The latest from planet paradise

So much for writing more often. The weather has been great, so it's hard to stay indoors. Plus, I made the mistake of telling Doc that I type over a hundred words a minute, so he unloaded pages and pages of his writings that were lost during a computer crash. I've been working my way through his short story, a P.G. Wodehouse tale featuring Bertie and Jeeves, entitled "The Case of the Missing Mashie." My favorite line so far is his description of golf as "a not unplesant way to while away an afternoon and rid yourself of unnecessary self-esteem, simultaneously."

I realize that it's risky to feature a picture of a monkey in a blog bearing one's name, but several readers have expressed a desire to see the infamous Yahoo, so here she is. She will be relocating soon to Steve and Michelle's property in Chorcha where Cesar, since he finished our wall, is constructing a monkey house. It's probably time because she's really been obstreperous of late; I had a devil of a time getting her picture, as you probably can tell by Michelle's disarray. Shortly after the photo shoot she managed to free herself of Michelle and scampered to the top of the wall, where Steve was busy inserting plants between rocks. It took me, Larry, Steve, Michelle, Gareth, and Rebeca to finally recapture her, accompanied by screeching from her and baying from Trudy.

The highlight of the past week was a trip to Volcan with Doc, Charly, Ramon, and their friends Sam and Judy Sacco. We lunched at a new Thai restaurant there, and, although Thai has never been a favorite food of mine, this meal was spectacular. We ordered five dishes between the six of us (Larry stayed home to oversee some work that was being done) and ate every morsel even though the portions were herculean. Afterwards, Paul, the chef/proprietor, gave us a tour of his garden/greenhouses filled with carnivorous plants. There was every variety of pitcher plant, sundew, Venus fly trap, and nepenthes (look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls--or, better yet, google it for some really weird pictures) known to man. Paul, who hails from Hollywood, California and is covered in tattoos, also advised that he has a side business in that ancient art should we be inclined to memoralize the day with some body decoration. All that said, he seemed like a regular guy.