Muchacho Polaco

Back to work on the house: the master bathroom

Posted on February 15, 2013 by admin

Our next big project is to get the house done so we can leave. Tavo was back at the house after many months away.

The first step is to complete the master bathroom. This is one of the larger remaining jobs. Today we had him work on the plumbing for the bathtub and also to cut the hole for the tub. Then he had to cover everything with cement board.

Tavo has a tendency of drawing pictures on things (like the walls) when he comes up with ideas for us. This has often turned into good things. Tonight.we came home to this drawing:

This is was his drawing of our bathtub area. We liked it and are going to go with it.

Here’s some of the progress he made today.

I was going to have him tile the tub area and surrounding walls tomorrow, but we only have 91 square feet of tile remaining from the tile with which we did the entire house. As such, I will have him finish the floors with that tile and then buy another tile for the tub area. I will also have him finish the vanity counter tomorrow.

Once this bathroom is done, we will have him move on to the laundry room. Not a lot to do the, but perhaps a few days.

I have a closet door to install in the guest room and french doors on the office. Also, we counter tops to do on the kitchen. Then on top landscaping and we are, for the most part, done with this house. Then we have some work to do on the other house. Its small and we don’t intend to do much with it. We mostly want to clean it up and make it s bit more attractive.

The goal is to have all of this done by March. It will then be time to relocate.

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“Entering Imuris from the south…” on YouTube

Posted on February 13, 2013 by admin

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“When the wall gets in the way.,” on YouTube

Posted on February 11, 2013 by admin

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Notice given

Posted on February 8, 2013 by admin

I took this photo today during a meeting of my peers where I advised I would be leaving the company.

I gave my notice to my boss and director earlier this week. The effect was immediate. The stress is gone. I had a great week. I have slept better the last few nights than I have in nearly 10 years.

I am really looking forward to the future.

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Citizneship ceremony

Posted on January 26, 2013 by admin

January 25 marks an important event in our lives. Yunuen became a US citizen today at 10am this morning.

We woke early this morning and made our way downtown to the federal courthouse with Yun’s parents. There is a cafe onsight where we had a pretty nice breakfast. I had the traditional 2 eggs sunny side up, hasbrowns, and lots of bacon. This was a good start to the morning.

The ceremony began at 10am. It was a formal affair with a federal judge leading most of the event. As I understand, the Department of Immigration determines if individuals are fit for becoming citizens and the federal judge relies upon the information from the Department of Immigration to make the decision to grant citizenship. The many years of meetings, blood tests, and other biometrics culminated today with the judge granting Yun the desgination of US citizen.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t all Mexicans in the ceremony today. There were people from all over the world. Burundi, Ethipopia, Somalia, Russia, France, UK, China, and a number of other nations. There was a moment in the ceremony when individuals were allowed to share their stories. It was interesting to hear the various journies to the US. Yunuen also spoke to the audience and shared her story about becoming a citizen. It was great.

We learned shortly after the ceremony that Yun would have to surrender her permanent visa. This was a problem. We have plans to be in Mexico this weekend, but without a visa, we can’t get back in the US. Fortunately, US citizens are elgible for passports. The problem we had was that we had to have a reason to get a same-day passport. I was able to manfacture this quickly with reservations at some hotel in Hermosillo we’ve never visited, nor will ever visit. That was sufficient in itself to get Yun a passport in 40 minutes. Very nice. Weekend is back on schedule.

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Citizenship

Posted on January 13, 2013 by admin

Last Wednesday Yun had her interview an examination for citizenship. The above photo was taken while we waited for our 8 a.m. meeting. fortunately, it was not until 815 a.m. when we realized we were at the wrong office.

Needless to say, we raced to the correct location in hopes that they would not turn us away. Thank God, we were not turned away and she was able to have her meeting.

The examination was something she has been preparing for months. The questions were beyond the scope of what most Americans would probably know. Nonetheless, she did great and passed with no problem.

The next and final stage is a ceremony in month or so. Below is our celebration at Dennys! I love me some grand.slam.

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Pit stop

Posted on January 13, 2013 by admin

On our way home at the.moment. We have to stop with some regularity for bathroom breaks for the dogs. We see some interesting things at times.

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Seguridad

Posted on January 7, 2013 by admin

There is no apparent shortage of federal police officers in Sonora. The toll booths are no exception. We just went through the one outside of Hermosillo and I counted more than 20 standing around packing their uzis. Sometimes they carry the Belgian FN, an assault rifle I shot a lot as a kid in cadets.

We just stopped in Santa Ana for much needed sustenance in the form of five tacos. So good.

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Sonoita December 2012

Posted on December 30, 2012 by admin

We took a much needed rest this weekend and traveled to Sonoita to stay at a house we rented.

Thursday night I got online in a desperate attempt to find somewhere we could escape for a couple days. I wasn’t able to find much due to it being too close to the weekend and a holiday. I did find a place in Sonoita that looked nice and called the owner. At first I was told the house was not available, but then she called back 10 minutes later and told me that it was. So Friday I picked up the keys at lunch and we were on our way after work.

The house itself was nothing special. Something you’d expect to find if you were headed to someone’s grandparent’s home. Even so, it had everything we needed and a mostly comfortable bed. It was about 40 minutes south of Sonoita and totally isolated. This worked out well with the dogs.

The dogs had a lot of exercise. We played fetch for hours and went on a long hike. They seem to never get enough.

The water pipes froze on us Friday night/Saturday morning, so we were without water for a short while. The sun did eventually come out and warmed the pipes enough to get things running again. The location was beautiful and we spent some time hiking around and exploring the place. We found some horses not too far away that were very friendly.

Yun made some great food. She brought a crock pot so we could have a tasty tortilla and chicken soup on Saturday night. It was so good and one of my favorites.

It was really cold all weekend, especially at night. Fortunately, the place was well heated and had a comfortable fireplace. It’s rare that we get to enjoy a fire.

We had a great time. I was finally able to sleep after a week of pretty brutal insomnia. I wish we could do this more often. Hopefully we will be able to soon.

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Christmas entertainment

Posted on December 25, 2012 by admin

These roosters aren’t wearing the usual deadly weapons. They’re fighting as they would in nature and it provides needed exercise. Other than a few lost feathers, they do not get injured. It was fairly entertaining.