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2010-03-07T20:46:00.001-06:00

Scott

Home Sweet Home

2008-02-11T23:59:00.000-06:00

Feb. 10, 2008 - 14 Photos

Having slept the entire car ride home, we took Benjamin straight from the car to his swing in the house where he promptly slept for 3 straight hours. We had to wake him up just to feed him. He was certainly home!

Sadie and Molly took to him right away. Marsha had brought home one of Benjamin's blankets the night before and let the girls sleep with it in their bed, so they were used to his smell before he even arrived home. They smelled his little head so gently and didn't even try to jump up on him once.

We introduced him to his new room and he fell asleep right away after his first feeding at home in his new crib. But boy did he look small in it! I guess he'll have to grow into that—along with his car seat and swing.

Daddy and Mommy have settled into our little routine with him—sleeping, changing, feeding, sleeping, changing, feeding, sleeping, changing, feeding. Thank goodness for baby monitors! I don't know what we'd do in this world without them.

He had his first pediatrician appointment today—only 5 days old and just 48 hours out of the hospital. Everything checked out great and the doctor said his jaundice is long gone which was great to hear. She commented on how strong he was already and to—of course—never leave him alone as he is already trying to roll himself over. He was—of course—the hit of the doctor's office with all of the parents in the waiting room fawning over him. I tried to convince myself that it was because he is particularly cute, but had to settle for the realization that babies are just plain cute in their first week no matter what. :-)

Photos: 14 Photos

Leaving the Hospital

2008-02-09T19:02:00.000-06:00

Leaving the Hospital

Feb. 9, 2008 - 11 Photos

Our first two days in the hospital went wonderfully. Little Benjamin was quite exhausted on his first day in the world, so he pretty much just slept in our arms most of that first day. By the second day, he was active and alert again and ready to take on the world. We had visits from our friends in Dallas and calls from family and friends far and wide checking-in on how our little guy was doing.

The doctors asked us to spend a third night in the hospital before going home because Benjamin had a very slight case of jaundice, but after spending a night in the "blue suit" (see pictures), they gave us the clearance to take our little guy home. We packed up our suitcases, loaded him in his car seat which he looked so tiny in, and headed home to show him where he was going to grow up.

Photos: 11 Photos

Little Benjamin Butler is Here!

2008-02-06T19:02:00.000-06:00

Benjamin Butler's Birth

Feb. 6, 2008 - 26 Photos

After a long 9 month wait for our little prince to arrive, Benjamin Patrick Butler was born at 9:19am this morning on Wednesday, February 6. He weighs 7lbs 12oz and is 20 1/4 inches long. Momma and baby are both doing great!

Kerri went into labor last night at 6:30pm and wanted to stay at home as long as possible before going to the hospital, so we went for dinner at The Porch a few blocks away from our house. After the waitress gave me a third odd look as I frantically scribbled numbers on a paper napkin, I explained to her that I was timing Kerri's contractions. Based on her reply of "SHE'S IN LABOR?!?!?", I can only imagine that she thought that we were going to have the baby right there at the table. All of the staff took turns stopping by the table to wish us luck and the manager came by at the end to wish us well and hoped that the soon-to-be-3-of-us would be back in soon.

At around 9:30pm, Kerri decided it was time to head to the hospital, so we put in calls to Dr. Dullye and our doula Anna Marie. Dr. Dullye was at the hospital delivering 3 other babies that night so she said, "Come on down!". Anna Marie said, "Wonderful! I'll meet you at the hospital in 30 minutes." Our final call was to Kerri's mom Marsha to tell her we were headed to the hospital and that she should head to the airport. We piled into the car with our 200lbs of suitcases, pillows, and exercise balls and were checked into the hospital by 10:00pm. Contractions intensified quickly through the night. At 5:00am, Kerri's mom strode in the door suit case in hand, at 7:00am we started pushing, and at 9:19am little Benjamin was born.

Kerri did a wonderful, wonderful job throughout the entire experience and it was her dedication to making it all happen that brought him into the world so fast and so healthy. In addition, we were surrounded and supported by so many people great staff at the hospital (Dr. Dullye and Nurse Carol in particular) and family and friends both near and far constantly checking-in on us to see how we were doing. We thank you all for all of your help bringing little Benjamin into the world for us to love!

More info and pictures to come shortly...

Photos: 26 Photos

Kerri's Maternity Shoot

2008-01-05T16:40:00.000-06:00

Kerri's Maternity Shoot

Jan. 5, 2008 - 3 Photos

Kerri and I wanted to be sure to capture her pregnancy in all its beauty, so this weekend we did a maternity shoot of her at 8 months pregnant. I think the photos turned out wonderful, but I also had a pretty good subject to shoot. :-) I think our little boy will like seeing his momma pregnant 20 years from now. Hope you enjoy also.

Photos: 3 Photos

Our Christmas Party

2007-12-08T16:10:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas Party

Dec. 8, 2007 - 26 Photos

It's that time of year again! Christmastime always means one thing in our family—a lavish Christmas party with family and friends thrown by Kerri that would put Martha Stewart to shame.

This year's party was a particular accomplishment. Kerri flew back to Dallas from her annual girls' trip to New York on Thursday night, cooked for 2 days straight, decorated the house, and through a great success of a party—all while 7 1/2 months pregnant! As is the case every year, I was showered with compliments on the party and questions as to how she can possibly make all of the food herself, hand-make every invitation, every ornament on the tree, every party favor. Some people just have natural talent and Kerri was born to throw wonderful parties.

I can't wait to see what our little boys' birthday parties are going to look like...

Photos: 26 Photos

Baby Boy's Nursery

2007-12-01T16:04:00.000-06:00

Nursery All Ready

Dec. 1, 2007 - 3 Photos

No one can ever accuse us of not being prepared. It's December 1, our nursery is all done, and little baby boy isn't due until February 9. Kerri has done a wonderful job bringing together blues, whites, and greens for a nautical theme that includes photos of her Grandfather's fishing boats on the wall, as well as pictures from when Marsha was a fisherwoman herself and spent 6 years fishing in Alaska.

OK, buddy—we're ready for you. Keep cooking in there—but we're ready for you.

Photos: 3 Photos

Enjoying the Fireplace

2007-11-30T15:58:00.000-06:00

Enjoying the Fireplace

Nov. 30, 2007 - 6 Photos

It's winter-time here in Dallas and that means that the temperature has dropped considerably. Most people don't think of Texas as being particularly cold, but Dallas has an average low of 36 and an average high of 55 in January.

Our house was built in 1929, so the chimney was long since abandoned when we moved in. But we knew we'd enjoy a warm fire during the winter so we had a fireplace installed. Little did we know that we wouldn't be the only ones enjoying it—Sadie and Molly can't wait for evening to arrive to cuddle in their bed by the fire.

Photos: 6 Photos

Kerri's Last Birthday for Awhile

2007-11-16T15:33:00.000-06:00

Kerri's Birthday Dinner

Nov. 16, 2007 - 6 Photos

On Friday night, Kerri had her last birthday. No, no, no—don't get worried! She just celebrated her 29th birthday which means that she will be 29 for a few years now and won't be celebrating any more birthdays for awhile—especially ones that have a "3" in them. Our friends Meghan, Shay, Megan, Chris, Allison, and Rob all joined us out for a great dinner at Trader Vic's. And don't get too concerned with baby on the way—that crazy-looking drink in her hand is just virgin. :-)

Photos: 6 Photos

Our Couples Baby Shower

2007-11-04T15:24:00.000-06:00

Our Couples Baby Shower

Nov. 4, 2007 - 27 Photos

This last weekend, our friends Megan and Chris and Heather and Chris were kind enough to throw Kerri and I a couples baby shower in preparation for our little guy on the way. Megan and Chris hosted, Heather and Chris planned the shower's activities, and all of our Dallas friends were kind enough to shower us with gifts for our little one.

We may still be getting prepared mentally for his arrival, but we now certainly have all of the stuff for his arrival!

Photos: 27 Photos

Portraits of the Grandchildren

2007-10-10T15:10:00.000-05:00

Butler Grandchildren Portraits

Oct. 10, 2007 - 32 Photos

While Kerri and I were home in Portland this summer, we were lucky to have the entire family in town—including those from France, Germany, and New York! As a result, I took the opportunity to take some portraits of our 8 nieces and nephews. As you can see from the photos, they were all cute as ever! And it was good practice for me too—I need to keep my photography skills sharp as we are going to have our own little one here next year who is going to require lots and lots of photos taken of him. Martha and Gerry's grandchild #9!

Photos: 32 Photos

We're Pregnant!

2007-07-06T14:58:00.000-05:00

Home Sweet Home

Jul. 6, 2007 - 1 Photo

That's right—we're pregnant!

We have a little boy on the way due February 9. Momma is feeling great and we can't wait to welcome the little guy into our life next year. We definitely know that it is a boy—we couldn't stand the thought of waiting until he is born to find out the sex. There is just too much planning to do! :-)

Photos: 1 Photo

Trip to Puerto Viejo

2006-10-03T00:17:00.000-05:00

Puerto Viejo 2006

Oct. 1, 2006 - 20 Photos

Kerri and I just returned from our trip to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica for the weekend. We got a late start on Friday and didn't get in to town until after dark, but just in time for the beach town's festivities to begin.

As we sat down to eat at Cafe Viejo right in the middle of town, a band struck up and a parade started coming down the street complete with fire dancers, drummers, and dancers. All the kids and adults were dressed in all white and playing and dancing in sync as they made their way through town. After the band had passed and we'd finished our dinner, we headed across the street to an art gallery that had just opened that was displaying local artists' works.

After wrapping up things in town, we headed a few kilometers (we speak in kilometers, kilograms, and celsius now...gotta fit in!) to check into our bungalow at Cariblue. It was a little more "rugged" than we thought it would be, but the hammock hanging on our porch made it just fine!

On Saturday, we jumped in the car and drove up the coast about 50 kilometers to Limon and down the coast about 20 kilometers to Manzanilla to see all of the drivable Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. We made on big stop at a local furniture maker where we bought 2 adirondack chairs and a matching table for the backyard of our house. We came back in the afternoon and laid in the hammock reading books all afternoon.

On Saturday night, we went to dinner at a small Italian restaurant only to find that a finalist from Latin American idol and a guy referred to as Costa Rica's "Ambassador of Tango" were performing. Seriously, I have got to get me a title like that. And then I'll make everyone refer to me as "Ambassador" or "Your Ambassadorship". They were both quite good and we were happy to enjoy the evening's free entertainment!

We took Sunday to rest and relax. We had breakfast in town, laid on the beach, got massages in the afternoon, and hit the hammock again to get caught up on some reading (currently reading "Angels and Demons", the prequel to "The Davinci Code").

On Sunday night, we recreated our Friday night dinner at Cafe Viejo--the stone-baked oven pizzas were just too good. On the walk back from dinner, we hear, "Scott and Kerri?" We turn around and find ourselves standing in front of some friends of ours from our Denver book club who were on their honeymoon. Thousands of miles from the US, in a foreign country, at a small little beach town—and we run into our friends. Small world.

On Monday morning, we woke up early to do a photo shoot. We hit the pool, jungle, and beach. No edited photos yet, but I will post them when they are done. Then we checked out of the hotel and hit the road back to Santa Ana!

Other Highlights: Kerri saw two monkeys. I saw none. We ran out of gas at one point during the trip. Not completely out of gas, but enough to not be able to get to Limon. So we had to go see "Tony" in town. Tony sold us 2 gallons of gas. For $10. Probably not a bad deal considering our other option was to walk 50 kilometers to Limon. Kerri stepped in a fire ant hill. Ouch. Not a highlight. Oh, and we bought our own hammock for the house.

Photo Booths and Funny Faces

2006-10-01T00:33:00.000-05:00

When I was growing up, my mom and dad always had a photo on the fridge of the two of them in a photo booth out on a date one night when they were in their early 20s. They look so young and happy in the photo. I think everyone should have a photo like that on their fridge.

Got $100k? Would You Like a House or a Landcruiser?

2006-09-30T00:15:00.000-05:00

Costa Rica is a strange place.

Mothers legally cross the freeway (the freeway!) with their 3-year-old and their 1-year-old in tow...

yet...

it is illegal to drive while talking on your cell phone.

You can buy a house here with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths for $100,000...

yet...

a brand new Toyota Landcruiser costs $100,000.

Traffic on the freeway can sometimes back-up for 20-30 minutes behind a toll booth on the freeway...

yet...

they are only collecting a toll of 75 colones. Which is roughly 15 cents.

The country is technically advanced enough that you can walk into any grocery store and pay your phone bill, your electricity bill, your cable bill, etc...

yet...

to change the name on our cable bill from our landlord's to yours, you have to visit both the cable company's office and a laywer's office and sign 4 documents. With your landlord in tow.

The cell phone company is advanced enough to send out "Happy Whetever-Day" text messages to everyone's phones on holidays...

yet...

Cell phone calls only go through two times out of three.

You can call virtually any restaurant in the country and they will deliver to your house...

yet...

The power goes out a couple of times a week. For a couple of hours. Minimum.

We get ABC, NBC, and CBS...

yet...

ABC is blocked out every night from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Although I guess I should just be glad that we get ABC in the first place.

Weird.

Growing Up

2006-09-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

I had a rough childhood.

First, I was almost eaten by an alligator at a very early age. A near death experience like that made me think about entering the seminary, but I knew I couldn't cut it. Instead, I thought seriously about attending Duke University, but decided against it in favor of joining the Navy.

When I got out of the Navy, I had a bad drinking problem and one night was arrested Nick Nolte-syle. Coming out of rehab, I cleaned up my act and walked the straight and narrow. Even dressed the part for awhile. OK, maybe quite awhile. OK, probably too long.

I tried becoming a professional golfer, but was told that only professional basketball players where their socks that high. So I tried playing in the NBA for awhile, but that too didn't work out.

Shortly thereafter, I landed a guest role on The Partridge Family, but they killed off my character during the first season. That led to a stint with a Triple A baseball team, but we only had four players so we didn't win very often.

Coming off golf, basketball, and baseball, I was feeling pretty on top of the world and the world needed a lot of help, so I became a super hero, but had to quit shortly after I outgrew my size 3 suit.

The next spring, I landed a spot on the US Track and Field team and the following winter skied with the US Ski Team, but at that point I had had it with sports.

So I re-enlisted in the Navy. I just couldn't support the US war efforts, however, so I left the Navy and protested instead. Protesting was exhausting so I took some time off to go fishing for a few weeks.

Coming back, I really missed my time on The Partridge Family, so I went back to find my roots in the theater. I played Danny Zuco in the Broadway cast of Grease. I tried being a puppeteer. I joined a small traveling group of Evel Keneval impersonators, but quite frankly, I just couldn't stop laughing. I joined a ragtime band. I performed with a Chinese acrobat troop. I went back to Broadway and played Oliver Twist. I worked at a local McDonald's as Ronald McDonald. I even played a leprechaun at St. Patrick's Day festivals.

By the end of it all, I was exhausted so I went fishing again for several months this time. I needed to rest my mind for awhile, so I took up the arcane hobby of making chairs from milk cans. It didn't last.

It wasn't long before calls for Superman's return were rampant across the nation. I knew I couldn't keep up with it all. So I cloned myself.

One of me moved to Hawaii and took up surfing. The other version of me was last seen continuing to abuse the use of the sweater vest.

And now you know why I am how I am.

Some Random Things About Living Abroad

2006-09-28T00:45:00.000-05:00

Here are some random observations about living/traveling abroad:

I am much more aware of what time zone I am in at all times.
I now know what the "+" sign means in phone numbers. Don't know? E-mail me and I'll explain.
As Americans, we completely take for granted how lucky we are to cross any border into any country—no questions asked.
For the first 29 years of my life, I carried my passport with me once—on a month long trip to Europe after college. Now I carry it with me all the time. Or at least a copy of it in my wallet when I'm in Costa Rica.
I always have weird money in my wallet.
As Americans, we live in a bubble of self-interest with little knowledge/care for the world outside our borders. Or as one non-American said to me today, "In fourth grade Americans learn every step in the legislative and judicial system, but they can't tell you where Canada is." Don't get me wrong—I'm as pro-American as can be. We just don't realize there is an entirely other world out there.

Did You Know That...?

2006-09-21T00:41:00.000-05:00

Every now and then I learn something and I think to myself, "How in the world could I have gone 29 years on this planet and not have learned that yet?"

Well I had one of those the other day.

Kerri and I used to have two cars. One car had the gas tank on the left hand side; one car had it on the right hand side. For some reason, I could never remember which was which so I was perpertually turning to her and saying, "Is the gas tank on your side?" every time we pulled into a gas station.

The other day, we were driving in Costa Rica with our friend Kimberly and we needed gas so we pulled into a gas station. I turned to Kerri, "Is the gas tank on your side?"

Before Kerri could answer, Kimberly pipes in, "Just look at the fuel gauge on your dashboard."

"What?"

"Just look at the fuel gauge. There is a little arrow pointing to the side the gas tank is on."

Wow. I've probably asked that question 200 times in my life. And all I had to do was look for a little arrow on the fuel gauge? If you figure the entire conversation takes 20 seconds, that's 4,000 seconds. 66 minutes. An hour!
Don't you think someone at the car dealership could have told me that?

I want my hour back.

And on top of that, I'm convinced that, say, 50% of you out there that are reading this are leaning it for the first time also. So I am hereby making this post my personal crusade to re-educate the planet on this crucial issue.

Spread the word.

Trip to Vancouver

2006-09-18T00:18:00.000-05:00

Vancouver 2006

Sep 17, 2006 - 33 Photos

Kerri and I just got back from our trip to Vancouver BC this weekend. We stayed at the Sutton Place Hotel in downtown Vancouver. I spent the first two days in meetings for work and then come the weekend we were able to get out and explore.

On Friday night, we had dinner at Blue Water Cafe in Yaletown, a great steak and seafood restaurant. About an hour into our meal, I noticed we were sitting next to Jason Priestly from Beverly Hills 90210. I wanted to sneak a picture for the blog, but Kerri wouldn't let me. :-)

On Saturday morning, we walked through Stanley Park which provides an amazing view of Vancouver from across the bay. We saw the totem poles in the park, teams playing cricket, and horse-drawn carriages giving people rides around the park.

On Saturday afternoon, we took a cab over to Gastown, had lunch at Old Spaghetti Factory (no, we don't have Old Spaghetti Factory in Costa Rica), and caught a show at Storyeum called, "The History of Vancouver". On the streets of Gastown, we met a fantastic artist named Gastown Sam who we bought an amazing piece of art from.

On Saturday night, Kerri's dad Dan and her brother Steven drove up from Bellingham to meet us for dinner. We had another great steak and seafood meal and had a great time catching up with them.

On Sunday morning, we were up bright and early to catch our flight back to Costa Rica! On the way to the airport, we were in an accident in our cab. Thankfully it was just a small fender-bender, no one was hurt, and we hailed another taxi that got us to the airport with plenty of time to make our flight.

¿Habla Espanol?

2006-09-16T00:58:00.000-05:00

Living in Costa Rica, I'm forced to speak a different language. Well not forced exactly—but it does make things a lot easier.

Recently I've noticed that there are actually three languages spoken in Costa Rica:

Costa Rican Spanish
Gringo "I Learned Spanish After I Moved Here" Spanish
Gringo "I Learned Spanish in High School" Spanish

Costa Rican Spanish is —well—Spanish like the rest of Central and South America except for throwing in a few "pura vidas" and "vosotros"'s for good measure.

Gringo "I Learned Spanish After I Moved Here" Spanish and Gringo "I Learned Spanish in High School" Spanish, however, are noticeably different.

I speak Gringo "I Learned Spanish in High School" Spanish. I spent four years in high school learning right out of a text book, didn't speak it from 18-29, and then it thankfully all came back to me when I hit the Costa Rican border.

Learning a language via text book ("High School" Spanish) is extremely different than learning via immersion ("After I Moved Here" Spanish).

I can't hear a word and learn it. Period. But once I see the spelling, I know it immediately.
I know more verbs and conjugations than most of my recently arrived compatriate expatriates (say that ten times fast), but they know more nouns than I do. Why? Because sometimes when you are in a restaurant, they foget to give you a fork and you need to figure out how to ask for one somehow. So you just learn.
I can usually speak far more than they can, but they can usually understand far more than I can. Which is quite funny when two of us are hanging out. One person does all of the talking, the other does all of the listening.

Like I Said, It's All About the Amplitude

2006-09-08T02:02:00.000-05:00

My brother Jeff and his wife live in Germany. They moved there in August 2005 for Jeff to take a new job within Adidas at their world headquarters in Nuremberg. In the last year, the two of them have gone through quite an experience moving out of the US and transitioning into a foreign country. Blythe often writes about it on her blog.

Wait—this is starting to sound familiar. Ok, ok—I clearly got the idea of starting my blog from Blythe. We were both English majors—we're used to "borrowing liberally".

Earlier today, Blythe made a post to her blog ("Anniversary") that really hit home for me. As a result, I'd like to "borrow liberally" again (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Right.) and expound upon my feelings on the same topic. Thanks Blythe. I owe you two ideas for blog postings now. Or maybe just one of those smoothies you like so much from Starbucks.

So living abroad—what's it really like? Well, in our post-blog conversation, Blythe put it best: "Sometimes the hardest part isn't living abroad—it's admitting to people that living abroad isn't always as glamorous as it seems."

Or as I like to put it—it's all about the amplitude. (What is amplitude?)

When you live abroad (or really, take on any new challenge in life), the amplitude of your every day experiences increases dramatically. You go from a life with a relatively low amplitude to a life with high amplitude. You go from a life that is more "hum drum" (not in a bad way, it's just consistently consistent) to a life that is full of very low lows and very high highs.

The hard thing is determining whether or not the net yield of the low-lows plus the high-highs equals the net yield of hum-drum.

Life for Me in the States
+1 + -1 = 0

Life for Me Abroad
+5 + -5 = 0

But the funny thing is, the human mind and spirit doesn't work that way. Even though the net yield is still 0, you are not the same after the experiences.

My Conclusion: Living abroad is a good thing to do—for a defined period of time. Not your whole life. And if you have defined that period of time in your own mind (1 year? 3 years? 5 years?), it makes it that much easier to get through the low times because you know it is not forever and you are—temporarily—trading those low times for the high times.

PS—As I finished writing this, I just looked out my office at home to find a huge spider walking across the hall. This proves my earlier point. Needless to say, he is no longer with us.

Special K in the USA

2006-09-06T12:54:00.000-05:00

It's official—my sister Kendra has entered the blogosphere.

Special K in the USA

The thing I love about "outing" new bloggers is they have to post to their blog now because people are watching. :-)

So, have you started your blog yet? We all want to read it. I'm serious. You only have to post once a week or so if you like. Do it. DO IT. DO IT!!! OK—you don't have to if you don't want to.

But if you do start one, send me the link.

Trip to Toronto

2006-09-05T00:44:00.000-05:00

Toronto 2006

Sep 4, 2006 - 20 Photos

I just returned from our trip to Toronto. We got in late on Thursday evening, took a quick shower, and headed downstairs to meet the folks from Media Profile who I was in town to meet with. We stayed at the Suites at One King West which I would definitely recommend. The first night, Media Profile took us to an amazing restaurant called Ultra Supper Club. Great atmosphere, great wine, and great food.

The second night, Kerri and I laid low and ordered room service after I got out of a long meeting all day. On Saturday, we explored Toronto checking out St. Lawrence Market and Eaton Centre (the largest mall in Toronto and the third-largest mall in Canada). On Saturday night, we had a great dinner at a place called MoDo's which had a quaint atmosphere and showed old black-and-white Charlie Chaplin movies on a brick wall.

On Sunday, we jumped in a car and drove south to visit Niagara Falls which neither Kerri nor I had ever been to. We took quite a few pictures and took in the sights. We didn't realize that there was a little "mini-Vegas" in Niagara Falls. On the way back, we cut off the highway to check out a little town that was recommended to us—Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was a cute, old, little town that Kerri absolutely fell in love with and decided that we had to return to some fall when the leaves were changing color.

We got back into town just in time to meet up with our friends John and Bettina for a fantastic dinner at the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar. No, not that Jamie Kennedy.

Then it was up at 4:00 AM on Monday morning to head to the airport—Kerri to California to visit her mom and me back to Costa Rica.

Trip to Aspen

2006-08-28T00:57:00.000-05:00

Aspen 2006

Aug 27, 2006 - 24 Photos

It is Sunday and Kerri and I just finished three days in Aspen for Casey and Katie's wedding. We drove up on Friday with our friends Pat and Brooke after spending a few days in Denver. On the way up, we stopped in Idaho Springs for lunch at a local Colorado microbrewery called Tommyknocker's. Not being beer drinkers, Kerri and I knocked back a couple of cold root beers. And I had a bowl of the best chili I've ever had in my life. If you ever find yourself in Idaho Springs, Colorado, order the chili. :-)

In Aspen, Brooke and Pat's friend Jeremy was nice enough to let us stay at his house. Well, it wasn't his house exactly. It was the $35 million dollar vacation home next to Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn's place that he is the caretaker for. Wow—what an amazing place this house was. It must have been 8-10 thousand square feet, on 300 acres, pool, 2 hot tubs, bocce ball court, motor bikes, a 60" plasma screen TV, and 3 server racks to run the entire house. The best feature of the entire place was the Indonesian Tea House that Jeremy built right outside that sits on the pond. What a relaxing place to sit and—well—relax.

On Friday night, we went out to dinner in downtown Aspen. I've been really lucky to go to a lot of amazing places in the last 10 years (New York, San Francisco, Miami, Paris, St. Tropez, etc.), but I have never seen money like there is in Aspen. It just oozes money. But not in a good way. We had a fantastic dinner at Campo De Fiori, hit the hot tub back at our borrowed mansion, and then called it a night in preparation for the big wedding the next day.

The next morning, Kerri (wedding planner) and Brooke (maid of honor) left the house early to begin the wedding preparations. Pat, Jeremy, and I took the opportunity to have some guy time.

10:26 AM: Huge omelet breakfast at one of the cafes from the movie "Aspen Extreme". Yum.
11:46 AM: Go in hot tub.
12:33 AM: Jump on the trampoline. No broken bones.
1:16 PM: Play soccer—the three of us against the two dogs that live at the house. Dogs win.
2:04 PM: Ride dirt bikes around property. Avoided broken bones again. OK to show up for wedding.
3:34 PM: Shoot guns at cans on the fence. Miss.
3:53 PM: Jump in shower.
4:00 PM: Leave for wedding.

We arrived at the wedding right on time to catch the gondola at Little Nell up to the top of the mountain for the ceremony which was held on an outcropping overlooking an amazing mountain view. Then inside for dinner, some wine, and some dancing.

All in all, a fantastic Aspen weekend.

Car-less

2006-08-27T00:32:00.000-05:00

While Kerri and I have been in Denver this past week, we took the opportunity to turn in the Mercedes at the end of our lease. For the three years we drove it, it was a great car. And we weren't too bad to it—showing it Salt Lake City, Dallas, Napa, and Denver. :-)

Bye Bye Mercedes!

We have not yet bought a car in Costa Rica so—for the time being—we are car-less. It's a bit odd—this is the first time we have not owned a car since 1997. Hopefully we'll be able to find a car in Costa Rica soon. We've been taking taxis for the last 7 months which hasn't been the end of the world because our time in Costa Rica has been so erratic, but it has gotten very old very quickly and its now time to pony up and buy something. Problem is, 1) cars in Costa Rica are very expensive (40-50% more than in the US), and 2) financing is very difficult to get and even more expensive.

Before our travel schedule got crazy in June and July, Kerri and I went out searching for a car last May. We were beyond lucky when we rolled up to the first dealership we saw, found a 2002 Mitsubushi Montero Sport that we loved, and at a price we felt we could afford. We had a mechanic come by to look at the car, he gave us the thumbs up, so we put a $200 deposit down to hold the car. Yes, a $200 deposit.

We started talking on the way home and Kerri reminded me of some guidance we had heard from another ex-pat to do your due diligence when buying a car in Costa Rica as a lot vehicles in Costa Rica came from Louisiana in 2005. We asked why that would matter and he reminded us that Hurricane Katrina had hit Louisiana in 2005. Insurance companies wrote off the cars that were in the hurricane as losses, then turned around and sold them at auction to dealers who cleaned them up, and then turned around and shipped them to Mexico, Central America, and South America to sell. Apparently, to sell to unsuspecting ex-pats.

So we went home, logged-on to CarFax.com and ran the VIN number from the Montero Sport. Not only did the vehicle's last known address appear as New Orleans, Louisiana, but the last registered mileage reading on file from 3 years previous was 128,000 miles. The odometer now read 78,000 miles. Not only had the vehicle been salvaged from the hurricane, but somewhere between Louisiana and Costa Rica, someone had turned back the odometer 50,000 miles—at least.

We called the dealership and got our $200 back. Rest assured, we'll be checking the VIN on any further cars we look at.