Category: Initial post

We went to the dentist yesterday, the 25th., for Ivan’s first follow up appointment, and what she saw surprised her.

He is doing beautifully, better than she expected. He has been doing exactly what she told him to do, and is a very compliant patient.

Not sure what happens next but nothing will happen until the beginning of November as she is taking a week off for a well deserved vacation. Ivan said we should text her and offer to carry her luggage. That was so sweet.

He is still drinking a banana shake for breakfast, and soup for lunch and dinner, so all is as it should be. Thank you, everyone, for the concern.

We have decided to have horizontal, as opposed to vertical, Murphy beds in both bedrooms other than our own. We will put a twin in Juan’s room, because that is what he had in Bettendorf, and, we have all of the bedding for it. We will have a queen in the 3rd bedroom, which will serve as our office, as well as the spare bathroom. Since our bed will be a freestanding queen, and we have tons of bedding for it, that will serve for the spare bed as well.

We are not going to have much around the bed, simple is best. They take up no room folded up, and very little open. Win win.

We will ask Martín to build our bed as well, like in the photo above, but we will ask him to raise the base to about 18” off the ground, or about mid thigh so, when the mattress is on the bed, (no box spring needed), the height of the mattress will be just below my waist. We will have a ton of storage under the bed, just like we did in Iowa. So nice to put seasonal clothing in totes under the bed, out of sight but accessible.

Plus, we use only King sized duvets, with comforters of varying thicknesses, weather dependent, that, on a Queen sized mattress, hang nicely over the edge, quite a ways, hiding the storage containers from view.

I will, of course, show you photos as all of this takes place. But for us, with limited spaces, Murphy beds are the best way to proceed.

I have gotten so organized over the past week, I do not know what to make of it. I am not sure if it is because this is the perfect opportunity to get organized, moving into a new home, but, whatever the reason, I am glad for it.Time consuming, oh my gosh, it has taken an incredible amount of time, but it will be well worth it.

I started with the panty/kitchen food list, as you can see below, first, putting everything in English, then, translating everything into Spanish, then alphabetizing everything, then adding the prices, as we buy things, or take photos of items or future purchases.

After that came the paperwork.

We went out and bought a legal sized portable file, legal sized hanging file folders, and the same sized folders to place inside. Here is what I did in less than an hour. Of course everything is in alphabetical order, you know me so well. But I do that in the kitchen cupboards, and pantry as well. Why hunt all over the kitchen for, say, coconut milk. All you have to do in our kitchen is look for the “M’s”, because it is milk first, then it is coconut. Here we will have several different kinds of milk, either canned, or boxed, but they will all start out on the shelf as milk. Easy peasy.

When Ivan went this past week, to get a drivers license for Mexico, he needed to have three, or four, different forms of identification, PLUS, at least two copies of each piece of information. He needed have his I.N.E. card, (Instituto Nacional Electoral- a voters registration card) his passport, his CURP certificate,(Clave Única Registro de Población- the unique registration registry code), and his birth certificate, to prove he is a Mexican citizen, (he has dual citizenship here). And, since we did not know he needed all of that, we were, once again, caught unaware, and did not have half of what was required.

Hence the organizing file. Now we have originals, we have copies of the originals, we have copies of the copies, all to hand, and no doubts about what is where. This is the biggest relief, I cannot tell you! Every time we go somewhere “official”, we are, invariably, missing one key piece of paper, and its 2 copies.

We have also placed all of the “necessary” papers in a hard plastic file folder, that we will keep together, to take to these different agencies- the water department, electric company, telephone company, drivers license bureau, any dang place where we have to change our names to the account from the previous owner of the apartment.

Here, the accounts of all of the utilities are tied to the address, not to an individual. Where we came from, you called the gas and electric company, told them you wanted to start service at your new address, and you were given an account number that belonged to you. Here, the accounts belong to the address of whatever home, office, condo. Regardless of who owns it, the account numbers remain the same, only the name changes on the account.

Over the past 2 months, we have been trying to change all of the utilities to Ivan’s name, and it is taking forever. This company wants this information, and, that company wants completely different information. And, as I said earlier, we invariably do not have something that someone feels is absolutely critical to have before being able to make a simple name change.

It is so aggravating, too, because we have, usually, driven 30 – 40 minutes, in standstill, bumper to bumper, traffic, just to be told we are missing some insignificant piece of paper!!! Fortunately for us, we are retired, and, as we are often heard to say “we have much more time than money”. So we go back home, find the blasted piece of paper, make umpteen copies of it, and go back the next day.

There is an upside to all of this, and that is that it gets us out of the house, and learning our way around the city.

I mentioned in my post yesterday about our new dishes, that we had gone to our favorite mercado, La Ciudadela. While we waited for them to wrap, and box, all of the dishes, Ivan, Enrique, and I, went to one of the little restaurants in the market for lunch, and coffee. I had Tacos Dorados, and a Café Americano. Here is what it looked like.

These are three corn tortillas, stuffed with cooked chicken and onions, deep fried, and topped with shredded lettuce, Queso Cotija, and a thin tomato slice. These are frequently called flautas at the Mexican restaurants up North, or tacitos, but here they are called Tacos Dorados, or fried tacos.

This is what it looked like about twenty minutes later. I actually burned the roof of my mouth a bit because they were fresh out of the fryer when she brought them to me, and I could not wait for them to cool down. Well, after the first two bites I slowed down enough to let them start to cool off. But I threatened to lick the plate when I was done. Luckily the young lady came and took my plate away before I could disgrace myself.

We all finished our coffees, walked around the market for another 20 minutes, or so, then we were on our way. We dropped off the dishes at the apartment then came home. I got organizing all of our accumulated paperwork, and typed a couple of posts. Job well done.

We had the opportunity to go to our favorite mercado here in México City today, called La Ciudadela.

Within a few minutes, while “just looking“, we happened upon a shop called “Diana”, which just happened to have some gorgeous pottery, (the blue and white) called Talavera, in the window. Had to have it. All of the dishes in the photos are made entirely by hand, in a town about 3 1/2 hours Southeast of here, called Puebla.

Then we walked into the store and saw these, (photo below) and had to have them as well. So, and hour later, they wheeled the box of dishes, on a dolly, and put it in the car for us. I can only say, for the two of us, they were absolutely meant for us.

The little things in the photo above, that look like egg cups, are actually the stems for drinking glasses. You buy the glass portion separately, and glue them on somehow. Not sure when, or how, we will do this, if we do it.

I hope you are able to see the detail in the photos. Each piece is almost perfect. We cannot wait to start using them.

The colors here are, for the most part, not nearly as dramatic as those, in this season, up North.

The leaves are falling, the days are a bit more overcast, and the temperature is dropping, however briefly, during the morning, and, again, in late afternoon.

The marigolds remind me so much of the fall season, and the holidays fast approaching. But as we have had so much on our minds lately, (Ivan’s surgery, the remodeling, etc.,) we have not focused very much on the season.

We could not believe it, and neither will you!

With the new inventory list I have been making, to help us keep our panty organized, (and waste less by using what we have on hand), I have been collecting, and documenting, the prices for the common items we will need to buy to restock our new kitchen. This could not have come at a better time.

We discovered that, for instance, the small limes, which we use everyday, (the little round ones, not the ones that are the size of lemons), are 19.8 pesos per kg. (about $1.04/kg, or $.47/lb.) at our local store, Soriana. The limes at Soriana are sold in large bins, not in bags, so you pick, and pay for only the amount you want. At Sam’s Club, they come already in bags of 1.5kg, and are 66.3 pesos a bag, about 44.2 pesos per kg. ($2.31/kg, or about $1.05/lb.) At Costco, they are in bags of 2kg. and cost 87.88 pesos, or 39.94 pesos per kg.($2.09/kg, or $.95/lb.)- both more that double the cost of Soriana, (if I did the math correctly).

Until I started this inventory list, and was taught to look at the base price for all products we buy, we had no idea that we were paying so much for this one product. No one else here did either. We all thought that by buying things at the wholesale clubs would, by default, make them less expensive. We were all wrong!

We went to Costco earlier this afternoon, and I spent most of the time taking photos of all of the different meat prices, the milk prices, the vegetables, cheeses, alcohol, etc. Then, when we got home, I put all of those prices into the computer, on my inventory sheet, so when we need to start buying food for our home, we will be able to look for the best price at all three stores. I still have to take photos at Sam’s Club, and download all of those prices, but, even though it is a time consuming undertaking, it has already proved to be worth it.

With the prices in pesos, it is too difficult, at the moment, to remember what we pay in this store versus that store, so this will be a big help to us in the foreseeable future. It has already paid for my time by just letting us in on the price of limes.

It will be here in the next week – el Día de los Muertos, or Halloween, for you in the North.

Día de los Muertos is actually celebrated on both November first and second down here. It came to be a celebration by combining both All Saints Day, and All Souls Days, which were minor celebrations in the Catholic Church. Celebration is fun, joyful, and quite a sight to behold we are told. We are both looking forward to seeing, for ourselves, what this is all about.

I only have a few photos at the moment because we have not had to go downtown for the last couple of weeks. When we do, I will add more photos. Until then, I will include some photos from last year when we were here visiting.

All around the city, workers have planted these huge groups of large marigolds, to bring color for el Día de Muertos. All along the boulevards are these groupings. Unfortunately, we are usually driving too fast for me to take more photos of them, but they are everywhere. One of these days (soon) we will go back to the downtown area to see if the calaveras (skulls) are on display yet, or not. Those, and the beautiful, handmade creatures above. Here, however, are a few of the hundreds of calaveras from last year.

Until tomorrow.

We got a call from Luis this afternoon to come over to the apartment; he had some things to finalize in the kitchen. When we got there, so much has been completed. I will add photos and you can see what progress has been made.

In the above photo, note how high the towel rack is? No one that is wheelchair bound could reach a towel placed there. We have asked Luis to move it to the wall, on the left, as you come in the room. Everyone will be able to reach it there. The same with the toilet paper holder- probably on part of the wood frame of the sink. We shall see.

We are going to buy new, smaller toilets, that will allow even more space in the bathrooms than we have already gotten. In this bathroom, however, every inch counts. To be in a wheelchair, or using a walker, one needs as much space as one can get. plus, we want to get the most bang for our buck (peso). But in this bathroom, along with the smaller toilet, we are going to see if Luis can angle it slightly, to give more leg room in front of the toilet. I tried sitting on it as it is, and I did not have enough leg room. He can decide how to best make it work.

We finalized the placement of the refrigerator, which turned out to be quite large for the smallish space, however, when the cabinets get put in, and everything is in place in the kitchen, I will be sure to add photos.

Luis said Martín is bringing the kitchen table, the folding table, soon, so we are anxious to see it. The chairs are in the second bedroom, also waiting to be used.

The chairs, in the photo above, had been sitting outside at the shop where we purchased them, but sheltered. You might be able to see the scuff marks on the bottoms of the legs, and the unfinished staining between the ribs, where they attach to the seats. Those have all been refinished, and they are all so pretty, and pristine looking. We cannot wait to use them.

Well, that is about it for this update. More another time.

I have been watching a number of Youtube videos in the last few days, mostly dealing with menu planning. That is something I sorely need- to start planning my meals for the week, and cooking with the things on hand, not running to the store, last minute, for this or that.

I discovered a channel called “fun, cheap, or free” by a woman named Jordan F. Page. As it turns out, she is married to her best friend, is the mother of 6, (though soon to be 8, as she is pregnant with twins), is a practicing Mormon, and the author of several books, blogs, video channels, etc., on subjects such as cooking, meal planning, organization in general, finances- well, you get the idea.

Once I started watching her channel, I was hooked. Her ideas about using what you have on hand to prepare your meals for the week caught my interest. That is something I have always wanted to do but do not have the skills, yet, with which to do it. I did not know where to begin. But, since we have to restock our entire fridge, freezers, and pantry, I thought, why not start now?

So, this morning, I got up, took my notes that I made while watching her videos, and made an inventory list of all of the items we will need to buy to start cooking. She suggests you write down the unit price of everything you purchase, from every store you might purchase those items, so you can see if a “sale” price at the local Costco, or Sam’s, or Walmart, is actually a better price than the regular price you pay at your local store. It has to be the unit price for each item, ounces, pieces, whatever is the base price for the item.

I am anxious to get started making our my pricing list, because, since everything is in pesos, it is difficult for me to remember what the cost of, say, bananas are at Costco, versus what they are at Soriana, our local grocery store.

I have my work cut out for me, but I want to save us as much money as I can, as often as I can. Not everything has to be the least expensive, because some things are worth their cost. But where less expensive does not matter, then my price comparisons should help us make better choices.