Celebration

Had an amazing time today at the Tigers game with the office.  Tigers were down pretty much the entire game, and then Torii Hunter hit a walk off home run to win the game!  It was incredible!  The weather was super hot, and I got a lot of sun, I actually think I look a little bit tan!  We came home and went on an outside bike ride too, so even more sun.  I love having a little bit of color (don't worry, I wear sunscreen).

Looking forward to a non-work filled holiday weekend.  Usually, Kurt and I go out of town for this holiday, but since we travelled quite a bit in August and July, we are staying home for this one.  We have some plans with friends and may do another Tigers game, but other than that, just going to chill at home.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Haskell Law Firm Girls at the Game

Deja Vu?

So, flying back from Costa Rica earlier this month, we had the strangest thing happen to us.  Total, terrifying, deja vu.

We had flown from San Jose to Ft Lauderdale, and were waiting for our next flight to Detroit.  We were there pretty early, eating dinner we had bought.  We were sitting right next to the gate and the flight before ours to Port of Spain was leaving through Caribbean Airlines, which I had never heard of before.

While sitting there, I suddenly found myself listening to an eerie conversation.  I heard a flight attendant talking to a man who did not have a valid passport.  His passport had expired in MARCH, and he had not renewed it yet.  Which means, you do not get on a plane.  Right?  I knew better.  Kurt started videoing the incident as the last time he witnessed this, nobody believed him and thought it was ludicrous to suggest that anyone would get on an international flight without a passport. How did this guy even get through security to begin with?

We heard the flight attendant tell him she would have to call a supervisor.  She did, and after some talk, the supervisor apparently thought it was fine to let him on and they proceeded to get on the plane.  Wow, it's easier to board a flight without a passport than to take an extra bag on your flight!  LOL.

While we were videoing, some passengers from the flight came over and asked what we were doing and told Kurt videoing was illegal (which it is not).  I have no idea who these guys were or why they cared. It was very odd.  We told them we would not stop and why.

Anyway, normally, I would report this.  But, I learned from my past experience that the government does not care about this and generally knows about it.  I think it's amusing though because I know I would be read the riot act if I tried to go through an airport without proper ID, but others seem to have no problem at all.

So now twice I have seen this myself.  I have no doubt this happens all the time, regardless of those who insist it never does.  Be careful flying everyone.  Be aware.  Your government does not have your best interests at heart, knows this goes on, and encourages it in some instances, like our Underwear Bomber flight.

This incident terrified me.  I was having flashbacks to our flight and my plane being on fire.  After Kurt stopped videoing, I heard the person running the desk say to someone else "I dont know why that guy was videoing me.  What was the point?'

Sigh.

Weekend

Had a great weekend, with NO working (as I posted about previously).

Me and a toucan at La Paz.

Kurt and I had great workouts this weekend.  Outside part was running a 5K on Friday, Biking 17.5 miles on Saturday and running 4.75 miles on Sunday.  I also worked out on Friday and Sunday in the basement doing biking, abs and pushups and some light weights, while watching Dawson Creek on Netflix.



Saturday, I went to the mall as macy's was having a 25% off the entire store sale.  I ended up finding some great deals.  Got myself an uber cute dress in the Junior's section on clearance, which ended up being $11 with all my markdowns, and got another really cute one for $20 in the misses section.  Got Kurt two pair of shorts super cheap and a Kenneth Cole t-shirt.  All for under $100!  I love sales.  Regular price the stuff would have been like $300.  Came home and got ready for dinner at Dolce Vita with Angie, Scott, Ron and Erika.  Wore one of the dresses.  :).  Dinner was uber fun, even if I cheated some on my diet.  I had the crab cake salad I love.  I guess the cheating was the bread from the baskets on the table.  Oh well.  Gotta have bread once in a while, right?

BeBop dress and Seychelles Sandals.

Today we were so lazy.  I accomplished almost nothing besides changing over the laundry once, working out and grocery shopping.  I think the guy in the seafood section at Kroger's is starting to think I am weird, as I stock up on ahi tuna every single time I am there.  Today I was like "I will take all the ahi tuna you have".  I eat it almost nightly (that or salmon) so I like to have a lot on hand since I make it for Kurt sometimes too.  It was also on sale, so I was running with the deal!  :).

Spider monkeys at La Paz.

Update

Bad at blogging these days, so I am going to try to do a quick update, with bullet points!  :)

• Learning Spanish.  I know that it will take living in Costa Rica to get really good, but I at least want to have a good base before I go, knowing a lot of phrases and words.  So, I bought Rosetta Stone for Kurt and I, and have been trying to do the program at least once a day, even if only for 10 minutes.  I am learning a lot and really like the program thus far. I also got a great deal on the set.
• Went to the Tigers game twice in the past week, which was super fun.  First time, we were invited by a friend who has season tickets.  We went with Gary and Tammy to the game last Saturday, and Miggy hit a walk off home run, which was awesome.  Great game.   Then, this past Thursday we went with the office to the game in the afternoon.  Had amazing seats, Kurt caught a foul ball, and we were on the big screen twice!  Cray!
• Work has been insanely busy.  I feel like I never have enough hours in the day.  For example, today, I had court all morning, got back to the office around noon, scarfed down a Lean Cuisine, filed like 12 bankruptcies, then returned some phone calls, and before I knew it, it was the end of the day.  Exhausted.
• Had dinner with my family to celebrate my bday (reallllly late) two Saturdays ago.  I got to pick the place, so we went to Sizzling Sticks in Northville, which is a fav of mine.  It was super yummy, and I got some great gifts!  My grama got me a gorgeous crystal necklace, and my aunt got my a towel that says my fav phrase, PURA VIDA, pug flip flops and some bath and body works stuff that smells amazing.
• I have been getting outside a TON to work out.  Running, biking, etc.  Am loving it and the weather in MI right now.  We are logging a lot of miles at Sterling State Park, which makes me happy.  Some days we bike and run, and what a great workout.  
• I have figured out that the real thing to keeping my weight at what I want it is NOT the working out, but the eating right.  I know working out is part of it and part of keeping my body toned in the way I want, but the weight part of it is def food.  I have been doing amazing this week keeping my calories in check and I can really tell with the way I feel.  I just need to avoid eating out.  That is my downfall for sure.
• I found a new massage place in Southgate, MI, I really like called Kneaded Relief.  They are low priced and awesome.  Yay.
• I am looking forward to dinner out with friends this weekend, working out with Kurt, getting some errands done around the house and relaxing.  We have worked the past two Saturdays, and I am looking forward to NOT working a weekend.  Super yay.

Costa Rica--Business Trip?

Who takes business trips to Costa Rica?  Us!  Not related to the law firm, but related to our moving there.



Kurt & I want to become permanent residents of the country for various reasons.  Mostly, because of the benefits we can get from that.  Becoming residents is not easy on your own, so we hired a lawyer to help us.  We had a lawyer who helped us with our house transaction, so we ended up using another lawyer at the same firm for the residency stuff as well.  We had a huge list of things we had to get ready before taking a trip to the country, and then we had to apply in person as there was a couple steps that had to be done in the country.  Thus, the business trip.



**Kurt in lawyers office

We were supposed to go from 08/2-08/8.  However, Spirit Airlines stopped that from happening and we ended up leaving early on the third instead.  We were upgraded to their front row big chair seating, which was amazing.  Bigger seats, first off the plane, gotta love it.  I really do not like Spirit, but for the dates we were going, the fare was like half.  So, Kurt made me do it.  They really are a sub-par airline though.  We flew through Ft Lauderdale, which is a Spirit hub.  The Ft Lauderdale airport is one of the worst airports, IMO.  NO food selection (all disgusting horrible for you food, no sit down places), and for whatever reason, screaming kids everywhere.  Ugh.



**Fingerprints at police school.

Anyway.  Got into Costa Rica and were picked up by Fox Rent A Car and taken to their location to get our SUV.  It was not ready when we got there, so we headed for lunch at a place called Don Mateo, which the rental car place recommended.  Had a yummy lunch, went back and waited some more, and finally got the car.  The wait was somewhat annoying and I am not sure we will use Fox again.  None of the other places we have used in CR has there been a wait.  We then were on our way to Jaco for the night. Got there, and I had rented a room at Morgan's Cove.  Drove there, and realized we were at the wrong Morgan's, and there were two.  I thought I had booked at the Resort and casino and I had actually booked at a place in the middle of town.  Whoopsie.  Anyway, got there, checked in, and the place was a little sketchy.  The room's AC was great, that is about the only positive thing I can say about the room, LOL.  We decided to go into town and drive around, and stopped in a couple stores to check out prices on different things like electronics and furniture.  Went to dinner at Graffiti, which is a nicer place that we really enjoy.  We found it last trip for Kurt's bday.  It was just as good as last time....I had lobster enchiladas which were awesome and Kurt had some kind of blackened mahi.  Went and checked out a casino, and then went back to the room for the night.  The next day, we drove around Jaco some more and checked out some stores.  Found this store I loved with amazing oil paintings by local Costa Rican artists.  Will be back once we move there for sure.  Ate at Los Amigos (our fav local sports bar) and were on to the next part of our trip.  Oh, we stopped by our house as well, but the person staying there was not home so we simply walked around the property and all looked good.  Was sad I could not just move in.  ;).

 Escazu, home of the office of our lawyers.  We got a room right across the way from the lawyers since we had to be at their office at 7 AM.  We stayed at the Intercontinental Real.  Room was very nice, and about 100 steps up from the jaco hotel.  Kurt was very happy.  They even had a great gym by Costa Rican standards, so I worked out every night there.  Anyway, got to Escazu and checked into the hotel, then worked out.  Headed to dinner after that at a sports bar called Nova.  Then off to bed.......

**Taco Bar Escazu

700 AM, went to the lawyers' office.  His paralegal met us to to take us to the police school to be fingerprinted (one of the things we had to do in person).  That was in San Jose.  Had to wait a bit to be called, then were called back, our info and app for prints was processed, and we then got the prints and went back to the office.  Turned over all our documents that we had to bring and paid the filing fee for the application and were told to come back the next day at 200 PM to pick up the temporary residency.  So, after that, we left and explored Escazu some more.  Had lunch at a really yummy asian fusion place and walked around the huge mall they have there, which was fun.  Worked out, then headed to Taco Bar Escazu for dinner.  Awesome meal.  Back to room for night.



Got up, explored Escazu some more and worked out.  Headed back to lawyers at 200 PM and got our temporary residecy!  So easy with a lawyer.  6-8 months and we should be permanent residents.  Hooray!  Headed to San Ramon next to meet with our banker.  Kurt has been talking to him online for months and we had to go there to sign an application for an account and turn over a ton of info to him.  Did that, then headed back into Escazu and had dinner at Taco bar again (can you tell I like the place, LOL).



**Residency documents.

Next day, got up.  Kurt went to meet with the lawyer one more time to do some work with opening a trust account with them, then we left for a place I found called La Paz Waterfall and Gardens.  Took a while to get there, but it was worth it.  Awesome place in the middle of nowhere.  We got to see a ton of animals, including holding toucans, which was amazing.  I really liked the butterfly house and the waterfalls as well.  We walked around most of the afternoon, then headed back to San Jose to our room at the Holiday Inn Express.  Relaxed some then headed to the mall to explore and have dinner.



We left the next day to come home.  BOOOOOOOOOOO.  Overall, productive trip.  A few parts were fun, but most were necessary steps in order to become residents.


**Jaco Beach (portion of).