Paul and I have been asked what we miss from up North by several people who are considering moving to Mexico. At first we said "nothing" and then realized that there are a few things that we miss - in varying amounts...


Natural Peanut Butter....you can get small jars of sweetened peanut butter in most grocery stores, and occasionally I'll see a decent sized jar of Skippy, but that's it. I should buy some peanuts and grind them in my Vita-Mix next time I have a craving, I guess.


Stash Tea - I love Stash Tea, especially Red and Green. Paul is partial to their Chai tea. In order to make iced green tea for myself here I need three teabags per glass- and it is still weak! I believe tea isn't a big seller here so it is probably pretty old.


Boca products - especially their Bratwurst. I used to take an onion, some cabbage, red pepper flakes, and one of these - cut on the diagonal - and make an amazing, hearty dinner. I used their smoked ones with red beans and rice or in place of a hot dog on the barbeque. Man I miss these a lot.


Memory Foam Mattress topper - We had these on our beds up North but they were too heavy to bring with us. And our mattress here is way harder than we like. I have tried to find these here and they just aren't around - and the funny thing is they are made in Mexico, just must be made only for export.


Genuine High Quality Parmesan Cheese - There are plenty of pale substitutes. I just want parmesan sometimes, is that so bad of me?


My Dyson - We didn't have any room in the van and I have missed it ever since. I even tried to buy one from Amazon prepared to pay a ton of duty and they won't ship it here. So I plod along vacuuming up dog hair, dust on the windowsills, and everything in between with my *&@#*! shop vac.


Vitamins & Ibuprofen in big bottles....I take a couple of vitamins a day and like to buy aspirin or ibuprofen in a larger bottle...hard to find here and they are pretty expensive. I have had a hard time finding aspirin or B-complex in anything but blister-packs of 20. Sheesh! When our son came down in March he was nice to bring me a stash that should last me quite a while.

So, folks, that's it for me. I miss these things a bit but not that much...but next person coming to Mazatlán could bring me a nice hunk of Parm and some Bocas and I wouldn't complain! (Just kidding, really!)

Our laundry room is adjacent to the garage. And the garage has been construction central for the past two months. With the garage full of sand and gravel as well as roof tiles and other tools, the laundry room became the lunchroom for the guys working here.

They are now gone but the painter is using the garage for his ladders, paint, and tarps. We spent a couple of hours and cleaned it up but it really needs more than just cleaning. New tile on the counter, a new sink, further scrubbing on the floor and paint would make it a place you'd dare to walk through with clean clothes.

So we are still taking our laundry to the lavanderia. I usually take a couple of bags of laundry to the lavanderia on Monday or Tuesday. If I take it early enough in the day I can pick it up the same day in the evening. That is the good part.

The bad part is that someone else is doing your laundry, and not the way you'd do it! Dirty rags and dog bedding is a pain. Sometimes our clothes come back with stains they didn't leave with.

I now pre-treat all stains and shirt collars, etc. with detergent. I also button all shirt buttons and zip and button pants. This has helped with little wrinkled bits that I think are where the cloth gets stuck in the machinery.

I have thought about finding a different place, but this family is the lavanderia for our neighborhood, and I really do like them. It's a hard job, especially when it is hot and humid. So I will take my laundry there until we get our laundry room squared away...and I really do look forward to that day.