This photo is from Thursday morning....and backtracking to Tuesday and Wednesday, and it is also yesterday's (Friday's) photo and guess what, this is what it looks like today, too. This whole week has been a dreary, foggy blur. It has also been pouring down rain all week. I don't usually mind that, but knowing that I am going to Mexico makes 5 dreary, blurry, rainy days hard to take.So, I know you want to know where our passports are, and if we got our visas, and I'm going to tell you.
BUT, first, we had our spanish class this morning and I KNOW Bill does not study, but all of a sudden he started up a lengthy conversation, and I didn't even know what he was saying, but Violeta did and so, I have to step it up... I think they were talking about food...
Well, the big bank downtown never got back to me about the letter we needed for the Mexican Consulate. Not one time did they return my phone calls. So on Wednesday, after becoming very exasperated with the bank, I called the Customer Solutions Center.
She said, write a letter? Of course, I can do that right now and I will fax it to your branch.
I didn't expect her to say that and of course, she had to speak with Bill and get his account information and he was in the shower. So, I handed him the phone in there and he gave her all the details and I drove 10 minutes later to the bank and got the letter.
At home, we looked at the letter. It had nothing we had requested on it.......
At this point, we decided to take the letter and return to the Consulate and get our passports back, and get into Mexico on an FMT visa.
So we drove to Seattle in the pouring rain and walked to the Consulate, where we were told that the letter (as we suspected) was not sufficient.
He asked if we had gone to the large, local bank around the corner.
I said we had and threw out the NAMES of the people who helped us and SAID they would get back to us with the appropriate letter.
He said he knew those people and they had written letters for the consulate and FM3 visas many times.
I was really getting tired of all this and was close to asking for our passports when he said the visas are $130.00 each. We still weren't sure if he was giving us the visas. Bill pulled out his credit card.
No, no senor, cash only.
I sat down and read the Latino newspaper while Bill ran down the street to get some cash.
He paid the consulate. Your visas will be ready at 1:30, the man said..
1:30? Come back at 1:30? We still weren't really sure we would get the visas.
So we left the consulate and on the way out the door we realized we had paid him $260.00 cash and we had no receipt, no visas or passports and we looked at each other. The consulate closes at 1 pm.
We walked to Pike's Market to kill an hour and a half and felt that maybe we had done something stupid. No receipt, why didn't we ask for a receipt? Surely the Mexican Consulate would not rip us off, but on the other hand, they didn't really seem to be welcoming us into their country with open arms....
Sure enough, at 1:30pm, the consulate was closed, but another couple pushed a button and were let in, so we scooted in right behind them. Our consulate helper smiled at us, but began helping the other american couple who were evidently getting their FM3 visas as well.
After a lengthy wait, he called our names and said, here are your visas.
We were photographed and fingerprinted and asked to sign away on a few pieces of paper. My heart was pounding so loudly, I think the room was shaking.
We left the consulate, drove home and took a very long nap...
BUT, LOOK!!!!! FM3VISAS!!!!!! WE HAVE THEM!!!!!!!!
So, now that that is all done, we have 90 days in which to register our visas in Mexico, which hopefully will be easier to do than it was to get them, but I will keep you posted on that.
Liliana, our Alamos realtor,has moved the Calle Durango closing date to April 7th, which is terrific! We have been scrambling around here, trying to get our house ready to sell. Now that we do not have to be in Alamos for a March 30th closing date, we have a little more time. Liliana says that workers are busy removing garbage from the casa and all of the sticker brush from the huge yard.
And now that I don't have to blog about visas (at least for awhile), I can tell you about a few other things. The big painting so many of you know is up for grabs. It's in the photo below. It is 4x8' and has hung in our stairwell since I painted it 21 years ago. If you have room, come and get it....
On to the kitchen....... It has been very interesting. The boys, (Bill being the boss of them), mis-calculated the first time and the space to the left of the fridge (which is where the range will slide into) was 3/8's of an inch off. So, they had to remove all of the cupboards and push them over to the right 3/8's of an inch. The pieces are all connected so they could not just move the bottom section. It all had to come down.
The granite top was installed yesterday. The workers' trucks took up most of the driveway, so I had to back down the driveway and on the way down I took out one of the driveway lights. But, it's okay, I don't think Bill knows about it yet. I will tell him sometime...later....
Beautiful new cherry cupboards.....
The fishing/ hunting boat is still for sale.
We have sold all of our antique bedroom furniture set and they are picking it up on Monday. I guess we will have to get a foam mattress or something to sleep on. Maybe we will change rooms! I hadn't thought of that. Maybe we will make our sleeping room in the living room. Well, that would be different.
I probably forgot to tell you that we sold our HD 47" screen tv. We are back to our little plug in thing that attaches to the antenna and I am not even going to show you a picture of that because it is kind of sad. We tried to rehook the cable up to it, but couldn't figure it out. We are so bad. We have a dvd and vcr player but we can't figure out how to even work those. We are getting abc, nbc, cbs and once in awhile channel 13, fox. I miss cable.
I am on box #49 and we are still planning to take only 3 chairs, 4 chests and a small desk. I have not begun to plan how I will box up the studio. I have so much glass, I think I will need to leave some behind.
I am painting over the guns n' roses emblems Ian painted on his bedroom walls the night I hosted the Christmas Starbucks party and everyone had to leave early because the paint smell was so bad.
Almost everything is down off all of the walls now, and either boxed or still waiting to be boxed. When Bill isn't working on the kitchen, he is installing a new bath downstairs, or getting new gutter quotes or driving to Home Depot.
The cats are spending more time in their little transport cages, lounging around on little thin lambskin wankies and licking catnip pouches. They have no idea what is about to happen in the next month.
Out in the valley, it actually looks like it is clearing up a little. Maybe a beautiful sunrise is in the making for tomorrow...stay tuned.....
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