Mexican Musings

It's another glorious day on the Bay of Banderas. We have lots in store today, considering most days we have a completely empty agenda!

Our friends/neighbours, W. & A., from Ontario are coming over for dinner tonight, and I wanted to serve them a nice meal because they've had us over a few times. Their place across the street is at least 4 times the size of ours, so very suited to entertaining. It's something of a challenge to produce a decent meal for 4 in my micro-kitchen, but I can seat 4 people at our dining table, although it will be cozy.

It took 2 grocery shopping trips to locate all the ingredients I needed for my main course (beef stroganoff - best recipe ever that I have had since my university days when my pal Russell K. served it and completely changed my mind about what beef stroganoff was). And I made the "Mar-A-Lago Key Lime Pie" recipe from Oprah.com that I printed off and brought down south over a year ago (apparently this is the most requested dessert on the menu at Donald Trump's club in Palm Beach).

Because my kitchen is so teensy (and I didn't want to have the oven/stove on further heating up the place), I made things the day ahead - so it's basically a reheat and serve siutation, just cook the broad noodles and steam up the fresh veggies to accompany the main course.

This afternoon we're headed to the "Club Albatros" to see if we can strike a deal for just a 3 month membership to use this luxury fitness facility/country club (2 pools, tennis courts, work-out facilities galore, various classes, cafe/bar etc.). A neighbour named Brad is a member and has been helping to broker a deal for us at the club. We haven't met Brad yet, he just connected with us via e-mail when the club rep asked him to talk to us due to the language barrier. We look forward to meeting Brad and his family - he sounds like a super guy, and has been so friendly and helpful.

We've been in e-mail contact wishing a "merry one" to family and friends who are spread all over, from Maui, to California, to Canada...which reminds me I must send off a Christmas e-mail to our pals in Melbourne, Australia as well.

We're planning an overnight driving trip south to the "Cabo Corrientes" area at some point. W. & A. said they want to come to, so we'll plot about that some more tonight.

About the only other thing on my radar is to try and find a self serve laundromat. We have tried 4 different local launderies and they don't get things clean (linens/whites go yellow and grey, T-shirts have ring around the collar, yet bleach splotches turn up on your coloured clothes...I just don't get it). I want to do my own laundry!

Todo bien. (It's all good.)