Waiting on parts

Early last week I noticed there was a problem with my air-conditioner in my apartment. It started dripping water... not too much at first, but it got steadily worse as time went by. I had someone from building maintenance come and look at it, and they said they needed to get a part to fix it. They said it would take two to seven days to get the part, which here means two or more weeks. It has not gotten too hot here in Dalian yet, in fact some days seem rather chilly, so I don't mind waiting on the parts too much.

Since the AC is out for awhile I have not been able to run my computers at home too much, since they tend to heat the place up some. This is probably a good thing. Saturday I went shopping for books, DVDs, and computer hardware. On Sunday I did some reading and went for a long walk before dinner in Xinghai Square. For dinner I went to a western restaurant called Le Gauche de Milan. They moved to a new location and I like the new place better... more sunny. I had a ceasar salad, a t-bone steak, and since they were having a special on Australian wine I had a glass of red wine. Oh, and some cheesecake.

Speaking of food, a few weeks ago some ladies from the office were learning how to cook Indian food, and invited me over to try it. They prepared tandoori chicken and it was wonderful. I decided to invite them over some weekend and I would cook something American for them. Now I just have to figure out what to fix. The gas is still not turned on in my kitchen yet, so all I have to cook stuff with is a hotplate and a microwave. That kind of limits me a little. I am thinking of some different recipes that are spicy and do not have beef (two of the ladies are from Sichuan province and two are from India). Maybe some TexMex and some Cajun food would be good. I have found most of the ingredients I need, but some have been hard to find, such as corn chips, cilantro, limes, sour cream, avocado, etc...