For a period of about two months, my computer was having trouble with its anti-virus program. Apparently, the utility it used to update virus definitions got —wait for it— a virus. As you may know, I hardly ever connect my computer to the internet anyhow, but it was still annoying. That dilemma, along with a new hare-brained scheme to charge for parking in Palmares, has resulted in me being a bit M.I.A. on the blogging scene of late. In the end, the virus problem got resolved after a couple weeks of back-and-forth emails to Customer Service. However, another potential problem remained.

When I was driving back from an in-service day in San Jose a few weeks ago, some of my coworkers were talking about traveling sicknesses, and the topic turned to “de-parasiting” pills. Evidently, many people here routinely take a pill every now and then to get rid of parasites. “What,” they asked me, “You’ve never taken one of those pills before?” Well, I’d not. Evidently, my trip to Nicaragua a few years ago may have left me with more souvenirs that I had imagined. Plus, I’d been waking up with teeth and jaw-aches, and apparently grinding and clenching teeth is also a common result of parasites.

So, Angela and I bought some pills at the pharmacy and took them, crossing our fingers and hoping for luck. Next up, we have to take Chubby (our new grey cat) to the vet to get de-wormed also.

Ah, Costa Rica. It’ll infect you with love. And other stuff.