The old ways

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Houses built around this area in the 40’s – 60’s were pretty much all built out of wood.  Its odd to me that someone would cover up beautiful oak floors in favor of carpet, with grey carpet no less.  I was talking to my father in law Jack about it.  He mentioned that carpet used to be pretty expensive.  When prices came down people started to cover up their wood flooring.

In all the houses built in the 2000’s we have a subfloor made of plywood….Much less expensive and easier to install.  I’d prefer the oak.

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floors at the new place

There are pros and cons to both new and old houses.  Older houses you never know what to expect and it’s fun to find a treasure every once in a while though!  

It seems that whatever the latest fashion, its usually the most difficult to obtain.  Maybe we should try to make the latest fashion the easiest?  But that’s never how it is.

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The Time it Snowed in Puerto Rico

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My mom read and recommended that I read a book entitled The Time it Snowed in Puerto Rico by Sarah McCoy.  Of course knowing that I love anything about Puerto Rico, I went to the library right away to pick it up. When I heard the title, I thought it was referring Doña Fela the famously popular first female mayor of a capital city in the Americas who brought in snow on an airplane to show the children of Puerto Rico who had never before seen or played in snow.

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Felia Rincon de Gautier AKA Doña Fela

But, no, this book was not about that. It is a touching story along the lines of When I was Puerto Rican by Esmerelda Santiago or The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. A young girl named Verdita is in the awkward phases of moving from a child to an adolescent and trying to assert herself as an individual and become a woman. She is also in the transition between loving and hating the U.S. and fights for her independence at the same time that Puerto Rico tries to find its place in the independence movement.

The story takes place in the rural mountains of Puerto Rico in the early 60s. Some of the scenes are truly Puerto Rican such as when she goes (against her father’s wishes) to a cock fight -pelea de gallos or when she innocently learns what a puta is in the traditional sense of gender roles. It is lyrical and beautifully written. I could picture it all the way down to the homemade piraguas that snowed all around her.

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New Rental House

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Well, we found this sweet little rental house near the hospital and knew right away that it would be great to accomplish goal number one on our list as part of our process goals to Puerto Rico. We got it for a nice price, but it does need some work, so Britton and I have been going over there every night this week to paint, clean and update the place. Luckily we have been having some wonderful weather (in the 70s), but the time change has made it dark at only 5pm.

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Outside of the house -needs painted but not in bad shape

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Inside kitchen – quite colorful…will soon be painted and updated

Pink Walls
These pink walls took a lot of white paint to cover

I’ll try and post some “after” pictures as well. We hope to have it finished by mid November. It has been kind of fun to have another project to work on, and much more productive use of our time. Once we get it occupied, our next step is to start saving -for goal número 2.

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Uses for eggs #134 – Pasta

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I’ve eaten quite a bit of pasta in my day.  All sorts of different kinds from the simple spaghetti to ravioli.  Well I never really thought about how its made.  It’s pretty easy / cheap to just buy a box or two at the store.

Well someone at work mentioned making their own homemade pasta and how easy it is.  I figured I’d give it a try because we are always looking for more uses of eggs.

Step 1, mix eggs and flour.
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It’s kind of fun to make a little flour dam and crack some eggs into it.  Reminds me of when I was a kid I used to make dams with my mashed potatoes and gravy.

Mix it all together, roll it out with a rolling pin and cut into whatever size you want.
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We made long strips, small strips and all sorts of different shapes.  Experimentation.

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Let it dry for just a bit (some say this is unnecessary). Then you boil it.

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Voila!

It may seem pretty straight forward to most of you, but I just had never done it before.  I was actually surprised at how easy it was.   When you are used to buying things out of a box I just assume it must be hard to do..lol.

We also made our own Alfredo sauce to make shrimp Alfredo…very good.

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