Some Blog Updates

For those faithful readers, I thought I would go back a few posts and provide an up-to-date report on some recent events (rather than post comments on 2-month-old posts):

Frutas Extranjeras: Found out that the jocote is also known as the spondias mombin, the gully plum, the Spanish plum, the hog plum, the Ashanti plum, the true yellow mombin, the golden apple or the Java plum. Still nothing on the others.

Goat Milk Man: Bought more milk this morning. It was yummy. Rene visited me this morning and among the topics of conversation, we talked about goats. We're going to try and get a couple goats together for milking. It means a trip to Salamá (about 75 minutes) and knocking off life goal #94

Zaak Watches Movies: Five entries so far. I'll watch another movie tonight: The Illusionist.
Q/kWh: Not one person gave me the price of electricity per kWh. I'm still in the dark.

Shackles: Well, I still don't feel absolutely free to share all that was burdening me, BUT... I was able to clear up a few things and so the burden is lighter. I was under a lot of stress, so things seemed more intense.

Backyardigans: Those white birds were snowy egrets - thanks Sirdar and Carole.

A little puzzle for you: No one has even tried. I guess this one will just have to go to the grave with me!

Baby's Name: We did come up with a beautiful boy's name in the end. In the end we also didn't need it - yet. Acadia's name on her birth certificate ended up being Robichaud Reding as Guatemalan law prevented me from giving her just one last name. On her Canadian documents it will be just Robichaud.

Switzerland invades Liechtenstein: In case you didn't read the article, the errant Swiss soldiers retreated to Switzerland. Liechtenstein remains a free and sovereign state (unlike many out there).

Pee in the Potty: Blaise is officially NOT potty trained exactly 2 months after the exciting beginning. My mom said I was well beyond 2 when I learned to use a pot. She says I would spend hours with poop in my pants and not care. This doesn't bode well for Blaise.

If the coughing fits: I spent 3 full weeks sleeping on a foam in my office. The cough lasted a little over 4 weeks and finally quit me mid-March. There was a time during the cough that I couldn't remember what it was like not to cough. The cough was viral in nature. I developed a minor sore throat and a doctor said it was a bacterial infection - I'm sure it wasn't in afterthought - and had me on antibiotics for 5 days.

Interweb Woes: I phoned AppleCare 3 times and got nearly nowhere. My ISP came by several times and I got nearly nowhere. I had to rely on my own computing sense... The internet connection would usually work for the first 5 minutes the computer was on and then lose recognition of the wireless access point and therefore produce an erroneous IP address. A fixed IP address didn't help either. What I finally figured out about 3 days ago was to add my router between the access point and the computer. The internet has virtually been uninterrupted since then. I even uploaded a 50MB file yesterday. I'm so happy.

Microtrials: 6. My paperwork arrived after 6 days (5 days later than expected). I paid the guy with nickels and dimes. 7. The rest of my 18 songs finally downloaded five days later. 8. The fax got through. Twice. I managed to contribute to my RRSPs before the end of March. Actually it got contributed twice by accident. Then fixed.