Happy Birthday to the Art Department!

Lucy is another year older today, though we're not going to spill the age here. Guesses, of course, are always welcome!

Excuse 1G

This is the view behind our lot (opposite of the ocean shots). The house behind and to the left is probably close to 5,000 square feet and has a pool or two, sauna and jacuzzi. Our property backs up to the dozens of solar panes installed there.

To the left, up the graded hill, is where the first pictures were taken from, and is part of our lot.

We figure that folks will come in and see our house and figure it's the gardener's shack for the mega-mainsion behind. That's fine, less hassle.

In total, it's about 1.25 acres with plenty of land to roam for the pooches and to build.

Construction will probably start in three years, give or take a couple of years, unless we win the lottery.

Excuse 1F

Here's the shot from the main building lot, and you can see the ocean and the islet in the distance. The sunset views (it's the Pacific Ocean) are supposed to be amazing and we're very much looking forward to seeing those in the future.

Excuse 1E

And this is the main building lot. To the left is the ocean view. Higher up and to the right (not pictured) is where the first pictures were taken from.

Excuse 1D

Here is the main building lot coming up to our property, and the driveway. The earlier pictures were taken from the right of this picture, about 20 feet higher, where there is also a buildable plot.

Excuse 1C. . .

Here's a shot from our land after the clouds have burned off, around 10 a.m. That is the islet of Puntarenas in the background and the Nicoya Peninsula in front of it.

Excuse 1B

In additon to becoming permanent residents, we also closed on a piece of property.

This is one of the access points to the land, up in a cloud forest area. When the weather is right (later in the mornings) you can see the ocean about 30 miles away.

Excuse 1 A

While we were waiting in line for our 10 a.m. appointment (we didn't even get in the door until around 11) a Costa Rican brought some clients up to the front of the line, just behind us, as she explained they were late for their appointment. Not a problem, they were behind us and it wasn't that warm yet.

However, a fellow at the back of the queue wasn't thrilled with that, and tattled to the guard at the front and the folks were asked to move from behind us to their original spot.

When they opened the door for the next wave, everyone made it through, and the line-cutters were called before us.

Excuse 1. . .

There are plenty of pictures on the Web for a Costa Rican cedula card (though why anyone would put them up on the net is beyond me). It's kind of like a social security card/national medical insurance card, etc., all rolled into one.

Last week, after 5-plus years in Costa Rica, we became permanent residents, equivelant to a green card in the U.S. This followed 2.5 years of being a rentista (temporary resident) which required us to exchange a good chunk of dollars into colones monthly and another 18 months before that to become rentista.

When all was said and done, it was around 4 years of waiting for the bureaucracy to wend its way through to approve us.

We had our final appointment last week and spent about 5 hours waiting in line and 10 minutes posing for pictures and signing our new cards; all in San Jose, about 3 hours away.

Long, tedious process but we're done with it now, thankfully, and no more hoops to jump through.

More excuses, though

Not all bad or lame. Nine years ago on October 1, the lovely and wonderful Lucy Aviles opted to become Lucy Eidson.

In addition to our anniversary, we have been busy with some other things, and we'll bring you up to date on those starting next week.

We realized that in the nine years we've been married, we've lived in Costa Rica for 5-plus of those years, longer than we were hitched in the States.