No, not here. In fact, we are just finishing up the coldest time of year. But if you are inclined to see a beautiful photo of theNorthern Lights, you can.
Spent the afternoon yesterday touring Hacienda Pinilla with one of Steve's happy clients. While we enjoy living here all the time, there is something about spending a couple of hours on horseback riding through beautiful secondary forest and enjoying spectacular views of the coast that reminds us of how just how lucky we are.

While cleaning up our lot the other day (think: sweat, machete, sore arms....) Steve had the distinct displeasure of discovering that we've got a pretty big wasp nest in the corner. Ouch. After getting 6-10 little "reminders" around his hairline, he backed off (think: flailing madly while running blindly and thrashing himself about the head) and decided to leave that corner of the lot for another day.
This page has some interesting photos of wasps and wasp research. The ones that we've got (based on Steve's pain-filtered recollection of the nest) looked like these. The way that they stream out of the nest opening and start crawling all over the nest is pretty to watch. Also a good "hey, time to get out of here!" indicator.

Wasps are important pollinators and help keep many plant pest populations under control (they eat all sorts of plant parasites). Here are some more wasp facts and stories.
Still don't want them on the lot.

As a side: if you think natural history and insects are interesting (we do) take a look at this story about Thornbugs.

As if eBay wasn't interesting enough...Check out this item.

You know how sometimes you hear about an idea and say to yourself, "Wow, that makes a lot more sense than the way we do it now!"? Well, Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is just that. It makes more sense than what we are doing now. Check it out.

As much as it seems run o the mill to us, thought I'd share today's events, just for the fun of it.
Bb hopped up early- around 5am to get started in her studio. Hey, did we mention that she got a new torch setup? Yup, bran-spankin' new. The old one was so full of regulator problems, tank-filling problems, and general "there aren't any fittings for that in this country" problems that we finally decided to pony up for an entire setup from the local compressed gas folk (Praxair Costa Rica). So now we've got a few hundred pounds of compressed gas sitting around. Most of it is Oxygen, no real worries, but I gotta tell ya that a tank full of Acetylene (*crazy* flammable/explosive stuff) really does make you look carefully at things like ventilation and earthquake straps!
So she got up early to get in the studio and get some stuff done. Steve slept in until Caly decided his elbow was unforgiveably dirty. While I'm sure that *she* thought it was very kind of her, waking up to a canine tongue-bath isn't Steve's favorite way to start the day.
At 8 A.M. the scheduled electrical blackout came on. Actually it was more like 8:05. Of course, turning OFF the power is one of the few things we've disovered at which the Costa Rican service folk are punctual. Without electricity there wasn't so very much either of us could do at work- Steve made a few calls on the cell, Bb struggled in the studio without fans, torch (no fan, no torch), dremel nor lighting... until it got to be just too hot.
Caly got a spin at the beach- fetched a few coconuts and sticks- then we headed home to rinse off and head right back out for a surf (sans puppy dog). Had a great session- a bit choppy and onshore, but pleasantly breezy and occasionally head-high.
Headed home around 2:30 to the pleasant surprise of having power again, worked a bit, then headed to the beach for sunset and some photos by Steve.


Bb made dinner while Steve caught up with some clients. Ate outside with a light evening breeze. After we both wrap up our computers for the evening, we'll probably retire early (good surf tomorrow) and read a little.
Like I said, just another day.

Labels: dog

It may not seem like big news to some, but Tamarindo is really growing up. We've got pizza delivery now. I never would have said "Wow, a luxury I'm really going to miss in Central America is delivered pizza." But I do, or rather, did, as now we've got it. Babylon Pizza folks. Takes about a half-hour to show up, costs about $8 for a large with "everything" on it. Tastes great. Hard to go wrong. Unless you are very picky about ingredients, then it is really easy to go wrong- they've only got a few to choose from. No pepperoni either, just spicy salami, which is almost, but definately not quite, the same.

Labels: food, tamarindo