Back from San Jose. . .

And yes, we do know the way, for the most part, only getting lost when we couldn't tell the cab driver where to go.

Anyway, besides taking in a movie, eating ourselves silly and just relaxing, we did get away to get our Costa Rican drivers license.

For the first-time applicants in Costa Rica, the only place to do this is at the main Cosevi office in San Jose.

Of course, there are hoops to jump through. . .

Trivia time. . .

In honor of Ma and Pa Eidson's pilgrimage to Cooperstown, N.Y., and the Baseball Hall of Fame, there is a bit of trivia (which two out of three of our loyal readers aren't allowed to guess):

Which is the most popular exhibit at Cooperstown:

A) Babe Ruth
B) Lou Gehrig
C) Hank Aaron
D) Barry Bonds
E) Hideo Nomo

Hitting the highways. . .

While we will be toiling in the bureaucracy of the driving license department in San Jose, Ma and Pa Eidson will be cavorting in Cooperstown, N.Y., the site of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Cooperstown is one of the highlights that I would like to see before I kick the bucket. Since my parents never took me and my brother to Disneyland (sniff, sniff and messages of sympathy will be read, and appreciated, in the comment section).

Nonetheless, Lucy and I will still hope to make it to Cooperstown one day to check out perhaps the greatest museum in the States.

The red tape charge. . .

We're going to be heading out for a couple of days and may or may not update the blog while we're gone.

Our main objective (other than seeing movies--The Avengers is out down here ahead of the U.S. release and it was very, very good!!) is to get our Costa Rican driver's licenses.

In theory, we just show up, get an eye exam, blood test and then present our valid Hawaii licenses and that should be it. However, nothing is ever that simple down here, and what should be a 2-hour process could very easily turn into a half- or full-day outing. If we can find the right people to help us out, it will speed the process. If we don't, we'll return with tales of woe and bureaucracy.

The Avengers. . .

Very cool movie. Any thoughts of going to see it, do it. It was very enjoyable from start to end. Kind of nice that it opened up down here and in other parts of the world before the U.S. release.

All the characters meshed well with each other, good dialogue, action, comedy, etc. One cliff-hanger that I believe won't be answered until the sequel (and with the money this thing has been taking in, there will probably be at least one more) involves a somewhat minor character that hopefully will be brought to light in previews for the next movie or in the sequel itself.

That's all, not going to give away anything, just hoping to see it again tomorrow.

Nature's battle

The other night, while I was walking around to close up the laundry room, I noticed a big bamboocha cockroach scuttling around on the tiles.

The big bamboochas are the ones that eat their little brother/sister cockroaches, so no big deal.

I was just going to scuff it off the deck and into the gutter so the bamboocha wouldn't freak out any guests that may come up, when all of a sudden, a lightning-fast critter shot out and scooped up the bamboocha.

It was a cane toad. The cane toads can get to be about as large as a fist and they are the homeliest critters you'll see (whereas the bamboochas are just plain ugly). The cane toad took a couple of audible chunks out of the bamboocha and then backed off. . . The bamboocha was on its back and flipping its legs around when the cane toad came in for another chomp and finished it off.

This goes in all the time, of course, but it was the first time that I had witnessed the life and death of the pequeno mundo first hand.

Rough day. . .

Yesterday, we had to let an employee go for theft. This was our first experience in doing something like this, and it took a lot of talking, mulling, waffling on everyone's part. However, the majority decision was that if the employee stole from us, it was time to go.

What made it more difficult, was that it was the son of our best and most trusted employee. Needless to say, the father took it hard and we spent a lot of time with him telling him that we didn't blame him or hold it against him. No idea if that was much of a consolation, but probably not.

No one denied the theft, tried to justify it, just admitted it. It was not a fun day at all.