Thursday, 23 February 2023: Casa Colibri

 Carole went to Mérida today to chase her electronic signature.   What a mess.  Justin and I need to work on our too.  We've been told if it were today, Carole wouldn't be able to sell.  But, her sale isn't officially final???

Catalino installed the ceiling fan in the grande cocina yesterday.  

Antonio is installing the cabinets in Dellene’s room today. They look fabulous!

Mochi was supervising all the workers in the house.

Work continues on the garage.  

Laura came to give the dogs their shots today   She thinks Gemma had bortadella. We think it is something more but we will treat the kennel cough for now. 

It has been super hot the last few days. 

Aholi came today and that makes everything better. 

Monday, 20 February 2023: Presidents’ Day at Casa Colibri.

Biden visits the Ukraine showing US and western support.  Friday will be one year since the initial Russian invasion. 

Jimmy Carter is on hospice care 

Aaron Rogers is in the middle of his darkness and silence retreat. Goodness. He said he’d make his decision quickly and not hold the Packers hostage. I’d say he’s just fine and dandy being in the headlines everyday until he makes a decision. 

Major coup for us last week in that we moved money from our Schwab brokerage account to our Mexican bank account. No, it’s not a big deal on the surface…. A couple of key strokes and it’s fine. But in our case, we’ve been using Capital Credit Union to move the money and they require, in addition to a pint of blood, and they want you to come into the bank to verify the transaction before they charge you $150. Schwab required us to initiate the transaction on line and then followed up with a phone call and only charged us $15!  Score!!!

Shrimp and grits for dinner with Carole.

Friday, 17 February 2023: Casa Colibri

    
Today I baked bacon in the oven.  I’ve learned to bake roux, steel cut oats, risotto and now bacon.  All are incredible time saving methods for traditionally very labor intensive tasks.  

                

 
Aholi came in the afternoon as she does each week.  I told her this week I needed to take her to Green Bay with me. 
We sort of continue no-cook Sunday and we’ve added no cooking dinner after Aholi. Carole joined us for dinner at Tia Candy, a new (to us) restaurant on the beach,  Justin and I enjoyed coconut shrimp.  Carole is the perfect guest.  She’s totally independent and fun.  She lost her phone yesterday and retrieved it this morning.  She was lucky.  And, she didn’t totally flip out (like I would have done). 

Tuesday, 14 February. Hacienda Santa Rosa

  

Carole is at our house and work continues on the garage but today was Valentine’s Day.  Justin and I set off to hacienda Santa Rosa.  We came here a few years ago for lunch on Valentine’s Day and this year, being the year of the hacienda, we decided to come back and spend the night.  After Sotuta de Peon for New Year’s and Yaxcopoil for Justin’s birthday, we’d saved the best for last,  this place is magnificent.  There were so few people, we could almost pretend it was just us.

We roamed the grounds…Justin was in his element.  He got a clipping or two and a handful of seeds he will ask Abraham to get growing. 
Does this count as market research?  Can we deduct this from our taxes as we check out others in the hotel industry?
We went for a swim before we tucked into our room at sunset to avoid the bugs.
What a treasure.  The hotel is owned by Marriot and is part of their Bonvoy Luxury collection… reached out to Kim since we’d stayed in a Bonvoy for her wedding. 
We surfaced later for a late dinner where we shared the dining room with only one other couple who’d finished their meal before our entrees were served. What a fabulous way to spend Valentine's day with the man I love...and my dog.

Sunday, 12 February 2023: Casa Colibri

Our resident chef, Carole, made pancit for dinner. 
I sure do miss Pilipino food!

Julie left, again.  She found a house in Merida.  I insisted that she go to the doctor a couple of days ago.  He diagnosed her with not bed bugs but “swimmers itch”.  He gave her meds and advice.  I’d say we had a classic case of what he said/ what she heard.  Somehow with all this Julie has decided that she can’t go in the water anymore and she decided to leave Celestun. 

What’s next for me?  It’s Super Bowl Sunday.  I made a big pot of chili.  Justin and I went to Los Pampanos for dinner and on the way home, he saw that the new sports bar in town, Home Run, was open.  He brought me home and he went back for the game.  It would totally be the bees knees if we could count on watching Packer football games here in town next year.  Please! 

Tuesday, 7 February 2023: Merida Airport

Abraham continues to make our gardens grand.  

Hugo and his crew continue to build our garage.

Meanwhile...Julie returned after a long weekend with Mali in San Francisco.  Mali was a bit stronger than she had been at Christmas and Julie reported that they’d had a good trip.  Julie has quite settled in to Celestun.  From the beginning she said she stay probably until May.  She was looking for an apartment in town for after we leave in March and one came available in February.  So, Julie moved out to be on her own and close to centro.  She was gone for about four days and she came back.  She thought her new apartment had bed bugs as she had squillions on bites that itch like crazy.  Admittedly, I wasn’t excited about the idea of brining bed bugs into our home so we dropped all Julie’s clothes off at the lavandaria when I helped her move back home.  Julie has had stomach issues since before she went to San Francisco.  She eats in lots of places that I’d forego and she eats lots of foods that I choose to pass.  Both Justin and I have had a bout or two with “the touristas” and we do pretty much everything we can do do avoid having it again.    Anyway, Julie is miserable.  The drama level is high.  And, she doesn't even know the bullet she dodged since her apartment in Celestún was owned by Gary ad Wendy.  No, they did not return her money.  

To add to this drama, we haven’t had water in three days.  A transformer went out at the cenote so the entire village is out.  Aargh!!!

Steph didn’t have a great time…Julie is having a melt down… at least Carole knows what she is getting into when she arrives.

And, today she arrived!  Surprisingly, ok, not surprisingly, her flight from Toronto was delayed but that gave us time for more errands.
Back in Celestun all was well…still no water, but all is well.

Thursday, 2 February 2023: Celestun

Look what 's coming to Celestun! 
Yes, you are right! 
A second ATM! 
Stay tuned!

We had a meeting scheduled at 6pm with "the Presidente” of Celestún.  A couple of years ago we learned that the Presidente is really the mayor but I rolled my hair and put on a skirt and off we went. Both Justin and I had a list:  the trash on the beach including medical waste, the dead dogs, stealing of the sand, it’s not really a public access, the squatters at the back of our property more recently, the clearing of the land to our north as a result of a “land grab”.   The list is not sort.   We did have a few good things to say about the road repairs and construction. Well guess what, he wasn’t there!  They said he was at the beach getting ready for the governor. We talked to his clerk, or rather the individual who had a translator app on her phone. We shared some details and then reset the meeting for next week on Wednesday and we asked for Juan, the translator. We will see.