I'm behind on everything. Ever since we got back from Spain, it has been like a game of catch up and the finish line keeps getting more and more distant. That beautiful weekend didn't help either - I definitely played hooky on the sponsibilities. Like I finally got through my bloglist and then there were over 400 new posts while I was catching up. Lemme see if I can snippetize the last couple of days. * Got two new clients who contacted me via the website. One of them lives in mcmansionville. At the end of the lesson I was paid from a three inch stack of crisp twenties. Seemed kind of show offy which was overkill. Ostentatious opulence is what they should call that neighborhood.
* Get this. I bought Christmas presents yesterday. I can't reveal what since receivers may read this blog, but it was an idea I had a couple years ago and then the dang things were sold out close to Christmas for the last two years. So I snatched them up and put a note to myself in the bag so I don't forget. * I have a bunch of new contracts starting this week at the Justice department. Man those people are serious down there. The expression sober as a judge is so apt.
* Because of the new contracts, I bought a monthly transit pass. The last few months I've been commuting to the suburbs by car so going back to the metro is nice. Yesterday it was pretty crowded in the metro and this guy squeezed on so his ass crack was pressed firmly into my wrist. I thought that was odd. * We watched Capitalism a Love Story the other night. Meh. I did find it interesting that the top tax rate back in the 50's was close to 90%. Who has benefited most from the 50 plus year economic expansion? The rich of course. The powers that be have been smart about it though. There will be no rebellion if a certain level of prosperity is possible for all.
* Like up here they introduced a new budget that will have a "health tax" payable annually on your tax return. In a couple years it will be $200. That's a flat rate for everyone. The problem I see with that is the guy who makes 20k a year must pay one percent of his income for the health tax and the guy who makes 200k must pay only one tenth of one percent of his. Not fair. * During our mini heat wave I fell asleep on the couch with just a t-shirt on and Serge seized the opportunity to take blackmail pictures. They are horrifying.
* Georgie has been a delight.
* I'm sure there's more, but that's going to have to wait until next time. Work calls so off I go.
It has been the two most fabulous days weather-wise in a very long time up here. At least since last September. Naturally, everyone in the city fled their cooped up homes to enjoy it. We not only broke records, we shattered them by 10 degrees C (18 F). There were lines for ice cream in April. That's something I'll probably never see again. I wanted Gelato and since they didn't have the cherry vanilla kind I like, I had blueberry cheesecake. Ooh ooh ooh, another fabulous thing was that we wandered into a specialty market and I found those French's fried onions that I use for green bean casserole. Picked up a half dozen cans I did.
Serge set up the patio while I made a plate of tapas and martinis. We enjoyed sitting outside and marveled. Honestly the day before was in the 40s and it was 80 degrees!
It doesn't matter where I am, that dang dog needs to be (dominate?) on me.
Day two of the "heat wave" and I dragged Serge down to the old port. (We had walked Mont Royal street the day before.) Like the day before Serge wanted to have a "beer on a terrace". We got lucky on Mont Royal street and found a spot. When someone got up, I started counting one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand. I got to four when the seat was grabbed. Four seconds. I didn't think we would be so lucky down in the old port since it seemed like everyone had the same idea as we did for a walking venue.
In the end, we got lucky again. The service was poor, but the people watching was awesome. There were a lot of angry customers there and the poor waitress had to deal with it. Apparently the cook and the busboy didn't show up. Lucky for us, we only ordered a beer.
I pretended we were still in Europe. I mean why not? Lots of foreign languages being spoken and 18th century architecture make the old city very European. You know what I want to know though? How is it possible that there were flies and wasps out and about? They don't usually show up for another month. Where do they come from, how do they appear so quickly? It's like magic.
Georgie loves it outside too. He spent practically the whole two days out there. Have a happy Easter everyone!
The whole city is brimming with giddiness. Not only is it a long weekend, but we are supposed to have record breaking warmth as well. Yesterday we maxed out in the 40's but today we are destined for 70's. It is more common to have a snowstorm at this time of year than 70's. In fact this will be the earliest I've seen that kind of temp since I moved up here ten years ago. It's a given that we shall be firing up the barbeque. (Why does it always say I'm spelling that wrong?)
I had a nice ego boost this week as I finished the class for one of my groups of nurses. They surprised me with a card and my current fave wine (Ravenswood Zinfandel) to thank me for being their teacher. They were all so nice in the card but my favorite was, " I have had many English teachers in my life and you are the best I have ever had. Thank you very much! You have made it easier and fun. I hope you will be there for our next session." I was so proud that she used THREE instances of present perfect correctly.
Have you ever wondered where "scared the living daylights out of" came from? Well I did. There is no hard consensus but I did find out that "daylights" equated to "mental powers" at some time in the past. Interesting stuff for word geeks such as myself.
Not a whole lot else going on. One of our tenants has announced his leaving in July. This is actually great news. The city has really cranked up the taxes on us and they've gone up over $400 a year for the past three years in a row. We haven't been able to raise the rents as much so our whole operation just keeps costing more. (I know, welcome to life.) But now that he's leaving, we can bend the rules a bit. I mean the girl in the apartment next to his and is the same dimension pays over $100 more than he does. Technically, you are not allowed to raise rents to market value when tenants move out, but we may try anyway.
My goal is to be caught up on blogs but that beautiful weather is seducing me. Hopefully by the end of Easter. Have a great weekend y'all!
This was a fun meal. I made it the other night as I resisted believing we weren't in Spain anymore. It was all excellent but that manchego cheese is way too expensive to have regularly. Yesterday I had my traditional post-vacation poutine (this time with smoked meat in it - yum) which is how I celebrate coming home. When I go to California, it's always Mexican food that roots me in place.
It it great being reunited with Georgie of course. Such a love muffin. He had a little pee pee accident and let go while he was at the door leading outside. Luckily I caught him while he was doing it and took him out to the right spot on the patio. He has gone there every time since. Good boy!
I know this is tacky but I just had to share. This was at the school I was teaching at yesterday. Because I didn't take the shot right (I was a bit ashamed since there was someone else in the bathroom but since they were talking on their cellphone, I thought maybe they wouldn't notice) you can't see how the poo is stacked up like a cone. I couldn't figure out how the person was sitting for the poo to go there. And where is the toilet paper? Did they not wipe? Or did they and the location of the pile prevented the water from flushing it away? Well I tried to trigger the flushing mechanism (the radar kind) but it wouldn't flush. Hmmm. Are there really those who don't wipe? It would seem so.
So I've been poring over all the photos from all five camera toting people trying to find the best ones. I came up with what I thought were the top 135, though I'm sure others might disagree. For example, this shot did not make the top cut. The things people do after cocktails. So funny. There is a hilarious video of my brother and I talking about, well let's just say nasty things, and we didn't know Serge was filming. When I watched it yesterday I turned all red, did we really talk about THAT??? Apparently so. And it was worse for brother. No, I won't be showing it and no I will not send it to you privately by email either, so don't ask.
Oh this was interesting on the dessert menu in Barcelona. It had been a great meal and we absolutely couldn't eat another bite but when we saw the Judas's testicle, we just had to order. Sadly, they didn't have this dessert. Incidentally, there is a dessert here in Quebec called nun's farts too, but no testicular sweets.
As I was going through the thousands of photos (I shit you not) there were so many that flummoxed me. Like this one. It was from Serge's camera. I just had to ask, "What were you taking a picture of?" He replied, "I don't know the room or the yellow or something." See I think I'm going to give a tutorial next time on taking pictures. I'm no expert and I've never even taken a class, but I know that that is not an interesting shot. It must be because I've taken so many failed pictures that I don't bother now unless there's a chance of it being good. First of all, choose your subject. Then, make sure your subject is lit (I could go on and on about this. In Hawaii, I saw all kinds of people taking sunset pictures with people facing the camera and no flash. I wanted to run up to each one and yell, "Pull your head out!") adequately.
For example this shot. What was it supposed to be of? The crowd? The shop sign? The tree? I just couldn't figure it out. It's not bad, it's just not that interesting. My dad once told me that pictures without people are boring, but as you can see here, having people doesn't necessarily mean it won't be. Nowadays, I don't believe that about people, because we got some great peopleless shots on this trip.
This came off my brother's iphone. No flash in a dark tapas bar and it came out great. I made one of those tortillas last night. Actually, made a whole plate of tapas in the typical Spanish style. I found the thinly sliced Serrano ham, Spanish style olives, chorizo, and I've been making tortillas for years now. One great thing was the tortilla dish I got. It's a plate with a stand/handle so that when you flip the omelet it's easier. Worked like a charm last night.
I almost never take pics at night if I don't have a tripod or a surface to put the camera on. I took a chance on this one though and success!
See? Simple subject well lit.
Another great one in my opinion. Any real photographers are welcome to set me straight. I fully admit that I'm probably talking out of my ass. My methods are totally borne of trial and error. Speaking of setting me straight, there was some obnoxious comment on the blog while I was gone. Can't remember the post, but it was something along the lines of "you sure travel a lot, so shut the fuck up about your life's worries." I could only imagine a bitter person would enjoy dumping on someone while that someone was on vacation. Additionally, I would like to state for the record my immense gratitude at the traveling opportunities I've had this year, but since most of it wasn't really paid by me, I think I'm still in my rights to worry about retirement and my job situation. Ah yes, before I left I wasn't sure if I'd have work after this week. Well the universe provided again and I got ten full time weeks starting next week. It's true that I should stop worrying about that, as something always seems to come through.
Finally, one of my fave shots of the trip. On our last bar of a night of tapas bar hopping there was this painting. I wanted a shot of it but was rather in my cups so I just took it from where I was sitting. The cash register ended up making the shot for me. I've got an 8x10 of it on the way.
Please forgive my absence from your blogs as I haven't had any time since coming home. I hope to get that all rectified by the end of the week. Smooch!
We stayed four nights in Madrid at the Palace Hotel. Here is the famous atrium where stars and heads of state have noshed. A couple of days that we were there, there was a great deal of police presence and secret service type people. We never did figure out who the bigwig was staying there. Everytime I came in or out of the hotel though, I thought, "Serious looking men in suits." The place was crawling with them.
Of course we toured the Prado which was right across the street. We weren't supposed to take any photos, but I just had to sneak one of this. It's famous. Also, as museums and clothes shopping tend to have that effect on me, I pooped at the Prado.
There was lots of free art around the city and in the parks too. This was called something like upside down elephant on its trunk.
The glass palace in Retiro park was a nice opportunity for pics. Doesn't Serge look European?
Here we are in Plaza Mayor. It's a nice place for a stroll, but beware of sitting down for a drink, as you'll be reamed. Mom and I split a calamari and had two diet cokes there and it was thirty bucks!
We also dined at the oldest restaurant in the world, Botin, and as we were leaving I got this shot of all the little dead suckling pigs. We didn't order that here because we had had it already in Segovia.
In front of the Post Office building. Madrid has changed a lot since I was there 27 years ago (I suppose that could be said of any place) and the changes are mostly positive. There was far less poverty on display and Serge kept commenting on how clean it was.
One night, our family friend Jose invited us to dinner at his place. He was an exchange student and stayed with us one summer when I was 15. Now he's got the most charming 7 children you'd ever meet. Honestly, it was right out of the Sound of Music. We were so stuffed when we left!
It was also great to hook up with one of my old coworkers from Southern California who now lives in Madrid. Similar to what I did, she packed up and moved to Spain, married Francisco (pictured) and now teaches English. It was really fun hanging out with them and touring the city.
Our last big meal together at Casa Paco, a steak joint. What a fabulous way to end a fabulous trip. Now we are at home and must face reality. First up is going to get Georgie. I hope he will be as excited to see me as I am him. Have a great weekend!
Well that last night in Valencia was a wild one. Bro liked this picture we discovered the next morning and said that if he were on Facebook, this would be his profile picture. He was a little upset for having smoked since he had been clean for 2 months, but hey, it was a party.
It was easy to blame Julie who kept plying us with some kind of rum punch she had brought. While we were waiting for the burning of the fallas to begin, we drank in the street and met these girls from France. They howled at my accent as all the Frenchies from France do. I think it would be like if a French person learned English in Texas and had a kind of French drawl. It must sound really weird to them.
Then they burned and burned and wet ash rained down on us. Firemen were on hand dowsing the flames so that no one would get hurt.
It was a hangovery drive to Toledo the next day. Toledo is an ancient city, some might say the birthplace of Spain. We stayed just outside the town at one of Spain's Paradors, the government run chain of classy hostelry.
We have been enjoying the food immensely. I wasn't all that into this dish, but I loved the anchovies in vinegar. I don't think I've eaten as many olives in all my life the last week, but I think it will be a nice new habit to take on.
Ooh look, here's Serge eating baby eels. I had some too and they were pretty much like eating noodles. Hard to wrap your head around though.
Then we went on to Segovia. Here you see the ancient Roman aquqeduct that carried water to the city for many centuries. It was in use until recently. Those Romans sure knew how to construct things.
We finally got a shot of our whole gang together. We have been travelling in one luggage packed vehicle and sharing two hotel rooms. Cozy but fun. You wouldn't want to stay in our room though with me Serge and bro because the farting contest has really been serious. Serge is still in the lead. Today we head to Madrid. Later!
