Construction begins – Week 1
We’d only had the keys for the house for 2 weeks when the first load of construction materials arrived. Our FIRST priority with the new place – making the roof accessible, and having a comfortable place to hang out and watch the sun go down over the water. That is going to involve a lot of demolition and construction. This is going to be fun, right? 😉 Watching construction has always fascinated me. The calculus of what happens when, how…
Backfilling: October 21st
The last (nearly) three weeks have been a combination of spectacular highs – excitement, joy, disbelief – combined with exhaustion, chaos, and endless decisions. A potent cocktail!! In addition, we are STILL waiting for internet service at the new place – so all internet needs require a trip back to the rental house. Thank goodness we have the place until the end of the year!!! So… we closed on the house on October 21st. It was a thrilling and draining…
SJC and the BEST News
In all the hubbub about the house, we’ve realized that (1) it is a BIG house, and (2) it is only PARTIALLY furnished! Since nearly all of our worldly belongings were sold last year when we realized that we were Accidental Mexpats – that means that we have very little to bring into the house – and, LOL, for now it is all still “up North”. How do we solve this problem? We’ve looked around at furniture and appliance stores…
Hurricane Olaf – a big blow-hard
Olaf is the second hurricane to reach “worrisome” status for us. The first was Nora – who veered towards the mainland at the last moment, and left Baja with some rain and not much else. Olaf was considered a non-event, until the last moment when it intensified to a category 2 hurricane and made landfall near Todos Santos – north of Cabo San Lucas, on the Pacific side. In preparation for Nora, we battened down the proverbial hatches. We got…
OMG!!! They said “YES”
I was today old when I found out that the offer that the Basha and I put in on “La Casa de Nuestros Sueños” (the house of our dreams) was accepted – no counter, just as written!!! I can’t believe it!!! We’ve had some rough starts and dead ends. This is a house I can see us being in for a LOOONNNGGGGGGG time. It has room for visitors, a pool for hot days, in the flat, walkable part of the…
Closing the loop – FINALLY
The stress, work, decisions, etc. are finally behind us! Is it “all done” in the PNW? Absolutely not! We got WAY more accomplished than either of us thought was possible. We are in a WAY better position for the eventual “real move” to Mexico (not just the year-and-a-half-plus-and-counting accidental Mexpat experience). We pushed to both physical and mental exhaustion, and then ran for the border. The Basha did virtually ALL of the driving to get us to the border (and…
The Grand Adventure pt. 2: Dog Days
Not as in “the dog days of summer” – those steamy, hot days that seem to last forever – our dog days were spent working like dogs. In 4 weeks in the PNW we put hands on just about every item that we own. We got rid of 2 running motorcycles and 2 rolling chassis’ with enough motor/parts for one amazing bike. We became familiar faces to the people at the dump and household haz waste and Goodwill. Luckily we…
The Grand Adventure pt. 1: Travel Hell
We can’t do anything the easy way. We planned a trip back to the PNW to get vaccinated. This means flying, unvaccinated, and all the stress that entails. We’d made our reservations, and the vaccine FINALLY began to be available in BCS. The Basha retired – with all the red tape and hullaballu that goes with that. Lots of unforeseen (by me) loose ends – company laptops, COBRA, exit interviews, etc. Stressful. We planned ahead with a direct flight and…
UPDATE: Experiments with Sourdough
I can’t help myself. I’ve spent my ENTIRE adult life as a scientist. Experiments MUST go on! In my last sourdough post, I had to admit that my frustrations and tribulations with my sourdough focaccia were primarily self-generated. If only I could have *known* that the pan I was using was OVER TWICE the square area of the recommended pan!!! LOL! I’ve since found an appropriate, albeit round, pan that gives nice, fluffy, tall focaccia. The funny part is that…
Where has the Doctora been?
It has been a busy, crazy, stressful, roller coaster lately. So much has been happening that the blog took a back seat for a bit. I’ve got a little bit of breathing space now, so I’m checking back in. “So what’s up, Doctora?” you might be asking… Let’s start with the COVID vaccine and Mexico. Just like everywhere else in the world, vaccine availability is not consistent, nor is it without an agenda. Initially, it was looking like we might…