Time Flies

September 24, the day  of La Virgen de la Merced, the patron of Barcelona.
The city celebrates with parades, fireworks, etc. It's a big holiday.

49 years ago my friend Titina (Isabel) and I were celebrating and  walking around the Ramblas and ended up in Plaza Catalunya. We saw 2 guys looking around sort of bewildered and we went to talk to them.

It was Marvin and his friend George. And that's the day we met.

Happy Birthday Mia :)

 

I hope you had a wonderful day!

 

Much love from your sister,

Jo



September days

I remember September 11, 2001, I was getting ready to go to work when I happened to glance at the TV and saw it happening. It was such an unbelievable sight that it didn't register at first.
When I got to the school, some of the teachers had not even heard about it, I had a small TV in my room and I had it on all day. It was really a black day for the US and the world, and I hope we all learned from it so it will never happen again.

The human chain in Catalunya happened without any incidents, in the spirit of togetherness and Catalan pride. Over 1.6 million people held hands from the north to the south of Catalunya. It was a proud day.

I worked in the garden a little today, Marvin and Lulu came outside too, it was a nice day. My garden looked pretty nice all summer, but with the heat wave  a lot of my flowers and plants dried up. Sandy told me that some of the plants looked pretty sad, so I spent time deadheading my geraniums and other plants, and also I cleaned my 3 arm jardiniere, and planted succulents on them. I hope they thrive :)

 

Here's a picture of Marvin with Jameson. He's a cutie :)

La via catalana

September 11 is an important date in the US, for reasons we all know. But it is also a very important day in Catalunya (Catalonia). It is The National Day of Catalonia.
A majority of catalans want to be independent of  Spain and have their own nation. On Wednesday they will form a human chain 250 miles long in support of Catalan Independence. My father would have been part of the chain.
They have had smaller chains all over the world all this month, the one in Los Angeles had about 450 people, and it took place at Griffith Park Observatory.
You can read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_Way

Visca Catalunya!

Family visits

On Friday, Dewey, Mary and Lee, and of course the blasted dog Petey, came-a-visiting.

We had a nice time, Mary and I went to The Lunch Box to get lunch for everybody and they all seemed to enjoy it. Because it has been so hot and because Marvin  enjoys visiting with his brother, I told him to ask them if they would like to spend the night here (we asked them the day before). It was 103 degrees in Burbank, and no A/C at Bettie's house. I think Dewey would have loved to stay, but Mary, Bettie and Gael had already made plans for Saturday.
Want to guess what the plans were? yes, you guessed it! It was to go to Walmart!

Dewey called after they got back to Burbank and said they might come Monday, Bettie had a doctor's appopintment and they'd come after that. Also Rick, Christina and baby Jameson might be coming. We'll see.

I also got an email from my cousin Franc (Tia Socorro's son), saying he might be coming in November, a stopover on his way to Hawaii, where he will go to a Zen retreat for a month, then he would go to Bali and other islands "to rest, write a book, and get away from his family"

And yesterday I got an email from Sonia, mi niece, here's it is in its entirety:

Queridisima tia
Estamos pensando venir a visitaros en noviembre?! Os va bien??? Seremos Eric Nicole y yo. Ya me diras. Un .beso. Sonia.

I'll keep you posted :)