we are family...

...Okay, so I don't have all (or any) of my sisters with me.

Anyhow, mis suegros son aqui. Well, not here, as in in my home, but here as in in this country. Right now they are staying with Tia M in California. I don't know if they will be "visiting"* any time soon, but I know that they won't be here before the end of my semester.

Tonight, Cardo and I were talking financial schtuff. Out of the ten kids, only two currently send Cardo's retired parents money (Cardo isn't currently one of them, but when we have more money, yes). Cardo was telling me that his brother who lives in his mom's house in El Ciudad de Mexico sends his parents some money. The brother occupying his parents' other house in the capital, doesn't currently send his parents any money. Cardo's parents live in Tijuana (which, until very recently, Pic pronounced "Weet-a-hah-na").

Thought I'd give you a minute there. Yes, Cardo's parents have three houses. Okay, so if they lived here, that'd probably mean that Cardo's parents were somewhat loaded. However, did I mention that they live in Mexico? Yeah. Cardo has explained to me that oh-so-many years ago, when his parents built the two of those houses they built, this was not an expensive endeavor. (Cardo says, "At least that's how it was then." I'm not claiming that they could do the same now). The third house, the first one Cardo's parents lived in together, belonged to Doña R's dad.

So, yes, three houses. Humble abodes, if you will. I've seen video of one of these homes (the TJ one, I believe), and it's very far from thinking about being grandiose. This is weird for me to wrap my mind around. I can't imagine us ever being able to buy (let alone build) a house, at this point.

And, yes, three houses, and they don't live in any of them. There is a long story behind this, but they've moved out for the time being. I'm not sure if they'll make it back down to Mexico. I'm also not sure if and when they'll be coming to stay with us, but I'm very glad that we will have another room so Cardo and I won't be living in the living room/office/cave of cluttered crap while they're here.

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*Before Cardo and I were together, his parents visited for six months. Early on in our relationship, Cardo's parents came to visit us for four months. How do you guys define visiting? Because I'm thinking a couple of weeks max. Any amount of months is not "visiting," but "living with."

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P.S. Without going into my word processor, typing my entry and copying it here, I can't figure out how to add the symbols Spanish sometimes requires. This is why I sometimes have diacritics and I sometimes don't. Sometimes, I'm just lazy.

...and even more books

Okay, sorry about the brevity of that last post. I just needed to rush of to take the test.

The Grassroots booksellers/bookstore thing is having a sale this, next and the next weekends. They are at 1200 S Rock. They've got new and used books, cds, dvds and audiobooks. We went today after the above-mentioned test. We got a bunch more kids books, including some in a set I remember from when I was a kid (I'll have to get back to you on what it is...the books are still in the car), There's a Nightmare in My Closet and Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?, including others.

I got some generic literature anthology and Cardo got a couple of books also. I'll have to count them up later.

The Friends of the Washoe County Library sale is ongoing right this very moment (at the time I'm typing...I can't guarantee the time you're reading, certo). Today is the half-off day. We were going to go, but Cardo's pissy about his car, so we had to come home so he could work on it. We will go early tomorrow (no days to sleep in this weekend? NOOOO!) for the $6-a-bag day. Let's see where that sale is located. Hmm...5205 Mill St. That sale ends tomorrow.

Happy book buying!

testing, testing

I'm off to spend an undertermined amount of (no doubt) fun-filled hours pretending I know something.

Two booksales later: FWCL warehouse booksale and Grassroots.

I'll post more later.

take a look, in a book

Yesterday, one of the many, many books we read to Pic was The Piggy in the Puddle. I love this book – it’s just fun to read. Also, we’ve got the Reading Rainbow where LeVar goes to see some abfab people animate this book using claymation (so, they clayanimated the book?). I kind of have this thing for claymation, I don’t know why.

After Cardo finished reading Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble (we barely made it through that book because of the fits of giggles that continually overtook us) and I finished reading The Piggy in the Puddle, Cardo and I came downstairs and I cued up this episode of Reading Rainbow. At one point, Cardo turned away from his car-fixing research and asked me, “What are you watching?” When I told him what it was, he just shook his head at me, indicating something like, “Sheesh, I’m forever stuck with this weird, weird woman.”

Anyway, watching this episode of one of my favorite tv shows of all time, I realized I had yet to post about it no longer being a part of the PBS line-up (at least not where I live). I cannot believe this. It’s been hard for me to get over. I remember watching the show when I was little and I was so excited to share it with Pic. She never really got into it – I think it would have taken her another couple of years – but I was heartened that it was still airing, with a very occasional new show. Now, though, my love affair with LeVar Burton has been cut short. I’m so not happy about this.

I should also mention that certain other shows are no longer available here. Among them are Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, which I loved when I was younger but not so much as I got older, and The Berenstain Bears (“they’re a lot like humans, only moreso…explain that one to me, please). I still watched The Berenstain Bears until it was taken off of the air. I’m a bit obsessed with the books. It’s a good kind of nostalgia for me.

Anyhow, I wish that I could somehow give a better salute to Reading Rainbow, but I just don’t have the words (or the brainpower at 2:19 in the morning). Let’s just say it was a great show…but you don’t have to take my word for it.

and we're off

We're on the move again. I've had so much pent-up nervousness and restlessness lately. It doesn't get released, I just, well, eat. This is so completely unhealthy for me, because, people, I'm not sitting here munching on celery. What's the next best fix for me? Moving.

Yep, we're moving to yet another new apartment. I'm hoping that this will help abate my freaking internal turmoil. The move, while it may prove beneficial to me (I hope, I hope), was not my idea. While we were living in the house, we started to buy (used) furniture items. We turned to Craig's List for our three huge bookcases. We were lucky enough to also find an (proportionately huge) entertainment center, from someone else, that happened to match the bookcases. We scored a pretty close match in a desk at Goodwill, I think. We also bought bedroom furniture from Craig's List. Before, we only had the mattress and box springs on a metal frame, two thriftstore nightstands and a thriftstore dresser. The rest of our clothes, we piled up in the linen closet. We still have the nightstands and our bed, but we've added an armoir, dresser with a tri-fold mirror and a headboard.

Cardo suggested that we get rid of our furniture, but I had actually thought that we'd have it forever. Hopeless dreamer that I am, I tend to dream hopeless dreams (ha!). I still believe that one day we will have a house, a house with three bedrooms, a house that will be able to accomodate all of our much larger furniture. I don't want to get rid of our furniture. Anyhow, if we did that, we'd just have huge piles and piles of books every-freaking-where.

Anyhow, because I'm American, I feel that I can take up much more space than a person actually needs to get by. Instead of downsizing our possessions, we're upsizing our living space. At least for the next seven or so months. We made the snap decision to rent the just-available three-bedroom apartment at the end of the complex.

We've been unhappy with this apartment for several reasons. One: it's too small for all of our crap. Two: we have to keep a container in the back of the refrigerator to collect the nearly freezing water that pours down the back wall and collects on the bottom shelf (yes, we've had it "fixed"). Three: Pic's room always pretty well matches the outside temperature, no matter where we've set the thermostat. Four: our neighbors -- they've become much less obnoxious, but...ugh. Five: the apartment is narrow and suffocating.

So yes, people, this is what I do to solve my problems -- I run away (or take small little itty-bitty hops away...I've already lived in eight different residences in the same city in the last nine years). This time, the move was Cardo's idea, but I was pretty quick to jump on the moving truck.

Actually, I'm kind of freaking out about the move because I'll only definitely be employed until next May and then...quissa? We still don't know where I'll end up or where Pic and I'll end up or where the three of us will end up. (Can someone tell me, with absolute certainty, that I can get through a PhD in less than five years without killing myself (in both the figurative and literal senses)?)

Okay, so please, feel free to judge us for not being able to adapt to the space we're in. After that, please give me some reassurances. Finally, please offer assistance to help us get from this two-story apartment, across the complex to a second-floor apartment (I know, I know, but it's the only one they have available and it was just serendipity that we walked into the office incredibly shortly after the soon-to-be-previous tenant put in her 30-day notice). The assistance is greatly needed seeing as though my recently-having-suffered-a-heart-attack* husband and my three-year-old aren't going to be all that much assistance no matter how much they'd like to be.

On an unrelated, much less stressy and completely pointless note: I'm watching this movie called Dear Me: A Blogger's Tale. I thought, "Hey, I might like that. I've never heard of it, but I'll give it a try." It's kind of (really) annoying, at least so far. However, I'll go finish watching it because I'm a pretty useless human being these last few weeks.

* Cardo suffered from stress cardiomyopathy (it has many, many names, people), but the doctor's described it as basically being a heart attack that didn't leave permanent damage. This is just too much to explain every single time, even when I'm just talking to myself.

hungry?

I'm currently reading Sue Grafton's alphabet series. There's one part in this series that has stuck with me over the years: a wonderful jello dish one of the other characters serves Kinsey. I finally came across this meal last night, so here I share it with you.

This was the menu: iced tea with Sweet 'N Low already mixed in, a green Jell-O square with fruit cocktail and an internal ribbon of Miracle Whip, iceberg lettuce with bottled dressing the color of a sunset. For the main course, instant mashed potatoes with margarine and a stout slice of meatloaf, swimming in diluted cream of mushroom soup.

-- "N" is for Noose, chapter 18

So, just in case you weren't sure what to serve for dinner tonight...you're welcome to this menu. Mmm mmm.

oh. my. god.

Talk about beyond-disturbing. I freaking love Cake Wrecks, but I can't stand to look at this post any longer. I totally don't get why there a cake "floating" in the tub. Moreso, I have no idea why anyone would even make this cake. What really disturbs me, though, is the face. Fa schifo, asqueroso, absolutely disgusting.