Truffled Popcorn and an Injured Toe

This weekend felt like a blur.  On Saturday, it was off to work, like usual.  The morning was quite lovely and then I got called into Sr. S's office for an audit project I've been helping out with.  Of course, this was about 1/2 hour before I was supposed to head home for the day.  I ended up leaving work at 2:30pm.  Robert ended his course at about the same time so we were able to share a ride home.  First though, I headed to Pola to pick up some snacks for date night.  I spent Saturday afternoon relaxing and doing a bit of cleaning and laundry.  Pretty normal for a Saturday.

On Sunday, I slept in a bit and awoke to find David in our living room on Skype.  This was odd to me, since he had moved out the other day, but as it turns out there was a bit of miscommunication over the entire ordeal.  It has since been worked out and clarified.  Anyway, I ended up going to Nacional with Robert and Mari.  We decided to enjoy the nice day and walk.  On the way, I received a text which I wanted to read right away, so I did.  Problem is, I stopped paying attention to where I was walking - which is a dangerous thing to do on Dominican sidewalks.  I ended up stubbing my toe on some raised cement, which, since I was wearing flip flops, led to the side of my big toe being cut open.  At first, I thought it was no big deal and tried to shrug it off.  Then I looked down and saw blood.  As we stood on the sidewalk and I searched through my purse for something that I could soak up some of the blood with, Manuel pulled up beside us.  I was thankful for this as he took us the rest of the way to Nacional.  Once there, I headed to the pharmacy to get a bandaid.  Side note: it drives me nuts that I have to go to the pharmacy for things like bandaids, tylenol, cough syrup, etc.  Mainly, I get stressed out having to ask for things in Spanish, most of which are items I've never had to learn how to say... So here's your mini Spanish lesson.  Bandaid = curita.  I was happy that I could buy just one bandaid for RD$6.  I didn't need more, since I had a big box of them plus a first aid kit back at the apartment.

My main reason for going to Nacional was to get some clothespins.  I wanted to be able to dry a few of the roses that Bart sent me.  So I created a little drying rack in my bedroom.  Mom later informed me that when roses dry they can be stinky, but I didn't want to hang them anywhere else.  I'm also trying to dry some petals too.  We'll see how that works out.  My trip to Nacional also included purchasing some silicone caulking so that I could seal up the gaps between the sink and the counter in the kitchen.  I'm hoping this will help to keep the ants away.  Although, I know they will find another way in!  They are sneaky and kind of smart.

Beginning of my rose drying contraption

In the evening, I ended up going over to Robert and Mari's to try to make some truffled popcorn.  I had bought a small bottle of truffle oil on Friday and some popcorn on Saturday so I was keen to give it a go.  I had done some reading online about how to do it.  Most everyone recommended putting the truffle oil in with the kernals so that it would "infuse" the popcorn.  Well, this didn't really work.  You could kind of taste the truffle, but not really.  In the second batch, I put a bit more truffle oil in, but this didn't seem to help.  (I have since spoken with a chef friend of mine and am looking forward to trying a few of the options he gave me!) In the end, we ate lots of popcorn along with some fruit, chocolate and chicken nuggets while watching Monty Python.  An enjoyable evening!

Mari's photo of Robert and I cooking

Monday morning at the office was really slow.  We essentially didn't have power until early afternoon.  Because of this, I took an early lunch.  I really wanted to try the sandwiches that Sweet Bakery prepares, so Robert and I headed over there.  I assumed that since they are a bakery, they would have a generator.  I was wrong.  They didn't have power and we were told that they couldn't make a sandwich because there was no light.  We sat and had chinola juice, in the hopes that the power would come back on.  Eventually we got too hungry, so we decided to head over to Emparedado. The rest of the afternoon ticked along nicely.  In the evening, I joined Pavol, Mari and Robert at the colmado for a snickers and some Presidente. 

Today, for the first time in a long time, I was freezing cold at work.  I had forgotten that it actually got this cold.  I just have to remember to bring a sweater to work each day now.  Once again, the workday was typical.  One exciting thing is the new painting that Sr. S has in his office.  It is still partially packaged up so I can only see the top but I am incredibly intrigued by what I can see.  Next time I'm in there I am going to ask if I can see the entire piece.  I had pilates tonight.  I was really tired but knew that I should go.  However, I soon realized how exhausted I actually am.  It wasn't that the movements were difficult physically, it was just that I didn't have the energy to do it.  I made it through though.  Apparently, Dominicans start decorating for Christmas really early.  On the way to pilates, I noticed that Plaza Lama already had giant Christmas decorations attached to the side of their building.  This was kind of depressing.