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

Testing

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!