Deb and Ed Full Steam Ahead!!

Resolutions.. hmmmm....

2012-01-02T05:01:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again when we swear we are going to change. Our son Zach is here for 6 months because he is trying to get prepared to join the Army. He has lost 13 pounds in one month.

Ed is getting ready for a body building competition. He is memorializing his goals and journey on his blog http://physicaledsmuscleacademy.blogspot.com/2011/12/follow-me-to-vigor-y-fuerza.html#!/2011/12/follow-me-to-vigor-y-fuerza.html

I am proud of them both. Their discipline and drive is commendable.

Ed and Zach 2 days after Zach arrived from the states.

Zach and Ed one month later. (You can really see all Zach's hard work!)

Now for me....

There are certainly many things I could work on... weight... projects... diligence with house keeping...pfft.

I still intend to work on all the above and a spattering of other improvable physical and character flaws, but I think I will just try to "do" stuff every day. I just don't feel like making a loud bold declaration of what I will be changing in the next 12 months. I find that I usually do better with positive improvements when I mutter quietly to myself in private (sometimes in the fetal position lol).

So I am going to just plug on like always. Somedays you may look at me and think.. hmm she may have lost weight... and you may be right.... or you may look at me and say hmm Deb may have put on a few more pounds.. and you may be right........ but at least I won't have to add guilt and abject failure in resolution setting to my long list of faults :)

Good luck to all the brave soldiers on the front line of resolution setting! I wish you the best!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

Our son Zach came down with strep throat after Christmas. So we had a relatively quiet New Year's Eve. I made homemade pizza (turned out fairly well), homemade spaghetti (always good) and home made brownie cake (I was even impressed hehehe). We received 2 bottles of champagne from a few friends as gifts this year. Zach doesn't drink so Ed and I got fairly soused! :)

We watched movies, The Hangover 2 and Captain America. Both pretty good!

Mexico loves their fireworks. It has been pretty much a nightly event since Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 culminating into a crescendo of blasts layered upon blast at midnight New Year's Eve.

Our poor pups have been in need of therapy and doggie Xanax for weeks. Last night took years off them.. especially poor old Max the Lab.

Happy New Year to All!!

Feliz Navidad!

2011-12-25T15:46:00.000-08:00

So our big dinner and celebration falls on Christmas Eve.

We had turkey, ham, mashed taters, stuffing, macaroni & cheese, green bean casserole, cranberries and a pumpkin cheesecake. Ingredients were not too hard to find. Stuffing is not readilly found ready to be made. But with some tostada pan (toasted bread) seasoned crutons and various veggies and spices, it came off well.

The potato sticks for the green bean casserole were slightly more challenging. I was delighted to find fried onion strips, but had to settle for some crushed sour cream and onion pringles :)

I realized at Thanksgiving time that canned pumpkin would not be found here, so I had asked Zach to bring a can with him from the states.

All the food turned out very yummy!

Here is Tomas Turkey heading into the oven.

Eduardo giving me an early Christmas present by sweeping!

Max and Rosie were my constant companions through out the food preparations.

I gave the dog's their x-mas presents (rawhide chewies) but they made quick work of them and were soon back at my heels in the kitchen.

Zach and Rosie reading on the couch while everything is cooking.

Tomas emerges from the oven looking lovely!

We sit down to stuff ourselves!

And then of course afterwards.. well.. you know!

The guys showing their new gifts. Ed with his new jets hat, Zach with his new Spanish study materials... and of course new underwear and socks!

Christmas Day our tradition is to head to the beach. This year Zach and I tried our hand at some fishing. I managed to catch a little puffer fish again. I think I am going to retire from my fishing career though. I was nearly in tears trying to get the hook out of the poor fellows mouth to free him. It was a bit too traumatizing for me and the fish.

This little girl was a new friend at the beach.

Nothing like a little sunburn on Christmas Day!

It was a lovely Christmas.

Hoping all of yours were also wonderful and the New Year brings smiles, love and adventures to all!

Let it snow.. not likely.... more like pull out the SPF 30

2011-12-15T14:56:00.000-08:00

Trying to get in the christmas spirit. The weather has been averaging the last few days around 88 degrees. Beautiful fo sure... just not a typical winter wonderland. So getting in the Xmas groove has been a little off kilter. Today I said to my son Zach... come what may, the tree goes up today!

So I put on my most festive sundress.... turned on my specially assembled Christmas music playlist.... And we pulled out the (quite truthfully sad little) fake christmas tree. We had fun trying to decorate the funny little Charlie Brown tree with the strand of garland that isn't quite long enough and my 8 ornaments. Back in the states our 10 ft tree would have so many ornaments you had to double and triple placement on some branches.

Our little Yucatan tree made it's debut last year. I had also decorated it with string popcorn, gingerbread men and candycanes. I thought it was funny that it was such an odd concept for most of the Yucatecans I met to do so. I quickly learned why these were not traditions here... the humidity caused my popcorn to shrivel, my candycanes to drip, and my dogs would patiently wait under the tree for mother nature, moisture and gravity to perform decapitations on all my gingerbread men.

So we decided on the simple minimalist approach this year.

I believe we have a tiny Christmas miracle... we stepped back once done and our little tree is sweet and charming.

Merry Christmas To All!

La Feria (The Fair)

2011-12-04T04:54:00.000-08:00

We decided to take a quick jaunt out to the annual state fair. It is set up in a town called Xmatkuil.

It was very reasonably priced. $15 pesos per person to get in (roughly $1.50 usd). Then most of the large shows are also $15 pesos to get in.

Zach and Ed

Ed and Burger King

We decided to go see the Zoological Robots Exhibit

These Robots are huge. For a little perspective, look at the man next to the T-rex. They all were moving robots.

Then we went to the Dolphin show. For $15 pesos they put on a show that was an hour long and extremely entertaining. They had high divers, trained seals and of course the dolphins.

The fair is very large with a lot to do. There are rides, games, livestock and of course, like in the states, lots to eat!

We had an early morning so we called it an evening after the dolphin show.

We will definately go back next year and make a whole day of it.

Happy Pavo Day!

2011-11-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is a difficult holiday to be away from family. Luckily for Ed and I, we have met such wonderful people since we moved to Merida. Both the school where I work and friends of ours invited us to Thanksgiving get-togethers. It took the sting out of facebook updates and mobile uploads of yummy festivities back in the states :)

The gathering at the school was held on Saturday. It was great! Lots of fun happy people.

On Sunday we had dinner with our friend Dr. Isaac Trejo and his girlfriend Magdalena. It was her very first turkey. She did fantastic! We enjoyed a lovely dinner with them and their family.

We have much to be thankful for!

All the best to you and your family!

Wilkommen der Duetschland in der Yucatan (Oktoberfest!)

2011-10-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

First off... hmmm hurricane Rina, or not....

We were scared that we were going to experience our first hurricane here. And to make the stress level even more intense, Rina was projected to be a category 3, considered a major hurricane. My students and friends of ours told us horror stories of the last hurricane. Stories of no electricity in some places for months. We live outside the city so we felt pretty sure our little pueblo wouldn't be high on the priority list to get the utilities back up after a hurricane. We were also worried about power poles and light poles coming down on our house. The following pictures are of a light pole that just fell over during the rains a few weeks ago (just normal rain and no wind). The pole was buried so shallow it just fell over when the ground became too saturated.

Luckily, and as some of our wise friends who have been here along time assured us, the storm was nothing. Actually we hardly received any rain at all... PHEW!!

Now Oktoberfest.

This year the big convention center Siglo XXI (Convention Center 21st Century) had a nice celebration for Oktoberfest. It was $25 pesos to get in (about $2 usd). There were booths with artisans, schools, and pastries. They also had german meals I only recognized the brats... the other dishes I did not recognize. I ordered a brat with sauerkraut Ed had ... ummm ... something... it was a meat something.. we think pork.. but it was very fatty and he didn't care for it much. My bratwurst was very yummy. The meals ranged from $25.00 pesos to $90.00 ($2 -$8 usd). There was a lot of german beer being served and people enjoyed the sounds of a band of young oompa players.

Whoever thought we would see lederhosen in the Yucatan

Cases and Cases of German Beer

The young bandmembers getting ready to go on stage.

The band played on..

One booth had such incredible yummiesssss

I couldn't resist and brought home some :)

The Convention Center is a great place. They have several beautiful fish tanks.

I never realized they also have a beautiful movie theater inside.

As we were leaving we saw someone had arrived to Oktoberfest in style. An old german motorcycle was parked out front.

Always something fun going on in the Yucatan :)

A Nice Evening Out and About

2011-09-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Ed and I decided to get out of the house and do a little exploring. We first decided to visit our regular beach hang out in Chelem. We were so surprised to see how far the tide has come in. The tide now comes all the way up to the foundations of the beach homes.

Ed at the beach in Chelem back in March of this year

Ed today at Chelem

We drove further down the coastline to Chuburna. We found some beautiful beach areas there.

We had a fantastic dinner at Fogonocitos. Terrific Nachos and tacos.

When we came home I was greeted by an exuberant Claude and Pippy. They jumped all over me. Pippy now grabs on to my clothing and pulls me.

It was a great evening all around!

Claude and Pippy jumping up on me when I got out of the car

Sweet Little Pip

Claude is a good role model for Pip

You can see that most of the tar and hair on her right side has come out. She is also gaining a bit of weight.

Rosie loves to stick her nose through the gates and say hi to her friends. Max is a grumpy old man who is jealous and barks at them.

A little closer to getting to our goal for Pippy!

My New Buddy Pippy

2011-09-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

If you remember last year my new buddy was Claude. Claude last year was a hungry, timid street dog. I am happy to say Claude is fat and happy now and is king of our street. Many of our neighbors look out for him. He is doing well.

Claude Last Year

Claude Now

I have a new friend Pippy. Pippy is young. She is very hungry. She is covered with tar. We have many new roads being paved around here. We are hoping she just got into the tar accidentally and that it wasn't a cruel act by someone.

Pippy a few days ago.

She is very sweet. When I first convinced her to come sit with me she was very weak and timid.

I am happy to say that after just a few good meals she already is happier and has a lot more energy. The hair seems to be falling out with the tar in it... hopefully her bad hair days will end soon. I tried cutting it out but it scared her too much.

Today she bounced over to me. She jumped on me and after she ate she cuddled in my lap. Hopefully she will continue to improve :)

Pippy Today

I will keep you updated on her progress!

A Day At the Iglesias

2011-09-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

Ed and I decided to take in some of the sights at the beautiful Catholic churches in Centro. It is such an awesome and incredible feeling to know you are standing in a church that has been there some 400 to 500 years.

Merida Cathedral

Merida Cathedral, known locally as Catedral de San Ildefonso, is a sixteenth century cathedral built by Spanish colonialists. In fact, constructed from 1556 to 1598, Merida Cathedral was the first such cathedral to be built in the inland Americas.
Not only was Merida Cathedral built on the site of the former Maya city of Tiho, it was also constructed from the stones of Maya pyramids

The Church of the Third Order

This landmark was built in the 17th century by the Jesuits. It was attached to that Catholic order's College of St. Francis Xavier, which was founded in 1618.

The walls were handpainted.

Iglesia de Santa Lucia

Construction of Iglesia de Santa Lucía began at the end of the 16th century and ended in 1620.

The atrium operated as a graveyard until 1821.

La Mejoradan Iglesia

The former Franciscan convent of Our Lady of Transit, also called La Mejorada, from the 17th century. This building has had many different uses, like a hospital, a School of Arts and Crafts, a police prefecture, and lodging for the families of soldiers from military headquarters, before becoming home to the Faculty of Architecture UADY.

All these churches, although hundreds of years in age, are all still used daily for services.

Some other great places we saw while walking around Centro:

A local University was sponsoring chess games for kids.

Teatro Jose Peon Contreras
opened in 1908

A very fun, interesting and educational day!

Who are the people in your neighborhood.. in your neighborhood... in your neighhhboooorhooood....

2011-08-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Ed and I have often said since we purchased the house here in San Pedro Nohpat how fortunate we are to have such wonderful neighbors and neighborhood.

This past week the local small Presbyterian church invited me to their Vaction Bible School. They had organized it for the kids in the neighborhood. I was so impressed. They put together such a wonderful event for the children. Please remember that the over-whelming majority of our neighbors really have to work very hard to make ends meet, so the amount of time, love and effort they put into this shows the immense hearts they have and how much they want to offer good things to the children of our pueblo.

Please enjoy the the beautiful faces of my neighborhood:

What a great experience :)

Tiempo de vacaciones en Progreso

2011-08-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Alas, once again it is time for fiestas and fun as the majority of Mexico is on vacation. Our quiet, for the most part, deserted beaches are now teeming with happy vacationing families.

We had lunch down at the Progreso Eladios and checked out the action.

Vendors are everywhere.

As you can see in the following pictures, the beach was very active. Hard to believe this is the same beach that we would visit and not see another person for hours.

It is so fun to see all the families and kids enjoying their time at the beach.

Telcel was giving out kites. We saw many kids enjoying the fun of flying a kite.

They had a few large stages set up for bands to play and of course plenty of rides for the kids to enjoy once night fell.

Street performers are popular here and in Merida. They perform in the intersections during red lights hoping for a few pesos from appreciating spectators sitting in their cars.

And of course the good news is that we get plenty of rain now and our jungles are back!

All for now :)

Tik 'n' Xik For Edwin and Carlos! Thanks for the suggestion!

2011-07-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

Two of my students', Edwin and Carlos, suggested I try Tik 'n' Xik on vacation. I did and it was delicious!

Here is the picture :

Thanks to Edwin and Carlos for their sugesstion and help with the pronunciation!

Cancun!

2011-07-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

Ok our Cancun adventure started with a 4 hour bus ride. It was actually very comfy.

We had booked at a hotel called The Royal Grand Lagoon. It was only $30 USD a night and it was right there on the hotel zone... Our fingers were crossed that it was a decent hotel. It was actually great! It was small and cozy... maybe 30 rooms. It was clean and comfy. The staff were all great the pool was nice and the cervezas cheap!

The next day we walked 20 mins up the main road to Tortuga Port. We caught a ferry to Isla de Mujeras.

For $50 usd a day we rented a golf cart and drove all over the island!

One of our stops was the Turtle Farm. They raise baby turtles and then release them.

They also have a great aquarium with many other fun critters!

Here are the turtle egg nests.

These poor little guys were born with deformed shells.

Needless to say, I wanted to take them all home!

The island was beautiful.

The next day we went to Xcaret, a ecological and cultural theme park 45 mins south of Cancun.

Spider Monkeys

We had an incredible buffet for lunch. And the Jaguars were our lunch mates. We ate 50 feet from there habitat.

Xcaret also had adventures where you could pay to play with the dolphins. It looks fun. definately on our "to do" list.

The park also had beautiful beaches and swimming areas.

The Coral Aquarium was spectacular.

Our day started at 5:30am and we were at the park until 9:30pm so we found a few chairs and took a quick rest.

This lemur was just running free in the park.

All through out the park there was cultural exhibits... including actual live mayan warriors :)

The plants and trees in the park were outrageous!

I loved the baby flamingos. They haven't eaten enough shrimp and developed their pink feathers so they are still grey and fluffy.

We sat in one of the many restaurants and drank a few beers while we watched a horse show.

That evening we watched an amazing show on the history of Mexico. Here Ed is posing with one of the Mayan warriors. (he was a little shocked when I told the warrior to pretend he was cutting off Ed's head)

The next night we took a Caribbean Carnival Party Cruise. We drank and danced on a boat that took us over to Isla de Mujeres for a great dinner and show.

Ed and a few others were called up on stage to each sing a song.

This man and his son sang a Mexican song.

Ed danced and posed

Then sang "Red-necked Mother"

Afterwards the host joked around and told the audience that Ed was a famous archeologist who worked on the the Chichen Itza Mayan ruins. The rest of the night tourists kept coming up congratulating Ed and asking for pictures of him ..lol... way too much drinking on that cruise!

We ran into many iguanas during our trip. Most were at least 1.5 ft to 2 ft long. They were amazing.

Then our last day.....

Our last afternoon we just spent relaxing at a lounge on the beach.

And alas... our vacation is over.... but the memories live on...

Me encanta enseñar! I love teaching!

2011-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Funny thing, when I was younger and trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, teaching was not even on the list. Out of neccesity to find a job here in Merida that a relatively non-spanish speaking person living in Mexico could perform,I found teaching English.I have students ranging from 14 to 45 years old. My younger students attend the school where I teach. The older students are in my corporate classes in a town called Uman.

I mentioned last entry that my younger students have been working on class projects. I was going to try to upload videos of their projects but the video files are too big. Instead here are more pictures of my kids working on their plays:

Fidel, Fito, Arantxa and Mishell did a spoof on a talk show!

Mauren, Maricela, Angel, Isaac and David created a soap opera where a girl (played by angel below lol) is addicted to playing farmville on the internet.

Quite a lot of fun!

Well off to work I go :)

YAY Rain!

2011-06-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

The rain is back!!! Thank goodness! We needed it so much. Not only was the weather topping out at 106 some days (with 30-40% humidity) but the areas usually filled with lush greenery are dried out and a constant fire hazzard.

So we decided to take advantage of the weather cooling off a bit (we are now topping out in the mid 90's) and head to Progreso for lunch.

The sky full of clouds is such a great sight!

Even with the little water, the flamboyanes trees are full of blossoms.

The gym where Ed works training the trainers is Sport's Center. It is on the drive out to Progreso.

Below is a common sight, small and sometimes rather large fires to the side of the roads.

The road into the Malecon (the boardwalk) was busy.

We decided to eat at Eladios that is actually right out on the beach.

Eladio's is right next to the long pier we have shown you before. So we walked down to the water and walked up the beach and under the pier to the other side.

The large pier has restricted access for trucks etc. that are bringing goods off the ships at the end of the port. Next to the large pier is a smaller one that is open to the public. Here fishing is a popular past-time. You can rent a pole and try your luck on the spot.

The beach was beautiful as always!

Teaching English has been fun. I have been extremely busy between my regular classes and now I have been given 5 additional classes a week on-site at a local production plant in a neighboring town.

Below are some of my regular students. All great kids. They have been working hard on special class projects. I will video tape them when they are all complete and hopefully upload the videos for you all to see their hard work.

Alberto, Esteban and Jose (Alberto reminds me sooo much of Ian)

Monica and Alberto

Ana and Ricardo

Well all for now!

Love you all!

Good Friday

2011-04-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

We are in the midst of another grand fiesta time in Merida. It is Holy Week then Spring Break here. During Holy Week families are very involved with church activities and family get togethers.

Here are some members of the little Catholic church in our tiny pueblo San Pedro Nohpat re-enacting the Passion.

The other places that almost everyone in Merida ends up at least once during Spring Break are the beaches. We decided to drive by our normal beach hang-outs to scope out the action.

We knew it was going to be bustling when we saw all the traffic heading out to the beaches!

It was crazy-busy! We saw cars from all over Mexico, Canada and this was a visitor from Belize.

The vendors and rides were getting set up for the second week of Spring Break.

Progreso is also preparing for more boat races next week.

Yucalpeten was not too busy so we stopped to enjoy the ocean breeze and watch a kite surfer. There was also a cruise ship in port. Supposedly, the city of Progreso negotiated to have a cruise ship come in to port almost everyday in exchange they poured a lot of dinero into improving the boardwalk.

There are plenty of little vendors on the side of the roads. You can buy handbags, shoes, swimsuits, floaties for the ocean, food and chilled coconuts where they chop off the top, stick a straw in and you have a coconut juice treat. When you are finished with your juice you can ask them to cut it up for you to eat the coconut meat inside.

OK now remember I told you we were going fishing??... Ahah! look ... my first fish! He was this hilarious little puffer fish. I thought he was going to explode puffing up and holding his breath! I told him I was sorry about the darn hook in the mouth.. then let him go :)

Lastly, boy do we need rain (be careful what you wish for, right, if you remember our rainy seasons here). Our green jungles are so dry. Even our beautiful flamboyenes trees have sparse flowers and very few leaves.

Well all said and done it was a great Good Friday!

Love you all!

Work Work Work

2011-04-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

You probably noticed the blog has slowed down.. especially with postings of adventures. Alas we are working Joes (or maybe the term here is working Joses) now!

Ed has been busy training people. His client list grows weekly. He is also very busy teaching other trainers at Sports Center.
We have been so fortunate to have met some wonderful friends who have also helped us immensely. A client/friend of Ed's gave him space to use for developing his own school. We had an Open House for friends to come see the space.

Here is Raul, Eric and Rodrigo. Raul is a lawyer and has helped us with some legal issues with our business. Eric amazingly is the first person we ever met here when we first entered Merida. He works for Immigration and he checked our passports when we got off the plane. He ended up working out at Gold's Gym with Ed, remembered us, and has been a fast friend since! Rodrigo introduced me to the owners of CIS, the language school I work for. http://www.cisyucatan.com.mx/

The lovely lady at the end is Monica, Raul's wife. She works for a local university.

Ed and I both work 6 days a week now so our fun day is Sunday. Much of that time is spent on the beach. We used to go to Progresso but find ourselves more at the beaches in Chelem and Cheburna now. All are still only 30 mins from the house.

Groovy plaid speedo eh?!! hehehehe

As you can tell... Ed still is the incredibly disciplined man we know and love!

And as you can tell I am still the undisciplined twinkie eater you all came to know and love :)

I want to try fishing this weekend (Ed swears I can use corn not worms for bait) so maybe we will have a blog entry displaying my record breaking catch (more likely just pics of my handicap disorientated minnow).

Until then, we love you all!

Carnaval 2011

2011-03-09T08:03:00.000-08:00

Carnaval is a week long celebration. There are parades everyday with different themes each day. We chose to go to the regional parade. This parade highlighted the local cultures and ancestory of the populations living in the Yucatan. It was a beautiful night and the parade was great! We hope the pictures give you a little taste of the fun!

A Visit to Anamaya

2010-12-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

We were going to go to the Merida Zoo... but it was closed... we decided to check out Anamaya. Anamaya is a public park with animals. It was beautiful and completely free. It was a great afternoon.

The Bull Fight

2010-12-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

Warning: These pictures are not for the faint of heart. It was hard for me to watch being an animal lover.... but it is a big part of the culture and we wanted to experience it. So ladies and gentlemen.... A bullfight.

English with Deb and Training with Ed!

2010-11-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

Ed has been rolling along with his training he has clients (who pay wooohooo) and has been working hard on his website and new blog. Click on the link to check out all his hard work!
http://physedtrain.com/

http://physicaledsmuscleacademy.blogspot.com/

Well I finally finished my Teaching English as a Second Language certificate. There were many long hours in front of the computer studying for my certificate. Re-stimulating neurons that had not been exposed to terminology such as "present continuous tense" and "future perfect continuous tense" in several decades. But alas it is done. Now for experience I am teaching an English class with people from my pueblo on Wednesdays. I just asked for donations and had no idea what to expect since most are struggling financially.
The class was so much fun. I fell in love with teaching! I had people ranging from 5 years old to 60 + years old. All told I had about 20 students. The biggest challenge is "Mexican Time" The class starts at 6pm and is an hour long. I had people there 10 mins early and had people coming in all the way up to the end of the class. I need to express the importance of starting on time and sticking to our schedule. This is going to be harder than it sounds.

Anyhow my students were attentive, eager to learn and having fun! I earned a handful of coins (which I donated to the church that was letting us use their facilities) and an hour after class my students showed up with dinner for Ed and I. Yummmmmmmy tamales!!!

All in all it was a great success and I can't wait for this Wednesday!

:)

Día de los Muertos

2010-10-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

This Morning Ed and I went down to Centro to enjoy the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration. All the various pueblos had altars honoring their dead. It was amazing!

Campay, bald heads, and Ice Cream

2010-10-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

Every Wednesday and Thursday, Ed and I go to a sushi restaurant here called Campay. Fernando is our regular waiter. He knows us so well, he has our regular order memorized. Last night we went in for our Wednesday "hit" and Fernando was not there. Our substitute told us his name but it was so foreign to us we secretly gave up trying to say it. Here he is none the less.

Fernando is so good, when we walked in, our new waiter literally had a cheat sheet made up on us. He knew our total order.

Ed had lots of fun with chopsticks that night.

I would like to tell you this was brought on by the consumption of mass quantities of sake, but alas he was drinking lemonade.

Here are the happy sushi rollers,

Here are the products of their hard work.

Here is my fork.... ( I would like to say I used it because I didn't want to use my chopsticks after they had been in Ed's nose, but alas I am chopstick challenged. Dozens have tried to help me but I have decided chopstick use is located in the same part of the brain as manual transmissions. I shall forever be using forks and automatic vehicles)

As you may have noticed above, Ed decided to shave off all his hair and go bald or in espanol Pelone.

Funny thing is bald heads are never seen here. Most men, even the oldest, have full heads of hair here. Ed literally stops traffic with his bald head. Yesterday an entire truck-full of men were mesmerized by the shine of his hairless noggin. The other day at the grocery store a lttle girl about 6 yrs old was severely reprimanded by her father for pointing and laughing and calling Ed a Pelone.

Just another cultural change to bounce over.

For those we have not told, we decided against setting up the Ice cream Parlour in the mall we had chosen earlier. The foot traffic just wasn't enough for the cost of the rent. That plus a few other questionable interactions with the mall management made it an easy decision to pull out.

We decided to just run the ice cream parlour out of our home here in the pueblo. Our overhead is so much lower we can afford to lower the price of the ice cream. So Ed has been hard at work getting the yard ready for grass and landscaping to set up an eating area outside.

Ed has also been hard at work making fliers for his personal training business.

Fingers crossed we are on our way to becoming a profitable couple here in the Yucatan.

Toto we are not in Kansas anymore!

2010-09-29T13:01:00.000-07:00

We have told you about the various different critters we encounter here.

We had the Praying Mantis on steriods....

Frogs after rain storms...........

Lizards from Iguanas to geckos and eerything in between......

But poor Rosie, our little border collie mix. In her typical inquisitive fashion tried to get up close to something that did not want her there. The best we can figure out, it sprayed something in her face. What ever that sumthin was... it wasn't pleasant. Poor dogs mug was so swollen, she looked like she had the mumps!

Thankfully, with some tender loving care, ibuprofen, and cold compresses, within 48 hours she was back to normal! (Mind you a bit more leery of creeping critters, she lays staring out the window all night now)

Five Month Marker

2010-09-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

We have now been here 5 months. It has gone by quick and yet we both agree that we feel like this is now home. We have certainly packed a lot into these few months. So I thought I would do a quick review in pictures the last 5 months!

Phewwww.... that was just a samll taste of the last 5 months... Makes ya wonder what the next 10 years will be!!!

Tropical Storm Karl, Bicentennial, Beach and ARE YOOOOUUU READY FOR FOOTBALLLL??

2010-09-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

So we have been lucky and all the hurricanes and tropical storms have just missed us or been mild in their path through us. This is not to say we did not receive some extra moisture with Tropical Storm Karl. You can see below that there were several "bad hair" days...

Ed and I braved the rain and drove around to take pictures of the Bicentennial lights that the city had in various areas..

We still go exploring. We wen't to Chelem, another beach just 25 minutes from the house.

We still love Progreso most of all. Now that vacation time is over here, we have the beach to ourselves again. We get breakfast and read the paper at the beach before we take a morning swim at least twice a week.

And for those who were worried Ed would have Jet's withdrawl....No Problema!!!

We love you all!

Our Trip To Holbox and Our Swim With The Whale Sharks

2010-09-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

Our trip started as most of ours here do... Drive through lush green growth and jungle.

Passing occasionally through small pueblos.

We had to park the truck in a pueblo named Chiquila and take a passenger ferry over to Holbox.

Holbox is small. You can walk across it in 20 minutes. On one side is the Gulf of Mexico, on the other side an inlet with mangroves and a wildlife preserve. We stayed at the hotel Faro Viejo right on the beach of the coast.

Swimming with the Whale Sharks was amazing!

We had to take a 90 minute boat ride out to where they were..

W pulled up to an area where we could see the whale sharks fins popping up out of the water...

But there was no way you could have been pre-warned, even seeing the fins, what was in store once you went in the water!!!!

The Sharks were as big as the boat, curious and unafraid of the human swimmers! They eat plankton and have these large gaping mouths used to inhale all the plankton they encounter while swimming... I can tell you there is nothing like seeing a 4000 lb creature with a 6 ft open mouth swimming directly at you!

The girl above actually got smacked in the head with a fin. She said it didn't hurt but it was shocking and jarring for sure!

An experience we will never forget! (and hope to do again!)

When we got home Max and Rosie were happy to see us... we had told the vet to shave Rosie's hair off.... we were shocked to find that our language skills failed us and they thought both dogs were to be shaved. So we are the proud owners of a near naked labrador!

Much Love to All!!

To Barb

2010-08-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

I was outside photographing this butterfly who would not let the wind shake her off of her flower.... She reminded me of Ed's mother, Barb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzcb0XnNoCA

Keep smiling.... we love you!

It's Not Easy Being Green!

2010-08-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Everyday at about 4pm.........

We are official and Mr. Playa

2010-08-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

We put the down payment on our space for the Ice Cream Parlour. Here are some pictures of City Center, the mall where it will be located.

We signed our Corporation paperwork this week and are now official!!

We hope to open "Fast Eddies Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlour" by end of September. YAY!

Ed competed in Mr. Playa today. As you can see, he looked great! Unfortunately the combination of several big animule contestants and I am pretty sure some biased judging left Ed with no Trophy this time. He is and will always be my Mr. Playa!

Here were a few competitors:

It was a brutal contest. 100 degrees and 100% humidity today. They were lucky nobody passed out from dehydration.

The photographer was mighty close!!

All for now... I better get off the puter.. in typical Yucatan weather.. what was 100 degrees is now pouring down rain with lightening and thunder!

Byeeeeeee.......

The Boat Races

2010-08-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

Today Ed and I went to the beach and swam before we went to watch the boat races in the ocean inlet area of Progreso.

The beach is very busy even in the morning right now due to it being vacation time here in the Yucatan.

Even the pups are enjoying the vacation season.

You go for a dip in the ocean... then a few shakes later...

you're back with your freinds on the beach playing!

Ed thought he would follow the Pups lead.

The beach is set up like a county fair... There are rides and snack venders everywhere.

We then headed up to watch the boat races.

The boats are like mini water jets.

The cockpits are so small.... certainly 6'2'' long legged Ed could not start a career as a jet boat racer.

But they were sure fun to watch.

All for Now!

Praying Mantis on Steriods....Old Family Photos.... And more of God's art.

2010-08-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

So yep we grow some critters big here. Ed and I walked out the other day to this fellow. He was as long as my hand, at least 6 inches. As heebie jeebie as it was to see a bug from the sci-fi series "The World Beyond" I comfort myself by thinking... that's a whole lotta mosquitos to fill him up!

We have pulled the trigger on the space in the mall by the new Cinema for our Ice Cream Parlour. We have started our Mexican Corporation paperwork and we will be official business owners soon. Very Exciting!

I have been printing like crazy old photos to use on the tables in the Parlour!

We would love any old pictures (circa early 1960's and earlier) you have and we will memorialize your family forever in the Parlour!

Of course we will have to pass if your family were ground breaking nudists of the neighborhood.

Send any pics to debbers40@gmail.com

Ed will be competing in "Mr. Playa 2010" in Progreso on August 15th. He looks great! (Of course)

He will be flying to Mexico CIty on Sept 5th to compete in Mr. Mexico!

So needless to say he has been working his tush off..or maybe in his case on.... to be in the best shape.

Tonight he was exhausted so once again we headed to recoup at the beach.

I don't know if you get tired of pictures of sunsets... I know I could sit and watch God's artwork every night... tonight was a stellar performance!

Good Night All!

Architecture, Ice cream Parlours, More Mural, and new mouths we feed :)

2010-07-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after breakfast we went to the beach for an hour or so. We are so spoiled now to live so close to the ocean that we can say... hey lets go hang out for an hour on the beach..

Then that night we had dinner in a building that was built in the 16th century. The architecture and the ornamentation were outrageous!

The topper on the cake was the meal was incredible and only $40 with tip.

Still working on the mural..

Saw this and cracked up... Kentucky Fried Chicken is also here. Kid playlands are very popular in many eating establishments, even some more upscale places.... but Chickyland?!?! lol

We looked at places to start our Ice Cream Parlour (If we haven't told you, we are thinking of starting an old fashioned Ice Cream Parlour here). This is a top runner right now. Right next to a a cinema in a new strip mall:

I have two new friends I feed. One is a gecko. I named him(?) Geo. We have a symbiotic relationship. I raise my bedroom blinds at night. The light attracts flying pests and he sits on our screen and feasts!

I am watching him get chubby.

Lastly,

Meet Claude. Claude is my new street pup. He is very sweet and I try to feed him once a day. Thankfully he is now not so skinny you can see his ribs and hip bones so much.

Someday I hope to see him CHUBBY!

Dinner at the beach, More murals, and how to know when your Dog is a Junkie!

2010-07-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

A few nights back we had a spectacular lightening show. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared with my better cameras so I didn't get any pictures. I will try to get some in the future.. It is amazing... a literal lacework of lightening across the sky!
When it settled into a steady rain and the loco gringos were not going to get fried by a bolt of lightening, we drove to the beach for dinner. We had Shrimp Ceviche (Ceviche de Camerone):

Ed had a Filette de Pesca con chiles (filet of fish with chiles):

And I had the Camerone de CoCo (coconut shrimp). It had a wonderful dipping sauce of coconut milk and pinapple with cream:

All was, as usual, mucho Yummy!

I have started a new wall mural. This is in the guest bedroom/office.

Day 1:

Ok so they must spike the doggie treats here with Crack. My dogs are exhibiting classic junkie signs!

Lethargy during the day....

They barely move...

Untillllllllllll.......

TREAT....hey did she say treat... I think she said treat... oh my god... a treat... get back... move... here mom.. treat.. treat... TREAT!!

Intervention?!?!

Ok and finally.. Hi.. I am still here behind the camera :)

Jurassic Park and Sunsets at the Beach

2010-07-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

So tonight before we went to dinner, We stopped so that I could take pictures of the Iguanas that hang out on the walls by the entrance to our community. I call it Jurassic Park because the not so little guys look like shrunken dinos:

Then after dinner, Ed and I went to the beach. Ed had a nice swim and I took pictures:

And then the sun began to set:

Goodnight :)