Yo tengo el gripe! Estoy muy infermo hoy.

I have the grip, I am very sick today. In Costa Rica, no matter what kind of sickness you have they call it El Gripe. Well, I am finding out today, it ain’t fun! Not sure what did it to me… the water, the guacamole, the pork chops, or the Arroz con Pollo, but last night I woke up all out of it and disoriented… threw on a movie to try to settle down, at first I thought it was nerves or something, as today we are moving from the house on the hill to the beach, but the movie didn’t help at all… neither did the reading session in the ol’library, but the puking for 15 minutes started to settle things down. Not the worst food poisoning that I have had, but it put in a good show for it… on a somewhat whimsical side note, the night I knew Sarah loved me was the last time I had food poisoning. It was about the most disgusting 14 hours of my life, so bad it disgusted me, and Sarah hung in with me the entire time. Anyways, so it is one o’clock today, and I have been moving crap for the last 2 hours and I haven’t been able to eat since dinner last night.. and I don’t think that is helping out much.

About the new house, they just painted it for us and cleaned it all up. Still on the junky side, but its big, and it’s a 5 minute walk to the beach, and a 10 minute walk to the office. Tonight we get to fight over bedrooms, one has a whirlpool tub and the other a shower… I think the pregnant woman should get the tub, but I have a feeling the 11/20’s will battle it out for it.

Surf was very fun in the morning yesterday as I did my own sort of tri-athelon. Andrew didn’t want to go surfing, he hurt his rib. (I don’t quite understand how he injures himself so much. He sees doctors as much as my grandparents) So, I had to run the 1.5k down the mountain, walk the .6k on the rocky road barefoot, and then surf for 2 hours. I think I may have gotten el gripe from the water at the office in-between the run and walk.

BELLY PICTURES!!!!!!!
23 weeks

Ok, so since the pictures of the dogs working, I have received two emails in regards to our safety. Thank you guys for your concern, but I feel that I have not properly represented the pups that we have. We do not have “attack” dogs, or “guard” dogs as you think of them. They in no way resemble Rotties, or Pit Bulls, or Dobermen.

What we have are top of the line working service dogs. Our pups have family members in the US Army, many police departments, and the US and Costa Rican FBI. Once trained, they will legally be allowed to go with us anywhere, malls, even on planes. With proper training they are capable of drug and bomb detection, clearing houses (where you let your dog in first and they check every room and closet for waiting intruders), extraction (attacking one specific man in a large crowd), guarding objects or children, protecting perimeters and of course attacking on command. They have an intense loyalty to their family.

Thor is 9 weeks old and already 3 times smarter than Mackie. We are already doing stay commands, and he walks on lead better than Sandy.

What I am getting at is that we don’t have violent pups. We have extremely smart and agile dogs that we will train to protect our family and stuff. So, just don’t come over unannounced and act strange… it would be a bad decision.

Sorry about the delay folks, we have been real busy with work... no joke.

Here is a quick rundown of the past few days and then an editorial to calm some folks fears.

Sarah's belly is starting to get real BIG!!! I wanted to take pics last night, but the camera was dead again... Her moods are starting to swing more, this is most noticable with the pups and animals as she will start crying if I correct Thor loudly, or if we see any animals that are hurt or roadkill. That momma instinct is starting to show.

Andrews car is off the mountain. Brandon took us up on Sunday night and actually had to yank Adu's car out of the rut it was in. Pretty gnarly. The piece of land that the car was on is beautiful, but I wouldn't live there until a better road is in. It is like a 25-30 degree angle... seriously.

Magnus decided to go an jump off our balcony! It is a 12 foot fall easily, and the kid is fine, they are made of rubber or something. Mackie fell from Sarah's arms and almost died. On a Mackie note, he is actually starting to come when called now. He gets two chances to come inside, and if he doesn't, he stays outside. Watch out for the pizotes mackie...



Monkeys have been all over our trees lately, hooting and howling. We have two bats that start feeding about 15 minutes before it is completely dark, it is super cool as the sky is still light and you just see these bats circling our back yard, sometimes they come into our deck space.

Surf has been big this week, but we have been so busy we have only been surfing once a day. I am going to refocus when we move down the mountain...

Check this out for funny coincidences... When we were in Stinky Kinard (if you don't know axe somebody) we played with a band Skif Dank a few times. Adu and I got to be friends with their horn player Zach. Didn't see him for a few years, then he resurfaced in St. Aug working in a bar downtown, then 8 months later he helped out Coastal Web with some photography, now we live in Costa Rica, and it turns out he is good friends with Brandon, and is coming down next week! Ha... Where will we run into him next???

Just your average old night in Nosara on the Mountain... wife and kids playing.


Photo: Saxton.

Well, it seems that the rainy season came to a quick start in the past three days. It ain't gonna be pretty! San Jose went well, and it is quite nice to have good food at the house and be able to eat in and save some money.

Tonight Brandon's family is having a little party at the house next to ours. They own both. It is going to be Lasagna... sweet!

So, a funny story about Andrew's car... Andrew and our buddy Nick were going out to look at this sick piece of property in the mountains. There are two ways to get there and they decided to go through the river... not a big deal most of the time but it has been raining alot this week. So, they start out and get in just a bit, and it turns out that the river bed was nasty mud, and the whole hood of the car submerged. Andrew said that he did some good driving and got it out somewhat, and then the car started to overheat and they had to leave it half way in. They called Pena, the local mechanic and he came and towed them out. So off to the long way to get to Finca Barba. Finca Barba is a beautiful property but the road to get to the lots is super steep. It was dangerously narrow, but after our mutual feeling of such, Brandon had the road widened. So Adu and Nick get to the property and start the climb, now it has been raining, and about 3/4 of the way up, the tires caked up and the tires started spinning with no forward motion... at this point Nick jumps out of the car Adu puts on the e-brake and the car starts sliding backwards. Mind you, there is a 200 drop off the right side of the road. Thank goodness for Adu's mad driving skills as he was able to pull a controlled drift into the mountain to stop the downward decent. The car is still up there two days later as we have to wait for a dry day or two to let the road improve to get it down... an adventure a day keeps the boredom away...

So about our car... the mechanic who said it was going to be 1200 came down drastically to 500 when I said I was going somewhere else. He then told me I need to give him 400 up front, and I didn't cal him for another 3 days, he called back and I told him 200 now, 300 when its done with a month guarantee, done. He actually took the bus from Nicoya to pick up the money, and is delivering the car on Tuesday. It means that he has faith in his work if he will drive the car from Nicoya!

House... we move into our new place in the next week... it will be somewhat bitter-sweet, as I don't think I will be able to afford that view for some time. But we enjoyed our time, and will surely play some quitiar and drinks some beers during sunset the next few nights... weather permitting.

Real Estate is going well. I think that soon we will be making money.
Coastal Web is also good, as we have closed another deal this week, now customers just need to payup!!! It's hard to break knees from Costa Rica.

A cultural note to end the day. For the last few weeks, locals are increasing whistling when I walk by and say hi... I figure it is just their way of a 'what-up.
well, it is, but it goes back a long way. Hundreds of years ago, Costa Rican Indians would use whistles to communicate from mountain to mountain... they all had unique sounds. So, today all the locals have unique sounds... in the water you can tell who's out by hearing them whistle.

Pura Vida...

Gonna be a looker...




Amy????

Well folks, here is a recap of the reason for the trip. Not sure if you remember, but Sarah is pregnant! And we came to San Jose to see a doctor. Doctor Paer Singer. A super nice guy, and the type of doctor you would want to work with. His facility is state of the art! Better than what we were going to in St. Augustine. He has the latest 4d ultrasound imagery. I am going to post some pics, which you have probably already seen. So anyways, we have been in this debate on if we should find out the sex. At the beginning, I really wanted to know, and Sarah was 100% against it. But lately, she has started to wonder, and I have put it out of my mind. So, today, she decided that if it was “very evident” that we would find out the sex. And guess what??? It was…

So, it turns out that the world and the little girls in it are safe from little E for at least a little longer. It’s gonna be a little S!!!!! Boys watch your hearts… I know big S has broken a few…

Amy, check out the pics one of them looks just like you! Pretty funny.

Hello folks. Here are a few things that I have noticed in the past few days. I haven’t been bored since we moved. And for you guys who know me the best, that is a pretty big statement! I don’t have allergies anymore… huge. Not a sniffle, and I play with the dogs constantly. The air is better here. My stomach is never upset. I really get along with the diet here, or something… maybe it is the lack of chemicals, but I love it!!!

Monday night and Tuesday morning we finally had some good surf again. Brandon and I are in a little air contest of sorts. He surfs a bit better than I do, but neither of us boost real well. So we are pushing each other to launch at all sections. Brandon has been throwing sick backside boosts, but can’t get the handle on his board, and I have been trying to learn frontside grab airs. I am actually holding the grab through the flight. On a last surfing note, I am consistently pulling frontside floater to 360’s. It’s coming!!! Give me another few months… Sick.

We are currently in San Jose and are doing all sorts of shopping. Fun… But we got to go the Carne Especiales de Don Fernanado and check this out… Don’t get too jealous Dad, Bob and Bubba. A whole beef tenderloin cut into 12 ½ pound steaks, 2 pounds of sirloin, 4 pounds of ground sirloin, 6 pork chops, four spicy sausages, and 12 chicken breasts, all of them vacuum sealed for a whooping $70 dollars!!!!! The beef tenderloin would have been more at Publix. Peanut will eat well from here on out. We also dropped 150 bucks at PriceSmart, just like Sam’s club. And it will be very nice to eating some good food again.

On a pups note, Magnus, Adu’s pup jumped off the second story balcony today!!! Into some bushes, and is fine. Those guys have no fear. Since we are in San Jose, Adu was working with Thor, and I guess Magnus got jealous.

I am posting a pic of a traffic jam that we encountered on our way here. Pretty funny.

We ate sushi last night. Wow, that was a nice change from rice and beans.

Check out the photos below!!!!! Today was our first dog training class, even though our pups didn't attend. I can't wait to start working with them! Here is how it goes down...

Terry teaches the class. He did it in the states for a while and knows what he is doing. About ten dogs attend, including Brandon, Harlan (Brandon's dad), and Chiqui's dogs. They set up drills to train the dogs and expose them to possilbe real life scenarios. The start out with an agitation where Piha, a local tico, gets in a bite suit and walks up to the dogs and acts mean. The dogs get all pumped up (they absolutely love it) and start barking at him. Then one dog at a time attacks on lead. This is the really crazy part, the dogs don't attack until told and stop when give the "out" command. Each dog has his shot, kind of as a warm up. Then the fun starts. Piha, in the suit, gets about 50 yards away. The dogs are let off lead and the command "easy" is given. Then the handler yells "take him!" and the dogs sprints and fully works the attacker. Then is given the "out" command and it runs back to the handler.

The next drill was even cooler. Look at the pictures of the fire below... The attacker is on one side of the fire and the dog/handler are on the other The dog is deployed through the fire to attack and then recalled back.

Situation 3 featured attacking over a 6 foot wall, and situation 4 double attackers. This one was awesome. The handler walks the dog and a guy in a bite suit jumps out of the woods at him. The dog is deployed and the handler jogs away. Then another attacker jumps the handler and the command "man" is given. The dog releases the first and attacks the second. The handler runs away and gets attacked again by the other guy and the dog is always protecting the owner! This was sick to watch, I can't wait to be the handler, or the attacker.

The dark dog in the pictures is Bear and is the half-brother of our pups. He was hands down the best dog there. Not the biggest or meanest, but so quick and smart. still nasty in the fight!

Enough about dogs... Last night we made zingers!!! A little different with no Texas Pete's, but still kicking! Beers with bros from St. Augustine. It has been good hanging with Dustin and Joey. Too bad that the waves weren't better for them, worst week since we've lived here.

Sarah is doing well. I am getting used the the rollercoaster of pregnancy. Peanut is kicking the junk out of her on a daily basis. We are pumped about moving down the mountain, to save the drive.

Hasta...

Earthquakes, Party's, getting ripped off and Homies from the states...

Yesterday shaped up to a pretty intersting and fun day. Started off with a trip to the "secret spot" where Adu and I caught sick overhead waves for a few hours. The back is getting in ridiculous shape, as I paddle as much as I walk.

On a work front, Chiqui took us to walk a 50 Acre Finca 15 minutes outside of town. A new listing that he just got that will sell quick. It is up a mountain with ocean, mountain, river and valley views. Asking price a cool mil. Cut it up in 50 pieces, or do a condo project, or whatever... it will pay many times over. If anyone knows anyone that has a mil and wants to double/triple/quadrouple it send'em my way. It would be a fun project.

Some bad news before good... how does an estimate for a car repair quadrouple??? Because they find out that you are a gringo! Our car motor problems were supposed to be 300 bucks, well, they found out about our light skin (racism of sorts) and the estimate mysteriously went up 900 dollars. So, guess what buddy, you're not getting the work. In a latin american 3rd world country, it is pretty important to know who your working with... and it seems that all of Chip's folks pretty much operate like him, and Brandon's are much more honest. It is way better in this office.

Dustin and Jo the Fro showed up in Nosara yesterday as our first visitors! We caught some waves and had folks over for dinner... 16 of them. Didn't expect it to be so many folks, but since there is really nothing to do here, if anyone gets word of something going on, it will grow quickly.

So, we get home from surfing, and showering off while some ticas and Sarah are cooking and the house starts rattling and shaking... Sounded like a train was about to hit us! Turned out, it was just an earthaquke... still pretty cool!

Surfed the boys from St. Auggie this morning and then walked another lot... some more office time. Play with the pups and more surfing.

Doing Zingers tonight!!! Dixon, Harrison, Herchel, Gautille, come on down, and I will break out the fryer... that's your bonus for coming down to Costa!

Written 8/16 en la noche…

Well, since my last post I have done little by walk and clean up pee… Not joking. We returned the rental car that we had for the past week because Andrew was supposed to come back from San Jose with his new car yesterday, but as things happen here, didn’t get back until today. So, yesterday Sarah and I had to walk up the mountain home. It is only a bit over a mile, but it is also probably 700 feet of vertical. Also, to do the surf report everyday it is a 1km walk each way to the beach so that is a mile a day, then if I go surf on lunch break it ends up being another mile then all the paddling, and I am withering away to nothing. Surf should be good tomorrow so going to try to get back to the secret spot…

Now on to the important stuff. The pups are doing great! They pee inside only about 25% of the time, which at over 50 pees per day accounts for at least 15 pees inside. But, they don’t poop inside. They also always pee when you take them out. So the trick is, knowing when to take them. Last night was nice as they didn’t need to pee until 4AM. Problem was that Sarah and I both were so worried that they would need to pee that we kept waking up every half hour to check… Tonight Andrew gets them.

Speaking of walking.. the breeder Terry lives down the mountain from us, not all the way to town, and called Sarah this morning to tell her that the pups shots were ready and to bring them down. Well, seeing that we don’t have a car and its only a half mile, she decided to hoof it. The pups hated the leashes and Sarah ended up carrying them down and back up the mountain in her hand bag. I would have paid to see it!

We really need to go grocery shopping, which we will do in San Jose next week. Tonight for dinner I had an avacado and cream cheese sandwich and some fried hotdogs and a can of veggies.

Tomorrow night we are having a party of sorts. Our friend Bernice, who is Honduran, wants to cook us dinner, so tomorrow everyone is coming up the mountain and she is cooking burritos and guacamole. Our friend Dustin from St. Augustine is in Costa Rica and says that he is coming to Nosara tomorrow. So it could be really fun!

Fishheads, Chiqui, who works with me at Wanderlust Realty is an ex-charter fisherman here and said that he is going to take me out soon!!! That is going to be a blast… even when Sarah catches the biggest fish.

Hasta Manana. Team Antonson.

Well, the first in a series of additions to our family arrived yesterday. I thought what we were paying for was the ferocity and ability to debilitate intruders. And what we ended up getting were the two cuddliest bunches of fur ever... Until they hear a noise outside, and then these two little soldiers come out and start barking and growling. Andrews' pup is named Magnus, and our's is Thorbjorn, shortened to Thor. Thor is already standing up to Sandy, pushing back when she gets mean. Magnus' ears are already up, so he looks like a mini old guy. It is amazing what these dogs will be capable of shortly. It took Sandy and Mac a few weeks to learn to navigate stairs, but on their first try yesterday the new pups bounded down concrete steps barking and growling. They are already fighting for alpha male, each winning about half the time. I can't wait to start the real training with them in a month.

Otherwise, things are good. We are really starting to settle into this life, and it is pretty good. It is amazing what you get hooked on back home that after a few weeks away, you realize you don't need. Everybody has soooo much stuff, junk, in the states. I think that what it is, is that back home life centers around work, and then you have very little free time, so folks get caught up in buying stuff to reward themselves for working hard. Here, there is so much to do, that you really only think about buying something if it is needed. Also, it is just a pain to get to the store to buy it. I digress...

Surfing Nosara got is first hate mail today... ha, someone complaining about the surfer in the old homepage photo. It means folks are reading it...

With everything else going on, I forgot to mention that I had a sick adventure in the afternoon yesterday. I got taken to my first "secret spot" about 20 minutes away. There is a local crew of about 10 surfers who know the area, the rest are old folks, young ticos and tourists. Well, I am moving towards the local crew as I was invited to check out this spot which I can't name with a couple good friends. It is about a 20 minute drive, then a mile walk around to this point then a 3/4 mile paddle out to the reef in the middle of the ocean. You are sitting in crystal blue water with a rock reef 10 feet below, 190 degrees of mountains and cliffs around with perfect lefts and rights breaking and 2 other people in the water!!!! I wasn't sure if I had gotten into a car wreck or something and that was my heaven. The only bad part is that I cut my leg on the walk out on some rocks and was bleeding the whole time. I missed alot of waves because I was so taken by the scenery, that I kept looking at it instead of watching for sets. Still had a few good ones, and got a little barrel on my wave in.. funniest part of the whole thing is that Andrew was in San Jose, and missed it.. ha. I will definitely be back!

Late, E.

Written Saturday Aug. 12th…

A dangerous game… So with all of the drama from the last week, which included quitting a job and getting a better one, we felt the need to unwind yesterday afternoon. Waves were pretty fun, so Adu and I surfed for our lunch break and then had a meeting with at our new office to go over some stuff. Parents, don’t be worried, this will be a better opportunity, with better growth options. Our buddy Nick wanted to come up to the house and have a few beers during sunset, so we picked him up and headed to the house. Then someone had the horrible idea of playing frizbeer, which you really can’t refuse. Problem was, no Frisbee or broomsticks. Who is that gonna stop? The problem was solved by using my dinner plate (we all bought color coordinated plate and bowl, so you don’t have to do anyone else’s dishes.. working out well) in place of the Frisbee and decided that machete’s would make good broomsticks. We didn’t have a table so beers were on the ground. The plate flew surprisingly well. On our Sarah and my first turn to drink (water in Sarah’s case) I ran up and used my skill to down the half cup of Dos Equis to find that there was a big grasshopper in it, whom I guess didn’t like getting drunk and kicked my tongue. We only played one game, then watched the sunset. If you only come down for one reason, it may be for the sunsets… I can’t really explain them, but they sure aren’t like back home.

This week we will be getting the car! Turns out the motor was also blown and is being rebuilt… the mechanic priced this into the estimate, I just didn’t find out about it until Thursday. 275 bucks to rebuild a motor here! Including towing the car to Nicoya the entire expense will be under 2k.

We found the house we will be moving into, and I am happy with it… I will miss the view, but we will now be a 2 minute walk to the beach, and 2 minute drive to the office. The new house also has bars and an alarm which are both good things. On the security front, our new pups should be coming home in the next week. That will be fun! It is going to be interesting raising dogs that you don’t socialize with your friends. But, they aren’t pets, they’re working dogs. And it will make me feel very safe to have our new bud protecting Sarah if I am out.

On a business note, Surfingnosara.com had over 65,000 hits this week, and produced a few property leads. It is nice to see an idea start to work. Each day our popularity is growing, and I haven’t started the mailing list yet.

Oh, and family… Come on down! We are having a blast here, and you all would love it! For momma there is endless beaches to walk and read on, for Amy there’s monkeys and other weird animals, for bub and Bob there’s ridiculous fishing and the British Pub, for Dad you can still ride dirt bikes and quads safely, and for Momma hummer there is your pregnant daughter’s belly to play with… Late, E.

I read my blog the other night, and realized that I have been forgetting to mention something important... I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!! The longer we are here, and the more we get settled in, the more I just love calling Costa Rica home. You get to wake up at 5AM to sick surf, drive on bumpy roads with cars, quads, dirtbikes, or anything else you want to drive, eat amazing food and hang out with super cool folks. Plus, I am starting to see the potential to make some money here too... it is so early in the development process in Nosara, that you can still start almost any business with no competition.

On a not so great note.. Brandon already has someone interested in our house, is only half bad. As it is better to move now, in the low season then get kicked out in the high season and pay 4k bucks a month rent. It looks like he has found a place for us in the other exclusive part of town, and from the new house we will be able to walk to the beach! So more water time!!! Rent will go up 2 hondo a month, but that is no biggie.

Oh, the rain just came again, been dry for 4 days now, which is extremely rare for this time of year. But it is pouring outside now.

On the car front, the car is done minus the motor... so now I have to wire money to the one mechanic so he can release the car to the other mechanic who will finish her up. Do they try to make everything as difficult as possible??? Get some credit card machines will you???

late. E.

Pics seem to be posting in wierd places, so from now on I will just write a brief description of what they are... These are of our trip to a little beach named San Juanillo about 20 minutes up the road and across 4 rivers. Sweet little place...

The view from the deck!



Another shot of the view...



The house...



Guitar Session...

Written Sunday Night...

The club I am not a part of…

Being pregnant is not really like anything else that I have experienced. Not that I am pregnant, but “we” are pregnant. I haven’t quite figured out where the we comes in yet. So far it is more like Sarah has a new best friend, who happens to be imaginary. We used to take naps, and now they take naps… sometimes they let me join. Sarah has this new calling that has so much purpose, and she is enjoying it so much, I just wish I was in the club. I told her yesterday that when the baby comes out, that I am going to start some secret clubs, like the early morning surfing club, or the baseball club… and she will be really jealous :)

The other part about this whole pregnancy/kid thing is the patience thing. (I am sure that everyone out there knows about my patience…) Here is the best analogy to explain the situation through my eyes. Its like you’ve got this extremely great Christmas present, that you are so excited about, but Christmas is 6 months away. And there is nothing you can do to expedite the process. Then, you wake up every morning, and someone says, I have the best Christmas present ever for you, only 5 months and a week away.

On a happy note, peanut is kicking Sarah all over the place! He will be a very strong kid!

Adventures, Adventures, Adventures…

Seems like everything here turns into an adventure. Take our last few days for example… Andrew’s car has been acting up, and Mario the Car Dealer/Lawyer combo that he bought it from, was supposed to pick it up last Wednesday for repairs. Well, surprise, surprise, he didn’t show. So last night we went to Blew Dogs for dinner and then to the Red Lion for beers and the car was acting weird… Well, we go to leave the Red Lion and surprise, surprise, the car doesn’t start. We try a bunch of stuff, including pop-starting it, but found out that diesels don’t like that much. So, we are stranding at a bar at 10:30 a ten minute drive away from the house. No biggie, we got a cab, took him 1 hour to get there (and since we now had no ride to surf in the morning, decided it was a great opportunity to partake in the old forgotten hobby of drinking beer). Got to our house (well down the street from, you don’t tell anyone where you live for safety reasons, just smart) and the driver doubles the fair. Andrew broke out some Spanish persuasion that didn’t work due to the expletives and we walked home. So today we were stuck at the house till 1, then had to rent a car. Anyways…

The day did get fun as we went to San Juanillo, about 25 minutes up the road, which has one of the most beautiful beaches around. Went spearfishing, but due to the 10 plus foot bouys the water was super murky. Still a good call as we surf everyday, and Sarah loved hanging out on the beach. Also got some pics of crossing the rivers which Sarah finds extremely scary, which is cute. Well, I am off to eat some pasta and grilled chicken for dinner, we rented Syriana (yep, there is a guy who rents movies out of his house) and early to bed as the surf will be epic in the morning.. go figure. Late. E.

On the very, very pathetic front, Sarah and I both forgot our Anniversary...

Thanks mom for sending Sarah that email and reminding us. What we have decided is that since we now live in Costa Rica and that nothing happens on time, we are still on schedule. Just do it 2 weeks later.

Family, sorry it has been so hard to get in touch with us for this past week. It is taking longer than we expected to get everything setup. We finally have cell phones, but no international calling yet. When you hook up a new cell, it has an international lock, this lock can only be taken off by the San Jose branch, and so we are waiting for them to do it. We will still probably need to call everyone and have you guys skype us back, as it is .30 a minute. Oh, and we live in the mountains, so the service is splochy at best. For our house phone, in costa a renter can not have a phone in their name, only the owner, so we are waiting for Brandon to get it turned on, then we will probably have to go through the same international hurdles.

On the car front, real good news. The car needs all of the following… new suspension (including everything), new breaks, muffler, rear tires, the car is overheating because there is a problem with the radiator, so that needs to be replaced, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I don’t remember. Now for the good news, stuff down here is real cheap, and for the whole shebang the estimate is 1200. So for 200 for the car, 140 to tow it to Nicoya, and 1200 for the repairs we will have a decent car for 1540. You can’t buy a quad for less than 2k. So if all works out, we made a good decision. Just hope we get it soon. It is getting hard sharing a car three ways, Andrew has been cool about it. And for Adu’s 12k dollar car, it is already starting to fall apart. Belts are squeaking, high beams don’t work, already had problems with the battery leads and electrical fixed. So, after all, I was right that cars here are junk, and it would have been better to bring a car from the states. But, I think that after we get our car fixed, it will be a solid car for Nosara. Because the roads are so bad here that any car will fall apart. May as well be a 1500 car. I actually think that a quad is the way to go. That may be my daily driver here after the rainy season. They don’t fall apart, don’t cost anything for gas, actually drive better on the dirt roads and aren’t too expensive.

On the surf side of the world, the waves have been epic lately! Last three days have been bigger and better than anything that I have ever seen in Florida. Somebody pinch me. Don't worry, I am still working, a lot actually, but we get up every morning at 5, in the water by 5:45, surf till 7:45, in the office by 8:30, leave the office at 5, in the water by 5:15 till dark. Long days, but good ones.

As for Sarah, her job starts on Monday, and she will be working with some cool folks. She will be running her own business with a small salary, but good commission. And she should do pretty well!

I forgot to mention that Mackie is really coming into his own these past few days. There isn't nearly as much restriction on dogs down here, so we are giving them more freedom. Well, Mackie caught a scent yesterday at 5 and didn't come home till after 10. I drove all around the mountain hollering like a gringo for him.. gave up, and we went to dinner. Came home from dinner and Mackie was laying on the porch more happy than I have ever seen him. I think we was proud of himself for finding his way home. He is now back on the leash for a while. Sandy on the other hand, can be left out all day and not wander at all. We know this because last weekend our boss accidentally left her out for 12 hours and she just protected our door the whole time. She is great down here, getting better by the day if you can imagine that. I hope our kids are as good for us as Sandy.

Hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait. Tico time.

I guess there are certian drawbacks to living in such a chill place. The biggest being that everyone is way to chill. Even the gringos that have been living down here for only a few years have lost their ability to be effective at anything. Time moves way more slowly and so does the ugency of everything.

Here are some examples...

we were supposed to move into our house last Saturday, but didn't get in until Wednesday... not our fault.

the house was supposed to have safes installed before we moved in, and they may be there next week.

We bought cell phones, but are still waiting for someone from our office to hook them up. Should be friday.

i constantly feel like I am annoying everyone about anything that needs to be accomplished because I call to follow-up. Back home people feel bad about not getting things done, here folks feel like you are at their whim... and you just better wait.

Anyways, back to the setup of everything, I meant to get some pics of the house for Aimes last night and post them, but forgot the camera. You all can also check out the shots at www.surfingnosara.com as I take them daily for the surf report.

On the car front, looks like I will be having the car taken to Nicoya to be fixed up. The car actually does drive right now, has 4 wheel drive... so it isn't that horrible. Here is what it needs... I need Brian down here to help fix it up. It overheats, so maybe a radiator, massive suspension work, one front tire kind of sits on a drastic angle, rear tires (front ones are worth more than I paid for the car), good breaks, the breaks work good right now, but with us living up a mountain, I am having them tightened up, and probably a lot that I don't know about yet. Good news is that even if it costs 2k to fix up, it will be worth 5k at that point. Another 250 and we could make it legal...

So much has been going on that I forgot to post pictures of our visitors last night... we hung out with them for good 10 minutes.

On a quick editorial note... I just realized that there were a few curse words in the past few posts... sorry about that! Those were written extremely late at night, and I meant no harm by them. After all, they are just words, buttons I pushed on a machine a thousand miles away. We should all start using them more, and then they wouldn't be offensive anymore.

I digress... Big things are happening here!!! We found out that our neighbor is a super good restaurant! They have steak!!! (no one here has steak) I had a prime rib last night, first real protein I have had in a while. I guess in poorer countries, they don't eat as much meat, because it takes so many more resouces to raise the animales. Mostly rice and beans and eggs down here. The restaurant is called Vista Del Paraiso, and they also have real beers!!! Not just headache beer. And to cap it all off, they have a pool, and a TV.. with Direct TV!!!!! We are hoping to go over and watch some "last comic standing" tonight. Might bring about a sense of normalcy.

On a good note, we are all starting to sleep better. The preliminary gitters are almost over!

And, if you were wondering about that fine picture of a car, that is The A Team's new ride, a 1989 Izuzu Trooper, now I must warn you, that if you come visit that this will be your lender vechicle. We purchased this beauty for the super high price of $200, yes $200, and will be spending another ????? on it to make it driveable. This is the same car that we were going to buy for a grand and split with Adu, but I talked the guy done after I found out that a friend of his just left it here when they went back to the states, and that he didn't pay for it. Don't fear for peanut parents, as we will be buying a nice car in the somewhat near future, but things are way more costly than anticipated. In the two days of looking for cars in San Jose the best we could find was a hyaundai Galloper 1998, for 12K. In my 7k price range you were looking things that weren't much better than the trooper. The plan is to spend a few hundred bucks fixing up the trooper and using it around town for a couple months, and getting a driver for doctors appointments in San Jose. And, after all, the car isn't that bad... for $200 bucks??? I spent more on my digital camera.

On the doctor/peanut front, some more good news. On August 20th we will be riding with our friend/landlord/dog training friend to San Jose to meet with his OB. Brandon and Lucette, just had their baby girl 14 days ago yesterday and have to go back to visit him on the 20th and asked if we would want to ride and be introduced. He comes highly recommended from a few, and Brandon's experience was great.