Frankly, I'm beat!

I am surprised I have the strength to write at all! My best friend Deb and her sister Kate are upstairs now at noon, resting after Deb and I went for fruit and pork chops. The fruit for breakfast, but the Polish princesses are resting upstairs, in charge of making fruit salad here, downstairs.
I should have started the kraut by now, but I laid down after the market! And we have been good girls, hearty and healthy woman, not drinking to excess. Not doing anything to excess!
It has turned suddenly hot and humid and that is probably it. It is not arrid Sacramento nor typical for here this early in the year.
I called Ricardo yesterday because the girls did not have AC, nor did I, and they did not have hot water. Ants nesting in that heating element this time, just like last time with mine.
Ricardo fixed that, cleaned and adjusted their AC, set mine to go on and off with the breaker switch while the tech at the hardware store works on my remotes. Then we went to Zama yesterday.
This morning, after the market, Deb and I ran into the AC tech at the juice joint, and he had one remote on him that was already fixed, but I cannot use it because Ricardo set the AC to be controlled by the breaker box. So...
Do I want to slice onions and grate carrots if the girls do not want to come down and cut a pineapple and toast bagels?
They leave at 9a tomorrow and what do they have to show for their stay? Well, we did shop in Centro and we will get back, hopefully to go to Playa Norte and hang with some regatta sailors. But gee, I am beat. Sissies? Where are you?

Speaking the language

Fellow blogger Teresa in Merida recently wrote about the benefits of learning Spanish when living in Mexico in her blog "What do I do all day?" My property is on a small island in which the growing American population sticks together and avoids talking in Spanish as much as possible.
Poor things. Not only will they not get the benefits when TelMex calls with higher speed internet for a dime a month, but they might just hang up on the kind of call I got Friday.
" Yes, my name is Viktoria and I am a lawyer for FonaTur. (Everyone employed by the government is some kind of lawyer!) And we conduct tours...." at which point I think I'm going to get some pitch.
"What is the purpose of your call?" I asked, as I do every telemarketer who won't get to the point.
Turns out the information on my F'ing visa , as I call the series of FM documents, had listed I spoke Russian. They need Russian speakers to assist with tourists who evidently have money, Russians! EcoTours to Sian Ka'an and Punta Allen, paying $120US a day.
I need to check with Social Security, but disability income does allow $700 a month for work without violation the pension so long as it is reported. Now, since I don't freeze when I get a Spanish phone call, I may get a lucrative part time job, lucrative for Mexico anyway, and get to practice my Spanish and Russian together. Now about that higher speed internet....

Just don't move!

Tattoo artist Ramon Vasquez, owner of Caracol Tattoo and Piercings, made my eyebrows less red and reapplied eyeliner tattoo yesterday that had not taken a week ago. Why do I trust him? 2o years ago, he had his eyebrows tattooed on because he only had a couple hairs. Look at them! He has been at it for 20 years and is quite an artist! His web site has some examples of his work. His son and nephew also work with him, but I prefer experience! And eyebrows!

GardnerParkerville

Gardner and Mia Parker treated me to dinner the other night at LoLo's, along with a dozen of their friends from Houston. It was another fabulous meal by LoLo!
The "teaser" was lentile ceviche topped with yogurt. Then there were salads: the conch, carrot and ginger salad known as Lover's Salad, and a Thai salad of crispy ground meat and fresh veggies with a fish sauce based dressing. Then another teaser of four scallops in a tomato cream sauce. Gardner and Mia chose pork loin Florentine with mashed potatoes for their main course, I had the Morrocan chicken. Some had seafood cassoulet.
We play a game through the meal: say three things about yourself, one a lie. And then the others vote. Well, of my details, most thought I lied about being a ski and swimming instructor in my past and thought it really did have an out of wedlock son in high school who is now a doctor!
Gardner, for the record, did not play football in high school! And Mia IS a CPA born on April 15. No one believed a CFO in a football jersey had an accounting background. Some are better liars than others!
Then we were off to GardnerParkerville! Fayne's. And they danced! Woohoo. And Gardner climbed a ladder at the bar to touch the sign that says GardnerParkerville, put up to honor his 30 years of patronage on Isla Mujeres. Chucho accompanied the reveler's on keyboard with a drummer.
I bowed out at 1:30am and rested most of yesterday. Today, Mia accompanies me for an after lunch beverage and my revisit to the tattoo artist adjacent to Brisa's Grill. My eyeliner needs redone!

Sure, I'll cruise bars and walks drunks home

Guide dogs for the drunk

A man came to see about an apartment for next winter this week. He owns lands in several areas of Mexico now, mostly too cold in high altitudes for him to winter there.
He saw Punta and told me a story of the days before Escondido was wired for electricity . When it was dark and time to stop drinking, the bar owners would send the gringos home with dogs marked much like Punta. Call them guide dogs for the over-served!
White paws, white tail tips, enough white throughout an otherwise black body, so the men would not step into a hole or fall in the dark. Just by watching the dog walk ahead of them. The gringos called them Faros, the word they thought was Spanish for flashlight. It is the word for lighthouse. Close, but no cigar. A cute story about dogs as lamparas por mano. Flashlight dogs!

Real people from Trip Advisor

Carlos and Silvia Hernandez wrote the latest review of Zina's Guest House, the one that made it No. 4 of 24 B & Bs in Isla Mujeres Trip Advisor rankings. Thanks guys! They commented today on the March blog entry I had written about them and now I am ready to continue with my story of these special people from the Bay Area, not far from Modesto.
Silvia works for Kaiser hospitals and as soon as they got here, they asked when I could take them to Alison and Isla Animals. Silivia had gleaned some scalpels, suture kits, sterile gloves and gauze for the spay and neuter clinics.
Carlos saved $100 by putting his change in a bowl daily over a year and then cashing it in. He gave it to Alison. We played with the dogs and had all kinds of fun. They missed their beagles, one a rescue dog.
When they left, they gave me two books, novels. They had brought two copies of each so they could read together and share comments.
"Walking in Circles before Lying Down" by Merrill Markoe is interesting. His owner hears her dog speak one day and soon hears most dogs thoughts, but never sees their lips move. This drives her to her shrink and Life Coach, who has been encouraging her to write a book. The novel has twists and turns and is a good read. But...
I really loved "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein. It's written in the dog's voice and Enzo has quite a story to tell as the dog of a race car driver who watches his racing films with Enzo and lets the TV educate Enzo while he's gone. Enzo is pretty sure life would be different if he had thumbs and could form words. When he dies, he is sure he'll come back as a human.
His master Denny's wife dies and Enzo gets old. But before the end he gets strapped into a race car with a sheet acting like a seat belt and is told to bark once to go slower, twice to go faster. He keeps barking twice.
As he gets older, he keeps praying he'll be put down, let go. Eventually he is. And he comes back as a human. To say more would give away a great ending. I found this book enchanting, as Silvia was sure I would!
"SilyCar," you gave me more than a terrific Trip Advisor review, you enabled me to see my dog in a different way and feel better about the deaths of my two previous dogs recently. And while you were here, you helped the dogs of the island in your visit to Alison's. Thank you.

Two right hand men!

Carlos Tellas, my driver in Cancun, and Sergio Rodriguez, my handyman, are both my right hand men. I tried to explain the concept to Sergio and he says, "So you have two right hands!"
This brings me back to something my mother aid her whole life, that God possibly erred by not giving women four arms and hands. Quite possibly true, Mom. I couldn't have done what I did today without two right hands in addition to mine!
The twin beds/day beds, will be delivered April 18. With requests for suites with a bed for toddlers or a visiting mother for a new retiree, it only made sense to upgrade the suites this way.
So after a short rest, I will head to town to meet up with Al and Janette, and the folks from Portage County, Ohio. And I can shop in town for throws to made day beds out of the new beds. All in all, it should be a blast!

Look ma! No pencil!

When I was 12, my Mom handed me an eyebrow pencil and taught me how to use it. When I was 15, she bought me a bottle of henna, so I could make my eyebrows look like this.
Now, I'm all grown up. I sat for tattoos yesterday, Jeannine providing comic moral support.


When I was done, my brows were dark chocolate in color. By next week, they will be milk chocolate. For now, they are bleeding a bit as I wipe them down before applying Neosporin, 5 times a day. Next week, eyeliner and fill in any uneven coloring in the brows.
My mom, the original white-haired, browless wonder, would be brought. So would Lady Helena, who first colored my mom's eyebrows with henna when she was 14....without her parents' permission.