Spain Day 6

Day 6 was Monday, Nov 10. It was a warm and sunny day spent on the northern coast of Spain in the beautiful town of San Sebastian. I am so thankful that we had this relaxing day (although there was still a lot of walking involved) in the middle of our trip. We found a cute place to have breakfast that was completely deserted. Just like in Madrid, noone is up and about before 10am. We found, in San Sebastian, that a lot more people spoke and understood English, which was really nice. We walked through the old part of town towards the beach area and then around to the Aquarium. It was really windy! We took some great shots of Reuben getting "chased" by waves. The scenery was breathtaking with the ocean and the shoreline!

We went into the aquarium ... it was amazing because they have a clear tunnel through the water so the fish are swimming above and around you. It's really neat. There were sharks in the water, as well. I'm not sure why they don't eat the other fish in the tank. Maybe they are kept very full but they sure looked ominous. We saw other things like jellyfish and starfish etc.

Then we walked along the beach. We took our shoes off and relaxed for a bit. We stuck our toes in the water but it was freezing cold. And we watched the surfers. Then we kept walking along the boardwalk the whole way around the bay area. It was really relaxing. We went into the old part of the city again and found the cathedral but we decided not to go in. The old part of the city was also where all the shopping was so we did some window shopping and got some pastries to eat.

Then we walked to the funicular which was supposed to bring you to the top of the hill on one side of the city where there was an amusement park and spectacular views! There was noone waiting in line to get on the funiculur and when we got to the top it was totally deserted!! They were doing renovations to the amusement park and it was sooo windy up there that we had to yell to hear eachother. The view was spectacular though and we are glad we took the time to go up there.

After that, we figured out the public transit (bus instead of metro) to get back to our side of the city because we were pretty tired. It took a few tries but eventually we made it back. We bought dinner at the grocery store which we discovered near our hotel. We bought havarti and a baguette and a box of wine (no corkscrew). We ate "dinner" in our hotel room and had a bit of downtime. Then headed out again to do some more window shopping and look at the bay again at sunset. On our way back to our hotel we found a corner store that sold beer (Reuben wanted one because he lost part of his tripod, which was a total bummer!) and I had an ice cream. Mmm .. chocolate ice cream.

Spain Day 5

Sunday morning we had to set our alarm as we were meeting Tim and Esther. We checked out of our hotel, ate the food we bought the night before and headed up to their appartment with our luggage. We were a little early but we had a chance to check our email. Then we walked to church, it was an english speaking United Methodist church held on the campus of Madrid University but in the building of the Madrid campus of Suffolk University of Boston. There were some really enthusiastic people there. The gospel was not preached. As Barack Obama had just been elected as president there was great rejoicing and focus on that during the service. We sang some nice songs and the people were very friendly but we weren't really fed, as it were. Tim and Esther usually go to a more Reformed service (they told us) but it is in Spanish so they thought we might benefit from this service more. I'm glad we did something, anyway.

Then we grabbed some fresh baguettes, cream cheese, chocolate and a bottle of wine and headed to Parque del Ouest. It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day. We relaxed and chatted for a couple of hours.

Then we grabbed our bags and made our way to the bus station. It was a bit confusing there but we found our way on the right bus after almost getting on the wrong one. It was a five hour trip up to San Sebastian through some really cool scenery. We left at 4pm and with a half hour stop in Lerma, we arrived at 9:30pm.

At our stop, Reuben didn't get off the bus fast enough so the driver left and closed the door behind him. I couldn't figure out how to open the bus door from the outside. There were others trying to get off too so I was in a bit of a panic. Not knowing a word of Spanish I tried to find the bus driver in a sea of other travellers. There were 4 other buses stopped here all at the same time. It was a zoo. Thankfully, I didn't need to use the washroom as the line up was insane. And you couldn't get away from the smoke. Even out in the parking lot! Finally, as I was making my way inside to figure out what to do some guy on the bus caught the attention of one of the other drivers and he let them out. What an adventure.

We passed through some amazing scenery including going through the Cantabrian mountain range. As we went down towards the coast, the bus went careening around corners. The lanes are significantly smaller here than in Canada and we passed some large lorries. I couldn't even look sometimes!!

Once in San Sebastian, we had no idea where we were as we didn't have a map of the city. The bus stop was near a traffic circle and a fancy hotel. Reuben decided to go inside and ask someone. And the desk clerk knew some English and gave us a tourist map of the city and pointed out where we had to go. It was about a 20 to 25 min walk to our hotel. It was a beautiful night. We could already feel the moisture in the air from being close to the ocean even though we couldn't see it yet.

It took a bit of searching to find our hotel as the odd numbers on one side of the street didn't seem to have even counterparts on the other side. But finally, we reached it. We had to buzz to be let in and it was on the second floor of the building. The receptionist/owner was a super friendly older lady. She let us in to our room and our jaws dropped!! We were looking directly out on the ocean. There was only the boardwalk between us and the water. It was brilliant!!

The sound of the ocean waves was mesmerizing. After settling in, we hit the town for some food. We ended up at a small tapas bar and had a couple of cervesas of beer and some tapas.

This guy was slicing up a jamon (leg of pork). They had this stuff everwhere hanging from the ceiling. It's a real delicacy here and each leg costs a good bit of money. It's smoked/cured. We had it on slices of bread with cheese. I had some spanish tortilla and Reuben tried all sorts of fishy delights.

Spain Day 4

On Friday night we discovered this metal curtain for our bedroom window that sort of looks like a mini garage door. We thought this was great as the street noise below was quite loud and it would be nice to keep out the light as the curtains were quite light. During the night, I woke up to banging doors, rattling of keys and loud voices. It went on for quite some time and I was getting really annoyed. It woke Reuben up too. Reuben was just about to get up and tell everyone to keep it down (there was a sign in the hallway to keep it quiet after 11:30pm) when he decided to just check his watch to see what time it was. Turned out it was 10:30am...our nice, metal curtain had not let any light in and we had slept like rocks (still recovering from jet lag, I think). So funny! But it was really hard to get out of bed since we still had this feeling that it was the middle of the night.

Saturday we had planned to go to Toledo. This little town is about an hour bus ride to the southwest of Madrid. So we quickly got ready and rushed to the bus station that Esther had told us about. After waiting in line, we found out that the bus to Toledo left from a different bus station but that we could buy our tickets for San Sebastian there. So, then we took the Metro to the other bus station, found the ticket window and lined up for the bus. Thankfully a bus left every half hour so we were in luck. We got on the bus at 12:30pm.

After arriving in Toledo, we had to walk to the old city up a very steep incline. And then we went through the Puerta in the ramparts and into the old city. It had lots of teeny tiny streets, amazing churches, cool views and lots of souvenir shops! We stopped in at the Cathedral, which was the biggest one I've ever been in. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but Reuben insisted on taking a few discreetly while I wasn't looking.

Then we found this church that housed a very well-known El Greco painting of the Burial of Count Orgaz.

Just recently, they figured out he was actually buried right below where the painting was mounted in the church. After this, we walked to a Jewish temple but didn't feel like paying to go inside. And then, this other church that had hung the chains of Christian prisoners who had been freed as a monument to them.
Basically, we just kept walking around, stopping to take tons of pictures and looking at the views and everything.
And playing on random swingsets in deserted courtyards.

We took the bus home at 6pm because we wanted to see the sunset over the town. It was quite cool. And then when we got back to Madrid, Reuben wanted to see the Palace so we decided to walk back to our hotel. Except that the map didn't tell us it was uphill the whole way!!!!

We didn't ever go inside the Palace even though it's supposed to be spectacular. When we got closer to our hotel, we stopped in at a corner store and bought Cava (champagne, we didn't have a corkscrew so we couldn't by wine), a bag of chips and a chocolate bar as a late night snack. We also bought some muffins and pastries so that could eat breakfast in our room before we met up with Tim and Esther for church.

Spain Day 3

Day 3 was Friday, Nov 7. We went to 2 art museums. We didn't know where to go for breakfast so we just headed to the Reina de Sofia museum straight away and walked through half of it before stopping in at the museum's cafe for some cafe con leche (coffee with steamed milk) and a croissant. Then we walked through the rest of it. The Reina de Sofie mainly displays modern art pieces including this famous one by Picasso.

There were 2 school groups sitting down and looking at the painting and discussing it with their teachers. Definitely not my cup of tea. I was ready to move on after about 30 seconds. Bad, eh?

Afterwards, we made our way up the street to the famous Museo del Prado. The museum brochure had a list of the 50 top paintings; so we based our tour of the museum on just going to see those, otherwise we would've spent way too much time there. As it was, it took us a couple of hours to get through it all. This museum has more classical paintings including Rembrandt, Vandyk, etc. and it included a lot of religious art.
By this time, we were exhausted again and hungry so we took the Metro back to our hotel and had a snooze before meeting up with Tim and Esther again. We had planned to meet at the Starbucks near their house so on the way up there we stopped in at a fast food place to get a jamon sandwich and a Fanta. That really hit the spot, though the price was a bit high. When we met up, we decided to head back to their apartment so we could check our email and send an update to the family, letting them know we had arrived safely. And then we went down towards the restaurant area and sat in a real tapas bar and had beers (a cervesa is a small beer in spanish) and tapas. One was boiled potatos in a creamy garlic sauce that was amazing. After that we walked down to the Plaza Mayor area.

It's a square where a lot of executions used to take place. The statue is of a prince who faced execution so bravely that now if someone thinks you're being really brave they say "He's

as brave as Prince someone or other (can't remember the name).

On our way to another tapas bar we stopped and tried roasted chestnuts. They were interesting. Reuben really liked them.

So then we went to Meson de la Guiterra where we had more sangria and our first taste of a Spanish tortilla, which is an omelette with small pieces of potato in it. It was very scrumptious! And at the table next to us a group of men pulled out a guitar and started singing flamenco music which involves a lot of handclapping rythms. It was really amazing!

Then we hit the hay.

Spain Day 1 and 2

I think I will post about each day of our trip over the next several days so that this isn't a hugely long post to read through.

Our first day in Madrid actually started the day before when we left Ottawa on Wednesday, Nov 5 around 3:30 pm. We took a smallish plane to Montreal which, thankfully, was not a turbo prop but a decent size jet. In the Montreal airport, we had a bite to eat and boarded our plane to Paris aroud 8 pm. We were stuck with a window and middle seat with another guy in the aisle seat. It was quite squishy. We got individual TVs with lots of movie choices. We landed in Paris a little bit late with dense, dense fog that we touched down without realizing how close we were to the ground. From our plane we had to take a bus to the terminal (I guess there aren't enough gates for all the flights that come in to that airport). Then we had to go through Customs and security. By this time our flight to Madrid was halfway through boarding so we ran through the airport and were just praying our luggage would make the transfer. Well, we made our flight with time to spare and as we looked out the window we saw a little van drive up with a few bags on it and our 2 bags got pulled off and put on the plane. What a relief! And so funny that we actually saw that happening. At this time, it was 9:30 am Paris time and 4:30 am Ottawa time. We hadn't slept much on the flight over so we actually caught some shut-eye on this short flight. Landing in Madrid, we saw amazing landscapes.

The airport was fairly quiet when we arrived and we got our luggage and found our way to the Metro. After a bit of confusion, we bought some tickets and took the 45 min Metro trip to our hotel with one line switch on the way. When coming above ground, it took a few min to get our bearings but finally, headed in the right direction to our hotel. Our hotel was on the 8th floor of a highrise building on a fairly busy and main tourist street in Madrid. We took an elevator that you had to manually open and close the doors and it was open to the stairwell. I'll upload a picture later as I don't have one here with me.

Once in our room we crawled into bed and slept until around 5pm. Then we got up and went out on the town. We found a market and bought some scarves, staple apparel in any European country.
We met up with Tim deJong (Reuben's best man in our wedding) and his sister, Esther, at a pub and then they took us to this Sangria pub.

I'm not sure what it was called but it was in a basement and had really curvy ceilings and lots of Spanish poetry written on the walls. It was 10 euros for a pitcher of Sangria and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Our only trouble with the restaurants in Spain was the smoke ... every other person smoked. It was totally overwhelming. We're still coughing it up!

That was our first day and a half. Stay tuned for more adventures ....

All Things Spanish

Hola! We are back from our trip and back to the grind. Our trip was fantastic! We had beautiful, warm weather the entire time except for one day of heavy rain and one day of cooler temps. Both our hotels were perfect for what we needed. Cheap enough for Reuben and clean and private enough for me. While in Spain we spent every day walking all day. And while my feet were sore while I was doing it and I often thought how nice it would be to be at my desk all day without sore feet now that I'm back I miss the walking ... I miss being outside in the fresh air all day and my day is going really slowly!

We have many plans in the next few weeks but I hope to get some pictures up here soon. So stay tuned for that.

I am glad to be home as I missed our families, both church and our own.

Job Status 2

One of my "bosses" just came in and presented me with a gift of body mist, suntan lotion, febreeze and body lotion for my trip. She said it was from everybody in the department. Isn't that the sweetest? !! Oh man, I'm going to miss working with these people. I really hope I can stay at the University.

Job Status

We're leaving tomorrow and although, I've talked with several people here, at work, about the trip I haven't really been thinking about it. You see, my job here has always been on the temporary side and lately there has been more talk about what I am going to do after the contract ends in February. Thankfully, my bosses are really encouraging about applying for other jobs and that I can leave before February if that's the way it works out. Last week, I found out that a job is opening up in another department here at the University. The woman who holds the position now is moving to a new position as of November 10. Everyone is telling me to apply for her job. She even gave me the job description in advance so I could prepare my resume because she thinks I would be a really good fit there. The job would be as an Undergraduate Advisor in the Computer Science department. This would be really great because it would still be in the Faculty of Science and since I've made a lot of contacts here since I started it would be really great to stay in the Faculty. Also, the woman is staying within the Faculty too so I'd always have her close by for any questions I have, which is really important. So, instead of doing all the administrative duties that I have now, I'd be concentrating on advising the students on which courses to take and answer all their questions etc. It would be a huge responsibility.
Anyway, so the job was posted TODAY and we're leaving TOMORROW! And it's only being posted until Nov 11 ... we'll still be in Spain. So, all I've been doing today is working on my resume and application to get it in by the end of today. It's really nerve-wracking that this is all happening at once and I'm a little worried that they'll want to interview me before I get back from Spain but I hope they will wait for me. The woman who I'd be replacing said she's mentioned my name to her Director already. Yikes!
Besides that, we'll be arriving at the airport in 24 hours from now. and leaving on the plane in 28 hours!!!

5 more days!!

We're leaving next Wednesday. Time is just flying along. I've finally started to think about what we're going to pack. Not too much. Although, we aren't moving around quite as much as the last time we went to Europe; it would still be nice not to have to be burdened by bulky, heavy suitcases. We're also thinking of picking up some new threads over there. We heard the shopping was great!

We also just arranged where we're going to meet up with our friend, Tim. Near the Don Quixote statue!!! Isn't that the coolest? Well, I've never read Don Quixote...have you? So, I'm going to get it out of the library and bring it along.

It's going to be my neice, Elyssa's 1st birthday on Monday. Wow, that went fast! Here's a recent pic of her.

Weather Comparison

I was going to write about how I'd rather be in Spain right now as they are forecasting a huge dumping of wet snow overnight tonight, here in Ottawa. But in Spain it's supposed to be rainy and 10 degrees this week ... which is a lot better. BUT on Friday, in Ottawa, it's going to be 15 degrees and sunny! That's a lot better than the forecast for Spain.

All things considered, it looks like our weather is comparable and while, it would be nice to go to some hotspot, at least it won't be quite as much of shocker when we return.

This is what our view is going to be like from our hotel in San Sebastian. Wow! Ok, so we may not get this view from our room but we'll be close to this view and when we go outside we'll see this view. San Sebastian is located on the northern coast of Spain. It's part of the Basque area of Spain which has it's own unique culture. You may have heard of the Basque people because they have this inherent need to preserve their culture. They often riot. I think that they wish to be their own country ... sound like anyone else we know?

I'm excited to see San Sebastian for the beautiful beach area. Also, for this place called Chez Croissant which we will have to hit up for breakfast. Croissants are one of the main attractions in Europe. They taste completely different. Especially accompanied by the tiniest cup of cafe creme that you can imagine. It's so anti-American/Canadian. They do other things mega-size like these ....

Jamon!! They just love their smoked ham. It's hanging everywhere. Even in the airport(we saw them in Barcelona) ... although I doubt we'd be able to take a leg home with us.

While we're in San Sebastian, we'll be taking a day trip to Bilbao. Bilbao is where one of the Guggenheim musem's is located. It was designed by Canadian architect, Frank Gehry.

It's going to be crazy to see this in real life. It'll probably take us all day just to digest this building. We may go in and see the art that it holds too:) The other thing to see in Bilbao is this crazy bridge.

Well, just over a week until we head out. All we've done is book our hotel and plane tickets. We've done nothing else to get ready. I'm just not sure what else to do to get ready. I'm hoping there will be time to shop when we're there because I'm going to take minimal clothes along and stock up. Madrid is supposed to have great shopping!

Hostal Santillan

Ok, everybody ...take a little gander at the cute little airplane flying over on the right sidebar. Do you see what it says? It says that there are only 14 more sleeps until we hop aboard the first leg of our journey!!!!! Unfortunately, the first leg is my most dreaded part because it's a little jaunt to Montreal in a 27 seater prop plane. BOO!!! Too much turbulence. No matter, it will be over before I know it, right?

I've finally managed to secure a room in Madrid. The place is called Hostal Santilla (click here if you want to check it out). Although you might think this is a hostel, hostal actually means boarding house in Spanish. I've read a bunch of reviews and it sounds like a pretty good place to stay, especially for considerably less than $100/night, which is our goal and the fact that we get our own bathroom.

Our cousin, Brianna Veldkamp, who is currently studying in St. Andrews, Scotland is also going to be joining us for the Madrid portion of our trip. Woohoo!! Should be fun. After that she is continuing on to Ireland for the rest of her reading week. I'm so jealous!! Someday, Reuben and I will definitely be checking out the British Isles.

That's all the updates for now ... things are falling into place.

Squirrels do not belong in offices . . .

Just a few minutes ago, I was working away at my computer (ie. checking blogs) when all of a sudden I heard a scuffling noise and then a skittering noise. I froze. I couldn't bring myself to look around because I was so afraid I would see a little mouse staring at me ... ready to pounce ... mice attack people, you know. My colleagues leave their windows open all the time because they like the fresh air and have often talked about the mice visiting them to get out of the cold or to explore the various food items that might have been left out. We are on the ground floor. So, anyway, I finally got up the courage to look around when out of the corner of my eye I saw a black "thing". I stood up and there was a big, black SQUIRREL, with a long, bushy tail looking quite nervous and disoriented. I spoke loudly "Get out of here, you dumb squirrel" and "Don't come back now y'hear!!!" and as it scurried out into the hallway, I closed my door firmly and trembling walked back to my desk.

What to do, what to do. I knew my colleague was in her office down the hall so I quickly sent her an email telling her there was squirrel wandering the halls (she doesn't use her phone). And then after a few minutes, I cautiously opened my door and looked down the hall in apprehension. My colleague was walking down the hall so I said to her "There's a squirrel in here, eh?" and she said she had noticed it in the hall from the corner of her eye and went to investigate. By the way, she is a lover of all things rodent-sized and up. She even feeds the squirrels, chipmunks and ground hogs that roam our campus. So, she said she saw it go into an empty room so she went in after it and opened all the windows and gently maneuvered the squirrel towards them. Phew! Then she went on to tell me about how every once in a while 2 mice come in through her window to see if she has any food lying around and she'll feed them and then they'll be on their way. SHUDDER!! Hmmm...I wonder how the squirrel got in.

Thanksgiving Weekend Revisited

We had a very relaxing weekend with family and friends. On Friday afternoon, Diana, Mike, Hadassah and Nethaneil arrived. We were waiting anxiously for them. We couldn't believe how much the kids had changed.

Nethaneil had lots of smiles for us ... the cutest dimples! He is now 3 months old and can hold is head up and back stiff quite well. He doesn't fuss too much and when he does, it's just a cute little whimper. Hadassah loves to give him kisses and tries to help change his diaper.

Hadassah is a little rascal with a cute grin and a mischeivous look but if she doesn't get her way, the siren goes off. She's pretty good though. When you get her giggling, she's hard to resist.

On Saturday morning, we got up and Hadassah decided to read Nethaneil a story.

Then we all went out for breakfast at the local greasy spoon. I had Eggs Florentine. It wasn't that great.

The kids were good. Hadassah had a great breakfast of jam and toast while Nethaneil just hung around on everyone's lap.

That afternoon, we welcomed the Vanderheides (a missionary family) into our home and we promptly fed them a Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner. They are from Australia and are working in Papua New Guinea.

On Sunday, we relaxed and had a crowd over for dinner, again. On Monday, we whipped up a great waffle/egg/bacon/whipped cream/fruit frenzy and ate to our hearts content. Then Diana and Mike packed the kids up and took off for home.

Of Engagements

My little brother, Richard, finally popped the question to his girlfriend of 5 years, Emma!! So even though we've always included her as part of our family, now it's official! Well, almost official. Congratulations, you guys! Love you both and best wishes with all your plans.

Thanksgiving plans UDPATED

It turns out that my brother-in-law's sister and her family are not coming this weekend so that brings our Thanksgiving total down to 17 people. Which is still a lot but not totally unheard of in my parents' home. That also means, my sister and her family will be staying with us which will be nice. I can't wait to wake up to the kids' smiling faces in the morning ... and maybe a cuddle or two:)

I'm planning to bake an apple pie tonight ... from scratch, crust and all. I've done it before and it doesn't scare me, like it does some people. I just pull out my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (which, incidently, was the first Christmas present Reuben ever bought me) and follow the directions and it usually works out.

I also read this great recipe for Apple Cream Cheese squares that I might try out. And I'm going to make roasted sweet potatoes for the dinner. My mom is doing the rest of the cooking on Saturday while we all go hiking. The weather is supposed to be fantastic so I'm looking forward to that.

Thanksgiving plans

We have a truckload or vanload ...well, actually, a busload of people coming for the weekend. My sister and her family are 4 people. My brother-in-law's sister and her family are 4 people. A missionary family who my parents are hosting are 7 people. Plus us, my parents, my brother and his fiancee(yes, they got engaged!!!!) are 6 people. That's a total of 21 people spread over 3 homes but probably coming together for at least a couple of meals. It'll be a little chaotic to say the least.

We plan to do some hiking maybe here at the Mill of Kintail. Say that out loud, doesn't it sound like a magical place. It's close to the town of Almonte.

We plan to do some eating... turkey, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, applie pie, etc.

We plan to some more eating ... bacon, eggs, waffles, syrup, whipping cream, fresh fruit.

Maybe we should do some more hiking after all that eating because I don't know what else we're going to do with all those kids.

My nephew and neice are coming. I haven't seen them in almost 2 months. This is what they look like now.

No kidding!!! Aren't they beautiful?!!! I'm not sure I can wait 3 more sleeps.

Spain trip - UPDATE

We bought our TICKETS!!! Plane tickets to Madrid!!! We are leaving Wednesday, November 5 and will be home Saturday, November 15.
I'm busy planning, planning, planning. Tips anyone??
Not knowing the language is scaring me a little but thankfully, we have our man on the ground, who will be able to translate (hopefully?).

Espana

So here's the itinerary;

Wednesday, November 5 - Depart Ottawa

Thursday, November 6 - Arrive Madrid

Friday, November 7 - Tour Madrid

Saturday, November 8 - Day trip to Toledo

Sunday, November 9 - Church in the morning, travel to San Sebastian in the evening

Monday, November 10 - Tour San Sebastian, travel to Bilbao in the evening

Tuesday, November 11 - Tour Bilbao, especially the Guggenheim

Wednesday, November 12 - Back to Madrid, stopping in Segovia on the way

Thursday, November 13 - More Madrid

Friday, November 14 - Depart Madrid, Arrive Ottawa

Saturday & Sunday - November 15, 16 - Collapse in happy exhaustion.

Sounds like fun, eh? Now to get up the courage to ask the bosses for the time off!!

Tim ... if you're reading this ... it's still tentative but what do you think?

San Sebastian

Awhile ago I referenced this song by Justin Rutledge and I finally found the lyrics.

San Sebastian
I arrived in San Sebastian with an ocean on my mind
when they asked me what I came for I said an ocean I came to find
there was soapstone, slate and marble on the terrace where we died
now my heart's in San Sebastian with my tall and bonny bride

I arrived in San Sebastian and I lay my money down
with an arrow in my shoulder
your mare was a chestnut brown
and the harvest fell around us and it bound us to the tide
now my heart's in San Sebastian with my tall and bonny bride

I would love to ask Justin Rutledge what this song means. I have no idea. All I know is that the melody haunts me and I long to visit San Sebastian.

Another Recipe

As requested....please see here for my Sausage, Spinach and Feta Pasta Extravaganza!

Sweet Potato Soup

As requested ....

Roasted Garlic and Sweet Potato Soup
1 whole head of garlic; separate cloves but keep skin on
1 red onion, peeled and sliced
1-2 sweet potatoes (1 large, or 2 med), peeled and sliced thinly but not too thinly (mediumly)

Spread these ingredients on a cookie sheet and brush olive oil over top of them. Place in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 min, turning over once. Once done, peel off garlic skins.

Combine in a pan with:

4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp curry
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp thyme

Bring to boil and simmer for 15 min then puree in food processor or with hand blender.
Serve with cornbread.

Enjoy!

Crochet

This is my latest ongoing crochet project. It's going to be a nice cozy blanket when it's all done. It's only about a quarter of the way done. But it's an easy and fun project because you do each square on it's own first and then piece it together so it's very portable. The yarn is a nice chunky, wooly yarn.

Another silly list . . .

[A is for age:] 29 .... yikes!
[B is for booze of choice] Lime margharita on the rocks.
[C is for career] Wife.
[D is for your dog's name:] No dog ... never a dog.
[E is for essential items you use everyday:] Computer
[F is for favourite song at the moment:] San Sebastian by Justin Rutledge
[G is for favourite games:] Trivial Pursuit
[H is for hometown:] Ottawa
[I is for instruments you play:] Piano.
[J is for jam or jelly you like] I don't eat a lot of jam but I'd have to pick homemade peach.
[K is for kids?:] none.
[L is for last kiss?:] This morning.
[M is for most admired trait:] In others; ability to think up something to say in social situations.
[N is for name of your crush:] Husband ~ Reuben
[O is for overnight hospital stays:] Dislocated pinky finger when I was 11.
[P is for phobias:] Attacking squirrels on dark forest paths.
[Q is for quotes you like:] "Have a peppermint." Mrs. Harris in Anne of Green Gables.
[R is for biggest regret:] Not sure I have any.
[S is for sweets of your choice:] Anything chocolate
[T is for time you wake up:] Around 6:45am ... ugh.
[U is for underwear:] Uh? Yes?
[V is for vegetable you love:] Zucchini
[W is for worst habit:] Whining about life being sooo hard.
[X is for x-rays you've had:] 1 for my little finger and several of my bite for braces.
[Y is for yummy food you make:] Sweet Potato Soup
[Z is for zodiac sign:] Taurus

A Post about Travelling

If you know me you know that I love to travel, I love to dream about travelling, I love to plan my travels (or someone elses) and I love to reminisce about travelling.

All this to say, we have some future travelling up our sleeves although I'm not sure we'll actually get to it as we've commited to purchasing a piano from a friend of ours. Yes, that's right, a piano. Maybe you know that I've been playing the piano my whole life. I'm not excellent but I get by and I do enjoy it. It was kind of hard not learning to play the piano in our family as my father is an organist and a pianist. I took lessons when I was 7 for a year and then just learned on my own. I don't love to play classical pieces, mostly I love to play singable tunes. Since moving out of my parents' home, I have become quite rusty but have still always dreamed of having a piano in my home. I know I'll never be a great concert pianist but that's ok because I still love making my little bit of music. I'm not sure where the piano is going to go but our friend tells us that we just have to bring the piano into our home and it will tell us where it should go.


Piano's are not cheap. We also need to buy a couple of new windows ... big bay windows. Anyway, we can still dream of travelling because that costs nothing.



Reuben and I have been talking about going to Madrid ever since his friend, Tim, moved there last year. After coming back from Barcelona, we realized we needed to go back to Spain so that we could see it more in depth. 2.5 days in Barcelona was not nearly enough time, especially since it was at the end of our trip and we were exhausted. Anyway, at the moment, Reuben is thinking of going in January. I desperately want to go and see Madrid as well but ... Reuben's plan is to sleep on the floor of his friend's appt and stay up all night partying with the locals where as my plan would be to stay in a nice, cozy hotel and get enough sleep to function during the day. I'm not sure our plans are compatible at the moment. I'd hate to be a party pooper but it would take all of my energy not to be.

There's a town on the north-eastern coast of Spain called San Sebastian. I've heard of it before but ever since Justin Rutledge came out with the song titled San Sebastian, I've been longing to go there. I'll have to type out the lyrics and post them sometime soon or better yet, find a link to the song so you can hear it. It's just beautiful.

Other travel dreams; my father (our gardener who just happens to be a world famous bio-chemist) received a wedding invitation from this guy whose getting married in San Francisco. Actually, the guy is a former student of his with whom he still keeps in touch. I've been to San Francisco before. Back in 2002. It is a grand place and Reuben wants to see it.

The date of the wedding is Nov 15 so it's kind of a good time to be going, shoulder season for travel, you know? But airline tickets keep going up. . .

Last night, we played this game called Ticket to Ride. It's fun but just looking at this map of the United States made me want to hop in the car and just go . . .sigh!

Other destinations: Scotland, Ireland, England, Holland, Italy, Austria, eastern Canada.

Patio update

We installed the patio at the end of June.

And our gardener spent 3 solid days beautifying it.

We plan to add more plants in the spring, including the tulip bulbs we saved.

WereRabbit

There are rabbits. They have been living under our deck and reproducing and eating our plants for the past 6 months. They are kind of cute. But annoying. Today after work, one of them attacked me. As I stood at the end of our path, it darted out from the garden and used my foot as a launching pad to get across the yard. Those are claw marks from a rabbit. A Wererabbit. Somebody please tell me it's ok to kill it and leave it out on the lawn with a sign on it's back warning all the cute rabbits that if they dare to live in our yard, there will be a price to pay.

I may be overreacting.