Some people get grumpy about birthdays, saying things like "Oh.... just wait till you reach my age".

To this I say "Poppycock! Balderdash! Nay!"

I will not be bamboozled into thinking that getting older is, in any way, negative.


Just stop and consider the alternative for a second.

Jocelyn was born on May 30, 30-something years ago. We celebrated that fact yesterday with good friends, libations, delicious food, and it was a very nice day.

K&L: Jocelyn giggled over her breakfast heart. Thanks.

Labels: birthday, food, tamarindo

I think I finally fixed our 1/2 bathroom! It has been months. Mostly due to abject disinterest on my part, but partly due to simply being a little afraid of the project.

I finally tore down the toilet, breaking it into all of its constituent pieces... the tank came off, I scraped all the silicone sealant off of the base/bowl to detach it from the floor (hot tip: alcohol will soften silicone, but it takes a long time. Turpentine will work faster, but you better have some ventilation). The original problem appears to have been both of the nylon bolts that hold the tank to the bowl had sheared off at the head. I was pleasantly surprised to find two new bolts with washers and nuts for $2.

Once I got that all fixed, I threw on a new wax seal (for good measure) and re-assembled, only to find that the fill valve had apparently built up enough scum/hard water deposits from inaction that it wasn't working. So the tank came back off so that I could get the valve out. Now that I've done it, I realize that I could have just taken the top off of the valve in situ. Oh well, that's one way to learn.

Soaked the valve in vinegar for a few hours, then scrubbed it with a brush to get it all cleaned up. It seems to work now! So I put everything back together and cleaned up. So far, no leaks! The fill valve might be seeping slightly- hard to tell. If it is, then we could waste as much as about a gallon per day. Maybe. It is a really really small leak.

Since I was feeling Joe Plumber-esque, I went ahead and attacked the sink faucet, which is a little wobbly. The good news: I didn't make it any worse. The bad news: I don't think I made it any better. At least it is cleaner now. The problem is that the faucet can rotate on the sink. The cause appears to be that the concrete from which the "counter" is made is very thick and uneven- so the nut on the bottom of the faucet is too far to get a hand/wrench onto it to tighten, and the surface against which it is getting tightened is so uneven that it doesn't clamp down.

Oh well. At least we have a half-bathroom again. Before this we only had THREE bathrooms for the two of us. That extra half-bath should really help.

Labels: house

Planted jalapeno seeds today. Again.

I think that the last batch failed to germinate because we tried to start them inside, on the kitchen counter. I've since read that they like hot soil. Well.... they are now out by the shower- full sun for at least 6 hours/day. They'll be hot, all right.

Just have to keep them moist, and get them out from under heavy rain showers (that tend to flood flower pots).

I also threw a few errant basil seeds in. Hey, why not? Right?

Hopefully, in about 3 months, we'll be writing about the fabulous jalapeno and basil sauce we're making.

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, jalapeno, tamarindo, weather

In a country full off wacky things that take forever, it is often surprising to me that Costa Rica does offer some really great decentralized services.

Take this news, for example. Apparently we can now renew our residency documents at any Banco Costa Rica by just making an appointment, then showing up with $50 in hand to cover the cost of the card.

What a great service! I won't even go into the complicated process that has been in place previously. It was truly terrible.

While at the bank to get a new ID card, you could also pay your electric bill, your phone and/or cellular bills and a variety of other services. It is pretty cool. Perhaps not quite as handy as using the postal service to send a check. But it uses less paper and happens instantaneously.

Labels: Costa Rica

Because I drive around on back roads very frequently, I forget how fun they are.
Well, it isn't so much that I enjoy them less, but more that I find them un-remarkable. Much like saying "Oh, I sure enjoyed jumping in the pool today" or, "There was a refreshing breeze blowing at the beach.

In an effort to appreciate the cool/fun/special things about where we live, I'm slapping up a quick photo that we took the other day while puttering along on a jungly road just a mile or three from the house.

This time of year is great: less dust, more greenery, some mud, but not enough to transform a dirt road into a three-hour mudfest.

*The grill and bumper are off due to a repair/upgrade in progress.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, Costa Rica, land cruiser, mud

Just got back from a quick overnight trip to visit the mountain cabin of a friend of mine. It was great. Cloudy, cool, foggy (all attractive when you're on the tail end of a 7 months of hot sunshine!). We grilled out some chicken and tortillas over a bonfire, drank enough beer and rum to do the trick, then sacked out in the cabin.

I didn't take a camera :( but the cabin is great: made entirely of hardwood and bamboo, it has a wonderfully natural, rustic feel to it. When the clouds did open for us, here and there, the views were spectacular.

The whole trip lasted less than 16 hours, but I suspect it will be the event that defines the entire weekend. Funny how that sort of thing happens.

Now if I could just get the smell of bonfire out of my hair...

Labels: camping, Costa Rica, day trip

For some time now I've been aware that one can include GPS data into the EXIF on pictures, this is commonly called Geo-tagging and can be useful for remembering where you were when you snapped a photo, or for building maps/presentations about somewhere, and I'm sure other stuff as well.

The way I figured out how to do it is cumbersome, but works.

1) you must make sure that the camera clock is set the same as the gps clock, or at least within a few seconds

2) keep the gps and camera nearby each other

3) run the gps and snap some photos

4) connect the gps to your computer, and also the camera or memory card

5) using Mapsource (by Garmin) I downloaded the GPS data to my laptop. By default Mapsource saves files as .gdb (Garmin format), I need .gpx(open format)
For some reason my Mapsource software crashes when I try to save .gpx data. Frustrating.

5a) one approach would be to use some other type of software to grab the data from the GPS unit, but my eMap doesn't really play well with other software.

5b) I did manage to find a site online that converts .gdb to .gpx It is fast and easy. GPS Visualizer. This creates a .gpx file for me.

6) Then I fire up GPicSync which is available online, but I had to google around to get a working download. It *should* be at SourceForge but something wasn't working for me there.

7) In GPicSync you simply point to the .gpx file and to the folder with the pictures. I had to put a UTC adjustment of -6 into the GPicSync software to get the pics and the GPS to the same time.

8) The GPicSync software crunches through the files, addng EXIF information to the .jpg files

Done! It seems to have worked just fine for me. Also you can output directly to Google Earth from within GPicSync, which will create a nifty little breadcrumb trail for you, with photos super-imposed onto it. Could be a fun way to share travel information with people. I plan to use it for organizing my photos as I frequently forget where I was when I snapped something.

I think I can figure out a way, later, to make it easy for future users of this blog to get the info off of a given picture and see where it is on Google Earth or something like that... still working on figuring it out.

Labels: photo, travel

Saw this bull grazing at the entrance to Hacienda Pinilla the other day and thought it worth sharing. Enjoy.

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, tamarindo

In addition to the handy little "What We Are Reading" Link to the left of this page, we've also started an ongoing list of books we recommend.

Like so many things in our lives, this one isn't quite done to perfection yet. But it is a start. So if you are sitting around wondering what to read this week(end), why not head on over to the newest addition to the Sandcruiser.com website and pick a book or two.

If we were in the States, we would probably just zip over to the public library to find many of these books. It's fast, it's free! Two of our favorite attributes in a shopping experience! But if you are too busy/too lazy/too intent upon stimulating the economy in these trying times; then follow our links to Amazon where they will get stinkin' rich and throw us a crumb for our efforts, too.

Reality Check: if we could, we would probably just order the darn things, anyway. We think that the UPS guy is second only to Santa Claus in the pantheon of fun, toy-bearing deities.

Labels: book, travel

Saturday morning we found ourselves at loose ends in Liberia. We drove the hour up there for an 8:15 appointment, by nine or so we were figuring out what to do next.

Seeing as how I've spent the better part of the last 15 days on the road, looking at farms, you might get the idea that I would want to do anything but look at farms. Not so! This is the part of my job that I like the best! We opted to drive around the area north-east of Liberia for an hour or three, just poking around down various roads unknown. It was a nice way to spend a cloudy morning, and Jocelyn got a chance to see an area that really is very different than where we live. The downside is that in the future I'm going to have trouble getting sympathy from her for my long days of driving all over heck and back- truth is that exploring Costa Rica in a 4x4 with some tunes on and no specific itinerary is exactly what so many tourists pay good money to do with their time, and I get to do it with the realistic hope of compensation (note: not the assurance of, which is all that it would take to make it that much better!).

One of Costa Rica's most amazing traits is that in an hour drive you can pass through 3 or more topographies and flora types that seem radically different from each other. Fun stuff. We enjoyed the white "cascajo" of Liberia- chalky stone with a thin cap of dried out vegetation above it, as well as groves of oaky-looking trees in canyons, and full-fledged forest with soaring hardwoods. All within view of a towering volcano.

Unfortunately, we didn't take the camera. Next time.

After a few hours of aimless exploration we ended up back in Liberia at the central market. Despite its not-very-central location (it is by the bus station on the edge of town) this hodge-podge of little shops is usually bustling. I can't help but wonder if walmart's presence across the street is killing the traditional marketplace's business, but it looked busy on a Saturday afternoon, even if not full. The primary emphasis seems to be meat- which makes sense as the sterile meat counter at the big box stores continues to under-whelm me, and must be equally blah to folks living here. There is something reassuring to me about buying meat from a smiling, heavyset fella with a big knife in his paw as opposed to some bewildered teenager with a hairnet and a snarl. For the butcher's sake, I hope that others continue to value his contribution.

We ate a decent (enormous) $9 lunch at a noisy but clean little spot with a view of the bus station. She got arroz con camarones, that could have been called shrimp with rice for the relative proportion of ingredients (yum!), I got a light-on-flavor but heavy-on-spices fried fish fillet that was purported to be mahi but might have been catfish for all I could tell. The fried plantains were perfect. Watching people milling around the bus station might not sound all that scenic, but I enjoy traveling vicariously through others. Seeing all ages carrying all manner of bundles, bags, and whatnot is great imagination fodder.

On the way home we detoured down some more unknown roads, including a brief flyby of the town of Filadelfia. I've driven past their fancy arch (picture coming someday) at least 200 times, and always wondered what the town is like. Yesterday we found out that it is a cute little traditional Tico city. We're already planning a return trip to check it out, but this time, with camera(s) in tow and perhaps some snacks. There are at least two well manicured parks with benches, a long levy to keep the Tempisque river out of town, which also seems to serve as a promenade of sorts, and plenty of little taverns, bars, and shops in which to polish off a frosty beverage, sitting in the shade watching the world slowly pass by in the rippling heat waves.

Taking yet another turn off of the main road, I nearly managed to get us completely stuck in a rutted out ox-cart track in the middle of who-knows-where. The truck wasn't so much stuck, really. It was just that we didn't have much traction, were on a path that was only about 18 inches wider than the doors, and going forward involved straddling a 5ft-deep rut that was about 3 feet wide, with less than 10 inches on one side of it.

This, to me, is about as good as it gets. To the lovely and long-suffering lady in the city-shoes sitting next to me in the truck, it held less appeal. Choosing the better part of valor; with a little smart driving and a few devilish "ain't this great?" grins I reversed up a few hundreds yards of rutted track and rotted logs, to a little gate in the fence, instead of risking much Land Cruiser damage, and a few hours of "how are we getting this out?" time.

We followed a much nicer trail but soon found ourselves at a locked metal gate. Someone had recently invested in a shiny new padlock and a massive length of chain snaked through the 1" steel bar of the gate, then around a rotting but still-solid wooden fencepost.

Jocelyn: "Now what? [implied: All hope is lost]".

"No worries", says I, as I jumped out of the truck and proceeded to untwist the single strand of coaxial cable that was holding the other side of the gate to the tilting fencepost.

Jocelyn: "Been touring many farms recently?" as we drove through laughing at this typically Costa Rican moment.

We finished up the day with some pool time, then a sunset walk with the pooch while the sky and sun amazed us with gold, pink, and blue. Fired up the BBQ for some grilled squash, beets, fresh corn in the husk, and spicy sausage all accompanied by a tasty bottle of "Druid's Fluid" provided by my friend Bob as a thanks for the time he spent visiting a little while back.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, Costa Rica, day trip, food, land cruiser, liberia

As I was driving to the airport on Friday, I got a call from Jocelyn saying:

"Hey, there is a snake in the yard! Can I pick it up?"
me: "Is it poisonous?"
j: "That's why I called *you*! It has a green head. Its really cute."
me: "No." "No picking up strange snakes."
j: "Are you sure?"
me: "Listen, I'm too far away to turn around and drive you to the hospital if it is poisonous. Don't pick it up."
j: "I guess that's a good point."

As it turns out, it was a green-headed tree snake. Very mildly venemous and rear-fanged thus not dangerous unless it gnaws on your nostril for a while (or some other thin area of skin). But I'm sticking to the "Don't pick up unknown snakes" rule.

I don't have to worry about that rule as I'm basically petrified of snakes. They give the willies.

Labels: garden, tamarindo

Went to Santa Cruz yesterday for the prelim hearing for the thief that I caught red-handed in my car about 2 months ago.

Surprise, surprise: it turns out that he doesn't live at the address that he have upon his release. So when the deputies went to fetch him, he wasn't there.

If they had checked on that a little earlier, it would have saved a few hours out of my day. Oh, well. I suppose that if they ever find him, he'll be less likely to skate on the eventual trial as he effectively skipped bail. But for now I'm feeling some legal frustration- more for the time/energy wasted and the lack of resolution.

So if you see this guy walking around. Call the cops. There is a warrant out for his arrest.

Labels: news

• 4 small green mangoes. Small. Before they have hard seeds.
  
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• as much fresh ginger root as garlic
  
• Sesame Oil
  
• Soy Sauce
  
• Salt
  

Peel the mango, mince it (remove the seed). Mash the garlic and peeled ginger together, then chop them as finely as you can. Put it all in a small bowl. Add a generous pinch of fine sea salt, then drizzle the mixture with sesame oil and soy sauce until all the ingredients are doused, but not drowned.

Stir well, let it sit while you prep the salad.

Salad:

• 1 large ripe tomato diced
  
• A couple handfulls of lettuce, however you like your lettuce.
  
• ~1 cup of parsley, chopped into marble-sized bits (not necessarily the same as a cup of chopped parsley, which would be a lot of parsley. Put in more parsley than you think you'll want, though.
  
• 1/2 can of garbanzo beans
  
• 1/2 large cucumber, cut into chunks (not slices, chunks)
  
• 1/2 can of sliced mushrooms (unless you hate mushrooms)
  
• just a bit of red onion- maybe 3 Tbl, diced
  
• 1/2 large carrot, grated
  

Toss the salad, serve the 'garnish' on top.

You may think that the parsley will overwhelm the other flavors, but the tangy goodness of the mango and sesame will balance things out.

Good stuff.

Labels: food

So I've decided that I'm going to keep a monthly almanac of things interesting (particularly to me) here at ODS #17. To start off, I took several photos from upstairs in all directions and intend to take similar shots on the first of every month to see the changes. I'm feeling especially pleased with myself that I managed to take these pictures on May 1 (the idea being that the almanac comes out on the first of every month - though I'm not off to a promising start here on the third) and that was our last day of the dry season for 2009. It's a nice record and will serve to make June's photos all that more interesting.

Due east from master bedroom	East/Southeast from master bedroom	Due south from master bedroom	South-west from master bedroom
Due west from master patio	West/Northwest from master patio	West/Southwest from master patio	Road in the distance from master patio
Moon in mid-afternoon from master patio facing east	Front grass from master patio	Front flower garden from master patio	Ylang ylang tree from master patio
Pool and sun angles from master bedroom	Master bedroom	Shower garden with door	Sun angle in the living room

Labels: almanac, garden, photo, tamarindo, view

We've been anticipating, dreading, imploring, praying for/against, thinking about, visualizing, discussing, predicting, prognosticating, lauding, damning, preparing for, rushing ahead of, remembering, and otherwise considering the rainy season for about a month now (since the first rain came).

I feel pretty comfortable saying that Rainy Season 2009 is finally here. It alternated between drizzle and pour all night, and is coming down at a pretty clip pace as I type.

My garage is getting drenched, I'm hoping that most of the non-waterproof stuff is covered, but I'm sure something is out there getting ruined. Darnit.

For sure, my compost pile is getting some much needed moisture- we measured the temp this morning when I turned it- high 130's. Should be higher still to kill weeds, I'll bet it'll get there if it stays wet like this.

Speaking of temperatures: the trunks of some of our trees were in the low 70's at 9am. We don't know the actual air temperature because, frustratingly to me, we don't yet have a functional thermometer inside nor outside the house.

I'd love to share pictures of all of the new buds, shoots, and growth on plants all over the yard. I find it amazing that so many our plants that have been getting regular soakings, yet suffering greatly, have suddenly exploded in growth after a single overnight rain shower.

We are feeling awfully happy to have spent last weekend up on the roof patching holes. Let's hope it works!

That'll have to be all for now-- the lightning outside is getting pretty close and pretty frequent, so the laptop is getting unplugged.

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, photo, tamarindo, weather

Tonopah Station. It was cold, they take dogs. Other than that, I don't have much to endorse.	Tonopah proper has some older buildings that I liked	More old buildings in Tonopah	And old cars. There is plenty of "old" there.
...and a CREEPY "clown motel". I'm afraid of clowns, a little, and this place looks to me to be straight out of a Stephen King novel. I *almost* wish we had stayed there. Just to say we did. (note freaky 2/3-size painted guy on wall)	More old. More Tonopah. Pretty mountains	On the road again... with great, big, fluffy clouds	Nevada desert dropping into Eastern California desert
I wish that I had noticed the highway marker before clicking the shutter	Doggy break. Sage.	I have no idea why I took this picture, hope you enjoy it.	Probably an awesome trout stream. Owens Valley, California (and no, we didn't have rods nor licenses, dangit)
First of several hot springs with some hippy-dippy self-appointed caretaker who turned out to be a real peice of work. The best description I can offer is that he was a burnt-out surf goat type who was feeling territorial about "his" mungy little hot spring in the middle of almost-nowhere and sent us looking for a "better" one...	...which lead us down some well-maintained fire roads with towering trees	also soaring vistas -the Eastern Sierra in California is pretty. Go there.	We finally found the "super secret" springs that the Goat had described. So secret that they had posted signs, and were entirely concreted in and no camping allowed.
At least the setting remained spectacular, but we decided to press onward	Soop. Surveying the Scenery serenely.	A lousy picture of a pretty building	Now *this* is more like what we were looking for!
Natural hot spring cascading down into a natural pool formed by naturally(?) stacking rocks in a rough pattern.	Complete with wildflowers	And more wildflowers	and more wildflowers!
Majestic trees, seen from our campsite	We even needed a little 4wd to get to our site	After a soak in the springs, we built a firepit and enjoyed a tasty dinner.	Our site
I like the progress of my insulation when everyone else stayed pretty much the same. Left to right: Steve, Annette, Seth, Soop	Soop put on a different hat, I'm sporting down jacket. The tropis will do that to you.	Campfire beats Casino 10/10 (but isn't as warm).

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, california, camping, day trip, expedition, land cruiser, nevada, photo, vacation

I'm all for an informed public.
I support efforts to improve public health.

But this swine flu stuff has me a little puzzled. Okay, as many as 200 people in Mexico may have died from Swine Flu. Some people in the USA have it, some people in Costa Rica. Is the media putting a little more emphasis on this than it merits?

Let's compare the death toll/infection numbers to some other diseases that weren't mentioned on the front page of the newspaper today:

HIV/AIDS: According to the CIA Factbook, in 2007 there were about 1.2 million people in the USA alone who were infected. Also 2007, about 22,000 deaths. That's over 60 deaths per day, on average. Go try to find an article that was published in a major newspaper this week that addresses the AIDS/HIV pandemic. Good luck.

From 1991 to 1998 in the USA alone 1,465 people died from varicella infection*. I'm sure you heard about it. I don't recall seeing much in the news of this deadly virus, despite the fact that 95% of adults are believed to have been exposed. That's because it is more commonly known as.... chicken pox. Yup, that's right folks, from '91 to '98 more people died in the USA every year than the total number of Mexican Swine Flu deaths to date. And we can all agree that chicken pox is a pandemic. But where is the massive media blitz?
*source

Finally- the good old flu. The CDC estimates that 36,000 people die every year from influenza (worldwide the number may be as high as 500,000). Not this hyped up swine type, but regular old flu. That's over 100/day.

I'm not trying to convince people to take a cavalier approach to personal hygiene or to jump on the next plane to Mexico City, hugging every stranger they come across. I'm not trying to suggest that the folks infected with Swine Flu aren't suffering. I'm merely trying to offer a little rational counterpoint to the headlines and remind everyone that there are plenty of wretched diseases out there and it makes sense to think a little bit before getting all worked up over the "news".

Labels: news