Isn't Tita cute with her new name tag? All the critters got new name tags with the correct phone numbers for both Mérida and Akumal.

The dogs had tags with my old cell number on it which I lost when I got the iPhone.

Tita doesn't seem to mind wearing her jewelry, along with her rainbow harness. She's so stylin' - she even has a matching leash.

I think you could call the end of a project like this house 'the doldrums', like that area in the ocean when it seems that nothing moves. There are things happening though, today we got the box springs for our bed and unfolded the memory foam mattress so it can fluff up and air out.

I was appalled at the cost of the stupid box springs. All they do is hold up the mattress and have feet. No one ever sees them, no one lays on them, it doesn't matter if they are made of old dog hair really. So, why do they cost over $1500 pesos each? I walked out of one store at that price. I finally got them - you need TWO single ones for a king size bed - at Costco for a couple hundred pesos less. At least I get a 2% rebate from Costco, but still, these things are not worth that price.

To make it worse, when we got the feet screwed onto them we discovered that they are warped and one foot doesn't come even close to the floor. After unscrewing it some and adding the weight of the mattress it is more or less on the floor. Shoddy, overpriced crap, that's what it is. I was contemplating a piece of plywood with some Home Depot feet on it, I still think it would have worked but Mimi talked me out of it. For one thing, the bed would have been really low unless I got giant feet for it. I wasn't sure that would look too cool.

So, we have a bed. We could sleep at the house theoretically. We also have some gas in the tank. After a week of the gas companies not showing up, apparently one showed up last night. Mimi figured that out when she saw the huge black marks on the front of the house from their hose. She went up and checked the tank and it only showed 20% full. Why would you only have a little gas put in the tank when it is such a hassle to get them to come out at all?

When she called about it they said they thought they had put 50% in the tank. Now, I have 2 questions. Why would you only put 50% in, why not just fill the thing? and... where the hell did the other 30% go? Is there a leak? an open valve? I'm not at all tempted to sleep there as you can imagine. I missed a call back from the job boss tonight so I'm sure there is an explanation. Whatever. I don't really even care what the explanation is I just want the damn tank full and no leaks.

The laundry room is torn up again, at my request. I know, it is only a laundry room, no one would see it but the maid if we were a 'normal' Mexican family.

Well, we're not. We're weird gringas and we even do our own laundry most of the time. We don't always shut the doors to these service areas and, what can I say, the problems in there bugged the shit out of me.

The water turn off valves are standard, outside, garden hose type valves and they were about 6" above the top of the washer. Why couldn't they be below the washer? Out of sight?

The clincher though are the 2 fugly, faucets that are at the sink. I asked the plumber the other day why it wasn't a mix faucet so you could adjust the hot and cold. That's when he told me that both of them were cold water! WTF?!

After I was reassured that there is hot water a mere 4' away at the washing machine, well, it made even less sense.

Add that the vent from the dryer didn't line up right with the vent hole so it couldn't be pushed next to the counter or back against the wall. It just wasn't going to work for me.

Its all getting torn out and redone. Silly gringas!