Feb 28 - Back From Our Zen Holiday And Whoa, Look Who's Living In Our House

What cruel twist is this

That the landlord has moved in?

Karma, what's my sin?

Feb 27 - We Try Stand-Up Paddle Boarding, Which Manages To Be Both Not So Bad And Also Quite Tippy

The guests are watching
I will fall, but not right now
Look at me, upright

Feb 26 - In Which I Try To Put All The Craziness Behind Me And Enjoy A Sweet Weekend At A Beautiful Resort

Life is just too much
When even treats feel like work
Ceviche, save me

Feb 25 - We Meet, Talk, Laugh, Drink, Gossip, Gripe, Celebrate, And Wonder If We'll Ever See Each Other Again

Farewell, Cuso pals
Raise a Toña to these times

New adventures call

Feb 24 - Meeting The Village's Enthusiastic And Enterprising Commercial Sewing Network Fills Me With Hope

A sueño manifests

And the whole world opens up
Seamstresses dream big

Feb 23 - Work Visit To The Dry Corridor In The Dry Season

Where water's so rare
The sight of a new corn field
Excites everyone

Feb 22 - My First Time Out With A Personal Driver, Who Answers All My Questions About What We're Passing By On Our Drive North To Somoto

Armando knows all
Rice, tobacco, factories
He's my dream tour guide

Feb 21 - Everybody Wakes Up With Hangovers And A Yearning For A Dozen Ways To Eat Fresh Seafood

Worn out from twisting
We eat ribs, fin soup, raw fish
Perragomas gone

Feb 20 - In Which A 1.5-Hour Trip In A Packed Vehicle To Casares For Martha's Birthday Turns Into Almost Four Hours, Which Is Somehow Both Irritating And Charming

Travel with Martha
Is truly in the moment
Slow but never dull

Feb 19 - Dia De Cooperativismo Is Big Enough To Be Worth A Scramble For Higher Profile

Four thousand people
But we forgot the banners
I taxi for them

Feb 18 - We Head To Radio Mujer To Talk About What It's Like To Be A Cuso Cooperante

Anne-Marie joins me
To star on the radio
Michele drenches me

Feb 17 - Something About Video-Taping My Computer Screen While I Talk Just Doesn't Feel Comfortable

I am resisting
Making these damn teaching vids
But now I've got 10

Feb 16 - As If All The Tension Wasn't Quite Bad Enough, The Water Quits For The Fourth Time In A Month

Water's gone again
Stink sets in fast in this heat
We don't need more strain

Feb 15 - One Of Those "Get Me Outta Here!" Days, Made Worse By The Landlord Swooping In On A Sunday Morning To Loom Over Poor Blad, Who I'd Really Rather Not See Here Either

I'm unravelling
Snappish and irritated
Function dysfunction

Feb 14 - You Do What You Can On Valentine's Day In A Land With A Serious Shortage of Decent Baked Goods Or Chocolate

Sunny from the pool
I dine on heart-shaped cookies
While Paul eats Hershey's

Feb 13 - The Home Office Would Be Better If There Weren't Four Other People In It, But What The Heck

The meeting runs long
An excuse to work from home
Then eat pupusas

Feb 12 - Another Day, Another Weird And Free On-Line Application To Keep Things Interesting

I make a word cloud

Sacking useless words like 'de'

Tildes for a phrase

Feb 11 - My Friendly Daily Exchanges With The Tick-Covered Schnauzer Called Mini Cooper Pays Off In An Unexpected Way

Sweet little Mini
I'd pet you no matter what
But now, even more

Feb 10 - Every Day A New Lesson In Some Other Impossible Thing I Never Thought I Would Have To Know

My day is lost to
instructional videos
Compression's my life

Feb 9 - A Fine Afternoon With The Women From RedTraSex

I always fit best
with sex workers. We share tales
that know no borders

Feb 8 - It May Look Like A House, But It's Really A Hotel

Perfect solitude
Until Blad shows up to sweep
Can't blame him, but jeez

Feb 7 - Twenty Four Entire Hours Without Anyone But Paul And I Reinforces My Commitment To Never, Ever, Make The Mistake Of Sharing A House Again

The house is empty
My god, I miss privacy
Oh, what fools we were

Feb 6 - The Music Starts And I See A Whole Other Side To My Funny Little Head-Down, Slumped-Shouldered, Foot-Shuffling Pal

Truth: She's quite homely
Then she dances, and transforms
You should dance more, girl

Feb 5 - All The Good News Comes At Once, But That Still Doesn't Mean Anyone Knows How To Scan A PDF

Manna from heaven
I will hold that thought while the
copy man struggles

Feb 4 - Feeling Grateful On Yet Another Drive To This Very Familiar Place That At Least I Know Enough Spanish To Be Playful And Joking

Really? Here again?
And this woman - man, she's bad
But the car ride's fun

Feb 3 - In Which My Computerizing Starts Out Very Successful And Then Completely Destroys The Template

The brutal lesson:
If you don't know CSS
It will mess you up

Feb 2 - Pilar and Yamileth Come For Their Visit And For Two Hours, I Bask In Praise

The Cuso lovefest
Makes me feel like Sally Field
All the bad days gone

Feb 1 - The Moto-Taxi Brings Us Up From The Laguna Via A Mysterious And Long Route And Deposits Us At The Town Of Big Chicken Ceramics, But At Least Paul Finds A Barber

A scenic lake tour
Home in time for Super Bowl
Though Paul hates the end

Jan 31 - Skinny-Dipping At Laguna De Apoyo

Drunk on smuggled rum
We swim naked in the dark
Only the moon sees

Jan 30 - Silvia Drives Us To Alianza Frances For Two Movies About The Nicaraguan Revolution

We have front-row seats
For talking about the war
Feelings still run high