Sunday 9/18- Whether it is work-work or home-work, the work just never seems to end, and some days that means staring at a computer screen for more hours than I’d really like to think about. I started my Sunday with coffee and working on the blog. I fear that I have been falling behind, so I had to spend some time catching up both writing the posts and getting them online so that they are ready to post when the time comes. Before long it was time for me to sign on to my work-work for the day. Sundays are good days for catching up on things that are too hard to do when you have meetings and get calls interrupting your focus time. I actually feel like they are quite productive work days for me, and that I can get more done in fewer hours when I actually have the opportunity to just focus. Plus, today was a rainy day, so at least I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything fun while I stared at a computer all day!
Monday 9/19 - Wednesday 9/21- As I’ve mentioned plenty of times before, Ramie does what he can to keep himself busy. He isn’t the type of person that can sit still for a long period of time not doing anything (unless he’s playing video games). With all of the work that is being done on our neighbor’s house before they start renting it out as a vacation rental, Ramie has been busy with the contractors there. There is a lot going on between fixes to their septic system, removal of a wall and installing a sliding door, some concrete being poured, and other maintenance going on, so he has to coordinate with the contractors doing the work. He should feel right at home doing this kind of thing, as when he used to be a maintenance supervisor he spent lots of time coordinating with outside contractors! While he doesn’t actually do the work, he spends a decent amount of time making sure things are happening as they should and on time.
In between coordinating with contractors at Katie & Adam’s house, Ramie coordinated some work on our side of the fence as well, literally. One of the contractors that was working at their house did concrete work, so Ramie also hired him to finish smoothing out the concrete wall on our side. Once the wall was smoothed out and properly finished, Ramie was able to finish painting it. Boy does that whole area look better now that it is finished!
(Unfortunately, we have looked through all of our photos and are unable to find a picture of our blue wall-- sorry!)
Thursday 9/22- It’s been about a month again and it was time to go back to San Isidro to stock up on essentials. While there isn’t much interesting to tell you about during this trip, we do want to tell you about a store that we discovered that Ramie loves for one particular reason.
For any of you who know Ramie well, he LOVES candy!!
And as anyone who has traveled to other countries knows, candy differs depending on where you are, and while you can get imported candy from the US, you will pay quite the premium for it. He’s tried a few different types of candy that we found down here and hadn’t been particularly impressed so he’s been living off of the candy that friends and family have brought down from the US at his request, and chocolate chips. Yes, plain old chocolate chips from the baking aisle are the best chocolate for the best price that he can find, and he is content eating these like M&Ms.
So- back to the store- this place is what I call a big “junk” store that sells mostly the cheap Chinese stuff. It’s kind of like a dollar store where they have all of the weird random stuff, but the things aren’t all just a dollar. They have everything from toiletries and clothing to kitchenware and outdoor items. The section Ramie likes the most, though, is the pinata candy section! This is the only place we have ever found a section where they have the bulk candy bins with all sorts of little pieces of individually wrapped candies. He’s stocked up on this candy a few times now, and has mostly figured out what he likes and what he doesn’t like. The inventory changes slightly every time we go, so he’s constantly getting something different, but there is always a selection of gum, hard candies, fruity gummies, tootsie roll/taffy types, and caramels and suckers. It kind or reminds me of the candy they used to throw at small town parades back in MN. He’ll stock up on several pounds of candy (usually enough to last him close to when we go back again and then he saves his chocolate chips for when the rest of the “good stuff” is gone.
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Just some of the Pinata selection
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Ramie in his happy place
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Saturday 9/24- Although we never felt a strong desire to go to the beach during the summer in MN, even if we were camping somewhere that had a nice beach, down here when the weather is nice and I don’t have to work going to the beach is one of my favorite ways to relax. Maybe it’s because I just feel the need to get up and move after sitting behind a desk all week, maybe it’s being in nature, maybe it’s because it’s so relaxing, or maybe it’s because the beaches that we go to are somewhere other than home where there are rarely any people other than us. No matter what the reason for our change in opinion about going to the beach, it is somewhere that we are finding ourselves more and more often. After we finished our coffee this morning, we headed to our secret beach for a few hours today.
Prior to making the move to Costa Rica, during all of our research about picking a place to live, we read that many people, after the honeymoon phase is over, dislike living close to the beach and end up moving away. We are just the opposite, we find ourselves going to the beach more and more! I guess it's our way to relax and enjoy where we are. I understand wanting to move away to a cooler, less humid climate further inland, but we are very very happy living just a short distance from all of the fabulous beaches around us.
We didn’t have plans for the rest of the day so we were able to spend a few hours just relaxing. We did do one fun, easy project today, however. Yesterday at the “junk store” I picked up a couple of decorative jars because I had an idea. I needed to do something with all of those cool seashells that we collected at sand dollar beach, so a seashell jar it would be! Ramie & I spent the next hour carefully placing all of our shells into the jar in a way that you could see the cool ones from the outside. Some of the more plain ones and those that had a lot of the same style were in the middle just to take up space. It turned out that we were able to fit all of our shells in the jar with just enough room at the top to place a couple of our sand dollars. It’s like it was just meant to be! I have 1 more jar like this, I guess I’ll have to start collecting more cool shells the next time we’re back at the beach.
Not all shells are white, in fact I often look for fun colored shells, but it's also fun to see all of the different shapes
Thursday 9/29- Another work week has gone by with nothing interesting to talk about. I guess that’s just the way things go. I’m not complaining, but it just means there isn’t a whole lot to write about here for your entertainment, not that there is usually that much that is really entertaining to write about on a day off either. Lol
Part of today’s day off work was spent at Geoff & Tracy’s house digging up some of their plants to transplant into our yard again. We are so thankful for the great friends that they have become (and for the large yard with mature plants that they are willing to share 😉). I’m glad that they like to share instead of just digging them up and tossing them into the jungle to decompose. It's amazing just how fast plants grow and spread, you really have to keep chopping them back or the next thing you know the jungle starts moving in and taking over your space. Have you noticed how much we love plants? Our goal is to have a large variety of fruiting & flowering plants all around our yard. A mix of things that we can eat and things that draw in birds and fun wildlife (but don’t attract or provide places to hide for the undesirable wildlife). Some of the edible plants that we have growing on our property so far include pineapple, coconut, cacao, mamones (those spiky red fruits that taste kind of like grapes), lime, cinnamon, banana, and of course all of our garden plants. Unfortunately most of our plants aren't mature enough to produce yet.
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Pina (Pineapple)
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Canna Lilly
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| Plantinillo |
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Morning Glory
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Hibiscus this flower is about 6" in diameter
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Hong Kong Orchid
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Orchid
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Another Hibiscus we have planted
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There are so many more-- but I think this is enough for now.
The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of September rainfall total was 32.15 inches
Pura Vida!
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