the boomer live

  In 2008 a group of Vicki’s friends decided to get face lifts, but did they go to a local surgeon oh no, that would be to easy!   They instead took a “facelift vacation” to Peru.   Naturally they did their research and decided on a doctor that some other local friends had used previously.   The outcome was some happy ladies, who enjoyed a vacation in Peru, had their facelifts and saved a considerable amount of money.

Why am I telling you this?

Vicki needs 4 crowns on her front teeth, and I need 2 crowns.  So after some thought and doing quite a lot of  research we decided to put together a dental vacation!   We have selected a dentist in Merida, Mexico to do our crowns. 

We will be taking a 9 day vacation in Merida.   The actual dental part of the vacation will be two mornings.  The dentist needs 4-5 days between the first appointment and the final appointment to get the crowns made.  We allowed a couple of extra days just incase the bite needs correcting.

Will we save a some money?  A little.  Our out of pocket cost with our local dentist would be $3375 after insurance.   Our out of pocket cost with the dentist we have selected in Merida, $900!  That’s a saving of $2450,  less the expected total cost of  the vacation (hotel, airfare and spending) $2000,  puts us ahead by about $450 plus we get a vacation!

Why Merida? Where is Merida?  Merida is the capital city of the Yucatan and has a population of about 800,000.  It also has a large expat community.  People travel to Merida from all over the World , but especially from Central America to get dental and medical services.   Merida also has one of the most prestigious medical schools  in Mexico (UADY).  Proximity to American cities like Houston allow local doctors to cross train and practice in both countries making Mérida one of the best cities in Mexico in terms of health services availability.

We will write follow  up posts detailing our experience!

Apparently the latest craze for pet owners in China is to dye your pet to look like a wild animal.  If you think that dressing pooches in cute little outfits was bad, then you better hope this does not catch on here.   Also, I wonder how confusing, psychologically damaging this is for the animals, or their “friends”.  More pictures (would you believe a Panda pooch) and longer story at  mailonline.com

Google will be doing a usability study of their Blogger software, and they want to pay people for their input……$75 for an hour of your time.

If you are interested you can apply here.    Apart from making some money I would think it would be an interesting experience.

Photo: Gobierno de Guatamala

Pinellas and Pasco County residents are mindful of sink hole problems and the extra cost of home insurance associated with them.  However I have never seen a local sinkhole like this  seemingly bottomless  one that opened up in Guatemala City over the weekend,  looks like it might go on for ever!  The sink hole was created after Tropical Storm Agatha drenched the area.

Received a call from Marco Rubio this morning, actually one of his campaign workers.  A couple of things annoy me about this.  Political calls are exempt from the do not call list, but caller ID showed Unknown Name and 000-000-0000 as the phone number.  If political calls are to be exempt they should at least be required to display a correct name and number indicating who they are from.  Also I have received several calls from this “number” in the last few days with no one on the other end, I guess they are inexperienced at using a robo dialer. 

This train spotter cheats death by inches, watch the complete video.

Groupon Deal Of The Day !!

A couple of months ago I signed up at Groupon Coupon website.

Basically every few days they send you a coupon offer from a local business that has signed up with them.  I was expecting quite a bit of spam, but was pleasantly suprised….. they just send an email with a coupon every couple of days NO ADDITIONAL SPAM.

Here is an example of an offer I got:

Catch 23 Restaurant – $50 of food and or drinks for $25.  I bought the coupon for $25, and three weeks later we went to Catch 23 and our total bill was $58 we used the coupon and put and extra $8 on our credit card…. pretty good deal.

A lot of the coupons that are offered have no interest for us, but for the ones that are it’s an excellent deal.  You only buy the ones you want.  We just purchased another coupon for Spain Restaurant, this was a $15 for $30 deal.  Why not try it out its a free service

One of the nice things about living in Florida is getting an invite to a beach wedding.  Last weekend  we attended the wedding of  Michelle & Ed,  Michelle is a the daughter of our friend Louisa .  The wedding was held on Sand Key in Clearwater.  It was an absolutely beautiful day with a light breeze,  the Bride looked beautiful, barefoot, in her white wedding dress. 

After the ceremony we went to the Island Grill for the reception.

We had appetizers & drinks out on the patio, including incredible conch fritters!  Then went inside for the wedding dinner and festivities.  The wedding cake was made by one of Louisa’s brothers.  Vicki rated it the best chocolate cake that she has ever tasted, and Vicki KNOWS chocolate!

Here’s wishing Michelle & Ed a full and wonderful life together………