It has been a busy few days: dog-sitting, dog-walking, manuscript editing, blood work, cat meds. The fun never ends!

I dog-sat for Jon and Francisco on Monday while they went to San Jose for the day.

Tuesday I walked with Cindy and three of her dogs and then she and I traveled to Maxi Pali in Grecia where I bought $113 worth of groceries that will last me to the end of the month.

This morning I took the bus to Clinica Sanchez

….in Grecia to get bloodwork (renal function test, INR and blood sugar) and a urinalysis done.  They took a vial of blood but forgot to take another vial to test my INR, so I will go down tomorrow or Monday and have that done.  The INR test is no rush.  I’m sure I’m within normal range on that.

After the bloodletting,

…I walked down to Subway for a sandwich and then to Mercado Municipal to get mamon (aka rambutan), celery, bananas and two avocados. Fruits and veggies are vital!

When I got back, I put a sliced, frozen chicken breast into the crockpot and surrounded it with mixed fruit nectar, water, spices, onion, diced potatoes and pollo y fideos soup mix.  In a few hours I’ll add celery tops and sweet corn.

On Monday and today

…I edited the last of Sonia’s children’s stories. There are still a few small, fast additions that I’ve asked her to make, but when those are reviewed and approved, she will send them on to Lisa for illustrating and formatting into an anthology. My part of the project will be pretty well over except for additional tweaks that Lisa suggests, if she sees something that can be improved over what I did.

Sonia will need to decide

…which of the 15 stories she wants to include in her anthology, which will be her flagship debut. Lisa and I will help with story selection, based on which stories give Lisa the best ideas as far as illustrating them goes. I’m hoping that at least ten of the 15 make the cut.

There are at least two repeating themes

…so some of them will need to come out because I don’t think parents will want (for example) an anthology of children’s stories that hammers the “dead father” theme three times within fifteen stories.

And some of the stories have too similar story arcs, characters, and endings, so they will need to be culled so that only the best ones are published in the anthology. Lisa and I will help determine which ones to keep unless Sonia can pick her absolute favorites from the ones that are too similar or repetitive, theme-wise.

I’m trying to think of other themes that Sonia could tackle (if she wants to) so we can get at least ten considerably different stories into the anthology.  She has explored loss, not fitting in, neurodiversity, cultural clashes, intolerance, and other themes. I’m trying to think of themes or values that she hasn’t already written about.

Jon and Francisco have invited me to lunch next Friday

…July 31st after they visit the feria. (I may or may not go to the feria.) I’m looking forward to that and to having lunch with my first Costa Rica personal driver, Marianela, this coming Monday, who I haven’t seen since February. She and I will be having lunch at Cafe Delicias at 1 to catch up on each other’s lives.  I don’t know where Jon and Francisco will be taking me yet.

I will try to remember to get pictures of both events. I’m just really bad about remembering to VISUALLY document my doings!

There isn’t much more news right now, so I’ll let you go for this time!