HITCHED!!!!

Hitched!!!!

This is long overdue. It’s going to be a long one…as if they all aren’t….but we have a lot of people to thank for making our wedding so fantastic.  We also had our friend Jonathan come visit here in Panama. Had a few other fun events over the last couple of months…so read on if you’d like.

Here is the link to MANY pictures: http://pix.kg/p/175278504214%3A1501508904/scl

Mom and Kenny: If it weren’t for your invitation to come visit you in Florida, we might not have had that flame lit under our butts to finally take the plunge! It was a perfect destination for us so that we were able to have so many people come and be part of the big day. We are both craving more of that carrot cake. We also appreciate all the shopping trips. Our closets look like mini Wal-Marts.

Dad and Pat: All of our belly’s were full and thirsts quenched. It turned out to be a great party and we wouldn’t have been able to put something like that on without you both. You were a couple of die hards!!!….hanging in there to the very end and ‘cutting up the sand’ with us. I’ve never seen Wayne dance like that. Not sure I’m ready to see it again just yet. HA!!!

Dad and Debbie: Amtrak will never be the same and I’m sure your butts weren’t either. We know it wasn’t an easy trip but we are really glad you made it. The river tour was great and a nice relaxing break.

Alan, Vicki and Aunt Joan: Well for starters I know next time you all throw a party, I will not eat or drink for 3 days prior! What a spread and we hardly put a dent in it. We tried!!! All the pictures too that Vicki took are amazing. You captured our entire day. Thank you so much!!!

Michelle, David and the Wee Ones: It was a blast spending time with you guys. We can’t wait for the next Tiki Bar Hop! We’ll HOP even more next time J Thanks for providing us with the cutest little ring bearers ever.

Tom and Jill: Friends we met here in Panama. You guys are just great. I knew wherever I looked and saw you two that there was a great conversation being held. It was such a pleasure having you both and everyone just loved you

Jim, Eden, Chris and Debbie: More friends we met here in Panama!!! You teased us with your visit in FL…now we can’t wait for you to be back in Panama sitting at the Playa Arenal cantina with us. Playa Venao has seen it’s first GATOR towels!!!! The rum…well that didn’t live a long life! Buuurrrbbb.

Melissa: You kept the party going and made sure the dance floor was never empty. Without you I would have been in shorts and tank top for our big day. It was a lot of fun shopping for our ‘Gettin Hitched Attire’.

Amy and Brian: A couple of dancing and picture taking fools. I had so many pictures that I knew I never took….ah, I know who took them! You guys were a riot on the dance floor…well, dance ‘sand’. Soooo, get the Panama trip planned. Get down here!

Darlene: In the middle of the crazy holiday season you up and left the hubby and kids behind to come. Awesome. Your glitter eye shadow did the trick. THANK YOU! Everyone loved you. You lit up whatever part of the room you were in.

Aunt Ellen and Ray: Yum! Yum! Yum! Christmas dinner was out of this world. We had such a great day and went to bed overstuffed. Just how it should be on Christmas. Your pizza recommendation left us in the same state…overstuffed and happy!!!! We really enjoyed our visits with you.

Aunt Marie: Thank you for thinking of us, we were thinking of you too. We need to work on getting you and Mike down here…..ok, or maybe we work on getting up there? Your email and advise will be kept close at hand!

Marshall & Timmy: We ALMOST rung in the new year together….close enough. Having you guys come our last couple of days was a great way to end vacation. I don’t care what you say, Timmy is 21.

Heather and Mike: Our hearts jumped when we got a knock on our door thinking it might be you!!!!…. but the wonderful bottle of champagne filled in just nicely!!! HA!!!! Wayne almost got 5 across the teeth when he opened it up to share with everyone. There are some things that just aren’t meant to be shared. He’ll learn!

We had an incredible time in Florida for 2 ½ weeks. Our trip started in Panama City where we met up with Mary and Goldie. They are one of the first couples we ever met here. We also finally visited the canal. It only took us a year and a half. We were happy to get home though…we really missed the dogs. They seemed to miss us too as they attached themselves to us for the first couple of days that we were back. They were well taken care of and had a great time with their girlfriend Lou.

We had a couple of weeks back in Panama before our friend Jonathan came and stayed with us for a week. His introduction to Seco went very well. It was the beverage of choice most days!! We did the usual Pedasi thing….beach, boogie boarding, fishing, etc. Somehow we managed to fit in plenty of visits to the cantina’s too where Jonathan quickly made friends. Bad music from the 1980’s, a guy who learned all his English watching The Simpson and a few rounds of Seco….How does that not create friendships. Jonathan decided for his trip back to the city to catch his flight that he wanted the experience of taking the bus. Well he got that! Everyone said there was no more room until the bus driver stepped in and made room by plopping a child on his mother’s lap and squeezing Jonathan in. Cozy. We’ll just call it cozy J We had such a great visit. It’s always hard to say good bye to people when they come visit. The good news is we’ve got 4 more friends coming February 26^th. Yahooo, Brenda, Kenny and pals.

The house has come to a screeching halt. We stopped work while we were away and since coming back we’ve gotten a lot of wood for our roof and ceiling but there’s a lot more to come and a lot of planning, sanding and staining before we can get the crew back. Our last shipment of wood is stuck some 6 hours away….there’s a protest going against the opening of copper mines. This protest has closed THE ONLY FARGIN ROAD THERE IS! So we wait. We are pretty good at waiting.

In the meantime, the guys building our house have taken another job at our friend’s Bev and Larry’s place. They are having this amazing pool and patio put in that overlooks the mountains AND ocean. It’s got to be one of the most spectacular views here. We haven’t mentioned it to them yet, but we both feel it would be to their benefit to adopt a middle aged married couple. We are house broken and we’d happily look after that pool for them.

We are taking Spanish lessons 4 days a week now. Really?….am I really this slow? WOW, it’s scary. It’s a lot of fun though. By the time they all speak English here, I’ll be fluent Spanish! NUNCA!

Had some good friends, Janice and Lynn leave us here in Panama to move back to the states. After being back there for a couple of weeks, I sure can see the draw. Food everywhere!!!! Underwear that IN MY SIZE doesn’t cut off circulation to both my legs. Shorts and tank tops in PLAIN COLORS without ‘you want some of this’ written across them in bright pink sparkles. Enjoy the states guys!!!! We miss you.

I had an all girls fishing trip last week on my friend Alice’s boat. What a blast. Went out and around Canas island and all through the mangroves too. It was gorgeous and so much fun. Drinks back at Kippy’s wasn’t half bad either. Ummm, yes, you might have noticed I’m not talking about our catch. We did catch but nothing we could eat….If I can’t eat it, I don’t count it! J

Cheers everyone!!!!

Oh and I’ve got my first 2 pineapples growing!!!! YAHOO!!!!!!!! So exciting.

Well by this time I can say I'm fully recovered from my brother and Kristen's visit. Phew, just in time for our trip back to the US on the 20th. We had an awesome time with Tom and Kristen. They've only been gone a couple weeks but it feels like forever. I want to say we partied like rock stars, but, well, let's just say we've matured some and realized the benefits of a good nights sleep.

I've switched over to Kodak. Hopefully you can see photos here. Here are a bunch from Tom and Kristen's visit and another link with the latest on the house.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=330289463214%3A1415046935
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=730289463214%3A843419563

One of the highlights had to be our fishing trip. Kristen started the day by catching her first fish EVER. From there it just never ended. We ended up with 1 dorado, 2 Marlin pecking at the lures, 2 yellow fin tuna and 9 skip jack tuna....equally if not better than yellow fin to eat. Of course that evening we gobbled down plenty of sushi before the gourmet meal I'd been waiting for....Kraft Mac & Cheese and Shake N Bake pork chops. Good, sh*tty food all at the same time.

We spent Thanksgiving at our friend Joe's place. There had to be 40 people there. Tons of good food, drinks and fun. His house looks out to the ocean but most eyes were glued to the HUGE TV watching football. That's ok, that's what Thanksgiving is all about in addition to eating and drinking yourself silly.....Kristen...whooops, I mean, I'm not going to mention any names....KRISTEN...whoops.

Kristen and I stayed pretty much intact. My brother and Wayne....well, boogie boarding got the best of them. A couple smashed toes and some bruised ribs. No hospitals required so nothing too serious. Although Wayne's toe is still huge and blue...it's pretty much broken.

The weather held out pretty good for the most part. Even rain in 90 degree weather doesn't dampen things too much. We had a great trips to Playa Venao, Playa El Toro and Isla Iguana. Spent a few afternoons pool side at Play El Toro until it became apparent that cleaning the pool once a week is too much to ask. Hey, they had domino's to play and soccer to watch....we understand. NOT!

We hired a driver one day to bring us to the Abuelo and Seco distillery. They weren't harvesting sugar cane so the tour was quick but we got to sample some rum. Glad we hired a driver....as he got right up in there too and swigged a couple down. Not having reached our goal of stupidness we then headed to the Casino...free drinks while they take our money....somehow that's not really free. Lunch followed and still we weren't feeling we were getting our money's worth out of the driver.....who also enjoyed a few beers at lunch...again, why did we hire him?...Oh, he's just a super nice guy. So a jug of grape juice and a bottle of seco guaranteed the results we were looking for.

WOW, it was just good to have family here!!!!!

House update...well it's still coming along great. Septic is just about in. I do believe it could handle all of Pedasi after a night of drinking...and that's saying something!!!! Our wood for our roof came in...well most of it. The almond wood which will be used for our beams all came from ONE tree. Amazing. It's gorgeous wood and super heavy. All of the wood we are using came from Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean side of Panama. Permits are required to harvest the wood...believe it or not...and that's a good thing. This wood was cut and then carried, CARRIED out of the jungle. It took a couple of months to get it from the time we ordered it. We'll put everything on hold while we are away...so that will set us back 3 weeks, but hey, what's the rush..

We are looking forward to our trip which will start off in Panama City. We'll FINALLY go on a canal tour and visit some friends in the city. We fly to FL on the 20th, we'll enjoy the holidays with family and of course the big day will be on the 28th. Wayne is so lucky. He can hardly believe it himself!!!! :) Hopefully the weather will be with us and we can get married outside and then enjoy the afternoon at Hiram's bar/restaurant with about 30 people.....We are so lucky to have our family and friends willing to travel down to be with us. We've even got some friends we made here in Panama that live in FL and will be attending. Cousins, aunts, moms, dads, sister, nephews, friends....WOW, we'll all be together and it's not for a funeral.

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/fe/l=en_US/p/Organizer/AlbumID=8382300013/a=124922891_124922891/s_c=0/s_se=FDR/s_pt=REP,PRE/s_ccmpg=cjcmpg#state=%7B%22pl%22%3A%7B%22uc%22%3A2%2C%22aid%22%3A%228382300013%22%2C%22vp%22%3A%22g%22%2C%22sb%22%3A5%7D%2C%22ovm%22%3A%7B%22v%22%3A%22s%22%7D%7D
Here is the link to Snapfish. Once again I can't seem to share my photos like I had been. A few of you said you weren't able to see the pics. Sorry, not sure what is happening. Hopefully this time you can see them.

Even tho this is a new blog, I can't seem to remove the picture of Melvin with the chicken in his mouth.

It's only been a month since my last update but lots has been happening and with the arrival of my brother in just 16 days!!!!!! a lot more will be happening. So I figured I'd get a quick update out now and start fresh after my brother's visit.

In just 3 weeks we went from a dirt foundation to having all the walls up to 7 feet. I don't even have the most recent pictures here. The house is coming along great and Wayne is really happy with the guys he has working for him. There are usually 8 guys there at all times. Juan, the boss, is great (I have a crush on him...will posts pictures and girls, you will see why :). Him and Wayne have full conversations on the phone, see each other the next day and both admit that neither of them had a clue what the other was saying. Lots of head shaking up and down and 'ok, ok, si, si, good, good, bien, bien'...next day they are both like, WHAT/QUE???? It's pretty hysterical.

My boss Jack is in town. Great guy. I love working for him. He took Wayne and I, Jose (my manager), his wife and Ingrid (the girl I replaced) and her husband to lunch at Villa Camilla. WOW, what a place. There are a lot of pictures from that day. For my rich friends, this is where you will stay when you come visit. Do I have any rich friends????

This past weekend was a total blast.... Friday night was a great party at Casa de Campo (great B&B here in town). Great people, food, drinks and music. The next day we met back to Casa de Campo so that we could walk along the parade route with everyone. Now here's something you don't see in most parades back in the states....a mule leading the way, pulling a cart full of coolers and the coolers topped off with everything you can imagine. And it wasn't serve yourself...they had staff working it and making sure that if you were part of this group, your hands were never empty and your thrist always quenched. I kept saying to Wayne...'how did we get here! I can't believe this is my life!'...I repeat....A mule, with staff, serving me drinks while I walked in a parade! Seriously!!!! Ok, downfall.....they just don't do the port-a-potty thing here.

Tastes Like Chicken

We aren't making any new friends with our new neighbors. Melivin has killed 2 of their baby chicks and Fischer took our their pet rabbit. WOW, rabbits make a heck of a squeak.

We moved (that's why we have new neighbors) into our friends Sam and Angela's house. We call it Samgela's house. Sam and Angela were lost a couple of months back in a car accident. Their wonderful daughter Heather was here to get things in order and didn't want the house left empty or unattended. So we are caretaking for her. Angela is looking down and cheering Melvin and Fischer on....'get those chickens and squeak the life out of those rabbits!!!' It was a never ending battle for Angela to keep all the neighborhood critters from getting into her yard and eating her healthy grass and plants. Don't worry Angela, there will be more to come. My boys are on a constant prowl looking for more viddles!!!

Sam and Angela are now resting peacefully among all the beautiful sea life off of Punta Mala. Us, Heather, Janice and Lynn brought them out on our panga and Heather was able to sprinkle their ashes. It was a gorgeous evening, water like glass, sea turtles, dolpins, full of life. It was a very special moment.

Biggest and best news of all....well actually there are a couple big news items and not any particular order :) We'll be back in the states in December and we are going shopping at WALMART!!! YAHOOO!!! Oh, and we are getting married. Many of you already know. December 28th in Florida. We are visiting Wayne's mom and family for the holidays and we can't wait. We are very excited....Wayne's Dad, step mom, my father and step mom and a handful of friends and family will be joining us. I still can't believe that some of you are coming. :))) You make us so happy.
The other big news items is the house is STARTED. We are about a week into it. Foundation, sub walls are in. Should have the floors poured this week. Wayne shopped, and shopped and shopped for a good builder and I do believe we got one. There was no way we could do this ourselves. So there's a crew of about 10 guys working on it. The first day was interesting....3, THREE trucks got stuck delivering materials to us. One 22 wheeler and 2 more big flat bed trucks. They all sunk into the mud on our road. It took a good half day to clear them out. Imagine....they HAND loaded these trucks with blocks and sand, then got stuck, had to hand UNload them and hand REload them onto smaller trucks to then bring to our lot to hand UNload them again. Screeeew that!!!!!!!!

Let's see....Almost lost Melvin again. He lost use of his back legs and his whole back end became infected. He was in the hospital for 3 days. It was horrible. Not really sure what caused it. Maybe a dog bite...FISCHER!!! Thanks to Connie for coming with me for a vet visit, thanks to Carment, Ingrid and Charlie for all their translation services with the vet.

I posted some pictured on Snapfish. In some you will see Susie. She's a sloth. Our friends Connie and Don are renting a place from a guy who owns Susie. She was quite a treat to have at the dinner table.

I'm also working now at a B&B, doing all their English reservations. Problem is, the Spanish calls don't stop coming in just because it's my shift. So this has been a bit of a challenge. I'm still baking cakes and brownies for a couple local restaurants. Wayne is on the contruction site pretty much from sun rise to sun down. We can't wait for our first round of visitors so we can take a break!!!! (Come on Tom and Kristen!! We'll see you in Nov. and then Kenny and Brenda in February)

In between all the work we've been managing to have plenty of fun too. Not sure why, but any party where Tom, Judy, Mary and John are involved, we end up with cloth napkins on our heads!...as the pictures will show!!!

The boat is out of the water now. Sad for Wayne. He's just too busy and he kept getting reports from the local fishermen that his boat was full of sh*t. Well they weren't lying. Maybe it's the color. Who knows, but the damn pelicans love his boat. A nice aqua blue toilet for them We'd go down to the beach and the fishermen would point to our boat and say to us...Mucho caca (I'm not sure if that's how you spell it)....basically, a lot of poop. So the sh*t ship is out of the water until Wayne has some spare time to use it again.

I'll try to write more often but I always say that. Internet is slow, I'm lazy.....not good combinations
Brain fart. Can't remember my login info for Snapfish to give you a link on the side bar of my blog...so here's the long address...Hopefully it works for ya if you want to see pictures.

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/fe/l=en_US/p/dasta/Main/s_c=0/s_se=FDR/s_pt=REP,PRE#state=%7B%22pl%22%3A%7B%22uc%22%3A2%2C%22aid%22%3A%228212701013%22%2C%22vp%22%3A%22g%22%2C%22sb%22%3A5%7D%2C%22svm%22%3A%7B%22v%22%3A%22s%22%7D%7D

Water, Electric, Our Stuff, OH MY!

Hi Everyone,


Lot’s of stuff has happened over the last couple of months. I tried my best to keep it brief. I really did. Any way, here it goes: (Pictures will be posted on Snapfish soon)

1. We got our electricity. Thanks to our friend Martin. He knew all the right people. We had it within just a couple of DAYS..DAYS, not months.

2. GOT WATER! Had a well drilled. 170 feet. Looked like chocolate milk for the first couple of weeks but is now clear enough for a shower. Would we drink it?…probably not just yet. Need to have it tested. We built a small house around the well and pump. That’s almost done. Just needs paint and a little finishing up inside.

3. WE HAVE OUR BUILDING PERMIT for the house. That involved about 6 or so different offices needing to give their ‘stamp’. The funniest one being ‘Salud’/the Health Dept. On Thur. we went to their office with our friend Martin. We needed to have the soil tested to make sure it would drain well when we put in the septic. Guy says…my friend can do it for $60 or you can have someone in your town do it for $100. No brainer. We ask, when should we come back? He said tomorrow. We figure based on what we’ve heard that we’d return in the afternoon…to give them time to DIG the BIG hole that is required to do the test. No, no, come by in the morning he says. Ok. We go and we are handed our test results, OUR test results, plans are stamped and away we go. Ummmmm, must have slipped their mind about that BIG HOLE requirement. Oh well, some nice person is $60 richer and we have our stamp!

4. About a month ago our container was shipped from NY to here. Door to door service. They did everything…loaded out of our storage unit in CT into the container, brought it to NY, shipped to Panama, went through customs, paid the taxes, container unloaded and reloaded into box truck (Containers are searched, box trucks are not…Wayne wishes he packed his guns now!), arrived in Pedasi at 3:30, schedule arrival was 4. THEY WERE EARLY. Early is not really in the vocabulary here. Opened the back of the truck and WOW, not pretty. We expected half of everything to be broken. SURPRISE, not a thing. The Driver and co driver helped unloaded and we were done and drinking beer with them in about 1 1/2 hours along with our friends Jerry and Coco who were kind enough to bring some yummy food too.

5. Deposito/bodega/workshop/garage….whatever the hell it’s called is DONE and we finished it just a day or 2 before our shipment came. Still some painting to finish, cleaning and organizing. We went through 3 different roofer…one we fired, one we think quit, and the current one that is now fixing what one and two did. Thanks to our friends Janice and Lynn I’ve got a great start on the landscaping around it. Lot’s of nice plants and MAN things grow here. You just cut a branch off something, stick in the ground and it grows. I planted lots of basil. My favorite

6. I got the license plate for my bike. Yes, we drove a year without one for our car because they ran out of the metal for them. I guess they had enough for the mini plates that they require for bikes. Isn’t that funny. I can’t wait for my first traffic stop…Pardon me but I’ve got my plaque so let’s just move it along Senor Policia.

7. Metal production must be in full force because we were also able to get a plate for our truck. To bad it can’t be mounted just anywhere. It would be nice to try to hide some of the many little dents we have on it. A car with no dents sticks out like a sore thumb here!

8. 3RD PLACE IN THE FISHING TOURNAMENT!!!!!!!!….for dorado. Weighed in at 27 pounds. Wayne, Jeff (Captain), Denny, Jerry and Will fished Friday and Sunday. Weather was terrible Friday, much better Sunday.

9. I’ve been working on and off at a couple different restaurants. Pasta y Vino (guess what they serve. HA!) needed help during the big WORLD Surf Competition. Now I’m helping another place, Smiley’s. Mostly just working in the kitchen, following their recipes. It’s fun. I’m surrounded by food, what could be wrong with that.

10. A few girls here have put together a Girls Night every 3rd Tuesday of the month…YAHOOO…tonight is one of them!!!!! This will be the 3rd one. I went to the 2nd one and it was a blast. It’s a good place for me to practice my Spanish. Tonight’s is going to be held at Smiley’s and they asked me to make some homemade bread to put out on the tables. I hope I don’t get too sweaty before sitting down to join the girls.

11. Lots of other fun things….Doggie sat for our friends Ingrid and Roy’s baby girl…Lou. She’s such a great dog. Many pictures attached of Lou. Lou likes to suck on the end of Panama bottles so Lou is all right in our book. There always seems to be something going on….a little party here, a little party there. We try to make as many as we can….but having to get up at 6 everyday to start working on the house makes it tough sometimes.

12. Sad note. We were friends with Sam and Angela. Really great couple. They had moved here about 1 ½ years ago. Recently they were headed back to the states to visit their daughter’s family for 3 weeks. On their way into Panama City, they were hit head on and killed. They really touched a lot of people. There was a nice memorial held at our friend Alan’s house. Lots of food, friends, champagne and a nice toast to Sam and Angela.

13. We aren’t going to end this on a sad note though. Here’s probably the best news of all….Beer prices went DOWN. Yes, yes, you read that right. DOWN. Now for a case of warm beer it’s $7.50. This is for Panama….which has won several gold metals. If the print on the bottle wasn’t so small, I could probably give actual details of the awards. It’s not my eyes, it’s the print!

14. Lastly, we have a great line up of visitors coming….My brother and Kristen for TURKEY DAY!!! Yahooo, family for the holidays!!! Wayne’s mom wants to fly us to Florida to spend Christmas with her and the family. Then in January Wayne’s Dad and Pat might be coming again…we hope so. In February we’ve got Brenda & Kenny along with 2 of their friends. KEEP EM COMING!!!!!!

So that about wraps it up. For the most part life is good. Perfect?..No. Stress-free?..No. Challenges?..Yes. Always Hot?…YES! Are there things we miss about back home?…NO DOUBT…Friends and family the most. Although, we have been very lucky in making some truly great friends here. Having our boat and hanging around Tighes Marina. Taking the dingy to Mermaids for the weekend’s stock of beverages. Good pizza. UPS delivery. Pinenuts. Uninterrupted electrical service. Edamame…Oh what I’d give for some of those babies in soy sauce and wasabi (both of which we can get)!! But it all leads back to #13…Read again, $7.50!!!



CHEERS everyone!!! We love you, miss you and you are ALWAYS, ALWAYS welcome!!!

Happy Anniversary to Us! 1 Year in Panama

Hi All,

The good news is I haven’t heard from any of you that you’ve gotten snow recently!!!

Yahooo….we’ve got more visitors on the schedule. My bro and his wife in November..possibly for Thanksgiving!!!!! Then Brenda and Kenny in February (with another couple too…the more the merrier). I love having visitors to look forward to.

The last 6 weeks have been jammed packed. Work started on the deposito (storage shed) and we are just about ready to have the roof put on. Wayne started out wanting to do all the block work himself. HUGE undertaking and it was taking a long time. Our friend Alice…in addition to making a kick ass lasagna…recommended a guy who was like Flash Gordon with the blocks. It was whirlwind of blocks and cement and a week later all the walls were done! We are under the gun to get it finished before the middle of June because our container from the US will be here and we need a secure place to put our stuff. Having a deadline isn’t a good thing in Panama. Manana, manana, manana!!!

Wayne’s proven to be a pretty good jefe (boss) so far…He only had one guy walk off the job site….in tears. COME ON….TEARS!?!?! Good kid but loved his cell phone and figured on this one particular day it was ok to take 2 lunch breaks while the rest of the crew worked. So Wayne said a little something and after stewing for an hour, the kid starts packing up his stuff and choke breathing trying to hold back the tears. Wayne felt terrible. Oh the drama. They were able to work it out and he did come back to work. Things went along just fine UNTIL OF COURSE he got paid, drank himself silly and was a no show on Monday. Wayne’s not a good babysitter, so came the end to that relationship. He’s got a great guy working with him now. Shows up EARLY and EVERY DAY even if he’s just gotten paid.

We also had our well put in. 170 feet deep. We had hit water at 40 feet and were jumping up and down thinking how cheap this was going to be. Ok, so I guess you don’t just stop there….you’ve got to go down past rock, through rock, blah, blah, blah. In any event, crystal clear water and plenty of it.

BIG news. We got our electricity hooked up. We were told it could take up to 6 months. Start to finish, I think it took us 3 weeks. We can’t take the credit though…it was our friend Martin who worked his magic. We met Martin at our local cantina….bought him a few frosty ones, became friends, found out he was an electrician, hired him for some work and then further found out he was the God Father of Electricity. So for the price of a few cold ones, $20 bucks to the guy who climbed the pole and made the connection, we are live!!!! All legal too which is something!

Now that we have electricity we can start the roof. The materials for our windows and doors have come in and work has started on those. Our worker guy, Manuel and I have been de-barking our support beams which are a wood called canalu. Really neat stuff and looks great after it’s cleaned, sanded and varnished. It comes from the mountains.

Had a crocodile on our lot a couple of days ago. A baby…3-4 feet. No idea how he got in and neither did he as he couldn’t figure out how to get out and back to the water down below. Wayne was finally able to get him to bite onto a piece of steel rebar and then fling him over the fence. A few locals took full advantage of this and the poor fellow ended up on their dinner plates

Also had a snake a couple weeks back. Fischer tried taking him on. It was either a coral snake or the kind of snake that looks like a coral but isn’t deadly. How’s that go….Red next to black kills Jack. Red next to yellow is friend of a fellow. Shoot, or is it Red next to black is a friend of Jack and Red next to yellow will kill a fellow. See my confusion. Any way, nothing a machete can’t fix. The next day the ants had completely eaten him and only his skeleton remained.

Then, yesterday we had yet another snake. Wayne thinks it was a Fer de Lance…one of the deadliest snakes in the world. Our friend, who is kind of ‘in the know’ says it wasn’t. So that’s good news as they will actually go after you. So we are still trying to figure out what it was. Again, machete fixed the problem. What exactly was I thinking when we decided to move here!? Our house will be built up by about 2 feet. People say this will help keep snakes out. Hmmmm, last time I checked, snakes knew how to climb.

In between the construction of the deposito we’ve been able to get out and have a little bit of fun. Our friends Greg and Eva have a great piece of property down along the river and have great parties. Lots of food, wine and mosquitoes!!! A shout out to Pete for bringing me that Jungle Juice and to Jim for bringing me the Boy Scout’s first choice in bug spray. DEET! DEET! DEET! Come on, I dare you to bite me!!!!!!!!!!

Our friends Kristine and Mitch returned to the US for a 2 ½ week visit and we were lucky enough to watch their 2 dogs. Melvin’s father (P-nut) and brother (Q). So we had 3 Chihuahua’s and Fischer. Our neighbor actually asked us when our friends would be back to get their dogs! HA!!!!! How about after you kill all the roosters, hens and chickens in your yard. Speaking of chickens. Somehow the 3 Chihuahuas cornered a chicken in our bathroom. I thought the crowing was louder than normal and I didn’t remember having a hole in our feather pillows. Hmmmm something must be going on. Sure enough we had our very own cock fight right here behind our toilet. It was a total photo-op but I do have a bit of a heart and felt the chicken needed rescuing more than I need a picture. Poor thing, half his feathers were flying throughout the house and his little heart was beating out of his chest. Q (Melvin’s brother) sneezed for the next day and half. I guess he’s allergic to chicken feathers.

A huge fair was recently here. Spent the day there with Ed and Cindy. Kind of like the Big E…but no fried dough with chocolate sauce. Total bummer. Plenty of ice cold beer and farm animals so really, do you need anything else.

The pups are great…NOW. Had a rough time for a while. Poor Mel…we decided to have his ‘nuggets’ snipped. So cute they were. I didn’t want to do this but Wayne did…yes, I’m blaming Wayne. Any way, the first surgery did not go well as he swelled up and his blood wouldn’t clot. So a second surgery was done and this was to take his little pals completely off. He’d been under so much anesthesia that his little body couldn’t take it. He actually started dying right in my arms. Rushed him back to the vet and they cleared his throat…he was choking to death. Ugh, what a horrible day. Through all this we found out both dogs had Tick Fever. So they have been on a 28 day cycle of meds to clear that up. They are feeling MUCH BETTER now and although Melvin might be a little lighter in some areas, he’s making up for it in his belly. Fat little burrito! He is calmer which makes Fischer a very happy boy.

Our citrus trees made it through the dry season and are doing great. I planted a few pineapples and they are really taking off. I heard a year or 2 before I will get fruit. The papaya’s are already about 2 feet high and should have fruit in a year or so…if they don’t get blown over.

As I always say, please email us and let us know how you are doing. We really miss everyone. Oh what we’d give to belly up to a bar with some good old friends and family. Ok, ok, so we have no problem with the belly up to the bar part J

Cheers everyone. COME AND VISIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and happy anniversary to us! We’ve been here a year as of May 21st. Who would of thunk!

Crunch - small update on gate

Knock on wood the start of the deposito (storage shed) is going smoothly. Wayne bought a brand new cement mixer yesterday. He's very excited! Loads of rock and sand have been delivered now we are just waiting for the blocks and cement. Should have some signs of an actual building sometime next week.

We had a gate made and installed. It was far from perfect but ok. We've been hounding the guy to come back and straighten it out and level it. Of course he's got his money so we knew there would be little chance of him returning. The good news is that while having the temporary drive way dug out and stone put down the bulldozer demolished our gate. The gate builder is off the hook and the bulldozer owner will be having the gate repaired. See how things work out sometimes. It's all good.

A couple shots of the dug out foundation and bright yellow, brand new cement mixer. WOW http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7061003013/a=124922891_124922891/