I've been using a used laptop we bought when my laptop crashed and burned. Power surge knocked out my motherboard. We both had our laptops plugged into the wall instead of a surge protector; luckily when it happened only I was on mine or we might have had 2 blown computers. So we bought this big heavy Dell laptop; I like Dell but it was so big and so heavy...probly a 17 inch screen and thick keys (to me anyway). I love this little laptop, it's an HP Pavilion and Everardo gave it to me for a wedding present.So I love it and it's special. There's a guy with a laptop store but he's really a programmer- you know- software vs hardware, but he sent me to a guy who did a little troubleshooting and confirmed it was the motherboard.
So then I had to find a new motherboard...EBay, other websites had them, but they only had used ones. There were several websites to order them from China, and in the end I chose one of those. I asked advice, mostly from my friend Roger, who is an engineer I worked with and we've stayed in touch. I had lunch with him and another engineer Lee & his new wife when I was in California at the end of April. Anyway his advice was for sure do not buy a used one! And even better advice, get a photo. So they had a photo of the revision of the board I wanted, which I took to the technical guy, who confirmed it was the right one. So I spent $118 and had it shipped to Tuscon, Arizona to our friends Deb & Rick. Then they brought it down. Oh and I also paid $38 to ship it DHL after googling Chinese shipping companies and DHL seemed the best way.
All this took about 4 weeks, and I was really worried the new board wouldn't even work, but...wait for it....YIPEE YIPPEEE YIIPPPPEEEEE it works. I dragged that big ole Dell on our trip and man after this pettie little laptop it was awkward. But the fact is that it works fine, and I even reloaded Rosetta Stone on it. I gotta remember to "deactivate" it, cause you only get 2 licenses with it, and if Karen's copy gets messed up she won't be able to reload it. And she is the one who lent it to me. Wait- actually I called their customer service and got another license, so it has 3; but it should be one for me and one for her, the extra one should be for her- she bought it after all. Yeah and after the software guy put everything from my hard drive onto the new one, the damn thing crashed about a week later. I took it back to him and he said- oh no problem- there was an issue from Microsoft but I have the fix now, come back in about 4 hours. I did, but he had wiped out everything I had loaded...aarrgghh yeah it was a painful process the whole way. But he's a good guy and the technical guy was great as well.
So- I'm up and running. Did I say we're moving? I think another yipee is in order: YIPPEE. We're now looking at a couple of websites, and at a higher price, 4500 to 6000 pesos a month...that's a top number of about $500US a month. The choices are much nicer looking. I spent some time today redoing our budget, and we can swing it, but will have to pay attention to what were doing- what were spending our money on. Sucks that my favorite sun glasses crashed to the floor the other day and now have a spiderweb crack in one lens. They're Ray Bans and I've had them for a few years, and have always been so careful with them. Damn. So I looked up on google to see if I can get them fixed, and I can, if I have the sales receipt. Did I mention I've had them for years? I don't have the receipt. So I looked at a replacement pair, the same ones...well boohoo, although they are cheaper than when I bought them, they're still $155US dollars and I can't even think of replacing them. Well the good thing is that I don't even see the crack when I'm wearing them, and anyome looking at them can't see it either. I think I may have had them polarized, and that would cost even more. Oh for the days when I threw away my money! Ha ha that's why I don't have any now....
So we saw 2 or 3 houses that look pretty good and are in neighborhood I've read are good ones. One just came up yesterday, and one has been available for awhile but maybe cause it's more. Today Everardo had me look for storage units over there; meaning we could pack up and go, and store our stuff for awhile if we needed to. But for now the plan is still to go in a couple of weeks, but just for a Monday-Friday trip, calling on a few places before we go. We are still very open to choosing something that will be temporary while we look for something else. Hopefully if we have to spend 6000 pesos, we can find something much cheaper when we're there and have learned the "lay of the land". Sam will be a happy dog. Poor baby is sooo hot, and his skin is so dry and itchy, and in places he's just scratching the hair right off himself. He's not too hungry and mostly lays in front of the fan...hmmmm kind of like me!
So now we explore another part of Mexico. First the southwest, then the north (middle I guess) and now the northwest. I'm sure there are other parts of Mexico we find acceptable..climate etc, but for now, being closer to California has alot to do with it. Both our families. In Baja there's a much better chance Poppi's aunt and uncle will come to see us, and I know he's really hoping for that. His nephew Francisco has family in Ensenada, and he'll probly do a road trip with his brother- he's my favorite nephew. It will be much easier for Drewy and Halla, road trip or fly- the tickets are cheaper, and there's no 4 hour road trip thru the desert ha ha. I was talking on the phone with Halla and we were talking about Puerto Penasco; that yes I like it here- I liked teaching English- ok I LOVED doing that-but maybe can find something like that over there. That I love free zumba in the park, and they have that in Ensenada as well (a woman txi driver told me), and I also liked my Spanish lessons but I'm taking Rosetta Stone with me and we'll see about other kinds of classes. But the one thing that I don't like here in PP is, well it's like the life has been sucked out of it; all the empty buildings- hotels and condos, all the empty houses; throw in the dusty roads and it resembles a ghost town sometimes. Halla really felt that, that it doesn't seem alive here, not alot of hope, not alot of excitement. Of course we don't live on the beach/touristy side, but I do feel the same way. Yeah in Ensenada I do NOT want to live on a dirt road.
I know it seems like we move alot. Well 6 months down south and a year here (or will be a year in Nov). But it's an adventure. I couldn't know what I'd like or not like until I tried it. I'm so grateful to be be so lucky to be able to try this. We do spend money every time we move, that's true, but so be it, especially if we can spend it a little more wisely then when we started all this. I'm hopeful that this will be our spot for a few years, actually I sort of had to promise that it would be....but maybe in future years we will want to explore more places here in Mexico. I've been to the east coast- to the Yucatan and I know it's too hot for me there. I saw the pyramids there and had an amazing time there, but I know I don't want to live there. But there's lots of other places, so here's to the future! For now however, the near future we're gonna try Baja. I liked the 6 short days we were there, I was so happy to see fog! That's the northern california girl in me.
I'm going to start packing, the stuff I've barely touched in months; ha like warm clothes and blankets, Gotta go get some boxes from behind the stores. Yep -here we go again!
Mexico fun fact:
Snakes appear repeatedly in Mexican mythology, from the serpent god Kukulcan which can be found the side of the Chichen Itza pyramid to the feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl.
So then I had to find a new motherboard...EBay, other websites had them, but they only had used ones. There were several websites to order them from China, and in the end I chose one of those. I asked advice, mostly from my friend Roger, who is an engineer I worked with and we've stayed in touch. I had lunch with him and another engineer Lee & his new wife when I was in California at the end of April. Anyway his advice was for sure do not buy a used one! And even better advice, get a photo. So they had a photo of the revision of the board I wanted, which I took to the technical guy, who confirmed it was the right one. So I spent $118 and had it shipped to Tuscon, Arizona to our friends Deb & Rick. Then they brought it down. Oh and I also paid $38 to ship it DHL after googling Chinese shipping companies and DHL seemed the best way.
All this took about 4 weeks, and I was really worried the new board wouldn't even work, but...wait for it....YIPEE YIPPEEE YIIPPPPEEEEE it works. I dragged that big ole Dell on our trip and man after this pettie little laptop it was awkward. But the fact is that it works fine, and I even reloaded Rosetta Stone on it. I gotta remember to "deactivate" it, cause you only get 2 licenses with it, and if Karen's copy gets messed up she won't be able to reload it. And she is the one who lent it to me. Wait- actually I called their customer service and got another license, so it has 3; but it should be one for me and one for her, the extra one should be for her- she bought it after all. Yeah and after the software guy put everything from my hard drive onto the new one, the damn thing crashed about a week later. I took it back to him and he said- oh no problem- there was an issue from Microsoft but I have the fix now, come back in about 4 hours. I did, but he had wiped out everything I had loaded...aarrgghh yeah it was a painful process the whole way. But he's a good guy and the technical guy was great as well.
So- I'm up and running. Did I say we're moving? I think another yipee is in order: YIPPEE. We're now looking at a couple of websites, and at a higher price, 4500 to 6000 pesos a month...that's a top number of about $500US a month. The choices are much nicer looking. I spent some time today redoing our budget, and we can swing it, but will have to pay attention to what were doing- what were spending our money on. Sucks that my favorite sun glasses crashed to the floor the other day and now have a spiderweb crack in one lens. They're Ray Bans and I've had them for a few years, and have always been so careful with them. Damn. So I looked up on google to see if I can get them fixed, and I can, if I have the sales receipt. Did I mention I've had them for years? I don't have the receipt. So I looked at a replacement pair, the same ones...well boohoo, although they are cheaper than when I bought them, they're still $155US dollars and I can't even think of replacing them. Well the good thing is that I don't even see the crack when I'm wearing them, and anyome looking at them can't see it either. I think I may have had them polarized, and that would cost even more. Oh for the days when I threw away my money! Ha ha that's why I don't have any now....
So we saw 2 or 3 houses that look pretty good and are in neighborhood I've read are good ones. One just came up yesterday, and one has been available for awhile but maybe cause it's more. Today Everardo had me look for storage units over there; meaning we could pack up and go, and store our stuff for awhile if we needed to. But for now the plan is still to go in a couple of weeks, but just for a Monday-Friday trip, calling on a few places before we go. We are still very open to choosing something that will be temporary while we look for something else. Hopefully if we have to spend 6000 pesos, we can find something much cheaper when we're there and have learned the "lay of the land". Sam will be a happy dog. Poor baby is sooo hot, and his skin is so dry and itchy, and in places he's just scratching the hair right off himself. He's not too hungry and mostly lays in front of the fan...hmmmm kind of like me!
So now we explore another part of Mexico. First the southwest, then the north (middle I guess) and now the northwest. I'm sure there are other parts of Mexico we find acceptable..climate etc, but for now, being closer to California has alot to do with it. Both our families. In Baja there's a much better chance Poppi's aunt and uncle will come to see us, and I know he's really hoping for that. His nephew Francisco has family in Ensenada, and he'll probly do a road trip with his brother- he's my favorite nephew. It will be much easier for Drewy and Halla, road trip or fly- the tickets are cheaper, and there's no 4 hour road trip thru the desert ha ha. I was talking on the phone with Halla and we were talking about Puerto Penasco; that yes I like it here- I liked teaching English- ok I LOVED doing that-but maybe can find something like that over there. That I love free zumba in the park, and they have that in Ensenada as well (a woman txi driver told me), and I also liked my Spanish lessons but I'm taking Rosetta Stone with me and we'll see about other kinds of classes. But the one thing that I don't like here in PP is, well it's like the life has been sucked out of it; all the empty buildings- hotels and condos, all the empty houses; throw in the dusty roads and it resembles a ghost town sometimes. Halla really felt that, that it doesn't seem alive here, not alot of hope, not alot of excitement. Of course we don't live on the beach/touristy side, but I do feel the same way. Yeah in Ensenada I do NOT want to live on a dirt road.
I know it seems like we move alot. Well 6 months down south and a year here (or will be a year in Nov). But it's an adventure. I couldn't know what I'd like or not like until I tried it. I'm so grateful to be be so lucky to be able to try this. We do spend money every time we move, that's true, but so be it, especially if we can spend it a little more wisely then when we started all this. I'm hopeful that this will be our spot for a few years, actually I sort of had to promise that it would be....but maybe in future years we will want to explore more places here in Mexico. I've been to the east coast- to the Yucatan and I know it's too hot for me there. I saw the pyramids there and had an amazing time there, but I know I don't want to live there. But there's lots of other places, so here's to the future! For now however, the near future we're gonna try Baja. I liked the 6 short days we were there, I was so happy to see fog! That's the northern california girl in me.
I'm going to start packing, the stuff I've barely touched in months; ha like warm clothes and blankets, Gotta go get some boxes from behind the stores. Yep -here we go again!
Mexico fun fact:
Snakes appear repeatedly in Mexican mythology, from the serpent god Kukulcan which can be found the side of the Chichen Itza pyramid to the feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl.
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