January – July 2023
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| Sunset |
It’s been a cold winter with temperatures as low as 5 C / 41 F in the early mornings and during the day up to 20 C / 68 F (Yeah I know most of you have colder weather but cold in Mexico I never had thought that could be LOL). I have to add that this house is always colder on the inside than outside, so it gets pretty darn cold in here.
Not sure if I mentioned in last blog that, when Lorena gave Ninja to us, Ninja came with Lorena’s favorite blanket with sleeves, as Ninja uses it as her suckling blanket. I knew that Lorena missed the blanket but she refused to take it back. It wasn’t in the best condition anymore either, so I made her one for Christmas using her old one as pattern.
I realized that these actually are a great idea so I made Sid and myself one as well. What a blessing, instant warmth. With Christmas approaching I was wondering what to buy for Xmas presents for our friends here. The following day I went into town and bought more fabric and sewed a total of 6 of these sleeve blankets.
Marrian and Frank knocked on the door 4 days before Xmas as they were leaving for Phoenix the following day, so I gave her her present. About an hour later, she called me and asked, if I had read her text on Signal? Text? In her text she wrote: your Christmas present is in front of the door, call if you have any questions. Of course I raced outside, still talking to her on the phone and oh wow, there stood her car, the car I had used taking care of her house and pets during the summer. She said it is my Christmas present to use until they come back in 3 weeks. She also sent me the funniest picture of Frank posing in the blanket in their casita. Wow, what a nice present, thank you Marrian. Perfect timing as well as I was going to take the bus into Guaymas the following day to buy the Xmas turkey.
Lupita's daughter Yessika was in town and together we all watched the Christmas boat parade.
We had a nice Christmas Eve with our Neighbors Barb and Rog for my traditional Christmas Eve Cheese
Fondue. Their first fondue ever and they loved it. Well, what’s not to love on a good
Swiss Cheese Fondue.
On the 25th we invited Canadian Summer and Pono for the Christmas Turkey, they both had the boat in the yard and had nowhere to go. This was my 4th Turkey and I cooked it again with the online recipe I found at Thanksgiving, with carrots, celery and onions on bottom of baking pan, broth added to almost cover the veggies then place the turkey on top and bake. The last turkey was only 8 pounds, this one was 18 pounds. I was surprised to see that the juice went almost to the top of the pan. It made the best gravy. I also injected the Turkey with butter garlic and seasoned the skin this time with mayo and seasoning. The skin was crispy and the turkey breast was moist and so wonderful. Even the stuffing was nice and moist and even better than the last. We all enjoyed it. I had some games we were going to play but we had such a great time talking about so many things, we realized around 11 pm that it was too late to start playing a game LOL. Seems like we had such a good time we forgot to take pictures.
I knew Harry our ex roomy was on his way with his Mom Rose and Bro Bob in a motor home from British Colombia all the way to Puerto Vallarta, with a stop here in San Carlos. What a long drive, but they enjoyed stopping in many places even the Grand Canyon. They finally arrived on Dec 29 but were only going to be here a couple days. Since I had promised Harry I would have them all over for dinner they came the following day. Shanna and Kelly on Pono, also good friends with Harry kept asking me if I had heard from him, so I invited them as well. We had a wonderful dinner and time and we talked way into the night. It was really great meeting Rose and Bob. They left the following day.
Lupita and Silvino invited us for lunch on the 31st to a traditional Mexican New Year’s Eve meal. The lunch was at Eleazar’s house and OMG what a feast, the table was filled with all kind of different dishes, it was soooo much food and after I thought we were done they brought us a bowl of menudo. I think we rolled home LOL.
Mexican tradition is they eat pretty much all day long. Reminded me of my dad’s familie’s Italian tradition, we all would watch the fun entertainment shows on TV with music and jokes while having all kind of goodies to eat. We all ate until 9pm, but then you were not allowed to eat anything else until the New Year. 15 minutes before midnight we all would go on the freezing cold balcony and listen to all the church bells playing in unison. Then 2 minutes before midnight the bubbly, cooled in the snow on the balcony, was popped and after the last bell’s sound hung in the air we toasted to the New Year. What beautiful memories.
Most of the San Carlos restaurants hosted wonderful dinners including a glass of bubbly at midnight, we decided to do the Swiss tradition, which is staying home. Nope we did not eat until 9pm we were still too full from lunch. But just before midnight we went outside next to our neighbor’s car porch with unobstructed view across the bay towards Guaymas and did the toast awing a few fireworks that ushered in the New Year. Happy New Year!
There were none here in front of the house, but these are from the many weddings:
Since I was sure that restaurants here would be pretty full on the 1st we decided to go to La Manga at Dona Rosita Restaurant to eat some clams. After all we still had the car for a few days. My favorite restaurant!!!
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| Chicharron de Pescado, Sid's favorite |
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| Chocolates clams my favorite and yes I eat all 24 |
January 6th El
Chapo’s son was arrested which caused a whole bunch of unrests, especially in
Sinaloa they, our neighboring State. Guicha called and told us not to go drive
on the Autopista they had problems everywhere. She said even in Puerto Vallarta
people stayed at home as they did not know to what extend the unrest would go.
Mazatlan, capital of
Sinaloa, was the most impacted and the major roads had problems. Harry was on
his way to PV and in Mazatlan, he said they saw many cars on fire and burnt out
cars, but had no problem to get to PV. Rumors have it that he was only arrested
because Biden was on his way to Mexico City, because right after he left El
Chapo’s son escaped, hmm, so they said???!!!!
I am sure you all had better coverage of the ordeal than we did here. Luckily it was over within a short time.
In many parts of Mexico the kids don’t get Christmas present until January 6th 3 King’s Day. Since Eleazar went to Michoacán over the holidays I invited his family, 3 adorable girls for a fun day with games, Spaghetti feast and presents. We had such a good time and the games were really funny, the kids had a blast, so did Mama. I forgot how much fun it always was unwrapping Christmas presents as a kid, it was such a treat watching the 3 girls.
As kids we learned that
the three kings arrived to see Baby Jesus on January 6 and brought him presents
(reason some places in MX open their presents on this day) I had no idea that Mexico
also has a bread/cake called Rosca, the bread is a bit bigger and oval and
decorated with colors. Instead of the king it has Baby Jesus in one of the pieces.
The person that finds Baby Jesus has to host the Candelaria party and has to provide
the Tamales (I think I preferred our tradition no washing dishes), while
everybody else brings a side dish Dia de
Candelaria always falls on Feb. 2, exactly 40 days after Christmas (and the
same day as Groundhog Day in the U.S.). Supposedly, the reason for the date is
because according to early Jewish tradition, a woman was forbidden from
entering the temple for 40 days after giving birth, the day Mary brought Baby
Jesus to the temple for the first day. I did not know all this, did you? I love
traditions.
In Switzerland we do not have Santa bring the presents but the Christmas Kid. She is a beautiful Angel with long hair (we find her hair hanging on the decorated tree after she delivers it). Santa comes on Santa Claus day December 6 from the Black Forest where he lives. He is not the jolly guy you all know, he comes with a Schmutzli, his helper.
Schmutzli in English is Dirty:
Also we always put our boots in front of the door, just in case Santa is too busy he would fill the boots with goodes.
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| Looks like daddy got the Fitzeruete |
Amazing how he always knew what we did good or bad, until one Santa Claus day when I recognized Santa’s voice (he was our postman). Guess that was the day I discovered the truth about Santa LOL. Back to the Christmas, mom would ask us to draw a painting then the painting was put outside our bedroom window, then we had to go play outside in front of the house but quietly as the Christmas kid was very shy. If she liked the paintings she would take the Christmas tree, which in Switzerland was bought 3 days before Xmas and kept on the cold balcony. She would then return the tree all decorated in the Christmas Eve just after it was dark so nobody would see her. So we always had a Cheese Fondue for dinner and right afterwards we had to stay in our room and be very quiet, not to scare the Christmas kid away and also to be able to hear the bell on the tree announcing our tree and our presents were here. We would then run out of our room, and so did our parents out of their bedroom. Dad would then open the locked living room door and there was this always most beautiful lit Christmas tree, real candles I have to add, surrounded with presents. The smell of the fresh tree and candle I remember to this day. We all sat around the tree, sang Christmas songs, played harmonica (we all did except at that time my 3 year old little brother). Then one by one took a present, read the label for who it was, gave it to the person we unwrapped it, thanked each other and went on with the next present. Christmas Eve is the time I get very homesick, probably reason I overdo the Christmas decorations LOL.
During December the transportation system in Zürich had a special Tram for the entrie months driving through Zürich, it was called the Märlitram (fairy tail tram). Santa was driving the tram and the Christmaskid gave us cookies, milk and spoiled us. While mom had 1 1-2 hours time to go Christmasshopping for our presents.
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| Christmas Angel |
We celebrated Christmas with Lorena on the 10th of January, she looooved the blanket and could not believe it. I found a cute pattern, forgot to take a photo, a royal blue with white cat paw prints on it.
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On the 11th we had a doctor appointment with Sid for a checkup. His hands are still painful and of course the cold weather is not helping.
Back to 3 kings day with
the kids. They had a wonderful time, but one of the girls had a sore throat,
and I was hoping we she was not contagious. 3 days later Sid got a sore throat
and fell ill with a head cold. 2 days later I followed him. This was a weird
cold, the nose was like a waterfall but with very thick phlegm, no cough other
than that. Sid had a slight fever for a few hours. It was a short lived cold
except with mine a couple weeks later I had some vertigo and still this thick
phlegm. Prognoses was another plugged up middle ear infection, I already had
last summer. Special pills and then a nose spray later, I was better.
January 20th we received very sad news from Panama. Our dearest friends Debbie and Reg on Runner who were still in the San Blas, Sid used to help Reg clear the island and Debbie and I would go snorkeling after they returned to the boats. What an unforgettable time and what wonderful friends.
We still play pool every Monday with Lupita and Silvino and still laugh more than we play, but we are getting better little by little, as I said I love traditions, this one is always a fun one.
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| Looks like we are specialist in these kind of shots |
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| Lupita LOL, and then she discovered there is such a thing as a bridge |
As the tradition with Gemma and Sergio on ZOE. They came back for their last time before heading south and eventually to the South Pacific. We had just one evening left to see them and we celebrated it with a bottle of bubbly and a Swiss Cheese Fondue, a now tradition ever since our Xmas in the Chiapas Marina. Was great to see them and who knows when we will see them again, but we know where we will be able to find them once a year: in the summer in Rom.
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Back in January when we had our cold, I always make a remedy we learned from our friend Greg Bilson, in a large pot add: 6 each Grapefruits, Oranges, Lemon, Lime and several cinnamon sticks broken in ½. The citrus fruits cut in half, and squeeze them into a large pot including the rind, add the cinnamon and enough fresh squeezed orange juice to fill the pot. Bring to boil then simmer covered for 45 – 60 min. Add some brandy in a mug plus honey and pour the remedy over it. Have two of them and you will sleep like a baby and feel better then following day.
I started thinking that if we have a cold on the Baja side where there are not many stores available to buy the citrus fruits to make the remedy toddy, I decided to dehydrate some, to make that cocktail.
As I already mentioned the
temperature being 5 C/41 F at night and max 18 C/ 64 F during the day, the
sleeve blankets sure came in handy and were used daily.
With the cold weather and ocean water I guess it brings all kind of sea life up into the Sea of Cortez, look at the photo of this giant grab this guy found here in San Carlos waters. Thought this size you can only find up in Alaskan waters, wow.
February 8th at the 3rd time attempting to get my Mexican Driver’s license I finally held it in my hand. It’s not hard to get it but my problem was you have to submit proof that you have an address here. The proof is either the electrical or water bill. My problem with that was the house is under the owner’s name. We finally figured out that if I pay the rent with credit card I have proof and indeed that worked.
14th Valentine’s day. I invited Lupita and Silvino and spoiled them with Gschnätzlets and Spätzli, a specialty of Zürich. Appetizer was stuffed artichoke hearts with escargot on Provoncal sauce paked with Parmesan cheese. They loved it and never had land snail only the ones from the ocean and could not believe how soft these were.
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I made a new version of pineapple crisp with butter pecan cake mix and cherries, yum.
1 can pineapple chunks , ½
box vanilla cake mix, 1 cup butter melted,
almonds, pecans or
walnuts.
Spray an 8x8 pan with oil.
Add filling on bottom, top with the dry cake mix. Top with choice of nuts and
evenly pour melted butter over entire dish.
Bake at 400 F for 30 to 40
min. When I take it out I pour a good amount of Captain Morgan over it, it
sizzle and will caramelize the top. You can serve it hot with vanilla ice cream.
Let your imagination go
with what fruit you want to use and what cake mix.
I did a mixture of Mango and Rhubarb with a chocolate cake, yum.
Have fun with this recipe.
Lupita and Silvino took me to Costco in Hermosillo. Wow what a great store compared to our horrible Guaymas Sam’s and Wal-Mart. Imagine after 8 years I finally found good quality underwear that fit. Cruising is an incredible life style but when it comes to cloths shopping for girls it’s definitely a challenge, especially when it comes to certain bra sizes, underwear and bathing suit. You have no idea how many packs of underwear I have been buying since and including Panama. The styles now for young girls, only covering ½ the butt cheeks, or roll down when you bend over. No more plucking them out of my butt and re-arranging them every 4 steps. I am sure you love to read this but let me tell you 8 years buying underwater that don’t fit this is a celebration worth popping a bottle of bubbly LOL. Lupita’s daughter inherited all the 60 plus brand new, never worn underwear.
Ever since Covid whether buying a bathing suit, bras, underware, you are not allowed to try them on, not even to take them out of the box to see the exact size. But you are allowed to buy them and if they don’t fit you certainly are allowed to bring them back into the store but you will be told, no refund, now how fair of a deal is that.
Feb 20th We had
a little excitement with Ninja. First she fell off the balcony, some 25 feet.
Luckily she was not hurt, just dazed and wondering what happened. Then the
following day when I took her and Miss Kitty outside, she did a fast one on me.
She acted like she was going to join Miss Kitty who was watching the tall grass
for a movement of a mouse she could catch, she sat next to her but facing the
other way and split second later she disappeared over the wall of my neighbors I
have no access to. Good thing I do have a collar with her name and phone number
on it. I called my neighbor but she was not at home. ½ hour later she called me
and opened the gate for me and there she was Miss Ninja freaking out and
running up to the wall she jumped over to find it much taller than on the other
side. It took me a while to calm her and finally pick her up but she struggled
and clawed my chin. Luckily Sid saw us from the balcony and came down so I
could hand her to him, there was no way I could have carried her back from
there as her house is a street below us. She is a fun cat but like a little
toddler that needs almost 24/7 supervision.
I was cleaning the kitchen and poured a little bleach in the bottom pan of the dishwashing rack, I turned around for one split second and there she was licking the chlorine water, yikes. I grabbed her and immediately gave her milk which she drank, hoping she would not get sick and worse die on us. I made sure she had constant water, which is easy to do with both cats. They think they get special attention when we open the cap of a bottle fill it and put it in front of them. She was quiet for a bit but 2 hours later started playing with Miss Kitty again like nothing happened. What relieve.
After I shower she pulls the grate out of the shower, or if I don't get up the time she wants me to get up in the morning she pulls that thing out and keeps letting it drop on the tiles. Usually after 3 drops I am up. I covered it with shampoo bottles, that didn't work, so I place a bucket with water over it, well that did not work either. Now I taped it down.
I was in the kitchen when 2 cherries rolled at my feet, hmmm? She played with them until the stem falls off and goes and gets her a new one. She is smart!
She is very vocal and tells me when she wants to go outside at 3pm exact, or when dinner time is and exactly at 5pm. This time I beat her to it and asked her if she wanted dinner LOL.
And she loves it when I sing or play guitar, she must remember Lorena
And her sitting style is well.... well not very cat like:
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Other than that the two cats are best buddies and play with each other. These two are such a blessing.
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Lupita hooked me up with an insurance guy to get local MX insurance, as we are permanent residence and have the same rights as Mexican do, except for voting. Funny, she introduced me to the insurance guy via phone, and we chatted via WhatsApp. The next morning I get a cute photo of a beautiful young naked woman totally exposing everything, and it said: Buenos dias Senores. I wrote him back, thanking him for the beautiful good morning wishes and I am sure this greeting was intended to one of his friends named Manuel. Sure enough LOL, he couldn’t apologies enough, I just laughed, sure was funny. A week later when I met him, he was still very embarrassed. Well he did not have good news for me, although as a resident in Mexico the law states you have to get insurance in MX, I was told with my 62 years I was too old and the only insurance I can get is a catastrophic insurance, first year no coverage if something catastrophic would happen and some really catastrophic things like cancer a 2 year wait, cost 240 dollar a months. Sid is too old to even get this one. 240 dollars a months for not being able to see a doctor, I just had this kind of insurance for last 2 years. Guess I have to wait until I am eligible for Medicare, if it by then still exists with the way things are going. I did find an insurance that will cover us for emergency and accidents, for me for 950 a year and for Sid 1460, including medevac etc. This insurance is connected to Medicare and will treat us here, so come January we will get Medicare. Until now we have always paid our medical stuff out of our pocket. 6 monhts later, now we got an email form the guy that sold us the insurance that we have to cancel it asap and move to 7 corners, hmmm that does not sound right. He claimes there medivac you have to pay upfront and then get the money later. I really like to find out what the real reason is.
Lorraine and I had a girls out lunch and we drive to Doña Rosita in La Manga. The seafood is always fresh and so good there. While we sipped on our Mango Margaritas, this guy asked if he could sit at other end of our table, it’s a table for 8. Of course then I realized he was speaking Swiss German to his kid. Our lunch turned into even more fun.
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| The Swiss guy had a seafood tower, doesn't this look amazing, except for the B light |
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| Shrimp tacos encrusted in cheese for Loraine |
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| Mocajete, seafood soup for me, yummy |
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| The best Mango Margaritas and it was happy hour 2 for 1, we sure did leave happy |
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| Tostada with crab meat mine |
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| and always my favorite chocolate clams |
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| The Swiss guy and wife ordered the oysers as well as a Mexican Flag, interesting but I forgot what is in each shot glass |
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March 11th Club Duo down from our patio with the incredible fireworks had a wine festival and a concert with famous Latin singer Yuri. Wow she was amazing and we had the best seat in the house on our patio, with the binoculars I could watch her on the big screens and the music was so loud it was like sitting right in front of the stage. Great singer wow.
The following day Eleazar called that his buddy went hunting and if I wanted to share a venison with him 50 bucks each. A couple hours later Eleazar brought me my half of the venison including heart and liver he did not want. I have never cut a deer apart and watched first some YouTube tutorials, seemed easy enough and omg it was just that, each muscle is incased in a skin, so you cannot mess the pieces up, the only thing I wasn’t sure which part was the front and which the back, but so far all the steaks have been delish and melted like butter in our mouth. The parts for stew, half of it I brought to Santa Rosa store and asked if the butcher could grind it up and add a bit of beef fat to it for hamburger and to make sausage.
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| Yummy Venison Burger with bacon and blue cheese on a baguette |
We are set for a while with some good dinner. I grew up with venison and we would soak the meat in some milk to get read of the gamy flavor. I did look up some recipes how to cook the hard by butterflying it and cutting out the valves, then I breaded it and pan fried it, it was delish like a steak, you would have never guessed that it was the heart, will definitely cook it this way again.
He already shared a Lamb with us a few months pior and next might be a wild pig:
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| Leg of lamb |
Mid March Harry, Rose and Bob had to come back from PV for some paperwork and invited us for dinner. We went to Charlie’s Rock as neither one of us had ever been there. It was a rainy and cold day and not knowing Charlie’s was an open air restaurant we were not even sitting 2 minutes at the table we were freezing and decided to eat somewhere else. Good thing as we never had dinner at Piccolo.
What a wonderful
restaurant. They brought a big family stile bowl of yummy salad. As Harry loves
to play pool I offered to buy after dinner drinks at the new billiard place so
Harry could see it. We had a fun evening thank you Harry, Rose and Bob.
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| Rose and Harry |
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| and brother Bob, that was at the Grand Canyon |
The local church had a fundraiser breakfast and Lidia had invited us along with Silvino and Lupita. It was a wonderful breakfast and I think they made enough money to repair the church’s roof. Lorena volunteered to sing so she asked me to join her:
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| Lupita, Silvino, Lidia and Jeff |
One of my 20 year old
porcelain fillings from Cartagena needed to be replaced but since the filling
was so big the dentist had to make a crown. Expensive in the US isn’t it, get
this 250 dollars here. The dental office has the newest equipment even a television screen above your head and he has a camera so you can see it on the screen when he shows you where the problem area is. The staff knows I am an Adele fan so while he works on my teeth I watch Adel videos.
Mean time Paradise is back in the work yard to finally hook up the new engine. While Sid was prepping the down below, I went to scrub the deck. Before we put her in the long storage yard, I had scrubbed the deck over and over to no avail. The deck was in such bad condition we were sure we have to paint it, yuck. Anyway, this was my first mission to try to clean it again and talking to Jimmy, he told me that a French guy in the yard told him to use bleach and vinegar and gave me the recipe and it goes like this: Spray bleach on the affected area, slightly brush to make sure it’s evenly distributed, wait a few minutes or so then spray same area with vinegar and again wait a minute or so and hose it off. OMG the easiest cleaning job ever, no scrubbing, the only complaint I have, I could have had a cold beer in my left hand. I did it in batches of how far my arm could reach, than I scooted my butt along to the next batch, no effort at all. The deck is as clean as new, no paint job needed. Wonder what is in this air to create this grayish substance.
Unfortunately we never got
to do any more work as a few days later Sid fell really sick. He’s had this
belly that looked like he was pregnant with an elephant and he was feeling very
uncomfortable. After a few days he started shaking uncontrollably, he could not
even hold a spoon to eat soup, I had to put it in a cup with a lid, he also
threw up. Why whenever we need to see a doctor is it a holiday and doctor was
out of the office for 5 days. Thinking ahead before finally having an
appointment I told Sid we should bring a
stool sample, I was suspecting amoeba or any other parasite (remembering San
Blas). We did walk to the doctor’s office before opening just in case the
Doctor would have a moment to see him. It was a busy morning and luckily they
had an opening in the afternoon but they did take the sample and sent it in the
same morning. The shaking had luckily almost gone away but he still was very
bloated and very weak, he had hard times breathing just after a few steps. When
the doctor finally saw him, he suspected gallstones, took some blood and
ordered a very bland and soft food diet like mashed potatoes and prescribed an
ultrasound, which unfortunately we had to wait 3 weeks for it. I also put him
on Electrolytes, good thing; I received an email the next day from the doctor
to urgently put him on electrolytes as he did not have any, and his iron was
way too high, plus he also needed Magnesium. Poor Sid, 3 days later, out of
nowhere Sid’s foot swelled up with a vicious gout attack he only gets if he
drinks beer which he has given up in Venezuela years ago, he hadn’t even had
any alcohol for a while. I wondered if it was from the electrolytes, and of
course it was a holiday again Semana Santa, in Mexico they celebrate Easter for
an entire week, this year April 2 til 9. And of course the doctor’s office was closed
the entire week. Eventually with restricting more food and drinking even more
water the gout went away, butParadise went back into the dry storage.
Semana Santa in San Carlos
is a nightmare for the locals living here as some 120 000 tourists from all
over Mexico not to mention Arizonians flock to San Carlos. Guess San Carlos is
the only place in MX where the road closes down and the visitors dance all the
way through the night until 6am. Traffic is at gridlock. All the locals stay at
home. I told Lupita that I think I will walk to town and see the happenings,
since I haven’t done that the prior two years. Her and Silvino giggled and
said, well one year we did go and just drove to Santovalle store which is a 5
min drive from her house, turned around the 10 minute trip took them 2 hours.
Not just that she said the pickup truck in front of them had young people in
the truck bed and they were busy having sex. She said all I will see is young
drunk people having sex everywhere. That for sure changed my mind and I watched
the traffic jam from home LOL. After the sex and drinking affair I was told
that even though the city provides portable potties the people will not spend
the 10 cents to use them, instead they go into the side streets which is
private homes and so they pooped anywhere long side the houses, yuck. Really glad I
decided not to go. (the 3 following photos are from Whatsup San Carlos).
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| this is just down the street from our house |
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| This gets totally clogged in all lanes after sundown |
But I did take the TukTuk
up to Lorrain’s house on the Caracol Hill. Her neighbors had a 6 days party
spree in each participating neighbor’s house. So Saturday was Lorrain’s turn
and she invited us. Fun party and missed the traffic as I got back home before
6. Sid stayed home as he was not feeling well.
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| View from Lorraine's house to the Bahia which is the entrance to the marina |
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| Someday we will be anchored here |
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| After sundown |
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| 4am |
The beaches are all full with tents and so funny I thought I saw a tent on our beach which is unusual. But there it was in the rocks a red tent. Looked at it with the binos, yep a tent until it started moving and kept moving. I laughed so hard it was a woman or a kid in a red princess dress that looked from far like a tent
One afternoon Sid called me on the balcony and said: Look there is another cat with Miss Kitty. Just as I stepped on the patio to see the other cat, she came out of the bush and was licking Miss Kitty. How the heck did miss Ninja get off the balcony, jumped or fell??? Her second and hopefully last time falling off the balcony.
Funny story: Roger my neighbor was sick so Barb was going to buy canned chicken noodle soup, so I asked her why don’t you make it. She never made a pot of chicken noodle soup, so she asked me if I would show her, so I did. So we wet shoping for all the ingredients and I showed her how to cook it. Later she called and of course I asked her how the soup was. She responded awfully bland and that I can pick up the rest. So I went over there and tasted the soup, it was delish, nothing wrong with it. So then she told me what she did, she boiled rice in water, and added that. I tried the rice, first of all it was still swimming in water and the rice was undercook, it was so bad I spit it out and told her that she needs to stick to canned chicken noodle soup, she agreed LOL.
Even more so funny, her kitchen cabinets had some termite damage and needed to be replaced. She also has a dish washer, which at one time she was going to replace with mine as mine does not work. While they were replacing the cabinets Barb told me what happened when she used hers for the first time after she had moved in, the kitchen floor flooded with the water. Comes out that the guy who had installed both, never made a drain for the water, so the space the dishwasher was became a nice cabinet with shelf. I was hoping the same for mine, as I could not use mine. So we figured out that mine didn’t just have a drain but it was never hooked up to the water. Not just that the guy then put the counter on top of ours so that the machine can’t be removed without destroying counter top, so I still have an ornamental dishwasher that blinks as it is hooked on the eledtrical system.
Lupita took me again to Hermosillo for a Costco run plus to the Salud Digna clinic. You don’t need an appointment and can get anything done from bloodwork, ultrasounds, mammograms, pregnancy test, eye test you name it at incredible prices. I had a mammogram, pap and a bone density test which the package price was 70 pesos. Get this that’s US$ 3.50. Next time Sid will come along, no not to get a mamo or pap, but to get new glasses, eye test is free and new glasses cost 100 bucks.
Weird 14th April, 7 of us got sick pretty at the same time in the afteroon of the same day and only 4 of us were together 2 days earlier playing pool with just Lupita and Silvino. The rest didn’t have contact with each other at all. In other parts of the pueblo same thing people got sick the same afternoon. Worst cold ever, kinda like felt the same when I had chingungunia in Panama. Day 4 I lost my smeller. Silvino needed 6 saline injections he was so sick and Lupita had the trembles. We all commented how weird it is that we all got sick the same day. I have a theory why we got sick but that would make some of you believe I am a conspiracy theorist, btw telling my doctor he pointed out the same thing I had thought without telling him.
The Balcony door needed a new track, so when the repair guy was done with it he asked I wanted the door closed, told him nah I will close it later. Well later came and I was not able to close the door completely there was a big gap, big enough for Ninja to get out, luckily we had a mosquito screen, but that little shit knows how to open it, so I had to outsmart her for the night, I rolled the shades down, put the dining room chairs in front of it, put big pillows on both side so she could not go behind the shade. Smart cookie jumped on the chair and tried to get behing from there, so the other two big pillows went up on the chairs. Success!!! She is an extraordinary cat that’s for sure.
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| Woodpecker have a sweet tooth |
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| It's 5 O'clock somewhere |
It was a long 3 week wait for Sid’s ultrasound and another week for the results. They changed our appointment from 14:30 to 9:30 so thought oh, oh. The good thing about the 4 weeks of special diet we both lost weight and can fit into some old pants again. No gallbladder stones, just a low grade fatty liver which a healthy diet will heal. Doctor suggested to do a celery juice cure. Drink a 16oz glass first thing in morning on empty stomach then wait at least 15 min before having coffee or breakfast. This liquid cure gave me another reason to buy a kitchen tool: a miniature cold press juicer. I know what you are saying right now, it’s a kitchen gadget. Yes I know, but don’t tell Sid that, he said as long as it is a tool I can have it, so it IS a tool. My kitchen has a lot of tools. Doctor also ordered no beef, deer, pork, cheese, only white chicken, fish, goat cheese, home made yogurt (which I make anyway), best he said would be goat milk well that is definitely not available here. Funny thingis every time we talk about goats Sid says he knows now to milk goats, so I told him the day we have a house, we will get a goat since he knows how to milk them LOL.
After almost 2 weeks of
the celery juice, Sid was feeling better but I was not doing well at all I
started feeling so bad I ordered a total blood work b4 I saw the doctor. He
only put me on a thyroid test, so I asked if they can do extensive, when I
finally saw the doctor with a complete test, he wanted to know why I wanted the
entire blood work done before he looked at the results . Told him if it’s not
thyroid I have to give blood again and wait another week, I am feeling this shitty
I wanted all done now. Good thing as my thyroids are good. My cholesterol was a
little high but nothing to worry about and same for blood sugar but my triglyceride
was high. Talking a little more we came to the conclusion to stop the celery
juice as this may be the problem, too much detox. Plus he thought maybe it
caused a little ulcer, and sure enough 3 days later I was fine, now I cold
press apple, beet, carrot and coconut water, which I did back in Panama and
lost 26 pounds in 6 weeks plus my cholesterol came down to normal. BTW beats
are wonderful for blood sugar and heart as well. So we both are good again, yeah!
End of April the humidity definitely went up and we knew eventually the AC will have to come on, we will bite the heat until it is unbearable. It also was time to get my 6 foot Pool out again for those hot days to cool off. That thought dwindled fast when the ring was inflated it deflated almost as fast. We found all the holes and put some tape on it, yeah it worked, until the next morning when I saw water on the patio floor. Almost down by the bottom side of the plastic on several places and a few more further up each had 4 tiny geysers of water squirting out, the size of Nina’s paws, and tape is almost as expensive as a new pool so I ordered a new one on Amazon including feline nail clippers for Miss Ninja. Actually we were amazed how easy it was to trim her nails; she just let us, kewl kitty. But she is under supervision whenever she is on the patio now.
Down at our neighbors wall
across from our patio, Ninja would look up the wall and tried figuring out how
to climb it. Of course I went to investigate and omg I heard the chirping of
baby birds. Sure enough there were 2 baby martins in a crack in the wall. No
wonder the Martins were flying around our patio plus almost attacking the
kitties and myself. I managed to take a photo of them while the parents were
not in sight. Looking at the photo there were 3 babies, how cute is that. I was
already trying to figure out what to do when they learn to fly, definitely not
let my cats get down there. Unfortunately 2 days later the babies were gone. I
know they were not old enough to fly off yet. I have seen many crackles being
chased by Martins and so I am guessing, the nest robbers they are, they got the
poor little things out of the wall.
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Sid was doing much better but his wrists were still a mess so I ordered an x-ray and well, after doctor told that if the pain does not go away he would need carpal tunnel surgery in each wrist. He has a specialist that will perform the surgery and he was going to check with him if he can do it here in our doctor’s office or if we have to go to Hermosillo do to it. Sid insisted to get the engine installed before going for the surgery. So as soon as the engine is in stalled, we will organize the surgery and while he recuperates I will do projects on the boat, like sanding the cabin sole and varnish it, cleaning inside the boat and bring the cushions, drawers, cabinet door back and get the boat living again.
May 19th, Lupita insisted to take me out for my Birthday and gave me 2 choices the new Steakhouse Herradura or Blacky’s. Easy choice Blacky’s their food is fabulous and so is the service. We all had the Tequilla shrimp which are prepared at the table. We had a wonderful time.
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| Didn't see the horns until later when I looked at the photos LOL |
It was still early and so Silvino took us for a drive and as we drove over the hill towards Sunset beach the sun was just starting to hit the horizon, so Silvino stopped on the shoulder of the street and we watched an incredible sunset and to our surprise we saw the green flash, what an incredible BD present from nature. Silvino and Lupita have never seen one before, never even heard of it.
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| What do you see? |
So what do you see? I think this Sierra needs a different name, nothing to do with Illusion LOL. Lorena calls it Sierra Erotica. Definitely the biggest one I have ever seen.
With the warm weather the Geckos
came out of hibernation, and turned Ninja totally wild. She has her clock set
and she will do anything to be on the patio at that exact time her eyes glued on the ceiling’s patio light, which is the home of one or maybe even several
geckos. She turns wild when he comes out, so wild she will climb the door
screen, definitely a big no-no.
With the warmer weather comes also warmer water in the swimming pool, here called Alberca, and the girls could barely wait to restart our daily noodeling aerobics sessions.
The one day both pools
were not available we decided to go and watch a sunset with our hubbies. Funny
thing was the girls wanted to see the sunset at Sunset Beach, the boys wanted
to watch sunset by Tetakawi beach where the sunset is behind us behind a hill.
We still have fun and enjoyed some wine and appetizers. We all agreed that we
need to do this more often.
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| Backside of Tetakawi |
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A few days after I found the beautiful little snake I did see something fly through the air by the patio, looked like a spider but it dissapeard. A few days later I found this in my patio plant:
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| I think it's a green Lynx spider with her egg |
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Finally the day arrived
June 15 we had heat as high as 112 to 115, we had no choice but turn the AC on.
This is the hottest we have seen it here. We know of stories of 120 F while we
had it a bit cooler across the Baja side (1998/99). Sparky told us his chilly cans inside
the 140 F boat in the yard exploded (2002).
For at least two month I was busy with helping our neighbors as Roger, has a hard time getting around as his knees are no longer able to support his weight over 340 pounds. It got so bad he fell 3 times in same day and it took him at least 1 ½ hours each time to crawl to a chair or table to pull himself up. He said his left leg was numb, I drove Barb to the doctor for her to talk to him. Knowing Rog has some crushed disks the doctor told her to get him back to California as he is on Medicare and has no insurance here. The problem is how to get him there, no airline would take him in his situation, driving is out as how is he going to be able to walk to a bathroom or get into a hotel. He offered that he could hire a private jet to fly them to Sacramento for about 1600 dollar but to get with him right away to organize it. Unfortunately they live from SS check to check and after 14 days have no money for the rest of the month, being that time she was going to wait. One week later Roger’s leg caved again this time he was in the shower so she had to call the ambulance to help him up. From then on he was bed bound; he was not able to get to the bathroom either so he had a bucket next to the bed. She wanted me to drive them to Tucson to a hospital but their car is in such bad shape we would have never made it that far, not to mention neither one of us being able to get him into the car. Barb found a guy that has a van and drives people to Tucson and Phonix and made arrangements, would have cost her 550 dollars round trip. The very next day his aunt, living 3 houses up the road, just took over, hired an ambulance to drive him to Tucson, (leaving Barb now with an 1800 dollar bill), while her and hubby followed the ambulance in their car, refusing to take Barbara along even though Roger wanted his wife of 30 years with him. From here it turned into a nightmare. Aunty Ruth and Gordon returned the same night, told us they had to stop twice on their way up and she had to order to have medics give him an opium shot (hmm, you’d think the medics know what they are doing) anyway, MRI showed he needed 2 stent, surgery was the following day, one stent put in and doctors could not remove tube that went to growing. Following day she knocked on my door at 7am, that she needed me next door. In a very hateful way she ordered Barbara to sit down, of course she started crying expecting the worst. Ruth told us both that a nurse called her at 4 am stating Roger had a heart attack a stroke and was brain dead, also told her they could not drive her to Tucson as their car needed an oil change, hmm?!! She then literarily forced Barb right there and then to make a decision to take him off life support, again she said she had authorized, plus the hospital needed to know ASAP hmm?!! This aunty has such a hatred for Barb she was so cruel to her, she told me Barb stole her hubby from his family (Rog is 63, Barb 77), not just that her hubby pointed at their dog Koda looking at me saying: look at this poor dog and his long nails, she (meaning Barb) can’t take care of him he needs to be put down. It went worse from there. Roger’s sister had a stroke a year ago and Ruth told me she is still learning to walk so she did not think about her going to drive the 10 hours trip to Tucson with her two daughters, her plan backfired. Promise I will make it short from here on. Rog sister called Ruth and told her that her daughters and herself were on their way to Tucson. So dear aunty postponed the oil change and drove Barb to Tucson while Barb’s grandson and son, Roger’s sister and daughters all met later that day. At 4pm I received a text from Barb that she was holding Roger’s hand, he squeezed her hand then opened his eyes and started talking to her. Hmmm, brain dead people don’t do this or do they?!!! Comes out aunty Ruth lied about the entire things, Roger never had a stroke or heart attack and neither was brain dead. Somehow according to aunty it was all a misunderstanding, later she told Sid: what a miracle this is. Miracle my ass. 1 week later Aunty Ruth and hubby on their way to CA went to see Rogerm, forced Bart to give them his jewelry and all his papers including passport, as he was being transported to a rehab facility that day. Her hubby even threatened Barb to call the police if she was not giving his jewelry, also tried to kick me out of her house. While at Roger's aunty without his wife’s permission got power of attorney over Roger, told facility not to let Barb talk to him. 1 week later Barb and I were just going to drive to Tucson with a rental car, aunty knew and sent Barb a photo of Roger in an ambulance and it read southern California bound. Not just did she get power of attorney but also kidnapped her hubby. In the meantime he is still there in a rehab, aunty took all his money out of their bank, leaving Barb barely anything to live for the rest of the month. Aunty is using their money to remodel his sister’s house so Roger can live with her once out of rehab. While poor wife is now in northern California without her husband. Aunty also changed the primary person, which is Barbara, off the list on their storage shed and was going to move everything to S CA. Barb luckily caught that and had the storage office put her as primary again. Aunty Ruth also had a GoFund me for Roger with nothing but lies, she finally closed it out at pretty much same time about 2 weeks ago gave up her power of attorney and also dumped Roger so did his sis and of course never paid Barb back the 1800 ambulance bill to Tuscon what the GoFundMe was for. Poot Barb now broke her leg and will be in rehab near Sacramento for 3 to 4 months, while her hubby is in southern CA. Can't make this story up. Very sad story and so much more to it, so I was very busy helping Barbara as much as I could.
In the mean time we have new neighbors and don’t have to worry about Roger and Barb’s well being anymore. I have no regrets having helped them in the last 2 years, but I have to say I am glad they are back in CA where they belong with their medical needs.
It is getting really hot
here, we barely leave the house, even the cats are complaining. The other day, I took the cats
outside, they lasted two minutes and bolted back to the door wanting to go
inside. I still take them out every day but after 10 min max especially Ninja
is ready to go back in and chill on the cool floor.
One of our other neighbors living across from aunty Ruth is another sad story, from day one on we had met her, we knew she was taking drugs for years, her missing front teeths were evidence enough. She was just in the process of getting them fixed. She also drank way too much, nice lady, but I staid with a distance due to her drug use. About 3 weeks ago, Sharon started showing up at my door, no teeth in her mouth, could not find them, dress inside out, 2 different shoes on her feet as she could not find them either, asking for some rum. Didn’t give her any, few day slater she was standing between our house and neighbors house staring into who knows what, she looked like one of those Zombies you see in videos of the homeless in San Francisco or any other US tent city. 10 days later her 96 year old mom found Sharon on her BD deceased in her home where she had been dead for 10 days. Very sad story. I will remember her as the person I met 2 years ago, her mom told me she tried to help Sharon for the last 50 year to get off the booze and drugs, nothing she could do.
On a better note, the
other day I had to rescue a bee out of my pool and doing so Sid and I exchanged
a few words and Sid went back inside and I was going to dive into my pool, well
step into it, it's only 29 inches deep, when I saw a young hummingbird frantically swimming on hit’s back
in the water, immediately I rescued the little bird and while it was sitting in
my hand, I dried it off with a towel as gently as I could then gave it a good blow job for at
least 10 minutes until the feathers were almost dry, put it in one of my patio
plants, but it almost fell off the patio so for a few more minutes it sat in my
hand while blowing on it some more. Then I put it up on the feeder but it moved
onto the cloths line where it recuperated for at least another 15 min. I was
impressed with Ninja or Miss Kitty that they did not try to get the birdy, they must have
sensed the distress. The 3 adult hummers would constantly check on the
little birdy while it was in my hand and then on the line. It finally flew off
and they all were happily playing again. The following morning as I got out of
bed, I always pet the cats first, them sitting by the window looking outside, and
I looked outside as well and if there wasn't the little hummer about 6 inches in front of my
face on the other side of the window, how kewl is that.
The humidity is up and we
are starting to see more and more thunderclouds every evening that develop over
the middle of this stretch of Mexico and each day they inch closer. So far we
haven’t see any lightning in the clouds yet but when it does it sure is a
spectacular fireworks show in the clouds. In the mean time we had already 3
named hurricanes heading out to see into cooler water. Being an El Niño year
the Pacific Ocean is warmer this year so we probably will see more storms
heading up our way and definitely much warmer temperatures. Oh btw 3 days later
we had out first lightning show in the distance.
My new neighbor Paula has a cool and big quad runner and invited me to go on a 3 hour desert tour. The desert heat was intense, but luckily we had a pretty strong breeze from the south which made the dessert heat tolerable. Paula took me to the most remote beautiful canyons and mountains. We discovered 3 waterfall, of course dry for most of the year until the hurricane season.
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Sure was fun riding on the beast, except the backseat is not as comfortable as it looks, plus the legs get so hot from the engine/exhaust het I had to pull my feet up and was sitting on the bike frog style LOL. When I got off it I could feel the imprint of the fabric of my pants on my butt cheeks LOL. I was sore for a couple days, way worth the trip and definitely will go again.
Sid’s been working or
trying to work on the installing the engine, but each time we needed something
else and of course had to order it online resulting 1 to 2 weeks to receive it.
Then while working with the bolts, a few slipped through his fingers and ended
up in the 5 foot deep bilge with no return. In all he lost 4 bolts and had 3
different trips into Guaymas by bus at 45C/113 F to 48C 114 having to walk from
shop to shop to find the size he needed, and each time found except for the
last trip. So hopefully the Amazon ordered express paid will arrive tomorrow
and arrive here with Debbie on Saturday. After the bolts are in, this and all
the hoses etc are hooked up and motor running, we are half way there to get
back in the water. Keep your finger’s cross.
The Marina raised the rent
from 18 bucks to 24 per day June 1st. Imagine this August 1st
they went up another 17% more, to a total of 42%, stating that the dollar is taking a dive. Funny, they bill us in Pesos and we
pay in Pesos. Anyway, we were able to pay in advance to keep the rate and
was told we can do it again. So guess we will have to pay for a few extra months
which can be moved over to the marina, once we are there. If all goes well by the end of August we will
have Paradise back in the water and start moving all our belongings back while
staying in the marinat still living in the house until ready to cut the lines. Keep your fingers crossed for us. But I guess you will
have to find out in our next update.
So here we are still
landlocked in a beautiful house with AC, having fun with our wonderful friends
and neighbors, enjoying our daily entertainment by our bundle of joy kitties,
walking our asses off in the 110 F Mexican heat, playing Billiard every Monday,
daily water aerobics for Manuela, hunting down parts and bolts and nuts for Sid
or both oh joy. Life is still good and will get even better once back on the
boat.
Hope this finds you all
well and hope wherever you are, the craziness out there has not affected you
yet and will not either.
This world needs a big
Miracle to get us out of this mess.
Let us all prey together.
Well I was going to end
this blog right here but and I don’t even know where to start other than that
we are in utter shock. We have been in many storms, even 4 north eastern
quadrants of hurricanes and in Panama 45 miles away from the eye of Otto, I
could have never imagined that a freak sandstorm you see in movies only like
Indiana Jones or The Mummy could get even close to any boat.
https://youtu.be/q5OZYdzK36c?
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| Keel |
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| Wild flowers |
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| This was a cut down palm tree trunk in front of our house. I planted a succulent plant and this is what happened |
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| And the bees love the red flowers |
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| My Desert Roses exploded this year |
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| My neighbors Plumeria/Frangipani |
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| This Bogenvilla color is the only one the locals use to make tea that helps a cough |
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| our Plumeria |
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| Sid painted out outbord and we found the perfect decal on Amazon |
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| Lupita surprised us with wonderful figs from her garden |
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| Homemade Mago Mint Margarita |
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| Sid loves his Lasagna |
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| Location of our house |
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| Sid has been practicing giving the middle toe, he is getting better at it |
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| No idea what he is trying to tell me, but I do know he has a hard time buying good underware as well. |
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