Sheep Guarding Llama

Happy Birthday to Rachel! Well it is Monday and I feel like the weekend was ultimately unproductive. That just makes me stressed. At least the girls and I did get to hang out quite a bit. And Liesl and I have been working on her math classes a bit. More of that this evening as well. We are trying to hit that and her cinema classes really hard so that we can show significant progress.

I did manage to record a few videos today for YouTube, so feel productive about that. Worked on a lot of software development stuff all day.

Overall today was not too bad. The show did well today, the team worked well, I was productive.

Marcela is super sick again today. She was very good yesterday, it seemed like we had made real progress. We had changed her mattress and she seemed almost good as new. But today she is super sick again, almost to the point of going to the hospital.

Areyson came by to use my studio to record some audio for some social media production work that he is doing. Everyone wants to use my Rode XLR Podmic.

Liesl and I worked on her math classes tonight. She’s making really good progress. In fact she flew through her classes and is done! She still has the final exam, but only the exam. This is huge. Nothing has hindered her life more than her math classes. She is already done with science. Just the final exam and math is done, forever.

This evening the girls and I watched some more H2O Just Add Water until about two in the morning.

Liesl and I put in a lot of time working on her math classes today. She is in the home stretch and we are trying to get her done. She’s already completed all of her science classes for school, for forever. It’s weird thinking of my baby as having already gone through every science class that she will ever have. And she’s just a few days (hopefully) away from being able to say the same thing about math. It’s so hard to imagine her having her school life behind her now. When you are a kid it feels like it goes on forever.

This afternoon I went to a studio downtown to do a photoshoot with The Bernies. We did photos in the studio, then went to my house and did photos in the garden as well.

This evening the girls decided that they wanted to go to Puesta del Sol in Las Peñitas for dinner since I needed to run down there anyway to pay some bills. So at 7:30 the four of us drove down there and had dinner. Their menu is much smaller now so not the selection that we miss. Lots of menu items we want are gone so that is sad. But it was nice to be there again. Luciana doesn’t think that she’s physically eaten in the restaurant (as opposed to take away) for four years, not since we lived on the beach!

After dinner we came home. Liesl and I watched Some Like it Hot for her cinema studies class. I have to say, that is not a good movie at all. Very bad, in fact. I can’t how badly written it was. The story is dumb, the dialogue is downright painful. The acting mostly seems like people just walked on to set and flatly said a line without context; which makes sense as the dialogue is so jilting and awkward, how could you act through it? So far this is the biggest loser movie in her classes. I’m truly shocked that this is considered a classic. It’s neither good, nor artistic, nor watchable. It’s a terrible performance from nearly everyone involved, not a good example of the works of any of the people. Even Joe Brown absolutely sucked in this after decades of being a big player in Hollywood; and I’m a huge Tony Curtis fan, but this was not something for him to be proud of.

Luciana joined us after the movie and we all watched two episodes of H2O Just Add Water which isn’t a great show, but is more entertaining than the movie. Then it was time for bed.

Saturday. I was hoping for a very relaxing day. But, of course, I ended up way too busy. I got up and worked just a little, but then had to go out to the beach to help with coordinating some social media activities there at the hotels. So first we ran errands, then picked people up, then went out to the beach.

I ran into fans of the show while at the hotel, of course. That never fails. So I was busy talking to one group of guests or another for about two hours. Then in the late afternoon it was a trip back to Leon and just about to drop Marcela off when we got an emergency call that a cat needed to be rescued in Zaragoza and the only cat trap was at the beach. So we turned right around and drove back to the beach, got the trap, came back, got the girls to go shopping, went to Zaragoza and dropped off the trap and then went to La Colonia to do some late grocery shopping.

While at La Colonia I got recognized by two fans of the that had spoken to me but had not yet met me in person; and then while there Janet arrived, too. The girls hid with Marcela in a different aisle to avoid meeting people.

Once we were done at La Colonia we dropped Marcela off at home and the girls and I came back to the house with our new groceries. We had a good haul and found the fish patties that we really like that are hard to find and I made those for our dinner.

The girls and I watched more of season one of H2O Just Add Water before going to bed.

Liesl totally forgot that she had to go to Managua this morning for some blood work at the clinic and stayed awake all night. She was just going to bed when I stopped in to check on her about fifteen minutes before she was scheduled to get in the car to go! That was a rough morning for her, just going to bed and instead going to Managua, again.

Dominica was running late and it was nearly nine when the “definitely before eight” trip was out the door. They stopped to get Marcela (but only after I reminded her – she was already zipping straight by without stopping) and all went out to Managua. Just Luciana and I (and Aida) in the house today with the menagerie.

It was a long day of work for me. Luciana was sick last night. She coughed so much that, like Marcela, it made her sick to her stomach. But overall she’s not feeling that much worse.

I had to run out to the beach to deliver some money today. So that cut into my afternoon. But I managed to record today’s video out on the beach, so that was a nice change of pace. We have Canal 8 out filming on the beach again tomorrow, too.

I just worked this evening. Liesl got home from Managua and just crashed, having had zero sleep last night. Luciana is tired from being so sick and needs to work on school. I was in meetings until very late and was tired as well. So we just decided to all go to bed early tonight instead of hanging out.

Today is a first, the first time that I will ever go to any embassy; and the first time that we are renewing passports while living overseas. We’ve lived abroad for so long but have always been able to deal with passports while at home. But now we cannot, both girls have their passports expiring very soon (and honestly, ours are too.) So we needed to get that taken care of right away. Because they are minors we have to renew at the US Embassy in Managua, it’s the only option. We are scheduled for 1:30PM for Luciana and 2:00 PM for Liesl. But the embassy knows that they are sisters and already addressed that so we just show up and do them together at 1:30.

Liesl had an appointment at her toe doctor in Altamira in the morning. So we got up and drove to Managua early. Dominica doesn’t trust how fast I drive and things I’m ridiculously slow so even with her being ready late, we were an hour early for the appointment. We found a new cafe called Cha Cha Matcha that is right next to her doctor and quite fancy. So we went there and hung out for two hours. It’s a great find. We really like the place. They have Dubai Chocolate Croissants, too. Very recommended.

Luciana and I stayed in the cafe while Dominica took Liesl to the doctor. Then we drove across town to Molino at Plaza La Fe and we had a quick lunch there. I love their cæser salad and basil hummus.

The secret to going to the embassy is parking at Plaza La Fe and taking an InDrive from there. Just C$220 for the whole family to zip down there at peak hours. There is no parking whatsoever at the embassy so having a driver is a necessity. This process made it so easy.

The entire experience at the embassy itself was great, too. All of the staff was very friendly, efficient, and helpful. Things were easy and moved quickly. Of course we were well prepared, but that wasn’t what did it. The staff there were just really good and it was all handled really well. I was so impressed.

After the passport paperwork was filed we went outside, grabbed an InDrive, and returned to Plaza La Fe. We were going to head straight back home, but Luciana wanted to use the bathroom and we stumbled on another cafe there called Latte Latte and so popped in and checked it out, too.

We were headed home at a very reasonable time. So I was able to get home and work all evening. Customers were, of course, looking for me all day. So it was a busy night for me. Plus I had to do an emergency run to Palí because we were out of toilet paper in the house.

Dominica and Liesl are going back to Managua tomorrow for blood work and to stop at PriceSmart. Luciana and I will stay home with the dogs and cats.