Wednesday Update

We are starting to settle in. Mr R has been on his own at the house for 2.5 days now, while I've been at work. He's learning how to work with the caretaker and maid. We're still trying to get internet access and the TV service to work. But we have food in the fridge, the cats are becoming a little more comfortable, and we are developing a bit of a routine:

• We've been sleeping with the air conditioners and fans off as they are loud. So before we go to bed we get a cool blast going so the temp is comfortable through the night.
• Mr R gets up pretty much when the sun comes up (we have no curtains yet on the 3 big windows in our bedroom) and pokes around. Since we have no internet yet he's been using my PC to at least keep his critical email under control.
• I turn on the air conditioner to drown out the noise of the neighborhood dogs and sleep until 8:00 or so.
• We have breakfast and chat for an hour or so. Right now chatting consists mostly of developing our to-do and shopping lists,
• Starting yesterday, the maid comes in at 10:00 and we think she will work until 2:00 M-F. We don't really know what to do so I showed her the dish soap, Pine Sol, Coment and rags and pointed the the floor. She also did the dishes. We're just having her work downstairs for now until we get more comfortable with how this is supposed to work and with the cats.
• Speaking of whom, they do explore the house but mostly hole up in one of two bedroom bathrooms upstairs. I think it's because there are no air conditioners/fans in those rooms so the rooms are quiet and less scary.
• I leave for work between 10-12, earlier if I have to shop on the way to work, later otherwise.
• Mr R has been getting to know the house. Already the caretaker has had to replace the doorbell (which shorted out the other night), fix a leak under the kitchen sink, and reset breakers for air conditioners. They have also stocked us up with propane tanks for our cook stove and diesel fuel for the generator. Oh, and we got dispensers for the water yesterday so now we can drink from glasses rather than 1 liter plastic bottles.
• My work meetings are still mostly with the people in the US, from 4:00-8:00 PM. After which the driver takes me home. It's about a 45 minutes drive. Monday I stopped for takeout dinner but last night I went straight home. Tonight I'll get takeout again. Since grocery stores really stock staples, not the canned or frozen food we tend to eat, and since we don't really have supplies to cook, this is easy and cheap.
• We try to stay up until after 11:00 to justify sleeping in.

We are making plans for this weekend: shopping (we can't wait until the sea shipment comes in 3 weeks or so), doing a little house work, relaxing. Also, Clay has the internet guys coming today so if he gets that working I imagine we'll spend some time getting our PC's working and doing some online work which we haven't done in a few weeks. And we'll be able to give you all our phone numbers and the different ways you can contact us.