Happy Holidays!!

December 25
Christmas Day

Stef and I would like to take this time to wish

ALL OF YOU

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS 

AND

A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!

Dinner at the Home of Judy and Roxi

December 24, 2012

This is Judy (R) and Roxi (L)

They are a couple of sisters who packed up everything and  moved to Atenas from the Portland area about 6 months ago. They call themselves the "Sisters in Transition" and have a blog you can see at:

http://costaricasistersintransition.blogspot.com

We affectionately call them "The Girls". We met Judy and Roxi when they rented one of our apartments while they were waiting for their long-term rental to become available. During that time, we also became friends. I can tell you that these girls are full of energy and are the kind of friends you hope to keep forever. Both are now on the Chili Cook-off Committee and have already contributed much. - Please keep up with their adventures on their blog.

Well, they decided to have some of us over for a Christmas Eve Dinner and it was great. Judy made her now famous Chili & Torts and you cannot believe how tasty that is. However, she refuses to give out the recipe as it is a secret based on long-standing tradition. And, she won't even let me take pictures of it :-(

The attendees totaled 12, which was a very good sized group for the occasion. Not too small and not too big. They are:

Don and Judy

 Ken and Deb

Rosemary and Tony

 Donna and Bob

Stef and Yours Truly

The home they rented sits on the side of a mountain above Atenas - Check out some of the views                  

Here you can see all the way past San Jose and into the far mountains along the Caribbean Coast

Stef, Bob & Donna looking a little farther to the south

Now, although Judy wouldn't let me take any pictures of the Chili & Torts, they made a batch of chips & dips -  Man were they good, and I had a hard time stopping from munching - check this out

This is about the best salsa I have ever had - mmmmmmmmmm







We had a great dinner and then did a White Elephant gift exchange - Everything was great!!!

Thanks for Inviting Us Girls!!!!

Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies by Stef

December 23

Stef is a great cook, but never really bakes much. However, she got this bug to bake some cookies for Christmas. My all-time favorite - Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies!!!!

Well, I just let her do her thing and she spent all day on this project that ended up bringing much joy to many watering mouths. Take a look at the results..

That girl baked I don't know how many dozen, and they were great!! This is kind of a hard thing to say, but I will say it anyway - My mother always baked these for me and I loved them. Stef - yours are actually better than what Mom used to make, and that is saying a lot - Thank You!!

Christmas Party at the Balcon Cafe

December 16

Erhard and Melani are good friends of ours. Both of them came here from Germany, and Atenas has been their home for many years. When on a home construction project, Erhard gets me good deals on tile and other materials. Melani has a reputation for being an excellent baker of breads and just about any other baked good you can imagine.  A couple of years ago, she started the Balcon cafe in Atenas Central. Because of the great food and friendly atmosphere, her cafe has become a very popular place for expats to frequent.

 Here she is standing right by the entrance. She always has a big smile on her face, which I have always thought has a lot to do with the friendly atmosphere at the Balcon.






As you know, German people do enjoy partying and celebrating holidays, and Erhard and Mel are no exception to the rule. Because of this, they do have several parties during the year at the Balcon. This year, they held the second annual Christmas Event, and had so many people there, they actually had to turn some away. This isn't going to happen again, because Erhard told me that he will just make much more room for the next time.

As you can see, there were many, many people who wanted to participate.

The Place Was Packed!!

Now, check out the Staff's new Outfits!

And then, we have Santa 

come on Santa - She still Loves You

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

Our First Christmas Party of the Year

December 14 

Our Friend Pablo Arias
The very first person from Atenas that we met upon our arrival on November 30, 2007 was a young man named Pablo. Pablo is an attorney who specializes in real estate transactions and he is very good at it. In fact, Pablo has been our attorney since day one. In addition, the great place we rented when we first moved here belongs to Pablo's sister Adriana, and he took care of all of the arrangements for us prior to our arrival. This is how we met him and he has become a very, very close personal friend. In fact, I have this saying that there are only two Tico's that I know who I trust with my life - Pablo is one of them.

Because of the excellent manner in which he took care of his client's needs, Pablo's business expanded to the point where he needed to take on some partners to help him. A while later, the firm of Arias Viquez and Roman was formed. This relationship is good for them and good for the clients. They decided to host an annual Client Appreciation Event. What better time to do this is during the Holiday Season. This is the second year for this event and it was a big one.

This is Pablo and his very, very, very close friend Valeria - As you can easily see, he has excellent taste and knows how to make a good choice. Valeria is very sharp and getting started in a new clothing business venture of her own. I have never seen her without a smile.









In spite of the fact that I took two cameras, neither one of them took a good picture that night, so I don't have many to show you. However, I can tell you that there were one heck of a lot of people there. Probably more than 200. Our legal eagles made it a first class event with great food and drink, And, plenty of dancing. The people of Costa Rica love to dance and they really know how to do it well. I just love to sit and watch them do the salsa - Boy are they GOOD!!! From the pictures I do have, you can get an idea of what this event is all about. - Enjoy...

Pablo, Thank You for Inviting Us

More Nashville Friends

December 6

You wouldn't believe the number of people who have come down here from Tennessee and the Nashville area. The latest couple that we have the privilege of getting to know is:

Jack & Jodie

They are from the Mt Juliet area just east of Nashville, and are looking forward to retirement in the Atenas area. I got to know Jodie from answering some of her questions via the internet. And, the friend relationship got stronger as time went on. Jack & Jodie are a great couple who have now purchased a beautiful piece of property just outside town where they plan to build their dream retirement home.

You never can tell - maybe one of these days  - we will build a Tennessee expat community near Atenas with only exclusive memberships - :-) - Just Joking

Welcome Jack & Jodie 

Thanksgiving 2012

Thursday - November 22, 2012

A Little Background
There are two special days during the year where Stef and I host a gathering of many wonderful people. They are:

• Thanksgiving - We started this annual event when we moved to Costa Rica to celebrate the visit of our great friends from Tennessee - Bob & Carol. It usually turns out to be a good time for everyone who attends.
• St. Patrick's Day - This is the celebration of the day Stef and I actually met face to face. For years we have had many parties celebrating this day. In fact, we have had as many as 200 people attend the event at our home in Nashville. This event is getting to be a pretty big one here at our home in Costa Rica.

When we built our home here in Atenas, we wanted to make sure that it would be a welcome and pleasant place for our friends to visit. In addition, we wanted to make sure that there was enough room for many people to have a good time. After hosting these events for the past few years, we really feel that we met our objectives.

Thanksgiving 2012 - Our 4th Annual Thanksgiving Celebration

 This event keeps getting bigger and bigger and we love it!! Two years ago, we had about 35 guests - Last year there were over 50, and this year - over 60 wonderful people joined us in celebrating a real US Thanksgiving Dinner with Turkey and all the fixin's.

All the tables and chairs were delivered the afternoon before the event and Pete was up early the next morning to start setting up the tables and then the girls took care of the rest. The red vehicle in the background is Ana Cecilia's Shuttle Service that brought all the people up to the house from the road where they parked their cars - As you can see, there is some planning that goes into having an event like this.

The Big Event began around 2:00 PM and people started arriving right on time. Within an hour, just about everyone was there. Look at the crowd of smiling faces:

Our neighbor Don and Ray with his CRWIFI guys who are instrumental in making sure we always have the internet up and running.

 Ursula chatting with Loek and his lovely friend.

Our neighbors and friends Peter and Nim

Stef chatting with . - Do you think she is plotting against me? :-)

Dona and Mary turning around to show us their pretty smiles.

Roxi  chatting with our friend who just became her new friend - Ron

Our wonderful Attorney Pablo and his close friend Valeria

This is our dear friend Mercedes

Yours truly with the "Sisters in Transition" Judy and Roxi who recently moved to Atenas from Portland, Oregon.

Me and my very Best Friend and Beloved Wife - My Stephanie

Dona and Bob from Ohio who have just finished traveling around Europe, but wanted to come back and enjoy Atenas again.

And, there is more..

And boy, did they bring the food!!! Take a look at this..

We had four 6' long tables set up for the food and they were all full from one end to the other. - You name it and it was there.







                                                                                                               




There were recipes from many parts of the world including some great new dishes from our new neighbors and friends from Italy - Look to your left in the big tray. Mmmmm very good!!

It was unbelievable how much great food everyone brought. This is probably the best food that many of us have ever eaten for Thanksgiving Dinner - Thank you Everyone!!!

And, last but certainly not least - The assortment of many tasty desserts where we had put them on our dining room table to make sure they were protected from many watering tongues.





Now, we cannot forget to mention some of the other people beside me who helped put this event together.
Stef, who worked her butt off on the food section of the agenda and our girl Elieth, who ended up spending a total of 12 hours today in getting things ready and the final clean-up. Camera shy were Liz who worked together with Elieth, Ana Cecilia - who handled the Shuttle Service in her usual efficient manner and Ana CC's brother Gerald who made sure the vehicles were taken care of. - Thanks to all of you!!

The event went on until about 7:00 PM - That night and the days after we got many emails from people to let us know how much they enjoyed the festivities. However, all we did was to supply the tables & chairs and a place to have the event - We want everybody to know that it was them that made this Thanksgiving another successful event

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!!!!

ADVANCE NOTICE - CHILI COOK OFF

Well, for some reason, Stef is now the Chairperson for the 2013 Atenas Chili Cook Off.  And, her and the committees are already working on the plans for this great event. It amazes me that the first one we went to in 2008 had 30 attendees - Now, the 2012 event had a gathering of over 1,000 people and they are expecting more next time. The objective is to double the money given to the children's cause in 2012, which was $5,000. That is big!!!

The date for the 2013 Atenas Charity Chili Cook Off is 

February 10, 2013

Stef  and her gang are really working hard to hit this big objective, but believe it or not, you would be amazed at the amount of support they are already getting. When it comes to supporting a great cause, the good really comes out in people. Some of the things they are looking for are:

NEEDS:

• Volunteers to help on the day of the event
• Local and international contributions (think I'm kidding? They had much of this last year)
• Suppliers who can contribute to help make the event bigger and better than last year - That- is going to be a tough one to beat.
• And, most of all - YOUR ATTENDANCE

M7.6 Earthquake - WOW!

September 5, 2012

This morning Stef and I just sat down to eat breakfast when it sounded like a train coming at the house. We both ran outside and things really started shaking, and there were white caps in the pool with water splashing out onto the stone patio around it. This shaking lasted what seemed like a 1/2 hr, but in reality was about 30 seconds by the time it stopped. I can tell you that it was pretty scary watching your house shake like ours did. Fortunately, this is usually taken into consideration when building a house here in Costa Rica - the footers of our house are 48" deep and reinforced with a lot of re-rod to secure it. When I checked for damage to our house and 3 others in the community that we watch for the owner's who are not full-time residents - none of them suffered any damage.

There are usually about 3,000 quakes a year here, but the majority of them are very weak and you don't even feel them. Since we have been living here, there are only two others that kinda' concerned us. However, today's event was a big one. This quake ended up at 7.6 magnitude - They originally thought it occurred off the coast in the Pacific, but later concluded it was below the land.

Below is the link to the map of where it happened ( the big square is the major quake and the smaller squares reflect the locations of several other smaller quakes). There, you will also find out a lot of information about the "little event" we had today.

 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000cfsd#summary

To all of our friends and relatives:

Stef and I and the animals are all ok - however, think I am going to mix me a nice stiff drink. :-)

Should Have Named Him "LUCKY"

This is Ike. He is a stray cat that came with the property when we were building the guest house. At the time, he was just a half grown kitten. Ike had 7 brothers and sisters that we caught, then took to the vet to get them fixed and found homes for them. For some reason that I can't remember, Ike ended up staying here. He hasn't caused any problems for us in spite of being a little wild. Our dog Abby is always chasing him up a tree. I don't know why the cat just doesn't turn around and swat her across her nose and she would never do that again, but I think that he just likes to get chased by Abby.

This has been a very bad year for this poor cat. Earlier in the year, he was bitten by a snake. Then about 6 weeks after that, bit in the head by another snake where his head swelled to about twice it's normal size. Now, we are not talking about any snake here, we are talking about a Fer de' Lance. One of the most dangerous snakes in the world. If it would have bit Abby or us - we would have died. But, for some strange reason, cats are not affected that way. Our gardener Noel told us "just let him go and do what he needs to do and he will be ok in a couple of weeks" - Noel was absolutely correct.

Well, if the snakes weren't enough, it seems that Ike was recently hit by a truck. Although he lived through it, the inner side of his right rear leg was scrapped down to the muscle. It was not a pretty site. We had to catch him and take him to the vet where he ended up staying for several weeks - at a cost of $20 per day. This was because the only place we had for him at the time was the great outdoors and the vet was highly concerned about infections and the possibility he would lose his leg. We tried taking him home to take care of him and he escaped , but came back the next day. Then one of the apartments came available for awhile so he stayed in the Meow Hilton for about a week. Then he had to go back to stay at the vet's for another week. - He is now finally better and the leg is looking pretty good. The pictures here are both after all this has happened.

They say a cat has 9 lives. Well, it is an obvious observation that this cat has definitely used up 3 of them. Many of my friends say that we should have named him "LUCKY" - That is about as correct as you can get.

Don't look at me like that - I was just joking

He really is a great cat and good friend. And, believe it or not, Stef & I never really cared much for cats before, but things change.