What to Do, What to Do?

And what to do it with?  I can tell you what we have not done.  We have not done it since we left Jacksonville.  Check yourself here.  Just how mature ARE you? :-)

Our current movie.

We have not looked at, plugged in, turned on, or watched television.  We have a flat screen TV.  We have a DVD player.  We have Direct TV.  We do not know what channels we have.  We do not know if we have any English channels or if it is all  Latino programming.  I haven't watched American football or even thought about it until now.  OK, not true.  I see the sports stuff on Facebook.  I do not need scores there.


I just see the comments and it is almost as good as play by play.  Go Jaguars!  No movies either.

Anyone who knows us knows we are very serious about our movies.  At one point we had over 300 DVD's and Blue Ray's in our collection.  We had cable and Netflix too.  Those have all gone the way of the Dodo.  If you have not noticed, we spit out movie quotes as often as Eastwood spits out chaw.  Those of you anal-retentive enough to go to previous posts and scour for missed quotes, I salute you.

DDSF (DVD DNA Storage Facility) 

I have some movie DNA in my freezer so at some point I will John Hammond it and get my movies back.  I fear it will not be easy.  I have not seen an English language DVD here yet.  We didn't bring any either.  I'm sure they can be had and we'll find them but it will be a sad selection I think.  Doom on you, movie lover.

So what do we do?  Well, We walk.  We swim.  We attempt to speak Spanish.  We try to read and translate menus, flyers, and street signs without Google Translate.  I say "un poco de Espanol" a LOT.

We get up early without ever setting an alarm.  I can hear friends and family in JAX laughing very, very hard right now.  I ain't got no friends in 818 you say?  Not that would understand why they are laughing.  We clean our house every day.  Yes, we do Brad, yes we do.  We must do dishes and sweep daily regardless of maid service.

Remember it is an open house, except the bedrooms. Tiny sugar ants can be a problem if we do not.  We do laundry since we were finally able to figure out that machine. We try to figure out where to buy things we need.  We buy them.  Tamera works with our roses and other garden plants.  I blog, she blogs, we all blog.  We herd cats.

DDSF High Tech Thaw Mechanism

There is cooking involved.  At some point we will get around to talking about that, I'm sure.  We actually have very nice appliances including a gas stove.  No big deal that stove, huh? Maybe, but I love to cook and have wanted a gas stove for a long time.  We have a rice cooker which is cool.  Rice is important here.  Rice comes with almost everything and they know what to do with it in Ecuador. We've eaten rice every day.

We have the all important coffee maker, equally important blender, and a very nice refrigerator.  No dishwasher but with only 2 people that has not been a problem. There is a charcoal grill.  

Speaking of charcoal a quick side note: Apparently it is used here in the same way you might use baking soda in your refrigerator.  There is a small bowl of it in the back.  It takes out odors and I'll be damned if it does not work as well.

Mmmmm.

The people of Ecuador at least in our area, drink coffee. Instant coffee mostly. You're off the edge of the map mate.  Here there be monsters!  No, not really.  It is South America so perhaps you are surprised by that.  We were.  Think about it for a second.  These are mostly farmers and fishermen,  They work their butts off.  I think they rarely have time to brew, much less sit down and enjoy a good cup 'o Joe before work. When not working it is family and friends.  I don't know for sure yet.  But I think it.  Don't be dismayed.  The ground coffee is here and it is awesome.  The sugar unrefined (no need for Dixie Crystals here) and the herbs/spices are amazing.

Remember I told you we have a lot to learn?  Think I was right? It can be overwhelming at times.  Sometimes you don't know what's around the next corner.  It can be scary as hell.  I was scared out of my wits yesterday morning.  Remember we have a private courtyard.  No one in or out without a key.

Very secret, very safe.  Not.  I was up at 7:00 and came down to make coffee.  I heard a sound in the breezeway.  It sounded like someone futzing around and coughing.  "Great," I think, "confrontation with a tresspasser".  Me.  Me, who hath no Espanol skills, no nunchuk skills, no ninja skills, and no bow staff in sight.  *Sigh*  Just li'l old me. I'm ready.  I can do this.  Walk around the corner man, DO IT!

RCH (Robot Chicken from Hell).

Gotta grill right there for ya RCH! 

This little guy right here.  Not so little this robot chicken (I know it is a rooster, OK?) from hell.  Tamera was laughing, I was laughing.  Tamera ran it off.  I think he was afraid I was gonna cook him up. Barbecue, me and you, stinky, stinky, pew, pew.  She will never know.

Sorry.  Had to get in one last quote.  I'M NOT SORRY! Adios!


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