The view from the bell tower

Don´t worry, there´s not supposed to be any audio. My camera doesn´t roll that way.

And here´s the same thing on the west side of the tower:

On the lookout for TOTH

Today is rent day and, as such, the only opportunity to give notice on one or both of the apartments until next rent day.

We went to see a house that was available on Thursday, and at the time we weren't very impressed with it. I described it as "adequate", and we let the owner know we were going to keep looking around.

Last night we talked over the options and decided that, while it really isn't The One True House, it would in fact do nicely as a transition from two apartments to all living together, en route to all living together in a more pleasant space and hopefully somewhere that the girls can each have their own rooms.

Except, when I called the owner this morning to see if it was still available, it wasn't.

Fortunately, Bob measured the rooms and some of the furniture this morning and we determined that we can fit everything into one of these two apartments. It'll be tight, but we're ready to both A) All live in the same place and B) Spend a lot less on rent each month.

And that way when we do find something, we won't be paying for three places for the first month.

So, that's the update on that.

And now for something completely different:

This video is seventeen (17) kinds of awesome

Via Mom's Tinfoil Hat

Okay, it's official. The Internet has *everything*

I remembered it, I Googled it, and two clicks later, BAM. It's Paddle to the Sea!

Am I sensing a theme here?

One of Julia's current recorder pieces is a snip of "We Three Kings," but she doesn't remember the song herself, so I looked it up on YouTube for her this morning.

There are lots of results for "We Three Kings."

There's "We Three Kings" on something called hang drums, "We Three Kings," the Guitar Hero version, "We Three Kings" by the Barenaked Ladies...

Actually, the BNL version was quite nice, but it was a medley with another carol, so it didn't really serve our purpose. Bob eventually found us this one:

'Tis, increasingly, the season

The girls are entering holiday mode at school. Julia gave me the blow-by-blow on the version of "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town" that they're learning for the holiday presentation thing, and then she asked me too look up Frosty on You Tube.



I didn't realize perspective had evolved so much since 1950.

A nice little video for you on this the eve of all the hallows.

Just beachy

Although we didn't plan it that way, so far I've posted most of the photos from our trip, but don't miss Bob's - he's posted a couple of videos and may post some of his own photos as well.

In addition to all the Pretty, I would like to note that we saw Much Wildlife. There were cows (Moo), horses (Neigh), dogs-a-plenty, a cat or two, vultures both current and ex-, hermit crabs, a Giant Killer Attack Toad guarding our door, Pretty White Birds and various and sundry Standard Birds and, almost making up for the Tragic Lack of Monkeys, on the way home we saw four scarlet macaws flying into the jungle treetops across the street from the spot where we stopped to take the first picture in the post below.

Quepos is both smaller and pleasanter (except for that one block on the south side) than I expected it to be. It's touristy, sure, but not in a bad way, and everything you could want is right there in a bitty little town that literally runs about three blocks by four.

Taking advantage of the walking distance of it all, we went out for drinkies the second night and I discovered that I do rather like margaritas.

In the market for a vehicle?

This is an initiative of Vokswagen, and watching it this morning improved my day:

(Via everyone on Facebook. Well, some of them got it from me...)

---

This is an initiative of Toyota, and watching the video is optional:


(Via Shakesville)
The text bits in the video say:

Want to prank a friend?
It's easy.
Tell us a little about them.
Then pick one of our
maniacs
to mess with their heads
through personalized
text
email
calls
videos
for five straight days
while you sit back and watch it all go down.

Which plays out something like this:

Last year, Amber Duick received a series of nine e-mails from a fictitious character dreamed up by the campaign (complete with a MySpace page). The character told Amber he was coming to stay at her house to avoid the cops, and even sent her a motel bill for $78.92.

I can't fathom how that is even legal, much less something that anyone anywhere thought was a good idea or, unfathomablest of all, a plausible way to sell cars.

Yes, they're being sued.

---

In other news, the guy who put the slashes after the "http://" in web addresses says he's sorry.
(Also via Facebook)

---

And, Gabi, here's some info for you.
(Via "The awesome boyfriend who took care of my kids this afternoon without loss of life or limb." I believe that is now his full name.)

Rest in Peace

Mercedes Sosa
"The voice of the voiceless ones"
July 9, 1935 - October 4, 2009

Something nice

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Alternate and links in case Vimeo doesn't play nice. Found via my cousin Sean, who found it at Stumbleupon and posted it to Facebook.

Minute 2:00 is the best part

Twenty years ago today

September 9, 1989 was my first full day in Costa Rica.

I came here because, following my year in Kenya, Costa Rica seemed more manageable (read: closer to the United States, both geographically and culturally) than my originally-planned year in Japan. (A bit of backstory can be found here, for any what needs it.)

In other words, I came to Costa Rica more because of what it was not, than because of any particular thing that it was.

I'm not sure I actually knew much of anything about Costa Rica when I arrived, except that it was in Central America, and that the language was Spanish (of which I spoke 10 words).

Well, and I'm also pretty sure I knew it wasn't an island.

I certainly didn't expect to stay, settle, marry, divorce, have children here. Not that I had any idea about where, when or with whom I might eventually do those things, but I most definitely didn't think it would be here.

When people ask how long I've been here, and I tell them, they always ask if I "like it here," or remark that I must like it.

Which is funny. I guess some people do have strong feelings about where they live, but I tend to like some things about any given place, and dislike others, and you just live where you live. The various circumstances of my life to date being what they are, I happen to live here.

In today's world of relatively affordable air travel and email and VOIP and blogs and digital cameras and whatnot, the distance really isn't the thing. The culture is different, sure. Sometimes that seems like a non-issue after all these years, and sometimes it doesn't.

Culture was certainly an issue in my marriage, but not in the way you (any given one of "you") might imagine. There are ways in which it is easier to be with someone from another culture, because you don't expect them to share your assumptions or ways of doing things on every point.

On the other hand, some of those assumptions and ways of doing things may be deeply ingrained or very important to one or the other partner, and sticking points may crop up in unexpected spots.

I do appreciate the shared cultural cues and points of reference (and language) of being in a relationship with someone who grew up in the same country I did, but I think it would be a mistake to attribute too much significance to culture in either case.

Actually, assessing the affect of culture on relationships is rather like trying to express whether or not I "like" living in Costa Rica - no answer I would be inclined to give would do justice to the depth of the question, and most people who ask aren't looking for that much detail anyway.

(By the way, this year's post is all about me, but September 9 is still many things to many people. [Also, and unrelatedly, in looking for those two links, I happened across this post (and its follow up) from three years ago. It is amusing.])

Today in Absurdly Cute

Things that make me think of Mom

Holly Near and women's rights



Meg Christian, Chris Williamson and flowers



Margie Adam and the Bosphorus



Happy Birthday!

He's like a fine wine - if I liked wine

I recently rediscovered a VCR/DVD player that was tucked away in a closet, and it turns out it works just fine, and has proved to be a drastic improvement over our previous DVD-watching options.

We celebrated this evening by revisiting the Muppet Show DVDs, which never played right on the computer, even when some others kind of did.

It occurs to me that there are some Muppets you love your whole life long, some you outgrow after a while, and some you actually grow into. I had no time for Sam when I was a kid, but I daresay he's aged rather well.

Just how awesome is Steve?

He's so awesome he wears purple Crocs when he travels. (That wasn't a secret, was it?) He loves his family and friends like all get-out, and gives my kids comics and buys stuff his friends are selling and says nice things to me near about every time we talk, and also comes up with post topics when I complain about not having anything to write about.

And this is (I think - I can't actually see it myself because my computer had a fight with YouTube) a song that always makes me think of him, although I usually listen to a different version:



So, to recap: Steve is very very awesome, the end.

Hey, remember this?

Another July birthday

This month is just full of 'em, isn't it?

Seems today is Béla Fleck's birthday. I was introduced to Béla's music by another July baby, but it won't be his birthday for several more hours yet.

I have this song at the top of my playlist, so even though I keep the player on shuffle, it always starts with this one:



Also, check out Béla's latest project - a very cool documentary (with, I might add, a equally cool website).

Okay, I'll admit it's more the concept than the execution...

...But if Mickey Dolenz is going to give a concert on my birthday, and I'm going to find out about it four days later (on my sister's birthday), and he actually sings Happy Birthday (to his drummer) right there on stage, well then it's going to have to go on the blog.



Happy birthday, Lisa :)