El Cadequilo

I'm generally one quick slip away from utter confusion in Spanish. Silvana and I are talking by telephone (uh oh) and she is trying to give me the name of an Internet address. I'm not hearing it well, so she decides to spell it out letter by letter.

Silvana: T. P. A. R. Cadequilo. A—
Me: Cadequilo?
Silvana: Si, cadequilo.
Me: Que?
Silvana: Si, cadequilo.
Me: Que?
Silvana: Si, Bruno, cadequilo.
Me: No entiendo.

I deduce that a cadequilo is one of those weird symbols, like an ampersand or an asterisk. And I hold firmly to that deduction, even though it is clearly doing me no good. So Silvana and I are locked in a battle of stubborn repetition until at last I realize that she's not saying "cadequilo," she's saying "ka de kilo" ("K as in kilo"). I also remember that Silvana speaks some English, so when I kept saying "que?" she was hearing me ask "K?"

What really burns me is that I've had exactly the same problem with another letter a couple of years ago. Hector was giving me his address and he said he was in Apartment "d-d-dedo." Now, Héctor doesn't usually stutter, but I let it go. Later, Max was giving me his address, and he said "d-d-dedo." Suddenly all of my Argentine friends have developed a stutter? You're way ahead of me, of course, and realize that they were saying "De de dedo" ("D as in dedo") (That's finger).

So, El Cadequilo doesn't exist, but it's my new name for the bright white stupefaction I feel when my comprehension disintegrates and I'm stuck gazing numbly at el mundo. So when I utterly lose the thread, I'll still feel like an idiot, but I'll at least I won't be alone. I'll be there with my good (albeit imaginary) friend, El Cadequilo.