More Apartment Photos

Here are photos of the front of the apartment, the bathroom, and the closets. We also have a living room and dining room.

Our Apartment

Here are a couple photos of the aparment kitchen and bedroom. I have been trying to upload all of the photos to blogger but it won´t let me so I´ll do a few at a time. More to come!!


As you can see, we have all the comforts of home including air conditioning and lots of closet space. Paul has already claimed the desk as his own so I think I will be writing my thesis on the couch!

And that stuff Paul was saying about me being a kept woman and cooking his meals, he hasn’t let me near the kitchen the whole time. Kept woman, Ha!

Tonight we are having burritos and Paul is going to fry up a plantain for the 4th game of the Mexican World Series between the Sultanes of Monterrey and the Yucatán Leones. This game as well as last night’s is being played here in Mérida. We tried to get tickets, but they are sold out. So we will be watching it on TV. Oh yeah, the Ramírez’s set up cable in our place and we get TNT. Heaven? I think maybe… though hotter than I expected… I haven’t seen any ads for The Closer yet, so not sure if I’ll be able to watch it or not, but let’s face it, I do have a thesis to finish! (P.S. The Leones won in the 14th inning at 12:30am!! Woohoo!!)

That’s all for now, except we did walk through the third largest mall in Mexico yesterday. It has a billion stores and two movie theaters. We got cookies and coffee and people watched mostly. There was a store called La Casa de las Bolsas (The house of the bags/purses). I think I like it here!

Next week I’ll try to get some photos of Mérida en Domingo. It is pretty neat!

Abrazos,

Melissa

Hola Todos

Estamos en Yucatan!

We had a good trip here although Paul almost killed me when the airline attendant at the check-in counter said that you could NOT check three bags for free. I argued very nicely with her and she let us pass for free (which was good because Paul´s head was about to explode). The funny thing is that I kept thinking this would make a good blog - ha!

So we got through for free but had to rearrange some stuff in the suitcases b-c one of them was over the weight limit (mine, duh). So I did that and had plenty of time to wish I had chapstick with me and about dehydrate before the flight took off. Dulles was fine, we got breakfast and headed on to Cancun. The customs agents went through one of Paul´s bags (of course) because they said he has a really big book in it (imagine that!), but we got through fine and then ended up in Merida. The apartment is super-cute (photos coming) and Señora made us dinner. We passed out and then in the morning Señor took us shopping at the Super Maz Grocery.

I paid for groceries and Paul got some cash at the bank to pay our rent. Apparentely, he left his check card in the ATM - which we realized about an hour or so later. We have had a time over the last 24 hours trying to call the US trying to get things straightened out! Hopefully we will be all set next week with a new card. The worst part of it all is that "world traveler" Pablo didn´t even get his card stolen, he literally left it in an ATM! Poor guy!
He is getting things staight with the university right now and getting signed up for classes, which start on Sept 4.

Fer and Maggi - we found our futon, just need to buy it and we are ready for yall!

Apologies if this post has a bunch of funny fonts and wing dings in it but this is an internet cafe with a keyboard that is lacking the letter ´r´ afterall.

Besitos a todos!

Masha's Surgery

Masha had surgery on Wednesday to remove one of her lower canines because it was beginning to rot. Here are some "before" and "after" photos of her pearly whites. Because the surgery is pretty invasive they have to put her on a morphine drip and monitor her organs. That means it costs A LOT of money and so Masha now has a job selling tomatoes from our garden to passers-by and neighbors (sound familiar?). She has about 2,000 tomatoes to sell yet before she pays off her debt!



Pablo and I thought it was pretty funny that the price estimate we received stated that she will receive a "complimentary" nail trim and ear cleaning, which is great, don't get me wrong, but complimentary, I don't think so!

Ok, enjoy the photos of Mashi-Mash and her (non)tooth!






This one is pretty good, she looks like she's smiling for the camera. Say "cheese" Mash!







Here you can see where she is missing her tooth. We knew we would have to have the tooth removed eventually because she chipped it pretty bad when she was a pup. She went through surgery very well and the doctor was pleased with the procedure (duh, it was much money, yo!). She goes back in a week for a check-up and then in another week for a final "ok" and is given a clean bill of health.


She was on some pretty powerful pain meds, morphine at the hospital and rimadyl at home. After we brought her home we tried not to laugh when she started walking sideways, but it was unbelievably hilarious. Luckily she was pretty tired and went to bed early that night. I was glad she slept all night. The next day she was back to her old (cranky) self again - minus one tooth.



She is doing really well even though she can't have any bones or hard toys for two weeks and she is on soft (canned) food for awhile.
Masha's favorite thing in the world? Canned food. She loves the stuff and of course we had to buy enough to give Lucas a bit too - wouldn't want him to be jealous! Here's the last photo of her mouth. It's a pretty good profile shot. And, for those of you who are wondering: Yes, we have the tooth. And yes, it is super-gross!








In other news, KK came to see us for a night and we had a FAN-TABULOUS time with her! You have to appreciate those friends you don't see very often but when you do you can just pick up where you left off. AND you have to appreciate those friends who can enjoy a coffee shop as much as you! Much love KK

Mom and HSD are coming tomorrow to help us move our stuff into storage. Hopefully it won't take too long and we'll have cooler temperatures.

The heat wave is supposed to break tonight. *hope, hope* We have had record temperatures for the last 3 days - I'm trying not to complain by convincing myself that I'm in training for Mexico!

Did you see The Closer on Monday night?

Well, if you missed The Closer, you really missed it, it was a good one. The funniest part was when one of the morgue staff asks Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and Seargent Gabriel, "What's your porn name?" He explains that your porn name is the name of your first pet followed by the first street you lived on as a child. So I was born when my parents lived on Gleason St. and the name of my first pet was Poohkie (I was a kid ok, his real name was Poohkie Tzi-of-relief Gizmo Birkhofer, but that's for another conversation) the dog.
Sooooo, my porn name is: Poohkie Gleason. ha!

What's yours?

Some friends who have already chimed in:
Pablo: Maggi McCants
HSD: Peaches Liberty

*not sure why, but I find this absolutely hilarious!*

so don't be shy, post your porn name. You'll laugh, I promise.

P.S. Seargent Gabriel's porn name: Lightsaber Central. That one is pretty good!

ok, so I didn't die, but it was close...

So-

-like a good friend, I went out for a drink with M&F because it was M's birthday on Monday night. We tutored for an hour and then met the boys and went to the Wine Bar.

Innocent enough...

I will admit 3 glasses of pinot noir is pushing my limit but I had had dinner and I wasn't driving. (thanks, F) So I was feeling a little tipsy and about 11ish we went home. *Note: I missed my first episode of The Closer!!* Well, I was sicker than sick! (I'll skip the details, you can thank me later). The next morning - that would be Tuesday - I get up and I'm still feeling totally gross and eventually decide after almost falling down trying to dry my hair that maybe I shouldn't go to work and just take it easy for the morning until I start feeling better. So that's what I do, except I don't start feeling better.

Sidestory: I had three glasses of wine, mentioned above, and the first glass I drank almost empty when I realize there was a little gunk in the bottom of the glass and didn't think much of it, it is a nice place after all, and that was that.)

OK, I spend the whole day (Tues) sleeping and not eating because I am so nauseous. Wednesday it was the same thing! Paul kept saying, you're just having a bad hangover *which really started to make me mad btw, I mean, it's not like I was doing tequila shots all night, thank you* So Wednesday I don't eat anything and go to work for a few hours but feel like I'm gonna loose it at any moment and go home early. I start thinking, hmm, feels like traveler's sickness but I'm not traveling. *check the Cipro stock, not full but not empty either* so I pop some Cipro and the next day, Thurs. Voila! I feel better. I KNEW it wasn't a hangover *P!* the stupid wine had turned, and yours truly, a cuban-rum-and-coke girl, not a wine one didn't even notice. Awesome. Love getting food poisoning. So here I am having lost a week of my life - no biggie, really - and trying to catch up.

The only thing that did get done this week is that I got another one of the halters that are on sale at Banana that M and I are obsessed with. Seriously, they are awesome and I will wear them everywhere. And between M and I, I think we own like 8 (yes, I have 4 of the same top in 4 different colors) Dude, they're $7.00!! That's like stealing from Banana.

OK, got to get back to work. Until my next brush with death...

7 weeks, have I made progess?

Well, it seems my to do list is getting longer, not shorter! Still lots to be done:

To Do List:
1. get Keri some ear plugs - Lucas has been snoring a lot lately. The hot weather, maybe?
2. buy as much tea as will fit in large suitcase
3. PDF my whole life so I can take it with me!

Pablo y yo hung out w some friends last night to celebrate Crazy J's b-day. Turns out she's a closet internet whiz! So I am well on my way to uploading all of my bookmarks on delicious so I can access them from any computer brilliant, no?*! That's what working in the real world will do for you! Might want to check out these too: writely and writeboard. I think they might save my life.

P.S. I believe I mentioned sth last time that I wasn't going to keep posting to outer space... I know I haven't formally opened the blog just yet, but I have told the VIPs, so y'all need to post, yeah?

P.P.S. I had a bunch a problems last summer with my hotmail account so I am going to switch to gmail. It's a little hairy trying to forward my hotmail stuff to gmail, so come see me at: melissabirkhofer@gmail.com

Besos!

8 weeks and counting...

Hi All,

Welcome to my first post as Merida Meli. I'm not Merida Meli yet though b/c I'm still in the states but Pablo (my husband) and I are gearing up for the big move. Mostly, we are spoiling our two dogs, [Masha - a prissy and determined Aussie-Cattle Dog mix and Lucas - a laid-back sleeper/eater/sleeper Cattle Dog-Beagle mix] b/c we are feeling some parental guilt for leaving them behind. But no worries, they will be well taken care of by our good friends Brian and Keri Espain until we get back and re-claim our identities. As soon as I figure our how to post photos/hyperlink to this thing I'll be ready to post from Mexico. Y'all better post here too, I'm not just gonna keep writing to outer space the whole time - although it is kinda fun...

I'm off, I have to get up early to take my car in to fix the power steering resevoir so it will pass inspection so we can leave it with the Espains while we're gone. The life of a world traveller is sooo exciting, don't you think?...

test: www.unc.edu/~birkhofe/