boys and girls

Learning to mortar was much fun. The guy who tried before me, he got it on the trowel and it all slopped off the block - couldn't do it at all. Me, I stepped right up and the leader said, "Oh, if she does it better than you ..." and it was like I was the expert demonstrator on HGTV.

"She did!"
"Oh, sorry," I slapped that mortar like a pro and got another trowel-full.
"She, she, ... she's probably decorated cakes."

Decorated cakes?!

What I could have said: "Look buddy, just because you're a mortar dud doesn't say anything about my home skills you sexist pig you don't know shit."
Instead, I expertly laid the block and prepped another. Sometimes, silence is golden. If he wants a cake decorator, he can talk to my friend Gail. Otherwise, I'm building houses so just step back.

All that mortaring and hauling concrete blocks and mixing and pouring concrete and laying beams for flooring - I am whooped!

Jenny - I found a Mexican restaurant NOT on our list, and I ate there with two vegetarians (one vegan) and they were pleased. (And the Guatemalan waiter remembered me - I'm working it.) (Speaking of boys, I just got email from the Nigerian artist I met at the African restaurant ... he has an art festival the same weekend as Voodoo Music Festival, so friends! I have many activities for us!)

So, day 1 with Habitat for Humanity was successful, and I have few cuts and blisters. I'll be back for more tomorrow (though leaving early to take Tami to the airport - actually we will check her in and if there's time, we will jet to a nearby pupuseria!).

The apartment still isn't really ready - I'm not moving in probably until the window is put in the bedroom because I don't want to clean and set up my room just to have dirty boys coming through with big saws to cut through brick. I took my bed and new table & chairs there yesterday ... and we got stuck in a horrible thunderstorm that drenched everything. I'm trying to dry out my mattress, but I dunno ... I may have to buy a new one which is a major $$ bummer - and the chair seats got waterstained so I'll need to reupholster them. Oh well, things could always be worse.

Speaking of thunderstorms ... today at the worksite, rain started and we packed up power tools and took shelter under a tent and there was a 20-minute deluge that was HARD. We went back to work, and maybe an hour later, there was a lightning strike SO CLOSE that we could all feel it. We just looked at each other and packed up FAST!

Overheard: "Are the wheelbarrows grounded, since they have rubber wheels?"