Vacation: Recreation, Projects, and Leisure (winter break 2009)

Currently on winter break and taking advantage of the days off...

First off, went fishing (see post below) and been riding my bike nearly every morning. When I worked here in Lecheria, I was able to ride my bike everyday, but now working in El Tigre, my bike is left here, and is only ridden on weekends (arrgh!).

Friend/colleague, Daniel, also lives in Lecheria. We car pool during the week. His wife has to give up on riding her bike because of back problems so he has inherited her bike. The frame is a little small for him, it looks like a 17 inch and he probably needs a 19 inch. I gave him a long 150 mm stem to compensate for the short top-tube. Anyway, Daniel is getting into it.

Here he is climbing "The Acuario" trail. He dabbed the first try, but cleaned it on his second attempt and cleaned it again the following day.
A triumphant Daniel.
Ran into Fabricio today on his new Yeti AS-R.
He made a special trip to California to buy this bike and bring it down. A bit too much bike for me, but he's into the free-ride full-suspension thing.

Seeing the word Gila down here in Venezuela is always a bit strange.
I try to explain to people that I am from the Gila...a region in New Mexico. They never get it.

As far as projects go...

We finally pulled the trigger on some Roman shades. We've been pricing them at speciality shops and the quotes we were getting were way high...about $600 per window! One lady recommended we go to EPA (our equivalant to Home Depot) . We found some cloth shades for about $45 each. We bought two for the master bedroom to see how we liked it. The installation was straightforward. I had to drill through brick and use inserts, but other than that it was fairly simple.
We really like the shades. It seems to be helping with the air conditioning.

Yesterday we went back to EPA and bought two more for the other bedroom and I installed them today. We will probably use a similiar window treatment for the living room.