Thursday, April 28, 2011

Update

It's been a couple of weeks since I last updated everyone so here goes.....

Well, we thought Fort Knox Casa was secure, but how wrong we were! Two weeks ago our home was broken into when we were out for a couple of hours. We were royally pissed off as we had all three laptops, two cameras, and our Ipod taken. This literally cut us off from the outside world. You don't realize how dependant you get on something but boy did we miss our computers.

We had great support here from many friends including Patty and Kelly (Jolly Roger Pub), Lindsy and Craig (offered tons of support), Vic (dealt with the police for us as we don't speak enough spanish), friends from the AAAS, neighbours and I'm sure more that I'm missing.

We would be very grateful if anyone has any pictures that we may have sent to them over the years to please email them to us so we can rebuild our photo libraries as we lost almost all of our memories from the last five years.

So while we didn't get anything back (and we really didn't expect to), Patty put it all into perspective for me...at least the dogs weren't hurt and you are here to tell us about it and most important, "you can't change what happened, only how you feel about it". These were very true words and I was very grateful for them.

Now, Fort Knox is even further secured thanks to the fast response we had from Trevor and his welder, Franklin. We are keeping our new laptop with us at all times along with the camera that the creep missed taking with him.

We also adopted a new German Shepard/Dominican dog about a week ago for extra early warning. "Judy" is now seven months old (same age as Saleen). I had forgotten how much work a puppy is. Well, for a puppy, she is bigger than Jack and weighs more than Jack!

Judy has a very sweet tempermant at this time although as she is coming out of her shell and getting used to Jack, Shelby and Saleen, she is becoming very loyal to us. She has a HUGE bark! She's been quite good as far as house training...the little darling wakes me up during the night when she wants outside. I love getting up at 3 am and unlocking all the deadbolts.......

Yesterday Judy got stung in the paw by a wasp...wow did her paw swell up! Today she is back to normal and running and playing with Saleen.

We had company for the last week. Craig, Laura and Layla came from Vancouver. We had a great visit and were able to show them a small piece of our paradise. Layla absolutely loved the swimming pool and the animals. Shelby took a special interest in Layla: I don't think I have ever seen him wag his tail as much as he did. He was particularly concerned when Layla was in the pool with Craig and Laura.

Ross taught Layla a few nasty little tricks while she was here and I'm sure that Mom and Dad will be thrilled when she starts to spit food all over them! We had lots of photo ops and both Ross and Craig were taking pictures which will make their way onto Facebook.

Craig, Laura and Layla left early this morning on the long treck home...we wish them safe travels!

I got a new tattoo! Our friend Vic added to my hummingbird. Pictures on Facebook to follow. Ross is pretty firm that this is the last one I can get...we'll see....lol

That's all for now folks....

That's some bad hat!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Snakes and Frogs

Hola

Another beautiful day in paradise...well, I lie. The cat, that cute little grey kitten, hauled in another frog this morning, and a snake this afternoon. The snake pushed me over the edge. I came unglued at Ross and demanded he do something. Naturally he didn't take very kindly to me telling him what to do, so...off to the hardware store I went to purchase some 3/4" chicken wire.

Now, the nice old dude at the hardware store was being kinda friendly and spoke English...he wants to know what I want the wire for...I tell him to keep the cat from hauling in snakes...he is now laughing hysterically and tells the young men working in the hardware store what I am up to...now they are all laughing at the silly gringa....I laughed with them as their reaction was priceless!

A few dozen zip ties later, the entire front security gate is now covered with wire...NO MORE SNAKES, NO MORE FROGS, NO MORE GEKOS...or anything else for that matter. The cat can't get through with ANYTHING.

I hate snakes.....

So Ross and I went out to the JR (Jolly Roger) on Thursday night. A group of 30 women were in town for a stagette. Now, originally we were told that the women were from New Brunswick so we ASSUMED they meant Canada...had security lined up and everything because we all know how those New Brunswick girls like to party...

Kelly and Patti (owners of the JR) installed a dancing pole for the event. (Patti was apposed to this but I'll just bet at some point she gives the pole a little workout...lmao) So, there was a little alcohol fueled dancing...So, it turned out they were from New Brunswick, New Jersey so while they were pretty well lit, and fun, it was an overall safe event...Ross worked part of the security and I cleared up some of the mess they left behind.

We are getting more company. Ross's niece, her husband and their daughter are set to arrive on Apr 21 which is Ross's birthday. So, we are getting ready for their arrival and baby-proofing the house..well, that took minutes...we don't have anything a baby can destroy unless she decides to take out a concrete wall...But seriously, we are really looking forward to sharing our little piece of paradise with them!

Did I tell you how much I hate snakes????