November 29, 2007

Dear Dad,

Thanksgiving has come and gone and David and I have returned to Costa Rica and are busy back at work in the office. We had a wonderful time in Miami. Arriving in the US at the Miami Airport on the busiest day of the year for traveling was an experience in itself. The airport was very crowded with thousands of people. There were lots of security people and luggage stacked all over. It took a while to get off the plane and clear immigration and then head for baggage to claim our luggage. I have traveled a bit and never saw the luggage come out of the turnstile as fast as it did on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It looked like bullets at rapid fire and the luggage was stacked three deep and every few minutes the machine was turned off so the handlers had time to straighten up the bags on one side and had a man pulling the unclaimed bags off on the other. It was quite an experience and the biggest fear was if there was an emergency of any kind it would have caused a mob scene and the thought was a little unnerving. Cindy picked me up and I went to the hotel to check in while David and Jetty and Henry went to pick up the rental car, and then we all met at Cindy and Bill’s house. David and Bill went to a basket ball game, Jetty and Henry went back to the hotel and I stayed at Cindy’s house with her parents and Bill’s sister and her daughter and her daughter’s children. We had a delicious vegetable lasagna and talked until David and Bill returned from the game. David took Bill’s old Mercedes coop to the hotel.

Thursday morning David and I stayed in bed and watched the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade on the HD flat screen TV in the room. What wonderful color. The bed was so comfortable we didn’t want to get out of it. David ordered breakfast and when the parade was over we hurriedly got dressed and headed for Cindy and Bill’s house for the Thanksgiving Feast. It was a feast and we all stuffed ourselves. While some of the group watched the football game, the rest of us sat outside and enjoyed the nice breezy weather and good conversation until it was time to go home. Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year started for some at 5:00am. When we finally got to the stores we wanted to shop in, the crowds had thinned a bit and although it was very crowded we were able to find parking and then purchase the items we all had on our list. In the evening we went back to Cindy and Bill’s for another wonderful dinner.David was the cook on the BBQ and he did an expert job of cooking the delicious white salmon and pink salmon and shrimp. It was delicious and went well with the Australian wine we drank with it. Makes my mouth water thinking about it. On Saturday, David and Henry declined to go to the Mall with me and Jetty. I am glad they stayed home because we shopped 7 hours at a discount mall called Dolphin Mall. Leaving the hotel in the morning, Jetty and I waited at the top of the steps of the hotel for our rental van. It was valet parking and after a few minutes the parking guy told us our car was there so we walked to the exit part of the driveway and got in the car, fastened our seatbelt and started to drive away. I looked at the center consol and saw a pair of sunglasses and asked Jetty, who was driving, if the glasses belonged to Henry. We had been so busy talking and planning our day we didn’t notice we had gotten in the wrong car!!!!! Red in the face and laughing at ourselves, we both got out of the car and found standing on the hotel steps a black family with stunned looks on their faces staring at us. It was their car. After a brief moment of shock, we all laughed. Because we had been riding in the back seat of our van we didn’t notice right away we were in the wrong car and if I hadn’t noticed the sunglasses and made a comment we are not sure how far we would have driven before noticing the mistake.

Before heading to the Mall, we went back to Cindy and Bill’s so I could make ceviche for the crowd. I always make it when I am in Miami as it always requested. I almost finished making the ceviche but had to call Cindy, who was at the grocery store , to buy more ginger ale because the zoomo or bitterness of the lemons needed a little help to get that ¨just right¨ lemony taste I was looking for. Jetty and I drove the ½ hour to the Mall to shop. The parking lot was filling up fast with lots of people – people everywhere - and after parking and writing down where we parked and making a plan incase we got separated, we began the search in the outlet stores for stuff on our list. Shopping in a discount Mall the day after Thanksgiving is not only hard work it is crazy. Hundreds of people filled the aisles, and lines to pay were over an hour long in some stores. There was no place to sit either. Grumpy, frowning men were sitting wherever they could surrounded with huge shopping bags while waiting for their wives to finish shopping probably dreaming about the football games on TV. Not stopping to eat, Jetty and fortified ourselves with a delicious fruit drink. The prices were great with added discounts. I had to keep remind myself about the limited room in my suitcase and concentrate on buying only the items on my list. I did buy a new suitcase but it is only because it is lighter in weight than my old Samsonite. Really, it was the only reason. Happily, after 7 long hours, we had most of the things we wanted and we headed back to Cindy and Bill’s for another dining feast. Everyone loved the ceviche and then we had another BBQ wiht more salmon and lamb chops and of course more wine and champagne. While sitting outside in the patio talking to David and Bill I noticed their old dog, Cappie, drinking water out of the pool. Bill pulled her away and he walked away. David had finished cooking and took the food into the house with Bill right behind him. All of a sudden I saw out of the corner of my eye the old, very old and deaf dog, fall into the pool. I yelled for Bill. Then I noticed the dog tried to dog paddle and thought I could just go to the edge of the pool and help her out but she flipped on her side and was floundering and gulping water. I jumped up and jumped into the pool and saved her. It all happened very fast I grabbed the dog and Bill and David came running over to save me. They had to pull me out because I went in with all my clothes – heavy now with pool water. I stripped to my underwear and Cindy gave me some dry clothes to wear. Then we sat down to dinner and I was praised at a hero and savior of the old dog. I am no hero. Sunday we finished the last of our shopping this time taking both David and Henry with us. The stores were crowded and we stayed only a few hours. At Macys David and I saw a pair of beautiful leather shoes with soft crepe soles. David ALWAYS and ONLY wears his deck shoes so I was thrilled that I turned over the price and it said $29.99. WOW!!! What a bargain. ¨David buy two pairs ¨ I yelled from my chair when he went to pay. When he told the salesman the price the man said ¨¨$29.99, yea maybe the laces¨. Anyway David said the shoes felt too wonderful not to buy them and he paid the full price. At least if we get dressed up to go someplace he won’t be wearing the funky deck shoes. Finally it was back to the hotel to pack and get ready for dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab. Yum. We were a party of 11 and although the restaurant doesn’t take reservations, we were able to get seating immediately because of Bill. He is known around town and is president of the Hotel Association and ALWAYS gets a table when he shows up at any restaurant at any time. I was so happy that we packed before we went to dinner. I was so happy I bought anew Samsonite suitcase because I had more stuff to pack than I thought. The new suitcase has a combo lock in the center and two key locks on each side. David and I both tried to change the combo lock but it didn’t work so we left it at 000. Well, when we got back to Costa Rica and home we tried to open the combo lock but someone of somehow the combo had been changed from 000 to ? I looked up the company on the computer and found that it was a 1000 to 1 chance of finding the right combo. After trying for more than ½ hour, buy some miracle, I managed to find the right combo and the lock popped open. What are the chances? Oh, yea, they are 1000 to 1 !!!!!. I was so glad that we didn’t have to wreck the lock to open the bag. I was even happier that the fish we brought home had been packed in another bag.

It is nice to go on vacation but there is no place like home. We returned Monday afternoon to a dirty house. Bryan was not expecting us and the maid was not due to arrive until Tuesday. I got busy and cleaned up and started on the laundry. In a few hours order had returned.

The last few days we have seen baby animals around the house. We watched two tiny raccoons climb a tree in the common area in front of the residential area where we live and also saw two medium sized rabbits near the front gate. I wondered if it was the same rabbit we took away from Junior a few months back. David stopped the car and we asked the day guard about the rabbits and he said there are two and the rabbits and the cats play together. How funny is that?. I saw a rabbit this morning sunning itself near the front gate.

This weekend we will go to Punta Coral. Both the main cook and assistant cook are leaving. They have resigned and everyone is glad. I had the head cook write all the recipes down for me and have a cook book. It is scary to hire new people to cook but that is what we have done. Two of the women who will take over the kitchen have worked for us for years as assistants and work the days off for the two who are leaving. They know how to prepare the food. Both the cooks sent a letter of resignation and I think they wanted me not to accept it because both have husbands out of work. I imagine when they went home the evening they sent the letters they went home and their husbands said something like ¨what were you thinking?¨ Both prepare the food well, but refuse to follow orders and are not cheerful and are troublemakers with complaints all the time and never stick to the work schedule. This has been going on for years, and I have warned the over and over. A month ago we fired them both from one company and paid all the money we had to pay them. Now after a month, there is very little left to pay and hopefully our new kitchen will be filled with women who appreciate a great job because they have employers who stand by them and pay well. Not one of the employees in the kitchen or on board the Manta Raya is sorry the cooks are leaving. Tomorrow is the last day. I will formally receive the keys and then it is goodbye to trouble and hello to happiness.

I am so anxious to get to Punta Coral and the silence with only natural sounds to sooth the soul and sleep soundly from dusk to dawn. The girls were there yesterday taking inventory and also cooking lunch for 50 guests from England here on an incentive tour. Marlon was the guide and said everyone had a wonderful time.

I have everything purchased for the 65 gift baskets or really gift buckets for employees. I waited too long last year and it was difficult to find little things to put into the gift basket that was really giant sage colored green plastic flower pots. This year I really planned ahead and I am hoping the gifts will please everyone because we are not having a Christmas party. I hate company Christmas parties, especially ours because we have had trouble twice and I never want to experience that again.

Celiece gets home tomorrow after finishing up with her latest group. She will be off until the 29th of December and during this time we will plan a Thanksgiving- Christmas feast celebration for all of us.

I have all my Christmas shopping done. It was quick and easy this year because David and I decided we are taking the five of us on a family vacation in the spring. See another reason for a new suitcase. This means we will see you in May. Maybe it will become a tradition? It is possible. There are lots of places I want to visit.

Our gardener returned to our house after being gone for almost two months. He went north to work and before that our gas mower was broken. This morning David and I enjoyed a delicious cup of coffee outside admiring the newly gardened yard. The plants were singing and I have a rose – my first. The hummingbirds fluttered around their newly filled feeders to the joy of the cats.

Heaven has a new angel. Today we lost a friend to cancer. We have known him since we moved here over 30 years ago. He was a smoker and developed lung cancer. He also had a kidney removed because of cancer. He went through chemo therapy and thought he was better, but he was not. He and his wife were very close; married for almost 40 years. I am sure she is devastated. I am glad her two children and one grandchild are here with her for this trying time.

Well Dad, this is the news for the week. I am glad to be home and I am sending you a BIG hug and a BIGGER kiss.

I love and miss you.

Besitos, Cecs