A Hot And Sweaty Affair.....

Reunited with an old flame this week and it wasn't a pretty sight as I flaunted my love right in front of my darling husband Clyde.  For the past six weeks while working on the house I just didn't have any time to devote to my boyfriend Gym.  But this week we reunited at the weight machines with Clyde nearby watching and working out himself.  I even hopped on for a ride, straddling the seat of my old spin bike while tunes were pounding in my head.  It felt good to be back in the saddle again as I missed my muscle time and was starting to feel like a helpless female. 

Although it's not like we've been lying around doing nothing as we've painted, scraped, cleaned, and fixed every square inch of the house.  And now that the mangoes are ripe we're picking up hundreds off the ground, and every day many more fall.  Mango salsa, mango cake, mango smoothies, grilled mango, mango margaritas and more. Anyone that stops by the house leaves with a bag or two of the plump, succulent suckers.  And today we even delivered some to friends locally and at the gym.  Unfortunately, since they grow in abundance everywhere.....all of our friends have their own mangoes to deal with so try as we may, we can't seem to give any away.

Newest Batch of Mangoes ready
to be cut up

Mango "Cheeks" cut
away from the seed

Mango Cake!

Mango Salsa!

Bowl of cut up Mangoes
ready for freezer bags

Bags of Mangoes ready

for freezing



Clyde has been flushing his brain out trying to shower it with ideas as to why our showers don't drain properly.  And when the showers don't drain then the toilets seem to leak around the base, and vise versa.  So yesterday he found a plumber online that lives in Gorgona, a nearby beach community.  Within an hour he was at our door ready to take a look at the problem.  This American plumber was an old "zonian" that grew up with a military Dad stationed here in the Canal Zone.  Coincidentally, the plumber even knew a few old friends of Clyde's from Texas that also spent time in the Zone. 

He snaked out  two of the three bathrooms and suggested that since the house was used only as a vacation home, that's why roots have grown in the drains causing them to plug up. Now that we're using them regularly they should stay opened up and flowing. He's coming back on Monday to work on the third bathroom and even invited us to join him at his beach front villa.  His prices were very reasonable and we are thrilled to be able to use our bathrooms without worry. 

The weather seems a bit hotter these days as the rainy season begins.  Temperatures have been sizzling up into the 90's with high humidity.  We make good use of the three showers inside the house as well as the one outside, for a cool mid-day and night time refresher.  Perhaps we'll pop some fresh mango into the blender, and add a touch of rum and lots of ice for a cooling off night cap.  Because living in the tropics is all about chillin', with a cold one......along the gringo trail.