SaturdaySix - Episode 329

While visiting the participants of Saturday 9 I came across this meme: SaturdaySix and I wanted to play. So here we go...


1. How many different spices are there in your kitchen?
Oh, I don't know but at least 20... I love using spices and since I've lived in different cultures I tend to cook things from all the places I've lived.


2. Of the spices you have on hand, which one is your favorite one to use?
I use a lot of ginger, different types of pepper, cinnamon, garlic, parsley, cilantro...

3. What liquid flavoring did you use most recently?
I don't use a lot of that, just plain vinegar and soy sause.

4. You decide to marinade a steak or chicken: do you use a powdered or liquid spice mix?
It depends on the time I have and what I'm making, but usually I make a semi powdered mix, like ginger, soy sauce, some pepper, a bit of chili powder...


5. Take the quiz: What Spice Are You?

You Are Cilantro

The bad news is that there are some people who can't stand you. The good news is that most people love you more than anything else in the world. You are distinct, unusual, fresh, and very controversial. And you wouldn't have it any other way.

What Spice Are You?

Work is Hard. Time for Blogthings!

6. Which spice — whether you have it in your home or not - do you consider the most “exotic”?
Not anyone really, because once you get used to use a spice, yopu don't really look at it as "exotic" anymore.

Thanks Patrick at Patrick's Place for a great meme!

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Saturday 9: Bad Day

It's time to get back to the memes. One of my favorite memes is Saturday 9: Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

1. Is there anything that you tend to do to cheer up when you are having a bad day?
It depends on WHY I'm having a bad day... If it's something I can do something about, like missing my boyfriend or having had a discussion with a friend, then I pick up the phone and give them a call. If it's something I can't do anything about I listen to music I like (usually cumbias or punk rock), have some chocolate or crisps or maybe a beer or just go for a walk along the beach.

2.What’s the last card game you played, and with whom did you play?
Last time I played a card game was 3 weeks ago with "a special person" and we played a Peruvian game called "mano sucia", i.e. "dirty hand". It was fun!

3.What’s the last board game you played, and with whom did you play?
Last week in class. I played a classroom vocabulary Memory with my student and we had a good time. I really like to use games in my classes, it's a fun way to learn and kids learn better when they are having a good time.

4.What’s the last computer game you played, and with whom did you play?
I'm addicted to the farms at Facebook and I play almost every day. My fave game at the moment is FrontierVille.

5.Is there somewhere you’d like to visit but have not, and where is it?
Oooooh yeees, I'd LOVE to go to Peru. I know I will some day, hopefully quite soon. It has always been one of my dreams. The only problem is that maybe I like it so much over there that I don't want to go back to Europe. *lol*

6.Think of your favorite movie (or a movie you really like, if you can’t think of a favorite). Some people say that the reasons you love your favorite movie are related to what you value in romantic relationships. How is this true or untrue in your case?
Oh, what a tricky question! I don't have just one favorite movie, there are several I like, like "Casablanca", "You've got mail", both very romantic films, and then there are the Jackie Shan movies and the "Lord of the Ring" triology, which aren't any romantic at all. So, am I a romantic person or not? Well, I guess I am, but I didn't discover that until recently. And yes, I do like my partner to be romantic, very romantic actually. Maybe I'm looking for a romantic dragon? Maybe that's the man for me? *lol*


7.What physical attributes do you find the most attractive?
Oh my, I like men with interesting faces, like big crooked noses, big ears, expresive eyes... And of cause black hair, black eyes and dark skin. *lol* I don't like Caucasians. The man of my dreams is this georgous man. He's Gustavo Cerrón, he's a Peruvian actor and he's just about the most handsome man I've seen in my whole life.*drooling*

8.How many people live in your house? Tell us about them.
We're 3 in my house, by kids and I. My DS1, A, just turned 13, he's a very intelligent boy, who loves to be on his own, studying or listening to music. My DS2, G, will be 11 in a few weeks and he's very active, he loves to spend time with his friends, play football, play on the beach. I'm Blanca, I'm the owner of this blog. I'm 42 years old, Spanish, and I work as a teacher. I love to read, travel, learn languages, listen to music, spend time with my friends, chat and take long walks along the beach. And then there's Peluche, our Houdini hamster, who's about 2 months old and a real cutie.


9. Ever punch someone in the face? 
Not that I know about. *lol* When I was younger I did get into a few fights but as far as I know I never did punch anyone in their face.

Well, time to visit some of the other participants of this meme. If you came here through this meme, please let me know, leaving a comment. TIA!

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Getting back to the calendar habit

I've been FLYing on and off for several years now. My home is far from perfect, but for each period I manage to FLY it's getting better. I guess it's a all about making a total change of lifestyle, because if you're not organized it's so much harder to keep your home nice and tidy, unless you can afford to pay someone to do the job for you. I'm definitely NOT the organized type of person when it gets to doing things in my home, but once again I've decided it's time to get back on track.

One thing I really like about FLYing is that once you get into a habit, it's so much easier to get back on track. During these past months, when I've had so much else on my mind, I've still managed to make my bed every day and made my kids do theirs, I've shined my sink, I've swished and swiped... And I've done some sort of Home blessing each week. So I guess I never really got totally off track.

The August habit on FLY Lady is laundry. I've almost mastered this habit. No more Mount Washmore in this house. *lol* But getting the clean folded laundry out of my bedroom and into the right closets is still a bit of an issue so I need to work on that one. But since the washing part isn't a problem anymore I need to think of something else I need to reinforce this month.

I think August is going to be the month when I finally get my class notes in order. Since I'm a life long student I have class notes from way back that I need to get sorted out and written in Word-files and printed out. I know they will help me a lot in my job, so it would be a great thing to get some order in that area. Maybe half an hour a day could do the trick? At least I'd get on of my cupboards decluttered.

Another habit I really really need to get working again is using my calendar. I just finished writing on my wall calendars the days I work, so I can plan other events. Now I'll write down the FLY Zones for August. Babysteps my friends.... I'll get back on track, one step at a time. :-D

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New month, new habits

Today is the last day of July and tomorrow starts a whole new month. August.... It's always been one of my favorite months and I'm really happy it's here again. So many good things happen in August... When I was a kid I used to love it because of my birthday, *lol* And because school starts in August in Sweden. I always loved the whole "going back to school circus". Nowadays I love August because of other things too, like my DS2's birthday (the same as mine actually, he's my best birthday present ever) and because there are so many good things to eat. *lol*

Well, I've decided that I'm going to take blogging more seriously from now on, starting today. I'll write at least one entry a day and I'll start posting all those photos I have lying aroung the house on CD's and pen drives. I love taking photos! And I guess some of you are curious about what life's like in Spain, Sweden and Morocco (the places I've lived). So, from now on, do come back often and you'll find new posts.

Another thing I'm going to take more seriously is my EntreCard dropping. I just love that site! I've discovered so many blogs I really like through dropping cards. I really really recomend that site if you want to find interesting blogs to read. I just need to make a better E-card, because I'm still without a graphic program and can't make anything at all. :-(

Well, it's Saturday today and I need to get my house a little less cluttered, so it's time to do some FLYing! See you in a few hours!

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Need some help with rhymes

I'm preparing a new English course. Those of you who have been readong my blog for a while already know that I'm a teacher at a small private school and among other things I teach English. Well, tomorrow I start up a new group and today I have to prepare the coming clases. Everything went just great and then all of a sudden I got kind of blocked. :-(

I just can't figure out these rhymes. I know, they are fairly basic, but somehow I just got stuck... Please please please, help me with this:

It lives in the forest and rhymes with near.
It's sneaky and rhymes with socks.
It lives in the forest and rhymes with hair.

I hope someone reads this and can help me out.... I feel really stupid, I should know this....


*** UPDATE*** Just got help from a friend. Thanks TT! The answers are deer, fox and bear. Duuuuuh! Just how stupid can you get? Think I need a cup of STROOOONG tea....

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Bloggers Unite

Those of you who know me, know that I'm a person with very strong felings towards the weak in society. I think there are too many people suffering in this world and most of us in the so called "civilized world" don't do nothing about that.

Well, apart from participating in Earth Day and local events where I live, I`ve decided to become more serious about these issues on my blog. I just found a place called Bloggers Unite and I'm going to participate in a series of events there.

These are the events I'm participating in so far:



And also:

• the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on October 17.
• the World Gratitude Day, on September 21.
• the Human Rights Day, on December 10, 
• the International Migrants Day, on December 18

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2 weeks

My kids have been with their dad for 2 weeks now. They have spent 12 days in Morocco. I haven't heard anything from them since last Wednesday, that's 4 days ago. I'm really quite worried... The first days we chatted basically every day and we also spoke on the phone every other day. And now, all of a sudden, no news at all... Last time I chatted with DS1, his dad was with him and read everything we wrote and honestly, that makes me even more worried...

I just hope my kids are ok and that they just are having the time of their life and don't have the time to go to a cibercafé....

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Oh no, another Houdini hamster!

My kids got a hamster a few weeks ago. One morning going to school a friend of mine told me that another mom had a hamster baby for my kids. So off I went to buy a cage, food and everything else a hamster needs.

I immediately fell in love with our little Peluche ("teddy bear" in Spanish). He's soo cute (it's not the hamster in the pic, our baby is even more adorable). My kids are really fond of him too. And Peluche seems to enjoy playing with my kids. They let him run around in G's room and they build Lego houses to him and Peluche plays along.

Peluche isn't our first hamster. When I studied at the university I had a hamster who I used to carry on my shoulder. She really loved that. She was very intelligent and I used to let her run around freely in my room, because when I had to go, I called her name and always came so I could put her in her cage.

In Morocco I bought two hamsters to my kids. But a few days later we suddenly had 12 (!!!) hamsters... All of them had their own personality. My favorite was Mochi, G's hamster. She learned to open the cage and used to run away at night. She used to take a stroll around the house and then come looking for me so I could take her back to the cage. She was such a sweetie....

Well, once again we have a Houdini hamster... Because Peluche escapes from his cage as soon as he can. He LOVES to run around and discover the world. When I went to check on him a little while ago I found him running around the room... I opened the cage and left some food. I guess I'll find him sleeping in his cage tomorrow morning...

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Day 5

I'm tired today, way too tired... Since my kids left I've sort of turned day and night all around and I'm beginning to feel the effects of that. I defenitely can't go on like that. I need to get back in track again.

I didn't do much yesterday. First of all, I got up late since I spent the night before chatting with friends in Peru. Then I just took it slow for the mostpart of the day. It was actually quite nice to do nothing...

In the evening I watched football, Spain - Paraguay. I really love football, it's my favorite sport. After a very boring first part we ended up winning with 1 - 0. Spain has never gone this far in the world cup so the whole nation is really happy. Never the less, I feel so sorry for Paraguay... But that`s football, there can only be one winner at this level.

I didn't feel like doing anything after the game so I just ended up chatting in two different chat rooms and with 4 friends on MSN at the same time. Oh my, chatting really makes your brain work full time, so you can mantain logical conversations with so many people at the same time. *lol*

I made a lot of chili con carne and rice yesterday so today I don't need to cook (probably tomorrow either). Great, because today I feel soo tired... I need to study, but my eyes are really swollen and sore, maybe I'll just spend the rest of the day on the coach watching TV... No, I'll finish the section about lipids first so I can start with the proteins tomorrow. I'm slowly, very slowly, making progress.

Oh well, time to get back to my studies...

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Day 3

Today was supposed to be my day off. I got up at 7 AM and decided I would spend the morning preparing material for my clases. I've printed out quite a lot of material, lots of excercices and whole lessons. I need to make a list of all the excercices so I don't have to spend hours looking for the right excercice. I also need to make flash cards, games and stuff for role plays. It will probably take me much more than one day to do that, but at least I'll do as much as I posibly can.

In the end I had to go to the office because one of my bosses had to go and pay the school fee and my other boss had to go to the doctor's. But I brought stuff with me so right now I'm writing this and cutting "money" for a banking role play. What a pity it's not real money. ;-)

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Day 2

I'm slowly getting used to being alone. Well, actually I don't feel alone because thanks to all my wonderful friends around the internet (love ya all guys!!!) I know that whenever I need it, they're there to give me a hug...

Yesterday I worked at the office in the morning, 9 AM to 2 PM. Due to the confusion of July starting in the middle of the week the first hour was somewhat busy, but after giving my morning class (a girl of 9 with a reading issue) the rest of the day was calm. I prepared notes for the coming clases.

My sunburn was itching. Today I feel a lot better, but my legs are still red. My arms already turned sun tanned. I hope my legs will change colors soon, because these red "stockings" don't look any good at all.

My plans for today are to go to the office for a while after breakfast and the rest of the day I'll spend studying and preparing material for my classes. Last night I was gluing pretend menues and flash cards until 2 AM. I ran out of glue, so I'll have to take a trip to my favorite "Chinese". Here in Spain the cheapest shops are usually run by Chinese inmigrants, so "Chinese" here doesn't refer to a restaurant but to a shop.

Time for a shower, a cup of coffee, some rice crackers and I'm off to work!

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