Updates at Redwood Beach Resort!

1. Curt and Wes called last night from Mundelein! What a great surprise! When in Illinois, we had such a great group of friends, but lost touch with most of them. The only two exceptions are Tony Skaronea and Mariana Grinzafi, who I email every once in a while. We found out that the house we lived in on Prospect was totally demolished after the fire. We knew about the fire there, but not its' ultimate fate. I still feel bad about it...considering it the house that Mike and I "grew up in." I guess the ties are finally broken to Illinois in that way, but it was great hearing from our two good friends. Strangely, they mentioned that they saw Chip about a year ago and he said that he was mad at Mike for not keeping in touch. Whatta tool. He definately has long-term memory loss. What's important, though, is that we are back in touch with friends.
2. Princessa, who finally received her "much cooler and funnier name" Spinner (given her propensity to stand up, walk a couple of feet and then completely lose it and fall down.) After trying really hard, we had to return her to Nino, who said that I signed "the death warrant" - OUCH. Turns out, her time at rehabilitation here paid off and she's living comfortably at Nino's house. Yey!
3. These feet were made for walking: Yet again, I needed to do a hideous amount of walking (see first blog post.) This time, it was from Tom's house near the point of the estuary. Part of it was my fault, I forgot to call Dennis to tell him to start the boat on its' way to pick up 2 clients. Tim was with me, and returning from a beer run, decided to take his dirt bike instead of the Land Cruiser back to where we were. I made the decision that, given the circumstances of riding on soft sand with Tim on a motorcycle, or walking 10 miles at noon in the tropical heat with no water, was a no-brainer. I made it in good time and chalked it up to "experience." I plan on becoming less experienced in the future. God willin'.
4. Jon is lightening up. I also saw a bunch of his pictures which are outstanding. His "alleged wife" though is still in the box, having never seen a picture of him and her together.
5. Corn Project: Meeting today with Nino at the field to inspect the plowed land and discuss "plaga." I plan on taking the donkey up to the site because it's pretty high in the hills up a rocky road. Pics to follow of me and my mule. Hold your breath.
6. General Staging Facts: super high tides the past few days. The water is warm and beautiful, though, and the waves are HUGE! We had an amazing lightening storm the other night, and Jon and I agreed that we haven't been that scared since we were both around 4 years old. I categorized it as a Level 8 Tempesta: Very scary, but nothing got hit by lightening (Level 9) and nothing caught on fire and burned everything down (Level 10.)
Discovered Pandora.com on the internet (thanks Colleen and Oscar!) and I am having fun adding diversity to my music channels. Check it out. It's GREAT.
7. The Sweets: Having a hard time navigating the terrain here scouring for grubs, but King and Coquetta keep chasing them back to their corral. This morning, they both did their "gang routine" and George Clooney got the worst of it. George is a little fatter and slower than Brad Pitt and Tyra Banks, so he keeps getting ganged up on. Christie Brinkley just lays around and poses in the corral, so she's fine. Thank goodness.
8. The Ponies: Yesterday morning, unscripted, I asked Ramone to saddle up Davidson. During the excitement, I decided to give Sunset and Harley and "hair cut." Turns out I'm pretty good at cutting horse hair manes! Ramone said I could make "mucho pesos." Also cleaned out Nicaraguan ear mites (yuck) and cut ear hair. Mucho, mucho pesos.
9. The Montero (a.k.a. The Monterrible): The Montero is still in Managua, despite much expense and heartache. Fucker. (sorry mom.)
10. New friends: Skyler in Managua. Cool American guy living here for 12.5 years. Like him.
11. Newest food experiment: Mango, Plantains, honey, lime, red pepper, scallion. Rated 8.2 on the soon-to-be-patented Sabo-scale of Food Edibility and Lookiness.
Chao. For Now.