La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
This post started off as one brief paragraph and, yet again, has become a Michener version. That’s what our brother-in-law Tom calls it when San Geraldo’s sister Linda tells a story. I had a great outing yesterday around town and to the Viana Palace. That’s a tale for another day.
The painters have finally completed the repairs in our bathroom and on the roof after our leak during the weeks of rain. One tile replaced in the bathroom ceiling. It only took seven visits.
San Geraldo removed the safety glass panels from the terrace railing. We need to paint the framework and railing before the new windows are installed in May. The glass was dark and blocked the lower view. It looks great without that. Can’t wait for our new terrace.
The plumber is here to replace our on-demand water heater with an 80-litre water tank. We can get rid of the butane tanks, which makes us very happy. The on-demand tank has been unreliable and we often lose hot water mid-shower (always covered in suds) and have to turn off the water and try again. I had to do that twice this morning. It always happens to SG when his hair is full of shampoo. I don’t have that problem. And, of course the butane tank always runs out when one of us is in the shower.
Monday, we’ll have a new cooktop to replace the gas one we have. We prefer gas for cooking, but this one is old, tired, and clunky and the supports slide around. SG had a large pan of torrijas fall over mid-fry. Dangerous and messy. Also, if a burner is not on high heat, it needs to be constantly watched; they often go out. Besides, the gas cooktop is made by Candy. The new one will be from Teka.
When we chatted with Matt and Lindy last week, they shared with us a gift set they received from a friend. One is pictured below (I grabbed a screen shot). With eight cats, their house would look like a major construction site.
Esta entrada empezó como un breve párrafo y, una vez más, se ha convertido en una versión Michener. Así lo llama nuestro cuñado Tom cuando Linda, la hermana de San Geraldo, cuenta una historia. Ayer disfruté de una fantástica excursión por la ciudad y al Palacio de Viana. Esa es una historia para otro día.
Los pintores por fin han terminado las reparaciones en el baño y el tejado después de la gotera que tuvimos durante las semanas de lluvia. Han cambiado una teja del techo del baño. Solo fueron necesarias siete visitas.
San Geraldo quitó los paneles de vidrio de seguridad de la barandilla de la terraza. Tenemos que pintar la estructura y la barandilla antes de que instalen las ventanas nuevas en mayo. El vidrio estaba oscuro y bloqueaba la vista desde abajo. Se ve genial sin él. ¡Qué ganas de tener nuestra nueva terraza!
El fontanero ha venido a cambiar nuestro calentador de agua automático por un termo. Podemos deshacernos de los tanques de butano, lo que nos alegra mucho. El termo automático no ha sido fiable y a menudo se nos va el agua caliente en medio de la ducha (siempre cubierto de espuma) y tenemos que cerrar el agua y volver a intentarlo. Tuve que hacerlo dos veces esta mañana. A SG siempre le pasa cuando tiene el pelo lleno de champú. Yo no tengo ese problema. Pero, claro, el tanque de butano siempre se acaba cuando uno de nosotros se ducha.
El lunes tendremos una cocina nueva para sustituir la de gas. Los dos preferimos el gas para cocinar, pero esta es vieja, desgastada y tosca, y los soportes se deslizan. A SG se le cayó una sartén grande de torrijas a mitad de la fritura. Peligroso y un desastre. Además, si un quemador no está a fuego alto, hay que vigilarlo constantemente; se apagan a menudo. Además, la cocina de gas es de Candy. El nuevo será de Teka.
Cuando charlamos con Matt y Lindy la semana pasada, nos compartieron un juego de regalo que recibieron de un amigo. Uno está en la foto de abajo (hice una captura de pantalla). Con ocho gatos, su casa parecería una gran obra en construcción. El nuevo será de Teka.
• La fuente de la fuga fue reparada y pintada.
• Créalo o no, lo limpiaron ayer.
• Los chicos cuando los pintores vinieron a cambiar las placas del techo. “¿Tenemos que escondernos?”
Oh, that cat vomit caution sign is TOO funny!
Debra:
I wonder what HRH would have said to that.
She would have just puked on it and moved on.
Ha! Great tent sign 🙂
Woo hoo for the tile/paint repair being done… finally!
Are you getting an all-traditional-electric-burners stove top, or will it be induction? or partial induction? I think that Ken and Walt now have an induction stove top (and you know, they cook quite a bit), and they seem to love it.
Judy C:
We had induction in Fuengirola and SG didn’t like cooking with it because he was limited as to which burners he could use for which pans, although we did really like the entire concept. So, we’re going without this time.
Dudo and Moose are so vigilant . Such a beautiful security team you guys have!
Good to get that leak finally fixed, eh? We have major work coming in May here………heat pump, electric baseboard backup and individual unit hot water heaters. Will be hectic for a while but oh so welcomed once done.
Jim:
Yeah, they’re vigilant… and then they run and hide! It will be interesting to see if the roof repairs did the trick. One of the many plumbers thought the rain was running down from the TOP of that tower. No work was done on that. Yes, the work gets hectic. I’m exhausted and didn’t do much — although I did help the plumber lift the tank onto the wall hooks he installed.
Do the cats need to hide? It depends on how the painters look, and how friendly they try to be.
David:
Yes, the cats judge character carefully before deciding.
I could use a cat vomit sign!
i like the eyes on The Boys, checking to see where they run to when the strangers enter.
Bob:
We could have seriously used those vomit signs years ago when SG couldn’t stand cleaning up vomit. I was once away for a week and returned home to paper towels carefully placed all around the room to cover places our old cat had vomited. It was all powder by the time I got home. Those little signs would have been hilarious. (He would have needed about a dozen, I think.)
Our dear Jack was a vomiter. Maurice is not. Jack did have longer hair which may have been a factor.
Speaking of hair-you have reminded me. I had the most bizarre and epic dream this morning in which I met or came across so many different people, none of whom I knew. One of them was bald. I am almost certain it was a man. I could not resist putting the palm of my hand on his head. I knew I was being incredibly rude but I honestly could not stop myself. It felt so good on my palm. I apologized profusely.
I need to learn about different types of stove tops. We’re going to have to replace the poor excuse for one in the cabin-that-comes-with-a-dock.
Ms. Moon
Ms. Moon.
Moose has long hair, Dudo does not. But Dudo might shed even more than Moose. It’s a mess. I used to care. I’m thankful no one has ever had the uncontrollable urge to stroke my head. We bought an induction stove top in Fuengirola. I loved that it cooled off very quickly, but SG didn’t like cooking on it. It was particular about the size of the pot or pan on the specific burners, which was inconvenient for him. The problems may have been specific to the product we bought. It didn’t bother us that we had to buy a completely new set of pots and pans that would work on it. Then again, buying new never bothers us. Do you call it a stove? We did. In Fuengirola we said we were buying a new oven and stove. Our British friends had no idea what we were talking about. A stove? They call it a hob or a cooktop. Here it’s a placa de cocina (specifically, placa vitrocerámica). I’ve switched to calling it a cooktop in English. But I’m guessing stovetop might have made sense to them. I’m so confused! I like the cabin-that-comes-with-a-dock. CTCWAD?
Erm. “Stove” and “hob” are terms I know are common terms in the UK – the former usually refers to a complete, standalone unit of the sort that was common before fitted kitchens were a “thing” (when ovens became separate items), and is still used for very old-fashioned wood-burning types – but I’ve never heard anyone describe the latter as a “cooktop”… Jx
That’s me. Forgot to log in. Oops! Jx
Jon:
Oh well. I’ll stick to hob for you.
You didn’t start this post in the Paleozoic era, so, no, you’re not Michener.
Kirk:
And it’s not even as wordy as many of my posts. But, no, you’re correct. I didn’t go back to my childhood.
Most of the places I’ve lived have been all electric, but I did have one home with a gas range. I loved using gas burners, but never liked having a gas oven.
Kelly:
My grandmother’s gas oven flared in my mother’s face and burned off her lashes and eyebrows. It was a very old one that had to be lit with a match. I had one like that in my first apartment in Brooklyn. I looked the other way when I lit it or any of the burners, not that I used it much. Gas stovetops are much easier to control, I think. But the ceramic ones always look so fresh and clean.
That’s scary! And of course I can’t help but think of poor Sylvia Plath…
Kelly:
It’s amazing how she always comes to mind. Anyway, I now remember the same thing happened to SG’s mother!
That cat vomit easel is so funny!
I won’t tell Candy that you’re ripping out her handiwork in favor of that cheap tart Teka.
Steve:
Just to be clear, Candy is the cheap tart.
That cat vomit caution sign is a hoot, Scoot! There’s no way I could handle pet vomit, fur balls or diarrhea, so it’s best I enjoy other people’s pets vicariously. However, arterial blood spray or injuries and I’m nonplussed, LOL!
Tundra Bunny:
SG wanted to be a veterinarian until he found out he would have to give needles and see blood. Now he can handle anything. I, too, couldn’t stand the thought of pet vomit or poop. I don’t enjoy it, but I can deal. I’ve never been a witness to arterial blood sprays. KB accidentally cut an artery in his hand but I wasn’t there to see it. But blood and injuries have never been a problem for me.
Many years ago, I worked at a High Arctic Weather Station where a helicopter engineer and a couple of pilots were drinking one night and the engineer cut off an inch of his index finger while slicing onions. While the Officer-In-Charge sobered up the pilots, I picked the finger out of the kitchen sink and put it in a bag of icy saline solution and put flour on the wound and tied it in a tea towel. The pilots flew him south to Resolute Bay where he was then medivac’d out to Edmonton. He called me a couple days later to tell me the surgeons successfully re-attached his severed finger, thanks in large part to my quick thinking. The only reason I thought to put flour on the wound was due to story my Dad had told us kids about his father cutting his hand on a saw blade and Grandma shoving his hand into a bag of flour which had stemmed the bleeding and saved his hand!
Tundra Bunny:
I thought you were preparing finger food! Munchies during happy hour at the High Arctic Weather Station. No chicken fingers. Engineer fingers.
Lucky for the engineer that your father shared his stories. Also lucky that you’re so rational and quick thinking.
Forgive me if you’ve already answered this question, but did you guys consider induction? We’re pretty happy with ours, even after swearing we’d never give up natural gas. I’m happy to have the butane tank out of the house, since. We still use butane for the bbq grill out on the deck.
Walt the Fourth:
We bought an induction stovetop in Fuengirola. We loved the heat control, but SG was frustrated with its particularity with pan size per burner. That may have just been a problem with the one we bought, but this time we’re going conventional. I hope we don’t regret it. And, yes, I will be happy to get the butane tanks out of the house.
I recall my own cats doing the heave-ho from time to time. It’s a cat’s life.
Urspo:
It sure is. We had a cat in the States that put these two cats to shame when it came to upchucking.