Koki and his wife came in last night to help celebrate my birthday. I wanted to celebrate by taking friends out to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Mancora. This guy makes the best seafood lasagne ever; and everything else we've had there has also been fabulous. It turns out that Antonio was leaving for Italy on the 28th and the restaurant would be closed on the 29th. So, we moved it up to the 26th. We ended up with 9 people and had a great time.

Work on the house continues. Tiles are being laid in the pantry and kitchen. Tiles for the rest of the house are at the property awaiting their turn. The glass blocks for the master bath are being put in. The glazier was here taking measurements for the windows and doors. And the carpenter is back putting up the rest of the roof on the master suite. Meanwhile, other workers continue to put on the smooth finish layer of cement on the beams for the kitchen/living room. Also, one of the walls for the bar area went up.

We lost three workers yesterday. Koki said he didn't feel they were working as hard as he thought they should; that production had fallen off. He said he sent them home for a week to rest. We have an inkling that there may be more to the story; but aren't quite sure what it is.

There has been a theft in the neighborhood. Georg's family also owns a bungalow on the road out to our place; between El Nuro and his vacation home. In the time we've been here, we've never seen anyone in residence. Sanchez does the maintenance and keeps up the garden. The other morning when he arrived, thieves had stolen four doors and a toilet and sink from one of the bathrooms. This same bungalow was robbed last year as well. Sanchez was quite upset and felt responsible. He ended up removing everything else that might be stolen from the bungalow and brought it back up here for storage. I felt badly for Sanchez; as he is so security conscious and so careful. I don't know how any one could hold him responsible as the bungalow is out of sight of Georg's property.

Crime is not a big issue in this area. For the most part, it consists of theft. In Los Organos, we don't hear about any problems but we did have some fish taken out of the back of the pick up. Mancora does have its problems as it is a mecca for tourists, and therefore thieves. Purse snatching is not uncommon and cameras have been snatched as well. There was, however, a rape on the Mancora beach this last week. As a result, the national police came in and fired much of the Mancora police force; siting corruption and ineptitude.

We will be moving, again. Georg and his family will be out in El Nuro for the first week in May. We'll move our stuff back up to Jay's. The good part of this is that we will have reliable electricity 24/7, hot water and refrigeration. The negative is that we won't be on site of the construction. We'll still be bringing food out for the workers, so will be visiting daily.

This third picture is taken from my studio. It looks a mess, huh! The two caverns are for the pool machinery. The cement deck connects the two main buildings. Underneath will be a couple of bathrooms; one accessible from the piano room and another from outside. Even as things progress, the mess seems to increase. I'm glad I don't have to clean it all up.