Category Archives: general

Just regular kinds of stuff that happened (that doesn’t fit in other categories).

Snow!!!!

Posted on December 5, 2007 | Leave a comment

I forgot to mention that it was snowing a little on the way home from the airport. It’s nice and white out there today!!

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A Whole Row to Myself!

Posted on December 4, 2007 | 1 comment

I can’t believe how empty this plane is! It’s the plane from Costa Rica to Atlanta. I had an emergency row seat with a little more legroom (but it’s got the funky trays and they seats don’t recline), so I ended up moving and have a whole row to myself. I put up the armrests and stretched out, that’s enough legroom for me!

Now if I only had kept that old pillow that I brought with me and discarded back in Costa Rica…

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Left Behind

Posted on December 4, 2007 | 1 comment

In addition to the few books I brought I left some other things in Costa Rica. I always bring a few things to leave behind. When I’ve got some stuff that I know it’s near time to get rid of it, I’ll take it on vacation and leave it there. This includes books, an old pair of shoes, the jeans I wore to get there, a few old shirts (etc.), a few wash cloths (the hotels don’t always supply them here), a pair of beach shoes, and a pair of sandals if they don’t hold up. The clothes are stuff where when you pull it out of the dryer you can see it’s only god for a few more washes and are starting to fray and you think it won’t last many more washes. I even brought an old pillow that I almost got rid of last time I was cleaning (I’m kinda fussy about my pillows, if I travel by car I always bring one of my own). It lightens the load as the trip goes on :)

As I get close to emptying things out at home I’ll save them for a trip. Toothpaste, shaving creme (not as empty as I’d like so if I have room, I’ll bring it back), shampoo, etc. Why carry down all that stuff full and bring it back 1/4 empty? I just take it 3/4 empty, which is a heck of a lot lighter and leave it when it’s more empty.

I travel heavy, I blame my mother for this, I was an only child and we usually traveled by car so I could bring anything I wanted as long as it kept me entertained (quiet). I think that’s when I probably started bringing my own pillow too (that might be something I got from Grandma).

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The Long Day Home….

Posted on December 3, 2007 | Leave a comment

I’m up early in the morning to catch a 5:30 am cab so I can catch a 7:00 am ferry so I can then drive to the San Jose Airport for my 2:00 pm flight to go to Atlanta and then to Detroit. That’s going to be a really long day…

I’ve never taken the ferry before so that’ll be something new at least, I think it’s about a 75 minute ride. Maybe get some good photos as I’m doing that at least. I think I’ll have some idle time at the airport because of the ways the times work out…

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Tico Times – Costa Rican English Newspaper

Posted on November 29, 2007 | Leave a comment

So a few weeks before I left I subscribed to the TicoTimes. It’s a weekly English nation-wide newspaper about the size of Metro Times or a magazine from the Sunday section of a newspaper that comes out on Fridays in Costa Rica. A month’s subscription included the ability to download the PDF file every week. It’s a little hard to read on the screen, I think I get one more electronic issue, but I’ll probably buy a copy tomorrow.

ticotimesIt was nice to get a feel for what was going on in the country. From a to do list it wasn’t very helpful to me. It comes out on Friday and the calendar generally doesn’t stretch much past the weekend. So I might go somewhere else tomorrow and I should have stayed here for something, but I’ve already made my arrangements. I did find out about some kind of air festival in the northwest but I forgot all about it, I’ll have to check on that…

From a news standpoint I did know the rainy season was dying down early, I know the colon was going to go up in value (their “Greenspan” changed something), that the phone company might go on strike (they didn’t) and a few other things. It’s definitely worth the $8 to get the four issues on-line if you’re considering traveling the country. I recommend this for anywhere, I’ve gone to the bookstore and picked up a newspaper for London, England to get an idea of what’s going on there too (you might have to reserve these in advance).

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Nachos at the Restaurante Tabacon

Posted on November 28, 2007 | Leave a comment

TabaconThese Chicken Nachos are delicious! I’m at the Restaurante Tabacon in Jaco, it’s right across the street from Planet Food (closed for years but still a landmark for giving directions). They come with everything, including sour creme, beans and guacamole (I did not get the latter two). It’s a huge bowl for 3,000 colons ($6), it’s not a appetizer, it’s a meal.

I think I really enjoyed my food lat time here too. They used to be a pizza parlor and I think that was really good too, if I recall back 3-4 years correctly…

Other details:

  • Free WiFi.
  • The cool paper lanterns that I’ve only seen in Montezuma before.
  • Pepsi products
  • Their drinks are never cold enough. I recall this from before.
  • They have Smirnoff Ice in a bottle, it’s hard to fine at home, but very common in Jaco.

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    Posted in Costa Rica 2007, food + drink

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    Beautiful Sunrise

    Posted on November 27, 2007 | Leave a comment

    So while I’m never thrilled to get up at 4 am, it’ll be nice to arrive at my destination in the early afternoon. But the best part is that right now we’re up above the clouds and the sky is all orange in the distance.

    I used to love looking at the clouds when I flew and thought I’d never tire of them. These days of bringing all my stuff on the flight to entertain myself, getting an aisle seat generally outweighs the window option.

    So the clouds all look like now or water out thee, i’d love to skydive through it sometime to just see how it feels, it all looks so solid. It’s such a bright orange and red and pink off in the distance and the lights kinda coming from below it almost looks as if the slow in the distance is on fire.

    Later – It’s mostly up now, but there’s still this burning orange in the distance and the color of the clouds has this icy blue look to it in the light. Out the opposite side of the plane it still looks dark and you can see the cities lit up.

    More later – Now it’s got that normal icy/snowy look to it that I’m used to seeing when I fly at a reasonable hour :)

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    “Someone is at my Table!”

    Posted on November 23, 2007 | Leave a comment

    So I’m at my Einstein’s bagel and someone is at the table a always sit at. It’s the only high-top table in the place and it’s by the window but next to a wall so that I get shade for my laptop. When they asked at the counter “what would you like?”, I said “I’d like my table”. The one person didn’t know what I was talking about, but the other one said “I noticed that when you came in…”

    I guess I’m just a create of habit.

    Update: The guy just left, I’m trying to decide if I’m obsessive compulsive enough to move. “It’s nice and sunny right there”, he thinks as he tries to rationalize it….

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    Posted in food + drink, me + myself + i

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