Making plans for Saturday!

So my adorable Ashley turns 3 on Saturday and I’m having more fun planning the menu then I will have cooking it!  I’ve decided to do tacos de carnitas de res for tacos, pico de gallo, salsa verde, chocolate cake, and maybe attempt making some arroz.  I’m making a cake without egg because my niece Josie is allergic and I’m glad I found a recipe without butter since that makes her tongue itch.  I’m going to take a moment right now to give thanks that Ashley was born without any food allergies or sensitivities.  I’m hoping I find an easy recipe for arroz mexicano, since I really want to try and make it myself.  I have a cookbook somewhere but I don’t know how much I was trust the recipe.  Veronica says that the recipes are close to what she would do, just cut out the weird ingredients such as the cinnamon they added to almost everything.

I’m excited because I’ll get to see friends that I don’t get together with often enough.  I am not inviting my in-laws because if you invite some then you need to invite all or there will be trouble.  The last count of immediate family still in the United States includes 8 adults and 14 children, which is too many people for me to feed for any reasonable amount of money.  I bought a small piñata that you pull ribbons to break rather than hitting it for safety reasons.  I’m going to do treat bags because they’re fun and cheap to make if you know where to buy the trinkets. 

I don’t know what to buy for Ashley, but I’m leaning towards some games.  On Monday she spent 30 minutes playing with a small piece of feather and was having a grand old time blowing it around, which made me think of the Elefun game.  She likes to problem solve and build things so maybe Marble Run or a big floor puzzle would be fun for her.  Mom is getting her a Doctor set which I’m sure she’ll love.  I’m trying to stay away from toys that are just for girls like princess accessories, cooking sets, anything with fashion in the name, or anything she has a ton of such as stuffed animals and dolls.  I want to encourage Ashley to have non gender specific interests; namely I hope to get her into science since that’s one of my interests too!  I could do a trike, but we’ll have to put it away in a few months when the Easter Bunny could just as easily bring her one.  Maybe an art set or easel would be something fun for her.  I’ll make a list, and that way whatever she doesn’t get would be an idea for Christmas.

Monday was visiting day and I made it through without yelling at Ashley.  Alberto then advised me that she misbehaves a lot, so apparently I’m free to yell at her during visiting time again.  She gave hard yank to Anita’s lower lip, and kicked Jimena in the shin for what appeared to be just for the heck of it.  I gather she runs wild at Abuelita’s house which would be where a great deal of this behavior comes from, but I don’t let her run amuck outside of reason at home.  I wonder who we’re going to bring with us next Monday.  I need to talk to Yasmin about how she wants to visit with her daughters, because Fortunato isn’t talking to me anymore after the fiasco.  I wonder if he’s realized that I don’t care if he doesn’t talk to me since now I don’t have to make up a reason to ignore him.  Fortunato is a good guy.  It’s just that when you do something for him it’s never good enough and he has little understanding of diplomacy as a concept.  In fact, Caña kicked the crap out of Fortunato one night because he insulted the quality of Cesar’s work in the construction of the house in Mexico.  Now granted the construction work was substandard and had to be fixed in several places; he should not have told Cesar that an acquaintance sent him pictures of the terrible construction.  

I have the chance to become a permanent employee after a position opened up at work on Monday night.  I applied mere minutes after my supervisor told me it was available, and as long as I didn’t screw up on the personality questions I should get an interview soon.  I really dislike those questions because you aren’t allowed to rationalize your answers.  Here’s an example of the type of question that bother me most: If a mistake was made by your coworker, would you criticize them?  My answer would be ‘most likely not’ because I equate criticism with making someone feel bad or handling an error tactlessly.  I would bring the mistake to the coworker’s attention, problem solve with them to determine why the mistake was made, and then work together to correct the error.  Maybe my view of the word criticism comes from past experiences, but I definitely don’t like the word.  Joelle says that I passed the screener the first time around, so I should have no trouble this time.  I sincerely hope that this works out for me!

The midnight hour approaches, so I’ll leave you here.  I still have laundry to wash, dry, and fold.  Yippie!

Si te vienen a contar

cositas malas de mi
manda a todos a volar
y diles que yo no fui

Yo te aseguro que yo no fui
son puros cuentos de por ahí
tú me tienes que creer a mi
yo te lo juro que yo no fui

 

Pedro Fernández – Yo No Fui

 

Ciao
 

Interesting Spanish words/phrases from this post:

De:                                  Of
Carnitas:                          Braised or roasted meat (literally ‘little meats’)

Res:                                 Beef
Pico de Gallo:                  Fresh salsa made with diced tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapeños, and lime juice.  (Literally ‘beak of the rooster’)
Salsa Verde:                     Green Salsa, also known as Tomatillo Salsa
Arroz:                             Rice (implies Mexican rice ‘arroz mexicano’)
Abuelita’s:                      Grandma’s
 

Today’s quote is some lyrics from a song called ‘Yo No Fui’ by Pedro Fernandez.  This excerpt means:

If they come to tell you

bad things about me
Send them all to fly away
and say to them that it wasn’t me

I assure you that it wasn’t me

they are pure stories from over there
You have to believe in me
I swear to you that it wasn’t me