You Lost Her, I Found Her, Now Give Me A Footrub

Last night Toast got "lost" for the first time. In Montague, she has gone adventuring alone, but this time she didn't know how to find us. It's cute and a little stressful for her when Annie and I go different directions. She doesn't know who to follow and generally runs back and forth between us until one of us makes sure she follows. Yesterday she decided to follow Annie, who went into a store to look at and pet a rescued tree sloth. When Annie came out Toast was nowhere to be found. In the past, she has always stuck around. She's learned that she isn't allowed to come in with us, except at the little grocery because the owner is a sucker for dogs. He has a tiny chihuahua named Bruiser that is his baby. I was already home by the time Annie called me to tell me that she couldn't find Toast. So after Annie went out and called her again I retraced my route and found her patiently (and a little anxiously) waiting for someone to collect her at the yoga studio where Annie and I had parted. I was annoyed at Annie for losing her and making me find her, since I figured she was closer to Annie's location, and a little annoyed at Toast for not being smart enough to go home. But I guess she's only two and parents always tell their children to stay put and wait for help instead of running off, so I guess she did the right thing. And as soon as I found her I wasn't mad anymore. But I had to tell myself that Annie would never leave our future human baby and lose her.

Our life here has become so normal that we forget to blog about it. It just doesn't seem like an exciting foreign adventure anymore. We went to the beach about a month ago for a long weekend. That was fun. I sat in the hammock and read three books. I went swimming twice and successfully body surfed for the first time. We saw these really cool teeny tiny snail type creatures buried in the wet sand. When the wave washed over them they would open up their "arms" and collect food I guess. Then when the wave left they curled back up again. We played a few rounds of underwater leg charades - one of the genius ideas of a crazy friend. Basically, you flip upside down in the water and make some sort of shape or motion with your legs, sustained for the few seconds you can do a handstand, and then the other people guess. It's surprisingly fun and humorous. The first photo is the view from my hammock. The second is an iguana in the tree off the veranda. It was nice to be in the heat and sun, since most of the dry season this year has been cold and rainy in Monteverde, requiring beach vacations. It finally warmed up about a week ago and now it's gorgeous, though still chilly at night. The sun can be really intense, even if it is only 70 degrees.

We're starting to plan our end of the school year travels to the Osa Peninsula and our return to dear old Montague, but still trying to be present here. A college friend happened to be vacationing in Costa Rica a few weeks ago and had dinner at my house. That was fun. Emmy Bean is coming to visit in a few weeks and we're going to sing and play and sing and play and then sing and play for other people in a little concert. Teaching violin lessons makes me practice so I have actually improved quite a bit this year. I've been thinking about the house and the garden (even though most of it is still buried in snow I'm sure) and lamenting that we won't get to do many vegetables this year since we return June 16 or 17. But that means I can do some landscaping and flower gardening that I never did in the two years I lived in the house. We won't have any money, so we still can't get those horrible stumps from the horrible cypress trees removed. But I did my federal tax returns today and get a nice big refund, which will pay our half of the mortgage for June. We still have no jobs to return to, so keep your ears open for library work for me and temporary work for Annie, preferably not in an office. She's going to take an EMT certification course in the fall and then hopefully work for an ambulance service, while getting herself in really good shape so she can take the firefighter exam next year.

I made pierogies from scratch a few nights ago. Mmmmmm. And not that hard. Just a little time consuming. But worth it. The complete lack of frozen food in the Monteverde zone has made us cook more, which is good for me. Because usually once we get started, it's fun. We cook together well. It's only not fun when we have to cook alone. And if I'm cooking for just me, I eat scrambled eggs. Easy. Comfortable. Yummy.