Mi Dos Linda

These are a few pretty women who frequent QuiXote's. I saved these for when I had no other pertinent pictures to post. They are real sweet gals who photograph nicely and I enjoy seeing them. I just closed out the books for July at QuiXote's restaurant in Sosua and comparing to June which was our first complete month we went up 37.03% from our first month to our second complete month.

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Now I don't know how long those kind of numbers can keep up but we have started off August with a BANG and I expect to have August up over July for sure already.

. Business should more or less grow for the next several months or until April when we should go into low season.

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It is now 8:04 am and I have six guys at the bar laughing and telling stories about last night. They travel here together every year and there are a dozen here now with 2 new guys. Just sitting here and listening is hilarious.

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Last night they were drinking shots and a toast that was hilarious. I will have to ask the toast to write it down.

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Here's to the breezes that blow thru the tree'es that lift the skirts above the knee'es that reveal the spots that spread diseases, oh what a snatch, down the hatch.

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When you here 12 guys singing this at the top of their lungs it is hilarious. There were 15 girls here at the time and they for the life of them couldn't get it but were laughing their arses off.

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What a fun crew and great customers!

Nuevo Granite Bar

Well here you go folks, my granite bar top has been installed. If you have the time to read on you will get the feeling of how difficult things are here in the DR and how diligent you need to be. . They were supposed to get here at 10:30 in the morning and I needed to remove the old wood bar top before they got here. I asked Diego who owns the hotel if he wanted the old bar top. I said he could have it just for taking it away. I told him I needed the person in the Restaurant at 8 am to get this done as the new Granite top would be there at 10:30am. . Sounds simple, right? Uh Uh, nothing is simple here. I get here on Monday morning promptly at 7:30 am in anticipation of the guy being here at 8am. Of course he isn't there by 8:30 so I go to the desk and ask the woman there if she could call Diego. Well 15 minutes later I am told he will be here in half an hour. I come back at 9:15 am after having breakfast and he finally shows up.

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If you look at the pictures this guy Knocked out with a hammer fake wood that looked like it was supporting the bar. Dori my partner came in and I didn't keep my eye on what the guy was doing because I was talking to Dori. Now I have holes in the bar because of this jerk. I said why did you do this? It wasn't necessary and now I need to do more work. He said it is only a little concrete. You have to keep your eye on these people every second or everything that they do will end up costing you more money. They have absolutely no respect for what is right. Then the moron says he is leaving because I complained.

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Dori and I removed the bar with no more damage by 10:28 am which was 2 minutes earlier than the new top was supposed to arrive.

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Of course the granite doesn't get here. I call up and they say that they are on their way from Santiago. I call up an hour later and they said they would be here soon. They finally get here 2 hours later and unload the Granite and ask me to sign. I say WHOA, you are supposed to install it. They say someone else is going to do this. Ok, I call up again and they say they are sending the people now from Puerto Plata. I call back an hour later and ask what is going on. She calls me back and says "they stopped for lunch". It is now 3:30pm and I said "if you would have told me I would have eaten also". She says "you can go to eat". I go to a takeaway and then take it to a bar nearbye and order a beer to wash down my Dominican meal. As I sit down to eat the guy that is installing comes over to me to say he is ready. It is now 4pm. I have been there since 7:30am.

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They set the first piece of 5 and go around the bar. The bar is now pointing in the wrong direction. They cut an angle off the granite to make it point right. The granite is now missing 4 inches in the middle. I had to cut off the bar at the end in a angle to make the short piece work. Of course the woman is going to come in to take a look on Tuesday to see what is wrong but of course she doesn't show up. She doesn't show up on Wednesday either. Man you have to keep your nose to the grindstone here in this country because there isn't even a apology coming when they screw the pooch in their work. I had no choice but to make this work so I could open up the next day.

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Welcome to doing renovations in the Dominican Republic. I do have to say that it cost a hell of a lot less than in the states but I still for the life of me can't understand why these people don't take more pride in what they do. It isn't like it is a lot more work to do things in the right way. Just a little more effort is all it takes.

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Hasta Pronto!

Say hello to Dave from Atlanta. Dave was staying in my condo for 5 days and just left yesterday. We have been exchanging emails for about 2 years now talking about different things but including many things we had in common but this is the first time we have met.

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When he told he was 6'7" tall and he would be easy to spot at the airport he was 100% correct. Man you cant help but look at this guy and call him Stretch:)

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Dawn and Stretch have been hanging out a lot since he introduced himself to her at Lou's Shark Bar. When Dawn asked how he knew her he said "from Scott's Blog" which gave her a laugh. On the last night before he left the three of us went to dinner at Pomadoro's on the beach in Cabarete. It was too bad the town was dead because Cabarete is an interesting place with many restaurants which double as clubs at night directly on the beach but it is nicer to appreciate it when there is a crowd there. Personally I like places better when it is quiet as I am not a big one on crowds. I hate being touched and jostled by people I don't know.

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As most of you that have been reading my blog for a while know that I have a particular Whore House I go to in Cabarete when I am there and of course we headed there after the dinner.

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Here is a picture of Stretch with one of the lovely women there. This tipico as well as the town of Cabarete was very quiet and not a lot of people there that night. Problem with Cabarete is when it is quiet you really notice it and a lot more than you do in Sosua.

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Look at the smile on this boys face. It seems as he has never been as happy as I have ever seen him.

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Look at Stretch. Definately not as happy as he is above:) Harsh reality is going home after a stay in Fantasyland for everyone.

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I wish him well and hope that he returns soon. He is a great guy with a lot of interesting stories to tell and I look forward to hearing more of them the next time he is in town. Alas, back to the "real" world for Stretch! Godspeed on your return my friend!

Hasta Pronto!