Chalupa napping

Sleeping Chalupa

Chalupa is enjoying a quiet day with no contractors, no workers, no electricians and no plumbers...at least not yet. Supposedly a plumber is supposed to come by today. They've really been eating in her nap time.

Kitchen renovation

Again, I should have documented our long abyss of flaky interior designers, contractors, architects, bureaucratic paper work, more paper work, procrastination, vacations, and life that has finally brought us to the beginning of our kitchen renovation. It's been over a year in the making, but we finally started on June 20. Here are two pics, one taken when all the furniture and what not was still in place, and the other just today. It's a huge cavern of nothingness, but to me I see progress. Slow, bitter, painful, dusty, dirty, smelly progress.

little chalupa

Been busy procrastinating so have been woefully ignoring this little blog. The big news is that about a month or so ago little Chalupa was stricken with glaucoma. She woke up one morning with her eye very very swollen and she could barely open it. We had a vet appt in two days, so I thought it would be ok to wait, but by the next morning she was in so much pain she wouldn't stop wailing. It was heart breaking, and if I knowing what I know now, I would have rushed her to the Vet as soon as I could. She is doing very well now, in no pain, and even though she still has no vision in her left eye, she is back to her old bossy self. There is hope that eventually the eye will heal, the Vet set that they can see that her nerve is healthy and not too damaged, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But also dogs are perfectly fine with one eye, in fact there is a big black lab in our building who lost an eye to cancer years ago and she is doing great, and has been for many years.

Public Domain Protest song

Public Domain Protest Song

Great song. Take a listen.

austraila!

Our big trip down under was amazing. Snorkeling with the whale sharks was unbelievably cool. There is nothing like staring at a 28 foot sea creature in the eye. It's even more overwhelming when that huge sea creature decides to to get a closer look at you. It was an unbelievable experience. It was like no other snorkeling trip we had been on, since by law only 10 people are allowed to swim with a whale shark at one time. We were split in groups of 10 where we had to carefully listen to and follow our guide. It was actually stressful we had to jump into the water on cue quickly and quietly (one of my weakest skills) then swim briskly to where she was pointing then once we saw the shark we had to ensure we stayed 3 meters away and only swim near his sides and his back, never toward his face or dive down below he's belly. The belly is their weakest spot. Then after a few minutes we all had to stop when our guide told us to, and circle ourselves together in a small group so that the boat could easily pick us up. And this also allowed the other group of ten to then get their chance.

Basically we saw three to four whale sharks on 5 dives. I didn't see anything on the second dive, being the weakest swimmer (I admit it, I used a noodle) the whale shark had sharply turned away right when we entered the water so everyone swam one direction and I was hopelessly left behind. I probably would have been able to swim faster without the noodle, but it is purely a psychological thing, I didn't want to panic. And the noodle kept me calm. But so did spying on a large, beautiful and peaceful fish that we call a wall shark. So yeah, whale shark snorkeling is very regimented, but one can understand why it has to be. On the day we went out there was only one other Whale Shark Tour boat in the harbor, so we were very lucky that we didn't have to share sharks with them. Or so I'm told. The 28ft (or 8 meter) whale shark was the biggest we saw, the others we saw we between 5 and 6 meters.

The third dive is when I just casually looked over my right shoulder to look at a the huge 28 footer, looking back at me. One thing about whale sharks, that despite their size they seem like happy sharks, they have big mouths but they seem to smiling. Call me crazy but all other sharks you see look mean, or grumpy, or hungry. Whale sharks seem very zen. But perhaps that's because they're bellies were full. We were told that basically these are adolescent whale sharks (not even half their full size yet) that have stopped to fill their bellies before they continue chasing the girls up the coast. What a life.

What was funny for me was that I didn't think the sharks looked all that big until one was right next to me. And even then, I was like, wow he's maybe like 3 meters long or something. Then we went back on the boat, and I saw the "small" 5 meter shark and I was like "woah" that's huge, he didn't look that big in the water! Anyway, if you ever get the opportunity to snorkel with whale sharks I recommend it 1000%, it was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Not to mention emus, kangaroos, and parrots. Will talk more about these later. :)

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory Deal of the Day | Groupon New York City

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory Deal of the Day | Groupon New York City

I can 100% recommend the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, we've been going here for years. They have delicious ice cream and sorbets in amazing flavors. Lychee sorbet, blueberry sorbet, coconut icecream, red bean...this groupon coupon basically gives you 50% and can be used in several visits. Enjoy!