Dia de Mona!

At Easter in Catalunya it is traditional for a god parent to give his god child a cake... the Mona de Pasqua. Zoe's godfather lives in Berkeley and my various god kids are strewn throughout distant countries around the world so I guess we are all off the hook but the bakeries are full of giant chocolate paeans to age old themes and characters like Barca, Bart Simpson and Barbie. Last night Zoe had me stop at a candy store to pick up some nubes (clouds) which are for the most part marshmallows. Zoe picked 6 long cylinders of fluffy sugar and... I dunno, I guess sugar.

Today deary arose from a dream about chocolate cakes as today she will add her nubes to a collective work of bakery art created with her classmates. Tomorrow after school we all dig in.

Evolution of a malady...

Food for thought.

I was surprised by my general state of mind when I got sick. I was quiet, spiritual, positive, appreciative, introspective and had a strange sense of humor. As I've gotten better to the point of being just about back to normal I'm finding that my sense of blind grateful euphoric optimism has done left. OK I've learned many things from this time but I lost my rose colored glasses. Maybe it's all part of the truth seeking process. OK the big positive things like my daughter continue to astound me and fill me with joy and wonder. And I am still often amazed at the magic of the smallest things, like a walk, a good conversation and, well, ironing. But the things in my life that are obviously just wrong... relationships, places, situations, things that don't work, bad designs, rude people... I feel that right now I can really do without anything but good things in my life. I wonder if this a common reaction. I wonder if euphoria often is part of being seriously ill. I wonder if recovery is often accompanied by intolerance of nonsense and hooey. Hmmmmm...

Puedo Esquiar!!!

This just in. OK months on the couch. Hobbling around like Tim Conway's little old man. A cane. Mi dio! Well folks it's more or less over. I skied this weekend!!! OK day one was more of an exploration of the bunny slopes with frequent breaks for chili dogs but day 2 saw the return of old swivel hips! Booma, a couple of screamin' snow grabbing super G carve-o-matic descents told me that all was good down there. OK the knee ain't what it used to be but by and large I seem to be able to compensate for it. I just have to watch twisty falls because there just ain't a lot left cushion wise. I'm going to get one of those robo-braces for Mr. Lefty. Carbon fiber... stainless steel studs. Oh boy another guy toy to obsess over! Gracias dio, gracias Doctores Heuget y Alegre. As long as I'm taking the rat DNA I'll be doing fine. Going up again on Sunday!

The end of the honeymoon...

OK... An announcement. After 7 years... My love affair with España is finito. Basically it was the process of buying and fixing and moving that finally drove the dagger in.

I would like to wax rhapsodic about little old ladies bringing us cookies but I'm afraid all I have is neighbors who scream about my daughter singing on the terrace at 4 PM on a Sunday, the presidente of the communidad and his bleach blond rubia mujer who have a business selling mustache waxing machines who find a way to skim whatever he can whenever he can... Sergi the evil real estate agent/executive of the communidad who lied about just about everything, Anna the distant upstairs vecino who spies through her curtains and whispers in the stairwell about things like singing 7 year olds... gotta make cookies... this rant will continue. Believe you me.