Week 15

This year seems to be going even faster than last year -- can we seriously already be on week 15 of Project 365?!

I did better this week about taking photos every day but not very exciting ones. We're back to walking almost every day and most of mine are from those walks. But it was either that or more photos of clothes hanging on the line. And for those who do not share my laundry fetish, I know you'd just as soon never see another line of clothes -- yours or any one elses :-) We did make our monthly marathon shopping trip to Cordoba this week and I have two photos from that, but not super interesting ones. My life has settled back into the ho-hum of ordinary, which suits me just fine.

Last weekend the young men who helped us over the summer went back to Bible Institute, but before they left they hosted a two-day soccer tournament. Ivan took a ton of photos but I think these three typify (IMO) what boys this age most like about sports:

Agree or disagree?

Y'all have followed the progress of the lake which, for a while, I was calling the field-formerly-known-as-a-lake. You'll be happy to know the recent rains have done a fabulous job in filling it back up as you can tell in this photo that once again shows the boats are afloat!

Seen in Cordoba: we got a huge kick out of this -- the sofa is about as big as the auto!

Empanadas are meat pies and every region of Argentina has their own favorite filling. Because this is a touristy area, you can get a wide variety but my favorite includes ground or chopped beef, hard boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, and raisins; a meat pie with a slightly sweet flavor. I've not been shy about admitting my challenges with producing an edible pie dough but that's not a concern with empanadas because I have a wide variety of packaged doughs to choose from:

This is the cooler case at Walmart holding probably a dozen varieties, that all come in packs of 10.

We have access to fresh bay leaves year-round because of this giant bush about a block from our house that's on public land, right next to the road!

Parrots are a huge pest here. They're prolific and persistent. And LOUD. Half the parrots had already flown off when we stopped to take this photo, but the four you can still see weren't about to leave their tasty snack shop (a.k.a. someone's garbage) until we got even closer.

I have no idea what this viney flower is, but it's lush and beautiful. It covered not only the fence at this house but climbed up the house and draped itself elegantly over the second floor balcony.

This is the plane Ivan's been helping his friend work on. Anyone want to buy a home built, experimental airplane? Our friend Julio designed and built it (with a little help from his friends) but can no longer fly it (due to health issues) so he's looking for a good home for his baby. Saturday it made an inaugural appearance at a small air show held in a nearby town.

That's all for this week...couches on cars, parrots and planes and purple flowers, soccer takedowns and supermarket treasures.