We had quite the busy December this year. My parents treated us to a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise the week before Christmas. We had a great time and consumed probably on average 10,000 calories a day aboard the ship. Our first port of call was Puerto Vallarta. Here, we signed up for a 4×4 Jeep excursion. We got to drive our own Jeep in a caravan through the city streets and then off-road into the countryside. Lots of dust!
The next stop was a tequila factory tasting room. I was the designated driver though so I didn’t get to partake. We finished off at a beachside bar and Mike and I enjoyed a swim in the warm ocean waters.
Our next port of call was supposed to be Mazatlan, however our cruise ship had taken out a small jetty in Puerto Vallarta and there was a hole in the ship. Apparently, our ship had crashed into the Royal Caribbean ship the previous week so the captain was so focused on not hitting the other boat that he didn’t notice the jetty.
After a second day in PV, we went to our final port of call in Cabo San Lucas. This was a beautiful port with crystal clear waters and beautiful rock formations. We did some glass bottom kayaking and snorkeling here.
During our time on the cruise, we had our house tented for termites. During escrow, thus is supposed to be taken care of, but I think there may have been some deception involved. When we pulled up the carpet to remodel the office, we found that the termites had munched on most of the moldings and had started on the floorboards. We decided to just take care of it with a full house tenting, which should be done approximately every 10 years, and the previous owner had never done. We had to put our food and toiletries in special bags and the plants that were close to the house got all brown, but they are supposed to revive themselves in a month or two.
On Xmas eve, Mike and I drove up to Mammoth Mountain and stayed the long weekend in our favorite pet friendly lodgings. This was our first snowboarding trip of the season and I signed up for the all-day lesson to brush up on my beginner skills from last season. With about an hour left in my group lesson I made the classic snowboarding mistake; I caught my edge and tried to break my fall with my open palm. When I landed I knew I had done some damage. I stayed on my hands and knees for a few minutes trying to catch my breath and then met up with the rest of my class a few yards down the mountain. I could immediately feel my watch tightening on my wrist so i took my glove and watch off and found a very crooked wrist underneath. I told my instructor that I think I really hurt my wrist but he pretty much told me to “walk it off” and make my way down the mountain. Had I slightly better snowboarding skills, I probably could have done that, but still learning and falling often, I didn’t want to take the chance of landing on my wrist again.
My instructor forgot to call ski patrol and I sat up there for 40 minutes until he remembered and sent someone. Mike thinks I should write a “strongly worded letter” but I don’t know. Anyway, I got the scary sled ride down the mountain from ski patrol and Mike and I drove to the ER. There were 4 wrist injuries there and two collarbone fractures, all snowboarding related. The rest of the waiting room was knee injuries from skiing. I had two broken bones and it was jammed out of place so the doctor had to numb me up and move it back into place. The pain was probably purely imaginary when he did this, but traumatizing nonethless. So now I have a cast past my elbow for a few weeks and then they’ll put on a smaller wrist cast for the last couple weeks.
Posted by lisa 
Mike and I carved our pumpkins this morning. I had purchased a pumpkin carving kit from the grocery store. Both the cutters bent and broke right away. What we really needed was the Pumpkin Carver tool that they sold back in the 80s. Now that was good quality. Not this flimsy crap they sell now. We both opted for the classic triangle look, partly because using a kitchen knife made more intricate designs difficult.
We had a Halloween potluck at work today. I made these scary cupcakes for the party. I don’t know if it’s the economy or what, but the usual fervor surrounding Halloween seems to be gone. It’s on Saturday night this year and it seems no one is dressing up or doing anything. Mike and I plan to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids, then go hang out with some friends that live nearby.
My sister and brother-in-law just had a new garage door opener installed that I absolutely fell in love with during my visit there last weekend. It’s the Chamberlain Whisper Drive Plus (model HD900D). I emailed the stats to Mike while I was still in MI and he went out an bought it right away. This afternoon we had the guy come and install it and I tell you there is no looking back after this! Our old garage door opener was sort of half-broken. Mike was constantly adjusting the tension on it because it would stop working about every other day. It was also very loud and with the master bedroom above the garage it shook the whole room every time the door opened or closed.
I made a quick trip back to MI to meet my nephew. He is SOOOO adorable, I can’t even stand it. If you want your head to explode with cuteness then click 
Max looked so pitiful when I picked him up after his surgery yesterday. He was all groggy and confused and had that ridiculous cone around his neck. While he was sedated, I had the vet do a routine dental cleaning. They found three loose teeth and pulled them out. So in addition to his ear wart being cut off, now he has to recuperate from three molar extractions.
Max is getting up there in years and as a result is starting to grow a lot of lumps and bumps, which are typical for senior dogs. He started to get a little wart-like thing growing on his ear a while back. The vet said this wasn’t anything to worry about and we should just monitor it. At some point, this wart started to grow exponentially and the wart grew its own wart. It is quite unsightly and has its own vascular system. Aside from being gross to look at, it wasn’t causing any problems and I didn’t want to put the pup through unnecessary procedures just for something cosmetic. This past week though, it started to bleed. We’re not sure if Max scratched it, or it started to bleed on its own. Anyway, Mike and I both agreed that if it starts bleeding, then we’d do something about it.
My car is now in the collision shop and I got a Ford Edge SUV as my rental car. I specifically asked for a pick-up, minivan or SUV since we had some large objects to haul around and I thought I’d use my time with a rental car to do this. I have to say, I was always a hater of SUVs. They are so big and gas guzzling and seemed entirely unnecessary unless you had a family or lots of gear to haul around. Well I was wrong and can say that I love the Ford Edge. 