We've had a pretty busy social calendar the last few days.  On Wednesday I went to Cynde's house to play Mahjong, which, by the way, is great fun!  Then on Thursday we went to the same house for a potluck.  I was amazed at some of the dishes people brought.  Especially since shopping in town the last two Tuesdays.  I was wrong about them having so much in the stores here.  They have a lot but for everything I have in mind to fix there are always a couple of ingredients that are not available.  So you either substitute or leave something out and the results are pretty iffy, at best. I took my Texas Caviar dip (also known as Saunders Lake dip) and after numerous substitutions it was hardly recognizable as the original.  It was okay, but---.
There is an interesting group of people here.  A Danish man named Stig and his American wife.  Our neighbors, Mary and Carl, are retired college teachers and had been cruising (sailboat travel) for 16 years before settling here 4 years ago.  They are from North Carolina.  Another couple of cruisers who built a house here are from Colorado.  Cynde is from Mt. Shasta area. Her husband passed away about a year and a half ago.  She has a beautiful home here that her husband built and it has every convenience you could want.  The deck hangs over the water and also serves as a boat house.  But she really does not want to stay here alone.  A real problem for retirees who create these dream homes and then one of them passes and the other does not know quite what to do next.
There were several newly retired couples there.  Younger, maybe late 50's and several had retired from careers spent working overseas.  Also a couple visiting here from Boquette (here in the mountains of Panama).  They invited us to visit and we may very well do that on out way to Costa Rica in July.
Yesterday we had Mary and Carl over to dinner and I stressed all day trying to work with a stove I don't like and a minimum of pots and pans as well as having to substitute ingredients once again.  It turned out okay but I have done better.
Tomorrow we are going to Rana Azul (the little pizza bar in the jungle that is only open on Sunday afternoon and is run by an Austrian couple.  I hope this time to be able to visit and not spend my entire afternoon out back in the little house.
Oh yes, and we also met an interesting fellow at the potluck named Ian Usher.  A few years back he ran an ad to sell everything he had in Australia on e-bay.  It was called ALIFE4SALE.  Then his plan was to spend 100 weeks doing 100 things from his wish list of things to do and things to see.  He did that and wrote a book that is doing very well.called A Life Sold.  I am reading it on my kindle now and he actually did not sell the house on e-bay but had enough publicity and movie offers, etc. he was able to do the 100 things in 100 weeks. He has a home here now.
Today we are just staying home and I am trying to cook a few things ahead.  Macaroni salad for one thing.  Of course, not with macaroni but with some other strange looking pasta sort of thing.  No sweet pickles available but I did find sweet relish so will try that.  I will be using real hard boiled eggs!.  
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