Furniture Shopping

I'm so excited to get to the States and do my furniture shopping. I was planning on going to Ikea until I saw this guy. Now, I may have to go to Alabama for the bedroom set.

Pay Attention!

So, I'm chatting with my folks today... talking about the upcoming move, current happenings with the kids, etc.... I didn't even realize that Tropical Storm Alma was rearing its ugly head off the Nicaraguan coast. You know, when the rainy season starts here, you don't really notice when the streets begin flooding.

From the trash-clogged sewer drains, washed out roads, to the merely befuddled Nica pedestrians, you would've just thought it a normal day. In all, it just rained....and rained some more. Didn't stop me from going to Masaya and chatting up Sergio Zepeda, the famous Nicaraguan luthier that is responsible for my first, and only classical guitar.




'Number 2'

Taking him up on an earlier offer, I commissioned him to make a replica of a Martin OM-45 guitar. (Here's an example) Let me just say, this was the guitar that Roy Rogers, Woody Guthrie, and seemingly every other songster of yesteryear made famous. You see, I have two great keepsakes from Nicaragua. Of course, there is Ewan!! Without question my favorite Nica of all!! Then, there is my classical guitar. So.....I'm going for 'number 3'..... perhaps 'number 2'.......BUT, never will it be 'number 1'!



'Number 1'

So it went today....I set out for the artisan town of Masaya, despite flooded streets, road disintegration, and a tropical storm slamming the Pacific coast....all for my Nica fake Martin guitar! We'll see how it turns out...the 'due date' is June 15th.

Winding Down in Managua Town

Well....the end is drawing near. That is, my adventures in Nicaragua are coming to a close. In the coming days and weeks, I'll try to do a better job with the 'little blog that could'. Actually, I don't even know what this blog is about anymore. I started out with the idea of a kind of a voyeur-ish look at life for an expat in Managua. For better or worse, that never really happened.

At first, there were stories of iguana fishing on the roof with the gardener (read: hot dog chunks, 10 lb. test line....and lots of time on our hands), extravagant piñatas, and even a good ole beach retreat. Then, it morphed into a sort of movie and blues review site....rife with stories of old blind bluesmen and classic movies that I've never seen. Finally, it devolved into a lazy ritual of posting youtube videos that I found interesting, interspersed with some random commentary about the expat life and our lives in general (at this point, I think Mom is the only one paying attention...um, 'hi Mom!').

So, as we wind things down here. Or, shall I say, when we finally decide to take this horse out and shoot it, I'll do my best to put closure on Managua. Who knows, maybe I'll start up another blog when we begin our year of Bulgarian language training in the States. (don't you hate it when folks say, 'we're from "the States"'? It's so.....Gen X.

Thirsty?

The Unhealthiest Drink in America
Baskin Robbin’s Large Heath Bar Shake (32 oz)
2,310 calories
266 g sugar
108 g fat (64 g saturated)

Let's look at America's Worst Drink in numbers:

73: The number of ingredients that go into this milkshake.
66: The number of teaspoons of sugar this drink contains.
11: The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.
8-12: The average number of minutes it takes to consume this drink.
240: The number of minutes you’d need to spend on a treadmill burning it off, running at a moderate pace.

....thanks to Yahoo......

Well, I can't say that I'm ready for this part of my return visit to the good ole U.S. of A. I need to be careful, very careful.....

Thanks for the Memories....Let's Make More!

Poor Andruw

I guess L.A. isn't as laid-back as Andruw would like it to be.... Someone's got it in for him, they're planting stories in the press. Let's just say the honeymoon is over for Andruw.

Gone Fishin' in San Juan del Sur

Had a great time with some friends from Atlanta. We caught 15 or so mahi-mahi. Unfortunately, we had to get back to the children and couldn't stay longer. It was nice to feel 'free' again, but even nicer to see the innocent faces of our beautiful children. In all, a very relaxing weekend getaway.....a subtle reminder that Nicaragua is like an onion....as you peel away the many layers, you find varying textures and surprises.