I Like The Way You Burke It

The sun rises here around 7:30 so we usually get up around 8:30 and if we are really lazy like this morning we get up at 9. This is still several hours before anything Spanish gets started so we don’t feel as lazy as we really are. The dogs sleep in a twin bed in our second guest room and when we wake up we call for them and they BOUND into our bed like they haven’t seen us in ages and ages. And for this, all human should get a dog.

Anyway, because there is no grass for us to let the dogs out on we immediately get dressed and walk them about three minutes to Playa Chorrillo to let them out. This is not our closest beach but it is great for Foxy and Neena because it is confined by two giant boulders so they run free but not get too far. This is my favorite time of day. We assess the water from here every morning and try to judge what kind of day it will be…which is not always obvious on the Mediterranean.

Foxy has taken to surfing and she is hysterically very good at it! The first break of the waves is decently large but after her first leap over it a few weeks ago she couldn’t care less. Neena, on the other hand, will not under ANY circumstances cross that first break. She would rather scavenge the beach for something dead and nasty to eat.

And yes, the water is cold. Blood chilling cold. But the Nordic tourists seem to think it is bath water…they are the only fools to go in the water right now. And Wells, of course.

Here are photos of Playa Chorrillo –a.k.a – OUR BEACH – and Foxy surfing.

	Wells and Foxy argue over the stick.	This is all very exciting for Foxy.	Neena would rather scavenge the beach for something nasty to eat.

The exterior of our townhome community is being painted. This ladder is situated right outside of our front door. No big deal, right? I know it doesn’t look like much from the picture, but this second photo is of Neena’s paw print. In paint. In our living room. One of about twenty.

Yesterday Wells left (again) for the states to see to the potential buying of his company, Synthis. To his credit, he really has no choice. He is damned if he doesn’t go, and he is damned (by me) if he does go. Wells is truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. I wonder if I am the rock or the hard place? I had a whole week of tennis scheduled and other outdoor activities planned as well but it has not stopped raining since he left. Life imitating art I guess because I feel rainy when he is gone. I have been ferociously reading instead. Here is a list of books that I have read since we have been in Spain.

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne

Atonement, by Ian McEwan

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak  ***almost finished…will be done by the time this posts***

What are some of your all time favorite books? Please send me your recommendations in the “Comments” section of this post. (”Comments” is located at the bottom right of the post in green text.) I can’t wait to see your list!

The dogs are even depressed at Wells’ absence and the rain. Pitiful!

Wells finally arrived Nerja today after a long 9 day sojourn. I don’t think I have ever missed anyone so much in my life! He is exhausted after spending 24 hours in JFK airport but we are back to forging our European life and I finally feel like blogging again! (I hit a little depression there for a few days and didn’t feel like writing.) Wells just said, “By the way honey, our house in Atlanta is REAL nice.” Under our living meager circumstances, this comment struck a nerve and made me crack up!

Anyway, you may have noticed a few changes to my blog. In true Kate style – now that I am infatuated with blogging I had to had the best stuff/technology. I have added a search button, funny and interesting links, and best of all (drum roll) a SUBSCRIBE button! This button is located in the top right corner and it looks like this:

Go ahead…it won’t bite! Do it! Subscribe! Simply put your email address in the box and wait for a confirmation email. NOTE THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL ALMOST ALWAYS GOES TO YOUR JUNK MAIL! So be sure to check your junk mail, confirm the email, and then you will receive a notification in your email of new “I like the way you burke it” posts.

Our dogs are not quite used to so many cats. There are a lot of cats here, but they are not nasty if that makes sense…just many of them. Anyway, Foxy and Neena start to salivate when they see them.

We are all tighter! I can’t tell you how happy I am to have Wells and the dogs here! It was an adventure for sure. So…………………I rented a car (A Blue Euro-Speed Skate)  to drive to Madrid, which is 6 hours north of Nerja. When I got the car I noticed that it was a stick and just started dying laughing. The last time I drove a stick was in college, a la Christy’s beamer for those of you who remember. I can count on one hand the number of times I have driven a stick. Anyway, for the first 45 minutes of the trip it was one small town after another so I kept having to shift in and out of first gear, which gave me hives just about. I was so tense that I actually started counting out loud to relax. I arrived Madrid and had an uneventful evening in hotel and waited for Wells to arrive early the next morning. I was a mess thinking about the girls flying but all arrived unscathed. We drugged the dogs so they were out of it. The car was so small even thought it was the biggest I could rent that the dogs had to sit in our laps for the entire ride back to Nerja. It was snowing and raining and totally awful and we drove 45 minutes out of the way on the Madrid equivalent to 285 until we found our way.

I had been telling Wells how hard the bed was and he didn’t really understand until he experienced it last night. The next thing you know we are purchasing memory foam to put over it – our most expensive purchase by far. Definitely worth it.

The only problem we are having is that there is virtually no grass in Nerja, or any Spanish town for that matter. The dogs just will not ‘go’ on concrete so we are having a bit of an issue. But overall they seem to be adjusted and happy but they slept all over us last night.

Miss you all! I am utterly and completely happy now that we are all “juntos”!