California 2 Puerto Rico

Stefan and I have spent a lot of time trying to pick out our counter tops for the kitchen. First we wanted granite, but the only granite we liked was the the most expensive ($75 per sq ft) and we didn’t really like it THAT much. Stefan went to the quarry to check out what it would look like as a slab and we decided we wern’t excited enough to spend that much on it. SO, we got to doing some research and Stefan decided that he liked Silestone. I checked out the Silestone at Home Depot in San Diego and, quite honestly, I didn’t love it. My mom suggested marble since she has marble countertops, but Stefan had made up his mind and wanted the Silestone. That was fine with me because it was cheaper then the granite and the kitchen is Stefans deal, so whatever he wants in there is muy bueno.

Stefan and I went to Home Depot in Mayaguez to place our order for the Silestone. And we ended up buying a light brown tiger stripey granite. Haha.

Who wants a ride on the decision making merry-go-round/?!

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Summer and I are about to leave for San Juan. We are going to take a vacation in a nice hotel there called The El San Juan Hotel. We have stayed there before and definitely like it. It is very nice. Funny thing, we will be driving up there in a bronco that smells like mildew and will be sitting on trash bags the entire time so our butts don’t get soaked (no windows in the truck). Whatever…it’s Halloween in San Juan Puerto Rico!

I just put in my fangs…spooky!

I’ll post some more pictures of Halloween in San Juan if I can get my camera working again.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Just 3 days after Stefan planted the grass seed, the grass “peach fuzz” was visible. These pictures were taken less then a week after the seed was planted:

Looks like I’m going to need to save up to get Stefan a riding lawn mower for Christmas…Go, grass, go!

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We’ve been looking to plant lots of fruit trees on our property, but tree “nurseries” have been a bit harder to come by then you would think. Remember science class when you were in 4th grade? Where you would stick some toothpicks in an avocado pit, half-submerge it in a cup of water and a tree would start growing? Well, that’s what we’ve been doing :).

(The avocado tree pictured here was actually a gift from Joan [Thanks, Joan!]. Our avocado pits are still sprouting.)

There was a cute frog hopping around in the pot when I took this picture, too. Bonus!

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Stefan and I surfed at Pools yesterday and I got my inaugural sea urchin in the foot. Sea urchins are probably the biggest hazard when it comes to surfing in Puerto Rico. The little bastards are everywhere. Almost every good surf break is reef and where there is reef, there are urchins. Thousands of them. If you don’t know exactly where to get in and out of the water, you will definately step on a sea urchin. Even if you do know the beach well, you’ll end up with an urchin in your foot from time to time. I have not talked to a surfer here that has not had an experiance with sea urchin in their hands or feet.

Sea urchins (or Uni, in sushi terms) are spiny little echinoderms and are somewhat related to starfish and sea cucumbers. They concregrate all over the reef and a light touch will send the spines shooting into your foot (or hand, or whatever body part was unlucky enought to brush by an urchin), as a means of defense. It doesn’t really hurt when you step on a sea urchin, because the spines also have some sort of numbing agent. I didn’t even know that I stepped on one until I was out in the line up and started to think that my big toe felt a little numb. I took a look and saw a couple of spines hanging out of my toe. Bummer.

How to deal with an urchin in your foot depends on who you ask. I’ve been told to drip candle wax on it and the spines will back out into the wax due to the heat (I tried that, it didn’t work). I’ve been told to pour peroxide on it and forget about it. I’ve also been told to dig the spines out of my foot with tweezers. I ended up digging out the big one and leaving the little tiny spines.

Just goes to show, how different surfing hazards are depending on where you are surfing. In California we had to worry about stingrays and sharks, which are a bit more hazardous then an annoying urchin. Apparently Puerto Rico does not have sharks, so I guess that’s a decent trade off!

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We have had one reported injury since we started working on the house here in Rincon…and that was Josh…after he got back to California. His back completely went out on him. The week before he and I moved a boat load of boulders which very easily could have contributed if not been completely to blame on his injury, but it didn’t happen here…so I consider that a quasi-injury.

Today, I officially injured myself. It happened here and I can confirm what, how, when and where it happened.

Here are the Facts
• Machete Present
• Jungle Hook Present
• Pica Pica Present
• Kuta Dog Keeping an eye on me
• It was raining
• I was on a hill

I was chopping away at the Pica Pica in the jungle with a newly sharpened machete. I had been at it for about an hour and was making some great progress. It has been raining and in the mid 70’s for the past two days (I am wearing jeans and a sweatshirt right now) so the jungle work has been much easier without the beating sun, but the footing is more treacherous. So, I was standing on a steep incline and slipped while swinging the machete…which slipped out of my hand. It flipped down to the ground handle first as I fell forward into the hill. I put my hands out to catch my self and it came down on top of the machete pinning the handle to the ground…and the machete went right into my hand. Ouch.

I immediately knew I was in a little bit of trouble because I heard the blade scrape against my bone and when I looked down at it blood pulsated out an splashed me on the cheek. Because it was raining, I dismissed the fact that my hand was dripping red as a sign of immanent death. Instead, I applied a bunch of pressure and walked up to the house…took off my wet clothes and woke up summer to apply a couple of butterfly bandages (i am so glad she’s here).

By the time Summer got up, the bleeding had stopped and we put to butterfly bandages on it. Summer wouldn’t let me go back down there today, so we went and spent $5,000 at Home Depot instead.

Sick one!

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Great news everyone! I just dialed in our Google Calendar to work on www.ca2pr.com so you can check out when we have visitors here and when you can come visit. Reserve your days for your Puerto Rico vacation by going to the Calendar page, check availability and shoot us an email. We’ll go ahead and update the calendar so everyone will see that you are going to be here…

Disclaimer: Must like warm weather, good surf, beer and dogs

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I moved down here in May and have been here ever since working on the house and my business. All the while, Summer has been running her business in San Diego commuting down here so we can be together and so she can chip in on the house work.

We planned it, we knew what we had to do to make this happen and we did it. It hasn’t been easy being apart or catching each other on the phone when one of us is completely exhausted and doesn’t feel like talking on the phone. When you are with someone, one of the things you forget about (at leas I did) is how awesome it is to be around them…and in their presence or at least under the same roof. The conversation doesn’t always have to be there, there is comfort in silence when your around each other. It is a feeling so natural and complete yet I never noticed it until I didn’t have it.

Summer arrives in Aguadilla in 14 hours 12 hours 7 hours. She is moving here on this trip. If she goes back to San Diego, it will be for a couple days or a week, and I will be with her. I am a happy camper.

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I have been anticipating a swell for the past three days. I haven’t checked the surf yet this morning but even if the swell did come in, I already know that it is going to be blown out. It is almost 7:00am, I have been up for the better part of an hour drinking my coffee and watering the peach fuzz and all of our new palm tree’s and the wind is blowing hard.

This mornings weather is a first for me (since we moved down in May). The trade winds are already blowing at a pretty good pace and everything is wet, like it was raining for a better part of the night. It is cool out and because it probably rained through the night, the humidity is relatively low. It reminds me of an early September morning in Jersey where I grew up.

If the surf is flat or too choppy, here is my agenda for the day:
• Pick up our tile order in Mayaguez
• Sweep, clean and straighten up the construction site (for my sanity)
• Work in the Jungle
• Try not to think about Summer being in here in less that 24 hours (or time will just creep along)
• Help layout the vanities in the master bedroom

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We worked all day planting palms today. I want to take a bunch of pictures when we have better light, but I told Summer that Mark and I planted fourteen palm trees and she made me go out into the rain as the sun was setting to take a couple pictures to post so she could see them. This is the only one that came out with enough light for you to see….I’ll take more pictures tomorrow and explain the layout and battle plan.

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