Pre-Panama Day

Well, Yeah!

I don’t know if I mentioned it or not but I’m heading back down to Panama for a quick one week visit. We leave tomorrow with a flight into Panama City where we’ll stay overnight instead of following our usual tactic of immediately flying up to David. The stated mission is to complete some of the seemingly endless requirements for the resident visa program. Armed with my FBI background check attesting that I am not a serial killer we now have to get that stamped at some place in Panama City before flying up to David where we’ll meet with our immigration lawyer and more document stamping. As I’ve said before Panamanians love to stamp documents.

So Fast!

The up side will be seeing some of my wife’s incomparable family. I predict a lot of laughter will head downrange this coming week. The overnight stop in Panama City will allow us to spend some time with her recently re-located younger sister, one of the founding members of the ever gorgeous PanaGals. While we’re up in David for the rest of the week we’ll also take a day trip to check on the progress of the condo in Las Lajas.

1000 Watt Smile

This was a hastily arranged trip once I got the FBI report stamped at the Panamanian Consulate in New York City a couple weeks ago. It was delayed by the whole moving our home across the street exercise and it seems like we haven’t had a free moment in the past two months. I spent some of yesterday’s work day making hotel and rental car arrangements – so much easier nowadays.

Her "Go To" Sleeping Mode - Butt in the Air

Things have been a little slow at work so of course everything heated up on my last day in the office before taking off a week. I was hooking and jabbing all day with our flighty scheduling software and finally reached a conclusion only to discover the technology company’s FTP site was not functioning. All this while I was trying to escape to mark the arrival of the First Friday of the Week, I was in sore need of Brew City (not that I needed a whole lot of additional motivation).

Still Loves Taste of I-Phones

Brew City provided another thrill when my wife unexpectedly showed up with the back yard Mafioso. They had been out shopping when I told them they should stop by, never expecting them to actually show. I’m beginning to think my wife actually enjoys my weekly forays at Brew City. It was a very good time and the prefect way to kick off vacation week.

As previously chronicled in this blog, my wife’s luggage packing for trips to Panama is truly a task of legerdemain. She takes it very seriously and felt completely unprepared to accomplish it within the two week time frame she had while simultaneously unpacking the house. She’s made up for it by staying up (really late) each of the past two nights. Before all of that last night though, I was summoned to work out on Deckzilla. Her shopping expeditions earlier in the day saw the procurement of flowers for the Deckzilla’s planters.

Deckzilla With His New Flowers

I’m not saying the last thing I wanted to be doing was transplanting flowers in the aftermath of First Friday celebrations but it does rank near the bottom. My wife is not one to be denied though and we’ve both been so busy with other things that this was the really the first thing we’d done together in a long long time which made it acceptable. My Coors Lite inspired ideas on how things should be done were more easily dismissed as well. By the end of daylight she also had me burrowing into the rocky soil to emplace her flower hangers, she made the most out of the good feelings generated by her surprise arrival at Brew City. Even I had to admit Deckzilla definitely looks better with his new flowers. I can’t wait for her to attack the back hill that dominates our view even though it will herald more work for me.

Waving with Wingman

While we were out there we got a video call from California where the First Blog Reader was in fine form. She demonstrated her newly acquired abilities such as pulling herself up and delivering heart rending hand waves. She’s commandeered the bigger bedroom from her parents who say the move has helped with their own sleep (something all new parents cherish). She remains a very busy baby moving constantly which I’m sure has made life for the house cat Pee Wee very interesting. It really sucks to have them all so far away.

A couple days ago I finished off the latest Scot Horvath thriller by Brad Thor, Foreign Agent. It seems so long since I read the last of the incomparable series and have been waiting semi-patiently for him to publish anew. My wait was more than worth it as Horvath has lost none of his edge in the meantime. He’s confronted by a master spy who trying to foment war and destruction along with some nefarious Russian connections. As usual I found it nearly impossible to put the book down which was a challenge with everything else going on but Horvath and Thor’s writing do that to you. I’m now back into the waiting game for Horvath’s next great adventure.