Thursday Buzz « Gold River Buzz

This & That Thursday

Did I write a This & That last Thursday? I can’t remember. I’ll blame in on the tequila.

Anyhoo…..

- I was pleasantly surprised to come home and not find any snow to shovel! Yay for rain, that’s my motto!

- I’m pretty sure I was sexually assaulted at least three times Sunday while trying to fly home amid all the new regulations. How come the pat down was always performed by the large Mexican woman with a five o’clock shadow and not the handsome Antonio Banderas look-a-like? No fair, I say.

- We’ll be heading to the Legion tonight to ring in the New Year. One of my girlfriends said that all the ladies are planning on dressing up all fancy-like, and asked what I was going to wear. I told her that after three weeks in Mexico I was going to wear WHATEVER I CAN SQUEEZE INTO! (Watch for me and my fancy sweatpants.)

- Speaking of that, the hubby and I are going to be starting that P90X workout program in the New Year. I’m not sure what all is involved, but it sounds painful and not the least bit fun. I’ll keep you posted.

Have a safe New Year’s Eve Gold River, and welcome to 2010!

This & That Thursday – from Mexico!

Thursday translated in Spanish is ‘Jueves’ (pronounced hoo-ev-ess), so here my This & That Jueves for the week:

- Spiders with a 5 inch leg span no longer freak me out. Scorpions have now moved into the Creepy Crawler #1 spot. The good news is that the caretakers are spraying tomorrow. They speak no English and I speak very little Spanish, so communication around here is always a funny game of charades!

- I love how so many things are cheap in Mexico, especially the farther away you get from the tourist spots. We bought Pacifico beer today for about 88 cents US, DVD’s were 5 for $10 and four full bags of fresh produce cost us under $20.

- We are getting quite good at driving in Mexico. It’s a lot like driving in Quebec actually – you don’t understand the language, the drivers are crazy and they all make the same universal hand signals.

- We ran into someone we know at the big Mega shopping center (like a Superstore) in Bucerias the other day. This guy was a hippie from BC and is now a surf instructor in Bucerias. It really is a small world sometimes.

- We saw the saddest thing at the big market in La Penita today. Baby chicks that were dyed all sorts of different colours. They were being sold for 10 pesos – every little kid we saw had one. I wonder what kind of life these poor chicks will have in a week or so when they don’t look quite so cute anymore.

- The wireless in our rental house is less than desireable to say the least – the picture above took over a half an hour to upload. Therefore that is all you will get for today in the way of photos!

- I finished my entire glass of red wine while waiting for that picture to load – it’s quite nice wine – from Chile. I’m not too fussy on Mexican wine. Tequila they do very nicely, but not the wine. (hiccup!)

- Since we were out and about today, tomorrow has been designated as an at home day. Hopefully tomorrow will bring less scorpions and more vino tinto! Ha!

This & That Thursday

Yeah yeah yeah. I know. I should really call this ‘This & That Every Third Thursday’. Time is just not on my side these days!

~First off – Mr Garbage Man…. why-oh-why must my street be first on the route every Wednesday? You come at 8am. On the dot. You have no idea how much planning and organization it takes this family of sleepers to get the garbage out that early! I’m sure you must get bored driving the same old route week after week. Change it up, I say! Start at the other end of town and then END with my street once in a while. I’m thinking of your well being too – it’s just not good for the brain to be so repetitive. Variety is the spice of life you know.

~Boy is it COLD outside! I still can’t find the window scraper for my car – in the meantime I’m using a CD case. And my fingernails.

~Speaking of cold – if you are a dog owner, you’ll know that the backyard pick-up is much more manageable this time of year. We call it ‘poopsicle’ time.

~And speaking of cold once again…. I must inform you that I will not be feeling it for much longer, as we will be heading to Mexico very soon. Christmas has somehow become all about presents in our house, so for the last few years we have been using the money usually spent on gifts to travel and make family memories instead. (At least that’s what we tell the kids!) And let me just say – as the chief cook and bottle washer around here, I cried real tears when my Christmas dinner was all laid out for me to enjoy, the table was cleared and my biggest chore of the day was deciding if I should have the mango margarita or the strawberry daiquiri….

Uno más por favor, uno más.

This & That Thursday

It’s been almost a month since my last This & That Thursday post, something I’d been planning to do every week! The older I get, the faster time gets away from me it seems.

~First off – as you can probably see, I’ve done a big re-design of the site. There’s still a lot I want to do, but that will all come in time. What do you think of the new layout?

~My best friend is moving to Gold River. In fact, she’s on the road and driving the U Haul as I write this. I’m very excited – for her, and for me!

~I didn’t get my H1N1 shot yesterday. The rest of the family did, but I couldn’t do it. There’s a deep nagging feeling in my gut telling me not to, so I’m going to have to trust my gut on this one. (The last time I had that gut feeling I didn’t listen to it, and that ended in a terrible loss for our family.)

~Last year for Halloween I handed out cute little mini packs of Play-doh. This year I bought juice boxes and granola bars. My family was horrified and went and bought two huge boxes of chocolate bars. We had about 12 trick-or-treaters and are now stuck with all that junk.

~I finally watched the show “How to Look Good Naked”, which somehow made me feel much better about the way I look. (and about the six mini chocolate bars in my lap)

~My Mum moved to Gold River a couple weeks ago. Her friends said she’ll have to adjust to all the rain. I told her not to worry because it really doesn’t rain here all that much.

Happy Thursday everyone!

This & That Thursday

Those of you familiar with blogging will know that blogs are most often sprinkled with the personal lives of the authors. Even if it’s a political/food/travel blog – whatever – personal tidbits will pop up.

Having said that, I realize no one really cares what I had for lunch today (Kraft Dinner, btw), but I am finding it difficult not to talk about some aspects of my life. (I’ve been a ‘mommy blogger’ for a number of years, so it’s a hard habit to break!)

I think the old diet mantra, ‘everything in moderation’, can work in this situation.

And so, ‘This & That Thursday’ is born….

To whoever was setting off firecrackers/fireworks (or whatever that was) yesterday near the high school – my poor four-legged baby didn’t think it was much fun. I found him huddled in a corner in the bedroom trembling.
I’m debating whether I should throw the dracaena plants in my planters away, or if they’ll survive in the garage until next year?
I noticed today that Fields already has snow shovels in stock! (BOO)
Apparently the Gold River Liquor Express is closed. (No matter how much I pulled and kicked at the door, it just wouldn’t open.) My late night trips for red wine are now over! (another BOO)
My Mother is moving to Gold River for the winter. I’m not sure how I feel about this. We’ve been at least a days drive away from family for 14 years….. there may be some growing pains.
My main client is finally feeling the money crunch and my contract is on hold for the next month or so.
I haven’t told the husband yet. Good thing I work from home – he won’t notice a change in schedule! (ha)

….. Happy Thursday Gold Riverites!