OFF TO COSTA RICA ONE MORE TIME. Rough life, isn’t it. But it’s going to be mostly business, if that makes you feel any better. The running gear is coming along, of course – The Shamrocks 5K is Sunday, and a sub-20:00 time is still on the table as a goal. One thing for sure, there will be plenty more opportunity for elevation work in Escazu.

Here’s some caramel-pecan bars I snuck in last night from Rachel Allen’s PBS show. Some of this batch is coming with me for the folks at the Costa Rica office; after all, it can be hard to find chocolate and other sweets down there. (*)

** WARNING ** This recipe contains no flax seeds, olive oil, spinach, oat bran, or other New-Age wonder foods. Dark chocolate and the pecans are about it as far as ‘healthy’ goes. If you dare, the recipe I used can be found here. The only change I made was substituting pecans for hazelnuts, because, well, pecans were made for caramel and chocolate. They’re kind of like a troika of soul mates. Oh, and I doubled the caramel. The first layer looked too thin.

(*) I have to walk about 100 yards to get to the two pastry shops between my hotel and the office. That’s if I don’t like the hotel’s offerings.