Life is never simple, is it? I'm sitting in the internet cafe downtown - waiting for my iced mocha, being grateful for the fact that Gaby has a friend who's a dentist.

Last night, we had a great party. Colleen simmered marinara sauce all day and served it with spaghetti. Kristin made a huge vegetable platter with a mountain - or maybe a dune - of herbed cream cheese in its centre. Atop the cream cheese there stood a palm tree fashioned of bell peppers. It was beautiful. Robin and I made a trip to Costco and came back with some smoked pork cutlets (in lieu of ham steak). I fried potatoes with onions and peppers, then topped them with pieces of pork.

Marian and Stan came over, bearing pizza. So did Eileen and Jack, who also brought refried beans and chips. Altogether, there was a mountain of food, and it was all very tasty.

At Costco, I couldn't resist buying a big flan with a chocolate base. I wouldn't have done that, if I'd realized that Marian was there, buying a huge Black Forest cake. As it was, the ten of us just couldn't eat all the dessert, so there's an afternoon coffee party planned for today.

I had hardly sat down to eat when I realized something was wrong. I thought at first I had lost a filling, but it turned out that the filling was there, but the tooth itself had broken off, so that every time I tried to talk, I sawed at my tongue.

So, enough details. I don't know how it happened. I asked the other folks at the dinner if they knew a good dentist in town. The best they could say was that they knew where there was a dentist nearby. Then someone suggested I ask Gaby, the park manager, for a recommendation. I did that at about 9:00 this morning, and sure enough, Gaby has a friend, Gilda, who is a very good - and very busy - dentist. Gaby called Gilda, who said she would squeeze me in around 2 o'clock this afternoon.

Then I walked to the vet's office, to see whether she had been able to find the cat medicine I was asking about. No, she hadn't. Back to square one.

With several hours to spare, Robin and I went off to do some shopping. when we came home, I ate a bowl of tangerine and banana topped with coconut yoghurt and a sprinkling of granola (Viva Mexico!) and went to brush my teeth. As I picked up the toothbrush, I heard a horn honking. It was Gaby, there to pick me up. Gilda had had a cancellation, and she was waiting for me. Off we went. Gaby dropped me off right in front of the dentist's office. The receptionist was waiting for me in the foyer, and presto, I was in the chair, having my tooth rebuilt. I was afraid it would turn out to be one of those three appointments over three weeks deals, but no, she said she could do the job in this one sitting. Best of all, she sang through the entire procedure - hummed, mostly, but occasionally let loose a few words. I mentioned afterward how much I had enjoyed that. She laughed and gave me a couple of her business cards, pointing to the little picture on them. It was a molar, holding what I suspect was a toothbrush. She said "That's me, and that's my microphone. I'm the singing dentist!"

So here it is, not even three o'clock, and I'm done. As long as I was downtown anyway, I walked the length of the malecon and found the English language bookstore, bought a couple of books, and then came here to PVCafe.com for my internet fix. Now I have to find the bus stop again, and head home for coffee and flan.

As I was able to have my tooth looked after today, I guess we will be heading south tomorrow, as planned.