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It snowed in the mountains last night! We had a beautiful view early this morning.

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Today was very productive. I woke early to drive to the other house to meet the guy delivering the roll-off (3 ton dumpster). It was much smaller than I had anticipated, but it worked. The cost was around $200 which includes taking it to the dump when it’s full. My guess is that I will have two or three additional loads in the near future.

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I came back home shortly after as we have a mechanic that was coming to the house to work on the truck and one of the cars. One thing I am greatly blessed with having a Mexican wife is being tapped into an affordable labor force. The mechanic worked for approximately three hours – the fee was $30.00. Unfortunately, my truck’s a/c compressor is dead and needs to be replaced. The dealership sells them for $1200.00, but the mechanic helped us find one for $150.00 elsewhere. Not too bad.

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Yun’s parents arrived later and we had some awesome tacos with shrimp, chorizo, bacon, and beef. They are called discada and they were awesome.

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I had hired three guys today to come and clean out the rubble in the house. They did a great job and completely filled the dumpster. They also removed most of the non-load bearing framing as well. We also had some framers come out to take a look at some work we will need and for them to begin putting together an estimate.

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I am hoping to have the house completely gutted by the end of February, to include the removal of all the ceilings as well. The next steps will likely be:

– concrete to level the floors
– remove existing windows and doors and replace
– framing
– replace electrical
– replace plumbing
– insulation in walls
– dry wall ceiling and walls
– insulate attic

Posted in family, food, home restoration | 1 Comment

feliz cumpleanos en el parador

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It was Yunuen’s birthday today. We went to Hacienda del Sol for dinner. We began with the skillet seared Mexican cheese.  Then we each had salads – I ordered the buttered leaf lettuce and Yun ordered the  local organic greens. As usual, we ended up switching plates as my beloved wife ordered something she didn’t like. For the main meal,  I ordered a NY strip and she ordered the veal. She didn’t like the veal, so they took it back and replaced it with a filet de mignon. That’s when we realized we were at our new favorite place.

After dinner we met Phil and Nancy at El Parador for some salsa dancing. We had a great time and were able to burn off dinner.

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sonoran root canal and hotdog

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As the last blog entry indicates – I was at the dentista just a couple days ago. The tooth I attempted to have fixed has been in excruciating pain since then and last night I wasn’t able to sleep because of the pain. And so, as the pain was mostly unbearable today, I departed work early to again head South across the border in hopes to kill the pain.

To my dismay, I was advised nearly immediately upon my arrival that I was going to likely need a root canal. A few xrays later and it was confirmed. Two hours later I was (mostly) pain free. The smell of drilled teeth was especially memorable and ranks up their with the smell of burnt hair.

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In Mexico you are required to do your own injections. Here is a close up of the nasty:

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After the procedure I was rewarded with a sweet Sonoran hotdog from a vendor outside the dentist office. It was raining and cold – but SO worth it! Hopefully I am not going to bed tonight with any particularly aggressive stomach parasites.

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gallos y mas gallos

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Yun and I had the day off and so headed south into Mexico for the day. We both had some more dental work to get done which is always especially fun and then we had lunch later at Yun’s parents house. Yun’s father was getting some new roosters and had a number of new chicks that had recently hatched. I am really excited for the day when we can have our own chickens!

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the hurt locker

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We just watched the movie The Hurt Locker. It was an interesting movie and worth watching. I suspect this is the first time in history that we have a movie about an active war. There’s just something odd about that.

This would be a good movie for anyone considering enlisting to watch as it demonstrates the utter absurdity of this war. As with other non-congressional declarations of war (Korea/Vietnam), it is a mystery as to what the actual goal is supposed to be. One wonders if the enlisted have any clue what they’re actually fighting for and the plot of this movie seems to demonstrate this.

I would recommend watching this film.

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Thai Reunion

Our friends Mark and Becky from Thailand are in town and we had the opportunity to have them, along with Ross, Ben, and Lis over for dinner. Ross brought some sweet NY strips that had been marinated well. Mark and Becky are missionaries in Thailand and we were able to spend some time with them there a few years back.

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Posted in food, friends | 2 Comments

fishing in san carlos

I stumbled across this old photo today and I like it a lot. It reminds me that we should be planning a Spring trip South.

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Posted in travels | 2 Comments

deconstruction day three

All of the interior walls are now removed. Both bathrooms are removed along with the kitchen. One of the water lines snapped today, so I had to cap that. Eventually the entire plumbing architecture will need to be replaced.

I’m hesitant to remove the ceilings because I will then have to replace all of them along with the insulation in the attic. I suspect it is inevitable though.

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Posted in home restoration | 6 Comments

new years day

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After sleeping in rather late this morning – we spent most of the day at the park. It was in the mid-70s for most of the day.

First, at the dog park where Scout and Tila continued their studies in canine socialization. Scout is a pitbull mix and could readily rip apart most of the other dogs at the park should he wish (his 5 mile sprints aka blood runs, have in part prepared him for this), yet sadly he is such a wimp when he is around other dogs. He is incredibly fast though – so we enjoy showing him off by throwing tennis balls which he can get to before any of the other dogs.

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Later we sat near a nice pond and Yun and her parents played SkipBo while I finished up Riggebach’s book Why American History is not What They Say. Its not the most helpful or entertaining thing I have read recently, but it did end strong and has inspired a few other books of a similar genre.

On the way home, we stopped at Fiesta Market for the necessary items to prepare carne asada for dinner (my favorite meal). It started to get a bit cold at this time.

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Dinner was awesome. We later resumed the SkipBo and then played a few rounds of Rummikub. I read nearly half of Molloy’s The Life of Saint Athanasius while playing, which appears to be a pretty decent primer on Athanasius and the events that led to the first ecumenical council at Nicaea.

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New Years 2009

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Yunuen and I spent New Years Eve with Jesus and Crystal and Yun’s parents. We are now in new a decade!

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