Thursday, February 28, 2008

February 2008

Lazing about with nothing to show for it but this lousy post

You are SO lucky! I have been surfing the internet All Day Long but have been rendered impotent from posting anything until this moment. However, benevolent being that I am, concerned for your lack of (albeit boring) reading material, once un-imprisoned, I RUSH to update this forgotten wasteland. Thank you, thank you (catches the well aimed roses).

We had a MARVELOUS time on Cozumel, dahhhhlings. We loved the B&B; it wasn’t 5 star and anyone used to resort areas would probably not be happy with the lack of wireless, cat fight in the pre-dawn hours that sounded like it was coming from our patio, the drain on hot water when six bodies shower at once and the lack of blankets (I am still wondering about that one; maybe to keep the A/C use down?) but to us it was heaven. We had a fridge that was Read the rest of this entry »We had a fridge that was cleaner and worked better than our palapa fridge, a hot plate, cooking and eating stuff, blender and CAWFEE machine (and FILTERS!!!). It really doesn’t take much to impress us, but we really loved it there. Two wonderful king sized beds, a cute bathroom, AMAZING hardwood (which gave us ideas for our lower kitchen cabinets) and just such a cute layout. We had a fresh fish “restaurant” (someone’s home) next door with wonderfully fresh fish (we picked our meal).  Ok, I’ll stop gushing about the accommodations and instead gush about Carnaval.


I was so happy with our choice of Cozumel to introduce the kids to Carnaval. It was a wonderful family party with lights and color and dance and music and kids and babies and magic. Channel 10 from Cancun ran a float/bus with a live camera and feed; channel 35 from somewhere else did the same. There were parades each night and we mistakenly assumed that Fat Tuesday would be the comfy crowd we encountered the other nights but we were quite wrong; all of Quintana Roo must have shown up along the malecon but it was still a lovely celebration. Necklaces were thrown from the crowd, to the crowd, scrambled for by the kids and handed to bystanders by adults. As I headed crowd downstream, holding tight to Sissy’s hand on Tuesday night, a parade participant took one from his neck and placed it over my head.

We spent the days at the East beaches and never went snorkeling; the water and air was just too cold. I finally broke out my shorts for a few hours the day we left but honestly, it was just too cold for our thin blood, though the kids really enjoyed the beach (as evidenced by the photos). We’re seriously thinking about taking Aunty Chris over when they visit. Water should be much warmer then. We really didn’t see the touristy parts until the night we left and without Carnaval, saw the downtown and malecon the way the cruisers must see it and honestly, it looked like a different world.



It seems that a stomach virus is rolling through PaaMul as our Canadian neighbors are sick, Ellen fell ill today, and I am dreading the roll of illness through our family. We spent much of December sick (those airplanes wreaked havoc with our immune systems) and until Ellen fell ill I’d forgotten about illness. So it would appear that January was sick-free. Ellen is not a happy camper when sick and I generally lie about in bed with her, one arm trapped under her feverish body. She has now progressed to the point that I can turn on lights and take short breaks and she will now watch DVDs. You know your kid is sick when they won’t even watch DVDs/TV.

We still haven’t decided much about the kitchen. I had a contratista (contractor) come over and give us a quote for the cabinets; he suggested a concrete base (over the lovely tile) so that the wood would not come in contact with the floor (and water). He assured us that his (extra fee, natch) termite treatment would allow the (cheaper) pine to last a whole FOUR years. His quote was around $26K. Our local carpintero, who was able to put in our upper cabinets now must work under the control of the restaurant owner which increased his presupuesto another $5K to $14K. He estimates 10 years for untreated pine and since he isn’t nearly as slick as the first guy, I tend to believe him more.

I had our contratista for the work we had done on the palapa come out and give us prices for the rebase (concrete footing) for the gabinetes (kitchen cabinets), tiling the bathroom and tiling the roof of the recamera/bath. We’re still waiting for one more carpintero who comes amazingly recommended, I’d love to see some of his work but since we’d most likely be working with pine, I wonder if his talents might be wasted on our lowly job. At any rate, we’re on Mexican time. And after seeing the lovely doors and cabinet doors at Tamarindo, I’m rethinking the whole cabinet design. We do, however, have a door for the bathroom and the boys will no longer be forced to barricade the door with the towel rack. Jorge is coming tomorrow to install it and I’m sure the boys will be in heaven.

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Jonna // Feb 2, 2008 at 2:08 pm
    OK, I gotta ask. Why make cabinets from pine? You know the termites are going to eat them it is just a matter of how long it will take. If you make the cabinets - walls and shelves - of concrete and only the doors from wood it would last a whole lot longer and probably be cheaper too.
    Just.wondering
  • 2 Joan // Feb 2, 2008 at 2:42 pm
    I think I’ve clicked on your web page 10 times today, just to look at that beautiful sunset, sigh. If only these clouds, rain and snow would disappear.
  • 3 jody // Feb 4, 2008 at 11:40 am
    Cozumel sounds heavenly. Would you stay at Tamarindo again? We usually stay at Playa Azul because of the beach, but Bill might like to try something different this next time.


Much ado about little buggers

A quickie update while I still have my brain. We’ve been keeping VERY busy ridding the trailer of pests. We have moved out for sleeping, into the recamera and have been cleaning every square inch, emptying the entire contents and bombing. Interspersed with looking high and low for boric acid and/or diatomaceous earth, we’ve been pretty busy. The good news is that the roaches are now dead when we find them.  The bad news is that our use of poison may have significantly altered our brain functions.

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Dr Paul // Feb 8, 2008 at 12:16 pm
    “may have significantly altered our brain functions.”
    No, living in our family for so long, that train left a long time ago :o)
    love, dad
    PS> And I’m not sure it was a bad thing….
  • 2 jody // Feb 8, 2008 at 1:29 pm
    Glad they are history. Hate, hate, hate those little monsters. Blek.
    Mia cut her hair today. Gah! I have never had a child do that before. Must be a girl thing? She actually did a pretty good job….a little layering around the face, but kept the length in the back…I cried, Bill laughed.
  • 3 Natalie // Feb 10, 2008 at 3:37 pm
    Milo our cat had a nice bath after rolling around in the posion under your trailer. And is trying to lick himself dry??? Im wondering if he’ll get dumber than he already is. LOL

Cans of fire

I think I might have to experiment with posting every other day or something more frequently, because once you stop for a while it is SO HARD to start again. I’m overwhelmed with minutiae and boredom at the same time.  We emptied the trailer of each and every object possible. We pounded it with poison for a good week and when we stopped finding dead roaches we let it breathe. We’ve been airing it out for a good couple days and are waiting for our good neighbors, Deb and Ian, to bring us diatomaceous earth before we put everything back inside. Which means we are living in the land of clutter. I used almost all the storage/vacuum bags and even borrowed a couple plastic bins (after filling all of ours) which are stacked all over the palapa - both upstairs and down. The good news is that the trailer is really lightweight now. We have all been sleeping in the recamera of the palapa and it is incredibly sweet to either watch the morning sun steal over the jungle or watch the wooden beams and guano of the palapa turn golden in the morning light, depending on which window you choose.

I’ve begun removing tiles from our kitchen floor in preparation for cabinetry. We decided to go with concrete cabinets and wood doors. Of course, we still don’t have an abanil on site, but I’m pretty confident it will happen some time this week. Or next. Still waiting on the absent carpintero to install the bathroom door. Promised at least two weeks ago? Almost all our tile is expensive talavera (handmade) and it would kill me to cover it with concrete so I’m taking each tile up (so far, 2 damaged beyond repair, 1 usable and 6 without damage) and we’ll probably use them to re-tile the bottom of the cabinets.


Some flu-like illness has made its way to the Yucatan and at least one kid has been sick the entire month of February. I personally, was down at least 3 days with two days of up and down on either side of the three. Jesse has been dying to ride the waves in Tulum but we haven’t had a full day of non-sick kids to do it. Jamie and I have been dying to get to Merida and house shop, but again, no non-sick kids. I did, however, take out a goodly amount of concrete and block (and repair it afterwards) to make the trailer exit from the palapa quite a bit easier.

We’re looking very forward to my sister’s visit in March and figuring all the places we want to visit. We will start with Cozumel, hit Ek Balam, Coba (maybe), Akumal, Punta Allen and Valladolid and these kids better start getting better or they’ll be left at home.



Each night that we stay out too late shopping in town, we pass the cans of fire along the highway. The police are very vigilant about the speed limit just south of town (80kph), which is quite the anomaly in Mexico, and use cans of fire to alert the nighttime driver of their presence and their radar guns. Never ceases to amuse us.

There was SO much more in my head to post but this should clear the stoppage and I promise to post more frequently.

It’s a good thing we live in Mexican time

Some time ago (don’t remember, but more than a week, could be two) I ordered a part from the brand new Ford dealership in town. I put 1/2 down (140 pesos) for a new car door lock. They expected it in 10 days and were going to call me when it got in. I went back a little while ago and the person in control was at lunch. Again, they’ll call. I think we’ll go back today and see if it is gathering dust somewhere.

The day that the brand spanking new City Club opened, I got a free eye exam and ordered two boxes of contacts. That was probably the first week of January. I put 1/2 down (250 pesos) and was to have been called when they arrived. We go to City Club at least once a week, so I recently stopped in (it had been over a month since I ordered) and checked on the status; they still hadn’t arrived and the optician was alarmed it had been so long. Eh, we’re in Mexico, right? She was going to get right on it and call me Monday (that was a week ago the day before yesterday). I think we’ll stop by soon and see how it’s going.

My dentist created a new tooth for me from composite and ordered a post to begin the crown work. This was at least a couple weeks ago. I really expected him to contact me by now but maybe he just got sick. I’ve also been meaning to email him but just haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe today.
Our Costco membership expires on Friday and according to the last person we spoke to (Costco Cancun) we could only receive our 2% rebate on the exact day of expiration. Not such a huge deal and I’m sure it can be circumvented (if, in fact, it is correct) but we’ll head there today to get tires for the van and see what we can do about the membership. We don’t use it much down here anymore
(with all the stores in Playa) but we do in the US.

We are waiting for a quote from one contratista for our cement cabinets in the kitchen. Don Manuel (who did our recamera and other cement work last year) came by yesterday, but since he didn’t show up on Monday, I had started the job of tile removal and didn’t want to turn it over to him. He also gave us a kind of high quote so I’ll let him think about it before I negotiate with him. We’ll probably get going on Thursday (unless he continues to show up a couple days after he’s supposed to) or next Monday. Of course, if the guy I think will come in really high comes in at a reasonable rate, we might have him do it. I know Manuel is hungrier though and the other guy has lots of work lined up, so I’m leaning towards Manuel anyway. Jamie wondered yesterday if we couldn’t do the work ourselves (considering all the concrete work I’ve been doing anyway).

Around the first week of January I ordered some medical transcription materials. The company had some trouble communicating the invoice to the importer (Merkalink) and after much negotiation and emails and calls, the package was cleared yesterday. It is in San Luis Potosi as I type and you can follow the journey here.
And that is Mexico on Mexican time.

6 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Dr Paul // Feb 20, 2008 at 5:15 pm
    We first ran into Mexican Time in San Felipe, while we waited for the Christmas Parade to begin. The publicized time of 5.30p passed and no one, except us, had a concern. The folks in the crowd chatted, the kids played, the vendors vended, etc. By 7.30p and no parade we had pretty much got into it. What difference did it make if the parade started at 5.30 or 7.30 - enjoy today as it comes to you. Kathleen’s email signature pretty much says it well:
    Look to this day!
    For it is life, the very life of life.
    In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence;
    The bliss of growth,
    The glory of action,
    The splendor of achievement.
    For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision.
    But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
    And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
    Look well, therefore, to this day.
    * ~ Sanskrit Proverb *
    love, papa
  • 2 jody // Feb 21, 2008 at 7:36 am
    It used to take me about 24 hours to adjust to Mexico time, but now when we go (which the last time has been way, way too long)I get into it on the plane after my first drink.
    I love your moon pics….it was overcast and foggy here, so we missed the eclipse. We’ll catch it in 2010!
  • 3 michelle // Feb 21, 2008 at 10:56 pm
    AMAZING photos. we grabbed a quick glance at it as we ran outside to look, but then ran right back in as it was -8 outside. it was still a beauty!
  • 4 Kerry // Feb 27, 2008 at 8:44 am
    OHHH!!! Your eclipse photos are great Kathy!!! My girl did a science fair project on the moon and when we get back from the fair this evening I’ll have to show her. Just gorgeous!
    You can see her project on my blog btw - click on the pics and you can blow them up to read it.
  • 5 Christina // Feb 28, 2008 at 12:01 am
    Loved the eclipse pics too. How did you do it? Love to all, C
  • 6 jody // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:19 am
    I was listening to some Buffett this morning and was reminded of your post about Mexico time.
    OOhhhh Mexico, baby!!!!
    Way down here
    You need a reason to move
    Feel a fool
    Running your stateside games
    Lose your load
    Leave your mind behind
    Baby, james
    Oooh, mexico
    It sounds so simple
    I just got to go
    The sun’s so hot
    I forgot to go home
    I guess i’ll have to go now
    Americanos’ got the sleepy eyes
    But his body’s still shakin’ like a live wire
    Senorita with her eyes on fire
    Don’t you know
    Ohh Mexico
    It sounds so sweet
    With the sun sinking low
    The moons so bright
    Likes to light up the night
    Make everything alright.

Norte numero 32

It is absolutely FREEZING here today and yesterday. We’re starting to scrounge for socks and shoes but Jamie cavorts around in shorts and short sleeved shirts while the rest of us are robbing the birds for their feathers and stuffing the down into our sweatshirts for extra warmth.

We headed to Tulum last Sunday and decided we would do this (or some type of trip) every Sunday now. We had such a good time and forgot how simple and beautiful it is to get out of the “drudge” of living in a palapa on the Caribbean. Seriously, though, we are generally working on palapa stuff or killing cockroaches (thanks to Deb and Ian, we are now armed with both Boric Acid and Diatomaceous Earth) or reading to the kids or washing the 37th load of dishes or the 179th load of laundry and before we know it the day is gone. We haven’t even been exercising for the past week; no Yoga and no walks as we’ve been directing the abaniles in our concrete kitchen cabinet job. Jesse has been jonsing for a Tulum trip, the only beach the boys have been able to boogieboard, and every Sunday something conspired to delay the trip another week.



So it was wonderful to finally hit the road and head south and see all the changes the past couple months have brought to the carretera and surrounding area. I have had an itch to explore the Sian K’an for longer than Jesse has been jonsing for Tulum and as we somehow managed to get an early start, I decided we’d kill some burning sun time by exploring the Biosphere. The kids were too antsy to explore but agreed to come back the next week so I can get my Sian K’an fix so we headed back to Tulum and had an amazingly enjoyable day; so much so that we decided to make it a weekly event.
After getting a couple bids on the kitchen cabinet project, I decided to give Manuel the opportunity as he seems to have less of it than the resident contractor, David. Unfortunately, Manuel never showed and David met his price, so we had David start the cabinet job and are so happy we did. They did a wonderful job and we couldn’t be happier both with the job, the time they took and the ability to now put stuff away instead of dumping it into Rubbermaid tubs.

Since that job seemed to go so swimmingly, we decided to finish the top of the recamera and put a proper finish to the floor. We purchased some tile during our last trip to Home Depot and figured out a design. Yesterday, Daniel (the cement worker) laid all the tile and today he began the floor finish work. I had headed to Comex (the paint store) to get the opinion of the professionals as to what (if any) color to add to the cement, what color of cement (grey or white) to use and whether or not the polvo (calica) would add a color element. Thus armed, I headed back with materials and after Daniel finished tiling today he began the mixture of color, cement (blanco, natch) and polvo to make the floor finish.

I had previously arranged to take some kids to an Art Class given by the Casa de Cultura, so I left Jamie in charge and headed out. I returned to utter chaos. The abaniles were completely unable to make the color turn out; they started with red/chocolate and made the transition to dirty pink; neither of which have a chance to complement the tile. They needed to wet down the existing concrete and as such Jamie, Jesse, Pike and the neighbor boys ran around ala Dick van Dyke, moving couches, bookcases, the fridge, stove, laundry, etc. as water cascaded all over the inner area of the palapa AND the inside of the recamera.   Dirt and polvo covered every surface of anything in the palapa (and since the trailer has been emptyied to combat cockroaches, that means EVERYTHING), cement splashed everywhere from the comedor to the new kitchen cabinets. It was a mess of epic proportions. All I could do was laugh and make dinner and hope that tomorrow brings us a solution for the floor upstairs. I’m sure they’ll figure something out but I hope it doesn’t involve large quantities of cemento blanco as that stuff is about twice the price of the cemento gris.

I’m going to be REALLY ready for Sunday this week!

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 jody // Feb 29, 2008 at 7:45 am
    Oh man! I love it that you laughed and made dinner.
    Life there sounds really wonderful, even with the cement mess!
  • 2 michelle // Mar 7, 2008 at 12:45 am
    Hellllooooooooooo
  • 3 Aunt Kathy // Mar 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm
    If you want cinnamon stars, POST! How many do you want for you and the family?
    Love,
    Aunt Kathy

Thursday, January 31, 2008

January 2008

A and D

I wrote the beginning of this post in my head this morning which means it is now completely and utterly lost now that I have a moment to update the blog. Sigh. One of these days I’ll remember to write the damn thing down.

Pike is still down. When the doctor came by he mentioned that he was cutting molars and I thought the guy was a little wacky as Pike has not made one mention of tooth pain and he is NOT a child to refrain from mentioning the slightest irritation he might have or had at one point in time. He also said Pike had gingivitis and gave him some wash with which to gargle. Pike’s been on three days of hard hitting antibiotics and he is still in bed and still not eating. And his gingivitis looks awful still. Jamie poked around his mouth this afternoon and found that ALL his molars seem to be erupting. That explains his reluctance to eat but I still can’t figure out why he hasn’t complained a whit about the pain. The boy confuses me. Which, I suspect, is the goal.

I had an absolutely LOVELY practice this morning and figured out that it is incredibly less difficult to practice Yoga BEFORE taking an exercise walk. Go figure! I’ve been keeping a separate Yoga blog for the month of January as I’m trying to practice some amount of Yoga on a daily basis. I figure if I do nothing more than Sun Salutations on a daily basis, that is a HUGE increase in the amount of Yoga I normally do. I have always thought I need to put aside time for a full practice and I’m finding that I get a LOT out of simple daily Sun Salutations. And so far, I have yet to not break out a sweat by Surya Namaskara B.


 I have been meaning to take the kids to the local animal shelter as they have a weekly “wash the doggies” day in the hopes of perhaps eventually adopting a dog. Jamie will be the hurdle there. Pike was sick and Jesse not interested (he prefers cats) so the girls and I headed out today. I figured it would, if nothing else, be a wonderful photographic opportunity and I was not disappointed. The girls did not want to leave, but I finally managed to drag them away after about 3 hours of dog and puppy play. I have a feeling we’ll be back.

The title of this post makes absolutely no sense, but I thought of a wonderful title earlier this morning when I posted in my head and these are the first letters of the words I can’t remember.
Jesse is DYING to finish the Monopoly game we started on Christmas Day so I’ll have to finish this for now.

5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 TaTa // Jan 6, 2008 at 10:36 am
    The news about both Pike and Jess is troubling, but we hope the medicines are going to kick in SOON. Now just keep the rest of you well and strong.
    Good luck on the yoga, Kit. I am beginning to “get into” it more - but have need of more learning. I am looking around to see if I can find some Yoga classes in the area for a class or two to make sure I am trying to do the poses correctly.
    Hugs to everyone and wishes for healthy times for you all!
  • 2 vanessa // Jan 6, 2008 at 1:42 pm
    Kathy, sometimes the doctors don’t prescribe the right antibiotic, or the bacteria is resistent to the one that he is taking.
    You should see him looking better after 24 hours if not and if he still has a fever then it is NOT working, get the doctor to give him a different drug!!
    Give him lots of water or pedialite or he will dehydrate and end up in hospital!
    Sorry for jumping in where I am not called, but popped in to see how you are doing and now I am worried about Pike.
    Buena suerte!
  • 3 Christina // Jan 6, 2008 at 2:52 pm
    Sending good thoughts for Pike. Poor baby. I haven’t heard from doc T. I’ll call up there.
    Re yoga - I was also thinking this am that there is a world to explore in surya namaskara b.
    The photos of the girls and puppies are beyond adorable. My girls are on the warpath for a kitten. Ch&t is resisting.
    Finally, why “A&D”? Why not “astroglide?”
  • 4 Michelle // Jan 6, 2008 at 11:58 pm
    Astroglide? Poor Pikey. He should be brushing his teeth and tongue even while he is sick and not eating. Flossing would be good too. It will hurt for a few days, but it will get better. Been there and it sucks. You can pass up a couple teeth brushings and be in gingivitis-land. I would also garggle with salt water. Just my two-cents. It sucks to have a sick kid.
  • 5 marissa // Jan 8, 2008 at 11:51 am
    Kathy, It was so wonderful meeting you and your girls Saturday at ‘wash day.’ I hope I will see you again soon! I think Mildred hopes so too..and one of the six NEW puppies …and Annie…and…..
    I think you’d be a great puppy Mommy!

The year in review

Ha!  Not a chance!  But I was heartened to find that while I still need to perform a fine tooth combing of November and December, we spent only around $33K last year.  Of course, that doesn’t include palapa costs.  A quick perusal of the palapa spreadsheet shows we spent about $8200 on the palapa renovation and fix-up and furnishings cost around $2300.  We still have painting to do, some more furniture to purchase and are waiting for our carpintero to give us a quote for lower cabinets for the kitchen and then I think we’ll wait for a bit.  We’d like to tile upstairs above the recamera and the upper walls of the baƱo, but that might wait a bit.  We also want to re-do some of the trailer space tile work.  I don’t think you’re really ever done unless you sell the place.  Our good neighbors, Ian and Deb are in a constant flux of palapa changes and have an absolutely GORGEOUS bathroom and now upper deck to flaunt.



I’ve been able to practice some form of Yoga for the past week and am really happy that I’m finally getting back to Yoga.  I’d always thought I would need to stop the exercise walks with Jamie or carve out an enormous block of time to practice but I’ve found that really isn’t true; I’m generally happy with 5A’s and 5B’s.  I have a Yoga blog so I’ll shaddup about Yoga now.

Pike is on the mend!  Thank you SO MUCH to everyone for their sweet concern, Vanessa; please NEVER feel like you’re intruding!  He has gone a solid week (or more?) without food and his mouth just is not getting better.  He really had us fooled as he and Sissy and the “good” tooth brushers but apparently he had a HUGE change in his little mouth (many molars up and down pushing all his teeth about) and he pretty much stopped brushing.  Why he didn’t tell us this I have no idea.  I have a feeling the tonsil infection might have been caused by the mouth bacteria.

At any rate, while he dropped the fever after a day of antibiotics, he was still weak, not eating and not out of bed.  While the tonsil infection had cleared his mouth still was red and swollen.  So today we headed off to our favorite dentist in Playa del Carmen, Dr. Jorge Armenta.  He took a good look, talked to us for quite a bit and did a light cleaning.  He gave Pike very detailed and explicit instructions on brushing, frequency and a suggestion for a different type of mouth wash.  We then took Pike to the grocery store and tried hard to find food he would consider eating.  Almost all his little teeth are loose as these molars move in (it is a testament to Jesse’s personality that he never mentioned any of this when it happened to him) and he HATES eating with loose teeth.  That and his gums hurt him badly.  For a boy who LOVES to eat almost anything served, it was a shock to have him dismiss food after food.  We finally ended up with strawberries, cottage cheese, little sausages and salmon.  He is sleeping after his big excursion to the dentist and store (he could barely walk in the store but soldiered through) after eating two bowls of cottage cheese, a decent serving of strawberries and some little sausages.  He has a followup appointment on Monday and we are hoping that there will be great improvement.

And that’s about it; Yoga; doing well on our spending, Pike on a treatment plan and the weather holds chilly.

The HILLS are alive (if we had hills) with the aroma of Cubano…

My heart is SINGING this morning (Jody, you might want to skip this) after downing a blissbul cuppa. We had run out of the recent discovery of wonderfully roasted coffee and were subsisting on Jamie’s re-roast of Chiapas coffee we’d purchased at City Club. Ooooh! The new City Club is open! Yesterday I headed to our coffee roaster and picked up two kilos and am loving this stuff so much. I generally only have one cup a day, but this heavenly joe is amazing and I find I can’t have just one cup.

I think I scared the roasters a little; I was gushing so much about their coffee and our plans to buy oodles of it for when we leave and just yammering on and on and on and by the time I left I think they would have paid me to just shut up and go. So, I got the lovely beans.

I managed to finally get to a working phone and get my MT materials ordered after trying a phone in PdC (couldn’t get through with my toll free number workaround), a phone in Puerto Adventuras (no electricity) and finally another try in PdC was the charm. And it only took about a week. I’m excited to try out Merkalink though the shipping will be astronomical, it is really the only way to get 30-40lb of materials down here before summer, so it will be worth the extra expense.



Jamie and I have been exercising regularly and are pretty happy with ourselves. Jamie has even begun riding again. So far we’ve only had two walks in which I got myself warm enough to consider a dip in the sea, but Jamie looks hungrily at the sea each time we walk. It is a beautiful walk and we’re so lucky to be able to take advantage of it.

We’ve been considering the adoption of an animal and Jamie has acquiesced to the pleadings of the girls and will attend Saturday’s puppy wash. I wonder if we’ll have a companion? Jesse is the only one wanting a cat but I’m not sure Jamie or I could deal with one; Jesse loves the cuddly aspect of a cat, so maybe we’ll eventually have one of those things too. (sorry cat people)

Ah, what a disjoined, awful post, but I’m finding most of my energy going to Yoga and this poor blog gets the leftovers.

Oh! I’m DAILY so excited about the prospects of traveling this year, it is a joy in my heart I can’t begin to express. Some people would be overjoyed living on the Caribbean, and I really should count those blessings, but as beautiful as it is here, I’m happiest when the rubber side is down and rolling. We’re planning on headed to the New Mexico/Colorado border for a while and maybe volunteering in a national/state/whatever park in Idaho or Wyoming or something and then spending Tday in California. So, lots of travel to fill me up for the foreseeable future. I think the kids will be happy to be on the road also. I just hope everything still works and hasn’t rusted beyond repair.

I can haz pupeez?

We’re picking up a fourteen week puppy this afternoon.  We’ve been helping the local animal shelter by washing puppies (honestly, I’m not exactly certain how much help the kids are) each Saturday and have talked Jamie into a doggie.  AND a kitty!  Jonna and Mimi have seriously cautioned us against a puppy though, so as hard as the kids have fallen for the 5 week old pupeez, they tell us it just wouldn’t be the best choice.  They tell us we would do best with a 9 month old and the animal shelter folks say that the 14 week puppy we really like is Very Energetic, so we’re going to take the 14 week old for a week trial and see how she does.  I wonder if daily exercise and attention will calm her down.  The shelter has named her Mildred, but should we adopt her, only a Spanish name will do.
We’ve been working on the palapa little by little; I have one entire outside wall painted and am working on the back of the palapa.  We have talked to one carpintero about bottom cabinets for the kitchen and a contratista about tiling the bathroom upper walls and bottom cabinets for the kitchen.  We hope to get the ball rolling on those projects by next week.  That meaning we’ll select a carpintero.  We have no idea if/when the cabinets will actually be installed.

I’ll update later when we pick her up.

Lonely for Luneta

Well, the great dog experiment 2008 was an awful failure. She is a WONDERFUL, smart, loving doggie but Jamie is allergic and we have suspicions that Sissy is also. It isn’t a mild allergy either, so after 2 nights here he bravely told the kids that she’d have to go back to the shelter and then immediately broke down in tears. We took her back yesterday and she was so excited to see all her shelter dog friends that we think she won’t even remember us. It is quiet here, no excited puppy jumping up to let you know that OH YEA! A human! And I LIKE the human! And they pet me! And give me food! And take me to the horrible place with the sand (ick!) and waves (ugh!) but I tolerate them and love them back! I can sweep the floors again and I won’t miss her smell or having to be around her constantly to housetrain her (she was almost completely there after only a couple days) but dayum, I do miss that puppy.

We’re going to try with Jesse’s first choice, a kitty, in a week, after we’re able to clean everything well enough to get rid of whatever is bothering Jamie, and see what happens.
I’m not sure what else to say, we’re all rather sad here…

Bad neighbors

A cockroach. I had a Goddamned, piece of shit, farking COCKROACH crawling on my ARM yesterday morning. It was NOT a good wake up call. I spent most of the day tearing the trailer apart, cleaning, spraying chemicals everywhere (note to self; you can probably stop with the organic shit now that you’re breathing pure poison) and removing dust and clutter. I felt quite confident it would not happen again. This morning, in the absolute WORST possible wake up call known to man or beast, I had a farking COCKROACH crawling on my fucking CHEEK (and arm). I sprayed very little in the way of chemicals in the bedroom yesterday, but you can believe me that after today, the place will be declared a Superfund site if we ever make it back to the US. Read the rest of this entry »
We have been chasing down an electrical problem and yesterday found that the wires we were concerned about (which do not belong to our palapa at all) had begun to burn. So we called an electrician and cut them. We continued without any power interruptions but our neighbors (who are the epitome of “bad” neighbors) came over to yell at Jamie such that the kids fled to our (good) neighbors in terror. I got the park involved, and while our two downstream neighbors were without power most all the day, we did not have a fire, the wires did not burn down to the point that they were unusable (and as such, said neighbors would have been without power for MUCH longer than a day) and they did not spike such that again, said neighbors did not have electronic equipment melt down. I paid the electrician and kept the park electricians hydrated and fed even though the electrical problem did not affect us in the least. Honestly, we simply could have cut the wires, disavowed any knowledge and let the awful neighbors stew and chase their tails. Of course, not a word of thanks, instead, one of the awful neighbors send the head of security down to (hopefully) give us shit. I made him a lovely cup of coffee and we had a lovely visit.

I began my foray into dental work yesterday; the kids have all gone (though I believe Jesse still has some work to be done) and now it is my turn to finish up work begun years and years ago. I’m getting a corona (crown) and puente (bridge) and I think I have at least one cavity. But we’ll start there.

I am hoping to drag the family to Cozumel’s Carnaval on Friday (at the very least). I would love to spend the week on the island but haven’t figured out whether or not we’ll do that. I think we’ll take the car ferry over on Friday, explore the island and enjoy the parades. Course, I should check the ferry schedule to see if we’ll be able to get back over after the parades. Have a gander; this is supposed to be a premier Carnaval but very family friendly.
Tags: Mexico

6 responses so far ↓

  • 1 jody // Jan 24, 2008 at 11:16 am
    Welcome to paradise. The thought of sailing a boat across the Gulf doesn’t bother me half as much as those flippin little monsters.
    So far we have not seen any here….but that is only because my house glows like a nuclear power plant due to the termite issue we had prior to closing.
    Can you tell me anything about Tampico?
  • 2 vicki // Jan 24, 2008 at 12:48 pm
    I don’t know what’s worse, them or the mice we’d been fighting! We started out with live traps, did catch and release, then when Jonas wasn’t looking we killed and released, and now we’re just straight out poisoning. Yuck! Wen we all got sick I thought for sure we had the hontavirus (sp), like maybe they had a nest in our furnace and everyime the furnace would kick on it would blow heir feces all over the bus. Thank G-d I was wrong.
    You guys could always play Fear Factor games with the little buggers!
  • 3 Dr Paul // Jan 24, 2008 at 6:07 pm
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsamn_jZ5E8
    love, papa
  • 4 veronica // Jan 24, 2008 at 8:43 pm
    Hola !
    Mi nombre es veronica y tengo dos hijos, Emiliano y Beatrice, me gustaria conocerles.
    Ustedes estan en Paamul la prox. semana? Vienen a playa?
    Un Saludo
    (Hablo ingles)
  • 5 Christina // Jan 25, 2008 at 4:27 pm
    EEEeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • 6 michelle // Jan 26, 2008 at 8:30 am
    you just can’t make this stuff up, though i’m sure you wish you had! good luck, and be careful with those chemicals!

PHC 15km S of PdC

I take obscure pride in the fact that I can pop in on the kids while they are absorbed in Legos and sing one line, “One little thing can revive a guy, and that is a piece of rhubarb pie” and they will sing every word of the rest of the jingle (serve it up, nice and hot; maybe things aren’t as bad as you thought.  Mama’s little baby loves rhubarb, rhubarb, bee bop a ree bop Rhubarb Pie”).
I like that kind of weird.

Witchy itchy

Mozzies are back in force after a few days of awful weather (we didn’t see the sun for almost and entire HALF DAY). It is also getting a bit warmer and I no longer wear long pants all day long. Definitely in town though; it isn’t nearly warm enough for shorts in town.



I also have a huge itch to see Carnaval in Cozumel. I have been wanting to attend Carnaval ever since meeting some Africans on the Alaska Marine Highway in the early 80’s. We be-friended each other, I met a different guy from California and handed the keys to my 1971 Datsun 240Z along with a Read the rest of this entry » along with a Shell gas credit card to him and headed off with the Africans. We had a marvelous time; a sister, brother and game warden from South Africa, and not so strangely (for those times) my sportscar was waiting for me when I arrived back in California. The Africans and I parted, promising to meet up in Rio de Janiero for Carnaval. They didn’t make it, but I worked for many months, saving a nest egg, quit my job and traveled South America for 3 years. But I never made it to Carnaval.

Carnaval on Cozumel is rumored to be a very family friendly event and I’m curious about the island and the lights we see across the channel from us on clear nights. I talked to the family and the hotel-shy Pike and they are all pretty excited about staying at Tamarindo B&B. I’m also looking into snorkeling tours as the currents around Cozumel are supposed to be quite a bit trickier than our calm seas. If nothing else, it will be an excellent excuse to take a Catamaran out for 3.5 hours and snorkel 3 different reefs. We’re so spoilt here with our own swim out reef, but we know it pretty well and I’m really looking forward to new reefs. I’m also hoping to scope out the island as a possible location to take my sister and family. But honestly, Carnaval is the biggest draw and I’m incredibly excited to have the opportunity, after more than 20 years, to attend.
I can hardly wait!
Tags: Family · Mexico

4 responses so far ↓

  • 1 jody // Jan 27, 2008 at 7:38 am
    That looks totally lovely. Love the hammocks. LEt us know how you like it, as we are talking about a trip there soon.
    The reef there are just beautiful. They are not too tricky if you get a guide on the boat…or a dinghy to meet divers down current from where you anchor. How fun to rent a cat and see it by boat!
    You could also drive down to Playa Azul and enjoy the beach there. Lots of Mexican families vacation there as do some Europeans. You can hike up the beach from there…maybe about 1/2 mile or more then climb down the little cliffs and drift along them snorkling back to Playa Azul. You will see eels, and all kids of amazing sea life….and probably not one other human being ta boot.
    Have fun!!
  • 2 Judy // Jan 27, 2008 at 8:41 am
    What a beautiful place-damn this job! Maybe I could give it up and become an itinerant plasterer.
    Thanks for posting the link.
    Judy
  • 3 michelle // Jan 27, 2008 at 10:08 am
    Slade & I had our honeymoon on Cozumel - oh so many years ago. It is funny because we wished we had stayed across the waters to the lights of Playa del Carmen, which we did take a boat to on a day trip and wished we stayed there instead. We found Cozumel too american. Would love to hear how you find it these 17 years later!
  • 4 TaTa // Jan 27, 2008 at 8:03 pm
    You actually did attend one Carnaval - in New Orleans in 1965.
    We took you and Christina and Paul (little Pauly) to a New Orleans Carnival. You all were able to come back home with some of the “throws” you received during the parade.
    You all were very little then, but I remember it well! (I carried Michelle to the parade inside me, as it was before February 26th) - we all had a good time!

Vote from Abroad

If you are a Democrat (or wish to vote Democrat, I suppose), you do not need to establish a US address and file a voter registration for that state.  Apparently 20 delegates have been set aside for those of us living outside the US.  While we have always been able to vote in an election, I have not been aware of any means to vote in a primary, but now it seems there are.  Head over to VoteFromAbroad.org and they’ll register you for the general election also, should you desire it.
Now, that is THREE posts in ONE day!   I think I’m done for the month.