Yummy things

Yesterday I had lunch with Mrs. P and her lovely daughter, and I thought I'd tell you about where we went because it was really good.

If you've lived in Costa Rica for any amount of time, you already know good Mexican food here is hard to find. (If you haven't lived here, you might think Costa Rica is a lot like California, with a taco stand on every other corner. Ha, I say. Ha.) I needed to get out of the office for a little while, so I asked Mrs. P if she wanted to go to lunch and if she had any suggestions. She'd heard about (or maybe been to?) a place called Picante Grill in Pavas, so I thought, why not?

Now, I have to say, there aren't a whole lot of things on the menu for vegetarians, and vegans have it even worse. That's pretty typical of Mexican food, though. But if you're neither of those things, you'll have lots to choose from. I had a veg burrito minus the portobello mushrooms and cheese, and it was efemente delicioso. Reminded me a lot of this place I used to go to in Monterey, actually. But anyway, the prices are decent, and the food was really good. So good, that we (esposo and I) ordered delivery for dinner the same night (yes, they deliver all the way to Santa Ana! And Heredia! Woot!).

Two things: Mrs. P had to ask for sour cream about four times and then go up to the counter herself before she actually got any; and when I asked if they could throw some lettuce or guacamole on the burrito in place of the portobellos, the counter guy said (and I quote) his boss "would yell at him if he did that." Because, you know, lettuce is so much more expensive than portobellos. @@ Other than that, I really enjoyed it (obviously!).

After scarfing down Mexican food, we went next door to a place called Tea Leaf Tea Land (at least, I'm pretty sure that's what it's called!), which is something, honestly, you'd never expect to see in Costa Rica. It's a lovely little tea bar with a few edible menu items as well. P the Younger had a ham and cheese sandwich, and we all had lovely little pots of lovely tea -- mine was chocolate orange, and the girls had roobios. It's a very relaxing spot, with couches, nice music, and chill atmosphere. (Don't tell my boss, but I really didn't want to go back to work after we went here! I still did, though.) They serve the tea at precisely the right temperature, and give you little tea timers to tell you when your tea has sufficiently brewed. Each tea service has its own color-coded pot and tea glass (nice touch!). Then esposo called, and asked me to pick up a bottle of vino on the way home. I had to decline, because after work on a Friday afternoon all I want to do is take a nap or watch Project Runway or something. Anything but stop at a store on the way home. Instead, I brought a couple of tins of tea, pure lavender for me (works wonders for migraine sufferers), and the chocolate orange roobios for him (he loved it). Perhaps the only negative here were the tea mints (I thought, vegan and sugar free, how bad can they be? Yuck.). They have tons of different kinds of tea that you'll never find anywhere else in this country, such as organic rose buds, artesianal tea, black teas, green teas, and herb teas of all kinds. Plus, the owner is a super nice guy and I want to see him succeed so that I can keep going back for more tea! So if you're in the area, please stop by and check it out; if you love tea, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Fun with Riteve

And now I'm going to try to go an entire post without swearing! Or using obscene/offensive language of any sort! Which is difficult, considering my two-year-old car didn't pass Riteve yesterday.

Riteve, for those who don't know, is the car inspection you have to do every year. Sometimes you'll see it shortened to RTV. Mine is like 8 months overdue, but esposo claims that they don't really care as long as you 1) do it within a year's time and 2) do it before your marchamo (that's the circulation rights thingy, like registration in the States) expires. The marchamo on my car expires around Christmas (I know, lucky, lucky me!), so we have a while before I have to really worry about it.

I wanted to get the darn Riteve taken care of, though, but turns out my car's rear disc brakes are poop (see? no swearing!) and caused my poor little car to fail the test. Here's what to expect if you've never gone to Riteve:

1. Make an appointment. I use their website. You can't just show up and expect to get your car inspected, but you can pretty much get an appointment within a few days, unlike, say, trying to get your cedula renewed at immigration (though you could do that at BCR, if you could manage to actually get through on their phone lines -- which is another, curse-filled post entirely).
2. Show up 15 minutes before your appointed time. Bring your registration, title, marchamo, last year's Riteve, all that stuff. There will be a line of people (probably) waiting to check in; go wait in that line. And then check in. ;-) You have to pay almost 10,000 here (you didn't think this would be free, did you?).
3. You then bring your car around to the back and get in line. If you're lucky, there will only be one or two cars ahead of you. If you're really, really lucky, you'll be the only one in line. That doesn't usually happen, though.
4. One of the inspectors will come out and you hand him the paper they gave you when you checked in. Then just sort of follow the lead of the car in front of you. Hopefully you speak Spanish or bring a Spanish-speaking person with you. Because I don't know about you, but my Spanish is pretty good, and I still don't understand when someone in a loud garage is telling me to put the car in neutral, pop the hood, slowly press on the brakes, etc.
5. They will sometimes check to see if you have a jack and triangles, but they didn't check that when we went. They will check that all your lights and directionals work, brights, winshield wipers, windows go up and down, window tinting is factory installed (if it isn't, you're gonna have to take it off, and believe me, we've gone through that before! this time the guy really picked at each window to make sure it was factory tinting, which is allowed), the seats go forward and back, the horn works, the seatbelts work, etc.
6. Then they test your exhaust and the steering, and the shocks.
7. I think at the next station they test your brakes, front, rear and handbrake. I knew we were screwed when the rear brakes only showed 38%. (Ooh, is "screwed" a swear word? Or offensive? ;-p Dang, I tried!)
8. Then you drive over an open pit, where they check something else, and shout at you from a speaker. I could not understand a word the guy said, but luckily esposo could figure it out. (Did he say Grand Central Station or your aunt's constipation?)
9. Then you wait at the end, and someone will either give you a sticker, or tell you to go to such-and-such window to get your results, or something. It sometimes gets a little disorganized at the end of the line.
10. Hopefully your car will pass and you'll get your new sticker which is good for a year -- hooray! Or, you will get a piece of paper that includes the ominous word "grave" and what's messed up on your car that you have to fix in order to pass -- boo!
11. If you don't pass, you have 30 days to fix whatever needs fixing and bring the car back for a 5,000 colones recheck. If you wait more than 30 days (me! me! me!), you'll have to go through the whole inspection again and pay almost 10,000. Which is what I'll be doing sometime in early December. Hooray for me! I still love my car, though.

Infected, addicted... you know where this is going!

On the way to work this morning, I was listening to Bad Religion's Stranger Than Fiction, and the track "Infected" came on. The chorus goes like this:

You and me / have a disease
You affect me / you infect me
I'm afflicted / you're addicted
You and me / you and me...

After my son's confusion of "addicted" and "dickhead," of course that's all I could hear while listening to the song. And, since the song kinda sorta reminds me of two different assholes, "dickhead" worked great in this instance! "I'm afflicted, you're a dickhead..."

For your listening/viewing pleasure:

Mouth, meet babe.

I bought esposo Monopoly for his iPod a few weeks back, and ever since he can't stop playing it. I told our son the other day, Geez, your dad is really addicted to Monopoly, isn't he?
He said, Yeah, Daddy's a dickhead!

I couldn't stop laughing. And then I did, in fact, explain the difference between being "addicted" and "a dickhead."

New transit laws take effect September 23, 2009

I've written a little about the new transit laws due to take effect soon, but my friend Amy has written an in-depth examination of the laws in her new e-book, Shorty's Guide to the New Ley de Transito. It's an inexpensive investment ($9.95), and if you drive here (cars, motorcycles, even bicycles), it's worth making yourself knowledgable on the subject. (Plus, it turns out I wasn't completely correct on some of the laws. Oops. Blame it on La Nacion.)

Here is just a sampling of the things you need to know:

On September 23, 2009, there will come into effect a sweeping legislation intended to transform Costa Rica's roadways from the hazardous - free for -all that has developed in recent decades, into a network occupied by safe, conscientious and prepared drivers.

Shorty's Guide To The 2000 Ley de Tránsito is a complete guide for the English speaking driver to know the rules and be prepared for the changes, that include:

» Computerization of Licenses, where points are deducted for infractions
» Dramatic increase in the amount of fines
» Safety seats for all minors under 12 years of age
» Harsh penalties and jail time for driving under the influence
» Immediate loss of license for multiple offences
» New devices requirements, like hands free cell phone adaptor, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, GPS transponder, etc.
» Sanctions for left lane slow pokes and no passing on right, even on multiple lane highways
» Foreigners and their drivers license
» Pedestrians will be required to cross at a corner or crosswalk

Now, all these new laws are fine and good, but what is the MOPT going to do about things like this? Can we fine them?

Yes, that's a telephone pole in the middle of the right-hand lane. Could they have possibly moved the pole before repaving the street? Nah, that would mean two government agencies actually having to coordinate with each other! This pole has been here, in the middle of the street, for over a month now. Let's see how long it takes to get the pole moved, or if the barriers just keep being shifted around. I'm betting on the second.