Sunday, January 31, 2010

Saying nothing

With the exception of a trip to the grocery store and some brief helping with dinner, I spent pretty much the whole day trying to get my computer to boot Windows when Windows is selected from the boot menu.

I have not yet succeeded in doing so, and I don't have anything nice to say about the process.

The end.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Conclusion: In-depth research may be required

I had never had a margarita, so when Bob and I went to the beach a few months ago, I ordered me one.

I quite enjoyed it.

So when we went to Grenada last week, I ordered another one.

And I enjoyed it even more.

However, when I had another one the next night, and a third one on the third night, they deteriorated steadily.

And we just went out for dinner with Dad here in town, and I ordered one, and all I can say is, it's a good thing it wasn't my first, else none of this would have happened.

I can only conclude that I need to hook up with someone who has experience tending bar, and learn to make my own.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Season's greetings

Dad and the girls made Christmas cookies while I was at work today, and this evening we all (who live here) get presents (from those who sent them) (Thanks!).


It's been a push to get everything taken care of since the Nicaragua trip, with a lot going on at work and two short nights' sleep, but the weekend's here and we get pizza tonight and go out to eat tomorrow and there's gas in the car and ... I'ma sit down for a while.

Merry Our Second Christmas, everyone!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The final dozen (okay, baker's dozen)

























Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Whew

Aaaaaand, 12 hours of travel. We left the hotel at 10:15 this morning, walked maybe 15 minutes to the bus stop, waited another 15 or so, and got the bus. Hour and a half to the border, an hour of waiting while everyone on the bus was processed out of Nicaragua, then three hours (mostly standing in line, much of that in the direct sun) being processed into Costa Rica, then about another week and a half on the bus.

Eight of us live in the Heredia area, so we got a (van) cab all together that got us home in good time and for a good price. Walked in here right about at 10:15 this evening.

The kitty survived, didn't wreak havoc, and now has some special canned food and clean litter. I scooped, unpacked and straightened our bed while Bob took Dan & Jan home, and now it's time for a snack, then bed, then work, then picking up the girls at 3:00 tomorrow and then cleaning up because Dad gets in about this time tomorrow night.

Good thing it's almost the weekend.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The view from the bell tower



Don´t worry, there´s not supposed to be any audio. My camera doesn´t roll that way.

And here´s the same thing on the west side of the tower:

Monday, January 25, 2010

Grenada, Nicaragua























Sunday, January 24, 2010

See you Thursday

Or, you know, maybe tomorrow.


We're off for our visa-renewing-slash-romantic-getaway-for-14 to Grenada this morning.

I suspect there'll be Internet cafes in town, given that there's WiFi at the hotel, but I haven't actually looked into it.

The bird and turtle are farmed out, the cat is mega-fed (and may be looked in on), and we're heading out in half an hour for a 5-minute bus ride, followed by a 20-minute bus ride, followed by a quick taxi to the 7-hour bus. Yup, we've got cards and Jan's bringing the light reading.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Hopefully she'll still let us park there

We no longer have a car port.

We'd been planning to screen it in for ages, but the plastic netting we bought for another project once upon a time was no longer available at the hardware store, so it kept getting put off. Yesterday I picked up a slightly different kind and today while Bob was at work I put it all up with about 150 zip ties.

No more car port. Now it's a cat porch.







Friday, January 22, 2010

The classic "labor saving device" story

I have stuff I could post about tonight - sending 645 faxes at work (really), meeting a very charming (and tiny) little gecko, the video game I've been playing lately. But I didn't feel like writing about any of that, and when I walked into the bedroom the cat was all spread-eagledy on the bed and I took her picture and was going to post that.


Only, when I went to get my camera card reader out of my purse, the camera card was still in it. Meaning that the three or four photos I just took are stored on the camera's internal memory.

The whole reason I have a card reader in the first place is that my camera doesn't play well with others, so when I hook it up to a computer, the computer whistles tunelessly and looks at the ceiling, and never ever acknowledges that anything so lowly as an uncouth little digital camera might be connected to its USB port.

I tried it on Bob's computer but it still didn't work, and I haven't been able to figure out how to transfer the photos from the internal memory onto the memory card, from whence I would be able to retrieve them.

Bob suggested re-installing the camera software on the computer, which is an excellent idea even given that computers used to read the camera without ever having it installed in the first place. Technology being the crafty beast that it is, we figured it was worth a shot, so Bob downloaded the driver.

Or tried to.

It froze up after downloading 55 out of the 42 MB of the file, so he gave up on that and I set out to look for the actual installation CD, which I remembered seeing during the move. Of course, I remembered seeing it in a place other than my One True Drawer of computer stuff and CDs, so I went off seeking that other place amongst the 65 cubic feet of stuff stored in the 50 cubic feet of space under the bed.

I didn't find it.

Although I did find a box of stuff I could probably reduce to a small stack of papers if I decide to get into it tomorrow, and I have a pretty good idea of where the CD may actually be, if only I felt like moving all our tools and spare plastic bags from off the container in which it may or may not be lodged.

So I can't resort to a cute kitty photo for an easy post tonight :(

Now what am I going to write about?

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Eventful

Today I got my NC Driver's License Out of State Renewal by Mail packet and it all looks doable. Mostly just forms to fill out, and I have to get a local vision test.


Then Bob called to tell me the DSL guys were going to be calling me for directions, which they did within minutes. Thing was, Bob was supposed to go out and meet a friend of a friend of his who is new to Costa Rica and not reachable by phone. We weren't sure what to do about that, but we knew we weren't going to miss the DSL over it.

Happily, the guy showed up sooner than we feared, and took less time than we thought, and he got to the appointed meeting place long before the acquaintance-to-be did anyway.

I was going to go meet them both after work, but as I was walking out to the car, a government inspector dude showed up and had to be dealt with, so by the time I actually did manage to leave, it was too late to meet the new friend.

And then we came home and I marveled at the DSL and played The Sims and Bob went to work and now he's home, the end.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Discovery of the day

I had an excellent day today.


Meaning, I used Excel for almost everything I had to do at work.

I discovered that it's pretty easy to update an old spreadsheet to include the 8th digit in the phone numbers (Costa Rica added a digit last year) by inserting a column and then pasting in a formula that adds 20,000,000 to the old number.

Formulas and mass pasting are a good thing, given that it's a 645-row spreadsheet, and each row includes two to four phone numbers.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

That's 8-inch tile

I keep talking about how we found this Big-Ass Spider, and then the cat killed Big-Ass Spiders numbers two and three (okay, #3 was smaller). Well, this is what I mean by that:



Monday, January 18, 2010

Squared away

Well, the girls are up the hill till after the Nicaragua trip, we have our bus tickets, my passport is not expired (there was a brief scare caused by an out-of-date photocopy), and the hotel likes to get paid in person, so I don't have to figure out how to get them my credit card number beforehand (I can call the US for free, but the next country over is more complicated). The only thing left to do for the trip is pack for it and coordinate getting to the pick-up point.

I spoke to the phone company this afternoon and they confirmed that whatever tech is sent over to install the DSL will have modems in the truck - you can rent the modem from the phone company for a dollar a month, but after we'd applied, I realized they hadn't asked if we wanted to do that, so I worried that the guy might show up and not be able to do anything. I still hope they don't come while we're out of the country, but there's not much we can do about that. If they haven't come before we go, I can call the phone company when we get back to see if they have a "not home" note on the work order, and if so we can set up a new time.

I finished the quilting I was doing for my friend in time for her to add the binding and bring it back in to work this morning; it looks great and she's pleased, and the proceeds will be almost exactly what the Nicaragua tickets cost, so that works out well.

And I moved a new family into the neighborhood so my Sims can make new friends. All's right with the world.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Scintillating

We made cinnamon apple scone roll-ups, watched Underdog and I cleaned out all the long hair (and a little yarn) that had rolled up into the five wheels of the newest office chair.

The girls rode bikes (Well, bike. We only have one so far, and it's too small for either of them, but it does get a workout!) and played "chess" with the neighbor kid outside for a good part of the afternoon. It looked like the board was set up right, and the one move I saw (a knight) was correctly executed, but I'm not real sure how far beyond that it adhered to standard rules.

In other news, the parrot seems to be entering That Time of the Year, when she pines for company (it's actually quite a good time to get to know her) and, this year anyway, shreds everything she can get her beak on, presumably for nesting fodder. I can't exactly provide her with what she really wants, but I figured I could at least give her a box in which to deposit her newspaper shreds, and maybe even sit in for a while. Well, she loved that. Shredded it into tinier pieces than the newspaper. Twenty-four hours later, I can't even see where it was.

And now we have a Mystery Leak in -- well, under -- the toilet.

See? Scintillating.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Daily highlights

Bob was at work and I wanted to finish the quilting I was doing last night, so I talked Robin through making dinner - pasta with sauce from a packet, and some boiled corn. That went over very well, and needless to say, I've Created A Monster. She immediately wanted us to commit to having pasta for dinner the following night.

So today I let her mix up the pancake batter for lunch and she had a bit of a lesson in Roundness and Gravity and the Combined Effects Thereof. And the kitty had a snack.

This afternoon the girls and I drove into San Jose to pick up the bus tickets for our trip to Nicaragua next week. The actual ticket buying went very well, although it turned out they don't take debit cards, so we did have to walk a few blocks through not the greatest part of downtown, over to an ATM. This in turn afforded us a several-block conversation about alcohol and drugs and why people might try them initially, and what it can lead to in their lives.

Then there was a car accident outside when we were back at the counter buying the tickets. Everyone in the bus station except the guy behind the counter ran en masse to the door and out it, to spectate. I started after them, since my car was parked just out of sight, but they all got to the door and started ogling to the north, and happily we were parked to the south, so I returned to my transaction.

Random aside: If kitty comes to me with the big-ass spiders she kills, does that mean she's accepted me as one of her own? I'm guessing since I trade her for a treat (that she not consume it outright), she's prolly not going to be stopping any time soon.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Having a functional telephone has paid off already

I never used to call in to the radio when they gave stuff away, because with the cell phone chances were good the call would drop, never go through, or be inaudible if I did.


But I have a real phone now, so when Evan said they were giving away the weekend brunch for two at Café des Artistas, I went ahead and picked it up. I turned it on, waited till he said "be the first to get through," decided to turn it off and on again, and then dialed. And it rang, and Evan picked up and said I was a winner, the end.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Funny, it only feels like 1492

This is the 1500th post on this here blog, how about that.


So, as I was saying last night, Bob needs to leave the country to reset his visa before the regulations change, and as it turns out, some friends of ours happened to be planning a trip to Nicaragua at just about the right time. Couple that with Christmas money for just about the right amount, and we get to go here the week after next.

I'm just as glad to have company the first time we do this little excursion (which we'll need to do - or Bob will - either every three or every six months from now on, depending on how exactly the regulations change). The fact that we get to go with good friends (and some others we don't know yet), and stay at what looks like a really nice hotel, with tours and everything...well, I can make my peace with that too :)

I've been to Nicaragua many times, but I haven't been back for years, and I've never been there as a tourist. This looks like an entirely different side of the country than I used to see 15 and 20 years ago, traveling with students and talking to people about politics and the war.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Halfhearted post, oh well

I've had a busy day working, trying to get information from a recalcitrant (well, okay, very busy) bus company, spending time with the girls and quilting (not my quilt).

We finally got the dialup from home sorted - after trying a number of things, and downloading new drivers (not from home), and then trying a number of other things - but it's still dialup, so I'm writing this in WordPad for copying and pasting once I connect.

Most people who have put in for DSL say it takes a week or two, so I'm hoping the official month-long wait is more of a worst case scenario than the actual deal.

I also really, really hope they don't suddenly come wanting to install in a week and a half, when Bob and I will be out of town for four days. More about that another day - I'm thinking I may still get another half hour of quilting in before bed, so I'll keep this short for tonight.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Or not dialup

We tried the 900 number for dialup last night, but neither computer could communicate with its modem. They've both been formatted since either was last asked to do anything modem-y, so we're figuring they probably lack drivers. I've downloaded some at work here, and we'll have another go later on.


Also, and unrelatedly, this is a presidential election year in Costa Rica and I heard a political ad on the radio this morning:

Voiceover: Who are you voting for this year?
Citizen #1: Eh, what's the difference? I'm voting for the least worst.
Citizen #2: I don't like any of them. I'm voting for the least worst.
Citizen #3: Politicians are all the same. I'm voting for the least worst.
Voiceover: Fishman. The least worst.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Well, that was anticlimactic

I have posted at least once every single day since ... well, I'll go back and look it up eventually, but it was sometime before November 2007, and it was officially so as of January 4, 2008.


But, no more.

We had a really really stay-in day yesteryday; I made grandma's apple crisp for a mid-morning snack, and oven fries for part of our dinner, we watched two movies and played lots and LOTS of computer games (the girls have discovered The Sims), and I finished Julia's bag. Well, almost finished (photos forthcoming).

Since the girls are on vacation, their bedtime is more flexible, and I didn't get Julia settled till after 9:00 pm, and then it was 9:30, and then it was just too late to run out to the Internet café. So I didn't.

Oh well, lots of changes going on in life, I guess this is one of them. I'll probably still keep blogging daily, but the angst over missing one no longer seems to be an issue.

For the record, there is a pay-as-you-go dialup option and I made a couple of attempts to figure that out, but it was a little too elusive for my 10:00 pm brain to deal with. Plus, well, you know. Dialup.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

I want to call it a light at the end of the tunnel, but it just doesn´t feel like one right now.

So I went down to the phone company just now to tell them I wanted DSL on my brand spankin´ new phone line.

My phone company branch of choice is in a grocery store, in a mall. Suffice to say, there was a line.

But it was moving. I seemed to advance about three feet every 10 minutes, and that´s progress. People kept leaving the line and rejoining others in the line in front of me though, and somehow after half an hour I still calculated that I was about 7th in line.

Anyway, it was eventually my turn, and I went up to the window trepidatiously (it is TOO), well aware that they could ask me for documents I didn´t have on me, or even things that I can´t necessarily access without some significant effort.

Like, for instance, a valid ID card, but that´s another story.

So, she didn´t ask me for anything I couldn´t produce (although I did meekly accept a warning about the ID card - what´s the point of Immigration issuing automatic extensions and extra years on the card, and renewal appointments a year in the future, if nobody thinks the document that Immigration faxes me to that effect in fact means anything at all?) But I´m not here to talk about Immigration.

Ahem.

She didn´t ask me for anything I couldn´t produce, but she did say that she can´t actually put in an application for DSL on that line because the work order is still open. Something about coming in less than a week after the thing was physically installed.

But she had a solution: She took my application and kept it to the side (in, I couldn´t help but notice, an otherwise empty folder that she then placed at the very bottom of the stack on the bottom tray of her three-tiered Inbox), and as soon as the work order is closed (within a week), she´ll process the DSL application. She even gave me a blank work order for when the application goes through, and said she´d call me with the number when she had one, and I´ll write the new work order number on the blank work order and post it in my window.

And then proceed to wait A MONTH.

*Sigh*

Coming to you live from my second-favorite booth at our favorite Internet café....

Friday, January 08, 2010

WooHoo!

A quarter
Five dozen
Bicentennial
Tiny little record album

That´s our new, fully installed and operational, very own, eight-digit PHONE NUMBER!!

And we didn´t even have to bribe anybody.

Very much.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

This is what happens when I have to post at lunch hour instead of loitering on the Internet until I actually have something to say...

On the to-do list for today:
-- Now with 100% more late-afternoon progress reports!

  1. Trim the parrot's claws so she doesn't get tangled up in her food dish again.
    -- No, becase #2 freaked her out enough for one day.
  2. Sandpaper her perches so the claws will stay trimmed.
    -- Just the first one, which freaked her out enough for one day.
  3. Install the fourth and final light fixture (in the girls room, since they come back tomorrow). -- Well, there´s always tomorrow.
  4. Find places for the stuff I've put on their beds while organizing the rest of the house all week.
    -- Uh, some. Enough to make a difference.
  5. Drop off utility receipts to former landlady.
    -- Oooh! Oooh! I did this one!
  6. Find out how much it will cost to fix the car's now considerable oil leak. (*sigh*)
    -- Yup. A whole lot, but not as much as I´d feared. It´s now on the list for next paycheck. Or the next.
  7. Get seat assignments for Mom, Dad, Lisa & Scott's return flight (what, don't you have people in Costa Rica handle your Mexico/US travel plans?)
    -- Tried, couldn´t, was informed that Dad can do it from the hotel. Hoping they don´t come home with as, uh, interesting a travel story as Mom & Lisa & I did a couple years ago.
  8. WATCH DR. WHO THE END OF TIME, yaaaaaaaaaaaaay and thanks Bruce!!
    -- On deck for...pretty much as soon as possible, with chili to go with it!

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

I'm in Costa Rica, but also standing in line at the NC DMV

The reason my Costa Rican driver's license is so badly expired is that you can take in a valid foreign license and get a CR one same-day with no real problem. But if you don't have a valid US license, you're treated like a non-driver and have to take tests and courses and all kinds of things.

Since I know I'm a good driver, and the fine if you get a ticket for driving on an expired license is something like five bucks (maybe ten by now), I've just let it slide.

Hmmm.

Okay, thinking about it, I guess I could have renewed my CR license before my NC one expired, but for some reason I didn't. Possibly I didn't realize in time, or maybe it was just that I wasn't dealing with non-essential things at that time last year, what with all the personal upheaval. Probably both.

In any case, my NC license expired on my last birthday, in July. I tried to renew it when I was in the States last year, but it was six months and one day before my birthday, and their system only accepts renewals up to six months in advance. The guy was nice, but he said I would have to come back the next day, which I couldn't do.

Anyway, it occurred to me this week to check the NC DMV website to find out if there was any way to renew it without going in personally.

After a long list of the things you have to do and present in order to renew a license, there was a small-print paragraph about how people living temporarily out of state could, under certain circumstances, renew by mail.

I contacted them for more information, and was answered within 24 hours with a list of the information they would need in order to determine whether I was eligible.

I've sent them all of that, and they sent it on to "the appropriate unit", and now I'm supposed to be contacted "within 10 days" with a response as to whether I can renew by mail or not.

If I can, the new license will be good for 8 years, or for 60 days after I next enter the United States, whichever comes first.

Works for me.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Crafty. Like tricksy, only not.

Thought I'd take a few minutes to post before leaving work today, in case I don't feel like going back out to the café in the evening.

These are the photos I took of Julia's bag under construction. It's not completely done yet, so there's no actual "After" picture.

These are the pants with the inseam removed, basically converting them into (slightly funky) yardage (but with a waistband in the middle, even though it's not real obvious in this photo):


The flared legs on the pants seemed like a nice shape for the bag itself, so I used one whole leg and the bottom of the other, trimming the upper leg part to match the flare.


Julia picked a green print with pink flowers for the lining, and a matching pink for the pockets. The colors are way off in this photo, but you can see the inside pockets sewn onto the lining fabric, before making the lining itself.


This is the complicated step - the one where you refer back to the pattern, even if you get how to put the rest of it together. The bag and lining are each made by taking a long strip of fabric and basically folding it in thirds. The top third is the flap, and doesn't get sewn down. The other two thirds get sewn up the sides to make the bag part.

Then you put it all together by turning the outer bag inside out and putting it inside the lining which is rightside out (meaning that the right side of the fabric is on the inside - where it will be once the whole thing is finished...got that?) and sew around the flap and rim. This is what it looks like at that stage:


And then you turn it all rightside out and topstitch everything you can reach, and make a strap. I'll post another picture once it's completely finished.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Guess we can scratch ¨Be a law abiding citizen¨ right off that list of new year´s resolutions.

Not that I made any resolutions, much less a list of them.

So, I´ve known all year that vehicle taxes and registration are paid in December. You can even pay it online, and pick the sticker and registration up at your local branch of the bank.

Only thing is, once I got off work on the 23rd, I went into vacation and moving mode, and just completely forgot. Never crossed my mind, not even once.

I didn´t even remember when I was pulled over on my way to work this morning. There are always cops at that particular intersection, pulling random people over, and today they waved me over.

I gave the cop my license and it wasn´t until he looked at it to get my name, then asked me by name if I´d paid my registration fee, that I realized I hadn´t.

I told him no, that I´d totally forgotten, but could do it as soon as I got to work a mile down the road. He sighed and looked sorrowful, and said he was so sorry, but he had to confiscate my license plates. I asked him what I was supposed to do, and he kept turning around asking me, ¨what CAN we do?¨

Now, I was more than willing to slip him something if that would help, but I have to say I´m really not that well versed in the whole cop-bribing protocol, so I wasn´t sure how to go about it. I did toss in a, ¨what can we do?¨ of my own, and asked him, wide eyed, what options I might have.

He went off for a few minutes, I guess to let me stew about it and get real desperate, and then came back again and asked me what he should do. I asked if there was anything I COULD do and, again, what options I had and I guess he finally realized he was going to have to walk me through it, because he asked if I would give him a little something (the phrase he used is essentially, ¨would you buy me a drink,¨ but without mentioning drinks), so I asked how much was normal and of course he wasn´t going to set a limit on it.

I checked my wallet, hoping I had a ø5000 bill, because less would surely be insufficient and I didn´t really want to offer ø10,000 right off the bat. Fortunately, I did have one, and I asked him if five would do, and he said yes. So I pulled it out and he actually had to point out to me that I should slip it into his hand on the door frame, rather than passing it out the window to him.

Apparently this is truly not one of my skills.

So, that was that and I went to work and logged into my bank account and paid the silly thing, and after work went to the bank to pick up the sticker and Oh My Goodness.

You really don´t want to go to the bank on the first business day of the year.

I waited 15 minutes (in the very hot sun) to even get in the door, and another five minutes in the vestibule, waiting for my turn to go through the security door thing.

Once inside, though, I told the guard I was there to pick up my registration, and instead of sending me to the standing-up line (for the regular tellers) or the sitting-down line (for specialized services), he actually directed me to a desk at the back where there was no line at all.

So that was nice, and now I´m legal. Well, legalER.

I´m just glad that cop was working so hard at teaching me how to bribe him that he didn´t notice the license he´d been holding that whole time expired in 2007.

Sunday, January 03, 2010

And...two

I made Julia´s bag today, almost. The bag part is done, and the strap is made and half topstitched. I took some pictures, but I worked right up until I really really didn´t want to work anymore, and now we´re at the Internet café, briefly, and next we´re taking ourselves out for dinner for having had such a productive day (we installed the second light fixture first thing in the morning, and Bob made TWO of his projects while I worked on the bag), and uploading and editing photos just isn´t in the cards. To say nothing of deciding whether to expose my memory stick (or camera card) to whatever Contagion might be lurking in either this computer or this copy of Internet Explorer. (Three days at the café and I have yet to get a machine with anything but Explorer. BOB, on the other hand, had Firefox the first day and currently has his pick between Firefox and Chrome. Some PEOPLE.)

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Near miss

We´ll see about this not having Internet at home thing. I almost passed up coming in to the café today because I didn´t feel like going out in the afternoon, and by the time we finished diner and a movie (¨Star Trek: First Contact¨ - sorry, Spanish keyboard and it´s too much trouble to find the codes for italics), it was 8:30 pm and I didn´t really feel like going out again. But what with the Blog365 thing and everything, I decided to go ahead and do it. We´ll see if that sentiment wins out every time.

No word on the phone thing (prerequisite for the Internet thing), but assuming there´s no actual technical problem like there was in the other neighborhood, it should happen within a couple of weeks.

So we didn´t do all that shopping I said we were going to do yesterday; turns out New Year´s Day is a pretty serious holiday and all the stores were closed. Well, except for the ice cream shop. That was open :)

Today we did a lot of the hardware store shopping, including actual light fixtures to replace the bare bulbs in our four rooms, a shower caddy for our shelfless, towel barless, toilet paper holderless bathroom, and some wood for the first two projects: shelving over the toilet and a base for the birdcage.

By the time we got home, however, we were both worn out and spent most of the rest of the day hanging out and playing computer games (although we did install the first light fixture, which went well and works fine, despite Costa Rica´s approach to household wiring. [By which I mean, we made an educated guess as to which of the two white wires was the ¨black¨wire and got it right on the first try.])

So tomorrow will be the big Getting Things Done day - Bob building and me sewing - and today is...well, pretty much over.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy year!

We cleaned out the upstairs apartment and dismantled our personal Internet café yesterday, so in a sense the last night of 2009 was our first night fully moved.

I dropped the girls off up the hill after lunch, and we had a quiet evening at home. We watched The Sixth Sense, which I had never seen, and tried to play a couple of computer games together, but one wouldn´t work right, and one was too complimicated for me to learn it all in one night. We played around with The Sims for a while, then had some cookies and eggnog and went to bed around 11:30, secure in the knowledge that we wouldn´t miss the new year.

And we didn´t. Fireworks are legal here, and our little cul de sac didn´t hold back. They went on for a solid half hour, by my count, but maybe more because we did eventually fall back asleep.

This morning we took down the Christmas tree and decorations, so the living room is ready for whatever ends up being its first semi-permanent furniture arrangement.

We´re at the [public] Internet café now, and then heading over to the hardware store to get some minor construction supplies, some screening to see if we can´t fashion a cat-proof carport area, and maybe price some paint, because the landlord had the main walls painted, but they didn´t finish the edging, and they didn´t touch the bathroom or the aquamarine doors (and not the good kind of aquamarine), and there´s no molding around the ceiling, so there are roller marks all around the edges. We may need to tweak it all a bit.

A click a day for good causes

The Hunger Site The Breast Cancer Site The Child Health Site The Literacy Site The Rainforest Site The Animal Rescue Site

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