Montezuma Beaches

These were all taken in Montezuma. That was the only beach we visited. We had planned to go the the Caribbean side and visit Cahuita but never got that far. The top middle picture is a beach where people have stacked rocks in some pretty spectacular ways. The fellow sitting in the chair on the beach is the security guard at Ylang Ylang. Not a bad job, if you ask me. He did have a gun, however.

Some Of The Places We Relaxed in Costa Rica

Top left: The front porch at Organico Cafe in Montezuma. Nice and shady in the hot sun.

Top middle: The bar at Ylang Ylang in Montezuma. We ate a lot of meals there and were never disappointed. Good wine too and the corkage fee was only $6.

Top right: Two very comfortable chairs at Amor de Mar in Montezuma. They had very soft cushions and were shaded by palm trees. You could hear the surf pounding on the shoreline rocks.

Middle left: Rocking chairs on the deck of our little hut at Ylang Ylang.

Middle middle: Hammocks at Amor de Mar. I never could get comfortable in them; and getting out, well that's a tale in itself.
Middle right: The bar at La Selva Verde Rainforest Lodge which is right on the banks of the Sarapiqui River. We were sitting in the bar when we say the chestnut-mandibled toucan.

Bottom left: The pool at the La Selva Verde Rainforest Lodge

Lodging In Costa Rica

Dykewife ( http://dykewife.blogspot.com ) requested lots of pictures so here goes.

Top left: Amor de Mar Hotel in Montezuma; not our favorite but in a beautiful setting right on the Pacific.

Top right: Ylang Ylang Resort in Montezuma. We had this little dome all to ourselves. Our balcony looked out over the rest of the resort to the Pacific Ocean. Probably our favorite. Food was great too.

Bottom left: Selva Verde Rainforest Lodge near Puerto Viejo. All the lodging is on stilts due to the 150 inches of rainfall they get in a year. That way visitors don't get flooded out. I stayed there ten years ago. Wonderful place. You feel like you are living in a treehouse.

Bottom right: Sueno Azul Resort near Las Horquetas. This resort, which is also in the rainforest, is also a spa and yoga retreat. We had an air conditioned room. The windows steamed up because it was so warm outside and so cold inside. You could have hung meat in our room. I loved it. Kerry froze.

Only lodging missing from this post is Montana de Fuego Hotel and Spa in La Fortuna, which I posted in an earlier blog.

Another Visit To Organico

That's Ozlem on the left and Countrygirl on the right. We didn't plan to wear the same colors that day; it just happened. She's a wonderful vegan chef who makes wonderful ice cream without milk or cream. Stop by when you are in Montezuma, Costa Rica.

Red Worms For Composting

I read a story about these guys on the web and how they can eat an enormous amount of vegetable waste in your composting bin. With a septic system we don't use our garbage disposal and I can't stand to send vegetable matter to the dump where they make compost and sell it back to me.

The worms are a much faster way to get good compost. So I went on line and bought a pound of them. That equals about 1,000 worms. The place where I bought them said they do them by weight rather than count. Counting out 1,000 worms would be really tough

They arrived by priority mail today. I used my pitchfork to mix up the compost bin stuff, added a bit of water and then introduced the worms to their new home. Not a whole lot of movement; probably just a little nervous about the trip and then being dumped into a new neighborhood. I do hope they are happy.

My Iris Garden

My irises are in full bloom. This is the first year I've really had many bloom. Turns out I was supposed to fertilize them three times a year. I did that this past year and lo and behold they are blooming like crazy. The one on the lower left is a pale apricot color.

Getting Old Is Not For The Faint of Heart

I brought back a very special gift from Costa Rica: bacterial diarrhea. Nasty subject, but I did already have the antibiotic of choice, Cipro. My doctor sent it with me. Suffice to say that I am back to normal. I had two more cortisone shots for my rotator cuff problem. Those are my getting old stories.

Now for Kerry. First, he has a platelet disorder called ITP. No reason to give you the long drawn out name; it means that his body kills off his own platelets thanks to some virus that may have lain dormant in his body for years or may have just arrived in his spleen five years ago when he was diagnosed. Platelets are what make your blood clot. His last blood test had him at his lowest count yet, 30,000 platelets. Normal folks have anywhere from 150,000 to 400,000. At 20,000 you start to bleed out. So now he's back to every other month for blood tests. I get to worry more. He wears a Medical Alert bracelet.

Second, before we went to Costa Rica, he had a lesion removed from his scalp. His doctor knows he has clotting problems but didn't really think about it; that's my take on it. He hit an artery in Kerry's head and the blood poured out. He was covered in it as was the room and everyone around him. I don't think I like this doctor. The good news is that it was not cancerous. The stitches are still in because the doctor is worried he will bleed again when they come out. He sent home a sterile suture removal kit for me to take them out when the scab is looser. Lucky me.

Last week he hurt his knee playing tennis. He was sure he was going to need some surgery; I pointed out that he could bleed to death during surgery. That was a wake-up call. He asked his hematologist about this; the guy said they would pump him full of platelets before, during and after surgery. He had platelet infusions when he was first diagnosed; four days of platelets cost $48,000. His insurance paid for it. The infusion didn't help.

Now today he hurt his back and is currently resting on the heating pad.

I just needed to vent a bit; it's not like either one of us is dying but when your body starts to break down and your mind is fine; that's worrisome. I'll go back to happier things, like Costa Rica, tomorrow.

Costa Rican Critters Including The Jesus Christ Lizard

This might not be the best of posts for those who are squeamish. I, myself, do not like snakes. They are slimy; I don't care what anyone says.

Costa Rica has its share of strange critters. The big guy on the left is an iguana. Contrary to what you may have seen in the pet store, these guys get to be very big. His waddle, that thing hanging down from under his neck, is what he uses to attract chick iguanas. He climbs high into a tree every day and shakes his waddle. I guess the girl iguanas like it. Didn't do much for me. At Selva Verde Lodge in the rain forest we saw lots of these guys devouring bananas that the staff would put out for them so folks like us could take pictures. They are herbivores so don't worry; you are safe in the jungle. I chose a photo with a person in it to give you some perspective on just how big these guys are.



Now for the second critter that we saw at Selva Verde Lodge. He gets his nickname, Jesus Christ Lizard, because he can literally walk on water. The green guy to the left is what they look like in the jungle. The other photo depicts one of them dashing across the water to escape some predator.

If you are religious and object to the name; get a life. This is nature; I think it's kind of cool that this little guy has some great ways to get away from someone who wants to eat him.

Biggest Bird We Saw

This is the cinnamon-mandibled toucan. Kerry and I were sitting in the open-air bar at Selva Verde Lodge when we spotted this fellow or gal on the branch of a tree overlooking the Sarapiqui River. He's pretty hard to miss at 22 inches long. He weighs 750 grams. To give you a comparison, hummingbirds generally weigh about 2 grams or the weight of a paper clip. They usually eat fruit, which they hold with their feet and tear apart with their big bills; but they also eat snakes and lizards.

Costa Rica: Zarcero To Volcan Arenal

Once we got back across the Gulf of Nicoya on the car ferry, we headed north to La Fortuna where the volcano is located, we passed through a little moutain village called Zarcero. I was there ten years ago and met the gardener who has created the topiaries in the town square. The photo on the left shows just one small portion of the square. I met the gardener when I was there ten years ago. Kerry and I didn't stop long but did get a good look at the incredible work done by this man, Evangelista Blanco. He's been working on the topiaries for 30+ years. If you want to see more of them go to Google images and type in Zarcero, Costa Rica + topiaries. You'll get to see all of his work. He has a good sense of humor.

As we went up in altitude, the weather cooled appreciably. We could actually turn off the air conditioning and open the windows. Relief.

La Fortuna was a sleepy little town ten years ago; but not today. The main street is lined with impressive new resorts; all so people can come and hope to catch a glimpse of the volanco doing something. It's still active so it spews lava, ash and smoke from time to time. In two visits I've never seen it do anything but stay hidden in the clouds. You can see evidence of lava flows on the west side which is blackened.

We stayed at Montana de Fuego Hotel and Spa. When I stay there ten years ago it was Montana de Fuego Cabinas. The owners obviously have done well; they haven't, however, changed the style of the accomodations. The cabin we stayed in, which is pictured to the left, was exactly like the one in which I stayed in 1997. The porch is glassed in on the side that gets hit with rain all the time. The other side is open to the breezes. Instead of six cabins, there were dozens and dozens of them, plus condos and suites plus a pool and spa.
We spent a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying the cool weather. It rained a bit each day. Kerry had a massage and I had a foot massage, pedicure and manicure. Kerry met a couple in the reception area who are driving a rather large RV from Chile to Alaska. That would be quite an adventure.

Back To Costa Rica...Montezuma

As I said in an earlier post, our first stop was Montezuma. It's on the southern tip of the Nicoyo Peninsula. The easiest way to get there is on the car ferry that goes from Puntarenas to Paquera. It's about a 90 minute ride. Then you drive another 20 miles or so to Montezuma. The ferry schedule I got from the Internet looked like they had lots of crossings each day, but I know from Baking Fairy that the workers had recently staged a one-day strike. The roads in Costa Rica are not great (that's an understatement) so anytime you can spend on water to get somewhere is a real bonus. When we got there the ferry was loading the last few vehicles. We both sighed with relief. The funniest part was the workers giving Kerry instructions in Spanish on where they wanted him to park. He worked very hard to get our little Daihatsu BeGo into the space they allotted for us.

The first place we stay in Montezuma was Mar de Amor, which means Love of the Sea. The location was wonderful on a little piece of land that jutted out into the bay. You really felt like you were surrounded by water. Our friends, Susan and Einar, were staying there too.

We had a corner room that was on the street so we had car noise until late into the night. We had one fan that turned from side to side (oscillated?). Every time it turned there was a horrible noise so between the heat, the fan and the cars, we did not have a very good night. Also there was no hot water in the shower, although with the weather so hot we really didn't care. The second night was much better. We got the fan in position so it would blow on both of us without having to turn from side to side. Also the street was quieter.

Then we moved to Ylang Ylang just up the beach. In an earlier posting, I shared pictures of the whimsical towel creations the housekeepers made each day. Even without air conditioning, Ylang Ylang was much more comfortable and quieter.

Our first morning there we woke up to find thousands of little black and orange crabs (pictured below and to the left) all over the sidewalk. Some tried to come into our dome. They were about six inches from claw to claw and thought they were quite ferocious. When cornered, which was relatively easily given their numbers, they would open their small claws and open their mouths in a threatening fashion. It probably could scare other small critters but not us. Lots of them fell victim to cars and buses when they ambled down the main streets of Montezuma.

Every year they come down from the mountain when the area has its first rainfall of the season. It's there signal to go to the beach, lay their eggs or whatever and then a few days later to go back up to the mountain to wait for next year. It's was really interesting to watch them. We had an outdoor shower (wonderful with lotsa privacy) which the crabs wanted to share with me. I declined.

The photo above at the top of this posting is the view from the Ylang Ylang restaurant where we had breakfast and dinner. You could hear the surf pounding the beach all day long. It's a great lullaby. Lulled me to sleep several times a day.

Tomorrow: Volcan Arenal

I'm Not A Shrinking Violet....

You may be wondering how this relates to Costa Rica; well it does. We flew U.S. Airways from Sacramento to Phoenix and then on to Costa Rica. The plane was a bit late leaving Sacramento due to some mechanical difficulties. We were in first class thanks to tons of frequent flier miles. I have spent 99.9% of my flying life in coach, but now I'm an instant first class snob.

So anyway, the plane was delayed. All of a sudden this man appears from the back of the bus with concerns about whether he will make his connection in Phoenix to Cabo San Lucas. He claims he has a gig down there at a resort and he needs to be there. Can the flight attendants please get the red-haired gate agent for him so he can check on other flights? I'm immediately pissed. Self-important men or for that matter self-important people really piss me off.

Now Kerry and I could miss our connection, but I'm thinking well if we do we will just deal with it. That's the way I deal with life. But this fellow just goes on and on about the importance of being in Cabo that night. He throws in the fact that he is a citizen of three countries: Mexico, U.S. and Canada. Dykewife I'm sure this is someone you definitely don't want singing "Oh Canada."

Finally I can't take it anymore. I said, "there are lots of people on this plane with connections so just relax." He then used the word that pisses me off so much. He called me "honey." I immediately said, don't call me honey. He ignored me and continued on with the honey this and honey that. Finally he said you know I have to be in Cabo. I replied that I had to be in San Jose, Costa Rica and which was more important. I could see the two flight attendants wondering if they were going to have to break up a fist fight between the two of us. Kerry just kept reading his magazine. I have a low tolerance for assholes. This guy just pushed all my buttons.

He also wanted to know if he could be the first off the plane so he could make his flight. There were 120 people going to Cabo. In the end he was one of the last people off the flight and he went to the wrong gate. We saw him as he was being driven on one of those old people/handicapped carts to his proper gate. The guy was so driven to get to his flight that he didn't even get the gate number right. And Phoenix is a huge airport where you can walk for what seems like endless miles.

The next leg of our flight was so wonderful. We had Meg Ryan as our flight attendant in First Class. She looked like her, acted like her but was slightly older. I asked for a glass of white wine. In coach that's what you do. You say red or white; never specify any further. She brought out a bottle of chardonnay to show me. "Will this do?" I was startled by the sight of a regular wine bottle and by her question. She then brought me a real wine glass made of glass and poured some for me.

She also had a neat trick for the restroom; put a packet of coffee on the hook on the door and everything will smell better. What a gal.

Just so you know that I'm not a long term snob; we are flying Southwest Airlines next month to New York for my nephews college graduation. Southwest has one class; everyone is the same. You rarely run into assholes on their flights. Once again I have Rapid Reward tickets so Kerry and I fly free. One of the perqs of being a consultant. All those flights for clients translate into free trips. That's one part of retirement that I will miss.

We Met The Baking Fairy

On our first drive through Montezuma (on the tip of the Gulf of Nicoya on the Pacific Ocean) we quickly spotted Organica, a vegan restaurant owned by The Baking Fairy (http://bakingfairy.blogspot.com). We have been commenting on each others blogs so once we arranged our trip we decided that her town would be the first on our itinerary. Actually that was all that was on our itinerary. After that we were going to roam the countryside. Anyway, back to Organico. Ozlem is the baking fairy and is she ever good at it. As the sign says "pure food with love." I found the heat in Montezuma to be close to unbearable due to the high humidity. I sweated so much one day that my sunscreen melted. Now that's hot. Also, being post menopausal and overweight doesn't help. Her food is delicious. She has figured out how to make things without using any eggs, butter or anything else that might be considered non-vegan. I sampled her cashew fruit ice cream, avocado lime ice cream and chocolate coffee ice cream. All were yummy.

I have pictures of us together but those will have to wait. They are on Kerry's camera. He shot 725 pictures. I'm going to let him sort through them to find the ones I want. There are only 2-1/2 streets in Montezuma so if you go there it won't be hard to find her. She's originally from Istanbul, went to business school at the University of San Francisco, worked for a while, came to Montezuma for a yoga retreat, saw that restaurant was for sale, bought it and the rest is history. She looks extremely happy despite the long hours she works. Basically she serves all three meals everyday except Monday. I had the best fresh orange juice there that I've ever had. We brought her some ingredients she has trouble getting there. The photo below is one of Ozlem's neighbors.

The four of us were having lunch one day at Organico when this little critter wandered in. He's some type of iguana; there are loads of them in Costa Rica. Many of them are much larger than this fellow. I swear he posed for the picture. I took one picture of him before this one; I went to take another and he turned his head and stared into the lens. Very cooperative iguana. The people are the same way.

Ylang Ylang Beach Resort In Montezuma

This was probably the nicest place we stayed the entire trip. It's pronounced e-lang e-lang with a long "e" sound. You can only get to it by walking along the beach for about 10 minutes or by meeting Mario in town and riding to the resort in the huge landrover (not the wimpy kind you see in suburbia).

The first picture is of our bath towels displayed on the bed. The maids did this. The flowers and leaves are real. The next day we found that the maids had a whimsical side. The glasses on the frog below are my reading glasses. The dark glasses on the sloth are my sunglasses. Again, all the flowers and leaves are real.
http://www.elbanano.com

The Flowers Of Costa Rica

Parts of this country get 150 inches of rain a year. That means lots of moisture for some pretty spectacular flowers to grow. These are the flowers you pay big bucks for at the florist. So here they are in all their glory.

Hello From San Jose, Costa Rica

We are heading across the street in a few minutes to do a little gambling. We have a few colones left so will see if we can lose a few. Our flight leaves Wednesday at 7:25 a.m. We have to leave for the airport at 5 a.m. Luckily we are right across the street from the airport and we've already paid our airport tax. It's been a great trip. I'll start blogging about it tomorrow. We get home about 4:30 p.m. I can hardly wait to catch up on everyone's lives.

Hasta La Vista

Gone to Costa Rica; back on April 12. See you then. I'm off to meet a fellow blogger, The Baking Fairy who lives in Montezuma and operates a vegan restaurant called "Organico."

Another Tale From Costa Rica Ten Years Ago

All the prepartion for this trip to Costa Rica has brought back a flood of memories of my first trip. The one I thought of today was about the post office in Cahuita. I had postcards to mail back to the U.S. I went to the post office, asked in Spanish about buying stamps for them and was told he didn't have any stamps. I asked if I was in the post office. He assured me I was. I asked when he thought he might have stamps; he said maybe on Wednesday. This was Friday. I told him I would be gone by then; he smiled and said that perhaps the next city I visited would have stamps. We could learn a lot from this gentleman. He had a job but nothing to sell and he was very polite about how he couldn't help me. I left smiling and mailed the postcards when I got back to the U.S. Great country; great people.

Getting Ready For Our Trip

Well, I've had my typhoid shot. My arm hurt like hell for a couple of days. I've started taking my anti-malarial drug (no side effects) and I'm slowly gathering all those things we can't forget...like passports and plane tickets, etc. And I got my cortisone shot for my rotator cuff. It already feels better.

Our friends Einar and Susan are leaving tomorrow and will meet us in Montezuma. We don't fly until Sunday. They just couldn't wait to get there. We have rented the car so they are taking the bus to Montezuma from the airport. That will be quite a ride. I wonder how many chickens and other creatures will accompany them. The bus will take them across on the ferry at Puntarenas. Montezuma is down near the tip of the Nicoyo Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean. It's orange on this map. They are splurging and staying at an expensive resort called Ylang Ylang for a couple of nights. Then they will move into the modestly priced rooms we will stay in for the rest of the trip.

After a couple of days there, we will head back across on the ferry to the main part of Costa Rica and slowly wend our way to Cahuita, which is on the Carribean coast and is in the malarial zone (green on the map). It's about five miles from the Panama border. Hope fully we can stay at Atlantida which is where I stayed last time. Lots of Rastafarians there. I remember having dinner one night in "downtown" Cahuita when the lights went out. No one even missed a beat; the lanterns were lit and life went on. I did notice baby caimans (like crocodiles) in the water behind the restaurants hoping for some scraps from the kitchen. We have rats, they have caimans.

After Cahuita we will wander back into the central part of the country, maybe go to the Cloud Forest to get away from the heat or to a jungle lodge on the Sarapiqui River. This is supposed to be a relaxing vacation so we are going to do just that.

Sir Lawrence And Dame Olivia Are Back

They have become so tame that they like to nap on our front porch. Larry has his head tucked in and Olivia is ever vigilant. Some of you may remember last year's trials with nesting. Olivia decided our roof was a good spot. It was in the spring when the weather was mild. She hatched out about 10 chicks who were gobbled up by various creatures. She then went back to the roof to lay a second group of eggs. The temperature was probably 120 F. up there. She got so hot she would leave the eggs to swim in the pond. This year the gutter cleaners found a nest, the skeleton of one chick and lots of broken eggs. They clean it out thoroughly in hopes that she wouldn't go back.

I've seen her on the roof once; I clapped and yelled at her and she took flight. I'm still not convinced she hasn't laid her eggs up there. When I stop seeing her completely I'll know she is nesting somewhere. They are a cute couple. Larry usually watches over her while she eats; I guess it's her turn when they are sleeping. We can tell it's Olivia because she is so light colored. We are assuming that he's Larry unless the little girl is out and about with more than one drake. More power to her. That nearly dead plant in the background is a hibiscus that almost died over the winter. I'm nursing it back to health. It had a whopping case of aphids at the end of the season and then got hit by frost one night when I wasn't as vigilant as I should have been. I may have to take it out of the pot and cut some of its roots to get it going again. They don't like to be repotted but do like to have the roots cut away. Sort of like people.

A Food Hangover

Yes, that's how I feel. The dinner last night was wonderful as was the company...Kerry and the other couple we dined with. But there was so much of it; the food that is. We started with a white bean salad with arugula plus a bit of zip from some kind of pepper. Then on to the very light lemon fettuccine with some wonderful mushrooms. Then came the main course: braised lamb shank from a local ranch that doesn't add any bad stuff to the feed. Of course the poor little lambs don't live long enough to acquite any bad habits. The entree included tiny potatoes, carrots and turnips. Then dessert: flourless chocolate cake with all that frou-frou stuff around it. Sort of like the picture here. The lack of flour just means there is even more chocolate, which in my food-soaked mind didn't register as caffeine.

Kerry and I went to bed quite uncomfortable and quite on edge thanks to the dessert. We re-learned an important lesson; eat half of what is on your plate and bring the rest home. We did bring home quite a bit of lamb. I can't even look at it now. I had edamame for lunch. Don't know about dinner yet.

I woke up determined to exercise but only got as far as walking to the road for the Sunday paper. That's a half mile roundtrip. I was going to get on the treadmill too but never got there. My thinking was that a good sweat would really help the healing process. It probably would but I just couldn't get there.


Tomorrow is platelet day. Just before that I am driving to nearby Yuba City to purchase a portable crib for Francesca, the young woman who takes care of our house. She has a baby who is rapidly getting tired of being in her car seat when mom is here working. The portable crib will give her a place to squirm, learn how to roll over and other delightful things that little ones learn.


Back to the food; I'm going to talk to the Lincoln Produce Market owners and tell them that they should shrink the portions but not the price or let folks know that doggie bags are plentiful so we won't all stuff ourselves. I did love every bite but it's just the accumulation of all those bites that is a bit uncomfortable.

Typhoid Shots, Rotator Cuffs And Costa Rica

On Thursday I had an x-ray of my left shoulder to see if I had any bone problems because it hurts like hell. Yesterday I had a typhoid shot in my right arm. Now both my arms hurt and I feel rather wiped out by the vaccination. It's for our trip to Costa Rica. On Monday I'm going to get a cortisone shot for my rotator cuff injury. So I guess this means my pitching days are over. Right now I can't swing a golf club, lift anything heavier than a coffee cup and sometimes can't lift my left arm at all. Hopefully the cortisone shot will help. I think the villain in all of this is yoga. I was having pain in my left shoulder during some poses but just kept on doing them. I think the "no pain, no gain" way of exercising is seriously outdated. I don't want to be miserable in Costa Rica.

I had to visit International Travel at Kaiser to get the vaccination. They also gave me pages and pages of all the terrible things that can happen to one in Costa Rica. I also got malaria pills and Cipro, an antibiotic for bacterial diarrhea. I also bought a time release mosquito repellent and sun screen. I told the nurse that I had been to Costa Rica ten years earlier and had not taken any of these precautions. She smiled and said, "You were lucky." I'm ten years older than I was on that last trip so I guess that's why I'm taking more precautions. I have to start the malaria pills one week before I will enter a malaria zone; it's primarily along the Caribbean side of the country (we are going there) and in the northwest in Guanacaste. So I will take my first pill on Wednesday. I have to take them for four weeks after I get back to make sure I didn't get bitten. I'm hoping this means that I will be able to donate platelets. I got there on Monday so will ask.

We are having a very lazy day. Kerry just went to take a nap and I'm headed there as soon as I finish this post. We are going to a wine dinner tonight at our favorite place in Lincoln, Lafayette Produce Market. About once a month they do these dinners for members of their wine club. We belong; the wine club membership was free. So tonight we will have some wonderful food paired with interesting local wines. I need to nap so I feel up to going.

The Turtle Has Left The Property

Doug and Katie pulled out late yesterday afternoon. The turtle rumbled slowly down our dirt driveway, made a right at the road and disappeared. I told Doug I wasn't going to really believe he was gone until I got an e-mail from him that showed he was at least 20 miles away.

I got one from him last night. He was maybe 10 miles away. That didn't count. He says he's going to San Diego slowly just like a turtle. He has to be back here in about six weeks for more blood tests. Somehow I doubt that he can drive to San Diego and back in that time. Then he wants to go to Alaska. He won some lottery that allows him into an area where very few people are allowed. But then he has to be back in Lincoln by late August to leave Katie with us and go to Burning Man in Nevada. That's a lot of travel for a turtle and its owner.

Today the folks with whom we are going to Costa Rica are coming over for some trip planning and a barbecue. They are good travelers and we travel well with them. Susan and Einar were on the China trip last year.

Changing subjects: my neighbor down the road always has great tomatoes which he sells at a roadside stand. I usually watch for him to plant and then I plant. Well he planted sometime last week when I wasn't watching. I'm stunned; it's still March. So I have to get busy next week and get mine in the ground. It's been in the low to mid-80s every day for a week; all my winter vegetables have begun to flower, which is not good. I think I'm going to give up on winter vegetables that grow above the ground.

Health Update and "Borat"

Turtle Doug is doing well. The urologist wants to see him in two months and do another blood test. I could see that he was as relieved as I was. He's heading for San Diego and Baja tomorrow. He'll be back in 8 weeks for more tests.

Now for "Borat." Kerry subscribes to Netflix. He had been waiting for "Borat" and today it arrived. This is Turtle Doug's last night so the two men are bonding by watching this horrible movie. Don't send me comments that you loved it. I find it loud and repulsive. Tomorrow night we are watching "Little Miss Sunshine." I can hear their laughter all the way in my office even with the fan on. Actually I'm glad Kerry has someone with whom he can watch it. We have very different tastes in movies. He watches his Netflix movies alone much of the time. That's why I finally got a Blockbuster card. Yesterday I rented the "Miss Sunshine" movie and "Memoirs of a Geisha." I read the book and want to see what I think of the movie.

So I'm hiding out until the movie ends. I'm glad they are having fun.

The Turtle Is Back and A Curly Willow Update

Turtle Doug arrived a short time ago. He has his urology appointment tomorrow in the nearby town of Rocklin. I just hope he gets good news. We figured out a better spot for his turtle in the driveway so it will be easier to get my car in and out of the garage. His wife has decided she wants a divorce. Her lawyer in Kentucky contacted him today. I guess when it rains it pours. Poor guy.

I gave platelets yesterday, which really wiped me out more than usual. I didn't get a chance to eat lunch before I went so was pretty low on energy. About half way through the 113-minute donation time I started having muscle cramps from the anti-coagulant they drip into me. I had 8 Tums which usually wipe out the cramps almost immediately. It's pretty amazing how fast they work. This time they did nothing. So they brought me string cheese to eat. I downed two of them as fast as possible and the cramping subsided. I got a kind lecture from the nurse about the importance of lunch before my next donation. I've donated 87 pints which is nearly 11 gallons.

So I vegged most of today, except for a trip to the grocery store. I'm cooking healthy foods tonight so Doug will get a good meal before his exam tomorrow. We are having chicken breasts sauteed in a mushroom/olive oil/balsamic vinegar sauce and oven roasted tomatoes with a bit of feta cheese to top them off when they come out of the oven.

I've really been into veggies lately. Sunday night I had a big bowl of oven roasted cauliflower and broccoli sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. I had the same thing for lunch today. At the store today I bought lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and avocados (I know they are a fruit). A woman in the produce department saw all of my veggies and asked my advice on what veggie to serve with chicken Parmesan. I recommended the asparagus either oven roasted or steamed. She bought asparagus. I wish I felt the same way about fruit. It's just not my thing; except bananas and berries of any kind. Apples smeared with extra crunchy peanut butter are okay too.

I have a client meeting tomorrow; something I've not had in quite a while. I have to be on the road by 7:30 a.m. to get to Santa Rosa in time. My client, a water agency in Sonoma County, wants to build several reservoirs around the county to store tertiarily treated wastewater in the winter for use in the summer to irrigate vineyards. Sounds simple, but we have a former Dow Chemical scientist who has been quite successful recently in the courts. Tomorrow's meeting should be interesting.

And the curly willows...they are thriving. Dykewife asked why I didn't just leave them in the water until they had roots and then plant them. They had been in water for two months and had very few roots but were sprouting leaves. My friend who gave them to us recommended potting and then putting them in the soil. Our soil here is clay, which gets rock hard in the summer. We are going to start digging the holes now even though the trees aren't ready to go in the ground. If we don't get more rain it will take a jackhammer to get through the clay and then it will be hard on the trees. The clay is lovely for the potters in the area but hell for gardeners. The holes will have to be larger than needed so we can add lots of good soil, compost and other good things.

On the way to Santa Rosa tomorrow I'm listening to "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress." It's what we are reading for bookgroup next week. It's about 2.5 hours each way so I should just about finish it.

Green Dimes, A Terrapass and Climate Change

No it's not a song title. Behind those words are companies helping to clean up the environment. My brother, http://openwindowyoga.blogspot.com told me about both of them. I signed up today

Green Dimes will help you get rid of junk mail including catalogues; they also plant trees when you join; we all know we need more trees. Go to http://www.greendimes.com for more information.

The purpose of Terrapass is to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere thus reducing climate change. They do it by funding clean energy and efficiency projects. The money to do that comes from people who buy "Terrapasses." Go to http://www.terrapass.com for more information.

I bought an "Around Town Terrapass" for my Prius. I paid $29.95 to remove the 6,000 pounds of CO2 that my car produces each year. I want to get one for our house too, but I need to discuss it with Kerry first. You can also buy them for flights. I'm going to get one for our trip to Costa Rica. It's called the "Puddle Jumper Pass" and it's only $9.95.

Al Gore (An Inconvenient Truth) has terrapasses for his home, cars and flights. Some of you may have read newspaper reports about the energy bill for his very large home. The right wing media have called him a hypocrite for creating all that CO2 at his home. But his terrapasses will help plant trees and cover landfills to prevent methane getting into the air. Methane is worse than CO2.

I'll get down off my soapbox now; but it did feel good to buy a terrapass for my car.

The Tale Of The Curly Willow

With two ponds on our property, we can grow lots of willow trees because they need lots of water and you can plant the willows close to the water. A good friend of ours gave us some curly willow branches (tree shown here). We put them in water as directed and waited for them to leaf out. With leaves on them we put them in a big pot to develop stronger roots. And then they died; we didn't water them enough. So she gave us some more branches. We managed to kill them too.

Everything I read on Google said that anybody can grow these things. Well, not us.

But our friend did not give up on us; that's why she's a friend. A few months ago she and her husband arrived with a large load of very tall (many over 6 feet) curly willow branches; seventeen branches in all. We were determined to get these puppies to leaf out. We filled a large plastic garbage can with water and stuck all 17 in there.

About a week ago I noticed that all of them were leafing out. No cheering yet; we still had to get them into pots and get them to grow more roots. Well, they have been in pots for two days and they are still leafing out. I'm watching them like a hawk.

We are going to give them a month in the pots and then plant them at various places around the ponds. I want to get them in the ground long before our first heatwave hits. Now would be a good time to pray to the curly willow goddess.

A Little Bit of Ranting And Compassion

First the ranting; Scooter Libby was found guilty by a jury of his peers. That's the American way of justice. The discussion now that he might be pardoned sickens me. To quote the New York Times editorial: "It (the verdict) was another reminder of how precious the American judicial system is, at a time when it is under serious attack from the same administration Mr. Libby served. That administration is systematically denying the right of counsel, the right to evidence and even the right to be tried to scores of prisoners who may have committed no crimes at all."

I've dealt with the Bush administration by being a turtle; I've pulled into my shell and ignored it because it was too painful to hear. We all teach our children that lying is wrong; no matter what you want to accomplish it is just dead wrong (still into semicolons). Apparently the current administration didn't get that memo; lying is a way of life. I hope that Libby goes to jail for a very long time just like the folks at Enron who lied and stole the lives right out from under their employees. How many people have had their lives stolen by dying in an unjustified war? Too many to count.

What gets me most is the arrogance; they think they have the right to lie based on whatever misguided objectives they have. Anyway, I'm pissed and not about to forget it. My turtle shell has cracked; my neck is out.

Now for the compassion; this involves a turtle as well. Turtle Doug saw his new doctor today to get his blood test results. Not good. Most of all his PSA (prostate problems) was way to high. His doctor referred him to a urologist nearby. Plus his liver enzymes are way too high and his doctor doesn't know if it's the Lipitor or his penchant for good whiskey. His cholesterol, which the Lipitor is supposed to handle, is too high also. I don't think the doctor scored a lot of points when he told Doug he should stop "galavanting around the country" and settle down. That has nothing to do with his blood results. The only good news is that he doesn't have diabetes. So tonight I made big salads for the two men in my life; Doug drank water and Kerry had a beer. Getting old really sucks. Tomorrow he calls the urologist.

The other point of compasion is for a fellow blogger; creamy silver.blogspot.com.
She and her husband have been trying to have a baby for a long time. She got to seven weeks this time, and then the baby died. Tomorrow she has a D&C. The outpouring of support and compassion for this woman who lives with her husband, Bob, in southern Indiana has been
wonderful. Blogging may feel anonymous, but when it comes down to it, we live together as a community and support our fellow bloggers.

So that's all tonight. I want Libby in prison, I want Doug to be healthy and I want Creamy Silver (Jen) and her husband to have a baby. It doesn't sound like too much to ask.

Freckles And Food

One of the things I like best about Kate are her freckles. I've had freckles my whole life so I can easily bond with someone who has her own brand of freckles. Here she is in an alert pose either listening or sniffing for something on our property or maybe staring down the marauding Jack Russell Terriers who live next door.

Not much excitment this weekend. Friday night we went to Lincoln Produce Market for their monthly wine tasting. Kerry belongs to the wine club. We tasted five Pinot Noirs and had a few appetizers. Then Turtle Doug, Kerry and I went to Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ. I had the beef ribs which were yummy. I forgot to take my Zantac before going to bed so about 3 a.m. I had a reminder of just how delicious they were. Once the Zantac kicked in I dozed off until around 9.

Yesterday Doug and I ran errands. Kerry was at his photo class. Kate was in the hatchback part of my Prius. We bought lottery tickets. Our mega lottery will be $243 million on Tuesday night. If I don't write anything for a while you will know why.

Last night I cooked this delicious risotto with cauliflower. The cauliflower pretty much disappears into the risotto because it cooks so long in the chicken brother that it turns to mush. I love eating risotto but it can be a pain to make because you have to keep stirring and adding more liquid. The topping for it was something called "panagrattato." Basically it's bread crumbs that have been browned with a bit of olive oil. This recipe first called for mixing the bread crumbs in the cuisinart with a small can of anchovies including the oil and some red pepper flakes. It turns out very crunchy and brown with hardly a bit of anchovy flavor and just a bit of a kick from the red pepper flakes. Doug wrinkled his nose when I bought the anchovies, but after dinner he admitted he couldn't even taste them. Panagrattato would be good on lots of things like tuna casserole and macaroni and cheese (made from scratch). I put a small piece of steamed salmon on top of the panagrattato. Leftovers for dinner tonight along with roasted asparagus.

We shopped at a new grocery store yesterday: Nuggets. I felt like I was in a Whole Foods store. The place was jammed with customers. The checkout clerk said that they ran out of shopping carts on the first day it opened, which was Feb. 28. They had staff on patrol in the parking lot to retrieve carts the minute they were emptied. Doug enjoyed the store as much as I did only he watched all the young mothers in tight jeans while I checked out the food. We are both good at what we do.

Today I'm going to fertilize the fruit trees, red maples, bulbs and vines. For those of you in the frozen part of this earth, March is a big month for gardeners in California. You fertilize stuff to give it a boost when things start to leaf out and bloom. Our miniature peach tree is already blooming.

Time to get on the treadmill and do my 30 minutes of fast walking. I've been quite religious about this; five times a week for now. I feel better for doing it.

The Joy Of Having A Photographer Visit Us

Doug, owner of the turtle and Miss kate, is a professional photographer. He sends me all kinds of pictures he's taken on our property; for which I'm very grateful. The photo on the left is our upper pond. His talent made our ugly, rickety dock look good, well maybe quaint. Even the parrot feather growing on top of the water looks nice. Don't believe it for a minute. It's nasty stuff. The weeping willow by the pond is just starting to leaf out.

Here are some very ugly drainage pipes; Doug has managed to make them look wonderful.

And here's a picture of Jerome at sunset. Bertie is also there.