Presidents' Day Excitement

The concept of winter has already taken on fairytale-like qualities in my mind.  Seeing folks post on Facebook about white-out conditions and forecasts for snow overnight seem ridiculous.  This morning, I'm sitting at my dining room table wearing shorts and a long-sleeved T-shirt.  The windows are open throughout the house, and a nice breeze floats through.  I'm listening to birds singing out the window.  Its a bit cloudy, which keeps the sun from beating too strong into the kitchen.  Its a beautiful day.

Dave and I enjoyed another beautiful day yesterday.  Dave may not benefit from a high salary or a long string of vacation days anymore, but he does celebrate the national holidays of both America and Venezuela.  So yesterday, although Lilly and Sophia went to school, Dave had the day off for Presidents' Day.  He and Annika and I went into the city for a bit of exploring.

We did not find what we were looking for.  We had hoped to rent a piano for our time here, and had no luck in finding the showroom.  We had also heard that Altamira, the neighborhood we expected to hold the piano shop, was a lovely neighborhood of shops and cafes.  The neighborhood is lovely, with tree-lined streets and wide sidewalks.  Its also very urban, with tall buildings popping up alongside graceful houses.  And it is not full of cafes.  It does seem to be full of restaurants, but no one was entering them at 11:30 in the morning.

We wandered a bit, looking for a place with people, and came upon this little stand.

It had a steady stream of people, so we decided to stop.  This felt more like street food than like a sidewalk cafe, and although it seemed a bit atypical for a leisurely brunch on a quiet holiday, we sat at the rickety table in the driveway and enjoyed us some empanadas, arepas and some sort of melon drink.  Muy rico.

I mentioned the steady stream of customers.  There was a table of guys who looked to have been sitting there for quite some time.  There were a few business people who came up, ate, and left - all within a few short minutes.  And there were the dudes from the armed truck across the street.

Security here is no joke, and the armored trucks take their names seriously.  These guys each carried a gun, an heavy belt of ammunition, and something that we guessed was a spray like mace.  They had heavy vests and they moved as a trio.  During the day, its easy to forget what a dangerous city we live in.  I don't imagine these guys forget.

Continuing the excitement, Chavez returned home to Venezuela yesterday.  We didn't hear the fireworks that greeted his 4am arrival announcement via Twitter.  We did hear many fireworks last night, which I assume were in further celebration.  He arrived by surprise, with no press and no photographs.  No one has seen him yet.  He is clearly not in good shape, and I still believe that we are in for a very interesting next few weeks.

The day's final excitement was for our Sophia.  She ran into another kid at the playground, which knocked a loose tooth right out of her mouth.  The school nurse put the tooth in a nifty little box which she wore around her neck all day, and placed beneath her pillow at night.  She lifted her pillow first thing this morning, and discovered... a tooth still in the box.

I asked her - what do you think happened?  She brainstormed for a while, and then we landed on the box.  Although the tooth fairy almost certainly created the box, she can not smell the tooth when the box is closed and so she did not know to visit last night.  Sophia opened the box, allowing the scent of the tooth to waft toward fairyland, and placed it gingerly back beneath her pillow.  By the time Lilly checked again, only a few minutes later, the tooth fairy had come and gone.

Thank goodness for Sophia's quick thinking, but shame on that tooth fairy.