Plants and trees like the winter weather

Well they must is all I can figure. The compost pile is sprouting tomatoes, a melon and baby Neems. The lime trees were quiet for almost two months and now are full of blossoms. My avocado tree that has done almost nothing since I got it is suddenly sprouting new branches and leaves.

I transplanted the avocado to a more open area and realize that probably shocked it but that was about a year ago. One major branch died and what was left was way lopsided. I trimmed it today to balance it out a bit.

Lime trees are very unruly, with branches going in all directions. The best I can do is cut some of what I call 'suckers' that grow straight up and look to be non fruit producing. I doubt I can keep them at standing on the ground picking level but so far so good.

I'm gonna have a bunch of baby Neem trees if I can get them planted in pots in a month or so. They are just coming up from dropped seeds from their parent tree which is now about 5 meters high. I might offer a few to neighbors if they look healthy.

My 2 Cherry tomato plants are producing 20 or so a day but the neighbor kids are eating them as soon as they turn a little red (with my permission). The cilantro and sweet basil are doing fine. Herba Buena (mint) and Romero (Rosemary) are new and some radishes and chives are just popping up. Gardens are good

Avocado coming alive

Lime blossom

Largest neem baby

More neem

Tomato in compost

Costalegre Rotary Chili Cookoff 2013

Wasn't sure I was going to go as I'd been a few times in the past but some new people were in town so decided to go with them. Glad I did as I met a few people for the first time and ran into a few I've not seen in awhile. It was pretty much stay out of the sun, drink beer, taste a chili or two, listen to the four musical groups and mucho Blah, Blah, Blah. It was fun.

I wasn't impressed much with the chili but with 30 entries how do you taste very many. Turns out I missed the winners so there might have been some decent bowls there. I was disappointed to see a woman parading around all day with "Vote for #19" which turned out to be Crazy Cactus ... and they won the amateur title. Oh well. Had dinner around the corner and I was home by dark.

Our group with only Tecate - no Estrella

Some of the chili booths

Normally useless Dryhouse being usefull

Grupo Exito with Raul and Hector

Two more songs the neighbor kids like

And I do mean "like".   They can play these things over and over for days.  The songs by Hermanos Vazquez and CoCo No by Roberto Jr. ... and Gangnam Style that I posted a video of a few days ago.  

They have a couple of them on their Cel phones and I wanted to put a few on mine except I hate ITunes which is usually for managing music and videos on IPhones and other Apple products.   You install ITunes on your PC and it takes over ... won't use it!!

I knew about YTD Video Downloader to download videos from YouTube.   It also converts files to different formats after you have downloaded.  Original YouTube is in .FLV and my IPhone needs MP3/4.   Then I did a search for an ITunes replacement and found CopyTrans Manager works perfectly, very small in size ... and both programs are Freeware.   Now my phone is the favorite because of the big screen compared to theirs.

Rolling in the Deep - Hermanos Vazquez


El CoCo No - Roberto Jr.

Everybody's fishing Sunday

I swear that every fisherman in the area was at the West Melaque beach yesterday both in boats and from shore. That could also include the 1000+/- pelicans and other birds fishing their way. Supposedly they were stocking up with bait for night fishing but I've never seen 20+ pangas lining the beach. Between lines in the water, nets thrown from boats, banana boat rides and diving birds it was not a good idea to venture very far out.

Eight of us went from Pinal and met up with Glen from Barra at Sirenitas. Bought a kilo of shrimp and made a large bowl of ceviche on the beach. It was overcast all day and the ocean seemed cooler. A welcome day away from the sun

Three amigas

Banana boat, fishermen and birds

Pelicans must be getting leftovers

Leaving with his catch

Today's English lesson

My neighbor is in his second quarter of English in his first year of Secondaria.  He had some in Primary but from what I saw it was not worth counting.   He was given this paragraph in English and was to translate it to Spanish.  I thought it could have been somewhat easier without the "science" but that's his assignment.   He thinks he can tell the teacher he did it on his own but don't think that will fly.   I suggested he say he used Google because at his level I don't think he could do it in a week on his own.    I used Google because my translation  would have been only close.  Bad might be better than good in this case.   He also has to read the English aloud.    We'll see

Small Intestine

The small intestine is a long, thin tube about 1 inch in diameter and about 10 feet long that is part of the lower gastrointestinal tract. It is located just inferior to the stomach and takes up most of the space in the abdominal cavity. The entire small intestine is coiled up like a hose and the inside surface is full of many ridges and folds. The folds are used to maximize the digestion of food and absorption of nutrients. By the time the food leaves the small intestine, around 90% of all nutrients have been extracted from the food that entered it.

Intestino delgado

El intestino delgado es un tubo largo y delgado de aproximadamente 1 pulgada de diámetro y aproximadamente 10 pies de largo que es parte del tracto gastrointestinal inferior. Se encuentra inmediatamente por debajo del estómago y ocupa la mayor parte del espacio en la cavidad abdominal. El intestino delgado se enrolla como una manguera y la superficie interior está lleno de crestas muchos y pliegues. Los pliegues se usan para maximizar la digestión de los alimentos y la absorción de nutrientes. En el momento en que el alimento sale del intestino delgado, alrededor de 90% de todos los nutrientes se han extraído de la comida que ha entrado.

Visa under the new rules

I decided to deal with my visa early this year rather than wait till the last minute and was interested in the new process. I got to Immigration a minute before 9am and got ticket #11. It was a quarter to 12 before I finished with my paperwork. The reasons for it being so slow were people coming in for new cards that had arrived, people making a second trip to be finger printed and half the people didn't know the rules had changed and had to have all the options explained to them. I had a great interviewer and the prettiest one in the building. I was pleased with myself that I didn't have to revert to English once. She allowed me to be finger printed the same day when I told her I drive a kid to school every day. Others are making 3 trips but I'll make only two.

I took in the online form and a request letter but all they wanted was my old visa, my passport and 6 months of bank statements. The income level was not mentioned so I assume renewals are using the same levels as before. Only new applicants need to meet the $1900-2000us levels. I walked away with a 2 year visa that will be ready in 3-4 weeks with a cost of about 4800 pesos.

I was surprised to see so many people that didn't know the rules had changed. I guess they don't spend much time on the Internet. Two couples were forced to move to permanent resident because they had 3 or 4 renewals. Their only other option was to leave the country and apply at a Consulate. The guy interviewing them also asked if they owned a house and needed their fideicomiso (bank trust) and copies of tax records. Why he as asking about owning a house I have no idea because it will not effect the outcome. These poor uninformed people didn't know the difference between a fideicomiso and a presta nombre which is what they had but insisted it was a fideicomiso. Maybe they just wanted to shake their heads YES to everything because they were so lost?

Captain of the Port of Manzanillo

New Immigration Office

Night of the 3 Kings cake

Jania cutting the cake

I was in town yesterday but had enough other things to do that I forgot I wanted to buy a 3 Kings cake.   I seem to have a limited memory these days.  Didn't remember until Hugo and family came over and the kids started talking about it.  I don't know the exact details of how it worked except they knew someone that would deliver.   So with 150 pesos and a 1/2 hour later it was there.   I made a pot of coffee and we went after the cake.

January 6th marks the end of Christmas and New Year festivities and is celebrated with a 3 Kings cake or Rosca de Reyes. According to tradition whoever finds a little doll in their slice of sweet bread must give a party on February 2nd, Candlemas Day or Dia de la Candelaria, offering tamales, hot chocolate and atole to their guests. Without my glasses I couldn't see the little doll sticking out of the piece I chose, so I was the first. Luckily there were multiple dolls so 4 of us have to contribute to the Febuary party.

Typical doll hidden inside

Almost in a jam

Not mine

The real jam was paper in my printer. When I was working I used to maintain (with some help) 300+ computers and 40+ printers of all sizes ... and never ran into this problem that I remember. I'm printing out six months of bank statements and a few more things for Immigration but could not get past the first page without a jam. Luckily I bought another printer but ended up with the same problem. Tried another cartridge, same thing. Only thing left was the paper and I had an unopened package. Problem solved, but I'd never run into paper that is too thick or too stiff ... whatever it was? So I can visit Immigration with everything in order.

The almost jam was being out of yogurt for my daily breakfast of fruit and yogurt. My guests from Jocotepec had made a huge amount of ceviche and when they left filled up two of the old yogurt containers with the leftovers. They didn't tell me so I thought I had plenty. One real container left and enough till I buy some more ... and the ceviche is good.

My neighbors are in a jam since Hugo hasn't been paid for his work since the beginning of December. Can't imagine an employer not paying just before Christmas and now it's the new year and they have rent to pay and a TV satellite bill. Two trips to Banco Elektra for a loan and they said maybe next week. I finally loaned them some money to avoid a real jam.

Other than that, things are drying out after 4 days of rain ... and I'm out almost every night with a flashlight and my poison powder in a battle with leaf eating ants. Not just my place, tho I do have the tastiest plants, they are all over the neighborhood.

I almost forgot that with Internet Explorer I can't upload fotos to these Blogs. I Googled it and sure enough it's effecting all versions of IE. Firefox works so I switch over for fotos. I have to use IE for compatability issues with my web site but am finding more and more reasons to stop using it.

Popular music in Mexico - Gangnam Style

Very popular for parties, especially for kids up to Quinceaneras age.   This song has been around for about a year but I've only heard it lately.   It's from Korea but is actually a hit world wide.  Hard to understand the title or the words ... but here ya go!!