Cosas Buenas

Here is an update on some of the things I have been up to since my last post:

My little plants that have all been "collected", not stolen, of course not stolen, I would never use the scissors on my pocket knife in that way. 

All I had to buy was the dirt! And yes, I am wearing socks with sandals because I didn't bring my slippers :(

The terrace of our apartment where my little plants will live and grow. More to come soon hopefully!

Yesterday Evan and I went to our friend Lisa's apartment. Lisa is back in the States right now and she lives with and helps out an older German women who is really sick and lets her live there for free. We took out the trash, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed, etc for her. She has a beautiful apartment too, which has a great view of the Catedral. She is also an artist an she made us this amazing little gift basket pictured below!

This has been 2 days of gifts! The little football on the left we got at the awesome little bar that has like 200 kinds of beer. Then the gift basket from Christine, and the little panettone from the really nice Italian family that ran the restaurant we went to yesterday.  

She cut and painted an old cardboard box to make it look like an adorable house!

All kinds of good stuff in this box: a candle, dried tomatos (the heart shaped package), 2 stir sticks for coffee covered in chocolate and sugar, a little box full of spicy chocolates, little cookies with chocolate in the middle, rosemary salt, orange sugar, orange brandy, orange oil for moisturizing your skin, a Christmas tree ornament, and a conconction of raisins, cranberries, and ginger soaking in some kind of alcohol! And all of these things are packaged by reusing old bottles, plastic bags, and pieces of cardboard! Amazing! This would easily be worth 30 euro!

Evan's parents are here right now and we have been having a really good time showing them Palma and the island. Today we are hoping to rent a car and drive around to the gorgeous scenic places on the island.

Andalucía

I think I belong in Andalucía. The next time I apply for this program I DEFINITELY will be putting Andalucía on the top of my list.

We spent 5 days and 5 nights there total. And we spent 350E each (Evan and I), which in my mind is pretty damn good if you never even had a budget in the first place. We went with our friends Mary, Emily and Naz. We spent the first 2 nights in Sevilla, where we saw some amazing free flamenco, drank delicious sangria and explored the beautiful, colorful city. The art that people were selling on the streets was all soooo beautiful, it was really hard not to buy anything. We toured the gorgeous cathedral and walked through huge gardens. The food there was delicious! It was really beautiful/difficult because all the streets were lined with orange trees that were just dripping with oranges, but of course they tasted like lemons. ¡Que lástima!

We rented a car in Sevilla and then drove to Granada. Of course it was not as easy as that because we got lost leaving Sevilla and getting into Granada. The next day we went to the arab baths and soaked in the warm water for an hour and a half and drank delicious Morrocan tea. Granada was gorgeous and reminded me a lot of Lake Tahoe (not only because it is right next to the Sierra Nevada mountains) but it was very cold and Christmas-y and looked like a really nice ski resort city. We went to the Alhambra and marvaled at the painstakingly carved and painted designs in the palace. We ate tons of delicious tapas there as well. I wanted to buy just about everything I saw in the shops there because everything was so pretty! It is funny because I haven't felt that way about anything I have seen here in Palma. I had a tipsy splurge on a very hippy but cute jacket, a scarf, a beautiful handmade wood picture frame, and Evan bought a magnet.

On the way back to Sevilla we stopped in Córdoba to see the Mezquita, which is a mosque that was converted into a cathedral. We watched a really interesting documentary about when the Mores had control of Spain and that time period is very evident in Andalucia. I love the rich patterns and colors that come from the Arabic influence. The Mezquita was really interesting because it was very much a (somewhat clashing) mixture of a traditional Catholic church and a mosque. It was very beautiful and well worth the drive. For our last night/day in Sevilla we went out to the bars, gorged ourselves on tapas and walked around the city.

I had a really great time getting to know Mary and Emily better. We traveled really well together and I feel like that is definitely a sign of a good friendship!

I really wanted to put pictures in this post but Evan is taking FOREVER to go through them (I shouldn't complain, there are like 1200 pictures) so he hasn't given me any yet. :( Or you could just check out the travel blog for pictures instead!

Morroco

Last night Evan and I went out to a delicious dinner for our 4 year anniversary. We were originally planning on going out afterwards but just ended up picking up a forty of beer and heading back to the piso.

After watching a couple episodes of South Park, our roommate Naz called us out to the living room. Him and Mounir, our roommate from Morrocco had made some DELICIOUS Morrocan food. It was amazingly seasoned lamb with flavorful sauce, prunes, and hard-boiled eggs. We ate it with bread using our hands. So good! Mounir showed us videos and talked a lot about Morroco. Naz lived in Morrocco for 11 months. So pretty much we have 2 Morrocan experts on our hands so we should try and go to Morrocco because we are super close!

We are going to Sevilla in a week and a half and that might be a perfect opportunity to just hop on over to Africa, as we will be practically there in the south of Spain anyways.

They are going to try making another traditional Morrocan dish tonight and I am so excited!!!

Rainy Day

It is raining today and will continue to be raining for the rest of the week. I am happy because I like the rain but unhappy because I didn't do laundry before the rain started so now I have to wait until after it is over so my clothes will properly dry.

Last Thursday, Evan and I went to this amazing agricultural fair (largest in Mallorca) and stuffed our faces. You can read about it here. Or, if you don't understand any Spanish, at least look at the amazing pictures that Evan took.

On Friday we went with our friend Lyda to Valldemossa for a spectacularly beautiful hike. If you want to know/see more go for here plants and here for beautiful views. It had rained recently and was absolutely beautiful. That day is also when I found out that there are reruns of Sex and The City on tv here and I am definitely heading to Lyda's one day to hit that up!

Saturday did not see much action, most of my time was spent catching up on blog posts and relaxing. On Sunday I went with Lisa to help with the Es Verger project. The Es Verger project is a small garden outside of Manacor that the volunteer group runs to help pay for some of the costs of the group by selling vegetables. They also have an old run down house that they are trying to fix up to create a nice place to people to work and relax. I don't have any pictures of this place but Lisa took a ton so I am hoping to get them soon. I helped till the soil and pick out rocks and then I worked planting peas, garlic, onions, and leeks. It was a beautiful spot and I hope to go out there the next time they have a work day. The people out there were awesome and it was great talking to them about the environment and gardening techniques. It felt so good to get my hands dirty!

 That day was also really successful for me because I was told multiple times how good my Spanish is. I felt like I was able to understand just about everything everybody was saying and I even new some Spanish plant/garden words that other people didn't. That day made me feel like I could definitely be fluent at the end of this program if I keep surrounding myself with Spanish speakers and practicing.

Sunday night we went to a Thanksgiving potluck put on by a couple of the other people in the program. We got to stuff our faces, yet again, on a delicious mix of Spanish and American food. Yay for pumpkin pie and empanadas gallegas.

Today we decided rather spontaneously that we are going to go to Sevilla, in the south of Spain for 6 days for December 5th through 10th. We have that Tuesday and Thursday off for holidays and I requested Wednesday off as well. So we are flying out Monday night with our friends Mary, Naz, and Emily and coming back on Sunday. I don;t work on Fridays so that day wasn't an issue. We don't really have a clearcut plan of what we are doing besides renting a car and driving to Granada at some point during those six days. I am really excited to see another part of Spain and be in a place where they only speak Castellano and not Catalan! This is also an opportunity to scope out places we might want to live if we decide to do the program again. 2 weeks away!

On a sadder note, our awesome roommate Ewa (she's from Polland and speaks excellent Spanish) moved out to go back home for a few months while her airport job is not available. Luckily she will be back in the spring, we just won't be able to live with her again. She also told us (Evan and I) that we could come stay with her in Polland on our winter break if we like! She lives in the very nothern part of Polland on the ocean so it is probably going to be freezing there so we will see what the weather starts looking like come December.

Here is the strange part: in her place a 50 year old woman moved in. This is a house of people under 30. Weird. She is a music teacher and mostly keeps to herself and it very quiet but it has set a rather weird vibe for the apartment. The day before she moved in our roommate Mounir put it perfectly "Mom is coming". Dun dun dun! So far there hasn't been a problem but it has only been 4 days.

So Jordan is coming to live here in Palma for 4 months starting around Febuary! I convinced her to take the spring semester off and come live here and be an English tutor! There is a huge demand and it is a well paid job with flexible hours. She has also been saving up for a while to come visit us anyways. This is going to be really awesome because Jordan is fun to travel with (not to mention that she is my best friend) and we can graduate together from HSU in fall 2012! Our roommate Mounir told us he is moving out in February to go back to Morrocco and finish his PhD so his room will be available! Que buena suerte!

My Little Plant

I found this little plant while visiting our friends Brigette and Jason in Manacor (across the island from Palma). We were taking a walk around the town and suddenly, there at my feet was a little helpless baby spider plant! I looked up and sure enough, there was it's mommy plant sitting on a balcony above us with tons of little babies hanging off. So I stuck this little one in my pocket and then into a glass of water because it was looking a little worse for wear. I promptly forgot to bring it with me back to Palma, so Brigette and Jason brought it in a little plastic baggie with some water when they came to Palma the next weekend.

I let it's little roots grow out for a bit then I took the only plant (dead) in our piso and yanked it out and planted my little spider plant. It has not shown much signs of growth but at least it isn't looking worse!

After this little episode I realized what was missing: plants! I usually have 3-4 houseplants wherever and I am living and before little spidey there were 0. I needed some kind of hobby that can keep me occupied in the house besides the internet. But, I didn't want to go out and spend a ton of cash of plants that I can't take back to the US.

So you know what I did next? I started to keep an eye out for easily accessible Philodendrons. Philodendrons are very easy houseplants like spider plants and you can snip a chunk of one, plunk it in a glass of water for a couple weeks and let the roots grow and then plant it in soil. The next day I found on in my 5th grade classroom! And conveniently located next to a box of scissors!

I am still staying vigilant about easily accessible plants that can grow from a cutting to grow my little plant army! I will probably have to break down and buy a little bag of potting soil and some cheap pots to house my little plants but that will be way cheaper than paying 8 euro for one plant. And buying a full grown plant is not nearly as satisfying as growing your own!

What a cutie!

Evan's parents are coming to visit in 6 weeks! We told them to stock up on contact solution (the kind I use costs 24 euro as compared to 7 dollars in the US. Yikes!), deodorant, and sunscreen. I am really excited to see them!

And Jordan is coming out here to live for a few months starting in the middle of January! I am super excited! It is going to be so much fun traveling and exploring the island together. And then we can go back to HSU and graduate together! I am so happy she can make this opportunity work.

Evan had his first English tutoring lesson this Thursday and I think it went really well. He has been getting more and more emails in the last few days so I am hoping that he is able to work around 10 hours every week to pay off his new camera. I might start tutoring as well to earn some cash to either: a) be sensible and save it for when I get back to the States or b) blow on a trip to China during spring break to visit Waldon??? That is, if he is living there by that time lol.

The shop sent Evan a video of the Miata engine running, which gave him a joy boner (please refer to this episode of the Daily Show) lol.

Excited to go on a hike tomorrow! I will definitely NOT forget my tree book like I did last time!

I will also find out this week if doing my botany project on lichens is a possibility!

La Sifonería

Another eventful night at La Sifoneria! We went there with a bunch of friends and wound up staying for several hours until Juan Carlos (the owner) decided to shut down so we could go grab some burgers. La Sifoneria is amazing for many reasons: dirt cheap wine that is really good, awesome people, and a great atmosphere. Evan and I spent 10E on drinks but we probably had about 10 drinks between us. While there we met an interesting woman from Texas, who apparently wants to hang out with us all the time now, and a Spanish guy and I ended up talking to this Italian guy for a long time.

It was really cool talking to the Italian guy because I told him all about my family that came over to the US from Italy and how they (we) grow their own vegetables just like back in Italy. And how my grandpa made his own wine in the backyard. It was great because he was all into organic agriculture and had seen/read a lot of the same things I have seen/read like Food Inc. It made me really excited to go to Italy and now I really want to take an Italian class! If I end up becoming an Italian citizen it would come in really handy! We were speaking in Spanish but it was cute because you could totally hear his Italian accent.

Juan Carlos is totally in love with our friend Italis and it is so cute!

Evan and I in La Sifoneria.

We went to this bar after La Sifoneria and before the burger place and they had this amazing drink that was gin with lemon...SO GOOD! Also, really good because we got our drinks paid for by some Spanish guy we were hanging out with. The gin they used is made in Menorca. They are definitely speaking my language with local gin.

Feeling good after ginebra con limón!

After this we attempted to fit 13 people into 2 taxis and after I got in and sat on Evan's lap the cab driver looked at me like I was crazy so I got out and hopped in a cab with Italis and Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos ended up paying for the cab which was super nice. Of course 2/3 cabs made it to the burger place and my husband was in the one that didn't make it so we had this long drawn out experience of trying to figure out where the other person was via cell phone (Evan using Scott's phone because we only have one). They ended up being really close but only Evan came to the burger place because Emily, Scott, and Helen decided to go home. We got our burgers (fries for me) after Evan found me while using Emily's phone (which we still have lol) and then had to walk at least a mile back home. It was definitely quite a night. I woke up at 11:30 because we went to bed at 3:30 in the morning!

I have a feeling we are becoming regulars at La Sifoneria. This was the 3rd time we had been there.

Things I miss/don't miss about the USA

-I miss stick deodorant, the spray kind really just isn't cutting it.

-I miss sunscreen that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and doesn't leave you feeling greasy.

-I miss hot water that is reliable.

-I MISS MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!

-I miss my cooking utensils.

-I miss my dishwasher.

-I miss thrift stores because for some reason they don't seem to exist here.

-I miss seeing the mountains all around me.

-I miss stores being open on Sundays and from 1-5 every other day.

-I don't miss my car.

-I don't miss riding my bike in the sweltering heat to the farmers market, but instead walking 10 minutes. Oh yeah, and it is Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday!

-I don't miss crappy Humboldt county public transit, because the bus system rocks here!

-I don't miss school.

-I don't miss speaking English all the time. It is great to practice my Spanish everyday!

So the moral of this post is that if you come to visit bring me some Old Spice deodorant and some Neutrogena sunscreen! And then we will go post up on the top of my building and check out the beautiful view of the mountains and the ocean!

Que Exciting! Que Sexy!

Yesterday was Halloween! We didn't really see many kids trick-or-treating but the young people that like to party seem to think that this is a pretty awesome holiday. The majority of people that were dressed up were very gruesome. Lots of zombies, dead brides, and dead surgeons. It was a nice change to see less skimpy outfits from girls than we usually see in the USA.

We got all dressed up and ate tapas at Lyda's house (pictures to come later or just check out facebook) with Brigette, Jason, Scott, Lisa, Lyda, Ewa, me and Evan. Evan was Justin Timberlake in the hilarious "Dick in a Box" music video from Lonely Island. I don't know what I was...just a person in a dress and wig with lots of fabulous makeup.

We went to this raging house party where there were almost all of the auxiliares that we have met so far this first month. I wound up talking to this hilarious Brazilian guy dressed as a woman that kept telling Ewa and I that we were not nearly as sexy or exciting as he was. So funny! Then we were joined by 2 Russian guys. It was a very multinational crowd with people from the US, Canada, Russia, Polland, Brasil, Argentina, Spain (por supuesto), and Italy.

Then we went back to our apartment so I could change out of my heels and we could all scarf the rest of the pesto pasta from a couple days ago. This was around 2:30 in the morning.

Then too the Night Bus. I was asking Lisa about it and she said "Oh yeah, el bus de nit" and I was thinking what the hell is she talking about?! Wouldn't it be el bus de noche? But of course the bus de nit arrives and picks us up along with 20 other Spanish kids. The bus ride was absolutely ridiculous! People were asking to take pictures with Evan and kept tapping on his box and calling him "El Paquetón" , basically the Big Package lol. When we first got on the bus we noticed a security guard and were wondering what that was all about. The reason became apparent when everybody started singing the Oh-ley oh-ley fútbol song and the most popular White Stripes song Seven Nation Army. Oh yeah and swinging from the bars and jumping up and down and clapping and standing on the seats. It was amazing! And super fun!

We finally got to the strip with all the clubs and got in some quality dancing and people watching. Or should I say zombie watching.

We decided to crash at Lyda's because it was wayy closer than our apartment. After some 5 am pasta we finally made it to bed somewhere around 5:30 in the morning. Yay Halloween.

On a completely different note, I found out today that I have a really good chance of becoming a dual citizen of Italy, thus making it really easy for me and Evan (because he would become a citizen too because he is my hubby after all). Because my mom and grandparents were citizens of Italy it should be pretty simple. That is, if they didn't denounce their citizenship when they came over to the US. Unfortunately I feel like there is a good chance they did because it makes you a citizen of the US easier and faster. Vamos a ver.

Crema de Cacahuete

I finally broke down and bought some peanut butter when I found it in the store. My friend Lisa has been making pb and j's on rice cakes and they are delicious! Peanut butter (crema de cachuete) is somewhat hard to find here in Mallorca but there are tons of different kinds of Nutella, so it is kinda funny.

Here is the local tangerine and lemon jam I bought. The label is written in Catalan like everything Mallorquin here.

Mmm...que rico....These aren't rice cakes, they are tortitas de maiz (corn cakes!)

I am excited because I have Monday and Tuesday off this coming week! That means I only have to work for 4 hours next week! And hopefully I will get paid then! Halloween is on Monday, and it is definitely not as big of a thing here as in the States but we will probably get dressed up and go out for drinks or something.

I can't believe that we have been here for almost a month. The weather is still pretty nice, it is raining today but not super hard. It is quite warm too. Everyone has been worrying about having a heater in the winter but I feel like it isn't going to get nearly as cold as it does in Humboldt so I think we should be fine without it. Not that the circuit breaker in our apartment could handle it anyways, lol.

Have to go! Going out for a night on the town!

La Vida en La Cuidad

I guess the title of this blog is pretty obsolete now that I am living in a city of 400,000 people. It has been 3 weeks now and I still feel like I belong in the country. Being in the city is perfect for this kind of experience because there is always plenty to do and see. That way, you don't really have time to get lonely or dwell on the fact that you are almost 6,000 miles away from your loved ones. We are so lucky that Skype exists because it feels like you are in the same room with the person you are talking to!

I went running through Palma yesterday around dusk and it was absolutely beautiful once I made it out to the boardwalk that runs along with coast because everything was lit up. I ran for 40 minutes, which is pretty good considering I probably haven't ran in like 2 months. There is a 10K coming up here in December and I may or may not enter depending on how tight we are trying to keep the budget around that time. I will probably start working my way up to that distance anyways just for fun and because I have lots of spare time.

Some days I feel like my Spanish is improving dramatically and others I feel like I can barely speak Spanish or English. I really want to be fluent by the end of this program so I really want to keep putting myself into situations where I only speak Spanish. It has been 3 weeks and overall I feel that I have improved a lot so that makes me hopeful that I will reach my goal.

Next Thursday I am going to meet with a botany professor at the University of the Balearic Islands and I really want to be able to express my thoughts about the flora here and in the US as clearly as possible so I can make a good impression. Hopefully I will get some borrowed plant books out of it.

We are renting a car tomorrow and driving to Manacor to go to a festival and also to visit Brigette and Jason. We are going to try and hit up some beaches and hiking spots that you can only get to by car. The weather should be pretty decent (around 23 degrees C) so beaches and swimming here we come!

Skinny Dipping

I did it! I went European and went topless when Evan and I went to Playa Palma today! It felt so liberating and made me feel so self confidant! I think I am really starting to appreciate how low key it is here. At first seeing a bunch of topless and naked people is a little shocking because being from the US you never see that. It is refreshing to get away from a more uptight mindset. Yes, I didn't really need to see a 70 year old man's penis and testicles but I can deal with it. I guess I it makes me more knowledgable about different human anatomies.

Palma de Mallorca

I am not even going to try and recap everything that has happened to us since we arrived in Mallorca because that would be like writing a novel and Evan already did a nice summary on his travel blog: http://tekstravels.blogspot.com/

Today is Sunday so essentially nothing will be open besides a few restaurants. We were going to be in Manacor today but because of bad luck and stupidity we didn't bring our passports to go pick up the rental car last night so that didn't exactly happen.

Last night we watched the Castle Builders do their thing:

This was really cool to watch but terrifying when one of the "structures" collapsed. The way they set it up though, everyone that fell, fell on the backs of the people supporting the base so no one was hurt. The very top of the pyramid is usually a couple 4 year old kids with helmets so it is very nerve racking!

Last night was also the march of the Manifestación, which was basically like Occupy Wall Street. There were a lot of people out marching and there were some cool signs and acts.

Today I am going to try and work on my spanish and botany projects and catch up on some good old Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert so I can see what has been going on in the rest of the world!

Also, Evan and I's spanish has improved immensely since we have been here but we really need to study grammar and new vocabulary to keep up with all the new things we are learning!

You Know Your Italian When...

You take a bite out of a peproncini directly out of the jar and squirt yourself in the face and arms with vinegar.

Long Hair No Longer

That title is not actually true but that is ok. Evan and I have appointments to get our hair cut this coming Monday! I am super excited and Evan is not. He doesn't want to cut his hair and he doesn't want me to cut my hair. I think he is going to find that having short "boy" hair is much more low maintenance than a ponytail. It is going to be weird to see him with short hair! For me, I'm just sick and tried of spending 10-15 minutes brushing and untangling it and getting it caught on things, so on and so forth. I will probably continue to grow my hair out for a couple years and then chop it off because I love my long hair. This will be my third time donating my hair to Locks of Love. Maybe next time I'll grow it all the way down to my butt! It took almost 4 years to grow it out this time because I had so many layers that I had to grow out to make it all one length. This time when I cut it I will get minimal layers and no bangs so it will be way easy!

In other news, our reception was a great success, albeit quite stressful leading up to it. Everybody really loved Kenwood and I think it would be fun to do an annual anniversary party there but without planning a party. Just tell everybody what days we would be there and to bring their own food, booze, sleeping bags, etc.

I felt really spoiled and ungrateful because a lot of people asked me if Evan and I go to Kenwood a lot and I would have to tell them no because we don't. I realized later that the reason we don't is because going to Laytonville to visit Evan's parents is essentially the same thing but wayyy more beautiful and remote but with much better living accommodations. It was amazing seeing most of my family and friends all together in one area mixing and mingling and having a great time! And getting a little bit trashed haha.

Exactly 21 days until we fly to Mallorca! So crazy! Evan and I have started budgeting and making lists of what to pack. It is getting very nerve racking but so exciting! I imagine the first couple weeks there are going to be stressful and crazy until we get settled in.

Speaking of stressful, when we were packing up at Kenwood yesterday I ran over my duffle bag with my car!!!! I can't believe I forgot it was there and was horrified because my glasses and BEAUTIFUL RING were in there!!! I sprinted over there and my ring was perfectly fine with a little scratch on the box luckily. My glasses case was crushed but somehow my glasses were fine! My bottles of contact solution got squished but didn't explode. Basically I got extremely lucky. And to think I was keeping my ring in its box to keep it safe.

I had a dream the other night that the opal fell out of my ring. It was a bad dream. I don't think I'm meant to own nice things lol.

Solution

I think I have found a solution to my lack of motivation: Techno! Best listened to in Evan's truck with the bass turned up but my laptop will have to suffice. Washing dishes is going to be way more fun now!

Lonesome

So Alex just left for school and my parents don't get off work for 5 and 1/2 hours...what is there to do?! Truthfully, there is plenty I can do but I have very little motivation. I never really thought of myself as an extremely social person, but when I am in Redding, where I have no friends, I get so bored and lonely and the days go by so slowly. I look forward to my parents getting off work (weird) and to Alex getting home. I have no friends here because all my high school friends moved away and I'm not around enough to really make any new ones. I miss being in McKinleyville where my best friends were a quick 10 minute bike/bus ride away. Or even being in school where I got to see my friends and classmates everyday. And of course Evan isn't here and the fact that I only saw him once for less than 24 hours in the last 2 weeks doesn't really help. It must be bad if I miss school.

Evan and I might have the opportunity to live in a big house with 1 or 2 other couples in Mallorca and I get so excited at the thought! Because I am going to be across the world from the people that have been in my life for the last 22 years I want to make sure that I don't feel isolated and lonely for 8 months. I want to make new friends and have a fun social life. It would be great to have a kind of "family" over there. Yes, I have loved living with just Evan and having our privacy and that would much less if we lived in a house. But, providing that we all get along, the payoffs of having a feeling of family-away-from-family would make me feel so great. Evan is much better at being by himself if he has his best friend the Internet at his side. I get bored with the Internet, which I know is really weird, but I do! I need people! He also didn't grow up with a sibling constantly pestering him. Without that pestering I feel alone. Which is why I am happy I'm living with my brother even though he smells bad, is dirty, and never picks up after himself.

We will figure something out and now I need to get motivated and be productive to get ready for the party in 5 days and my dad's birthday in 4! The awesome thing about having my dad's birthday the day before my wedding reception is A. There will be people there ready to party B. Copious amounts of food and alcohol and C. Ummm I think the first 2 pretty much covered it haha.

Here are some pictures of an exquisite house in Mallorca that we could afford to rent if we lived with several other people....drools.....

Yes, that is the Mediterranean Sea in the background....Now who wants to come and visit?

Leftovers

Here are some random pictures that have been taken recently and I haven't posted or that I found on Evan's computer.

The girls and I wine tasting in Trinidad for my Not-a-Bachelorette-Anymore Party.

My adorable new cousin Beck and I when we were down in Costa Mesa for my cousin Grant's wedding reception.

No that is not a wig, it is a massive clump of a lichen that is called Old Man's Beard! This is up on Spyrock and this is me trying to imitate those pictures that fisherman take with their fish.

My gorgeous finished ring! I absolutely love it! Unfortunately, I am also terrified of breaking it so I don't wear it when I'm doing work with my hands. Which is most of the time.

5 days until my dad's 62nd birthday and 6 days until the wedding reception! Pretty much everything is ready except a couple food things to finalize.

Our visas are pretty much in order and should be ready on Sept. 19th, which is 9 days before we leave the country! The visa experience was completely awful due to the fact my wonderful husband forgot to take his passport pictures AND fill out his visa application and we left from Alameda for San Francisco a complete HALF HOUR LATER THAN PLANNED!!! I was on the verge of a panic attack, no thanks to the coffee I drank on an empty stomach, and was trying not to murder Evan while he was driving across the Bay Bridge. I had to call the Consulate and say we were going to be late and they said it was fine surprisingly. Yeah, we were late all right. WE COMPLETELY MISSED MY APPOINTMENT!!! BASICALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT APPOINTMENT OF MY LIFE THAT WOULD ALLOW ME TO GO TO SPAIN!!! Evan's was right after mine and we ended up going back together, which only makes sense because the only reason he is going and can go is because of my job. Our applications were perfect except for my medical certificate because they wouldn't accept an electronic signature. But I was able to mail a different one in last Friday. Alls well that ends well.

Evan is enjoying his Not-A-Bachelor-Anymore Party in Las Vegas and hopefully he will have some brain cells left to help get ready for the reception later this week.

I just finished Harry Potter 7 and those books are just as great at 22 as when I was a teenager.

Food and life

Here is Evan when he was an adorable little kid. I think anyone who has met him could immediately tell that this is Evan.

My parents adorable and rambunctious new kitten Rocky! He is named thus because my mom says he looks like Rocky the flying squirrel when he jumps off the couch. He is super tiny because he is only 4 weeks old.

Yum. Delicious wine, cheese, bread, grapes and balsamic vinegar from my girls weekend in Humboldt.

Onions from my mother-in-law's garden.

Delicious salad with all home-grown ingredients!

Mmmm apple crisp with apples from my house and my mother-in-law's apple tree. It's weird because I guess I have always thought of Evan's parents as my in-laws, what with living on and off at their house all the time and having known them for so long, but it is so weird actually calling them my in-laws!

Apple Crisp

I made apple crisp last after picking apples from the tree in the backyard and trying to find ones that weren't full of worms. That tree (it is a Granny Smith tree) has a worm problem so the apples usually all fall off before they become ripe. It also hasn't been watered or pruned enough in the past. I am trying to reverse a little of that in the short time I am here in Redding. But anyways, I made apple crisp and it was super easy, healthy and DELICIOUS! I just used apples, oats, sugar, spices, and butter/vegetable oil. I am SO domestic. Haha.

My Beautiful Ring!

This is my gorgeous wedding ring that will hopefully be done in the next couple days! I picked out that beautiful opal today and I think it goes quite nicely with the sapphires and the gold from my Nono's ring. I can't wait to wear it! All that is left to do is set that puppy in the ring! Oh yeah, and pay for it. That will not be so much fun. :)

Muddy Bike Ride

These pictures are from last summer when Dad, Alex and I went camping at Prarie Creek.

A large redwood in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove

We also found these very large mushrooms on the way to the beach.

We rode our bikes from the campground to Fern Canyon and back. I think it was about 21 miles round trip and it was VERY muddy.

Fern Canyon

Blackberries

It is blackberry season here in Redding so I have riding my bike to all the prime blackberry bushes! I am trying to pick as many (free!) blackberries as I can and freeze the extra that I can't eat. I love delicious, healthy and free food!

These are the not-so-sweet-but-huge blackberries from the bush in the backyard

The frozen blackberries that I picked

Pickles!

My mom and I made dill pickles today from the cucumbers in the garden. We also used the garlic from my mother-in-law's garden!

I can't believe how domestic I am becoming. I have made zucchini bread twice in the last week and I am planning on making apple crisp tomorrow. Mostly I am baking/cooking lots of things to get rid of excess zucchini and apples from the garden. What has become of the girl who swore she would never cook and would only eat fruit and cereal!?!

Engorgement

I just thoroughly gorged myself on delicious raspberries, cherry tomatoes, peaches, plums, and strawberries from the farmers market. I also nicely supplemented those with blackberries that I picked yesterday. And here is the assortment of veggies that I picked from my garden this morning:

The zucchini are on the way out, while the tomatoes and eggplant are coming into their own. The lemon cucumbers are going to blow up shortly and the refrigerator is still heavily stocked with cucumbers and zucchini. I'm going to try and make pickles today and more zucchini bread!

New Tattoo!

These pictures are so mixed up but you get the idea. Jordan came to visit me in Redding and we wound up getting tattoos and spending some quality at the lake!

Oh yeah, and eating blackberries

Trilliums!

Brandy Creek at Whiskeytown