Beardy boy

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Beardy boy

National Love Your Pet Day

Today is National Love Your Pet Day!

If you've been reading this blog for even a few weeks, you know that Spouse & I do indeed love our pets, so on National Love Your Pet Day I can't resist sharing some adorable photos of Marvin & Walter for you to enjoy.

Just because

Teeth

A friend texted me this which made me laugh out loud!

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day.

I typically have roses or a floral arrangement delivered to Spouse's office on Valentine's Day.  He loves flowers, and I love the attention he gets by receiving them at work.  But with the ER visit and eye drops 4 times a day, I kind of got distracted and didn't get them ordered.  I could have gotten my friend Paul the florist to quickly put something together and deliver it, but I was afraid I may get the left-overs, so I decided to do something different.

Since Thurs is my day off, I went to the fabulous floral dept at my local Safeway.  We ordered the flowers for our wedding from there and were very happy with them.  I bought a vase with a dozen lavendar roses with greenery and baby's breath, a variety box of Ferrero Roche chocolates, a bag of Dove dark chocolates, and a card with the perfect saying.  I set them up on the kitchen peninsula for Spouse to see when he got home. 

Spouse was a little surprised to not get the flowers at work, but was happy with the results of my change in plans.  He went to his personal trainer appointment and I made (HelloFresh) dinner.  We had a simple but nice Valentine's Day dinner at home.  Then we watched the movie "Valentine's Day" on TV.

Beardy boy

Eye can't take it!

On Sat morning at 2:45am I woke up with pain in my right eye.  My eye was red and watering a lot.  I thought I might have gotten a tiny hair in my eye, since I got my haircut the evening before, so I got up, removed my contacts, flushed my eye with water and went back to bed.  But within a few minutes my eye hurt so much I couldn't stand to keep my eye closed!  Still thinking I might have a tiny hair in my eye, I repeated the eye flushing and then took some pain reliever before getting back to bed.  But the eye pain became unbearable!  So I got myself dressed, put on my eye glasses, and took myself to the Emergency Room at 4:30am.  Spouse offered to go with me but I told him there was no reason for both of us to be awake at this hour.

Fortunately there was no one in the waiting room so I was able to check-in right away, and was seen by the nurse George within minutes.  George recorded my verbal explanation for my visit, took my vitals, and then put numbing drops in my eye.  Within 10 seconds the terrible pain was gone.

When the doctor came in a few minutes later I explained (again) my situation and he decided to flush my eye again.  His technique was much more thorough than mine as he held my eye open and squirted fluid into it for several seconds.  Then he used a special light and examined my eye.

He told me I had a small abrasion on my pupil.  There's no way of knowing how it occurred, or why it would suddenly wake me from my sleep with such pain, but I'm not ruling out a tiny piece of hair from my haircut getting into my eye.  The doctor gave me a prescription for steroid/antibiotic drops which I obtained before returning home.  He said my eye would likely heal within 2-3 days and told me not to wear my contacts for 5 days.  Here's a photo of me with my new haircut wearing my glasses.

The drops worked well and I've had no further pain. Tomorrow will be day 6 so I will put in fresh lenses and see how it goes.

Just because

Final vacation highlights

Fri was our final day in Puerto Vallarta.  We decided to go back to Coco's Kitchen for a late breakfast.

Spouse at Coco's Kitchen

In Mexico it is customary for servers to wait until you ask them for the check, which we kept forgetting to do, so our meals always included extra time relaxing.  Then we returned to Blue Chairs beach club for our final day at the beach.  It was a bit overcast with periods of sun poking through, but we didn't mind.  It was so relaxing to sit under the palapa and hear the waves, watch the men, and go in the ocean.  

After cleaning up at the condo we headed out for the evening.  This was our view that evening:

Spouse wore his new bear tank top which looked so cute on him!

Our 1st stop was Anonimo bar for a pre-dinner cocktail.  I'd read online that the bartenders were gorgeous there, which was not an exaggeration.

Bartender at Anonimo

And trust me when I say that as good-looking as he is in this photo, he was even MORE beautiful when he smiled.  While enjoying our cocktails we had a celebrity citing!

Me and Cher

Actually, her name is Thirsty Burlington and she was out promoting her Cher impersonation show.  

She was just as funny as Cher and sounded just like her!  We were sad that it was our last night in PV and that we wouldn't be able to go see her show.

Then we went to dinner at La Piazzetta for dinner.  The menu of Italian specialties was quite extensive and delicious.  The 3 of us shared 2 appetizers and then each of us had a wonderful, authentic Italian entree.  Then we walked onto the pier at Playa Los Muertos.  It was dark and I knew my photos wouldn't turn out, so I'm borrowing this one from PeterKTravels.com.

Then we returned to the condo to begin packing and tidying up, then we had some 'screen time' on the terrace before going to bed.

The next morning our property manager/driver (who was absolutely gorgeous) picked us up at 10am and took us to the airport.  Our flights to Chicago and DC were uneventful, and we were picked up by our nephew and taken back to Spouse's sister's house where we spent the night.  Sun morning Spouse's brother and his daughter came from MD to join us for breakfast before we headed home to see our boys.

We had a wonderful trip and I'd recommend Puerto Vallarta to anyone who enjoys a relaxed, LGBT-friendly beach environment.  The peso-to-dollar ratio is terrific.  We always felt safe.  The food was delicious.  The prices were very reasonable.  The locals were very nice and everyone speaks or understands English.  This was our 3rd visit to PV (and our 2nd Beef Dip) but certainly won't be the last.

Further vacation highlights

Instead of having a light breakfast at home, on Wed we went to the ever-popular Coco's Kitchen for a late breakfast.  Its a charming garden cafe with lots of breakfast and lunch options.

Our food was very good and we loved the atmosphere.  Afterward we went directly to the beach, returning to Blue Chairs.  Again the weather was beautiful, we had food and drinks on the beach, and had fun in the ocean.

For dinner we went to Jorge's Hideaway.  Spouse & I had a wonderful meal there with the Newlyweds on our last visit so we wanted to return there with Carl.  I started with a lime mojito which matched my shirt!

Spouse & me and my matching cocktail

I typically do not post photos of food (here or on Facebook) but I'm making an exception.  I ordered the pineapple shrimp diablo which was so beautifully presented (and delicious) I thought it warranted a photo.

They cut a pineapple in half lengthwise, hollowed out the body, and filled it with shrimp, chunks of pineapple, and this wonderfully spicy and flavorful sauce, then melted some cheese over it.  It was served with red rice and a salad.  Amazing!

Afterward we went back to the condo and changed into our outfits for the White Party held at CC Slaughter nightclub.  We intentionally went late so there'd be people there, since the disco party really didn't get started until at least an hour after the official start time.  Well our strategy worked, maybe a bit too well, as it was absolutely packed when we arrived.

We danced and hung out a bit but it was so crowded it became a bit uncomfortable, so we went outside onto the sidewalk where a bunch of others had escaped.  Earlier in the week we'd seen a guy wearing a tiny green glittery fascinator.  I saw him again at the White Party wearing a tiny silver glittery fascinator so I had to talk to him about it.  First, he was impressed that I knew his miniature hats were called fascinators.  Second, he was impressed that I knew what color fascinator he'd worn to the disco party.  Eventually I asked Spouse to take a photo of me with the fascinator guy and his best friend since childhood.

The friend, me and the fascinator guy

Unfortunately the fascinator is kinda cut off in this photo, but you get the jist.  The glasses I'm wearing had multi-colored lights that flashed.  They were fun guys to hang with for a while.  We also ran into a couple of guys we'd met at the pool party the day before, Will, Alex, and Renzo.  It was a fun night!

Thurs we repeated our typical morning coffee on the terrace routine, then eventually returned to Mantamar Beach Club for a day at the beach.

Carl

Spouse

Carl and I both had foot and leg massages on the beach, then the 3 of us hung out at the pool for a couple hours with some of our new friends.

Will, Alex, Me, David, and Spouse

After showers and a little relaxation time on the terrace, we took the recommendation of a few friends and some strangers on Yelp to eat at Joe Jack's Fish Shack.  It was a charming 2-level restaurant and we were fortunate to be seated on the upper level which had no ceiling.  The food was yummy and the service was great.  I also loved the tile in the men's room:

After dinner we went to the Almar hotel, a recently completed new building associated with the Mantamar Beach Club, for a rooftop party.  The music was great, the coastline views were great, and the vibe was fun.  The recently completed rooftop bar and party area were really gorgeous.  This resort really strives to be upscale.

Alex and the bearded drag queens

Sexy muscle bears Kayvon, Spouse, Alex, and Will

As I am want to do at parties, I began taking selfies with many of our new friends.

Me and Will

Spouse photobombed my selfie with Renzo...

...so Alex took a photo of me, Renzo and Spouse

Me and Alex

Me and Joe from Austrailia whom we met a year earlier in Palm Springs!

It was a really fun party!