What...am I invisible?

So, I'm standing in line behind two people at Safeway with a birthday card in my hand. A man pulls up behind me with a full cart, and the checker looks up at him and says, "There's no waiting on checkstand 12, sir."

It turned out okay though, because a few seconds later (before I'd had time to get thoroughly steamed), another checker came and got me out of line and said, "I can help you on checkstand 9." It was strange -- maybe my original checker wanted to make sure I was first with the new guy. Who knows? I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, I guess.

On a brighter note, I had an appointment to renew my drivers' license today. It doesn't sound bright, does it? But stay with me! I was in and out of the DMV in less than 15 minutes. That's got to be a new land-speed record! I studied, just in case they made me take the written test, but the only test they put me through was reading the eye charts. Whew!

And for the curious, I have no new news on the job front.

Job search progress and good omens!

I've now been unemployed for five weeks; however, things seem to be coming together. It's looking good for me to get a 2-3 week project starting next week doing some PC training for a local hospital AND it looks like the company that I was laid off by in 2002 is going to have a new position opening in 2-3 weeks. The HR director called to find out if I would be interested in being considered. Oh, yes!

And a really, really, really good omen: at BUNCO last night, not only was I the big "loser" (collecting all 12 prizes), but I also got my $5 back by rolling the first BUNCO.

Yes, I'm still continuing my job search, but things seem to be rolling my way! Woo hoo!

Baby Jem

Just got back Wednesday from visiting my very first grandchild, James (who I call Jem, because he is precious beyond words!). He was born Saturday, October 16, at 12:02 am. He weighed eight pounds, seven ounces, and was 19.5 inches tall.


I'm ready for my close-up!


Are you sure you know what you're doing, Nana?

Review of Hotel Sierra, Nuevo Vallarta

We just got back from a terrific week in Nuevo Vallarta (10/9-16/04). Our suite was immaculate -- it was thoroughly cleaned and mopped daily, and there were always wonderful surprises in how the washcloths and bathmats were folded. We had swans, frogs, and once a tuxedo shirt. Always delightful!

The food was well prepared, although the choices were very much the same from day to day. Mar Intimo was closed for remodeling, so we ate all our meals in the main restaurant (cafeteria? buffet?). Try the Mexican Coffee after your evening meal -- it's delicious and the flaming presentation is very fun. We also had a bottle of Baja Californai merlot every evening with our meal. I LOVED the all-inclusiveness -- being able to climb out of the pool and get a quick drink at the bar was awesome.

There's a lot of construction going on, but the noise was never enough to be an annoyance. The ocean muffles the sounds of jackhammers pretty well. I only noticed the noise when we were snoozing by the pool; never any issues from our room.

I saw literature about horsebackriding and other available activities, but we didn't spend much time hanging around the hotel, so I have no idea if they were truly available. We did spend several evenings in the bar -- one evening there was a dance program (very well done) and we sang karaoke another evening. We went on two snorkeling/scuba trips through Vallarta Adventures and also enjoyed their Rhythms of the Night evening. They were extremely professional, lots of fun, and I would recommend them wholeheartedly to anyone. We also took an ATV trip through Rancho Capomo. Everyone else there went on the horseback tour, so we had our own private guide. It was great -- we got to see a part of the country that isn't tailored to tourists!

Paradise Village, walking distance to the south, has a good-sized mall. There's one shop which sells Internet access for about $1.50 for 10 minutes. It turned out to be a much easier way to keep in touch with my family than by phone. I had a lot of trouble using my international MCI phone card.

Paradise Village also has jetskis for rent and has a water taxi that is a fun way to visit Puerto Vallarta, and only costs a little more than a taxi (I think it was around $16 or 18 for the two of us, as compared with $12 or 13 for a taxi). I also went parasailing from the beach in front of Paradise Village for $45 US.

The only parts of the trip I didn't like had nothing to do with Hotel Sierra. Beware when you visit Puerto Vallarta when a cruise ship is in harbor -- all the prices go up. We also hated the constant pressure (none from Hotel Sierra) to go to timeshare presentations (oh yeah, they're "vacation clubs" now) .

We did go to the Mayan Palace presentation -- it was supposed to be about 90 minutes and ended up taking more than 4 hours. Somehow, the price went from $168,000 down to about $7,000. I didn't pay much attention to the numbers or how the package was changing, because I had no intention of buying, anyway. After seeing this morning how many people are trying to unload their Mayan Palace purchases on ebay, I know we made the right decision. Our salesperson, Nick, was trying to convince us that we could make a profit by renting the lockout unit out to golfers. Anyway, we got a nice breakfast and tour out of the deal, along with a day of snorkeling/scuba diving and a bottle of Kahlua, so it wasn't a total waste. I plan to avoid such presentations from now on, though.

Wandering the countryside

We spent most of today on our own private tour. We followed our guide through miles and miles of countryside -- farmland, ranchland, and a couple of very fascinating towns. I've got to spend some time with a map to figure out exactly where we were! Rancho Capomo's address is Gorrion N. 172 D-2 Col. Los Sauces, Puerto Vallarta, Jal.

A once-in-a-lifetime experience (I hope!)

I'm still trying to figure whose crazy idea this was! I never in my life have dreamed of parasailing. While I was WAY up in the air (a couple hundred feet, at least), I looked down at the people on the beach and thought, "I bet they wish they were me. Wait a minute ... I wish they were me!!!"

I took off from and returned to the beach in front of Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta.


Guess which person in this picture is wearing SPF 50 sunscreen!

Parasailing 2

Parasailing 3

Parasailing 4

View this one full size and look for the little white dot in the middle. That would be me.

Back to the beach! Hallelujah!

Parasailing 7

Nuevo Vallarta Trip

We flew to Puerto Vallarta by way of Los Angeles. On the last leg of the journey (from LA to PV), we upgraded to First Class. This was my first time to fly First Class, and it was way cool! Our airline was AeroMexico. Too bad our luggage didn't make the connection in Los Angeles! It did make Customs much easier and quicker, since all we had was our carry-on stuff.

We're staying for the week at Hotel Sierra in Neuvo Vallarta. Our taxi ride from the airport was quite exciting! I've never made a left turn around another car trying to make a left turn before....