Balancing Travel and Household Needs

So, as we prepare for a Fall full of travel, things are going south around the house.

Travel Plans - We leave in early August for a week in Santa Fe for 4 operas (the fifth opera was one we're seen several times and it didn't seem to be necessary in our lives).  We've also opted for a prepared dinner each night rather than the buffet with knowledgeable talk about that night's opera.

Later in August trailing into mid-September we'll be on the Disney Wonder sailing through the Panama Canal from San Diego to Florida, followed by several days at Universal City for a Harry Potter fest - at long last.

Then in late October it's a cruise on the Disney Fantasy with friends from a previous cruise followed by time at Walt Disney World for Food and Wine.  We'll find out next Thursday whether we get the part of the F/W festival that we'd like to have.

Followed by several days in November in Puerto Vallarta at a resort that is new to us.

And in January 2017 we'll be off to Cabo for a family gathering of siblings in the last year before our ownership kicks in.

Then nothing til September when it's a flight to Vancouver for a cruise to Hawai'i then time at Disney's Aulani.

Phwew! 

PROBLEMS AROUND THE HOUSE - So, of course, things are breaking around the house!    The usual Pet B 'n' B we used during travel will be closed for the first trip in August, so we're checking out another spot next week.  Larger and more organized, we're not sure how the kids will take to it (or the place will take to our kids) but we'll find out next Friday when we all go for a visit.  Since we rather cater to their likes/dislikes for feeding, we're weaning them on to a new combination of foods that will have a greater chance of being followed at the new place. (And simplify life for us if they like it!)

Then the trusty coffee grinder decided it was tired and has to be coaxed into action.  We buy our coffee beans in good-sized bags at Costco and grind it each morning so it's fresh!  Reading about the Breville grinder we use, people are recommending regular cleaning.  Now, this is something that we've never done in the 6 years we've had it.  There was never any reason to do so.  We use a dark roast coffee bean and things have just been fine all this time.  Recently we tried a different bean - Rwandan - that is darker still and rather oily - read 'sticky'.  Though that may be the problem, it's really good coffee and I'd hate to abandon it.  And since we've pre-mixed the two beans for grinding, it may be a while before we can switch back to a single (non-Rwandan) bean.

I've tried to clean the innards of the grinder, but removing the burr grinding part seems to be problematic.  There is a newer Breville model that advertises 'easily removable burrs for cleaning', but it's rather pricey, so we're considering less expensive models...and in the meanwhile, we try to coax the present grinder into action.  The last time at Costco, we ground the bag of Rwandan coffee before we took it home, so there's always that to hold us.

And lastly (to date) we've noticed that our front-loading Bosch washer (which has had minor problems since we moved it to Mexico with us) has decided to fill with water - even though turned 'off' - between uses.  The first time (yesterday) it was only slightly filled; this morning it was half-full and went everywhere when Michael opened the door! So it will finally be time to replace it with a agitator-less tub model by Daewoo, I think.  And we can save a couple hundred pesos by opting for a silver or white model instead of the fire-engine red one! (Probably not worth the cost for a paint job - sigh!)

You'd think everything could just wait until next year before going 'boink'!  It will make affording all this and the travel a little more challenging, but we have non-refundable deposits everywhere so we'll be going....  At least we can turn off the water supply to the washer to prevent unwanted tub-filling until there's a sale on the washer!  Hope it's not while we're gone somewhere....

Oh, Boy, Rain!

What started out as a gentle rain has suddenly turned vicious!  That gentle sprinkle quickly worsened, the lightening and thunder turned into a constantly rolling thunder - even when the lightening wasn't obvious.  Thunder has been roiling and rolling for the last 10 - 15 minutes while the rain has intensified and lessened then intensified again, but not given up!

Luckily, Michael went up to the third floor and placed towels at the base of all the windows and doors.   Guess we should have had the windows in the cupola grouted when we had the chance!

And now Michael is reporting hail is coming down.

We did have a blackout a few minutes ago with the resulting bings, bangs, and ringing when the power turned back on.  Since the blackout affects the modem and router, anything connected to the system sounds off when the power is restored.

Luckily, we had prepared a tuna noodle casserole for dinner tonight, and we're taking advantage of the passing storm to let it cool off a bit!

Later

Well, the predicted rain has reached us!  What started out as a gentle rain - straight down, no wind - has become more forceful.  Of course, it arrived just as we were feeding the dogs their evening meal, so they were sort of freaked out!  Storms do that to them.

At least there's still no wind, so we don't have to charge up the stairway to the roof top to put towels around the windows and door.  I suppose we should be thankful for  small favors.

What started out as rolling thunder has become more strident thunder - crashing, even.  But the rain has remained the same - perhaps even lessening a bit.

Michael has moved the van out from under the balcony overhang so that there's a chance of it being completely washed by the rainfall.

Miyake is sleeping beneath Michael's work table; Fiyero has just moved over to my side - looking worried.  Somehow I don't think telling him that 'everything is okay' convinces him that that is so!

Hopefully it will stop raining before it is time to go to bed, or it may be futile to convince them to follow us upstairs....downstairs is safer.

Time for another drink!

Excitement?

Looking at another blogger's post - showing a picture of the shiner he received while playing rugby - I thought, Gee, what if we lived an exciting life?

Instead, I'm reporting that it rained last night!  Or even that just wait until we start traveling again (August) when things will be happening, though I may not remember to post about it until it's all a blur...and I sum it up in a few sentences.

In the meanwhile, I can report that according to the weather map on the BBC, we're to have rain 'sometime' today.

And we're walking into downtown to pick up a package containing a new crocodile hat, the first one having been mangled before we got it.  The hat is a necessity because we're (a group sailing together on the Disney Cruise Line) are going to dinner one night in costume as the Lost Boys from Peter Pan.  Now you may not remember a boy dressed as a crocodile, but there was a certain crocodile who lusted after the rest of Captain Hook after tasting his hand - and who swallowed a ticking clock.  I've got the clock to hang around my neck (its ticks nicely) while wearing my crocodile suit and needed the hat to finish off the costume.  The suit is a 'onesiee' style (think jammies).

Michael, on the other hand, is wearing a more traditional lost boys costume which involves a fox hat... Disney not allowing face-covering costumes on board ship.  His costume is of mascot quality, but we had to substitute the hat for the head piece (see above reason).

Michael has just announced that the shower is available, so that's all for now, folks!

Rain Update

[Guess we don't have the ability to save a partial post as a draft for further notations.  Day-before-yesterday's draft is gone!]

So I was talking about the fact that we've had rain - and thunder and lightning - for several recent nights.  Monday night was only a distant thunder and lightning show.  Last night, een though rain was predicted, was a big zero.  We're hoping that tonight's predicted rainfall comes through.  The rain at night is 1) while we're asleep, and 2) almost not noticeable, and 3) really cools things down.  Tho' the dogs are quite aware of it and either hide next to the bed or hop up on the bed and snuggle closely.

I see that rain is predicted most days for the next 14 days.  However, since we don't have an airport in town - so no 'official' weather reporting - it's mostly a guess-and-by-golly affair.  I suppose that some of that predicted rain is 'nearby' and that's what counts when your forecast site is from Britain!

We do have some local amateur weather stations that will tell you what happened, but must rely on the British site for forecasts.

In other news, I have a molar that's killing me!  If I poke around in my mouth with a finger to try and identify which tooth is the problem, it's sometimes difficult to locate the offending tooth.  It would be nice to say it's X tooth, ya know?  But try eating something and you'd think it was my entire mouth!  Guess I'll have to break down and visit a dentist tomorrow.  Figuring it will probably take a root canal to sort things out, I've done some research and there's a well-recommended one that is walkable from our house.  Guess I'll walk down there tomorrow morning to see what's what. 

(You may know that I hate going to the doctor.  That was what was so nice about belonging to Kaiser when we lived in Los Angeles.  Just walk in and someone will take care of you!) 

It would be nice if I could be seen tomorrow, but we'll see how that turns out.  The doctor splits his time between here and Celaya; not sure what his schedule is.  Luckily, Michael has a few Ketorolaco pills left from his implant work; I've taken one and things are feeling pretty good!  Of course, the Margarita may be helping that along....

Fans, Fans, Everywhere

Seems to be el hot-o time here in San Miguel.  The days may start off cool, but it quickly warms up and ourhouses remain hot through the evening.

So it's fans in the dining room, fans in the bedrooms, and a fan in the office.  Just moved the bedroom fan so it stirs   up the air without blowing directly on us - and I slept until 4 am this morning.  Otherwise I would be up several times during the night for more water....

Walks downtown are early in the morning - before things heat up - with return trips to our little fraccionamiento by bus. And if we don't exit the bus at the Mega stop, the bus will let us off at our cross-street!


In somewhat-related news (related because I'm still spending a lot of time going over our cruise plans for the next three years - did you hear that Disney came out with Summer 2017 today?).  Also Disney has seen fit to assign us a cabin for our Fantasy voyage in October.  This seems to be earlier than usual - the paid-in-full date isn't until 7/24/16 - but it's on their website - Cabin 6690 - so it must be right.   It's one of the cabins across the stern on Deck 6 with an extra deep verandah.  About as far astern on the ship as we can go without getting our feet wet!  It's notated as a 06B in this picture, but it's really a 05E.  And this is the Disney Dream, but it's identical to the Disney Fantasy.

Farewell, Tannat

Well, there will be no more cooking classes in La Lejona.  Last Friday morning was the last serving at our little restaurant down the street in La Lejona.

After an altercation with someone on the 'Improvements to La Lejona' committee, the person who had issues with Pedro (the husband of the restaurant duo) made a complaint to the authorities.  This resulted in an inspection, and - as the home owner didn't want to go through the steps to commercialize the building - the restaurant needed to close.

So we were told after our little group (only 6 were present last Friday) met that they were closing that day.

We're all terribly sad about it.  It wasn't exactly Mexican (the wife/cook was from Columbia) but the food was sooo tasty!

We made arrangements to meet at another location nearby this coming Friday - Bove, located in a commercial strip mall nearby - which won't be as wonderful (and reasonably priced) as Tannat, but will suffice until we find another place to gather.  And it may turn out to be fine.  There's a new restaurant in the strip mall location - Carlos' Beans  - that may be open for breakfast once they finally finish work on the location.  The problem is that breakfast - in Mexico - is not at 9:00 or 9:30, but closer to eleven or twelve.  So choices are limited since we are all expats who still want breakfast earlier!

Unfortunately, this arrangement was made - tastelessly - in the presence of the owner and his wife - but, oh, well.  It couldn't be helped.  Farewell, Tannat, it was great while it lasted.  Best wishes in your future endeavors.