Da Weenies

 Every few days I get a new pic of what the weenies are up to...I know y'all miss them too...so here ya go:

Mi Pololo

Jeremy arrived two weeks ago!!! I even whipped out the GPS and drove to the airport to pick him up! I stood in the line of taxi drivers attacking people as they exit customs and finally he appeared :)

This blog entry is going to be a mixture of pics taken with my blackberry and pics borrowed from websites because the lady that cleans my house hid my camera and I didn't figure out where it was until after Jeremy left.

Saturday we took the metro to Patio Bellavista to walk around and eat lunch.  I got the metro stations mixed up...so we ended up passing it and having to walk quite a bit to get to the Patio Bellavista. 

After lunch we walked around and looked at the ferias (markets) and lapizlazuli (blue stone only found in Chile and Afghanistan) shops.

Then on Sunday we went to BordeRio to eat lunch with some friends from work at Le Due Torri.  Italian and seafood...Yum!  Jeremy found out that it is common to have a three hour lunch with fiends at 2pm on the weekends here. No one rushes you off to turn over the table for the next guest...you can stay and chat and eat as long as you want.  

After we went to Parque Arauco (mall) to see Priest in 3D...I don't recommend it...too scary...so I ended up trying to take a nap during it. At least I got these pics of us in the stylish glasses....this is our only pic we have together and half of Jeremy's face is cut off :)

Not much to report on during the week...Jeremy got to sleep in while I went to work...then I would come home and we would go to lunch and then hang out again after work and do it all over again the next day.  

Not certain if I have already discussed it here, but the standard work week in Chile is 45 hours....which for my company means M - T 8:00 to 6:45 and Friday 8:00 to 2:00.  It's awesome having Friday early release (lol) to do things like head off to the beach.  Friday afternoon we drove an hour and a half to Vina del Mar.  We walked around the city and by the beach and ended up at the Casino.  

I tried to win my fortune on the slots but all of the old ladies were hogging the Sex and the City slot machines and it was super smokey (I am going to have a black lung by the time I return) so we didn't stay long. We went upstairs and ate a sandwich and dessert (since it was 5pm the full kitchen wasn't open...I think 7pm was the earliest you could order a dinner dish there).  

"Apple pie"

Peruvian custard...tasted carmely and of course came with a Pisco Sour shot

 The next day after brunch at Coquinaria we headed off on an hour flight to Mendoza, Argentina for a long weekend.  Round trip tickets on LAN were only 69 USD around trip...can you believe it??  That is the cost of a one way bus ticket!  

Shout out to Terry, I found this Barney book en espanol at the airport:

Mendoza is a nice little city on the eastern side of the Andes.  Population is approximately 111,000 people and the biggest industries are olive oil and wine production. We wanted to go on a wine tour to try to educate ourselves since we are probably the only two people in South America that never really drink wine.

We stayed at the Park Hyatt Mendoza

Saturday we walked around town and shopped and had dinner at the hotel. Sunday we had a lazy day of sleeping, eating and going to the spa (me) / gym (Jeremy).

Then on Monday we headed off on our Trout and Wine full day hour.  We were a group of 6 tourists, one guide and one driver who took us to a tour and tasting at three wineries, lunch, and an olive oil tasting. 

We visited:

Mendel

Dante Robino

Club Tapiz for lunch and olive oil tasting

and 

Benegas Lynch

Mendoza is worth the trip if you are into wine... especially Malbec. We rolled back into Santiago on Tuesday afternoon and then Jeremy flew out on Wednesday night. It was a great trip and now I'm looking forward to Jeremy's upcoming relocation to Santiago.......I kid...I kid....but the offer is on the table.

Aunt Marci came to visit

Having technical difficulties downloading the pics of Marci's trip she sent me...so for now here are the few pics I have.  

Marci was my third visitor thus far and the hardest working for sure :)  Every night she cooked me a gourmet meal....I'm talking gourmet! Steak, chicken pasta, gnocchi (however you spell it), etc....yum!  I got a meal or two out of Mom...and Grandma said she was on vacation so the kitchen was closed...lol! 

She also taught me how to make coffee/espresso from this thing...can't remember what it is called, but you pack the coffee in there and put water on the bottom and then the steam rises through the coffee grounds and magically coffee is made.

So we had a tea coffee party with the espresso and pastry from Castano. 

Marci did some exploring while I was at work...here is a picture of one of the sculptures a block over from the apartment...ouch!

And our only picture together....

She also hooked me up with a fire extinguisher for the kitchen (safety first) and a pisco sour apron!  It's in spanish and english, so now I know how to make them for everyone!

Thanks for taking good care of me Marci!  Hopefully I'll get the other pics loaded soon!