Only in Barranco

So, my friends, a little bit of info on my neighborhood. You know we live in Lima, and Lima is broken up into districts, or municipalities, or what have you. There's Miraflores, San Isidro, Surco, and Lima proper, just to name a few. And then there's my district, Barranco, which is known as the bohemian/artistic center of the city. It was founded in 1874 as a hoity-toity beach resort, and aside from having lots of fancy old houses and tourists and street dogs, it's as noisy as all get out.

Case in point: it's twenty minutes past ten on a Sunday night, and there is a concert out front. Well, technically, it's half way down the block across from the town square. And I'm not talking about some drunkard with a guitar crooning for a buck. There's a full-blown event happening. And it just started. At twenty past ten on a Sunday night. Not surprisingly, I also hear a marching band somewhere in the mix.

Okay, so we just looked out the doors and here's what's happening on this typical Sunday night in Barranco. The Procession of the Lord of Miracles. Holy smokes.

Mother and child

Tonight I'm watching Snoopy, Come Home with Nico. He laughs out loud and jokes around with me during the funny parts, and I love that, so I'm letting him stay up past his bedtime. He and I had quite a day. I did a morning run, then took both kids to the park so they could burn off some energy. We did a walk with the stroller after that. Come nap time, Livi was out like a light but Nico wanted to go for another walk. We dropped off laundry, walked to the bridge and ran around, I drooled over some hand crafted bags at a street fair, and he almost fell asleep while I was giving him a piggy back ride. Once home, I realized I had nothing to cook for dinner. Livi sat home again with Daddy, and Nico and I went to Metro to get Inca chicken, fries, salad, and a few food basics. On the way home we stopped at Hong Fu for some white rice.

While we were out, Livi had filled up on peaches, which was fine in a way because Nico had filled up on a mini bag of Cheetos while he was sitting in the shopping cart. Who gave them to him? I cannot say. I'm not the kind of mom who would feed her kid Cheetos right before dinner just to make him happy. And because he was batting his eyes and nudging his shoulder in the Cheetos' direction. No sir. Not me.

Anyhoo, here we are, watching Charlie Brown, and I've just heard the most adorable thing from Nico. He thinks that Snoopy is a mommy, and Woodstock is her baby. When he told me, I sat there batting my eyes at him (trying not to start crying like a complete sap). I smiled, and he smiled back, and then he asked for a mango. Obviously it wasn't as much of a moment for him as it was for me, but I still loved it.

Fashion, clean and dirty

Tonight I flipped the channel and landed on Sex & the City: La Pelicula (the Movie). It's making me miss my gal pals. I always giggle a little when I think of which character I am, depending on which set of girlfriends I'm with. Either I'm Miranda, or Carrie, or Samantha. Never Charlotte, though, as far as I can tell.

Well, hot news, it looks like I'm getting a washer soon! I can't believe I just exclaimed that, but seriously, I'm jazzed about this. Hand washing all of your family's socks and undies is only charming the first few times, and paying for a laundry service to clean everything else is getting expensive.

Okay listen, Carrie just found Big's emails, so I gots ta go. Hugs, all. Mwah, mwah.

Oh, wait! Before I go, must tell you that Frank landed a job teaching animation at a local college. It's a part-time gig, which is perfect, and I just have to say that I'm really proud of him.

I've also requested gummi bears.

Today at the market, I purposely bought the cookies that Frank and the kids do not like. Why? Because they are the cookies I like, and this is the only way I can eat cookies without someone stealing them out of my hand after I take one bite. Now that Olivia says "thanks" after she does it, it's kind of cute. But Nico actually said "yoink!" the other day, so it's cheese puffs for him until further notice.

We are anxiously awaiting a care package from my mom, which I'm told contains some of our favorite, badly-missed goodies which are unavailable down here -- Goldfish crackers, Cheerios, and decent quality yoga pants. Oh, and my favorite flip flops. And here's something. Okay, so we all know that Haribo makes the best gummy bears, right? Right. So even though there's a whole display o' Haribo gummies at the Metro, my beloved bears are conspicuously absent. Also, no cola bottles. I know, right? Now I'm not saying there are no gummy bears to be found at all, just no Haribos. They just taste the best.

And speaking of food(ish things), is it weird that I have a crush on the newer, friendlier Gordon Ramsay? Maybe I'm watching too much BBC. I really like it on F Word when they go to his house, and he's raising sheep or turkeys, and his wife's all mad that the kids are out there mingling with the barnyard animals, but not really mad, and then you learn something about humanity. If you think I'm joking, you're not watching.

Right, so... off to put away the groceries, clean up the floor full of toys, wash dishes, and make sure we all have clean outfits to wear tomorrow when we visit the Animation Mafia booth at the super duper comic/animation convention. And dinner. There should be dinner in there somewhere. Gordon? Please help.

Hi, Mom!

I'm not the least bit ashamed to tell you all that I miss my mom. Tonight I made her recipe for pasta sauce -- a huge pot of it, and added some ground beef -- and the kids, Frank, and our two late-working employees scarfed it down. (insert chomping, scarfing noise here) Nom, nom, nom. Nico talks about my mom at least once a day. Grandmom this, Grandmom that, and then Livi looks at him and says 'Mom-Mom' and Nico shouts 'Grandmom!' and they dissolve into a blur of flailing arms and fists, kicks and punches, still shrieking out their grandmother's name of choice.

In other news, I'm still waiting on that new charger port to arrive from the ever-glorious United States of America. (insert Jeopardy! tick-tock music here) But here's where I've been working until my computer is revived and I get myself a fancy little desk to put in the almost-empty room next door (a.k.a. my future office). One of the great things about this apartment is that there is almost too much space. Sure, there's almost no furniture, but if we went out and got some, we'd also have to go out and buy stuff to put inside of and upon it, so... waste of time and money, basically. This spot you see here is the living room, with a little balcony overlooking one of the busiest, loudest avenues in all of Lima. The colored lights are a dead giveaway that I've recently been watching Eyes Wide Shut, and they are available here mid-October due to a lack of interest in Halloween and Thanksgiving. It seems we're big on the Catholics and Incas, but not so much with the pagans and pilgrims. Pardon the dim lighting and collection of beer bottles on the table. We've just had visitors. Also, there's a photo of the kids enjoying the balcony. Livi is shrieking, and Nico is trying to bounce a pumpkin.