Un chín de Sazón

Hump Day, y'all, was OK. Began with a no-show at work, which is not my favorite situation, but after that the day went by fairly quickly - with the help of an ibuprofen or two.

Natalia came to meet us at the end of the day and after breaking down the equipment and a couple of pit stops, we went off to find another swimming hole. 

 
This one was a bit more accessible and also part of Barton Creek, but just higher up and next to a man made pool that harnessed the spring a little. Since it was cloudy and the water was colder up there, I decided to just enjoy the shore with Natalia while Matt swam. Although we did get our feetsies wet at some point.

The swimming and relaxing was cut abruptly when some ominous clouds started to move in. We hightailed it to the hotel and Natalia and I watched Toddlers and Tiaras in TLC. It really is like looking at an accident wreck - you really don't want to look, but you can't take your eyes away from it. It was a little disturbing, to say the very least. Just as we watched, the clouds made good on their promise and an awesome thunderstorm started - quick and loud and bringing in the fresh air and even a power surge that left us in darkness for a short bit.

When the rain moved on a bit (lightning kept going) we headed for dinner. Natalia's choice? Real Mexican food. "None of that Tex Mex Stuff," She said. Given that Natalia grew up in Mexico, we believe her when she says she knows the difference and where to find the goods. Enter Sazón.

Which of course, made me think of mi Cariño, but also made me think "YUM." And Yum was right, the food was delicious - and without all the dairy that makes Tex Mex a pain in the butt. Because you see, in the past month I've been having a lot of Tex Mex food that I've been calling Mexican food. Bad me!

I went for Alambres de Res, which is grilled bits of beef with peppers, pineapples and onions and charro beans in a bed of rice and bits of bacon and peas. I opted to not have the guacamole salad and instead chose a Corona.

Add some extremely fresh corn tortillas and my belly was happy indeed. We spent the rest of the evening sharing Rage Stories and Driving Stories (I didn't have that many to share), before I decided to skip on the bluegrass concert that was happening later on and went back to my room.

In any case, I write this on Thursday morning and I'm not sure what the day holds for me, but I hope it involves un poquito de Sazón in one way or the other.

Meet cha at the swimmin' hole

Second day in Austin. Work went by quickly and smoothly, to which: booyah. Right after work Matt and I rushed to our rooms to change, grab some towels and then off we were to Barton Creek.

We had the inside information and knew we had to keep up walking upstream to find the spot where the locals hang. And when they say "walk upstream" they mean hike for about 20 minutes.

But the hike was well worth it. There were plenty of people there but it still was empty enough to have a good swim and to sun dry with space.

People were very chill, some women even sunbathed with their tops off and the water felt great after laying in the sun for a bit. I tried my hardest, but I did not tan.

After all that "resting" food was required. We picked up Natalia and stopped by the twin liquors store to buy a six pack - the place we were going was BYOB. We chose Indian for dinner and so we headed to the G'raj Mahal. Yes. I do get a kick out of that name.

The G'Raj Mahal, as the name suggests, was in someone's Garage. It was perfect - they cooked out of this Huge Truck, tables out with awesome decoration.

I forced myself to try something different so I went with the Chana Masala. Tomato ginger stewed chickpeas, SPICY! Natalia went for the fish vindaloo and I don't remember Matt's dish, but I enjoyed it, too. Add some garlic Naan and brown ale - perfect!

Working Saturday

Saturday in Green Bay was very, very good: had to get up early to be at work by 8:30, but this worked out okay – one set of participants cancelled, giving us an hour to relax at 10, and then the last set of participants showed up an hour and a half earlier, which actually worked very well – they were ready and prepped to go into the recording room by noon and that translated into us being finished with our workday by 1pm. Score!

The weather wasn’t great but it was getting sunnier by the second. We decided to go for lunch before heading out to explore Green Bay. Our choice this time? Kavarna, a vegetarian café in downtown Green Bay. All of their selections looked awesome and the place was packed when we got there – always a good sign. I ordered a cup of tomato, “chorizo” and parsley soup, and a bean burger with onions, lettuce, tomato, garlic cream cheese in a soft bagel.

On the way out we got cookies. Mine was white macademia. We ate our cookies while walking around the downtown district. Not a very busy area by any standards, but very cute with stores like “Hat-Cetera” and “Sassy girl.”

We got in the car and headed north to Door County, specifically to Cave Point Park. We hiked along Lake Michigan for a couple of hours, stepping mostly on eroded rocks, but once in a while finding strips of sand completely covered with thousands of small shells.

At one point we ran into a seagull that didn’t like us very much, but we stayed clear of his rock and it helped the situation. At one point we stopped to sun bathe a bit and enjoy the sound of water lapping on rock, of the seagulls calling to each other, of the nearby trees dancing with the wind. The lake looked like the sea – there seemed to not be an end – and the water had various colors, depending on how deep the bed was, going from extremely clear to light green to green blue, to deep blue. I can only imagine what it looks like in the middle of summer.

After the 45 minutes drive back to Green Bay we struggled to find what to eat – the Italian restaurant our contact had recommended was closed. The Thai place we found online was also closed. Finally we settled on a Mexican Restaurant (I know, after that whole week of Mexican at Brownsville,) but at least this one was open and came highly recommended by yelp users and what not.

I had the two “mini” ground beef burritos. These babies were drenched in melted Mexican cheese and really weren’t much more than ground beef in a flour tortilla with lettuce and cilantro and tomato on top. I was very disappointed. However, it was all fixed when I stole one of Matt’s corn tortilla, and made myself a ground beef taco. And THAT was delish. We were stuffed.

The night ended with the Mets beating the Yankees 4 to 3, and with the voice of my Cariño. Oh yeah.

Workday #197

So I've worked at my present job now for 10 months... but with weekends and vacation days and what not, yesterday was workday number 197. All in all it was a good day. Although like any place of employment my job has its downsides, I LOVE my Job, like seriously I do. It takes me to all these places I'd otherwise never see, I meet awesome people, get a chance at some great food, I get to accumulate frequent flier miles.

Yesterday was one of those good days: After a good, thorough morning workout, Workday was long, full, but also very smooth and I got the job done happily. I met me some extremely cute little old ladies that make me smile just remembering them. We had a simple lunch that consisted of bread and hummus and cucumbers, since I forgot the peanut butter that is a key ingredient in a PB&J Sammich.

After work we stopped at a WalMart and purchased some shorts and some chanclas and rode for about 30 or so minutes to South Padre Island, TX. Beautiful Sand!

It was gorgeous. I didn't get in the water to swim right away, but walked on, letting the waves kiss my feet before I found me a good corner where I attempted to build a sand castle, without any tools but
my hands, and a business card. Enter the StoryCastle!

Not so bad, considering!
After all that work I went in the water to de-sand, but didn't really swim - the waves weren't that big/exciting, but the water was close to warm and it felt good against my body.
After quickly changing by the car we drove around until we found The Big Donkey, one of the restaurants in South Padre that had been recommended to us. I had the blackened fillet o' fish (what kind of pescado? I don't remember!) smothered with onions, mushrooms, peppers and garlic. It came with a side of rice. I like the way they cook Mexican rice around here. It doesn't have the flavor that most Tex Mex places in NYC (and everywhere else I've been so far) has.

Whatever the fish was, it was very fresh, but also kinda bland. What I really enjoyed was the awesome smothering factor of the peppers and onions.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped by a Dairy Queen for some soft serve vanilla ice cream.

Yeah. I love this job.

La casa de Nina Skyy

Last Thursday I met up with my very good friend after work and he kidnapped me and took me home with him to cook me dinner. Woe is me.

His house is gorgeous! He lives in the faraway land known as Queens. We decided to eat in the backyard since the weather was so beautiful.  We began the meal with some deliscious cheese and beef empanadas, dipped in his special sauce, which consists of sofrito, mayo and ketchup.

We followed appetizers with a bit of wine and some fire while we relaxed on the outside couch.

Before dinner we also took a walk through the neighborhood - the houses are all very pretty, but I loved all the trees everywhere. Gotta love Spring.

Finally, dinner was ready - Steak, mashed potatoes with cauliflowers, butter (no milk), toasted bread crumbs, roasted garlic and carrots. Add some caubernet sauvignon and the evening was complete.

Thank you my love!!

Adventures, big and small, happen everywhere. A little bit of traveling WHILE at home makes me very happy.

Go Gophers!

So, this will be a bit delayed, what with me trying to get used to doing this regularly, so bear with me.

Went to Minnesota in March, specifically Annandale, Elk River and Minneapolis/St. Paul. It was a great trip! Started by a visit to a State Park after the first day of work, where we did some hiking.

On our day off, we headed to Minneapolis, stopping by the home of the Minnesota Gophers and having Breakfast at Al's Breakfast - this little hole in the wall type place


I ordered the Hashbrowns, Egg omelette, orange juice and toast combo. Food porn:


There was a lot of walking in the city after that. For dinner, we went to this Ethiopian/Asian fusion place, T's. Had some awesome dumplings for appetizers.


followed by REALLY spicy vegetarian noodles


The next day after work we drove to St. Paul and had dinner at Heartland bar. The appetizer wasn't that great, but the fish (I don't remember what kind anymore) was pretty tasty.


Finally, on our last night in Minneapolis we met up with my good friend Dawn and before drinks had dinner at "It's all Greek to me". I had the vegetarian sampler. Pretty good, but also very cheesy, so I had to limit myself.


And then on our very last day there, passed by the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Pretty awesome stuff, like this one:


Minnesota was, as Matt would say, very real.

Barcelona y a trabajar, pues/ Barcelona and to work then

La economia en los Estados Unidos esta que asusta a cualquiera. Huracanes por todos lados y yo por aqui, que a veces hasta se me olvidan las cosas. El fin de semana pasado fuimos a Barcelona. Los padres de I. estaban ahi y fue tremendo: la arquitectura es preciosa, la ciudad en si te deja sin aliento. Me pase los tres dias diciendome: "estoy en España," porque es que no me lo creia. Cuando llegamos a Reus nos encontramos con un tipo vestido como "El pajaro loco" recibiendo a los viajeros. Abordamos un autobus hasta Barcelona y despues de comer un bocadillo encontramos un taxi. Nuestro Hostel, aunque bello y en una parte de la ciudad muy accesible, dejo mucho que desear, especialmente la gente que trabajaba en el. Pero tratamos de no pensar mucho y nos encontramos con los papas de I. en la zona olimpica, cerca de la playa. Estabamos en camino a un restaurante cuando nos atrapo un aguacero y hubo que entrar en el primer sitio que encontramos. Las gotas eran del tamaño de un puño, casi, o por lo menos asi de grande se sentían. Las muchachas comieron Paella de camaron y los papas de Marisco. Yo comi salmón. Todo estaba muy bueno, pero con mucho mucho aceite.
El Sábado nos despertamos temprano y tomamos un tour de la ciudad. Pasamos por varios de los edificios de Gaudi y tomamos muchisimas fotos desde el autobus. Todo lo que comen es bocadillos, parece. Por la mañana tratamos de encontrar un sitio para comer huevos revueltos, pero solo los vendian despues de las doce. Bocadillos son sandwiches, y eran generalmente de jamón o de queso, sin mantequilla ni nada. De almuerzo entre museos, comimos mas bocadillos pues era antes de las una, y no encontramos un sitio que vendia comida caliente antes de. En la noche nos encontramos con un festival, y una caravana de tamborirelos. De cena comimos pizza, y el señor que nos atendió estuvo de lo mas sorprendido cuando S. pidió una pizza de queso con pedazos de tomate. Aunque I., S. y los papás hablaban un poco de español, me toco traducir la mayoria del tiempo.
El Domingo empezó temprano, con una caminata por el malecón antes de ver el museo de Picasso que estuvo perfecto. Almorzamos Tapas y de ahi para la playa. Hacia demasiado frior para nadar, pero estaba bien para tomar el sol. Despues de una cena ligera, las muchachas y yo nos fuimos para el aeropuerto. Regresamos a la casa en Dublin como a la una de la mañana.
Eso fue Barcelona. De lo mas divertido, y lo unico que encontramos fue que hubieron personas muy rudas. Los taxistas nos querian dejar en la esquina en vez de al frente de donde uno le pedia, y hasta se enojaron con nosotros por insistir que nos llevaran. Los meseros fueron todos, super rudos. Me encontré con un señor el Sábado en la noche que primero pensó que yo era mexicana porque pedi "una tortilla como las de los tacos" (tortillas en barcelona es un omelette) y luego cuando le dije que era Dominicana, me dijo " no... tu eres Dominicana? Aqui las dominicanas... pero tu no, tu eres super preciosa" y luego cuando este le informo al mesero que yo era Dominicana empezaron a cantar a Juan Luis Guerra "Frio frio" y despues a hacer bromas acerca de platanos. Bah.

Ahora estoy en un nuevo trabajo - estaré aquí por tres semanas. Me encanta, es super sencillo (hasta ahora) y la gente que trabaja aqui es muy amable. No me puedo quejar! Te dan fruta gratis durante todo el dia, pan y mantequilla durante todo el dia, y puedo caminar desde mi casa (40 minutos mas o menos) asi que me ahorro el dinero del autobus y hago un poco de ejercicio.
Subire las fotos de Barcelona despues... estoy buscando una manera de subir mas en menos tiempo, no se como hacerlo todavia.

Creo que Alemania o Francia, despues.

Hasta luego!

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The economy in the United States is scaring us all, hurricanes everywhere and here I am, sometimes even forgetting who I am. This last weekend we went to Barcelona. I.'s parents were there, which was great. The architecture is awesome, there are veranda's everywhere, crazy monuments left and right: they really like and respect their architects there. I spent every day telling myself "I'm in Spain." It was hard to believe. When we arrived to Reus, there was some guy dressed up as Woody Woodpecker, out of all cartoon animals, welcoming the travelers in immigration. We had to run to take a bus to Barcelona, so we didn't eat till we got there, like at around 3 in the afternoon. We had bocadillos before finding our Hostel. The guys that worked there were creepy and annoying and kept making fun of us, but the room in itself was gorgeous. We met up with I.'s parents by the beach and were surprised by rain, drops as big as a fist (or so they felt) and so we ducked into the first restaurant we found. The girls and the 'rents had paella, Lobster and seafood respectively. I had the grilled Salmon. It was good, but very oily.

Saturday we woke up early and took one of those bus tours around the city. We saw a bunch of the Gaudí buildings and the church and what not- took a ton of pictures. For a while it felt like all that Spaniards ate was bocadillos. Sandwiches, mostly ham or cheese, with no butter or mayo or anything, not even heated. Anything heated was after one. We tried finding scrambled eggs for breakfast but Omelettes were only available in the afternoons. There was some kind of festival going on - a procession of 'groups' playing drums, (like bunch of drumlines, really) went down one of the main streets. For dinner we had pizza and the owner came over, first surprised and then to thank us because S. asked for cheese pizza with tomato slices. He didn't know you could do that! Even though S., I. and her parents all speak a bit of Spanish I did most of the talking. It was fun imitating the Spanish accent, but I prefer Dominican.

Sunday was another early morning and after a walk by the beach we stopped by the Picasso museum and then had some Tapas before heading to the beach. It was too cold to swim but still warm enough to lay about, taking in the sun. It was great. We had light dinner before heading to the airport and we were back at the Dublin house by 1 a.m.

That was Barcelona. A lot of fun and the only minus really would be all the rude people we ran into- the guy at the hostel, taxi drivers that would try to let us off at the corner instead of dropping us at the address we asked for. Servers were rude and temperamental. I ran into these guy, while the girls and I ordered a quick dinner Saturday night before trying to go for drinks. At first he thought I was mexican, because I had tried to explain to our server that what S. had asked for was indeed a "tortilla, like a mexican taco wrapper" and not the omelette that he was giving her. When I told him that I was Dominican he was very surprised and when I asked him how so ("don't I look Dominican?") he said that Dominicans there were.... but that I was beautiful regardless. Then he told our server that I was dominican, like it was some big news and soon enough they were singing Juan Luis Guerra songs (Frio Frio) and making platano jokes. Bah.

Now I'm at the new job. I'll be here for three weeks. I love it! It's super easy (so far) and the people here are very nice. I get free fruit throughout the day, toast for breakfast, and the place is close enough to my house (40 min.) that I can walk, so I save on bus money while exercising a little.

I'll be uploading some Barcelona pictures soon... I'm trying to find out if there's a way that I can install a slide in here, or just link 'em to my picasaweb pictures, because it takes too long to upload them here.

I think either Germany but most probably France will be next.

Later