The Children's theater festival (FITI) just closed it's 10th season...we went to 3 shows...it's a nice change of pace for Ale and me...we both enjoy it very much...She was upset that FITI is older than she is...(the Festival's mascot is also named FITI, here's the official poster)

...this season was dedicated to Hans Christinan Andersen... Ale wanted to know if, 20 years from now, FITI will still be older than her!

The first show we went to was the Three LIttle Pigs, on Sunday, then on MOnday night - a VERY special treat for us to go out during the week! we went to see Thumbelina, which was a Black Theater show...very unusual to see in this kind of festival, that's why I wanted to take Ale so much!...and the last show we saw was the Emperor's new clothes...the King actually came down and walked through the aisles asking people if they approved using the kingdom's treasure to buy the fabric for his new clothes...of course, he threatened to behead all those who said "no"...to those who said "yes" he would say: Thanks, you are a good citizen...at one point, he went right past us and, after telling someone they were good citizens, he looked at me and I was just half-smiling waiting to be asked and he just said: You're not! off with your head!...Ale couldn't stop laughing!...

In all, we spent $21 for those 3 shows, and, eventhough that "kills" our enterntainment budget for the month, I consider it worth it!

I cannot understand how people who will take their child to see a 1hr and a half movie can tell me that she'll get bored by 45 minutes of live theater! (kid-oriented, and interactive, too!)

...my cousin's son (D), he of the phone calls, walks in last night and tells my cousin (M):

D: Mom, I have been thinking, and, I will get a credit card for myself....(remember the kid is 16, has just quit school after failing 9th grade for the 2nd time and is not working--nor willing to work!)

M: oh, really? ...and just how do you think you're going to do that?

D: I know I can do that, mom. What do you think my credit card limit will be? $1,000? 2,000? (I have a limit of $2,000 after 10 years of having a credit story -- which used to be very good -- and with a salary of $1,200/month!!-- which is what I used to make at the old job!)

M:...er, IF you were working and making at least minimum wage, you'd be lucky if you got $200-$300....and then, remember, if you spend that on one day, that's it, you cannot use the card anymore until you pay that...

D: pay??...you mean you have to pay it back???

M: of course you do, what'd you think, that a cc was free money??

D: er...yes.

M: well, it's not. And, actually, you don't only pay back what you used, but you have to pay interest on it, which means that, depending on how long you take to pay it, you may end up paying up to twice as much as you used, if not more.

D: really?? blood-sucking vampires! Thieves!

M: yes, that's the way it works, and that is why your aunt gets so mad that she has to pay for YOUR phone bill instead of paying her CC.

D:...hmmm...well, I'll get a cc for myself anyway.

The word CLUELESS comes to mind!

Got paid another $100! woo-hoo!...
sadly, this will not go towards debt, but rather into Ale's school...foolish spending + unexpected expenses (going to the all-inclusive place + changing the lock to our main entrance!) really took a toll! ...oh, well, the "old me" would have charged it! (or, even worse, taken a cash advance from the cc to pay for the school! )

Ale showed me an ad for an aquapark today...she showed it to me mainly because the entrance fees are: adults $4, children $2 and parking $1....so she thought this was very cheap (it is!) and we could go there...she also asked me if this is farther away or closer than the hotel we went to last time (all-inclusive resort for the weekend...didn't have to pay for my room because we had reserved it for a training attendee that cancelled at the last possible moment...we would have been charged for the room anyway, so we decided to use it!)...the aqua-park is closer...so, Ale wants to go and she already figured out it's a lot less money and a lot less fuel to get there...but I'm not sure I want to go ...mainly because it's so cheap, that "everyone" can go....am I being snobbish??

...yesterday night, my niece came back from her father's and, was sooooo excited about her prom dress and shoes...when my sis went to put her to bed (yes, she's 17, but my niece still insists her mom tuck her in!)...anyway, my sis took the cellphone off the bed and put it on the dresser...this morning, it was gone!...the house is secure now, with the new locks, so the only likely suspects are: sis, niece, Ale, the dog, myself and nephew...
Soooo...sis kicked him out of the house...now she's crying at home, because she's afraid of what might become of him....I feel for her, but, as I told her: it's HIS choice, and there really isn't anything she can do to help him...he didn't even admit to it, said he's tired of people always pointing their fingers his way whenever things get lost around the house!...we'll see what happens!

Yesterday I was having a conversation with my nephew about how we all need to have some sort of productive activity...whether you HAVE to work or whether you have enough money to afford not to -- in our case, we don't have enough to afford not to, obviously! -- you must have a productive activity to feel good about yourself...

In our home, my sis and I work outside the home, she's in sales, I'm an admin...the girls study (my niece also is captain of the cheerleading squad at school, and is the equivalent of the class president -- her school doesn't do "class president"-- organizing all events that the class is required to do to help the school, organizing social events for the class, speaking to the principal and the school board on behalf of the class)...Ale has her swim lessons and would like to do other stuff, as well...
So, I asked him, what do You do? ...what is your contribution??...if you aren't working or studying, you should either be looking for a way to finish your studies (he only got as far as 9th grade) or looking for a job OR helping around the house (the fact that we have Nanny and she does the housework doesn't mean he couldn't help!, he could be fixing small things around the house, for example, or watering the plants!...but, SOMETHING!)...I'm really mad and disappointed in him right now, because his response was: I'm getting called for a job between the 4th and the 12th and, I was going to go to the Minstry of Education to see about the studies, but Mom said that S (a friend of the family) had offered to go with me and he hasn't said anything more about going....HELLO!!! WHO should be the one saying: I want to go tomorrow, can you come with me???....ugh!

sorry, just a rant... I needed to vent! (I did tell my sister, though!)

ANOTHER $20 are missing from my purse...since we installed the lock and, since I had it yesterday night at 9:30pm when I undressed and, since I don't have it now at work, it HAS to be someone from home...there is only 1 likely suspect (despite his claiming it might have been the nanny...#1, Nanny has been with us for 7 years and NOT A CENT has ever been missing...she does put things away in places you'd never think logical, but, nothing has ever been missing...#2, yesterday, when I arrived, nanny was gone already and today, when I left, she hadn't arrived yet...so, that theory is total BS... worst thing is, I just called the house and I could hear him yelling at the nanny....THAT I will not have...I already phoned my sister...she's taking care of it right now ...I just hope nanny doesn't take the "maid way" and just decide to not show up anymore!)...so, so sad....

oh, yeah! Capital "D"....here's Ale in her volcaneña dress...

Typical pose to show off this dress


She definetely still doesn't know how to hold it

Feeling pretty

the nanny washed Ale's white tennis shoes yesterday, and set them to dry on top of one of the beams in the laundry room...Needless to say, today I almost went crazy looking for the shoes (she is not allowed to come to school unless in "full" uniform, these are the only white tennis shoes she has...so, it was either find the shoes or stay home for her!)...I turned the house upside down and, in the process, saw A LOT of opportunity for decluttering - a bunch of size 11 and 12 shoes, for example, when Ale is already wearing shoes 2 sizes bigger than that!....so, this coming weekend (long weekend due Independence day!) Ale and I are going to try to declutter the house a bit!

(oh, and the shoes were still WET! I had to put them in the OVEN!!! -- we don't have a dryer...)

...I went shopping...My cousin called me to let me know about some sales: Brown Hush Puppies shoes for me at $10 (for work) and a pair of leather sandals also at $10..., and, 2 pajamas for Ale (she's outgrown all her pajamas!)and a pair of pink pants (she has a bunch of size 4 clothes that barely fit and a bunch of size 8-10 clothes that don't fit yet!)...total for all these was $45...and, today, I went into a dept store that is having a clearance to look for the bed for Ale....and, they didn't have the kind of bed I want, but, they had toys at 50% off (no, I didn't buy any toys, I just looked at them and called my cousin to see if we can use any of what they have for our Xmas toy business...)but, to do so I went through the children's clothing section...and found some Xclamation jeans at $3.99 and a nice skirt at $2.99....I also spotted a nice picture frame with "graduation" embossed in it (50% off $9.98), which would be perfect for my niece (she graduates high school in a couple of months)...
so, now I feel very guilty....but, looking at the bright side...it went on the debit card! (no interest and no fees!)...so...now I have to find a way to earn enough money to replace what I spent: ~$57 in total...

I baked cookies with Ale yesterday...or, I should say I helped Ale bake cookies yesterday...she read the ingredient list and I had her measure them, and we spoke about 1/4 cups and 1/8 teaspoons and so on...she also read the recipe "instructions" once and then I was reading them to her step by step so she could follow it!...Obviously, I put the cookies in the oven and then took them out, but, for the most part, she made them!!...the result: yummy banana cookies (sans raisins: we don't keep any at the house!) which she proudly took to school today!

I hate mosquitoes! ...Ale apparently got bitten again and now she has dengue fever...she's at home, resting, getting about 1,001 medicines and gallons of electrolytes...

she asked very casually: we couldn't make brownies at home, could we? (we have made cookies and cakes...I stay away from brownies because my niece and I are both chocoholics and migraine sufferers, not a particularly happy mix!)... I told Ale Yes, we could...and she said: Don't tell me you have a brownie recipe??...I could get one...
Oooohhh, can we bake some, so I can take them to school??...
this might actually prove more expensive than buying them at school, if we have to pay for my headache pills --plus, I imagine she won't limit herself to just one, and I'm not sure I like that...will have to leave strict instructions with the nanny... but, we'll give it a try....

LOL! she forgot her money today!...for about 2 seconds I considered loaning her the $0.30 from my money, but, then I decided that wouldn't be right. If she fortgets her money at home, she has to make do without...it won't kill her (she has a lunch box and enough food, anyway) and, next time, I bet she will remember! -- I already told her the $0.30 will go to her piggy bank this afternoon!

I asked the receptionist at work whether I could pay the Technokids fee for the whole year ($54 total) and, she told me that this year, eventhough they are going to have the sessions, this year the price has already been included in the monthly fees! YAY!!... another $54 saved!!

today was Ale's first day of school...I dropped her off half an hour early (LOL!, we weren't sure how long it was going to take to get to the school at that time!)...she was nervous, but seemed positive about the whole thing...
her cousin Clau "ironed" her hair flat yesterday night (Ale's hair is curly!) and helped her choose her First Day of School Clothes (they are allowed to wear "normal" clothes today and tomorrow, they have to wear their uniforms as of Monday)...I gave her $1 (since this week only has 2 school days, it seemed logical not to give her $2)...

Oh, and, I spoke to the lady with the transport service yesterday night, she likes to receive her money between the 1st and the 3rd of the month, so, I only have to pay for 15 days on Monday and, pay for Sept at the beginning of the month...Also, she found another little girl with the same route, so instead of $40, she'll charge me $30...that's a "savings" of $10 a month!!

I'll let you know what she thought of her first day!

************ UPDATE
she enjoyed it and, I met her Spanish teacher (they have a Spanish and an English teacher, I had met the English teacher when she went for testing)...she told me Ale is extraordinarily well adjusted, has already made friends (all the while we were talking, Ale was hugging her, so I guess they like each other already!)...the kids were asked to draw a picture of their family... Ale is just as tall as the rest of us in the picture, so I imagine that means her self-esteem is good...

On more mundane issues, she spent $0.70 on a brownie and an apple juice (good choice of beverage!)...so she's got $0.30 left for tomorrow! ...I'm happy, she didn't lose the money!!

I was just thinking the other day, we need more bookcases at home...and, I was thinking also about the bookcases we had when we were growing up...they were the coolest bookcases...

Dad brought home some pine wood boards and some concrete blocks, and just put 6 blocks on the floor (3 stacks of 2), spaced evenly, then a board, 6 more blocks, another board, then 6 more blocks, then the top board, then 3 blocks (as "toppers" to make the top board steady)...the real cool thing about this was:

1. you could change the whole look just by painting the blocks...(we never painted the boards, and they weren't varnished or tinted, either)
2. the tiers (?) had enough space even for the tallest books/magazines, like our Animal World collection...
3. You could put ornaments on that top board!
4. You could hide boxes underneath the first board...we used this one mostly for our LP's (gasp!) and stuff like that...

The one bad thing, though, is they tended to "walk" during earthquakes...although, come to think of it, if they had been "true" bookcases, they might have fallen on top of either of us!

I don't remember if I wrote about a "free" day pass my cousin got a couple of months ago to a popular new "resort" at the beach...we got very bad treatment...since we were supposed to take advantage of the day visit to meet with the manager because we had with us an investor interested in bringing tourists to ES and lodging them at this resort, we insisted on seeing the manager and, when told the person we had contacted was NOT a manager, we made a big fuss until they DID call the manager who, when informed of the situation said it didn't matter to him that we felt mistreated and deceived (regarding the meeting) because the hotel was booked solid for the rest of the year and he didn't need any new customers...well, about a week ago I received an email from a friend, who was just passing along another person's email telling about his bad experience there...I added our complaint and kept forwarding the message...guess what??...somebody forwarded it to the MInistry of Tourism, the Tourism Board and to another organiztion that seeks foreign investment in tourism...WOO-HOO!...they are opening an investigation on these matters!

in 2 days (on Thursday) Ale goes to her new school for the first time!...this is so exciting!!!...it will also be her first time getting an allowance!...I'll let you know how she does!

This is the site where I found the recipe for eggplant lasagna that my family liked so much:

we went out to Juayua, a small town in the mountains, where we used to have the farm...they always have a gastronomic festival on weekends..and also for special vacations...I spent $14 total...
We had a nice time there, and, even ran into our favorite aunt!...
There was also a funny incident with a friend of my sister's that lives there...he called another of his friends that is building vacation homes in the outskirts of town...this guy was already a bit tipsy and started hitting on my sister's friend from work (L) that had come with us...what was funny about that is that, my sis and this girl seem to attract these type of guys that think they're Valentino and, that say the stupidest pick up lines...they call it either "animal attraction" or their "fatidic attraction", because it attracts mostly animals of fatidic candidates! LOL!

I bought 3 eggplants on Saturday, just because they looked so nice...I had never cooked eggplant, but looked up some recipes and, decided on an eggplant lasagna...
it turned out YUMMY!...even my sister (who's no fan of eggplant) loved it...for $6 I made enough for 9 portions (but, with everyone having seconds, it is already gone!...it fed 3 people yesterday, and there was just enough left over so sis and I could each take 1 portion for lunch!)...this is definetely worth repeating!

And, if we pay attention, we grown ups can learn, too! (or, get some very interesting insights!)

Today we went to the children's museum and, went to the "marketplace" section...I know they have a "fabric stand" there, so I took out some fabrics and started doing the "Fabric for sale!" bit...Ale was the pupusa lady (she took over the small diner they have with the stove and the "pupusas" --these are THE most typical salvadoran food: it's like a very thick tortilla with cheese, pork rinds or beans inside...but, the filling is put inside the uncooked maize dough and then the whole thing is cooked together...they have some pretend ones made out of wood at the museum)...

Anyway, when I started announcing my fabrics, Ale took a bunch of pupusas and said: "I'll trade you all these for that piece of fabric with the colorful fish"...so, we traded and...she used the piece of fabric as a tablecloth for her diner (the table and benches are cement), to make it look nicer!...I then went over and pretended to be a customer and asked for 3 pupusas...she turned to me and said: "if you buy 4, you get one free!"

LOL!... I'll find a picture of her at that pupusa stand and post it here on MOnday (I know I have one at the office!)

So, because I was willing to play, I now know a bit more about my daughter! (she's got the "business" streak!)

since her church group wasn't meeting today, we went to open the account...counting some coins she's gotten here and there (from aunts, etc), she had $16.40!!

So, now Alejandra has her own saving's account!
And it's all her own money, too!
I'm so proud!!

I promised Ale that once she finished reading The Most Famous Egg in the City, I'd buy her a new book... well, she finished, and she already asked when we can go buy the new book!
The good news is: my debit card gives me points and, I can exchange them for $10 gift cards at some bookstores (900-1100 points depending on which bookstore)...I have 813 points...so, if I add this week's gas and grocery bills, I might have enough to get a gift card!...I can then tell her that she's allowed to buy any book(s) she wants, provided the total does not exceed $10!...
If not, I can use the debit card to buy the book, restricted to $10, and save the points until I have enough to buy a $15 gift certificate for the supermarket ....

well, I have thursday and Friday off next week (and, I think we'll do what we always do in our unit, which is just not return from lunch on Wednesday! :P )
If we do this, I'd probably go to the movies on Wed...to see a "grown up" movie...either by myself or with a friend or my sis...depending on what is playing... AND, Wednesday is "half-off" at all movie theaters here! (normally, tickets are $3.50, so I'd pay $1.75)
We have been invited to spend a day at a friends house at the beach, so that'll be about $20 (for gas and food)...I have the free tickets to the movies, which I'll enjoy with Ale on another day...I estimate I'll spend about $5 in goodies...unless we go for pizza afterwards (Little Caesars has a special: 1 large cheese pizza for $3.00, add 1 ingredient for $0.50) then it would be closer to $10...and, we have to fix our DVD player so we can rent the 2 Trollz movies and watch them at home (complete with popcorn!) some other day...on this "stay at home" day, we might also do some baking and crafting (I do have some of the instant mixes handy!)...I have also planned to take Ale to the Saburo Hirao children's park : nice park, plenty of green and nice landscape, games for children and, the Museum of Natural History is inside, too! -- Ale's never been there and, now they have the new exhibit on all the antediluvian (sp?) fossils they found (including the head of a mastodont!) and, also just opened a children's library (inaugurated yesterday! I read about it in today's newspaper!)... they also have a lot of traditional japanese games for the children (the land and the money to build the park was donated by Saburo Hirao, a Japanese that lived in El Salvador and, the Embassy of Japan makes regular donations...the new library is actually a donation from a Salvadoran living in Japan!)...entrance is $0.57 per person (not sure if Ale already pays hers or not!) plus $1.71 for parking...
I estimate we'll spend about $50 (depending on what it costs to fix the DVD!)...luckily, this all comes from the August "Events" budget!

HR's new thing is to give employees a present on the month of their birthday...today I finally made the time to go...it's a special pass to the movies for 2 people... I'll save it for our holidays and go watch Garfield 2 with Ale (or see what else is playing that she might like!)

They have a "marketplace"...Ale put on her apron and grabbed a basket to go "shopping"...notice the beautiful piñatas (kid sized, too!) in the upper left corner of the picture!

Here it is! The plastic wrap ....

...and my masterpiece: the bound notebook! :P

#1. My boss sent the chart for our loan, and he is not asking 12%, since he considers me low risk, he's only asking for 5% annual interest! woo-hoo!

#2. My niece's aunt (whom I know and trust) has a school transport van...she has agreed to take Ale from the new school to her old preschool (to do her homework)...that means that Ale gets the help she needs and, I get the peace of mind that she's with someone I KNOW will deliver her unharmed! (of course, this is what she does for a living, so I have to pay for it, but, I would have had to pay for SOMEONE else, too...only with her, I know Ale is safe!)