Monday 31 October 2011

October 31 - Construction begins ....

The contractors started on Saturday - marking out for the new patio off the casita and measuring and marking for the removal of the windows and the installation of the new french doors. One of the tangerine trees has to come out and one of the pomegranite trees - but that's ok as we have way too much fruit anyway - even though we give bags of everything to Maria and Jose every time they come, we still can't use it all up, so we won't replace them.

One of the bouganvillas, the biggest unfortunately, also had to come down as there is going to be a new hallway from the casita over to the laundry room which will become the casita's bathroom. The old fountain around there also had to come out but we're going to reassemble that in the front courtyard somewhere.

The current front door on the casita is going to be changed to match the new french doors and there is also a door out into the street which will be blocked up completely. The electrical wiring is currently on the surface of the walls so the walls have to be channeled out to hide the wiring and some outlets added, then the walls painted and the floor tiled and we're ready to go.

We also have to move all the potted plants (very large and  heavy) which are around 2 sides of the pool. The surface there is gravel with a channel underneath to take away any excess water from either rain or the pool overflowing, and all the gravel is coming out and the area is going to be concreted so we have a solid surface on which we can put out lounges - and a few of the pots. Currently when we sit out in the sun we sit on the large pool patio which is at the bottom end of the pool, but we are going to put a cover over that and turn it into a bar area so we had to find somewhere else to lay in the sun. For some reason we don't use the lawn area on the far side of the pool????

The work is expected to take about three weeks altogether then Shelley and Trevor can finally move into the casita and we can get Colin's desk into his office - where they currently sleep.

So other than preparing these areas for the builders we have been  busy shopping mainly - we found a fabulous yard sale in Ajijic yesterday and we hit paydirt. The people were unfortunately moving back to Ontario (her husband is very ill) and they were selling EVERYTHING. Unfortunately we were too late for the larger pieces, couches, armoires, etc., but we bought Colin a new golf bag and we got an absolutely enormous pot - almost 5 feet high which is now standing in our courtyard. We also got a large assortment of serving dishes which are beautiful an ice cream maker and a crockpot (halleluya) - can't buy one of those here for love nor money. They obviously brought it from up north. Trevor also bought a bunch of guy-stuff - a box with compartments full of screws and such and a bucket full of other interesting looking stuff. Certainly well worth the stop. We had hoped to pick up a bunch of other things on our list while running around but all the stores we wanted were closed (it was Sunday after all) even the place where we wanted to have lunch so we ate at Mom's instead - nothing special so won't be going back I think.

We had picked up another blue flowering vine from the garden centre to add out front so will have to get that planted today before it wilts in the heat - we waited a bit too long to plant the first two and one of them is struggling now.

When Colin cut down the very large bougainville from near the casita, he cut it into 3-4 ft. lengths and we are going to try and re-root them. Apparently all you have to do is cut a little wound in the bottom and then stick them in the dirt and in 4-6 weeks you have new bougainvilla plants. This will save us a ton as we need to spread them all around the walls both inside and outside down the side street where our walls are quite bare.

So all in all, a very productive time. Will keep everyone posted on the success and wish you all a Happy Halloween.

Sunday 23 October 2011

October 23 - Sunday - a day of rest

We all had a bit of a lie in today and after breakfast Shelley suggested we go to the malecon (boardwalk) in Chapala for the afternoon, so we headed out around 1:30pm - it's only a five minute drive and it took a while to find a parking spot as everyone and their brother was down there - Sunday is family day in Mexico, but we found a spot up by the Notario's office which is just across the street.

We headed straight for a restaurant which was down by the water and had an amazing lunch - Shelley had cheese stuffed shrimp wrapped in bacon, Trevor had beef brochettes, Colin had a seafood mix and I had scallops. The margueritas were free! After lunch and a number of refreshing beverages the kids set out to walk the malecon, Colin headed for the market (which runs parallel to the malecon) and I headed to a bench to people-watch and take photos.

The sun was hot and sparkling on the water and there were tons of boats out giving people rides back and forth along the lake. There were a lot of people in the water swimming and playing, and on the beach and tons of families just wandering around or sitting like me, people-watching - there were people selling balloons and kids toys, ice cream sellers, musicians everywhere, mariachi and dancers. It was awesome. I took a ton of photos and then bought an ice cream from one of the vendors. It comes in metal cylinders stored in a tub of ice and when you buy one, he takes it out of the container and wraps a piece of firm paper around the base to hold it by - the ice cream is very firm and gorgeous. I got vanilla but it had a huge chunk of raspberry right down one side. I sat in the hot sun and ate my ice cream and then a bunch of people showed up with costumes and music equipment and set up right by the fountain in front of me. They got changed and were just getting ready to start dancing when Shelley, Trevor and Colin showed up so we sat and watched. It was a lot of fun and they did a number of different dances and their costumes were very traditional, huge full skirts edged with colourful edging which they swirled round and round.

We got home around 6pm very tired considering we hadn't done anything but eat and drink - I guess the sun wears you out. But what a great way to spend the day!

Saturday 22 October 2011

October 22 - The things you find in your swimming pool...

Joan here - Well, we get all kinds of stuff in the pool: scorpions, spiders, bugs of every kind, but today, we had a basset hound! Yes, Flash fell in the pool somehow. We (Trev, Colin and I were in the tv room, Shelley was in the shower and I heard a funny sound that sounded like Flash sloshing in his water bowl, but seeing as that's in the kitchen at the other end of the house, it couldn't be him, so I went out into the hallway and looked out to the pool, and there he was, doing a frantic doggie paddle in the pool and trying unsuccessfully to get out of the water. I yelled for Trev who came running and dove straight in and rescued a very soggy and sad looking Flash. He must have swallowed some water too as he started throwing up a bit. He looks very sad and sorry for himself  but at least he's drying out now. Heaven knows how he ended up there. He does use the pool as his personal drinking bowl so maybe he toppled over while drinking. Anyway, he's safe for now til the next episode. At least for now he seems to be avoiding the pool and is taking his drinking water from the koi pond instead. Don't know why we bother with a water bowl in the kitchen. At least if he falls in the koi pond it's shallow enough he can get out by himself. Dumb dog!

Today is Saturday and Trev is going into the village to the North Shore Autolovers Club or something (some club or others for car enthusiasts). They meet the once a month at one of the bars in town. Guess he's missing his car and like-minded buddies. Don't know if we are going to stay home or go into town with him and then do some shopping, plant hunting or something til he's done. Decisions, decisions, decisions. As long as they don't involve WORK I can hack it.

We (as in Trev and Shelley - I supervised) planted some blue flowering vines this morning out by the front gates so they will climb and cover the walls and ironwork out front. They look lovely and will grow fast now they're in the ground. No painting today though - may be tomorrow.

We had the contractor in a couple of days ago and will be starting on the cassita in the next week or so - there's a fair amount to do - replace the windows with french doors, block off the door to the street, new door to the patio and install patio with roof, install new door to laundry room, along with walls and roof (the laundry room will become the kids private bathroom) There's already a shower, toilet and sink in there and we just have to remove the excess cabinetry. We are also going to have the gravel which is on 2 sides of the pool removed and have the area concreted instead so we can sunbathe there. Right now it's not really usable as it's uncomfortable under foot. Should look good once it's done - the job should take around 3 weeks once it starts.  We also want to put a palapas roof (palm leaves) on the structure out on the patio  by the pool, but it's not the season yet. But Shelley found a company in Florida that makes artificial palapas which doesn't attract scorpions and doesn't have to be replaced every few years so she is investigating If we can get that, we will get the look we want but without the maintenance (or scorpions). The thought of them dropping in my margarita doesn't sound appealing. It may be more expensive initially, but cheaper in the long run.

We decided to stay home after all and have been sunning out by the pool. It got way too hot so we came in to the covered patio to have lunch then I wandered round taking photos. Ah, life is good.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Tues. October 18th

So today Trevor and I started the steps for immigration. We met with our immigration advisor Julie at the Real De Chapala Hotel. That is the hotel we stayed at last year when we were here. She basically uses their outdoor dining patio as her office here at lake side since her base is in Guadalajara. We did all our paper work and stuff, we have to go back and see her again on thursday to sign our application and then in about 3 weeks or so they will take us to Guadalajara to have our fingerprints taken as part of the final process. I will be soooooo happy if we can have our FM2's before we leave for Canada, and if all goes smoothly she thinks that is possible. I don't want to have a hassle at the Detroit airport like my dad did when we was leaving for Mexico. They said that because he did not have proof of residency here in Mexico that he had to have a return ticket showing when he would be leaving the country.....that is Detroit's policy, not Mexico's.
We did a bit of running around and picked up some chicken from a street vendor and brought that home for lunch. It is VERY good chicken. You get 2 chickens (flame roasted right there) 2 bunches of roasted potatoes, rice, roasted peppers and onions, 2 coleslaws, salsa, a bottle of pop and a crap load of home made tortillas for 215 pesos.....that is less then $20 Canadian. Needless to say that is what we had for dinner also...and there is still tons left over.
Today we finally got ahold of a contractor. He came out to talk about the stuff we want to do with the casita and around the pool. The back wall around the property is also in need of repair. He will be coming back on Thursday evening with a quote. Fingers crossed it is a good price since it would be so nice to get that started. Trev and I can't wait to be in our own place so we can finally unpack all of our stuff. The contractor (Steve) says that it would take about 3 weeks, so we figure in 6 to 8 weeks it would be done.

This morning Jose brought his son with him as he was running late and wanted a hand. His son then took his scooter so he could go to school. School is divided here into a morning group and then an afternoon group. So my dad drove Jose to the bus station in Chapala when he was done. when my dad returned I was in the living room and say him pull into the drive........with the drivers side light assembly missing and the wires hanging out. I though he had hit something but nope.......it fell out all on its own. He was on his way back home and he was coming down our street when he heard a noise and thought he had run over a bottle or something. He stopped and what he had run over was the light that had fallen out fo the van. All I can say is thank God that happened when he was driving because there is no way he would have believed me if I told him it just "fell out"!!
I guess these bumpy cobble roads will take a tole on a car but it is crazy that your light can just fall out when your driving down the street. Luckily it was in our sub-division and not on the highway.

Yesterday Trev and I booked a trip for this Friday to go and see the Teuchitlan Pyramids. They are about an hour and 40 minutes away from here. They are not like the pyramids on the west coast....these onces are round and date back to around 400 A.D. It should be a very cool day and should be alot of fun.

Other then that not too much is new.....Angel is becoming quite hunter. As I mentioned in a previous post she caught a lizard and last night it was a huge butterfly. She was pretty pleased with herself with lots of meowing and expected lots of pets and praise when she brought it to us while we were playing cards. Flash has mastered the art of napping in different locations around the house. We have a no furniture rule but he still manages to slip onto a couch at night when no one is looking.

Tomorrow I think we will do more painting. Trev will finish patching the tile in the jucuzzi and who knows what else. It is so easy for the day to slip away and not have done anything. I can't believe that we used to fit an 8 hour work day into our schedule. Like my mom said in the last post, we are lucky to get 1 or 2 things done a day. Often those 1 or 2 things are playing cards and making drinks. Hey...if you can only do 2 things those are pretty good ones!!

Saturday 15 October 2011

October 15th - The sun finally makes its return

It's great to have the sun back - blue sky - no clouds and its WARM - life is back to normal although when we were in the village yesterday we met up with Patti and she said she heard there is another tropical storm doing its stuff out in the ocean so we're hoping we don't have to go through that rain again. None of us have winter clothes any more!

The kids and I went into the garden centre again yesterday - and came home with a van-load of new stuff - vines, cactus, succulents and something tall covered in buds of beautiful pink flowers. It's all so new, all this tropical stuff but we're having fun deciding where it's all going.

Shelley started painting the walls inside the courtyard this morning - they're going to be a mustard colour. Much better than the current white and dark  blue. They look quite shabby at the moment, but we'll fix that.

While we were out yesterday an old Mexican guy came to the gate and asked Colin if he had any work, which we don't of course, as we have Jose and Maria. He was also hungry and asked if he could have something to eat. Colin wasn't sure what to do but asked if he would like some tangerines - he would - so he went and picked some from the tree and the guy was very grateful and started to eat them straight away. I felt so bad when he told us, not that there's anything we could do, but its sad that there are people out there who can't find work and are hungry.

Yesterday in the village we had lunch at a lovely restaurant in the square - Jardin - as usual you eat out in the courtyard under umbrellas and watch the world go by. It was lovely, as was the food, and of course there was the obligatory dog looking for a handout - this one was part sheppherd, part greyhound by the looks of his rear end. The street dogs here are very gentle though and never snatch the food out of your hand. Once the food was finished, he moved on to greener pastures, ie. the next table.

This morning Trevor and Colin went into Ajijic to look at another roll top desk - Colin is on a mission to find one. There is one in Alfredo's, but it's quite expensive (7,000 pesos ($700 US). We found one yesterday for only 1600 pesos but he didn't like it, so he's now thinking of breaking down and buying the other one. It's huge and very nice and he's wanted that style forever. Also picked up some extension cords and power bars - there's not a whole lot of outlets in this house and its quite difficult to put them in as the walls are all concrete so we'll have to make do with extension cords for now anyway. Maybe when we get the contractors in to work on the cassita we can price out some extra outlets here in the main house.

It's amazing how fast we run out of time here - considering we're basically not doing anything. We start off each day with a list of 'to do's' and by 6pm, we've maybe done 2 or 3 things and it's time to think of dinner. Oh well, life is still wonderful and for now, so is the weather again.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

October 12th Hurricane Jova

Another rainy day. It poured during the night and I think it has maybe stopped for a total of 10 minutes today. This is due to the hurricane hitting the pacific coast of Mexico. Luckily no one has been hurt or killed according the the news this afternoon and it has been down graded to a tropical storm.

Still with such a dry rainy season the rain has been a good thing. This wet weather has also been driving the critters indoors I think.....we were sitting in the T.V. room and I saw a scorpion crawling along the floor. I lept into action though and killed it with my trusty flip flop. Now had it been a spider I would have been running out of the room, but scorpions move slowly where as the spiders here are on speed. Maybe that is why the scorpions don't bother me as much. That is not to say I want them crawling around on the floors though.

Today my mom had a focus group to go to. It was a think tank to talk about assisted living here in Lake Chapala for seniors. So we dropped her off and then did a bit of running around. I had hoped to be in the village when the torch came thru but it just didn't work out. I am not sure if it came thru in the morning since on the website it said it would be in the afternoon, but signs along the street said no parking on the streets on the a.m. as this was the torch route. Oh well....what can ya do.

We went to the bank to take out a sum of money greater then what the bank machine allows (which is $3000.00 pesos that is about $250 Canadian) but turns out you need specific i.d. .....like your passport or you FM2 or FM3, or a Jalisco drivers license....none of which we had on us. So we went for lunch instead. Chimichangas at Salvatore's. We sat outside since today we dressed for the cooler weather and they have a covered veranda. I fed most of my chimichanga to a sweet little dog. It looked like a little german sheppard, she was wet and shivering and VERY skittish. The slightest move or noise and she would get spooked. She wore a collar so she belongs to someone but not sure if that someone deserves a dog. She would not let me pet her but she would take the food from my hand. It is lucky I have people here to keep me in check because I would end up taking all these dogs home with me. That seems to be the case with alot of people here. At the market yesterday we met a woman who has 10 dogs at home.......all Mexican street dogs that she falls in love with. It is nice that there are people that can and will take these animals in. Our friend Summer is house sitting and they already had two dogs of their own when they saw a little girl hit a small dog with her bookbag and  break it's back leg. First of all I would have been tempted to hit that girl with her bookbag!!!! These people took the poor little thing to the vets, had it's leg set and also had it fixed while it was in there and have now taken it into their home.

We also had to stop at an appliance place as our fridge was making some very stange noises at about 4 yesterday morning....not that Trev and I heard anything but apparently it woke my parents up, yesterday Trev and I went in to ask for a repair guy to come and have a look but now it is working fine so we wanted to go and cancel the request, they said oh, the repair guy went out yesterday....well I am not sure who's fridge he was looking at but it was not ours. Oh well as long as it keeps the beer cold and the icecream frozen, who cares.

After all this we came home to find the Flash our lovely dog had ripped his way thru the kitchen garbage. So Trev and I had the pleasure of cleaning that unpleasant mess up. I am thinking Flash may have to stay outside when we go out if he keeps this up.

After that we just watched t.v. ....not much else you really want to do on a really rainy day. We had dinner and then updating the blog. I have been slacking which has been pointed out to me by a few people now, so I will try to do an update on a more regular basis as I know you are eagerly waiting to hear our goings on. lol

Hopefully tomorrow the weather will break and we will get a glimpse of the sun. We are picking up all of the paint we ordered the other day and it would be great to get started.

October 11th Happy Birthday Mom

I am writing this the day after but yesterday was my mom's birthday, so a big Happy Birthday to you!!!!

We will make her a nice fancy meal later in the week as Trev went to Guadalajara last night with our friend Thomas to a Mexpat get together. But we did buy her some flowers and something special for dessert.
Other then that today my parents stayed at home as Maria and Jose come on Tuesdays. The market was also held on Tuesday instead of Wednesday this week since on Wednesday the Pan Am torch was coming thru the village and they wanted to keep that road clear. It was very wet and cool since we are getting some wet weather thanks to Hurricane Jova.If I could find my spring jacket I would have worn it, but it is one of the many items that are missing in action right now.
Trev cannot find a shirt, I am also missing a shirt, a bag of magnets and keys aswell as my jacket and my mom is missing her fancy hair towel. I am sure we will start to find things as we go thru the rest of our boxes but for now we have no idea where they are. We have found where Trev's shoes keep going....if he leaves them out anywhere Maria has been putting them in my parents closet. Maybe we should start checking there for the rest of our stuff.

So as I mentioned our friend Thomas invited us to go to a Mexpat get together in Guad. It is organized by a guy from the states that is living here and once a month roughly expats will gather at different locations. This time it was held at a small Irish pub called The Temple Bar. It is a good thing that Thomas offered to drive because there is no way Trev and I would have ever found it. We have only been to the city a few times and it is HUGE!!!! But we did get a very nice tour around the city as we had a bit of trouble finding the place. There were quite a few people there....maybe around 40 or so. We were the only ones from Canada but there were a few from the States and allot from Holland, Denmark and England. Although we felt a bit akward as most people there it seems knew one another Thomas was nice enough to introduce us to some of the people. Everyone was really friendly and all are here doing very different things. It was great to see so many younger people there.
On the way home we stopped at a 24 hour burrito place between Guad and Chapala, you can choose you fillings and let me just say YUM!!!!! They were so good and it is only 15 minutes from our place so I imagine we will be going there again. The city will be busy for the next month with the games going on so I think we will wait til after they are over. Maybe we can even talk my mom into trying one.

Monday 10 October 2011

October 10th Happy Thanksgiving

Today we went and had our Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant called La Bodega. Salad, followed by cream of broccoli soup and croissants, traditional dinner (turkey, mash potatos, gravy, green beans and cranberry sauce) then pumpkin pie for dessert.

It was very good and very filling. Obviously we are all thankful this year to be here in sunny Mexico......even though today it is not so sunny. This weekend has been overcast and it rained today during the day. Although we can't complain about a few rainy days here and there. Since it has been rainy we were watching t.v yesterday.....Jamie Oliver's meals in minutes. I love that guy. He makes me want to channel my inner chef. lol So last night I made one of his desserts. Roasted stone fruit (plums and nectarines) with vanilla icecream. It was pretty damn tasty. Next I need to get some fresh prawns and fish from the market and make a seafood bake. For today though we won't be eating too much after our big late lunch. Maybe tomorrow for a special dinner since it is my mom's birthday.

This week we went and picked up some more furniture....a couple of end tables and we also starting looking at replacing our couches in the tv room. The couches in here are not too comfy and are not very pretty either. But it is something for now. We found a place called Furniture for less" where we bought a cabinet for the hallway and they will custom make a couch for you in your choice of fabric, style, density of foam, and you can even choose the type of feet you want on it...all for the listed price. a 3 seater sofa costs about $800 canadian dollars but it is custom. If you want a deeper seat or you want it longer they will do it. They are very accomodating and everywhere has free delivery.

We painted some colour samples on the walls outside and we have a winner - a mustard colour that Shelley calls Gray Poupon (NOT French's) LOL. We will paint the house itself Terracotta. There aren't a whole lot of walls on the house, as it is mostly floor to ceiling windows. Tomorrow Trev and I will go and get a big bucket and get started on the wall.. We have planted some planters along the veranda and a few new cactus out in front of the wall by the gates. Other than that, we have not done too much (except eat, swim, nap etc.)

This week we are getting some people in for quotes on the work to be done on the casita. It will be nice if we can get in there in a month or so but I really have no idea how long the work may take. Really for us to be able to move in we only need to tile the floor and change the window to double doors and then add a door to the hallway that leads to our washroom. The rest can be done while we are in there.

On Wednesday the PanAm torch is going to be here in town. My mom has a meeting in Ajijic with Focus Group on future retirement living, so Trev and I as well as my Dad will go into town and watch it. I would love to hold it if they allow that. Then I can add that pic to my pic of me holding the olympic torch. Dare to dream huh.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Update......

Angel (my parents cat) has just come trotting up to us on the veranda with something hanging out of her mouth. It is a lizard....just a little guy, maybe 3 inch long tail and all. It was alive and she really wanted to play with it. I took it away from her so she would not eat the poor thing. Yesterday I saved a butterfly from the pool and then for about 20 minutes it would not get off me. I tried to put it on a flower and leaves but it was just interested in walking up my one arm and when it got to the top I put my other hand there and then it would walk up my other arm. Lizards and butterflies I can do, spiders and scorpions I am working on. There were 3 dead scorpions in the pool this morning and 1 GIANT spider. Thank god for creepy crawlers!!

Joan here - what Shelley hasn't mentioned was the 4 inch moth that kept dive bombing us on our patio the other night. My GOD do things grow big here.

October 4th. Just another day in paradise

Posted by Shelley: This morning Trev and I went and got pedicures. 1 hour each for 130 pesos....that is less than $13 Canadian dollars. It was great and for that price you can't go wrong. My parents stayed at home since on Tuesdays the maid (Maria) and the gardener/pool guy (Jose) come in the morning.
After our pedicures we grabbed some fresh rasberries and blackberries and headed toward Jocotepec for some lunch somewhere new. There is a row of restaurants right along the lake and the waiters stand out in the middle of the street and try to flag you in to have a meal. It is always dead during the week. We chose to eat at La Bamboo. We were the only ones there, so we had our pick of seats right on the water. It is 29 degrees C. and there was a great breeze coming off the lake. It really does not get much better then this....it is Tuesday and we are enjoying pedicures and lunch on the lake in October.
Now I am sitting here on the veranda poolside back home and drinking a nice cold Sol lime and then I will take a dip in the pool which is now up and running.

But it's not all fun and games......we are going to be painting the house and wall around the house soon and yesterday we went and got some samples cans for the wall colour. So I need to paint some sample squares around the place so we can make sure we like the colour. We are going with a terra cotta colour on the house and a mustard colour on the wall.....grey poupon not french's.

Other then that we will not be doing much else today. Tacos for dinner and then cards and drinks on the veranda again.

Tomorrow is more running around and the Tiangis (street market) in Ajijic. After that...who knows - another new restaurant for lunch and more shopping. We have the shopping thing down pat. We bought some new furniture - an armoire for the casita and a new tv stand for the tv room. It's just temporary as we are having a much larger piece custom made to the exact size we need - and only $1,000 US - not bad at all.

Sunday 2 October 2011

PV here we come

Trev and I are booking a trip tomorrow to go to Puerto Vallarta for 5 days and 4 nights from November 21st to the 25th. It is an all inclusive trip. The luxury coach picks us up in Ajijic and takes us there and back (but from PV we will be flying back to Canada for Trev's brothers wedding. The trip includes all food and drinks, free room service, free mini bar in your room, all activities at the hotel right on the ocean daily entertainment and all taxes and tips. We checked out the hotel Buenaventura Grand Hotel and Spa http://www.hotelbuenaventura.com.mx/ and it looks pretty nice. We are really excited for that....no so much for the going to Canada in November/ December but it will be great to see all our family and friends while we are there The trip cost 3950 pesos....so that is $297 and change Canadian. Not too shabby.

So hey....if anyone is looking to take a trip maybe you can come to PV and meet up with us.

October 2

Shelley here......well a while has past and I am really bad at updating this daily. Just so much to do during the day.....well......not really but it is suprising how time flies when your not doing too much. it also doesn't help that I usually sleep til 9:30 or so then have to do the breakfast and get ready so by the time you get out the house to go and do whatever it is already around 12 or 1.

We are slowly getting settled in the house but in the lst day we have had 2 not so pleasant things happen. We have found ticks on Flash GROSS!!!!!! and we have a leak somewhere in our pool. We think we have figured out where it is and it seems to be on the small jacuzzi section so hopefully Trevor can get it fixed up the tiles were lifting off one of the seats so we will need to fix the leak and then tile that spot again. Luckily there is lots of extra pool tiles in the bodega ( storage shed). With flash we discovered yesterday 3 big female ticks on him and 1 male. If you don't know what they look like google it. They are really gross and the females are huge as they grab hold and suck the dogs blood. We gave him a good bath and have been checking him since it will take up to 24 to 48 hours for any others to drop off if there are any more.

Other then that all is well here. We went to an open jam night at a place called El Bar Co. in Ajijic last week and it was great. We met up with our new friend Summer who is from Washington state and now living in Ajijic. There was a wide reange of people from 25 to 85 and everyone was having a good time dancing and drinking. The next day we bumped into the bass player from the night before and had lunch together at Wing's Army. He is from California and has been here over 3 years now but has also lived in other parts of Mexico before finding Lake Chapala.  It is great just walking down the street and actually bumping into people we know and everyone here is so friendly.

This week we also ventured to Guadalajara to go to Costco. We took the long way around thry Jocotapec and it took about 1 1/2 hours to get there but it is right off the highway so really easy to get to really but drivers here are loco and there are no road rules so you have to be careful. If you get in an accident here and anyone gets hurt EVERYONE goes to jail and they figure it out after the fact. But I am not in a rush so if someone wants to pass, I move over and let them. It is not worth the headache.

On Friday night Trev and I were going to go see the Tall boys play at the Beer Gardens in Chapala but when we got down town there was a huge festival going on. Each village has it's own saint and this weekend was the party to worship their saint. So while we are sitting in the beer gardens waiting for the band to start a big band comes on right outside and there was no way we would be able to here the band in the bar since it is all open to the outside. So we figured we would just go outside and enjoy the free festival and entertainment. There was a big band playing on a stage by the pier, fireworks and rides.
Right outside the church there was a big structure all wired with fireworks. I guy would light a section off his cigarette and it would spin around sending ambers into the crowd and when a big buring piece would fall off the kids would run up to grab it and then play with it....like poke it with sticks and stuff. No such thing as helath and safety here folks. Trev and I were about 30 feet away from it and you could taste the grit in your mouth from it and we both had ash on our shirts. Then every once and a while a big firework would go off above us. The grand finally if this fireworks extravaganza was that these wheels start spinningo on the top and then brake free, and like a frisbee they fly over the crowd.....and then fall INTO the crowd. They loved it kids run to try to be there when it lands and then the church bells start to ring and the party os over :(

We are finally done with that dumpy rental!!! We went and cleaned it up and then turned in the key. I am happy to never have to step foot in that place again.
Now this weekend all I really wanted to do is sit around in the sun, swim and relax and we were doing pretty well til the pool level dropped 2 feet over night pretty much. But hey..........can we really complain?! I mean we still have it pretty good so I try not to complain or worry about it too much. It will get fixed..and we still have the big pool so all is not lost. lol