Bring It? Stow It? Sell It? Give It Away? Junk It?

All questions that could be asked in any number of circumstances, but for the moment, they are my mantra for packing up the contents of our house in Costa Rica. This is actually the first time in all of the moves that we have made in the past few years where I have taken the time to actually cull through the stuff that is in closets, drawers, boxes and all manner of cracks and crevices to evaluate the detritus of our lives. Some interesting finds: the "cookbook" that Adrie and her St. Agnes classmates made in Kindergarten (Stow), four 35mm cameras from the days of film photography (Sell), uniform jackets from FDR in Peru (Give Away), back issues of Smithsonian and National Geographic magazines (Junk, sadly).

After battling a nest of big fat black ants that had set up housekeeping in our cedar chest among a hodge-podge of linens(I thought cedar was supposed to repel bugs), I went to buy moth balls at the hardware store. With some back and forth with the clerk, I figured out that what I wanted was "naftalina bolitas" but that they were not sold at hardware stores but instead could be found at a pharmacy...hmmm, makes me wonder what else people use these for. Now, I can't say that I recall exactly how much a box of moth balls cost in the US, but I was floored when a bag of about 40 cost more than 7 dollars! Hopefully only a few will be needed in our storage items. But I will say the smell is enough for me to know for certain that I am moving!