March 8th is International Women's Day...
congratulations to all!

we did have a nice celebration...I convinced sis of going to lunch using a special promo from our grocery store club card...you could get a special plate to share among 3 people for just $18 ...and we bought a plate from the children's menu for Ale for $5...this was at a very good restaurant (it's not fancy, but the food is GREAT!)...we even had leftovers to bring home for tomorrow's lunch! yum!...(LOL! you should have seen niece's face when I pulled out my flyer detailing the special promo and saying: we will have THIS one!)...she did enjoy the food and declared herself "stuffed" in the end...but, for a moment there I thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head!

Also, since our freezer was full, my grocery shopping at the supemarket was ~$50!...woo-hoo!...tomorrow I have to go to the market to get the veggies, fruit and cheese...so that'll add ~$15-$20...still, last time I spent $85 just at the supermarket, so...

oh, and the supermarket had a 20% all "special store" items (hardware, clothing, SCHOOL SUPPLIES), so we finished buying Ale's notebooks (at least, I think we did...since I don't have a list yet, I bought the same amount of notebooks that we bought for THIS school year... I don't imagine them using LESS notebooks for the coming school year...MAYBE they'll ask for MORE, but, then, I'll just have to buy those extra ones...

Funny as it may sound, school supplies are cheaper now that they are "off season" than they were while "on sale" in January....

Oh, and I showed Ale that there was a $0.20 - $0.40 difference between notebook A, with a generic cover (say: picture of 2 cute cats and 1 puppy) and notebook B (with licensed character on the cover)...both notebooks were the same size, had the same amount of pages/sheets, same format (lined, in this case), binding was sewn, rather than stapled for both notebooks, same quality of paper...

Her opinion?....Mom, that's so dumb! you could buy the cheap one and, if you're really so crazy about the licensed character then use stickers or gift paper decorated with the licensed character and it would stil be much cheaper!...((had to brag, sorry!))

Oh, we also did some unbudgeted shopping....

1. we bought a bright orange fish...yes, we already have 32+, but ours are so pale...so...silvery...so we bought a bright orange one of the same kind... it cost $2...and hopefully it'll reproduce with the other ones and give me a chance to explain to Ale about genetics...who knows, there might come a day when I'll have to buy a silver fish to introduce some fresh genes into our all-orange tank!

2. I've been looking for flip-flops for Ale and myself (remember those neat "lemon" ones Santa brought for Xmas 2006?...well, after over a year of daily wear- we use them inside the house, and for the beach, too- they were pretty much useless ....AND we found ones on sale at $2.80 (adult sizes) and $2.40 (children sizes)...I bought a pair for myself, a pair for sis (hers were useless, too) and a pair for Ale...my total was $7.60 (sis still wears children size 4! LOL!)...I didn't get a pair for niece because she has about 10 pairs (of which she only wears 1!) courtesy of her dad ....(he won't pay for textbooks, but flip flops...oh, yes, a girl can't have too many flip flops!)....

Well, as you can see, it was a pretty full day!...and quite spendy, but, to make up for it, tomorrow we are going to a special theater show at the Museum...it's a special play for children....and it's FREE!

I bought Ale a book for Christmas that was part of a series...I liked the book because it seemed like a good "first chapter book" for her...simple enough that a 7 year old could read on her own, but challenging enough to help her improve her reading skills....the book was Ruby, the red fairy (Spanish version)....it is part of a 7-book series...she told me the other day she was almost finished, so I promised her we would go buy the next book Amber, the orange fairy...and we did...SOOOOO, she was so eager to start reading THAT one, she sat down for 2 hours and read the last remaining pages of Ruby (33 pages!).... I've created a book-eating monster!!!...now I have to prepare myself financially for 1: the next 5 books....2: all other books and series after that!!

went and found the perfect school shoes for Ale...Hush Puppies brand...marked at $22, but with a 25% discount!)...found the perfect Hush Puppies for me, too! ($15, and my old were already starting to be a point of embarrassment!)...and MY Hush Puppies were eligible for 2X1...so we found ANOTHER pair of school shoes for Ale marked at $8(not Hush Puppies, I know that brand won't last as long, but...)that were also 2X1 eligible- we bought 1 shoe size bigger than she currently wears...so, we left them at the cashiers and went to the cc booth at the same mall, and asked how many points we had ....we had enough for a $15 voucher!!...sooooo....
1 pair Hush Puppies for Ale (for this school year)
1 pair X brand school shoes for Ale (for NEXT school year)
1 pair Hush Puppies for me..

"real" total = 45
minus discounts and promo= $31
minus voucher = $16!!

so, I paid $16 (cash) for 3 pairs of shoes...2 of them Hush Puppies!!!

Aaaaah!...I feel so RICH!!!

ugh! tough week at work (notice it's just Tuesday?)....tough environment at home with sis crying every 10 minutes then starting to tell me how unfair it is that she cannot get her loan because of cousin...(at least, cousin has NOT been calling me!)...Ale has not been slacking at school...it hasn't affected her grades (yet) but I've had at least 3 "did not work in class today" notes last week!...to top it all off the newspaper says gas prices will go up by $0.17 this week!....

UGH!

We tried to get our new passports today, but were unable to…the guy did not accept our birth certificates…mine does not have all info on my marriage and divorce (should be annotated on the margin), and both had been folded, so they considered them unacceptable…((sigh))…oh, well, at least they checked the other documents and pronounced them OK…
To celebrate my freedom from CC1, I had told Ale we could get a piece of cake after the passports…so, we went to do that instead…I asked for just one piece of cake and 2 sodas…Ale wasn’t too pleased about 1 piece for both, but, let it go because I let her choose the cake… I don’t know the real name of the cake she ordered, but it might as well have been “Sugar O.D”, or, maybe “Death by Chocolate”…I took 4 bites and OD’d …Ale was able to go for 6 bites before going blhaaaaa on chocolate…there were still at least 3 bites left to that piece of cake!!!...and I said to her: Can you imagine if we had bought 2 pieces?...she said: Waste!

I gave Ale $6 and told her to go pay…she said: how much is it? And I said: I don’t know, we didn’t ask before we bought it…(I knew it couldn’t be more than $3 for the cake!...our total ended up $4.85)…she gave me this look…and she said: “You didn’t ASK??” …((the look was: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!!????))….
Ahhh, there’s hope for us yet!

1. Show the people you love that you care.
Grandma used to say: "en vida" (while we are alive)...and she always said she'd rather have 1 daisy given to her while she was alive than 10,000 roses at her funeral!

2. You can't please everybody.
"Uno no es monedita de oro para caerle bien a todo el mundo" (we are not little gold coins, not everyone will like you)And there's no reason trying to change who you are just to have someone else like you!...

3. You cannot give what you don't have. If you don't love yourself, no one else can love you either!

4. A person who knows how to cook will never starve! ...a good cook doesn't need a lot to make a good meal...plus, it is a very marketable skill!

5. A woman with a needle will always find a way to feed herself - and her family. Sewing, knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch, embroidery...those also are marketable skills!

6. Anything material can be taken away from you, but knowledge and skills will always be yours once you acquire them! (Dad loved to quote this one whenever we had bad grades! - he also made sure to tell us it wasn't about the grades as long as you understood the contents, as some people just don't test well.

7. There's always people who are worse off than we are - try to help if you can.
(I'll always remember Mom buying a Big Mac for a small girl once, and how sis and I said: Mom, she's too little to eat all that!...and Mom replied: by herself, maybe, but, I'm sure that burger is going to be cut at least in 4 pieces)

8. Lose your temper, lose the fight....grandma used to say: If you're raising your voice, it's probably because the other person has better arguments...

9. You do NOT separate families. If there were troubles or danger, we always faced it together. - Dad was sent away from his mom when he was 7, and he and his three brothers each lived with a different Aunt...he was fiercely protective of the family unit!

10. Home-made is best! - Mom loved to cook and knit, and crochet.... she used to bake our cakes for birthdays (eventhough she spent like crazy on the gifts!) and for truly special occasions (like baptisms, First Communions and weddings) she insisted on knitting or crocheting the gifts for the guests herself!

Toño (ruler of our house...er, I mean, our cat)has understood our morning routine...I wake up, go into the bathroom, then come out and wake up Ale and then the four of us (Ale, Toño, Fiona- our dog- and myself) go downstairs for breakfast...so, HIS morning routine now is that, as soon as I enter the bathroom, he goes and bumps his head against Ale's back to wake her...then comes to stand watch at the bathroom door with Fiona...I guess he figures this speeds up the whole process...after all, I prepare a glass of milk for our breakfast (I pour some on Ale's cereal, some in mine, and leave a bit for Toño and Fiona)...

We've been joking about it for some time now with sis, but, I think we are now getting to the point where we WILL have to institute this as a meal at least 2x week! (nothing wrong with it, except I must cook it - for some strange reason, none of us like the way nanny cooks it!... I mean, there's no science to it...I think it might be that she adds tomato and worcestershire sauceto it...eventhough we've asked her not to! -see, that is the downside of having someone to do stuff for you! )

Thankfully, they opened (someone else's) car and stole everyone's handbags while they were attending a wedding, so she wasn't harmed...the thieves DID smash the car window, though, and now niece has to replace all her id's (national id, drivers' license, tax id....)...((sigh)) since I had the day off today, I took her to get her national id (step #1 and the cheapest id!- $10.31)...we left the house at 7:30am, dropped Ale off at school, went to the police station to file a report (you need a copy of the report to be able to replace the drivers license) and then to the place where they issue the national id's...we came back at 2:00pm, had lunch and then I went to pick up Ale.. (the other offices close at 4pm, so there wasn't much chance of us making it before closing time...plus, the license costs $52...and we don't have that at the moment! --yeah, we DO need an emergency fund!)...((sigh))

there was a full-page, full-color ad for SONY Vaios today in the newspaper...
Ale, it seems, wants her own laptop...
after looking at the prices (the cheapest one was $1,099- don't ask me about specifications, I'm technologically challenged)she said to me:
"that's a lot of money...but maybe I could save for it...right now I only want it for games, but if I take good care of it,it'll last until I'm a teenager and then I'll use it for school stuff...and you know, even if I got a laptop that didn't come in colors, I could always use stickers to make it look nicer"

I just had to share that one!

well, those new vitamins the Doctor gave her sure are working!...pants that fit her at the beginning of December (before Dr's visit) are now tight...too tight to be comfy...some look like she's wearing capris!...
She has 2 pairs that were way too big (hand-me downs) and one of those fits... the other one is still a bit too loose...

So, on my "to buy" list now are 1 pair of jeans and 1 pair pink pants for Ale! - don't worry, I'll either get them downtown or at a thrift store...the way she's growing, it's no use buying her stuff to last "forever" anyway!

so, we started preparing the school packages....we figured out what we needed to buy but, because of prices, we bought "closed dozens" of everything (meaning if we needed 140 units of something, we got a better price by buying 12 dozens= 144)...because we were using up our stock first, there were leftovers from nearly all items!Also, we still had some items from previous years that we had been unable to sell....this allowed us to make 6 complete school packages (because public school doesn't ask for as many things as private ones), which will go to: Nanny, 1 for her daughter and 1 for her grand-daughter; the gardener -Don Felipe works both with cousin and with me- for his 2 sons; and 1 full package each for the 2 guards at the parking lot downtown where we park! - one of them has 2 children, the other has 5. AND, there were 3 each of colored pencils, scissors, lead pencils and sheets of bond paper to give to the guy that looks after my car at Church (I always park in "his" area, and he always saves me a spot!)...what's even better is that we even had some left over backpacks (we've had them for 2 years now, so they are not "in" anymore, we really wouldn't be able to sell them anyway) and, with those and 3 that we "purchased" through a promotion at the supermarket (you get a backpack for $0.99 for every purchase over $25!), we were able to get collect 9 backpacks, too!...so, essentially, for $2.97 we helped 5 families!...I feel so blessed!

same bag that cost me $3.09 on Saturday!
...and they tell me Premium gas has reached $4/gallon!!!

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I'm calling a "clan meeting" at my house tomorrow!!

an insert in the paper had an ad for bookcases on sale...I immediately thought: THAT's what I NEED!...they even had the measurements, so I went home and measured...2 of those would be perfect to fit the small space where Ale has her books and movies in my room...together, both bookcases would have cost me $50... they are not exactly the kind of furniture I like, but they would be convenient...HOWEVER...I could achieve basically the same result (a more organized area) just by switching the current stuff (a TV table that my sister bought and then discarded and one of those tiered thingies for veggies) and buying ANOTHER veggie thingy - they're stackable- which, last I checked, could be gotten for about $11....so, nope, I'm not going to buy MORE furniture to fit the space of a house that isn't even mine! (oh, yes, I have dreams of a house of my own again someday...I don't care if it's smaller than the one we have!, and, the less "stuff" I have specifically bought to fit THIS house, the easier it will be to find stuff to fit THAT house specifically...not to mention once I own a house I'd want REAL wood bookcases!)

Cousin brought her tenant (she rents him a room in her house) to our New Year's celebration (that's NOT the surreal part, and, we don't mind that she did and he's actually quite social....more so than her son, who came in to say hello, left, came back for dinner, left, and came back before 12!)....anyway... the guy was amazed at the amount of food (plenty of snacks-chips and dips, mostly), ham in pineapple sauce, the giant bowl of mashed potatos and peas...so, cousin started reminiscing about the FEASTS Mom used to host...she once brought her best friend and HE still remembers...that was over 15 years ago...when my parents were still spending like crazy...consomme for starters...there was ham, turkey and pork...rice and mashed potatoes...three kinds of salad...2 types of dessert...that was the way it was with Mom...frankly, I don't think I (we) would do something as elaborate as that, even if we DID have the money (although, we DID have two kinds of dessert last night! ... my friend who visited on Xmas had brought choocolate sherbet and, we bought a can of peaches... LOL!...Mom would faint that we had "only" THAT- no home-made ones!)...we also mentioned Mom's eating disorders, because, she would psychologically pressure you into having AT LEAST 2 servings of each thing- she got hurt and stated you probably hadn't liked her food in such a way that it made you feel you were breaking her heart by not eating!!
But, yeah, thinking about all that excess is surreal! (and the parents didn't have cc's!... but, they used the crop loans to afford this sort of thing!...it makes me dizzy to even think about it!)

Ale is sick again....as am I! (and sis, and cousin!- we all catched the same flu bug! ugh!)...another trip to the doctor's office ($30) and another ~$90 in meds...well, I can't complain, I actually had the cash! (well, it should have been paid towards debt, but...it's worth it!-plus, I'll get SOMETHING back from the insurance!)
I hope we all recover before New Year's!!

one of my best friends is living in Panama...she managed to get 3 days off and came to ES with her husband, to spend Xmas with his family (hers is in the US now!...they are nomads, in a way!)...and, she kept her lunch/early afternoon time on Xmas eve free to come visit me!!!...that truly was a great gift!

What I remember the most about Xmas in general is:

1. the smell of Xmas- to me, this will always be a mix of fresh pine, candle wax and spices (from grandma’s honey bread!)
2. the soft glow of a candle-lit tree…nothing really can compare…and, yes, I still chuckle at that time the tree caught fire…Sis and I and Dad run to the kitchen to get water in some buckets…of course, we filled them to the brim…of course, we splashed it all over…of course, we ALL slipped!...and, yes, Grandma to the rescue, she took the bottle of champagne out of the ice bucket and poured the water on the tree! (it was still a VERY small fire!)…nowadays, I put up a fake tree (but I made sure it looks “real”) and white lights only…I got one of those strings that have different “motions” and always chose the setting where the lights turn on and off one by one, really slowly…I’ve found this one is the one that closest resembles the candlelight!
3. The FOOD…Mom had a host of eating disorders (they weren’t called that, though, Mom had “a nervous stomach”, which either prevented her from eating or made her throw up if upset….so, food was all-important at our house!- and, believe me, she was a MARVELOUS cook!...we alternated turkey and ham for the holidays, either turkey for Xmas and ham for New Year or vise versa…of course, there had to be HUGE amounts of it…you could eat leftovers from Xmas at breakfast, lunch, teatime and dinner right up until Dec 31st noon!...including dessert! – to this day, one of the things that make sis sad on Xmas is that we cannot have all the luxurious foods my parents used to have (not being a fan of caviar, olives or truffled pate, I really don’t mind!- although I did later learn to like the pate…but I didn’t touch it in my childhood!)
4. The ritual of it all…Dad would wake us up at 7:30 on the 24th, so we could decorate the tree…Mom would start cooking right after breakfast…at around 6:00pm, Mom, sis and I would leave to pick up the grandma’s (I was blessed with a grandma and greataunt, but we didn’t call either of them that, they were just Nanamia and Nina and, I think I was about 11 when I finally understood that they were sisters in law, not “real” sisters!)…when we got back, the house would be all dark, except for the living room, where Dad had lit the candles on the tree…he would have traditional German Christmas songs playing (Vienna Boys Choir)…and, SANTA had arrived while we were out!!!...so there were tons of presents under the tree!
5. We also had another big Xmas family get-together, which was held at grandma’s, at lunch time, on the 24th….the main dining room was for grown-ups only…the next generation had to sit on the staircase and have their lunch there!- we loved it!...and one of our favorite games was to slide down the stairs –no, not the banister, the STAIRS…ouchie!)
6. We were the only kids on the block that were not allowed fireworks on Xmas (Thank you, Dad! Thank you, Mom!)...while I love watching them, I hate it that here people buy them for their children…every year kids get maimed and even killed!...we already have 24 kids in the National Children’s hospital this year….
7. But, above all, what I remember the most was the LOVE we all felt for each other…
8. Do I remember any of the presents? Of course I do….I got a “grow up” Skipper doll…and I also remember a Xmas when I spent all my Xmas money on BOOKS!!!...it seemed (to me) there were hundreds of them!...I even remember that one of them was the Brehmen Musicians!- and there was an adventure book on miners in the Yukon!

....we already have our hands full as it is, and, yesterday, one of our suppliers told us that the 30% off promotion had expired...we actually had a large order on toys from them...so, cousin ran downtown to find another supplier (she found one, yay, cousin!), but, it took her all morning...AND, the office get-together was yesterday night...(no way I could get out of going...we are only 9 people!-counting the spouses and 2 consultants!)...and, today, one of the people coming to help pack presents is sick!... AND, I still haven't finished my translation!!! (the good thing is, I was given an extension, because the end customer is NOT going to arbitration just yet-they might not go at all, but they want to have the documents just in case anyway!)

::breath in, breath out::

So, the last translations from company 1 were paid...after taxes, $1,025...I used $425 today for the toy business (I should get all my money back, plus profit, by Dec 15th, as we have an agreement with all companies that we get paid when we deliver the toys!)...

Now I only have to survive this week! (I have an awful cold...Ale, too!)...

I'm overcommitted for this weekend!...
these are the events:
1. Ale's church meeting (yes)
2. Embassy's Xmas festival for children (don't think we'll be able to make it!)
3. gift-wrapping/order preparation fest with cousin (definitely YES!)
4. Xmas get-together with translation agency folks (VERY difficult)
5. 20-year anniversary class reunion (also VERY difficult)
6. 35 pages of translation....

HELP!!!....oh, and here I am, instead of trying to reduce those 35 pages..I'm blogging!

I'm wondering whether I should keep the translations as my $20 challenge next year or, if I should start considering that "recurrent income" and looking for something else to become the $20 challenge....

Truth is, with translations I've already covered most of my free time...and I honestly don't want to use the hours that I have actually left "blocked" as that is my "Time with Ale" ....

Yesterday, my niece's uncle (married to her aunt on her father's side) was killed...we went to the wake today...so ironic that he was a soldier on one of the "Immediate Reaction Batallions" during the war....survived that and ended a victim of violent crime 20 years later! ...the family thinks they might have tried to steal his car... Please ad the family to your prayers...there's his wife, 2 daughters, ages 21 and 19 and a son, aged 5....
After the wake, we went to see a friend's new baby..."some are born, some die" as the song says!...in the afternoon went downtown with cousin, but was already feeling emotionally drained...then got a call from the translation company that they had some $$$ for me...so I went and met them at the bank (there's one that's open until 9pm!)...then went to the pharmacy to buy some medicines for Ale, since she's had a runny nose again...then came back home to discover that Ale was running a very high fever (39 degrees)...gave her some medicine for that, also, and put her to bed...I've been monitoring her temp every half hour (I feel like I'm channelling my Mom!)...at least the temp is coming down, and her breathing is normal now...time to check on her again...hopefully, her temp will be normal again and I'll be able to go to bed and get some sleep, too!...her next dose should be at 5:30am...Grandma always said you shouldn't wake a kid up to give her medicines (unless on antibiotics)...

I'm not making too much sense anymore, I know....

Yep, I always give her a basket with food for Xmas and, this year, one of the supermarkets where we buy toys is having a special promotion...for purchases of $150, for $0.01 you get a basket with food-with about the same products I generally include!!! - our toy purchase will be ~$400, so we more than qualify!...
oh, of course, I WILL have to add the price of a chicken...(I always include a chicken for her Xmas dinner)...but, still, it's a GREAT deal!

well, they wanted to send her to the warehouse (which is downtown) and she called the ad agency that hired her and they said no-way...so, she didn't actually quit, but was pulled off the job! (she's supposed to be paid for looking pretty and charming people into buying stuff, not being holed up stocking shelves...)....so, she didn't go to work today...which was good, as she had a call from CyZone- she's among the 10 finalists for the CyZone Girl contest and had to go to a photo shoot today!...she starts tomorrow at a shopping center in the other side of town...but, they'll provide transport from the agency to there, so it's ok...she'll work less hours, and will get paid more than at the other place!...sweet!

it's only for 3 weeks, but, it's a start!...she had 3 offers and took this one, which seemed to be the "path of least effort"... (less time, less hours, more or less the same pay)...except, one of the other ones was a "sit down" job, and this one means she has to be on her feet most of the day!...Now, Niece owns more shoes than Imelda Marcos, but, wouldn't you know it? none of them are comfortable shoes! (except for her sneakers and crocks, which are unacceptable, since she's supposed to wear "dressy" clothes!)...so, on Saturday, which was her first day of work, she came home with blisters on her feet!...her best friend, who had also signed up, quit after the first day!...Niece is holding on (we're very proud of her, btw!)...in many ways, this is her first real brush with "The Real World"...we'll see how it ends!

is totally crazy!...she found a "special toy catalogue" insert in the newspaper and copied about 1/2 of the toys advertised!...averaging $20/toy!...er, um....NO...she's already getting too much stuff as it is!...she's getting a BIKE, and that should be enough!...she's getting a Jr Scrabble (which I bought before I knew I was going to be able to afford the bike), 2 books in English and 1 in Spanish, a plush Piglet (also bought before the bike became a reality)...my cousin is giving her 1 present, and she'll get 1 from my sis + family...oh, and she's finally getting the remote control car she's been asking for the past 3 Christmases (we have a left over sample that no customer has ordered!)...
AND, I wanted to give her a 64-piece box of crayons, and asked a friend to send it (they are not available locally!) ....she sent a 120 piece box, and a 24 piece of twistable crayons, and some glitter glue AND some drawing paper...
ok, now I feel guilty!

the question came at breakfast yesterday...along with: "do you think Santa brings poor children toys, too?"...

My former colleagues are going to an orphanage the first weekend of December to have a piniata with the kids...they've asked me if Ale and I want to go...I'll definetily try to make it!...if not, we can always donate something to the many Toys for Tots boxes around the Embassy...but, it's not the same...I like Ale to SEE the impact of her actions...the "Power of One" as the ad says...I want her to appreciate what she has, and to know that it doesn't take a lot to make a big difference!

OUT:
well, groceries were $48....fruit and veggies at the market $18...bought some cloth to make some bedding for Ale $19.75 (still need to get the batting, but that's not expensive and, she'll have 2 new bedcovers/4 new looks for her bed!)....seafood $23...invited the whole family for lunch at our favorite restaurant: $55 (had thought it would be $50... still, not too expensive for 4 people!...and, sis had beer and niece and I had one glass of wine each!)

IN:
2 translations...$42 and $74.48...and a third one which I still haven't done, so I don't know how much I will get for it!

a well-known seafood store just opened a new branch in a new neighborhood near my area...to encourage people to go to their new location, they're having a 2X1 on ALL their products!!...
I was thinking about buying 1 lb of shrimp this weekend anyway (Ale DOES love them, and we so seldom have them...maybe 2 times this whole year?...)...so, this is great! ...I may even buy some fish (which was NOT on the list, but, would be worth it!)

I'll let you know how it goes!