Cleopesta
Cleo is the most laid-back cat on the face of the planet. I mean seriously, she's not even really a cat, I'm convinced.
Yesterday the maid came by to clean--once a week cleaning is part of the rent--and this week that included vacuuming the furniture, including the chair Cleo was sitting on. The very loud vacuum was turned on: Cleo sat and looked at it. The vacuum came nearer: Cleo licked her paw. The maid started vacuuming the chair (which I've described as "Oh no! Someone skinned a muppet and used its fur for a chair!" Long red fake fur...interesting design choice, no?): nothing. The nozzle of the vacuum was two inches from her side and she was ignoring it. The maid and I were both looking at each other, looking at her, and laughing. Finally I picked Cleo up so the maid could finish removing cat hair. I could *see* us both thinking it would be faster--and probably completely acceptable to Cleo--to just vacuum the cat. I told the maid "Ella es muuuuy tranquila." (The maid likes Cleo and gave her a skritch on the way out.)
On unrelated news, I'm finding more and more that I don't mentally translate to English as I read the newspaper, which is good. This is most notable when I'm reading the (Costa Rican) newspaper to Rita. I understand what the article is saying, but then have a lot of hand waving while trying to come up with the English equivalents. There was a train crash earlier this week between a semi truck and a passenger train (Rita asked about it, since she'd seen something on a TV at the doctors office--follow up with the doctor who took care of her last year), and part of the article was talking about installing "semaforas" at the "cruces de tren" and I had to mime lifting my arm at the elbow before Rita suggested "gates at railroad crossings?"
(Oh, and Rita got a clean bill of health, so to speak, from the doctor. Though she'd also followed up with doctors in the US.)
Learned a great word in Spanish: estadounidense. Estados Unidos as an adjective--United Statesian? Soy estadounidense.
Yesterday the maid came by to clean--once a week cleaning is part of the rent--and this week that included vacuuming the furniture, including the chair Cleo was sitting on. The very loud vacuum was turned on: Cleo sat and looked at it. The vacuum came nearer: Cleo licked her paw. The maid started vacuuming the chair (which I've described as "Oh no! Someone skinned a muppet and used its fur for a chair!" Long red fake fur...interesting design choice, no?): nothing. The nozzle of the vacuum was two inches from her side and she was ignoring it. The maid and I were both looking at each other, looking at her, and laughing. Finally I picked Cleo up so the maid could finish removing cat hair. I could *see* us both thinking it would be faster--and probably completely acceptable to Cleo--to just vacuum the cat. I told the maid "Ella es muuuuy tranquila." (The maid likes Cleo and gave her a skritch on the way out.)
On unrelated news, I'm finding more and more that I don't mentally translate to English as I read the newspaper, which is good. This is most notable when I'm reading the (Costa Rican) newspaper to Rita. I understand what the article is saying, but then have a lot of hand waving while trying to come up with the English equivalents. There was a train crash earlier this week between a semi truck and a passenger train (Rita asked about it, since she'd seen something on a TV at the doctors office--follow up with the doctor who took care of her last year), and part of the article was talking about installing "semaforas" at the "cruces de tren" and I had to mime lifting my arm at the elbow before Rita suggested "gates at railroad crossings?"
(Oh, and Rita got a clean bill of health, so to speak, from the doctor. Though she'd also followed up with doctors in the US.)
Learned a great word in Spanish: estadounidense. Estados Unidos as an adjective--United Statesian? Soy estadounidense.