MIAMI TO COSTA RICA

This.

"...better to belong where you don't belong than not to belong where you used to belong, remembering when you used to belong there."  -  Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

Oh, and Happy New Year!  ;-)

Taxis, still nasty.

The other day India (age 7) and I decided to take pictures of stuff we thought was gross (her idea).  I had an appointment at the hospital and she hates going there.  She says people catch diseases at hospitals.  She asked for my camera at one point and took a photo of the thing she was most grossed out by.
A used band-aid, stuck to a wall in the lobby.

The band-aid was kinda gross...however, later in the day we took a taxi back to our house and I saw this on the back seat:

 

Boy's underwear.  Yeah.  I won. 

I seriously need to think about getting a car.

Lobster Babies

The fish at my local grocery store sucks, so I was really happy when my doorbell rang one day and I met The Fish Guy.  The Fish Guy has fresh corvina (bream?) and pargo (snapper) and pulpo (octopus) and camarón (shrimp) and, every so often, langosta (lobster).  He calls once a week and if I'm around and in the mood for what he's got, I place an order and he delivers later that same day. 

Last week he had lobster and I ordered 2 kilos.  It was fresh and smelled great, but I was a little taken aback by how small they were.  Really small.  Like, taken from their mommies, small.  I'm willing to bet that if you got caught with these in Florida, they'd fine your ass.

I don't know the laws here - if there are any - so I'm wondering if I should continue to buy them.  Until I get an answer one way or the other, I'm going to continue to eat them.  Small or not, they were fantastic.

Tico Drivers

Hey, this guy can't be any worse than most of the drivers on Costa Rica's roads.

Yogurt

I'm thinking about getting a yogurt maker.  The kind that heats up, because that's the only kind that will make Greek-style yogurt.  If you don't know the difference, you don't know what you're missing.  If you're somewhere you can just go out and buy it, do so, it's delicious.

Buying yogurt here is a pain.  If you want fat-free, day-glo pink or green yogurt with artificial fruit, as much sugar as a regular coke and enough preservatives to last 6 months, the choices are endless.  If you want full-fat, plain, unsweetened yogurt with no preservatives or additives, choices are slim and sometimes, none.

I can get the yogurt I like at the weekly organic feria - as long as I'm there early and the supplier has more than 6 liters of yogurt.  Often, I'm not quick enough and I get zip.  Also, the yogurt is made from goat's milk and, while I like it, I like the milder cow's milk for certain recipes.

So, I have to decide if I'm going to have my husband pick one up in Miami.  I'll order it and have it sent to my mom, I can't make T pick one out, the only thing he wants to do in Miami is eat a cheeseburger and buy a new 'Canes t-shirt.

If you have a yogurt maker, how often do you use yours?  Any brand to recommend?  Anything I need to know? 

However, if you know where I can buy some plain, full-fat, unsweetened, Greek-style yogurt somewhere in the San José area, let me know and I can just forget all this.  Every time I bring home a new kitchen appliance, I have to hear T's speech about how I got rid of his juicer and the run-down of all the wonderful things his juicer did and I have to listen without rolling my eyes and saying anything mean and, honestly, it gets tougher every time.

Need new contact lenses.

I was typing up the last post at 11:00 last night and, as I waited for the photo to load, I read the options on the toolbar.  The word that caught my eye and made me gasp and blink was the font choice "Arial", in the left-hand corner.  I would have sworn, for just a moment, until my brain assured me otherwise, that the word I was looking at was "Anal".  I actually wondered if that was some new font.  I wanted to click it and see what an "anal" font would look like.  I need to change my contact lenses.  Either the one week variety really can't be worn safely for a month or I need to update my prescription. 

Knish!

Maybe there is a God.  The other night I went with a couple of friends to grab falafel sandwiches for dinner.  There are actually a couple of places you can do this in San José, but for consistently good, fresh falafel, you can't beat Little Israel in Escazu at the centro commercial (strip mall) Los Laureles.  As it happened, we picked a good day to drop in there.  The owner had fresh labneh (yogurt soft cheese) and, even better, fresh-made knish (pastry wrapped around potato and onion filling)!  I bought both and brought them home all excited that I was going to have knish again for the first time since I stopped dating the bagel guy.  Tom was unimpressed and told me he wasn't interested in eating what looked to him like a potato hoagie.  Pffft!  His loss.  The knish was divine, but unless I want to weigh 500lbs. I need to find someone to share it with.  As it is, I ate enough of this one to satisfy any starch cravings for the next month.

Modern Art

My seven year old daughter is being home-schooled and, in an effort to provide her with fun, creative things to do, I've been hoarding toilet paper rolls.  So many, in fact, that the maid has started throwing them away and has told me that she'll start saving them again when it looks like we're using them for something.  A few months back, my kid decided to make "binoculars" and put a couple of them together, decorated them and called them "Jungle Glasses".  Stylish, huh?

 

Below are the new pair she made a few weeks ago...she calls these (so help me) "Bush Glasses"....

 

Just so you know, the "fur" "trim" is faux.  Shaved off some hapless stuffed animal that outlived it's usefulness.  They manage to be disturbing and hilarious at the same time and isn't that what a lot of modern art is all about?

Dream a little dream...

Last night I was having this very strange dream; I was surrounded by kangaroos and Drew Cary was standing in front of me blubbering about he couldn't see me anymore because he thought I was cheating on him with the kangaroos.  I remember being rather irritated with Drew.  (Mostly because he would be leaving me and that meant I wouldn't be getting any more hot dream sex.)  In the middle of all this, the kangaroos parted and a moose walked through.  Drew even stopped sobbing long enough to watch the moose.  As it walked, it made this odd SLAP-CLICK sound.  SLAP-CLICK, SLAP-CLICK, SLAP-CLICK...  Suddenly Drew said, "You want the moose too, don't you?" and he ran off shrieking.  Damn it, now I was going to have to go after him.  Weenie.  When I turned around, the moose was gone and all the kangaroos were standing around looking off in the direction it had walked.  I could still hear the SLAP-CLICK, SLAP-CLICK of it's hooves, but now instead of getting quieter, the sound was getting louder and then suddenly I was awake and sitting up.  I sat in bed for a few seconds trying to figure out what I was hearing and then I got up and went to the window.  I was just in time to see a rather nicely-dressed man, carrying a bottle in one hand and walking down the street with a pronounced limp:  SLAP-CLICK, SLAP-CLICK, SLAP-CLICK.  I'm pretty sure it was the new neighbor.  I went back to bed and dreamed that Drew was showing me rentals in Escazu.  He told me he could show me a condo with a tennis court if I never looked at another kangaroo.  I need stop eating frosting out of the can before I go to bed.

Whenever you wonder if anyone is really that stupid...

...why yes, they are:

Maybe education in the U.S. needs a little improvement too?