Halloween comes early

The pumpkin, ghost and candy holiday comes early here....we are already in the thralls of planning the porch decorations ("I'll even pay $5 or MORE of my own money for that!") and costumes, ("I was thinking to be darth vador, but now I'm thinking of being a spy." ((me= i like that, more original)). "What does original mean?" (my explanation). "Yes, I think it's much better to be orignial, don't you?" (three hours later, teeth are being brushed. "I mean, like tons of kids are going to be darth vador and pirates but I bet like only 5 kids will be spies."

Makes me remember being totally psyched for holidays, and with him, I can be almost totally psyched again....

Discussion between gatito and Dr. Write/Middlebrow's son today. "There is a month and 9 days till Halloween......long conversation about exactly HOW many days that was.......

Let the goblins come!

Box of Tomatoes

Got my box of locally grown tomatoes and now am wondering what to do with them. Anyone got any good ideas for soups to freeze? Or any other ways to consume large quantities of the red stuff?

Thoughts on Returning to Utah

Okay, all, that was a long time, no blog. Now, I'm back, mostly settled (but still ripping up the house). Don says we're hemorrhaging money, but if we don't fix the 2 year old holes in the ceiling now, when will we? And of course, fixing holes means painting and re-doing the bathroom while we're at it ('cause some of those holes CAME from bathroom problems, which also calling an electrician to finally put an outlet in the bathroom, which means we should also have him put a light in Adrian's closet, which reminds us we promised Adrian a new bedroom, which means new windows (and why is vinyl so expensive...but the grandparents are paying for it), which means since we're saving money on the windows we might as well get new carpeting upstairs.

Observations and Comments about life back in Utah:
1) It's hot
2) It's dry
3) People are obsessed with exercise
4) The cars are very very big
5) Wine is ridiculously expensive. Speaking of which The Paris is WAY over-priced. We ate more and better in the REAL Paris for less
6) It's hot
7) It's stupid to have to drive everywhere
8) It's stupid to show an ID for wine when in Sevilla we just sent Adrian to the corner store.
9) It's stupid to have to buy our own wine instead of sending the kid
10) Come to think of it, cheese is over-priced too
11) It's way too hot

(and in case you're wondering.. Sevilla CAN BE hotter, but we missed all that because we left June 22 and went to Denmark (think mid-Alaska)!

Sevilla Out and LOSERS

Bags almost packed, apartment almost clean, school almost finished, and very very soon we will bid Sevilla goodbye, head north, then south, then north again before flying west west west.

This is the last you'll hear from the Tail for a while.
See you in late August.

Just a little addition, as I'm typing away, thanking Otterbutt for reminding me about Father's Day, I suddenly realize and yell over to The Don, (sitting across from me).
"Hey, Oh shit,we forgot our anniversary!"
The Don looks at his watch to check the date. "Yeh, that was the day before I got back from doing field work"
Me: "The 13th?"
The Don: "No, the 14th!"
Me: "Shit, and it was a big one."
The Don: "Yeh, the 10th."

I make him the LOSER L sign on my forehead. He makes it back to me.

What is 10 anyway? Diamonds, Emeralds (please say emeralds!!!), pearls? What???

Ole Ole Ole Ole Betis

Last night Gatito and I took a taxi to the soccer stadium where we proceeded to stand in line, in the rain, with umbrella, for 40 minutes to buy tickets to Betis' last home game. An important game at that because Betis has lost most games this year and if they lost this one, they would almost surely get bumped down to Second Division. Emotions running high. Everyone dressed in official gear: Green and White.

Gatito was dressed in his official Betico clothes complete with new wristwatch. After some amoeba-like bizarre line confusion, we got tickets (hey, only 55 euros for the two of us. A real bargain because Gatito is under 10!).

Got to our seats. It was raining, but we were in the covered section. The field bright green, beautiful. The players came out, warmed up. Great legs. Some incredible warm-up footwork, but it was obvious from the get-go that Osasuna was the better team (even to untrained eyes like mine) but I got in big trouble for saying that.

A woman and man sat down next to us, obviously season pass holders because she said to her husband, as she flicked her fan, "Here we are to suffer for one last time."

And suffer we did. Osasuna won 5 to 0. That's right ZERO. The fans went nuts, screamed and yelled at the President of Betis, tried to attack him, threw fire "bombs" onto the field. Despite all that, it was quite calm....many children there. (most problems happened post-game and we were long-gone).

We walked the 2+ miles home, discussed the game, had a drink at a bar and lamented our terrible bad luck. This morning, though, Gatito got up and put his Betis shirt back on again. He's no deserter, I guess!

Mini Virgins and Soccer

Okay, so in reality, they're called "Las Cruces de Mayo" but here at home we refer to them as "mini virgins". I (wrongly) assumed that after Semana Santa, the processions were done, but now, every brotherhood is bringing out small versions of their virgins (again with lots of beer, drunk men, and brass bands). Adrian's school has a procession that he will walk in on Tuesday! Thankfully, there won't be any drunk men there.

Otherwise, temperatures rising quickly and our time in Sevilla is going fast. Tomorrow, The Don heads out to the mountains for 2 weeks of field work. Gatito and I will sweat it out here in Sevilla, finish reading Narnia (in Spanish) and learning his guitar pieces for his music camp in July. Besides, that, we've decided that we should devote the sunset hour every day to a bar along the river where we will sit, drink and contemplate life.

Also on the horizon: A BETIS game (local soccer club to which we have become a family of fans. Gatito received an outfit for his bday and wears it every day after school. We've also accumulated a BETIS watch. And the upcoming Saturday is the last game (By the way, Betis has had a rare, horrible year and if they lose this game, they fall to the dreaded 2nd division...hell. We will (hopefully if I can figure such a thing out) be there cheering.

Finally, Introducing the Campers

Finally, with Jessica's help, I've learned how to download and then upload an image. DO NOT LAUGH. I know I'm 10 years behind the times, but hey, I've got Campers.

Note: the high heeled pair are "twins" and fraternal at that.