Kitchen Work

We told the landlord a couple of years ago that we might want to change the tile work in the kitchen.  Although there is decorative tile on the walls behind the counter tops (which is not a favorite but we can live with it), the counter tops themselves and the front of the cabinets around the doors are a medium-blue tile.  I really dislike blue in homes and a whole kitchen has been difficult to bear.

To that you can add that the tile work was older and worn around the edges.

That's the corner of the new stove.

The kitchen sink was also an older stainless steel number with sarro (calcium) stains especially around the faucets.  We meant to replace the whole thing but thought it was going to be an expensive project, so kept putting it off.

Then the kitchen faucets started leaking, creating even more stains on the sink.  We decided that the fault was with the faucet, rather than just a simple gasket replacement job, since the water leaked out under the hot water knob whether we had turned on the hot water or the cold!  So we stopped at Home Depot on the way to Costco the next time we were in Celaya (the larger town about 40 - 45 km away).  Found the faucet we had seen on their website, bought it, and took it home. 

Eventually we called the maintenance company (still anticipating a huge bill) and asked them to install it.  While waiting for them to stop by and give us an estimate, we decided to replace the sink, too.  So we sent them off with a deposit to purchase the sink and needed materials for the installation.  It turns out that the sink superstructure was composed of - what else? - cement.  So the tiles around the old sink had to be chipped off, the cement leveled with hammer and chisel, then the new tile cemented (using real cement) into place.

Did I mention that the sink was about 1-1/2" short of the size of the hole in the counter top from the earlier sink?  So decisions  had to be made about spacing.

Lo and behold,  they also discovered that the rim of the sink was sandwiched between the counter top tile and the backsplash tile on the wall and that to remove the sink, the tile fractured!  So we had to add some new tile to the job.  Couldn't find blue tile (just as well) so went with an off-white that was approximately the background color of the wall/back-splash tiles.

And it looked pretty neat installed around the sink (oh yes, as I mentioned, the new sink was a little less wide than the original, so they needed to fill in with extra tile and also replace the backsplash tile with the off-white tile.  It was a pretty obvious difference, but it was also pretty obvious that it looked pretty nice!

So we worked up our gumption and asked what it would cost to re-tile the rest of the counters - and was pleasantly surprised to find it affordable!  So in a couple of weeks (April the 6th, actually) the old tile will be removed and new tile installed (saving the expense of re-grouting the old counters to more closely match the new work around the sink.

Oh, and here's the new sink.  The blue stripe at the bottom right-hand corner of the photo is the original tile which will also be replaced.

The new cross handles will make it simpler to turn the water on and off with soapy hands!

So we're going to have an almost brand new kitchen soon.  We replaced the estufa (stove w/oven) recently.  Next up - installing a recirculating hood over the new stove.  It isn't often that there's cooking smoke in the kitchen, but when it occurs, it's awful! Filtering the air will be a good thing; maybe the cabinets won't get so sticky....

Eventually we'll have the light switches for the backyard lights moved inside the living/dining rooms so we don't have to stumble outside in the dark before switching on the lights.  Hope to get that changed before visitors arrive later this year.

We'll post pictures of the completed kitchen once the work is done.  At least we got some of the work done before our current lease expired.  Should have a new one to sign this weekend!

Disney Cruise Line

Although this has nothing to do with San Miguel de Allende, word has it that it is likely that Disney Cruise Line will announce the rest of 2016's schedule tomorrow (Tuesday).  We heard last week that it was imminent and Tuesday is the customary day, so maybe!

They open booking for Platinums and Golds on the day following their announcement - like we could figure out our lives over night!  (It's been done, though.)  First day fares are almost always the most reasonable - before they start going up overnight!

Anyway, we've a cruise scheduled in April '16, so we're not planning another until later in 2017 - which will not be announced until whenever the next announcement is made.

Not sure we'll be on board a ship when the schedule we're hoping for [Fall of 2917] is announced to take advantage of those onboard booking specials, but we can always book the cruise whenever the announcement is made and then re-shop it the next time we are aboard.  First day prices and OBB specials, yeah!

But it's still exciting....

Tuesday Morning Update

Well, it's around 6:30 AM our time (which differs than the usual Central time thanks to the US's time keeping) and there's yet to be a big announcement.  Probably too early - though perhaps the past is not a good indicator of what to expect re: the balance of 2016?

Later yet --   So there was some news out today, but the actual itineraries will be released tomorrow and Thursday, it seems.   Some news was available today if you knew which URL to type in the correct field; links in their website didn't include the news.

We're pretty well set up as it is:  the EBTA and Baltic cruises this year (early summer) are booked; as well as a Western Caribbean cruise that includes Falmouth, Jamaica next spring; and, we hope to schedule an East Bound Panama Canal cruise with a park at either end in late summer of 2017 if it's offered.  That will bring us to twenty Disney cruises and we may hold it there a while so that we can do some destination intensive traveling.   It's hard to do both without a larger bank account than we have in retirement.

Rain, Rain Go Away...

I know that our family and friends NOB have been suffering through worse weather this winter, but it hasn't been its usual 'warm and sunny' down here.

We have friends in Boston (Hi Wally & Pauli, and Kim), family in Washington, DC, lots of family in the northern peninsula of Michigan (where it always snows - just worse this year) and Kentucky, friends in Texas (snowy, too!), Santa Fe, rainy in the Silicon Valley and the great NorthWest who have been slogging through rain and snow this year.

Still, it's been unseasonably cold and wet here in our part of Mexico.  I suppose the worse part is that it affects our homes since almost no one has central heating.  Concrete and brick homes adjust to the outside temperature quickly.  And once chilled, it takes a few days to warm up - if there aren't more rain and clouds in the meanwhile.

In January of the year we moved to San Miguel in the Spring, there was heavy rain (we were told it was unusual) that flooded homes near the stream that sometimes flows through town.  Perhaps it was just because so much junk accumulates while it's dry and when the rains came the junk - and the water behind it - got stuck on the low side of town.  I hear it was pretty nasty.

We had a slight repetition the next year when we were in town, though we were happy that we lived atop a hill in our little colonia of San Rafael, and not down by the stream bed.

We're nowhere near a stream now - once they finally fixed the storm drain at the bottom of our block - but there are others that run through town, mostly unnoticeable until the rains arrive.

And the dogs!  Neither Miyake nor Fiyero particularly like the bad weather.  They used to go outside and stand, ears flapping in the wind when we lived in Reseda.  But now if there's wind - much less thunder and lightning - they head for cover.  Maybe it's the way the windows and doors shake in the wind, I suspect. 

Miyake heads for the master bedroom's bathroom and huddles up in a corner and shakes.  Fiyero is a bit better, but during yesterday afternoon's thunder storm he was on the bed with me (I was reading, not sleeping) and got as close to me as possible (tried reading with a dog in your lap?).  He did calm down when the storm passed and even Miyake was back to normal by dinner time.  Unlike the day before yesterday when she wasn't calmed down enough to eat until nearly 8 pm.

Other than the rain last night - and its recurrence about 4 am this morning (it's just letting up now, around 7:30) - we're thinking that our gardener won't be working today - too wet!  Maybe he'll find time for us during the week???

So we feel no less for our friends NOB who have had to put up with the terrific weather this past winter, but are feeling a little sorry for ourselves, too.  What happened to 'Warm and Sunny' Mexico?

The Baltics

This little excursion began innocently enough:  We'd never been to see the Norwegian fjords.  Always wanted to go, but never got around to going.  So when Disney scheduled a Norwegian Fjord cruise we signed up for it in May 2015.  First Day pricing, yeah!

Then the question arose:  How do we get to Denmark (the starting place for the Norwegian cruise).  Why spend a bunch of money on plane tickets (flying places is quite handy, but usually annoying: seats are too close together, there a small (noisy) child nearby, they are out of the meal you really wanted, etc).  So why not sign up for the East Bound Trans Atlantic cruise? [EBTA]  We  had a swell time on the West Bound Trans Atlantic [WBTA] a few years ago; why not reverse the direction?   And, besides, we'd never been  to New York City (except for an ill-fated military flight to Germany when my plane engine caught fire), Newfoundland, Canada, and we sure hadn't been to Iceland before!  So it cost a little bit more - it would be worth it and it was 15 days long, many of them our favorite: sea days.

Then we looked at the calendar and wondered what we would do for the week between the EBTA and the Fjords....  Well, Disney had that figured out for us, too: why not sign up for the Northern European Capitals cruise during the intervening week?  Why not, indeed!?!  Copenhagen was reputed to be a lovely - though expensive - city; why not cruise to Tallin, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Stockholm, Sweden  plus a couple of sea days while waiting for the Norway cruise?  We'd never been to these places and hadn't even heard of Tallin!

So that's how our extravaganza happened: EBTA/Northern Capitals/Norwegian Fjords.  Twenty-nine days aboard the same ship!  And our travel agent, Kim, managed to get us in the same cabin on all three cruises!  Disney is pretty good about moving your stuff to different cabins for you, but you'd need to pack it up.  This way we don't even need to do that!  Our first B2B2B cruise was settled. [Back-to-back-to-back]

However, could we fly to Florida for embarkation without a stop at Walt Disney World?  No!!!  We always spend some time at WDW whenever we cruise from Port Canaveral.  And we weren't returning to Orlando, so we booked a room at the Boardwalk Resort for five nights (arrival/four parks/departure).  We even know which park we will visit each day and where we're eating lunch and dinner each day (ressies made).  And EPCOT - our favorite park - is a short walk from the resort so we can always end the day watching IllumiNations!

Our friends, Sarah and Mum, heard of our planned travels and invited us to join them at Victoria's and Albert's at the Grand Floridian.  How could we say 'No'?  So we didn't!  We've always wanted to dine there but getting a ressie is a chore.  Luckily Sarah took care of that item.  And there will be other friends (our travel agent Kim & her husband) at EPCOT the day we arrive, so we've made plans to 'run into each other' that day.  It seems to be all planned out.

Then we easily booked flights from Mexico City to Orlando.  Going in the other direction (east to west) was a bit more difficult.  We finally settled on Iceland Air (it's supposed to be wonderful if you're on an actual Iceland Air plane; not so much if your flight is palmed off on a contract airline...we'll pray for an Iceland Air flight - it's a 7-1/2 hour flight across the Atlantic).   We had friends from NYC (hi, Ben & Rick) who recently flew to Iceland and I think they must have been on the contract airline...it sounded dreadful.

But we finally settled on Iceland Air from Copenhagen to Chicago (O'Hare airport) via Iceland and Toronto.  Then a stay over near O'Hare and continuing on the next day on Volaris Airlines (from Midway Airport, across town) to Mexico.   This flight would deposit us at the Leon Airport, much closer to San Miguel de Allende.  It's still an hour's ride from BJX to SMA, but better than three-and-a-half hours from MEX to SMA.

So everything is set!  We studied the port excursions that Disney was offering, and signed up for a few additional independent tours [Segways forever!] - keeping in mind to avoid really steep climbing and using alternate forms of transportation (buses, boats, Segways, walking tours, et cetera).  When the appropriate date arrived [we are Platinum on DCL, so everything was open] we booked our Disney port excursions and Palo dining reservations aboard ship.  We had also booked our wine packages aboard the ship.  What to do next? 

We then turned our attention to packing.  How do we pack for a total of 39 days in a variety of weathers?  And what about formal nights, semi-formal nights, dining at Palo brunches and evenings?  Plus warm Florida weather, North Atlantic weather, Baltic weather.  Especially since we had jettisoned our cold weather duds when we moved to Mexico five years ago?

Solution:  two big suitcases (yes, we had to pay for the extra one on some of the airlines; other lines expected us to bring two suitcases) and a spate of shopping at Orvis - bless them!  I love their clothes, but they are a wee bit expensive, so we had to be careful on what we spent our money.  We even got some new tux shirts!  Now we're set, eh?

Then the phone rang - it was Iceland Air calling.  It seems that the 3-leg flight from Copenhagen to Chicago via Reykjavik and Toronto had a little problem.  Two legs [CPH/KEF (Reykjavik) and KEF/YYZ (Toronto)] were fine, but the third flight on Air Canada's schedule had been advanced and there was no way we would make the connection.

But the friendly Iceland Air agent had a plan:  they would book us on the first Air Canada flight out of Toronto the next morning.  Well, it was better than nothing, so we agreed.  We then hurriedly booked a hotel in Toronto and cancelled our hotel in Chicago.  The only hitch is that the first Air Canada flight the next morning is sub-contracted to United Airlines and there's a hitch in the get-a-long when changing flights like this - the receiving airline has 48 hours in which to accept us or decline to accept us.   And the 48 hours is now well past and we haven't been advised of their decision.  I did check the UA site and there are a lot of seats available, so there shouldn't be a problem (unless they decide to cancel the flight), but it would be nice to have our seats reserved.  Guess I contact Iceland Air tomorrow....

Michael and I both like our space, so our usual approach is to book seats C/D in the same row, so we each have an aisle seat but can chat with each other easily across the aisle.  I'm hoping that the seats assigned (!) follow this pattern, but if they don't, we still have time to change them -- assuming we can find out what they are and sign into the United reservation.  Air Canada's website only shows that the flights in our itinerary needed to be changed to accommodate the new schedule, but I can't sign-in to the United website to verify the seats (and change them if needed).  Now, it's a short flight (about 1-1/2 hours) so if they stick us next to each other that would be doable, but it's at the end of the trip and we'll probably be cranky by then!

Once this is settled, we have only to finalize our packing list (your should see the guest bedroom's bed), actually pack,  and reserve the airport shuttle transportation between SMA/MEX and BJX/SMA  Michael found a great hotel within the Mexico City airport terminal from which we are flying and reserved our room before the first flight, so we're set there.  Since we don't leave home  until May 9th, we still have time to work this out.  The last time we went to Mexico City to fly out, we booked a combination (shuttle to the Queretero bus station and then a bus directly to the airport terminal) and since there was another couple on the shuttle who had paid for door-to-door service, we got to ride along!  We'll probably try this again for this trip.  If worse comes to worse, we'll get what we paid for.  Otherwise, yippee!!!

We have suffered set-backs in other trips we've taken:  I remember our flight to Barcelona for the WBTA.  Although our flight arrived on time at Heathrow, we had to change terminals - and they weren't connected - and by the time we got through the new security, we'd missed our flight into BCN.  Luckily there was one more flight that night which they put us on ('us' is a collective noun, as there were several of us in this predicament).  And although we made it on the flight, it was also the last flight into the BCN airport.  If we hadn't caught the last shuttle into town, we would have been stuck at the closed airport.  As it was, there we were in downtown Barcelona, stumbling around dragging our luggage behind us, looking for our hotel.  We finally found a tourist info kiosk which told us we were only three blocks from the hotel and pointed us in the right direction.

We really don't want to do that again!!!