July 31. Very Bad Things, Almost

Today was an interesting day. In the morning Irina said that she had drop off the stroller at home because it got a flat tire. It does happen every now and then. We did not think much off it. We were at Browns, so I walked over to inflate it and they then left again. Then she called and said that another tire is flat now as well and she is coming home again. After spending the last week with TomTom, and weekend, as well as a part of this week on the hardware piece Dan and I were ready for the next challenge. We went to the bike store at the Chiado mall and got a tire repair kit. We noticed that they also sell rubber casing that goes inside the tire but we were not sure if the size was right so we did not buy it.

We confirmed the casing size at home and Dan walked back to get two sets seeing that the casing was already repaired. Back tire was easy to replace. But for the front one, release lever had rusted over and stuck. We did the most natural thing and tried to try it off from the balcony railing. Snap! It went flying, stopping momentarily on the windshield of the car parked below, and falling on the ground in full view both passersbies and bystanders. If you’ve seen the movie Very Bad Things, one of my favorites incidentally, you’ll probably get an idea on our mindset at that moment.

Still, not alike how it went in the movie, we did not turn on each other. I went downstairs to check out the damage and find incriminating evidence by kneeling down to tie the shoelaces on my flip flops. Miraculously there was not a scratch on the car and the piece that broke off was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Dan figured out that by changing the location of remaining bolts and adding a few washers the front tire may stay in place. But we did not have any equipment. Back I went to the bike shop. The guy at the shop had the monkey wrench and was able to get the rusty bolts to move. But he had no washers. I came back home and we decided to go another bike store or hardware store after work. But then Dan’s mouse got the memo and stopped working. Back to the mall. Interestingly at the computer store they had three huge lines waiting for the cashiers. After resignedly waiting in one of the lines for a few minutes I noticed four empty self-serve stations. That still required human intervention, in the way of the signature and customer service clerk sliding her card in to authorize transation, but there was just one of me and one of her and so the process was very fast.

At this point there was nothing to lose. We went back to the hardware store I visited yesterday. The guy looked slightly horrified to see me back. Or maybe he was horrified to see the two of us armed with a stroller tire covered in soot. Or maybe it was our facial expressions. But he was relieved to see us leave with eight washers and two monkey wrenches. And soon it was over. For that piece of hardware. As they say in another one of my favorite movies “Never give up. Never surrender.” We still got two working computers, iPad, camera, and an electric toothbrush.

It was not all that dramatic and there were glimpses of sunshine all day long. First off Dan got a few quality minutes with one of the friends of his habit. And at the end of the day we visited the Lisbon’s original old cathedral. It was damaged in the 1755 earthquake and finished of in a massive fire there after. Later on it was decided not to repair it because ruins looked so romantic. I think we heard that before in Sintra. There they actually inflicted a bit more damage to increase the romantic spirit.

Using tripod for

photography at the Catheral

may cause irreparable damage

to the stone flooring. Or worse. 

It is an interesting to build such monumental edifices and allow some to decay for that purpose. But in the end, each looks amazing in their own way.

We really liked the Cathedral. It looks majestic. Outdoors and areas that the roof did not cave in on currently feature the museum of archeology. After wandering through old gravestones, including some with Hebrew and Arabic writing, and clay pots and stone weapons, after one of the turns we found ourselves face to glass to face with two child mummies from Peru. I've never seen any this close. Pretty graphic. The kids, especially Georgia, were shocked. The museum also had Egyptian mummy in a sarcophagus with a hole so that you could see the part of the leg. Not as shocking but more of a checkmark at this point.

The final stop was Indian Italian on the same plaza as the Cathedral. Very nice place again!! We ran into a Czech and Polish families both of which spoke Russian. Kids enjoyed the chance to hear that. Isabella found a little friend and tried to get him to join her in a dance. The music in the streets is back on too.



Got a slice of digital cake

from work for Lauren's

wedding. Congrats!!