More Grecia "Delicias"

There is a little cafe here in Grecia where all the Gringos hang out called Cafe Delicias. I mean, every time you go by it is full of people, at least half of them Gringos. Son and I were downtown doing some errands today, so I thought we'd stop in and see what they had for lunch. He saw they had milkshakes, and even though he's somewhat lactose-intolerant, like me, he insisted on having one, so okay, I gave in. I had a big frozen mocha that was like half whipped cream, and not all that much cafe mocha. Ugh. From the menu, they truly had not one vegan thing to order. Since son was really hungry, and I was too, we got a salad (hold the ham!), a croissant (hold the ham!), a mini pizza (hold the ham!), and a cinnamon bun (no ham!). Even the salad was loaded with cheese, but that I could pick off. The croissant, not so much. It was okay, but I felt awful about eating all that cheese in the first place, mainly because 1) I'm committed to being a vegan, 2) I don't like cheese, and 3) it made me feel like crap afterwards. In fact, we took most of the salad and the whole cinnamon bun (loaded with a sugary, buttery "topping") to go. The only high point of the lunch was a nice woman named Linda who came over and introduced herself to us; I thought that was extremely nice and something Ticos just would never, ever do. Walk up to a complete stranger and make them feel welcome? No. Highly unlikely.

I think it goes without saying we won't be going back there any time soon. Not when there is the awesome and cheap Chinese vegetarian lunch counter in the central market and true delicias to be found at La Casa de Miguel down the street. (Side note: We went to Miguel's House for lunch with a friend and her son yesterday, and they totally loved it.)

After lunch, we went over to the church of metal (no, there is no Whitesnake worshipping going on there, it's just a church made out of metal, though I do like to say "church of metal" in that gravelly voice metal singers have after years of smoking and drinking and singing like they do, and also you need to make the devil sign and stick out your tongue to create the whole "church of metal" effect). They have a nice little fish pond in the back that son likes, and I was surprised, actually, to see how much garbage was strewn in and around the pond. Isn't Grecia supposed to be one of the cleanest cities in Central America or something? Maybe that's Atenas... Anyway, a lot of Catholic churches have these racks where you can light a candle for someone you love for a small donation. Even though I am neither Catholic nor religious, I do consider myself a spiritual person and I like paying homage to someone I care about in that way. I always light candles for my grandparents, Lucy, May-May, Buggie, Venus, a guy named Jason, my friend's mother, cats and dogs I had growing up, and basically everyone else I've lost in my life and never want to forget, and I can fill up a whole rack of candles all on my own. So I wanted to light a candle for Boo, but the church of metal didn't have the candles, sad to say. Instead, I said a little prayer for Boo and asked God to take care of him until I get there.

P.S. I don't know if this happens to you, but sometimes when I lose someone I worry that I will forget all of the little things that made them special. Tonight I made corn on the cob with our dinner, and after I finished I remembered that Boo was one of those cats who loved to eat corn on the cob. It was weird to throw away the corn cob when normally I would let Boo munch on it. Those are the things you miss, you know? Even when you know it was their time -- and surely it was Boo's time, no doubt about it -- their absence always leaves a hole.

Goodbye, sweet prince

May 1, 1988 - December 6, 2007

Recently I wrote about my kitties. Today has been one of those difficult days all pet owners must eventually go through, because my oldest, Boo Boo Man, passed away last night. When we got home from the quilt group's Christmas party on Tuesday evening, he wasn't looking good at all, and having a hard time walking. But then on Wednesday, he seemed to perk up, ate two cans of his favorite food (Tiki Cat) and some yogurt, and laid in the sun on the back patio. At that point, I wondered if he had just gotten into something odd, or been bitten by a tarantula or something. But then at night again, he started to fail. I gave him my big old comforter, made him a nice bed next to ours, and said my goodbyes, letting him know it was okay to go back "home" and that I loved him very much and would miss him. I checked on him a couple of times during the night, and he was pretty unresponsive, just barely hanging on. By the time I got up around 5:30 this morning, he had passed on.

I want to scan in an old photo I have of Boo and his brother, Bug, when they were just kittens. It is one of my favorite photos of them. That is the way I want to remember him -- lively, loving, always bugging me for dairy products that he somehow knew were in my shopping bags through a closed door. His rubbing his head on my hand when he wanted something I was eating; his incredible ability to trip me by walking right under my feet. I knew Boo for the entirety of my adult life -- he would have been 20 years old next May 1. He and Bug, and later my dog Lucy, were my constant companions, always there during the ups and downs of life. They were my family. He was such a big part of my family. I will miss him terribly.

Say hello to Bug and Lucy and May-May for me, Boo. I know we'll meet again one day on the other side.

My three boys: (from left) Bookie, Bug and Boo-Boo Man

Bookie and Boo

An update

If you were wondering, the boing-boing has been spotted. Bits and pieces of it, nearly three weeks later, but it has finally "emerged." Hooray! No, there are no photographs. Lucky you.

What's in a name?

I was thinking about my animal friends, and how I usually try to give them middle names as well as first names. Also, I am happy to say, I've never named a pet something like Blackie or Spots, the closest to that being a gray striped cat I named Tiger, but I was in third grade at the time, so I can excuse myself on that one. Anyway, I like to give animals real names since they're going to be part of the family. That's my reasoning. So this morning I thought about giving Phoebe a middle name, which is now Sophia. I think Phoebe Sophia has a nice ring to it. (And can I just say I love the name my friend L.'s kids gave to their new kitten Harriet Monkey!? Is that too cute?)

My oldest cat is named Sebastian Armand, though we call him Boo-Boo Man or just Boo. His brother (from the same litter) was Morrissey James, and we called him Bug. Boo and Bug, my two guys for many, many years before esposo and son came along. At 19 years old, Boo is still with us, though his brother crossed over the rainbow bridge a few years ago.

Sebastian Armand, aka Boo

The next-oldest is Bookie (that's a long o as in Boo-kie, not Book-y). His real name is Boris Orangello, and he checks in at 7 years old and 22 pounds. Most people who see him are amazed by his girth. Most people have never seen a cat as large as Bookie. Bookie is the kind of cat you really don't want jumping on you from the top of the closet in the middle of the night. Bookie gets his name from a Cat Chow commercial that played on t.v. here years ago (about 7 years ago, I guess!), where the guy always sounded like he was saying Boris instead of Morris to the big orange cat (Portate bien, Boris!). Orangello comes from that urban legend about the woman who named her kids after the jello on the hostpital menu. His nickname, Bookie, comes from the new version of Star Wars where Jabba is in the Moss Isley hangar talking to Han, and says, "Han, ma bookie..." Since Boris was about the size of Jabba, we thought that was the perfect nickname for him.

Boris Orangello, aka Bookie

After Bookie, we didn't get any more cats for a while, because Bug and Venus (esposo's much-loved Maine coon named after the great tennis player Venus Williams who happened to be winning Wimbledon at the time the cat showed up) were living, and four cats was really enough. Then we had a little cafe in Ciudad Colon, and our first cafe cat got stolen, so the guys decided to get another cat. I saw the cutest little baby tortie at the agro next door, and they give cats away for free, so I picked her out. Then I fell in love with her and refused to take her back to the cafe, so she stayed. Her name is Katrina (after the hurricane that hit that year), and while I think she does have a middle name, I can't remember what it is. Maybe we'll have to rename her. We call her Kiki.

Hurricane Katrina, aka Kiki

As we were moving out of that house, a little white kitten showed up and didn't want to leave. After a while, we realized she was completely deaf and was not going to make it running the streets as she was. So we took her to the new house with us. Venus and Bug had both crossed over the rainbow bridge by that time, so white kitten made four cats total. I decided to name her every girl name that I really loved but were shot down by esposo when I was pregnant and we were thinking of names for the baby (lucky for esposo, we had a boy). So white kitten became Olivia Finnoula Siobahn, though my son called her Kitters and that sort of stuck. Sometimes he calls her Livvers.

Olivia Finnoula Siobahn, aka Kitters

Lastly, of course, was the kitten we didn't intend to keep, Phoebe Sophia. She hasn't been here long enough to acquire a real nickname, though we call her Phoeebs or or Phoebe Kitten. Son was calling her New Kitters for a while.

Phoebe Sophia

Some other day, I'll write about the dogs. There are nine of them, so it will take me a little longer.

P.S. I remembered Kiki's middle name. It's Anya.
P.P.S. Be sure to click on that link to the Orangello urban legend and read the comments. Some of the names were so funny that I laughed until my eyes were watering! (The racist crap on there is totally uncalled for, however.) Reminded me about a guy I went to high school with named Sterling Silver. He was so cute...

A tasty Grecian surprise

Last night we had dinner for the second time at La Casa de Miguel in downtown Grecia. From the name, you might think that the food is typical Costa Rican (read: boring) "cuisine." It's anything but. They serve a surprising variety of Asian food, focusing on Thai specialties. I know! Thai food in Grecia! It's kind of unbelievable. So far, we seem to prefer the appetizers (which, strangely enough, esposo says Costa Ricans do not typically order at meals. They are missing out). Last night it was Thai rice noodle salad (ala ya wun sen), vegetarian sushi (do you know any other three-year-olds who like sushi? Who are not actually Japanese? I'm starting to think my son is a weirdo. In a good way!), sambal eggplant (sooooo delicious!), summer rolls sans salmon (they're okay; esposo's are better, really), and then a vegetarian sizzling rice platter that we all shared as an entree. Add in a few drinks and the total was around $36. Not bad at all, methinks. In the city, it would probably be closer to $50, maybe more. They've only been open a few months, and the service still needs a lot of work, but the chef is lovely and came out and talked to the other chef (esposo) at length about the food. I'd recommend it, just don't go if you're starving, because you might be waiting a while.