Gecko Orgy, Corpse Cleanup, Expats Bounce, Kayaking, and more...
Things have been hectic around here!
We thought we had raccoons on our porch at 3 am; we heard aggressive scratching on our window. Maybe they were trying to get in, to get to our cats...? Nathan ventured outside to find...a gecko orgy. Six of them, on our spare bedroom window, at 3-4 am. The aggressive scratching was Roxy, who was doing her best to claw through the glass to get to them. They were unfazed. Nathan had to get right up on them to get them to disperse.
After gagging my way through emptying a hot freezer full of meats at my neighbors' house last week, they then asked me to please clean everything out, scrub it down, and disinfect it. If they weren't the NICEST folks ever, and stuck in the US for medical reasons, I would have hard passed on this. The thought of them coming back to a few more weeks of rotted meat smells in their freezer....I get why they asked! I let it mostly re-freeze before I even attempted opening the freezer again. Their water is shut off, so I carried down a 5 gal bottle, trash bags, vinegar, baking soda, Clorox wipes...took the shelves out, brought them to our yard to hose them down...the meat juices and goo were EVERYWHERE. It was so, so disgusting.
It's clean now:
PRO TIP: If you are replacing a fridge on an island, get one with the freezer on the BOTTOM. I cannot even imagine the carnage if they had had a top-mount freezer, or a side-by-side - all that meat sludge would have poured out as soon as the doors were opened!
I texted my sister-in-law afterwards with photos - she is a retired homicide detective - to ask: How similar is weeks-old rotten meat in a hot environment to the smell of a dead body? Her answer: "LMAO IDENTICAL!!!" I didn't barf, and now I know I can withstand the smell of a rotting corpse, and also, if I ever smell that smell again, to go the opposite direction!
We have experienced our first friends moving off of the island - the couple that gave us the plumeria tree has returned to the US. They made it here for seven years, but decided they miss their adult children/grandkids, and want to travel the US in an RV. Their home sold, and they left on Friday. I can't even fathom moving internationally again, it is so much work! Not that we plan on ever leaving.
I also formed a US LLC so we can operate a business here, but be able to have bank accounts and be paid/make payments in the US. All online, super easy; I registered in Wyoming, paid for expedited filing, and had it the next day. Slowly chipping away at being able to operate!
Friday night, we had a date night at Hurricane's - top 3 lobster dinners I have had! Garlic butter lime grilled. They now offer a stamp card - buy 8 entrees, get a free ceviche. Don't sleep on Hurricane's - consistently great food, and the nicest family.
Saturday, we went to Kit and Brian's and borrowed some kayaks from Lina Point - the four of us set off to Akasha, across the western lagoon. It was cool to take that route and see new perspectives on our neighborhood and the sea! Upon pulling up, we found out that they had recently closed for renovations...reopening in October. Dammit! We had planned to lunch there and enjoy their pool.
Sunday was FOOTBALL! All day. I think every game was available on Coral Cable EXCEPT the Arizona Cardinals, which Nathan wanted to watch. We grazed on food and he made some killer wings! I dominated our family Fantasy Football League, so we'll see if that was a fluke, or if I can sustain it.
This week so far, I have spent more time driving to Pelican Internet Cafe than anything else. I had, what I believed to be, all of the documents needed for my work permit, and sent them over for some to be printed. Then my advisor said my letter wasn't right, and I had an application to fill out that he hadn't previously told me about. Back to PIC. My cloud was acting up, and it turns out, my re-written letter didn't send yesterday afternoon, so I had to go home and re-send it this morning. The family that owns the shop is so sweet; I joked that I was going to be their best customer, and maybe I would see them tomorrow, joking. She said, "nah, later today".
After running some errands and shopping with Kit, sure as shit, the company in the US filing our S-Corp for our US LLC sent me...2 pages to be printed and wet-signed.
...And so I returned to Pelican for the 4th time in 2 days.
In other news, the lot that was for sale immediately south of ours is now UNDER CONTRACT! Only took a few weeks, but still, I'm surprised it took that long at the list price - it was a lot of oceanfront land for a very reasonable list price. Hopefully, our new neighbors are wealthy and will immediately put in a road, ha!
I believe I have killed my sourdough starter, ugh - I have been giving it daily feedings/CPR to try to revive it, to no avail - it's still not doubling in volume. If anyone knows of someone willing to sell some active starter, please message me!