Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Puerto de la Cruz: meanderings

As I mentioned in my previous post about Puerto de la Cruz, there’s a plethora of activities in walking distance of the Apartamentos Casablanca. We arrived on a Thursday, exhausted after a sleepless night on an overnight flight to Madrid with a nap on the shorter flight to Tenerife North, grabbed a takeout pizza at the on-site restaurant, and settled in for more napping. When it became clear that Cassandra was taking a longer nap, I wandered the nearby area, discovering some touristy shops, restaurants, and a small grocery store, all within a couple blocks of the hotel. We did a similar wander later, picking one of the nearby restaurants as our dinner spot, and scoping out potential breakfast items at the grocery store.

While there were a number of items on our potential plans, we only booked one ahead of time: a Teide by Night tour that involved driving to the nearby national park – named for its prominent (dormant!) volcano, Teide, including dinner and stargazing. The overcast day had me a bit concerned until I realized we were driving through and then above the clouds.

Part of the Agatha Christie stairs, with each stair painted a different color with the name of one of her books
A view of the ocean after climbing the Agatha Christie stairs
A photo of me wearing a phoenix t-shirt with the volcano Teide in the background
A nighttime photo of mountain and several visible stars during the Teide by night tour
The volcano Teide at sunset
A pigeon on a railing by a pond in one of many city parks
A rambling of trees and plants at the local botanical gardens
El Drago de Icod, a tree that’s estimated to be over 800 years old
Me standing by an orca statue at Loro Parque
A variety of orchids at the Orchid Garden in Puerto de la Cruz
A view of Puerto de la Cruz from a high point of the city.

Before that late afternoon and evening excursion, scheduled for our first full day to preempt my inevitable shift back to being a morning person, we wandered up the nearby Agatha Christie stairs, peeking into some tourist shops and a scenic view of the coastline before finding lunch. We enjoyed an amazing sunset and an even more amazing view of the stars – above the cloud cover – in an area with minimal light pollution.

The next day involved walking to the nearby botanical gardens, lingering there for an extended period in lovely weather, then wandering back a slightly different route, which allowed us to discover a larger grocery store. Our plan for Sunday was to seek out a craft market that was advertised in the lobby, and while it turned out to be quite small, our return wanderings took us through the Taoro Garden, a public park with a several distinct areas including a sunken garden, playgrounds, dog park, and ponds… and, luckily for us, a restaurant.

Having taken the time to adjust to the time zone, Monday was an all-day adventure at Loro Parque, starting by catching their free train (tram, really) in Puerto de la Cruz and arriving just after opening. We stayed the entire day, catching the last train back after seeing almost every part of the zoo. The following day, we caught a bus to nearby Icod to visit the “Drago de Icod” – a tree that’s estimated to be between 800 and 1000 years old, a nearby butterfly house, and a banana museum that details the introduction of bananas to the Canary Islands and the resulting industry. That was the only day we really used our raincoats.

Wednesday turned into our big walking day – over 7 miles – starting a couple blocks away at the Orchid Garden, then wandering down towards the coastline for the Fishing Museum (which was primarily about fishing and other seaworthy vessels), the Archaeological Museum, and generally admiring the coastline and variety of shops. The next day, our last full day on the island, we headed up the Agatha Christie stairs again and kept going along a scenic path that gave us some great views of the city and the ocean. As with other areas in town, we found public gardens and a delightful restaurant before returning to pack and rest before a long travel day home.

But I digress, to mourn Peter David.

Last weekend, Peter David, a writer of “stuff” – comic books, TV shows, novels, and such – passed away. He was only 68, which in the United States is around retirement age (unless you’re in Congress). Since I saw the news, I’ve been reflecting on the unusual impact Peter David had on my fandom. Picture a geeky butterfly flapping its wings somewhere.

In grad school, a friend and I decided to drive up to Orlando for MegaCon, which was primarily a comic book convention at the time. He wanted to hear Peter David speak; being a Babylon 5 (B5) fan, I wanted to hear J. Michael Straczynski. They were scheduled back-to-back, so we sat down for both. I came out of Peter David’s talk with an awareness that he had written some B5 episodes, a book called Howling Mad, and some funny “But I Digress” columns about Star Wars. I was working in Interlibrary Loan on campus at the time and set some challenges for my co-worker when I asked her to find those for me. (I have since acquired my own copy of Howling Mad.) I followed with my own research into Peter David and discovered that he was listed as a guest at DragonCon that summer.

If you recall my past discussion of DragonCon, it was my first exposure to Out of the Box Publishing and John Kovalic’s work (actually the 2nd year I attended). A few years later, that familiarity with both John and Out of the Box Publishing saw me hanging out at their GenCon booth playing Shipwrecked with a couple who were involved in the now-defunct Chicago Gamers Conclave, a Thanksgiving weekend gaming convention. Attending that convention brought Capricon to my attention, along with a reintroduction to some gamers I had met at Wizard World over a year before, and an invitation to a tabletop role-playing group, where I met my ex-husband.

The ripple effects of that geeky butterfly include exposure to John Kovalic’s work and as a result, my subsequent involvement in Dorkstock; meeting the father of my favorite human child (don’t worry, she knows she ranks above the cats too); and my introduction to Chicago’s fan-run conventions (one of which I co-chaired this year). That’s a pretty big impact for listening to a guy talk about Skippy, the Jedi droid; the “Bear”bylon 5 incident, and a wolf that got bitten by a werewolf.

Do you ever wonder what your ripple effects are?

Puerto de la Cruz: Accommodations

Continuing our adventures from sitting through a timeshare talk in January, we explored the available locations from the RCI resort directory for an 8-day/7-night stay and decided to visit Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. And by “we,” I mean that Cassandra did all of the research and I booked the flights. Yay for a live-in travel planner! (The Margaritaville cruise we took in March was also a reward for attending the talk. If you’re counting, that’s 3 nights in Virginia, a 2-night cruise, and 7 nights in Tenerife in exchange for our attendance.)

Having selected the Canary Islands as our destination, and narrowed it down to Tenerife (the largest of the Canary Islands), selecting which of the available resorts to stay at was probably the easy part – Club Casablanca (as named on the RCI website) or Apartamentos Casablanca (as noted on local signage) is in easy walking or transit distance of many attractions on the north end of the island, including Loro Parque, a world-famous zoo.

We had an amazing time at the Apartamentos Casablanca, from the smooth check-in process through our departure a week later. No, I take that back, it began when I e-mailed about extending our stay by arriving one day earlier, asking for pricing. We received a reply within a day, and the cost of the extra night was less than the airfare savings that prompted the request. Every staff member was friendly, and everyone whose responsibilities included regular interactions with guests was at least bilingual – probably more, given that signage around town was usually in English, Spanish, and German, with some restaurants featuring additional (usually European) languages.

The resort buildings essentially filled a city block, enclosing the restaurant, patio, and pool area. (The outside-facing ground floor had businesses around half the block.) The pool photo I shared above was the only one I could take in nice weather without people; there were almost always people at the pool when it was open, even if the weather was a bit chilly by my standards on several days. (Yes, low 60s is chilly for the pool. Yes, I checked my temperature blanket spreadsheet to see what the highs were while we were there.) There’s a game room (pool, air hockey, ping pong, an arcade game, and a play area for younger kids) and laundry room (coin-operated – the front desk will make change) open through late evening hours.

Our apartment had a balcony facing the street, which meant we could see the ocean and hear the nightly live music from the hotel across the street. The restaurant at our hotel also featured nightly live music, which we mostly heard in passing as we headed to our room, though we made a point of attending a flamenco performance one evening. We had a small kitchen, so ate breakfast in the apartment most days, usually eating lunch and dinner elsewhere – there were plenty of good options in walking distance. (That’s a later post!)

We would be delighted to stay at the Apartamentos Casablanca if we’re in Puerto de la Cruz again. That said, there are areas to explore in the northeast and south sides of the islands as well, and points of interest on the other islands. Hopefully we’ll have future opportunities for adventures in the Canary Islands.

Not surprisingly, I’m tired.

Near the end of April, we flew to Tenerife North Airport in the Canary Islands, spending just over a week at a resort in Puerto de la Cruz. It was fabulous and I have some lovely photos to share here… but not today.

The day after we returned, we had ten yards of mulch delivered shortly before we left to see Cats. On principle, I immediately grabbed a couple buckets, so I could say I had started it on it the same day it arrived. One of our neighbors immediately popped out to offer a loan of his wheelbarrow, because our neighbors are awesome that way. I assured him I had one, and sure enough, by the time he stepped out for his newspaper the next morning, I had made a significant dent in the pile using our garden cart. By the following Sunday – Mother’s Day in the United States – the pile was down to about half of its original size.

The remainder of the 10 yards of mulch that was delivered - slightly over half of it is left.

And that’s about where it’s still at today. We spent a good chunk of Mother’s Day helping out in someone else’s garden – enough that even with sunscreen and a hat, my face was a bit pink in a photo taken the following evening. The fact that I wasn’t near home for that photo added to my tiredness – I flew out Monday morning to attend a conference in Washington, DC, and flew back Wednesday afternoon. Alas, there was no time to be a tourist on this trip, unlike last year’s visit for the same conference, and the conference was just as full an experience as it was last year, ranging from breakfast hours to team dinners.

I took this morning “off” to recover – which really just means I didn’t launch straight into early morning mulching again, opting instead to deal with unpacking and laundry. And since my weather app says it’s 94 degrees Fahrenheit outside (the forecast was for 88 with some rain, and it hasn’t rained), I will certainly not be moving mulch this evening. Especially since I am still, not surprisingly, tired.

The Paramount Theatre presents Cats: Le Cirque du Chat

I was surprised when the Paramount Theatre announced that Cats was in this Broadway season; Cats was part of the first Paramount season we subscribed to (2014-15?), and we’ve been season ticket holders since then. In fact, it was the first show of the season and the smoke effects set off the fire alarm that fall afternoon. The decision made more sense once they announced that it was a different interpretation – the classic music from Cats combined with a Cirque du Soleil style presentation created “Le Cirque du Chat.”

Cats playbill image, featuring the silhouette of a person with cat ears and a tail balanced in an acrobatic pose on a ring hanging above many other cat shapes and the word "Cats"

Your typical Cats performers are already more flexible than the average person, with assorted flips and balancing acts across the stage stretching the imagination as to the trouble cats can get into. Le Cirque du Chat adds gravity-defying acrobatics to the mix, with various characters twisting precariously above the stage, sometimes cavorting in pairs in displays of both trust and skill.

This is, of course, in addition to the singing and dancing on the stage; it is, after all, a Broadway show. As always, the Paramount shines in their selection of talented cast members; this would have been a fabulous show even without the circus re-imagining. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend seeing this distinctive rendition of Cats at the Paramount.

Melting! Melting! It’s how old?

There was, alas, a casualty from the power outage I mentioned last week. The following Monday, we realized that the large freezer in the garage, which came with the house, was clearing experiencing a meltdown. Not a minor one of the “oops, I left the door cracked open” variety which causes a build-up of ice… the previous build up (from one of those incidents) was clearly melting over the entire contents of the freezer.

An inside view of a large freezer with one shelf encased in ice

At a pause in the mad scramble to squish the contents of a larger freezer into a smaller – and not empty – one, I paused to Google the freezer model, on the off chance that it might be reparable. I haven’t located the serial number, so I don’t know the exact age… according to the search results, the Sears Coldspot freezer model was replaced by Kenmore in 1976.

Needless to say, I was flabbergasted, and have progressed from wondering at its sudden demise to appreciating the quality and extended lifespan of this freezer. We will certainly miss it.

I didn’t realize the power was out.

I realize, even in the United States, this is a privilege. But even this privilege has quirks.

You may recall that we had solar panels installed last summer, including a backup battery. (I did incorrectly say we weren’t pushing power back into the grid.) On Saturday morning, as I lay in bed cuddling the cats and scrolling my social media feed, I heard the power go out, and immediately kick back in. As is customary when our power flickers noticeably, our 2.4 GHz network dropped, sending a notification from our thermostat app that it couldn’t communicate with the thermostat. (The thermostat and printer only work on the 2.4 GHz network; almost everything else runs on the 5 GHz.) When I eventually got up, I knew I’d need to reset it through the admin portal.

When I did get up, my first responsibility was to feed the cats. This is where I noticed things being weird – one of the lights in the kitchen weren’t working, others were fainter than usual, and on one, two of the three bulbs weren’t lit. I wondered what sort of power outage would knock out some – but not all – of the light bulbs. This was before caffeine and it didn’t click yet that the power was still out.

While taking my morning shower, the water pressure dropped. That worried me – the well circuit was supposed to be on the battery, so why hadn’t it come back on? (Noting that the circuits were supposed to be accurately labeled shortly after I bought the house; now I’m fairly sure the “well” circuit is actually the water softener’s outlet.) After my shower, I scrambled to check the circuit breaker and the reset by the well. You may recall I gained some experience with our water pressure about a year and a half ago, when a pipe rusted through on Christmas Day. All I was sure of at that point was that the water pressure was really low, and it was way too early to call anyone to help troubleshoot it.

The display on the solar battery, showing a green power light and a blue electrical plug or something similar.

Eventually, I looked at our solar battery and realized that the blue icon I was seeing was not its normal display. Annoyingly, I couldn’t find anything online explaining what the different icons are. That display combined with having to manually light the gas stove are what made me realize that our power was still out and the solar battery was working as designed.

I made myself a micro breakfast to minimize water usage – I had water in the kettle from Friday and grabbed a snack bar. About twenty minutes after I finished, the power kicked back on with all the normal beeps and clicks that come with a power flicker. Including the need to reset the 2.4 GHz network again.

Spring 2025: fruit trees!

Shrubs, bushes, trees… whatever. We thought it would be wise to grow more food in our garden, so in addition to the vegetable beds (which we are not currently planning to expand), we added several fruit-producing, well, twigs at the moment. Except the peach, that is almost as tall as me, and we have an American plum that just arrived today that is taller (and not pictured, since it’s not in the ground yet).

A blueberry surrounded by leftover bits of a holiday tree.
The other blueberry, also surrounded by leftover bits of a holiday tree.
A hazelnut tree
The other hazelnut tree
A peach tree, with the mulberry tree behind it.
A shrubbery! Wintergreen, to be specific, with a fingerful of pink berries.
A red currant bush

The holiday tree remnants around some of the twigs are to increase the acidity of the soil… yes, we deliberately saved pieces when we discarded the tree in January. Where there are two of something – hazelnut and blueberries – it’s because that’s needed for cross-pollination; otherwise, we’d just have a couple sad bushes with no fruit. And now we return to the bit where gardening is built on hope… and patience.

Tiny Art: Weaving on a toothpick loom

What the hell was I thinking?

Tiny sculpture of a woman (made from black foamy stuff) with white hair (also foamy stuff) weaving on a toothpick supported loom, supported by a tiny brown (painted) post.

When I started the sculpture for this year’s Tiny Art Exhibit at the local library, my intention was to use some of the clay to make something that looked like weaving. As I started assembling the pieces, I changed my mind – the instructions said we could use other materials besides the ones provided, which in this case were white and black foam clay, and tan (normal?) air-drying clay. I’ve never worked with the foam stuff before, it was weirdly poofy, and I didn’t think I could replicate a weaving pattern with it. Shaping a human-ish body was difficult enough.

‘Ah-ha!’ I thought. ‘I have toothpicks and embroidery thread! And I did take like two weaving lessons in middle school.’

I was already committed to this plan before I remember that my weaving lessons involved the actual weaving rather than setting up the warp to work on. And my goodness, toothpicks are tiny. Setting up the warp was a bit aggravating, the weaving less so once I found a rhythm to it. Since my intended title was “Weaving her next story,” I knew when I started that I didn’t need to fill the entirety of the warp, just enough to show some color variations… you know, show that it’s actual weaving.

I love how this turned out and have dropped it at the library already. That said, I do not recommend weaving on a toothpick loom… pick a large template.

Temperature Blanket update

47 days of a temperature blanket - 3 rows of 15 squares, all connected, and 2 squares separated from the rest.

45 (connected) days in, I effectively have a usable shawl as I work on my temperature blanket.

I’m actually 47 days into it, but as you can see in the photos, 2 of those squares aren’t connected to the rest. I connect each square to the previous day when I finish it, and when I complete a row of 15, I connect it to the other rows.

You may be wondering why a couple of the squares have more than one color. I decided at the beginning that I wanted the blanket to reflect where I was – rather than my home address – for each day. The multi-color squares reflect the highs for travel days, where there was a difference between my starting and ending locations, with the added bonus that one of them ended up with my university’s colors. Specifically, those are for our trip to Florida for a cruise at the beginning of March. I suspect travel in winter or summer will have less temperature variance than our spring trip did.