Flat Stanley

We had our first visitor from the States these past few weeks: Flat Stanley! My second cousin's third grade class recently read about Flat Stanley and each made a version to send to a friend or family member far away. Flat Stanley shopped at the market in Chacao, went to see "Jesucristo Superestrella" at the university, visited the Embassy, and chilled with A and me as we had our usual weekend breakfast of empanadas, arepas, and "pretty" cappuccinos at our favorite coffee shop.

The youngest member of our family is also having an adventure of her own as she adapts to wearing a lovely cone around her head. Chama recently turned four months old which means that she is of spaying age. We took her to the vet about a week ago, and they "fixed" her. (I feel a little strange about the word "fixed" since she wasn't broken, but I used the term "spayed" in the previous sentence and "sterilized" just sounds awful. So I guess word variation and colloquialism take the prize over technical accuracy this time.) She runs into everything with the cone, but we're pretty sure it's because she's learned that she can use it to bulldoze any and everything (and everyone). It has not slowed her down one little bit. We've got mixed feelings about that, but at least it means that the operation went well. She had a check-up yesterday and she's healing very well. Just a little bit longer and she'll be back to life with out the cone. That also means she won't make as much noise when she gets into something - good for her but not as easy for us. Can you tell from her face that she's already plotting?