Monday November 22nd, 2010

Monday November 22nd, 2010

The longer you put something off the more daunting it seems……….now I have a handicap, yes, they are now calling me Kim the Klutz! Saturday evening, after the boat ride (I’ll get to that later) we were going into the Broken Art for the volunteer get together before the chili cookoff and I forgot we needed to bring something to drink, so I walked over to the tienda around the corner and as I was almost back, I tripped on something and down I went! Unfortunately so did the wine I bought and guess who’s had landed on the broken bottle??? Yes, mine! Off to the free clinic not even a block away and I ended up with 4 stitches in my hand and 2 very sore knees! What a wonderful place the free clinic is, they were so nice and one guy even spoke a fair amount of English. Wayne drove us over to the clinic with Christie B (she speaks Spanish and she needed to show us where it was) and when we were just getting my drugs Wayne shows up to drive us back. We drove the scooters over so Wayne drove me home while Ross drove his scooter home then Wayne drove him back to get mine. Thanks Wayne, you were my hero that night!

Tara and her new boyfriend Mike flew here on Sunday the 14th and we had a great time! They got in at 1:30 am and of course we picked them up from the airport! They came back here for a bit then we dropped them off at their hotel, the stayed at the Riu Jalisco in Nuevo, what a nice hotel! Wednesday we took them zip lining with Canopy Vallarta, (we won’t be going back there anytime soon!) both Ross and I decided the mind was willing but the body wasn’t! Last time we went was in Costa Rica and we had a great time, but with this one we had to almost walk up the entire mountain during the course of the time we were there…………………WTF…………..both Ross and I were panting up the stairs we had to take to get to the next run, I (thank god) brought my inhaler with me, did that get a lot of use, we had to stop several times to rest and sometimes I think both of us were wondering if they could air lift us off the mountain, another step seemed impossible to take. Thursday we went with Ross for his gig at Crazy Nelly’s, we had a great time, Lisa and Wayne came too and brought a couple of their friends, we danced and talked and before you know it they were done. They play so well together, what a great band. Saturday we took a super panga (large single story boat with an outboard, captains wheel and even a baño!)out for 4 hours of fishing and snorkeling, we didn’t catch anything, but Tara and Mike went snorkeling and Ross jumped off and just swam, we saw only 1 jelly fish (thank goodness), they saw lots of pretty fish while in the ocean. We dropped them off at their hotel and we were to pick them up later to take them back to the airport (the plane left at 3am), they had booked a dinner with all the friends they made and we had the volunteer party to go to. We ended up picking them up at 11:30; we came back to our house for a bit then got them to their plane on time.

What a fabulous wedding we went to on the 12th, on the beach of course, Leanne and Steve renewed their vows after 10 years of marriage! They had it at Karen’s and a wonderful job was done, the minister/preacher was a lovely woman that spoke from her heart and I ended up crying………………of course……………..I always do, but she spoke such wonderful thoughtful words that made you think about your own marriage and vows! It was a very small ceremony, her parents, and 6 couples but it was just perfect! After the vows were given the photographer took pictures while we had appetizers on the beach! The supper the Karen put on was of course terrific, I had the steak and Ross had the Mahi Mahi both were to die for!

We have been co-babysitting Sue and Harold’s cats and dogs while they have been away in Waco for her parent’s anniversary, Alex and Armondo were staying at the house but they work 24 hour shifts with the Bomberos 3 times a week, so when they were working we did the feeding and walking.

On the 16th Beta Sigma Phi put on the wine a cheese party at La Vida, a resort on the beach. What a success, we all made appetizers (250 of them) in groups of 3 and we had more than enough for the whole night! My group (Pat, Rita and me) cut up boneless chicken and marinated it in a peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar………………sauce, then put on skewers and BBQ’d them, nummy. We also had baby Yorkshire puddings with a horseradish cream, mini soups with onion bun, chutney in little pastry cups with a guacamole dab, crab and shrimp dishes, we were asked several times which restaurant catered the event!!! We had it in a resort right on the beach with an infinity pool just before the beach; I don’t think we could get a more wonderful place to hold an event like this. Next is our Christmas boutique!

We had a meeting with Sally who owns Curves with Leanne and Steve on the 10th, what a cute little place. It is exactly like the ones in Canada and the states, and to tell you the truth, if I had the money to buy it I would. I truly believe this is a smart venture; there isn’t any other in this area and there can’t be! I hope they buy it, it will bring them down here full time and it will bring in an income!
The 11th was a big day for us from morning till night….literally. We met the people who were going to help us with our working FM3’s at 9:15 am! We actually thought we were going to meet with Ana (she was the one I corresponded with) but instead there were 2 guys that met us. They did all the work, all we had to do was be there, sign and get our pictures taken! They made a mistake with Ross’s papers so they had to find an internet café to change it, in the mean time Ross and went across the street to Eggs restaurant and had breakfast. One guy actually found us and had Ross sign the correct form and told us to take all the time we need and to meet him back at immigration when we were done. We got our pictures taken and our working FM3’s will be ready to pick up this Thursday (Thanksgiving)!!!
I had a Beta Sigma Phi meeting at 2:30, we met at Judy’s house (picture this……condo, you walk out to a beautiful pool, then a little farther….you have ocean…..can you get better than that!!! We finalized the Wine and Cheese party we had on the 16th and had a marvelous treat of a bit of food and wine, you gotta like that!!!
Finally I went with Ross to Crazy Nelly’s for their welcome back party! Had a great time as usual, the band sounded great! It was nice to see the regulars, it is surprising how you see the same people year after year……………….again it is such a small town!!!

I think that brings you up to date with all our goings on……………..I’m sure Ross will read this and say……………you forgot about this and that and that and that…………………………… Oh well!

I will add some pictures!

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise

Thursday November 4th to Saturday November 6th, 2010

Thursday November 4th to Saturday November 6th, 2010

Oh yukkkkkkk (is that how you spell it?) Norberto came by at 9:15am to fix my hot water knob in my shower, which it was good it got fixed but, come on…………9am hurumpf! All I needed was a washer, but you had to take the part out of the wall and to tell you the truth, when I took it apart I never even knew you could remove the thingy that had the washer, it cost me a whole 150 pesos (10.00)

Ross’s scooter is still acting up, it runs for a while then bogs right down and barely moves more than a couple of km an hour, it that. We already took it in twice, the first time they did a checkup on it and the second time they shoved and jammed a piece of rebar into the little hole of the muffler and then it worked fine, for another few times! But blue smoke……………coming out of the muffler, yucky, and I ride behind him………..a long way behind him! Ross thinks he needs a ring job as unfortunately he had been driving for a very long time with NO OIL in the scooter, we all know we need oil, but they burn it so fast, even my scooter uses oil! So we needed someone to go with us to let them know what is going on and we will not just have them poke at the muffler, we want whatever it is fixed! We are minding the house for Sue and Harold as they are in Guadalajara for a couple of days and needed to meet with them with our dog/cat/house instructions so we decided to meet with Sue at the motorcycle repair place (it is quite close to them) she could let them know what we need then off the their house for our instructions (and a piece of birthday cake, it was Sue’s birthday yesterday) HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE! We left a deposit of 1000 pesos and hopefully it will be ready Monday or Tuesday. Oh I have to tell you, the mechanic put the scooter up on its stand and gunned the engine, something brown flew out of the muffler onto the street (it looked like a mouse, but wasn’t it was part of the muffler) well you never saw so many people stare at this mess of whatever it was. We all broke out laughing and as he kept gunning the engine stuff kept coming out, yup, he needs a new muffler

We went back to Sue’s for our instructions and a wonderful birthday cake. Harold is a volunteer firefighter and hangs out with the bomberos down here. Two in particular, Alex and Armondo, they are in their 20’s and Sue and Harold are kinda like surrogate parents to them. They both went to the store and bought this cake for Sue, they love their mommy!
Ross drove to Nelly’s in Guayabitos for the first gig of the season. They didn’t get paid though, as they haven’t played together since last season, they needed a gig just to work out their chops, so to speak. I didn’t go, which I found out later was a good thing as I ended up in the bathroom for most of the night! Crap, I’m getting tired of this.

While Ross was loading the truck I decided to clean our outside front area, as Tara and new boyfriend is coming next week and we want things to be nice for them. I gathered up Ross’s oil and glass cleaner stuff for the cars and scooters and put them into a small container and put the jerry cans so you can’t see them very well. I swept all the dirt and stuff off the concrete and ended up cleaning our back patio too, as I put the chairs from the front in the back, then, where do you put them??? After all that cleaning I had a shower and a real nice bowl of chili I made a couple of days ago. Then……………….ya know…bathroom………………then bed.
Our friends Leanne and Steve own a condo down here (you are not going to believe this….2 blocks from Pam’s house in Sherwood Park, what a small world) and decided to get rid of their double bed in one of the bedrooms and they bought a king size, however, what do you do with the other bed???????????? Give it to us of course, thank you so much and 2 sets of sheets too, with a funky looking bed skirt, not like back home Alice! Steve and Ross put the base, mattress and headboard in the truck and Ross and I got it into the house. All I need now is to have Ross get our trailer we bought and empty the room so I can move my stuff into it and use the small room as a bedroom, with our new bed of course!

I am in contact with Ana to get our working Fm3’s done; I have sent her copies of our FM3’s, passport and of course a utility bill (I will never get used to that, they want proof you live at the address you say you do). It is going to cost us $4,480.00 each, which we just have to suck up in order to make money.
You will not believe this. 7:30 am, Ross and I are up, what is wrong with this picture! As Christie is in Cancun, it is up to Ross, the provisional, pretending, ………….vice president to carry the Amigos meeting this morning! Now as all you gals know (where did I get gals, I don’t talk like that) behind every man is the boss, the women, so I also had to be there to gather the money for the breakfast, 65 pesos each, which I needed change for cause everyone gave me a 200 pesos note………………I sent Ross, he needs to do something for his keep, to Oxxo (7-11) for change, they don’t give change! I brought change with me, but not the correct change, in the end it all worked out, some people just gave me 200 pesos and said to give them their change when I had it………….. I love it here! There were 37 of us (Ross told me I had to count people about ¼ way in) and Ross did a bang up job of controlling the chaos, a good time was had by all. We had a chili cookoff meeting after the meeting, but before that, hurray, I got some Halloween candy from up north (thanks to Lisa and Wayne), they brought some down for me, the meeting went well, Barry, or the recyclers, (he is in charge) is buying the ingredients and we are cooking up 5 chili’s to combine into 1, 5 gal pot for the Chili Cookoff. Ross just got back from Sayulita, bringing back some floating circle solar covers to cover the pool and keep it heated in the wintertime! Sorry guys I had to say it, but it is getting chilly in the evening and then in the morning too! After my shower this morning I had to put on “my housecoat”.
Well I think that is it for now, we have to pick up Dianne and husband, (we are lousy hosts we can’t remember if they are from Edmonton or Calgary) from the airport for charity cab at 6:50 pm and driving them to their hotel, so we are going to miss the dinner group tonight.

Ross Kim and Critters in Paradise!

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