Thursday, 27 December 2018: Celestun

Today was Carole's birthday breakfast.  We took her to Peter's for breakfast.  He is open  every day right now for the holidays.  We got there about 8:30 and we took the last empty table.  There must have been at least twenty people waiting when we left.  

Aholi came at 10am.  Somehow I forget just within the span of one week just how good she is.  I am planning to host a baby shower for her in the early spring -- that will be fun!

The best thing that happened today was that Don Carlos came over.  He and Justin walked ahound the house.  Since we'd picked up all the Helvex supplies and the stove, we have quite a few chores for Don Carlos.  He needs to connect the stove, showers and sinks in all rooms plus our apartment, two kitchen sinks, one guest bath AND hot water throughout!  

Back to birthday celebrations!  We took Carole to Poseidon for sunset drinks and botanas.  As we knew would happen, the heavy hors d'oeuvres turned into dinner.  We stayed as long as we could until the mosquitoes just got too bad.

Tuesday, 25 December 2018: Celestun

We started the day with a walk on the beach.  The water is way down after the last cold front so there was plenty of beach for strolling and lots of shells large and small.  We ran into Robbie, Marie Francois and Katherine.  Funny how we know the people and their dogs after basically a short amount of time.  

We've also been enjoying the full moon in the evening.  This is the last time we will have a full moon that coincides with the winter solstice until 2096. Since we will probably miss that one, we’ve been enjoying the night illumination. 

Justin and I were invited to Christmas dinner at Carole's.  My job was to make cookies so I made Sand Tarts.  I didn't have my favorite Helen Corbit recipe so I made do with one from the internet.  The dough wasn't exactly the same, but it might even be better since I didn't break too many of them at all.  It will be interesting to compare the ratio of flour to butter when I get home.

Carole made a chicken roladen dish as well as ribs.  Not a typical Christmas dinner fare, but, honestly, I enjoyed not having to cook.  It was nice to sit down with friends and celebrate!

Abraham has been busy creating yet another fabulous space

Monday, 24 December 2018: Celestun

Justin and I went to dinner at El Chivarico this evening and celebrated Christmas Eve with stone crab.  YUMMY!  this was the first time we'd had crab this season and we were not disappointed at all.

Sunday, 23 December 2018: Casa Colibri

Abraham cleared away some of the debris and shrubs from in front of our gate,  It looks so much better now!

 Jesus dug out the Yucatan chair that was near our driveway.  We will reposition it to farther back within the property.  I thought that chair might win there for a while, but Abraham, Jesus and Justin conquered.  

Friday, 21 December 2018: Merida

Back to Merida today but this time only a day trip.  Our first stop was to see Mario where we initially talked about getting the cushions for our couch done.  We ended up getting not only that but also two love seats done and when he comes out to our house on 7 January, he will look at the kitchen for design input.  Yes, I am excited!  Our next stop was Alonso to turn back in the papers that Peter signed.  Then a quick and delicious lunch at Chaya Maya before we picked up our lamps.  Earlier in the week when we were here, Justin and I took turns hopping out of the car to look in this antique shop while the other one of us drove around the block two or three times.  We decided on three lamps, one for the outside of the front door, one for the commons and one accent light that reminds me of Morocco.  Don't know where that one will go yet, but it was too cool to pass by.  The obligatory stop at Sam’s was next for a few items for Peter before a very quick grocery store stop.  All this still meant Justin was driving home in the dark and now he has the same croop that I’ve had for the last three days.  Of course he was on the hit list.  Probably only a cold for both of us, but what an inconvenience.

Thursday, 20 December 2018: Casa Colibri

Went to Merida for one night and ended up staying for two.  We tried a new hotel -- Hotel Casa Yucatan.  We won't need to go back there.  The location was great and they were pet friendly, but I think it has been a while since the staff has met a dustmop or a scrub brush.  Our room was right on the street and it was very noisy -- all night long.  The second night we went back to Casa Carmita.  Unfortunately, there was no one there to meet us.  We rang the bell and pounded on the door.  Another guest let us into the grounds and they probably weren't very happy about that.  I know that they leave the keys in the doors so I started looking for an unoccupied room.  Found one that was a single -- that's not a big enough bed for the three of us so I kept looking.  Just like Goldilocks.  Found a room that was more to our needs so I started moving us in when Justin went to park the car.  We were just about all settled in when Miguel showed us apologetically.  It was only a minor inconvenience.  Our biggest goal for this trip was to make sure we came home with a stove top.  Thankfully we also found a guy to cover our cushions for our couch and he will also make two love seats for us.  He will come out to our house in early January to measure not only the cushions, but also the closets AND the kitchen.  We were very impressed with this guy and his team.  

Went to visit Alonso and Antonio.  Paid part of our bill with Alanso and got the car paperwork and my passport back from them too.  What a cluster!  Bijon is turning out to be quite the piece of work.  He has refused to pay his part of the closing costs with Alonso - about $1,880.  Most of this bill is for services that bring the corporation records up to being current.  This should have been done during the last twelve years.  Alonso has suggested that we with hold that amount from Peter's commission.  Alonso must be paid 100% before he will file the papers.  Peter is stuck in the middle and there is no way he should be penalized.  Of course we need to stay in the good graces of our lawyer and of course we will take care of Peter.  Yes, we did get a great deal on this place and no, we didn't pay hardly any rent when we stayed here all last winter.  It is the principle of the matter.  And now we see yet again why lawyers get such a bad name.

Another northern came in and hit Celestun.  Great waves; Erich would like it but there has been incredible damage to the beach.  Meanwhile, I have the croop.  I've been coughing and sputtering for days while alternating chills and fever.  Will Justin get it too?

Sunday, 16 December 2018: Casa Colibri

Yesterday we finished the screens and slept in our bedroom for the first night -- finally!  I think we both slept quite well.  

Jesus came again.  Carole dubbed him “Sweet Jesus” at one point and it kind of stuck.  He truly is a find with regard to workers.  Justin discovered that he probably can’t read.  He had used google translate for something and then showed Jesus the screen.  The look of terror in his eyes prompted Justin to say the message out loud.  It is so sad.  Robbie has a habit of asking each of the workers who comes to her home how much education they have.  Many have never been to school at all.  This is a fishing village and I guess you don’t need much formal education for that.  We pay him 40pesos an hour which it the going rate for non-skilled labor.  This is one more reason why it is important that Jonathan is able to apprentice with the electrician.

Justin going at it with his chainsaw while Jesus wields the sledgehammer.

With Jesus working with Justin in the courtyard, Abraham is freed up to continue creating in the gardens.  He's had desert rose growing in the "nursery" that was ready to plant into the ground.  This area just opposite our front door will be magnificent when it matures.  

And, speaking of google translate, I got a What’s AP message from Abraham that google translated something like “... the puppies were out in the street just like the llamas.”  No, we have dogs, cats and pigs, not llamas too.  Many of us learned a long time ago “come se llama?” is translated as “What is your name?” but more specifically it is “what are you called?”  Google didn’t translate “llama” to “call”.  Abraham had told me to close the gate or the dogs would get out.  Sure ‘nuf they did, just like he said.

The girls came over this evening with beer and salty snacks in hand.  Earlier in the week when Grelty asked if she and Carri could come over on Sunday, I thought she meant they’d visit with Abraham.  But no, they came to see Justin and me.  Grelty, Carri, Shayla, Rebecca and Celeste came and stayed for several hours.  It was a hoot.  Grelty is the only one who speaks a bit of English, so conversation was sometimes halted but all in all, we had a great time!

Friday, 14 December 2018: Casa Colibri

Alonso called at 8:00am this morning.  Thankfully.  I had tried literally all day for the past two days to get through to him so I was quite pleased when he called.  

There is a whole lot more to this story but for the sake of brevity, suffice it to say -- I messed up with our residency permits.  When you apply to the consulate for either temporary or permanent residency, they are looking for solvency.  We proved that we are financially solvent.  Initially I asked for temporary residency but somewhere in the process it got changed to permanent.  Alonso said he knows that the consulate advises (read: applies pressure) you to go for permanent and I guess I succumbed to that somewhere.  However, I didn’t know that permanent residents are not allowed to have a car with foreign plates.  Yikes!  After a lot of problem solving and talking to our lawyer, a guy that works with immigrations and a car insurance lady, we decided that Justin will go for permanent residency and I will stay as a tourist.  He can keep the bank account the we have for the corporation and I can keep the car.  We talked about making a trip to Belize to take the car in and out but then decided that if anything went wrong we were even farther from home.  So then we thought about make the run for the Texas border.  We’ve already forfeited the $500 deposit we put on importing the car since that was good for only 30 days.  We ended up deciding that I’d fly to the US and come back to Celestun.  We will worry about the car when we go back in April. Our appointment with immigrations for permanent residency is 18 January.  I’ll need to find a flight to the states and be back before that appointment. Goodness!!!

Wednesday, 12 December 2018: Celestún

Justin and I are eager to move into our very own bedroom.  We can handle waiting for a closet, for the shower to be reworked and for the new lighting to be installed but if we plan on getting any sleep at all, we can’t wait for screens.  We purchased all the supplies several weeks ago but we actually got down to the task on Wednesday.  

It has been time for us to celebrate birthdays.  Robert, Sandra’s son turned nine yesterday. He’d had a party with his peers at school so on Wednesday afternoon, it was time for adults. Sandra and Peter had us all over for pulled pork tacos and cake.  Robert really likes Justin and spending time with Robert reminds Justin fondly of time with younger students.  They spent time together working on a jigsaw puzzle and paying with a remote control boat in the pool.  

Sandra asked for cookies as Robert’s gift.  I was pleased that she remembered the chocolate chip cookies I’d made last year.  I’d made them for our chili party at the end of January and then taken some more to Peter for his birthday since he liked them so much. She’d asked so tried my hand at a new recipe: Salted Chocolate Shortbread Cookies.  They were ok but I won’t need to bake them again.  

Continued unrest in Paris?  Shooting in Strasbourg 

Impeachment?

Brexit?

Cohen is sentenced to three years.