Pictures of the Day, February 26 and 27, 2010

Here are the Pictures of the Day from today and yesterday. Hope you enjoy them!

I've been trying to get a few more pictures with people lately, since there's only so much you can do with inanimate objects. The main problem with this approach is that I don't have that much contact with a lot of different people most days. However, we normally buy our eggs from a neighbor across the street. Our niece Mariela (in the orange shirt) picked up a kilo for us yesterday, and included in the bag there was a little runt egg. You can see how small it is compared to the one Angela's holding. I'd not seen a chicken egg that small before.

This is Angela and her mom, Cecilia. Enjoying a nice, cold beer. We usually go to her parents' house on Saturday or Sunday evenings.

So, that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed them, and remember that there are more pictures that you can check out by following the following links:

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Changed My Mind

Wow, folks, this is unprecedented! Breaking news! I decided to change the Picture of the Day from February 22nd. When choosing and posting this past few days' pictures last night, I ignored my artistic inclination toward the picture below and put up a flash-filled Picture of the Day featuring Hannah, Paola and Juan Guillermo's adorable daughter. I liked this picture better, though:

But I didn't know if her parents would "get" the blurriness of the picture. But I gotta keep it real. The new Picture of the Day, February 22, 2010. It's been changed in flickr, it's been changed in the annals of history.

Let us never speak of this again.

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Picture of the Day Catch-Up: February 21-25, 2010

Here are the Pictures of the Day for the last couple of days. I hope there's something interesting for you. Remember that you can also see more pictures, including an adorable one of my wife and our backup cat, by following the links at the end of this post. Enjoy!

February 21st: These were some oranges that my parents-in-law had hung in a little area behind their house. I'm not sure I understood why, but it made for an interesting picture, in my opinion.

February 22nd: This is Hannah, my coworker and friend Paola's daughter (well, she's half hers... she also belongs to her awesome husband Juan Guillermo, but since he's not my coworker, and since I was using the possessive, I had grammatical problems when I tried including him earlier in the sentence).
Nevertheless, good work, guys! Beautiful daughter!

February 23rd: February 23rd was a slow day. Apparently, the most notable thing we did was to eat some pasta.

February 24th: Some itabo stakes that were sitting on the back of a truck. I'm not sure why, but it parked out front of our house for a few hours. So I took a picture of it. Click here for a post I wrote a while ago about how to cook the flower that grows on this plant.

February 25th: Lucy playing a game of balloon with herself, to show us all how it's done. How IS it done? Well, the spaces above look like windows, but in reality they have no glass. A person on one side of the wall hits a balloon through the opening to the other side. The person on the other side hits it back. And so on and so forth.
Who knew that a dozen balloons could liven up an office so much?

That's it for now. Thanks very much for reading, and have a great day!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Picture of the Day Catch-Up: February 16-20

This week has been eventful, although not terribly busy, if that makes sense. For that reason, I was a bit slow on posting these pictures. Let's get caught up!

February 16, 2010: This is a large vase of seashells we've found on the beaches of Costa Rica. We put the sand dollars near the top cause they're cool. Here they're called galletas del mar, or "cookies/crackers of the sea" ("galleta" can mean both "cracker" or "cookie"). Fun fact: although their name isn't related to money here, sand dollars are still probably worth more than the Costa Rican colón, the local currency.

February 17, 2010: It was a slow day. Angela and I traded offices, and I pulled some weeds. I caught this picture of the sunset, which at first isn't that cool, but if you look closely to the left, you can see part of the Gulf of Nicoya. Which is nice.

February 18, 2010: On Thursday we decided to go to the beach again, since there's a new section of highway and we wanted to see how long it took to get there (decidedly under two hours from Berlin). We went to Playa Bejuco again, and I saw this interesting driftwood in the water. I like the little "tributaries" leading to the puddle it's sitting in.

February 19, 2010: I like to bake, so I made some cookies because it was Lucy's birthday. Angela and I had gotten some Hershey's Kisses when we were in Colorado, and we'd been saving them. They turned out pretty well, even though I'd not made this recipe before. I also made some oatmeal-chocolate chip ones.

February 20, 2010: A note I had to write to attach to our wireless internet receiving antenna on the outside of our house. At midnight last night, some asshole shitkicker (probably from Berlin, since he was on foot) tried to steal the antenna... while Angela was in the room, with the light on. She opened the curtain and yelled at him and he ran off, but she didn't see who he was. It's annoying that this type of shit happens here, especially in a crappy little podunk town like Berlin. And what's worse is that there's nothing to do about it except get a gun or a dog or both. We'll probably get a dog, less likely a gun.

Anyhow, the note reads:
"Atención ladrón!
Por su posición, esta caja recibe una señal. Si se la quita de acá, deja de funcionar.
Así que no vale la pena robarla, y seguro que nadie se la compraría."
(By the way, remember that I teach English and German, not Spanish, so there may be some mistakes in the Spanish part)

English Translation :
"Attention Thief!
Because of its position, this box receives a signal. If it's moved from here, it stops working. So it's not worth robbing, and surely no one would buy it from you."

All of which is true. Hopefully it works.


So, that's it for now. I'll try to post a bit more frequently next week, as long as the dipshit who tried to steal our internet antenna doesn't succeed in the future. Until then, remember that the links directly below have quite a few more pictures that you can check out. Thanks for reading, and have a good day!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Pictures of the Day: February 14 and 15, 2010

Here are the Pictures of the Day from Sunday and Monday:

February 14, 2010: Since it was Valentine's Day, after all, I decided that I needed some cheesy pink crap. This picture is cheesy, but the scarf that Angela knitted is certainly not; it's quite nice, actually. She finally gave up on the idea of making a rug for the cats, bought some weird weaving-type tool, and learned a new scarf technique. Good work, Valentine!

February 15, 2010: Today I was busy TCB at home, doing various paperwork and planning things. I got caught up on a lot of small things on my to-do list, but I didn't have many opportunities to leave and get some new pictures. It's a bit sad, though, when we measure productivity by the amount of waste we produce.

So, that's it for now. Remember, there are some extra pictures for most days --these two days included-- that you can see by following the links at the bottom of this post. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Picture of the Day Catch-Up: February 9-13, 2010

I've gotten behind in posting the Pictures of the Day this past week, since Angela and I headed down to San Vito in the south of the country for a few days. So, here we can get caught up a bit:

February 9, 2010: This was the Picture of the Day, and also the only picture I took, I believe. I was packing my bags to get ready for our trip to visit Yeison in San Vito the next day. I like this backpack, by the way. I got it from Chris Hunter sometime in high school, and it's survived a lot (including two years of sarcastic German comments).

February 10, 2010: This is the Picture of the Day, although I'm not sure how interesting it is. Yeison took us to the Wilson Botanical Gardens in San Vito. Here are some more pictures from the day:

Yeison Lara, in all his glory.

Yeison and Angela.

An amapola flower at the botanical gardens.

Some palm trees.

A cross in the cemetery in San Vito.

February 11, 2010: Costa Rica Picture of the Day. I took two pictures of the day for the 11th, since we also went to Panama. This is actually the border between Costa Rica and Panama at the town of Rio Sereno, taken from the Costa Rican side. You can tell the Costa Rican side because it's the one with terrible roads. This border crossing is a lot quieter than the one in Paso Canoas, which we used to come back into Costa Rica. FYI, if you ever use the Rio Sereno border --which you probably won't-- the Costa Rican official is an enormous asshole.

February 11, 2010: Panama Picture of the Day. We went into Panama with Yeison for a day trip, and it was very nice. We visited a few little towns in the mountains (which looked strangely like Austria or Switzerland) and enjoyed some delicious pizza. A nice little excursion.

Some of the mountains in Panama.

This was taken on the Panamanian side of the Paso Canoas border, which is a much more heavily-developed crossing on the Interamericana highway. Everything in Panama is a lot cheaper than in Costa Rica, so there are tons of shops just over the border to attract the Ticos.

Back in San Vito in Costa Rica, at a cafe. Yeison and his family were great hosts, so thanks again to them!

February 12, 2010: It was a long day, and there wasn't much time left to come up with a Picture of the Day since I had to do lesson planning for the following day. It happened to be my brother Paul's birthday, along with Dario's and Zombie Abraham Lincoln's. Why zombie? Because if he's reading this, he's obviously a zombie, and he must be stopped.

February 13, 2010: This was also a long day with little of interest going on. This is a mural that these two artists started painting at the school where I work.

So, that's it for now, and we're officially caught up! Have a great day, and thanks for reading, and if you feel like seeing more pictures from the last few days, you can click on any of the links directly below and see more:

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Picture of the Day, February 8, 2010

Today's Picture of the Day:

This is Oscar (in the hat) and Dario, two of my coworkers. There were a lot of people in the office today because it was Paola's birthday --Happy Birthday, Paola!-- but I didn't really get any good pictures from that part of the day. I liked something about this picture, though. Maybe Dario's reflection? Who knows. Good stuff, though.

And good night!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Picture of the Day, February 7, 2010

Yesterday was a big day with the election, so I didn't get these posted earlier. Unfortunately, Laura Chinchilla won, but we'll cross our fingers and hope she does well. In any case, here's yesterday's Picture of the Day, featuring a shocked and stunned chihuahua upon hearing the results of the election:

It really needs no further explanation.

After Angela had voted here in Berlín, we went to Palmares to see how things were going. Lucy's whole family was manning a booth supporting Ottón Solís and the PAC, and it was interesting to see how voting in Costa Rica is different from in the U.S.

Outside a polling place in Buenos Aires de Palmares. At first glance, it looked a bit more like a street fair or farmer's market than election.

Inside the school in Buenos Aires, where people were voting. Each classroom had a different list of voters outside. Actually, thinking of my voting experiences in the U.S., I'm hoping that the international observers here were taking notes so that they can make it easier to vote in general in the U.S.

Of course, no election would be complete without a couple of random chihuahuas. Any chance of getting a close-up of that snaggle tooth on the mother dog?

There we go. Thanks.

Angela at the polling place in Palmares.

This is a nice thought to end the day and the post with. I put it up yesterday, but I didn't explain it. It was painted on a wall of the school where people were voting. I almost made it picture of the day, but there's something a bit uncreative about taking pictures of signs and calling it yours. In any case, it reads:

"Welcome, we're here to serve you, when you go from here we hope that you take with you...

I. A solution

II. A hope

III. A new idea, or at least... A smile."

That's my new blog motto. Thanks for reading! We're here to serve you.

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

About the Pictures...

In an attempt to make it easier and more pleasant to look at my Pictures of the Day, each post on this blog will now have a few links at the bottom.

If you click on any of the links, they will take you to a site called "fluidr." My friend Brad showed it to me, and it's pretty great; basically, it takes your flickr pictures, and presents them in a more accessible and pleasing way. Once you're on the page, you can just keep scrolling down, and you won't have to keep moving all over flickr just to see a handful of pictures at a time.

By clicking on the links, you can go directly from my blog to my Picture of the Day series, my Leftovers, All My Pictures, and SeeVida. SeeVida is Brad's project that's trying to get a picture a day from as many countries as possible. We've got Bolivia, the U.S., Costa Rica, and Germany representing so far, with more in the works.

So, feel free to check out any of the links directly below here (and please do so-- it took me forever to figure out how to work with my blog's HTML code!)

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Pictures of the Day, February 5 and 6, 2010

We're a bit behind on the Pictures of the Day, so let's get caught up. Remember, there's an election here in Costa Rica tomorrow, so this will round off the pre-election theme from earlier this week. Here is the February 6th Picture of the Day:

Today's Picture of the Day is definitely a political one, and it's my endorsement. I think Ottón Solís would be the best option for Costa Rica's next president. He seems to have a good, clear plan of where he wants to take the country, and I agree with his plan.
But I'm not a citizen and I can't vote, so it sucks to be me.

Here is yesterday's Picture of the Day, followed by some interesting leftovers from today and yesterday:

Picture of the Day for February 5, 2010: This is a flag representing the Movimiento Libertario party, whose candidate is named Otto Guevara. He attracted a lot of attention earlier in the campaign, but his popularity has waned. He seems to be what the Americans would call "a slick asshole." And the haircut doesn't help that reputation.

Here are a few more pictures that I've liked in the last two days:

A picture of a bag of "Choco Blast," featuring "Honey Monster," my favorite cereal in Costa Rica. It's basically a Coco Puffs knockoff, and the best cereal featuring a monster as its mascot.

Angela and Chubby, Mother and Cat. He's distracted because he was in the middle of a lizard hunt. He finally caught his first one, so we were proud of him until he threw up on the back patio. Some cats just can't hold their lizard.

Here's a poster from Otto Guevara's campaign. He's not to be confused with Ottón Solís, whose first name is pretty similar. Guevara represents the "Libertarian Movement" party. He's the guy on the left above, and the guy next to him is a local nominee for Congressional Deputy (Alajuela is the name of the province we live in). Otto Guevara seems to have lost a lot of steam in his campaign, once most of his ideas were exposed to be a bit crazy or radical. His hair is still nice, though. That should still garner him a good 15% of the total vote.

I actually like this better than the Picture of the Day, since it's so bizarre. But I made it my goal to get election-related Pictures of the Day this week...
In any case, this busy scene was on the back of a truck carrying a carnival ride (the Palmares Festival is still being slowly packed up). It's such a weird mixture of symbols, but the Sad Jesus Head --plus the lightning symbol above and the indecipherable hieroglyphs below it-- make this picture a true keeper! Plus, it's got the red and yellow colors of the PAC, so it's almost a political picture...

Last day before the election: A house on the main road into Palmares is definitely pulling for Ottón Solís. He's the candidate for the PAC party, whose yellow and red flags were Picture of the Day on February 1.

Finally, this is a popular drink here called "chan." It's made by soaking little seeds that look like linseed in water. They then get a sort of gooey covering around them, but are still crunchy. You then mix it up with sweetened water (I think), and you've got a drink that's slightly fruity and a bit cinnamon-y. In the end, though, when you sip it through a straw, it looks eerily like the frog eggs we found the other day! Disgustingly good!

So, that's it for today. I'll try to find some interesting pictures related to tomorrow's election, but hopefully not too interesting. When elections get too interesting in Central America, there tends to be coups and invasions by the American military.

Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Picture of the Day, February 4, 2010

A bull wandered into our yard yesterday and was eating our grass. I had to chase it away with a broom (it's the dry season, after all, and I also didn't want to deal with a bunch of cow crap when I cut the grass). This kind of thing happens quite frequently here, so even though it's not the best picture, it's still a good representative for Costa Rica today, so I decided on it for Picture of the Day:

Once again, I realize that this isn't a political picture, per se, unless you consider that most of what politicians say is bullshit. At least we can find a slight connection there...

Also: Ring Power! Sometime this week--either the 5th or 6th, we think--is our legal anniversary. I know it's either my friend Mike's birthday or the day AFTER my friend Mike's birthday. To celebrate, we went out to dinner:

We went to a Chinese restaurant in Palmares. I took this because for some reason, every Chinese restaurant I've been to in Costa Rica serves these freaking slices of unadorned white bread! Even when you get carry-out, they still stack 6 or 7 pieces of bread on top of the containers in the bag.
It's quite perplexing.

So, thanks for reading, and have a good day!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook