Don't forget I am now blogging in our own website at casacable.com

Thursday October 28th to Wednesday November 3rd, 2010

Now this is really spooky…………..we have our bottled water delivered by a truck that comes around 3 times a week, when we are running low we replace the ones we have used. Since the guys that deliver the water don’t speak English, in order to remember how much they cost I have got into the habit of writing the price of the bottles on top of the last bottles lid (which of course once we put the bottle on the cooler it goes into the garbage). Ross didn’t know what I was doing so when he put the bottle with the price on the lid on the cooler he threw the lid away in our garbage. (this happened about a month ago) Well, we got 3 more bottles of water the other day and guess what was on one of the lids…………….24 in my handwriting! Now, do they go through the garbage’s to retrieve their lids?? And what are the odds of us getting it????????

We went back to Big Burger Wednesday night for supper (Ross had a craving) and I hate to admit it but the burgers are just tooooooooooo soggy! The hamburger tastes great, I had pineapple (it had been grilled) and mushrooms and they were great, but the hamburger bun just fell apart! The fries were great! After supper we stopped off at Britannia to get something that Ross had there (I don’t know what it was it was some type of electronic thingy) we were lucky that Mike and Mandy were there as the bar wasn’t open to the public. We stopped somewhere else too………..but for the life of me I can’t remember!

Thursday was my introduction to the Beta Sigma Phi Mexico chapter! It was great, we all met at Rita’s house, there must have been 30 women there and everyone brought something yummy to eat, except for us that were joining (I think there were 4 of us). I met a girl from Calgary there that lives here 4 months and in Australia for 4 months and in Calgary for about that long. She was a member in Calgary (I didn’t even know these guys existed) when her children were young. We sat outside and ate, and ate, and ate, had some wine and ate and ate some more. It was great! It seems like every time we get together food and/or alcohol is involved, what could be bad about that???

Of course we stopped in at Philos for some good music and for Ross to get his ya ya’s out. Gene was there and I think he told Ross that next Wednesday he is flying back to Greenville for good! Yuck, we love him; he is such a nice man and a great guitar player! We hope he comes back often, he never sold his house here so we are hoping he will visit when he doesn’t have any renters in his compound.
We scooted over to Wally world to pick up some costumes for dressing up at Philo’s on Halloween. Ross is playing the night as Carlos is playing in Vallarta with his other band Deep River with Mike and Nick. I got the last witch hat and bought a broom with a black top and leggings to complete the look. Ross got a very scary mask with grey hair shooting out and anther half mask.

Well so much for going to Philo’s and wearing my witch costume……………I have a tummy upset, ok it’s more than upset, when Ross was getting his drums into the car I was in the bathroom throwing up (oopsTMI?) AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF………..while giving some kids candy Jake leaned on the inside door and closed it. Now it would have been ok if the door DIDN’T lock automatically! So there I was locked outside the house in a shirt that came down to about 6” above my knees, no shorts on and fluffy slippers! I put the chair on top of the table, used the other chair to climb on to the chair on the table but I still couldn’t reach the wall (I could have killed myself too if I fell) So I climbed up on the bars (see picture of the bars I climbed on and there will be some pictures of the murder mystery I went to too) swung my leg on top of the big gate and hauled myself up, tight walked on the wall (it’s about 8” wide 10’ long) to get to the roof so I could get into our backyard! I had left the screen door open cause the dogs where going crazy so that was good (that the door was open not the dogs were going crazy), but I had hidden a key in our backyard for the screen door just in case we ever got locked out. We have a key outside in the front hidden from view for the screen door and we had talked, just the other week, about hiding one for the big door too, but never got around to it……needless to say, we now have one hidden for the big door too!

Cafe Bohemio is a really neat restaurant in old town Vallarta that everyone has been raving about. Monday’s special was liver and onions, now, even if you don’t like liver, you have to be aware that us people that do,…………..can’t find it down here, only 2 restaurants that I know of has it and when it’s on special……well, you just have to go. Now my tummy is still not feeling up to par, Ross had bought me some pills for diarrhea and they had been working well for that, but I was running a low grade fever and still had some cramping in my tummy, but the thought of liver and onions was too good to pass up, so we picked up Sue and Harold and off we went. It was fabulous! I didn’t eat much cause I was kinda scared of how it would sit in my stomach, but what I didn’t eat, can you guess, Ross did! We stopped off at AutoZone for a funnel and some mace; we figured we should have something to protect ourselves just in case. I popped over to Office Depot for another stapler (staplers an I don’t get along, I use them and they fall apart!?!?!?!?) hopefully this will last longer than the last one I got from Mega. We then drove to Costco to pick up a couple of things (Ross forgot the cheesecake he wanted, how do you forget cheesecake?) then dropped Sue and Harold off at their truck in the Walmart parking lot and drove home.

Happy Birthday to my son Stacy!!! 39 today, yack, now I have to be 49!

We got up close and personal with guys with guns last night! We were coming back from Britannia pub in La Cruz and started driving up Rio Colorado and army guys with guns (faces masked, they do that so the drug runners can’t see who they are) telling us to turn around and go back………………..well! Ross backed up and we tried to get home the other way, it’s a good thing there are more ways than one to get home! We found out today that they actually went to a friend’s house (Ronnie and her husband Tony, they are full timers here from England) and asked for their identification and car papers, I guess they were looking for someone and thought that they would be there! Kinda Scary! Was talking with Lisa on the computer last night (Lisa and Wayne live in Saskatoon and come down here in the winter) and she asked if we could top up her CFE account with more money, they just built a pool in their backyard and didn’t realize the pump would cost so much in electricity. They are on the way down and didn’t want the power to be cut off when they got here! I went down this morning and paid 321 pesos in all, 80 on one bill and the rest on the other (they have a casita that they rent out sometimes). We are looking forward to seeing them again, and she is bringing down some Halloween candy for me, hurray, (rockets, candy kisses….) the candy here doesn’t taste the same and I have had a craving for sweets!

Well that’s about it for now, we have our propane guys coming soon, Norberto will be here 4ish to see about my hot water tap in my shower (it is leaking and just turns around and around and around and I don’t have any hot water, which is kinda funny as it was this time last year we had him out to get our hot water working period) and I emailed Anna to get our working FM3’s started. I can sure get a lot done when I am feeling better; just wait until I’m much better! We also had Francisco come by with a friend with some roofing material we need to put on our roof to stop the rain from coming in. After looking at the roof he quoted us 10,000 pesos, which is very cheap, we just don’t have the money right now, we have about 5 months or so before we will need it so we have some time to get some money together, maybe we will sell a house??? Not maybe, do (Yoda)! The material is really heavy, rubber on the underside and almost like a shingle on the top side, I so don’t need my roof leaking next rainy season, that sucks!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise
ps murder mystery would not attach oh well.

Friday October 22nd to Wednesday October 27th, 2010

Philos was great; we saw Cheryl and Paul (they are from Edmonton living down here) and the usual crowd. There was a piano player by the name of Chas Eller from the band Kilimanjaro, according to Ross, he is a legend!

Tara called, her and Mike are coming on the 14th of November to stay, I think for a week, they are staying at the Riu in Nuevo. Tara is Ross’s oldest daughter, she is 26, wow, I have known her since she was 6(as a side note, she asked Ross to ask me to marry him)!!! She is bringing her new boyfriend, Mike, everyone has met him but us, we hear he is a good guy!!!

Today is a red letter day………………..ok, maybe not for anyone but me! Normally, actually for about 30 years, Saturday was always clean sheets day!!! Well, I thought it would be a good idea to wash our pillows, then thought……………….why put dirty pillowcases on clean pillows, so I am drying my bedspread and will change the sheets once it is dry! Wow, I am a person, that normally does things the same (clean sheets on Saturday) and I am changing…hopefully to the good!!!

Francisco is here putting stucco (pronounced stuuuuuuuuuuko) on our ceilings where the paint has come off the metal beams and on places where it needs to be built up.
Saturday…………………………Yum…………………….Ernesto’s Good Grub……………….you can’t get any ribs better, than all you can eat (that is what Ross says anyway!!!) We both ordered ribs, Ross ate his, 2 more helpings and the rest of mine………where does he put it??? We all brought insect repellant this time, and we sure needed it, the one I brought is a new one, still off, but this is not an aerosol, it is a pump and it smells quite nice. Thank goodness as I hate having the smell on me while I am eating, it just seems to take something away from the meal you are eating!

Sunday afternoon we were just minding our own business when I got an instant message from Mike………….can Ross play for our gig at Sunset bar, Carlos hurt his back and can’t play. We were planning on going over there for a while, Deep River is a very good band, but Ross ended up being there for the whole time, I drove over after Francisco left, around 5 and we stayed way past the time the band stopped playing. We had a great time, a good bunch of friends we have………………………………….

Monday was a very very very lazy day!!! With Ross not feeling well we just kinda vegg’d. I did however try to make the brownie mix that Ross got at Costco about a year ago (he thought they were already made, silly boy). If you remember the turkey fiasco of last Christmas, my oven has the oven controls 1 to 5….. so you really don’t know what temp it is at…………………..so……………….Gail heard of my plight before she moved back to Denver (only 5 or 6 months ago) and gave me an oven thermometer. Well, I turned on my oven and needed 325 degrees, I watched the thermometer go to 300 then 350 when the knob was between 1 and 2, so I turned the knob more toward the 1 and it stayed at 350 so I put it on 1 and it went down to 300, it was supposed to take about 45 minutes to cook the brownies, in my oven, about an hour and a half and I still didn’t get it to 325! Needless to say the brownies aren’t great, but they are chocolate!

We stayed around all day today too (Tuesday), we thought Ross may have the flu, (Harold thought maybe he might have Dengue but the fever is gone now). Francisco came to fix more of our ceiling; we had chicken soup for dinner. Sue called me and asked me if I wanted to come over to their house the next day to go with them to Pet Heaven….of course I said YES!!! I have wanted to go there for awhile now, but didn’t cause I didn’t know where it was.

Wow, what a great day today is………except of course for Ross not feeling well…………I got up early and scooted over to Sue and Harold’s for a fun filled day. I got there at 9 and we drove the truck to a hotel in PV to pick up some friends of theirs that wanted to visit Pet Heaven………now I have wanted to go, it seems like forever……………..and it seemed to Sue and Harold a good way for me to go too. Pet Heaven is a sanctuary for unwanted cats, similar to SPCA but these cats are either adopted out or they live there forever! We stopped at a restaurant right next to Costco and had a great breakfast of an omelet, salad (not quite sure how that was a breakfast side), orange juice and a couple of cups of coffee. This restaurant has liver and onions so we will definitely be going; there aren’t too many places here that have liver and onions!

Since there were 5 of us, both Sue and I opted to ride in the back of the truck on lawn chairs! Only in Mexico! We drove from the restaurant back to Mezcales then turned inland, past 2 towns then turned, and then I got lost! Since I wasn’t driving and was faced the other way (I only saw where we had been) I will probably have to be told how to get there again. Harold told me as I was headed back home on my scooter, but from the time he told me and the time I got home I think I lost a couple of turns! What a fabulous place…..the whole compound is fenced in and there are cats everywhere! Small, medium, large, black, white, grey, Siamese, orange……………………….. I fell in love with a bowlegged cross eyed boy/girl that was mostly grey but had white paws, maybe 5 or 6 months old (about the size of Bagel). He/she kept begging to be picked up and when I did he/she just started purring and put his/her head under my chin, it took all my strength not to bring him/her home with me! Not saying I won’t go back! But don’t tell Ross!!! The orange cat loved Harold, kept kissing him and sooo loving, there was another bigger cat there that his/her fur was soooooooo soft, just like a fur coat, he/she loved Harold and me too, I went to pick him/her up and she would roll onto his/her back and kind of curl up when your hand went down, once picked up it started licking your fingers, like it was his/her job to clean you up…………….I wanted that one too, and the orange one…………………..keep me away from that place…..no don’t, I need a bigger house!

We all got into the truck and headed home, stopping off for water (2 big jugs for Sue and Harold’s house) and stopped at the Oxxo for something cold to drink. Once I got home I stripped off my very dirty clothes (between the dust on the roads and the cats) and put some aloe vera gel to my semi burnt arms, chest and face ( my suntan lotion was in my scooter, will have to buy a small one for my purse). Now I’m sitting in front of the fan in my room, Ross has gone out to pick up Francisco on the highway, we gave him money to buy more stuuuuuuco for the kitchen ceiling and it is very heavy. I think today will be the last day for him to show up, he has worked all the hours to make up for the money we loaned him, now we have to start paying him again!

Ross Kim and Critters (still 2 dogs and 5 cats) in paradise

Ps: Brett was this a better post? The pictures are of Sunset bar and Pet Heaven.

Tuesday October 12th to Thursday October 21st , 2010

Ernesto’s Good Grub was great, I had a HUGE bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich and Ross, of course, had the ribs. Lori (one of our new dinner mates) wanted the tortilla soup but just wanted a taste of the ribs, so Ernesto gave her 3 ribs on a side plate (at no charge)………………..and we all got our bills and all of them were less than the menu!!! His father had set the prices on the menu and he thinks they are too high so he charges what he thinks should be charged! Now, tell me, where you live, does this happen??? At Ernesto’s we sit outside (like a lot of the restaurants here) and just as the sun went down out came the mosquitoes, we borrowed some repellent from the restaurant and we were much better. We drove over to the restaurant on our bikes via Nuevo so going home we got to drive over the new overpass on the 200 at the Nuevo entrance, very bumpy as it is made of concrete (not so bumpy in the car though).

Tuesday I had an appointment for my nails, they look beautiful again! Tuesday night we drove to Britannia in La Cruz for their open mike night so Ross could get his ya yas out. We had a great time, of course there were more musicians there than patrons, but with that amount of musicians we heard some great music. We even had a set with Mexicans playing their music! We didn’t get home til after 1, yikes!
Wed Ross went to Walmart to pick up some medication other than that we didn’t do much, we try to have a few down days in between our busy days………………we can do that since we are retired!!!

Thurs Ross drove into PV early for an appointment with a skin doctor; he had noticed some moles and such on his skin and was concerned. Good news, everything is ok except for 3 pimples on his face. The doctor says if they don’t get better in 6 weeks to come back, well good news, they are ok now so he is in the clear. I had my very first meeting of Beta Sigma Phi at Judy’s house in La Cruz, sounds like just what I would like to do, meet other women and help anybody that needs help! We are actually going to a murder mystery on the 30th, Ross is Rowdy Azell a gambler and I am Miss Patience, a school teacher, it should be a blast! And of course we went to Philos for the open mike, Ross played great as per usual!!!

On Saturday our dinner group went to “Big Burger” in La Cruz. Raul, the owner, plays a mean guitar around town and is a friend of ours. He had an Oyster bar on Ave Las Palmas, we never did have the oysters but his burgers are great! The people that owned the building was asking an astronomical amount of rent and they ended up have to close. But now Raul has bought the building they are now in so no one can kick him out, unless of course, he doesn’t pay his mortgage!!!

Silly us, we decided on Sunday to go into PV and buy some AA batteries at Costco for our new security system (it is all wireless so we need a crap load of batteries) well…………….we should not have gone, they had the 200 closed off going northbound because of a marathon that was going on, they even closed the lateral going into PV so needless to say, we crawled along………….we finally decided to stop at Sam’s club to get them rather than driving to Costco. Deep River (Mike, Nick and Carlos) was playing at Sunset bar (the bar is on the beach of course) so we stopped in for a bit, Ross got to play a bit and Peggy got up and played some bass, a good time was had by all!!!

Tues of course we went to Britannia and we stayed there for a bit, Ross got to play a few songs! In the meantime we have Francisco, our handyman, coming everyday trying to get my ceiling and walls unflaked and painted!
On Wednesday we scooted to Burrito Bandito a new restaurant in Mezcales for some “north of the border burritos” but it was closed. We found out they close at 7pm so we scooted back home and some left over hamburger surprise and scalloped potatoes!

Today, Thursday, we drove to El Colomo to see a trailer that we were thinking of buying to store all Ross’s stuff, but alas, it wasn’t closed in (that is what we need) but………..what a beautiful drive. We went through Mezcales, San Vicente, San Jose del Valle, and San Juan de Abajo to get to this small little town. On the way we saw some Palm tree groves, we don’t know if they are for the coconuts or they belong to a nursery to sell. We drove to Mezcales to try the new restaurant, Burrito Bandito, and it was great. He started us off with a fabulous quesadillas, the tortilla was fried to a nice crispy consistency then it was topped with cheese, when we go back that is what I am going to have for supper. Ross had the 2 taco dinner (55 pesos) and I had a beef burrito dinner (also 55 pesos) and then we had a un submarino (deep fried Twinkie) and it was great!

We are off to Philo’s tonight for their jam, not much happening tomorrow, that we know of anyway, but again we might have another fabulous day!

Hope everyone is great.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Ps the pictures are of Baby Girl and Bagel and some pictures of Ross playing at Britannia.

Tuesday October 5th to Monday October 11th, 2010

I completely forgot to tell you that last Friday we went with Sue and Juan to get our truck registration and license plates. We brought Sue with us cause she speaks Spanish so she is our interpreter, but Juan came (he is Mexican) so Sue and I sat and had a good time chatting. It took so long that we ordered breakfast from the great breakfast place and by the time it was ready, Juan and Ross came down and we all had a nice meal sitting outside under a tent.

On Tuesday we scooted to Costco for some cheese. Yes I know, it seems funny to go all that way for some cheese, but we have two good reasons. One it is the only place where we can get some good cheddar and two it is fun to scoot!
Wednesday was our semi weekly chili cookoff meeting. Ya know, someone has to be kinda sorta the leader when you have meetings about a specific function, but I am getting tired of “if one person doesn’t want something, it WILL not happen, no matter how smart it is”. So I think once this is done I will bow out of future involvement.

We drove over to Mega (grocery store and a mall) to talk to two banks to get quotes for insurance for our now registered truck. We stopped first at Scotia Bank (not affiliated with Scotia bank in Canada) and they had us wait so long (they only had two people that spoke English and they were busy) so we walked over to Lloyds and they gave us a quote of almost 100 dollars less than the Lewis and Lewis quote we got online. We went back to Scotia and found out they don’t insure Mexican plated vehicles, so back to Lloyds and we paid 5,485.89 pesos for complete coverage for a year.

Thursday I woke up early as I went to go over to Rita’s for wine tasting and a pot luck lunch to test the wine that was bought for the wine and cheese party that the sorority sisters are putting on in November. It is a tough life but you know, someone has to pick up the slack!!! I made shrimp butter, there were salads and a rice dish, soooooooooooooooo yummy!

We left for Philos at 8 and had a great time, Gene was there, we miss him when he leaves and they are actually moving back to Greenville SC (yes the same city as where Stacy lives) and will only come down occasionally, rats.
Fri was a down day, Ross left for Philos to pick up his drums and pa equipment around 4 and stopped off at a friend’s new restaurant in La Cruz to check it out, guess where the dinner group is going to eat next Saturday! Ross scooted over to his meeting at Paradise Village at 5:30, once he got home we had spaghetti for supper and had a lazy night watching TV.

Saturday night we went to the Shamrock bar for dinner, we don’t know who decided that, as it is really just a bar so sitting and eating arrangements were sketchy. We ate off a low table, some sat on couches and some on stools (Roxana and I exchanged our stools to a low bench with a back on it) but the food was great, Ross had a hamburger and I had a steak and kidney pie. Yum! Ross also found out that they start back at Nelly’s on Nov 11th, yeah!

Sunday we had a great Thanksgiving dinner at Sandrina’s, turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and everything else that goes with a fabulous dinner. I have added some pictures of this lovely restaurant, not on the beach but all the plants and the ambience is almost just as good! Sandrina is from Winnipeg and she does the cooking (along with some staff, but she made the pumpkin pies), the turkey was moist and the pumpkin pie was great!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy first day we met!

Ralph came over at 11 (got us out of bed) to steam clean our couch where Gracie bled all over it when she had the tick disease, he also cleaned our outside couches too, so they are all clean.

We are going to Ernesto’s Good Grub restaurant for dinner tonight, according to Ross it is an emergency dinner meeting as they are opening today after being closed for a bit of the slow season and he really, really, really needed some ribs. I don’t know who else will be there except for Sue Harold and Lori and of course us! I will be going with Ross to his meeting in Nuevo (yeah, I get starbucks) then we will drive to Jarretaderas for dinner.

Well that is about it for now, hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

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Hi how are you

Thursday September 29th to Monday October 4th, 2010

Thursday was craft day at Rita’s, we decorated the palm frond thingies that we made last week, I will have to take a picture cause they are kinda hard to describe, they look pretty cool though! Next week we are going to do a wine tasting with a pot luck, bathing suits required! It’s a hard life!!! We went to the last jam at Philos with Nick, Mike and Carlos, Philo will be back next Thursday. Carlos was late so Ross started the set and actually played quite a bit. We had a good time; Ross still needs to pick up his drums and equipment at Philos soon!!! Hint! Hint!

Friday Ross went to his 6pm meeting but since there was only 2 of them, the third coming in later, they cut the meeting short. We left to scoot to Nacho Daddy’s for their welcome back night. They had been closed for a bit for the off season. Wow, what a band, Lisa, Steve’s wife sat in with them on the keyboard, wow, she is sooooooo awesome. We ordered the nachos (which of course we had to try them) and they were great. Melted cheese, refried beans and lots of Jalapenos (a little too many for me), Ross ate his and a lot of mine!!! We did something new too, we took the scooters, we haven’t driven them to PV at night before, it wasn’t too bad at all, I wanted to go a little slower though on the 200 as I couldn’t see the ruts like I can in the day time.

Saturday was our monthly amigos breakfast meeting, and as per usual it was great, they closed for a bit to do some remodeling and they did a great job! We are having a chili cookoff in November and the Amigos said they would join them so 5 of us are making 1 gal of chili each. We had our dinner at a restaurant called El Brujo, it is the very last restaurant in the major Bucerias town on the beach. What great views! Both Ross and I had the ribs (I had a craving and Ross can’t say no to ribs) and they were very good. We had a great time with our friends, some are coming back for the winter so it always nice to see them again.

Well, Sunday, for me at least was yucky, my cold has come back (if it is a cold) and I ended up staying in bed most of the say with my cold medicine. Ross stayed home most of the day, he did go out to Walmart for more dog and cat food and he brought home some sushi he got, 2 trays for 20 pesos each, they were good too!

Happy Birthday Tara! 26 Hurray!

It’s Monday and Tara turns 26, I first met her when she was 5 years old, time sure flies, she has grown into a fabulous women. I got up a little earlier today as Sue was to come over and we were going to walk over to the orphanage to talk to them about a plaque we would like to have made to honor Valiene in regards to all the hard work she has done getting the orphanage built, but Sue was running behind and had other things to do so we will do it another day. We went over to the bank in regards to money coming out twice and she said that we had to contact our bank in Canada. So we called them when we got back home, she said it would take between 10 to 30 days to get the money back into our account, harumpf.

That is about it for now, I will put some pictures up from our dinner on Saturday and a couple of Babygirl and Bagel (if the website allows me to) we have a love hate relationship.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise!

Saturday Sept 25th to Wednesday 29th, 2010

Saturday night we went to Dugarel's restaurant with our dinner group and it was very nice. We sat facing the ocean (that is always a treat) and had a great meal with great friends. Ross had the octopus and I had shrimp stuffed avocado, yum.

We didn’t go to Mandy and Mike’s again on Sunday I guess they have stopped it, it would have been nice to be told though! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Jake apparently got into a cat fight as the end of our bed this morning was just soaked in blood (we thought it was Gracie again) but when in the living room we noticed some blood on the floor where Jake was laying, I picked up his head and his lip was bleeding quite bad. Off to the vet we go, come to find out he has ehrlichia, which is a disease you get from ticks that makes the blood not coagulate (at least that is one of the symptoms), Jake apparently got into a scrap with a cat and he/she bit him on the lip, when the vet cleaned up the blood sure as shooten’ there were two holes, one on top of the other on his lip. It took 10 minutes for his blood to coagulate, it should only take 2 to 5 minutes! He gotsome medicine put in the holes to stop the bleeding, a shot in the butt with antibiotics and another shot in the muscle of his front leg for the disease, we took home some pain killer for him too. That cost us 280 pesos 180 for the medicine and 100 for vet fees, it sure is good that vets don’t cost very much down here.

Monday morning the dogs got us up barking around 5:30, I got up and looked out the back door and didn’t see anything, when they started barking 10 minutes later both of us got up and Ross let the dogs out, then went out himself, our outside fridge was open and almost empty. Ross went up the stairs to go onto the roof and damn, there was meat, juice, beer and stuff sitting on our roof on top of our outside bathroom. We have been robbed AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! Ross got the ladder out and we got all the stuff they didn’t get off the roof and back into the fridge again. Somehow they are climbing up the wall onto the roof of our bathroom then jumping over to the main roof and climbing down the stairs. The first time we got robbed it was at the end of August and now again at the end of September, Dick says that payday is at the end of the month so we figure people are robbing to get by until payday! It doesn’t make me so mad when they took food as when they took our laptops and stuff, I can understand people having families and doing anything they can to feed them, but CRAP! When our friend Gene gets back from Greenville (Oct 5th I think) he is going to help us alarm our house with the system we bought, it also has motion detectors so we are going to plant one outside so that next time someone comes down the stairs the alarms and horns are going to be blaring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, again Mary Carmen came to help us to go to the Ministero Publico to record the break in, what a sweetie she is. They just added to our last one which meant we didn’t need any passport copies or anything but Ross and Mary Carmen had to initial each page (3 altogether both sides) and put their fingerprint next to their signatures, this is a very weird custom, at least for us, oh well, as long as it works.

Ross took Gracie to the vet this afternoon as she has been biting her feet and the blood doesn’t seem to coagulate very quickly either, she also has ehrlichia, so she is on medication too! So that is two pills for Gracie cause she might have a thyroid problem and medicine for ehrlichia and Jake just on medicine for ehrlichia………..Yack, it’s a good thing cats don’t get it!!!

We went to the open mike at Britannia last night also; I think it was the first of the season. Nick. Mike and Carlos rocked the house down again, throwing Ross into the mix for a few tunes.

Wow what a bike ride we had today! We went down the Valley De Banderas highway (not far from us) and we rode all the way to San Juan de Abajo. They just opened the road up to San Juan de Abajo about a week ago and what a pretty ride. Mango, Huanacaxtle and fig trees, vines growing on telephone poles, corn fields……………………….wow. Guys on horses (lots of them) with dogs running alongside them, the town was way bigger than we thought it would be, we rode down the main streets sightseeing.

We might be going out for shrimp tonight; a restaurant on the lateral has a special Wednesday nights, shrimp salad and rice for 50 pesos! The shrimp is normally breaded and Ross doesn’t like breaded shrimp so we might go and ask for non breaded shrimp?
Well that is it for today, see the pictures posted of our bike ride today!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Sunday Sept 19th to Friday Sept 24th, 2010

What a great dinner last night at the Red Apple Restaurant. It is on the main beach drag in Bucerias upstairs so you have a great view of the ocean. I had stuffed chicken and Ross had the octopus, (yucky I don’t like octopus) and they were both delicious.

The dogs got me up way too early, guess what they are doing now……………..sleeping…………and I’m not, oh well, I am drinking some wonderful mint tea and of course, typing my blog. I am going to take some pictures of some of the new stuff we have, like doors, air conditioning and of course big blue (our new truck).

Sunday and Monday was a very lazy days…..we didn’t have our pool volleyball, Ross’s tummy was still very upset and we were just lazy…………

Tuesday we got our butts out of the house around 4 to drive to Walmart for a few odds and ends (another tarp for our roof as one of them has completely shredded) and while we were there we got a call from Christie asking us if we wanted to have some left over chili that she made while we are watching their pictures from their vacation in south Mexico. We picked up some buns and they came over at 7ish and we had a fabulous dinner of chili (yeah I know it’s 32 outside), buns, pickles and some cheddar cheese we had in the fridge, yummy! Christie is a great cook. The pictures are terrific, they took 3 of their kids with them; Spencer was still in Canada visiting relatives.

Wednesday morning we got up early for our bi weekly chili cook-off meeting. We have 15 contestants now, they are going to sell tickets to taste and we will have prizes, it’s exciting and will be at the end of November We are going to sell raffle tickets (Ross and Larry had gone out for these, one is swim with the dolphins at Vallarta Adventures) and the money will be split 3 ways, one of the lucky ones is the cat lady that I got Yoda from, I’m stoked!!!

I got up early this morning to join the ladies at Rita’s house to make crafts for their Christmas bazaar………………….. actually it will be mine too. I just got a phone call this afternoon from the vice president of Beta Sigma Phi, Karen (this is what the ladies belong to) asking if I would like to join. This organization is an international organization for women to let friendships develop and deepen while learning through chapter programs or philanthropy done throughout the communities. (I got that from the website) Look at their website http://www.betasigmaphi.org/. I am really excited; they are having a potluck on the 28th of October to welcome me and other women who want to join. I have to call Sue (she is a member) to find out when and where the membership meetings are as Karen asked me to call her so I can go with her to the meetings.

Philos was great, small crowd but they sounded terrific, saw a couple that just got back from 3 months in Oregon, it’s nice to see faces that you miss again.

Well that is it for now, I have put in some pictures (cross your fingers) of our new screen doors, our new truck and our air conditioner.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise!

Sunday to Saturday Sept 12th to 18th, 2010

We went to a little restaurant called Pueblito Destiladeras in La Cruz Saturday night with our dinner group, what a wonderful restaurant! After we ordered our meal (260 pesos) we got a fish turnover for an appetizer and some fried bananas for dessert, this came with every meal, wow! Just as we were leaving Dick’s truck Ross realized he left his water at the restaurant, so we hopped in our new truck and drove back, it was still open so we got it and drove back home.

Samuel our air conditioner guy got our air going, when we walked in after supper it was soooooooooo cool! Francisco and his wife (and one son) got to our house about 2:30 and got our metal outside doors painted, it looks good! I am going to do a bit of touch up, I’m just picky on some things.

Monday Geno and his wife Alvia came to Bucerias today because they are flying to Washington Tuesday and they wanted to make sure they make their flight, you see they live in San Pancho where the bridge washed out and travel on our highways lately have been hit or miss! We went out with them for dinner to Meson Bay (Ross and I love this restaurant, right on the beach, good food, good ambience) and it was delightful, I had my usual, avocado with shrimp and everyone else had the all you can eat fish and shrimp special.

Tuesday…….Happy Birthday to my youngest granddaughter Melanie, she a whole 1 years old today! Hurray!

Juan was to get Ross to register our new truck, but he hasn’t shown up all week, oh well it will be mañana now! Francisco came by to finish all the little things that needed doing, we asked him if he wanted our old doors and he said sure, he didn’t have any…………………………I spoke with little Melanie on the speaker phone and when she heard my voice she grabbed the phone…………………she misses me………..right……………she has only seen me once a few months ago……………but it’s nice to fantasize!

Wednesday……….Happy Birthday Ashleigh…….21 years old today!!!

Happy Birthday Mexico………………200 years old today!!!

We woke up Ashleigh and sung Happy Birthday to you, she was going to the water park at West Ed and then to dinner with her boyfriend Tio, he surprised her with a night in Fantasy Land Hotel, he had a palm tree and everything, wow!

At 7pm we went over to Dick and Mary Carmen’s for a birthday party for Mexico, all the regulars were there along with Lorena! We hadn’t seen her since the wake, she is looking good. Mary Carmen had so much wonderful food for us and at 11pm we watched the President and family on TV what a proud country!

Yesterday Ross went to pick up Ralph from the airport and drove him home to Lo de Marcos. We were concerned about his house as he has been gone for so long, but the only problem they saw was that his travel trailer was damp on the inside too.
We were supposed to go to Mike and Mandy’s today for our weekly pool/volleyball party but they cancelled it……………again…………………how are we supposed to get our exercise if they keep cancelling????????????? We are going to the Red Apple with the dinner group tonight, we are taking Ralph with us since we had him drive all the way down here for the volleyball and they cancelled!

Well that is it for now, sorry about the wait, but it was worth it…………………right!!!!!!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Saturday Sept 4th to Saturday Sept 11th, 2010

I picked up Babygirl and Bagel at 7 and they were so cute, both zoned out of their minds! All night I had at least one on me snoozing away, they would get down, walk a couple of steps, fall down, and snooze there for a bit, then get up again. By the time we went to bed they were getting better, but still funny to watch!
Saturday we got up early to attend the Amigos de Bucerias breakfast meeting; it doesn’t seem so bad to wake up early if there is food involved! And of course the food was excellent as per usual.

After getting home I think Ross had a snooze while I did some computer stuff, then we get a phone call from Mike letting us know that we are the only ones that are going to be there and if we have anyone we know that wants to come to call them. We called John and Christie and they came with both Shay and Mackenzie, and Deb was there too. Volleyball was great, so were Ross’s wings and our kabobs were a hit.

Sunday we met up with Nick, Shelly, Mike and Mandy at the Oxxo by our place to convoy down to a club called Que Pasa (sp?). Nick and Mike along with Carlos had a gig there and we thought it would be cool to tag along. We had a great dinner for 50 pesos; we had stuffed chicken with mini potatoes and carrots, yum. The band was great and we ended up staying until the end, Ross got to play a bit too.

Monday and Tuesday were toast, I was sick in bed both days. I had a sore throat and just felt crappy (I’m much better now). We got our 2 screen doors put in on Tuesday, I feel so much better now, they both lock (dead bolt) so we can keep the screen door closed only, to keep the air flow in the house.

We didn’t do too much on Wednesday, on Thursday we had Francisco (our handyman) come, we are going to have him paint our other two white doors black to match the rest and fix the holes in our cement house where the door guys wrecked.

Friday we got the money wired into our Mexican account and we have paid Juan for our new truck. We drove to PV today to get a few things, the wait wasn’t too long to cross the bridge so we made good time. We went to Costco for some more Montreal steak spice and a new set of sheets (which we didn’t get as they only had brown and they were over 1,000 pesos), Auto Zone for some fuel stabilizer for our gas cans (gas for our scooters and the genset), We also stopped at Sam’s Club for sheets but the only ones they had were 200 thread count, so it looks like I’ll only have 1 set for a while. We went to home depot for some paint for our doors, the rest of the stuff we will need to spruce up the house Francisco will have to get.

We drove back home with our purchases, then off to Paradise Plaza for Ross’s meeting and a starbucks for me, then into PV one more time to meet up with friends to have supper at the Sirloin Stockade, another yum! We are kinda worried about Bagel; we think he got stung by something, scorpion maybe? We was really lethargic (and that is not Bagel) and when I picked him up he cried. We cuddled for a bit in the rocking chair, then he jumped down to go outside.

It is now Saturday morning, the air conditioner guys are here to put up our new old air conditioner and we are waiting for Francisco to come to do his bit. We are going out with the dinner club tonight to a new restaurant in La Cruz, it is supposed to be cheap and good!

I think Bagel is better; he is walking around now and is more playful, hurray!

Well that’s it for now; hope everyone has a great weekend. I will try to keep more up to date, sometimes the time just slips away!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Wednesday Sept 1st to Friday Sept 3rd, 2010

Happy birthday Yoda – your 1 Years old!

At 8:30 the door guy came by, Pancho, to take measurements for 2 steel doors one for the front of the house and one for the back. He is going to put screening on both, maybe my house will be bug free of the flying kind! We will have to get some Plexiglas cut for the bottoms of both doors so the dogs don’t rip the screens, and we are also going to cut part of the bottom screen of the back door so the cats can come in and out.

We had our town hall meeting this morning at 11 at Mark’s Restaurant; we got there at 10 so Ross could set up the PA for the meeting. The meeting went well; some of the delegates didn’t make it as with the bridge collapsing an all, but our Delgado was there along with a police presence. The main topics were streetlights (getting them all working) the camp on the beach by the river (they need to be gone), ATV patrols at night, Crime reporting, speed bumps along our main beach street (so no one races), private security service (I can’t remember if we even touched on this topic and then Christy got up letting everyone know that we will help out all we can.

Thursday was my appointment with Gina, hurray I have nails again, I also got a pedicure, I now have very pink toes!

Ross and Harold met over at Dick’s house to get our new air conditioner and compressor to our house so we can have it installed. This was in Dick’s house and they got a new one as this one’s fan is kinda noisy, but the price was right and when you are sweltering, you can put up with a bit of noise……………………….remember our genset? I got a fellows name from Gina to install it, she has had him work on hers and she says he’s great and fairly cheap.

We heard some racket in the afternoon, big machine type racket and you will never guess what they are doing, on the next block over from us, they were tearing down all the beautiful mango trees! There is a basketball court to the left of the land and a playground on the right side and in the middle were lots of mango trees in a field. We are scared about what they are going to be building there; we hope it’s not a big building!

We drove to Walmart and Mega to get the stuff for our BBQ at Mike and Mandy’s on Saturday (they changed it from Sunday as Mike has a gig in PV Sunday nite. Ross is cooking hot wings and I got some stuff to make some steak and pork kabobs, I got cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, meat (of course) pineapple chunks and some peppers, it should be tasty. I haven’t made kabobs for years and they are so good.

We picked up our scooters, they are working fine now, I needed a regulator and a new battery, they fixed Ross’s ignition so he doesn’t have to bang it to get it working. My battery was 450 and the rest for both bikes were 1400 and as per ED this is very reasonable.

We left to go to the jam at Philos around 8:30, you sure can tell it’s summer, besides musicians there may have been, what 5 or 6 people in the club, now in high season there are tables out in the street it is sooooooooooooo busy! We ordered a pizza (great pizza’s) and Ross got his ya yas out playing. We stayed until they stopped playing, maybe around midnight?

Today is Friday and we are fretting!!!! I took Bagel and Babygirl in to Dr. Mariana to get fixed, we really didn’t think Babygirl was big enough so I thought I would just bring her home……………….NO, I didn’t even have time to give her a kiss and cuddle. I have to pick them up tonight between 6 and 7. They have to go back in a week to check the stitches and for their shots.

Ed came by around 11, we are looking at buying a crew cab truck from Juan, and Ed (our mechanic) is going to look it over to make sure everything is good. Juan wants 60,000 mxn for it, we think if everything is good we will offer him 50,000 mxn, cause we would have to buy a canopy for the back, the box already has a liner in it.

It’s 12:30 now, I don’t know what is happening this afternoon or tonight, we have to get the wings cooked and I will prepare the veggies and meat for Saturday. It has been raining most nights I rearranged our tarps on the roof (another fix we have to do) cause we started to see damage in another part of our ceiling kinda sorta in the kitchen.

That’s it for now, we hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise!

Sunday to Tuesday August 29th to 31st, 2010

Not much happening lately, Sunday we went to our weekly BBQ and pool volleyball game, it was great as per usual. We normally bring something to eat and this time we decided to bring a coffee cake from Mega…………………….guess what……………………..it was a birthday day so there was already cake, so we brought ours home , I chopped it up in 4 pieces and put it in the freezer for us, yeah! Paul came this time, he is from Mexico City taking music in University and spending his holidays with his parents in PV, nice kid, plays a really mean guitar!

Monday we got our money from Betsy so we started on our list of things we need to get done. Since our roof is leaking which is making the paint on the ceiling of 3 of our rooms flake off, I have started vacuuming the ceiling so we don’t have so many flakes dropping onto our floors and kitchen table. It is so hot here right now that I did the bedroom today and the kitchen will be tomorrow, once I did the bedroom, I was dripping wet ready to collapse, you can’t spend too much energy in this heat, but I am tired of cleaning white flecks off everything!

We went to Walmart last night to pick up some medication and guess what I found….some Christmas stuff, hurray it’s almost here!!!, and we had supper at the new restaurant in the parking lot of Walmart that has opened up this past month. It is a shrimp place, I had a shrimp soup, which I really didn’t want but it tasted good (he called it soup, I told him I didn’t want soup he said it wasn’t???) Ross asked for Garlic shrimp, he got a plate of garlic shrimp and that’s all, the waiter said they don’t have this on the menu but was made for Ross. It only cost pennies so we weren’t too terribly upset.

Ross filled up the pool, lord knows where the water is leaking, it very well might be on the bottom which will be impossible to fix.

Today we got up early; there was another meeting for the chili cookoff and I wanted to see if I could get an appointment with Gina, I hate not having nails!!! My own are so weak and are constantly splitting so much that it is going down to the quik, ouch!!! Because of the bridge falling down (PV bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down….) Gina didn’t open as usual as her staff couldn’t make it and her husband needed to get to the airport, so they were trying to arrange a boat! Only in Mexico!!! I have an appointment for Thursday, I can hardly wait.

Ed came by (our mechanic) to see about my scooter (it’s dead again) and found out that my alternator is now gone, so Ross has driven my scooter over to the bike shop, with Ed following him, Ed will tell them what is wrong and they will fix it, we are going to ask them to check it out all over cause I really don’t want this to continue to happen!

Well we are just putzing now, have pork chops thawing for supper, Ross got applesauce from Paradise Village and I am making a potato salad, yes I am cooking. I have tried to call Dr. Marianna for Bagel but she wasn’t there and her assistant does not speak English. I will call again tomorrow; we don’t want Babygirl and Bagel to make babies!!!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

I could only download a few pictures

Tuesday August 24th to Saturday August 28th, 2010

Wow where did the time go?????????

We had a really good picture of Larry to give to Lorena, so we went to the photographers to have them take it from the camera and make a 8 X 10 Photo of Larry that was taken just weeks ago at the Twisted Rose restaurant. We couldn’t get it today for the party so we went to Walmart to have the picture done with their one hour photo. While we were waiting for it Ross had a free cone and I had a frappuccino, and we sat in the mall watching kids play in big blow up balls in a small pool, kinda cool, we saw the same thing at the Ex! We walked down the mall, looked in the fabric store, then we went back into Walmart to get a couple of inhalers for me. Once we got everything we went home, I detoured to Mega and got a couple of salads for the do tonight and got some scooter gas.

Part 3 of a Mexican funeral

We got to Larry and Lorena’s house at 8:30 and there were chairs out on the street and on their driveway. Sue, a friend of ours, had explained to Lorena that our custom (US and Cdn) is to bring food over so the bereaved doesn’t have to worry about feeding the people that come to pay their respect. We picked up 2 salads from Mega, a macaroni salad and a potato salad, but didn’t even think to bring plates or forks/spoons, but someone brought some. Mary Carmen brought deviled eggs, yum!
Larry requested a mariachi band play and tequila run freely so at 9pm the mariachi band came and performed, they were the same ones that performed at Larry’s house on the night we were saying goodbye to our good friend that moved to Colorado, which was kinda cool. We all nibbled and chatted among ourselves and after the band played everyone chatted about Larry, who he was, how much he was loved, and how silly he was. Lorena brought our Larry’s ashes to listen to the band, I asked her if she think he enjoyed it, with a twinkle in her eye she said he moved a little bit with the music, he sure loved mariachi music! We must have left shortly before midnight, it was a good day!!!

On Wednesday we scooted to Galleria Mall to see a show, anything to get out of this heat for a while. Lo and behold when we went to get our tickets, Mike and Mandy were in line (there is no line they were ahead of us) to see the same move “The Destructibles” , with Sly Stallone with a cameo appearances by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, it was shoot’m up kinda movie (well of course with Sly in it) Ross loved it, it was ok, I loved the air conditioning though.

Thursday Ross had a meeting at 10 for the streetlight committee and I was over at Rita’s at 9:30 to help with the crafts to be sold at the charity event the sorority sisters have in November. I helped threading elastic into material which will be a water cooler bottle cover. I also made a chain out of some funky wool type stuff, when you put 5 chains together it makes a necklace, how ingenious! Lily came today to clean my house, hurray, she even swept our outside patio and cleaned my burners on my stove, I think I may love her!

Friday we had a BBQ after the meeting of AA. Karen and Bob hosted it, it was Karen’s 33rd birthday with AA congrats! When we were scooting home after the BBQ we saw at least hundreds of crabs going all across the street (the main one in Nuevo) it looked like they were going towards the ocean, why they were away from it I don’t know (Ross thought maybe mating???). It was very difficult to swerve around them, so many were squished by cars, they weren’t little either, kinda saucer size. I wish we could have taken a picture, but it was on the road and very dark, very interesting though another first for us!!!

Well it is Saturday now, Ross had a breakfast meeting at Sweet Things for the Amigos de Bucerias, as he is the acting interim provisional vice president, hey, I got to sleep in, not much though. It started lightning around midnight last night, but no thunder! Every time I woke up I could see the lightning!!! Ross got up a few times to watch but it was all up in the clouds.

I am doing the Saturday routine, laundry, so the sheets are being washed as we speak (or you read, not it will be done by then). We got the good news that Betsy (it isn’t good news as we really really loved her) was definitely sold and we should have the money shortly. The man who bought her is heading to Nova Scotia!
The supper club tonight is going to Brazil, a special restaurant in Paradise Plaza where it is a buffet and they actually bring it to you!!! I’ll let you know how good it was tomorrow!!!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Monday August 23rd, 2010

Happy Birthday Lexi

Part 2 of a Mexican funeral

We picked up Christy at her gallery then got to the church shortly before one, We met Dick outside and I went in to say hi to Mary Carmen. We went back outside and coming up the street is the hearse with Lorena and her son holding hands following it along with about 20 of her relatives. After they got to the church they lifted the coffin out of the hearse and they carried it up the stairs onto a table with legs, the American flag was draped on the coffin then Lorena, (his wife) Michelle (his daughter) and Joe (his brother) followed while the coffin was moved to the front of the church.

It was a catholic ceremony all in Spanish of course, but it was beautiful. There were several of us “gringos” at the church and of course we were all crying! After the ceremony they opened the coffin one more time then closed it up put it back in the hearse to go to the crematorium. We went back to the parkade and as we got up above ground again I saw Lorena walking along the sidewalk, she looked so lost, like, what do I do now? It was so sad.

We dropped off Christy at the gallery and drove home, we didn’t do much, Ross left for his meeting, the propane guys came to fill our tank, after Ross got home we went over to Mega for a few groceries.
Now we are just trying to deal with the present, we are going over to Lorena’s tomorrow for part 3 of the funeral.

I am going to try to attach some pictures (last time I tried it didn’t work) of Larry and the service.

Still sad Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Ps: I forgot to tell everyone that when we were driving home Sunday we saw a turtle on the highway. We zig zagged around it, and we are sure it got across as there were no cars behind us for a while. Where did He/she come from???

Sunday August 22nd, 2010

Dinner was fabulous! Ross had pork stuffed with something and I had liver and onions, wow, I didn’t know they made liver and onions down here, they were great!
We got a phone call today from Larry’s daughter in Arizona letting us know that Larry had a heart attack while driving, which is what caused the roll over. She was at the passport office getting her passport when she called; they opened the office just for her!

Part 1 of a Mexican funeral
We were supposed to be at the funeral home in Puerto Vallarta at 7 so we left around 5:30 to stop off at McDonalds before going over there. We found the home and parked across the street, we were 15 minutes early so we thought we could help Lorena with something. There were some people sitting at the side of the home and there was an open casket where people were viewing a body, thinking it would be Larry Ross walked over there, oops not Larry! We walked to the front of the home and walked inside, there were 3 men in there, of course non spoke English, so in halted Spanish we asked about Larry, they said it was tomorrow. Thinking we had a seniors moment and read the email wrong, we walked out and called Dick. He said oh no, it was tonight but it won’t start until Larry gets there (he was transported by truck from the hospital to PV) he was going to leave his house (he is a couple of blocks away from us) until after 8! Here it is 7, what do we do, we decided we would drive back home and get a ride with Dick and Mary Carmen. On the way Christie called asking where we were, I told her, she said they were almost at Church’s chicken do we want to meet up with them, then go together in one car, so off we went to meet up with them.

After an hour or so we took off in their truck to the home, chairs were set up outside on the sidewalk, Larry still hadn’t arrived, we hugged Lorena then sat and talked among ourselves. Lorena kept looking down the street waiting for Larry to come home. It’s kinda funny; Larry was from the US but 90% of the people that were there was Mexican!!! Larry got there around 9ish, Lorena went in with her family and when our friend popped her head in, they were saying the rosary. Some went in to see Larry (Ross included, I don’t do that, I would rather remember them as they were), you see they don’t embalm down here, that is why they are cremated so quickly.

Part 2 of the process is tomorrow which is the mass and the cremation and Part 3 is the next day where the ashes are presented to Lorena and people go to her house to pay their respects.

We are numb right now, still not believing this is happening. Larry’s daughter Michelle will be here tomorrow for the mass and the cremation.

A very sad Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Friday and Saturday August 20th & 21st, 2010

With a heavy heart I have to inform you that a good friend (Ross’s bestest buddy) Larry Hurliman, died in a one car rollover somewhere in Mexico apparently near Hermosillo, he was returning after a visit in Arizona to see his new grandson for the first time. We got the phone call last night, from another good friend Dick, letting us know that he had passed away. There sure wasn’t a lot of sleep in a lot of people’s houses last night, Lorena, his wife flew out at 7 this morning to claim the body, there has to be two people to do this so they have contacted his children in Arizona to fly to help Lorena. What a marvelous guy Larry was, he knew he wasn’t perfect but he still got out there and did the best he could, and that was lots! He had a kind heart and a ready smile for anyone and everyone. He will be sorely missed in our little community!

Friday Ross went and paid our water bill (finally it was due on the 25th and we know what happens when you are late paying a bill in Mexico!!!???). At 3 we scooted down to Christie’s house (she is a local artist down here) to meet up with her to go to lunch to a wonderful little restaurant up on the hill in La Cruz. Wow, what a view and the meal was fabulous and super cheap, they even served Tequila for free! Its weird cause on the way to the restaurant we saw a one car rollover on the highway, we don’t know if there were any injuries but what a foreshadowing thing!

I had a great talk with Stacy earlier in the evening, he had phone and left a message thanking me for the flowers I sent them for their wedding anniversary. Wow 8 years, time sure flies. They are both still working and they are looking at purchasing a new car next year, Stacy’s is giving up the ghost and both are way too small for this growing family, no they are not having any more children, theirs is just getting bigger. Stacy is still working at Mustang Engineering and is on a job now which will keep him working until at least next year, which is very good!

Ross was to go over to Larry’s house this morning to get a table, signs and stuff for our food drive at Mega this morning. We just kinda winged it and went to John and Christie’s office for our sign and over to their house for a couple of signs and handouts. We also had the pet adoption today, what a zoo, literally! We had 2 separate cat places bringing cats, another lady trying to give hers away (same thing as Babygirl, she hand fed him) and another lady with a beautiful older cat……………………I wanted to take at least 3 home with me, but I stayed strong and John blocked my view a lot! I stayed with the food drive baskets so I wasn’t too likely to bring another one home. We did great on the food drive, John and Christie took the food and will give it to the church to give out, we also got quite a bit of money too, so all was good with the food drive. The cat people however didn’t fare so well, I don’t think we got rid of any, oh well, next time for sure!

As it is Saturday we are doing laundry and stuff, I put a new tarp on our roof for the office now, that roof is leaking like a sieve also. Pam called to let me know Lexi will be at her house for her birthday so I have a call into the florist to deliver her flowers there rather than Jodee’s. She was also very excited as she just bought a new laptop, she got a Sony and they are putting in all the software for her, she got it at Future Shop, I really like the store, their prices and their service.

Well we are going out to dinner with the dinner group to a new restaurant (not new just one we have not been to) called Los Helechos, we hear it is very good, I guess we will find out.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Here are some nice pictures that I have been taking. I can't remember which order I have downloaded these pictures. A couple are of BabyGirl, one is our new generator and one is of Karen's restaurant

Here is a picture of the policia cars we had parked outside our house on Sunday

Monday August 16th to Thursday August 19th, 2010

I haven’t been up to writing my blog for the past couple of days as I am still so angry about someone coming into our house and taking something that is not theirs and didn’t work for! Sleep is sketchy at best even though we got our backdoor working (it locks now). I am looking forward to the new security system we are putting in, as soon as it gets here. One of our good friends, Gene, has called and suggested we get an alarm system like he has, it alarms winds and doors with a high pitched scream. He sent over the info and he will order it for us and has someone bringing it down for us, I think on the 23rd. It is going to cost a bit extra for the fast shipping but we feel it is definitely worth the extra money.

Monday was a really down day, I guess we were shell shocked, we had had a break in, in Edmonton years ago, but you never get used to it. I got my scooter fixed, and we treated ourselves to dinner at Karen’s, Ross had the Mahi Mahi and I had the pasta,(and ate the leftovers the next day!).

Tuesday Dick and Mary Carmen came over at 11 and we went to the Ministerial Publico to file the complaint of the break in, if you don’t do that the burglary won’t be registered. It normally takes a long time for the procedure so we decided that we would go to Torito’s for 2 for 1 ribs, but it hardly took any time at all so we just went back home.

Wednesday went to The Galleria Mall to see a show yesterday. We saw the sorcerer's apprentice; it was ok, not great though. We don’t normally go to movies like that but the other one we wanted to see had already started, I can’t remember the name of it, it was the one with Sylvester Stallone and gang! We were debating whether or not to park underground (pay) or park at Walmart (and not pay) since we were having problems with the scooters starting, I didn’t want to have to fix anything in the pouring rain so we decided to park underground. We were turned away at the main entrance and told to go to the other side of the parkade??????, we got there and guess what, we could get in for free, nice to know! I realized that they got my iPod touch too, along with a speaker for it, that got me upset all over again, I typed a short letter in Spanish and took it around to my neighbors to warn them and to let them know if they find out about anything for sale that was in the letter to call the police because it is stolen!!!

We drove the scooters to Torito’s today to meet up with Sue and Harold as they took someone to the airport and decided to go for lunch there. We ended up driving through Nuevo Vallarta as the 2 lane highway goes down to one lane where they are building the overpass and it is taking up to close to 2 hours to drive to Vallarta via the highway! It sure is a prettier drive than the highway, lots of palm trees and of course the golf club. It started to rain after lunch so I put my new poncho on and off we drove in the rain! My poncho kept me nice and dry (it is red like my scooter) but I put the hood under my helmet so the rain wouldn’t go down my neck and it started working its way down my forehead over my eyes so at a red light I took off my helmet (lost my headband) and took the hood off, it was ok until we drove cause the wind caught it and it felt like I was choking, I had Ross tuck it in at another red light!

That’s it for now, I have to put some software into my pink computer (it was in the HP) to make more address cards for us.
Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise