Una fiesta de cumpleaños

(Domingo 26 - Sábado 01 Junio )   Sunday Ania had a 73^rd fiesta de cumpleaños (birthday party) for Frank at their new house, which we were invited to. Total of fourteen people and we had met all of them before. Attending were Ania's daughter and her family of four, from Veracruz (Kalina, with Yamil, plus Marifer & Natalia), plus her in-laws, being a doctor and wife (Yamil & Ingrid) from Córdoba. Also were the new renters (Ron & Annie) who had lived in San Jose, Calif. and the married architects (Memo & Sylvia) who had drawn up the plans for the new house. Half of the folks spoke some english along with spanish. Ania made a lovely and delicious meal. Carmen had taken a lime meringue pie for Frank's present and to her surprise it got a candle stuck into it and was cut into fourteen pieces. The weather was interesting this day. Rained excessively hard for much of the afternoon, but a good time was had by all. The party included a tour of the house, which is Ania's design. The new renters move in friday and they could hardly wait.

Tuesday was Frank's actual birthday. We were invited there for another delicious meal – and yes, this time we took Frank a lemon meringue pie just for him – which he shared with us, but still had half left.

Thankfully the debris at the edge of the road was picked up last saturday, because shortly before we left for the party, a parade about a block long walked up Avenida 21, on it's way to the church. The first people were carrying a tall structure of flowers, next a group of musicians, then the rest of the people were all singing. We will never tire of hearing and seeing the music and happiness of this part of the world.

Monday the crew had a problem at home and did not come in to work. We shopped at Home Depot for lumber for the closet area in the master bedroom, where Dan will build a seat and storage area. The area is inset in the wall about two+ feet deep and seven feet long. What else, but a storage area should go there. The floor of this area is cement and raised a few inches from the bedroom tiled floor. Full height of ten feet. At about seven feet off the floor there will be an open shelf for large storage and we will have a very open weave curtain covering this area.

Carmen finished the colorful Guatemalan curtains for the new door in the master bedroom and Dan caught our accounting up to date.

Our crew has finished the outdoors three coats of paint. Well, there is a wee bit next to the ground level left. They finished prepping the bodega (storage unit between laundry and fireplace) walls, ready for sealing and painting next week. The two smaller bedrooms had their walls scraped, skim-coated with white cement, sealed and two coats of paint applied. The roof edges are complete. The many chipped cement areas are repaired. Laundry room is completed except around window edge. All is looking good.

Heri and one of the helpers will return a couple days next week to finish odds and ends, such as the dining room walls. Dan must first finish building shelving in the laundry room and bodega so that he can move all his tools from the dining room.

The water and sewer commission has told us many times this week that they would be here “in the afternoon” or “for sure tomorrow” to dig up along the road edge and lay the new sewer line, and NO they have still not shown up. It has only been six months since we submitted a written request for this to be done.

Saturday was most hectic around here! Mauricio, our welder, was here adding steel tube framing for our new bodega doors. He also welded in additional bars on the patio and terraza doors, so we can leave those open and the cats cannot exit. Meanwhile our crew was flying about getting many last minute jobs as completed as possible, so that they could leave by 1:30pm. Luis did some final wiring, including closing up the box in the new bathroom where all the lines pass thru. This involved powering up the circuit the feeds the water pump, and a new line into the bath and laundry room. When Dan closed the breaker, it appeared that something was not right. It seemed that the pump for the underground cisterna would stay on, which of course could cause our roof tinaco to constantly overflow (and perhaps burn out the pump). What an expensive waste that would turn into! They went up to the roof and discovered the float switch was sticking. Using a little spring Dan had stashed in his parts trays, Luis jury-rigged a fix for the old switch. Eventually it should be replaced with a new one.