I just heard about the California shootings--by reading the online Costa Rican newspaper crhoy.com. I had just read a story about President Solis breaking his diet--he's already eaten the first tamal of the holiday season!--when I saw an article titled: "Hay muertos, no sabemos cuantos," en California. Huh? Deaths in California? I was really, ( Read more... )

I just discovered a new Spanish term for a calico or tortoiseshell cat: "una gata mariposa", a butterfly cat. I knew that tortoiseshell cats were called gatas tortugas--turtle cats--but gata mariposa is even better. (Gata rather than gato because almost all torties and calicos are female ( Read more... )

El planeta fue hermoso. Su sol fue amarillo y exactamente la distancia correcta desde la planeta. Hubo agua líquida, una atmosfera rica en el oxígeno, y plantas verdes con la clorofila. Apareció perfecta ( Read more... )

Me gusta comer los cerebros. ¿Eso me hace una mala persona ( Read more... )

I just finished reading my first full novel in Spanish, "El León, La Bruja, y El Rompero" by C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, of course). The grammar was pretty easy, the vocabulary not too bad thanks to a Spanish-English dictionary on my Kindle. It helped a lot that I already knew the plot ( Read more... )

Or rather I had a dream with Spanish, because I was speaking English most of the time, but had to say something in Spanish. And did so, though not entirely correctly ( Read more... )

Una comunidad amistosa del desierto donde el sol es calor y la luna es hermosa y las luces misteriosas pasen sobre cabeza mientras todos pretendamos dormir. ¡Bienvenido a Valle de Noche ( Read more... )

On Saturday Rita and I were walking past a medium-rise apartment building between here and downtown, and Rita fairly idly wondered how much they cost. So I told her that the sign on front said the leasing/sales office was open every day from 8 to 5 for viewing apartments, so why not? It was Saturday morning and we had nothing urgent to do. (Rita ( Read more... )

And in the "for what it's worth" department, I can now read Lolcats in Spanish:

http://espanol.cheezburger.com/tag/animales

Today while waiting for take out sushi, I read a column in La Nacion, the local "serious" newspaper, on organ donation, particularly the need to protect live donors. It was a good way to spend my time, and particularly gratifying that I comprehended almost all of it. It's nothing earthshattering, though, just the standard "we must make sure that ( Read more... )