I walk into my house from work this afternoon, through the laundry room which has a door to the garage. I notice something amiss: the little door to the water heater is open. Upon further inspection I see the piece of insulating foam that sits between the water heater’s chimney going up into the attic fell and pushed the door open.

“That’s odd”, I think.

As I walk into the living room, I could swear I heard something in the kitchen. Something. I go there, I look around and I see nothing.

“That’s odd”, I think again.

I spend the next few hours in the living room, watching TV, reading the news. Sitting next to the kitchen. No noises, no problems at all. Time to take a nap.

The phone wakes me up a couple of hours later. Then I hear some noises again: in the kitchen, then the vertical blinds in the living room (man how I hated having those in my room back in Riata), then I hear the distinct sound of little feet running around, the tiny claws hitting the pergo floor right outside my room. Clickity clack. Clickity clack. I must add it scared the sh*t out of me. I turn on the lights, put on shoes and open the door. And there it is. Continue reading Intruder alert →

I want to officially welcome my new housemate. Like Madonna, Cher, Beyoncé and Sting… she is simply known as “Totah”.

Check out the sheer amount of suitcases she brought. I think there’s a midget un one of them. I heard a voice coming out of it:

In any case… Welcome to Austin! Will be fun. My days of walking around naked are over… or are they? (Yes. They are.)

The A/C repair guy came today. Turns out the thingamajing in the watchamacallit needs to be replaced (for the educated: the 1/4 HP 110 V AC blower motor in the furnace). It’s expensive, but not iPhone-expensive. He’s coming back in the morning and that should be the end of it.In the meantime, the weather, which had been rainy and cloudy and relatively cool for the last two months and up until my A/C broke hit the relatively scorching 35 degrees today. So I stayed away from my house as long as I could. I stayed late at work. I went to Deep Eddy. I ate dinner out. I brought ice cream over to the Correas. Yes, I could sleep elsewhere, but I like it in my house with all my toys, even if I need to sleep naked and uncovered and hugging an electric fan (paparazzi, take note).

My air conditioning broke. This is hell. Brings back memories of summer at the kibbutz, except for the good parts.Will keep you posted as this develops.

Last night, my friends Pepe and Paty had their second child, a baby girl named Ana (not Dora, no matter how much I lobbied for it). Congratulations to the parents and to the older brother and long time drinking buddy Diego as well as to the rest of the family.Ana was born at 11:09 PM, with perfect timing: right after the U.S.A. VS Argentina matchand a the night before my trip to Houston to see The Police. She weighted 3.26 Kg. Everyone is healthy and happy, especially the mom who regains her mobility.

My next-door neighbor recently built this on her front yard:

click to enlarge

 I’m not sure what it is. My best guess so far is that it is a memorial monument commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Six Day War. Whatever it is, it makes it easier for people to find my house (“it’s the one by the trench”), so it is a welcome addition. I just hope that traffic in the block won’t increase too much, you know, with all the tourists showing up and stuff.Do you have any guesses? Please comment.

The toilet is the most important seat in a house. It’s where all reading is done. It’s where the daily meditation happens. It’s where Tetris records are shattered. A small, round, uncomfortable toilet is unacceptable and inhumane.

Alejandro Zepeda (a.k.a El Destroyer – hater of Peruvians), Gustavo Castro and I, sharp fellas as we are, know that. We are all victims of the small, round, uncomfortable toilet but decided to do something about it. Taking advantage of the excelent City of Austin Toilet Replacement Program (does your city have one?) we got the first two of six (for three houses) new, nice, oval-shaped, comfortable and efficient toilets. So not only do we get fresh new thrones, but they’re free and they save water. We installed the ones at Zepeda’s house today (and Sayuri made chilaquiles). I’ll be ordering mine next.

No catch whatsoever. I think.

I could go ice skating in the street right now. Cars are covered by a centimeter of ice. This is not something that happens every day in Austin, Texas.

And tomorrow it seems like it will be colder.

Let’s see what my weather widget has to say: