Sunday, April 25, 2010

Corrida






25 de abril de 2010. Corrida de toros.
José Calvo: Silencio con un aviso, Saludos con un aviso
Fernando Cruz: Silencio con un aviso, Silencio con dos aviso
Álvaro Ortega(confirmó la alternativa): Palmas, Silencio con un aviso
Seis toros de Partido de Resina
Con mis padres.
Toro jumped the barrera.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Anna's 11th Birthday celebration






Anna celebrated her 11th birthday with Ida, Alba, Domenique and Elana. First they were off to Madrid's best gelato, Giuseppe Ricci's, then onto Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas (Alice in Wonderland). Then we walked home through Madrid's Saturday afternoon antics. In Plaza Mayor, giant bubbles. Near Placio Real. And everywhere there were puppies to play with.

In Plaza Oriente, we ran into the Catalan Circle of Madrid, building human towers, until the rain arrived in earnest and chased everyone away.






Happy Birthday, Anna!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Choca!

Alex’s favorite form of displacement behavior of late is walking up to you, sticking his hand up in the air, and shouting “High five!” Recently he’s even doing this Spanish style which is the same except he now shouts “Choca!” Sometimes this drives me crazy, but I try to be good natured about it. The kid has had a lousy year so the least I can do is indulge his choca habit.

This morning I went for a run by myself for the first time. Usually I require the moral support of either Jack or Alex to get me going. But today I made it out there solo and even ran longer than I have before (I won’t embarrass myself by telling you how short of a run that actually is). It was a great run. No pain, no inner conflict about if I should keep going. I actually felt good. Almost as good as I do on a bike ride. And on the cool down walk home I must have had a satisfied smile on my face. As I was heading uphill toward Plaza de España a middle aged man was walking down the same sidewalk. And as he approached a huge smile appeared on his face, he stuck out his hand, and greeted me with “Choca!” Lucky me, I knew what he was saying (thanks Alex!). I gave him a high-five and floated the rest of the way home.

You simply don’t see many people exercising in Madrid. Sure you see the odd runner or biker, but not a lot. When I had my choca encounter it was as if that man knew I was thinking to myself, “wow, I feel really good, I need to make sure I do this more often.”

Make someone’s day, give a choca.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Corrida


4 de abril de 2010. Corrida de toros
Daniel Luque: Silencio, Silencio, Silencio, Silencio con un aviso, Pitos, Silencio
Tres toros de Núñez del Cuvillo y tres toros de Juan Pedro Domecq
Con Tom, Sharon, Shannon, Christopher, Jack, y Alex.