Ok, we’re already falling behind in our New Year’s resolution to post more frequently to our blog. And we’re afraid that we won’t be getting any better for some time. It turns out that our recently constructed building is not cable/internet ready yet, contrary to what the property management rental company told us when we asked about cable readiness. 
Some heads were gonna role when Libby learned that tidbit of information! But alas, the misinformers were not in the office when we stopped by; nor have they called us back.
Luckily, with friends coming into town and New Year’s approaching, things were looking up.
On Saturday, December 31st, our friends Lynette and Kevin from Chicago and Brian from San Francisco arrived to celebrate New Year’s Playa style. A fabulous dinner, all-we-could-drink cocktails and wine, champagne toast, and the sounds of DJ D.J. were had at a new restaurant called Zócalo. Sometime around 2am, we left the sophisticated South Beach style of Zócalo for the down-to-earth environment of our frequent haunt, the Beer Bucket. Music by Kenny (of the Conneticut band Five Wise) rocked us late into the night. When the Beer Bucket closed for the night at 4am, we enjoyed a street side pizza snack with 2,000 of our closest friends. While the others stumbled home, Brian and John headed to the Blue Parrot bar where the party people were still going strong until the sun came up at 6:15am.
Needless to say, nothing productive happened on Sunday.
Monday brought more excitement of the not-so-fun kind, with John having intense abdominal pain. Thanks to LocoGringo.com, Libby found an English-speaking doctor who makes house calls. John was diagnosed with acute infectious gastroenteritis – an infection in the intestines. House call, $40. Cipro 500mg, $32. Pain reliever, $12. The ability to find an English speaking doctor in a foreign country using the internet, priceless! John had to survive on rice, potatoes and crackers for a few days, but is otherwise fully recovered. Thanks, Dr. Ambriz!
John wasn’t the only one to need a doctor this week. Billie, our older kitty, started losing hair, developing mysterious cuts, and drooling large pools of saliva. Yuck! Dr. Claudia (who we found with the help of friends, Gabi and D.J.) diagnosed her with a food allergy. Apparently, the change in her diet from a premium cat food to the best we could find at Walmart, combined with the stress of moving 3,500 miles and living in 13 different places in 2 months just didn’t agree with her. She’s now on a new premium cat food and antibiotics. Giving a cat a foul tasting pill twice a day is no fun, but we’re getting better at it.
The rest of the week had us happily acting like tourists. More on that mañana.
In Mexico, it is very common and inexpensive to have the laundromat do your laundry for you. Right before we left for Chicago, they lost all the dark clothes in our latest load. Needing more time to look for them, they told us to come back when we returned from Chicago. Well, of course, when we returned, noone had any idea who we were and what our situation was, so we got to explain the whole thing a few times. Nevertheless, after several phone calls, confused looks and a search through a meager lost and found, our clothes were nowhere to be found. Sigh! Libby misses her washer and dryer! 
