There's only a little bit of spam in it…

Mora

I'm in a pizza place this afternoon, asking if they have anything "sin carne", without meat. "Pues, tenemos pizza con piña y jamon!" (Well, we've got pizza with pineapple and ham!)

[You'd have to know the Monty Python spam sketch--I'll try to explain if you ask!]

OK, got that out of the way, now where were we?

* Yesterday we took a break from it all, walking eight hours in the hills with our favorite dog, Mora (+ Zarzamora, blackberry, see photo). So good to be away from the madding crowds and deep into the lovely hills that ring the city. We ended up at a little village where we hung out at its four-centuries-old church, breathing in the vista below.


* Today Francisco, Rosa's brother (she's the sister who presently owns the house, since her nine brothers and sisters have ceded their portion of the house to her) was clearing out the last of her bits and pieces, all destined to the landfill, I believe.

* We gave our pals Jim and Jenny the Full Tour on Saturday. They've lived here for about 15 years after quitting Portland. They are both artists, and have created a studio in an old tannery on the other side of town, quite the inspiration for us. Of course, their place is much larger than our 1350 square feet (not counting the roof, where we'll be adding a small studio), but it gives us ideas for what we can do with our casa. Particularly our proposed internal courtyard/patio, where we plan on having many plants and a small fountain. Their website is www.piramidalgrafica.com (for which I take some credit).

* Louisa had two major successes today--her spanish is much better than mine (she did spend several years at a bilingual school in Quito, Ecuador when she was a kid, to my eternal envy). (1) She got the phone transferred to her name, and then arranged for DSL on our line; (2) She paid our property taxes for the year, so we don’t have to pay the post-January penalty. I'm impressed!

* We're both taking one-on-one conversation classes--one hour per day for Louisa, two for me. Fun. The only way to learn, from my point of view, chatting about anything and everything with someone who wants me to improve.

* Such a good time Friday afternoon, when we took Tom and Guille out for a meal. Tom--attorney from Texas who lives with his Mexican partner Guille--drove us to a new restaurant with a view to die for. They have been SO helpful with our house, really good to know that when we are living in our new place, they will be just up the road from us.

Guille and Louisa