of the people in the stands.
I have been meaning to take pictures of the rink; but kept forgetting and yesterday I realized that the rink was supposed to have closed the day before. Darn, as usual a day late and a dollar short, story of my life. I took my camera with me anyway when I headed to centro for my Spanish class and the rink was still up or part of it anyway. I guess the city must have owned the boards around it or the company hadn't taken them down yet. It was definitely closed and the rink sat melting in the sun, looking rather forlorn without all the laughing happy children on it.
So the rink is done for this year, who knows what they will come up with next year, perhaps a man made hill to slide down on inner tubes like Mexico City had this year?
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| Melting in the sun. |
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| The 3 Presidents standing guard over the rink, not something they ever imagined doing I bet. |
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| I got a chuckle out of the view of palm trees and ice rink in 1 photo. |
Selasa, 11 Januari 2011
Another Pastel Painting
It's been awhile. I have been busy doing things; but nothing particularly blog worthy.
Roy and I went to San Carlos on Saturday and met our friends at the Art Show. We looked at all the artwork and then went back to their house for lunch and some playtime with their dog.
Sunday my friend and I went to Empalme for the tianguis and wandered through the whole place, we stopped and had lunch at my favorite taco stand in the middle of the tianguis and enjoyed some shrimp tacos. On our way back through we stopped and got some churros for dessert. Yummy lunch.
Yesterday we were internetless for part of the day as they did maintenance/repairs/upgrades to the system, (who knows what they were doing). As I was coming home from uptown where I had gone to purchase a canvas for the upcoming class I saw them working, so they were doing something. I roasted a ham and made scalloped potatoes in the crock pot. Won't do that again, whether it was from doing them in the crock pot or some other reason the milk/cream curdled and they looked gross, not as tasty as in the oven either. Oh well, I guess you live and learn.
I have been working on a pastel painting of my friends dog, whom we both love. He is getting on in years and is not in the greatest of health; but he still wanted Roy to play ball with him the minute we arrived at his house on Saturday. I didn't have a very good photo of him and I did manage to get a better one of him that day; but I had already gotten this picture 1/2 done so finished it.
I am not happy with this picture and intend to try and improve by doing another one from the new picture I took of him.
Roy and I went to San Carlos on Saturday and met our friends at the Art Show. We looked at all the artwork and then went back to their house for lunch and some playtime with their dog.
Sunday my friend and I went to Empalme for the tianguis and wandered through the whole place, we stopped and had lunch at my favorite taco stand in the middle of the tianguis and enjoyed some shrimp tacos. On our way back through we stopped and got some churros for dessert. Yummy lunch.
Yesterday we were internetless for part of the day as they did maintenance/repairs/upgrades to the system, (who knows what they were doing). As I was coming home from uptown where I had gone to purchase a canvas for the upcoming class I saw them working, so they were doing something. I roasted a ham and made scalloped potatoes in the crock pot. Won't do that again, whether it was from doing them in the crock pot or some other reason the milk/cream curdled and they looked gross, not as tasty as in the oven either. Oh well, I guess you live and learn.
I have been working on a pastel painting of my friends dog, whom we both love. He is getting on in years and is not in the greatest of health; but he still wanted Roy to play ball with him the minute we arrived at his house on Saturday. I didn't have a very good photo of him and I did manage to get a better one of him that day; but I had already gotten this picture 1/2 done so finished it.
I am not happy with this picture and intend to try and improve by doing another one from the new picture I took of him.
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| Our buddy. |
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