Thank You

For everything. To all of my friends on both continents. There are times when i feel like the luckiest person on earth. So thanks. Logically, i know that part of it is my own attitude, but without you all, it wouldn't mean anything.

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers -Blanche Dubois

Don't mean to be all mushariffic, but indulge an old man for six hundred and sixty-six seconds.

Flat is cool. I just cooked egg salad and Marcondes walked in the kitchen. He always cooks for Eduardo and i. I was like, "have some." He said no he was full. I hard-boiled six eggs and only peeled two, but i had way more than enough to make a very hefty sandwich. He came back into the kitchen when i was making my sandwich and i offered again. He asked for some bread and made himself a mighty sandwich. Last night i used a plancha (like a BBQ pan) and made gambas con ajo (shrimp with garlic.) He had some too. Tonight he was like, "you are a very good cook." And i was like, thist was eggs and garlic a la plancha, Hellman's Mayonaise and and Bimbo (yes, i said BIMBO, bread.) It's sliced bread with the crust, cuz they buy it without the crust here too (isn't that your mom's job, to cut off the crust?- how else would we know you love us?) But Marconde'ss cooking is kick ass and he feeds me constantly, so i am happy to share any time i cook. I always cook enough for two. If i don't have leftovers it's not a problem.

Last night was a legendary night for baseball. Just awesome. Could i hate two baseball teams any more than Boston and Atlanta?

MeThinks no.

Balls

I downloaded the new Steven Wilson album, Grace for Drowning today. It's progressive and very jazzy. It certainly evokes King Crimson at points, with both horns and guitar. Not as heavy as the recent Porcupine Tree stuff, yet it still rocks and has balls.

You've got balls. I like balls.

-Team America: World Police

It's two discs and is over 80 minutes of music. Two of the songs are Raider Prelude (2:23) and Raider II (23:21.) It's fantastic. The ending of the long piece evokes images of King Crimson's epic song, Starless ('74.) It's a lot to digest. But so far it sounds like good eatin'.

Chewing through your Wimpey dreams,
They eat without a sound;
Digesting England by the pound.

-Genesis

Class was good. I'm tired. I'll get in bed and watch some baseball.

It was only 84F today. Ansonia seems to still be having nice weather too.

MARTES

i fell asleep but awoke to find TB and Boston tied for the Wild Card. Come on Beantown, just two more loses. You can do it. I believe in the ghosts of 1978!

Lucky Bastards

Nicola and I (Carrie background) at the Grand Re-opening of Barbaroi, Sept 8th.

7,ooo page views! Thanks all. Monday! Back to work. The Seahawks actually won a game and i watched it. But watching an NFC West matchup is like watching a prisoner being interrogated - it's a grim affair. And when it's over, you just feel dirty. But they won and the defense looked good. But unless Jackson was chased out of the pocket, he just looked lost. The O line is a work in progress so they need to have Tavarus scrambling. Does anyone remember Jim Zorn? Anyone? That's why they chose him for an expansion team back in the 70's, because he could scramble.

And i fell asleep during the Boston/Yankee 14 inning affair. Boston with a wafer thin 1 game lead over Tampa with 3 to play. They got lucky.

Que Sera Sera

April 17, 2010 - Eat your heart out Mel Gibson! My mugshot is better than yours!

SABADO

So much to do, it never ends. I have a completely open weekend and i can't do it all. Or i don't want to do it all. Or maybe una mezcla ( a mix.)

Okay - out into my neighborhood.

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

-Mr. Roger's Neighborhood theme

Wow. Those don't hold up well. It kind of like the Man/Boy Love Association (from South Park.) thankfully i know it ends in ....'Won't you be my neighbor?." But still.

Won't you please,
Won't you please,
Please won't you be my neighbor?

That's sounds pretty predatory too. I saw the Lovely Bones movie (where Peter Jackson imagines the afterlife like a 70's Yes album cover.

DOMINGO 1:30

Whew. Watching Tampa Bay and Boston the past few days makes me wonder why neither team wants to win the AL Wildcard. Both teams are trying to give it away. The Yankees throttled the Red Sox. TB Got shut out last night vs. Toronto are are down 2-0 tonight in the first inning, It's the year of the September Swoon, in both leagues.

Speaking of swooning - Goodnight! I want to type but my fingers are sleepy.

15:11

My romp thru the barrio was awesome yesterday. I'm very close to Retiro, the biggest park, and i saw parts i had never freaking seen before. When i woke up Marcondes was cooking and asked me to eat with him and Eduardo. So i was chopping carrots and potatoes. It should be done pretty soon. My life is so different than it was a few weeks ago, i am thankful for that.

In other news, this gal, Julie, contacted me the that OK Cupid thing. This is the 2nd time that's happened in a month. I never hear from the other girl anymore. What was her name? But i figure i best take advantage as i only seem to be attractive to women about 2 months out of the year. Feb. was Carolyn, so i figure i best make the most of this while i am still considered hot. She's from Brooklyn, divorced and has two boys, 11 and 13. And she likes Rush (we were actually at the same GTR show (Steve Hackett, Steve Howe) in 1986 at the Beacon Theater. Anyhoo, she seems nice. She lives about 100 miles away in Ciudad Real, but it's not far by high speed train. We've been exchanging emails for a week and she said she'll be in Madrid with a friend in Oct. if i want to meet up. She's cute and she likes Rush. I said "Absolutely."

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

-Doris Day

welcome to the neighborhood

King for a Day; Sofia and i. Xmas 2009

Okay. Clean room. Unpack last stuff from last suitcases. No more loafing. We're coming up the heart of the school year. Lots of classes. Do this shite now or you'll never get it done come Octubre. My Spanish is improving, by the way. And then, later, time to get back to editing Buying New Soul. I love books, but they take fucking forever to write. But i miss it. However the blog has been a great thing for me. Always writing, Everyday. It becomes nature. A force of habit. It's kind of been like a diary for the past 4 years, something i had never done for more than two weeks before this.

@@@

I talked to Charlie (Mel's old flame, back when she still dated men) today on BookFace. I hadn't talked to him in ages. He is living in Sydney Australia with his wife, Michelle, and their 3 year old, Rob. She's from the Philippines (this word is a bitch to spell - i couldn't figure it out, used the dictionary on my Mac) i think.

ME: What the hell are you doing in Australia?

CHARLIE: And you're in Madrid? How'd you get there?

Small world. SO much smaller than i ever thought.

@@@

SABADO 00:57

Spanking Season

Time to watch the Yankees spank the Red Sox, Tampa spank Toronto and Washington Spank Atlanta and St. Louis spank Chicago. Seems like ages since playoff spots were coming down to the wire like this year. 1:00 is the baseball hour. My whole world is upside down! And i live in the south now, not the north, so Metro has been a bitch the last few weeks. New trains, new stations. But i like it here. I like the house, the guys and the area. It's got EVERYTHING as far as shops, markets, etc. Javi, my 13 year old student lives just a few blocks away. The other day he was my last class and i was like..., wow, i'm already home.

Oh Frig a pig! rain delay in NYC. Bitches brew! i salivate just thinking about the Yanks sticking a fork in the Red Sox. If it rains for two days they'll have to play a Triple Header on Sunday and the Sox will lose all three games.

1:12

They said the Red Sox / Yankees game has been postponed. Double-dip on Sunday.

i am in bed watching baseball (TB/TOR.) Hooray! Weekend! Thursday was hot, but now we were 84F today and they claim only 80F manana. if so, i'll go for a walk and explore the new 'hood.

Trolling the Archives; part i

The Last Supper of Zowie, Feb. 2011

So now that BookFace has changed their format again (does Mark Zuckerberg have A.D.D? They change their format every six months!) so i can save other people's pics again. So.... For the next few weeks i'll be trolling through the archives, bringing you the dizzying highs and the terrifying lows. Zowie is standing far left. She went back to England and got married to Paul (right, standing, black shirt.)

Next week, on the 26th of September, the release of a new Steve Hackett album, Beyond the Shrouded Horizon and the Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) Album, Grace for Drowning. It's been a pretty lean year for music as far as i'm concerned, but maybe this will kick it up a notch.

REM called it quits. They were an influential force, but they really hadn't done much of note in the past 15 years. And now that they've finally finished that $80m record deal they had, it was time. Life's Rich Pageant was great. Automatic for the People is their best. I always liked New Adventure's in Hi Fi because a lot of it was recorded with their live lineup and it's very experimental, even for them. It was their last album (1996) that i cared about. I'm listening to New Adventures right now and i still like it. I'm also like, Dude! i haven't put on an REM album in probably a decade!

Esta Viernes! No work today or this weekend. Back to it on Monday. i am just going to take it slow this weekend. Working a 7 hour day was a shock to the system. But i am tired off living hoof to mouth, so give me all the work you can baby!

Just in case you're playing at home;

Michele Bachmann still sucks. i've read that they don't even ask her questions anymore at the debates.

The Red Sox and the Braves are still sinking like a stone. Oh joy, O rapture! My two most hated baseball teams ever!

Cold Blooded

So tired. But a good day. Worked and then cooked a new thing i tried that i now call Sopa de Almejas (clams). I get this all natural Sopa de Pez (Fish Soup) and cook it with angel hair pasta (that's pre-cut up into bitty pieces here.) They call the size zero. Loco Europeans. Then i add steamed black clams (the shell is black.) They are a bit 'gamier' than the white clams, but i quite like them. Mel and i were eating clams off the half shell when we were kids. At Nana's father's place. He always signed his cards Gramps the Great! Now that's balls to announce yourself as such.

Also, i'm quitting my summer job at www.rhyming_insults.com, so i no longer have to right crap like this;

you're still a dirt ball

even though you made bail

cuz your mother was your father

cuz they were the same snail

i know. i know. Cold blooded. But it's a living. Thankfully for all of us, teaching is back.

Not Proud

Work is picking up. Por fin (finally!) i'm so sick of writing porno screenplays. But you do what you got to do during the lean times. However, if you watch porn (which i know you all do) i don't recommend any of the following titles. They are just crap. I know because i wrote them;

The Ass Menagerie

I Know Who You Did Last Summer

Silence of the Labia

Big Trouble in Little Anus

A Tale of Two Schlongs

Mary Poopings

Penisocchio

Two Whores and a Nun go to the Sperm Bank

I'm not proud, but it's a living. Now i can go back to writing REAL fiction.

Shinier than yours....

The Ministry of Love, Atocha

it's a circle of deception
It's a hall of strangers
It's a cage without a key
You can feel the danger
And I'm the one who oughta know
I'm the one you couldn't trust
Yeah I'm the lonely silent one
I'm the one left in the dust

-Tom Petty

Short post today. The last one was monstrous. Brain tired from a full day. My intercambio with Silvia was good, though painful to wake up to. She's super nice. Very hot. All the Spanish girls like to show off the cleavage and when then bend over a book you have to think "Keep your eyes on the horizon." Okay - shower, eat, call some students about classes, teach Elena from 18:00 - 20:00, then off to Bender Tuesday at J&J's. Then sleep. Sweet glorious sleep.

BENDER: Bite my shiny metal ass

FRY: It's not that shiny

BENDER: Shiner than yours, meat bag

note: the photo is really The Ministry of Agriculture, but that's not half as cool, is it?

The Five Year Plan

DOMINGO

14:45

What a great party! There were 54 of us at Mohgul, a fantastic Indian place. The Barbaroi. Then Peor. Mike had a great time, as did everyone. Then i left at 1:30 so i could catch the Metro. Tribunal to Atocha on linea uno (light blue) is only 6 stops without a change (because the last Metros leave at 1:30 from the end stations.) Love my new place. Woo hoo!

sky blue so tired of all this traveling

so many miles away from home

i keep moving to be stable

free to wander, free to roam

train pulled out said my goodbyes sky blue

back on the road alone with the sky sky blue

there's a presence here no one denies sky blue

-Peter Gabriel

Seahawks play Pitt today. Ooooch. That could be Ugly. I think i'll be able to get a TV feed. I mean, it's the Steelers. I am currently watching Spurs/Liverpool. Is there anything the Internet can't do? Sunday is football day. European and American. Considering i am broke until manana (6 1/2 hours, private so all cash in hand! - Mama's gonna buy me a new pair of shoes! Actually, i probably owe Mum a new pair as it was just her birthday. Easy come, easy go.)

Time to get my very sexy lazy ass in gear. It's 8:57 AM, EST. Do you know where your children are? Sleeping, if you are lucky.

- - -

Friday, Sept. 23 at 10:04 CET is the Autumnal Equinox! Good-by summer you hot, nasty bitch!

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth
You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette
The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget
Ohhh how how how, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

-David Bowie

Feels like Autumn. It's 21:08 and it's 70F / 21C. That's nice weather. Tomorrow should be nice as well. High of 80F. Back up to 87F after that.

Fall is coming.

The Fall is coming.

I've repeated it to myself the past two Septembers as i lie sweltering. Global warming; It's a Bitch. People all over Madrid are crying, "No Mas!"

I finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, by David Mitchell. Interesting book. Strange book. I read it over the course of a year. It's hard cover and i'd always carry it around for a few day and then be like, "It's too heavy for 10 hours will all the other books you carry on your back." But it kept getting my interest every time i re-started. It's about a Dutch trader in Dejima, the only port to commerce with Japan, in 1800. It was bonkers in a good way. Mitchell is one of my favorite authors. But it's dense stuff. Next up, more George RR Martin; A Feast for Crows. It's Book 4 of a Song and Ice and Fire.

TB 6 BOS 2 Top of the 5th. I love baseball. I watched the 1st half of the Seahawks and Pitt. It was awful. Painful. A Jacobean Tragedy. If the Red Sox cough up the wild card, that would be a tragedy, one of my favorite ever. They have to go back to being those Red Sox. The Choke Monsters. A GAGgle of Geeks. Chokasaurus Rex. How i miss those days!

LUNES

Barely. It's 23:52. 6.5 hours today, so that was great. But i am knackered. So tired. Monday has been a day off the past few weeks. Running from class to class with only a half hours travel time.

I bought an Aloe plant. i named her The Kraken's Daughter (A reference to Feast of Crows.) It's green. My walls are green. it's good for my skin. It's soooo dry here. But it was 51F when i left at 10:30 this morning. I wore pants and a sweater.

Sleep. Up to meet Silvia at 10:30 to learn Spanish and teach her English.

ABT - Always be teaching

Listening to Genesis: The Way We Walk; the Longs (Live 1992). Sue and i saw them for that tour. It was right when we decided to move in together. So long ago. Good times. And there's been good times in the past 5 years as well. 5 years? I know Annie's 4.5 but it just doesn't compute. I'll be here 5 years soon.

The Russians in the early 1900's were always implementing a 5 Year Plan, every 2 or 3 years in an effort to industrialize. They had them after the Russian Revolution too. I have kind of led my life by 5 years plans. Well, we'll go to DC for 5 years and take it from there. I'm soon at the end of another five years. Time for a new plan!

MARTES

00:17

First Sleep. Plan tomorrow between 13:00 and 17:30.

Sound the Knell

Bachmann Turnout Override; http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/09/16/bachmann_not_doctor

She's stupid. She's a religious zealot. She's a liar. Right now, the Tea Baggers rank the lowest out of 24 political block groups as the most disliked, according to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. This means lower than Muslims, gays and atheists, not that there's anything wrong with any of those groups, just that they are traditionally not very popular. I project she'll be out of the race by March 6th, which looks like it will be Super Tuesday.

The battle's over and the dust is clearing
Disciples of the Snow Dog sound the knell
Rejoicing echoes as the dawn is nearing
By-Tor in defeat retreats to Hell
Snow Dog is victorious
The land of the Overworld is saved again.
-Rush

Tonight is my god friend Mike's Bday. He'll be 40 on Lunes. I told him not to worry. It's not so bad.

Down to the Fryer

Tampa scored 2 and Boston came right back and scored 2. September baseball that means something. I love it. All the other races are pretty much decided. I doubt the Angels will catch the Rangers in the west. But Boston? They are reeling like a boxer ready to be TKO'd. You'd be surprised- the only baseball hats you see here are Red Sox or the Yankees. It's probably more trying to be gangsta fashionable than giving a shit about the teams. Half of the Yankee hats i see are red. Red? WTF? Anyhoo, it's nice to still be able to hate the Red Sox from Europe. But the Red Sox won.

89F today. It's been brutal. The heat has to end soon. It has to. I'm out of sweat! When it gets this hot i get tough like a Groucho Marx rubber chicken. I just dry out. I can drink liters of water and i still feel dehydrated. It's 2:03 in the morning and it's 73F. It's September! No mas. I look at the people bundled up in Fenway and think - Awesome! So hot. Since June. So hot.

Take the time to close your
eyes and look around,
'Cause anyone who helped you out
can let you down.
And look out, look out, look out,
the voice is now the choir.
Can you feel it getting
down to the wire?

-Neil Young

Hair

Little Awesome Annie, 4 1/2, possibly after running through the South American rainforest. Dig that hair!

Oh thought it was a nightmare
though it come so true
They told me don't go walking slow
the devil's on the loose
Better run through the jungle
better run through the jungle
better run through the jungle
don't look back to see

-CCR

I finally finished A Storm of Swords the other day, all 1128 pages. Next up, the fourth book, A Feast for Crows. Over 2,000 pages of this stuff since August. And i'm still going! Time to watch the Rays beat the Red Sox.

VIERNES

The Rays kicked the snot out of the Red Sox. Woo hoo! Just 3 games. Boston teams choking reminds me of magical times, like snow on Xmas. Here's hoping they have the balls to finish the collapse.

Boston Massacre anyone? Sept. 7-10, 1978. The Yanks swept all four games, crushing the Red Sox. The final game was a day game. A few years later someone asked Boston player George Scott what he was thinking of on his way to the ballpark. His answer was, "I was praying for rain."

Only 85 today, or so they say. I'll believe it when i feel it.

Let it Lie

Annie, Age 2, with Sue and i on the Mall in DC, after a few hours of Mayhem in the Washington Monument and splashing in a fountain.

Work done. Atletico beat Celtic. Saw the 2nd half. Came home. Ate pasta. And now i'd like to leave you with a song i wrote called, i go sleeping.

68 candles

Happy Birthday Mum! Thanks for having me. And even more thanks for keeping me.

Your poor mother

-Heather Tietjen, about me, after becoming a mother herself

La musica que estoy escuchando;

2 - Black Country Communion

From Genesis to Revelation - Genesis

All is well. More work coming next week. Really dig the new flat. i think i am finally home. 6 hours of class tomorrow. I didn't work six hours all last week! Ay carumba! My life of leisure is over!

The Shengen Treaty

The Shengen Area

The Shengen Treaty allows people to enter other Shengen EU countries without stamping your passport. As i live kind of outside of the law, these are countries Mom, Mel, Jan and i are looking at for a holiday in January.

MARTES 1: 33

I just watched the Miami Dolphins carve up the Patriots defense. I'm so sick of the Patriots. EVERY Boston and Mass. team. I liked it better when they just lost. Like if the Tampa Rays catch the Red Sox for the wild card. That would be freakin' sweet.

And then NE comes right back down the field and scores.

I feel asleep last night during the Jet game. Seemed like quite a game. I saw the highlights. Dallas choked.

It was 90F today. 90F tomorrow. 90F on Wed.

MUSICA!

Twang Bar King - Adrian Belew

Thank You - Stone Temple Pilots

Save the date; August 4, 2012 will be American Laura's wedding, which means i'll probably fly home on the 7th. i'm going to be a bridesmaid so i'm going to have to shave my legs.

Yet Another School Year

Tribute of Light, 2011. It's a beautiful tribute. New York City has changed forever, but it's still MY city, the most kick ass one in the world. I live in Madrid, but in my heart, it's always THE City.

'i bring love to give you solace

In the darkness of the night

In the heart's eternal light

You need only trust your feelings

Only love can steer you right'

'i bring laughter, I bring music

I bring joy and I bring tears

I will soothe your primal fears

Throw off those chains of reason

And your prison disappears'
_Rush

Well, it's officially the new school year, 2011-2012. So, here's a new look. Back to blue for another new season of THE SPANISH EXILE. Now that we are almost to the 5 year mark, i am hoping that Fox will pick us up in syndication (not likely given my political views.)

The NFL started. I got to see the Giants/Redskins and really wished i hadn't. An ugly game for the G-Men.

And after a dismal 1st half the Seahawks got to within 2 points of SF only to give up consecutive run backs for TD's (1 kickoff return, 1 punt.) Shameful. Next week Pittsburgh, which should be all fired up because they had SEVEN turnovers vs. Baltimore.

Allow me to be brutally honest - the Seahawks should lose EVERY game and win the Andrew Luck sweepstakes.

No class today but i have classes the rest of the week. Here's to earning money!

Requiem

i'd be surprised if the Seahawks win more than 6 games this year. Tavaris Jackson (or soon Charlie Whitehurst) is just keeping the QB position warm until they can draft a QB next year.  I think Tampa Bay is a team to watch. The Titans as well. If Hasselbeck get protection and a back like Chris Johnson, they may just surprise and get into the playoffs. Houston is the team to beat but Arian Foster is a question mark due to injuries. If Foster hamstring is okay, Houston could just go to the Super Bowl. And now, it's time to answer the question no one wants to ask - who wins the NFC West? Sorry Heather (San Fran). Sorry Mum (Seattle). It will be St. Louis. 

It's the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, a true day that lives in infamy. Sue and i were in Denver when it all went down. And then a long 1,890 mile drive home. 

It still rankles me because there are still so many unanswered question. Bin Laden is dead, but F16's shot down the plane in Penn. There was no wreckage. My friend Jamey, who was in the army at the time, saw two F16's take off and head west. And how did those people make cell phone calls after Jet Blue would later spend billions to try and perfect the technology to allow that to happen? Bush had to know something was going  to happen. It shaped his ENTIRE presidency and provided an excuse to invade Iraq, something he was hell bent on doing. He bombed Iraq in early 2001. Why? Because he was trying to get his Daddy's balls back. Impossible that the Republicans would allow something like this to happen? I leave you with one question - Have or have not the Republicans proved they'll do ANYTHING to win an election? Bush stole the 2000 election with his brother Jeb as governor of Florida. The biggest benefit to invading Iraq was that Mark Rove knew the American people have never voted against an incumbent president in a time of war. Rove said in early 2001 that he wanted Bush to be a "wartime president." I was like "with who?" He knew it was the only way the Texas Turd could get re-elected. The house, in a staggering display of irresponsibility, let the debt ceiling go down to the wire, costing the USA it's AAA credit rating. The day of Reckoning is coming. If our politicians don't get their heads out of their collective asses, it's going to be a brutal one for all of us and our children.

Musica;

Counterparts - Rush

Live at the Lyceum 1980 - Genesis

When the Keyboard Breaks (live in Chicago) - Liquid Tension Experiment

I had a very good intercambio wth Silvia yesterday. She works for American airlines, so she needs English. She's very nice. And hot! How is it that all of my female students are hotter than Texas asphalt? Perhaps because they're all at least ten years younger than me. D'oh!

It's been hot. Only 83F today, which will be awesome if it's true.  

I'm meeting Asun at 18:00 in La Latina. T0 what avail, i just don't know. What the hell am i doing? No idea really. 

Fin de Semana

And i believe it's derogatory to refer to a woman's breasts as boobs, jugs, winnebagos or golden bozos. And that they should only be referred to as hooters.

-Steve Martin

MUSICA

Genesis - Live in Genoa,  22-8-72

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

ELP- Pictures at an Exhibition

Primus - Green Naugahyde   

Who wins the world series? HATE to say it, but it's Philly.

Sunday, i have a date with Asun. Again. She always asks me to go out. She said she's not dating anybody. I saw her at Susana's party. We talk for at least a half an hour or so. I asked her if she wanted to get together next weekend. I don't know why. She's probably way too innocent and naive for me. American Laura heard me and gave me a high-five after she left. Well, I can practice my Spanish. That's my new goal! To make my Spanish awesome so i can be a bilingual MF and immigrate to America and get a job. Wait a minute...., i think my great  grandparents already did that. Aw screw it. We'll do it again!

People i am sick of

-Every GOP candidate

-Sarah Jessica Parker

-Ben Affleck

-Coldplay

-Stephenie Meyers and all that Twilight drivel (she can't even spell her fucking name correctly. How can she write?)

And to address all those rumors of Gwenneth Paltrow having an affair, with me, i am on record as saying; "She's a hotty, but have you ever read GOOP. Ugh! Cut my throat now. Plus Coldplay is the whiniest, most vanilla, snore of a group i've ever heard. I wouldn't do her just cuz she's been with Chris Martin. I only have one schlong you know, so i just plain would always treat my John Thomas better than that."

MICHELE BACHMANN COMEDIENE: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/0f0cf37683/michele-bachmann-is-a-crazy-comedian

Viernes perezoso

Lazy Friday. No work. Great time last night at the reopening of Barbaroi (It means foreigner, and the word barbarian comes from it.) The place looks great. And i found out Vincente and his wife (owners) are expecting their first baby in January. It's a girl.

I am 920 pages into A STORM OF SWORDS, Book 3 of George R R Martin's mammoth A Song of Ice and Fire Series. And i've still got 200 pages to go. But it's fantastic.  I never thought there would be an heir to The Lord of the Rings, but Martin has done it. Two more books to go once this one is done.              

  

Tomorrow i have an language intercambio (exchange) with a gal named Silvia. The idea is i'll help her with English and she'll help me with Spanish. Never met her. It came thru American Laura.

Hot Again

MIERCOLES

We got a rare 5PM start in Florida tonight. That's 23:00 here so that's a great time. I can't believe they are getting a new stadium down there. I wonder if they  will start to become popular and profitable. They have two World Series championships down there, but no one seems to care.

Music to settle in by;

Somewhere in London - Marillion

Sailing to Philadelphia - Mark Knopler

Ragged Glory - Neil Young

In My Tribe - 10,000 Maniacs

Live in Basil '72 - Genesis

Live in Cap  D'Agade '82 - King Crimson

Le Noise - Neil Young

Arriving Somewhere - Porcupine Tree

It was 93F today. Unusually hot, but it was like this last summer. I was dying last year at Maria's with all the windows closed in the house because of the cats (it's the second floor and Bichito can jump.90's every day  for the next week is the prediction. Tomorrow (Barclays) is the last day i have to wear pants this week. i'm out  0f sweat! I can't sweat any more! At least it drops at night. It's 75F right now. It'll go down to 60F.

JUEVES  2:04

Got class manana at 11:oo. Then 15:30. Then 18:00. Night to all of ye. 

19:42

18:00 class was cancelled. That's life. Off to see Vincennte and the crew at Barbaroi as they come back from vacation and open up for the 2011 - 2012 temporada (season). 34C today. That's 93F. It's wrong is what it is. Wrong.

Almost Human

Shelia from up the block


i really like my new home. Eduardo and Marcondes are friendly and we all have our own lives. The kitchen is great with two sinks. The llavadora  (washing machine) 7k instead of your standard 4.5k so i can do less loads of laundry. God for saving water too. I unpacked a bunch tonight and will finish my room  on viernes. i feel like this has been my home longer than a week. i caught up with all my back laundry (as that was a real issue at the crazy Ecuadorian's). I feel almost human. Almost.

....In with the new

13:54

Time to eat shower and go to work. Work? The gall. You mean i have to work?

BloggSpot has a new interface. It's very sparse. Weird. Probably better functionality. The old one was clunky as hell. But i've been using it for 4 1/2 years, so i was used to it.

So now i have to get used to a new interface AND working again? The gall, i say. The fucking gall.

Corndogging

Corndogging at the Iowa Straw Pull (Aug 2011)

LUNES

6,500 page views in a two year stretch. Thanks everyone!

No work tomorrow so it's time to figure out where the hell things go in my room manana. 85 manana, so i'll try to do it in the AM / early afternoon. It's too roasty in the late afternoon.

Bachmann Voter Turnout Override

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending." –Rep. Michele Bachmann, suggesting at a presidential campaign event in Florida that the 2011 East Coast earthquake and hurricane was a message from God (Aug. 2011)