2015 recap

2015 brought me good days, bad days and excellent days...That's how it went...


JANUARY - To the ER on the 2nd day of 2015, Marv needed 3 pints of blood.
Lizzie came the weekend of the 9th,
Bought an iPhone6

FEBRUARY - Celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary with our two girls :)
Crista came with a fiance visa on the 11th


MARCH - Tristan turned 17 years old!
Lizzie came the weekend of the 13th
Norbert said no to marrying Crista
Maarv passes his driving test

APRIL - My friend Lolin died the 11th
Sandy and Tristan came  April 16th . Lizzie too  :)
Marvin's 75th birthday.
ER April 24th

MAY - Lizzie came on the 1st, next day we went to the Getty Center.
I bought a new computer.
Lizzie came the weekend of the 15th
Bye bye Crista.

JUNE - Sandy's 49th birthday.
FC Barcelona European Champions
Sandy and family to Hawaii on the 11th

JULY - Colonoscopy July 6th OK
Lizzie got a new house !
Tristan solo trip to San Francisco

AUGUST - Lizzie came the weekend of the 14th

SEPTEMBER - Making arrangements for trip to Spain.
Leaving the 13th Los Angels - Atlanta - Barcelona
Glorious 2 weeks in Barcelona, Costa Brava and Sitges. WONDERFUL!

OCTOBER - Marv got  backache.pain on the 2nd
ER the 20th. for back pain and colostomy problems.
Lizzie went to Utah for a few days, sister's time :)

NOVEMBER - Lizzie the weekend of the 6th
Paris massacre the 13th
Lizzie's 44th birthday
Thanksgiving with Lizzie :)

DECEMBER - Lizzie, Sandy, Tristan cane for my birthday on the 11th :)
Sunset in HB
Wayfarer's Chapel the 20th
Passed my driver's test the 16th
My 72nd birthday the 17th
Lizzie came for Christmas :)
Christmas Eve with the Wann's and the O'Dells
Jacuzzi and magic forest on New Year's Eve


This year I read 92 books.

See you next year. I hope it brings us health, love, money, happiness.

need a new keyboard

my keyboard is giving up on me. i need to buy one tomorrow because..

...can't type capitals

...can't type te letter after g

...my spase bar does not work

it all appened today.

i was going to write a recap of 2015 so i will do it tomorrow after i buy a new one. tings look funny witout capitals and wit tat letter missing.

tank you mia for te lovely flowers, so pretty.

asta mañana

The Holidays

Our Christmas this year was nice and peaceful. 

Lizzie came on Thursday and helped me get things ready for  our Christmas Eve gathering. In the morning I took Marv to dialysis and took the huge box of chocolates to give to the staff, they are expecting it every year and they were happy!
 Marvin has lost some weight lately and it takes him longer to recover, but he was happily waiting for his brother and sisters to get here.

They came around 5PM, just Mary and Dewey and Bettie. Lee had a toothache and stayed home. Christina, Rick and Jameson went over to her grandmother, Iris was busy with her sisters, but a little later on David and his son came to our  home.

I made  bean soup, because it was a pretty cold day, by California standards,we got chickens at Juan Pollo with tortillas and salsa, we had different chips and dips, they brought a couple of salads too. For dessert Marv made a pecan pie, and mini eclairs. We had a good time.
Christmas Day was just the 3 of us (Sandy and family went to Marty's folks in Pocatello)
In the morning we opened our presents, I very much enjoyed the picture book Lizzie made of out trip to Spain, beautiful, and in the same vein, I also enjoyed a lot my yearly calendar from Sandy, this time featuring our trip to Barcelona and Platja. Other gifts were a pretty angel, coloring books (very popular and fun to color), an Amaryllis plant and more:)

After we opened the gifts, I cooked sausage and bacon and waffles for breakfast.
For our Christmas meal, I made escudella i carn d'olla which is the typical Catalan Christmas soup, it has chicken, beef, meatballs, potatoes, garbanzos, carrots, and marrow boners. It's a rich soup. We also had breaded pork and roasted asparagus, and turrones for dessert, and of course, some Cava.

Saturday, the 3 of us went to El Torito Grill for lunch. It was very tasty. Then we came home and just rested and watched TV. We had leftovers for dinner.
Sunday Marv had dialysis (changed the days because of the holidays) Lizzie took him and then we went out to lunch to El Chile Verde. Then she left to San Diego. Thanks Lizzie for spending some quality time with the seniors ;)
When Marvin got home, he was not feeling too well, The rest of Sunday was just restful.

I hope you all had a great Christmas!

Just 5 more days for the new year!

Bon Nadal-Merry Christmas

To all my family and friends 

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2016

My Birthday

Today is my birthday, Nothing special happened. Drove M to dialysis, went to the Library, went to the ophtalmologist. Stopped for a green chile burrito for lunch, checked Facebook and read the Happy Birthday greetings :)  Watched the final of Top Chef Spain, went to pick up M. washed dishes, fixed dinner (steak with green beans and mashed potatoes for M and sausage with peppers and onions over pasta for me). The girls and Tristan texted me Happy Birthday and Lizzie & Sandy called. Now I am  writing this.

BUT, the celebration for my birthday was 6 days ago!
My daughters and Tristan  came home to stay for a few days :)  It was really nice and we had fun. Lizzie brought me my favorite chocolate cake from San Diego, and I made pork escalopas for dinner ..
Saturday the girls took M to dialysis, and then we went to El Cholo and they treated me to lunch (and Margarita). T decided to stay home. After they went to get M, the 3 of us went to Huntington Beach to watch the sunset as per my request. It was lovely and we enjoyed it very much. I also bought myself a sunflower lawn ornament .

The next day Sunday, was also a beautiful Southern California  day. Lizzie had suggested we go on a little side trip and checked several places, it was decided we'd go to The Wayfarer's Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes. It was a great choice and I was excited because we had never been there.
It's a magical place in a really gorgeous setting. We loved everything about it.

                                                      Catalina Island in the background

Afterwards we went to Black Angus for lunch. M and T had gone to Panda Express earlier for lunch. Then we came home and watched sports and Christmas movies. I made canalones for dinner :)

We were sad to see them leave on Monday, the house was quiet, even Lulu was sad, but we had  had some fun filled days while they were here. :)

I passed!!!

Just a quick note to say I passed my driving test, both the written exam and the vision test, and let me tell you I was a bit worried!

So I am happy and relieved. YAY me!

Christmas decorations

It's almost a tradition that the day after Thanksgiving people start putting out Christmas decorations, both inside and outside their homes.

Both my neighbors right and left of me did that. Last year the ones on my right  offered to put up our lights, but not this year. They are still not talking to me because I complained about their barking dogs. They have been really rude and ignorant about the whole thing.

Norbert probably could put the lights, but I am tired of having them up and then having to put them down again. So this year we bought the Star Showers. I am sure you have seen it advertised on TV, and maybe I told you about it already.

We got it in the mail today from Amazon. We tried it on inside and it is really very pretty all the little red and green lights. I guess they are very popular because in most stores they have sold out. We'll see how they look outside :)

We have had very nice weather lately, after a semi cold spell. At night, the houses look so pretty with lights and Santa etc. But in the daytime it looks very sad. I remember when we were living in Idaho, the decorations and outdoor lights were just very pretty, day and night. Here not so much.

You all know I don't like shopping, so this year I decided it will be Chrismoney instead of presents. Since I came back from Spain, Marv has been having back problems and other problems, and I haven't been feeling like doing much of anything.  

But I bought a Christmas wreath for the door :)

I have no idea why it is sideways!

Of guns and laws

I was not going to write about the past terrible events, but since the girls had an opinion, I will give mine too. By the way, it's great you two keep on blogging even when is not OBLOPOMO or however you spell it :)

I don't like guns, I have never owned one or even held one (I do have an old old rusty BB gun Dewey gave me because is the same type the kid wanted so bad in the movie A Christmas Story). We've never had a gun in the house, although I seem to remember at one point Marvin had one but not for long. My friend Norbert has a few guns he bought in Vegas, he keeps one in his ttruck when he goes camping and traveling with his sister. I remember when Kevin lived in UT for a while with Sandy and family, he was in the reserves and he had guns, I was always asking Sandy  that I hoped they put them away someplace where T when he was a little boy, couldn't get to it.

But the Second Amendment of the Constitution says you have the right to keep and bear arms.

I think that more laws are not going to help. California is the State in the US with the strictest gun laws , Illinois also has strict laws . The most lenient States are Utah and also Vermont.

If they ban guns altogether, we'll have even more crime -look what happened during Prohibition and what's happening now with the drug cartels-  And the worst thing is, criminals will always find a way to get guns.

When shootings happen the President always talks about more gun control, but in the San Bernardino massacre, which is an act of terrorism, he has remained quiet. I wish he would speak and say  the American government is on top of it and try to calm the fears of the people. But that's another story.

Be kind to one another.

November recap

It was hard for me to write daily but I think I did OK, missed one day by minutes :)
It was hard because all days are more or less the same, so it was hard to come up with stuff to write about.
Anyway, here's my recap.

Lizzie was here twice this month, one in the first weekend of November and then again for Thanksgiving. Always love to have her here. She also had her 43rd birthday this month.

We had 4 doctor's appointments this month. His regular doctor, then dermatology, and the wound nurse. I had an optometry appointment and just got a call today that my sunglasses are ready. Lulu had a salon appointment .  Marv didn't have a very good month, when his back started getting better it started to hurt again, very painful.

And  bad happenings, the massacre in Paris,  Lebanon, and other  areas of the world :(


Here are the books I read this month:

NOVEMBER 2015

Barbara Samuel – No Place Like Home

Maureen Johnson -  13 Little Blue Envelopes

Joseph Wambaugh – Harbor Nocturne

Elin Hilderbrand – The Rumor

Elin Hilderbrand -  Winter Stroll

I think I forgot to write  about a couple more books that I read

Movies I watched

I didn't watch any movies but I watched a lot of Spanish and Catalan TV online

Another Sunday

Marv wanted to have chili and cornbread for lunch, so I went to Marie Callenders to get some. I got a chicken pot pie for me.

I didn't care much for my pie, It had only a top crust and the filling was kind of runny and lacked seasoning, I won't have it again. Marv enjoyed the chili, but because of his back pain he hasn't been eating a lot today.

He went to bed fairly early after a dinner of mashed potatoes and ground beef taco filling. I didn't eat any dinner, but just now I had an english muffin and an omelette.

I feel bad Marv is having so much pain on his back, he was doing pretty well and then he hurt it again somehow on  the other side. He lays down with the heat pad sometimes and sometimes with the icy hot. He's also taking some pretty strong pain medication. He's OK laying down but when he gets up he has quite a bit of pain. I hope little by little it'll get better. The doctor said it takes time, and don't seem overly concerned. But it is hard on him, and on me since I can do only so much to help.

Just one more November day. I hope December will be better.

Out of ideas

I checked the girls' blogs to see if I could get some ideas on what to write about today. Sandy had nothing to write about and LIzzie had not written hers yet. So I went to Pinterest for ideas, but all I saw were books with ideas, only you had to buy them.

So I am still out of ideas, but I will write a little about blogging. The number 1 reason I blog is so I have a record of things that happen in my life, important and not so important. I also write so my readers know about those things that happen in my life.

I know my readers are my two daughters, my husband, and my sister Mia and  conversely,theirs  are the only blogs I read consistently.

Sometimes I check my posts to see how many hits I get, usually  there's about 16 or so people that read my posts , I have no idea who the other 12 people are. I don't advertise my blog at all, not in Facebook, not anywhere. So I'm curious.

Last year, for some unknown reason I had lost of readers, like in the low hundreds, then they stopped.. I have no clue why or why so many. It puzzles me. I really I am not sure how this blogging stuff works :)

Have a nice Sunday!

Movies

I've spend a good part of this evening  trying to organize my pretty large collection of movies that I have saved in my external HD

Last night, Lizzie and I were talking about organizing, so I showed her  my movie collection and how I had it organized by folders. She was sort of shaking her head and couldn't understand why I had so many folders and why some of thems were in several folders, etc.

I got her point. I do have too many folders. I had them filed by  favorites,  oldies, classics, teen movies, musicals, comedy, drama, seen, not seen, Oscar winners, holidays, and also by actor-actress for instance Elvis movies,  Steve Martin, Audrey Hepburn, Woody Allen, and so on. And of course, many many that were just listed by name since it would take too long to  find out what category they should fit in.

But I got quite a bit done, I have fewer files but way too many subfiles. . I'll keep on working.

I checked the internet to find out if there was some kind of app or program that would just organize them for me. I downloaded the Movie Monkey , but it didn't really work for me. So I'm looking for a program the will classify them at least by genre, so it would be easier for me to check them out.

 Any suggestions?

 

Post Thanksgiving

I was talking to some old friends online last night, and when I finally signed off I realized it was past 12, so I missed one day, although I wrote a Happy Thanksgiving post a little after midnight.

Today Lizzie took Marv to dialysis, unfortunately  while washing in the bathroom he hurt his back again and has been in pain most of the day.  He took a big tray of cookies from Sam's to the dialysis staff to thank them for their care.

Lizzie brought me a cinnamon roll for breakfast and then watched The Godfather for a while. We decided to have lunch after Marv got home. I made some chocolate pudding instead of pie for later.

After they got home, Marv had a snack and took a pain pill. Lizzie and I had pan con tomate y jamon serrano, spinach dip and chips and guacamole and patatas bravas..

Later for our main meal, we had grilled rib eye steaks with garlic mayo, dressing and cranberry sauce and potatoes. It was very good but not very traditional. For dessert we had the chocolate fudge pudding with home made whipped cream and flan. Also cookies from Lizzie. We also drank some Cava.

And of course watching a lot of football!

There was only the 3 of us, plus Lulu, and it was just fine. Marv called his brother and sisters that got together in Dixon, to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. I called Norbert. And Sandy called us :)

Marv went to lay down  because his back was hurting and then he had another pain pill and went to sleep. Lizzie and I were in my room talking, and I showed her some of the files in my computer and discovered my organizing was not as good as I thought! I really need help with it. We started by cleaning a drawer in my computer desk.

And now is time to say goodnight, even though I'm pretty sure it'll be a while before I go to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To my family and friends:

Have a wonderful day,

I am thankful you are in my life.

Love you all

An American Holiday

This Thursday is Thanksgiving day, a quintessential American holiday. But it is not my favorite holiday.

We didn't have Thanksgiving in Spain when I was growing up, I had a vague idea that it had to do with Indians and I thought Cowboys (actually were Pilgrims). And turkeys.

My first Thanksgiving was spent with Marv's family. I was really looking forward to it, but I must say I was underwhelmed.  His family is very nice and quiet. But they are not party people. I was used to many get together with my family, and everybody  laughed and ate and drank and talked and it was very festive.

We sat down at the table like at noon, Marv and me, his parents, his brother and sisters, his grandfather and his 3 unmarried uncles.  Marv's father said a blessing and all the food was already on the table: huge turkey, dressing, cranberries, rolls, gravy, potatoes, a couple different kinds of salads, and on the sideboard, different kinds of pies.

There was not a lot of talk, just pass the potatoes, who wants more turkey etc. Nobody really talked to me, but I did talk to them although I don't think they really understood my accent, so I felt a little lonely. The fact that the only thing to drink was Cool Aid and/or milk, didn't help.

Then like magic, all the males left the table and went to the living room to watch football, I followed them to be with Marv but he told me to go back to the kitchen and help out. His mother and sisters had done all the cooking and now they were doing all the cleaning, I was not a lot of help, I didn't know where things went and it felt very much like I was in the way, so after a while I just went back with the men.

I didn't care much for turkey -still don 't- dressing, gravy, cranberries were new to me and I didn't much like it. I liked the chocolate pie, but not the pumpkin pie -I still don't- and something called mincemeat?! I still am not sure what's in it.

I don't remember a lot about other Thanksgivings. I know the next year I invited his parents and grandfather over at our home, I made Catalan soup and  stuffed chicken and it was not a very successful dinner, the only person that seemed to enjoy it and asked me about the food I prepared was his grandpa -my favorite person in the family, I loved that man-.

When the girls were young I am pretty sure we went to the grandparents on that day. When the girls were older, we had some strange Thanksgivings, I remember the day we were looking for a Restaurant and everything was closed and we ended up with Chinese food.

When the girls gre up and had their own families, we spend some Thanksgiving at Sandy's and they came down a few times (I sometimes thought it was not fair that some years they spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas with Marty's parents, but that's what happens when you live a few states away). Lizzie  comes every Thanksgiving when we are by ourselves :) , although I remember going to San Diego once to a Restaurant.  A couple of times we asked Norbert to spend Thanksgiving with us too.

This year Lizzie is coming and it'll be  just the 3 of us, and we're going to have a non traditional dinner as we usually have. And Cava!!!

                   By the way, I give thanks every day  for the big and little things in my life.

Simple pleasures?

I was going to write about my first Thanksgiving in the US. But it probably be a long post and I am feeling a little tired.

I'm trying to think of Monday's little pleasures, and the one that comes to mind is that I found a good parking place when we went to Kaiser Orchard offices for Marv's appointment with his dermatologist.

Parking at any Kaiser office is a big headache. I cannot park in tight spaces, and I don't like to back up, so finding a good place to park qualifies as a simple pleasure?!

Tomorrow I have to wake up early to take Lulu to grooming. She looks like a little bison!

Bona nit!

Paella

I was born missing an important gene: 

The paella gene. 

It just doesn't exist in my DNA.

My mother was a great paella maker and so were/are most of my family, both  men and women.

I have tried!  Either it comes out too dry, or too wet, or the grains are too mushy or too hard. And the seasonings are never quite right either.

Because I am allergic to most shellfish, I don't eat the "typical" seafood paella. But I like the meat paella, made with chicken, sausage and pork.

I found the right kind of rice at the World Market, you need to have the right kind of rice, not like the long grain american rice or the short grain italian rice (good for risotto but not for paella)

I have been wanting to try to make a meat paella, but I kept putting it off, don't want to be disappointed :)

Friday I went to Ruby's in Whittier to get some clam chowder to go for dinner. On the way I stopped at the World Market to see what was new. They had a package of vegetable paella, it was made in Spain, it looked like this:

All you had to do was saute the rice and add 3 cups of water or broth, you could add any meat if you wanted...So I decided to try it..

                                                    .I added chicken and jamon serrano.
                                      It had to boil for 20 minutes and then rest for 10 minutes more

After 20 minutes I checked it and all the liquid was absorbed

I should have add more liquid and stir the rice after 15 minutes.

The bottom had a crust, which ideally is what should happen, 

however my crusty part was a bit burned.

The rice in the edges was good, but the top part was a bit crunchy.

The flavor was good.

I'll give it a B-

VISCA BARÇA !!!!

This was the highlight of the day

A blowout!  

Knee bump

A couple of days ago. I was sitting on my bed and I had my legs resting on my computer chair. I was wearing shorts and I noticed a bump on my left knee.

It is below the knee cap and I thought it was a bone, but it is not as hard, is sort of cushiony. It doesn't hurt at all even when I push into it.

I tried to take a picture but is hard to see although is very visible. So what is it?

Of course I've checked the internet and it could be a number of things, ie bursitis. But everything I've checked it says is pretty painful, and as I say, I'm glad to say my bump doesn't hurt.

The first day we got to Barcelona, we went to out apartment in Carrer Bertran and were waiting outside for our landlord to come and open the door. After a while I saw a woman, opening the door to the apartment (his mother) I hurried after her to catch her up before she got into the apartment, and in my hurry I was not paying attention and tripped on  a low step and fell down on my knees.

It hurt a lot and brought tears to my eyes, but I never got a bruise, or it never hurt in any way afterwards even though the fall was pretty strong.

Reading about knee bumps, one of the causes could be a fall on the knee. I wonder if it is what happened. But it sure took a long time to show up!

If it doesn't go away, I may go have it checked.

Happy Birthday Lizzie!

Today is my youngest daughter's 44th birthday.

Here's a picture of Lizzie and me on her Christening day

Elisabeth Nuria Wann

February 1972

Jerome, Idaho

Loved you yesterday, love you still

Always have and always will

Catalunya Experience

For a number of weeks now, I have been watching a program from TV3 the Catalan TV called "Catalunya Experience".

They invite people that are bloggers, or word travelers, or some that have been on TV in their country, and invite them to spend some days in Catalunya. Not just Barcelona, but different areas of Catalunya. They learn their history, taste they native foods, etc.
Their guide is a young catalan woman called Ivana Miño, she's a biologist and also an actress and dancer.

They have a new show every Wednesday, I have seen them all so far and have enjoyed them very much. I've found out lots of things I didn't know, it's very interesting.

I am sending a link to one of my favorites programs in the series. It's the one with Jarek and Beata. They are from Poland. He's the most well known weather man on TV in Poland, and she's a journalist.
In this show, they visit the costa Brava, including San Feliu, also they see the inside of Casa Batllo, and spend April 21 (San Jordi) in Barcelona where they buy books and roses.

They show the program in both the Catalan version and the English version. The link is for the English version. If you have some time, be sure to watch it, I think you will enjoy it and it will bring back  good memories for Lizzie and Sandy.


http://www.ccma.cat/tv3/alacarta/catalunya-experience/jarek-i-beata-costa-brava-i-caldes-de-montbui-versio-anglesa/video/5558306/

Vegetables

I am not a veggie lover. Sure there's some I like a lot and I eat them often. But I am not very adventorous, I keep on eating the ones I like and hardly ever try new ones.

When I was growing up we had a salad every day, different lettuces, tomatoes etc. Catalan salad, my favorite also had asparagus. We had green beans and potatoes at least 3 times a week,

I like green beans, peas, artichokes, asparagus, onions (I never ate onions until I came to the US, I disliked them enormously) potatoes, tomatoes, olives -just the anchovy stuffed ones,- garlic, peppers, carrots, peas. avocados...well actually I like a lot of them!

But there's so many more vegetables that I should at least try!

A little anecdote.  When I went grocery shopping yesterday, Marv told me to get some zucchini. Easy right?  Well I couldn't find any! yes they had cucumber, squash, and other veggies. So feeling dumb I asked the produce lady  why they didn't have any. She said, but there's a lot of them. What I didn't know is that zucchini is a squash, so I bypassed them without realizing they were one and the same.

zucchini = summer squash

Never too old to learn new things ;)

writing props

I was going to write , but I found I had nothing to say.

So I checked to see if the girls had written their blog.

First I checked Mia, she doesn't write everyday, but she seems to be doing OK, enjoying the long dark Swedish winter.

Then I read Lizzie's blog and I was sad to read she's feeling borderline depressed. It has been a stressful last few days and I wonder if that contributes to  that feeling. I wish I could help in some way.

Lastly I read Sandy's blog and she wrote about writing about little every day pleasures. So let's see...

1. I enjoyed the cool windy weather we had today, it was blue skies and sunny, you could see the snowed mountains to the north very clearly.

2. I gave Lulu her flea pill and she looked at me thinking she knew what was hiding under a piece or pork, but ate it anyway.

3. Can't think of any other little pleasures for today.

What I did today was:

Woke up at 10AM.
Went grocery shopping.
Put gas in the pick up.
Had a child's Happy Meal for lunch.
Went to the eye doctor to have my eyes checked again, I had a red eye and been using some prescription drops and the doctor wanted to see if it was better.
On the way back home it took me 40 minutes to drive home because or road work and one lane only. It usually takes me less than 15 minutes.
Has a snack of nachos, chips, cheddar cheese, shredded pork, and avocado.
Read a little, talked to Marvin, played with Lulu a little.
Took the trash and recycle bins outside.
Had Sprout's pizza for dinner, was very good.
Talked for an hour with Norbert...well he talked and I sort of listened. All about his family in France.
Probably will watch a movie tonight.

Good night!

Sunrise - Sunset

Sunrise

Sunset

There's always a new day

Some stuff

I didn't do much today, but at least I accomplished a couple of things:

I did get my teaching credential renewed, although I haven't taken the bullying test yet.

I also made an appointment to take my driving test. The first day/time available was December 16 at 12:30PM. Just a day short of my birthday! I have to study for the test because I did a couple of practice tests online and I'm afraid I didn't do very well :(

We went to Capriotti's for lunch (to take home) and we had "The Bobbie" to get us in the Thanksgiving mood, especially since we seldom do the traditional turkey thing.

  Homemade turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing and mayo in a bun.

  It actually is pretty good, although I prefer my usual Italian sub.

  The 5 guys are next to Capriottis, so I got some Cajun fries too.

                               Have a good Sunday :)

One World

See more on Know Your Meme

Glasses

Yesterday we went to Marvin's doctor, it was quite an ordeal.

Today I went to the optometrist, I needed some new glasses.I have to renew my driver's license before my birthday, and last time I went to the DMV I had some trouble passing my vision test.

                                          They told me to bring all my glasses, so I did.

The doctor was a bit overwhelmed and and said I should have brought only the last glasses I had made.(I get new glasses every 2 years).

I told her I had 2 long distance/driving glasses,one for daytime (sunglasses) the other for nightime, also for movies etc.

Then I had my computer glasses,and another pair that I wear all the time around the house. They are interchangeable.

I also showed her my favorite glasses, I wanted them for my vision test, but the handle is broken and cannot be fixed.They are about 8 years old. She totally discarded them!

After having my eyes checked, I decided to have a new pair of sunglasses made.I will use one of my computer glasses for my vision test.

Tomorrow we are going to the dermatologist.

Cheers.

Yesterday I was in a shopping mood, I went to Sam's and got soap and jamon serrano, then I looked around to see if anything caught my eye. I ended up with a bath rug, is very soft and fluffy. Then I went and put gas in the pick up.

After that I went to Costco. This time I bought a box of madeleines, and chocolate pepperming bark.
And a bottle of Kirkland Eggnogg.

Before going home, I spent some time thinking about what to get for lunch. Nothing sounded good.
So I made me a sandwich when I got home.
 

                                    I am a boring shopper, I really don't enjoy shopping at all.

                                            But I am drinking some eggnogg right now.

CHEERS!

My Schools

When we were in Barcelona, the girls, well Sandy mostly, made fun of me when I pointed some place and said, this is my school... It's true I did attend several schools, so I will present you now with

MY SCHOOLS

My first one, pre K, was right across the house were I was born, it's not there anymore.It was in Passeig Bonanova.

After that we went to Sagrado Corazon, a Catholic school, all the teacher were nuns, and we wore uniforms. It's still a school, but not with the same name. It's in Leon XIII street , close to Passeig San Gervasi.

Here's a class picture. I think we stayed in that school for about 5-6 years. Not many boys there eh?

Can you find Nuri and me?

                    After this school we went to "Centro de Enseñanza Alba" in Calle Bertran 131.

                           The apartment we rented with Airbnb was just a few houses away

This is a class picture. It was a private elementary school, very close to our home in Roca i Batlle.

See me?  It was a mixed school, but in this pictures is just girls.

The next school was a very posh/expensive private girls school  "Institucion Cultural Femenina"

It was located in one of the best streets of Barcelona, Passeig de Gracia 51

Just one block away from the Manzana de la discordia,

With buildings by four of Barcelona's most important Modernista architects, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Antoni Gaudí, Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Enric Sagnier

Here's where we took our mid term and final tests while in this school

Instituto Verdaguer

Located in the Ciutadella Parc

While going to this school I also attended the German School for languages, it was  fairly close to where I lived, in Avinguda Tibidabo

It's still a school, but not the German one

I started working part time in a Travel Agency, Viajes FRAM.

 When I graduated I started the University, just general classes for a year

I kept on working part time in a new agency, Viajes Conde, very close to the University

The next year I started classes at the Faculty of Economics, in the Diagonal

I took a few classes but I didn't like it, I liked the Travel Agency work better.

Then I got married!

In the US, I lived in Burley Idaho and decided to become a teacher, 

and went to Idaho State University in Pocatello, ID

They transferred my University credits from Barcelona

This was my dorm: Graveley Hall

I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Education

I also took classes in Cal State Long Beach and UC San Diego

And that's all!