Internet!

After almost 2 years, we finally have internet in the casita! Doing the happy dance!

It's a little on the slow side, and we can't do all that we could when we had internet via the landline, but it beats having no internet at all.

What we have is called "por aire" and we weren't even sure it was feasible until today. The installer arrived about 3:30 this afternoon and it was almost 7 p.m. before he finished. The antenna is on the garage roof, about half-way back on the side closest to the casita. Ivan had to cut a few branches off one of the elm trees, so there would be a clearer shot between the antenna and tower located a mile or so away, across the river. We're a little concerned about what will happen when the trees leaf out this summer. Guess we'll just have to wait and see. While we could take off more branches from our elm tree, there's also a big tree in the neighbor's yard with branches in the way and we can't do anything about that.

I'm especially excited to get it in time for Adalyn's arrival in the next few days! I remember when Simon was born the end of last year while we were in Sta. Rosa. We were driving all over trying to find a place with wifi that was fast enough for us to skype with Kyle and Tina. Our first view of Simon was pretty pixelated :)

In other news, we are slowly making progress on the property. Before we went to the states in April, we'd managed to get half of the interior of the garage plastered and half the ceiling drywalled. When we got back, we talked to Taní and he sent a father/son team over to finish the job. They plastered the remainder of the interior, and applied a fine coat to the exterior. Then a neighbor, who is an electrician, spent a couple afternoons running the wires and installing outlets and a few light fixtures. Ivan still has to install the command module for the garage door and put up the rest of the lights once the ceiling is finished. Drywalling the rest of the ceiling is the next project on the list, but it's not something Ivan can do alone so he's going to see if he can hire a guy to help him.

We can't believe the difference now that we have lights and bright white walls out there. It always felt like a cave, and now it feels like an altogether different building. I estimate it will take another month or two to check off the rest of the things on the "to do" list for the garage, but it's encouraging to see the progress we've made over this past year. Other girls can have their diamonds and fancy nights out, this southern girl gets more excited about smooth plaster walls and fresh paint jobs...

...and internet in the casita!