
Occasionally, Marga will come up to me, grab a pen, and ask, "What do you want me to draw on you?" I've had temporary ballpoint tatoos of butterflies, hearts, and ladybugs. The other day, I turned the tables and asked her the same question. She said... A castle! Okay, where? On my foot! Top or bottom? Bottom! And so began the construction of the Sole Castle...

I love this picture for many reasons. Not the least of which is my superb extemporaneous two-dimensional representation (_with perspective!_) of my mind's castle archetype, complete with four towers, a draw bridge, and a moat. Considering the added challenge of a canvas that was squirming all over the place, and I think this is one of my best drawings ever.

Photographically, it's a great shot because of the perfect framing, the distance lens blur, and the softness of the sunlight on her face. I didn't edit this photo at all. The solitary chair in the background adds an artistic touch as well. Even the red and blue cushions help the shot.

But what's really captured here is the intimacy between two people. Try letting someone draw with a ballpoint pen on the sole of your foot and tell me it's not an intimate moment full of giggles and cooperation. And of course, there will always be something sexy about a woman lying on a bed, bathed in soft sunlight.

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Sole Castle


I found the following two articles interesting. [Polls Show Many Americans are Simply Dumber Than Bush](http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11696.htm) by Paul Craig Roberts, Jan 29, 2006

[The American People Are Pretty Sharp (And Other Leading Myths of Democracy)](http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh072606.shtml) The Daily Howler, Jul 26, 2006

Thanks to Jake for pointing me to the first one. Once you get to "Part 2" of the second one, you can stop if you want. The author gets kind of ranty.

What we have here is a major crack forming in the keystone of democracy. People are sheep, whether we like it or not. Everyone feels more comfortable when they are doing what everyone else is doing, wearing what everyone else is wearing, and walking like everyone else is walking. It's in our nature. It's an invaluable evolutionary strategy to not stand out from the herd.

As young children, we question everything. "Why is grass green?" "Why do I have to go to bed?" After attempting to answer a few of these, depending on the patience of the parent, eventually the child arrives at "Because it just is!" and "Because I said so!" This is completely natural. It'd be inefficient to seek a full answer to every little "I wonder" thought that occurs to a developing child. And so, in the interest in gaining more knowledge more quickly, a child has to accept some things as true.

Throughout school and church, children are fed information that they are told to process as the authoritative truth. Asking too many questions or pointing out contradictions is frowned upon and ridiculed. We are taught not to question authority. Not only that, but the line between fact and myth is horribly blurred. How many American children (and adults for that matter) believe that the Pilgrims actually sat down at a long table and had a feast with some Native Americans or that George Washington really cut down a cherry tree? Facts are interspersed with myths, all coming out of the teacher's mouth.

Once you reach adulthood and you have a job and children of your own, not only are you so used to assimilating what you hear as fact, but you don't have the free time to check up on what you hear. If the nightly news anchorman says that there are WMD in Iraq and that Saddam has elaborate secret plans to annihilate your country, and then you hear the same thing over and over again on other news channels, the radio, the newspaper, etc., you're _going_ to accept that as fact. We have a blind faith that the journalists are doing their research and reporting facts accurately. And this faith is _necessary_ if we are to believe anything at all about the world, because we have no other sources of information.

I think that the blame the current state of political America and, through its actions, the entire Muslim world, rests almost entirely on the shoulders of the journalists. It's one thing for the rest of us to act like sheep and accept information given to us as fact, but **it's the journalists' job** to do the investigating for us! We're too busy making money so we can buy their newspapers and the products advertised during their broadcasts to pay them. How can we be expected to elect a decent leader if all the journalists just parrot each other without checking facts or interviewing Constitutional experts that will explain to us why these "anti-terrorism" laws are bad for us?

A democracy is only as good as the information its people are given.


Uninformed Americans


We're actually going to get serious and make some wedding plans. I've made a new [Wedding Page](/wedding/) (link at top of blog) on which to place all information about our plans as they solidify.

At the moment, as you can see, they are pretty nebulous. There's a link on that page to send me an email if you'd like to be notified of changes to the plans.


The News You've All Been Waiting For


Last night, we went with Marga's parents and sister to see a free concert in a nearby town called [Santullán](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;q=santull%C3%A1n,+spain&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=43.346403,-3.210754&amp;spn=0.134323,0.305901&amp;t=h&amp;om=1). The band performing was [Arrebato](http://www.google.com/musica?aid=BbUR7uqm4iE), the same band we saw [last summer in Extremadura](http://www.erik-rasmussen.com/spain/2005/august/extremadura/higuera/). When we saw them last year, we had never really heard of them. We've since become fans, and knowing the songs always enhances concert enjoyment. Last year, started the show **an hour and a half** late! That's a lot of standing around (no seats). This year, even though we expected it, we still got pretty angry when the concert started one hour late. It really shows a huge lack of respect for your audience to come out on stage an hour late. We were right next to the sound and light crew, and they seemed pretty annoyed too. We suspect that it's entirely the fault of the lead singer. I think he gets high on the ego inflation he gets from making everyone else wait until _he's_ ready. Jerk!

Just like before, by the end of the concert, you're so impressed by the music that you don't remember how angry you were just an hour before.

Before the Arrebato concert, we stopped to see this clown that was performing on a stage in the town hall square. He was pretty funny. Who knows how it occurs to someone to do this... I imagine him strumming his guitar in his garage and glancing over at his exercise bike that he wasn't using anymore.

Lyrics:

> Me está entrando sed Y quiero beber Un zumito de piña Con Malibíº Sin hielo, por favor Sin hielo, por favor

Translated:

> I'm getting thirsty And I want to drink Some pineapple juice With Malibu (rum) Without ice, please Without ice, please

A lady actually went over to the bar and bought him one.

On to the Arrebato videos...

I took this from the side when I went over to pee on his van. The lead singer's got a great stage charisma.

I think that the lead singer and his main guitarist (there were four guitars and one bass guitar in the whole band) would much rather be a Flamenco band, because they do several songs at each concert like this. This guitarist was incredible.

This is the end of a short Flamenco bit they did. I just missed some smokin' Flamenco licks from the guitarist.


Arrebato


Yesterday we went to a bullfight in Santander. Our favorite bullfighter, El Fandi, was fighting. We fell in love with his performance in León last year, and we've been looking forward to seeing him again. As usual, three bullfighters killed six bulls. The bullfighters were: Julián Lopez ("El Juli"), David Fandila ("El Fandi"), and Miguel íngel Perera. Unfortunately, the bulls make up at least 40% of the quality of a bullfight, and these bulls were of low caliber. They were sluggish and non-engaging. El Fandi had a hard time getting his bulls to move at all.

Here come a lot of pictures...

Warning - The pictures below contain bleeding and dying animals. Consider yourself warned.

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Marce, Marga, and I bought proper bullfighting spectator straw hats before entering the bullring.

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Looking good.

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I bought Marga her Spanish fan at [the market the day before](/2006/07/24/ruta-de-peregrino/).

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Now we're ready!

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One of El Juli's assistants inserts some banderillas (literally: "little flags"). These have barbed arrowheads and are what you see hanging from the bulls shoulders later.

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Another pair. That's El Juli in the green in the background. Many bullfighters let their assistants (their "cuadrilla") do the banderillas. They are sort of bullfighting apprentices.

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El Fandi's assistants control the bull when it's first released.

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El Fandi sweeps his cape around. When the bull is fresh and uninjured, they use larger pink and yellow capes. Later, when the bull is tired and injured, they switch to the red capes and swords.

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El Fandi does his own banderillas.

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The perfect placement of the banderillas is important, and the crowd is tough to please.

It's important to run sideways when inserting the banderillas.

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These "little flags" seem rather Portuguese.

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"Olé!" shouts the crowd.

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Sometimes, the bullfighters will remove their hat and throw it to the ground. When it lands with the open part up, it's supposedly bad luck. El Fandi sure had bad luck.

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Good bullfighting is really very similar to a dance.

El Fandi has bad luck inserting his sword. He has to wait until the bull has both front feet even with each other.

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That's not ketchup.

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El Fandi goes in for the kill.

They don't wait long at all to put the bull out of its misery with a [short sword](http://www.altarriba.org/2/verguenza/toros/1web.jpg) that severs the bull's spinal cord, resulting in instant death.

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The bullring workers get ready to hook the dead bull up the the harness to drag it out of the ring.

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The first attack against the bull is made by horseback. The horses are blindfolded so they don't freak out, and they wear armor to protect them from the horns. Still, I feel kind of sorry for the horses. Sometimes, although it's rare, they do get injured.

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This bull had a lame hind leg, and the crowd shouted for it to be spared. Eventually, the guy in charge of bovine control brought in some trained cattle to help usher it out of the ring.

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Ferera fights with the replacement bull.

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This video shows El Juli from the insertion of the full sword up, through the time waiting to see if the bull will die, to the final spinal cord cut.

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After a particularly good fight, the bullfighter will walk around the ring and have roses and hats thrown at him (he throws back the hats). El Juli was the only one that had a mediocre fight that merited a trip around the ring.

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This backup lance guy never saw any action.

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</a>

El Fandi places two banderillas perfectly.

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</a>

El Fandi definitely has a grace about him.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-bullfight-in-santander/235834203_0e440b1c7d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Horned Enemies">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-bullfight-in-santander/235834203_0e440b1c7d.jpg" alt="Horned Enemies"/>
</a>

Both combatants have horns.

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-bullfight-in-santander/532663128_3570681058.jpg" alt="CIMG2051.JPG"/>
</a>

Bleeding or not, that's a huge beast next to a tiny little human.

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-bullfight-in-santander/532760373_bd42725c97.jpg" alt="CIMG2052.JPG"/>
</a>

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-bullfight-in-santander/532667390_32c2dd455a.jpg" alt="CIMG2053.JPG"/>
</a>

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-bullfight-in-santander/532763779_fce5f8c796.jpg" alt="CIMG2059.JPG"/>
</a>

Lining up the insert the sword.

Needless to say, we were quite disappointed in the whole bullfight. Marce put it quite well when she compared it to a soccer match. Sometimes you see a soccer match between two great teams and it's just boring and unspectacular. That's what happened here. The bullfighters were great, but the bulls didn't cooperate, and the result was nothing special. We still had a good time, though!


Bullfight in Santander


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-ruta-de-peregrino/532719697_61a85db302_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Colindres Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-ruta-de-peregrino/532719697_f1146194a5_t.jpg" alt="Colindres Sunset"/>
</a>

Con pan y vino se anda el camino.1

Every year, in July, the town hall of Colindres sponsors the "Ruta de Peregrino" ("Route of the Pilgrim"). It works like this: You go into any bar on Saturday, and they give you a little card with the names of 32 bars in town (that's not all of them). After you order in each bar, you give them your card and they put a little sticker in the square corresponding to their bar. At 8 PM on Sunday evening, you walk through a little doorway that they construct called the "gate of pardon" and turn in your completed card to be entered in a raffle. The grand prize is a trip to somewhere. One bartender told us that normally over 200 people turn in completed cards. What a great idea! With one stone, you're creating a festive atmosphere and giving business to the local merchants! Unfortunately, we were unable to make a serious attempt this year, because Marga's parents came to visit right before lunch on Saturday, and we had to be waiting and preparing for their arrival. We got our card on Saturday night and ended up getting 7 of the 32 squares stamped. Marga's folks are staying until Wednesday because they have the time off work, and we have some activities planned for Monday and Tuesday that you'll have to wait to read about here.

On Sunday, we went to a market in the nearby tiny, but exceedingly quaint, town of Escalante. Marga's father, Juan, was polite enough to highlight for us the problem with buying clothes in a street market.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-ruta-de-peregrino/532709809_6b8065f1e5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1982.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-ruta-de-peregrino/532709809_c06f8aed1a.jpg" alt="CIMG1982.JPG"/>
</a>

Escalante's quaintness gimmick is the dark wood railings on the balconies of all the old houses.

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-ruta-de-peregrino/532712433_37caa8b3c7.jpg" alt="CIMG1983.JPG"/>
</a>

The town hall. The flags from left to right are: Europe, Spain, Cantabria, and presumably the town flag.

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-ruta-de-peregrino/532714475_72d88d193c.jpg" alt="CIMG1985.JPG"/>
</a>

In street markets, there are no changing rooms. This "personal curtain" was provided in order to _minimize_ public embarassment!

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-ruta-de-peregrino/532620474_cd1d5134ef.jpg" alt="CIMG1987.JPG"/>
</a>

Of course I couldn't let him get away without taking a picture or two. Personally, I think I'd rather be in the street in my undies.

I told him that now we had to buy some shoes and earrings to go with his new dress.

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-24-ruta-de-peregrino/532719697_f1146194a5.jpg" alt="CIMG1988.JPG"/>
</a>

This was taken at 9:16 PM. The sun was a perfect yellow orb above the horizon.

1With bread and wine one walks the path.


Ruta de Peregrino


Last weekend, we went to a free concert on the beach in Laredo. The band performing was [El Sueño de Morfeo](http://www.elsuenodemorfeo.com/). I had heard of them a little bit, and I knew the chorus of their hit single. It turns out I really love the blend of rock and folk music that they produce. Of course, I'm partial to rock bands with [acoustic guitars, fiddles, and flutes](http://www.dmband.com/). The lead female vocalist has a beautifully clear voice.

This band is currently soaring on a popularity wave that comes from fact that the lead singer is the girlfriend of Spain's current favorite "athlete", [Fernando Alonso](http://www.fernandoalonso.com/). He's leading the world standings of [Formula 1](http://www.formula1.com/). Together, they've got the potential to be Spain's version of [Posh & Becks](http://images.google.com/images?q=posh%20becks).

Anyway, check out some of the music by visiting [their website](http://www.elsuenodemorfeo.com/). When you click "Entrar", the music will start playing. Or, if you have iTunes, their album is [here](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=73132430&s=143441).

Oh, and the name of their band translates to "The Dream of Morpheus". Before looking it up, I knew that [Morpheus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheus_%28mythology%29) was a "greek god or something". It turns out he's the god responsible for dreams, thus giving the band name a deeper meaning.

Of course, the most established pop band in Spain at the moment is called [La Oreja de Van Gogh](http://www.laorejadevangogh.com/), which means "Van Gogh's Ear". Bizarre.


El Sueño de Morfeo


Last Christmas, [my grandmother](http://www.flickr.com/photos/51861620@N00/110412002/) gave equal amounts of money to Marga and me with the instructions to purchase "something for our new house". It only took us 6.5 months to do so... Besides fixing the bathtub, this really is the only money we've spent improving the house. The furniture left from the previous owners is sufficient for our needs, and we're either too lazy or too frugal to upgrade.

However, one thing has been bothering us. We have no way to prevent light from entering (or leaving) our dining room through our angled "[velux](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velux)" windows. This type of window has become very popular around this region, and the market for shades and blinds for them is doing quite well too. There's a store in town that deals only with this kind of window. So we went there and bought some simple translucent shades. They were almost completely covered by my grandmother's donation.

Sunlight entering the dining room hasn't really been an issue until now. There's almost no domestic air conditioning in Spain, so blocking sunlight is an important way of keeping the house cool. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-18-what-grandma-bought-me-for-christmas/532699031_02197a08a9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1974.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-18-what-grandma-bought-me-for-christmas/532699031_752877da50.jpg" alt="CIMG1974.JPG"/>
</a>

Open.

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</a>

Half closed, or half open, depending on your outlook on life.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-18-what-grandma-bought-me-for-christmas/532703953_a0604a7d84_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1976.JPG">
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</a>

Completely closed. It passed the light threshold that made the auto flash go off.

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</a>

They fit perfectly.

I timed the guy that installed them. It took him less than 15 minutes to install them for _both_ windows. It was so fast that they even dropped the installation charges.

**Thanks Grandma!!**


What Grandma bought me for Christmas


I don't even remember what I was looking for when I found [this guy](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/). It's some dude that lives in New York City that makes daily videos ([vlogs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlog)?) about random stuff. His sense of humor and political viewpoint are very much in line with mine. Since discovering him a few weeks, I've watched all the episodes (they started in March). Obviously, some are better than others, but I laugh out loud quite a bit.

He's a surprisingly good actor and a great video editor. He's got a day job that he keeps completely secret that takes him to different cities around the US and Europe. Anyway, I highly recommend viewing a few shows, and if you like it, you can subscribe to [his RSS feed](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/index.xml) and iTunes users can subscribe to it as a video podcast.

Warning: There is some "adult" language used. If you are offended by "adult" language, don't watch.

[06-21-06](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/06/062106.html) - Institutional Recourse [06-30-06](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/06/post_3.html) - He starts a contest to see who can make the ugliest MySpace page.

This week when he went to France was particularly good: [05-01-06](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050106.html) [05-02-06](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050206.html) [05-03-06](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050306.html) [05-04-06](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050406.html) [05-05-06](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050506.html)

If you don't like it, don't watch it, but I think he's hilarious, just the right mix of intellectual politics, social commentary, and fart jokes.

I think this one is my favorite so far: [06-20-06](http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/06/062006.html)


The Show with Ze Frank


The theme for today's Flickr post is [Grandparents](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/tags/grandparents/). Since these pictures were taken two years ago, two of my grandparents, Jean and Glen, have passed away. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-14-grandparents/189307870_b6f4ff9905_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Jean, Jim, and Marga">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-14-grandparents/189307870_b6f4ff9905.jpg" alt="Jean, Jim, and Marga"/>
</a>

**Jean, Jim, and Marga** - Erik's two maternal grandparents with Marga in May, 2004.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-14-grandparents/189308571_196e4b1732_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Erik, Marga, Joyce, and Glen">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-14-grandparents/189308571_196e4b1732.jpg" alt="Erik, Marga, Joyce, and Glen"/>
</a>

**Erik, Marga, Joyce, and Glen** - Erik and Marga visit with Erik's paternal grandparents in May, 2004.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-14-grandparents/189310533_b3754c0c9b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ramón and Erik">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-14-grandparents/189310533_b3754c0c9b.jpg" alt="Ramón and Erik"/>
</a>

**Ramón and Erik** - Marga's maternal grandfather with Erik having a few beers in Extremadura, Spain.

This last picture _always_ makes me smile. I'm never as happy as I am when we are bar hopping in the sweltering Spanish August heat, and I love and respect Marga's grandfather immensely.

(and not to mention that that's a superb picture of me)


Grandparents


As in 2002, I took advantage of my liberal employment schedule to watch most of the games of the World Cup. I enjoyed it as much as last time, too. I normally don't watch much league soccer, even though Spain has the best league in the world, because I have been unable to choose a team to follow and support. But with the World Cup, I find myself much more interested in which country wins. The final last night was a pretty entertaining match. There were lots of close shots on goal. Italy dominated the first half, and France the second. For some reason, I really like [Thierry Henry](http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/player/170711_HENRY_Thierry.html), France's star forward. I think it's because he did some car commercials in England, and he seemed like a nice, good-looking guy. That's the only reason I can come up with. That, and he's a [fantastic soccer player](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9163988913594792676). So anyway, based solely on some car commercial a few years ago, I went into the match hoping that France would win.

But then in the first half, the referee gave France a penalty kick that they didn't deserve, and I started rooting for Italy. Once Italy scored (legitimately), I definitely wanted Italy to win, since the score should have been 1-0, not 1-1.

The whole match, I was trying to figure out what it is about [Zidane](http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/player/163331_ZIDANE_Zinedine.html) that I don't like. Something about his face makes him seem like someone I wouldn't want to meet or be around (ditto for [Rooney](http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/player/196842_ROONEY_Wayne.html)). He's a great soccer player with a great career behind him, but I just don't like him. Then, as if to answer my ponderings, he showed his true colors. With only 10 minutes to go in _his entire career_, he head-butted the chest of an Italian player, knocking him to the ground. I don't care what kind of taunting the Italian gave him, a true sportsman like Michael Jordan or Jack Nicklaus would never do something like that. He got expelled from the last game of his career for being unsportsmanlike. What an ass.

Here's his head-butt:

Marga had an equally absurd reason for hoping that Italy won. She heard that a company in Italy, similar to Best Buy, has been running a promotion from the beginning of the year that is if you buy an LCD television before the start of the World Cup, and Italy wins, you get the television for free. The same company did the same offer in Spain, but they decided against it in Germany because of the perceived odds. So Marga wanted Italy to win to punish some marketing geniuses in Italy. Something tells me the company _made_ money on the whole thing, though.

### Refereeing

In general, I have been disappointed with FIFA and the World Cup rules and referees. So very many of the games have been decided by arbitrary split-second decisions from the referees. Every team has suffered from bad refereeing. They do their best in a thankless job, but it's just too difficult for one referee to see exactly when fouls happen and when it just looks like they happen.

I propose a fourth referee that is in a video editing booth somewhere in the stadium that can immediately see the slow motion, multi-angle instant replays that the television viewing audience gets to see. The ref on the field will whistle when he thinks a foul has happened, but won't act on it until 4 seconds later, the ref in the booth confirms that it was a foul. If the ref in the booth sees a foul that goes unwhistled by the field ref, he can either sound a play-stopping buzzer or tell the field ref via radio to whistle and stop play.

In the entire World Cup, I saw no cards given at all for diving (pretending to be fouled). That's ridiculous. When the booth ref decides that a whistled foul did _not_ actually take place, he should also, probably in the majority of the cases, declare that the perceived foulee be penalized for acting hurt.

### Scoring

When you get to such a high level of soccer ability as you have in the World Cup, scoring becomes very difficult. A good defense can almost always stop even the best attackers. Without a doubt, the most exciting events in a soccer match are the goals. There should be more of them. Soccer scores should be more like baseball scores: 7-4, 5-0, 6-3, etc. I think the game would be a lot more fun to watch if it were like that. So how can we get more goals scored?

I don't like the idea of making the goals bigger. The fact that 80% of penalty shots go in is enough proof that the goalie's job is hard enough. Maybe the offsides rule should be changed. The offsides rule makes a lot of sense, and it makes life a lot more fair for the defense in games of players with low skill levels. But in professional matches, I think it's giving too much advantage to the defense. I propose modifying the offsides rule to allow no more than one offensive player to be behind the last defensive player. I think that would make professional soccer matches a lot more interesting.

In closing, I would like to point out that the US team [scored a 1-1 tie](http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/match/template.html?id=25&amp;day=17&amp;month=06&amp;year=2006) (with one goal slightly given to them) against Italy, just like France did last night. We can therefore logically conclude that the US is the second best team in the world right now. :-)


Italy wins!

San Fermin 2006


We're actually gonna do it this year. I've just bought bus tickets to go to Pamplona this weekend for the [San Fermin](http://www.sanfermin.com/2006/portada.php?lang=eng) festival. For you Americans, that's the "running of the bulls" that brings Spain to your evening news program once a year. We leave on Friday afternoon, get there Friday evening, and return Saturday afternoon. There will be no sleeping, because A) there will be no available hotels, and B) the party lasts all night long. The _encierro_ (running of the bulls) happens in the early morning, and the bullfights occur immediately afterwards. This happens every day for a week (from July 7-14), but the biggest one is usually the one that falls on a Saturday (the day we'll be there).

I know the question you want to ask. The answer is no, I will most likely not run with the bulls. It's not the bulls that scare me so much, but that some idiot running next to me might do something stupid to put me in danger. This year I will watch the encierro first hand and decide if I might do it some other year. Although my "things to do before turning 30" window is rapidly shutting, I still have time to do this another year if I decide to.

So, be sure to check the blog next week.


Destination: Pamplona


As in [previous](http://www.erik-rasmussen.com/england/2003/july/)[years](http://www.erik-rasmussen.com/england/2004/july/), we had hamburgers to celebrate the Fourth of July again this year. I couldn't find any hamburger buns in the local stores, so I took a risk and baked my own. They came out a little dense and crunchy, but I ate my burger on it. It was too much for Marga's braces, though, so she had hers on a piece of "normal" long baguette-style bread. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-04-happy-july-fourth/532476854_26dfb7b3b2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1893.JPG">
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The table is set in preparation for dinner. That's the kind of bread we normally eat.

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Fried onions, tomato, lettuce, mustard, ketchup, tabasco, and mayonnaise.

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Burgers, french fries, and beer! Go America!


Happy July Fourth!


We were visited this weekend by a friend that we met in England, Luisma. He's from León, and last June we visited him there. This year, he took time from his vacation in Spain to come up to visit us. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2006-07-03-luisma-visits/532372876_38ad17e471_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1842.JPG">
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Having some drinks before lunch.

After lunch on Saturday, we spent 3 or 4 hours at the beach. The water, though shockingly cold upon first entry, was quite nice, and we had fun playing in the waves like the children around us. Marga said that there was a time while we were sunbathing that both Luisma and I were snoring loudly. We all three got just the right amount of sun, a light, even sunburn across the whole body.

On Saturday night, we had a end-of-course dinner hosted by our ballroom dancing instructor. It was in a town about 40 minutes away, and there were about one hundred of his students from all over the region (my class is only a dozen people).

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Our table for dinner.

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From near to far: Marina, Manolo, Maria Jesíºs, Ramón, Marga, and Luisma. (Ramón and Manolo were the two that I played golf with earlier this year.)

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Augustí­n, Ana, Isabel, Sagrario, Ana, and Manu. Manu and Luisma were the only guests that weren't regular students.

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Augusí­n insisted on taking a picture with me in it, spouting some parable about people who dress in green being handsome.

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Our professor, Luismi (short for Luis Miguel), gave a demonstration of a [pasodoble](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasodoble), an extremely Spanish style of dance where the man leads the woman around with motions similar to bullfighting. ¡Olé!

Although the area was very well lit, it was just dark enough to make photography difficult.

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This dance is called [Bachata](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachata).

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Luisma, with only a five minute intensive course by me earlier at home, gives [merengue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merengue_%28dance%29) a try.

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Out of step, but good posture.

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Manolo gives Sagrario a whirl.

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Augustí­n dances with his wife, Ana.

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Manolo is an excellent dancer.

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One, two, cha-cha-cha.

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This move is called the "butterfly".

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This is the "hexagon". It's a very _tangoesque_ move adapted to cha-cha-cha.

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A fancy back-to-back move, not recommended for beginners.

We returned home around 4:30 AM, but were up and out at the bars again at 1 PM for our pre-lunch beverages. After a fine lunch of steak, peppers, and salad, we headed to Santander to see the only "must see" attraction in Santander, the [Palace of the Magdalena](http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_de_la_Magdalena).

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This whiskered fellow lives at the public park that the palace grounds has been converted into. Even though he's not a walrus, I think we'll call him Paul. It was feeding time and the sea lions were making huge belching noises that made the origin of their name obvious.

Hear them belch roar.

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These elegant gents were headed to a nearby wedding.

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15 posts from July, 2006