This Makes Me Angry

Honestly, need I say more? What kind of sick and twisted person would do this to an innocent shrubbery? Luckily this house is not on my street. If I had to look at this every day I'm afraid I would have to take some kind of action that would probably be illegal.

Reflections on Mexico

Nate, I don't think that anyone ever answered your question about the name of the resort. We stayed at the Wyndham Cozumel. It was okay for our purposes, but I would never go back. The rooms were okay, and the beds were actually the best I've ever experienced in Mexico, but the food left a great deal to be desired. I think if we had taken the whole family most of them would have starved at this resort. It's not necessarily that the food was bad, there was just no selection to choose from, and it didn't vary from day to day. I have never seen such a small buffet at one of these places before. We wondered if it was so limited because there were so few people there, but I really couldn't see where they would have put anything more if it had been available.

The freaky thing about this trip was that there were hardly any people there. I doubt that our resort was even half full, and when we walked up the beach on Monday there was NOBODY in sight! The Carlos and Charlie's bar and shops were open, but there were only a couple of other people wandering through. We passed another public beach area with shops and restaurants that was completely closed down, and a national park beach area where we saw three people in the water and not a soul on the beach. I don't know if it was because of the swine flu, the economy, the violence in Mexico, or a combination of all three, but it was kind of spooky. There did seem to be a few more people there on the day that we left.

Next time I will definitely purchase trip insurance to cover weather-related airport closures, and I will NOT fly American Airlines. They were a nightmare on every single leg of our trip, both coming and going. I will also be hoping that more of you will be in a position to join us next time!

Hello from Mexico

Buenos dias, amigos! Yesterday Mom was in search of a new snorkle mask. They didn't have any for sale at our resort, so we took a walk down the beach to find one somewhere else.


On the way back we passed Carlos and Charlies. I am still giggling over the sign.























We each had to have our pictures taken on the swing with the giant fish.


Later in the day we took a "Booze Cruise" to go snorkling at two different reefs. Our captain, Carlos, was very good at steering the boat with his feet. He could also steer with his feet while lying down, but we didn't get a picture of that.

Our cruise photographer was a Johnny Depp wannabe. He could also steer the boat with his feet, and you could tell that he thought he was real hot stuff.

Here are some random shots of the water.

We enjoyed this cloud. We thought it bore a striking resemblance to a beaver.

I'd type more, but we are afraid the buffet might close before we get our second dinner. Adios!

The Coonhound Unleashed

Here are some photos of the coonhound unleashed. She is a very happy animal off-leash. She had her first off-leash encounter with another dog this morning, and it went about as well as I expected. She was very excited but I did manage to get her to come back and follow me instead of the other dog. Hopefully she will get to the point where she doesn't pay much attention to them.

I need to tie a red flag to her tail, or at least put a bell on her collar so I can keep track of her in the sage brush.

My yard is starting to bloom and things are looking pretty good.

The bed next to the house is still looking pretty sparse, but the park strip is lovely right now.

Mom will be bringing a lap top to Mexico and hopefully we will be able to post daily updates. Wish you were all coming with us!

Hooray for Summer

School is out for the summer and I can't tell you how happy I am about that! I am ready for some serious play time and some serious BEACH time.

The coonhound has had three OFF-LEASH hikes this week and she has done really well. She has chased a few quail and lizards, but she has come back immediately when I hit the button. So far I have only let her off leash at times and places where I've been pretty sure that we wouldn't run into too many other people, but if she continues to do well we will see how she does with some distractions.

Appliance Nightmare

As posted earlier, I admit to having broken the door of my own washing machine in an attempt to get my shoes out after a button got stuck in the pump and the stupid thing wouldn't drain. I thought that my washer was covered under my home warranty, but after three days of calling when I finally got through to National Home Protection I was told that my policy did not cover the washing machine. I was so frustrated and angry that I said, "So what DOES my policy cover?" She started naming off appliances and then she came to the garage door opener. I didn't realize that my policy covered the garage door opener, and mine doesn't work, so I said, "Then send someone out to look at my garage door opener." She asked, "What's wrong with it?" "IT'S BROKEN" I replied. She gave me a claim number and told me to call Northern Utah Garage Doors. When the technician came out to my house he told me that the circuit board was dead, and they no longer made those circuit boards, so it would have to be replaced. I said, "Great, my home warranty should cover that." He told me that he would need authorization from the home warranty company before they could replace it. Four days later he called me back and said that they had been trying to reach National Home Protection for four days and no one ever answered their calls or returned their messages. I tried for another two days and got the same result, so I finally filed a greivance with my credit card company to stop payment on my policy, and I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Upon checking the company out with the BBB I found that they are a very shady company and they have had numerous complaints about them, so it doesn't look like they will be replacing my garage door opener or anything else.

Back to the washer, when the guy from Dan's Maytag came out and removed the button he asked for a down payment of $200 on the estimated $420 repair. I paid the money and he told me that it would probably take a week for them to get the parts in and then they would call to schedule a repair time. After a week and a half had passed I decided to call and see what the situation was. The dispatcher that I talked to said that she would look into it and call me back. Several hours later she called to tell me that one of the parts was not due in until June 6th (they wouldn't guarantee to have it by June 6th, that's just when it was due in). This was on May 17th. I told her that I had already been without a washer for 2 weeks and I couldn't wait another 3 weeks to get my washer repaired. She told me that she would check with the factory and see if they could send a part. I called back the next day to see what was happening and spoke with the manager. He told me that it would take them a couple of days to contact the factory and I told him that if the repair couldn't happen within a week I wanted my money back. He told me that a refund would require "company authorization" and I hung up angry. The next day I received a call from the dispatcher who said that Maytag policy is that they will not pull a part from the factory floor that is available through a supplier (even if it is back ordered), so I would be stuck waiting until June 6th. I again demanded my money back, and this time when she put me through to the manager he was very courteous and agreed to send me a check immediately. I went out last weekend and bought a new GE washer. It is NOT a front loader! It is their new high efficiency top loader, and so far I am liking it. After a $50 rebate from Questar it will have cost me only $30 more than repairing the old washer.

Mishap

I put a 3 foot wire fence around my flower bed in my back yard in order to keep the dog out. This evening I went to plant a couple of tomatoes since my first two tomatoes died. Instead of unhooking an opening in the fence I decided to just squish it down and hop over it. Somehow in the midst of doing that I fell backwards, cut my left leg to shreds on the wire, punctured my right palm, and nearly impaled myself in the back with a 2 foot metal stake that holds my tomato trellis in place. As I was lying in my flower bed unable to move my back hurt the worst. At the moment I don't feel anything on my back at all, but my leg is throbbing. I have yet to peek under my shirt to see what kind of bruising I may have. The picture doesn't do justice to how much blood was involved, since the cuts do reach all the way around to the other side of my leg. Next time I will unhook the opening and walk through.