Friday, September 28, 2007

Lamps: 2 FM3: 0

Everything went very smoothly at Immigration yesterday. Yes, my FM3 had been approved for another year! They gave all three of us (me, B and P) our forms to take to the bank and pay our 1172 peso fee ($110). We then had to bring 3 copies of the paid receipt from the bank back to Immigration. We saved ourselves a trip to a copy place by sweet talking the bank into making copies for us. (Scotia Bank, by the way. Much better down here than my bank, and the only bank on the island of HSBC) Back to Immigration and turned in our receipts and waited for them to call our names. First up was P. Here's your FM3. Welcome to Mexico for another year. Then they called B. Same story. Then they called yours truly. Oops. My FM3 was approved but not signed by the director yet. No, they couldn't go get the director to sign it while I waited. So I have to return next Tuesday to pick it up. Although I was angry, I maintained my cool, thanked them very much and we left.

So next Tuesday I have to make a special trip over to Cancun. So that should cost me another $15 in transportation costs, plus about 3 hours or so out of my busy, busy life! But at least I will be good for another year with virtually no hassle this year. None of us could believe how incredibly polite they have been over there this year. The difference from past years is nothing short of amazing. And the same employees too. Maybe a new edict from the director or something? Whatever is causing it, I wish they would give lessons to other companies down here. Are you listening TelMex??





Then we went to a plumbing supply company, Surpresa, where we usually have good luck. I wanted to get two new faucets for the bathrooms. We ended up pointing out 5 different ones that would meet our needs. Each time we asked about one, the salesclerk went to the computer and checked on it. Then he came back and said "No Hay". Oh, the dreaded No Hay. Translated to English, it means "I don't have it and I could care less if you want it". So we left there feeling rather disgusted and went over to Home Depot. There we bought a suitable one for the cabana for $33.

I hate Home Depot down here. Easily one of the most mismanaged, disorganized, ill-stocked and expensive stores around here. But they had lamps this time that will work on the bedside tables in the cabana! Grumbling all the way to the cash register, we bought two at $59.99 each! They look a lot like this:







photo blatantly stolen from Home Depot web site

I don't know, am I just out of touch? Are small table lamps really that expensive now in the USA too? Somebody please let me know. I feel like I was robbed.

From there we walked over to Plaza las Americas, a large indoor American style shopping mall. We only went to Chedraui there. Did some last minute grocery shopping for the dinner party we had last night. Mostly fresh fruits and vegetables for the salad. As usual, B checked out the clearance aisle. Guess what we found? A .9 cubic foot convection oven with rotisserie! Now I can finally rotisserie a whole chicken. This thing is big enough to fit a 12" pizza pan also. (pan included with oven!) The best part? It was marked down from $130 to only $50! We snatched one up. (notice that we bought a rotisserie convection oven for less than one small table lamp!) Of course, the check out computer did not have the discounted price so it took a little while for the 4 salespeople and 1 manager to verify that it was indeed the incredible price of 500 pesos.

Our small dinner party was a success. It started at 7 PM and I finally drove our guests home at 1:30 AM this morning! A lot of wine and beer was consumed by everybody but me. For some reason, I just didn't feel like drinking last night. Besides, I knew I had to drive at some point. One of the funnier moments:

L was talking to Rosie about something. He is a few years younger than she. I tuned in to hear this:

Rosie: But that was such a long time ago.
L: Yeah, a different age.
Rosie: (spoken very slowly, pronouncing each word clearly) No. Just. A. Long. Time. Ago.

I guess his statement must have made her feel old because she certainly bristled at him. Oh well, you had to have been there!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, you could have paid $59.99 for this lamp here in the Dallas area.
I too, am surprised at the inexpensive lamp prices. When I am in the market for a lamp, I go to the really nice lamp shops and shop the clearance area first, where you can sometime find a $300+ US, lamp for $100.US

Kathy said...

Home Depot has about the highest prices around for anything but doors. Boxito has excellent lighting prices. Not sure if they do table lamps though. The Chedraui closest to us had an amazing sale on a stove recently but they wouldn't sell it until the remate register was open. And they didn't know when that would be. At this Chedraui you can only purchase sale items at the sale register. And generally, it is open in the late afternoon/evening only.