Monday 28th, 2010

Hallelujah, we got up early and we got our FM3’s done. We got there at 11 and only had to wait maybe 2 minutes then we went up to the counter for the guy to look over our paperwork. All was in order so he gave us the factura (invoice) to take to the bank to pay for the renewals, it was 1240 pesos each. We needed 3 copies of the receipt and the original for the immigration off (why I have no idea) so we went to the bookstore to get the copies and they don’t do that anymore, so back to Guadalajara Pharmacia to get the copies then back to the immigration office. Another girl looked after us so she went through all our documentation again then gave us each a piece of paper to track when they will be ready to be picked up. Once those are in our hot little hands it’s off to Edmonchuk to sell Betsy that will be a very sad day, we love her soooooooooooo much, we are looking forward to one more long ride in her before we sell her hopefully to a girl by the name of Linda. She has called us numerous times and is looking forward to seeing Betsy, she says she wants to buy her, I guess we’ll see. If we do sell her right away we are going to buy a van (Derek, Pam’s husband is picking one out for us from the auction) and then drive her back.

We will be bringing Lucky baby with us, cause the house sitter can’t be responsible for her. If we do fly back we will bring Lucky Baby on the plane with us. I’m going to get Bagel fixed before we leave and have the vet look at Baby and give me some type of documentation that she is healthy.

Our house sitter is Felix, a good friend of Gina’s (she owns a salon in PV) and he and Gina are coming over right away so we can meet him. He is living with Gina right now, so he will look after our house and critters for letting him stay here. Gina says he is great, he looks after the father-in-law of one of the owners of a restaurant here in Bucerias, and to top it all off he speaks English!
After we got back from immigration we got our scooters and took off for the very first time to PV. It was fun, it was very good that we had the headsets though, I wouldn’t go there otherwise. Of course we had to take Lucky Baby with us, she was great!

We first went to KFC for lunch, yum, I had a 2 piece extra crispy and Ross had the 3 piece regular, of course we had some mashed potatoes and gravy with coleslaw and Pepsi! The we went to Plaza Caracol (the mall) to pick up a collar for Bagel, his baby one was too small and the other ones I have were too big, we got one just right. We stopped at Wallyworld and Sam’s to get some clear goggles, Ross went in to look, I tried to feed Lucky Baby, she just wanted to play! We are sleeping less and playing more. I brought out another LARGE storage container for the playpen. Ross went to another store to get the goggles so I went home without him, but he ended up meeting up with me anyway, traffic jam, the store was closed between 2 and 4 (a lot are). We stopped at Wallyworld in Mezcales, I bought a headband to keep my hair off my face while on the scooter and Ross couldn’t find goggles but he did find a soccer ball for Jake. We met Gina in the parking lot we talked about Felix the guy she wants us to use for house sitting.

We got home and called Felix to ask he if he could come over, Gina brought him over around 5:30 (just as Ross was leaving for his meeting) and he seems like a great guy. Very personable and he has a very nice and trusting face (if that means anything, Gina also recommended him so that’s good too). He seems to like the house and the animals so we are going to get back together around the 10th he will stay for an hour or so, so we can show him everything he needs to know.
Well Ross is at his meeting and I am not finished with my blog, so I’m gonna say adios for now, we’ll talk to you soon.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Friday June 24th to Sunday 27th, 2010

Ross’s AA group had their birthday meeting tonight and Ross was one of the birthdayeese.(if that’s a word) We took our scooters over to Paradise Village Mall for the meeting then followed some friends over to Maryse’s house, (she was hosting the dinner) Wow, she lives in a million dollar home on the golf course of Paradise Village, she had an infinity pool out her backyard. The only thing I didn’t like about the house is that there is no privacy from the golf course. I don’t know what fairway she lives on but it is literally her backyard!

She put on a feast, coleslaw, goat cheese, butter chicken, deviled eggs, a jello type dish, rice pudding, ……………….. and she had a white chocolate cheese cake for desert! Wow!

Friday I felt like crap! Sore tummy, headache, ucky! Ross went to Philo’s for his birthday party, I really had wanted to go, but I was much more comfy in bed. Ross said they had a great time; there is even a picture of the gang (including Ross) on facebook.

Today I’m feeling much better, headachy still but much better than yesterday. We just got back from Wal-Mart, now I’m listening to our little baby cry in her wash basin, and she climbed out of it! It must be at least 6 inches tall and she climbed over it, sooooooooooooo I just got back from Mega with a storage bin, let see how long it takes for her to climb out of this one. It has a funky lid so I can get rid of her cardboard box I have her in to sleep. I have included a picture of Bagel………..notice her back legs are facing a different way than her front!!! It took me at least 2 minutes to get my camera out and she was just lying there looking at me like it was a normal thing to do, NOT!

Ross picked up a steak at Wallyworld, he is having that for supper and I am having a sausage, yum! Actually I am thinking of naming baby Yum Yum after a very famous cat in a wonderful series of books I read. The author is Lillian Jackson Braun and she has a character in her book by the name of James Qwilleran who had his two most famous cats KoKo and Yum Yum, and the books are called The Cat Who………………. (one is called The cat who could read backwards). They were very mischievous but very smart! It’s a thought anyway.

Well it’s 8pm so I’m gonna say buenas noches for now, I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Wednesday and Thursday June 23rd and 24th, 2010

What an awful night…………………….I thought for sure all the muscles in my body had been exercising for weeks without my knowing and had just now decided to protest! I truly feel like I have the flu, you know when all your body hurts? I had actually looked up on the net for symptoms of fibromyalgia a couple of weeks ago, I have a lot of the symptoms except it doesn’t last all the time, just sometimes, is this cause……., I don’t know……., I’m getting old!!! The last time I got up for some water was 3am, so I think I got to sleep at 4 – 4:30 maybe, only to be woken up by baby at 7:30! We had to get up early too; we had a safety meeting to go to at 10. We are going to take some concerns of safety for the residents and tourists of Bucerias to the officials here in Mexico to keep our little part of paradise safe.

After that meeting was over we drove over to a restaurant called Luna Luna for a luncheon meeting with John, Christy and the other Elements realtors. It was great; we had a great breakfast and learned some things that were happening. I am going to write a how to for the website, how to use cell phones, regular phones and 800 numbers, you have no idea how different it is using the different phones we have.
After that meeting Ross took baby home (I have to take her with us when we go anywhere for longer than a couple of hours), cause I was going to stop off at Sue’s house to pick up the yarn and dog treats that she brought back for us from their visit to Texas. She found the cotton yarn I was looking for but not the TLC soft yarn I asked her to look for, I think I got it when I lived in Colorado and is not sold (or hadn’t been) in Canada. She found the brand but not the soft stuff, oh well, I might try to see if anyone knows where I might be able to find it on facebook!!!

I got home and both Ross and I laid down for a siesta. We woke up at 5 with the phone, (how rude), putzed around a bit then met some friends at a restaurant not far from home for a shrimp dinner, including 8 – 10 breaded shrimp, rice, salad and 2 pieces of bread for 50 pesos! We will definitely be back!!!

We are trying to watch L & O but the weather station keeps interrupting with some tornado warnings and stuff, how rude! Ross is meeting a lady at the Oxxo at the Decameron cause she has purchased a mixer we were selling for a church.

Thursday I woke up again early as I was to be at Sue’s house by 9:30 so we could go over to Rita’s to do crafts for the Christmas bazaar. Some ladies belong to a sorority (including Sue and Rita) and they do 3 fund raisers a year and the one they are working on right now is the Christmas one. I crocheted pot scrubbers made from ribbons of very scratchy netting; you make 2 and then crochet them together. It was really cool they are also making paperback book covers, Christmas stockings, necklaces and more! It was a lot of fun!

After I got home we drove over to the immigration office to start the process for our renewal of our FM3’s. We talked with the girl behind the counter; she took a look at the form we had to fill out on the internet (and of course print), she made a few changes, told me to make the changes on the computer and print out the corrected one. We need 5 pictures each, 3 with a front image without glasses, 2 on the right side, a copy of our picture page of our passports and she also gave me a form (in Spanish) and told me I needed to fill it out in Spanish and bring that with me too. I spent a lot of this afternoon translating the page then having the English translated to Spanish, now you know some of the things I do all day! We are going to get our pictures done tomorrow (I don’t what helmet hair so I told Ross we had to drive) and start the process.

We have been watching 2 new shows, Rookie Blue and another called Bostonmed, it is kinda sorta a documentary, quite good. Well, Baby has had her last feeding so I’m gonna finish watching the show then I think it is to bed.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Monday and Tuesday June 21st and 22nd 2010

We went to the immigration office before we went to pick up Larry, we thought they were open until 3, guess again……..they close at 1! The doors were open and there were 2 people behind the counter so we just walked right in, thinking it was a good time to come as there wasn’t a lineup, they asked what we wanted, I told them we need the letter to start the process of renewing our FM3’s, they said they were closed and we had to come back tomorrow. Now, you would think if all we needed was a piece of paper they would just give it to us, we will find out tomorrow as we are going to go back there before 1, as we have a safety meeting to attend tomorrow which will make sure we get up at a good time!

We picked up Larry at 3 to take him to Vallarta to pickup his car that was having the window tint redone. We stopped in at the hospital to visit with John (our friend that has bacterial meningitis), Ross went in but didn’t stay long as he was doing his physiotherapy and was not feeling well, and Larry and I stayed out in the lobby as only one person can go in at a time. We then went to Costco as Larry treated Ross and I to a Costco hotdog, yum.

After dropping Larry off at the auto shop we drove home to veg, I watered the plants and made spaghetti for supper.

Tuesday Ross woke up early to watch the soccer game, but alas we did not win! I haven’t been feeling well today, nothing I can put my finger one, just kinda yucky so I have been resting all day. Ross went over to our house sitting job this afternoon to water the plants and clean the pool from leaves that have fallen in, he went over there this morning to let the dogs out and the maid was there and the dogs were out, he filled their food dishes then came home.

Ross has a couple of chicken breasts in the toaster oven, we will have rice and corn with it along with a tomato I picked up at our tienda this afternoon, I love having tomatoes and cucumbers and cheese with a dinner.

Baby slept a very long time this afternoon; we were going to go for a scooter ride but had to wait until baby woke up so we will go tomorrow instead. I’m in the bedroom with baby and Gracie and Ross and the rest of the critters are in the living room.

Well that is it for today; hope everyone had a great day!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Sunday June 20th 2010

Happy Father’s Day everyone!

Both Ashleigh and Tara called to wish their dad a happy father’s day, hurray!

Little one is getting me up early these days, but I have to admit that she doesn’t wake up in the night, so I guess that’s ok. Ross got our walkie talkies installed in our helmets that we bought in Edmonton. We had to wait until the batteries charged so we didn’t use them the last time we scooted but will in the future. We tried them out once the batteries charged, they are kinda cool!

Oh what a lazy day today! We finally got going at, what, 4???? We took back the awful movie and went to water plants and walk dogs, I haven’t even watered my plants today……….go figure.

Ross had steak for dinner and I had a bowl of chicken noodle soup and crackers (my choice) we are now watching a show about the Bermuda triangle, which was in the middle of 2 Law and order CI’s, why, I have no idea, one was at 6 and the next at 8???

The clouds are starting to get dark in the South so we think we will get some kind of weather tonight, what we don’t know.

Well that’s it for today (boring heh) we hope everyone had a great weekend.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

A few pictures from yesterday

Saturday June 19th 2010

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Roooooooooooooooss
Haaaaaaaaaaappy Birrrrrrrrrrrrthday tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo you!

It is my Hun Buns 4th Birthday!

Lucky Baby woke me up at 8:30 this morning, wow it was early! I put her into her wash tub when she finished eating and Jake came over and started licking her bum. Bagel decided to get into the act so she jumped in and started playing with Baby like a toy. When Bagel got too rough Jake would nip at her, sooooooooo cute.

We haven’t been eating out at all, yuck, we have been cooking, but I have had a craving for Subway, like, forever so Ross and I scooted over to La Cruz to get a sub sandwich. Before we got to the restaurant we did a bit of sightseeing up in the hills. There was a really cool house/apartment that was falling apart but really cool to see, it was I think 4 stories high with verandas along the outside of each story, and the view was incredible, a great view of the bay!

We drove to Subway and had a terrific sandwich, I had ham and Ross had a melt. We drove around La Cruz, looked at the ocean then turned around to see if Mandy and Mike were at the pub. They weren’t there so we tootled down to Mandy’s Mum’s house, this is where she lives in the summer, and had a bit of a chat with Mike. They were getting ready to go out to dinner so it was a short chat.

We drove to the movie store and rented a really stupid movie, District 9, so the next movie I get to pick, hurray. We stopped and walked the dogs and water plants then drove home.

After watching the really stupid movie we watched our recorded Coronation Street shows then went to bed.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Thursday and Friday June 17th and 18th 2010

Larry came over Thursday to watch the soccer game, Lorena made guacamole which none surpass in taste, the women is a goddess in the kitchen. We won Hurray!!!
While Larry was here he gave us the website to find the form to fill out for renewing our FM3’s. You need to fill out the form and print it off to take to immigration to get our new immigration card. They have discarded the books and now we will have a laminated paper card about the size of a driver’s license, we still don’t know what they are going to stamp and staple (officials love to stamp and staple things).

Friends of ours have gone on a bit of a holiday home so we went over to their house to get the instructions and chat. Of course I am having them pick up a couple of things for me, I need more yarn and it is hard to find here, no it’s not hard to find but the selection is very limited and I have certain brands I like.

We had a humdinger of a storm last night, lightning, thunder and torrential rain, it was great! It started about 9 last night and we had a brown out until this morning I think around 8, it was really sticky sleeping. We have Mango trees to the back of our place and we can see the very tops of them above Betsy, there were fireflies out last night…..wow…thousands of them, so cool.

Today is Friday

Happy Birthday to my sister Bev!

I made breakfast this morning, hash browns from a box and eggs over easy with toast. Well I’ll tell ya, it sucked, yes Ross ate it but it still sucked. I had to soak the hash browns in 4 cups of boiling water with some salt for 15 minutes then strain and cook in a frying pan, once they were done I put the eggs in the frying pan and started the toast………..guess who woke up…………….yup you are so right. I blame Lucky baby that my eggs were hard as by the time I had Ross feeding him the eggs were overdone and the hash browns didn’t taste good either, oh well, Ross had to do the dishes!

It is starting to thunder again, Ro
ss took the scooter to Mega to get some milk and he is contemplating whether or not to take the car to his meeting, though he thinks it would be fun scooting in the rain.

Ross checked in on his house sitting gig and we will go back again tonight to walk dogs and stuff.

That is it for now; I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

The pictures are of Begal and Yoda, Lucky Baby and our extra cats on the wall of our backyard!

Tuesday and Wednesday June 15th and 16th 2010

With no gigs for Ross and with that we don’t have any extra money we are staying at home a lot, which is good I guess as our Lucky Baby needs constant care, everywhere that I go she goes also and it is a bit of a hassle taking her. It is very hot and humid these days you really don’t want to do much.

It’s Wednesday now and still hot! It is 11pm and the temp is 29! Ross went with a friend to a new development about 1 hour north of us called Vista Encantada; it has ocean view lots for 69,000 and homes starting at 184,000. Ross says it is absolutely beautiful, they have their very own waterfall, we are going to go up there another day as I didn’t go with him and he wants me to see it. I am very happy with my house but it sure would be nice to be by the ocean or even see the ocean from our house. Even when we go up to our roof (the Bucerias weather station ) we can’t see it, I hope, if we do a second story, then build a palapa up on top we will see it. We are about a mile back from the ocean on a hill.

AT 5:30 Ross took off to pick up a good friend that lives in Lo de Marcos, to bring him back to Puerto Vallarta so he can catch his plane tomorrow to go back north to the US for a couple of months of vacation. He is the bass player of the band Ross is in so if they get any gigs over the summer Mike will fill in for Ralph.

I don’t know if anyone knows this but we have brought our Star Choice satellite dish down with us and we have the same channels here as we had in Canada. We keep up with Global Edmonton (we laugh at the weather) and of course HGTV and the women’s channel. Right now we are watching the glaciers which are receding very rapidly, such beautiful cinematography! We also have the world cup soccer games, which another good friend Larry is coming over tomorrow to watch, we are the only ones with a very big screen TV!!!

Well that’s all for tonight, we are getting boring aren’t we??? We need some action……..wait……………wait……wait, nope sorry, not tonight!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Monday June 14th 2010

Hi everyone! Lucky girl opened her eyes today. She is doing so well, she seems to be eating a lot more now than a couple of days ago! She still can’t see shapes but she must see light as she keeps moving her head around. She is staying awake longer now; I cleaned out a small tub and have had her in there while she is awake. I have her in a large box for her sleeping quarters.

We rented 2012 last night and it wouldn’t play in our DVD player, what the f***! We have wanted to see it forever and we finally rent it and it won’t play! So we watched TV last night and Ross put the movie in our other DVD player we have in the bedroom today and it worked. So we watched the movie today, a bit on the sensational side but it was good all the same.

Ross went to his meeting tonight and I dug out my French coffee press and made a latte. It was great; I haven’t had one for a long time, I kinda sorta wanted to go with Ross tonight and go to Starbucks, so I brought Starbucks home! Ross had pork chops for supper tonight but I had a grilled cheese sandwich as we found bread and butter pickles, you have to have bread and butter pickles with a grilled cheese sandwich!!!

We are watching TV tonight, we are surfing channels we never seem to watch which is kinda fun. We have Star choice so our selection is wide open.

I guess that is it for tonight, hope everyone had a great Monday!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Sunday June 13th 2010

OK, I need someone to tell me why my feet and ankles are swollen!!! I thought maybe it would be the heat and humidity but this didn’t happen last year and I’m not pregnant. They hurt so bad last night that I ended up taking 4 Advil and a couple of muscle relaxants. Today they went down a bit but now they are swollen again, Yack!!!

I did nothing today except for laundry and I had a nap. Ross washed and waxed the car inside and out, he was busy. I wanted to write this blog so I can show you a picture of Baby, she is soooooooooooooooo cute. I found a website that tells me all about raising an orphaned kitty and it is really helpful.

Well that’s it, look at the picture and tell me she is not cute.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise (with swollen feet)

Wednesday June 9th to Saturday June 12th 2010

Here are a few odds and ends pictures

Up at 6:30am with baby, she seems to be growing (I think, it is hard to tell) and loves her milk, I just need to get her to stay still, she loves to wiggle. I love feeding her, she makes the same noises as babies do when they eat, little sucking noises and mmmmmmm’s and ahhhhhs. NO I DON’T WANT ANOTHER BABY!!! Just for the record!

We dropped Baby off at John and Christie’s, Mackenzie is babysitting for the day while we go off on a boat ride with Pam and Derek. We have only used Vallarta Adventures for our tours so it was exciting to try someone else, Pam used Banderas Bay Tours and we went to Las Animas were you can sit on the beach and drink cerveza’s or dip in the ocean or you can stay on the boat for another 5 minutes and ride horses up to a wonderful waterfall at Quimixto. We had a great time, once aboard we got juice and then we stopped at the Vallarta pier to pick up more people, once they were aboard we were entertained by the crew. Later we got more juice, fruit and baked goods for breakfast then the bar opened.

We decided to sit on the beach rather than do the waterfall the panga’s came to pick us up to take us to the beach we sat on comfy beach chairs and chatted while we drank some cerveza’s. We took a short walk to a small market and looked around a bit then came across a man standing at a booth selling coconuts. He goes out every day and brings them back to make some money off the tourists. He charged 30 pesos per coconut and I’m told they were great, I don’t like them.

After a couple of hours we took the panga back to the boat and had a great meal of spaghetti and fajitas while the boat went to pick up the other people. We stopped at Los Arcos to snorkel but there were jelly fish around and the snorkeling wasn’t great so we didn’t stay long. On the way home they had a beer chugging contest and Pam was in the running for the girls, but didn’t win, rats.
We got home at 6, dropped of the kids at the resort then went to pick up our baby, she had a good day.

Thursday we picked up the kids at 6 at the resort to do a bit of shopping on the Malecon! We looked around a bit and cause we had to go pee went into a bar and got some cerveza’s to drink (which of course makes you go pee). Pam went into a shoe store and picked up a really nice pair of sandals. Derek needed to buy some cigars for his boss back home so he went into a store and they wanted an enormous amount of money for the cigars he wanted so he walked out and we strolled into a mini market not a half a block away. The guy came after Derek and offered to sell them to him a lot cheaper. He hummed and hawed for a bit before he went to purchase them. We walked up the block (opposite the beach) then turned towards the car and walked the back street. Unfortunately there weren’t too many shops there so we just got to the car without spending any money.

We drove back to Bucerias to go to Miguel Angels for dinner and they were closed! We went across the street to Adriano’s and had supper on the beach. Pam and I had pollo fajitas, we felt they were kinda bland and I think both Ross and Derek had Mahi Mahi, they were excellent.

Friday we met the kids on the beach at 1pm. We sat and talked for a while; Pam stopped a seller of jewelry on the beach and asked about an ankle bracelet. The guy measured Pam’s ankle with the chain she wanted then walked away to make it, leaving his display case sitting on Pam’s chair. He was gone for more than 15 minutes, by then we could have walked off with all his jewelry, we guessed he figured Canadian’s were trust worthy. We all went into the ocean and did some boogie boarding, then Pam and Derek rented some seadoos and we watched them dance over the waves (it was fairly windy so the waves were huge!) When everyone had enough sun and fun we drove to our house so Pam could pick up her photos and the photo disk of the wedding. They took off in our car so they could shower and change for supper. We drove to Miguel Angles for a lovely supper and Ross got to play with Lilo (the resident parrot) once more.

After supper we drove the kids back to the resort and after lots of hugs we went home. They had to catch their bus on Saturday at 4am! Yack!!! Christie called asking Ross to be a temporary vice president of The Amigos de Bucerias as John (the president) has been in the hospital and not doing at all well (bacterial meningitis) so Christie as VP took over the presidency and we needed a VP. Ross accepted and will be now among the elite to go to the executive meetings! How fun!!!

Today I got up at 8 to be at Mega by 9 for our animal adoption. The cat lady was also there from Pet Haven, but no cats were adopted, we did have a good time though and I have introduced baby to Sue and Harold.

We are just putzing around now, Ross watching TV and me of course, doing the blog. We plan to sit tight tonight, I didn’t get very much sleep last night so I am hoping for an early night.

Pam and Derek now in Edmonton and Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Tuesday June 8th 2010

You will never guess what happened last night. I was on my way to bed because I needed to get up early today to drive Pamela and Derek golfing at Vista Golf course, when my cell phone rang. It was Christie telling me that they have found a new born kitten on the side of the road and as they can’t keep it (allergies) she asked me if I could care for it. As there was no one to care for it I said “sure”. So about a ½ hour later Christie and Mackenzie come by with this little, little, little black kitty with his umbilical cord still attached! They had a bottle and some formula for him/her (here we again, Bagel is still a him/her, but I think she is a she) and I said thanks and they left after some wondering how it got there in the first place. Now, I have never before looked after a new born anything (except for my kids of course) so this will be a journey I have never travelled before. Ross has decided to name it Peanut and I like Sweet Pea. I’m doing a poll on Facebook on which we should use.

Peanut/Sweet Pea woke up at 1:30am for a feeding then again at 7:30 (just before my alarm went off). I got him/her fed, found out we have water, hurray, took a short shower and was out of the house by 8 to pick up Pamela and Derek at 8:15 to get them to the golf course by 9. We made a short stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some balls and a cheap glove for Pamela, and guess what, no balls and there were only 2 gloves for 350 pesos! Outrageous, so they got everything at the course. I had a map of where we were going, and our good friend Sue phoned with more direct directions. I am so surprised that I did not get lost, the directions were perfect, but I’m known to get lost in my bathroom. What a great day for golfing, warm but cloudy.

I drove home after dropping them off and did household chores, laundry, dishes and stuff. Little one was fussy and I fed him/her off and on until we had to leave to pick up the kids so I brought him/her just in case we decided to go somewhere or whatever. We ended up driving right back to the house, Pamela and Derek stayed for a bit then took the car back to the resort so they could clean up, eat and maybe do some sightseeing on their own.

Ross is fixing his speaker; I am just finishing up my laundry and of course writing my blog, little one is still sleeping and we are now out of water again!

Tomorrow we go to Yelapa & Majahuitas for the day with Pamela and Derek, Christie and John (well the girls) will be babysitting little one for us for the day. I hope everyone had a good day.

Pamela Derek Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Wednesday June 2nd to Monday June 7th 2010

Yes I know, it has been awhile, and I don’t even have an excuse!

It is Monday today and I will try to recap our last few days.

Wednesday was a red letter day; we were at the transito office at 10:30 am, after Sue calling to make sure their systems were up, guess what, their system went down again. That was it, we decided to get some breakfast at the great restaurant down stairs then we were going to go. Just as we finished breakfast the system came up again. I am trying to remember how many lines we ended up lining up for or how many times we had to go to the copia (copy store next door) and how many copies of documents we needed, just let me tell you we were out of there around 2pm, 2,000 pesos lighter and 2 license plates heavier (see pictures) Hurray!!!
After we got back I went over to Sue’s house to pick her up to drive to PV to the Soriana grocery store to meet up with the concierge they know that had a copy of Rosetta stone for me, another hurray. We also went to the material store to pick up some webbing for Sue to have her lawn chairs fixed, the sun just rots almost everything down here.

Wednesday was a down day, not much happened, but it was another beautiful day in paradise.

Thursday I got my nails done and then Lily came by to clean for the big arrival of Pamela and Derek.

Friday Ross had his gig at The Fairmont Rancho Banderas, I stayed home and had a great time eating popcorn and watching great TV shows.
Hurray! Pam and Derek are here!!! We met them outside their resort at 2pm and went up to their room, wow, they got placed in building 1 (right on the beach ocean view).When they first arrived someone took Derek’s suitcase while they were doing an orientation, Derek just came unglued and the resort had, probably, every spare employee looking for it. They found it in the middle of a hallway, who ever took it didn’t bother to tell anyone that they took the wrong case, they just left it, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And to top it off that was the suitcase that had my spice cake mixes in it!

Ross and I drove back to the house to get our swimsuits (not flannel) on and we popped back and met them on the beach, where there was a surf boarding competition going on, wow that was so cool, there were so many out there that you couldn’t count them all, as far as the eye could see we saw them. We left Pam and Derek at the beach to meet back up at 5 to go out to dinner.

We picked them up and we drove to Karen’s restaurant, they wanted fish. Derek and Ross had the mahi mahi (which they both loved), Pam had the pasta and I had my shrimp and avocado salad. It was all delicious. After supper we drove them down the river (which was a big hit) then we drove to Bucerias Centro where we ended up at a restaurant the Pam wanted to go to Miquels Angel where we met a parrot (he sat on all of us at some point) and of course met Miguel, and Derek ordered two dinners of shrimp, one butterfly and one shrimp wrapped in bacon with garlic. We took some of it home (it is still in the fridge). We did a bit more sightseeing before driving them back to the resort.

We slept in on Sunday (what else is new) and lazed around until we left for Ana Banana’s around 5:30. Ross emptied the car of his drums to set up and at 6:15 I left to pick up Pam and Derek to bring them back. We had a grand time, they loved the band, Pam and I got up to dance a bit too. The evening just flew by; I drove them back to their resort on the last song (Mustang Sally) so I could drive back so Ross could pack his drums back into the car.

It is now Monday, Pam and Derek went to a time share presentation at the Flamingos (they got a round of golf, 2 free tickets to go onto a day trip (they are going to try to get 4 so we can go) and an ATV 4 hour tour. The time share should have ended at 11 or so then Pam was going to call to either let us know they are going on the ATV tour or they were going to come over to take the scooters for a ride. It is now 2 and she still hasn’t phoned so I assume they are still tied up. Ross is empting the car (their gig tonight has been cancelled) and we still have no water. We are still floating in the pool to freshen up, but I really need a shower!!!

Pam Derek Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Tuesday June 1st, 2010

Wow, was it ever fun at Ana’s last night, the band Pacific Rock Company kicked some serious ass! Raul played guitar, a guy from Texas sang, a big burly Mexican played bass and a super scrawny tall kid played drums. They rocked the house down! We sat with Barry and Ana and a few other people and had a terrific meatloaf, mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy and corn on the cob.

I am now sitting at the office, again with no internet, so I‘ll just read and stuff it is dead, dead here today. I did have a cappuccino from the bakery across the street that was a treat for being there. I read my book for a long time, (went back to the bakery for a cinnamon bun about 11 but damn, he didn’t have any, ended up with carrot cake – another treat – I shared with Ross) there was no one walking the streets then Sue came by to chat, hurray. A guy stopped by selling litchi nuts; we each had one, yum, but didn’t buy any.

I got home just before Ross; he went to La Cruz to get our air conditioning fixed in his car (ended up getting it done in Bucerias as the guy didn’t have the right nozzle). We vegged for a while then drove to PV looking for a pool store to get some hose that the sun has compromised (it eats everything) we stopped at Pizza Hut for lupper (lunch/supper)and for 52 pesos each we got a personal pan supreme, 2 breadsticks and a large bottle of Pepsi, pretty good heh! As we were driving back home we stopped by a boat store and Ross got some hose there (it is much better than you would get from a pool store, as Ross put it, you don’t want leaks in your hoses on the ocean) then we drove home.

Ross is eating cheese wieners (yuck) and we are watching NCIS. Talked with Pam about some things we asked her to bring back, we had some questions, but she picked the right stuff. I am so looking forward to seeing her and Derek, too bad Lexi wasn’t coming!

We are hoping to get a copy of Rosetta stone tomorrow (how to learn Spanish) from a guy that Sue knows, we might get our placas tomorrow also…..we’ll see.

Have a great night

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise