Beef. It's what's for dinner.

I'm slipping aren't I? 

It was posts every day, then every other day, and now I'm down to every couple of days. Apparently life is getting boring.

I recently revealed that I bought a new-to-me-bike, and with the "semana santa" or holy week about to start here in Mexico, I was really really hoping to have my car back to hopefully go mountain biking. 

It's been one uphill, no breaks, and no flat stretches with this car in Mexico. It would never have occurred to me that getting parts for a GM product would be so difficult, but it is!

Anyway, I was finally willing to just plunk down some money I don't have just to get it back and in working order (even though I don't need a new air conditioner). Spent the time online searching for parts and the mechanic was as well. For days, nothing. Finally today I went to Auto Zone to see if I could just buy an outright new part for the car. I had suggested bypassing the air conditioner compressor, but we weren't able to find the right belt to do that either!

Lucky me, today, after a whole day of more stress trying to figure out if I'd have my car for the holiday or not and basically giving up that I would, the mechanic told me (after I contacted him with more questions this evening) that he had forgotten to call me, but, did in fact have a solution and was able to get the compressor fixed. Hallelujah!!!

It won't be ready tomorrow, but he said it should be ready Wed. I sure do hope so because Thursday is the first day of the semana santa vacation and I want to use every bit of it I can to hit the trails. 

But I'm not holding my breath. I've been told for over a month now that my car will be ready the next day and I am still waiting. If nothing else comes up or breaks or makes funny noises though, maybe, just maybe, I'll be back driving my girl down the road soon :)

To make my day even more exciting, I got to clean my washing machine. Why? Because last night I had a horrific nose bleed that gushed out before I knew what was happening. (It hasn't rained since last year so the air is extremely dry and I would love to purchase a small/cheap humidifier for my bedroom, but they don't seem to sell them in Mexico, alas.) I happened to be lounging on a pillow (that belongs to the landlord of my furnished apartment) so I immediately tried to take out the stuffing so I could soak and wash it. The blood stain was a good fist size plus several smaller droplets from when I got up before realizing it was blood. 

Turns out cheap pillows in Mexico are filled with the remnants of scraps of foam from other pillows. I'm talking less than 1" squares of foam. WHAT A MESS! After getting out what I could from the pillow (much of it was actually stuck to the sides somehow), I plopped it in the washing machine to soak and then run on a short gentle cycle hoping that would get it all clean. 

When I checked on it this morning, there was still evidence of blood. I don't think the landlord would have noticed, but because I knew it was there I clearly saw it so I thought I would run the soak/cycle again, but with stronger soap. Early afternoon I heard the ding of the washing machine signaling that the time was up so I went to check on the pillow and to my miserable surprise, a seam in the pillow had unravelled and the teeny tiny pieces of foam that I couldn't get out were now all over the inside of the washing machine. Oh yea...Now I get to clean the washing machine. 

It was all up the sides too, which is hard to see in the photo.

Trying to pick out every minute piece of foam is not fun, albeit necessary, because I do not want that foam on my sheets, towels, or clothes, nor do I want it plugging up the washing machine pipes. I cleaned the filters too. I'm hoping I can hand stitch the pillow back together in a non noticeable fashion before stuffing all the rest of the itsy bitsy pieces of foam I collected back inside.

Yeah, it was a fun morning. NOT!

But, I did get a good run in. My pace isn't very good yet, but I was able to do a 5k (that's my goal for now) so I'm happy about that. Trying to get back in shape enough to start Insanity again haha! Those months with my back out really cost me.

Denny Crane and I also walked to the corner carniceria/market. He got to sniff all the recent smells along the way so that a 3 block walk took about a half an hour. But he enjoyed it. Then he got breakfast of fresh cut raw meat. He loves it and seems to be doing very well on a half diet of raw meat now. The little guy is a porker and weighs a ton for his tiny size! I've learned that biking with him in his backpack is extra hard work. Biking is now a workout and I can't always keep up my usual pace with an additional 10 pounds lugging me down haha! The people that run the little carniceria like him though and the meat butcher knows us both by name :)  Denny Crane is a celebrity anywhere he goes!

Beef. It's what's for dinner!