Preblogging for Sunday

Now that everyone's rested up, we'll go out and do some sightseeing. Today we take them up to the Poas Volcano, hopefully arriving before the clouds roll in and block the view.

It's about an hour away, and when the clouds aren't covering it, you can walk right up to the crater's edge and look down into it. There's a lake in the crater that's normally turquoise blue or algae green, but it's probably pretty much white right now, since all the recent rain will have stirred up the mud.

It's a stunning sight, but doesn't take long to see, so after that we'll go on back down the mountain and visit the La Paz Waterfall Garden. This is a private park that is very well run, offering an enormous butterfly observatory, a brand new aviary, monkeys, a hummingbird garden, small snake and frog houses (I'll be thinking of <B>you</B>, Pidomon!), an old-fashioned homestead, and a trail to a series of waterfalls.

We'll see all of those things, or as many as each of the ladies would like to see (some forgo the hike, and many are happy to give the snakes a wide berth!). We'll also have lunch there, then return to Rita's place for a chicken dinner.

Thanks are due all around. Well, most of the way around.

Thanks to Dad for following my instructions and for taking the initiative to further analyze the situation and plan compensating measures for tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for helping Dad obsess about the font. I know it's appreciated.

Thanks to Delta flight 247 for arriving, not on time, but six minutes early last night.

No thanks to me for leaving three dozen homemade carrot/zucchini/raisin muffins in the taxi. Along with two of my best tupperware (well, Ziploc. You know) containers. Hope the taxi driver enjoyed them.

Thanks to Rita's guest Sharyl for knocking on the door, laptop in hand, and thrusting it at me 15 minutes ago. May that become a daily occurrance.

No thanks to the Costa Rican power company, which decided to do line work from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. today, without sending the usual advance notification. It's extra challenging to teach a new sewing technique when there's no electricity for the sewing machines.

Thanks to the four ladies who have joined us, who have handled the surprises with equanimity and seem to be enjoying themselves very much, despite the lack of utilities. (Did I mention that Rita's water is from a well, powered by an electric pump?)

And finally, no thanks to Rita's dog Randy, for coming into my room at 5:00 this morning and farting.

Preblogging for Saturday

So I'm writing this yesterday, but it will (hopefully) post today,

through the magic of technology and family connections. Does that count?

Let's hope so.

The ladies presumably arrived last night around 9:30 p.m. It'll likely

have been closer to 10:30 by the time they go through customs,

immigration and baggage claim. Not, of course, in that order. Hopefully

we will have gotten them to Rita's by 11:00 p.m. or so, which was (would

have been? will have been? Boy, preblogging is hell on conjugation)

midnight by their clocks.

Today, therefore, is a nice easy day. Breakfast whenever they're ready,

then I'll introduce them to the project, show them some examples, and

explain the technique. They'll work on their first blocks during the

morning, then after lunch Rita will take them, two by two, for a

pedicure at a nearby salon, while the remaining two continue putting

together their quilt blocks.

They may or may not finish the whole first block today, but they should

be pretty comfortable with the technique at least.

We take them out to dinner at a nearby restaurant for some typical Costa

Rican food and ambiance. They'll try chorreadas, which are a sweetened

corn pancake (and also, interestingly, one of the most frequent search

words that lead people to this blog. Everybody wants a recipe, but

unfortunately I don't have one), and handmade tortillas, rice, beans,

plantains, chicken, beef and pork.

I'm guessing we'll all head to bed pretty early tonight.

Oh good grief

See? This is what happens when I'm relatively on-time getting ready for the retreat.

I still have a lot to do, but I have time to do it, and I actually took a few minutes to read a blog or two and exchange a couple of E-mails with a new friend (Hi LM!).

Then I found out that Rita's computer has a virus and will be sent out for repair during the retreat.

So now I'm scurrying to preblog the next week in order not to miss a day for NaBloPoMo. I hope that still counts. If it even works. I have to say, I really think that if Blogger, the ugly stepsister of the blogging platforms, is sophisticated enough to let people post by E-mail, Yahoo could be expected to provide a "send on" feature for scheduling outgoing mail. But alas, it is not so. And the E-mail scheduler I used to preblog the Greece trip doesn't exist anymore, so that's out.

I think I'll just work up some drafts and then hope that Rita's guest will let me use her laptop for a couple of minutes at some point each day so I can log in and post them. She's pretty nice, and already knows me, so chances are good.

I did already let the retreat guests know that they could give my E-mail address to friends or family in case anyone needed to contact them, so I have a good excuse for needing to get online, if only for a couple of minutes, at some point each day.

Right? Right?

Preppy

Today has been a day of preparations.

For the most part, that has meant grocery shopping with Rita for the quilt retreat that starts tomorrow.

I also dropped off the patterns to be printed at the large-format copy shop. I'll pick them up tomorrow. Tonight I'll make up the schedule booklets and pattern cover sheets and E-mail them to myself so I can print them out tomorrow at an Internet cafe - my printer doesn't do colors at the moment.

After I was back home, the lights went out, so I sat here wondering if I was going to miss posting for the day (unlikely, since the power was sure to come back on eventually) and making plans to take the kids to the restaurant across the street for dinner (they have a generator there). I should have done the dinner thing sooner, since the power came back on after about an hour.

Within 30 seconds of the lights coming on - seriously, I hadn't even turned on a light yet - my dad was calling me on the phone. He had tried to Skype me, but obviously couldn't. I'm awfully glad he didn't call while the lights were out, because he was contacting me to say that Bank of America contacted him all freaked out because I used my credit card today.

I never do that, you see.

I normally use the debit card, but that's expired and I'm not getting the new one until tomorrow. In the meantime, I put the groceries for the retreat on the credit card. So BoA saw three grocery store charges in Central America in the course of two hours and put a hold on the card. I'm just glad they didn't pick up on it before we got everything bought.

Anyway. Got that straightened out.

Jumping back to the afternoon:

Once all the shopping was done I headed up to the girls' school. Thing is, it wasn't time to pick them up yet, but if I went home I'd just have to turn around and came back 20 minutes later.

So, obviously, I went to the thrift store.

Figured I'd look for warm clothes for our Christmas trip to North Carolina. Not that I don't have warm clothes already, but I am aware that when I'm whining about how freezing it is here, the actual temperature is something like 65 degrees.

My camera's already over at Rita's, along with my sewing machine and a bunch of other things, since I won't have the car tomorrow, but I discovered that scanning works really well on T-shirts. Who knew?

So this is the shirt I bought:

In praise of a dedicated Googler

Dear person in Shawnee, Kansas who found my blog via the following search query:

photo OR photos OR picture OR gallery "loose tooth" -lyrics -stock -nail -band -bands -music -concert -imeem -dental -dentistry -ice -earth -scrapbook -scrapbooking -layouts -ideas -poetry -poems -poem -book -books

I have been there, my friend, although on different topics. I admire your persistence.

You entered my blog at a picture of Julia with a fresh space in her smile, and you kept clicking through eleven more entries.

I hope you found what you were looking for.

A milestone of sorts

Robin: Mommy? Is it okay if I start calling you Mom?

Not quite a cop-out post because it has lots of pretty pictures

Why even go on a three-week Epic Journey if you can't exploit it for blogging purposes?

I have nothing to say today, and no time in which to say it, so here. Have some five-month-old Frankfurt:








For the casual visitor, as well as my newer friends: the trip was actually to Greece & Turkey (about which more the next time I'm at a loss). But we had a 12-hour layover in Frankfurt on the way there.

Also, any stunning photography you may encounter in posts such as this is most assuredly the work of my sister, Lisa. Pictures of the ground? Pretty much me.

Here's hoping brake fluid isn't caustic

Okay.

I agree that the cars benefit the whole family. I agree that both routine and emergency maintenance should be handled by anyone who is available to do so.

I agree that keeping some tools and supplies in the cars is prudent and positive.

I do not, however, agree that one needs to keep three partially-used cans of brake fluid in a single car, and I furthermore do not agree that "lying in the bottom of the toolbox" constitutes an appropriate location for these no-longer-sealed products.

I additionally do not agree that whoever finds the resulting mess should go ahead and clean it up because the cars benefit the whole family.

There. I needed to say that.

I also hope brake fluid isn't caustic (turns out it's just like motor oil. Who knew?) because I sure got it all over my hands, and I further hope that some mechanically-savvy reader of this blog can let me know whether the following items can withstand prolonged submergence in brake fluid, or whether it's best to pitch them:

• Fuses - You know, those little colored chip-like ones with two flat aluminum prongs.
• Assorted spare light bulbs of the vehicular persuasion
• Pliers - actually, the oil probably did them some good, in a way, but is there any way to clean the soaked-in oil from the metal so they'll be fit for actual use?
• Spark plugs, one apparently new and one possibly used. It doesn't seem like a spark plug is made to withstand this kind of treatment. Can I just throw them out, or should a salvage attempt be made?
• Battery-powered hair trimmer - which, what was it even doing in the toolbox in the first place? I threw out the batteries and stood it up on end so some of the oil can drain out of its innards, but I'm pretty sure this is more a symbolic gesture of futile optimism than anything.
  

Guilt by association

Alex and I were sitting on the couch together yesterday when the power was out. I had Loren (the red-lored Amazon parrot) on my lap--on my right knee, because Alex was on my left and she doesn't like him.

It's not just Alex, actually. She's as cuddly as can be with me, but doesn't like any one or any thing that's not me or (sometimes) Robin. She even turned against Yolanda when she (Loren) adopted me. She's narrow minded like that.

Anyway, I was petting Loren and talking to Alex, and every once in a while Alex would poke his hand toward her and pull it back when she lunged at it. I gave him a chance to pet her by scratching her neck the way she likes and blocking her view at the same time. Then I tried what I've done with other people on occasion - presenting my hand for her (gentle) nibbling pleasure and sneaking one of his fingers in between my own.

Well. That didn't fly at all. Not only did she take umbrage at the offending digit, she got mad--and stayed mad--at my entire left hand. I kept petting her with my right hand, and she kept lapping it up, lifting her feathers so I could reach the skin of her neck, but as soon as I lifted my left hand she started lunging at it like she does at Alex. Normally when she lunges at me, it's a form of communication more than a threat of personal violence, so I didn't pull back and she went ahead and bit the offending hand (although, granted, not as hard as she would bite Alex. Or a stranger.)

Today is a new day, however, and she has forgiven my left hand its transgressions.