Bridge and a phone call

Sounds like not much going on today, however one never knows as it unfolds. Call to cousin Valerie on the agenda for her birthday. It's odd as I have five first cousins on my Dad's side and one on Mother's. One of mine on Dad's side died very young. I am next to never in contact with the five on Dad's side but close to Valerie from Mom's. The last time I saw/spoke to the five I cannot remember though I do recall I last saw David Abbey (son of Father's brother Irving) in 1990 ... 33 years and counting.

My brother and I were very young when Mordecai Abramowitz, paternal grandfather, died. We saw some of his Mom but nowhere near as much as of my Mom's family in Toronto. Mark Segal, son of Dad's sister Mimi lived in Ottawa for some time and we did see his family often during that period, the timing I do not remember. Alta Abramowitz, sister of Lorne, and daughter of Dad's brother Eddie we have not seen for yet another long unknown time.

We were so close to Mom's side of the family, especially her father Ben Ramstein. The Ramstein side of her family as well as the Foreman side (her Mother's family) were a big part of my upbringing. We did see Dad's family somewhat in Montréal but nowhere near the time we spent in Toronto.

It has been a treat to finally welcome the disappearance of the humdidity. This started maybe a week ago and, its staying so for the past week, confirms it is here to stay. Yippeee!!!

We did something different last night. Since the city is so crowded because the kids are off school, we decided to go somewhere for dinner/drinks rather than the main beach. The chit chat and margaritas at Lynn and Ranae's were first class. Dinner at Letty's was huge, as usual. She has been in business in Zihua for ages and at a few different locations. We headed back to maragaritaville for key lime pie and more chit chat. We were home by 9pm or so and watched some TV and hung out. I spent some of the TV time watching a show I see a lot of ... The Inside of my Eyelids. It stars me. We watch TV in our room together and there are no chairs so we recline on the bed. That puts more than 50% of my body in a horizontal position so my frequent lack of sleep kicks in a lot and I lapse into a light sleep. for who knows how long.

We heard the story about how Lynn and Ranae got started. The one he tells is called the Hollywood version and is much more interesting than the "supposed truth" that Ranae tells. It's a hoot to listen to each other as the other kicks in with input when hearing something that, in their mind, didn't happen exactly like the other one said. One takes the two stories, filters out the this could not have happened like that and arrives at what may be loosely referred to as the truth.

Suffice to say ... regardless of how it went down, they have been together for 54 years (Lynn's version) and 44 years (Ranae's version) and are a cute couple. Let's put the two numbers together, take an average, and arrive at what could be called as a long time. Accolades to both parties.

I went into the fridge looking for something for breakfast. I discovered a dark almost cubical box with some sort of takeout in it, I surmised. Lo and behold, it was a piece of carrot cake. Somebody's gotta eat it ...

She's off to Soriana for some plastic glasses. She has plans to use them for some veggie hors d'ouvres at the party tomorrow night for new year's. I just watched an English football game ManCity against SheffordU. That has been happening quite a bit around here lately since we got a new streaming service. They claim 0 buffering on live TV. I would not say that is 100% true but definitely a lot better than trying to watch live TV anywhere else.

Countdown to 1 ... Monday morning at 9am will be my last game in the 100% coverage I have been doing for the bridge club since October 16. I am looking forward to having Mondays and Fridays back to ourselves once this ends. Last night was the first one where we did not use the air conditioning. We left the doors open slightly in the room and the verdict is in ... it was comfortable enough without that electricity sucking apparatus aka ... air conditioner.

My genius little girl just got to the bottom of one of the mysteries of life. It has been very very busy here for the past week or so and we now know why. There is a lot more Mexicans here (like a WAY lot) and not so many gringos ... why you may say? They cannot go to Acapulco due to the hurricane in October so they have to come here. In the game of life where we continually try to find out the mysterious reason for why things happen, Dominique just took over first place.

We postponed (actually I) our fish dinner tonight and are going to try an Asian place we know about and have had good feedback about. When we were out the other day looking for a place to embroider some letters on a ball cap, we saw the place. Unless it has moved since Thursday, we should ave no problem finding it again. Coppel store is a landmark close to where it is located.

Ranae is down now for their almost daily happy hour. I hid in the second bedroom and watched the tele while she was here. Dominique started preparing the small amount of food we are contributing to the new year's eve shindig tomorrow evening at Ranae and Lynn's. They are two storeys above us and have experienced the fireworks at midnight from there a few times. The shows we have seen in previous years have been extraordinary. The only downside of fireworks here may be the lack of care some people take during their placement and ignition. A few years ago I was told a floating genre of cracker drifted onto the thatched roof of a high end condominium building next door. And yes, the conflagration was quite large.

I was finishing some of the weatherstripping extravaganza I am working on earlier today. I cleaned the frame of a sliding door with alcohol then attached 8+ feet or an adhesive backed strip. Once I was finished, I was using a hard object to press the item into the door to enforce the bond. I noticed some of the item at about the 4' level was not properly aligned and a bit of it was actually off the frame. Oh my! I had to take what I had attached and remove it and that was a chore in itself. The glue as it turns out was quite strong so removing it was a task and a half. We will get some more at the hardware store in centro.

I've said this before and I will say again ... Maggie, you've had quite a day. We went for Chinese food tonight at China House. When we were out and about a few days ago we saw where it was. The food was amazing and we both pigged out. Pigging out is even more appropriate description since one of the dishes was pork. We ordered a fried rice with a mix of everything in it. When it arrived at the table it was the biggest plate of rice we had ever seen. It was like a semicircle on the plate about 6" high.

Back home we watched a gem with Maggie Smith in it ... Washington Square. It was a beauty and the costumes, story, dialogue, and sceneries were mesmerizing. It was our favourite genre of film ... about life ... without the Hollywood distractions of violence, guns, explosions, fast cars, and scores of people being shot. By the way, the Maggie reference is to a kids show on TV when we were young called Maggie Muggins.