Not-So-Quick Updates

I have changed my URL to asiescostarica.blogspot.com, so if this entry is the first one on the page, head over to the new URL for fascinating tidbits about my life in Costa Rica that you simply can't live without. ;-)

I realized that I have not been updating my blog lately, so here are a few quick updates until I can write a full (read: interesting) post.

1. Today is Mother's Day, which is actually Assumption, or the celebration of the Virgin Mary's rise to heaven. Naturally, in my town, you know what this means -- FIREWORKS! Yep, they started around 9 last night and continued well into the night, including sonic booms at around 3:00 a.m. Is there any call for this, I ask you? WTF is it with this town and it's freakin' fireworks? Of course, all SEVEN of the dogs were freaked out so they got a free pass to spend the night indoors.

2. My dog Lizzy was attacked by five of the others last week. She plays rough, and they don't like it, but this time they went too far. They ripped her open and she ended up in emergency surgery on Monday night. The vet said she was lucky to be alive. I could not pull the dogs off of poor Liz, who is about half the size of the rest of them. Esposo had to run out of the house and literally kick the other dogs to separate them, and still one (the incorrigible Numi) had her by the neck in her mouth. So she is getting better now, though she still has a large, gaping gash under her right front leg from pulling out the stitches. I am at a loss. I love Liz, and probably for her own good, I should find another home for her, but she likes it here and seems to get depressed when I bring up the subject, so I've stopped talking about it. (I am currently reading What the Animals Tell Me by Sonia Fitzpatrick (the Pet Psychic) and it is incredible how she can communicate with animals. One important thing I got from the book is that animals do understand us, our intentions and what we say. But I haven't got to the point where I can find out what to do about dogs who won't stop fighting with each other. There is something they obviously don't like about Lizzy, but really, I can't seem to figure out what it is.

3. I so appreciate my girlfriends! The ones who live thousands of miles away, but still keep in touch, as well as the ones I've met since moving to Costa Rica. I was invited to a girlfriends lunch last week, and to be honest, I was a little apprehensive, as I had never left my two-year-old for such a long period of time. Well, let me tell you, several glasses of wine and a few hours of BS behind me, I realized how much I needed the time away, to let my hair down and have a little fun; not worry about being a mom for just a few hours. Son and husband survived their time by themselves (probably relished it, to be truthful). People who know me well know that, though I lived in California most of my adult life (excluding my time in Costa Rica, of course), I grew up in Ohio, surrounded by black people and hillbillies. Most of my friends were the former, though I tended to have an accent along the lines of the latter, which I tried very, very hard to lose while living in California. Now that I no longer live there, many of the English speakers I know are from the south or the UK (how's that for disparity?), or they are ESL speakers from CR. So when I have a few too many, my hillbilly accent slips back -- scary! I can't help it. Oh well, it is me, and no one really seems to mind.

4. I bought a new computer. I had been using a second generation iBook (Mac), and have since moved over to a PC in order to run my online website. I hate to admit that I am beginning to like my PC. It is FAST, with a BIG flat screen, the only problem is that I have no software to speak of (a minor problem easily resolved in CR if one knows the right people). Esposo spent an hour on the phone with Ament trying to get the ethernet cable modem connection working on the PC, and the tech guy kept telling him to do the same thing over and over, which was not working. Tech guy finally gave up, telling esposo to call Dell. I then got on the computer (mind you, I have been using a Mac for about ten years!), started turning things off until the ethernet worked. That took all of about 15 minutes. It turned out to be a relatively simple problem -- one must log into one's internet security system before one can access the internet. As a side note, I ordered this computer online through a Dell special deal (around $700 for the computer and a very nice printer/scanner/fax), had it sent to a drop shipper (which cost about $300 for the computer and printer), and it arrived in about a month. A friend who works in tech support here for HP said that the computer would probably cost at least $2,000 if you bought it here in CR, and, in fact, esposo did call Dell CR to see what the price of a comparable system would be -- for about $900, I could get one with half the power and hard drive space, set up in Spanish without any software installed at all. Um, gee, no thanks...

5. I found a Bollywood station on Live365, strangely enough, broadcasting from Toronto! I am a huge, huge fan of Bollywood, loving all of its cheesiness, and all the dancing, all the singing. Well! People who know me know that, though I love punk and ska and "cool" music like that, I also love the cheese, and am not embarrased to say so.

I guess that's it for now. I added some of my photos to Flickr (see upper left hand corner of this screen); feel free to visit and check them out if you like. I added lots of pics of Costa Rica.