mylifeinspain

where shall i begin

I know I have been away from you all too long (as my parents' phone call on Monday to "make sure I was ok" can attest to), and I KNOW that I always claim we live in a time warp of a god-forsaken village, BUT IT'S TRUE! Days, months, YEARS fly by if one is not careful to notice. So without prattling on, much, here's what we've been up the past few weeks.

First, though, a footnote to our Venice trip last month: ever wonder what the French/Italian Alps look like from an airplane?

Or how about the Pyrenees?

Now you know. :-)

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Our pets continue to live charmed lives. But unfortunately for Big Jim, this is what he faces every night at bedtime:

(I'm the sort of lumpy bit on the right.) Careful readers may be wondering what the Bode kitty is doing in the bed in the first place, seeing as he was banned. But after about three days of being awoken at 4 am by our species-confused kitty, who thinks he is a dog and thus must be with the pack at all times, Big Jim conceded that if Bode was a very good cat and refrained from attacking our feet in the middle of the night, he would possibly consider thinking about allowing the little guy have a trial run at joining the rest of us for sleep time. As you can see, Bode passed with flying colors. Not that he doesn't occasionally get in trouble when his kittenish urges to nibble our toes overwhelm him. :-)

(And no, this is not a duplicate of the first picture. It's just the precious Boo is able to maintain an almost trance-like state for a looooooong time, unless you offer her some food.)

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I continue to keep Big Jim busy with projects around the house (and no, this is not some underhanded way to drive him crazy and thus back out into Workland, as some around the Village of the Damned have suggested!); as a matter of fact, he quite enjoys most of them. Although, rather than actually sorting out his clothes and perhaps donating some of the excess to the charity shop (as I had hoped he would), Big Jim's solution was to buy himself a new wardrobe. And because the deal was such a good one, he bought a second one for me. Now it we can ever figure out where to put them.....
The cupboard in the office and the bedroom have also been painted, white of course, and to be fair Big Jim has made several trips to the basura dropoff as he heeds my call to simplify, simplify, simplify. He even sorted out the boxes (and boxes) of computer cables and schooled me on how to clean out the inside of a computer, very important in these parts where dust and pet fur run havoc.
Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen to BJ in the past couple weeks, however, was his Almost Famous moment when he, as well as the pups, was spotted walking down calle San Antonio by a mylifeinspain reader! (Hi David from Scotland; hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay here. :-)

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We have also survived three technological breakdowns in a 1-week period:

1. My iPod Clementine packed up and went to the great big tech wasteland in the sky. My new iPod, Clementine II, arrived a week later. :-)
2. One of the fans in the Big Jim's old laptop gave out (and hence spurred the aforementioned spring cleaning of the guts of our other computer machines), rendering said laptop useless for the moment (although the hard drive was easily recovered)
3. Our beloved Jura put her foot down and said "Enough is enough! I have provided you people with more than 10,000 delicious cups of coffee and it is time to have me serviced again, dammit!" It has been been four years; you can hardly blame her. At least it looks like there is now a Jura dealer in Spain who can handle this, rather than sending her back to Germany for the tuneup. In the meantime, we've gone old school and broke out the French presses....

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The garden continues to grow, and I am happy to report that I have many pepper plants sprouted from the seeds I planted. :-) Not so lucky with the tomatoes, however, so I am going to try again (and they are San Marzano, not Roma as I previously stated). The weather here has been on the chilly side, although Big Jim would argue. However, he is still acclimatized to the North, as Almendena backed me up yesterday, saying it was "Hace frio, hace frio!" and that she was going downstairs to light her estufa. By now I should have been able to pack away the nordic duvet and my flannel pjs, but no such luck. At least the garden is happy.

Hope life is treating you all as well, too. I promise to not be such a stranger. :-)

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

3 years ago: No entry.
2 years ago: The wedding: part 2
1 year ago: No entry.

spring days

After a week or so of cloudy and rainy weather, some semblance of spring has returned to the village. That said, the temperatures were warmer here in March, and any time Toronto is registering a higher temperature on the thermometer than the Costa del Sol seems just WRONG to me, but nevertheless we persevere. :-)
The days seem incredibly long, with the sun setting just a hair past 9:15 these days. Of course, this means that after our work is done, Big Jim and I still have plenty of time to putter in the garden, which is getting top priority this year. To our usual mix of various flowers, herbs, and chili plants, we are growing a few vegetables of our own. The reason for this is twofold: first, the fabulous organic farmer is no longer making deliveries to the village (despite our many attempts to convince people here that pretty shiny identical-looking pesticide-ridden tomatoes may NOT be the best to eat, we were unable to drum up a sufficient group of regular customers to make his hour-long journey to the village worthwhile), and second, the prices being charged for certain vegetables in the markets are bordering on extortion. "5,75 euros/kg of red peppers, you must be joking!" I shrieked a couple weeks ago to the horror of Big Jim and the greengrocer. And the peppers were rather sad looking to make matters more insulting. Seriously, five years ago for less than 10 euros Big Jim and I could buy more than enough at the Saturday market to keep us both veggified for the coming week (and Jose Luis, the bio farmer, charged only 2,20/kg, btw, for his bio red peppers). In the end, we bought a couple peppers for eating but more importantly for their seeds, which I have since planted. I am way too cheap to continue to pay these insane prices. And so I also planted Italian green peppers and Roma tomatoes, and fingers crossed the Asian eggplants are successful this year. If we had more space on the terrace, I would grow even more of our own food, but alas we are quite limited in square meters these days. (And already have 120+ pots on the roof alone!)

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

3 years ago: Frankfurt recap: part I
2 years ago: No entry.
1 year ago: No entry.

venice recap: part 6 (when will they ever end?!!)

Soon, I promise! They have to because I have another little mini-trip planned for June. :-) First, a quick recap of my experience with Shutdown Day on Saturday. I did successfully manage to not turn on the computers all day, nor did I even sneak a peak at the Internet on the one machine that Big Jim had running (he did not participate although conceded to shut down two of his three computers for the day), so I am quite pleased with myself. :-D And I used the time to do more of the traditional reading that I often claim to not have the time for (or more accurately, do not MAKE the time for), plant more seeds in the garden, and create some order in the office. So refreshing was the day that I have decided to have my own shutdown day one Saturday a month for the rest of the year, with the aim to making it a weekly tradition of sorts. As much as I love my technology, I do think it is important to cut the cord from time to time. :-)

Now to finally finish off this travel recap (incidentally I am wearing my fabulous purple shoes, my gift from Air France, as I write), I think one of the delightful things about Venice is the dizzying number of precious little corners and nearly hidden plazas to explore, not to mention the interesting architectural details spotted with every peer upward---I could wander for weeks I believe and not become bored. Here is just a small sample of what I am talking about:

These, and more (!), fotos will be posted in the Venice album in the sidebar.

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

venice recap: part 5

Yes, even MORE fotos from Venice, but I swear this trip recap will be finished soon and regular blogging will resume next week. I know some of you are waiting for more Bode kitty (or as Big Jim has taken to calling him lately, Shitty kitty) pics, and of course we have been making trips to the garden center and getting the terrace knocked into shape, and generally been enjoying the beautiful spring weather. :-)

Speaking of getting outside, tomorrow is the second annual Shutdown Day, when people pledge to not turn on their computers for 24 hours. I have signed up for this year's event and urge others to do the same, especially if you are like me and spend way too many hours staring at screens. Which means I better get on with this trip recap because I only have 4.5 hours until mandatory logoff time. :-)

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Venice is packed with museums, and Titians and Tintorettos seem almost carelessly tossed on walls all around the city. With just a few days to play tourist, we decided to hit the Gallerie dell’Accademia. There was a special Tiziano exposition on, but we decided to pass and just focus on the regular collection. Which was a smart decision as we barely made it through the museum in time for lunch (only served in most restaurants until 3 pm, which caught us off guard because in Spain meals can be ordered until 4).

The one other site I believe one needs to see is the Palazzo Ducale, or the Doge's (Duke's) Palace (full of even more Tintorettos!). The entrance fee to the museum also includes the Bridge of Sighs, another one Venice's more recognizable landmarks. Photography was very limited inside, but when allowed we snapped away like crazy. :-)

These and more fotos can be found in the Venice album in the side bar. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTERS TOMORROW!!!

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

3 years ago: All packed
2 years ago: No entry.
1 year ago: May day