Paddy and Rebekah come home

I slept in today because I didn't feel so hot this morning when I initially woke up, the effect of inhaling lots of smoke in the bar last night–and no I didn't have a hangover, especially not from two beers. I was basically congested and phlegmy, but I felt better by eleven or so. Got up, had some coffee and a chunk of bread. Sebastien had left for Sahagun just after 10, going into town to call his daughter.

I took Una out for a walk, suspecting that after that huge bowl of spicy pasta sauce last night she was probably going to have crazy indigestion. She seemed alright though. I guess living on the streets of Pittsburgh and eating all those mice really toughen a stomach up!

We came home and I took a shower and shaved, then proceeded to give the dog a good scrubbing so she'd be clean when her people returned later. I read some more Henry Miller, and listened to Cell for a bit. In the yard there were some large pieces of asbestos that had been on the roof before the builders fixed the walls. Being that they didn't clean up anything once they were through, I went out and dragged them all into the garage in back for the gypsy to come and confiscate. Bad stuff to keep around anyhow!

Went around the house sweeping here and there, cleaning up bits of dirt and dust that had settled on the ground since yesterday. Then I had a small lunch of cheese and some anchovies on bread, then curled up for a nap. I slept for about an hour, and after I got back up finished listening to Cell. The ending was alright.

Paddy and Rebekah got home from the train station just before 7:00pm, and we caught up for a half hour or so, then walked around the house and over to The Alamo so Rebekah could see the progress that's been made. Once back we had a simple supper of bread and a pulse that Rebekah made with some veggies and peas soup base. It was very good. By time we were all ready to call it a night, Sebastien had still not returned from earlier. Not sure where he could be, but if I had to guess I'd say he's probably at a bar somewhere.

Before coming in for bed, Rebekah read an excerpt from the journal she and Paddy share to me. This was in reference to the night Paddy, Sebastien, James and I were at The Alamo, and they had cooked the meat on the chicken wire–the Earth seasoned steaks:

“The sight of the four of us around the fire seated on upturned buckets and bricks was redolent of a gang of homeless alcoholic derelicts on an East End bomb sight ... Rock bottom in a way, but not seriously.”

Anyhow, I'm going to bed. I'm going to start listening to The Vampire Lestat tonight. A book I've read before, but still a very good story, and the audio version is read by one of my favorite readers, Frank Muller.

Good night!

The Great Day of Cleaning

So as I suspected, today was deemed the Great Day of Cleaning. I spent most of my day around the house sweeping, mopping, wiping, and arranging things so that everything was clean and in order for Paddy and Rebekah's return. I got up at around 9:30, had some coffee and then took the dog out for a short walk.

Coming home I started in the kitchen and the bathroom, and by lunch time had finished the latter though arranging the shelves, and cleaning under things took longer in the kitchen. Sebastien came over from working at The Alamo and we had some fish, peas, and microwaved potatoes for lunch. After eating we watched the other movie that James brought over for us to borrow – Three Kings. Also, another movie that was better than I expected it to be.

After Sebastien left again I resumed cleaning the kitchen, finished, and then hung some laundry and started working on sweeping the courtyard and cleaning up the entry way. The wind was gusting down into the courtyard so it took a while to get all the dirt which kept blowing away as soon as I'd swept it into piles. I ended up just wetting most of it down and sweeping it over to the drain though, so that worked. Then, of all things, it rained. I was a little peeved.

I took Una out for another walk, for her sake and my own, and the people that own sheep down the street have finally let them out. She was very excited to come across a great group of animals that she could easily startle. We went toward San Nicolas, and she ran a muck in the hare field.

After coming home I swept and mopped the inside hall and stairs, then tidied up the disaster of a workshop at the back of the house. I've listened to a great deal of Cell while working today, and I have to say in light of Stephen King's more recent crap work, this story is fairly okay. It's kind of reminiscent of The Tommyknockers, though that really scared me. This story is just more so amusing.

After dinner of a decent–and rather spicy–putanesca, Sebastien and I rode the bikes to San Nicolas to have a drink at Barrunta. We had a good night, and made it home safe, getting a ride from Raoul the bartender at Barrunta. We played a skewed game of Quarters with a Euro, and though our money may be worth less I can attest that it certainly bounces much better!

Before coming home I remembered that we'd left the leftover spaghetti and sauce on the counter in dishes, and worried that Una would have gotten at them and broken them. She's really mischievous when it comes to food being left out. We came home to find the spaghetti untouched, but the bowl of sauce significantly decreased, the green olives in it completely cleaned off. I guess Una doesn't like olives. Thankfully she hadn't broken anything, though I'm guessing that I made it increasingly easy for her, having moved one of the chairs in front of the counter so we could watch the movie earlier. Sneaky dog.

Now I'm ready to crawl into bed and sleep for a while.

If I ask for a half kilo of ground beef, that's exactly what I want

So today I made the decision that when I enter a Spanish-speaking situation I'm going to provide scripts to those I'm interacting with so that they know what to say. Back to that when I get there.

Got up this morning just after 9 and took Una our for a walk after stopping by The Alamo to see how things are going. James had spray painted “If you can build we need your help.” in English and a Spanish translation across the arch mold. When the dog and I came back the mayor had showed up and there was a reporter there from one of the local papers as well, gathering information for a story on Moratinos.

I headed back home with the dog and took a shower then read Miller for a bit. Hannah sent me a text message saying that a trip to Europe for her may be more of a possibility than she'd anticipated, having come into some unexpected funds. It'll be nice to see her, and I think she'll really like Europe, regardless of where we end up.

Sebastien came home at around two and we ate a frozen pizza that we had for lunch. After eating we set up my laptop and watched The Italian Job, which was a much better movie than I'd though it might be originally. Not as good as Ocean's 11, but the same premise. He headed back to work after the movie was over, and I went over to The Alamo as well to see if Marianne could take me into Sahagun to pick up some groceries.

She was more than willing, so we took their car and the children into town. First we stopped and Marianne bought an orchid from a local plant shop to give to Julia as a gift for being such a help. I went to Dia, which reminded me a lot of Aldis in the States, and got most of what we needed, but wasn't bale to get any ground meat. So we drove over to Lupa and luckily their counter was still open. I'd planned what I needed to ask for when I got to the counter, but the lady helping me asked me something I didn't understand instead of just giving me what I wanted. It turns out she was inquiring as to whether I wanted patties or just the beef. I had said clearly ground meat, and pointed at it, but instead she has to go and complicate things. Hm. So that's why I'm going to start handing out scripts, ha ha.

We headed back to Moratinos, I put away the groceries, and then went back to The Alamo to help Marianne walk around the property and measure all the walls so that they could take the measurements to an architect. It seems while they were on their siesta, James and Marianne ran into the man from San Nicolas who owns an albergue there, and he more or less told them that he was going to do everything in his power to keep them from opening. So not a huge deal, but just earlier the mayor had mentioned that his term is nearly over, and the same man from San Nicolas is running for the position unopposed. So that could pose a problem for James and Marianne.

James gave me a copy of Google SketchUp, which is a neat drawing program that lets you create 3-d models from 2-d shapes. Very nifty and I played around with it for a bit after coming home before making dinner. We had impromptu tacos with the meat I'd purchased at Lupa. Sebastien restrained himself at first, but then after two tacos slathered the rest of his with mayonnaise. Ick. After dinner we set up the laptop again and watched Gods and Monsters.

Now it's time to get to sleep – I'm finished with The Silence of the Lambs and starting Stephen King's Cell tonight. Tomorrow I need to clean around the house before Rebekah and Paddy come home.