California 2 Puerto Rico

I talked to Stefan today and he was telling me about some freak weather that hit our house in Rincon, Puerto Rico today. I believe Stefan said there were 60ish mile per hour winds and a bunch of trees on our property got knocked down.

Apparently, he just got confirmation that a toronado hit Sector Vargas in Rincon, Puerto Rico (which is smack dab where our house is). Luckly the house in still standing :). Hopefully Stefan will get some internet connection soon and fill us in…

Ok…so it was officially a tornado. There was sleet and very high winds…but they only lasted about 10 minutes with a two or three minute period being extreme winds…I am guessing that was the tornado going over our house. Trees on both sides of our house as well as all the overgrown weeds were pushed flat. We had about 13 trees that were knocked over (one big one about 70 feet tall next to our house…luckily, gravity was on our side and it fell towards the quebrada) and our trash cans (filled with concrete debris tile and trash bags) and long furniture ended up in the field behind our house. Check out some pictures…No damage to the house besides some a few cracks in a cement wall from the house getting twisted around

For the past 4 weeks Puerto Rico’s rainy season has been living up to its name especially in the past two. For the entire month it has rained everyday for at least an hour or two starting at 3:00pm like clockwork. Yesterday, much like the past two weeks, the clouds rolled in earlier around 11:30 and the downpour started at 1:30ish which lasted until after 5:00pm. Keep in mind, I am not talking a San Diego style misting, it has been coming down in buckets turning our entire yard into a mud pit dissected by tiny streams flowing downhill to the left and right side of the house.

Check out the stream flowing just to the right of the cut in the yard

Once all of this crazy rain slows down a little bit, I would like to plant grass seed over the entire yard, prioritizing the flat section in front of the house. That way, we will at least have some green surrounding our front porch. In the meantime, Jerry and I are going to finish the rock planters and steps today. Tomorrow will be a ‘clean up all the extra rock and stone’ day and then it will be time for top soil.

One of the neighbors cleared out a bunch of dirt down by the quebrada and dumped it off up by the front yard…we’ll save some money and use as much as that topsoil as possible to fill the planters and put a 2”-4” layer of dirt on top of the rock / hard pack we have out front.

Yesterday, I helped Jerry and Edgar with the rock wall for a couple hours in the morning and then went off on my own to start my own little project; building a polished cement top for my desk. It is half experiment (to see if we will like the look for the kitchen) and half necessity. I am using the new desk Summer got for her office, but there is only room for one.

It took me much longer than I expected to build the ‘form’ (3 hours) and it was exhausting work. All of our ‘good’ tools were out front with Jerry so I was using all of our half broken secondary equipment which became very aggravating at times…but I was determined to set up the concrete by myself. Summer and I are at a stage in construction where we can’t afford to spend money on non-necessity things. She suggested we do more ourselves to save money, which is a hard task since the majority of what we need to finish up is all detail work (tile, kitchen cabinets, doors etc), but this was something I was perfectly capable of doing so I tackled the counter top experiment solo.

After building the form with a bunch of busted ass tools, I finally poured the concrete under the back porch at around 1:30pm and the thunder, lightning and rain was just starting…it lasted until 5:00pm. The rain really slows things down…

Back to the ‘no sheep, just sleep’ thing. Basically, I worked on labor intensive house stuff all day and when I wasn’t working on the house….I was online with my slow ‘wireless modem’ trying to get some work done. I had to skip our Monday, Wednesday and Saturday Night Poker Game last night because I was waiting for the concrete to set and we didn’t finish ‘burning’ its surface smooth until around 7:45. I told Jerry not to bring anyone to help him today that I would be his cement mixer / rock breaker and said good night to him. I let the dogs out for a few minutes…locked the front door and went to my room to read and let my back chill out. The next thing I knew it was 5:57am…my radio and reading light were both still on. No sheep to count, just deep deep sleep.

I just booked our reservations at the El San Juan Hotel and Casino for Halloween. We will be checking in on 10/31 for a 2 night stay.

I’m trying to find out if Club Brava (the club inside El San Juan Hotel) will be open on Halloween, since Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year. Club Brava (formerly known as Club Babylon) is normally only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I would imagine that it will be open on Halloween, but I want to make sure so I can arrange for other party plans if it is not. I tried calling the hotel to ask, but the front desk is not picking up. I did a little internet snooping and it looks like Empire Entertainment manages the club, so I emailed them to see what’s up for Halloween…We shall see.

Now comes the hard part…Picking out a costume! I’m thinking I will be either a nutcracker or the Queen of Hearts, but I’m sure I’ll change my mind 10 times before I make a choice :).

So now that the date is set in stone, who’s coming with?! Flights are pretty damn cheap from San Diego ($189 each way on JetBlue), so I don’t want to hear any excuses ;). Also, if you’d rather stay at a less expensive hotel, we can find one close to the El San Juan, just let us know.

More Guest House Pictures all the way down

My friends over at Casa Verde Guest House in the Puntas Barrio of Rincon are designing a new website because their old one is quite dated. The navigation is made up of coconuts asking you to guess which page it is going to take you to.

Anywho…they spent a lot of time and money in the off season this year completely re-doing the whole place. They are located 50 yards from Sandy Beach and there is no hill to hike up and down in the heat of the day; they are at the bottom of the hill.

For those of you interested in checking out Casa Verde…I put a bunch of information from their brochure below and about 20 pictures of Casa Verde…a great guest house in Rincon Puerto Rico.

Call Casa Verde in Rincon by dialing (787) 823- 3756
Email Casa Verde Guest House in Rincon Puerto Rico
casaverdeguesthouse@gmail.com

Just minutes from Sandy Beach, Casa Verde is a short walk to one of the best public beaches for sun bathing, swimming and simply relaxing. Other close-by beaches host spots for surfing, snorkeling, and diving.

Casa Verde is also home to the Rock Bottom Bar & Grille. In a “tree-house” style setting we serve up appetizers and sandwiches. In season, we serve until Midnight or 2 a.m. on weekends.

Casa Verde Guest House offers three different sized apartments for your stay.

Choose from either:
• Studios
• One bedroom one bath
• Two bedroom with one bath
• Three bedroom with two bath

Most are equipped with kitchenettes, air conditioning, and range in price from $59.95 to $179.95 during the summer and $79.95 to $229.95 during the winter.

Unit #101 is our “Rock Bottom Studio”
• 1 Bedroom with A/C
• 1 Bathroom
• Sleeps two people
• Kitchenette with stove top, microwave, coffee maker and mini-fridge.
• Private Patio

Unit #102 is our “Rock Bottom Suite”
• 2 Bedrooms with A/C
• 1 Bathroom
• Sleeps six people
• Kitchen with oven, stove, microwave, coffee maker, toaster & refrigerator
• Patio looking at courtyard.

Unit #103 is our “ Courtyard Studio”
• 1 Bedroom with A/C
• 1 Bathroom
• Sleeps two people , 1 queen
• Kitchenette
• Private Patio looking at Courtyard
• Handicapped equipped.

Unit #104 is our “Woodlands Retreat”
• 1 Bedroom with A/C
• 1 Bathroom
• Sleeps four people , 2 queens
• Kitchenette
• Secluded entrance facing the woodlands

Unit #201 is our “Ocean View Suite”
• 2 Bedrooms with A/C
• 1 Bathroom
• Sleeps five people , 1 king, 1 full, 1 twin
• Kitchen with stove, microwave, coffee maker and fridge.
• Shared Patio overlooking courtyard

Unit #202 is our “Courtyard Studio”
• 1 Bedroom with A/C
• 1 Bathroom
• Sleeps two people , 1 full, 1 day bed
• Microwave with mini-fridge
• Shared Balcony with ocean view
• This unit can be joined with 201 to make 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

Unit #203 is our “ Patio Studio”
• 1 Bedroom with A/C
• 1 Bathroom
• Sleeps four people , 2 queens
• Kitchenette
• Private Patio with ocean view

Unit #204 is our “ Patio Retreat”
• 1 Bedroom with A/C
• 1 Bathroom
• Sleeps four people , 2 queens
• Kitchenette
• Huge Private Patio looking at the woodlands

We have had our phone lines for about 10 days now. The only reason we got a phone line is because in the Rincon area, DSL is the fastest most reliable Internet available. Your options include satellite, Choice Cable and a wireless broadcast that is similar to satellite. The satellite Internet and TV goes down every time a rain storm comes through and although the download speeds are quite fast when there is reception, the upload speeds are always pretty slow. Choice Cables Internet is just the worst…it is akin to dial up when it isn’t down completely. This is the connection I am using at the office and it is down at least twice a week and the average speed when it is up is 70k. Keep in mind a dial-up connection is 56k. The DSL in this area is provided by PRT and runs at 2mg download and 1mg upload and is reliable. I have not heard of one instance where it has gone down unless a phone line was taken down in a car wreck or storm.

Now that we have the phone lines, the only thing we need to have high speed internet at the house (we work online so this is important) is a DSL modem. I have been slammed with work lately and have been anything but efficient having to deal with Choice Cables horrible service and finally got fed up with waiting for our modem to show up yesterday so I went looking for one. I called Radio Shack, Office Max, Wal-Mart and three computers stores all of which covered from Isabella to Mayaguez. No one carries DSL modems down here, just cable. Every store I asked said the same thing; “Why do you need to buy one, the phone company gives you a DSL Modem for free?”

Although I was pulling my hair out over it yesterday…I am just going to have to settle in to the island lifestyle and wait for the phone company to get us our modem.

Mark and I went to K-Mart yesterday looking for a DSL modem for the house amongst other things and we saw this hammer in the ‘clearance’ boxes that lined the back of the store by the tool section.

It really describes this country quite well. Work hard, drink beer, and don’t forget to drink more beer.

Without dwelling on this, our kitchen cabinets were supposed to be installed this week. Our mahogany french doors were supposed to be built and installed 2 weeks ago. The cabinet guy we are using is a very talented woodworker and is in high demand in Rincon. Unfortunately, he is not a good communicator. He never started our cabinets or door…he said he needed a deposit in order to do that. Of course he does, but he didn’t except my offer of a deposit 2 months ago saying “not to worry about it.” I am going to blame this miscommunication on my ignorance…I should have pushed the issue.

Although I was upset because it puts us behind on our work schedule, I sucked it up, created a time that he could agree on, put it in writing and gave him a deposit last week. Yesterday, he called me and asked me to stop by his shop to answer some questions. We had to figure out where to put drawers, cabinets, what type of shelves, lazy susans, spice racks, recessed shelves and detail work. It was actually a lot of fun because he had the “L’s” built that are going to be at the far end of the kitchen so I could actually visualize where everything would be. I stood in his shop as if I was in my kitchen at the stove and strategically place the spice racks, drawers and trash can cabinet in proportion to where the fridge, dishwasher and stove would be. It was cool and I got into a zone and made all of the decisions he needed made in order to keep moving forward with our mahogany kitchen cabinets. We’ll see if my decisions were good ones once we get them installed and I start cooking.

Check out some pictures of the start of our cabinets…

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This is the Grand Plan…I bet it makes sense to Louis

The frame of the cabinets that will be on the left side of the kitchen

I took this pre-sunset picture leaving Louis’s shop

I use my blackberry pearl cell phone at the house as a wireless modem so I don’t always have to drive over to the office…which has had extremely slow connectivity as of late. My service provider is T-Mobil which basically borrows air time from whoever has service in the area…the problem with using my cell phone at the house is this. It constantly switches between SunCom (Puerto Rican Provider) which gives me 1 bar and super slow internet and Cingular which gives me 5 bars and super fast Internet. The weird thing about it is that it switches carriers by itself. I am not moving around. It sits on the desk right next to me and about every 15 minutes it goes from Cingular to Suncom…which usually means I’ll get a “Timed Out” error and loose whatever work I was trying to upload.

All this should pass soon when we get our DSL installed then the cell phone will just be back up.

I’ve flown into/out of quite a few airports in my life and I have to say…The Aquadilla (Puerto Rico) airport has, by far, the worst security I’ve ever seen. I just brushed off the first few lax experiances I’ve had at the Aguadilla airport, but it really is totally ridiculous. The 1st 3 or so times I’ve flown from Aguadilla to San Diego, I never went through the FDA agriculture check (which is required to fly). I was still allowed to check baggage and fly out, no questions asked.

I could have had a litter of puppies and pot plants in my bags and no one would have been the wiser…

Are you aware of the “no liquids or gels” ban for carry on luggage? Well, apparently the Aquadilla airport doesn’t really give a shit. I always have a bunch of liquids in my purse (makeup and whatnot. I’m a girl. Fine), that every other airport requires that I put in a small plastic bag and “declare”. The 1st time through Aguadilla security, I just forgot (it was 4:30am) and security didn’t say anything. The next time, the 80 year old security lady asked if anyone in line has liquids or gels.

I said, “Yes, I do. Can I have a plastic baggie to put them in?”.

She said, “We don’t have any but you can go to the gift shop and buy one…”.

What?! You want me to put my shit in a stupid little plastic bag, yet you don’t have one and want me to get out of this huge ass security line, walk down to the gift shop, pay money for a sandwich bag and get back into the back of the line and miss my flight?

Needless to say, I rolled my eyes and said, “Yeah, that’s okay”, and sent my bag wih tons of liquids through security. They didn’t care. Even though I just said, in front of everyone, that I had a bunch of liquids/gels in my bag…

Oh, and apparently the x-ray people can’t even spot a big ass knife:

Yep, Stefan was able to board a plane with the knife shown above, in Aguadilla. Yet, if you try and board a plane with surf wax in San Diego, security will freak out…

Mental note: If you want to smuggle shit (like puppies or pot…haha), hijack or blow up a plane, just catch a flight from Puerto Rico…They don’t give a shit.