Friday September 30, 2011

Well...Feliz Cumpleaños to an amigo who was mi primero amigo when we moved to BC in 1981. Happy Birthday Desmond!!

And mañana...Feliz Cumpleaños to mi hermana.

Well…the weekend has arrived.

Won’t bore you….will keep it sweet and short.

-blood tests for insurance…the blood taker was a funny guy…good sense of humor

-off to Crappy Tire to buy a new flap for the toilet….can you believe the landlord asked me to fix it? Ja ja ja

-el gimnasio

-dropped off life insurance papers to Netty

-went to check in on Mac…the scan found no issues. Add more RAM? Ok!! $120 for the inspection and 4 more GB. Results? Mac is muy faster!!

-home to check in on Bexico y Conejito.

-pizza for dinner

-email from lawyer regarding will…another $300!! Ja ja ja

-Storage Wars marathon continues on OLN…didn’t they use to show the Tour de France?

930pm….time to watch the end of Top Gun!!

After her work out, Bexico spent the day working…and she is still hard at it. No new contracts today.

We did not go to the Lions game….muy caro. $100 for the nose bleed seats? Nope.

We are behind schedule on the locker sale…but mañana we will have the items posted on Craigslist etc.

Busy weeks coming up. Nascar Sunday, Tuesday I take the truck in to have the alarm fixed and that night I am out with mi amigo Melon, Weds or Thursday night it is out with Stu, breakfast at Joe’s with Kirsty y Reiko on Thursday and on Friday we have our hospital tour. Phew.

Have a great weekend all.

Marco y Bexico

Thursday September 29, 2011

So what do you think about this?

Car seat

We love it!!! It is the next model up from the one I looked at ayer, but I couldn't find that model with the cowmooflage pattern!!

It is good from 5 pounds to 80...won't need another seat.

As for the stroller...In went back to TRU and had a few more questions answered. But then I went to Crocodilebaby and the lady there was soooo helpful and pointed out why the other stroller was not the one to get. So not only did I buy the car seat there, I also picked up our Baby Bjorn.

Baby Bjorn

This is made of mesh...will be super cool in Mexico!!

And we will go back next week to look at the strollers. Great quality, light, easy to fold and has the ability for newborns to use it.

What else did I do today?

I took Miss Bexico to the local pool and watched as the pregnant woman swam past all the 90 year old peeps!! ja ja ja

Then it was off to drop off the Mac...hmmm...have not heard back from those folks yet. They are giving it a tune up and will let me know what they think about it's functions.

Then it was shopping for niño and then off to el gymnasio. I like working out at 230pm...gym is deserted. Was super hungry...had a simple McD burger...extra mustard. I love McDs...sorry if you don't!! ja ja ja

Grabbed more life insurance paperwork and then it was home time.

Our land lady Margaret dropped by and gave us a present. It is a stuffed bear whose colours match perfectly with the quilt mi madre made.

630pm Larry showed up and we had a quick hello before we headed out for dinner. Nice guy...bought dinner and also gave Bexico a Gap Kid gift card!! Now there is a guy who is welcome to visit us in Mexico!!

Great dinner with our other amigo, Brent. Both are hombres I would have met in 1980 or 1981 and it was hilarious the things Brent remembers...and that I forgot. Duh...we once went to Reno together. We went to a Seahawks game together. We drank a lot of beer together. He was with me the night I got my nose broken at the Sherwood Pub.

Fun to catch up and hope to see him again before we leave.

Larry is headed back to "the rock", but we will also stay in touch.

That was my day. Bexico? She picked up a third client and has 2 more invitations to interview. Her 3 clients? One is a character design that will be finished this week, one is an animation that is due in 8 days and the other is another animation due in 2 weeks. Phew...busy gal.

Did I mention we have a hospital tour booked for next week? Gonna get the low down on where we will go, park, check in etc. Good time to check everything out.

Mañana? Blood tests at 10am...life insurance. Bexico will be busy and I will hit the gym. We still need to post the storage locker items on line...but the fotos are on my laptop...which is at the Mac Stop repair shop. Doph.

PS...Desmond's birthday mañana.

Hasta mañana amigos.

Wednesday September 28, 2011

What’s this? Storage Locker Wars on TV....again?

What a full Wednesday.

Off to see Netty and get Bexico set up for life insurance. While she was there, I was up the block at el gimnasio.

Then we hooked up and spent the next 6 hours going from store to store.

First stop…Mac Station to get a quote on what can be done to this MacBook to speed it up. Looks like $50 plus $50 for chips. Probably head back mañana.

Then? Hello Costco!! ¿Por que? $1.50 for a ¼ lb dog and a diet coke!! Ja ja ja

We also did a browse, but our card is expired…hello RJ?

Then we headed to Toys R Us where we had a great experience with the sales lady. Learned lots about car seats and strollers. We have decided to buy a car seat that stays in the camioneta, but can grow as niño grows. Keep it rear facing as long as possible…safer that way.

We might be bringing the first car seat to Huatulco…ever!!

And the stroller will be just that…a 3 wheel stroller. And for most of the time we are looking at carriers and a sling….lots of contact in the heat!! Lol

Here is the style of car seat we are looking at.

car seat

And the stroller.

stroller

And a big thanks to RJ y Roly for picking up the tab on these!!

We left practically empty handed because on the sales lady’s advice, we will confirm with our mid wives and hospital, if the car seat we are looking at, meets the needed approvals.

And the car seat is also available on-line at a different retailer…in a VERY cool pattern!! Stay tuned.

As for the stroller…on-line only. Toys R Us has a floor model and mañana I might go back to give it a second look before ordering on-line.

After Toys it was off to Walmart. Loaded up on lots of economical items and both niño y Bexico are now almost clothes ready for the first few months of his/her life!!  

Then it was off to the locker and we made the “list” of items we hope to sell. Some items will head to our smaller locker and the rest…adios!!

And now it is almost 5pm and we still have to hit up Stupid Store for gas and some dinner eats.

And then….the camioneta started acting up. It was VERY low on gas and it had a hard time starting and then when we were next in line for the pump…it would not start. More water? Come on!! I filled the garrafon with 5 litros, threw it in the camioneta and it started no problem. Ugh…more things to diagnose when the truck goes back in.

Grabbed our eats and made it home for 630pm. Phew…long day.

Bexico did some work while I cooked la cena…she will catch up mañana.

Our Thursday? Bexico might go for a swim…but she has signed on a 3^rd client…so I suspect it will be a work day.

Me? The list of errands  mentioned and hooking up with mi dos amigos later in the evening.

Amigos…you are caught up!!

Adios

Bexico y Marco

Tuesday September 27, 2011

Howdy all

830pm…time for Storage Wars on the TV. Doph…stupid reality shows.

Well, we spent some of niños inheritance today!! Ja ja ja

-on sale…summer sandals for the beaches of Mexico!!

-new Mac battery…had to buy it at one Future Shop and then take it back to my Park Royal location to get the tax $$ back…hello $20

-on sale for ½ price…$30 for a digital voice recorder…this way Bono does not need to take any notes while we drive back to Mexico

And then there is the new Canon..oops…Pentax camera. And here is the story on that.

So I was at Future Shop and I was looking at some Canons to replace the little one that I dropped and broke. But they were out of stock so while I was next door at Staples, I found the same Canon and it was even cheaper.

Tax free and I took it home to show Bexico and all of a sudden she has this look on her face. Now normally me spending some $$ on myself is not an issue so I ask her “what up” and she shows me the Pentax camera she had bought me for Christmas. And this one is waterproof to 10 metres!!

Sooooo…back to Park Royal to return the Canon and then we “returned” the Pentax and bought it again on my Status Card…hello $40 in savings.

This camera will be able to go into the ocean when we look at fishes, or when I take fotos of Surfing Bexico!!

Pentax Optio WG1

The rest of my day? El gimnasio and some time spent looking at “travel systems” for niño. Soooo many different options out there but at the end of the day, we need something we can grow with.

Also happy to report that I recycled all the batteries I brought back with me from Mexico!! We have found all the glass and paper etc recycling there…need to find out what they are doing with the batteries.

Next week we will probably hit up the big Walmart and ToysRUs to grab a stroller and car seat.

Bexico…well look who had a phone call from the UPS driver and scored her new Kindle!! But she was busy today so only in the past while has she had a chance to play with it. The rest of her day was spent working on her client’s projects…and a pit stop to come to Park Royal with me.

And at 34 weeks and counting, she even vacuumed the condo!!

Mañana? Need to fill out some forms so we can get Bexico some life insurance and we are also headed to the dreaded storage to document what items we are going to try and sell.

Had plans to go out with Melon on Thursday, but had to cancel because of two Victoria amigos. One lives in Cloverdale (yikes) and I haven’t seen him in oh maybe 20 years. And the other amigo is in town for a few days and I haven’t seen him in probably 10 plus years.

Hasta mañana.

Monday September 26, 2011

Buenos noches all.

Not much to report today. All about the to-do list.


First thing on the list was the dreaded life insurance. A good meeting with Netty and I am set up with a life term, a 10 year term and a 20 year term. Lots of coconut camarones if anything happens to me!! Then it was up the street to the gym.

After el gimnasio it was off to Crappy Tire to knock a few more items off the “back to Mexico” shopping list. At least I now know what I can find there and what I cannot.

Picked up Bexico and back to the Stupid Store. Not so much niño stuff today…but hello rib eyes for dinner!!

And a few more things on the list?

Pre-natal classes. On-line we saw 20 hour classes, 6 hour all in one day classes, weekend courses etc. We decided on this class.

Pre-natal classes

Pre-natal in a nutshell!! Three hours and we are experts!! Ja ja ja

We are signed up for an October class…cutting it kinda close. lol

We also need a condo clean up before we leave, so I have a few quotes for that. Bexico will be here by herself for the last week in Van, so we want someone to do all the work while she takes care of niño.

Next on the list? Passport for niño.

You cannot get a passport without a birth certificate. You cannot get a birth certificate without the birth being registered.

So I have saved the Birth Registration form and it can be emailed or faxed in.

Then I will either email or take in the Birth Certificate application and ask for the rush service. This is normally 2 business days.

Once we have the Birth Certificates, it is off to the passport office and there we will see how much time we have before Bexico’s (y niños) departure date and decide on the 3 week, 2-9 biz day or 24 hour delivery time.

All is good!!

Hmmmm? What else?

We are off to the storage locker on Wednesday and will be taking an inventory of items we are trying to sell. We are going to hold a sale day on Saturday and/or Sunday and then next week we will move our “stay in Van” items to a small locker and everything else is adios.

Bexico is triste…sad that her Kindle did not arrive. I guess we are having issues with UPS buzzing our condo and getting us her package. Maybe mañana!!

As for the rest of her day, work out and more animation work. Bad news on the NY contract…dude is loaded (house in the Hamptons anyone?) and still went with a cheaper animator. You get what you pay for, he will be sorry.

Mañana? Might be a swim day for Bexico!!

Later this week I hope to hook up with Melon and maybe Svenner and I also will be seeing a Victoria amigo who I first met in 1980 or 1981 but haven’t seen in over 10 years.

Busy times.

Hasta mañana.

Sunday September 25, 2011

Buenos tardes amigos.

I must be in training for taking care of niño…up early even if I want to sleep in!! ja ja ja

Welcome to a cloudy and very windy Sunday. And what is this? No Nascar on the TV here in the condo? Thank goodness for on-line streaming. But I think I cancelled my account thinking I would see the races for free on TV. Hmmmmm? Lol

Wow…1235pm and HUGE downpour. Welcome to rainy season?

So I am sitting on the couch, post French toast breakfast and thought I would start on the blog…update the fotos from ayer.

And what a day it was yesterday!!

Up early and made it to the ferry in quick time. We parked the truck as we were walking on and then as we get close to the terminal to buy tickets, we see a huge line up.

I go take a peek and see that everyone is in a line that will hang to the left and was headed to a cashier. On the right? Self serve kiosks with no one in line.

So I go back and get Bexico to follow me and as we pass the line, a man grabs Bexico by the arm because he feels we are butting in line. I am ahead of Bexico so I do not see this, but I hear her tell someone that they “do not need to get physical” and that sparks me up.

Bexico handled herself very well and I think the man was embarrassed when he saw conejito, but that wasn’t going to stop me from having a few words with this hombre. A few words later, and an apology from the dude, we are all good.

And then after we bought our tickets and walked to the long line up in the waiting area, who is standing right behind us? Ja ja ja

Fotos from on board the ferry.

The ships bell.

Why did I take that foto? Because this guy gets paid to polish it!!

Ja ja ja

View to the Island…sunny skies.

And back towards Vancouver.

Some islands in the mist.

Met by mis padres and then straight downtown to have lunch at Pags.

Wow...is their bread delicious!! Can you say 3 baskets worth? lol

Here are some family fotos.

We were stuffed so a short walk around town was in order. And that means a foto with all 3 animales!!

Ja ja ja

And Victoria is known for it’s flowers.

Headed to M&D’s condo…hello nap time for the ladies!! Bexico and I then went for a short walk around the condo and a market near by. M&D live on a golf course.

Then it was almost dinner time. Hello steaks and home made apple pie...like we needed to eat!! Lol

7pm ferry and home by 930pm. A long day, but good to see mis padres. Next time will be for Thanksgiving at mi hermanos.

That amigos was our sábado. Off to watch the end of the race and will update our domingo later today.

Hola again!!

Wow life is different when you have 126 channels available to watch!!

Currently 8pm and I am catching up with Benjamin Button. The race was great…Tony Stewart 2 in a row? Who knew.

The rain stopped during the afternoon and that meant Bexico and I went for a walk. Hello Michaels, home of arts and crafts and sketch books.

Bexico spent most of the afternoon doing work and is back at it now. I think she has 2 deadlines for early next week. She looks great and conejito is super active!!

Bexico also had a Skype with RJ and confirmed the dates for the visit as well as the need for them to rent a car. We will arrange it for them and even meet them at their hotel or airport to ensure they have a safe ride into North Van.

We had a call from one pre-natal class teacher. She no longer offers the evening course so we are looking at other options. We feel any information we garner cannot hurt!!

Also spent some time lining up a cleaner for the condo for when we leave in December. I suspect time will go by VERY fast after niño comes to visit. We already have dates booked for a visit from Bexico’s parents and her sister too.

So get stuff done now and not worry about it later.

Dinner…more pollo…just like at home!!

Mañana? Life insurance appointment and then el gimnasio. Bexico has work lined up and then on Tuesday we are taking her to the pool so she can go for a float and some laps. The two of them are missing the buoyancy!!

Have a great lunes.

Marco y Bexico

Saturday September 24, 2011

Buenos noches all.

Back from a quick jaunt to the "Rock" to visit mis padres in Victoria.

We is pooped.

Fotos mañana!!

Marco

Friday September 23, 2011

Well amigos y compañeros…it was a drier day here in Vancouver….phew.

Hope you liked the updated titles to this blog.

And…there are fotos coming!! I have some left overs from the trip norte and a few extras.

The day? Busy. Bexico started the day with a Skype and the potential client has asked for some prices. That is a good step…maybe some karma as his wife is from Toronto?

She has also landed another small project, some character designs. So she has 2 projects on the go and the possibility of 3 more!! It is truly feast or famine in her work world and it is feast time!!

After the Skype it was off to the locker and Bexico spent over 3 hours there working on down sizing our possessions. Me? I helped get the heavy boxes down and then returned 3 hours later to run one load to Union Gospel, return some items to the locker for the big sale next weekend, and then took one load back to the condo. These items will make their way back to Huatulco….hello Veronica the vacuum!!

In-between it was off to drop off the rental car and then el gimnasio. Still cannot convince WH that Mexico is not a bad place to be living. His mind is set, no point spending the time or energy trying to change it.

After the gym, onto the 64 window limo and out to Burnaby to pick up the truck. Good news? Mike cut me some slack on pricing and we are down a few hundred. The bad news? Replacing the fan clutch did not solve the over-revving noise we were experiencing.

Well, it is not hit and miss. The power has returned for the most part and sometimes we have no extra noise, but at other times it sounds like you are at 10,000 rpm when you are actually at 2000 and starting from a dead start.

I discovered the issue as I was headed back to storage to pick up Bexico, so we went back to Nissan and thank goodness the noise replicated itself when I had Mike come out and look at it.

Solution? Another new fan clutch and see what happens. We will have this installed at the same time as the springs and window regulator.

Then it was back (yes again) to Stupid Store. A few food items, but mainly toiletries to take back to Mexico as well as niño stuff.

Talking about niño stuuf, here are a few fotos to share.

This is the quilt mi madre made for niño.

We love it!! Look at all the animales.

And this is our cammo diaper bag. Might be tough to see due to the cammo.

At Stupid Store we scored on many items on sale and of course tax free. And then if you spent certain levels of $$, they were offering $$ off gas at their station. We were $8.00 away from the top level…hello 4 cans of soup, and now the next time we fill up, we will get tax free gas and save 25 cents a litre!! Cha ching

Exciting to get all stocked up for niño y Mexico…get it out of the way so we can focus on other things….and relax.

Next up? Pre-natal classes…and according to one brocheure…we are behind schedule!! Ja ja ja

Mañana…9am ferry…up at 615am or so…ugh. But great to see mis padres.

Otra fotos? These are from day 2 of the trip and one from day 7.

A few clouds, but I managed to out run them.

Baaaaaa Mr Sheep?

Randy Newman lyric.

WFSITBOTT?

Holy crap is that a lot of broccoli!!

Just some crop pickers.

And I saw this statue on top of a hill.

Those fotos were taken while we were at a crawl due to construcción.

But these were taken at 130 km/hr!!

It looks like a church or monastery?

And this was my travel companion.

He looks a little pale ale crazy!!

And last but not least, our tax dollars hard at work.

I saw this Fisheries and Oceans van parked outside the outlet mall at Tulalip Washington!!!

Buen fin de semana amigos.

Marco y Bexico

Thursday September 22, 2011

Howdy all!!

Doph...a late Feliz Cumpleaños to Miss Kahro!!

A WET day in Vancouver. What’s up with that?

I must get out with the camera again. Maybe when we head to Victoria…on the rock. On Saturday we are headed over for quick visit. On the 9am ferry and back on the 7pm…with a pit stop at Pags….our favorite Victoria restaurant.

Our day?

Bexico was housebound as I was out dealing with the truck etc. But she managed another workout and has spent some quality time working on her current animation project. She loves her Mac and we were happy to have her software provider fix a glitch. Good Canadian customer service.

My first stop was Nissan. Went over the  list with Mike and there was no loaner car, so got a lift to the 64 window limo…the Skytrain.

Next stop…The Bay. Grabbed an umbrella (argh) and found a great t-shirt for Arturo, parts manager at Nissan.

Then I rented some wheels because it is tough to get from downtown to where we live and because we still had shopping to do.

I headed downtown to the gym. Wow…what a different experience. I even watch TV while on the cardio machines. Need to sign up for the 2 months as we hope to be in Whistler in diciembre as well as a Seahawks road trip.

Only issue? What’s up with a $50 admin fee? For running my cc? I have asked that they waive it and we will see what happens.

Next stop…hello to the first haircut (by a professional) since January!!! Ja ja ja

And then over to Kits BH to give my amigo Hanif the gears. Tell the world…I like that guy.

Off to Stupid Store again and I can share with you that our list for items to bring back to Huatulco, is almost completed.

I did stop at Crappy Tire but did not buy anything as I was distracted by both the stock market news and by the phone call from Mike at Nissan. Not a cheap day.

Two new leaf springs need to be installed…next week as they come from TO. Where am I…Huatulco? Ja ja ja

A few belts are glazed over and some fluids are also dirty.

Tough call…spend the $$ or just buy some new wheels. It might be one of those times “better the devil you know” as we really do know what has been fixed on the camioneta, and a new one to where we live might not be making any sense.

The plan is that it isn’t good money after bad. With these repairs, we should be good for most of the major components for another 5 plus years.

And then we only need to worry about things like tires and brakes!! Ja ja ja

As for today’s work, here is a blurb on a fan clutch, the major item the tech was working on.

Fan Clutch

And for you in a hurry, here is a clip of what was in the article that truly related to our experience.

“A fan clutch can also fail in a stuck on position where engine power is lost even when the fan is not necessary. This type of failure can also decrease fuel economy”

So Bexico and I talked about it and approved the work. Everything but the window regulator and the leaf springs will be fixed or changed mañana.

Then it was finally some relaxing time before dinner.

Mañana? Drop Bexico off at the storage locker as she has some sorting to do…hello Goodwill!! I will hit the gym, return the rental and then Skytrain it to Nissan. If Bexico is done before I get back…hello bus #209!! Or else I will pick her up.

Misc TV tidbit….in Huatulco we had 3 canals that showed some programs in English. Here, only 127…but hello!!! Storage Locker Wars? Ice Road Truckers? Ja ja ja

Have a great Friday all.

Bubba y Bexico