Ladies Poker Night in San Pedro-Texas Hold'em

Our cheat sheet.

Thursday night was Ladies Poker Night at Pedro's Inn.  It was a send off  for our friend Ruthie who is leaving with her husband Chunky and going back to Minnesota.  They live in San Pedro for six months and then go back to Minnesota for six months every year.

The newbies which included myself needed to arrive at Pedro's early to get a quick lesson in playing Texas Hold'em before the actual game started.  About half of us had either never played poker or had only played a few times. 

Jason was our teacher and he dealt each of us two cards face down.  Then he started talking "poker language".  Words like "the flop", "the turn" and "the river".  It might as well have been Chinese to me.  I was clueless.  I mean what the heck does "the river" have to do with poker.  But after about 30 practice minutes the game started.

Jason giving us instructions on how to play Texas Hold'em.

It was a lot to remember.

We were playing with one dollar chips and we all bought in for $50.00BZ ($25.00US).  While I come from Mississippi, a state that has many casinos, I have never considered myself a gambler.  I think the most I have ever lost was $100.00US. 

$1.00BZ poker chips

Thursday night must have been beginners luck for me, because I WON the very first hand that we played.   I was pretty happy.  Oh and did I mention we got to eat free pizza and drink free while we played!!  It was just like in Vegas.  Well not really, but we were all having a great time.

Pamela, Renita and Dixie

Daniel and Ti

We had a full table at ladies night poker game.

Pedro's has some really great pizza.  The dark colored one was a dessert pizza.  It was fabulous.

Ruthie used all of her chips up first and was out of the game.  So she filled in as our waitress.  She did an exceptional job and kept the beers coming.  Thanks Peter, maybe he will hire Ruthie when she comes back to Belize next year. 

Look at what a good job Ruthie was doing and so happy too.  Someone said she looked like Heidi in that dress.  I thought it was really cute.

We were keeping Ruthie busy.  Hurry back Ruthie, we will miss you.

We played to about 9pm.  Everyone was either getting tired or starting to run out of money.  I managed to play all night and still had my original $50.00BZ plus $8.00BZ by the end of the night.  So not bad for a first timer.

Poor Dookie he was all played out.  Where else except in Belize would you have your pets at the poker table.

Charlie was tired and ready to go home too after a long night of poker.

Where did the game of Texas Hold'em come from??  Well although little is known about how where the game originated,  Texas officially gives credit to Robstown, Texas where the game originated and dating the game back to the 1900's.  Texas Hold'em is one of the most popular forms of Poker.

Bill Gets A Haircut at Ballers and Fabulous Bread in Belize

Ballers Barber Shop

Bill needed to get a haircut Thursday morning so we headed downtown to Ballers Barber Shop.  It is located on the corner of Middle Street aka Pescador Drive.  When we got there Kobe wasn't busy and Bill was able to get right in.  Kobe was a young Belizean fellow and had cut Bill's hair once before.  I asked Kobe how he spelled his name and he said K O B E as in Kobe Bryant the famous basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers.  Looking around the shop and noticing their decorating expertise of large wall posters of Kobe Bryant and other famous players, I am figuring this is also where the name of the barber shop "Ballers" came from.  This was definitely a sports themed style barber shop. 

The last time Bill was at the shop Kobe had told Bill he had not been to barber school and he wasn't a licensed barber, but that barbering was in his "genes".  Kobe's grandfather and his father were both barbers and he grew up around them watching them both cut hair, so that qualified him to be a barber.  Bill thought to his self  "well if it's in his genes he doesn't need any damn school" and he let Kobe cut his hair.  Kobe actually did a really good job.  I can somewhat relate to his barbering skills being in his genes.  I told Kobe that my mother and grandmother were hairdressers as well and I had cut hair like I knew what I was doing before too.  So I guess it does get in your genes and that can somehow qualify you to do hair.  Bill's haircut cost $10.00BZ ($5.00US). 

Kobe getting started.

Looks like they may have a few beers in their spare time.  I hope those were left over from after work and not before work. 

This poster was on the wall.  I guess this was the "gringo haircuts" you could choose from.  The guy in the middle is rocking that haircut.  Maybe next time Bill could try out that style.  It would go great with the beaded beard, don't you think!!

All finished, see no barber licenses required for this great looking haircut.

While I love making my own bread it can be a little difficult to find some of the different kind of flours that you need here in Belize.  So I decided to give Mathieu's  Deli a try and I ordered several different kinds of breads.  I emailed Anna on Wednesday my order and then she emailed me Thursday morning telling me my breads would be ready to be picked up Thursday at 11:00am.  So after Bill's haircut we biked over to Mathieu's Deli and picked up our bread.  Anna is going to email me a long list of all the breads they make.

Mathieu's Deli located on Middle Street going north next to the Fire Station.

We left Mathieu's Deli and got caught in the rain.  It started coming down pretty hard, so we waited underneath the umbrella's at a vegetable stand just down the street.  After the rain slacked off some we biked home.   I was having to dodge all of the puddles so mud wouldn't splash all on the back of my white shirt.  It seems I always have on white when it rains.  We don't have fenders on our bikes yet, so you can get a nice muddy stripe going down your back on rainy days. 

Once we got home I couldn't wait to try out my bread.  I had purchased a loaf of whole wheat sour dough, kamut flour bread and a three grain mix bread.  I wanted to try out my Spicy Stout Belizean mustard I had purchased from the Greenhouse the day before.  So when we got home I made Bill and I both a turkey breast sandwich with our Belizean mustard on the whole wheat sour dough.  They were delish.  I can't wait to try out the other ones I bought next time.

Look at all these healthy breads.

I have this special bread slicing knife I brought from the states and it comes in handy. It is the Original Fiddle Bow Bread Knife.

Turkey breast sandwiches whole wheat sourdough with BBQ Kettle chips I brought back from Mexico.

Belize: A Day in the Life

Amberjack and Shad-Fresh catch of the morning.

Tuesday I saw a message on facebook that Wednesday our electricity would be shut off between 8:30am and 11:30am for repairs that were needed on the infrastructure.  Heck, at least Belize Electric is nice enough to give us some notice.  So I figured Bill and I would just wait until it goes off to leave the house.  We could go and get some breakfast, do some errands and be back in a few hours and it should be back on.  So sure enough about 8:57am (it is Belize time remember) the power shut off.  I was right in the middle of finishing up ordering some prescription meds online when it shut down. Thank goodness I had finished the order and she was just verifying everything.

This guy greeted us at the front door this morning.

We headed out to Neri's, Bill's favorite breakfast taco stand.  After breakfast we biked down to the lagoon where there are a few vegetable stands set up near the water. The tomatoes were much larger than usual, so I bought a bunch of tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers to make more salsa.

Neri's Tacos, 3 tacos for $1.00BZ (50cents US).

Neri's is always busy in the mornings.

Business must be good, Neri's has even added another table and it's covered too.

At the end of the street we found the fishermen cleaning their catch already this morning.  That has to be one of the nastiest jobs ever.  He was feeding the heads and tails to the tarpon in the water.  They were swarming to the get their share.

Look at those delicious veggies.

They even have a nice little scale to weigh everything.

Nice job with a view.

Fishermen cleaning fish. 

The Tarpon fish swarming to eat the heads and tails the fishermen were throwing in the water.

Next we headed down Middle Street and stopped off at The Greenhouse.  I shop here often, today I bought some Spicy Belizean Stout Mustard.  I can't wait to try it out on a sandwich.

The Greenhouse Grocery Store on Middle Street.

These guys were on Middle Street repainting the Sign for Cortez' Upholstery.

I think they are doing a pretty good job don't you??

If you are looking for a bran-d new laptop, there is one for sale in town.

Crystal water was out busy this morning delivering water all over town. 

Our next stop was Marina's Grocery.  I shop here often as well.  It is pretty small and crowded inside but their prices are good.  I bought Gouda cheese and whole wheat tortillas here this morning.

Caught this guy sniffing the fabulouso.  It does smell pretty good.  It was lavender, I told him I buy the same stuff.

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They always have lots of stuff sitting in the aisles.

He was weighing his produce.

Bill was out of Marie Sharps Hot Sauce, so we had to stock back up.  I think he goes through a bottle every two weeks.  He eats it on everything.

This fellow was people watching at Marina's

This cabbie will only go on (strickly) paved roads.  There are only three paved roads in San Pedro.

Our island garbage truck, they pick up seven days a week.  No nice trash compactor here, it is just piled on the truck and taken away.

I have passed by these guys selling their wooden furniture and carvings a few times since being on the island.  I needed an end table so I bought some from these guy today.  Really good prices too.  I bought the two on the end.

They even flagged down a guy who gave them a lift to deliver my tables to my house.  I don't think he wanted to, but when he stopped they just started putting it on his golf cart.  So he didn't have much choice and he was nice enough to take them as far as to the end of my street. 

After dropping off my new tables we headed to a place on the north side of town that I had not been to before.  You would probably have to know it is there to find it.  Bill had been there once before and he wanted to show me where it was.  It was called Dalia's.  They had a few things we had not seen before at other stores.  You have to shop around in Belize.

You can find pretty much anything

you need at Dalia's.

Dalia's Store

The girls working there were really nice too.

More island dogs chilling out under a coconut tree.

This is my little friend Michelle, the one that fell asleep in my arms on the boat to Caye Caulker.  When I got back from the states I almost didn't recognize her.  She had gotten all of her long hair cut off.  But she is still a cutie.  She was home from school for lunch.  She is eight and goes to school at the RC (Roman Catholic) School in town.  They come home for lunch from 12 until 1:30pm.

This is why we didn't have water all day Tuesday, there was a break in the water line.  It has been repaired and now they will have to come back and re-pave the road with pavers.

Looks like it was a big wash day here.  Lots of clothes out to dry.

My last stop for the day was at Maria's fruit and Vegetable stand.  You can learn about all kinds of concoctions and things by hanging out at Maria's. 

We got back home about 1:00pm and the electricity was back on.  We thought we would try out our ready made pizza we purchased at Dalia's for $10.00BZ ($5.00US).  It was actually pretty good.  Well that was "A Day in My Life", in Belize.  What was your day like?