CasaAnolis – Page 3 – GringoRicans in Fajardo

The Story of Babe

So things don’t always go as planned. We picked up Babe in the afternoon from the dealership on July 1st and headed back to Fajardo. Everything went fine until we pulled onto the highway-and then it happened. There was what felt like an engine misfire and the check engine light came on. Since it was a solo occurrence and everything felt fine for the rest of the trip, I didn’t think too much. Our friends Bill and George have an OBDII reader (engine code reader) which they had bought to diagnose their Suzuki, so I borrowed it to check out the codes.

After two months, he’s finally resting at CasaAnolis.

I was expecting to see a misfire code, which can be a common error as the electrical components age. The usual remedy is replacement of things like the coil packs, wires and plugs. In other words, an old fashioned tune-up. Mmmm… not so. Turned out to be a transmission code. So I reset the computer and that evening we went out to dinner. We didn’t even get to the highway before the transmission bumped again and the light came back on. Continue reading “The Story of Babe”

Working on my Burgers

Last week I made Burgers for dinner.

Farm-stand fresh asparagus, tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella salad dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The mess on the left is a cheeseburger patty smothered in caramelized onions and topped with crimini mushrooms sauteed in butter and Madeira. Continue reading “Working on my Burgers”

There…and back again

Time flies. Just yesterday it seems, we were looking at airline tickets and now we are already back in the States. This was a short trip but a productive one. The first task up was to get Wilbur and Son to do the extensions on the deck and after a few preliminary phone calls everything was arranged.

Dean arrived several days before me so that when I arrived on Sunday we were off, with our friends to the Rio Grande festival, right from the airport. Nice. I think that they do these festivals every weekend since it all looked too prepared and every municipality seemed to have a float, but fun was being had by all and we were ready to enjoy. Continue reading “There…and back again”

Wabi-Sabi and such

Finished kitchen — Dishwasher in, tile work finished and handles added to the cabinets. Island hasn’t been touched, that’s a later project.

I was in such a time constraint on our last visit to get the kitchen counter finished that I feared on my return trip that I would be very unhappy with the tile work. In fact, the more I ruminated the worse the job became in my memory. Surprisingly, once I looked the counters over upon our arrival I realized that I had done a very credible job and my fears abated. A few small touch-ups were all that were needed-which was good since there were a boatload of unfinished projects to complete. So diving right in, first up was the kitchen sink, refrigerator water line and the new dishwasher which arrived the day after we did. Continue reading “Wabi-Sabi and such”

Buying a dishwasher

<warning, very long post, grab a glass of wine and settle in>

As we’ve mentioned before, buying a dishwasher in Puerto Rico is not something you can run to a store and walk out with. Puerto Ricans, as a general rule, do not use dishwashers. To buy a dishwasher you need to order them and the turn around is about 4 weeks.

Also, you can’t order things from most major retailers online either. You have to go to the store to place the order. Sadly this rule applies, at least for Home Depot (HD), to AK, HI, GU, USVI, and PR. I don’t know why this is, but I’m stuck with it. Continue reading “Buying a dishwasher”