Written on the airplane

It's 12:50 a.m. Alabama time, 3:50 a.m. Chile time. We're about halfway there.

It was a beautiful warm sunny day when we left from Alabama. The perfect day to help our bodies transition from winter weather to the summer weather that we will meet when we reach Santiago.

Our flight from Birmingham, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia took thirty minutes and went very smooth. We boarded the flight at Atlanta a bit late, but we were not the last people on the plane, because we forgot this time that Atlanta is an hour ahead!

I was tired and fell asleep for a little while on Armando's shoulder after we got on the plane. We are sitting in a three seat row at the back of the plane but nobody is in the third seat which is nice. You do feel the movements of the plane more on the back of the plane

We had some confusion at Atlanta airport trying to find the International terminal from where we were at, we did eventually find it! We were not the only people that had problems with that. Later, we saw some people who we had seen earlier and the lady said, We should have followed you! We went outside the airport security area and had to come back through and I had just bought some things and they took them away from me!

I will close for now and write you more when we are in Chile.

Take care of yourselves until I return!

Yep, that's me typing this message! :)

Bye for a day or so

I will meet you back here when we are in Chile. I am packing my notebook away for the trip. We should arrive January 10th in the morning, probably pretty tired after a long travel.

Relax, kick your shoes off and have a browse around at some of my old blog posts, if you want to. ;)

I'll be back!

Chochi in our suitcase

Chochi is waiting inside the suitcase. I think she wants to go to Chile with us.

I am going to miss our pets while we're away. They're so precious and lovable that a part of my heart feels sad at leaving them for a few months.

Pre-trip rambling

It is hard to believe that in two more days we will be flying to Chile to stay for a little over two months. Armando’s sister will have a baby at the end of this month. That is very exciting!

I want us both to take advantage of this trip because it is an opportunity that we may not have for a long time once we are both settled into jobs and working.

I am taking along a journal to take notes of my trip and I will be taking photographs like a madwoman! I am just now realizing how much you value photographs as time passes. They pretty much take you back to the feelings you had during the time of the photograph.

It will be summer, and I am so looking forward to seeing more of the country.

I want to share the trip by email and my blog with my family and my blogging friends. My sister already told me that I must take a lot of pictures because she is traveling to Chile vicariously through me!

We may get to travel to Argentina too, but we are not sure yet. It depends on if I have to pay $100 just to enter the country. In Chile, you have to pay $100 and I’ve paid it already the last time we went. If I have to pay $100, we won’t be going because to me, that is quite a bit of money and we could spend that money in Chile having fun instead.

I looked on the TSA website and it says that I can bring a crochet needle on the airplane. Excellent! So, I plan to bring the baby blanket along that I have been crocheting for Viviana’s baby and crochet in flight and on waits at the airport.

Note to self: Think long and hard before doing large projects in tiny crochet thread in the future. LOL

For reference, we will be staying in Santiago, Chile. See map below.

Sicko by Michael Moore

Last night we watched the movie Sicko by Michael Moore . It is a very good documentary that really brings home the point that our healthcare system in the United States needs a major makeover.

I remember being a child and shocked by some of the people who were hospitalized around the same time I was and seeing how many were being sent home when they obviously were not well enough to go home. It was not the doctor's decision, it was the Insurance company deciding that the person was ready to go home.

It makes me sad to know that many elderly people now cannot afford medications they really need. They go to the drug store and have to make a choice on what they can afford to buy this month.

In the past, my Doctor's had to threaten an insurance company with exposure to a tv show just so they would revoke a letter that  they had sent to me threatening to stop a medication I needed if I didn't pay them tons of money back, because they had made an error in approving the medication. After a few of my doctors stood up for me and mentioned the tv show, they covered me again. That's pitiful, Isn't it? People have to go to these extremes for medically necessary things. Medicine and healthcare is a need, it is not a want. There is a big difference between needs and wants.

It is heartbreaking to think of how many people suffered or died in the end because of Insurance companies and their dollar mark decisions. 

Busy day

Armando and I had a busy day today. We awoke, I scheduled an appointment with my doctor early to get an assessment on an abrasion on my back. Yep, of all times, now I have two wounds but this new one is not that bad. I just hit my back and made an abrasion while transferring. I got the ok for the trip so we felt more comfortable going and paying the money for the tickets which were already reserved.

We drove to Birmingham and paid for the tickets at the counter. The airline guy gave us coupons for free drinks on the flight. We will fly from Birmingham, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia and then from Atlanta to Santiago, Chile. It is approximately a nine hour flight from Atlanta, Georgia to Santiago, Chile.  We like to fly Delta because it is a direct flight from Atlanta to Santiago and the service is good.

Last time we went to Chile we used LAN Chile to fly and when we arrived to Miami, Florida we had issues with LAN and them having our seats and they wanted us to wait for a later flight.  That was a stressful trip with a lot of discussing and rudeness. Even though the airplanes were nice once you got your seat and on the plane, we were stressed for a while and concerned about not getting our seats when we were supposed to, after having paid for them in advance. That is not something you want to have happen on a long trip like that.

After visiting the airport, we went to Cost Plus World Market. I enjoyed it. We got some of this:

It is super delicious if you ever see turon, Try it! Armando first sent it to me in a package from Chile and I love it! When we go to Chile, if I see it, I am always ready to buy it and usually end up eating it shortly after. It is a deliciously sweet and yummy candy.

I also bought a few other things I remember from my childhood.

German Pumpernickel Bread

I love this bread fresh from the oven with butter on it. We ate it often when we lived in Germany. Most of the restaurants served it warm with butter.

and Leibniz butter biscuits. Oooooh! I just couldn't help myself. I love these cookies and I rarely see them anymore.

As you can tell, I had fun shopping at that store. Later, we will go back and browse their wine section.

We went to the bookstore and you all know by now that I love books.

I got this book for the trip.

Isabel Allende "My Invented Country"

I think it will be enjoyable to read this book while staying in Chile for two months.

We got new casters installed on my wheelchair today. I am so thankful and we got new armrest pads for my wheelchair. We are awaiting the tires to come in and my wheelchair should be in good shape for the trip. I cannot get a new wheelchair until later when I am back, it will take quite a while for insurance processing.

Well, that was pretty much our day.

I hope you have a good night. Now I am getting excited about going to Chile since we have the tickets. I am going to try my best to immerse myself in the Spanish language. I have to work more on the Spanish verbs. It will be very challenging trying to just use Spanish and not revert to English. But, I hope it will be a great learning experience.

I plan to share my trip with you in pictures and blog entries.

Sweet Dreams!

Michelle

Happy New Year!

I hope your New Year is full of blessings!

We shot fireworks last night. It was fun. I hadn't done that since I was a child.

We have changed our date on the Chile trip. Now we will be leaving January 9th and returning March 14th.

I had to restore my computer system this evening and that worried me somewhat with it being so close to trip time. But with system restore, all the problems are solved and the wireless network is functioning properly again as well as the sound.

Please forgive my lack of posts recently. We may be busy for these next few days preparing for the trip but I will be sharing entries when we are in Chile.

Santa

THANK YOU, Santa Armando!

:-)

I hope everybody is having a great weekend.

My sister and her family came to visit today. We went out for lunch and celebrated our Christmas together. We had a good time.

After they left, I worked a while on a book I am putting together for my parents with basic computer instructions. I don't want them to have problems when I am away in Chile. As I have been preparing their book, I am realizing how many things I don't really think about and just do out of habit. I had to go back and do the steps for several things, just so I wrote down which mouse button to click, etc.

Tonight we are going to sneak into bed early and watch television until we fall asleep. We are catching up on our sleep. Night Night!

Last night at work

Tonight was our last night at work. We are off Monday for New Year's which would've been our last night.

We will leave for Chile on January 14^th and return on March 14^th, 2008. I was listening tonight to a song called Summer Days and getting excited about being in summer weather soon! What a change from the cold we are having here right now. It is going to seem weird packing summer clothes in winter!

I have decided to wait until tomorrow to put the Spanish word of the day up on Viaje Español.

I am tired and couldn’t sleep well last night. Hopefully I can get in bed right away and sleep. Armando and I both have been having trouble sleeping lately. One of us usually wakes up with the smallest noise and then we both are awake and cannot sleep. We hope we can get our bodies trained to normal sleeping hours now that we won’t be working all night and early morning hours.

Night Night & Sweet Dreams!

I will post again soon. ;)

Creative Zen Stone MP3 Player

We got Mom an mp3 player for Christmas. I thought it was a good deal for $39.99. So I will write a little review in case others are trying to find an affordable mp3 player.

It is simple and really cute and portable. It has 1 GB of storage on it.

My Mom does not like technologically complex items. She prefers the Keep It Simple method when it comes to electronics. So this is a perfect mp3 player for her.

It has just a few buttons.

1. Play and pause button which also turns the mp3 player on and off when pressed for a longer time.

2. Forward button

3. Back button

4. Volume up

5. Volume down

We got her the mp3 player in red but they also have it in yellow, blue, pink, white, and black.

You can use the mp3 player at home with speakers plugged into the headphone jack or on the road with special cables.

If you are looking for a simple mp3 player this is nice. If you want a more complex mp3 player, then check out the sansa or zune lines. The price will be higher though for those brands. Of course there is also the ipod but I don’t have any experience with it I’ve used Sansa and Zune mp3 players before and I enjoyed them both.

I am such a silly girl. My parents both got their Christmas presents early. I cannot hold gifts very well when I think a person will enjoy them. Luckily, Armando offered for us to give them early and I was ALL for it. :D

Christmas Gifts Wrapped

I wrapped all the Christmas gifts today for our family. Our Christmas tree with built in lights died. We threw it away because a Christmas tree just looks strange without lights, Doesn't it? So the gifts are sitting in the living room looking rather odd without their tree.

Today has been a relaxing day. We gave my Dad his Christmas gifts early. A DVD-RW drive for his computer and power supply. Armando installed them. He was happy. He has been doing well with our weekend computer lessons. The last lesson I gave him was how to use Picasa picture program and he sent some of his pictures to be printed at Wal-Mart. I was so proud of him. Way to Go Daddy!

I got good news at my doctor's appointment this week. The doctor said that I can go to Chile as long as things continue to do well. I was a bit concerned she may say no, since it was a few months trip but she didn't. I have an appointment again on January 3rd to see how things are progressing. I will take plenty of nutritional drinks and carnation instant breakfast so I keep my nutrition well and I will hopefully continue healing.

I opened Viaje Español Store today. It was fun designing the shirts, bags and hats.

Armando and I are about to go to the store for some early a.m. shopping. It will be nice to beat the crowds, besides, we are usually awake at this hour anyway. Work has our sleep schedule very odd. We can't seem to be sleepy at normal bedtime hours.

Same 'ol Same 'ol

Just the normal same ‘ol same ‘ol has been going on around here. I slept so well this morning. I think I drifted into a deep sleep the moment my head hit the pillow. I awoke this morning with Chochi meowing a pitiful little “I’m hungry and thirsty meows” and then climbing up on my chest to further drive her point home! (She knows how to get her way. ) I am going to miss our cats when we visit Chile for that few months.

I’ve been downloading podcasts to listen to at work tonight. There is so much variety in the world of podcasts. Sometimes it is hard to decide which podcasts to pick. Armando upgraded to the latest Zune player and he gave me his Zune! I am thrilled with it. Mp3 players are something I enjoy but probably would never buy for myself so it is rather nice that Armando gives me his.

I’ve been trying to work on lessons for Viaje Español when I have time. I want to add more lessons teaching the basics and useful things besides just the words of the day. So, I’ve been marking my notebook with lesson plans and ideas for future podcasts. I definitely want Armando and I to do some Conversational Spanish in the future. I also need to submit my podcast to more directories and finish reading the podcast book we got.

I am looking into the idea of doing Medical Transcription. (Thanks Brenda for helping me learn more about it.) I’ve always found medical stuff interesting. I could remember drug names like Ketamine and Versed easily when I was sick as a child. I thought it was funny as a thirteen year old to joke with the anesthesiologist about what drugs he should use to sedate me.

Change of subject.

It is not long at all until Christmas!

I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. (Oh, the dread.) Here’s hoping I get a good report and I will be allowed to purchase my plane ticket for Chile without any objections. Please, Please!

Well, I need to start gathering our things for work together.

P.S. You can listen to a song I like to the right. ;)

Have a good evening!

O Tannenbaum!

 

I've been enjoying this Christmas tree for many nights as we deliver across the street for work. Armando was a sweet darling and brought the tripod tonight and took this picture for me, so I could share it with you. Bless his heart, it was cold out there tonight! The tree is in Hanceville, Alabama. I went to college in this town.

 

The tree had me singing O Christmas tree in German. I remember the first part of the song only! I learned it in school when we lived in Frankfurt, Germany for three years.

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur
  zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannin,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!

 

We lived in Germany when I was a baby too, but I don't remember that. I do however remember the kinder eggs with little prizes inside. I LOVED those. I would buy one kinder egg for "a mark" while my sister, much wiser than me, would buy a whole bag of nectarines for "a mark". I ended up eating my kinder egg and sometimes she would share it with me but I always finished the egg in a hurry. I liked making the little toy inside too. My sister felt sorry for me and usually shared her bag of nectarines with me. :) We liked the fruit and ice cream trucks that came around the neighborhoods in Germany. All the children ran when they heard the music playing.

Armando and I work this job for another 7 days. We plan to go to Chile for two months. I am going to bring my notebook to Chile so I will be posting pictures and blogging. When we come back, Armando will be looking for a job in his field. Let's hope I heal quickly!

Christmas cookies, etc.

Today, My Mom and I turned on the Christmas music and baked cookies for my Aunts and Uncles, a family friend and our mechanic. We made sugar cookies and decorated them, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip and double chocolate chip cookies.

One set of cookies ready to be delivered tonight.

For supper, I experimented and made something similar to hamburger steak. I made hamburger patties and seasoned them with Italian seasoning. I sauteed onions and when the hamburgers were done, I added mozzarella cheese on top and let it melt. It was a nice change from regular hamburger steak. I made pan fried potatoes.

Pan fried potatoes recipe

Peel and cut potatoes up into thin circular slices.

Boil them in salted water until tender but not falling apart.

Drain the water.

Add oil in a pan, transfer the potatoes over and fry, turning regularly,until golden brown. Best if you use a pan with lid and keep the lid on in between stirs.

You can add butter to them when you take them off the stove or without it is good too.

----

It is very cold here and getting colder as the night goes on. It is 23.3 F right now. Brrr!

I didn’t feel very well Friday and Saturday but today I have felt better.

Tonight, My Aunt gave me a few things that reminded me of my Grandmother. She made chocolate oatmeal cookies and sent us some crème drops. My Grandmother always made chocolate oatmeal cookies for me and my sister. We always requested her to make those and biscuits with tomato soup. It was our favorite!

My Grandmother’s favorite candy was crème drops.

Armando took some beautiful pictures at Lake Guntersville today. Check them out here.

Last night I had an awful dream/nightmare. It seemed so realistic! I dreamed that I was in a doctor's office and the doctor was telling me that I needed brain surgery. I was in shock and asked him if there were any other options? He said no. I remember going to the Operating Room feeling very nervous. (I've been through many surgeries so that would be nothing new to me, but this was freaking me out.) I was having a hard time coping with what could go wrong and happen to me before I woke up. Then I remember coming out of surgery ok but then being concerned over my shaved head.

I don't know what brought that nightmare on. I remember reading an article the other day in Discover magazine about a new technique being used to put electrodes on the brain to stimulate people who have had a brain injury. Could it be that somehow got me dreaming about brains, or rather, my own brain? No idea. It was weird.

Fresh start

I gave our cat Chochi a bath and I got wet too. Chochi had took a visit down to the goat pasture (in one word, YUCK) and a bath was very in need. She is all clean and fluffy now and since her bath is over with, she is happy. Bless her heart, she was so upset with me for putting her through that.

We had a live video stream of our crayfish up earlier. I apologize if it blacked out for a while. I noticed it had when I woke up and Armando fixed it. It will be off air for a while because Armando and I both are about to format our computers. The Dell CD's arrived rather quickly.

I hope my computer is faster after the format. If it isn't, I will think that maybe this notebook is not able to handle Vista as an OS (even though it was sold with it on) and I may give serious thought to reverting to XP.

I hope your Saturday has been a good one. I will be back soon.

P.S. I apologize for not getting the Spanish word of the day on Viaje Español or the podcast yet.

Crayfish Show

 

This is real-time video streaming from our living room.

Meet our crayfish!

Note: Sometimes she moves into the background but she'll be back.

Dell support Drama

Some people that work at Dell are not well suited for their job. One man kept me on unending hold and then got hateful with me before deciding that the thing he got hateful with me about and told me couldn't be done, then could magically be done! Then he transferred me to somebody else.

Thank Goodness after talking about another thirty minutes, the CD's are supposed to mailed to me. The second person wanted to take over my computer remotely and check it out etc. He was nice though. That was good but why can't a person decide how they want to handle their computer problems if they have knowledge enough to do so and why can't Dell learn to be less stubborn and let people help themselves!?

Oh the drama to get recovery or operating system CD's these days! Just give me the CD's folks.

Sorry, I just needed to get my frustration out.

Now for a little humor.

 

Healing Drink

The doctor's visit went fine today. I have a pressure sore/wound on my right ribcage region. This can happen to people in wheelchairs, especially in bony parts of the body without much fat for padding.

The doctor gave me some drink mixes to drink once or twice daily. She said the orange is good when mixed with pineapple juice but the grape tastes like watered down koolaid.

We shall see... (tomorrow) I am not brave enough to try it tonight.

Let's hope this new healing drink has a good flavor.

Mornin'

We got in from work and Armando had to go back to the city we just arrived home from. (Poor thing)

My Dad’s driver had broken down so he went to pick him up.

I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at 10 a.m. I dread it, but I need to go.

I did not sleep well last night. I hope I can sleep a few hours this morning.

I am reading two books right now.

The Morning of the Magicians

Reading this book is really a journey. It is a thought provoking book.

My Antonia

I am not far into this book yet but I do like what I have read so far.

I just finished reading:

On Writing by Stephen King

I laughed a lot when I read this book. The book was very open and honest. He discussed many parts of his life including childhood, family, drug and alcohol abuse, his accident and recovery. Most importantly, he gave great advice on writing!

 

P.S. Here are a few funny pictures of our cats from this past weekend and one from on the way to work.

This is Chochi sleeping on top of her cat food bin. This picture makes me laugh.

 

This is Cookie asleep in a basket at the end of our bed. She is getting TOO big for that basket. I need to find her a bigger one. She has grown a lot recently.

(Our cats love baskets.)

I must scoot and get into bed.

Night Night or rather, Good Morning!

Q & A session

Today we had a surprise visit from my friends Solomon and Lupi.

Their little boy is so funny and talks constantly.

He talked about hurricanes, tornados and the color of his new bedroom. (They are building a house.)

He told me that he was only speaking English. He then said he could be an English robot. I joked with him as he spoke like a robot and then asked, “Can’t you be a Spanish robot too?” Of course he could and did the Spanish robot for me also.

He mentioned their new bathroom and I asked him, “Does water spray out of your ears when you take a shower?” He came back with a quick answer, “No, I wear headphones!” (laugh)

He said many more things including that six weeks is not that long and he expounded on that by counting to six.

1-2-3-4-5-6

Then he placed his hands up and said, See? That is not a long time.

It was fun to hear a child's perspective on things.