Big news week

First Spain lost both of its first-round matches and is out of the World Cup. I don't know what I will have left to talk about at the hospital. I guess now we will have to root for Switzerland, since we are going there to visit friends. Oh I forgot, the US is still in, so we could root for them.  I hear that Switzerland may not have the best players, but they have played together for a long time. 

belfasttelegraph.co.uk

(Photo: Bekia.es)

Second, we have a new king, Felipe VI. His speech was quite bland and polite. "Spain is united but we respect our differences."  You may not know that Spain has four languages and the other regions don't speak Castillian Spanish. And he wasn't crowned. He gave a proclamation (the boring speech) and I think he was "installed" instead of "crowned."  The crown stayed on the stool. 

It was so anti-climactic that I forgot to watch the military parade with the horses afterwards. 

There were nice overhead shots from helicopters. I never thought about it, but there are not usually helicopters: no medical helicopter, no news helicopter, no traffic helicopters. So the newscasters were very excited about the helicopters. Occasionally you see a military helicopter, but even then not over the city. We could hear them from our house, which is only 5 miles away. But we didn't even think of going into the city. Oh, Felipe's father abdicated, probably because of ill health.  

Madrid Rooftop Lounge

When you walk the streets of Madrid, you're sure to see some grand monuments and also to find small unexpected things. 

Metropolis is an office building. Pretty fancy, huh? 

My friend Karen heard about a new market of  all natural and organic things. (The market was a bust.)

I bribed my kids to go by promising hot chocolate and toast with fresh tomato puree. That's what everyone eats at 10 o'clock. I wanted to go next door to the bar where the retirees were drinking beer for breakfast, but Karen thought it was too dark and dingy.  The girl in this cute place took forever to make five pieces of toast, so my expectations were not very high. 

     Let's just say that my faith in Spanish bread has been restored. Every corner store has bread, but it comes frozen and they just toast it. It is inedible the next day. THIS bread smelled good, felt good, tasted good, and left you wanting more.  She explained that it is artesanal, made from a starter or mother. Now I'm going around my neighborhood looking for good bread. 

Karen took us to a rooftop lounge. 

The building is called the Palacio de Belles Artes. 

On the second floor they were rehearsing for an opera. Those are real people really singing. 

On the way home we passed Simón, the knife store to end all knife stores. I bought a hairbrush; sacrilege, I know. They can sharpen my serrated knives, so I'll go back soon.... The next time I need to bribe my kids to go somewhere, I will promise to stop at the knife store. 

No hot water

Wyatt wants to fatten up the garden snails and eat them. He looked up how to take care of them. You are supposed to feed them cornmeal for five days to clear out their systems. 

I was fine with all that and bought some mushrooms, because I read that's what snails like. These photos are "before and after" shots of the water dish. 

They were really thirsty. This is day one and you can already see the snail poop. By day two the smell was overpowering, so they went back to the garden. 

Meanwhile, we turned on one too many appliances and shorted out the power. Sometimes a power outage shuts off the water heater.  This was also the first day they filled the pool. So the boys came back freezing cold and wanting warm baths, only to find there was no hot water. Here's Winston in the utility sink, filled with water from the tea kettle. How they have grown!  Last time he took a bath in the sink he could have stood up in it. 

Cancer Society

I am having trouble uploading pictures, so I will try doing more posts with fewer pictures. 

Last week was our annual fundraising day. I gave out 200 stickers to people who contributed, which means I must have said  "collaborate against cancer?" 1000 times. It was interesting and not nearly as embarrassing as I expected. You find yourself putting people in boxes,  as to whether you think they will give you money or not. But you never can tell. The businessman in the suit might or might  not give you money. The girl with the tattoos and piercings might or might not give you money. I had to make myself ask everyone. 

    Now is the season for end-of-school parties. Tristan had one with the boys in his class. The neighbor is having one in the backyard right now. He is the same age as Tristan, but it is a co-ed party with girls in bikinis.  Tristan's friend's house was gorgeous: a brand new, modern white gigantic house on a hilltop. But I think I would die of anxiety with two-year-old twins and an infinity pool. 

We are all ready for school to be out, but in a good way. 

A painting I like (the first)

I saw a picture I liked in a dusty store window. It was a print on paper so I thought maybe I could afford it. Well it turned out to be a famous print by a famous painter, Mariana by Manolo Valdés, $10,000. 

I had a nice chat with the elderly couple and their shi-tzu who was up on the table. Their son was there too, to point out books dedicated to the famous painter. He is still alive. 

Puppy at the bus stop

Troy is in Washington DC, so what with emailing him and talking on the phone, I am not blogging much. I should take more pictures for his sake!

We are collecting money at the doors of the hospital today, so I have to ask for money in Spanish, yikes. It is only once a year and has a fancy name like "solidarity day."  

I went to the government office to get the large family certificate, and the girl was so helpful!  Since I complain about the Spanish so much, I want to make note of the good things too. I am still about five steps away from getting the certificate. 

Cuddles is a bit of a fraidy-cat in the street.  He freezes whenever he hears trucks or other dogs or other people walking on the sidewalk. So he heard some one ahead and stopped, but then when he recognized Brothers he ran to them full-speed. 

Then the next day we walked to the bus stop, the boys got on the bus,  and cuddles ran all the way home looking for them.