Robin's first haircut

So I WAS going to wait and let Lisa give Robin herfirst haircut, but I couldn't. Yolanda's next door neighbor offered to cut Robin's hair because don't you know that when you cut it, it fills out so much better. Like kids' hair isn't always filling out. So I just said I'd rather do it myself and then didn't do it, but Alex wouldn't let it go, and then he started saying if I didn't do it he would cut it himself, and you just don't mess with a threat like that.

So I trimmed it a little a few weeks ago when she was asleep. There was like nothing to cut (which I had considered quite a good argument when I was saying let's not cut it). I wanted to let her bangs grow out and brush them to one side, but Alex didn't like that, so I combed everything to the front and trimmed the parts that got into her eyes.

Since it was already a lost battle, the other day I trimmed again to keep it out of her eyes some more and trimmed over her ears, which Alex had wanted me to do the first time. Her hair is still so thin that a lot of it doesn't even get down to the parts we're talking about, but it is starting to look a little neater because there are more hairs that are actually the same length as each other.

I got into watching Friends again and watched a couple of the tapes that I hadn't seen for a while. I wish I could see the new episodes, but it'll be fun to watch them with Lisa. But yesterday our VCR went bad again. Maybe it'll fix itself like it did last time. It's too bad because Robin really likes her videos and especially when she was sick I was putting them on for her every day.

There are three main pizza places in Heredia that deliver to Barva and now there are two little pizza places in Barva on the way to the video place. We tried them both and one of them was really thin and lame and the other one was better but took forever. But the other day I was really in the mood for the lame one. I mean, if you know that's what it's like, you can look forward to it, but if you're imagining Papa John's it's disappointing. And the cool thing was that I got to eat a whole pizza by myself. Alex was out and I was working at home. It made me feel like Joey.

Today I wanted another one but the place was closed so I had to go to the place that takes forever. But it was a lot faster so that was cool. Except I could only eat half of it and I was disappointed in myself :(

Our big computer died. I tried to fix a few things with help from the Informatica guy over the phone, but it just got worse and died. (But not because of what I did). It was a really bad time for it since I havethis 50-page translation due soon and Alex needs the computer every day too. So last Saturday we sent a guy to take it to a friend of Alex's who fixes computers. And today he called and said it was fixed and he was charging us $18. We are so psyched we're paying him $30. I hope it really is fixed. The laptop has been great, but it's getting pretty slow and it sometimes resets spontaneously, which I find worrisome.

Dead computer, sick baby, translation pending

The big computer is completely dead. It's at Informatica, has been for nearly two weeks, but since it's a charity case (I hope it is anyway), Javier hasn't had time to even look at it. I did some testing and trying things out myself, but it just got worse and worse. Now it doesn't even send any information to the monitor when turned on.

We sent the social security stuff and Alex's hardlock out by Interlink two weeks ago next Tuesday. (The hardlock is going straight to TDS). We didn't send them by any kind of priority, and I think in the past I had discoveredthat things sent through them pile up till they have a planeful (or whatever) and then they send it all out. Robin's Consular Report of Birth Abroad can not be reissued if lost, and I've already had to show it for several different things - I'm not sure what we'd do if something happened to it.

Robin has been sick - some kind of stomach virus. She had a fever last Saturday, was feeling okay but didn't eat anything at all on Sunday, and on Monday was feverish and completely lethargic, just lying still in whateverposition she slumped into. She threw up once in the morning and once at the doctor's office. The next day she had diarrhea but was feeling better. She also had weird red blotches that came and went from her face during the day on Tuesday. She was drinking liquids, but didn't eat any food until Wednesday.

She has felt better each day, and yesterday we sent her to Yolanda's house again for the first time. She seems fine now, and is eating again, but just bland, mushy stuff. We ended up leaving her there overnight, and Yolanda said she threw up last night, but I know they took her to a birthday party across the street, and I assume someone slipped her some rice & chicken or something else she wasn't up to.

I am working on a 50-page guidebook to the orchids, cacti & bromeliads in the Nicoya area. Fortunately, I had three weeks in which to do it, so I was able to abandon it while Robin was sick.

Now I'm trying to get back to it,but it is proving to be quite a challenge with just one computer. Alex is planning to go to a friend's house and use the computer there today, and I hope to get some good work done here at home.

Yesterday someone came by to look at the pool table and made a reasonable offer. We haven't let him know yet. We were hoping to get 250,000 colones for it, and that's what he offered, but it's a situation where he was told 300,000 so the guy who made the contact could make a 50,000 commission. If we accept the offer, it will mean a much lower actual price for us once we pay the guy his commission and also a finder's fee to Jose, who made contact with the guy who contacted the guy who made the offer (got that?). So we'll let him know tonight.

Robin says "Carla" to call the girl who lives across the street from Yolanda and plays with Robin when she's there. She also calls "Ana" to our next-door neighbor. She still says doggie and agua, and yesterday morning after she got up, she came to me, patted her diaper and said "agua". She likes to pat me and say "mama" or "mommy". She also says "otro" when she wants more of something. Or rather, she nods her head and grunts when she wants more, and if we ask her if she wants "otro" she'll nod again and say "oto". Very cute.Okay, I really have to get to work on the document.