Sleeping in, fighting a losing battle at The Alamo, and dirt, no, Earth seasoning

“Sleeping in” would be an grave understatement regarding what I did today... My alarm initially went off at 8:30am, and I though “Eh, I'm going to sleep till 9:15.” So I reset it. Then from 9:15 until 10 it went off every two minutes and I snoozed it again and again, almost to the point where I was sleeping but subconsciously knew how long it took for it to go off again and pressed the button almost at the same time it started up. Then at 10, in some stroke of genius, I decided it was silly to keep resetting it or pushing the snooze button – so I turned it off completely, and then proceeded to sleep until noon. Needless to say, Sebastien gave me a hard time about it, especially since I'd promised to go with him to The Alamo to help out today. Luckily it turned out he didn't end up doing much of anything he had intended to do because the electrician was there most of the morning explaining things that needed to be done before he could finish his work. I grabbed some food and showered, and then went over to The Alamo to help Sebastien carry out the electrician's “orders,” which really were things he should have done himself, but Sebastien and I had to cut out the holes where the outlets and switches would be, saw out grooves for all the wiring, and then put the boxes in the right places. Some of the walls that needed to be dug out were the ones Sebastien had just spent the last week or so plastering, so he was a little peeved to say the least that he was going to have to do double to work. Sebastien is getting kind of frustrated that things are being done so ass backwards over there, and he told me he's probably going to take off this weekend and walk the Camino a bit with his guitar and chill. I told him I thought that was a great idea, because he certainly doesn't need to be getting stressed out about things like this – if anyone needs to, James does. I temporarily made everything better with a little Green Day and Coldplay and an interesting conversation about how everyone's classification of music differs. Would you call the majority of the Rolling Stones' work “blues?” For lunch we came back to the house and Paddy had reheated the mash that was left over from last night and yesterday afternoon, fried up some different sausages, and we ate the rest of Sebastien's good salad. Then back to The Alamo! I sifted some gravel through a wood and chicken wire contraption in order to loosen some good soil for making adobe, and the plumbers showed up with large sewage pipes. I had to chuckle a bit wondering how they planned to bed the straight tubing into the curved ditch the digger dug last week. Bad news – they didn't plan on doing anything to bend them. So now either the digger-man needs to come back or someone's got to dig out the angle so they fit properly. See what I mean when I called this a losing battle? Looking up though, it'll get finished someday, and it'll be a really awesome albergue (just hopefully not “The Secret Albergue” as I found painted gaily on a wooden sign in one of the back rooms). Sebastien stuck around as it was getting dark, waiting for James who had promised to come with beer. I went back to the house and Paddy made some more of his seafood pallella, which he says is gradually improving. I can't tell much difference, though it tastes good to me. I guess I'm not a true pallella connoisseur yet. Marianne showed up just as we were sitting down and said that James and Sebastien were having a barbecue, and asked us to come over. Pallella ready, we decided to stay home and eat, but then after we were finished took Una and walked over to The Alamo to find James and Sebastien around an impromptu campfire made in the side lot. James + lighter fluid = not a good idea. So they'd grilled some steaks and there was beer, and Sebastien was appeased for the time being. James also bought me a nice bottle of Rioja to thank me for helping out the little bit that I had so far. He really is a generous and thoughtful person, even if he is a excitable and anxious. He's a good guy, I just think, and I think he knows this too, that he's in a little over his head with this project. It'll work out though. Sorry, didn't mean to trail off on a introspective journey of James. Anyhow, they offered us some of the steak they'd cooked, and Paddy and I both tried a bit, and it was really good. Chewing the met was tender, but the seasoning was a bit gritty, so I asked James what he'd used. He happily replied - “Oh, that's not seasoning... that's Earth man... we used the chicken wire from the sifter to cook the meat on!” I just stared at him and swished my mouth with some of the Rioja. So yea, back to how James is a crazy loon... Evidently there is a major, and cosmic difference between what I call DIRT and James refers to as Earth. Like I said, it's the little differences that make it all worth while. Now back at home and time for bed – Buenas Noches!