Tepoztlán

2012-02-07T18:17:00.002-06:00

Viny and I have been eating at home more, both to save money and also to eat better. Maybe Carl and Mark inspired us. This afternoon we went into a coffee shop for a while.
I am still doing laundry for last weekend.

I have been wanting some maguey plants, but while a lot of the nurseries have them, they are rather pricey. Yesterday we stopped at a little place we had not been before, next to one of our favorite nurseries, in Cuautla, and they had big piles of maguey. Workers were putting them in black plastic bags of dirt. I asked the guy how much were the unplanted ones, he said 50 pesos each. That is about $4 USD. That is much cheaper than I have seen previously. Another worker said the ones in the plastic bags are 100 pesos. The worker said they would be fine up to a week without being planted, if kept out of the sun. I knew we could get them planted today. They are about two feet tall.

Here is how we bought them, bare and in bondage.

When I returned a few minutes ago from taking these photos, little Teo was up in his favorite place above our back gate. We have left this space for him, as he likes it so much.

This is Gustavo planting the maguey.

We are planning to go to Cuernavaca tomorrow to start our shopping for this next weekend, we think we may have 200 customers on Saturday, not so many on Sunday. That is a lot of dirty laundry.

2012-02-06T20:05:00.001-06:00

The portion of our electricity that went off last night while the spa was still open, stayed off all night. Today Viny and I drove to Cuautla. We bought eleven maguey plants and a couple of small palms. We ordered more steel to be delivered tomorrow to complete the new bar. We went to Walmart and Sams and bought a few things. On the way there we had eaten in Yautepec at the little place we like.
When we returned home about 4:30 we had no electricity, so we went back into town to a couple of cafe's that have internet and came back home about 6:30 as it was getting dark. The electricity came back on about 7:30. Neither of us really like evenings without electricity, as that means no internet or television and he can't even do his exercise by DVD.
On the way home from Cuautla we saw smoke from a fire in the mountains. While we were downtown Tepoztlan, we saw flames up on the mountain. They are in the center of this photo.

2012-02-05T21:43:00.004-06:00

Each week Viny and I usually play a little game of predicting how many customers we will have the next weekend. We are usually a little optimistic, at least.
This week, instead of guessing about Saturday and Sunday, I predicted we would have 90 total for the two days and Viny predicted we would have 110 total for the two days.
Yesterday we had 44 and today 101, so Viny won, fortunately.
Tomorrow is a holiday here, and I think that helped a lot.
Next Saturday is our 4th anniversary celebration, we always have a huge crowd for this event, and when we have a big event, that usually hurts us the week before. But not this time.
Late this afternoon it got windy, after dark part of our electricity went out, the lights were low, the steam room would not work as the control is electric. It even rained just a little, with lightening back off over Cuernavaca, or the other side. But it all turned out all right.
We have to buy a little more steel tomorrow for our new bar. We also have to do quite a bit this week to get ready for the big event next Saturday. Of course, Viny and I have to also get ready for our drive to Puerto Vallarta.
Alberto and Javier will be here Thursday. Tomorrow night is Alberto's last night to work in Oklahoma.

Candlemas

2012-02-02T19:26:00.003-06:00

Each year at this time there are many little stands around our kiosko downtown selling little dresses and clothing. Many people walk around carrying their little dolls. I think these little dolls are Jesus and I suppose people buy them new clothes at this time of the year. There are also many little chairs in various sizes for the little dolls to sit in.
I have never paid much attention to all this. However, about a week ago we ran into our friend Stuart Cox and he told us that you have quite a selection of clothing, you can dress your little doll as Juan Diego or doctors or other choices, and some of the little stands even have catalogs that you can peruse for various outfits.
So, a day or so ago Viny and I walked by some of these stands, and while we did not look at the catalogs, we did see doctors outfits, complete with stethoscopes, and nurses outfits, casual, formal, white, purple, papal outfits, plain and frilly, quite a selection. Barbie has nothing on Jesus.

I guess I should look up Candlemas on Wikipedia, as I have no idea what it means. But today is the day, and we just came from eating tamales at Gustavo's house. He set off a few fireworks.

Alberto has three more nights to work and then he and Javier will be here a week from today.

The blacksmith has finished the first section of our new bar, as shown below. This section will seat five people. There will be another section that is the same size as this one, except it will be L shaped with the other part 2/3 as long, so all together it should seat 13 or 14 people, I suppose. And, since it is mobile, we can use it on our present cistern in our new restaurant, and, if in a couple of years we can have a new cistern built on the front side of the spa, for the new restaurant location, we will move it to there and use it, as it is not attached, but free standing. I think it is good looking. The stools are so high, I wanted a foot rest, but we had to add another step just to get up on the stools.

I am looking forward to our drive to Puerto Vallarta and back. I have not driving in that area for many years, now there is a toll road all the way to Guadalajara, which should take us about seven hours from here. We will spend the night there and then drive the next day to Puerto Vallarta.

2012-01-30T09:56:00.002-06:00

We had 28 customers Saturday and 12 yesterday. Yesterday was cloudy most of the time, it even rained a tiny bit in the afternoon and a little more last night.

A few minutes ago while I was surfing the net and checking my email, I noticed a bunch of dogs all beside me at the window. Prieto, of course, is in my lap. And Goliat is in a chair, above the rest, but just beside them and me.

They all love to look out the window, like I do, to see what is going on.

Viny is climbing the mountain. We are going to Cuernavaca about noon to do some errands and maybe have lunch downtown. Everything is great here.

It is now getting close to five. At noon Viny and I went to downtown Cuernavaca. We went to the little upholstery shop we like on Morelos and ordered 200 little zippered cloth bags to give away at our anniversary party. I suppose they are for toiletries. Half will be purple, the other half pink.

We then had lunch at La Maga. I like this place, I have not been there for quite a while.

We then returned home and took the dogs for a walk.

Mario is continuing to put rock around the bases of the stools that are around the table under the new little palapa.

These photos are not very good, but they do show some progress, the center of the circle will be filled probably with gravel. We will then have an outdoor table for twelve.
We went by a print shop today to pick up some canvas that was to be printed and ready by last Saturday. They had not yet started on it.

2012-01-27T08:38:00.000-06:00

There is a new article on the web I would like to recommend.

http://www.travelandtransitions.com/blog/retiring-in-mexico-larry-prater-talks-about-his-new-life-in-tepoztlan/

I finally tracked down Larry Wade, in Phoenix, and he is coming to Puerto Vallarta while we are there.
I also talked by phone with Greg and Gordon. They get there first, then Viny and I, we are all there a couple of days and then they leave and Larry arrives, so we will have the weekend with him. It is working out great.

We are hoping for good business this weekend, we will leave shortly after Viny returns from the mountain to go shopping in Cuernavaca with Marcia.

Our new table and twelve stools are finished enough to be used this weekend, the blacksmith continues his work on the new bar for the new restaurant area.

2012-01-25T09:46:00.005-06:00

I went over to the spa this morning to check on the two metal projects currently underway.

I am always discouraging Viny from buying azalea plants, as I am still stuck with the notion they only bloom 2 of the 52 weeks per year. I guess that is just not the case here. Over my objections, he has bought several, and they are all doing quite well. This little pink one is especially pretty this morning, and has been so since he bought it a few months ago.

Mario set the 12 stools around the new table in cement yesterday, to the left you can see some of the rock he will now fill in with. Just a little table for twelve.

This also shows some of the rock beneath the stools.

Below is the first section of our new bar in what will be the new restaurant area. There will be a top placed on this and stools, and a foot rest.

This is the back side of the same piece. The blacksmith is not coming here today, he is working on the stools at his place.

2012-01-23T19:10:00.001-06:00

We had a good weekend, 39 and 29. This is so much better than last year. We owe a lot of it to FaceBook. We are getting about 100 new friends each week on our web page for TepozSpa. We are currently paying about $150 per month for this. This is the best return on our advertising money we have had.
I talked to Sherrie a short while ago, she and Larry got home today about noon from their week in San Carlos. They saw dolphins about every day wild in the bay, plus they went to a very good dolphin show between there and Guaymas.
Viny and I went into town today for lunch and coffee shop, so it was a great day.
Viny is currently doing his P90X workout, as he does every day. This is thanks to Carl and Mark. Sherrie says Micah is also doing this workout now.
Alberto picks Javier up at the Oklahoma City airport about ten tonight, I suppose the two of them will be here sometime next week.
Tomorrow Viny and I will go to Cuernavaca and do a little shopping.
I took the following photos just before sunset today.

Our blacksmith finished this table a week or so ago, then he made the twelve stools to go around it. Today Mario started leveling out the ground, we bought a couple bags of cement, he will put the stools in place probably tomorrow. He is also going to clean out one of our cisterns tomorrow.

Again, this project is like some of our other projects, it is bigger than I had anticipated. I had the table made as wide as two sheets of the metal are, as I did not want to waste the metal. That made it a little bigger than I had imagined. There is room for twelve stools, which is more than I had imagined. But, I think it will be a great place, not only for our spa guests, but for us to use when we have company during the week, it will be a very nice place to eat outside.

This is the little cement elephant by the pool with the fiberglass pot and verbena that Viny put atop it.

This is a little succulent area that Gustavo made, between the spa and the pool.

This is Golda, whom I adore. I feel so much safer here with her and Blacky, below, on guard.

2012-01-17T18:23:00.001-06:00

About a year ago we managed to start insurance coverage through IMSS for Viny. Apparently it is not only for medical coverage, but for future housing and maybe some retirement, we are not even sure. However, we need to make a payment each month, and until today, we have had to go to the IMSS hospital area in Cuernavaca for help in determining our payment amount, because we have been unable to do this with their computerized program. Yesterday we tried again. Their program only works on PCs, not on Mac products. So Viny and spent several hours yesterday at the spa with the PC trying to get the program to work. We had to seek help via chat several times, it was all very time consuming. We thought perhaps we did it, we needed to take a little file to the bank on a small diskette, which our computer does not utilize. So, we emailed the program to my Mac.
However, today when I opened the email, it was not in a file but rather a bunch of computer code, I suppose. So, I decided I would make a copy on a thumb drive, take the thumb drive and the diskette to a computer place in Tepoztlan, and transfer it to the diskette. However, today our electricity went off and stayed off much of the day. So, I went to the spa and hooked up the computer with the battery backup we have there and copied the file, not knowing if it would work or not. We then went into town, while Viny went to the bank to get some information, I went to an internet cafe and copied the file, hopefully, from the thumb drive to the old-fashioned diskette, and took the diskette to the bank. Apparently it worked, I paid the fees, and we went to lunch, at Luna Mextli.
Tomorrow I hope we can go back to the home of the couple who grow plants, and buy some more heliconia plants, maybe a kind we do not yet have, and also maybe some bamboo.
Last night I talked with Sherrie via FaceTime while she was at Debbie and Brad's condo in San Carlos. So, I got to see and talk with Sherrie, Larry, Debbie, Brad, see some of their condo, and in the distance, I saw Tessa, and Tessa's cute little dog.

Viny brought the beautiful flowers from the spa hallway over to our house and put them in the beautiful vase Sherrie gave me. They are very pretty.

This is the wonderful little Prieto in my favorite place for him, in my lap. He still goes with me about everywhere, here on our land. I never take him elsewhere, although Viny does take him to climb the mountain sometimes. I think he is most happy here.

2012-01-14T21:27:00.001-06:00

We had 60 customers today, so we did good!!!
This morning I wanted to take a photo of our new table, it is not finished yet, but I wanted Alberto to be able to see it in Oklahoma. So, I wound up taking photos of some of our flowers also.

Above and below are the flowers in the hallway. They are beautiful.

And below is our new palapa with the table almost finished. The blacksmith will now add about a dozen stools around it, I am not really sure how many will fit, but I think about 12. It is bigger than I had imagined.

2012-01-13T19:09:00.001-06:00

This morning Marcia, Viny and I went to Cuernavaca and did our usual weekly shopping.
This afternoon Viny and I went into Tepoztlan and had lunch and went to a coffee shop and then bought our flowers, fruit and veggies. As I was helping put the flowers in vases back at the spa, I thought that Saundra would probably like doing this.
The blacksmith is putting the top on the table for the new little palapa.

This is a section of the newly-painted-red wall in the spa.

A little more of the newly-painted-red wall in the spa.

Viny put up these lamp shades last week, there are about ten of them in the spa. They look quite nice.

2012-01-12T22:05:00.000-06:00

Today about one Bill and James came to see our spa. I also showed them the two empty apartments and our apartment.
We then went into town for lunch at La Posada del Tepozteco. Javier had never been there before. We had a very nice time, talking and eating.
In July, Bill will be 76 and James will be 90. James' partner of 62 years died about three years ago, they were together all this time except for five nights in the 62 years. They came to Cuernavaca from San Francisco in 1960 and lived downtown all that time, James still does. James had met George Miksch Sutton and knew his sister quite well, as she lived in Cuernavaca.
As we were leaving Tepoztlan, we dropped Javier off at the bus station, he will spend a few days in DF and then he is going to Istanbul for about five days and then to Oklahoma, he will return here with Alberto at the end of the month.
After Bill and James left, Viny and I went to Gustavo's house for mole, this is one of his town's fiesta days.
Yesterday we went to Cuernavaca for Javier to renew his Mexican passport. We have been getting good views of Popo, as the air has been rather clear. Yesterday on the way to Cuernavaca was probably the best view ever, it was so clear that Popo looked like our other mountains, so close, and dark, without any haze.
Today from La Posada we could see just the tip of Popo over the other mountains, and he was letting off steam.

I took this photo with my iPod, so it is not overly good, but almost in the center is the white puff going up from Popo, with some white clouds just to the right.

When we got back to our place with Bill and James, Bill asked if we could drive on down the road to San Andres de la Cal, and so we did. We had very good views of Popo as we entered San Andres, we actually drove past the house we stayed our first two weeks here. Next door, which formerly was a little shack, is now a very nice looking house under construction.

2012-01-10T09:06:00.001-06:00

Viny took this photo this morning before leaving to climb the mountain. We bought these alstromeria (Lily of Peru) last Friday to use at the spa for the weekend. Yesterday Viny brought them to the house and put them in the beautiful vase Sherrie bought me. Just to the right is a Javier Marin sculpture. On the wall is the koi painted by Jenny Lind. On the right of the couch is a pillow made from material from my chairs at my old office, on the left a pillow made from some of the material I bought years ago of dog print.

Yesterday we three went into town for lunch and coffee shop, we plan to do the same today.

I am currently cooking beans, we eat a LOT of beans.

It is another beautiful day here.

The blacksmith started on the metal table for our new little palapa yesterday, he should return today.

It is now almost 6 p.m. Apparently the blacksmith did not show up today. We three went into town again for lunch and coffee shop, this time both places had internet, yesterday neither did.

In a few minutes we are going to watch Alberto Nobbs. I think it will be very good.

Today I made beans and brownies, both turned out very good.

This is one of the 18 or so pots of poinsettias on the steps of our spa. They are even prettier now than when we bought them, they have more blooms and the blooms are larger. Usually about this time I have the plants in the pots planted somewhere and I buy new plants for the dry time between now and when the rains start, but these are so pretty I will wait a while, at least.

I don't remember where I bought this, it is a reproduction of a produce (fruit, perhaps) label, and I put it on the wall today in the spa.

I hung our snake made of a tree root today on the wall in the reception room. I like it.

And another of the poinsettias.

And now for Albert Nobbs.

2012-01-05T16:44:00.000-06:00

Today Viny and I went into town for lunch and coffee shop. It is another beautiful day here. I continue to love every day here.

These are two beautiful yellow lemons on our little lemon tree. It seems like I just don't know what to do when I am given lemons. They usually just hang there until they fall off.
Javier at first was going to go into town with us today, but then he changed his mind, as he is very busy working on his translations.
I have arranged for next Thursday for Bill Cummins and James Sartin to come over for lunch in town and to see the spa. That will be fun. I just met James at the wonderful party this week, and Bill says James' partner of 63 years, yes, that is 63 years, died about three years ago. James has lived in downtown Cuernavaca for many years.
We will go into Cuernavaca tomorrow to do our shopping.
We have now stopped allowing outside food and drink to be brought into the spa, this is the first weekend for that, most people will be happy, some will be quite outraged.
It is now about six, the sun is about to set, I am at my computer and there are five dogs sleeping nearby, as Viny is doing his P90X exercises and sweating. Four of the dogs are so cute, with Cihuatl resting her head on her dear little friend, Prieto.

2012-01-04T00:14:00.002-06:00

We went to a most wonderful party tonight, thanks to David and Dennis. Peter and Richard live in the south part of Cuernavaca in a most beautiful house on the side of a barranca. There were about 50 guests at a sit-down dinner, with oodles of great food. We met some very nice people that we hope to see again.

This is the view from our table on the terrace looking back up toward the house and the rest of the terrace. It is beautiful.

2012-01-02T17:19:00.002-06:00

Today Viny and I went into town about noon and ate and then went to a coffee shop for a while, shopped some and then came home. I ran into Marta, she just found a job, she thinks she will like it, I am glad for her.

A couple of days ago Viny bought ten white lampshades in town, today he bought ten sockets in order to hang them in a tree and have lights in them.

Last week while Alberto was still here we bought little tile, like on the columns in front of the spa, and Viny is going to put them or have them put on the two columns inside the spa - the showers and the towel column. Today he bought the adhesive and colorant to stick them on with.

Lately I have been making a dish consisting of various veggies, with a lot of ginger, and mango. I think I have been putting so much seasonings that it is hard to taste clearly the mango, even though I put a couple each time. Today, I did not add so many ingredients and used three mangoes and I think it is my best yet. But I will keep working on it.

It is windy and a little cool, maybe it will rain.

Two or three nights ago little Goliat had a seizure for about five minutes, he could not control himself, he appeared to never completely lose consciousness, I talked to him all the while and then it stopped and he has seemed to be okay since then. He will be 17 in April.

I eat peanut most evenings, and I frequently give a little to most of the dogs. Last night Viny noticed little Canelo on his side on the floor, it first looked like a seizure, but I think it was just the peanut butter that wouldn't easily go down, and in a few seconds he was all right.

Today I was holding little Prieto, as I frequently do, and Goliat walked up to me and Prieto bit the back of my right hand. I think he wanted to bite Goli, but I was safer, or at least closer and handier. Marta told me today to do one of Cesar Millan's techniques each time he does this. Little Kenia used to do this some, bite me when I was holding her when she really wanted to bite one of the other dogs that were close to me.

I made a copy of "Beginners" for Marcia and gave it to her today, I have one for Alberto when he gets back.

Alberto has been the charge nurse the past two nights, he says he will not be tonight.

I took this photo a short while ago, from just outside our back gate, looking up a little. At the bottom is the top of our back metal gate, then the row of three cement pieces each with two grasshoppers, and above that three rows of adobe. It has been this way for a while, and Teo loves to get on top of the adobe and lie there for long periods of time. So, we are leaving the space for him. We had the bell put in, Carl took his like this one on his last visit. Above the bell we have a reproduction of the head from Palenque, which I have probably had since the 60's. Above that will be another five tiers of adobe and then a row of clay squares to top off the adobe wall.

Tomorrow Javier returns, we will go to Oaxtepec and buy our steel for our new bar and palapa table, and then return to Tepoztlan for lunch, and later in the afternoon we will pick up David and Dennis and go to a party at Peter and Richard's house, whom we have never met, in Cuernavaca. We hope to be charming enough to be invited back again, if that is possible.

I started watching "Meek's Cutoff" last night, but switched to the excellent "Beginners." Maybe tonight I will continue with "Meek's Cutoff."

January 1, 2012

2012-01-01T23:40:00.003-06:00

I just watched the movie "Beginners." It is a great movie, I was enthralled from beginning to end. I highly recommend it to everyone who has ever liked a movie. I will try to make a copy for Marcia. I think I will try to get Viny to watch "Moulin Rouge."

2011-12-29T17:45:00.000-06:00

We only had two customers last Saturday, 31 on Sunday. So, apparently most people are with their families or others here in Mexico on Christmas Eve, not so much on Christmas Day. We expect many more people this weekend, for the end of the year and the beginning of our last year, 2012.
Alberto and Javier will both leave early tomorrow morning, Javier for Mexico City and Alberto for Oklahoma City. Alberto will be back in a month, Javier Tuesday, as we three are going to a party that night.

Alberto took the above photo today, on the landing of the upstairs apartment. I am mixed up now about the plants, either Sherrie bought them a couple of years ago so they would be there for Saundra, or vice versa. They are still there and still pretty.

Viny took the above photo today of his "two buddies" climbing the mountain. My little shadow, Prieto, and Canelo, his precious little dog. They love to go with Viny to climb the mountain. Tehuatzin and Cihuatl went today.

Sherrie now has an iPad, thanks to Larry's brother Tim, and it is so nice and easy now to call her on FaceTime. I will try to not do that too often, but it is fun.

Tomorrow Viny and I and Marcia will go shopping in Cuernavaca in the morning, in Tepoztlan in the afternoon.

We are having the blacksmith make a bar out of steel for our new restaurant, and a table and stools for our new palapa. I will order the steel this next week and he should start soon thereafter.

Alberto has worked a lot on the downstairs apartment, getting it pretty, like the one upstairs.

Christmas Eve, 2011

2011-12-24T21:23:00.001-06:00

We had two customers today. We have not had that few in over a year. We think we will have more tomorrow.
Since we closed early, Viny and I went into town and had a pizza and then Viny did his Christmas shopping.
Javier's parents, brother and sister and their spouses and kids are here, they will be eating after while, probably after I am in bed.
There were a lot of fireworks in town, even more than out here.
I talked briefly with Sherrie, she and Larry are fine. Apparently Saundra has a full house.
Little Felipe, who is such a good worker, came in today just long enough to quit.
We were supposed to have a new massage guy today, he did not show.

These are orchids, near the spa.

Our spa entrance today, some of the bird of paradise are blooming.

Rosita, Alberto's cat that lives at the spa, out ont he front porch today.

We rarely take Cihuatl to the spa, as she is a mess, so active and she gets out when she wants to. But since it was Christmas Eve, we took her today. Here she is with her little friend Prieto. They play so well together, at times a little rough, but he handles it well.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.

The longest night of the year

2011-12-21T19:25:00.000-06:00

Today Alberto, Viny and I went to Cuernavaca and did a little shopping. We then went to David and Dennis' house and had a drink and then walked a short distance up the street to a very nice restaurant and had a great lunch. We all liked our food and want to go back. It was nice talking with Dennis and David again, we don't get to see them often enough.
Viny is spending the evening with Sergio, Alberto and I returned home and with Javier took the dogs for a walk.
Last weekend was a good weekend at the spa, we have no idea what this weekend will bring, as it is Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But we will soon find out.
We plan to hang around here and town tomorrow, my favorite kind of day. Then our usual shopping Friday.
Marcia did not go with us today as she is feeling a little puny, but she is a little better now.

2011-12-08T18:04:00.001-06:00

Yesterday about noon we four went into Tepoztlan and had lunch and then Alberto dropped me and Viny off at the bus station and we went to Mexico City. We stopped by the Hotel Embassy and checked in and then took a taxi to the huge shopping mall in Santa Fe. There I saw what I suppose is my first Prada store. And many other stores. We had lunch at an Asian restaurant and then took a taxi back down the highway to the site of Cirque du Soleil. We were about an hour early. I had taken a light jacket, Viny had not, he admitted he was a little cool until they opened the tent and we could go inside. The show was good, we both liked it.
We then took an over-priced back to the Zona Rosa and had supper.
This morning we had breakfast at Konditori. Edgar, a friend of Viny from up north, said on FaceBook he was in town waiting by the Angel for a friend. Viny and I went there and talked briefly with him before returning to the bus station via the subway. Edgar may come visit us tomorrow for the weekend.
Alberto and Javier picked us up at the bus station and we went into town for lunch.
Tomorrow we will go to Cuernavaca and do our weekly shopping. We are ready for a good weekend at the spa.

In the middle of this photo is the cool Viny sitting on a bench outside the circus tent.

2011-12-06T17:12:00.001-06:00

We had a good weekend, about 60 customers total. Things should pick up with the holidays.
We went shopping in Cuernavaca yesterday.
Today we went into Tepoztlan for lunch and coffee shop.

We finally planted our new beautiful palm tree that we bought while Saundra, Don, Bob and Ben were with us, next door to Conaplor, in Cuautla. It was almost more that five of us could manage, to move it from where we unloaded it off the pickup, a few meters to where Viny wanted to plant it. But somehow we managed, and it is beautiful. It is actually a double trunk Kerpis palm, in a V shape, rather tall. That is Gustavo putting the dirt around it, and Mario on up by the pool.

The entrance to the spa. Our balls are purple, our palo, dulce.

Tomorrow Viny and I will go to Mexico City to see Ovo by Cirque de Soleil tomorrow night. Alberto bought us the tickets.

Saundra, Don, Bob and Ben left today

2011-12-02T19:53:00.001-06:00

Yesterday morning seven of us crowded into the Xterra and Alberto drove us to the bus station, and six of us took a bus to Taxqueña and then two taxis to the Hotel Embassy. We got four rooms there, about $25 USD each. It is a rather nice hotel, especially for this price. We took our luggage in and then finally managed to get two taxis and went to the House of Tile for breakfast. I have not taken a taxi in many years in Mexico City, and I was surprised how hard it is to find one. There are many taxis, most that passed had customers, some did not, two stopped but did not want to go where we wanted to go. After breakfast we walked a block or so to MUNAL and looked at the beautiful building and the art it contains. We then walked on the the Zócalo. Saundra, Don and I then took a taxi to La Ciudadela while the other three looked around the zocalo. Viny and I had been to La Ciudadela twice and I liked it and wanted to see it. When we arrived, Saundra thought she might just want to stay a few minutes, but that did not last long. We then returned to the hotel and met up with the others and walked across the street to a seafood place and had supper.
After supper the Cunninghams returned to the hotel and the Praters walked around the Zona Rosa, including the Angel. Viny bought several things, including shoes and two watches and music CD's.
This morning we walked from our hotel to the Hotel Geneve in the Zona Rosa, on Londres. This is where I stayed the first few times I visited Mexico City in the '60's. The prices have gone up a lot since then, it is still beautiful.
We then walked a short distance to the Mercado Insurgentes, also on Londres, and Ben within two seconds found the rose-shaped silver ring Joye wanted. I think I like Mercado Insurgentes better than La Ciudadela. Ben and Bob then went to walk around while the other four of us stayed to shop. We then returned to the hotel and they had to leave shortly in two taxis to the airport to catch their flight home. Viny and I took the subway to the bus station and returned to Tepoztlan. Alberto and Javier picked us up and we were sitting down at Naty's at 4 p.m., when the Cunninghams were taking off for Tulsa.
We all had a great time. They paid for all our wonderful meals, plus Christmas came early, they left their pesos behind for me. I hope Bob and Vanessa will return soon, and that Saundra and Don will return in March for a month or longer, and that Ben and Joye will coordinate with Sherrie and visit while Saundra and Don are here.
Alberto and Javier had done our shopping in Cuernavaca this morning, and this afternoon in Tepoztlan we got our usual flowers, fruits and veggies. We are ready for business this weekend.

2011-11-28T22:13:00.001-06:00

Last Friday Viny and Alberto and Javier went to Cuernavaca to do our shopping while I went into Tepoztlan with Saundra, Don, Bob and Ben. Then Viny met us at La Posada del Tepozteco for lunch. I drove us there and then on down to German's, while Viny walked. Viny returned home and we stayed in town and shopped.
I went into town with my sibs most of the day Saturday, we ate at Axitla. We then shopped. We got soaked by a sudden heavy rain.
On Sunday we went to La Sombra del Sabino. They were celebrating their sixth anniversary. They had a very nice art show, a big crowd, then at one o'clock Stuart Cox had a group of Mexican high school students who performed Shakespeare in English. It was amazing.
I asked Bob to take the photo which appears below for me, as it is about as rare as the second coming to see the holy trinity all there at the same time - Briget, Susan and Sheila. Some of the students are to the right behind the bales of hay.

We then went back up town and shopped.
Today we took two vehicles and all went to the Hotel de Amatlan and had a very nice lunch, then some of us went back into town and shopped just a little.
We then talked via Skype with Sherrie and her family and Melissa and her family.
Tomorrow we are going to the ex-hacienda San Antonio del Puente for lunch, we may shop some in Cuernavaca on the way.

2011-11-24T22:24:00.001-06:00

Saundra, Don, Bob and Ben arrived safely this afternoon. We went home with their luggage, looked around a little, and then went into town and ate at La Luna Mextli. We will spend most of tomorrow in town, looking around and eating a couple of times.
Golda went into town with us, she stayed in the car, she came into their apartment when we returned home, she really likes to be around people.
Saundra and Don brought me some jeans, some shirts Sherrie had sent, and the few things I had ordered. Like a bottle cutter and some Gunnera seeds.

Carl and Mark left today.

2011-11-21T17:30:00.001-06:00

Mark and Carl and I got up at 4 this morning and went to the bus station in Cuernavaca. Golda went with us. I was back home in bed by ten after five, I hope they got to sleep some on the bus and planes. We had a wonderful visit, it is impressive what good cooks they are. Better then almost any restaurant.
We think we had more customers this weekend than we have ever had before. We have had more customers per single day, but this weekend we had a lot both Saturday and Sunday.
Viny and his three friends left this morning for Mexico City, on Wednesday his three friends will go to Puerto Vallarta and Viny will return here. Alberto and Javier are also due to return here on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the wonderful visit of Saundra, Don, Bob and Ben begins.

Today is Mark's birthday

2011-11-19T22:51:00.001-06:00

We had a big crowd at the spa today, I hardly saw Carl or Mark all day, so I think they were having fun somewhere. Another day there tomorrow.
Tonight Mark and Carl fixed all seven of us a wonderful dinner, a shrimp dish and a great salad. I guess we will only have one more of their fantastic dinners this trip, tomorrow night.

Today is Lloyd's birthday

2011-11-17T17:42:00.001-06:00

I called Lloyd this morning and wished him a happy birthday, then Carl talked to him for a while and also wished him a happy birthday.
Viny went into town today with his three friends who are visiting, and Mark and Carl and I drove to the ex-hacienda San Antonio del Puente and looked around and had a good lunch.
We will go do our shopping tomorrow. We are expecting a large crowd Saturday at the spa.
Carl and Mark leave Monday and Viny's friends go to Mexico City on Monday. Alberto and Javier return on Wednesday and Saundra and Don and Bob and Ben arrive on Thursday. We will all have a good time.
Carl and Mark are going to cook chicken enchiladas for all of us tonight.
Yesterday Carl and Mark and me and Viny all went to Mexico City yesterday. We visited Frida Kahlo's house and then Soumaya and then we went to the Marilyn Manson art exhibit at the Colegio Antiguo del San Ildefonso. We then had lunch and Viny went to the airport to meet his friends and Carl and Mark and I returned home. It was a good day.

2011-11-14T08:02:00.001-06:00

We had a decent weekend at the spa, both new and returning customers.
Carl and Mark spent both days there, leaving only briefly yesterday with Viny to shop a little in town. They are still preparing a new recipe daily, with great success. Those three are currently climbing the mountain, with the two little male dogs.
Alberto and Javier are in the Bahamas on their cruise.
We are going to lunch at Las Mañanitas for lunch this afternoon.
It is another beautiful day here today.

It is now 6:30 p.m. Carl and Mark about have supper ready. We went to lunch at Las Mañanitas, it was good and the place is beautiful and it was expensive.

These are beautiful orchids that were on a tree at the restaurant today.

11-11-11

2011-11-11T23:11:00.001-06:00

This evening Viny and I drove to the bus station in Cuernavaca and picked up Mark and Carl. I had bought a few items on their grocery list, and we stopped at Superama and bought the rest of the items. They are preparing a new item each day, and they wanted to prepare dinner when we arrived at their apartment. It was great, very good, especially the salsa and the guacamole, we made tacos and they were great.
Prior to starting cooking, we gave them a brief tour of the spa, mainly to see the new things since their last visit.
After dinner, they gave me a huge box of chocolates from Denver.
We will spend the next couple of days at the spa, then Monday or Tuesday lunch at Las Mañanitas and probably Mexico City on Wednesday.

2011-11-08T19:38:00.002-06:00

We have been wanting to change our business license from Alberto's name to Viny's name so that Viny will have a better chance of being given a US Visa when he applies. Yesterday we went to the office in Cuernavaca to do this, we were just halfway successful. We accomplished shutting down the business in Alberto's name, but needed some more papers to start the business in Viny's name. We took a big chance, I suppose, but Viny and I went back today and successfully got the license in Viny's name.

2011-11-06T21:51:00.000-06:00

We had a good day at the spa both yesterday and today. Mainly nice customers, with a few rare exceptions.
I just watched tonight's episode of The Good Wife, it may be my favorite episode so far. And now I am watching tonight's episode of Dexter. I just figured out yesterday that Colin Hanks is Tom's son. I saw Tom once, at a memorial service in NYC. I am thinking of contacting him and telling him to make his son quit being so mean on Dexter.
Tomorrow we are going to Cuernavaca to take care of some business.

Day of the Dead

2011-11-01T23:02:00.000-06:00

We went into town today and had lunch at Milenio.
Shortly after we returned home we left for Tlayacapan. As we were looking for a parking lot, we waved at Patricia Inestrillas, and when we went to eat at Emilianos, she was there with a friend so we all ate together.
We went to the venue for Lila Downs. We had gone there when we first got there, about 4 or so, and people were already seated in order to have a chair. We weren't willing to do that, so we went to eat. When we returned after eating, about 7, we found a place stand, but after a minute or two of that, I was tired of that, so I asked the others if we wanted to stand there for an hour or walk around town, and we opted to walk around town. We did, and shopped some. Viny found some hanging lamps he had been looking for. We paid for them and picked them up as we were heading to our car later. We had some tamales and then at almost 8, as the dead were following the scent of marigolds to find their way home for the night, we went back to the concert area. We had as good a place as if we had stood there for an hour. Her third song was La Iguana, and I will try to attach a sample. If you can pick her out on this video, you are a better man than I am. After a few more songs, we left and picked up our lamps and went to the parking lot. It took a long time for the people to retrieve our car, and then we headed home. I think the trip home was faster than the trip over. Gustavo had stayed at our place, we arrived home about five minutes after ten. It was worth the trip.

2011-10-31T18:46:00.001-06:00

We had a rather good weekend at the spa, both Saturday and Sunday. Alberto arrived late in the afternoon, with goodies for all of us. Some shirts and pants for me. A label maker that I had ordered in order to make labels for our trees. Maria sent me and Viny each a pair of shoes, we both love them and wore them today. Mine are sandals and his are loafer-like, blue, both of the brand Fitflops.
Today Alberto took me and Viny and Javier to PF Changs for lunch, that was very nice. While there at Gallerias Cuernavaca, we went to Liverpool and I bought an electric toaster oven, which I have been wanting the past few months since my other one stopped working.
Tomorrow afternoon we are planning to go to Tlayacapan to see Lila Downs at the ex convent. I hope we get to go, I think it would be beautiful.

Days of the Dead 2001 part 2

2011-10-29T21:19:00.001-05:00

We had a good day at the spa today. Beautiful weather, beautiful altar, nice customers. We are hoping for the same tomorrow. Alberto should be here late tomorrow afternoon.

This is the altar that Javier and Viny made, with incense. It is impressive.

Viny also made necklaces of large marigolds for us workers. You can see me in the mirror, of course.

These are the flowers in the hallway, the pale pink mums are from last weekend, today we added the cockscomb.

And here is the old geezer with his marigold necklace. I can't believe I post stuff like this. Behind my head is our sign "Gaudeamus Igitur"

Javier took this photo of two of our Jorge Marin sculptuers decked out with marigold necklaces of their own.

Viny put large marigolds on our steps, it is really pretty.

Days of the Dead 2011

2011-10-28T19:08:00.000-05:00

Apparently the display in the middle of the street last night, blocking the street, had to do with the meeting of Shamans in Tepoztlan, and not specifically with Days of the Dead. It was gone today and the street was open.
Javier and Viny put up the altar today in the spa. It is beautiful.

In the mirror you can see Viny taking the photo with Javier beside him.

That is Mario on the right.

Today we had lunch at La Sombra del Sabino.

Javier made some funny changes to photos of me, for my birthday yesterday, even funnier looking that the originals.

The first is Frida, the second, I suppose, a magician.

I turned 67 today

2011-10-27T21:21:00.001-05:00

I am still working on cleaning out our bodega. This mainly consists of my carrying a box at a time outside, looking through it, throwing away a few things, and taking the rest to our apartment, where there is no room.
Viny went to climb this morning and then early this afternoon we went into town for lunch. We tried to go to La Sombra del Sabino, but there was no parking room, so we went back up town and went to El Ciruelo. Our lunch was Sherrie's treat, and it was very good.
I have talked with Greg and Gordon, Lloyd, and all three of my sibs today. And Alberto twice.

All this week there has been a market in town for Day of the Dead. Sherrie is always looking for blue and white dishes to match her set from almost 40 years ago. Hers I believe have perhaps a deer on them, she never finds them. These are much simpler but much easier to find, and they are pretty. A good assortment of sizes and shapes, including the lazy susan with multiple compartments.

Today workers were wrapping some of the columns with pericon, a yellow flower that grows profusely here, including on our land.

The main street was blocked off today and people were making this installation in the middle of the street, with drawings and bananas and flowers and beans and a lot of incense.

The market is below, the workers wrapping the columns above, Victor Hugo across the street.

More of the blue and white dishes available.

And more.

And more, with my right toes at the bottom.

Last evening just before dark Viny and Javier were in Alberto's garden up to something. This morning EARLY they presented me with this beautiful bouquet, in Sherrie's beautiful vase. The only flower they bought was the yellow lily, and it would have been beautiful without it.

Some of the many marigolds for sale today in town. Their scent helps the dead find their way home next week for the night. I want to make a path up our spa steps with these, or wild ones from our land. We will also have a lot inside. We will just have our altar for this weekend, then we will be over it and will take it down. Most stay up much longer, but a couple of days is enough for us.

I have now discovered I can watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert live, instead of delayed like I have been, but I do not always remember this at the proper time.

2011-10-26T20:46:00.001-05:00

Today a pickup from the electric came to turn off our electricity. The guy said our account was on a list of accounts he was given to turn off, that were delinquent. I told him we have five meters and they are paid automatically every two months from our bank account. He agreed to indicate he turned off our service and I would have until two p.m. to get it taken care of. I came inside to the computer, it shows all five of our accounts as being current. I called, they said the amount was from an "adjustment" from last December and it does not show on our bi-monthly statements. I sure don't understand that.
I made a list of our five accounts and we went to one of their offices in Cuernavaca. Three of our five accounts had past due amounts, the other two did not. I paid the amount they claimed to be due.
We went to a little plant-ecological sale, that was a dud, and then shopping at Costco. We then went to Home Depot and then to Casa Thai, where Javier bought me a birthday lunch a day early and Patricia brought a fried banana dessert, with a scoop of ice cream.
We then stopped by the lawn mower repairman and picked up two of the three weedeaters he was fixing.

Above is the new palapa, a nice job. Viny thinks there a few finishing touches left.

Above it looks a little rough, I think the leaves will lie flatter later, especially if it should rain, which it probably won't until late May or early June. Now we have to do something about a table and seating for the palapa.

This is an image I found on the internet of Rick Genest, or "zombie boy", who is tattooed about all over as a skeleton. I am using it to promote this weekend at the spa and put it temporarily on our business web page. It is to promote the Day of the Dead. I guess it does not move unless you click on it.

I have been looking in the storage room for some metal stencils that I brought from Oklahoma that Viny wants to use. I have not found them yet, but in the process I am hauling a LOT of stuff into our apartment from the storage shed. I don't know how some of the things have lasted there this long, books and photos and stuff.

2011-10-20T20:00:00.002-05:00

I am much much better today, still have a cough, but hopefully that will be better tomorrow. I actually got a lot done today after spending yesterday on the couch. I did laundry, planted several trees, cooked some, and Viny and I went into town for lunch at La Luna Mextli.
I also talked with Sherrie by Skype, Saundra, Don and Bob had arrived about an hour earlier, and Liz and her three beautiful kids arrived while I was talking with them, so I got to see them all, except Larry, who was not yet home.
Tomorrow we will go shopping with Marcia and Javier.

This is a plant in our little garden that I planted about three years ago.

This is in a large pot in our little garden, I am not sure what these plants are, but I think these are balsam plants that came up from the old plants that were in this pot.

I just planted two of these plants, they are the same as the first one. I hope they do as well.

The workers are finally putting palm leaves on our new little palapa, all the bamboo they cut here. They ran out of palm leaves today.

I think they are doing a better job than was done on our bar palapa. When we get that roof replaced, we will probably use these guys.

I am glad Gaddafi is dead.

2011-10-19T21:07:00.001-05:00

I am a little puny today. Last night my nose was runny and my throat a little sore. I took an antihistamine and that helped my nose. This morning my throat was more sore, I am coughing some, I think from sinus drainage, I feel warm and have a slight headache. I took the first of three azithromycin tablets this morning. In Oklahoma, I took these several times, I never bought them as I was given them as samples, and I knew they cost about $100 and so they helped me a lot, usually on the second day. Here, I buy them at the pharmacy, very cheap, I hope my knowing they are cheap does not affect their effectiveness.
Javier left this morning, he will be back tomorrow.
Viny and I went to La Sombra del Sabino for lunch, other than that I have laid on the couch most of the day. I hope I can still sleep tonight, I am counting on feeling better tomorrow.
Mario took out our four stools from the four bathrooms at the spa and is installing the four new porcelain ones, along with four new porcelain urinals. These will look much nicer and will be easier to clean.
The palapa guys are not finished yet, they came again this afternoon, I hope they finish this week.
Alberto will be here Sunday, the 30th of this month.

2011-10-18T19:40:00.000-05:00

Mario hauled off our trash this morning and Viny climbed the mountain with at least a couple of our dogs.Then, about 10:30, Javier and Viny and I drove to Yautepec and had breakfast and then drove on to Cuautla and Conaplor. This was the first time for Javier to go there and he liked it. We bought about half a pickup load of plants and then went next door to Centenario Nursery and filled up the other half of the pickup. Then we started home and bought a couple bags of little white rocks and then back to Yautepec and we stopped at the wonderful nursery there and bought several more things. We then went back about 4 to the same place we had breakfast and we had lunch.We then went home and unloaded.

This is Javier and a few of the plants we bought today. We will make our altar for the Day of the Dead at the spa in just a couple of weeks, so we bought several marigolds today.

This is Viny with more of the plants we bought today.

More of the plants we bought today. As Viny said today, one of the nice things about buying all these plants, and so often, is we just tell Gustavo where we want them and he plants them.

2011-10-11T16:32:00.000-05:00

This is a better photo of the table that Viny tiled, and varnished. It is spectacular.

2011-10-09T21:35:00.000-05:00

It rained a lot in Mexico City, and some here. We had a slow day yesterday but did better today, so overall it was all right. I love the rain and I think they are about over for this season.Cirque de Soleil is coming to Mexico City, I hope Viny and I can go see one of the performances.Viny went into town this evening with some of our workers.A guy who fixed the brakes on my Xterra came today and started doing tune-ups on it and the pickup, so we have to use the Jeep for 2 or 3 days.Last night the lightening zapped out our modem again, one will be delivered within three days, in the meantime we are using the spare we have managed to have.

This is the little fountain at the spa, I think it is beautiful.

This is a good shot of the truly beautiful table Viny covered in stone tile. He will still varnish it this week.

This photo is not great, it is too light on each side, but it gives a good idea of the beautiful seating area, with the tile and the cushions and the screening for shade on each side. It is very nice.

2011-10-08T09:25:00.001-05:00

It is very unusual for little Chavelita to even be outside, but this is the first time I have seen her up on the wall. Maybe it has something to do with Javier and a friend being in Alberto's apartment. She got down and the little dogs chased her and she jumped back up there. What I don't know is if she can get back into Alberto's apartment, as she has to jump in through a window, and she is a little hefty. But she jumped up onto this wall just fine when the dogs were after her.

2011-10-07T19:54:00.000-05:00

This morning Viny and I let Marcia out in Ahuatepec and she took a taxi to the Newcomer's meeting. Viny and I went to Home Depot and then to Costco. Then, we arrived at Sam's Club just before 12 noon and Marcia was there waiting for us, eating an ice cream cone. We finished our shopping and then went home.Viny and I then went into town and had lunch at Casa Piñon and bought our fruits and veggies. There are young people selling roses 15 pesos per dozen (currently slightly over one US dollar) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I usually arrive too late on Fridays to get any, so the guy told me recently he will save me some each Friday. He saves me six dozen, which costs 90 pesos, or currently about seven US dollars. He always gives me an extra dozen for free.I took the dogs for a walk when we got home and Viny worked more at the spa.I took some photos. I am still having difficulty posting my photos to this blog. Once in a while a photo will post correctly the first time, but usually I have do do it two or three or four times before it posts correctly. I still don't know what the problem is.

Above are a couple of birds of paradise at the front steps of the spa.

This is a couple of the dozens of roses I bought.

This is some pericon and zinnias I picked yesterday, they both grow wild here on our land.

This is the dozen free roses he gave me today.

Above and below is wild grass that Viny picked to put in the hallway of the spa. It is light purple in color.

Viny bought a light fixture this morning at Home Depot and Mario put it up outside above the table Viny has just covered with tile. He also put us shade screening.Below is a beautiful calla lily I bought last week in town, almost black.

This is another shot of the newly tiled table, with the light fixture and the screening.Below is one of the two ficus trees that Gustavo is shaping for me. I hope the form gets more obvious as time goes by.

There were some trees at the Yautepec nursery that both Alberto and Viny wanted, they had very large leaves. Viny and I bought one a few weeks ago and planted it, all the leaves dried up. We planted several trees at the same time and none of those dried up. It was still raining regularly at the time. However, above and below are photos of the new large leaves that have re-grown, still reddish in color, they will turn green, I think.

Five years ago, before we built anything here, we bought a bunch of palm trees, I think Greg and Gordon were actually with us at the time, and had them planted here. Some of them died from lack of water, but this row of I suppose Phoenix palms are doing quite well.

I think above are coreopsis and below wild marigolds. These latter are some of the type used for Day of the Dead, coming up soon.

Above are pericon and also what I think is the first planted I planted here, a bouganvilla. It is still small, even after five years, because it does not get tended to nor get watered, but it survives. I don't know what the little purple flowers below are.

Lantana above, zinnias below, all wild here on the land.

Above is one of the many banana plants down by the fountain on our entry road. Golda, for some reason, is intent on destroying all the banana plants, and some trees, but this one has escaped her so far. Below is the wonderful little Thalia.

Frida above, Cica below.

Prieto above, Goli and Canelo below.

And lastly, four dozen of the roses in our fountain. Our fish have grown a lot since we bought them.Currently Viny is at the gym, he took Golda with him, I think it is raining some, Javier is on his way here for the weekend.

Steve Jobs has died

2011-10-05T20:23:00.000-05:00

The first computer I ever wanted was Next, a beautiful, for the time, totally black computer. It was a little pricey, and I never got one. It was made by Steve Jobs.Cookie lives. Marcia and I went and picked her up and brought her home today. Her time is probably quite limited, but at the moment she is happy and home.Viny finished the tile work on the tables today, they are beautiful.Tomorrow our friends Cathy and Christine drive from Cuernavaca to Puerto Vallarta. This has inspired me to think about driving there next February. Back in the 60's Bryant Boyd and I drove from Guadalajara to Mexico City, through Morelia and Patzcuaro, and I thought at the time that the state of Michoacan was the most beautiful of the Mexican states. Viny has never driven like that. It would be a fun trip, we can get to Toluca without going through Mexico City and then go west from there. I will talk with Cathy and Christine when they get back, but at the moment I think I want to do this. It would be most fun and beautiful. And my main reason is that we can go to Tonalá on the way back and buy a bunch of glass or other stuff, fill up the car, and bring it all home. And shopping in Michoacan is wonderful also.Two guys showed up today to fix the palm thatch roof on our bar. And they will make a new small palapa on the post we have already erected.I mowed some today with our cord mower, it is working fine.This afternoon Viny and I went into town and had lunch at La Luna Mextli, then we went to Tepoz Cafe. I walked around a little and came home in a combi and Viny went to the gym, he is home now.I hope I am not ordering more stuff than Alberto will have room to bring home. I just now ordered some dog clippers, I want to clip Blackie, if he will let me, and I am fairly sure he will.

2011-10-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

Cookie, Marcia's oldest dog, 14, and the only one she brought from the US, also a rescued dog, is very ill and has been in a pet hospital in Cuernavaca the past two days. We are going to get her tomorrow, as she is currently better, but her prognosis is very poor.I am having problems posting photos on my blog, so until that gets cleared up, I will not be having photos here.It rained quite a bit last night and some tonight, that is nice.I got our string mower fixed today, so we can hopefully start using it again tomorrow.The guy who is supposed to fix the palm roof on our bar by the pool is to come tomorrow. This is about the third time he is supposed to have arrived, I hope tomorrow actually happens.I had lunch at Las Golondrinas today, I will go back soon with Viny, probably.Viny has put beautiful rock tile on the large outdoor table and four small areas around the table and seating area. He just has a few details to finish, he should finish this week.Alberto should be back here in a couple of weeks.

2011-09-28T19:39:00.001-05:00

These are some orchid plants that I potted and put in our bathroom so I will be more likely to water them daily, or at least almost daily.

We bought some hummingbird feeders recently. Today I hung on just outside our window in a tree. We have a lot of hummingbirds, today I did not see one at this feeder. In the future I plan to make the feeders and also the nectar, without the red color.

Today is both the Day of Corn and the Day of Pericon. Pericon is this little yellow flower which is abundant here, including on our land, and it is usually used to form little crosses which many people put on their entryways today. I picked this little bouquet today of wild flowers and grasses and put it in one of the vases we bought yesterday at the rummage sale.

This is a datura bud which will be fully open tomorrow and will be salmon in color.

Above and below are photos of one of the very large blooms that are developing on one of our travelers palms.

This is one of the heliconias we bought recently. It still looks very nice.

2011-09-27T20:51:00.001-05:00

We had a decent weekend last weekend, customer wise. We are hoping for more this next weekend.This morning we drove to Huitzilac. On the way we stopped by a rummage sale in Santa Maria of a woman who has lived here for 20 years but she is returning to near Chicago, from where she came. We bought a few things and then went on to Huitzilac. We went first to the place I like to go to buy heavy lumber, but we could not find anyone there. We stopped at three places in the little town and bought a car-full of stuff and then went to Cuernavaca to Home Depot and Waldos and then to Casa Thai for lunch.The palapa guy who was supposed to come yesterday came today while we were gone and the gate was locked. He will be back next Monday, as he won't have enough palm leaves before then.Viny and Mario put in a bunch of gravel and lava rock today in areas in the spa gardens.

This is a little private area in the spa gardens, totally enclosed by bamboo. We bought this little wheel-barrow thing today, it was made to sit a flower pot or two on it. We may also put two benches here made of the big pieces of lumber we bought today.

Today was Sherrie's birthday

2011-09-20T23:48:00.001-05:00

Last night the lightening zapped our modem again, so today we went to Yautepec and had breakfast and I went around the corner and got a new modem. We then went to Oaxtepec and ordered some steel to make a pen for Blackie and Golda and some for a new roof on the seating area in Alberto's garden area at the spa.I went into town this afternoon for a short while and went to TepozCafe. Viny went to the gym this evening.Gustavo said recently he would like a poodle, and Marcia put a note on CuernaAds and got offers for about 8. Three arrived today from DF and he took two of them, cute little males.I used to watch Raising Hope fairly regularly but have not recently. Tonight I decided to watch the most recent episode, and by chance, Greyson Chance was on it. He is the little kid from Edmond who has a YouTube hit of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi and Ellen started a record company in order to sign him.

Tomorrow is Sherrie's birthday

2011-09-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

We had a great weekend, lots of customers.Today we had lunch at El Ciruelo, it is always nice.We looked for some bamboo but wound up just buying a bunch of plants, mainly succulent type.After we returned home, Viny made this little garden at the spa, he will call it the La Goma Garden, that is his hometown and it is dry there.

2011-09-15T20:59:00.000-05:00

It was warm and sunny all day today. Maybe the next three days while we are open will also be warm and sunny.This morning we went with Marcia to Cuernavaca and did our shopping and then this afternoon we went into town for lunch and to finish our shopping, including getting flowers.Viny then decorated the front of the spa for Mexican Independence Day, it is beautiful. I hope we are busy the next three days, I think we will be.

He hung banners of cloth from the roof on each side of the main door. I hope the dogs don't tear them down before Monday.

This is a hibiscus blossom off to the left of the spa entrance.

Another hibiscus blossom.

That is the precious little Prieto in the foreground. He is so easy to take for walks, he stays right with me. The other dogs run here and there and explore, but he stays right with me. I love him and he loves me. Little Canelo is behind him and Viny is on the roof.

2011-09-12T20:17:00.000-05:00

Last Friday the girl where we buy flowers each week for the spa had some huge red heliconias, the biggest I have seen. She was charging 30 pesos (about $2.50 USD) each, and we bought two of them. The other one she had was much smaller, so we did not get that one. I asked her where they came from, and she said a local lady named Noemí raises them, and might have plants to sell. We went there today and bought the five she and her husband had for sale, 100 pesos (about $8 USD) each. We will go back in December when they say they will have another kind that I also want. I have not seen this available in any of the many many nurseries we frequent.We tried again to access our health insurance for employees on a computer in town, again unsuccessfully, so we will go back to the office in Cuernavaca tomorrow morning and try to get it done. We have to pay it by Wednesday or we will get fined again, as we do every month, because we never get the bill in time to pay it on time.We had lunch at El Bonsai.Prior to going to Tepoztlan we went to Ahuatepec and bought a bunch of rock tile that Viny wants to cover a table and some little table-like tops. He is going to do this tile work himself.

This is Alberto's cat Goyo over on his balcony this afternoon.

This is little Chavelita, another of Alberto's cats, over in his apartment today. She is still shy, but not as shy as when she first appeared at the spa. She must weigh about twice what she did when she arrived.

And this is the little Teo, another of Alberto's cats, this afternoon on his perch above our back gate. We are going to make this wall higher, and fill in the area above where he currently is, but I want to leave his space there and access to it as he seems to like this little perch.

This is little Teo again, on the corner of Alberto's balcony. Gato was at this moment lying about a meter from him. Last night they had a fight in this area, I think Goyo was picking on him, Goyo weighs about twice as much, I finally threw a little paper can at them, I missed by a mile, but it was enough to make Goyo leave at least temporarily.

I probably should quit posting photos of this kale, but I planted this about a year ago and it is still pretty.

This is some of the hoja santa in our little back yard. We took out a lot of it about a year ago, it has grown back very nicely.

It is still over two months before Saundra arrives, I don't think these particular lemons, which are the first two to ripen, will hang on that long. So she probably won't get to pick the first, but there should be others ripe at that time that she can pick. And we always have limes.

This is some wild grass that I think is beautiful.

This is some beautiful red bouganvilla growing over Alberto's garden wall.

We have a regular green rubber tree that has grown tremendously since we planted it. This is a dark-leaved one that is very pretty, but has not grown as fast.

This is a type of eucalyptus tree, the kind that smells good with the round leaves. This one is doing pretty good.

This is a small regular red tabachin tree.

This is a beautiful whitish-pinkish bouganvilla that we don't water, but it hangs in there somehow.

This is also a rubber tree, also slow growing, at least for us, it is variegated and Golda got in the photo also.

This is also a small tabachin tree, but of the more unusual yellow type.

This is one of our tulipan de India trees, with large beautiful red blooms.

This is the wonderful Blackie.

And this is the wonderful Golda.

This is a design in small cut rock that is one meter square that Viny bought today to put in the middle of a cement table that is in "Alberto's garden" at the spa.

Viny will fill in around the square meter with other cut rock.

This is one of the beautiful large red heliconia blooms we bought last Friday, and that grows from the five plants we bought today, or at least I hope ours bloom like this in the next year or so.I discovered I had taken more photos than I originally put on here, so here are some more.

I think this is a different photo of the large heliconia bloom. If it is the same, it is just pretty twice.

This is our little fountain, with hundreds of little guppies, and nice water plants.

The same little fountain, this time with a piece of water lettuce that I looked for for about a year before finding some.

We keep trying with pampas grass. Some has died, we currently have at least three clumps, this is the first one to produce plumes.

This is a little cuatecomate tree I planted about three years ago in front of the spa. It produces a very hard fruit, like a gourd, which are popular here for decorative and medicinal purposes. I finally found several small ones which are now planted, and slightly different one, which is also planted.

This is a little windmill palm we planted a few years ago, it is doing rather well even though it is totally neglected.

This is a small portion of what is growing just behind our house in the water filter area. It is rather green and lush.

This is a little pretty plant at the spa and the photo may even be prettier than the plant.

And last but certainly not least the wonderful Rosita, our spa cat. She stays at the spa most of the time, just coming to Alberto's apartment occasionally. I think she is avoiding the other cats who may bother her. She is all by herself at the spa, except for Mario, and then on weekends she sleeps on the couch with the customers watching TV. I now make sure she has food and water, Alberto put a bell on her at Lloyd's suggestion to give the birds a better chance. We now leave a spa door open for her most nights so she can come and go and not be locked in all night.

2011-09-11T19:54:00.000-05:00

It was cloudy all day today and a little cool, so we did not have many customers. But yesterday was good enough that overall the weekend was good. Plus, Viny thinks that because next weekend is a holiday and we are going to open on Friday also, that a lot of our regular customers are waiting until then to come.Last night we sent an email to the guy from Puebla who had said he was bringing 44 guys today in a bus, he replied that he forgot to tell us, but he didn't get enough people so he canceled it the day before but he will see us soon. I am glad we were not really counting on this, so we are not disappointed.All of our dogs and cats are all right, that is always good. Golda is currently scared as there are a lot of fireworks, I suppose in anticipation of Independence Day, if there is a reason for them at all.Tomorrow we will go into Tepoztlan and also start buying a few things for the spa with the money Alberto sent.We are going to decorate some for Independence Day, we already have a few things from last year.

2011-09-10T22:09:00.001-05:00

This photo does not do justice to the beautiful vase that Sherrie bought for me while they were here recently. I took this picture today, it has about three dollars worth of roses in it, and it is beautiful.We had a good day today and are hoping for another one tomorrow. I still fear that the rains may have stopped for this year. About a month ago a guy from Puebla wrote us that he is bringing 44 guys tomorrow by bus, we have no idea if that will actually happen or not, but we are ready for them if they show up. If not, it is still fine.Alberto sent us some money for the spa and we will start spending it on Monday.

2011-09-10T08:41:00.000-05:00

It has not rained for a few days. Yesterday coming back from Cuernavaca we had a pretty good view of Popocateptl, I think this suggests little moisture in the air, I hope this rainy season has not ended, but it is not looking good for having more rain this year.Today is clear and sunny, we are hoping for good business today and tomorrow, we hope to use the new steam generator for the first time today.Viny just took this photo, the two little boy dogs, Prieto and Canelo, were beside each other on the couch, by the time he got his camera, Cihuatl had entered the picture.

2011-09-08T20:43:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday Viny and Marcia and I drove west of Cuernavaca a few miles to just inside the State of Mexico and found Mariana Kramer's beautiful place and had lunch with her and John. I was very pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is up there. We drove through huge pine trees to get there, in the mountains, and she has beautiful views of mountains all around. Her house is very nice, she has more plans for it later. I wheedled a few little succulents out of her which I planted yesterday.Yesterday Viny and Marcia and I drove out to Hacienda Clemente Jacques and lunch with the wonderful Pattie Hogan. Her place is spectacular, I always love going there. She showed us some of her THREE MILLION LITERS of collected rain water which is all covered, she has a lot more which is not covered, with fish and turtles. She had a lot of electrical damage recently from lightning.

This is a photo of the fabulous Samba. Samba is about ten years old, Pattie has only had her a few months. I think Samba had some rough times earlier in her life, but she must have good karma, as she is living the good life now. Pattie also has little Pinkie, a little chihuahua, about 20 years old, and perhaps at least a little spoiled. And several other dogs and cats, including a new black kitten. Today I planted a lot of seeds, mostly flowers, such as California poppies and other poppies, digitalis, marigolds, etc, and some others such as cilantro, chives, celery, lettuce, laurus nobilis. I have very bad luck with seeds, they usually don't sprout for me. I hope this time they do. I also hope our rainy season is not over yet, it has not rained in a couple of days, and my little seeds with have a better chance if it continues to rain for a while longer.This afternoon Viny and I went into town and had lunch at La Sombra del Sabino. He returned home and I stayed and went to the Tepoz Cafe and walked around a little and saw the new doorway made of beans and seeds which was put up yesterday, I think. Viny got one of the weedeaters repaired so Gustavo used it some today inside the spa, I hope tomorrow he can cut the grass in the parking area, it sure needs it. Tomorrow we will go to Cuernavaca with Marcia for our usual shopping for the weekend, we are hoping for more customers this weekend, as the weather seems to be better now, with more sun.

2011-09-05T18:35:00.002-05:00

This morning Viny drove us in the pickup to IMSS to get our account straightened out. It took several more hours and many more pesos than I had counted on to do this, but we got it done.We then drove to Yautepec and stopped at a roadside place to eat and I hope we don't regret this choice. We will know tonight.We then went to the Nursery in Yautepec and bought four trees. I had planned to get more, but they could not find them today, we will try another day.Sherrie sent some of their photos they took while they were here, this one is my favorite.

Sherrie told me Rosita spent time with them, this photo is proof of that. Also in the photo are Larry and Leon.Yesterday Gustavo gave me the little blue water lily flower whose photo I just posted recently. He said one of our customers was walking by, Gustavo was not paying attention at first, then noticed the guy was messing with his hands in the water with the plants and he hollered at him. Today I wanted to make sure the rest of the plant was intact. It was not. I suppose he also pulled off all the leaves and pulled the plant out of its pot. Why, I have no idea. I hope he never returns to the spa. That is inexcusable. Almost as bad as being boring.

2011-09-02T21:27:00.001-05:00

This morning Viny drove and we went to Waldo's and then to Costco, in Cuernavaca. As we were leaving, Marcia showed up, I had given up on her. We went back into Costco and then to Sam's. I looked for a new toaster oven both places, but they did not have one I liked. I will keep looking, plus I will ask Miguel to look at this one to see if he can fix it. This afternoon we had lunch at El Bonsai and then Viny went to the gym while I went to the Tepoz Cafe. Miguel was here when we got home, but he will come back tomorrow, he says, to fix the things we need fixed. About a third of the time he comes when he says he will. He is also going to do a tune-up on my car, supposedly. I hope next week to go back to Vivero Yautepec and maybe Conaplor. We are going to have lunch with friends and Marcia both Tuesday and Wednesday, that will be nice. We also have to go to IMSS and try to get our situation straightened out. Maybe we can do that Monday morning. I guess we could go directly from there to Cuautla or Yautepec.

I took this photo today at our fountain, our little water lily has a little bloom on it. It looks nice, I hope it grows.

2011-09-01T20:18:00.001-05:00

Marcia rode into town with us early this afternoon, she had business to do. Viny and had lunch and then went to a coffee shop for a while.Since we returned home, it has rained lightly much of the time. Both yesterday morning and this morning I fixed myself biscuits and gravy for breakfast.This afternoon I made some tabouli and sauted some mushrooms, I will fix some pasta to go with the mushrooms later tonight or tomorrow.My electric oven went out, so I used the gas oven for my biscuits both days. I may try to get another oven tomorrow at Costco.Marcia is going to Cuernavaca early tomorrow morning and she will then meet us later in the morning at Costco and come home with us.Javier is now in Oklahoma visiting with Alberto.

Viny took this photo from the car as we were entering town this afternoon. It was cloudy, the street has been decorated for Mexican Indepedence Day which is coming up soon.

Viny had Gustavo trip the top of some of the bamboo that has been obstructing some of the view from the pool area. We want privacy, but we also want views, and we try to strike a balance.

Our spa really is beautiful. And it gets prettier about every week.

2011-08-31T22:05:00.001-05:00

Today Viny and I drove to Yautepec again and this time I did get a new modem. We then returned to Tepoztlan and had lunch at El Bonzai and he returned home and I went to Los Buenos Tiempos and then took a combi home.

This is in our main fountain today. We bought these fish when they were the size of the little one, now they have grown a lot. This is the little blue-flowered water lily we bought recently, as well as some of the water lettuce that I had been looking for a year and found only recently.

These are the asters from last weekend, still pretty today, in the same fountain.

This is one of the heliconia we bought earlier this week, it looks like cardamon that I bought about three years ago, which subsequently died. I wish I could find more of that. I hope this is really heliconia, it probably is, but it looks different from others.

This is ficus auriculata, a tree with large leaves that both Viny and Alberto have been wanting for a while. It has figs that grow directly on the trunk of the tree, the guy at the nursery said they are not edible, but the internet says they are.

We have a lot of lime trees, and therefore a lot of limes. But these are lemons, the yellow kind common in US stores. This tree was harder to find, our little tree now has some lemons on it. If they don't fall off first, I may let Saundra pick the first ones when she is here Thanksgiving.

Sherrie and I used to argue for years over whether the trees here with the beautiful red flowers were called flamboyan or framboyan, but the correct answer is they are called tabachin. This is a less common yellow version.

This is a small aralia we bought earlier this week and planted behind our house.

I think this is aralia estrella, I planted one of these a few years ago, and while it is alive it has not grown much as it does not get watered except by Tlaloc. Viny did not want to get this, he said it looked like a weed.

And last and perhaps least is the little cute vine, at the nursery where I bought it called Japanese hat, but one the internet it was also referred to as Mexican hat.

2011-08-31T00:20:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we drove in the pickup to Yautepec to get a new modem and to go to the nursery. We had breakfast and then I realized I had not brought the old modem, so I was able to get the new modem. However, we went to the nursery to get the two plants we wanted and wound up with a pickup load of wonderful plants.Today Gustavo planted the new plants for us.We went into town for lunch. It was nice and sunny most of the day and then it started to rain and the electricity went off for a few minutes.Maybe tomorrow we will go back to Yautepec and get the new modem.Viny showed me some photos he recently took, and I am posting a few of them.

About a week into this rainy season the huge cistern at the spa was already full. There is a lot of roof surface, plus the roof for the not-yet-built restaurant provides a lot of water catchment. To the best of my knowledge the cistern we use here at the house has never actually been full. That is, not until now. With a month or two left of this rainy season, it is full. The above photo Viny took yesterday during one of our heavy rains.

Viny took the above photo last week when the photographer and his assistant and his model were here for seven hours taking photos at the spa. Here they are at the new hot tub.

And not to be outdone by the other model, here is a nude shot of Cihuatl posing on a chaise lounge perhaps at the same time.

And Viny also took this one last week while we were on our boat ride around Lake Tequesquitengo. It is nice to see all the homes from the vantage point of the lake. There are a LOT of homes around the lake, it appeared there were only three with people in them other than workers. Most are used on weekends only, or before school starts.

2011-08-28T22:49:00.003-05:00

Sherrie and Larry left this morning. I took them to the bus station in Cuernavaca and they took a bus to the Mexico City airport. I miss them. I hope they will move here next year, at least for five or six months at a time. They would go back to the US at least twice a year, I think, and they would travel.We had a very good time while they were here. Both of them and I have been a little puny the past couple of days, with stomach and other problems, perhaps caused by something we ate. In my opinion, the best food we had while they were here was at Las Marionas, and my favorite thing we did was the boat ride at Lake Tequesquitengo. They bought me the beautiful vase and flowers in this photo. I wanted the vase the first time I saw it. The guy in the shop in Tepoztlan says it is from Tonalá, this is suburb of Guadalajara, where most blown glass in Mexico comes from.Viny and I are watching the Video Music Awards, they are very good. That reminds me, we went to Tantra last Sunday, and I liked that a lot also.

2011-08-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

This morning I made biscuits and scrambled eggs. We took it up to Larry and Sherrie's apartment and ate, with orange juice.We then drove to Tlayacapan, first driving past a few miles to see the beautiful scenery, and then returned to Tlayacapan and shopped and then had lunch at Emilianos.We then drove through Oaxtepec and stopped at a couple of plant nurseries, then to the Yautepec Nursery where we were going to buy a couple of heliconia, but they closed before we got them bought. So we will go back sometime.We then came home and sat around the pool for a while. We then went to the house, Sherrie called Liz, then went to their apartment to watch a DVD. It started raining and is still raining.We are planning to spend tomorrow mainly in Cuernavaca. The following photos are Sherrie and Larry in Tlayacapan today.

2011-08-21T22:49:00.000-05:00

Viny is being so nice to me. He let me run around with Sherrie and Larry all day today. In fact, he got worried about us and when we got home at 9 tonight, he was leaving in the Jeep with Tehuatzin to go look for us. I should have called him, but I did not have my cel phone. Sherrie and Larry and I walked around town and shopped a lot, had lunch at El Ciruelo, walked around more, got caught in the rain, we were going to Villa Cardel but they had already closed, so we went to El Brujo and got to see little Alonso, the baby of the owners. He is very cute. I left out that we spent an hour or so at Tantra listing to Gerardo Ziwl singing Beatles songs, and a few others. We all liked that a lot.

Here we are on the balcony of Tantra with the mountains in the background.

This is also from the balcony of Tantra, showing some of the stalls lining both sides of Avenida Revolucion.

The first photo on this page is when we were at the little perhaps Cuban place, Sherrie had a mojito, and it started raining.

2011-08-18T19:58:00.002-05:00

Viny and I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I liked it.
This morning Viny and I drove to Yautepec and I got my drivers license. My old one expired last January. I have been lucky since then.
Viny has been mopping the upstairs apartment getting ready for Sherrie and Larry who will arrive Saturday evening. We will have a wonderful time.
We got an email today from a guy in Puebla saying he is bringing a bus with 44 guys mid September. I hope that happens.
I also received a note from Bob today saying he and his parents and Ben are planning to come late November or early December. That will be wonderful. Ben has not been here since he came us when we moved over five years ago.
I made some tabouli, it is good, I also am still eating on the hummus I have made. Today I made chocolate brownies with walnuts and coconut, first brownies I have made in months.
Tomorrow we will go do our weekly shopping in Cuernavaca with Marcia.
I am still trying to get the towels washed from last weekend. I need to keep at it, but I can still do some on Saturday.
It may be three weeks before we get our new steam generator, so we need to keep the old one going until then. We will try to get some replacement parts that might help.

This is a little bouquet of wildflowers Viny picked for me last weekend, I kept it on the counter at the spa, it was beautiful.

2011-08-15T23:32:00.000-05:00

We had a good weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. It is good to know that we can have a crowd even during rainy season.
This morning Viny and I went to Mexico City. We went to the Museo Soumaya, but we went to the old one, in the south, and not to the new one in Polanco. Next time we will go to the new one.
We then had lunch and then went looking for steam generators. We have used the same one for the three and a half years we have been open at the spa and we all think it is time for a new one. We have more and more trouble keeping the old one working. I am not sure what we paid for the old one, but the new one we bought today was I think about four times as much. I hope it is four times as good. It is to be delivered tomorrow afternoon.
We got home at 6, just before Mario left. I swam around the pool one time.
I then talked to Sherrie and Larry, they will be here this Saturday afternoon. We will have a great time.
Tonight Viny and I watched "The Help." I liked it a lot. It takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, and I hope Sherrie will watch it, as they lived there for two years a long time ago. I don't think they had a maid.

2011-08-11T21:16:00.001-05:00

This afternoon Viny and I went into town and had lunch at Villa Cardel. He then returned home, I went to Los Buenos Tiempos and read the paper and surfed the net and watched the people pass by. On our way into town we bought some large rocks for the new hot tub area and some gravel for the bus that is to come on Sunday.
Miguel came late this afternoon and finished the wiring for the two pumps for the new hot tub, I hope.

Viny moved the big stone face over near the new hot tub, it looks good there.

I went over to Alberto's terrace today to water his plants, and when I went to turn off the water, I saw this beautiful heliconia blooming in his garden.

Viny took this photo yesterday of Cihuatl on our bed, and little wonderful Prieto on the bench at the end of the bed.

Viny took this photo out our bedroom window to the east, that is the fabulous El Chalchi on the left, our "own" little mountain. The trees in the foreground are jacarandas in our yard, there are cows on the land next door.

Tomorrow morning we will take Marcia and go to Cuernavaca to start our shopping for the weekend. The bus is to arrive Sunday.

2011-08-09T18:46:00.001-05:00

We had a decent weekend last weekend.
On Saturday Alberto and Javier went to Xcaret, on Sunday to Xplor. Apparently the same corporation owns both these plus Xel Ha. Apparently the entrance fee to each one is about 1000 pesos, or you can go to all three for about 2000 pesos. That would be fun to do.
On Monday they drove to Tulum and dived into and swam in a cenote on the road to Valladolid. They came home that night.
Today Alberto and Viny and I drove to Cuernavaca to do some business at IMSS and at Hacienda. We had lunch at Casa Thai. I then took Alberto to the bus station and he left for Mexico City, he will go to Oklahoma tomorrow and work Thursday night. I went on into town and went to Los Buenos Tiempos for a while and read the papers. I bought some fish food and came home.
Viny stayed and worked at the spa. He is trying to make things even prettier.

2011-08-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

Viny and I picked up Alberto and Javier about 9:20 last night at the gasoline station. Javier left early this morning as he had to work today. Alberto brought a new satellite radio, some shirts and pants for me, and belts and filters for our lawn mower.
This morning Alberto saw our new hot tub and how much our beautiful plants have grown. We went into town for lunch at El Bonzai.
Tomorrow morning he will go shopping with us and then he will leave from Cuernavaca to go to the airport in DF and meet Javier and they are flying to Cancun and going on to Playa del Carmen for three nights. They will return Monday and Alberto will go back to Oklahoma on Wednesday.
I just checked Google Earth for the first time in a long time, the image for here has been updated, apparently on February 6 of this year, and we are now on it.

(http://earth.google.com)

I think if you go to this location you will find us on Google Earth. 18°58'11.75" N 99°07'36.20" W .

The same images are also on Google Maps on iPods and iPads. I am glad Google updated their satellite images and now we appear there.

2011-08-02T20:29:00.004-05:00

This morning Viny took Cihuatl and climbed the mountain. I took the pickup to Ahuatepec and bought 20 bags of dirt, mostly to use for our dry toilets. After Viny got back, we went back to Santa Catrina and bought ten bags of lime to mix with the dirt for our dry toilets.
We then went into town for lunch at Villa Cardel and then to Los Buenos Tiempos for a while. We stopped my Evila's materiales place on the way home to get some more adhesive for the till for the new hot tub and to look at the large rocks she has there. We brought one home and paid for six more that will be delivered. They are cheaper than what we found in Cuautla, we will buy some more of them, maybe even slightly larger ones.
Tomorrow we plan to go to Gallerias Cuernavaca, Viny wants to see a movie, I don't want to see anything that is currently playing there, but I like to sit in the food court and watch people and eat and drink and surf the net and play Words with Friends using Cheat for Words with Friends and maybe even read a little on my Christopher Hitchens book, I hope I finish it before he dies.

Viny took these two photos of some of our dogs on the bed. We love all our dogs. They are great.

It rained a little this evening, Viny is in town at the gym. I just watched The Big C, it was pretty good.

Alberto and Javier will be here tomorrow evening, I think Javier has to work Thursday, then they go to Playa del Carmen and will be back Monday, I believe. Alberto says he is not going to stay here long and is going back to Oklahoma to work some more. I hope the weather there is cooler by the time he gets back there. Ron Ferrell, a friend of mine in Oklahoma City, said today by chat that he wants to come visit here but he wants to come in the winter as he is so tired of hot weather. I explained to him that we don't have that here.

2011-07-31T21:25:00.004-05:00

We had a good weekend at the spa. It was sunny part of the time and cloudy the rest, it rained a little each day but was then sunny afterwards. The new hot tub continues to be a hit. We had our usual mix of new people and returning customers, which is great.
Tomorrow we are leaving at ten in the morning and taking Marcia and Diane to Tlayacapan, which is now a "pueblo mágico". We will either have lunch on the way home or go to Coyococ for lunch.

Viny took this photo this afternoon, four of our customers in our new hottub. I have said I think it will hold twenty, and from the looks of this photo, I think that is correct. Looks like plenty of room.

I just finished watching "Friends with Benefits" and I really liked it a lot.

2011-07-28T22:24:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Viny and I went to Dennis and David beautiful house and had some cheese and crackers and diet Cokes and saw their wonderful dogs and cats and then we went to lunch at Tacos Cucufata. It is a nice place, we had not been there before. We had a nice lunch and good conversation.
We took them home and then went shopping for a while and then back home.
Today Viny climbed and went to the gym and I made myself biscuits and gravy. That is one reason we look so different. That and forty years.
This afternoon we went into town and had lunch and went to Los Buenos Tiempos for a while. We then came home and I worked inside the spa for a while and Viny worked outside the spa for a much longer time.
Tomorrow morning we will go to Cuernavaca to do our shopping for the weekend, Marcia and Diane will ride there with us and come home on their own.

A view of our beautiful pool.

View from the front door of the spa looking out. This is the wonderful Canela on the left, and the wonderful Rosita on the right. While this looks like a very peaceable kingdom, we do have to keep some dogs separated from the cats. Rosita stays at the spa most of the time, but she still comes here to Alberto's apartment most days, I think. She is a good hunter and now wears a bell, which only slows her down somewhat.

Viny just talked with Miguel the electrician, he will come tomorrow afternoon to wire a second 2 HP pump that we are putting on the outdoor hot tub. Alberto had bought two 2 HP pumps, we first just hooked up one, but Viny thinks we need the other one, at least part of the time.

Viny thinks we will have a good crowd this weekend because of the new hot tub.

2011-07-26T18:34:00.001-05:00

This morning I planted a few more plants and walked to an area that I obviously do not frequent, and found a gardenia bush in full bloom. It is beautiful.

At noon Marcia and her sister Diane came over and we showed them our new hot tub. Then, Viny drove and we headed south to the Hacienda San Antonio del Puente. Marcia had been there once before, it was the first time for Diane. We had a very nice lunch and then we walked around and looked at the beautiful place.
Right after we left there we stopped by one of the stands selling roses and Marcia bought seven dozen for 120 pesos (about ten USD).

Tomorrow Viny and I go to Cuernavaca and have lunch with David and Dennis and maybe a little shopping afterwards.

2011-07-25T20:25:00.000-05:00

Today Viny drove the pickup to Cuautla. We had breakfast on the way at Tierra Vieja, a little restaurant we like in Yautepec.
We then stopped at the rock place and bought so many rocks that I felt sorry for the poor pickup. Viny wants them to put around the new hot tub.
We then went to several greenhouses, all on this side of Cuautla. We did not go as far as Conaplor today. Viny bought several things, I bought a camelia, which I have been wanting for a while, two Tabasco banana plants, the kind we actually eat, some dwarf variegated bamboo, a bottle-brush plant, and a few succulents. I planted most of mine when we got home, but I just now remembered I forgot to plant the succulents.
On the way home we were going to stop at the buffet place for lunch, where we ate recently, that Viny calls Chiles as he says it is painted like Chiles. But they were closed, so we went back to the same place in Yautepec where we had breakfast and had lunch.
When we got home, at six, Mario was leaving. Mario had drained the new hot tub today as Viny says there are some rough spots on the walls we need to smooth out. Viny got the electric drill and the wire brushes we bought today and went to work.

Here is Viny, hard at work.

Tomorrow we are leaving at noon and taking Marcia and her sister Diane to the ex-hacienda San Antonio del Puente, just south of Cuernavaca, where we will have lunch and then look around the beautiful place.

2011-07-24T22:25:00.000-05:00

It was sunny most of today, later in the afternoon it got more cloudy. We had a good day, 51 customers. Our new hot tub continues to be popular. Today we had guys from France, Lithuania, Holland, England, and of course Mexico.
We took all the little dogs to the spa today, this photo is not good quality, but I hold little Prieto a lot while I am sitting there on my stool. He is such a good little dog.

2011-07-23T22:41:00.000-05:00

We now estimate that it takes about 30 customers each weekend to pay the spa expenses for the week. Today we had 29. So, after the first customer tomorrow, it will be profit, if our estimate is correct.
We used our new outdoor hot tub for the first time today. I have not seen much of it yet, and probably won't tomorrow, but next week I will take closer looks.
Viny took several photos today, I will post some of them.
We were at the house by nine tonight. It started raining after that. Today was rather nice and sunny, which was good.

This is a rather pretty hottub, isn't it? And in a beautiful setting. And we will work on it more this week and next, to add more rocks around it, and more plantings. And then we will make our little pond with waterfall on this end of it, where the large rocks are.

2011-07-22T19:22:00.002-05:00

Miracle of miracles, we may have a hot tub tomorrow outside. Late this afternoon the blacksmith finally showed up and did his thing for the vent on the heater. And, then, not too long before dark, Miguel showed up to hook up the electricity. He is still working on it, but maybe it will get done.

Viny and Mario broke one of the connections by twisting on it, Mario is now fixing this. I hope other things don't go wrong. With our present wiring, we can only use the hot tub pump or the swimming pool pump, but we don't think this will be a problem, as we really don't need to use both at once.

Viny continues to plant more plants that we bought yesterday.

The mechanic came and fixed my car brakes today, so we drove it into town this afternoon and had lunch at Mezontle. I am glad to have my car back again.

This afternoon before we went into town I was worried about little Goli, he was acting differently, lying down, getting up with some difficulty, standing with his head hanging down. I know he is 16 but I want him around longer. When we got back from town, he now seems to be normally active, so I am glad.

Golda would not leave the reception room of the spa last night, so she spent the night there. Her left front paw is more swollen today, but she is using it much more.

Just before it got dark, we figured out we have the connections from the filter, the waste and the output, reversed. Mario will buy some more connections and fix it in the morning, and Miguel will return in the morning to finish hooking up the electricity. So, it looks like we may still have the outdoor hot tub tomorrow.

It then started raining some.

I probably shouldn't admit this publicly, but I just watched Wilfred and Louie, and I really liked both of them. Elijah Wood is good in Wilfred, and the character of Wilfred is entertaining enough. And Louie CK is fantastic, I like him a lot. The mixture of his supposed life and his standup is a good mixture. It is well done.

2011-07-21T18:07:00.002-05:00

This morning Viny and I left in the pickup and drove towards Cuautla. We stopped first at the rock place. I got another flat rock to use as a tabletop on one of the other tree stumps. Viny bought some small white rock to put around the new hot tub. He also bought some flat rocks to use as stepping stones from the pool to the new hot tub.
We then went on to Conaplor. We pretty much filled up the pickup.
We had decided we wanted to try a new place for lunch, near the Acapulco place where we usually eat when we go there. It turned out to be buffet and rather cheap, Viny liked it better than the place we went to yesterday and it was about a third or half the price.
Golda's left front paw is swollen and she is not using it. I don't know if something bit her or if she injured it trying to cross the fence or what.
Again today was warm and sunny, we need this for Saturday and Sunday.
The front of our house (Alberto and Viny call it the back, as we always come and go through the kitchen, which I think of as the back) is now so shady all the time that I have been wanting to plant some camellias there. However, I have not yet found camellias.
So, today I bought a few plants to put there.
This first, believe it or not, is a staghorn fern. I have never seen one this young or small, or, if I have, I did not recognize it as it does not yet have its familiar shape.

Conaplor always has such beautiful and to me unusual coleus, and today I finally bought a few. There were 8 pesos, about 60 US cents, each.

Sometimes there are dark purple calla lilies, today this one was the best I could find.

Today at Conaplor they had some life size or larger topiaries, most in the shape of animals.

I guess this is a bull.

Below is a cow, complete with udder.

And last but not least is a small bird's nest fern.

The blacksmith was to come to make a part for the exhaust for the heater for the new hot tub, he now says he will come tomorrow.

The electrician was to come to hook up the light for the hot tub. I hope he shows up tomorrow, although we could use it without the light, if necessary.

We are still hopeful to be able to use the new hot tub for the first time this weekend. The gas truck is to come tomorrow morning to fill the gas tank for the heater.

Viny is prettying up around the new hot tub while I am inside listening to NPR and resting and surfing the net and drinking ice tea.

These next two photos Viny took yesterday and I just failed to put them on here.

This datura plant is just beautiful. I don't understand it, but when the blooms first open, they are yellow, for just a few hours, I think, then they turn salmon. But today I saw two white blooms, I don't understand that either.

This is the huge wonderful Blackie, the giant schnauzer, and the precious Golda, who is spending tonight in the spa, as she would not leave when I went there twice to try to entice her outside. Her paw is bothering her. Even though I love these two dogs and I think they would protect me with their lives, especially Golda, Blackie kills cats and Golda kills dogs. I certainly feel safer here knowing they are on guard.

2011-07-20T21:18:00.002-05:00

Today Viny and I had a few errands to do towards Cuernavaca so we drove the pickup and took a weedeater to try to get it repaired. There is a guy who I think is an expert at small engine repair, but he just does not seem to do the work until you return at the specified time and if you then find him, he might start on your machine. Today we found him at his new shop and he took the weedeater apart and told me the problem and said I could go to a place across from Plaza Cuernavaca and buy the new part and he would put it in. We took the old part but could not find the place. When we went back by his place, it was closed in the middle of the afternoon, we called him and he told us to leave the piece next door, which we did.
Viny wanted some small white gravel or rocks for the spa, so we bought a bag. Mario needed some more glue for PVC pipe for the new hot tub, so we got this.
I have been seeing a restaurant, Casa Frida, on FaceBook, just to the north of the Zapata statue in the north side of Cuernavaca, at km. 69.5. We found it and had lunch there. Viny had rabbit and I had salad and bean soup.
I baked a bunch of bread yesterday, it turned out pretty good. I cooked some lentils today and Viny says they are even better than usual. I will have some later this evening.

Viny trimmed up the three yuccas in pots by the pool, and added some of his new white gravel to the pots.

There is Tehuatzin in the center of the photo.

The beautiful island and the bar in the background.

In the right center are the two seed pods or blooms or whatever they are on the shefflera.

We are planning to drive the pickup to Cuautla tomorrow and go to Conaplor and probably other greenhouses, and maybe buy some more rocks. Viny is wanting to make a little rock walk from the pool to the new hottub, and we need to put a few plants around the hottub before Saturday. I may get a few more Tabachin trees for our land.

2011-07-19T19:57:00.001-05:00

Today Viny and I went into town about noon and had lunch at Naty's. We bought a hack saw and some connections for the new hot tub equipment. We need to get the gas tank filled by Friday. We are still hopeful it will be working for this weekend.

There is some water in the bottom, which will be emptied and cleaned before we fill it to use it.

We have quite a bit of landscaping around the hot tub.

Viny is using the new hacksaw to cut some of the old leaves off one of the palms.

I don't know the name of this palm, it is still rather small, but beautiful.

This is my lemon tree that I planted a few months ago has some lemons.

Some of the many lime trees Gustavo recently planted, we hope to not have to buy limes in the future.

2011-07-18T22:58:00.002-05:00

Viny is watching A Single Man on HBO, that is one of the best movies I have seen in the past few years.
We went into town today and had lunch at Los Colorines. We ran into Stuart Cox at the local crafts show and talked with him a while.
Viny went home and I stayed for a while at Los Buenos Tiempos and then I took a combi home. When I got there the guy who is going to fix my brakes was already there. He is to return on Wednesday with the parts and fix them.
If anyone reading this has a subscription to Cox, Dish, Comcast, Suddenlink or AT&T for television, and would let me use their ID to sign into the CNN app, I would be able to watch CNN on my iPad. We have two subscriptions to Dish but apparently that does not count, since they are here in Mexico.
I watched the new episode of Breaking Bad. I continue to like that show.
I talked with Sherrie for a while tonight, they are all doing well.
Mark and Carl are coming to see us just before Thanksgiving.

2011-07-17T21:07:00.001-05:00

It is raining rather heavily at the moment. Golda is on our window ledge, she is scared of the thunder, although it is not very loud at the moment. She has access to the downstairs apartment and will probably go in there soon.
We had a big crowd yesterday and not many today. It was cloudy and cool both days. To me the importance of yesterday was that it shows we can have a big crowd even during rainy season if things are just right, like pay-day weekend and Saturday.
Viny went into town after we closed just before 8. I suppose he will get soaked.
I watched Bill Maher last night. Even though I watch many programs that I like that I download, for some reason this is the first time I have downloaded and watched his show. I will try to do that regularly, I like his show a lot.
We took all the little dogs to the spa yesterday, today just the two little males.

Tomorrow afternoon a guy I called is supposed to show up to see about fixing the brakes on my Xterra. I have not been driving it recently because of all the funny noises the brakes make.

Barring unseen problems, we should have the new hot tub working next weekend. This has taken longer than I had planned, but I think the end is in sight.

2011-07-13T20:45:00.003-05:00

I drove the pickup to Yautepec this morning and had molletes at the little restaurant we like near Telmex. Then I walked up to Telmex and exchanged my burned up modem for a new one and then came back to Tepoztlan and went to Los Buenos Tiempos for a while, walked around a while in the local market, got a new battery put into my watch, did a little business at the bank, walked down the Avenida al Tepozteco and ate at a little restaurant. I had been there before when it was Terra Flore, I don't know the name of it now, it has organic food, I had a very good salad with cheese and some chai. I then walked a little more and then went back to Los Buenos Tiempos for a little while and then returned home.
My internet connection works again, the phone works sometimes and sometimes not.
It rained this afternoon.
Mario made the cement base for the gas tank for the hot tub. He has the copper gas pipe installed. We are not going to have the new hot tub ready for this weekend, but surely it will be ready by the next. I do hope to have the dry sauna working this weekend.

I had not walked down Avenida al Tepozteco in a while. They are tearing up part of it and re-paving it with rock. It will look quite nice. The photo above is near Los Colorines.

Below is the little garden where I had lunch, this is one of the two other customers there at the time.

Alberto is working again tonight.

Viny is feeling better today, still overly active intestines, he will be here tomorrow night.

2011-07-12T11:59:00.001-05:00

If I had plenty of money, I would go see this. I hope there is a full video of it so I can see it all.

The day before yesterday Viny and his parents ate chicken from a street vendor. It has been very hot in La Goma. Yesterday they were all three sick. Yesterday was his sister Valeria's graduation ceremony in Torreón and afterwards they went to lunch in Gomez Palacio. Later in the afternoon, after they returned home, Viny's parents took him to a doctor in a nearby little town and he was given an injection and some antibiotics. Today he feels a little better. He says a lot of people who ate there got sick and some are in hospitals.
It continues to be over 100 every day in Oklahoma City. Alberto continues to work nights.
The brakes on my car are making a lot of noise, I have to get them fixed soon.
It is beautiful here today. Sunny and cool. And green. Very very green. I love it.
I am eating each day at El Milenio, a vegetarian place, I have trouble getting there when Viny is here, as he thinks he has to have meat.
I made a batch of tabouli yesterday and some corn muffins this morning.
Mario and his oldest boy and I went to Ahuatepec this morning and got a lot of copper tubing and connections to hook the new gas tank up to the new heater for the new hot tub. I hope it can be ready by this Saturday, but it may be another week. There are still several details to finish first. Like the cement base for the gas tank.
This morning Mario and his son are moving a mound of dirt so hopefully the bus this Saturday can get into our parking lot. The last time, it had to stay on the road outside our front gate as it could not make the curve into our parking lot. Maybe now it can.
All of our dogs and cats are doing well.
I am doing great here alone (except for the ten dogs and four cats and Mario and Gustavo every day and sometimes Ines) but I will be happy when Viny gets back this Thursday night and Alberto the end of the month.
I will go into town later this afternoon and hang around for a while. I like sitting in Los Buenos Tiempos and surfing the net and playing with my iPad and watching the freaks inside and the locals outside.
I talked with both Sherrie and Ben last evening. They are doing fine. Sherrie and Larry will be here for a week next month and Ben still says he will come this year, probably with Bob. Ben has not been here since we moved here, a little over five years ago.

2011-07-06T23:12:00.002-05:00

Viny climbed the mountain this morning and took the two little males with him, Canelo and Prieto. He took these photos and the little movie.

This is up on the mountain. They fuss with each other while they are here, but Viny says when they climb they are so excited they get along real well with each other.

This is Golda.

About all the rock tile is on the new hot tub now. Just a few finishing touches and then getting everything hooked up and we will be in business, hopefully.

We drove the pickup to Cuernavaca and shopped at Costco and then went to Home Depot. We bought a gas tank for the new hot tub.

We went into town and had lunch at the Asian food place.

Viny has been packing all evening, and doing laundry. He leaves tomorrow for a week with his family in La Goma, Durango.

2011-07-05T19:59:00.003-05:00

This morning Viny and I took the Xterra and went to Ahuatepec and had breakfast and then to the rock place where we bought the rest of the rock tile they had. It may not be quite enough, but we will break up the larger square pieces we already have.
Then, we took the pickup and went to Cuautla and went to two nurseries and bought enough plants to fill the pickup.
After we got home it rained about an hour and then cleared.
When I was talking with Saundra recently she said they had been discussing the braided ficus trees. Today at Conaplor they had several large ones, so I took a couple of photos.

And just so you don't think these are small, I asked Viny to stand by one.

2011-07-04T20:51:00.001-05:00

Today about noon Viny and I went into town and had lunch at Natys and then went to Los Buenos Tiempos for a short time and then back home.
It was cloudy all day, and a little cool.
Little Prieto is in my lap as I type this.
Some photos from today.

Mario put more rock tile on the new outdoor hot tub today.

The bare areas in this photo are all that remain bare, plus the flat area all the way around the top. Viny and I will probably go buy more rock tile tomorrow morning, as we are about out.

One of the two bouquets in the hallway of the spa from the last weekend.

Viny worked some this afternoon putting in tile.

Our beautiful little table.

Impatiens in a pot.

Water plants in our rock pot, with dozens of little guppies.

Petunias around a palm.

Hojas elegantes around a palm.

I still don't know the name of this plant, we have a lot of them along one sidewalk area.

Rocks and plants.

The other bouquet in the hallway of the spa from last weekend.

Hopefully, after we buy more rock tile in the morning, we will drive to Cuautla and go to Conaplor and maybe other greenhouses.

It is now after midnight. I just finished watching a blurry copy of Larry Crowne. I think this has been getting bad reviews, but I liked it. But I would like about anything with Tom Hanks. And it has Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, and several other good actors.

Many years ago, if memory serves me well, Carl and I were flying to New York and I had a copy of the Village Voice with me on the airplane. I noticed a small article about a memorial service for an actor who had died. If I try hard, or google it, I could find his name, but right now it escapes me. I decided to go to the service and Carl went with me. Tom Hanks was there, as the guy had a small part in Philadelphia. William Defoe was there and spoke.

In Larry Crowne, when Tom Hanks gave his two minute final in Julia Robert's class, it made me cry a little, it was very touching. And the movie ends well.

2011-07-03T23:10:00.001-05:00

Today was a nicer day weather-wise. I think the past few days of rain has been due to the tropical depression and not to the regular rainy season. Today it was sunny part of the time and cloudy the rest, I think it only sprinkled a little. We had 22 customers, so not bad.
Alberto starts working tonight at 11, which is about now.
Viny is going to La Goma Thursday and will return the following Thursday, he will go to both little Christian's graduation from kindergarten and to Valeria's graduation from college.
Yesterday we took little Frida and Thalia to the spa for the day, today little Prieto and Canelo. Little Prieto is in my lap as I type this. Also today we heard that our friend who gave us Cihuatl was coming to the spa, so I went and got her for a while and then Viny took her back to the house.

Sometimes these two little males fuss with each other, but today they got into this chair by themselves and stayed there for an hour or so. So maybe they will be good friends. Prieto and Cihuatl are very good friends and play a lot with each other although she is about 20 times bigger than he is.

2011-07-02T21:19:00.001-05:00

It started raining Thursday morning and rained until just after noon on Friday. It stopped for a few hours and then started again about 6 Friday evening. It rained a little this morning. We only had 9 customers today, and three of them got in free because they come so often. It sprinkled a little this afternoon, but was sunny for a short time.
We were closed by 7, so Viny and I went into town and had some beans and guacamole at Villa Cardel.

I took this photo of Victor Hugo and "checked in" on Facebook.

We then walked out into the street and the mountains where the little pyramid is were largely hidden by clouds. I took this photo which does not do the beauty justice. Victor came out to see the photo and the policeman laughingly told me to erase it as it was bad of him. But I don't have him as a friend on Facebook and I don't suppose he reads my blog, so here it is.

Viny and I both love our little town.

I talked briefly with Alberto today. Miguel had everyone over for a pool party today and tomorrow Marcela and Chuy are having a birthday party for two of their three sons. Alberto will work tomorrow night starting at 11.

Shortly after we got home from town this evening, about 8:30, it started pouring down rain. It is now thundering and lightening. I love the rainy season.

Alberto and Javier got married today in Mexico City

2011-06-29T22:21:00.001-05:00

This morning Alberto called a taxi and he and Viny and I walked down to the front gate and got in and went to a bus station where a bus had just arrived and we got our tickets and got on and got to Mexico City in good time.
We got on the subway, Alberto went to the Hotel Embassy where he and Javier will stay tonight and Viny and I went to the Chapo Museum. I have been there several times in the past, but not since we moved here. It was closed about the past three years for remodeling. Only the shell of the building is the same, all the inside is very modern now. There were several interesting exhibits, this museum is worth an occasional visit.
Viny and I then went to the Civil Registry office where the marriage of Alberto and Javier would take place. His sister and her husband and their cute little four year old son Ruben were already there, as was his mother, who was inside. The mother's two sisters came, one with a three year old granddaughter. Then his father arrived, he had come a long ways, from the state of Mexico, where he had to work today.
After waiting for a while, we were told to come inside to a small crowded office and the little ceremony began. Afterwards, we walked several blocks to Italliani's Restaurant and had a nice lunch.
Afterwards, Viny and I returned home and Viny shortly thereafter went to the gym.

This is at the wedding site, outside, before the wedding. I wanted a before and after photo, to see if they were happier before or after.

This is just after the ceremony, at the site of the Civil Registry where they got married. Those are Javier's relatives.

And this is with the addition of Viny.

This is just after we ate, in front of Italianni's.

We got home just before dark, Viny left shortly for the gym. This is the present state of the new hot tub, this is the south end, the seat. Viny did the back of this seat yesterday, he may work more there tomorrow. He and I have to first go buy more rock and adhesive. The hole in the middle will be one of the water and air jets.

I guess it was on Daily Show that I just saw Louis CK and his TV show Louie was mentioned as containing a 42 second fart as the gist of the latest episode. I downloaded it and watched it and I thought it was very good. I may even watch the last season.

2011-06-27T19:31:00.000-05:00

About one o'clock this afternoon Viny and I picked up Alberto at the bus station and went into town and had lunch at El Bonzai, the Asian food place.
This morning I looked out our kitchen door to the cistern just behind Alberto's apartment and all three of these little dogs were lying down in a row on the lid to the cistern. I think it is sometimes warmer than the cement cistern, as the lid is metal. By the time I got my iPad and got over closer to them, they had moved from their cute little position all lined up, but of course they are still cute. Then, Cihuatl had to get in on the act. Little Prieto is in my lap as I type this.

Mario is still putting the rock/tile on the new hot tub, it is rather slow going.

We had 43 customers yesterday, so a good day.

Viny and I plan to go to Mexico City again Wednesday morning and visit some museum and then go to Alberto and Javier's wedding ceremony at 1 p.m. We will then go to lunch and then Viny and I will come back home and Alberto will stay and leave for Oklahoma the next day.

Gustavo hasa been planting things for us the past few days, including several lime trees, as I would like to not to have to buy so many every week for the spa. We should easily be able to grow our own.

2011-06-25T21:20:00.001-05:00

Viny and I got up at six this morning and left at 8:30. We took a taxi down at the highway to the gas station and waited about twenty minutes for a bus to Tasqueña. Just as we were arriving we realized that Miguel, one of our waiters we were meeting, was on our same bus. We waited in the bus station about ten minutes for Edgar, and then took the Metro to Insurgentes station. As were were leaving the station, Alberto called and said he and Javier were at the little restaurant where we had breakfast last year at this same time. We went there and Viny and I had breakfast while Miguel and Edgar waited outside, as they had already eaten. Edgar and Miguel and Viny walked down to the Melia Hotel to look for the underwear guys and Alberto and Javier and I went to the Angel.

This is not a very good photo, but this was basically my view for several hours today. On the left is the huge HSBC building, where Javier works, and on the right is the beautiful Angel, the Monument to Independence. Javier's office is at about the level of the Angel. I sat on a cement bench with backpacks anda extra pens. The guys just stayed in this general area and gave out the 3,000 pens. They could have given out more. Viny thinks this might be more effective for us than an actual float giving out cards, as cards are frequently discarded.

Viny and the guys did not find the underwear guys, and they came to find us at the Angel. Edgar and Miguel changed their clothes while I held up a shirt for cover.

The parade actually started about 12:15, I think, and moved rather slowly. We saw a few of our customers. By four, we were out of pens and business cards and we were ready for lunch. As KoreaTown was just a couple of blocks away, we thought we would go there. One restaurant we went to was not actually open, and the next one we went to had menu items that appeared to be in the 500 peso per person range. So, we left there and went a couple of blocks to a very good Chinese buffet, where the total bill for the six of us was a little less than 500 pesos. The name of this place was The Island of the Dragon.

Viny said he was going home with me, but on the way to the subway stop he changed his mind so I came home alone. I had to wait about 25 minutes for a bus and when I got off the bus I had to wait about 15 minutes for a combi and I got to our land at 7 p.m., still light. Gustavo had stayed, he fixed a hole in our fence where our dogs get in and out and then he left. Viny called saying he was on the subway on the way to the bus on the way home.

I let Golda out, as she had been locked in the other apartment all day. Within moments she was on our cistern, where she should not be. I put her outside again. It is now raining and thundering and lightening and she is standing on our front window ledge, scared. I hope she will soon go back into the other apartment, she probably will.

Little Prieto is in my lap.

2011-06-24T21:45:00.002-05:00

We have had some car troubles this week. For quite some time, Alberto's car loses power, perhaps due to transmission fluid loss, as usually when he adds more it then works fine. However, he has taken it to mechanics and they say it is fine and they find no evidence of leaks.
Also, my window has not worked at times, I think little Miguel fixed that. When Greg and Gordon were here, my car would not start in Cuernavaca, Gordon got it going, he thought the battery itself was all right. It was until this week, and this week I had trouble at times getting it started. We have been using the pickup and the Jeep. I planned to take my car to Costco this morning and get a new battery installed. I used Alberto's car this morning to get mine started and Viny and I drove to Costco. However, to my surprise, they do not install batteries. We knew from the last time that neither does Sams. So, we drove up the street looking for a place to buy and install a battery, and one place we stopped at referred us back to the same place Gordon and I walked down to from Sams. We went there and bought a battery and they installed it so we are back in business with my car.
Alberto went to Mexico City early this morning to try to get his passport renewed, it recently expired. However, they told him to come back Monday morning, so I guess he will.
Our 3,000 little ball point pens with www.tepozspa.com on them were delivered yesterday, Alberto took a thousand of them this morning, Viny and I will take the other two thousand tomorrow morning when we go to Mexico City to the parade.
Viny and I did our shopping this morning in Cuernavaca and then came home and then went to Tepoztlan and took Cihuatl with us to lunch at La Sombra del Sabino, we have not been there recently. They were rather crowded. We talked with Sheila for a while.
Yesterday Viny and Marcia and I went to lunch at Pattie Hogan's beautiful place.
Later this afternoon Viny and I cleaned some at the spa to be more ready for business on Sunday. We hope we have a good crowd Sunday.

2011-06-22T23:11:00.002-05:00

Today Felipe got here a little before noon and we four went in the pickup to Cuautla and Conaplor and bought a load of plants.

Purple petunias, red and white impatiens.

Moss rose on the bottom.

Beautiful Shasta daisies.

This is the front of the seat in the new hot tub.

This is the floor drain of the hot tub, the rocks are not yet cleaned.

This is a closer shot of the front of the seat.

I bought 13 dwarf heliconia for the steps of the spa, I need 18 but they only had 13 today.

These yellow blooms are along one wall in the spa garden area.

Oleander.

It rained some this evening. The shop where we bought the small ink pens to give out on Saturday at the march, 3,000 of them, are to be delivered here tomorrow.

And, last but not least, this is a photo Viny took and put on his FaceBook page.

Three of the cutest little dogs in the world. Left to right, little chubby Frida, then Canelo with the beautiful big ears, and then precious little Prieto, who is in my lap as I type this and we are having a thunderstorm outside.

2011-06-21T21:32:00.001-05:00

I love the rainy season. It is no longer dusty, everything already looks greener, the air is clearer, it is much cooler, the plants will all grow more.
Today we went into town for lunch. We are in the process of adding Viny's name to the business, this will hopefully help him get a US visa someday.
Mario continues to place the rock/tile on our new hot tub, it is looking very good so far.

Above is the beautiful Cihuatl on her climb up the morning this morning with Viny. Just above her tail is another dog coming toward them, neither she nor Viny had yet seen that dog, but there was not a problem.

Below is our pool and bar and some of our palms, with the beautiful clouds in the background. Our new hot tub is just to the left, out of this photo.

Tomorrow we hope to drive the pickup to Cuautla and go to some nurseries and get another load of plants. I think Felipe is coming and he will go with us.

Alberto told me today he and Javier plan to get married next Wednesday in Mexico City. If it is during the day, Viny and I will probably try to go. He leaves the next day for Oklahoma City to work for a month.

Alberto is looking for a car to drive for a month while he is in Oklahoma, and a place to stay for a month while he is there.

Little Prieto is asleep in my lap as I type this. He is wonderful.

I watched the season finales of both Nurse Jackie and The United States of Tara tonight. The latter made me cry.

2011-06-18T22:38:00.001-05:00

We had a good day today at the spa, 87 customers. We hope for another good day tomorrow.
This morning Alberto and Javier went into town to the vet's office and picked up Veneno and Alberto buried him in his garden.
Below are the peaceful photos of Golda playing with the swimming Viny moments before Veneno showed up, barked and bit at Golda, and Golda killed him.

Kerin from Lloyd's office friended me today on FaceBook, she is still living at her house on the lake in Stillwater. It was good to hear from her after so long.

2011-06-17T21:20:00.002-05:00

This morning Alberto and Viny and I went to Cuernavaca to do our weekly shopping for the spa for the weekend. We first went downtown looking for parts to make hanging lamps with, but had no luck. Then the usual, Costco, Sams and Superama. Then Home Depot and then Home. Then into Tepoztlan for lunch at El Bonsai and then our flowers, fruits and veggies.
Alberto and I managed to get this partial tree trunk up by the new spa and Gustavo carried the piece of rock by himself. Viny bought the stump for about $8 USD and we bought the slab of rock for about $16 USD. I think it makes a beautiful table. We will treat the wood to try to protect it against water and insect damage.
I wanted little Prieto to be on top to show the size of it, he would not cooperate and would immediately jump off each time.

This is little Prieto to the right of the table.

After seven, Viny was swimming and Golda had gotten out of the yard of the apartment next door and she was running around the pool as Viny was swimming, getting him by the arm with her mouth, appearing to be trying to save him.

Then Alberto and Javier showed up with Thalia and Veneno. I took Thalia to hold her, as I do not let her loose around Golda.

And then it happened. Veneno started barking at Golda and she grabbed him and would not let go. Before we got him loose, she had punctured his abdomen on both sides, some intestines were hanging out.

We could not get hold of Miguel, Alberto says he plays soccer on Friday evenings. We had to get gas in my car as it was empty, we went to Heidi's and her neighbor called her and she came and started an IV. We came back home, she is to call later tonight with an update. Not a pleasant end to a pleasant Friday.

9:43 p.m. Heidi just called, Veneno died, his lung was punctured, Alberto will go get his body tomorrow morning.

2011-06-16T11:24:00.011-05:00

Viny took these photos yesterday but I did not get them posted until just now. He took the three youngest dogs on his climb up the mountain yesterday morning. The first photo shows little Prieto and Cihuatl.

And below is the ferocious Prieto, he who is not afraid of anything.

The following two photos shows the present state of our new hot-tub. The cement is all hard, the forms are removed. We placed three rocks on one end, we plan to add a waterfall and little pond on that end, incorporating the three rocks on the end of the hot-tub. Today Mario is making the cement base for the heater, filter and two pumps. I hope next Monday and Tuesday he can tile the hot-tub, maybe we can start using it that weekend.

2011-06-12T22:36:00.006-05:00

We had another good weekend, warm and sunny and dry, with thirty-something both days.

Tonight after we got to the house, it rained briefly, I wish it would rain more.

We hope to finish the rest of the cement on the new hot tub tomorrow.
We had all the little dogs at the spa all day today, little Prieto and Cihuatl are such good friends and play very well together. They were both in this green chair for quite a while just playing up a storm, but before I could get the movie working on my camera, they were both out of the chair, and when I got the video going, Prieto did not get back into the chair.