1st Day of School

Grandma brags! That cute guy is Evan (1st son of my son Rob & his wife Polly) ready for his first day of 1st grade. And the adorable little girl on the left is Megan (1st child of my son Mark & his wife Debbie) with her best friend on their first day of kindergarten.

Couch Surfing

A good friend told me about “couch surfing”. Apparently the term has been used for some time among the college crowd to describe “crashing” on someone’s couch when traveling. Now it’s a huge online site for people who are willing to “host” total strangers
in their homes for a night or two or more, or for travelers who would like to stay in the homes of total strangers in unknown places. Wow! Right up my alley, I thought! Not only a way to possibly meet new and interesting people from around the world, simply by offering our guest room occasionally, but a way to find free places to stay for part of the time when we roam the world! “Sounds dangerous,” says my son. How did I raise such conservative kids? The very day that I joined the group and set up my profile, we received a request from 2 brothers from Ohio who would like to couch surf at our home in October. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mi Artista

As a person with zero artistic ability or inclination, In am constantly amazed at the number of artists I know. I even live with one! My husband Gene does mostly abstracts. Over the past several years most of his work has been airbrush on canvas. But he has also done some sculpture and mixed media.
Recently a friend presented him with a large piece of scrap wood and challenged him to "do something with it." With my usual I don't get it reaction, it looked like a piece of wood to me. Several days later, I walked into his studio and saw thls relaxing beach scene. This is why we call him the artist in the family!

Many of his abstracts are in black and white. Here's one of my favorites.

And here's some more:

El Mercado

I try to go to the Heredia market (el mercado) at least once a week for fruits and vegetables. This is not the vast Saturday morning feria, but rather just the everyday market. You can find anything there (well almost). Sometimes when I go on Fridays, I run into my friend Flora. Flora sometimes helps me when I can't figure out how to explain what I want (pork chops thicker than 1/4 inch!) or don't know what on earth some strange vegetable or fruit looking thing really is and what to do with it. I love going to the market. It is so colorful! And so economical. I think I could do all our grocery shopping at the market and feed us well for very little. 'Course that's not what we do. We like all that cool stuff you can get at Mas X Menos (mahs-pour-MEY-nos, or "more for less"). But el mercado is one of my favorite things about Costa Rica.

Happy Birthday Aunt Kay

We Love You!

Lunch with Friends

Jon & Emma decided we should do lunch to celebrate the 5th anniversary of our moves to Costa Rica. OK. Seemed like we'd been home long enough that it was time for me to come out from behind my books and get sociable. Then Jon suggested that we post a message on the online groups Costa Rica Living and Gallo Pinto telling people where we were going to lunch and maybe a few other people would like to join us. Great idea! 23 people showed up! It was a lot of fun. We got to see some people we hadn't seen for a long time and also to meet some new people. We may tell people where we're lunching more often!