Red Catracha

Quitando Manchas sin Tradición Catracha

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:24:58 -0500

(Este post tendrá un poquito mas de sazón catracho…)
La semana pasada (viniendo de la parranda) me di cuenta que uno de mis jeans favoritos tenían una mancha como marrón en la rodilla. Pensé que fue que lo manche al sacar la basura. Así que espere casi una semana para acumular ropa y utilizar la lavadora. [...]

Time just gets away from me

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:35:00 -0500

Time is such an important thing in the US. Not so here in Honduras. Appointments are mere suggestions and many businesses will not even make appointments because they know that most people won't show up at the appointed time anyway. Just show up and wait in line like everyone else. It's the Honduran way.To show you how corrupted I've become, unless I'm on my computer (and more on that further on) I currently have no idea what time it is or often even what day it is!El Jefe bought me a watch a couple of years ago. The battery went dead about six months later, and I've been carrying the thing around in my purse for

Rapeando sobre encriptacion y la version reggaeton

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:13:00 -0500

Leyendo el blog de Bruce Scheier vi un post donde muestra un link a la pagina de un "Hardcore Rapper" que reapea sobre Encriptación. Aquí esta las lyrics y si quieren la "rola" en MP3 hagan clic aquí. Me pregunto como sera la version reggaeton?No me pude resistir..aqui les va..Hacen un junte …

Now this is more like it

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:13:00 -0500

Bantam eggs compared to grocery store eggWe are finally getting some egg action out of our four hens. Conchita, the mama hen, spends half her life being broody − wanting to sit on eggs instead of deliver them − but the others have finally grown up enough to get started laying.These are bantam hens and their eggs are small, but these are even smaller than Conchita's. Conchita's egg is the larger one in the center. The white egg at the top is a large-size grocery store egg for comparison. I'm hoping that as the hens mature, the eggs will get just a little bigger.These eggs are delicious − more fla

Vacation Message

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:27:00 -0500

I'm on vacation...sort of. I wasn't able to finish my last project before my vacation, so I decided to go ahead with my trip anyway, but put in 35 hours of work, just from a slightly more exotic location...

So any posting will probably be quite short for now.

La Gringa writes in Chinese

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:51:00 -0500

Blogicito in ChineseWow! I didn't know I could write in Chinese. I wonder if I have any spelling errors? Click here and you can even read your comments in Chinese, too. Hey, some of your names translate! How cool is that?Blog contents copyright © 2006-2008 La Gringa. All rights reserved.

La Semana Santa y la Nieve

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:24:02 -0500

En Honduras la Semana Santa es lo que llamamos la llegada del verano. Por todos lados veremos trajes de baños, camisetas playeras, toallas, hieleras, promociones cerveceras y centros turísticos abaratados. Personas corriendo por todos lados retirando dinero y haciendo compras de último momento. Sumándole a eso el excesivo precio y los accidentes de [...]

Diarios Hondureños sin “Feeds”

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:56:00 -0500

Me acabo de dar cuenta de algo: La Prensa, El Heraldo y La Tribuna no tienen ningún tipo de feed, ya sea RSS (1.0 o 2.0) o ATOM (Por cierto no mencione los otros, porque estos son los de mas circulación). Casi no visito los sitios de estos periódicos porque simplemente su contenido es de lo …

Paco Peña, Flamenco Master

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:01:00 -0500

I had the privilege to hear Paco Peña play in Texas in 2005. I thought you might like to hear him. Impressive though this song is, I heard him duet with a classical guitar master and put him to shame with the sheer virtuosity and precision of his playing. It was like watching steel fire, with rivers …

It's worse than I thought

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:13:00 -0500

It's even worse than I thought.I just took the practice test at Typing Certification.com.Old computer: 67 words per minute, corrected 69 words per minute, uncorrected 97% accuracy New laptop: 36 words per minute, corrected 53 words per minute, uncorrected 68% accuracy I keep putting my fingers on the wrong keys.Blog contents copyright © 2006-2008 La Gringa. All rights reserved.

Murphy is in Hell

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:45:00 -0500

The full realization of that didn't come until this morning, and I confess, I laughed. Although the Murphy in question, Edward Murphy, has not been confirmed as having coined it, apparently "Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment", which proves the universe is perverse.

A …

Back to kindergarten for La Gringa

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:57:00 -0500

What a pig sty! I actually cleaned it up a little for the photoI've been working on setting up my new Toshiba laptop (Yay!). What a nightmare − not the computer, but the process (Boo!). It has been six long years since I've done this and it not only feels like I am starting back over again learning about computers but I'm also learning how to type again. Seriously, though I put myself through the first few years of school by typing, I think I'm going to have to pull out Mavis Teaches Typing − the keyboard feels that different.I haven't had wireless before and it seems to be having a problem downloadin

Consolation

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:53:00 -0500

If your name becomes a punchline, here's CNN's consolation.

Forgive my short post, I'm in the middle of a project!

In My Torment I Shall Shrivel

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:01:00 -0500

Bach's comic "Coffee Cantata" tells the terrible tale of an addicted young lady who would rather forgo fashionable clothes, her social life, gold, silver, and even marriage than be denied her pleasure in drinking coffee! A kindred spirit!

My favorite line:"Father, don't be so severe! If I can't drink …

White like me

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:20:00 -0500

(I couldn't find a suitable photo)Okay, Honduran readers, this one is for you.I rag on Honduras and Hondurans all the time, and you take it soooo well, so I thought you might enjoy a peek into what it is like to be white. Linked on one of my readers blogs, I found the most hilarious blog called Stuff White People Like.I was literally laughing out loud at some of the articles. I haven't read the whole blog yet, but some of my favorites, and I'll admit, the ones you can use against me, are:#75 Threatening to move to Canada ....or Honduras?#73 Gentrification#62 Knowing what's best for poor people#64 Recycling#53 Dog

Hard to Find a Grosser Grocer

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:35:00 -0500

Need I say more?

Thanks to Fake Steve Jobs for posting this in his pseudoepigraphical blog The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs.

How Much do You Hate Evil?

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:01:00 -0500

How much do you hate evil? What is evil anyway? It is a question even atheists tackle.

A few days ago I had an epiphany while reading the invitation Wisdom gives to the simple in Proverbs 8. In it she says "To fear the Lord is to hate evil". One of the oft repeated verses about Wisdom in Scripture …

Historial de busquedas en google

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:23:00 -0500

No es gran noticia que muchos sitios en Internet recolectan información de nosotros cuando navegamos por sus paginas, como lo pueden leer en este articulo del Ny Times. Lo interesante es que Google nos da acceso a este historial. Para mi fue gran sorpresa y en realidad puede ser útil recordar muchas …

Seven Honduran Firefighters Killed

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:07:00 -0500

A change in wind direction trapped seven firefighters yesterday, leading to their deaths. Two separate fires have been raging all week in the hills around Tegucigalpa, one in the iconic hills east of the city, and a new one to the west. The picture above was taken at sunset and shows the western blaze.

Forest …

My Legacy

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:30:00 -0500

I'll share with you a slightly edited comment I wrote in this post by "La Gringa", of La Gringa's Blogicito:

As I contemplate leaving Honduras in three weeks, I wonder that I'll miss. I know the main things I miss are family and friends, but when I'm in the States I just don't feel at home.

The …

Basilica of Suyapa in the Sunset [Flickr]

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:42:31 -0500

aaronernestoortizlopez posted a photo:

Basilica of Suyapa in the Sunset

What haven't I written about?

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:27:00 -0500

I'm finding more and more that I have to search my blog to find out if I already wrote about something. By the way, those search functions (at left-top and in the upper sidebar) work pretty darn well. I used to remember and could often even remember the title and the month that I wrote it.No more. After 637 articles, it's all getting fuzzy. The problem is compounded by my babbling on the Honduras Living group and forgetting if I mentioned something here or there. Then there are all those emails. Where did I say that again?So, tell me what I'm missing, please.Blog contents copyright © 2006-2008 La Gringa. All

Rainy season reappeared

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:01:00 -0500

Rain on the window - click for a closer lookIt rained non-stop all day yesterday. We seemed to have been firmly into dry season, so the rain was welcomed by me. Checking the Blogicito's archives, I see that we had three days of heavy rain at just about this same time last year. Since we hadn't had running water since we went to bed on Thursday night, El Jefe took the opportunity to clean and refill all of our water storage buckets with nice clean rainwater.It took only about 2 minutes to fill each 5-gallon bucket from the downpour from a valley of the roof. Just as he had filled the pila for current use and refil

La tos, Honduras y sus farmacias

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:11:38 -0500

Social Bookmarking

Rest You Can Believe In

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:53:00 -0500

Do you get insomnia? I hardly ever have insomnia, but many times I feel like I haven't gotten a good night's sleep, even when I've slept eight hours or so.

According to this Reuters Health article, watching television in the late hours, or surfing the net, has a negative effect on the quality of …

Sorry, wrong number

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:48:00 -0500

I get an incredible number of missed calls on my cell phone. It's probably about 10 to 1 for the calls that I receive. I usually have my phone close by (El Jefe would definitely argue this point) but I don't feel the need to carry it to the bathroom or to bed with me or when I go to feed the chickens or when I'm doing laundry or answering the door or cooking and some days I just forget to turn it on....okay, well, I guess El Jefe is right. The surprising thing is that most of the missed calls are not from anyone already in my phone list. Maybe my few friends have changed phone numbers (had their cell phones stol

Papaya licuado, milkshake, or easy ice cream

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:26:00 -0500

La Gringa's Papaya MilkshakeThis is a quick and easy recipe that you are going love. Guaranteed!My neighbor suggested this to me one day when I was saying that we can never finish a whole papaya. He didn't give recipe specifics, just the ingredients, so this is my version. Depending upon what kind of milk and how much you use, this simple recipe can taste just like rich ice cream (and you will need a spoon to eat it), a milkshake, or a smoothie.Even with low-fat milk, it tastes very rich, like a creamy soft-serve ice cream. Really! I'll have to say that it tastes very close to my actual papaya ice cream recipe wi

Zelaya's Plane Forced to Land

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:12:00 -0500

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's plane was forced to make an emergency landing last night after a sudden cabin de-pressurization. The president and his private secretary, Raul Valladares were the only passengers on board at the time. They were on their way to a Latin American summit in Santo Domingo, …

Why didn't I think of that before? - Papaya chunks

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:32:00 -0500

Home grown papayasPapayas are so big! At least the ones we grow or buy here in Honduras are. We can't hope to finish one while it is still fresh, even though we've been using a lot lately in our homemade yogurt. A neighbor recommended to me a long time ago to cut up the papaya and freeze the chunks for a tasty licuado (milkshake). I loved his recipe so I'll share it with you tomorrow. It was a great idea and blended in a drink, you can not tell the difference between fresh or frozen papaya. The frozen chunks actually perform better because they make a colder and thicker drink. The problem is that fresh or on-i

Antiwar Meme: We Won't Shoot a Brother!

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:33:00 -0500

Victor Solano, in his blog Desnudos (a pun on the Spanish word for nude and also for untying), is starting a meme that is worth translating into English: "Pass the Ball: We Won't Shoot a Brother!". Here is a free translation of his post:

Colombian, Ecuadorian and Venezuelan friend:

We'll demonstrate …

First culture shocks

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:38:00 -0500

Pulpería (convenience store), La CeibaCulture shock is often downplayed by those planning to move to another country. Often people think that they know a country and that they will adjust with no problems. Maybe some will, but I think that people are often affected more than they want to admit.The experts say that 'change' is the most stressful thing in a person's life, even when the change is for the better. Moving to another country results in more change than anything else I can think of − down to the air that you breathe. These are some of the first culture shocks that I experienced when coming t

How much does it cost to buy a house in Honduras?

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:27:00 -0500

I wish I had $10 for every time I was asked that question! It can cost the same, or more, or less than it costs to buy or build a house in the U.S. How much does it cost to buy a house in Ohio? How much does it cost to buy a house in Dallas? It is impossible to answer to those questions either without knowing a whole lot more details. The cost of a house, simply put, will depend upon what kind of house you want, what size of house, and where it is. The price of land varies tremendously. A tiny lot on the beach on the island of Roatan might cost vastly more than several acres in a secluded mainland location whic

Taxi Drivers Defeat Chavez's Batallions

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:52:00 -0500

This post in the excellent Venezuelan blog Caracas Chronicles got me to laugh out loud, The gist of it:

Two days ago, President Chávez ordered 10 mechanized battalions to the border in preparation for who-knows-what...but the mobilizations from Caracas ended up getting delayed yesterday because …

Who Would Honduras Fight For?

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:45:00 -0500

The paranoid warmonger Hugo Chávez is at the brink of realizing his dream. Since he was denied indefinite reelection in Venezuela, his strategy has shifted to supporting the FARC guerrillas in their plot to overthrow the Colombian government. Perhaps he hopes to be the new Simon Bolivar and rule …

Restaurant experiences in La Ceiba

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:27:00 -0500

In the restaurant business, you gotta have something: Good food, good service, nice atmosphere − preferably two out of three. Annoying service really ruins a restaurant experience for me. We don't expect fast service, even if we are the only customers in the restaurant. We don't even expect particularly friendly service anymore. What I really dislike is when we are treated as if our being there is just a nuisance.One of my favorite stories is the time that we spent almost two hours in Applebee's (where the waiters are trained to be friendly) and never heard the sound of our waitress's voice. She walked up t

Random Photo: Black Vultures

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 03:43:52 -0500

Attention to the Road Signs.
Black Vultures sunning on a road that crosses a mangrove in Southern Honduras

Street Fighter 4: Trailer

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:16:00 -0500

La primera vez que vi Street Fighter fue en verano del 1992 (wow!!! como pasa el tiempo). Fue en las famosas "maquinitas" y fue Street Figheter 2. Este juego, para su tiempo, estaba adelante de cualquier otro. Era veloz, tenia los movimientos y mas importante los personajes. Cada personaje tenía su …

Como no perderse con la Camara

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:55:11 -0500

La gringa en su blogcito nos cuenta de su vida en Honduras y es interesante ver su transición de país del primer mundo a país del tercer mundo. En mi caso fue al revés, pase de país del tercer mundo (Honduras) a país del primer mundo (Suecia). Una de las principales diferencias (además [...]

You Know You've Had To Much Caffeine When...(link)

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:46:00 -0500

Has Juan Valdez named his donkey after you?

B's rooster

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:35:00 -0500

As sister-in-law B was leaving the pizza party Saturday night, I asked how the rooster we had given her was doing. She gave me a funny, a little bit shamed look and I thought for sure she was going to tell me that he died. I braced for the worst...Instead she started laughing and told me that he was out in the truck in front of our house. They had gone to visit her mother for the day, took the rooster with them, and then brought him to our house! His leg was tied to the hooks on the pickup bed.The sad (and shameful) reason is that even though they live in a nice middle-class colonia in La Ceiba and their yard is