Miscellanea

A few miscellaneous items that have been rolling around in my head:

~~~~~

I went quiet for a bit, since my 'saldo' (internet credit) was gone.

Internet access here is a challenge to master.  For months, we (each) had a modem-thingie (looks like a thumb drive) that provided us access to the internet through the phone system.  It is prepaid internet, meaning that we purchase the modem, then we have to put 'saldo' or credit onto the phone number associated with the device.  We could use internet as long as we had saldo.  When it ran out, we were dead in the water til we went down to a local tienda (store) to get more saldo.  

Last month, we bought a 4G modem that provides 8G of data per month.  But last month, I ran out of gigabytes before I ran out of month!  So, no pictures for a while!  I may try to save my big uploads of photos for when I'm at a public place with free wifi.

Ah, the joys of managing internet usage in Guatemala!

~~~

We've found that cooking requires some adjustments.  There aren't as many canned goods as we used to rely on, so we make a lot of things from fresh products.  For instance, I made hummus a few days ago.  Since they don't have canned garbanzo beans, I had to find dry, then cook them up, then make hummus.  (Happily, we brought some kitchen appliances to help!)  Salsa is hard to find as I like it, so I've learned to make it!

~~~

We are having some folks over for dinner tonight. I find it's easy to find good eggplant at the mercado, so I've been making Eggplant Parmagiana a lot.  I've also made lasagna, but the cost of either cottage cheese or ricotta is pretty high (about $5-$6 for a smallish container).

I have made pineapple upside down cake a couple of times.  I use fresh pineapple from the mercado, then use a boxed cake mix (along with a brown-sugar caramel on the bottom/top).  It's fantastic!

~~~

Some things are universal... I finally had the car washed today.  It hasn't rained but once in about 4 months... and this afternoon, it rained!  Yep, you can all thank me for the rain...

~~~

We had pizza and beer with Andy Burns and Rachel Hamilton tonight. It was a huge treat, especially for them, since they're here on a very limited budget.  Amazing how delish a wood-fire pizza can be!

~~~

It is tremendously windy yesterday and today.  Rattles our windows, and the curtains are blowing even with the windows shut.  It's 52 degrees outside, and we have no heat except for the electric blanket, so, I'm gonna go run in there and have an early bedtime under some warm covers!  We're watching The West Wing episodes, one a night, and enjoying having our own commercial-free reruns!

So, I'll post this.  It's a lot of nothing, but little dribs and drabs to share.  Goodnight!