FFF: Playa del Carmen

For our diving adventure, we went into Playa del Carmen, which looked much more like a tourist town than the rough-edged Tulum.

Tim and I after our dives!

O. M. G. Unlike a driver's license, a scuba certification never really expires. There was a moment when the girl behind the counter was kinda like, "Uh...uhm...oh...well, OK." At least mine doesn't look like it was actually typed on an Underwood. (I was going to make a joke here about Sara and Kathryn: [likely my youngest readers] that's a typewriter...but since they both work in publications, they are probably up to speed on that antique lingo... ;)

Gettin' our paperwork checked out.

CR getting Anders to fill out his dive log. And also making sure he isn't machine-gunned from behind. I love that kind of commitment to recordkeeping. Plus this tiny gato played with me for a while.

Just kickin' it on the streets of Playa del Carmen for a bit! :)

FFF: Under the Sea, Under the Sea...

I tell ya, they have made great strides in disposable underwater photography. We did a lot of aqua shooting during our Hawaii days, but we owned a waterproof camera. Disposables were horrible. No longer true! You can even see how my pink mask matches my pink snorkel! What you can't see is that after 13 years, I think I need a new mask!

My husband "hanging loose."

As my husband said, "New stationery design for Christopher Robin's dive log." I love it!

Tim... using hand signals not actually indicating his awesomeness, but telling his partner (me) that he needs to ascend. He was a Discover Scuba! partner, so we let it slide... especially as I did this like 20 times my own self.

Christopher Robin exhibiting perfect form and neutral buoyancy. I would expect no less.

Tim swims with the fishes.

FFF: Scuba Instruction!

Way back in Mexico, oh so many months ago, about...uh...day 6 or so, we were in for some scuba diving. The other ladies were up for another spa day, but I was with the scuba contingent. This was Anders, our instructor and guide from Denmark!

My husband felt confident in his skill set. CR had taken a refresher course back in Kansas. I needed a refresher, as it had been over 10 years since my last dive. Tim had never been diving, so he was allowed to come along on a "Discover Scuba!" contingent.

Basically that meant, "You don't need a dive card."

So we were set up together for a refresher/education course in the pool with Anders!

I swear getting all the pieces and tools together in order is more complicated than actually being underwater.

We got a bunch of instruction, passed some tests, and got comfy underwater.

But then, after dropping our regulators and clearing our masks, we were cleared as a foursome for an afternoon of diving!

Glamorous Work

My husband gets all the glamorous jobs on our remodel docket.

I take charge of the really dirty work, stuff like painting trim, , paint color selection, and furniture rearranging.

He prefers the glamorous work. Soooo fancy.

Who doesn't want to dig around behind an old dishwasher. Don't be jealous.

To my credit, during most lighting situations I get to sit on the staircase throwing breakers until the light or outlet in question no longer has power. I usually play Scrabble on my phone during this difficult and challenging work. Thank you so much for taking on all the dirty work, my husband! :)

New Kitchen Lights!

These are the old kitchen lights. Not only did they only work for like 5 minutes after we bought the house, they required horribly unavailable strange circular light bulbs that I could never find, even online. So mostly, for 3 years, we have gotten by without kitchen lights.

Upon removing the lights, my husband discovered this magical electrical situation. Niiiice. Can't imagine why they didn't work so well.

Ta-da! The new lights, the new lights! Hooray! Not only are they fancy, they WORK! Imagine! My husband acquired them, and did a lovely job matching the finish to the rest of the kitchen hardware.

Now, we are back to working on the trim. Which takes fooooorrrrrreeeeeeveeeerrrr. So many steps. Measure, cut, nail, mud, sand, caulk, paint, repaint, fix paint boo-boos. Argh! We are almost there though...

And we have to pick a color for the closet doors... haven't done that yet.

Miss G hates the remodel work, any furniture movement, and generally any disruption in her napping schedule. I promise her often that we are almost done (with the main floor). Hee hee!

Floor Celebration!

You boys have been working your butts off, let's stop and celebrate!

Omigosh, look at that fantastic floor!

I snagged these slippahs from our resort, and have been waiting for our new flooring to wear them. Don't they seem happy together? I love love love them!

Hooray! Hooray! Hoooooraaaay!

The Floor is In! The Floor is In!

Sorry for the delay...I've been floating around on cloud 9, enjoying my FANTASTIC new floor! Omigosh, its so gorgeous. The floor crew did SUCH a stupendous job.

This was the very useful pneumatic floor nailer we rented.

It was so much work. My husband and father-in-law worked their butts off for two plus weeks.

My mother-in-law and I didn'twork all that hard, including mostly getting lunch and dinner, walking the dog, opening boxes of flooring, and watching "Sister Wives" on TV.

These are the final steps of the flooring. Omigosh. So. Much. Work.

So talented. I'm sooo pleased with our new floor! It's stupendous!! Thank you floor crew! :)

FFF: Best Lunch EVER.

So after our in-depth exploration of the ruination, we needed sustenence! My husband use his passable spanish to have our taxi cab drivers (two of em for six folk!) point out a good place for lunch.

So we were promptly driven to what amounted to a roadside warehouse with lawn furniture and the largest cross I've ever seen in an eating establishment. But Jesus was watching down as the young man in the Nike shirt deftly fileted out fresh sea creature after fresh sea creature.

We had hit the lunch jackpot.

We gobbled down giant plates of the most awesome fresh ceviche like it was our last meal. And of all the light Mexican beers out there, they had Sol, my fave.

Such a fun lunch.

On the last day we were discussing where we'd like our last dinner...we considered commissioning a taxi to run into town and bring us buckets of ceviche.

I think that expression just about says it. "But why is all the ceviche gone?"

FFF: Chickens of the Jungle

Iguanas are weird.

They were everywhere.

They hung out in groups.

My husband called them jungle chickens.

This fellow lost his tail.

I guess iguanas really dug the ruins because there were approximately one million of them there.