So I still haven’t put together all of the images I’d like to show you regarding my trip to the USA. So, for the time being, I thought I’d just catch you up on my life in the last week.

We pretty much go out every day to the market. Do the usual — buy food, pick up any household items on our list, and get the blood circulating a bit.

Christmas was WHITE this year. Yep, it’s been hovering around -5°C, and it snowed a couple of inches (5cm) on Christmas Day (December 25). We can see a chapel out of our window. It is for the hospital immediately behind it — and I suppose that’s where services are performed when someone passes away in the hospital.

I grabbed a bit of snow from the window sill, and made a snowball for Whitey. Yes, it was his first snowball ever. Put it in the tub, and he batted it around for about a minute – and then got bored.

We went for a walk, and I had to snap this picture of the snow sweeper. Basically it is a modified tractor. I guess most snow sweepers are… but this really looks like it was rigged from something that used to be in the potato field somewhere.

On Christmas day, I finally got all the ingredients together for the banana bread I’ve been talking about. I hopped on the net and found what looked like a damn good recipe. Indeed, it turned out great.

The bananas were COMPLETELY BLACK. I thawed them from the freezer for a day, and they were perfect.

Yes, we had to even go out and buy the pans for the bread. We really don’t have very much in the house, but it’s getting there, slowly but surely.

The final product:

We also put up some “Christmas” lights. They are BLUE LED’s. Pretty cool… and kind of expensive… but they have 8 modes, are 21 meters long (the string of 400), and criss-cross around the house. It makes for a nice atmosphere, I think.

Just after Christmas, I busted out all the makings for one of my favorite foods: Burritos. Yep, I brought all the necessities for making good burritos back with me from the USA. Well… I forgot (very unfortunately) the Jalapeno peppers — but everything else I got. Tortillas, refried beans, taco seasoning — all of which cannot be found here.

Here I was about half way through my 3rd burrito

And then today, NEW YEAR’S EVE 2008 (to be 2009), we had the outer door to our apartment fixed! Wooo-hoooo. That’s great news. We have a magnetic door to the building that keeps out the unwanted, most of the time. But in fact, it would be relatively easy to sneak in if you really tried. Then, when you get up to our floor, there is a door that separates the elevator from the 4 apartments on our side of the building. It has been broken since we moved in at the end of October.

Why today? Why would it get fixed on NYE?

I’ll tell you. It’s because of all the days of the year, NYE is the day with the HIGHEST AMOUNT OF HOME BURGLARIES!

No shit!

The neighbors finally ponied up to get the door fixed. Everyone knows that half (or more) of the apartments in the City are vacated on this night. PLUS, everyone is drinking and could care less about what else is going on around them. Thus — this leads to the highest crime rate of the year.

Unbelievably, when we asked the neighbor that was fixing the door, he said: “yeah, it’s because it’s NYE.” Damn… crazy!

Anyway, I’ve got to go eat some dinner and begin my drinking for the night. The family came to our house tonight, so we don’t have to worry about our stuff — but the family’s stuff is subject to a raid. Hopefully the neighbors will keep an eye out for the rest of the family jewels in Troeschina.

So here are pictures of our doors:

The fixed door:

The outer door lock — not that looks matter at all, but damn it looks bad.

And then you get to our door, which has two dead-bolts. Hopefully I don’t have to stand inside the door with my butcher knife in my hand. Actually… I think I’d prefer my 9-iron. That would hurt!!!

OK, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

We close the door on 2008 –>

… And open all of the doors (actual and metaphorically speaking) to 2009:

Cheers!

Love and Happiness to Everyone in the New Year

* 2009 *