Tito is doing really well. The intake and the output are in sync, the worm medicine had no obvious effect which I consider good. I was ready with my camera though in case we had an incident like Cancun Canuck so I could photograph Mimi pulling one out of the back end.

He is running now without falling over, he actually batted his ball and tried to play with it, he comes running whenever he hears our voices... he's a doll!

We've been busy the last few days, our new gas tank has been installed and filled. That took several trips to Playa for parts, a couple days of our friend Rod climbing really scary ladders up to the 3rd floor and then drilling and welding when he got there, the finding of 2 leaks and repairs, and getting the gas company to come and fill the tank. Such fun. Really. We are now on our own gas though and that is a good feeling. No more paying a percentage of 2 buildings whether we were here or not and whether every other place was full of 6 people showering all the time and cooking. Now, we pay for what we use I can guarantee you that will be a lot less.

Another wonderful milestone in divorcing ourselves from the hotel operation here is that we have our wonderful maid, Manuela, back with us. A couple years ago, the macho management fired her mainly because she wouldn't take their shit. I'll leave out the details but it was ugly and it was one of the main reasons I started wanting out of this whole group. I didn't ask her to come back right away because I was not willing to subject her to their BS but things have been calm and they did agree not to talk to her or bother her in any way.

So, last Monday was the return of Manuela and Mimi and I are in heaven. Our place has not looked this good since she left. There are areas that I think I just trained myself not to look at because they were always dusty and yucky, now everything sparkles. I can see out of all of my windows and I didn't have to say one word. In the past, I would have to hound the maids to clean the windows.

Our last maid was so good at ignoring stuff that she could ignore dirty dishes and pots and pans that were sitting on the stove in the kitchen! You could safely leave your empty coffee cup on the coffee table for a week and it would not be disturbed. She even got to the point that she could ignore dirty dishes that were on the other side of the drainboard, not the side closest to the sink. That's talent. If I didn't follow her around pointing things out, they were ignored.

She also refused to learn how to make a bed. I showed her many times how I would prefer to sleep on the right side of the sheets and that she didn't need to turn the sheet back and tuck it in like a marine before putting the blanket on and doing the same with it. Trying to break into the bed after she made it was not easy. She made great towel animals though and that was the main thing she wanted to do while here. I ruined all her fun by telling her I really preferred the towels hanging in the bathroom and not made into swans on my bed.

I know, this all sounds rather petty but if you knew what I have been paying for this shoddy service then you'd understand my frustration. It finally got to be too much hassle and we just stopped letting them come in to clean more than once a week. Even then, they didn't do much. But still, I paid for daily maid service that was supplied to renters, for all that towel animal building time, for 3 guys who were supposed to do things like clean the screens but never did unless you called the office every day for weeks, it goes on but... back to the good!

Our condo is a joy to walk into now. I am noticing things I just never looked at, my artisania doesn't have a layer of salt grime and dust on it and wow! I'm in love with it all over again. Mimi started doing a happy dance after Manuela's first day because her coffee pot was clean! In 4 years, not one of the maids has taken the old coffee filter out and cleaned the pot unless one of us stood over her and didn't leave until it was done. I think we've both gone up and spontaneously kissed her in the last week just because it was such a pleasure to be here now and to have her here. What I can't figure out is why I let this all go for so long. I should have nutted up on these people a long time ago. If I had, I might not be so angry about it all now. I have to get over that, it was my fault as well for putting up with it.