Nuevo Blog

Hola, amigos. Estoy regresando a mi blog original. Es público ahora, entonces puede mirar si quiere. Yo lo extraño por que lo tiene mis listas, fotos, y Dark Conflicted Men (TM). Para celebrar mi regreso, escribí un artículo de Walmart y cómo personas deben hacer de compras allí. ¡Gracias por su attención!

Hello, friends. I am returning to my original blog. It's set to public now, so you can all access it if you want. I've missed it because it has my lists, pick-too-rays, and my Dark Conflicted Men (TM). To celebrate my return, I have written an article about Walmart and how people should go about shopping there. Thanx for you attention!

Here's the link...

snivelluslyozalan.spaces.live.com

Did ew know...?
Disney likes to ruin things.
Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.

Pik-too-rays: Clinical Madness

1:16 am -- I've gotta stop making these posts in the middle of the night. My brain does frightening things. Er. Frighteninger.
5:05 pm -- The problem is, now I'm under pressure to be sane. I can't take that much pressure.
6:45 pm -- But I'll take a shot anyway. Well, as you probably know, we did a lot of work at Clinica Alabama, a medical clinic in Granada for those with very little income. I got to try our hands at several different tasks (the harm to my pronoun regulator is irreparable, I fear), one of which was helping to organize their rather messy and scattered pharmacy. Now, I happen to do very well with menial and monotonous tas---er, moiling, that is, a monotone metier if you will, but I'm afraid my dear sister gets rather bored rather quickly. She begins to amuse herself in any way available, and though I'd be content to let my mind wander, who am I to turn down a bit of...patternizing...and playing...with pill packaging.

We made all kinds of patterns with these bottles...and I mean all kinds. I just selected one for your enjoyment. But, O, and Lo, the suspense each time of what pattern we would try next, I tell you, the joy is uncontainable. Or unattainable. No, it's the first one.

Sometimes we shook up the order of things. Rather than do one bottle at a time, we'd open all the bottles at once. Elizabeth decided to make a lovely pyramid.

And not to be outdone, I proceeded to make an upside down pyramid...and then some.

Now, at first glance, this may look like just some stacks of pill bottles, but if you look closer, you'll realize it's a very intricate design to give that 3D appearance. There are actually three layers of barcodes here, arranged very deliberately, and I have to say, I could stare at it for hours. No, I really could.

I have one word for you: Furosemide. That little devil of a pill will be in my nightmares for years to come. They were little pills that came in those punch out packages, but the material was paper instead of that aluminum stuff, so they wouldn't just punch out. You had to individually rip each one out. The fastest way we found to do it (which was not actually fast at all) was to cut zigzag patterns across the packaging and then peel back the paper. The result was a bunch of gold coloured strips with spikes on one side. Now who wouldn't look at that and think crowns? Honestly? So we saved some strips and made Furosemide crowns. And then modeled them.

And if ever I got bored of pills, there were plenty of other things to get creative with. Here we have scissors, tape, a marker, and a container of paper strips for labeling. I can make art out of anything. You give me an anything and I will give you the whole world. Or, ya know, art.

And in case you were starting to doubt it, yes of course we did other things. Here I'm helping fill prescriptions. Or rather, taking a break from filling prescriptions and looking...what? Bored? Wistful? Mischievous? In love with my water bottle? Well, I was that. I mean, look at the thing. It's beautiful. I'll tell you what though. And something else too. You know how people say their math classes are a waste of time? Well it's a good thing I took all my math classes. I would have been lost in that pharmacy if I hadn't learned to count to sixty. And with all the preceding numbers too. Them pharmacists have it real tough, man.

And now, to give you a break from the clinic and to close off my Nicaragua posting, I give you...my legs. But not just any legs, I...well look at those beauties. "Lobster red" doesn't do them justice. This was the only time on the trip I got burned, and when I get burned, I do it with style. I mean, I've got four colours going on there. If you count white as a colour. And off-white as tan. I could barely walk for days. And the cruel, cruel irony of life is that the one time my sunburn turns into a tan, it's splotchy and uneven, with clear lines where the strings of my capris were. I defy anyone to have a more stylish sunburn.

But wait, there's more! We're not done with my legs yet! The mosquitos decided my legs needed even more distinction. I look diseased.

So there you go. My Nicaragua Chronicling is done.

Did ew know...?

Spiders are good at playing dead.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.

Cas*: Ew. I hate Spongebob. But if you mean to say they're cute, I heartily agree. ;-)= Our allergies were not bad at all. The heat (and consequently the headaches) was much more of a problem than allergies were. Also, hardly any kitties ( :-(= ), so again, no allergies. There are more pics, if you're interesting in seeing them sometime. I do actually have them on a CD, so we don't have to wait for Elizabeth, if you're interested. Or did you see them already? Oh, and I'm glad I have such a strong power of suggestion. :D

Pik-too-rays: The Side Trips

12:17 am -- Well, I discussed Granada, our home away from. I really loved it there, heat and all, but of course there were some things we really had to see outside of Granada since we were in the country. I mean, how lame would "There are tons of volcanos" "How many did you get to see" "None really, but I hear they're nifty" sound? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Amn't I cute? I loved those hammock chairs. I loved them so much that I bought two when I got the chance. They're sitting in the corner of my room. I hear you're supposed to use them, but meh. N-E-wayz, here is me on El Mango Falls, my uncle's island.

Here's a nice shot of the island...

...and another...

...and another, from a distance this time.

When we visited another island, this was the view we got. Lovely, neh?

Oh, the irony of life. The room we were invited to stay in on the island was called "The Spider Room." It was pleasant though, with air-conditioning, and I'm happy to say that I encountered no spee-drays. (That's "spiders," for the Rebeccalese deprived) Which means either that there were none, or they waited until night to attack with their knives.

Aren't they cute? Uncle Gerard and Maria Celia on El Mango Falls. There was a nice plaque in prominent view on the island sporting that name, which I still didn't realize was the island's name until someone drew the connection for me. I...thought it was a random tiled display? Score a point for Rebecca's deductive reasoning.

This tour was handy-dandy-notebook fun!!!! We drove up one side of the Mombacho volcano, where they had these zip-lines set up between trees. We were harnessed in, and got to zip from tree to tree on these ropes, really high up. I can't even stress how fun it was!!! And I'm pleased to say that I don't look totally ridiculous in a harness, though the helmet was iffy...I'm sure I could have survived smacking into a tree...George does it all the time....

Well, no one really said, but it sure looks like bamboo to me!!!!! Bamboozled!!!!! :D Bamboo makes me very happy. This was on the hike back down the volcano, as the truck desided to go and flatten all its tires. Lazy little minx.

Xavier y Susana took us to Caterina one weekend. Isn't it lovely? Oh, and the water's quite nice as well. This photo also features the elegant half-liter water bottle, the near constant companion.

Aw, aren't they cute? These were the taxis in Caterina, and yes, we took one. I mean, no stealing or anything...just went riding in one.

This picture demonstrates a few useful pieces of information. One is that when we biked to Laguna de Apoyo, the bikes only took us so far. We had to hike the rest of the way. Secondly, we did said hiking (and almost everything else) in those fantabulous Adidas flip-flops, that had incidentally already seen us through a six month trip, with equally a great deal of action. Impressive little shoes, those. Only excepting those are in fact not the same flip-flops...OoPs. Well, I'm wearing the Adidas. You just can't see them in this pic, but that's...completely not important. So thirdly, Elizabeth seems to have been more affected by that monkey bite than we had realized.

Dali kept claiming all the mischief ocurring in the water was pescados (fish) and not himself, throwing rocks and attacking us under water. Psh. I'm holding one of said pescados. It's such a rocky looking fish.

Dali, Angelica, and Elizabeth on their bikes on the way back. The way back was pleasant. The way back was easy. The way back was downhill. What of it?

Our trip would not have been complete without seeing Ome Tepe, the largest island there, with two volcanos. This require more time than other side trips, so we spent two nights away from home sweet Granada. Here is one of the volcanos as we're approacing the island. And yes, there always seems to be smoke around the top of the volcanos there. Very cool.

I kid you not...they're frogs. We were crossing a little bridge, and saw a largeish puddle with swarms and swarms of weird black beetle looking thingies. Hopping. As the others walked away, I bent down to look closer...well, I'm sure you can see. They're frogs.

We were able to get even more out of the way at the mineral pools of Ojo de Agua. It was quite lovely and relaxing.

And also someone provided Elizabeth with birthday cake, since it was her birthday and all. Couldn't have planned her birthday better if I tried.

Later that night, our newfound friends (Ryan and Rebecca) had dinner at the same place we'd been eating for every other meal...it was locally run, cheaper, and much much tastier than other places. Well, THE other place. We really didn't have many options. There's that Tona beer again. And the giant water bottle that had by now replaced the small one. Forget the pain of having to lug that monster around...it was way better than the pain of a dehydration headache.

12:16 am -- Seviche. I'm going to get that typed before I forget it. I'll be back in a mo' to explain further.

12:55 am -- Ah. Here we are again. Seviche is a traditional appetizer dish with fish, garlic, onion, seasonings and citrusy stuffs and then crackers to dip in it. Of course, it ended up being our whole meal rather than an appetizer, due to some confusion, but it was quite tasty, so we weren't complaining.

This was the view from our hostel's deck. It was very nicely situated. I have to say, much as I loved staying in one place for most of this trip, hosteling it for a few nights reminded me of Europe, and it was far from an unpleasant reminder. Part of me misses the crazy moving around. Just part of me.

Uncle Gerard took us to a crater. It smoked a lot. I guess no one warned it against lung cancer.

O shut up. It was funny.

Having been invited on many adventures by our dear friends, we were happy to return the favour and invite them out to the island. All six of us had a blast!

Dali noticed some people fishing around a neighbouring island, and called them over to buy some fish off them. We cooked them, seasoned them (they used salt on most of them, but I insisted on Tony Chacheres), and...

...ate them.

Our final side trip, right before heading to Managua and then home, was San Juan del Sur. Not really my cup o' tea, as it's a beach town, but it's just one of those must sees. The town though, was actually quite pleasant. I don't suppose it's its fault for being next to a beach. The pink bottle there is mayo. They call it creme. Weird.

They were actually quite good. Nothing all that special, but we were hungry, and the sauces were really nice.

I suppose I couldn't really get away without a picture of the actual beach. So here I am, getting about as close as I wanted to. Of course I did walk along the beach several times. And what most people would consider to be not a great beach (it's much "nicer" on the other side where the nice beach houses are), I was rather pleased with, since most of the sand was damp and therefore not hot and sharp and sinky and irritating. But it still got everywhere.

Aaaaahhhhh. When it's that hot, you have to appreciate frappuccinos. It had been months since I'd had one.

Nacatamale is a traditional breakfast there, especially on Sundays. It's quite good, and we had it several times. On Sundays, of course. Also cafe con leche, which is very good there.

Now this is my idea of fun at the beach. I beautiful beach house, where you can effectively shut out the beach and enjoy a lovely pool instead. Complete with hammocks.

Well, that's it for the side trips. Only one post remains.

Next Up: ............I don't know...something.

Did you know...?

When you look in a mirror, you can see what's behind you. Unless it's a vampire.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.

Pik-too-rays: Granada: Six Fixed Pics

Heh, say that ten times fast...

So once again, some pics decided to be sideways. Little scamps. Here they are not sideways. I even provided the descriptions again for your convenience, though I can't promise they'll all make sense without the context of the others. Of course, I can't promise they make sense anyway, but all the same, I'd recommend you read the original post first, and then look at these pictures upright. Upright and steadfast. Like a bell. And a lizard. Like a lizard on a bell eating a tortilla. Yeah. Man, I'm tired.


On our little tour of Granada which our school took us on, we got to go up into the bell tower of a church and have a lovely view of the yellow church and the lake beyond. They had signs saying not to ring the bells. Which of course I had no temptation to do until I saw signs that said not to ring the bells. Sometimes there's no justice in the world.

Inspite of my lack of attention, I did manage to draw my eyes away from the kitten long enough to make my own tortilla.

Gustavo is the pharmacist at Clinica Alabama. We loved working with him, which was good because we worked with him a lot. You'll see in the third picture post just what that grueling work entailed.

This was another, though slightly less frequent, favourite snack...mangos!!!! Yummy.

Look, I had a friend!!! Actually there were lizards all over the place in the homes. And they make the cutest little clicking sounds. I was very pleased that this guy showed up to say goodbye. In case you can't make sense of the picture, the wall next to my bed was cement, and had a row of those holes in it. I assume in order to keep bugs out (which I greatly appreciate because there were swarms of mosquitos), they had a screen on the inside of the holes, and my friend is sitting on the outside of the screen.

Here I am ready to leave for the last time ('sniff'), with only my small bag packed and ready for San Juan del Sur. We had sent the rest of our luggage to Maria Celia's home for safekeeping while we were gone, to be picked up on our way to Managua later. Which was without doubt more info than you needed. No worries.

Pik-too-rays: Granada

What? It hasn't been that long. Maybe almost that long, but not quite. Anyhoos, since I don't currently have the next Ender book, and won't until the library opens, which is, in fact, tomorrow, I decided I ought to attempt to finish up my travel blogging. And hey, it's what you've been waiting for...pictures!!!!!!!


Maybe it seems wrong to you for me to open up my Granada pictures with one that is not, in fact, in Granada. But there are probably many things about you that seem wrong to me, so how's about we just leave that where it is. This is our luggage. Which may seem unimpressive, but when you consider that before we had giant backpacks to lug around everywhere, you can perhaps understand my excitement to have only carry-ons.

On our little tour of Granada which our school took us on, we got to go up into the bell tower of a church and have a lovely view of the yellow church and the lake beyond. They had signs saying not to ring the bells. Which of course I had no temptation to do until I saw signs that said not to ring the bells. Sometimes there's no justice in the world.

One might wonder why in the states, we're all about the grey and brown houses with little to no variation...ever...when people in other countries have buildings like this. I say One might wonder, as I do indeed wonder, and so I wonder if One might not wonder too.

On one of our field trips with our school, we were taken to a nearby woman's house to make (and of course eat) tortillas. There happened to be a kitten there...one of the only kittens I saw on the whole trip. I wasn't paying much attention to the tortillas.

This cat would not leave the poor dog alone. She kept pouncing and jumping and slapping, and the dog just sat there and did nothing...it was fantastically funny.

Inspite of my lack of attention, I did manage to draw my eyes away from the kitten long enough to make my own tortilla.

Look, I graduated!!! I actually learned Spanish!!! This is my teacher, Maria.

We learned to make churritos at the school. Here I am expertly rolling them as Janine watches my grace and epertise with envy.

Angelica proceeded to fry the churritos we had rolled. They were quite tasty.

We later had a party for all the students still in the area. They made mojitos. We helped by squeezing the limes...ow...but it was worth it. Oh, and the Victoria is their local beer. That and the Tona. The Tona seems to be more popular, at least with the men. To me, they both taste like beer.

Here I am at the Cocibolca Jockey Club that my uncle belongs to. He got us guest passes. It was very relaxing and quiet there.

On our way out of the jockey club, we spotted these horses on the island in the middle of the road. It was such a bizzarre sight to a city girl like me, so a picture was needed.

Thanks to a small refrigerator our uncle provided for us, we were able to keep a few snacks and things in stock. Our favourite by far was the vanilla waffle wafers. You see them here, along with our homemade mint iced-tea. I had some tea bags, so we took the last of them, made hot tea, put that in one of the water bottles and left it in the refrigerator. It was so refreshing, especially considering how HOT it is there.

??? It's by the main square, I can tell you that. I've no idea why it's crooked like that, but I like it.

This is a nice view of the main square. The yellow church is on the left (clearly) and the central park is on the right.

...'sigh'...Moving on...

This is the old church...I think it was used before the yellow church. But now it's just old and cool looking, neh?

Carita Feliz kids!!!! Aren't they cute? Well, as cute as kids can be.

This was our standard breakfast, with occasional variation. Watermelon, melon, banana, and pineapple, plus bread and an egg, and coffee to drink.

Gustavo is the pharmacist at Clinica Alabama. We loved working with him, which was good because we worked with him a lot. You'll see in the third picture post just what that grueling work entailed.

Cecilia is the administrator at Clinica Alabama. She made us feel welcome right from the start, and we enjoyed working with her immensely.

Finally, some pictures of our apartment. It took us all the way until the day we were leaving. It was just one of those things that you could keep putting off. It wasn't like in Europe where we knew we'd be gone the next day. Anyhoo, here's a view from the door inwards. The refrigerator's on the floor behind that counter on the left. And the stairs lead to...

The bedroom! My bed was just a matress on that platform. The shelves were full for most of our stay. It was nice to be able to unpack. Very nice. Elizabeth called me a weirdo because of the coke...

...and yet...'nuff said. But do note the fans, if you would. Talk about life savers. I would lie down every night on the very edge of my bed with my face in the fan.

Clearly, by this time I had completely abandoned the .5 liter water bottles and gone for those three times that size. And I was chugging three to four of those per day. Criminey, but it was so hot! And there on my plate is the infamous gallo pinto. Actually quite good, especially with some chile sauce.

This was another, though slightly less frequent, favourite snack...mangos!!!! Yummy.

Look, I had a friend!!! Actually there were lizards all over the place in the homes. And they make the cutest little clicking sounds. I was very pleased that this guy showed up to say goodbye. In case you can't make sense of the picture, the wall next to my bed was cement, and had a row of those holes in it. I assume in order to keep bugs out (which I greatly appreciate because there were swarms of mosquitos), they had a screen on the inside of the holes, and my friend is sitting on the outside of the screen.

Here I am ready to leave for the last time ('sniff'), with only my small bag packed and ready for San Juan del Sur. We had sent the rest of our luggage to Maria Celia's home for safekeeping while we were gone, to be picked up on our way to Managua later. Which was without doubt more info than you needed. No worries.

Sarita (we never could quite figure out if that was her name, but it's close to that), Susana, and Xavier. Our hosts and their hired help. And also our family while we were there. They are wonderfully sweet people, and made our stay there so pleasant and comfortable.

So, that's Granada in a nutshell. A very pleasant and smallish city, with plenty of nice shops, walks, views, and foods. :-)= It really was the perfect place for us to stay.

Next up, our little weekend trips away from Granada...