[happy2bme]

Hola Chicas

We're a little late moving the thread but we got here all right anyway. Thanks to Carla who found us this fabulous spa in Rio Caliente.



The worldly chicks will be relaxing and hiking and having ourselves a wonderful time in this beautiful place. All readers, lurkers and future posters are welcome to join in. We are a fabulous bunch of ladies with a terrific sense of humor joining together and helping each other through life. Grab your sunhat and a cool drink and meet us down by the pool.

[happy2bme]

Carrying over a few things from the prior thread...

First a bit about the lovely place called Rio Caliente -

Originally Posted by carla49

If we go to Mexico we could always hook up at a lo-tech spa called Rio Caliente, about an hour from Guadalajara. Vegetarian food - we'll lose weight as breakfast is the only really good meal in my books. There's various levels of hiking, yoga, soaking in the pools full of hot water from the hot springs, various touchy-feely programs (what colour is your shakra???), massage and other "treatments", day trips to Guadalajara (shoe and craft shopping! real food!), trips to Tequila (free samples...).

Rio Caliente was really hard to find - it's at www.riocaliente.com. Just checking the site makes me want to go back and soak in that water for an hour or three. They claim there's natural lithium in the water which gets everyone all blissful. And there's nothing like sitting on a toilet filled with hot water - an odd, rather pleasant sensation.

Wait a minute - what's this hot water Toilet thing? I missed that the first time around. Do tell more Carla

[happy2bme]

Birthday list courtesy of Mel who just HAPPENS to be having a birthday this week But enough of that - wait till you see what they are cooking up in the kitchen for you.

MARCH 7 MEL

APRIL 25 SHAD
APRIL 27 HAPPY

MAY 21 LINDAT

JUNE 16 TEEL
JUNE 18 LINUS
JUNE 29 NAE (ROSEBLUSH)

JULY21 HOLLY

AUGUST 27 CEEJAY

OCTOBER 6 PAINTERWOMAN
OCTOBER 10 RAVENTOY [ABSENT ]
OCTOBER 13 CARLA & SUZI
OCTOBER 20 MADCAT

[happy2bme]

Now to try and catch up on what you previously posted - always difficult when we carry over a thread.

Mel - let us know what you think of the Bob Greene book. I have always liked his practical approach to things and picked up his book at the store but set it down as I was reminded of SO MANY books I have bought before sitting and collecting dust on the shelf. I watched the Oprah show where he introduced the book and I think he's sort of fallen into the commercial Oprah trap that seems to happen whenever she "blesses" her next favorite expert. That's pretty scary about losing the "grandson" for a little while. Thank goodness he found a safe place to rest for the night. Do you let him fly around the apartment during the day? And I agree with Painter - you are such a sweetie who has brought so much into our lives And I love your Jersey attitude.

Painter. The bulbs sound fabulous. Makes me want to get out and garden. Well maybe "thinking" about it. Don't know if I could give up sugar AND flour at the same time. I know people who have kept the weight off succesfully for a long time have attributed their success from getting away from the white stuff. I just can't even imagine gnocci in a sweet version like you described. Wouldn't have any trouble passing that up. Ugh - and I'm a gnocci lover. Tho that stuff does sit in your belly like cement.

Thank you for the Rio Caliente suggestion Carla. It's beautiful here and much warmer than if we spent March in Memphis

Per Shad's suggestion, maybe we'll do Fawlty Towers/Monaco in May although Memphis in May boasts the annual big time/mega serious Championship BBQ cookoff, a week of musical concerts and something else which I can't remember at the moment. All of course involve lots of walking, huge crowds and inconvienient bathroom facilities which is why I don't participate.

Shad is taking suggestions for places to visit when she comes to the U.S. this summer. BTW I was just looking at my calendar - the National Rhododendron Gardens in Olinda, Victoria - Australia (you have one too??) look similar to Butchart in (ain't this a coincidence?) Victoria, Canada. I guess that means if you state/province/parish is names Victoria - you are required to have some knock down, stunningly beautiful flower gardens somewhere on the premises.

And I'm reminding you Shad that I'd like a bag of Jaffas

Thank you to those of you who have commented on my hair. I'm sorry if I mislead you into actually thinking that was me in the picture. It's actually some Italian model but my hairdresser is a professional colorist and she just returned from training and had that picture among others at her station. I saw it when I walked in and said - hey, let's do THAT. She was in shock - REALLY? She was sooooo excited. Beats the usual blonde, big hair southern look so popular around here. And it did come out looking just like the picture - my hair was even in the right length for the cut. Today I am suffering the after effects. The dye is on the gentle side but it still irritates my head and for the next 48 hours after a whole head color I have to deal with an itchy scalp. It will be ok after 2 days, I try not to scratch which makes it worse.

This is my big anniversary weekend. DH and I are going to the casinos later this afternoon and we'll probably do dinner there also. Tomorrow is our actual anniversary and I am supposed to have the day off but since it's month end at work, I will have to work the morning from home and make sure all the sales get loaded and balanced properly so that people everywhere can do their reporting The afternoon is free and we will be going to dinner at one of our favorite seafood restaurants and catching a movie. Maybe we will hold hands I can't believe that I've been married 30 years already. I'm also a bit dissapointed that once again, the only thing I can fit into from my wedding outfit is my hat and shoes. And since the shoes are platform sandals - REAL platforms from the 70's - it's a bit dangerous to be wearing those now

With that I think I'll go run some laundry and do a bit of housekeeping. DH wants to get a bit more wallpapering done this morning which gives me time to get some things done too.

Enjoy your Sunday ladies...

[carla49]

So, about the toilets at Rio... The thing is that the local river is very, very hot, which is where the spa name, Rio Caliente, comes from. All the water at the spa comes from the river. There are two groups of rooms there, the older rooms up top near the dining room, and newer rooms down by the pool. Since the upper set of rooms is nearer to the source of the river, the water is hotter there, and you flush with the hot stuff! Every so often you hear a pool level person going "oh!!!" as they sit down on an upstairs commode for the first time... By the way, the drinking water is filtered and quite safe and in bottles refilled every day in your room. There are fireplaces in every room - it can get chilly at night.
There is no chlorine in the pool water. Instead, each pool is drained and scrubbed once a week. You can get a mani-pedi by the pool... You can go soak in the hot steamy pool water at night and look at the stars. And the closest tiny town to buy booze/junk food is a 3 mile trek down a windy road. Followed by 3 miles back up. On my last visit I found out that Igor at the front desk can be bribed to bring in fast food (pulled pork on a bun etc)on his way into work...
The good news, ladies, is that in spite of all the clean living and bland veggie meals, there are always two cakes served after dinner when a guest has a birthday! So thanks to Mel, on Tuesday (?) we'll be fighting to get our share of the carrot cake and/or chocolate raspberry cake. Yum. And today at lunch we've all pigged out on tuna and avocado, the weekly fish treat we all go nuts for. Of course we deserved a good meal after our morning hike up thru the sage forest and the agave field, not to mention the 7am yoga/stretch session.
I'll try to dig up a photo or two from my trips there to give you an idea of the place. We'll all fit right in - much of the clientele is made up of ladies "of a certain age" wearing sturdy black bathing suits and sensible shoes/hats.

[happy2bme]

Oh my God Carla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am soooooo there. I think my blood pressure just went down 30 points just reading here. Wow. I feel so relaxed already.

And in your usual fashion I am red faced from laughing hysterically about Igor. Not sure what is funnier - the fact that you found someone to bribe or the fact that even in the heart of Mexico you named him IGOR You're the best!

So how do you get to this place? Don't tell me you have to HIKE the 3 miles up WITH your luggage?

[carla49]

Rats. Just lost a post - need emergency visit to Rio to get over it.

Anyway, I just don't know how to insert a pic (that's how I lost the post). Help???

Meanwhile, I have been unjustly accused and demand an apology. I did not bribe Igor - just found out about his little part-time enterprise when I asked him which food stand he'd recommend if I wanted to stop en route to the airport. And I love to be considered amusing, but in fact Igor is his name.
To get to the spa, you take a cab from the airport ($$$), arriving before 10 pm. They lock the front gate at night, although it's very safe. We won't even need your mom to protect us from roving gangs of gypsies, although I have a feeling she'd love it there.

What is the command for pasting? Control + ?

[carla49]

And you won't have much luggage. NOT a fancy place at all - leave your Guccis and Puccis at home. By the third day you happily go off to lunch with your hair coated in oil after a scalp treatment. Jealousy all around as you smugly announce you've been "Raul-ed". (Don't know if he's still there - it's been about 5 or 6 years since my last visit.)

[carla49]

soaking at Rio.jpg

Here’s me (on the right) and a friend soaking in one of the pools. January, about 12 years ago. As you can see, we somehow found the time to build ourselves floating chairs out of noodles etc. Note sturdy black one-piece by the deck chairs... I don't know how to make the pic bigger.

[carla49]

I'm just posting up a storm here. Will soon have to retire for a few weeks to recover. And to let everyone else recover.

This is a typical morning snap of steam rising from the river near one of the sources, complete with two of my much younger fingers. Someone once fell in (hard to do if you’re even slightly careful) and had to be rushed to hospital with serious burns. At the place where I took this, there are stepping stones, and it's shallow enough you'd probably okay if your boot-shod foot slipped in. And I figured out that if you click on the pic you get a larger version!

Rio - steamy source.jpg

[Shad]

Nice place - sorry can't stop, just fell in the deep end. Too much to do, too little sleep, DS2 has split with the girlfriend.

I have a training class Wednesday morning. Now they want me to be sociable and go out on a yacht on Wednesday afternoon and have dinner somewhere on the ocean blue! Sounds nice - do I have the time. No I don't but I am going anyway. Production planning and PP-PI Master data has nothing on a yacht

[ceejay52]

Shad- Enjoy the yacht, that is something I've always wanted to do.

Happy--Congratulations on your 30 years of marriage. Love the new hairstyle.

Carla, I envy you for actually getting to be here. It's beautiful.

I've had a good week end.

[happy2bme]

Carla - don't you DARE go away We will come and find you. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Aren't pool noodles fun? Such an incredibly beautiful place. And you have my most sincere apologies for Igor. No harm was intended on my part. It just seemed like he'd be the guy everyone would bribe to go out on a booze run in a spa where everything was vegetarian, holistic and non-alchoholic. Honest! It still looks like a fabulous place that I'd love to visit one day. And my mom would no doubt make for a rather "interesting" visitor there. And as Forest Gump says "and that's all I have to say about that".

Maybe instead of picking places whose name starts with the same letter as the month, we should instead pick places where we have been and tell a little bit about them?

Shad, sorry to hear about DS2. Thought things were settling in for them. And I'm very glad that you are opting for the yacht ride. Work will always be there and you'll never be done but how many times will a yacht wait at port for you? Probably never. Best to get on when you can and take the opportunities as they present themselves Enjoy your cruise, don't spend it nodding off.

Thank you twice Ceejay. Glad to hear you had a good weekend. Was this one a Paragould trip? Are the trees and flowers starting to blossom out your way? Each week we see something more budding. It's really pretty.

Ok folks, this is love. We went to the casinos tonight. It's about an hour's drive from our house (yay for the new highway extension that just opened which not only cuts 30 minutes off the trip but bypasses some rather not very comfortably safe areas). So we're about 45 minutes into the trip when DH says. "Um I didn't really want to say anything but it smells like a beauty shop in here (the car). I said, you mean my hair smells? He says well it just smells like a beauty shop in here. And yes, my hair does smell a bit like some plasticky odd chemical smell - even tho I washed it today with some flowery shampoo and conditioner. I asked if he was gagging and he said no, it's ok - we'll be out in the fresh air soon enough. I guess to get even on the way home he took one of his shoes off. Lets just say we didn't have to worry about smelling my hair anymore He did say his foot was hurting pretty badly so I didn't say anything, just looked out the passenger window, tried to get a crack of fresh air and commented about how lovely the stars were tonight. Love means never having to say to the other that you're a little funky tonight honey

Have a good night ladies...

[happy2bme]

We have to lasso Suzi over to this thread. Suzi - your project with the DD sounds very interesting. Please tell us more as you work through it. As much as I have avoided pictures as I've gained weight, looking back I think you also miss a big part of nostagia for all those absent years we spent hiding from the camera in the other room

[Madcat]

Holy jumpin' cats, kids, you are a chatty lot. Lots to read and me with no real time to comment. We had a non-computering lazy weekend and now I have to try to get back into work mode. *sigh* What was it I do for a living again?? And a dentist appointment to boot. Sad thing is I am actually looking forward to it!

I'll be back this evening to throw my three chickens over the fence.