The Status of Mike

Mike and I had a disagreement about whether Gargamel and Azriel from the Smurfs lived in a hovel or a castle. Now I remember his place not being that nice, but I'm pretty sure it was a castle. Mike of course insisted it was a hovel. The internet settled out disagreement - it's supposedly a hovel. Mike's looking for his "I'm Right" shirt. Good luck. I shrunk it and now it's mine.

Well last week I was watching the smurfs on DVD and Gargamel's hovel is very large relative to my definition of a hovel, but nevertheless, it is a hovel if a hovel is a run down castle.

Mike and I like to spend loads of time together, but I think we may be a bit dull for blogging. Before Christmas we had plans to meet each others' parents, but his ended up leaving for Arizona and there was a snow storm the day we were going to see my folks so instead our parents say hi to us and ask after us, but have yet to meet us. Mike might be getting a bit put off because his parents ask about me more often than they ask about him. hee hee. I'm not sure who's parents are more excited about the prospect of their offspring meeting someone super cool.

I'm learning to play some video game about Mario. I suck at it. His 7 year old nephew kicks my butt... actually that's not true, he coaches me. They really want me to succeed and I keep dying. I imagine it is frustrating for them to watch me die so frequently. Mike on the other hand seems to have been inherently programmed to play the game on one life. Maybe next week I'll make it to level 3.

December 31 2009 Take 2

Right, back to New Year's Eve. In Spain, and I assume other places New Year's Eve is also known as San Silvestre - a Catholic Saint, and the Pope, who died in the 4th century.

I was registered in a 6km running race that is typical in Spain. I thought sure, no problem. When I was 24 I ran 16km in 1.5 hours and a bit. I just about couldn't walk again, but I recovered. I should be able to run 6km without training. Really, I'm not sure from where these ideas arise, but my legs hurt for 5 days after the race. Getting older did not make running without training any easier. Shocking, I know. But I did finish the race after a kilometre long debate with my sister about ducking out and going home to shower and get on the road for New Year's supper. The debate took so long it seemed logical to finish the race as it was by then a detour to get home.

After a quick shower we were on the road to Los Llaureles just ourside of Torazo, Asturias, Spain (http://www.losllaureles.com/). I highly recommend it. The food is to die for and the house, built up from ruins, is an intertwining of rustic and modern with the IKEA accents. I felt like I was at home!!

As traditional latin parties demand, we ate all evening and then celebrated the New Year by eating twelve grapes - one with every chime of the clock. It's a bit harder than it sounds, but loads of fun.

Our evening progressed with dancing and I snuck off at my usual 1am and although the music made my bedroom vibrate, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It might have been the alcohol. I was the only one drinking the white wine!!! I suppose some of you agree that only novices drink white wines. I like the delicate flavours. Christmas Day I woke up with a hangover after drinking cider and non-alcoholic white wine - well let me tell you there is no such thing as non-alcoholic white wine and never will I ever mix cider with any other alcohol again. Thus New Year's Eve I only drank wine.

December 31 2009 Take 1

It appears I mentioned that I would update you all on the Mike status more frequently and have now received numerous complaints about my disregard for my promises. Umm... all I can say is that I may not have clarified what more frequently was relative to. hee hee.

Well, Mike and I were not able to spend Christmas together this year, which was a bit disappointing. I was in Spain visiting my sister and and brother-in-law, while Mike was at work somewhere in the vicinity of Grande Cache. But my sister was very accommodating and loaded my email onto her ipod touch which I religiously carried with me to be in continual contact with Mike. I composed ballads of my day's adventures, sent photos of my food and me... but I forgot to take pictures of cars... oops.

My brother-in-law cheerfully informed me on the last day of my visit that his memory of me for this trip will be me glued to the ipod. I thankfully we took a picture of me holding the ipod, the irony is that this was a picture for Mike, now why I had the ipod clutched in a death grip the entire time I'm not sure. I didn't even realize I was holding it until I saw the photos. How ridiculous. ha ha.

Well this post is supposed to be about New Year's Eve, the only weekend I could not email or phone Mike because we were too far out of the city. It was magnificent and I enjoyed it, but I missed Mike. Yes, there are those of you that think I am pathetic or extremely weird, but the other 80% of you are saying now you know what it's like to be in love and are okay that I seem to be oblivious to my surroundings. Well I have a good reason. =)

The other photo is of me at my first 3-D movie - Avatar. Those glasses looked good on me! And no one was allowed to leave the theater without returning their glasses. They actually turned people back to retrieve the glasses they left at their chairs. I also saw the movie in English when I came back to Canada with Mike. Next, Alice in Wonderland.