I blogged last week about the guesthouse we’ve booked in Montezuma, Hotel Luna Llena - today we reserved one night in a private bungalow at Blude Jay Lodge near Mal Pais. It looks awesome.
I’m writing this post because they just emailed me to tell me we will have a bungalow with an ocean view. *squeal*
5 more sleeps!
Our Costa Rica trip is sneaking up on me, I’ve been too busy to get excited! We leave on November 28th and normally I’d be packed and re-packed…and re-packed by now, but sadly my backpack is still in the back of my closet – empty.
However, Dad is starting his road to recovery and it’s quieted down a little at work. Now that the storm clouds have cleared, I can finally think about our trip.
I usually plan every step/time/bus/flight/hotel, but Jingles likes to travel all willy nilly – so we’ve come to 50/50 agreement. In other words, I’m not allowed to plan much. I DID however book our 2nd-4th nights in CR at this super cute little hotel/hostel in Montezuma called Hotel Luna Llena.
“A very unique hotel that is situated on the hillside just above the always lively town of Montezuma. Surrounded by jungle and wildlife, the hotel is only 200 meters from the beaches of Playa Montezuma, Costa Rica. Fall asleep to the sounds of the surf, and wake to monkeys and birds moving through the trees.”
We booked a room for three nights – PRIVATE OCEAN BALCONY!
Last night through some weird twist of fate I discovered that a co-worker has been to Montezuma and stayed in the same hotel - he said it’s awesome! So very excited now that I’ve had a first hand review.
Jingles has some friends who traveled to Costa Rica recently and stayed in Montezuma, they loved it. They told him we can rent ATVs for about $50 a day and zip around to different private beaches, awesome. Doing it. Also excited to go to some nature reserves and hopefully see monkeys,sloths, some sort of large cat and colourful birds.
That’s all I’ve planned so far. Though you know I WILL have print outs and phone numbers of hotels and things to do for every potential town we stay in.
Love me.
I haven’t really blogged about my dad having a stroke about two weeks ago. I’ve tweeted updates, and chatted casually - but haven’t sat down to really write. That being said, I’ve been way too busy to blog (as you can see) so I’m writing this on my blackberry en route to work.
Dad had a stroke. He was hunting at the time, by himself in the woods. When he woke up and realized his right side paralysis - he dragged himself, yes dragged, to his ATV and managed to use his good hand/arm to get out of the woods and to help.
His progress and test results have been up and down and it’s been hard to get straight answers - or just the answers I want to hear. He’s in Brantford and I’m in Toronto so I feel helpless most days. He has my sister and his girlfriend of 12 years by his side daily, which makes me feel both relief and jealousy.
All is well though, we’re all in good spirits with high hopes. He was moved to the rehab floor on Monday so he will now begin the long road to recovery. He has started speech therapy and will begin to work on mobility soon too.
His right side is paralyzed and he has aphasia so he cannot speak. I should note though that he can say “oh well” and uses the word ‘kets’ repeatedly in conversation, thinking he’s saying something else. I hear this is a common thing, it reminds me of that scene in being john Malkovich when Malkovich goes into his own head and everyone’s vocabulary consists of one word – Malkovich (video). I guess my dad is sort of stuck inside his own head, so it makes sense.
I digress…
I’ll end this post with something a friend said to me on Saturday, it was wonderful.
“Your dad isn’t just a fighter, he is THE FIGHT.”
I told him what she said, he chuckled and we all agreed.
Apartment Therapy always comes through with awesome home design inspiration. After weeks of ignoring my RSS feeds, I did some catch-up and came across these little beauties.
First up is The Pitch Stool from Nicolai Czumaj-Bront. It’s reclaimed, it’s imperfect and it’s awesome. More here…
My next neato find was Beer Bottle Partitions at the Milwaukee Blatz Brewery. I can’t imagine this in the home, but it’s a pretty great use of salvaged bottles.
And finally, my favorite: Bowls made from fallen trees from a lad named Spencer Peterman. More on Spencer here…
I would totally grab a few of these bowls, they’re pretty reasonable ($45-$500). Want.
That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
Oh, hey guys. Long time no …nothin’
I haven’t blogged much since I moved over to my new job. I don’t blame my job, I blame my lack of energy at the end of the day, and my lack of “I am SO bored!” time at the office.
This is a great blog entry for my return though, you’ll see.
I turned 27 last week on October 22nd. It was a very low-key uneventful sort of birthday compared to past years - but it was awesome.
I had drinks with friends, enjoyed myself, and was up the next morning for work without a hangover!
AND!
Jingles came over the night before my birthday with a box in a grocery bag – a box wrapped in xmas paper.
I unwrapped the box, to find another box covered in birthday-ish paper with an obvious hole cut out of the top that has a single layer of yellow tissue paper covering it.
I’m sitting there looking at it thinking “WTF?” as he runs around trying to find a light switch because the gift needs light.
He then tells me to look into this hole on the side of the box.
I look in, to find a 3D multi-layered diorama scene of Costa Rica. With a volcano, a sloth, a leopard, and a bunch of jungley foliage. He printed off a picture of me looking surprised/excited (from our Algonquin trip) and behind me there was a print-out of him as well.
We’ve been talking about Costa Rica for awhile now, and planning a trip - so it was all very timely.
I was really impressed with the time and effort put in, and then I realized that the print-off of Jingles had two pieces of paper in his hand that read: “2 tix paid!”
I looked at him, looked in the box, looked at him, looked in the box…it took a few seconds to register the fact that my amazingly creative and loving and generous boyfriend had bought my round trip ticket for me.
*siiiiiigh*
No, he does not have a brother - and no you cannot borrow him ;)
I’m a very happy Karly.
Broke my heart…
With approximately 38,000 African elephants being killed each year for their tusks Samuel Wasser of the Scientific American Journal calculates that the current elephant population of 600,000 will be gone within 15 years.
At the rate that the elephants are being killed by poachers for their ivory the remaining animals can’t give birth to new offspring fast enough to offset this massacre. In 2006 there was 11 metric tons of illegal ivory seized from ships headed to Taiwan and Japan.
“This alarming level of illegal hunting could drive the African elephant to extinction across much of Africa in just 15 years,” said Robbie Marsland, director of IFAW UK.
He added: “Most people will be shocked to hear that, 20 years on from a ban on international ivory trade, elephants in Africa are still threatened by commercial poaching. The ivory trade must be banned once again, and comprehensively, if we want to prevent the extinction of elephants.
“Sadly, the truth is that ivory trade anywhere is a threat to elephants everywhere.”
Source: The Telegraph OnlineThe Zakouma National Park in Chad had 3,885 elephants in 2005 but by 2009 that number had been decimated to a total of 617. As well 11 park rangers were killed by the poachers in the same period of time.
I <3 fall. I love the colours, the smells, the food and the fashion. I know, I know our summer sucked - but fall is awesome!
I love holding a hot chocolate in a soon-to-be-gloved hand, crunching leaves with my pretty fall boots while walking home to make a tasty squash soup.
I’m inspired today. You should be too.
Remember that awesome beard cake I got for Jingles’s birthday?
This picture depicts its final hours.
I was skimming through my RSS links today when I came across this wonderful artist, Alexis Anne Mackenzie.I fell in love with her work.
I’ve been mulling over new tattoo ideas for months now. Sorta liking this and sorta wanting that. I think there is some serious potential in some of these designs.
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