Thursday December 31st, 2009

Happy Birthday Pam, may all your wishes for 2010 come true! Ross’s sister in France is having her ……th. Birthday today!

I know this is getting very boring, but we woke up again in Paradise with a wonderful call from our friend Wes in Edmonton wishing us a happy new year. Now I have to tell you when I wished everyone Feliz Año Nuevo without the little curly cue above the n in Año I just wished everyone a happy new ass……now this would be good if you either needed or wanted a new ass, however, it was a fux pux on my part and I have corrected my spell check. So now I can wish everyone a Happy New Year in Spanish. So Feliz Año Nuevo to all my friends.

Ok, enough of that. We tried to sleep in today as we are going to be up wayyyyyyyyyyyy
late tomorrow morning so we were hoping we could sleep in very late so it wouldn’t be really late. Normally we go to bed at 10 or so after wishing each other Happy New Year, but this year Ross is working at Crazy Nelly’s so we can’t do that. We didn’t do much today, we are going to drop off our chainsaw to Christie and John’s house so they can use it to make shorter logs for their bonfire tonight on the beach. They do this every year and we are sad we won’t be there, maybe next year.

I got my laundry done from our boat trip (beach towels and stuff) and went over to Mega to add more money on my pay as you go phone and drop off a watch to get the crystal replaced because I dropped it on my ceramic floor in the bedroom one morning, not a good idea! It is going to cost me 180 pesos (15.00) to have it fixed.

I took Yoda, my new child, (he is a child as he needs to be around me always, he wines and cries when he’s not….I sure love him) to Encore last night, that is a restaurant we went last night to see Steve York play. He didn’t play with his wife like we thought, he played with (we think) the owner of the restaurant (the singer), a drummer and acoustic guitar player. He did very well, he really like me sharing my decameron (shrimp) with him. He made a friend with a lady from Manitoba in a wheelchair at the restaurant; she was missing her cats she had to leave at home for her vacation, so this was a good thing.

I’m going to try to bring him to Nellys tonight, she will just love him to bits, I’ll bring his cage like last night so he can be safe. It’s funny, we went to Mega yesterday to pick him up a collar and leash, we got the chica collar (small) and it’s still way too big for him. Sometime last night while we were sleeping he got it off (not hard), it wasn’t hard to find this morning (afternoon?) so I’ll put it back on tonight before we leave, not sure why cause I don’t think it will hold him if he goes running off (which I’m sure he won’t). We stopped in at Philos last night too to see who was there and of course I brought Yoda in and everyone just loved him. At least he will keep me company while I sit by myself tonight!

Well, again, I want to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year! We will talk to you again in 2010 (wow, don’t you remember when we got to 2000!)

Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise!

ps....I just want everyone to know that as I post this the temp here is 26, Edmonton is -25and Greenville SC is 6

Wednesday December 30th, 2009

Not much going on today I’m afraid. Laundry, floor sweeping (always lots of sand), floor washing, general cleaning, ya know, same shit different country!

Ross is trying to find a movie for us to go to; the one he wants to see is 2010 and only on at 10pm! We ended up going to the Soriana Mall to see Old Dogs with Robin Williams and John Travolta, the movie was in English with Spanish subtitles. What a hoot, I love both those guys and they didn’t disappoint me, and it was so cool that they dedicated the show to John’s dead son Jett. The traffic was horrible going into PV we were about 10 minutes late for the movie but we got in just as the credits stopped rolling. The theatres are super, just like in Edmonton and it only cost us 38 pesos each, but 1 grande popcorn, 1 mediana popcorn and one grande pop was 103 pesos, just like at home! The popcorn was great, Ross ate his and had half of mine, it’s surprising that he didn’t complain that I didn’t have enough butter on mine!?!?!?!?!?

When we drove by the marina in PV, there were 3 cruise ships in, Oosterdam, Carnival Splendor and the Norwegian Star, wow it is still spectacular to see them docked, and you should see all the private jets parked at the airport! It’s getting busy here, yeah! The Norwegian Star is the prettiest boat with starts and rainbows painted on its sides but the Oosterdam looks the nicest, I’m not quite sure why, but I think it looks really classy!

When we were pulling into the movie theater, a good friend Steve York called to let us know he is playing at The Encore here in Bucerias tonight and he would like us to attend. So guess where we will be around 9 tonight, Ross just looked up the restaurant and it’s on Ave Pacifico which is on the beach side of the Avenue which will be cool. Steve plays a duo with his wife on keyboard and Steve plays the guitar, I look forward to seeing them.

I have decided to take Yoda to “the Big New Years Eve Party” at Nelly’s in Guayabitos, they start at 10 our time and play until 1am, we are going to be soooooooo tired on the 1st, so don’t expect any blog until way into the afternoon! We drove to Mega and got a chica (small) collar for him but it’s too big! It came with a leash too, I’m gonna bring his basket (he likes to sleep in there when we aren’t at home) and also a cat carrier if the noise is too loud for him (I don’t think it will be as he is ok with Ross having the stereo cranked) but you never know. Nelly has an orange cat she rescued at the bar so maybe they will be able to play together! I decided just now to take him to Encore to see how he does, boy am I good!

When Pamela sent our mail down to us that is going to her house, we opened up an envelope from our insurance company and inside was a cheque for a little over a hundred dollars, so we are going to open a Mexican account with it. We actually stopped in to do that but realized that they will want copies of our passports and FM3’s (everyone needs them to do anything down here) and probably proof we live here so we came back home to copy them before going there, good idea, yeah!

A good friend Bruce from Tofield is coming down with his lovely wife Bernice to stay in Guayabitos for a month on January 12th. We are going to pick him up from the airport to drive him there and hope to see them lots while they are here. There is a big AA convention here at the end of January that they are hoping to attend, with us, if we can. Ross is going to look into it. Bruce is now 65 and his health care will only allow him to be here 1 month at a time, he is going to look into it further to see if there is any way that they can spend more time down here next year, I sure hope so, I sure love them!

Well I’m gonna say adios for now, Feliz Ano Nuevo to everyone (Happy New Year) if I don’t catch up with everyone tomorrow and we’ll talk to all in the New Year!

Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise
Feliz Ano Nuevo

Pictures: Los Arcos and really nice boat, me on deck, dock, cruise ships and our top deck.

Tuesday December 29th, 2009

Wow! We just got back from a day in the sun and boy, am I burnt! I packed everything else, jeans, coat, umbrella, rain coats, swimsuits, towels…………..etc, except for suntan lotion. It was on the list, just didn’t get packed, thanks to Sue I used some of hers, thanks Sue!

We had to get up at 6:45 to be at Sue and Harold’s for 8am, we carpooled with them, and after a thunderstorm woke us up, (what is up with that, this is supposed to be the “dry” season), we didn’t get much sleep after that so we were both awake when the alarm went off, yuck!. I started the coffee (thanks to my hunny bunny it was all ready) and turned on our hot water taps in the kitchen and Ross’s bathroom so once my teeth were brushed I would have hot water in my shower (don’t you just love Mexico!) only here would you have to do that, or tolerate it for that matter. We showered, I had most packed last night (except for the sunscreen) and packed the balance of what I thought we would need along with the last of the shrimp butter I had made for Christmas day, with crackers, a tray and a couple of knives.

We actually got over to Sue and Harold’s before 8 (I think it was 7:58) and we drove to the Wal-Mart parking lot in PV where we were to meet everyone. Wow, there were a lot of people there, cool! We parked and waited for John or Wayne (our shuttle bus drivers) to get all of us to the boat; it was really a fairly long way from the parking lot. (Wal-Mart parking lot, for anyone that has not been here, is right across the street from the pier where the cruise ships dock) We got to the boat (catamaran that can hold, I think, about 130 people ) and went directly to the top level and claimed 4 seats and ended up with 2 extra chairs too! (don’t tell anyone) at the front of the boat. I think we were to leave at 9 but I don’t think we actually got underway until 10, we had 93 people on board, and it takes a while for that many people to get on.

While we were waiting for the boat to get underway we watched a cruise ship come in, turn around, and back into its parking spot, wow! Another came in while we were taking off so we needed to wait until it had partially turned around before we could venture out into the ocean. We started going North and we were wondering what was going on as we were told we were going to Los Arcos first (which is south) so we got one of John and Christie’s Spanish speaking kids (which is all of them) to ask the captain what he was doing, Mackenzie got that job, and we found out that there were whales in the bay, so he wanted to do that first. About half way to where we were going (which ended up almost to La Cruz) we found out that one guy (that was all bandaged up, (his left arm had a cast on it and his right hand had some fingers taped together and had a really nasty looking sore on one of his knees) which we found out later was in a car accident 3 weeks earlier) has a blood sugar problem but was better now. I asked John if we had a paramedic on board and he suggested we had some band aids somewhere (which actually was incorrect, we had 2 nurses and 1 paramedic). Then Wayne’s wife Lisa and her daughter (I think) ended up with motion sickness and needed to get off the boat ASAP! Well, we had at least 3 people on cell phones trying to get a water taxi or someone to come get them off the boat, to no avail, we ended up with the Bombaros (firefighters) to come to get them, but they ended up getting there as we pulled into the dock!

We were very lucky to see as many Humpback whales as we did! We saw one really close to us and a lot far away, but we saw the tails coming up as they dove down and it was fantastic, they are so large and magnificent! You wouldn’t believe how many boats there were all huddled together in one spot (where the whales are spotted), and were so lucky to see them (at least I think). We still hadn’t found anyone to take Lisa and daughter to shore so we started to go south to Los Arcos. Now Los Arco is actually 3 rocks along the south shore that when the water is calm, it’s an amazing snorkeling spot. Unfortunately it was very rough when we got there, wow, the waves onto the rocks were amazing, and they rose so high! We had stopped there but no one wanted to go into the water so the captain drove north towards PV and found a wonderful spot where we stopped and went swimming.

Another Wow, the water wasn’t as clear as Los Arcos, but it was so nice and so blue and so cool………..did I mention it was cool! After sitting on the top deck of the boat all afternoon, we were getting pretty hot, sorry people that don’t live here………….did we tell you about a couple of awesome realtors (Ross and Me) that can get you a house cheap, cheaper than Wal-Mart…..almost free today! We drove into the water, wow, so cool, and we had a great time. Ross and Sue stayed out a long time as they are the water babies, I stayed out a bit, my ankle started to instantly get sore once I started paddling with my feet (I still have a hard time with the up and down of the ankle) and I started wheezing, boy I hate this, I got back into the boat, used my inhaler to breathe and wrapped up my foot again. Maybe by the wedding it will be better!?

The younger kids were jumping off the top of the deck, about 15’ from the water and having a great time, almost, I said almost, wanted to be a kid again. We had so many people in the water, it was so cool, and I hope Ross got a picture of that. (I forgot my camera, go figure, so Ross took all the pictures). While we were waiting for the swimmers to be done, I was asked twice for the recipe for my shrimp butter, I gave everyone my e-mail address and told them to e-mail me and I will give them my recipe, I think I needed to make them some to take home! I am giving away a recipe that might just make me rich! Or not!

We docked (driving between 2 cruise ships, kinda cool heh!) and everyone got off, Lisa said she will never, I repeat, never get on another boat, ever! The drivers got a ride back to the Wal-Mart parking lot and came to pick us up, we put our towels on the seats so we wouldn’t get them wet. Just about home and Harold saw his friend Alex (the paramedic with the Bombaros) parked at the Oxxo so we stopped to say heh, we asked them if they would come to dispose of our hornets’ nest we found on our front window this morning and he said (I think anyway) we needed to call the officials. Sue said to fill up a spray bottle with very soapy water and spray them at dusk, Ross forgot, maybe later. He is considering doing it now! The bets are in………does he???

Ross very kindly made dinner (well he warmed up the leftovers so I can continue typing) and it was fantastic! Another turkey dinner without the 6 hours of cooking, awesome! I think I have finally done, so I’m gonna say Adios for now and finish watching NCIS and then go to bed! We are pooped.

Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise!

Monday December 28th, 2009

Oh, how wonderful it is to sleep as long as you want…………at least it would be if my darling husband didn’t wake me up this morning, he did have coffee for me so I guess I forgive him! He woke up earlier than me and since we had some water did the dishes from last night. Did I say I love him!

Once showered, I feel so much better now, I tackled the stove. Wow, did it get a christening yesterday, gas stoves are so easy to clean though, take off the cast iron grates wash them then wash underneath. The oven was a bit more of a problem, now I know why I didn’t have as much gravy as I normally do, a lot of the turkey juice ended up on the floor of the oven, which burnt on, oh well, it has been used now so I can’t be the butt of bad jokes! Do you really cook???

I started packing up a few of my Christmas plates which were cluttering up my counter space badly (where did I get all this shit, I thought I gave most of it away!) Now I have all my Christmas containers on my patio (with lids on in case it rains…..why is that?) I am going to try to itemize what’s in the containers so I’ll know what I’m getting next year, all I did was put Christmas on the containers for moving!

We left for Costco about 4, I really didn’t want to go, but Ross suggested I go in case he buys something he shouldn’t. We were going to buy a hotdog there, so I brought some relish with me (hotdogs taste so much better with relish, which they don’t have at Costco, they have jalapenos though) (Oh crap I left the container in my purse…….just a sec…….OK I have put it in the sink to soak). We went to Costco to find some turkey gravy, Ross went to Wal-Mart earlier and ended up with Chicken gravy and mushroom gravy (we have a lot now) but no turkey gravy. We didn’t find any at Costco, but we did find another (big) king size bedspread (Ours is so stained from our tick incident) (and it looks wonderful, it’s green and very slippery so the cat and dog hair does not stick) some jelly bellies, a big bag of candies we are familiar with, some Bob’s dressing and a couple of other things, oh yeah, I found a dress there that I bought and I might just wear it to the wedding, but read further on! We stopped in at Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart in Vallarta but couldn’t find any turkey gravy.

We didn’t have time to take me back home before Ross went to his meeting so I tagged along to shop in the mall to see what else I could find. I stopped in at the No Name Store and tried on about 10 dresses, I bought one, it needs alterations, but it wasn’t that expensive and I still hadn’t tried the dress on I bought at Costco. I picked up a few other things to take with me, met up with Ross and went to the little grocery store there (it caters to Canadians and Americans so it carries some stuff that we know) and found 4 cans of turkey gravy, some sloppy joe mix, a couple of packages of gravy……..

Once we got home I took the dogs for a walk, with Yoda in my arms, as per normal, and then tried on dresses I found for the wedding. I have to look again when I’m not so tired and see what exactly I’m gonna do, February is getting closer and closer. I just want to find the perfect dress for my daughter’s one and only wedding!
I started the washer again when we got back home (we had run out of water again after Ross’s load, it’s filling our tinaco slowly) to wash my chair cushions and am writing my blog! We are going on the boat tomorrow to swim, snorkel and watch for whales. We are so excited, we didn’t know what was going on at all until Ross talked with one of his friends from AA, he told us where to be and at what time! We have an e-mail into Christie but she hasn’t answered us back yet so we are going to follow his instructions, sure hope he’s right!

I’m gonna go to get our snorkeling stuff out of the shed so I’m gonna say bye for now and have a wonderful evening!
Ross and Kim in Paradise!

Saturday and Sunday December 26th & 27th, 2009

Saturday was almost perfect. We slept in then did absolutely nothing except what we wanted to do! Ross vacuumed the car and finally cleaned out the trunk, it’s surprising what you find when you clean out the trunk of your car……………. I got my office cleaned up, I swept the floor and put baskets up on top of the bookshelf where they belong…rather than the floor or using up precious bookshelf space. I actually found my desk and got it all cleaned up (it had old bills, business cards that needed taking apart and put away) it looks so nice now!

We drove to Sayulita around 7pm for the gig at the Los Afortunados pub, which was a great success. Ralph’s family is here for Christmas and most of them came out for this gig and by the time they started the second set, it was packed! They didn’t serve dinner there (as they are normally closed on Saturdays) so we went to a small place that has the best hamburgers we have had for a very long time a few doors down from the pub. Everyone, I think, got one (we made them lots of money that night), they were like ones that you would make yourself! The hamburger was really fat with all the trimmings, and some super fantastic French fries (they were long and stringy??? Very strange, but very good)!

We didn’t get home until about, ok I’m guessing here, 1:30 or so and finally fell asleep, shortly before 11:30 am (at least it seems that way) and crawled out of bed knowing a turkey needed to be put in around 1am ish. We forgot to thaw the bacon so that went in the microwave to thaw before coffee was made (if we do both at the same time we blow a fuse) then I got those cut up and fried, then did the onion and butter and finally put the bread crumbs in (with the poultry seasoning I brought from the states, can’t find it here, have enough for 4 more dinners!) The turkey was great, it was all cleaned with the giblets and such in a plastic bag in the cavity of the bird all I had to do was dry it out and start to stuff it. Now is the time to let everyone know that we woke up to no water! Anywhere! We had to go out to the front of the house, fill it with water (cold, now why did I get our hot water working??) to wash the dishes. We were hoping for sometime during the day the pressure would be enough to fill our tinaco (but alas no…………it’s 9:36 pm and we still don’t have any water). Oh well, only in Mexico…..which is really funny, because the two couples we invited to dinner, (Harold, Sue, Dick and Mary Carmen) weren’t surprised we didn’t have any water (they have lived here long enough that it wasn’t surprising)! I got the turkey ready for the oven, went to turn the oven on to 325 and guess what? Since we haven’t used the oven before instead of temperatures I was faced with the units 5, 4, 3, 2, 1?!?!?!?!? After turning my office upside down looking for my oven instruction booklet it told you the degrees of Celsius for each of the numbers….but yack….which one is 325F???? I have always cooked my turkeys at 325. Well, I found out that 325 was 2. Which in hindsight is incorrect cause it took way too long to cook my turkey, so off to somewhere to get an oven thermometer to see what number is really 325. After hiking up the oven to 5 (high) the turkey came out of the oven at 6:30 and the skin was still not very brown, but the turkey was soooooooooooooo moist! After waiting forever, and just meeting these people at the end of July, so I was kinda anxious about having a nice dinner, but they were so cool……………….Sue helped with gravy and we had a wonderful dinner.

I set the big table outside with a red tablecloth and my Christmas dishes (which we used paper plates and put them on top of the dishes as we don’t have any water) and we had turkey with gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, wild rice with of course veggies and cranberry sauce. We sat outside until way past dinner (Ross got up and cleaned up…………have I told anyone today that I sure love him!) and chatted about Mexico, stolen license plates and fixes, animals………….. It was kinda nice also that our company didn’t mind watching our food (or anything else) so the animals weren’t doing what they shouldn’t have been doing, like I don’t know, eating people food.

Now Ross is watching Criminal Minds and I am, of course, writing my blog, we are both stuffed and we still don’t have any water. We are going to call our plumber in the New Year to get our cistern up and running, we figure it will be worth it! It’s not that we don’t have any street water; it’s that the pressure is not great enough to travel up the pipes to our tinaco to fill so we have water at our taps. We were talking about it earlier wondering if it was really worth it, well, we know now it is!

I’m going to say adios for tonight, I’m pooped, we still don’t have any water but there is always tomorrow! Or the next day, or the next, or the next………..

Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise at Christmas time!

The pictures are our hosts Sue and Harold, street view( I'm in the red hat and red shirt), BBQ, another street view, Sue and Harolds Christmas tree and Ross with friends getting food!

Thursday December 24th & Friday December 25th, 2009

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad

I hope I find everyone overstuffed with Christmas dinner and Santa was so good to you that you need to take a week off to recuperate! We certainly do!

Christmas eve found us in Wal-Mart getting a few odd and ends for our Christmas dinner hopefully to have on Sunday (unless of course Ross has to work, then it will be Monday). Everyone is invited, we are having turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, wild rice and anything else we can find to eat. I actually didn’t think about going to Wallyworld Christmas Eve, not quite sure why, maybe cause it just doesn’t feel like Christmas but it wasn’t too bad, we found some bread crumbs for stuffing (Ross made me buy 2 more containers as he loves stuffing) and I bought some onions and things for the rest of the dinner. I also needed to get the stuff for my shrimp butter (that I haven’t made for over 20 years) for Sue’s party, it’s funny, I needed to buy a couple of cans of shrimp for it, and guess what, I couldn’t find shrimp in cans so I had to buy frozen shrimp.

We got home and putz around until it was time to call Ross’s Mum and his kids that were there for Christmas Eve. It was a tradition that Tara and Ashleigh with Ross’s parents and Pam and Lex to come over Christmas eve for Santa came to our house that day as he went to Tara and Ash’s house Christmas day. We would have a celebration at our house and open presents. Now that we aren’t there, they went to Ross’s Mum’s house and we called them to wish them a very Merry Christmas.

After that we drove to Sandrina’s for Turkey dinner, Yummmmmmmmmm………….it was just as good as Canadian Thanksgiving. We got home around 8ish and watched TV until bedtime. A very strange Christmas Eve!

We woke up totally at 11, we were up during the night because of old bladders, cats meowing, dogs barking and kids playing with firecrackers at 4am, 5am, and 6, 7 and 8…..Feliz Navidad in Mexico. We had Christmas coffee from our Coffee machine we got for Christmas (Christmas coffee tastes so much better than any other coffee) We called Pamela, Derek and Lexi first, to wish them a Merry Christmas and to see what they got. Derek’s family are Ukrainian so they went over to his parents house last night for the 12 dishes of Christmas (I think that’s what they call it) and were totally stuffed. Santa was good to everyone! We called Stacy next…..got to talk to everyone….the Wii was a hit at his house, Jordan also got 3 different colours of duct tape to make a mailbox for herself (still not quite sure why) but she was really excited! Santa was good to our South Carolina family too! Go figure. Next was Grandma, she was doing well, she is going over to Ross’s sisters house (Marilyn) for Christmas dinner and looking forward to it. Both Tara and Ash had their answering machines on (they still sleep in) so we couldn’t talk to them.

We went over to Sue and Harold’s house for a pot luck Christmas dinner that was phenomenal. We had BBQ arrachera (beef) and so many side dishes I couldn’t even count them………..even Ross grazed so much that he couldn’t eat anymore! There must have been approx 50 people there (every year there is more, like us) there were tables on the street (that Ross and Harold blocked off with tape, I asked if this was ok and Harold said that if they aren’t told they can’t, they do!) It was so nice to see people that we knew and to meet people that we didn’t! Our community is so awesome!

Ross is now watching HD discovery (some type of ocean show) and I am trying to get the blog done so I can sit with him and change the channel to….I don’t know……HGTV or the Womens channel…….. we’ll see!

So I’m gonna say Feliz Navidad to all our friends and family from
Ross and Kim and Critters in Paradise!

Tuesday December 22nd & Wednesday December 23rd, 2009

Good morning, another sunny day in Paradise!

We had to get up early to get to the office by 9:00am and wow, I think we got another client. She is going to get back to us when her family gets here next week; she had heard really good things about Elements Realty! Yeah! Ross is actually with clients right now (its 4:28 our time), ones that he talked with last Tuesday, they ended up at the office around 2:30 today talking with John and Christie. Ross rushed over to the office and they are still out.

We both had pedicures today, I got my nails done, don’t know whether or not I like my nails, she did a funky tip on them, I think it may be a bit dark, oh well, my toes are a very Merry red! When we got home from the office I made grilled cheese sandwiches (2 were for Ross but he took off to see clients) and they were great, I even had butter pickles to go it, pickles are hard to find here.

Francisco is here now, filling some holes in our outside walls (ones that I made) and gluing our lino in Betsy in the bathroom. We are going to have him screw in our safe and we need some Plexiglas for our front door because the dogs have ripped the screen out the next time he comes. Ross got home around 5 and needed to be at Britannia at 7 to help out the band because the drummer is still in Mexico City! He left at 6:15 so he has time to set up and eat supper and they weren’t there when he got there, he had to wait which was sad because he didn’t have to leave so early!

I decided not to go with him as I’m still not feeling up to par and I’m glad I didn’t because they didn’t end until after midnight. Ross said he had a great time, but wow, that’s a long time playing, especially for an old guy! I went to bed around 11:30 and fell asleep at midnight, Ross got home sometime after that.

Yuk!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another early morning, Ross’s fault not anyone else’s, I tried to sleep later, but no, rats! We woke up about 10, Ross had another gig in PV on the beach this afternoon, I couldn’t go because Lily was coming over to clean. The clients Ross saw yesterday loved Alamar, a new development in La Cruz and will probably be buying it tomorrow. Ross called John to let him know that the wife might want her husband to see the property today and he was busy, could John help out? John called them and they will look at the property tomorrow, Ross says they are ready to write the cheque, if the husband loves the place too, yeah, there is even a bonus for the first sale of $2,000!

Lily has been over and my house looks clean again, I love Lily! I gave her a Christmas bonus of $500 pesos and she cried, she is having a hard time financially right now and she said she will buy something for her daughter to put under the tree. It’s now 5:18, my time, and Ross still isn’t home, I’m watching Dr. Phil. Don’t know what’s gonna happen tonight, I hope we will just veg! So I’ll say adios for now.

Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise

Ps: sorry we’re not very exciting right now, maybe later!

Monday December 21st, 2009

Today is the day I have had planned for two weeks of going out shopping to find a mother’s of the bride dress, and then my husband decided he wanted to come with me! He hates shopping for girly stuff, we needed to pick up some stucco and contact cement for handyman to fix some of our outside walls and the lino in the bathroom in Betsy and he thought today would be a good day to do this. Yack! I tried to talk him out of it but he still came. We stopped off first at the post office as we got a registered mail notice and picked up the mail Pamela sent me, then stopped at Beto’s for some wine then off to PV. Ross dropped me off at the Galleria Mall and we were to meet up at 1, he went to Sam’s Club then to Costco. I looked for dresses and just can’t seem to find something I like! It’s really frustrating, I am going to have to go someone else, Sue, my friend, said she knows of a couple of places, we’ll have to go looking.

We woke up this morning; again, to a dripping shower faucet so I called Norberto, he was to come at 7 to see what is up. The orphanage grand opening was today, so I walked over and had a great taco and a coke and met up with Sue and Harold, Larry and Lorena and Dick and Mary Carmen among others and has a nice chat. Ross has gone to his meeting and is meeting up with Bob, his new sponsor, for a coffee and a chat so he didn’t come to the opening. I got home at 6:30, Sue and Harold drove behind me so I wouldn’t get lost or accosted (we live across the street and down about 3 houses from the orphanage) and commented on our Christmas lights. Oh by the way, I got an e-mail the other day from Sue asking if we found what they dropped off to us yet, it was on top of the lawn chairs we had out front. We looked and we got our very first tacky Mexican Christmas card!

Norberto came and got our showers working, he turned on the hot water tap in the kitchen, then in both bathrooms and the shower started working, he was telling me that we had to flush out the air in the line, that happens when our tinaco runs low on water then the street water starts filling it up. So we’ll try that the next time, it’ll be nice to have enough water to wash in tomorrow. Well. I’m watching a great Christmas movie, Borrowed Hearts, on the women’s channel, so I’ll say adios for now and we’ll talk to you tomorrow.
Ross at his meeting, Kim watching Christmas movie, Yoda sleeping on the couch beside me and the other critters in other parts of our house in Paradise!

Saturday and Sunday December 19th & 20th, 2009

Wow, I was scared yesterday (Saturday) I was going through my e-mails and all of a sudden a program started to install on my computer. The name of it is “Security tool” and it tells me I have a virus called lsas.blaster.keyloger and you need to buy their program to stop it, they say the virus is trying to send my credit card info to an unknown server and the only way to get rid of it is to buy their software and guess what, they wanted your credit card info to buy it. I put security tool in Google and it told me the “security tool” is benign but when you buy the software they want you to buy is when the virus becomes dangerous. I couldn’t open anything, I couldn’t do anything, even trying to get into safe mode. Something really strange happened though. I tried to get into safe mode and I think I wore out part of my finger by typing F8 forever and safe mode would not come up, I gave up and windows started to start and I turned off my computer. A few hours later I started it up and I got the safe mode window but I couldn’t use my arrow keys to move the cursor to safe mode! Yack, I was ready to scream. I shut it down and tried again, I have no idea how I got there again (safe mode) but I did and the cursor moved to safe mode and I WAS IN! Yeah! I had downloaded an anti spyware program from another computer but guess what, It wouldn’t open, this is how dangerous this spyware is. I opened the internet and downloaded Malware and that seemed to get rid of it, at least so I could get back into my computer. I also downloaded stopzilla also, just for shits and giggles. Everything had been backed up except for my photos but still it sticks in my craw that I can’t use my computer, cause god damn it, it’s mine!

Ok I have vented now, I’m much better! Yesterday was wonderful. Norberto came early today (he was to be here at 10 and he came at 9:45) and started right away on the balance of our hot water fiasco. We got ready and got over to the RIU (sorry guys I spelled it wrong in my last post!) at noon rather than 1:30 that we told Brenda and Mike we would be there. Do you think we could find them………………..we found them every other time quite easily……………but no……we went up to their room, even though they didn’t answer their phone, and a guy was there with the door open (the cleaning guys? He was dusting the outside door) and we walked right in and found their luggage still there so we went out onto the balcony to see if we could see them, but we couldn’t. After about 5 minutes Ross took off again, going to look for them, and I saw them walk to the pool, I tried to call them but they didn’t listen, but that’s ok cause Ross found them and they came up to the room. We went down to the lobby and they got us banded and we went to lunch. Wow, much better than the De Cameron! After lunch we went back to the room and changed into bathing suits and went to the pool and suntanned, did the pool, suntanned, did the pool…………………………….. It was great, I had so much liquor I should have been snokered, but I wasn’t, don’t know why. We went back to the room around 5 and visited until 6:30 when dinner was served. Unfortunately we had to eat fast as we needed to be outta there at 7 to be in Sayulita for Ross’s gig. What a great day!

I am still not feeling well and I just couldn’t get into the music last night, which sucks! They played in a small bar in Sayulita that normally doesn’t open on Saturday nights but Geno talked them into opening up and we had a great crowd! The bar was so intimate and cozy! One lady at the end (she had been dancing all night) sang a song with the guys and she was great! Wow, they have the gig for next Saturday too! So much for our boxing day dinner we were planning, it’ll have to make it Sunday!

Ross is at the gig at Ana Banana’s with Rock of Ages (Ralph’s other band) and I’m fixing computers, doing laundry and watching HGTV!

I’ll say adios for now and will tell you all about my shopping trip tomorrow!

Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise!

Friday December 18th, 2009

Another day in paradise! We set the alarm for 9 because Ross has his very first home showing for his very first clients today, then decided to re-set it for 9:45 cause we were tired but Christie called us at 9:30, then a realtor called at 9:35 so we decided to get up. Ross left at 10:30 and I tried to sleep but got up at noon to shower. Which in hind sight was stupid cause I am starting to tan for the wedding, (I’d hate to be the white one, because I know everyone will be tanning in Edmonton) so I went out and spend 20 minutes on each side and ended up being very sweaty, tomorrow I’ll do it right. Which I guess I won’t because we are spending some of the day at the RUI with Brenda and Mike before they leave tomorrow at midnight so I’m gonna be tanning at the pool tomorrow! The next day then!

Ross showed most of the properties that he had picked out, but they begged off early as she needed to get back to the hotel for some Sudafed. Ross got home at about 1:30 hopeful that if they don’t buy now they will come back! They have friends apparently that will also be looking. They liked what they saw which is very good. We promised Brenda and Mike we would pick them up at 2ish to take them to lunch at the Riveria as that was the only time we had to introduce them to our favorite restaurant, unfortunately Jenn wasn’t there, so I guess they need to come back………soon!

After a great lunch we drove them back to the hotel and Ross and I ran home to pack up his drums for his gig in San Pancho. I had promised Ralph I would bring a tip can so I wrapped a coffee mate can with Christmas paper and printed a tip sign for them. I didn’t go as I’m still not feeling up to snuff and I think a nice evening at home is just what the doctor ordered. So here I sit watching HGTV (Holmes on Homes) and drinking a glass of wine. The children and I will cuddle up tonight and maybe have popcorn.

Adios from Paradise
Ross, Mike, Brenda and Kim

Wednesday December 16th & Thursday December 17th, 2009

Hola from Paradise! Wednesday morning I got up and was so excited to have my very first hot shower in my house here and I turned on the hot water and …….drip, drip drip. Oh damn, the water was coming out so slowwwwwwwww, but it was hot. I washed my hair with very little soap and put some cream rinse on it and by the time I finished rinsing the water went drip……………………………………………………………..drip………………………………………………………drip……………………………………………………..drip, so I gave up and washed the rest of me in the sink!

Other than that excitement it was a slow day until we drove to La Cruz at 6 for a charity event to raise money for the town of La Cruz. For 150 pesos each we both had a terrific authentic Mexican dinner of beans, rice, chicken, mini taco’s and two different types of dessert along with chips and salsa. After dinner we listened to Philo’s band then watched a few dance troupes (picture attached), while visiting with Christie and John and another couple. We got home at 10ish and watched a bit of TV then went to bed! It’s a bitch when you have humdrum days in paradise.

Today (Thursday) we woke up at 9:30 (Norberto was to be here by 10 but made it by 10:45, not bad for a Mexican) and tried to wake up on the patio with a cup of coffee. After coffee Ross made arrangements to show the houses he wants to sell to the lovely couple in Stony Plain. He is going to meet them at the De Cameron at 11 and it’s almost a walking tour, they are going to see 5- 6 houses within a 3 block radius then show them our listings as John will be there and if they have any questions Ross can’t answer he will be available to them.

Norberto and his guys stayed until about 12:30 and will come again Saturday morning to finish. He will come again in a couple of weeks to put a pump on our cistern so that water will be available to us also. I told him about my drippy (I said that too, but he didn’t know the word drippy, go figure) shower head and had to show him the problem and he said “no problem”! Everything is “no problem”, I love it. We tried to have a little siesta but neither one of us could sleep, we drove to The Rui where Brenda and Mike are staying, we couldn’t find them but they saw us from their balcony so Mike came down and brought us up. They changed rooms and now they overlook the bay, awesome views and awesome sunsets. Wow, they have a suite, Jacuzzi tub, huge shower, their bed is on a platform and they have couches and chairs. They are staying until Saturday, Mike is glad they never saw the room before because it is much more expensive than their other room and he would have wanted to move a lot sooner. We had to make apologies to them as they were going to pay for us to stay at the resort tomorrow but Ross has his house showings and that is much more important. We are going to pick them up (unless of course the people want to put an offer on a house) around 2 tomorrow afternoon to take them to Riveria for supper before we drive to San Pancho for Ross’s gig.

We stopped in at Wal-Mart to see if we could get more of our prescriptions. I got my Spriva (thank god that is my daily inhaler) and Ross got his Micardis. They didn’t have his Lipitor though so we’ll have to see what we can do about that.

We are now at home, Ross watching the news and I’m trying to get the blog done. Sunshine came home for a while, he is sitting with Ross on the couch right now, hopefully he won’t run if the dogs come in. They are outside having dinner on the patio. We are off in an hour or so to drive to Crazy Nelly’s, it’s gonna be a late night tonight I’m afraid, Ross is meeting his clients at 11am tomorrow, can you say “very tired”!

Ross, Brenda, Mike Kim and Critters in Paradise

Tuesday December 15th, 2009

Before I start today I forgot to mention something very important……….We were just waking up Monday morning, had opened the door and the gate for Jake and Gracie to go pee, and guess who comes in and jumps on our bed licking and jumping and jumping and licking………………….Maggie. Somehow she got loose and found her way home. Now this is a very good feat because she lives in San Vicente (sp?) which is more than 15 kms away, we don’t know where she got loose, she didn’t have her collar on so she might have taken off before they got to their car in Mega! Sue was gracious enough to pick me up, another yippee today, at 4:45 pm to take her back, it’s a long drive; you drive to Mezcales (about 10 minutes), then turn left (for another 5)!

We woke up early because Ross, yes I said Ross needs to go to the office today because, number 1 it’s Tuesday and number 2 Norberto is supposed to come today to start my hot water process and I have to stay home! I’m so excited to be getting hot water, especially since Ross showered and yelled cause the water was very cold. We haven’t had any street water for the past 2 days and Norberto told us we only have a couple of inches of water in our tinaco (big black plastic thing on our roof that holds our water). Norberto says we now have street water but it is coming in very slowly, so we won’t do dishes or flush toilets for a while. He is coming back on Thursday to finish the job, I think he told me I should have hot water once our tinaco is filled, he doesn’t speak English very well, well, actually more than I know Spanish!

Ross went to the office today and met some people from Spruce Grove that wants to look at houses! He is meeting them on Thursday to show them a few that John picked out. That’s why Sue had to come pick me up to take Maggie back because Ross was at John’s house for info on what houses to show them.

Norberto left at 6 pm (he didn’t get here until 1:30) and Ross and I are just sitting here doing our “computing”. We phoned Brenda and Mike to see if they want to come to Riveria for dinner, but they weren’t in their hotel room. We are on the phone with our friend Brad from Vancouver (it snowed yesterday and it’s raining today) it’s his birthday today.

We are now watching Global 6:00 pm Edmonton time and I am yawning! What’s up with that, could it be because Yoda is waking me up every couple of hours either wanting to play or to suckle or to do whatever kitties do in the middle of the night. I don’t think much else is gonna happen tonight so I’m gonna say adios for now, sweet dreams and stay warm up north, stay cool here!

Ross, Kim, Jake, Gracie, shadow, Sunshine, Pepper (I think) and Yoda in Paradise!

The rest of Sunday and Monday December 14th, 2009

What a day, we drove back and forth all day. After picking up Brenda and Mike at their hotel we drove to Mega so Ross could buy a phone card (cause of course he ran out and what happens if he needs to call someone?) then we drove to Centro Bucerias to find the glasses for Brett and Laurie but couldn’t find them so we’ll go back and try again! Some of the vendors were closed and maybe it was one of them that Brett got them from. Ross can’t remember and I wasn’t there. Then we drove back to Mega so Mike and Brenda could look at one of our grocery stores, then we drove to La Cruz to watch Rock of Ages (Ralph’s other band) at Ana Banana’s and to meet Ralph’s brother. They were great, 70’s type music. We then drove back to Bucerias (it's a good thing everything is close) to an authentic Mexican restaurant for some, of course authentic Mexican food, then we drove home for a bit, then, we drove back out to La Cruz and found a beach to lay on to watch the meteor shower. It was terrific, we laid on blankets, drank a bit of wine/beer, chatted and watched the show while listening to the waves crash in on the shore. Wow.

We dropped off Brenda and Mike at their hotel and came home and crashed.

We woke up at about 11 am on Monday and got over to the hotel by 1:30 to pick up Brenda and Mike to do the town. Mike has never been to PV and Brenda hadn’t been back since 1985 so they were both excited to go. We drove south to PV and had some 2 for 1 BBQ ribs at El Torito Sports Bar, that was a big hit, every day from 2 – 4 the ribs are 2 or 1. After filling up on ribs we drove out to Mismaloya to Mama Lucia tequila factory, I love the drive and the tequila “yum”. We drove around a bit after our taste testing to see some stupendous homes on the hills then drove back to PV to the market. We actually got Ross’s wedding outfit there, 2 really nice button down the front shirts (he doesn’t know which one he will wear, a pair of cotton slacks to match and some very nice (too expensive) sandals, now I just have to find something to wear! Brenda’s highlight of the day was going to Costco! She loves the store and loves to visit them when she travels. By the time we were done it was dark outside and we were all beat. We drove Brenda and Mike back to their hotel and we drove home and crashed. We picked up some guacamole at Costco and Ross pigged out on it for a treat, that reminds me, I should have some too. To bed we went.

Ross, Kim, Brenda and Mike in Paradise.

Saturday December 12th & Sunday December 13th, 2009

This is a very sad day and also a very happy day! How does that work exactly???

I was at Mega Saturday morning at 9am to adopt out Maggie, as much as we love her she was just too much for us old farts. We had I think 5 cats to adopt out along with Maggie, Larry and Lorena (some friends that were helping out for PEACE) took one of the cats and at 1pm when we were ready to leave there was only 1 cat left, yeah! I didn’t want a Mexican family to adopt Maggie, because of their beliefs that cats and dogs aren’t worth anything, but a young couple came along and just fell in love with her. We have their contact info so I feel confident that she will be loved!

When we were sitting under the tent shooting the breeze between possible people to adopt out our animals to, we started talking about the Amigos de Bucerias society as a whole and discussing the upcoming elections of officers in January and Sue asked if I thought Ross would consider being president????!!! I thought he would like that so Larry called him on his cell to ask him if we would run, as he woke up Ross (after all it was only 11am) he was kinda stunned with the question and I think it took a bit for his brain to kick in but he said he would consider it. We asked him to come over and at about 12:30 he stopped by on his scooter with his pink helmet on, he looks so silly! He accepted the nomination so we will be campaigning, his slogan is Ross for Boss, and Harold thought that up. Larry and Harold along with Sue promised they would help him so I guess we are going through with it. One thing that is funny is that Christie is Vice President and they will make a great pair! Ross calls Christie Snaggletooth and Christie calls Ross a whole bunch of names, all in fun of course!

Once Ross and I got home from Mega we drove the rental car back then came on home until it was time to leave for the Welcome back party for the Amigos de Bucerias. Ross left early (around 4) to set up and I had a snooze on the couch, it was great. We left for the party at 6, we were very lucky it was only a couple of minutes away from the house and got a great parking spot. We found out later the reason we got a good spot was because hardly anyone showed up. There should have been at least 150 people and I don’t think we had 50! There was a festival wrapping up in PV the same night so I think a lot of people went to that instead. We had a good time though, Ross, Ralph and Geno played and guess what happened, the same lady from the cat shelter was there that was at the small benefit we had a couple of weeks ago where all proceeds to hair cutting and other sales of treats and plants and stuff went to the shelter and I had bonded with a grey kitty then and she brought him last night also! What are the odds that he hadn’t been adopted out between the last time a held him and now! So I adopted him! He’s sooooooooo cute, we named him Yoda cause his ears are way bigger than his head, he might grow into them, we are not quite sure. He slept with me last night and several times he woke me up by suckling on my ear, head, eyes, chin, lips and anything else he could find. He is only 3 ½ months old, taken way too early from his mommy. He doesn’t want me too far away from him, I want to take him to Mega and the market with Ross, Brenda and Mike but Ross won’t let me, he said he’s not a foo foo dog and I can’t put him in my purse…………………we’ll see!

We have showered and washed dishes and stuff, Ross is putzing around outside the front, we are going to be picking up Brenda and Mike at 3:30 to do the market then we are hoping to arrange for a party on the beach tonight because of the Geminid meteor shower that is supposed to be happening here! We are going to the market because Brett bought some glasses for Laurie when he was here, and she likes them so much we are buying 6 more of each and Brenda and Mike are going to bring them back for him.

Well not much else to say, so I’ll say adios for now, more news tomorrow!

Ross, Kim, Brenda, Mike, Gracie, Jake, Shadow, Sunshine, Yoda (and still think Pepper but we haven’t heard from him for a while) in Paradise!

P.S. As I am waiting for the pictures to upload I just wanted to let you know that my computer says it's -30 in Edmonton, 6 in Greenville and 29 here!

Tuesday December 8 – Friday December 11th, 2009

Wow I didn’t think I hadn’t posted a blog this long, time flies when you are having fun! Let’s see if I remember what happened.

Tuesday – We woke up early, yuck, to go to the office. It was a little better today as we now have internet so we can actually look at properties and stuff. I also took a bit of time to do the kids Christmas presents! We can’t remember what else happened.

Wednesday – We went on a home tour with John and Christie and the gang, that was fun and very informative. There are so many good deals right now, anyone and everyone that reads should contact us if they are thinking of buying down here, wow, if only we had more money. There is this one condo looking out onto the ocean……you can hear the waves coming in………I wannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnt it!
The car is not working worth shit right now, we definitely need a new starter and we seriously need someone to look at our throttle problem! It rev’s up and down on its own and sputs and putters and belches out black smoke……yuck! We called our mechanic and he is coming Thursday to pick it up to put in a new starter and to find out why it’s acting possessed! We dropped into Gecko car rental (a good car rental place) and we have rented a subcompact until our car is fixed.

Ross went to Britannia for the 4:30 – 7:30 gig, it has been cancelled due to lack of patrons, darn!

Thursday (yeah! that was yesterday so I remember more) – We got to sleep in as Lily is scheduled for Friday morning, so we woke up about 11 and had our coffee outside, yes, outside…..we have been checking the Edmonton weather, we feel so sorry for you! We putzed around until 3ish (I started getting our Christmas stuff out and I now have my Christmas tree up and have a mess of containers outside on the patio and inside the house) and then Ross went to pick up friends that are staying at the Rui, Brenda and Mike (Brenda from CRA) and brought them back to the house. We showed them our bit of paradise then started to drive to Guayabitos, stopping at Sayulita and San Pancho on the way. Once we got to Guayabitos we dropped into the restaurant at the top of the hill (you can see the bay) and had some drinks before driving to Crazy Nelly’s for Ross’s gig.

Great night, something else was going on that night to it wasn’t as busy as the week before but we sure had fun. We met a guy named Austin from Calgary that managed a bar in Calgary and has been down here for some time and can’t understand why we weren’t playing in Bucerias also. We never did get his contact info as he has done some band booking and said to Ross that he could get them more money and better gigs, though you have to remember too that he had been drinking. He says he lives here now so if we run into him again we will talk. We didn’t get home until 12:30 or so and was exhausted as neither Ross nor I are feeling up to par, a niggly cold is bugging us.

We woke up Friday morning with the dogs being annoying! Jake, my big 90 pound brute was whimpering (why us, we always get the sucks) for some attention, then Gracie was pawing me to pet her, (it was great when she pawed my back, back scratch, but not when she got my tummy and arm)! I had set the alarm for 10 as Lily was to come at 11:30 and Francisco was coming at 2:30, at 11:15 we got up and Lily chased Ross out of bed when she got here! We love Lily!

We had our coffee then our mechanic called asking about oil for the car, or whatever they talked about, Ross runs synthetic oil and had just bought lots so he met up with our mechanic in Mexcales to give him what he had so we wouldn’t have to pay for more.

With Lily cleaning the house I started finishing off the Christmas stuff. I now have my Christmas village up on my buffet and my house looks very festive! Francisco has come to scrape off the ceiling paint that has bubbled in the kitchen, band room and my office (we are told it happens all the time because of the humidity) and has put on a fresh coat, it looks so much better now. He has to fix the roof with gravel and cement (because the float stuck on our water holder up on the roof and leaked all over the roof) so we won’t have this much of a problem next year. I drove Lily to the highway to catch the bus to PV where she is now living with her Mum (her father is very sick and she is helping out) and renting out her house in Mexcales, and it’s 6:20 now and Francisco is still working getting our odd jobs completed. Our mechanic called to let us know he is on his way with our car, so everything seems to be going well.

We are picking up Brenda and Mike at 8 to go to Philo’s in La Cruz as this is the last night Oscar will be playing and we what to say bye! I don’t think we will stay very late but we are going to have pizza there, great pizza.

Adios from Mexico
Ross, Kim, Brenda and Mike in Paradise!

Sunday and Monday December 6th and 7th

The pictures: Turret in bar, Band, Me dancing in hat, Philo, Oscar, Yolanda, Renee, Rainy entry, church, square, our hotel, 2 of square in the hotel where the band played, Our room door on left, hotel where band played, band, Ross playing with hat, Nick Annette heart girl and Costa Rica girl (can't remember their names), our cobblestone Road


We just got back from a fun time in San Sebastian; it's about 1 1/2 hours inland from here in the mountains. An owner of a bar in La Cruz (12 minutes from us) goes up there 2 to 3 times a year with his band and puts on show with a catered dinner and a continental breakfast in the morning. We stayed in a little hotel that the band stays in (Ross plays the drums there) and had a great time, met so many neat people and some old friends.

We got up at 7:30 on Sunday morning to be at Philo’s Bar by 9 – 9:30. It was really cloudy and cool so I brought a lot of warm coats and sweaters including hats and gloves in case anyone needed anything while we were up there, there is nothing worse than freezing. Before we drove to Philo’s we stopped at a bank machine so we would have money in case we needed some and both our ATM cards and my credit card were turned down, asking us to contact our banking institution. (When we got home I checked out bank and stuff and I can’t see anything wrong, it must have been the bank machines, thank god). We got to Philo’s and it was a buzzing place! His staff was getting everything ready to take up there, and then in started to rain. It started to drizzle first then it started coming down in buckets, Yuck.

We got the directions to the town and drove home and got some rain gear, so figure! We followed the instructions Philo gave us and ended up on a dead end street in a little town behind Home Depot in Vallarta! We called Philo and caught up with him behind the home depot and started off on a wonderfully rainy drive into the mountains. I need to download some pictures from my camera! We drove up and up and up, going through some very small towns with a lot of topes, (speed bumps that Mexicans love, they have them everywhere and they are so big that if you go over them fast your car will bottom out and you may end up with your head going through the roof) it was such a beautiful drive. We were looking forward to coming home the next day (if the weather was better) to see the scenery we were missing because of the low clouds. San Sebastian is a mining town that is super old, very very very old! We drove on a cobblestone road a good couple of kms before we even got to the town and once there the cobblestones continued up through some very narrow streets to a lovely town square.

We saw where everyone was so that’s where we started at. Most the hotels we were staying in were around the square; we found ours and got our stuff in then went to the little outside restaurant and sat with Peggy and had some great coffee and lunch. The two hotels I saw there have an entrance way to a square in the centre and the rooms are around the square. We got room number 9, right beside Peggy and Leon. There were 2 double beds and a very, very tiny bathroom, the lady that cleans the rooms opened ours with a key then took the key, it’s a good thing we know all the people that were staying the hotel, we couldn’t lock the door.

We decided to have a snooze before the festivities started (4pm) and guess what? We actually woke up at 3:45, wow; we couldn’t have timed that any better. We walked to the other hotel on very slippery cobblestone road/sidewalk, it’s a good thing I had my runners on, and walked through the front we found ourselves in an open area square, the band was on the right side of the entrance way under a roof and there were tables under the overhang of the hotel (thank goodness for that, as it rained most of the night!). I sat with Renee, a friend I met here that lives here 6 months of the year then goes back to Chicago for the other 6 months, and a lady by the name of Yolanda (I found out later that I just might be working with her, she is trying to start a carnival in Vallarta, the same as New Orleans, her brother created the one they have in Mazatlan). I also saw Maury, a guy that we met that frequented Riveria Restaurant were our friend works, with his wife, that was a pleasant surprise! We have 4 groups of friends and they very seldom intertwine musicians, AA, Amigos of Bucerias and our real estate friends. Actually Ross’s band Juan-Ted and the Rhythm Roosters are playing a benefit for Amigos next Saturday night! Ok, back to San Sebastian, We had a great time listening to Philo’s band, Ross got up twice during the night. We had lasagna for supper with fruit and salad (great salad dressing) catered by a small restaurant that Philo always uses that has a small restaurant in the town.

After the band stopped we all went upstairs to a small bar for an acoustic session. There were no chairs available but we noticed a turret in the corner with a small table with 3 young girls sitting there and we asked them if we could join them. Wow, what a great time. The one girl sitting beside me (maybe 23, very tiny) is travelling and meeting up with, get this girls, twins in Costa Rica and working on a ship (I have no idea which one) and going I have no idea where, she told Ross she wants to go to the Caribbean! Beside her was another girl, (maybe 23 too) the 3 girls were friends, at least that night, that was visiting that really wanted to move here, I think she is from Vancouver, but is scared because of a heart condition and is on 5 medications a day. A guy by the name of Nick Rau sat with us that has been here for over 10 years and has some connections in the medical insurance field and has given her some info. The third girl, Annette, works, listen to this, on the World ship! This is the ship that you buy your home on the ship and it sails the world once a year. We saw it on a documentary (it started in 2002) on the discovery channel about this ship. We also met Jay, he is a photographer that has been down here for 8 years and spends his time photographing anything you want a picture of. He works mostly with sailboats and birds and things like this. His website is www.strangebirdphotos.com/. Wow what a great night.

I have no idea what time we left, but we walked Renee back to her hotel, way to hell and gone, (well a couple of blocks anyway) then got back to the hotel they played at, picked up Yolanda (she was in heeled boots that she wasn’t comfortable with walking on the wet cobblestones) and Ross being the gentleman his mama raised him to be took her arm and we walked to the hotel. I, on the other hand, had to fend for myself on the wet cobblestones with my owie ankle, now, what is wrong with this picture! As we got to the room I saw Peggy, Leon and Oscar going to the closed restaurant to have a couple of beers and they didn’t want to bother us. Ross opted to lie down and I went with they other 3 and had a very nice late night chat. It’s surprising how much you can connect with people at 1am just shooting the breeze. Since this is now our home I like to spend time with the people I have met to become friends with them, they are very nice people. Peggy is married to Leon, Peggy is 58 and Leon is 75. Peggy plays bass and Leon plays washboard, banjo, and they both sing. Oscar is a sax player, guitar player and singer that we now have 2 of his cd’s. He is moving with his wife and young daughter to Tucson AZ and he will be missed. He is such a warm and loving individual! We finally made our way to bed around 2.

We woke up at 11 (we thought it was about 10) and hurriedly got dressed and brushed our teeth. We missed continental breakfast and everyone had left except for Nick and his wife (I can’t remember her name) so we had coffee with Nick and then walked to the famous church, we took some pictures and then left San Sebastian, I was a bit sad, as it is such a neat place, we will definitely go back! The weather was a bit better going home, we got some pictures this time and I will download (I have already done Ross’s) my pictures and will post as many as I can. It takes so long to download pictures to the blog, we’ll see how many I get before I give up!

We now are doing laundry, Ross is watching TV and I, of course, am typing the blog. Ross will leave around 5:30 to go to his meeting, I’m gonna stay at home and veg. We are both very tired, and we have to get up early tomorrow for work!

Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise!

Thursday - Saturday December 3nd, 4th & 5th, 2009

I didn’t think I was this far behind! Now I have to remember what the hell I did for 3 days. Ok here goes.

Thursday – Today we drove Brett to the airport, and then drove to Guayabitos for Ross’s Crazy Nelly’s. Wow, they are so good together. We picked up Ed, La Cruz’s spoon musician, not even thinking, but he brought his spoons to play. He assumed we asked him to come because it was an open mike gig, we apologized for not making it perfectly clear, he just said he had never been, and I thought it would be nice to bring him along. Oh well, we’ll have to remember to be a bit more clear. Geno did let him play a couple of songs, I thought that was very nice for him to do that! Nelly brought over a couple of tequila’s, one for her and one for me, she is such a sweetie. She thanked me to coming and she is even giving me a break on my wine, the first one is full price and the others are ½ price.

Juan-Ted and the Rhythm Roosters got a gig at Nelly’s. A lady came up to me and asked me if my husband was for hire. I giggled and said if he wants to! She is hosting a surprise birthday party in January for a friend of hers and she wants them to play for them. They asked for 3,000 pesos and she didn’t balk at that so I think they have their first private party, yeah! The reason why she asked me (Geno is the boss of this band) is because the week before I chatted with a couple and we got on famously, and the lady that is having the party is friends of theirs and they knew I was married to “The drummer”.

Nelly rescued an orange cat from the field and she is trying to convince me to take him home. She can’t keep him because the lady she is renting to (I’m not quite sure what she was saying) is allergic to cats, so she has to keep him/her at the bar. I told her my problems with Sunshine and Pepper, but she said that the cat is just fine with her dogs, he/she just hisses at them. I’m still thinking about it.

Friday – Today was Bingo day! Yeah! Ross drove me to Britannia in La Cruz and I played cards for Ross and for me………big mistake. The guy that was calling the numbers went way too fast for me; I tried asking him to slow down, but no! I was kinda pissed about that, oh well. I won 2 games and Ross won 3, so between the two of us we won 140 pesos plus a free drink!

Ross picked me up at 5:30 and we drove all of 1 minute to Ana Banana’s for his blues gig with Ralph, Geno and Mike. They were great! We sat on the beach (tables were on the sand) and had a nice dinner of chicken cordon bleu, corn on the cob with mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. They played until 8 and as they had just finished when one of the band members of Rock of Ages (Ralph is the bass player for that band and Ross has sat in with them when the drummer had an eye procedure) well apparently their drummer now has dengue and they knew Ross was going to San Sebastian, they found a drummer but he doesn’t have any drums, so he asked me if Ross would loan his to them for their Sunday gig, I said “Of course” (what else do you say?), Ross went back home to get his regular snare drum (he doesn’t loan out his good one).

We got home fairly early, but we were both bagged, we got to bed, I think, before midnight!

Saturday – We (it ended up just me) had to get up early for our monthly breakfast at Ixta and the Amigos meeting. Ross decided he wanted to sleep so I drove over and had a great breakfast of French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, orange juice………… Our meeting went well, we found out that during revolution a child got hurt, was taken to Tepic then back to the hospital in Mexcales, his/her hospital bill will be 30,000 pesos and his parents have nothing. We, as a group, had donated 5,000 pesos to the cause and we passed around a bowl and collected another 4,300 pesos for him/her.

I got home and the plummer had been here, he almost has to re-plum the whole house and it’s gonna cost us 4000 pesos, but goddamn it, I’m gonna have hot water. The vet that had the house built only lived here part time, so I guess he didn’t have any hot water, which is odd as we do have a water heater, only in Mexico! He is going to do the work in two stages; he will do the 1st part on the 15th of December and the balance on the 17th.

We drove Ross’s scooter over to Jenn’s restaurant for her to use as she is babysitting for us. We got back home after stopping off at Nick’s house and he asked if we could bring some extra warm stuff for people that doesn’t have any (it gets cold up there) (he knew we had some, as, we are from Canada eh!) so I got more warm stuff out for the trip. So we are taking 5 warm coats, scarves, mittens and toques.

Ross has packed his whole kit into the car for the San Pancho gig tonight. We are really excited about going. The restaurant they are play in is right on the beach! It will only take us about ½ hour to drive there (not as far, thank goodness, as Nelly’s), so we are taking off at 4:30 (it’s 4:10 now). They predicted 50% chance of showers so we had to make sure the drums would fit with the roof up, but so far it’s nice, about 29 degrees right now.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and we’ll talk to you soon!
Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise