01-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
October already. Christ, that means we’ve got one month of paid slip fees left and then prices get jacked for the winter. And that means we’ve got a lot of work to do. But we’re not moving back aboard for another two weeks, so work will have to wait. For now we’re going to continue with fun mornings, lazy afternoons, and busy nights. Besides, it’s still ninety-five degrees here. We’re hoping to lose at least five degrees before getting back to the boat.

Now get a load of this handsome, and strong, young man.

01-Oct-2011 bumfuzzle.
A common question we’ve received through the years has been about what bank we use while on the road. We’ve always enthusiastically recommended eTrade bank. They are online only which meant we got higher interest, all ATM fees refunded, and best of all for globetrotters like ourselves, there were no foreign transaction fees which are typically one to three percent of every purchase or ATM withdrawal. That fee would add up to thousands of dollars over a few years.

Anyway, last month, after all these years, we looked at our statement and there it was, a one percent fee tacked on to an ATM withdrawal. Over four dollars for just one withdrawal out of the hundreds that are sure to come. That day, after a chat with eTrade to let them know we’d be closing our account if they didn’t change this policy, we began the search for a new bank.

We eventually ended up with Capital One for our new checking and credit card accounts. Again there are no checking account fees, all ATM fees are refunded, the credit card earns miles, and best of all, they never charge a foreign transaction fee. So far we’re happy with them. The only strange quirk we have found is that they don’t seem to know what the ATM charge to us is on our foreign ATMs. So it is up to us to contact them once a month, calculate a figure, and ask for a refund. They gave us the first one we asked for the next day, so I guess this will have to do. Also, we’ve found their currency conversion rate to be equal to or actually a tenth of a point higher than the market.

So there is the answer to our little banking saga.

02-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
Katy left us today anxious to get back to good old Minnesota, work, and the fast approaching winter. We had a few hours to hang out in town before heading home, saying goodbyes, and putting the kids down for naps. It seems like Ouest is always napping when visitors leave us. A couple hours later she began calling, “Kay-Dee.”

Ouest calls Lowe, “LehLehLeh,” in an effort to copy her mama who calls him LoLo all day. Poor kid is already getting loads of pink hand-me-downs and now this.

Today we were all playing and reading books in bed when we asked Ouest if she’d like to hold Lowe. She jumped up excitedly as Ali picked up Lowe. Standing on the bed she then put her arms straight out as if we were going to just hand Lowe over to her like we would her doll. It took us a second to realize that she had misunderstood us and when we said, “Oh no honey, you have to sit down and we’ll set him in your lap,” she broke down in tears. She was so happy one second and so defeated the next. She never did hold him in her lap.

03-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
I saw a thing on the news about how the people of India are all getting national identification cards. Their cards include optical scans and fully digitized fingerprinting. High-tech looking stuff. One point two billion people. Total cost? Two bucks per person.

So today Ali and I went to the embassy to get our passports renewed. We brought our own pictures from Walmart, there were no optical scans or fingerprinting. Total cost? One hundred and ten dollars each. And we can have them in maybe a month or so. If you haven’t guessed, I’m not a big fan of government work.

Ouest has been a little off the last couple of days. A lot of unnecessary crying, doing things she knows she shouldn’t just to see how far she can take it, not eating much of anything; that sort of thing. So after our morning running around we took the rest of the day off and just hung out at home.

It’s tough being a mother in Mexico. Just look at the stroller conditions.

One day when she fell down like this she stood up and was upset because she had dirt on her hands. So being the good papa I am I told her to just wipe them off on my shorts. Well you can see where this is going. She falls outdoors anywhere from ten to forty times a day by my count, and what does she do now? She walks right over to me with her hands held out in front of her and wipes them right down the front of my shorts. And I love it. My little girl needs me.

04-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
We got online today and started looking at weather sites, and more specifically long range average temperatures for Puerto Vallarta. We are ready for it to cool off a bit. Just a bit. A drop off of maybe six degrees would make a world of difference for us as a whole. If it were just Ali and I we’d be happy as clams at high water, spending our days sitting in the sun sweating and drinking cheap beer, but alas it’s not just the two of us any longer, and the extra forty pounds of kids and eighty pounds of going out the door gear has worn us down. It appears we’re five weeks away from our magic numbers. Can’t wait.

05-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
It’s funny to think that as recently as last October we were looking at not sailing out of San Francisco until right about now. A lot of our friends are sailing south along the California coast at the moment. Most of them will congregate in San Diego and begin their sail south come November first. Of course our plans went right out the window about two months later when Ali peed on that stick. Right, sooooo… So the timeline got bumped way up, the boat left the Bay in May instead of October, we had a baby, moved off the boat for the summer, and now, soon, our timelines can begin to mesh again as we prepare to sail north instead of south to the Sea of Cortez.

Sayulita business is picking up too. Literally as of today there was a big influx of tourists. High season is slowly beginning meaning there are more surfers in the water, and hopefully, hopefully, our favorite burrito place will open again soon.

You’ve got to love that here in Mexico a person can run a legitimate business selling mops and brooms out of the back of a pickup truck. This lady is here a couple times a week, and I imagine she parks in other towns throughout the week. She knows everyone and seems to have a pretty steady stream of customers, which may or may not be a testament to the quality of her products.

When we got home from the beach today Lowe was crying and having a tough time for some reason. Ouest walked through the door and immediately started playing by herself. She gathered all her toys around her as she often does and then grabbed the etch-a-sketch and started to pretend to work on it. Ali and I ran around the house getting bags put away, sandy swimsuits washed out, and Lowe calm again, before we realized that Ouest was in her own world not paying any attention to us whatsoever. We both stood across the room from her, watching, when Ali said, “It’s so sad.” No little girl could have looked more alone at that moment. I know she wasn’t and it wasn’t a big deal, but seeing her there with all her belongings pulled in tight against her body, sitting tucked behind a table, she looked just like one of those children you see in the domestic abuse hotline commercials. She got plenty of attention after that little display.

Later on we let her have Lowe for a little while. She is a riot to watch with him. She was so excited that she must have kissed him ten times. She made a special point of touching him gently and not using her massive frame to crush his tiny skull as we’ve asked her to do so often these past few weeks. But then the love fest came to a screeching halt. Lowe started to cry and she almost immediately began pushing him away while simultaneously trying to squeeze out from underneath him. She has no interest in a crying baby. I told her I know the feeling.

06-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
It looks like it is finally our turn to experience a hurricane. Tropical Storm Jova has been brewing south of us for a few days and is finally expected to turn into a hurricane tomorrow, then turn to the east on Saturday, and hit us on Monday. The model isn’t too exact just yet, but Puerto Vallarta is smack dab in the middle of all the forecasts, so no matter what happens it looks like we’re going to get some nasty weather. On top of that there is another Tropical Storm further offshore that might get pulled in right behind it.

So suddenly we’ve got some things to worry about. The boat is woefully under-fendered (not a word, but should be), and should have some stronger dock lines run along with some chafe guard. The slips in the marina are doubles, which sucks since we can’t tie off to the middle, but the plus side is that our neighbors are liveaboards and will have their boat taken care of best they can. The other concern if this thing does make a beeline for us is this rickety rental we’re in. We got about thirty knots of wind the other night and the wall of glass doors facing the ocean sounded like they were going to rattle right off. Woe is me.

Spent some time with boat friends this afternoon at their little rental down the road from us. Their boy Teddy is nearly five, much too big and old for Ouest to play with, but that doesn’t stop her from mimicking everything he does. We’re throwing rocks in the pool? Great. Washing the surfboard? Nice. Climbing that wall over there? Let’s go.

07-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
7 a.m. Good news this morning is that the forecast has gone from this being a Category 2 hurricane when it makes landfall to a Category 1 or possibly even just a Tropical Storm. Bad news is that they’ve got the eye basically coming straight over the top of our mast.

2 p.m. Well things change quickly with these forecasts. My good news this morning has completely reversed itself and they’ve now got this storm hitting Puerto Vallarta directly as a Category 3 hurricane. It’s moving slower though which is giving us a bit more time to prepare. FYI, Puerto Vallarta is at the head of that bay right underneath the green icon marked 8 AM Tue.

4 p.m. Crazy thing about this storm is that nobody here in Sayulita even knows about it. We talked to a few different locals today and not one of them had any idea about the storms brewing offshore.

08-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
7 a.m. Jova turned! This is very good news. At the moment they’ve got it making landfall about a hundred miles south of us as a CAT2 storm. Obviously this will still create a lot of wind, but between Puerto Vallarta and Barra de Navidad are a whole mess of very tall mountains that would help as a buffer and to weaken the storm as it moves north towards us over land.

We drove into town yesterday to pick up a couple more fenders, and then I drove out to the boat late last night to start getting it prepared. Fortunately we’ve already got all the sails off the boat while we wait for the new ones and our new dodger won’t be done for a few more days, so right now we’ve got absolutely no fabric outside. There was still a lot of work to do though. When I arrived I found the last of our three new fenders in the water nearly torn in half and one of our spring lines had burst a strand.

I really hate Paradise Village Marina and would never come back here. The surge never stops, it just goes from uncomfortable to dangerous and back to uncomfortable again. Combined with the fact that the slips are all doubles so we can’t tie off in the middle of the slip but instead have to beat against the dock over and over again millions of times just combine to make this an ugly place to leave a boat. We’ve had nearly five hundred dollars worth of fenders and dock lines destroyed since our arrival. And I ran into a guy on the dock last night that said he had two fenders burst that afternoon. It’s just too much even in benign conditions.

This afternoon we went to town and hung out in the plaza. It’s not Mexico’s finest plaza by a long shot. It’s just not as central to daily life here as plazas in other towns and cities around the country. This plaza usually serves more as a shortcut from one road to another. At least during the day. During the night it serves its purpose much more admirably. Despite this it is still a nice shady place to just hang out and watch the small world of Sayulita go by.

Not sure what was going on today but there was a large group of young kids in the church singing which drew Ouest’s attention. When they finished they all came pouring out and scattered with their small groups of friends to play. The boys were in pockets all over the plaza with pockets full of marbles. Marbles! Where are kids these days so excited to play marbles? I don’t think I ever played marbles. The girls big thing seemed to be coloring in their coloring books. Very intently. Ouest just stood in front of them and stared transfixed.

09-Oct-2011 our life. daily. sayulita, mexico.
Hurricane Jova is marching slowly towards us. It is still expected to hit a hundred miles to our south as a CAT3 storm and then turn due north and come right past us as a Tropical Storm on Wednesday. We’ll be seeing pretty big winds from this one, but more worrisome than the wind is the swell and surge inside the marina. On Friday afternoon Tropical Storm Irwin is expected to hit much closer to Puerto Vallarta. So we are in for a seriously crappy week here.

We’re leaving Sayulita tomorrow, with a week left on our rental, in order to go rent a condo at the marina for a few days. Yes, we will essentially be paying rent for three homes at the same time (boat slip, Sayulita condo, marina condo). Now that sucks. But at least from there we can keep a close eye on the boat as well as unload anything of value from it. I’m not at all convinced that by weeks end we won’t be boatless again.

Clouds rolled in ahead of the storm today. Don’t expect we’ll be seeing the sun much in the next week or two. So today all we really did was hang out in town. Played in the plaza a bit in the morning and went back down for lunner after naps. Very good, if not a bit overpriced, arrachera tacos.

10-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Busy day. We began the morning by loading up the car. No small task with two flights of stairs and the steep fifty yard long driveway too washed out to bring the car up. And it was raining. And my little girl broke down sobbing if I left her behind with her mama and Lowe. So I got to carry her and all the bags, over and over again. But I digress.

Speaking of that driveway, yesterday Ouest was walking up ahead of us and started up the hill. Suddenly she cried out a serious cry. I ran up and found her on her face. Her feet had slipped in the gravel and she’d done a total face plant. Poor thing got up with a mouth full of dirt and rocks, and her forehead and cheek were all scratched up.

We somehow managed to get to the marina condo before nap time so Ouest and I had time to go check on the boat. I was thrilled to see that the boat next to us had been moved, leaving us all alone in our two boat slip. This meant that I could now tie us off much more securely in the middle of the slip and Bumfuzzle wouldn’t have to be banging off the dock itself for the next few days.

I stopped in at the office and found out that the harbor master had closed the harbor until further notice. No boats coming or going during the storms. I also found a marina staff that didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the hurricane. I guess that’s good, we all hope that nothing much happens, but looking around the marina there sure are a lot of boats that have done nothing to prepare for this. I guess I just don’t see the point of not preparing. I mean we’re talking about maybe three hours worth of work to get a sailboat prepped for a storm. It cost nothing, why not just do it? But whatever, maybe I’m just over prepared and don’t really understand the weather around here. That could definitely be the truth.

Speaking of Hurricane Jova, it is going to make landfall tomorrow night as a Category 3 storm. It’ll be pretty ugly for those folks down in Barra de Navidad. The storm will make it’s way north and pass twenty miles or so to the east of Puerto Vallarta which will put it behind the mountains. So maybe we’ll get a pass on this storm after all. In other good news, Tropical Storm Irwin is petering out and is actually expected to turn to the south. We may see a little rain from that one, but that’s about it.

Still, I went about finishing the prep work on the boat, adding lots of extra lines, taking off the canvas, securing anything loose, and finally putting the dinghy in the water. I decided to just get it off the boat and tie it off in the corner of the slip with a few lines and fill it up a bit with water to weight it down.

So we’re all ready. The outlook is good and we’ll find out in about thirty-six hours if we dodged the bullet or not.

11-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Changed my mind on the dinghy and decided to pull it up on the dock instead and throw a whole bunch of lines on it. Also finalized the boat. Ended up leaving two canvas window covers on because without them the windows leak and because if they blow away it is no great loss as they’re pretty raggedy anyway. Also hopped on the neighbor’s boat across the slip. He hasn’t been around at all and still had his stairs out on the slip and nothing tied down on deck. Secured all his crap so it wouldn’t hit me. Now all that’s left is the crying.

Just in the last couple of days Lowe has started to smile. And not a busy pooping smile either, but a genuine I’m happy and content smile. Ali was singing to him in order to get this one plastered on his face. He’s a good baby.

12-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
It’s seven-thirty in the morning and the eye of Hurricane Jova is just twenty-five miles away, yet there is absolutely no wind outside. We’ve barely even gotten any rain so far.

Noon now and this should have been the worst of the storm. Instead there is a light drizzle and maybe five knots of wind. It’s incredible.

This storm went from a CAT3 direct hit on Puerto Vallarta, to a CAT4 hitting Barra de Navidad, to what it ended up as today, a CAT2 hitting in the middle of nothing. It then quickly died and turned into a wimpy rain shower. And we couldn’t be happier.

So we wasted our time and a couple hundred bucks, but considering we’ve never actually insured a boat before I suppose a couple hundred isn’t so bad.

With this out of the way we can get back to the business at hand: moving the family aboard, fixing two leaky hatches, making some engine repairs, waiting for our sails to arrive, buying an outboard and fabricating a place to store it, constructing a bimini, finding a place for Lowe to sleep, sanding varnish, and whatever else we can think of to do in the next couple of weeks.

This is a picture taken during the height of Hurricane Jova. Yeah, scary.

13-Oct-2011 twenty-two months ouest, two months lowe.
Ouest and Lowe,

I know every parent says it, but seriously, where does the time go? We are breezing through the days with Lowe whereas with Ouest every day seemed to be a long drawn out battle. Sorry Ouest but it is clear we are much better parents this second time around. Lowe, if you don’t turn out to be one seriously laid back kid at least we won’t be able to blame it on your time as a baby.

Lowe, this month you did what you are supposed to do, you grew. You’re stronger and longer than just a couple of weeks ago and already you feel like you’ve left infancy behind and are moving on to whatever is next. You are slowly developing your personality and it seems like a sweet one. Your mama can coax the gummy smiles out of you while I seem to excel at coaxing gas out of you. Both make us equally happy. Only one month away now from what many parents consider a major turning point, the three month mark. And while we as parents were counting down the days last time around, with you it has been so effortless that we don’t much care for you to grow up so fast. Thanks for taking it easy on us.

Ouest, it has been a big month for you too. It’s been amazing watching you grow and transform into a little girl. You’re becoming more independent, you’re curious, you’re fun, and you are a fantastic sister. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the look of concern on your face as Lowe cries and watched as you ran over to him to give him a kiss and rub his belly. Sweet sweet. Of course I won’t mention how many times he’s cried because you woke him from a deep sleep with a horrendous crash or scream of your own right after we explained to you that Lolo was sleeping. No, I won’t mention that.

You are finally making an effort to talk. B words were big this month, blue, brown, butter, as well as quite a few others like Nina, Katy, Lolo, there, and here. You really took a shining to the word “here.” You hand the taxi drivers their fifty pesos with a firm “here.” And you help out at the grocery store by handing each item to the cashier with a “here” as well. We’ll work on your manners when you start stringing words together.

You love your nap time, and bedtime poses no problems at all either. For these things I thank you immensely. Eating is hit or miss these days. You still eat everything if you are hungry, but a lot of meals pass with twenty minutes of prep time rewarded with two bites of food being taken before you announce that you’re done. An example of you eating anything was just yesterday when I brought you home a bag of prunes. Yes prunes. The dried fruit selection was grim. Anyway your mama said to me, “Prunes? Have you smelled these things? Don’t they make you poop?” I told her to just give you one, I ate one to show you how delicious they were, and then you proceeded to scarf down six of them. This same method did not work with the celery I brought you home however.

Anyway, you are both great kids. You keep us busy from morning ’til night. And you make us laugh and smile ten times for every time you make us scream and pull our hair out.

14-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Another moving day, this time back to the boat. We started carrying bags of belongings back to the boat yesterday as we’ve essentially been traveling around these past couple of months with everything we own. Then this morning Ouest and I made another trip and found the crew working on our dodger. Final fitting. I was really happy with how it looked. I think we nailed the design and gave it a shape that doesn’t make the boat suddenly look like an 80s Winnebago like so many boats out here. I blame the boat designers first and foremost for not building integrated dodgers, or at least offering them, to begin with because they know full well that ninety-nine percent of the owners of these things will eventually add a dodger. Secondly I blame boat owners for their terrible taste and insistence on building dodgers tall enough for NBA players to stand underneath.

In the afternoon we picked up some beer and then moved aboard officially. I’m excited, Ali’s nervous. She’s worried about the heat, and justifiably so as it is still way too hot around here. If it were the two of us we’d be just fine, but with kids you have to worry. Especially kids so young. So the battle the next couple of weeks before the true cooling down begins around here is to keep the kids from overheating.

Moving back aboard was a bit of a project with the whole crew and Ali has spent the better part of the day and night organizing and cleaning. We’re almost there though, and it feels good. I’ve enjoyed the luxuries of a house but am ready again for the adventure of life on the water. There is just something so pedestrian about living on shore now. The next few weeks will be a blur I’m sure as we prepare to head out of here.

It was fun to see Ouest get back in the groove of living aboard. She has grown so much in the past few months and has gotten so much more agile and confident. She had never climbed the stairs before, but is now going up and down with ease. She’s climbing and exploring and looks like she is going to have a lot of fun at the expense of gray hairs for us.

Lowe’s first night on the boat! Hope he enjoys it and many more.

15-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
I forgot that we couldn’t work on the boat when we had one kid, so what made me think we could do any better with two? I ask this as I type with one hand and cradle a lightly sleeping Lowe in the other. Life is hectic at the moment. These two need constant attention and supervision onboard. Lowe because he’s so young, and Ouest because she is almost two. The girl can cover a lot of ground quick.

But it’s fun. I like seeing the two of them in this element. I like that they can so easily consider this tiny space a home. And I like the fact that some day soon we can up and leave and take this home somewhere with a different view.

It was just too hot last night for anybody to be comfortable so today we got the little air conditioner hooked up in one of Ouest’s windows. Her room is so nice and small that within just a few minutes it is like a meat locker. She sleeps good and Lowe gets to pop in there now and then too for some rest. That went a long way towards improving life aboard here in the marina.

We also got the inflatable pool out, which resulted in at least two naked bodies out on deck. Lowe was digging it and seemed to think he’d found the good life. And since he was so content right there that’s where he got his bath tonight too. I foresee this being a regular five o’clock meeting spot.

Monday the finished dodger goes on and then we measure for the bimini which will hopefully not be too long in coming either. Mexican summers are like nothing we’ve ever encountered anywhere else. That sun is a ferocious beast and shade has never been so important to us.

16-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
The PanAmerican Games are going on here in Vallarta at the moment. This is a pretty big deal for the participants I suspect, but watching all these adults prepare and then sail around on these rinky-dink child-sized boats sort of feels about as exciting and important as a high school track meet to me. Hell, I carry a camera with me at all times and I have yet to shoot a single shot of this stuff despite the fact that it is taking place about ten slips down from here. I may be a sailor, but I’m no sailor.

17-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Kids. They are absolutely maddening sometimes. Ouest has begun testing boundaries and crying for no particular reason, while Lowe has decided not to sleep anywhere but Mama’s arms, or occasionally mine. They’ve been a bit of work the past few days.

But then, just like that they make it all worth it. Ouest helped me pull out a skylight window to be resealed today. She was meticulous, handled the tools well, and was just about the most adorable thing on earth. She kept digging at it with the screwdriver and then would look at me across from her and say, “More,” before digging back in. Lowe took a break from wanting mama in order to stare in wonder at our hastily manufactured mobile. Ouest of course had to chime in on that one just to show him how it is done. And then, despite what a pain it can be, Lowe fell asleep on Ali’s chest and Ali followed suit. Meanwhile Ouest cried out just an hour into her nap so I went in and laid down on the bean bag chair with her on my chest where we both fell asleep. Those moments get us through the days.

The lines on her cheeks and the caulk on her face came, of course, from pressing her face onto the hole to have a look inside the boat.

18-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
This morning I had a bit of a Lowe Bleu photo shoot going on. He’s growing up and is much more alert these days making taking his picture a much easier process. At least he isn’t sleeping in every picture today. He is a perfect little boy.

We rented a car and drove in to town to do some outboard motor shopping this afternoon. I had already gotten pricing on a Mercury 15hp at the big marine store so I went and tracked down the Yamaha dealer today. He gave me a much better price than the Merc and had the engine in the box for me. The only reason we didn’t bring it home today is because it’s a cash only business. No cards. So as we’ve done for a number of big purchases in the past down here we’ll be spending the next few days hitting up the ATMs until we’ve got enough cash on hand. Ouest is excited, though I’m not even sure how she puts two and two together with this, but she makes engine noises and points at the dinghy. She understands that as soon as we get our hands on that motor we can head out for a ride around the lagoon.

I’ve already mentioned how Ouest is really not enjoying the attention she has been receiving from the locals lately. Daily somebody walks up to her and touches her hair or squeezes her cheeks, but instead of just ignoring it like she used to she now pulls away from them. Though today a group of girls around twelve-years-old came up and began fawning over her and she just took it all in. You never know what you’re going to get. We just let it play out. Nobody really presses the issue when they see she isn’t appreciating it. It’ll be interesting to see how this progresses as she gets older.

19-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Ali didn’t mention this to me today, instead I think she mentioned what a pain in the ass I am, or mumbled something about divorce, or something like that, but today is the 20th anniversary of the day we began “officially” dating. Wait, now that I type that and do the math in my head I realize it is actually the 21st anniversary. Whatever. It’s a long damn time. If we’d had a child on that day he would be going out to the bars with his friends tonight to drink for the first time using his non-fake ID.

Hell, Ali and I even got our fake IDs together, that’s how long we’ve been together. Some girl whom I can’t remember sold blank copies of Illinois birth certificates which we used to type in our real names but with a fake birth date. We then used those to get Minnesota identification cards. The problem was that Ali, me, and all of our friends had these. We’d all show up at the bar together, the bouncer would look at us and ask, “Not one of you has a driver’s license?” We’d shrug and he’d wave us through. Ahhh, good times.

How did I get on that topic? Anyway, today we came back to the boat in the afternoon to find that our dodger was on. I think it looks really good and am really looking forward to the arrival of the bimini in a few days as well. Got our first rain tonight too, and it was wonderful to not have to close up the companionway hatch for the first time. Just soak up that cool breeze while the rain falls.

Had some Bum friends come out and visit us today. I tell you, going out to eat with other adults, and trying to carry on an adult conversation has gotten a lot harder these days. Hopefully the screaming baby fit, and the toddler running away from the table and to the other end of the mall, three times, didn’t make them think any less of us.

Ouest finally discovered the word “no” and the power it yields. Frankly I’m impressed that we managed to keep it out of her vocabulary for so long. But it’s here now, and she’s using it. “No, no, no.” The thing is, right now at least, the way she says it is just so darn cute. She has a tendency to say things in a sort of sing-song voice and this is no exception. “Ouest do you want any more tortilla soup?” “No, no, no.” “How about just one more bite of your taco then?” “No, no, no.” “Do you want to drive the car home?” “No, no, huh? Huh?”

20-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
So we just got a new credit card a couple of weeks ago when we switched banks. Two days ago we rented a car from the same place, National, we’ve rented from ten times the past couple of months. The guy was a new worker I didn’t recognize and he was taking forever to complete the paperwork so I finally told him I was going to pick up lunch and I’d come back. I left my credit card and drivers license with him and picked it up after lunch.

Within hours my credit card was being used all over Mexico. Capital One caught it somehow and didn’t let any of the charges go through, but man does that tick me off. The worker was a new one the next day as they rotate them between offices constantly so I wasn’t able to confront him directly.

I guess that’s what I get for talking about how much I love that these guys are corrupt and will take a few bucks in exchange for a dented fender. Turns out they’ll also sell their customer’s credit card information to their buddies too. I’m renting from them again in a few days but this time going to the main office. It’ll be interesting to see what the manager says.

21-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Got hit by a doozy of a mid-afternoon storm yesterday while we were off the boat. All the windows were open so Ouest and I ran all the way back to close up. Again, I’m really liking the new dodger for the rain. We left the stroller on the dock in a hurry and by the time the storm blew out the stroller was at the bottom of the murky, and surprisingly deep, marina. So today we called over a diver and paid him fifteen bucks to resurrect our lost items. He was worth every penny as he came back up with Ouest’s hat.

Ouest and I have been going to the pool every morning lately and hanging out with all the other two-year-olds that seem to be arriving daily as tourist season kicks in. Today for the first time I took her down the waterslide. This is not a kiddie slide, it’s a three story affair that flushes you out at the bottom at a good rate of speed into six feet of water. I’d been hesitant to bring her on it thinking it would be a bit much for her, but caved in today because I was getting bored in the one point five-foot pool section.

Ouest, as I should have known she would, loved it. She sat on my lap and hit that water full speed. We’d be under for a couple of seconds and when we would come up she’d already be saying, “More, more, more, more, more, more…” until we were climbing up the ladder. Actually getting her away from the slide is what became the problem. She made a bit of a spectacle out of the two of us when I finally told her we had to go home. Typical two-year-old stuff from a decidedly non-typical almost two-year-old.

My mom is coming for another visit in a couple of days which will give me the time I need on the boat to get the boat projects done. Nothing is too daunting looking on the list at the moment. Well there are actually plenty of daunting projects but we’re not tackling any of those this season. The boat is just going to have to do the way it is. We’re hoping to be all ready for when the sails arrive. Once they get here we cast off.

22-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Lowe is a tough little sucker. He pushed himself clear around the couch today. One side to the other just pumping those little pistons of his the whole way. He’s extremely close to rolling over already too. No leaving this one alone on a bed.

Ouest has not let up on the demands for a dinghy ride. It’s going to be like Christmas morning when I finally get the new outboard in a couple of days.

Ali isn’t getting a lot of sleep these days. Lowe sleeps great from about eight at night until about three in the morning, waking for a feeding somewhere in there. But after three he is all tossing and turning and won’t sleep more than a few minutes at a time in bed. Of course in Mama’s arms he’ll sleep. And that is the problem. The heat isn’t helping much either. We’re looking at forecasts next week with highs of ninety degrees and we’re excited about that. That’s a major cool down.

Boats are starting to come alive around here again. The snowbirds are filing back in and getting ready for a season of Mexican cruising. I am extremely excited for that first night at anchor with a cool sea breeze blowing through the boat.

23-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Ouest bit Lowe today. One second she was kissing his knees and toes and the next he let out a blood curdling scream. We looked down to find deep teeth indentations on his foot. Ouest seemed stunned, as if she hadn’t really been sure what was going to happen when she did it. We then bit her on the foot to get even. Oh, I’m kidding. We explained to her yet again that he is just a baby and that we have to be very gentle with him. She then leaned down and kissed him on the feet. This was the first time she caused her brother bodily harm and I’m fairly certain it won’t be the last.

24-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Today was one of those days where everything just seemed to get away from us. Our perfectly planned down to the last detail day got derailed right out of the gate and set in motion a day in which neither of us paused for even a moment to take a drink of water, or check e-mail, and certainly not to go to the bathroom.

The cascade all began with me going in to pick up my renewed passport. The first thing I noticed when they handed it to me is that it was very light. They hadn’t given me the 52-pager as requested but instead I got the rinky-dink 28-pager. This might not seem like a big deal, but my last passport had to go in twice for more pages. Then I had a look inside it and discovered rather quickly that they gave me the wrong birthday! They had transposed my 1/4/74 and given me instead 4/1/74. Now I know how this would happen easily enough in Mexico as they write their dates day/month/year like everyone else in the whole damn world. The U.S. can’t get on board with this or the metric system it seems. Too complicated for us I guess. The thing I can’t understand is how the U.S. government can let an obvious mistake like that slip through. It’s not like I’m not in the database. Isn’t there any cross checking of these things. Would they have caught it if I had changed my name?

They assured me that I wouldn’t have to pay for another one. Gee, really? You’re not going to make me pay another hundred and ten dollars for your mistake? I asked them who was going to pay for the set of passport photos I was going to have to rush next door to get before they mailed out the paperwork for the week to Guadalajara. Yeah, that would be me. Twelve bucks. And yes, that is a rip-off, but when you are in Paradise and you need something right away, that’s what happens.

Breathe Patrick, breathe.

Okay, anyway. That wasn’t the last problem of the morning, but it’s the last one I’ll bore anybody reading this with.

Grammy is here! Ouest was very happy to see her and immediately took to calling her, “Me.”

Okay, one more quick story from the morning. We moved into the same condo we stayed in last time my mom came for a visit here at the marina. It’s a tidy little two-bedroom where we can all hang out together and I can run off to the boat to do some work on occasion. Somehow there was some confusion as to when we’d be arriving so the place wasn’t cleaned when we arrived and we had to go kill ninety minutes while we waited.

By the time we got ourselves inside Ouest hadn’t had a diaper change in far too long. But we were running in circles trying to get all of our stuff in and get the kid’s beds set up for their naps which were already overdue. When I finally reached down and picked Ouest up I immediately felt and smelled something on my arm. Crap, diaper leakage. Really. Crap. Every parent must know this feeling. It’s your duty as a parent to change those diapers at regular intervals. But sometimes you just plain forget in the midst of the commotion. So I changed her, cleaned the poop off my arm and then in passing Ali yelled out, “Pat, clean the poop off the couch too.” Leather, thankfully. What a day.

25-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Sometimes it just seems to take forever to actually complete a project here in Mexico. Last week we went and looked at the dinghy outboard we wanted to buy. We would have bought it that day but we didn’t have a couple thousand dollars cash on us like we usually do when out and about. I told them I’d be in today. Turns out I was there today but they weren’t. So I’ll make another trip in the next day or two and try again. Usually the third time is the charm around here.

Just got word that the new sails are done and ready to ship. Dodger and bimini/cockpit shade are done as well. Things are coming together.

I got a bunch of boat work done today while Ali and Grammy watched the kids. And then for a change instead of going out to eat we stayed in and made guacamole and tacos. A good busy day for everyone.

26-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Ouest was at the playground today having a great time running and laughing when she accidentally ran into another girl her size while looking the other direction. They both stumbled and then stood there looking at each other. Ouest put her hands out to touch the girl and that’s when the girl struck. She started tearing at Ouest’s face, grabbing handfuls of cheeks and eyes. Ouest just sort of stood there in stunned silence. I was there in a few seconds and pulled the girl away but I couldn’t help feeling awful. The look of innocence and hurt feelings on Ouest’s face made me feel terrible. I know there will be hundreds of situations like this for her to deal with in her childhood, but man oh man. I know I’m biased, but she really is such a sweet little girl, I don’t think she even comprehended what this girl was doing by being mean. I feel so protective of her already that I have a feeling being a parent isn’t going to get any easier.

We got the bill for the canvas work and were very happy with that. The dodger was only nineteen hundred dollars, a full thousand less than she had originally quoted. The sun shade was equally over quoted. When she originally gave me the quotes she just sort of winged it like, “Hmmm, I would say about three thousand for the dodger and maybe a thousand for a bimini.” Anyway, the dodger ended up costing at least a thousand dollars less than the cheapest quote we got on it back in San Francisco.

Still no good pictures of the setup as the boat is a bit of a mess and I also don’t feel like taking down the big sun canopy just to take a couple of pics. The dodger has a middle window that will roll up, otherwise the whole thing just stays put. It covers the companionway door by a few inches so that rain and spray won’t get inside.

The bimini has twist fasteners across the dodger eyebrow that allows it to be taken down and rolled up if necessary when underway. The back is attached with a wooden dowel through a pocket and that attaches with a line on each end. It can be tied higher or lower as well as twisted down one way or another to provide more shade depending on where the sun is. There is always the option of adding side curtains to it later on as well if we decide that’s needed. Overall the bimini is a compromise. Obviously we’d prefer a fixed bimini which you could walk underneath without crouching, but on this boat that would simply be far to aesthetically unappealing.

Met up with some new Bum friends for lunch today. They were a couple our age who are starting to question the “keeping up with the Jones'” path they’re on. The guy is a sort of accidental inventor and it was fun to hear how his little discovery has turned into a business that may just allow them to buy a boat and disappear for a bit. You could see the wheels turning in their heads today.

27-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Great day today. I woke up excited about a big options trade I put on last week. Today was earnings, as well as a bunch of government numbers, and big news out of Europe. It was bound to get interesting. It opened up wonderfully and after watching it a bit I took Ouest and Grammy and headed off to buy an outboard.

Turns out fourth trip was a charm. They were open, still had my motor, and I had enough cash in hand. We loaded up our new Yamaha 15hp 2-stroke outboard and headed home.

When we got back I found my trade had become my biggest stock options winner ever and suddenly the whole world was coming up roses. Lowe was in an exceptionally good mood, smiling and cooing all day long for anyone who felt like squeezing his cheeks and talking to him, and Ouest was as cute as ever clomping around all day in Grammy’s flip-flops.

Ali and I are having a hard time believing just how big these two are getting. Seriously, how are we going to afford the food they’ll be consuming in a couple more years?

During naptime I headed down to the boat to hook up the outboard and take a little test run. She fired up on the first pull and I slowly puttered around for a few minutes, somehow managing to keep from cracking the throttle. The manager at the dealership asked me repeatedly not to go over half throttle for the first tank of gas. That seems like a long time to break this thing in but I’ll give it a try.

The afternoon just sort of disappeared around the condo and then tonight I was back on the boat doing a little more work. I managed to fix three lights which had gone dead, and no, it wasn’t the light bulbs, it was the wiring. Also tracked down and repaired the wiring issue I had with the running lights on my trip down the Baja coast. And finally began the tedious process of removing a lot of trim work in order to get at the hatch in the main cabin that has been leaking for far too long.

It was just one of those days where everything goes as planned, projects get done, family is happy and healthy, and you end the day with a little more money than you began it with. Unfortunately those days are too few and far between.

28-Oct-2011 bumfuzzle.
I first noticed this on my way down Baja and I must say it gave me a little worry during that time. I could see this through the oil fill cap on the top of the rocker panel. I can’t imagine how it got like this unless it simply melted because there is nothing that it could have touched. So now I’ve got a replacement bolt but I’m not really sure how I want to go about getting this one off. I tried the obvious wrench and vice grips but it didn’t budge and I didn’t want to put too much pressure on it as I really don’t want it to snap. Looking around I don’t see any metal shavings, which is good, but then again this could have happened twenty years ago for all I know.

28-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Ouest finally got that dinghy ride she’s been so excited about the past couple of weeks. She loved it. She put on her lifejacket and sat next to Mama right up in the front. She held on to the handle and you could see that she was quite proud of herself. And she kept a close eye on what I was doing at the controls of that motor the whole time. By the time we returned from tooling around the area I think she had it figured out well enough to head out on her own. Which she would have gladly done had we told her to go ahead.

29-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Grammy can’t stand having grandkids. They drool, they wear her shoes, they play with her earrings, they dig in her purse and insist on wearing her lipstick, they are just generally annoying little creatures.

Ali had socked away a lot of baby clothes in anticipation of a second baby being a girl. Realizing that Lowe will already have to deal with a pink stroller, a pink chair, pink toy baskets, and any number of other miscellaneous pink bits, we decided to give him a break and not make him wear his sister’s clothes as well. Fortunately our friends here at the marina have a baby girl that gives us the perfect opportunity to unload on them. Of course Ouest saw all these clothes and couldn’t stop trying to wear each and every item. We finally gave up and let her wear her stocking hat for the day. Quite possibly the only Mexican wearing a hat with ear flaps today.

30-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
Being a parent I am starting to realize that we worry way too much about some things. Way back when Ouest was just a tiny thing and we were having problems with her sleeping we started using a pacifier. Pretty soon she would wake up every time that damn thing would fall out of her mouth. I wanted to completely take it away from her but thought it would be hell. When I finally got up the courage and prepared myself for a lot of screaming she instead just forgot all about it and never cried out or asked for it again.

So Ali and I have been stressing about how we were going to get her to give up her bottle. Yes we somehow got into the habit of giving her a bottle before bed and looking back I have no idea how that started. Anyway, a couple nights back she suddenly wouldn’t even take a sip of her bottle. Fine with me. She went right to sleep. The next day the same thing happened. Great, we thought. Only problem was that she wasn’t feeling all that good to begin with so we thought maybe it just had to do with that.

Then today at breakfast I poured myself a glass of milk and just about spit it across the room. Sour! Duh. That’s why she hasn’t been drinking her bottle. We felt bad for giving her sour milk, but I have to admit we’re thrilled with the result. No more bottle. And all our worries were for naught.

Friends of ours came by today and hung out for a bit. When we first met them their daughter Poppy was just an immobile four-month-old and Ali was still pregnant. Now we’ve got Lowe and they’ve got a little girl who is crawling all over the house. Ouest got to play with five-year-old Teddy too. It’s funny how enamored younger kids are of the cool big kids.

Meanwhile I continue to plug away at the boat. I’m in the final stages of sealing up what appear to be the last two leaks on the boat. I am so anxious to have those done once and for all.

31-Oct-2011 our life. daily. puerto vallarta, mexico.
My mom just left from what was her fourth visit to Mexico with us this year. It’s kind of funny that we probably spend more time with her, despite our odd lifestyle, than we would if we were just plugging away the nine to five back in Chicago. We are fortunate in that our families are, with the exception of my dad, retired and able to fly off and visit us without too much planning. They generally say they want to come down, we decide where we’ll be a couple of weeks later, and we book it. Ali’s mom broke her foot a few weeks back, not long after her dad’s motorcycle accident, which has put a crimp in their recent travel plans though. I think Grammy may be taking advantage of their misfortune by trying to call dibs on Christmas too.