Estoy aprendiendo español

I'm learning Spanish.....the hard and painful way.  My lovely mother-in-law from Bolivia, Sofia, has arrived for a several months visit.  When I saw her last a year ago in Bolivia, I left with the promise to learn Spanish.  But I haven't.  Now I have this wonderful lady sitting with me for eight hours a day while my Latin Lover works.  She can't speak English and I can't speak Spanish.  I've become an instant fan of Google Translate.  If I need to express all but the most obvious (like "Do you want something to eat?" - [I gesture with my hand to my mouth]) I type it into Google Translate and out comes the sentence in Spanish.  What a way to learn.

Typical Cow Hand

I have also become a daily viewer of the novelas.  Our favorite at this time is Soy tu Duena, loosely translated meaning, "I am your master."  Thus far I've picked up that Valentina (pictured in this photo in the chair) owns a fabulous ranch in Mexico, wears VERY tight white shirts buttoned only so far, has shapely breasts, has a bunch of unbelievably ripped cow hands, and seems to have a mean streak.  Of course, I don't understand what she is saying, but she has very expressive eyes.  Wikipedia tells me, however, that this is the real plot:

Valentina Villalba (Lucero) is a beautiful woman with a fortune that she inherited from her parents. She has a mansion in Mexico City, where she lives with her aunt Isabel Dorantes  and her cousin Ivana . Valentina is engaged to Alonso (David Zepeda), but she doesn't know that Alonso is cheating on her with Ivana. Ivana has an additional lover, Oscar Ampudia (Claudio Baez), who is married. Ivana runs over Oscar with his car. Alonso stands up Valentina at their wedding. He has planned to run away with Ivana, but he ends up taking a different life.

Valentina decides to isolate herself at the hacienda Los Cascabeles, where she starts a new life and changes from a sweet, tender woman to a cold and bitter woman. When she arrives at the hacienda she finds Rosendo Gavilan (Sergio Goyri) abusing Iluminada (Fatima Torre), a servant who works at Los Cascabeles. Rosendo has raped Iluminada before. Valentina lays down the law and kicks Rosendo out of the hacienda. But eventually she hires him as her foreman. Most of the people of the region hate Valentina because of the things Rosendo does as her foreman, to their mind following her orders. They have given her the name "La Vibora", Spanish for viper or snake. Isabel, Ivana, and their servant Benita (Ana Martín), eventually move to the Cascabeles.

Valentina meets Jose Miguel Montesinos (Fernando Colunga), a rich land owner. She wants to purchase his land, but he adamantly refuses. Jose Miguel's parents, Federico and Leonor Montesinos, (Eric del Castillo) and (Jacqueline Andere), move into their hacienda. Leonor wants to return to Mexico City, but Federico Montesinos has only a short time left to live and wants to spend his remaining days on his hacienda. Jose Miguel becomes attracted to Valentina. Federico Montesinos was once in love with Isabel Dorantes and it turns out that he still is in love with her.

Rosendo kills Nazario, a worker in Valentina's Los Cascabeles in a stable belonging to Valentina, shortly after Valentina returns to the Hacienda. Valentina herself is blamed for killing Nazario..........

The plot goes on for about two more pages, so if you are interested, visit Wikipedia, or join Sofia and me every afternoon on Univision.