From the archives…

On the photo tour, Eliazar told me a new (to me) Spanish phrase: “Dependiendo del sapo, así es la pedrada“. The stone you throw depends on the size of toad. I’m not confident enough to use this phrase yet, but I think it means something like you have scale what you’re using to the problem you’re facing. There’s no point in throwing a small stone at a large toad, nor a huge stone at a tiny toad… Maybe…?

If anyone reading can give an example, I’d be glad to see it commented. Even the usually excellent WordReference.com draws a blank on this one… A search for sapo gets you:

sapo m Zool toad ♦ LOC: fam (despotricar) echar sapos y culebras, to curse and swear:

Which is another one I’d not heard, “To throw toads and snakes”, to curse and swear… or better still, “effing and blinding”.

Yesterday after Tonalá, dining, decorating and skyping the world we were going to have our subjunctive class, however we ended up watching about a dozen+ back-to-back episodes of Bones on DVD. Strangely apt after driving past the new (¿?) Jaliscan Forensic Science Building on Lazaro Cardenas. CSI Guanatos indeed… Now there’s a series I’d like to watch…

Some of yesterday’s purchases… a metal agave thing, DVD shelf, and shining star things.

She’s hilarious… I have nothing to add.

Off to an Argentine restaurant with Don Jose and Sita’s in the gym

I’ve been mightily impressed by the efficiency of TelMex’s DSL service. Ordered it Monday morning, modem arrived Tuesday and plumbed in by Thursday. I’d’ve had it going two hours earlier too but I had to ring the help desk as it didn’t like my password (beautiful renditions of ‘Octopus’s Garden’ and ‘Oh, Darling’ on hold though).

The phases have been pretty much: travel 1700 miles, find a house, meet up with old friends, fill house with furniture, get DSL & cable, get studying/working. We’re entering the last stage there. But over the last week or so have really got to know the city well just from running errands. Last time we were here (2 years ago) and it was all public transport, and when I was here in 1998, even moreso. Driving is a lot easier than it was made out to be. The only real challenge is from the whole tope (speed bump) vs traffic lights thing. One obviously on the ground and ready to put your steering and suspension out if hit at over 10 mph and the other hanging stupidly high and keeping your vision off the ground. If you’re looking for street signs as well, that puts another hazard in yer way. Yet I managed to drive with a flat pack office desk, 4 plastic chairs and a table from Plaza del Sol to our house in rush hour yesterday, so all’s well. Maybe I’ll add ‘Guided Tours’ to my already eclectic business card.

Plenty of room for visitors, book your flights to Guadalajara now and we’ll pick you up at the airport… It’s still gorgeous weather too.

Skyped me folks yesterday, and was informed that Dad had made another foray into photoshopping. I’ve got this creation of his as my wallpaper for now.

We’re busy packing up stuff for tomorrow’s epic journey but not too busy to scan in this leaflet from Prague’s Museum of Communism. They’re a little down on it to be honest… Anyroad, if you look at the location of the place at the bottom, it’s ‘upstairs from McDonalds, Next to the Casino’. We made it to the casino, but we weren’t up for the McGhoulash Happy Meal.

Also, it’s yer last chance to order fancy American exports before we leave- nylons, chocolate and chewing gum anyone? A militarily enforced democracy? Creationist high school biology textbooks? Comment away your order below

TelMex saw fit to block the internet tubes to our house yesterday, hence today´s early morning location. It’s always when you’ve got lots of work on that the interwebs stop. Hey ho, it means that yesterday I got to finish a novel for the first time in ages, Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down, which was alright as a novel but a tad grating due to his (characters’) overuse of similes. It’s like when you’re watching a daytime Antiques program on BBC 1. And all they do is use puns. But in the long run, it’s like you appreciate it. But sometimes, puns are like a comfortable cushion. Etc. that kind of thing. On the plus side it means I can finally start The Hummingbird’s Daughter, which after 10 pages looks like just my kind of thing. Atticus * also got more quality time than usual. And I spent a while strumming away at the gee-tar. So every cloud etc… And I love Starbucks’ burnt coffee too. So swings and roundabouts are the order of the day.

Ever wondered how to count to 1023 on your fingers? Cesar’s put his vast intellect into creating a demo. My fingers aren’t quite that flexible… The real challenge would be combining counting to 1023 while performing this Daft Punk track (it gets good at about 1 minute in).

Alrighty, back to my research y chamba.

* ‘Cus looked starving at 5.30 yesterday and Sita wasn’t back from the gym yet so I made him a gourmet meal with leftovers from Sita’s steak on Sat night. A couple of hours later and i remarked to Sita that the dog looked chubbier than usual, then I asked her if she’d fed him and she said “Of course, with the leftovers from Saturday mixed in”. So he’d had two huge meals. Anyway, several miles of running up and down the garden later and he puked like a good’un in the living room. There’s a lesson in there somewhere… We need some kind of “Dog has been fed” system in the kitchen. He’s full of beans today though. Not literally.