Nothing important except one very important thing

A few quick updates, then some observations that make me smile.

We dropped Carolyn off at her hotel the other day as she has headed back to Portland. On the way into town we stopped off at a nice souvenir shop which has an iguana theme. In back of the store there is a nice (for us maybe not so much for the iguanas) enclosure containing some beautiful iguanas. They tell us that when they have babies they release them nearby to add to the ambience.

We leave tomorrow for Panama; our first trip outside the country to renew our visas. The trip is not the best of planned outings but we should get along fine. I hope. We haven't figured out exactly the route once we cross the border be it should be easy to figure out. I hope. We don't know where exactly we can store our car before we cross over to Isla Colon but we should be able to find a secure spot. I hope. We need to be out of country for 72 hours so when we cross back over into Costa Rica it will be too late in the afternoon to drive all the way back home so we will need to find a place to stay for the night. We haven't booked a place yet as we want to check out three possibilities. There should be room in one of them. I hope.

Tomorrow is Laurie's birthday. It will mark the third time she has been out of the country and missed spending her special day with friends and family. She is a bit bummed especially since hearing Jennie is throwing a little party and she won't be there. So if you want to make her feel better about being away from friends and family you could refuse to attend Jennie's party or I guess you could also send her an e-mail. We are going to be taking our computer with us so she can Skype; if you see us online drop her a little b-day greeting.

We have a new mascota. It showed up today. Who knows where it came from or how long it will be around but we love our little puff-ball.

We went to a singing contest/festival at the kids' school the other night and enjoyed some wonderful food and some not so wonderful singing. Actually there were a few acts that were very good and even those that didn't bring their buckets were still either charming or entertaining. Overall it was a very nice night.

We went to a farm of an ex-American living Puerto Rican. I met him at the local farmer's market and he invited us to his farm. When we showed up unannounced he was in the shower but the much younger lady who is always with him at the market invited us in. As we were waiting Laurie tried to break the ice by trying to convey that we were invited to show up any time we wanted and we would be welcomed. So she asked the lady "Is the man your father?" Of course he wasn't he; she informed us he was her husband. Luckily Laurie didn't ask as she was about to "Is the old man your father?" In her defense he is about twenty or more years older than her. Anyways, he showed us around. We got to see four very new calves including one that was born the night before. He also took us/me around to show how his pineapples grow. Very educational. Along our walk he opened up quite a bit about his family and how disapointed he is in his son who moved to the US to go to school, couldn't find work so went to law school but after passing the bar decided he like that line of work so isn't really doing much now. He couldn't believe why his son wouldn't want to come back to run the farm. He was probably even more upset seeing how he kept complaining about how his "peons" (his word not mine) are not working as he thinks they should and his place (72 acres) is going to pot. He invited us back when things were drier and he would show us his horses and maybe even let us ride them.

I have included another picture of the papaya tree in our backyard. This was taken 8 days after the previous photo. The mango trees in the driveway are still healthy and really need to be dug up. Where to put a tree that you won't be around to enjoy? and won't cause someone else future problems? The watermelon is doing well; I will pass on your regards.

We watch quite a bit of television. Sadly, other than sports, we watch a lot of reruns of friends, three and a half men, the big bang theory, new adventures of old christine, and some other oldies but goodies. We get a chance to chuckle a bit. However the thing that might be most entertaining is the commercials and our ad-lib interpretations that go along with them. For example, there are tons of Colgate toothpaste commercials. The funny thing is that in reality a person's only choice here is between which of the 15 varieties of Colgate they will buy or go without brushing. There is also a commercial for tampons that is set with a woman watching all the wonderful tampon information though a view-finder. Needless to say we have all sorts of fun with something like that. Finally, these Costa Ricans have a real infatuation with women's armpits. There are a number of different commercials from different brands touting how wonderful clean dry pits can be. There is one in which a man takes an up close sniff at one such armpit.