This hotel is turning out to be the best. The only thing it lacks is a coffeemaker, but I don’t mind going downstairs for coffee. They have both decaf and regular to choose from, and they have French vanilla.

It’s been quiet overall. Just a few scattered door slams. Tom said the walls are wicked soundproof cuz as he was leaving for work last night he could hear next door’s TV blaring into the hall which we never heard in here.

Tom called at 8:00 and got me up, then he called again after he ate a half-hour later. He went to see his ma and do Mary’s threshold, then I headed down to the continental breakfast where there was only one person. There haven’t been many people here.

As I was heading out, I saw the younger Mexican girl who changed our sheets standing by her cart. I asked her in English for a Do Not Disturb sign since we never had one. I should’ve known better than to have asked in English, so I asked in Spanish and then she called out in Spanish to Mario, the maintenance guy as the old Mexican lady (the boss) that was with the younger one yesterday came up to me and said, “Yes?” I asked again for a sign and they gave me one. The older one then moved further down the hall and in Spanish I told the younger one we didn’t need service today as Mario and I were heading for the elevator. The older one called, “Senora? No servicio hoy?”

I replied, “No servicio, gracias,” then hopped into the elevator.

“Beautiful Spanish,” complimented Mario.

When I returned, the young one smiled at me with mixed emotions. It was cool that the white girl knew Spanish, but she had to have gotten a verbal warning, if not a written one, for not changing our sheets.

Although Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the like are notoriously lazy, I understand how easy it is for anyone to want to laze out of a bed or two. I know. I was once a housekeeper too, and here and there I didn’t bother changing sheets, but I was smart enough to at least pluck the hairs off first.

I dozed off for about an hour this morning, then when Tom came in at 10:00 and extended us for another night, we were given a bag of treats cuz of the sheets. This was a really nice gesture. It contained two small bottles of water, two bags of cookies, two Ritz crackers, two rice crispy bars, figs, and cheese crackers.

We headed for the house to take care of the animals and check the house’s progress. At least Brian’s making good time cuz Gravity’s not, and who knows when we’ll have a well.

My view from my “office” is really neat. I can see a row of about half a dozen palm trees off in the distance that’s a few miles away. Right now, there’s nothing but a little bit of natural desert and a lot of farmland in front of the house.

Here goes Tom talking in his sleep again. I couldn’t make out what he said this time.

We spent about a half-hour on the land where I ruined my sunglasses. They just weren’t dark enough, so I painted them purple, using the paint I used on the plastic suncatcher, hoping to darken them. Instead, all I did was make it too rippely so I couldn’t see well through them.

After we left, we went through a drive-through, came up here, and now he’s in bed. I’ll be listening to music and latch-hooking for the remainder of the day.

Later...

I guess it’s not gonna be very full tonight, either. I just went downstairs for coffee and I never passed a soul along the way.

Later...

Again I didn’t pass a soul.

I finished the second out of a 4-book series of V.C. Andrew’s. It’s a little series compared to the other two I read that had 5 books with 400 pages each. This 4-book series only has 150 pages each. Actually, there is a fifth book in this series (I don’t know how many pages), but it’s not due out till next month.

Tom finally received his yearly planner and pen from Ashton-Drake.

I forgot to describe the games we played yesterday. He played a basketball one, but it didn’t give tickets. Another game we played against each other, which also didn’t give tickets, was a mini bowling game thing. We played a slot machine-type game, and a Jet Ski race that you sit on and that shakes while you see an image of a jet water skier on a big screen in front of you. My favorite game was this thing where you throw balls down a narrow strip and up into these bins. Your points depend on which bins you get balls in.

Later...

Went downstairs and got an apple along with my coffee. They had the usual for breakfast - muffins and cereal. I think they had bagels and yogurt, too. This morning I grabbed a couple of mini chocolate chip muffins. I better enjoy all this eating now, cuz as soon as we get into that house, all this eating has to stop, and it will stop.

I’ve decided to place one call to Andy each time we’re in a hotel. I’ll leave hang-up messages when he doesn’t answer. He answered when I called him just now, but I hung up as soon as he did. I wasn’t in the mood tonight to hear anything he may’ve said. Having Tom right here kind of dampens my curiosity, too.

I wonder if Andy ever got the numbers I called from. I wonder if he’d have been confused getting numbers from the La Quinta, the Hampton, and here. Or maybe he figured we were in the house already (I never mentioned the layover) and that I wouldn’t be dumb enough to allow him to get my number. It’s quite amusing to think about, but I’m certainly not gonna be doing this in the house, even if I can block our number from there and even if it’s not long distance. This is strictly a hotel game.