I Like The Way You Burke It

I can understand the Spanish better than the English. When I say English I mean British, not English speaking.

Today I had lunch at the Coach and Horses and I don’t know why because the whole planet thinks English food is the pits. There was a large party that took up almost the whole restaurant so I sat at the bar. The food took an extraordinary long time to come out, presumably because of the large party. My pork chop came out and I was starting to eat it when the waitress came back and placed something else for me to eat on the side.

Waitress: Complements of the Chef.

Kate: Thank you. What is it?

Waitress: A side of Herpes.

Kate: What?

Waitress: Her-pes. (then she looked at me like I was the village idiot)

I know that there is more than one way to catch Herpes but having it served to you in a ramekin at your lunch is not something with which I am familiar. I raised my eyebrow a bit and gave a little smile and a nod thinking that I would just slide the Herpes around to make it look like I ate some. But no! She waited! She waited for me to taste the Herpes-British-Simplex-2 and give her a reaction. I could not find it in me to be rude so I tasted it. And it was stuffing. Like Stove Top Stuffing. Filled with Spices. And here is the AH-HA moment. Herbs. Herbs and Spices.

Herb-ies. Not Herpes. WHEW!

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!

I joined an art class! This is my professor, Blanca. I have also included a photo of the view from my classroom. There is no lack of inspiration here. I am taking an oil painting class and I have no experience so this should be pretty ugly but soooo fun! We meet every Monday night from 5 – 7. The classrooms are surprisingly close to our house – three minute walk.

Today was a terrific day. First thing this morning (let me stop here and remind everyone that ‘first thing’ in Spain is 9:30 a.m.) we took the dogs through Capistrano Village and up the mountain. There are three natural parks that converge on the mountain range. It is uphill to get through Capistrano and about a 20 minute walk from our house. This walk alone is considered exercise. It was sunny and warm and we hiked very far up and we turned around to see the town and water, which were really breathtaking. See the pictures below. When you are that high on the mountain the rocks are grey and striated, and they look just like elephant skin. The mountain is covered with wild lavender. I felt all Annie Oakley when I picked a bunch of it to hang in our house so it doesn’t smell like socks anymore. Anyway, I thought our hike was lovely and started to head back down the mountain. Oh no. Wells demanded that we go ALL THE WAY to the top of the ridge. I swear, he would hike uphill both ways if he could for the sheer joy of it. I rationalized the uphill part with, “If i go a little higher then i will burn off that extra glass of wine that might fall into my mouth by accident tonight.” There wouldn’t be party if Kate didn’t fall down so I included a picture of my hip from my tumble down the mountain. Sorry so fleshy. I should be tanner in the next few weeks.

[altpwa user=kate.s.burke album=20090226Hike]

  I made a list of observations in my first few days in Nerja. You might remember the comment about the white boots. I PRAY this style does not hop the pond. If it does, let’s ALL agree to be unfashionable. Please?

It is no secret that Wells and I loved our wedding photographer, Meggie Velasco. Unbeknownst to us she hosted a contest to see which of her photographs would receive the most comments. Now, had I known that this contest was going on I would have shamelessly requested that all of you vote for us. But I didn’t know. Neither of us did. And we won! I would  have preferred to have won the lottery but this will do.

http://meggievelasco.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/and-the-winner-is/

http://meggievelasco.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/wells-and-kate/

Thanks, Meggie!

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.

Using a clothesline to dry, and a washing machine that takes 2.5 hours per cycle has drastically changed our disposition on what is actually considered “dirty.” For example, shirts worn around the house or out during the day can be clean for say, five days. Workout clothes are now on a two workout cycle before washing (excluding Wells’ socks that have learned to walk themselves to the washing machine after each workout). PJ’s can now be worn for about a week. And it might be safe to say that jeans just might not ever get dirty again. My personal snootiness has really been put to the test with the bath towels. Two uses of the same towel sends me to therapy so this has been a LARGE adjustment. Also, by design the bath towels are a lot less plush because it takes them so long to dry. For this, I am forever exfoliated. Then there is the question of what to do with my wet “littles” as the English call them. I am not about to hang my underwear on the clothes line so I decided to hang them from every door knob possible. And where are most of the knobs you ask? The kitchen! There is one on every cabinet door. This means that in order to get a snack, make coffee or get a drink we have to navigate through my throng…of thongs!

Ok, a lot of people still continue to ask for a proper pronunciation of Nerja. Nerja is pronounced “Ner-HA” or if you want to add the Arabic spin to it and sound like you know what you are talking about you can pronounce it, “Ner-KA.” We say Ner-Ka. Check out our house.

Happy Birthday, Mom!