CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'RE A WINNER!!!!!!

Thanks to the miracle of blog technology, we can tell who is the first to click on a given day.

Get ready for a pooch parcel!

That means, one of our lucky three readers (from Japan, to Waianae, Kalhihi, Idaho and onto Wisconsin) get the first dibs on the little critter here.

The art department was coming back two days ago from a run to Fortuna, when this little critter (she who-shall-not-be-named) was playing Frogger in the middle of the road.

The art department scooped her out of the road, and no one, naturally, claimed her.

She's about 6 weeks old and weighed in at a whopping 1.2 kilograms (according to the vet), which is just a burp shy of 3 pounds.

Saturday Special!

Happy Birthday to Pa Eidson!

Another year older, wiser and definitely prettier!

Modesty prevents us (as well as physical threats) from revealing his age.

The art and editorial department is accepting donations in Costa Rica for gifts and of course, they will get up to Wisconsin!

Staff focus. . .

Here is Seidy, Elvira and Miguel, three very integral parts of the hotel. Any one of them can do re-wiring or plumbing when the need arises, which makes them invaluable here at the hotel.

Group pic. . .

And here's the whole group again. We are very blessed with a fantastic group of folks that we get to work with here.

This picture came close to making the cut on the Web site, but not quite, though we like it here.

Juan Carlos

This is THE MAN, when it comes to exploring the Fortuna/Arenal area.

Juan Carlos grew up in the shadow of the Arenal Volcano and knows the area like no other.

We are lucky in that he found us and he only works with the guests here at the hotel.

Juan knows all about the plants (and their medicinal value) and it is really, actually, good stuff. We have had guests that have had welts all over their bodies from bug bites, and he can pull out some leaves and roots and the bumps have dwindled down in a matter of hours.

Even Mom and Pop Eidson have gone with him and enjoyed the hikes, lest folks think we are shilling shamelessly.

No pic. . .

As the editorial department would not have had the presence of mind to take the picture (and the art department was tucked away for the evening).

Rolando clanged the bell outside of our house three nights ago in a frenzy.

He wanted to show us a tercipello (fleur-de-lance) that he had whacked while walking his rounds on the back trail at night.

It was only about 3 feet long, but it was a chunky bugger. The fleur-de-lance are in the viper family and very venomous, which is why Rolando will go out of his way to get rid of them.

That would be No. 7 in five years for Rolando that he has whacked.

So, for all of the folks hesitating (we know you're out there--Honolulu, Janesville) it doesn't happen very often, so get on down here!

Good and bad. . .

Part of the, ahem, glamour, is walking the Back 40 to make sure that the neighbor's fence line is secure.

This is photo evidence that shows that it is.

Along the way to get to the fence line (about 25 minutes of hard trekking) is through some pretty dense rain forest, where there are all kinds of critters (slithery and warm-blooded).

Have only seen a few of the slithery buggers back there and just tracks of the larger critters, so life is good.

It is very rugged, though incredibly peaceful, for the most part.

That time of year. . .

When we are not completely booked, and that means. . . more work for everyone.

In September and October, we close down one tree house for a week and sand/strip/varnish the bugger for the upcoming year.

September and October are the only two months when we are not completely full, hence this is when we do the hard work.

We got a chuckle out of an online newspaper two days ago that said this is the time to come to Costa Rica and bargain for a great price on a hotel room, as most places are laying folks off.

That is true for a lot of hotels in the country (especially this region), though not so for us.

Here, we are having folks work more hours to refurbish the tree houses, and we're still at 60 percent occupancy (fully booked from early November through the first part of September) and we are running around like crazy. It's the time of year when we recharge the fire extinguishers, polish up the grounds and get everything ready for the soon-to-come influx of folks coming to visit us.

Double take

Just in case you all thought the art department was slacking. . . well, that's still the case. .  .this is from one of the owners who caught this snap a few years back. Yes, we are going through the archives.

Staff picture time. . .

Yep, it's that time of year when we all get together (with serious grumping and groaning) to update pictures on the Web site.

Here's a shot of everyone that works at Tree Houses. This, of course, will be followed by more pictures as the art department wanted to make sure there were plenty to choose from.

Judging on the various facial expressions in the other pictures, that was an excellent call.

Moon River. . .

Of course, is one of the songs that Mercer wrote; made famous by Andy Williams and others. Mercer did write the song about a river (it would be more like a slough where the editorial department grew up) though it was not called the Moon River. (Apologies, we can't remember the original name of the river).

For some reason, the name of the song was already copyrighted, so Mercer changed it to Moon River ("Wider than a mile," etc.).

That river is still near Savannah, though it was only changed to Moon River after Mercer's death, to honor the lyricist.

Lest you think. . .

That we were ghouls on our trip to Savannah and visiting Johnny Mercer's plot, this is what Wikipedia has to say about the famed scribe:

He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others. From the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s, many of the songs Mercer wrote and performed were among the most popular hits of the time. He wrote the lyrics to more than fifteen hundred songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows. He received nineteen Academy Award nominations, and won four.

Still on vacation mode. . .

While in Savannah, we went to the Bonaventure Cemetery which is really pretty cool for a cemetery. Got to see Johnny Mercer and his family's plot (if you don't know who Johnny Mercer is, then you're really young -- even younger than the art and editorial department -- and haven't watched too many old movies.

Mercer did a lot of great, old songs that you probably don't even realize until you hear them. His family is still in Savannah and there is still plenty of room in the Mercer family plot for more.

Soccer fever--please let it end. . .

Ever since the U.S. beat Costa Rica in March in a CONCACAF match for the world cup in a snow-filled stadium in Colorado, the entire country of Costa Rica has been waiting for a rematch. The prevailing thought was that the U.S. cooked up the snowstorm that resulted in a 1-0 win for the U.S.

The rematch was last weekend and pretty much everything came to a standstill in the country. Schools let out a bit early (the pre-game analysis started about 8 hours before the match) and according to news reports, downtown San Jose near the stadium was completely closed off with 500 additional police officers around.

Costa Rica got its revenge, cruising to a 3-1 victory.

The three loyal readers of the blog do know that the editorial department considers soccer a poor substitute to American football, and all of the fields down here would be better put to use for baseball or grazing.

Back. . .

From a trip and took a while to get back into the groove. We were in Savannah, Ga., which is a fantastic place.

Lot of history there, though it was really put on the map by the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" which was a movie with Kevin Spacey and John Cusack. The book was better than the movie.

The house that we stayed in for the week is actually across the street from one of the most "haunted" houses in all of Georgia (and Savannah bills itself as a haunted city).

Savannah is also the hometown of Johnny Mercer, and we got to check out some of his old haunts, as well.