In the words of N*Sync…Bye Bye Bye (july 3)

Today was a good day. Work went smoothly. We finally got confirmation on the wireless internet hookup. They are supposed to come out tomorrow to set it up. However turns out that Yolanda somehow found an open network to connect to last night and so we used it again tonight and I was on the internet! It was great to be connected once again with friends & family because I’ve been lost without my technology. Back to the day…the only sour note of the day was that the maintenance personnel did not show up to fix my shower like we had scheduled. Yolanda sat there and waited for them for 35 minutes and they never showed up. The housing department said the guy got held up but can come tomorrow. Then she called back and said he can’t come tomorrow but can come on Thursday. So now I have to miss work AGAIN to meet these people. I promise this has been the MOST inconvenient thing. There’s no reason/explanation behind it. If the warehousing people had done their job as they claimed to, they would have discovered the smelly bathroom, the broken stove and the malfunctioning shower when they did the cleaning & walkthrough before handing the apartment over to us. CLEARLY, they did not do a thorough check because we found all of these things on the first day. No need in crying over spilled milk though, it’s done and will be fixed soon I hope so let’s move on with the day. For lunch Yolanda and I took Michael out to celebrate his birthday. It was a little late because his bday was like two weeks ago but we never had the opportunity to do it. We went to this quaint Cuban café in La Ciudad del Saber (The City of Knowledge). That’s what they call the former military base area and where many of the NGOs have their offices. It was good food and very well priced. I had potatoes, fish, rice and lemon pie all for $8.00. Simply wonderful darling. Quick aside, while we were eating it started to downpour and of course…I’m wearing cream colored pants so they got dirty/wet in the dash to the car and then to my office…go figure! After work is when we had the going away party for Eugenio Pinero bka Junior. It was held at a casino in Hotel Panama. Panama supposedly has laws like in certain US states where you cannot smoke in public places but they clearly weren’t adhering to that rule because I came home reeking of smoke and unable to breathe while I was sitting at the table. The casino was not very big but had enough of everything to appease the simple gambler. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves at the party and we gave him two parting gifts. The first was a t-shirt made with all the weird sayings he says in the office. Junior likes to make up his own language and his own words that no one else can understand. The second gift was this elaborate, expensive piece of jewelry. I cannot remember the name of the jewelry nor the store where you can buy it, but everyone was quite impressed by the gift. He seemed happy and enjoyed himself so that’s all that mattered. Afterwards, came home and you pretty much already know the rest because I already told you I got online and connected with the rest of the world. Tomorrow is the 4th of July so NO WORK! I will probably still wake up early because that’s just what I do…but don’t have to do anything until 5 o’clock when we have to be at the Ambassador’s House for the party. Oh and open the door for the internet guy.