Dos Pretzels

Me & Craig Vs. Them

>> Thursday, July 19, 2007

Cockroaches are native to Los Cabos. (Ok, and probably anywhere.)
They live here and attempt to get into the homes for a respite from the heat.
They breed in water drains. (I know. Puke.)
There are two kinds: the dirty people kind, and the non-dirty people kind.
Anyway - we moved into our home last week and for the four days following our move, we saw at least one cockroach INSIDE a day. 3 out of the 4 were dead. These were of the non-dirty-people variety.

Ok. Not cool.

I am/was paranoid. I turn on lights and wait before I walk anywhere at night. I was, and still am, on ultra-high-alert. I mean, I am ON. EDGE.

Then, for the past 2 days, we haven't seen any. Nice. I started to relax. The knot in my shoulder protruding forth a 'la the Elephant Man anymore...

However, let me tell you about last night.
We go to bed and I notice two patches of ants (about 1.5 inches in diameter) on our ceiling. (That's like a gajillion ants.)

We kill them. All of them around midnight. Eh, it's ants. No biggie.

I wake up around 1 a.m. Something is crawling on me. Something else is crawling on me. Oh wait, something else is crawling on me. ANTS.

Lights go on, ants are in our bed. On our pillows. Crawling up the walls. On the ceiling. On us. I'm <-----------> that close from losing it. I mean, screaming, whaling losing it.

We move the bed, my prince of a husband proceeds to lysol (yet another good reason why lysol kicks BUTT) the h-e-l-l out of the ants. He gets rid of them all.

I attempt to go back to sleep. (Have you tried to fall back asleep after having had bugs crawl all over you? Not easy.)

--

So, today, we had the house fumigated. C. came home and found 3 cockroaches in our shower, 2 cockroaches in the guest shower and about 10 cockroaches in the laundry room and just 1 in the living room. All dead. On their little backs. And, there are about 10,000 dead ants in our room.

So, all is well in our home. I'm hoping to actually sleep tonight.

P.S. Cockroaches are revolting and I hate them.
P.S. C. patched the big HOLE in our wall around the air conditioner mini split where he thinks they got in.

As it turns out

We have internet at home! It happened last night.
Both C. and I are thrilled. Ok, maybe I'm a bit more thrilled than him...
It was a painless process (nothing like the last no-internet spell that lasted for over a month.)
A BIG thank you to M. who works in my office. She knows someone at Telmex so we got out internet in less than a week. It usually takes at least 2. SO great.

And, our modem is a cute apple-looking white model. Love it.

It happened.

Lola. Her back end prior to last Friday.

I had my first real "accident" while driving in Mexico last week.

I was at a 4-way "stop" (and I use the word "stop" loosely. Very loosely. So loosely that no one ever stops here. Most don't even do a "rolling stop" instead they just drive past the sign as if it wasn't BIG, RED and clearly stating "ALTO" (stop) in Spanish.)

Anywho, I was STOPPED at a 4-way stop because I had seen a VERY large (think dump truck) coming from the right-hand side ready to turn left RIGHT in front of my Lola.

Well, I was plenty away from the stop sign in preparation for this guy's turn... (Think six feet or so. I didn't want him to swipe the front of my car.)

Well, as it turns out he approached the stop sign, didn't stop and was turning, turning, turning in front of me, oh wait, no, about to turn directly into my car.

I had no choice but to throw Lola (see above) in reverse and "bump" the PT Cruiser behind me. The way I saw it, it was either me losing my entire front end or the PT Cruiser behind me getting a little tap. The 20-ish-female driver honked. I ignored her and reversed. Then, there it was. That horrible car-on-car sound. (Ew.)

So, after having a very quick heart attack from nearly being driven over by a huge dump truck, the girl comes to my car and was like, "Ummm????" and I responded with, "I am SO sorry. It was either I reverse or lose my WHOLE front end." She said, IN ENGLISH (YESSSSS!!!! I hit someone who speaks English! What are the odds! YES!), "I know. I saw it. Are you ok?" I was fine.

She was a friendly person. Lovely.

We looked at our cars. A scratch on my bumper (no biggie) and a golf-ball sized bump on her bumper. I gave her my card with my phone number on it, told her I'd pay for it to get fixed, and off we went.

That was last Friday. Still no phone call. Ah well. Such is driving in Mexico.

Things I've learned since starting this blog:

>> Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Flexibility. Mexico is not like the U.S. There is a time schedule, but it is not my own.
Hurricane Preparedness. Hurricanes are boring, bring a lot of rain and really just throw a wrench into everyday life.
Heat. It's hot here. Hotter than Ohio will ever be. SPF is required.
Fish Tacos. They are necessary to Mexican life.
Verizon. The wireless company has saved my a-double-s many-a-time. Thank you God for that amazing cell plan.
Family. Living in a new country with my siblings and niece and nephews has been a gift. Truly, a gift.
Friends and co-workers. They've accepted me and made me feel like family. They're great. There is something to be said for individuals who let an outsider in.
Limes. Limes are good on everything. Lemons are unnecessary.
The water. There is nothing like seeing the ocean everyday and setting foot in it at least once a week.
Driving. It is scary to drive here.
English as a second language. I have never respected bi-lingual individuals so much as I do now.
Slower pace. Here you have no choice but to move at the speed of...Mexico. It's frustrating at times, but exhilarating most of the time. Relax. Enjoy. No worries.
The necessity of him Living for nearly 6 months without my best friend was hard. And I'd never do it again. But, I did re-discover how much I needed him.

1 year and 398 posts later...

Happy Birthday to Dos Pretzels.

See my first post here.

I can't believe it's been ONE WHOLE YEAR since we started this whole...transition.
(Can I still call it a transition?)

I'm just shaking my head... Where does the time go?

This has been one of the best decisions I've/we've ever made.

They arrived! They arrived!

>> Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The washer and dryer showed up today!
YAY! YAY! YAY!

Who's going to have clean clothes tonight?
We are!!!

Let me share with you some photos of Los Cabos

Today as I was driving home, I came across this and it cracked me up.
The belt around the port-a-potty was SO tight, the actual plastic "structure" was breaking.
It indeed was very secure. As you can tell from my vantage point, I chose to not drive directly behind it.

It cracked me up that the driver of this Grand prix actually parked SO close to the red tracker that he could BARELY fit through the opening.
I wish you could have seen him open his car door.
I mean, really...is it that important to get that close to the front door?
Note: There was an empty spot to the right of the white Jetta that he could have parked in.

All moved in!

Will write more as soon as our internet is up and running.
Perhaps it will be ready today...

I'm exhausted.

>> Friday, July 13, 2007

Yesterday we moved from Mykonos 201 B to the house on Fonatur.
I'm exhausted. And excited.

1.) It was 90 degrees.
2.) We had worked all day, then moved at night.
3.) We moved all of our stuff from the second floor, into our cars, to Fonatur, up about 12 stairs, a short walk and into our new house. I'm too old for this.
4.) Since I was in a new place yesterday, I didn't sleep well. Don't you hate it when you wake up every hour?
5.) We have no microwave (must buy) and our stove doesn't work. Thank goodness we have that toaster oven. :-)

I LOVE our new place. It's quirky, but then again - so am I, and whether he wants to believe it or not, so is C.

So, it's an absolute mess right now, but ah, well.

Last night around 11:30 p.m. we were both sweaty and gross. I tried to take a shower but found that there was no hot water. That was frustrating. Hopefully today there will be hot water.

The wall is lookin' good.

>> Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Semi-finished Kitchen Update

Before. Ugly wood.
(Me, upper right hand corner. Don't ever say I'm not on my blogs.)

Before Ugly. Ugly color. Ugly light. Ugly combo.

After: The almost finished kitchen!
Bright. Lovely. Airy.

Stainless hardware and hinges

C.'s painted crown molding. So nice, good lookin'

New Light fixtures

** Still have to get a new stove any day now and a new sink.

Concrete Block Patio wall going up.

>> Tuesday, July 10, 2007

This wall separates our patio half from our lovely new neighbors.
(They're quite nice. A family of four. Husband, wife, little boy, little girl.)

First shots of the painted cabinets

Already a HUGE difference.
Yay!

The rug arrived

Happy with it. (More camera phone pictures.)
(The star is not part of the rug.)

It was a much darker green than what we thought, but we like it mucho.
Awesome.
However, the smaller rug and the runner did not show up. Interesting.
Must figure that one out. I checked the tracking online and apparently a, "Jesus" at the importer's signed for the whole thing. So, perhaps it's still at the importer's.

Huh? I mean, in theory it works

I was cleaning out the fridge of the new place and I discovered an air freshener (see above). In the fridge. The kind of air freshener that you'd perhaps put in your closet.

It smelled like a fresh bouquet. In the fridge.

In theory this certainly makes sense... I suppose.

Made me smile.

Stuff that's in your fridge when you have workers in your home that are of the Mexican nature

1. Water.
2. Cheese
3. Jalapeños

This made me smile.

C. is a god.

Last night we went over to the house so that C. could put up some crown molding on the cupboards before the painters paint today.

We were there from about 8:30 until 11:00 p.m. He does everything perfectly. Precise cuts, etc. And, the poor guy had to use a little saw, nothing electrical. He's my hero.

Painters are there!

Yay, the cabinets will be painted white. The painters were taping as of yesterday... I think painting should start today.
(Camera phone picture)

I believe we'll do the moving on Wednesday.
We definitely need to be out of our place before Friday.
Luckily, we don't have much stuff at ALL.
I'm really thrilled because in the current, "room" we have NO storage.
NONE.
Like, if I were to buy a pack of toilet paper at Costco, I'm not quite sure where I'd store it.
NOW we will have SO much storage. So lovely.

The Washer and Dryer Caper

>> Monday, July 09, 2007

Ok, so we ordered a washer and dryer from sears.com a week or so ago.

We had it delivered to the import/export agency our Company uses in San Diego.

Sears attempted to deliver it last Wednesday, but found that no one was at the import/export place. So, they called me here, in Cabo. We got a hold of the importer and he said, "I'm here!" So, bottom line was, the washer and dryer did not get delivered, even though people were there. No big deal, it happens.

THEN, I get a phone call from Sears saying that I need to reschedule my delivery time. That the washer and dryer will be delivered next Tuesday (tomorrow). Ok. Fine.

So I call the importer on Friday of last week asking if he's received my rug yet. He said, "I have your washer and dryer." I said, "You do?"After some odd Spanglish, I got off the phone utterly bewildered.

So, does he have my washer and dryer? Or my rug? Both? One? The other?

So during this time I have since gotten 3 phone calls from Sears.com telling me that my washer and dryer will be delivered to the San Diego address (importer) at some point tomorrow.

Ok. Fine. No worries. I call the importer's office, the secretary answers, I tell her the washer and dryer will be delivered tomorrow. She said, "Ok, I am open until 8 a.m. until 6 p.m." Perfect.

Fine.

THEN, I just get a phone call from someone here in Cabo, a Snell employee, telling me that importer has contacted her and that our washer and dryer will be delivered to our house tomorrow at noon.

THIS is weird. I wonder if the RUG isPublish Post coming tomorrow and the washer and dryer later.

Because at this point, I am expecting a washer and dryer here in Cabo at my house at noon and a washer and dryer at the importer in San Diego sometime between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

W.O.W.

And so it begins...

Moving starts tonight.
Got a guy to do the cupboards for $800 - that is $900 cheaper than the first quote. Starts painting tomorrow. Cabinet doors removed today.
Light fixtures went up today (Hallway, kitchen and living room.) Haven't found ones I like for the bathrooms yet.
Bringing lease to work tomorrow for co-worker to help me get our phone line/internet set up. Should be able to pick up our modem on Wednesday at Telmex.
C. bought crown molding and will be putting it up at the house this evening.
New oven picked out. Will be installed soon.
C. measured for a new sink.

That's it for now.

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