Mimi and I have been suffering a bit of malaise. I love that word, it just sounds like how we feel. Kind of tired, achey, a tinge of a sore throat. We've been sleeping a lot, which when you consider that we are both world class sleepers to begin with means we are really sleeping a lot. Our main problem is keeping Tita from sleeping when we are not so she won't jump on our heads and bite our faces when we are. You know? She loves to sneak off and sleep during the day and we are always asking each other where she is so we can go and wake her up. Sometimes you have to dig down under the covers to find her.

I should finish talking about the house renovation. The other problem that came up last week (when the tail of Dolly came through and dumped tons of rain) is that the street in front of the house couldn't drain fast enough and water came in the front door. That's probably what caused the cave in of the hall floor although the jackhammer no doubt contributed. I had actually called and asked them a couple weeks ago how the street was draining because my friend Theresa had posted pics of her street under water.

The solution is to raise the first section of the hall so that you step up to come into the house. That section will also slope 5cm towards the door. Then, you will step down to go into the rest of the hall. The garage floor will also slope towards the street. It sounds good, I'm glad they are dealing with it now and not later when the floor is in.

This is also part of the answer to the lowering of the backyard. Henry wants it to be a step down from the terrace so that water will not come into the terrace floor. The workers were in the process of lowering the yard when they decided the sour orange was going to die and cut it down. It turns out that Henry had been there Monday afternoon and Benjamin had been there on Tuesday and sometime in between they cut down the tree. He said they leave them a cell phone for calling if they have questions but they didn't call.

When it rains here, it is like a fire hose overhead and while the limestone drains quickly it often just can't keep up with the rain. I'm happy that Henry has spent so much time and planning on drainage. We have a lot of drains from every part of the roof and terraces and they go into a very deep well that was already there. I think we have a good chance of avoiding some common problems of the rainy season here.

They have finished chipping the back wall down to the momposteria, taking off several colors of paint and stucco. It looks nice, I'm really happy to have the wall not look brand new and stuccoed. I think it fits well with the natural look of the pool.

I also got to talk to them a little more about the pond. I couldn't see what they were doing, it looked like it would be much too shallow and that the rocks in the middle would cause dead spots with no current. Henry did have some good ideas about it and he showed me what he intends to do with the rocks inside and on the edges, including a waterfall. It sounds good.

They have started laying the tiles in the kitchen. The blue is the same as in the pattern in the living room and entry hall.

We also looked at the design for the kitchen cabinets and I'm very pleased with those. We got the price too and it's doable.

Mimi had the idea to use a part of the metal design from the old kitchen door for the rails on the stairs. You can see it on the left in the above picture. I think it will look really nice. We couldn't keep this old door where it was and have decided to hang it on the wall of the upstairs terrace. We should get the cost for the rest of the metal work tomorrow.

We also got a quote for renovating the old doors and building the new ones. It's also doable but all of these things are coming up at once now. I have started worrying about money again. The sorry state of the US dollar and horrible exchange rate I will get doesn't help any.

We made one excursion to find the aquatic gardens in an old quarry here in the city. It's a gorgeous place and full of blooming water lilies. Now I know who to talk to when I need some lilies for my pond.

Other than that, we've gone nowhere and seen no one, we've been living on top ramen and cereal.

There were people I wanted to see but neither of us felt up to socializing and now we are leaving to return to Akumal on Tuesday. It's the malaise.