We had Christmas dinner at the Sandbox with our new son, Fred. Was going to post a picture of us but they all came out too blurry. I'm not sure what that means but will try again soon. Anyway, it was nice.
We went to San Pedro yesterday to renew our visas for the next 30 days. As usual we planned to take care of that business and then spend some time hanging out there. But it was so busy we could hardly wait to get back so took the first water taxi heading this way.
Tomorrow we will welcome in the new year, Of course, in my case that probably means I'll be doing it in my sleep. I don't have a very good record of late night celebrations. Well, not in recent years anyway. There was a time, if dancing on the table and, even further back, dancing under the limbo stick count. But that was another life and another Diana.
Now, the sailboat news. It is a slow process but we are getting there. First it took longer than expected to paint the bottom of the boat (due to some extremely rainy weather.) Then it took longer than expected to arrange to have the boat set back in the water (due to workers being on Caye Caulker time.) Then when we got the boat out behind the house we found it could not be brought into the dock like last year (due to sifting sands that have made it too shallow near the shore. Where is global warming when we need it?) Then we found that the sail Lester bought last year just before we left is too long. So we found Fernando - the sail mending or sail making man, who is busy but will be able to get to it the end of next week. Since we had no way to get back and forth to the boat so Lester could continue to work on the boat and ready it for registration inspection he bought an old plastic kayak. This works for him but just barely. I won't be able to get on the boat from it.(due to getting old and feeble. Darn it!) So we are looking for a dinghy or skiff, which we wanted anyway. We have located two that are "maybe" for sale but both parties are not ready to sell yet (due to the hope that when the main group of tourists arrive later in Jan. there will be someone willing to pay top dollar.) While in San Pedro we did stop at the boat shop where Lester was able to find about half of the parts he wanted to buy for the sailboat. And that is probably the biggest problem. It is so difficult to find the things you need to fix anything. But, anyway that is the story of the sailboat, Gypsywind!

In the meantime I have been watching that split leaf philadendrum (sp does anyone have a dictionary?) grow and it is like watching a time lapse film. The leaves are huge, almost 2 feet long and one day I saw a new one unfolding, a process that took just that day. A few days later I found a new a shoot, maybe 3-4 inches long. Within 4 days it had grown to about 2 feet long and had unfurled another new leaf as shiny and beautiful as a new baby's bottom! I was so proud of it! And treated it with such love and care. So imagine my surprise one evening when we were sitting at our little outdoor table, sipping our regular end of day refreshment when all of a sudden a puff of wind caught my new beloved leaf and caused it to whip across the table sending my glass of wine flying all down the front of me. Naturally, it was a white blouse and one of my favorites. I ran into the shower and tried to soap down and rinse, but no good. But even worse than loosing this blouse was loosing the glass of wine. That stuff is so expensive here! As a result of this traumatic experience I have since decided to cut back on my wine as not only is it expensive here, but it is all settling in a roll around my midsection. Maybe the plant was just trying to tell me something!
Well that is enough for now. My backside is getting sore! Happy New Year to everyone!