Hillary the Great

Everyone was surprised at the surge Hillary made in NH. Seems like a repeat for the Clintons.... bad in Iowa and good in NH. There is a lot of speculation that the two things that helped her was the snipe that Obama took during the debates ("You're likable enough Hillary") and the already famous crying incident.

About the crying incident....the other night my lovely wife and I were watching the nightly news and the crying video came on. While we were watching...and Hillary started into her "emotional" moment...I suddenly hear a grumble from the whif. "Oh no....don't do it...don't cry...oh no...there she goes...this is exactly why people think women can't be president ;-(" I find it ironic that a woman that never showed emotion while her husband was cheating on her repeatedly would suddenly break down over such a simple thing. Staged or not....it helped her in the short term....but what about the long term? Do you think the feminists are still in her camp?

On a separate Hillary note...I saw this today and was flabbergasted! I certainly hope that this is out of context...because anyone who legitimately says "No woman is illegal" is down right loco. Can you imagine it Obama said that "No black person is illegal" or if McCain said that "No crusty old white man is illegal"....jeez...what is this world coming to! And the guacamole metaphor is just funny in my opinion...

In broken English, one woman told Clinton how she wasn't making money as a broker anymore. "I have no income at all," she said. "So how will I survive?" Choking up with emotion, the woman said, "In my neighborhood, there are brand-new homes, but the value is nothing. I'm glad you are here so I can tell you, because you're going to be the president, I know." A man shouted through an opening in the wall that his wife was illegal.

"No woman is illegal," Clinton said, to cheers.

Summing it up at the end, Clinton said, "We've only talked to a few people, but each of them talk about some part of the problem we are confronting. This is a problem that is only going to get worse if we don't address it." Clinton said unscrupulous lending leads to bad mortgages, which lead to foreclosures, which lead to people with nowhere to go and vacant neighborhoods that can go rapidly downhill.

"We treat these problems as if one is guacamole and one is chips, when ... they both go together," she said.

I feel better

Arena Trek or "American" Graffiti

This weekend was a pleasant surprise. First of all the G-Men didn't choke in the first round like every other year...which is nice...but more importantly we finally got back out and hit the CR roads for a little adventure. The trip this weekend was spurred by none other than the looong trek for sand (Arena) to complete the kiddos sandbox.

Instead of the usual trip down to Pioneer Landscaping Material in the long lost green truck...the preparation started mid-week. I needed to consult with a few colleagues to even figure out WHO sold good sandbox sand. We finally decided that it would be best to try SICORSA/VICESA. Haven't heard of it before? Doesn't roll of the tongue quite like Home Depot? Well maybe because it is the glass company that makes all the glass bottles and containers in Costa Rica. As luck would have it...it takes pretty high quality sand to make decent glass...so off we went. The directions go something like this: Take the southern San Jose bypass, go through all the roundabouts until you get to Zapote. Take the Zapote road and make your way to the highwat to Cartago (it is marked). Then go up the big hill and down the backside of the hill. There will be a major turnoff on the left for Cartago...don't take that...go straight. Go 2.5km (although my original directions said 1.5km which was the first reason to stop for directions) until you see the El Guarco gas station. Turn right. Go 3.5km until you get to Quebradilla (ya know...the unmarked town). Turn right when you are in Quebradilla (you actually want to turn at the Sarcovi sign but no one told us that gem), go 2.5km down that road and it should be at an intersection across form a school. That final road was a mix of road and dirt and lots (I mean lots) of local looking at us with a high degree of "you don't belong here - are you lost?". Jen was getting nervous....kids getting restless after the 1 hr drive! Unbelievably we made it to the place and after about another hour of really bad Spanish and a bit of $$ haggling...I managed to score 8 sacks of high grade stuff! Turns out the guy who loaded the 50kg bags (yes that is 110lbs) was from New Jersey...but my Spanish was better than his English ;-(

Anywho - with success under our belts we decided to continue on our adventure (since we were so close to Cartago) and picnic at the long fabled Orosi Valley. Now the drive to Orosi is remarkably easy by Costa Rica standards. Once you are in Cartago there are signs to Paraiso and from there signs to Orosi. We stopped at a picnic/view park which was perched on the South side of the valley. It really turned into a nice break for us all as it really was very pretty and the weather was spot on. The kiddos and I even got a little playtime in before we made the trip back over the hill towards San Jose. Oh yeah...I actually went into San Jose by accident and it took me about 20 minutes to get us back out...huge props to Santa who just happen to leave 2 compasses in our stockings this year! Way to go Santa...you may have just saved our marriage....seeing as how it is not a very good feeling being lost in San Jose!

We finally get home and I lug the 110lb bags (with Kade's assistance of course since it is not ergonomically correct for one person to carry 110lbs) back to the sandbox. In they go...and I did not see the kiddos for another hour. Money well spent if I do say so myself! Tonight after the Giants game we decided to make the sandbox a real Costa Rican fixture....so I grabbed the spray paint cans and we really made it look local!! Maybe I can convince Pefi to buy it as a work of art ;-)

PS: Jen, I did not download the pictures from the camera...I just grabbed a few. Don't worry, I understand that I am still not allowed to download any pictures to your computer ;-)

Speaking of large creepy-crawleys...

Here is what Jen and Aralis found in our kitchen on Friday. You know that Jen was calling my cell right away on this one! In the end, they called a neighbor over to kill it....apparently they ended up dropping a paint can on the guy....what a way to go. I estimate it at about 3 or 4 inches based on the fact those are 12 inch tiles...but Jen estimates it at 5-6 inches ;-) I should also add here for the record that a few weeks ago we had a scorpion in our garage. Gotta love Costa Rica!


On a separate note: Jen busted Payton recently picking her feet and cleaning out all her toe lint. Heavens knows where she picked up that little habit !!!

Are you kidding me???

I was **NOT** going to do ANY commentary on the Iowa caucus because in the grand scheme of things there are better ways to spend our time...but...jeez...did you see the final tally?

I was not so amazed at the spanking that Clinton took since Billiam didn't fair to well in Iowa either. BUT...look at Giuliani...3%? Wow - that is a long way to fall...even Ron Paul kicked his arss 3:1. I guess the floating cross worked in Iowa ;-)

As Kade would say "Holy Cow"!!

A few weeks ago Kade and I were playing in front of our house [Jen is commenting as I type...she is adding that we do not have a front yard and that we have to play in the street and avoid the cars which are flying around] - [Rob rebuttal: we live on the end of a cul-de-sac]. Anyway, I noticed something that looked odd on the front of the house so I walked over to take a closer look. Much to my amazement this is what Kade and I saw:

The biggest walking stick I have ever seen...the thing was about 6-7 inches long...for reference the bricks in the background are standard bricks (which are 2" x 8"). Kade did not understand what I was telling him "this is an insect Kade"....until I touched it and it moved...he immediately jumped back...it was a good chance to tell him about how things adapt to survive. I am thinking that lesson was quickly filed far behind Superman, Lava Monsters and the Backyardigans!

7 inches is about the longest anyone would see in the USofA but definitely not in the world...maybe I should have kept it, framed it and put it in the living room ;-)

What is the Largest Living Insect?
The largest living insects are Giant Walking Sticks from the (order Phasmida). This bug can grow to up to thirteen inches in length making it surely one of the longest insects in the world. The record holder for the longest insect goes to a specimen commonly found in Western Malaysia and Singapore called the West Malaysian Pharnacia Serratipes and it reaches an amazing length of twenty-two inches. There are approximately 3,000 tropical species of walking sticks, with only 10 species living in North America.

Although principally tropical and Asian in distribution, walking sticks are also found in the temperate regions of Europe and North America. One species, Megaphasma dentricus, is the longest insect in the United States, attaining 7 inches in length. The Malaysian Walking Leaf (Heteropteryx dilatata) is another very large insect to add to that list. Females of this species can be very large, up to 6.5 inches long which makes them half an inch short of being the longest insect. Framed walking stick insects are available in a variety of species for the discriminate insect collector.

Aaaand we are back!

After a break at the beach, we are finally back and settled back amongst the loads of toys. Jen is already working overtime wading through the toys and purging the misfits ;-) It just doesn't help that Kade's birthday is the day after xmas....we are still opening gifts every day and we have ANOTHER party next week where he will get even more...I guess Jen can right off another night next week purging again! Anywho... the holidays were interesting for us this year. We spent Xmas day at Playa Flamingo in a nice little condo overlooking the water. It was a radical change from the typical CO xmas that we have gotten accustomed to. Instead of playing in the snow xmas day...we were walking along a beach (Playa Azucar --> Sugar Beach) which we found after a rough drive on some questionable roads. Jen was giving me the "I don't think so" look for the last few kilometers.

Jen posted a whole bunch of pics of the activities...which you may have already seen (album 1 and album 2) but here they are anyway. I will leave you with just one picture...Kade helping to build his new sandbox. It makes the papa proud to see his 4 year old with a saw! Jen did ask me after seeing the pictures "Where are his safety goggles?"....hmmmm.... good point... "Probably with his fathers...wherever that is".