Haven't done much worth writing about these last few days... a few trips to Santa Cruz to shop and whatnot, a puppy that keeps growing, good food, good friends, some surfing. That about sums it up. The photo is from a sailing trip a few months ago with our good pals Crisonja from San Diego. Cris just emailed it to us.
It's nice living in paradise.

Had the pleasure of a visit from one of Steve's high-school and college buddies, Ben and his wife Sara	Caly is getting close to three tiles long	Fields and storm clouds near Santa Cruz (20 minutes from our house)
After pulling up some stumps on our lot by hand, we got smart and let Sandy do the work for us		Bb clearing the lot

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, sailing

	Another beautiful afternoon at the beach with the dog. This is really cutting into our surfing time, but we enjoy it.
Hiding behind Bb...		Not elegant, but she's swimming!
No, really, she loves it	Chasing a stick	Steve says, "Ok, now take the stick back to Jocelyn!"

Labels: dog

We've been talking about heading down to Nosara for quite some time to explore the possibilities for Bb's jewelry, so Tuesday we finally decided to make the drive. Funny how around here things seem so much further away- it only took us about 2.5 hours to drive down, and for the most part the road was in good shape. Yet for some reason we've put this off for months.
The weather was beatiful the whole way down, high patchy clouds kept it cool and recent rains made the whole world look fresh and new. Sandy has been having some alternator/battery problems, so this was a great opportunity for Steve to fiddle with some different things and trouble shoot. By the time we hit Nosara he had finally gotten the system working well, which was great!
Nosara itself hasn't changed much in the last two years (some of the same places are still under construction). We were relieved to discover that the 'rampant growth' of which we've heard was somewhat exaggerated. We were also happy to realize that we are both awfully glad that we settled in Tamarindo instead of Nosara. Not to say that it isn't a beautiful place, it is! Not to say people shouldn't visit, they should! But living there seems, to us, a very boring proposition. The town just isn't much of a town. And that road.... dear heavens! We were following in the track of a grader that had clearly passed within 1 day, yet the road surface was still bumpy enough that Steve finally got out and aired down to about 20 psi in an attempt to keep our teeth from rattled right out of our heads.
After eating a great lunch at a cute little deli, we did a wave check (large, but mushy) and poked around a little bit, then headed back home. The drive back was slightly rainy and generally very pleasant. As we hit one of our favorite areas near Tamarindo (long views of rolling hills and fields) we were treated to that beautiful golden light that makes everything look hazy and slow and like childhood memories of summertime. Just beautiful.

Labels: 4x4, beach, Costa Rica, day trip, jewelry, landcruiser, sunset

Since Steve is still fighting off what has become his worst head cold in years, and thus hasn't been surfing, we've taken to morning walks on the beach with Caly. Not only does it give us a little exercise, but absolutly whoops the puppy and she ends up sleeping for the next four to five hours, which allows us to actually get some stuff done around the house or get some work done. A win for all concerned. Of course, Caly still gets plenty of attention from us, but at least now *we* get to decide when, which is a nice luxury.

When we hit the shore yesterday, Caly was so excited she could hardly walk. Even the most frozen stoic has to feel just a little warmth at the sight of a cute little puppy whose backside is wiggling twice the width of her entire body with every step. Makes walking her on a leash next to impossible, but it sure is cute. What started out as excitement turned into disappointment for us as we realized that the tide was so high that there wasn't any beach to walk on!

We followed a little path through the trees to get to a wider section of beach, figuring that while it was likely to more crowded in front of the big hotel, at least there would be beach upon which to walk and play. The reason the beach is wider there is because there is an estuary that meets up with the sea and has dumped a bunch of sand. What we hadn't anticipated was the idea that the estuary itself, while very full, was slow-moving enough that Caly could actually play in the water without us worried about big waves crashing on her. She LOVED it. After watching her yip and snap at the wavelets (still chest-high to her) we finally went in ourselves and persuaded her to swim about five feet out to us. After two or three times she sat on the beach and howled at us... but eventually relented and jumped into the water again.

While we were excited to take her back to the beach this morning, we opted instead to run out to our lot and put some plants in the ground. We started them months ago on the patio and they were starting to outgrow their pots. So we loaded up the 40, dug some banana sprouts out of a neighboring vacant lot, and headed over to play gardeners. We were a little shocked to discover just how much the weeds have grown in the last month. WOW. Next time we'll remember the machete! After clearing out some space with much shovel-whacking and little grace, we planted everything that we had. Sure looked like a lot more on our patio than it does in the ground! Caly was, of course, very helpful. In the "You didn't really want that planted there did you? How about I dig it up and you try again?" sense of the word helpful. But after putting some broken cinderblock chunks around the basil garden, she seemed to understand that maybe we actually *did* want those to stay planted there. Not a pretty solution, but living downhere, sometimes, you just have to be glad to have a solution at all.

Labels: beach, dog, garden, tamarindo

While Bb is working hard on her jewelry today, Steve is doing as little as possible. Nasty sinus infection. If you think being sick up in the States when it is cold out is lousy... try it when it is hot and humid. Ugh. Feels like someone inflated choice spaces in my skull up to about 110psi. Lousy. And hot. And sweaty.
But! all is not bad! Steve's Dad sent down a scan of a photo that he took several months ago that shows Steve surfing. Sorta. Mostly it shows him about to drop in on a mushy wave. But for the moment it is all we've got and looks a heck of a lot more fun than sitting around the house with a head full of hurt. At least it started raining this afternoon so the temperature dropped down to comfortable. And the rain sounds great pattering out on the roof, very relaxing. Oh- Happy Independance Day! Hope yours was wonderful.

Labels: jewelry, photo, surf, weather

Other than selling real estate, making jewelry, and surfing, most of what we do is play with the dog. Chances are we won't be posting a lot of pictures of the the first two activities- each has its own website (see the sidebar on the left). Surfing, we hope to post pics soon- the problem so far is that when the surf is big, we are nervous about takign the camera out. Not so much for the camera's sake (the housing is fantastic! thanks Growcery Store) but paddling out through big waves with a solid acrylic box attached to my neck or wrist seems like a great way to hurt me or my surfboard. Still figuring out how to make that work.

So for today the pics are all about the puppy. On the left she is playing with Donny and Christi's dog, Louie. Note that Louie's head is about the same size as Calypso. That fact notwithstanding she figured out that if she waited under the table long enough, Louie would investigate, and she could play with him on a more level playing field. On the right, Steve loads up to take Caly over to play at a friend's house. She didn't like the bike basket too much on the first try, but now she seems to be appreciating the advantages it holds over running alongside the bike.

Labels: dog, photo, surf, tamarindo

Usually a post regarding my tax dollars would be more than likely a complaint. Not today. I'm pleased as punch to report that our friends David and Jennifer (they whose backpack was stolen last week) obtained temporary passports at the US embassy in San Jose in just three hours. Wow. I'm amazed. Astonished. Astounded.... and just a little curious how it is that someone in a foreign country, having only a poorly faxed copy of their driver's license, can get a passport in three hours, while it took me, with all sorts of identification (including an old passport!), nearly SIX WEEKS to get a new passport in California!! Ok, see, the very thought of taxes reminded me of the horror of getting public services. And it reminds me that while living in Costa Rica is full of government-related difficulty, occasionally people here manage to get things done quickly and efficiently. Maybe even more so than back in the USA.

Labels: news, stolen