Making Progress

     We are continuing to see our house come together with the new tile.  The first floor (which is the biggest area because it included the large front veranda) is completely tiled and about 75% done with the grout.  The upstairs is about 60% tiled with no grout yet.  The bad news is as we put in the new floor, we see what else needs to be done.  We have now made the decision to redo all the bathrooms as well (that would be 5 bathrooms). Our project now seems to have no end.  Patience, must have much patience.  The good news is it is going to look awesome when it is all finished.
     The kitchen is still being prepped for the cabinets which are scheduled to be coming on Wednesday.  We learned very quickly not to hold to much hope on dates since it only leads to disappointment.  They will get here when they get here.  Meanwhile, we have been opening some of the boxes from our container (even though we have nowhere to put anything yet) and found our electric fry pan.  We were able to have scrambled eggs for dinner tonight.  That may not sound like a big deal, but let me tell you, after sandwiches, granola, etc... for 7 weeks, it was awesome!   We have also been able to make pizza in our toaster oven.  They sell these great little personal cheese pizzas at Hyper Market for $1.84.  And we have been splurging on chocolate filled croissants (which are to die for when heated up in the toaster oven  They are so good, we have limited ourselves to one a week just to make sure we don't get carried away.  We also make sure to hit the mercado up at least once a week to get our fresh fruit and vegetables  The mangos are absolutely awesome.  The large ones run about 4-5 mangos for a dollar and boy are they sweet!  They are very messy and juicy, so I justify eating two of them at once since I already have juice dripping all over my face.  The bananas we got this week were 8 for $.50.  Strawberries are about $1.50 a pound, but they make an awesome treat as well.  We are also fortunate because every once in a while our caretakers, Jimmy and Mirian, bring us over a delicious lunch or dinner.  Mirian's mother must have really been a good teacher, because Mirian is a great cook.  And her presentation is awesome.  I did have to tell her I didn't like pescado, though (fish). John said her ceviche was awesome, too (something else I had to pass on ).
     Meanwhile, our puppies, Annabel and Josie, are doing absolutely awesome.  They are a bright spot in our day, for sure.  They had their first vet visit on Friday and got their first set of vaccines, along with a vitiman shot and an anti-parisite medication (total vet bill was $20).  Neither one was happy about getting their shots.  I hope they have a short memory, because they have to go back again in a month.  They are always playing and cuddling with each other, which just reinforces why we took both of them.
     On Tuesday, our friends Will and Janis had to go to Guayaquil to take care of some business and they asked me to go with.  It was a great opportunity to get a little more shopping done.  We went to a huge mall, which was very modern and a lot of fun to look around in.  Our grocery store here in Salinas is called Super Maxi.  Well, in the mall in Guayaquil they have a Mega Maxi!  It is like Super Maxi on steroids.  We had Pizza Hut pizza for lunch in their foodcourt.  And guess what? It tasted just like Pizza Hut in the U.S.  It was really good!  Nothing like good old American junk food to clog up the arteries. A big thanks to Will and Janis for taking me with.  It was a lot of fun. We stopped and bought some honey at a roadside stand on the way home, too.  The mixture I got is supposed to prevent and cure just about everything- lol!
     As we end this week, I now have a operable washing machine. The dryer, well, not so much.  Something shorted out on it and if we can't get it repaired, we are going to replace it with a gas dryer, as gas is much cheaper than electricity here.  Slowly, but surely, we are getting back to normal (which I have always said is a setting on a dryer- just hopefully not my broken one).  Looking forward to seeing what this week will bring us.