
Not three meters from where I found [this creature](/2006/06/14/huge-monster/), I discovered another huge monster. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-50-caliber-slug/1451285387_3272dada65_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Slugway to Heaven, 1 of 3">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-50-caliber-slug/1451285387_c57732b0e8.jpg" alt="Slugway to Heaven, 1 of 3"/>
</a>

He was about a meter above the ground. I wonder where he was going?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-50-caliber-slug/1452158556_873094d620_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Slugway to Heaven, 2 of 3">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-50-caliber-slug/1452158556_0a5623e591.jpg" alt="Slugway to Heaven, 2 of 3"/>
</a>

It was at least 15 cm long. Bigger than a [.50 BMG](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.50_BMG) cartridge, though slightly less rigid, I think.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-50-caliber-slug/1452173342_6db419b7ee_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Slugway to Heaven, 3 of 3">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-50-caliber-slug/1452173342_07b911f6a9.jpg" alt="Slugway to Heaven, 3 of 3"/>
</a>

Some lucky depth-of-field effect on this one.

I can only imagine that this slug and [this snail](/2007/06/11/sixth-story-snail/) have some sort of internal accelerometer, which gives them a sense of up and down, and the genetic programming to know that, in general, if you climb against gravity, you'll find some yummy leaves to munch on. Unfortunately for them, very few man-made buildings have [leaves at the top](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/536509254/).

I think I'm going to call this particular sidewalk "Monster Alley" from now on.


.50 Caliber Slug


Today, I went to reserve a room at the local B&B for Tom and Debbi, my godfather and god-step-mother, for their visit before the wedding. I could have called, but it was a beautifully sunny day, so I decided to walk. After reserving their room, 3 nights for 66€/night comes to a nice round 200€ that it's going to cost them, I continued up to see the church of Saint John the Baptist, an important landmark in Colindres that I had never visited.

The walk up there was so beautiful that I had to take lots of photos. Everywhere I looked was something beautiful to take a picture of. So here's a little photo trail of my morning walk.<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453097078_80cf4a2014_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Two Quackers">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453097078_f0ae82e9ac.jpg" alt="Two Quackers"/>
</a>

Two quackers and no cheese.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452239957_a001581535_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="White Flower">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452239957_e1f1abbedf.jpg" alt="White Flower"/>
</a>

The people in the houses up there _really_ love gardening.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452258119_41c1cd9de2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Country Road">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452258119_b87ed18b6b.jpg" alt="Country Road"/>
</a>

A poplar-lined country road.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452265291_7a227bb1b0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Iglesia de San Juan">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452265291_dd102487b7.jpg" alt="Iglesia de San Juan"/>
</a>

The church, with [Pico Candiano](/2007/06/10/return-to-pico-candiano/ "We hiked all the way up to the top!") behind it.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452283219_06aa72178f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Flowers along wall">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452283219_54ebf95fa9.jpg" alt="Flowers along wall"/>
</a>

Flowers along a wall.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452292601_5b4c7b877c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Lizard">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452292601_e3df981cb3.jpg" alt="Lizard"/>
</a>

A scurrying lizard. He was in the last photo, too. Did you see him?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452310987_2b61321930_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Weird White Flowers">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452310987_7c65eef102.jpg" alt="Weird White Flowers"/>
</a>

These flowers were super-weird. Can anyone identify them?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453190124_e4c2777d97_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Burdened Gnome">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453190124_42c51138b4.jpg" alt="Burdened Gnome"/>
</a>

Burdened Gnome.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452332321_3dcb2d2a54_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Steeple">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452332321_1fed6ba2a3.jpg" alt="Steeple"/>
</a>

The church steeple. I love how Ben Franklin's science is closer to the heavens than Jesus' crucifix.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452344719_80ef1d5770_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Church Doors">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452344719_f25ebd3da6.jpg" alt="Church Doors"/>
</a>

The church door.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453221602_229003c443_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Nice Balcony!">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453221602_e1af7dde0d.jpg" alt="Nice Balcony!"/>
</a>

Now that's what I call a balcony!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453239478_e132df95c7_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sun Dial says 10:30">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453239478_a314e1e9ca.jpg" alt="Sun Dial says 10:30"/>
</a>

The church sundial says 10:30.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452394327_1ebec641bb_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Two hours off">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452394327_5d48ca6623.jpg" alt="Two hours off"/>
</a>

My battered old watch says 12:30. Daylight savings time can make up for one of the hours, but what about the other one?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453570077_aa52deb6f7_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Church Bell Tower">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453570077_3e69e071c6.jpg" alt="Church Bell Tower"/>
</a>

A vertical panorama looking up the church bell tower.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453275530_4535830cd2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Browner on the other side of the fence">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453275530_4fafc21883.jpg" alt="Browner on the other side of the fence"/>
</a>

Cows living like pigs.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453295326_21e4de8faa_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Dirty Hooves">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453295326_8596052d41.jpg" alt="Dirty Hooves"/>
</a>

Um, I think you stepped in something.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453383520_4152da77aa_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Chestnut Tree">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453383520_3bbe128902.jpg" alt="Chestnut Tree"/>
</a>

There's a chestnut tree next to the church.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453312718_e73bafda81_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Under a chestnut tree">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453312718_b178427df8.jpg" alt="Under a chestnut tree"/>
</a>

I first noticed it by all the debris on the ground under it.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452468387_88a99498e9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Chestnut Pieces">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452468387_506d3ba2eb.jpg" alt="Chestnut Pieces"/>
</a>

I love how shiny chestnuts are.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452517919_40dabdf59b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Church Blueprint">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452517919_aebfacc98a.jpg" alt="Church Blueprint"/>
</a>

The blueprints of the church.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452530857_24b854c85e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tomatoes and Peppers">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452530857_294316afe0.jpg" alt="Tomatoes and Peppers"/>
</a>

Tomatoes and peppers.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453405726_3a4377f834_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Dead Bug">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453405726_477fbfc6a8.jpg" alt="Dead Bug"/>
</a>

Dead bug.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453418434_99992b4b2d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="When potted plants attack...">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453418434_027155d11f.jpg" alt="When potted plants attack..."/>
</a>

The owner of this house _really_ likes potted plants! Check out how they're all raised up off the street level.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453423708_f7336cd12b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Coat of arms">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453423708_bc6896b8cf.jpg" alt="Coat of arms"/>
</a>

The houses up in Colindres de Arriba are several hundred years old, and many of them have coats of arms of the families that lived in the houses. How cool is that?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452572483_da967d5927_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Mossy">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452572483_67c44cec49.jpg" alt="Mossy"/>
</a>

Water was dripping slowly from this mossy spout.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453446658_5e2422a7e0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Apple tree">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453446658_dd407d5cbd.jpg" alt="Apple tree"/>
</a>

Apple tree

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452587819_375d474953_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Jet over mountain over church">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452587819_9dc44103a1.jpg" alt="Jet over mountain over church"/>
</a>

I was sure I'd be able to think of something witty to say about this jet over the church by the time I got back home.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453473246_f2847b6430_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Palacio del Contestable (14th century)">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453473246_0fd8cf8550.jpg" alt="Palacio del Contestable (14th century)"/>
</a>

One of the more famous structures is this medieval palace, Palacio del Contestable, that dates back to the _14th century_.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452597027_930b6818d8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Overrun by plants">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452597027_5f5d6c4132.jpg" alt="Overrun by plants"/>
</a>

It's, um, slightly overrun by plants these days.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452621059_4a33d60c2b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Green invaders">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452621059_cefc4aff8e.jpg" alt="Green invaders"/>
</a>

No roof anymore, either.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452622633_63ad620935_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Coat of arms 2">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452622633_4dd720383f.jpg" alt="Coat of arms 2"/>
</a>

Another cool coat of arms.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453498510_d8aa7238d0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Greenhouse Effect">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1453498510_2066f82b10.jpg" alt="Greenhouse Effect"/>
</a>

A greenhouse filled with huge tomatoes and peppers.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452665061_a3dadcda85_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Green Tomatoes">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452665061_161cbc2c5e.jpg" alt="Green Tomatoes"/>
</a>

Green tomatoes still on the vine.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452644873_e28a8d6c73_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Casa de Valle">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452644873_8b538f5443.jpg" alt="Casa de Valle"/>
</a>

And finally, I finish with this photo of the actual B&B. Photos inside can be found [here](/2007/07/25/the-colindres-hotel-situation/).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452656845_ff6c00f666_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Coat of arms 3">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-28-colindres-de-arriba/1452656845_114084de6b.jpg" alt="Coat of arms 3"/>
</a>

Even the B&B has a coat of arms!

What a lovely walk. Thanks for walking with me.


Colindres de Arriba


About twice a year, every little town in Spain has what can best be described as a "medieval festival". It's probably all terribly historically inaccurate, but it's kind of fun. Little boys run around with little wooden swords that they presumably lose interest in a day later. Girls get their faces painted with flowers. It's a fairly wholesome day out.

Last Sunday, we drove to Laredo and walked up and down the [entire length](/2007/09/05/laredo-panoramas/) of the beach. It's 5 km long, so we walked 10 km in total ([6.2 miles](http://www.google.com/search?q=10+km+in+miles)). By complete chance, we happened upon one of these medieval fairs. The market booths at these festivals are run by a traveling band of carnies. It's the same people and wares every year. Their job is to travel to different towns putting on these festivals. Some do elaborate wood carving, others cook pastries, others march around playing bagpipes, and some sell bullshit "medieval" medicine.

The only thing worth buying, and that we ever buy, at these festivals is the extremely overpriced food and drink. Once, Marga and I got charged 15€ for a bottle of wine that we know costs 1€. There weren't menus with listed prices in medieval times, it seems.

I'm a little concerned about how much business the infusion booth does. They sell all kinds of leaves and grains and stuff and mark them with various ailments that they supposedly cure or alleviate. And they sell the stuff at _extremely_ high prices. In case you thought Spaniards were any better at critical thinking than Americans, well, you're wrong. Colindres was host to a UFO-ology show in September. There's some human thought fallacy that makes them willing to unquestioningly buy anything that someone claims will help them with an ailment. It's the same thing as the diet pill or penis enlargement industry, only here, the fact that it's just dry leaves makes it somewhat more obvious that you're being scammed. Whatever other historical inaccuracies exist at these fairs, they've certainly nailed the scientific ignorance of the middle ages.

And now...less rant, more photographs...<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446298853_a0594e9c41_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Stone gates">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446298853_1d39b32014.jpg" alt="Stone gates"/>
</a>

This medieval fair not-coincidentally coincided with the annual silliness that is the [Disembarkation of Carlos V](/2006/09/27/disembarkation-of-carlos-v/). This gate was made of wood and was pretty photo-realistic.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1447176826_a3c007b18e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Medieval Medicine">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1447176826_d701d2b343.jpg" alt="Medieval Medicine"/>
</a>

Infused ignorance. They don't sell one to cure gullibility. I checked. Click the image to see translations of each plaque.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446337875_1e23f578da_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Crepe Flip">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446337875_d002daab20.jpg" alt="Crepe Flip"/>
</a>

The smell from this crepe booth was just gorgeous. It's by complete luck that I captured a crepe mid-flip at the top left.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446343465_0b5d61676d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="So a falconer walks into a bar...">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446343465_3a94d6a201.jpg" alt="So a falconer walks into a bar..."/>
</a>

So a falconer walks into a bar...

I was too slow to catch this guy when he was still sipping his drink. Falcon shows are popular at these events. Check out the mobile anachronism in the background.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446367497_bc060ea32d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Goat Bag">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446367497_76b3759f00.jpg" alt="Goat Bag"/>
</a>

Look out Gucci and Prada! These goat bags are gonna be huge! ...at least among the more sophisticated Neanderthal ladies.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446386593_d6323d7f2a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Huge Grill">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1446386593_14151d13ed.jpg" alt="Huge Grill"/>
</a>

Now _that's_ how you grill meat!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1447254336_d3380352b5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Octopus Preparation">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1447254336_3cdb77d300.jpg" alt="Octopus Preparation"/>
</a>

Eight tentacles of chewy invertebrate goodness. Hey, if you put some octopus meat into a pastry, would you have an _octo-pie_? ba-da-_bum_! Man, if that joke sucked any more, it'd need suction cups!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1447270586_59b3805e1c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Elixir, anyone?">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-27-medieval-laredo/1447270586_759af211ce.jpg" alt="Elixir, anyone?"/>
</a>

Hold on, I've got an elixir here to clear up those involuntary groaning sounds you're suffering from.


Medieval Laredo


Last weekend, we had a thunderstorm come through. They are way more rare here than in my native North Carolina. We also have two new cranes that have been put up next to our house to build even more housing. Intrigued by the idea of two visible metal cranes towering into the sky and a coming electrical storm, I set up my camera to record out the window. I left it recording for a full hour. That's 1 GiB of video! Then I isolated the lightning strikes. Then I reduced it down to the only two worth showing here. Stay for the end of the video to see them in slow motion. The first clips are shown in realtime to demonstrate the delay between lightning and thunder. And the very first clip is some slightly sped up crane movement before the workers stopped. Notice the "[re-strike](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Re-strike)" effect in the slow motion version.

revver(406165)

There's something I'm confused about here. From what I understood, thunder was caused by the sonic boom from the rapidly expanding air around the lightning bolt. From Wikipedia:

> The electrical discharge rapidly superheats the discharge channel, causing the air to expand rapidly and produce a shock wave heard as thunder. The rolling and gradually dissipating rumble of thunder is caused by the time delay of sound coming from different portions of a long stroke

This make sense to me. But what doesn't make sense to me is what I've recorded in the video, particularly the first strike. You can clearly _hear_ the first strike several seconds before the thunder! This seems to clearly violate the thunder explanation. The only way that I could see where it might fit the theory is if this bottom part of the bolt wasn't hot enough to cause a shock wave, but the top part, several sound-seconds up, was. Either that or the thunder came from another bolt somewhere else.

I'm a little confused. The comments are open for postulation by other arm chair scientists.


Thunderstorm


We went to Santander this morning to see the bishop. Well, obviously little pawns like us don't actually get to meet The Bishop, but we went to his offices. We brought my birth certificate, my passport, Marga's passport, my baptism certificate, Marga's baptism certificate, my ID, Marga's ID, my driver license, etc. It was all organized in a nice folder. Every possible document they could want to see. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-25-bishops-gambit/1438605652_dae4891216_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Obispado de Santander">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-25-bishops-gambit/1438605652_b4d94904c9.jpg" alt="Obispado de Santander"/>
</a>

The Santander Bishopric.

The bishop's offices are in this awesome stone almost-castle next to the Santander Cathedral. The juxtaposition of old stones with new glass and electronic security system was pretty crazy. Upon entering, the receptionist asked us what we wanted. We said we were here to see the _vicario general_ because our local priest told us we needed him to get our paperwork done. The receptionist fit the stereotype of a government employee _perfectly_. Her initial tactic was to tell us that we were in the wrong place and we should go away. As we were explaining the situation, she would interrupt us and tell us that we should be talking to our local priest. Marga explained that I was Episcopalian and needed to sign a document saying that I was cool with the Catholic wedding. The woman kept saying, "No, no, no, you should be filing this with your priest." I said, "But I'm not Catholic! That's why we're here!" To which she responded, "You're not Catholic? Why didn't you say so?" Both Marga and I said, "But we told you he/I was Episcopalian!" To which she said, "Episcopalian is nothing." I'm not sure what she meant by that (probably trying to hide her ignorance of other religions), but it looked like she was actually springing into action, so Marga and I bit our tongues and prayed hoped for the best. Sure enough, a few minutes later she came back to us and walked us up to the waiting room of the _vicario general_.

Let me tell you, this place was nice! The decorations were reminiscent of some of the nicer royal or corporate places I've been. All I can say is that it's pretty god damn lucrative preaching Jesus' message of giving, and how you should [sell everything you have and give to the poor](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2018:18-22;&version=31;), and how it's okay, no, _good_ to be poor and you should give what little you have. What a seriously sweet pyramid scheme to be at the top of! And it's not just the collection plate. In Spain, on your tax form, there's a little checkbox for "give any extra money left over to The Church".

Anyway... enough complaining about the luxurious hypocrisy.<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-25-bishops-gambit/1438652184_0da560e8a7_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sweet Bishop Patio">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-25-bishops-gambit/1438652184_6e2f0ad153.jpg" alt="Sweet Bishop Patio"/>
</a>

I'm very pleased with how well these two landscape photos got stitched together. The building was of typical Moorish design with an inner patio.

We finally got called in to a nice office with the _vicario general_, a nice middle-aged man. If it weren't for the crucifix paper weight, we might have been in a banker's office signing a mortgage document. He gave us the document to fill in our names and sign. The top part of the paper was for the Catholic, promising to raise the offspring in the Catholic church, and the bottom half was for the heathen, saying that I understood and accepted my wife's promise to the Church. Notice that I didn't promise myself, just that I understand her promise. I guess promises from the unholy don't mean much. There was also a little clause there towards the end that said, "and marriage is an indissoluble union and I renounce all kinds of divorce". My inner troublemaker wanted to ask him if he knew of any good prenup lawyers.

With that signed and stamped, we went downstairs to get Marga's confirmation loophole papers done. But the guy that does them wasn't there, only his creepy fellow with papers all over his desk. He ended every sentence with, "Eh?" I was kind of reminded of [Opie](http://familyguy.wikia.com/wiki/Opie) from Family Guy. He looked at me funny when he heard I wasn't Catholic. He spoke really fast, so I couldn't catch all that he said. Just before we left, he said, "Marriage is a really serious thing! Eh? Because if \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ hell! Eh?" It sounded rather ominous to me. Marga later explained that the part I didn't understand was: "you don't behave well, your marriage can really be". So the final result is that we have to go back to Santander _again_ on Saturday. The offices will be closed, but basement freak, Opie, will open the door for us and give us the document we need.

So, once again, we got things only half straightened out.<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-25-bishops-gambit/1438619394_3b907450b3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Santander Cathedral">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-25-bishops-gambit/1438619394_6554a0d363.jpg" alt="Santander Cathedral"/>
</a>

Looking back at the "cathedral" on the way out, shrouded in some faith-questioning weather we've had lately. Santander has the [ugliest](http://www.flickr.com/photos/7491322@N02/446283808/) cathedral I've ever seen. It might be spectacular inside...I don't know.

Throughout the entire proceedings, no one asked for any identification or documents of proof of anything. It was just sign here, sign there, stamp! and you're good. If our documents aren't in order, then it's not their problem! I've seen this attitude a lot around here.


Bishop's Gambit


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-25-yt-audio-audio-hosting-from-youtube-in-wordpress/3305136504_a82d08cf75_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="YT-Audio">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-25-yt-audio-audio-hosting-from-youtube-in-wordpress/3305136504_b6afb922eb_t.jpg" alt="YT-Audio"/>
</a>

I'm a huge fan of the [Audio Player](http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/) plugin for Wordpress that lets you embed a flash player for a single MP3 file in a blog post. The problem is that you have to host the MP3 file yourself, and if your hosting service isn't very generous with either storage space or bandwidth, it's not a very good solution.  Most of the time that I want to attach a song to a blog post, it's usually some pop song that I'm either listening to or my mood has reminded me of. Let's face it, YouTube is the new MTV. Name a pop song, and the music video is probably on YouTube. I could embed the whole YouTube video of a song on my blog, but what if I just want the audio? What do I do then?

Introducing.... YT-Audio, the plugin for Wordpress to embed the audio from a YouTube video on your blog!

[yt-audio-streaming-audio-from-youtube.zip](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5100577/yt-audio-streaming-audio-from-youtube.zip)

### How does it work?

It's actually ridiculously simple. All it does is embed YouTube's regular flash movie player inside two iframes that chop off all but the bottom control bar of the video. Nothing fancy. Just useful.

### Instructions

You install it just like any other Wordpress plugin. Unzip it into the /wp-content/plugins, directory. Then, in your post, put the text:

`ytaudio(2_HXUhShhmY)` Where "2\_HXUhShhmY" is the code for the video on YouTube. And you should get something like:

ytaudio(2\_HXUhShhmY)

It's just that simple! I've tested this on Firefox, Safari and IE 7. It looks pretty good in all three. Enjoy!

### Frequently Asked Questions

**The player shows up, but the song won't play. What's up?**

This will happen if embedding has been disabled for the video you are using. Because the video portion of the player is hidden, so is the message telling you that embedding is disabled. Try to embed the entire video with the full embed code from YouTube before reporting a problem.

**Where is the volume control?**

When the volume control opens in the YouTube player, it opens over the video portion of the player, which is hidden inside a frame by this plugin, so even if YT-Audio displayed the volume control button, you could not change the volume with it because the popup slider would be hidden. This is unfortunate, but there's nothing that can be done about it.

**I'm getting something in the frame that looks like my blog header. What's wrong?**

This will happen if your plugins directory is not in the default location. You will need to edit the two lines in \`ytaudio.php\` that contain \`wp-content/plugins/yt-audio-streaming-audio-from-youtube\` to reflect the actual location of the ytaudio plugin with respect to your blog root.

### Change History

1.7

2011-02-22

Changed embed code to work with YouTube's new player

1.6

2009-04-30

Oops. Remembered why volume control should be hidden. Sorry!

1.5

2009-04-30

Expanded iframe to include volume control.

1.4

2009-02-23

Fixed urls referencing plugins directory to work with the zip file available from [wordpress.org](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yt-audio-streaming-audio-from-youtube/).

1.2

2009-02-20

Fixed to accept YouTube codes with underscores and dashes.

1.1

2007-12-04

Modified to handle YouTube's new flash player.

1.0

2007-09-25

Original version


YT-Audio: Audio Hosting From YouTube in WordPress


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432806366_79fbc9a436_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Wedding Rings">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432806366_4f5423fec7_t.jpg" alt="Wedding Rings"/>
</a>

_Alianzas_ is Spanish for "wedding rings". We've finally bought ours. Choosing a piece of metal to have on my hand for the rest of my life was tough. During the shopping, I was consoled by my knowledge of [how choices affect happiness](/2006/12/22/the-secret-to-happiness/). And sure enough, now that we have them (and are stuck with them), I love them!  On Friday, Marga went to the hairdresser that she will use on the morning of the wedding for a dry run, to know exactly what she'll get on the important day. The salon was busy on Friday night, so the hairdresser told her to come back early Saturday morning. After she got her hair done, she, her mother, sister, and aunt pile in a car and drove to Santander, passing right by Colindres, to try on her wedding dress and get it perfectly tailored. I went, on Saturday morning, to pick up the rings, and shortly after, Marga's father stopped by to pick me up and take me to Santander as well. We both had suits to get tailored as well! If all this seems complicated, I've left out some things for brevity's sake.

Although I do have a few complaints about the shape and form of my body, I find that most manufactured clothes fit me quite well. When Marga, for instance, buys a pair of trousers, she must get them shortened, or modified in some other way, before she can wear them. What a pain that must be! Stuff normally fits me just fine. It's either all too big or all too small. So anyway, my suit has to be modified my one millimeter in the sleeve of the jacket and shortened a little in the trousers (but they purposefully make them extra long to account for the super-lanky customers). Juan's not have too much done either. A little shortened of the jacket tails.

No photos of the suits or dress. Gotta build the suspense! I haven't even seen the dress yet. The womenfolk won't let me.

You _can_ see the rings, though. We went with a two-tone, white and yellow gold. The jewelers told us that white gold loses its shine easily and must be maintained with cleaning every few years. But that having tougher yellow gold on the edges tends to protect the white gold from the normal wear and tear. There were so many to choose from and all looked good. The ones we got stood out to me because of the way they sparkle. Rather than being smooth and round, the white part is made up of short straight segments that catch the light in a nice way.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432806366_79fbc9a436_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Wedding Rings">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432806366_4f5423fec7.jpg" alt="Wedding Rings"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431929421_fc02c503b6_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Marga - 13-10-07">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431929421_0de0892ea3.jpg" alt="Marga - 13-10-07"/>
</a>

For lack of anything wittier to say, they are engraved with the name of the other person and the date of the wedding.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431905845_361ca84ea3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sorry, I'm taken">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431905845_c873934375.jpg" alt="Sorry, I'm taken"/>
</a>

Sorry, ladies! I'm spoken for.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431911685_9c7c7d084c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="That's Missus, not Miss">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431911685_76437f44bd.jpg" alt="That's Missus, not Miss"/>
</a>

Not a señorita much longer...

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432791960_cf38fc72c6_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Freckly Hand">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432791960_db04349b7f.jpg" alt="Freckly Hand"/>
</a>

My hand modeling career didn't go very well.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431920725_db51a9b677_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Shiny band">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431920725_76da429d22.jpg" alt="Shiny band"/>
</a>

Marga actually told me that, when she first saw my hands when we met, she thought I was sick or something. Definitely not worth dating.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432804820_ca0d713464_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="The Touch of Marriage">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432804820_4ef336dd2d.jpg" alt="The Touch of Marriage"/>
</a>

A spousal touch.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431937409_f2bcf3a67d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Boxed Rings">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431937409_e40e7e6227.jpg" alt="Boxed Rings"/>
</a>

They even threw in this little box!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432821044_da14935289_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Aunt Marga and her crazy American nephew">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1432821044_f29a811a15.jpg" alt="Aunt Marga and her crazy American nephew"/>
</a>

Aunt Marga and her crazy American nephew.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431951015_495f353cd8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Shoe shopping.  Yawn!">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-24-alianzas/1431951015_0173bc326f.jpg" alt="Shoe shopping.  Yawn!"/>
</a>

After lunch, there was much shoe shopping. Yaaaawwwnn...

I've never really worn a ring, so it feels pretty awkward. No doubt I'll adjust quickly...


Alianzas


University professors are some of the smartest, hardest working members of society. Not only that, but they are very well practiced in the art of lecturing, imparting knowledge through speech. So what if a young (47), energetic, well-accomplished, well-respected university professor from a top university was asked to give the last lecture of his life? 

If I had been motivated enough to get a PhD and could have gone to any school to get it, I think it probably would have been Carnegie Melon, since they rule the artificial intelligence academic kingdom.

Cool video, huh? This was last Tuesday, I think, so Dr. Randy Pausch is still alive. [This](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/) seems to be the page getting updated of his status.


Last Lecture


**clerical**, _adj_

1 (of a job or person) concerned with or relating to work in an office, esp. routine documentation and administrative tasks : temps are always needed for clerical work.

I can see how this secular definition came about after my dealings with The Church. As [you may recall](/2007/09/20/pawn-captures-bishop-check/), we were planning on visiting the local Bishop today. Last night, after several unsuccessful attempts, we finally got in contact with our helper in our church matters, Luis. He was surprised to hear that the local priest had not yet contacted us. He said he'd call the priest and see what was up. We suggested that he just give us the priest's number and we could call him and clear things up. So we did. The conversation went something like:

> Priest: Hello?
> 
> Marga: Hi, this is Marga. I believe that Luis has been talking to you about our situation.
> 
> Priest \[annoyed at being disturbed\]: I've already got all your information. I'll call you tomorrow. \[click!\]

Needless to say, we were a little peeved. Our looming deadline was being rendered invisible by a huge [SEP Field](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_Else's_Problem_field).

The Bishop's office hours are from 10am to 1pm on weekdays, and it's about 30 minutes away. We decided to wait until 10:30 and then start trying to call the priest. If we didn't get through by 11:00, we'd go to the Bishop's office. At the last minute, Marga got through and the priest gave her the chance to explain the situation a little bit. He said we should come by the church in Colindres at 12:45pm. This put us in the bind of whether we 1) go see the priest at 12:45 and forfeit any chance of making it to the Bishop's office before the deadline, or 2) just go see the Bishop ourselves and make sure we got everything straightened out. I was getting both nervous and fed up with all the red tape, so I was leaning towards option #2. But Marga is wiser with these matters. Both because she knows more about what the word "deadline" means in Spain and because she's better with politics, and knew that going over the priest's head when he'd made an appointment with us might not be the best move when we still need his help, she convinced me to go with option #1.

The priest was a pretty nice guy. He seemed on top of the situation. He apologized for being so busy, due to the bishop change and that he has _four_ weddings and a funeral to do tomorrow. He filled out the paperwork that he will send first to Santander, and then to Mondragon to handle "the [Banns](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02255a.htm)". The guy that has to preside over Marga signing that she will get confirmed sometime in the future is only at the Bishop's office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (so we probably wouldn't have accomplished a damn blessed thing by going there today). So we will go next Tuesday and have her sign that paper.

As for me, it turns out to be okay that I'm not Catholic. All I have to do is sign a paper saying that I'm cool with having a Catholic ceremony and respect their traditions, and that I promise to raise my children Catholic. Now there's a well thought out rule for meme survival! So when we go on Tuesday, I'll sign that document and then we're good to go. I'll try to remember not to doodle any pentagrams around my signature.

But wait! There's more! On Wednesday, we have to have another meeting with the priest where we have to bring two other people not related to us to be witnesses. Listen to how stupid this is. They can be anyone at all. They don't have to know us or anything. And then, they have to sign a paper saying that, as far as they know, we're not married. Luis told us earlier that the shopkeepers across the street are used to being asked to come over and agree that, as far as they know, two strangers they've never met aren't married. What a goofy system. They already require official government documents saying that you aren't married, and then they have this thousand-year-old witness testimony requirement that even a fool could manipulate in his favor.

So it looks like the marriage won't be called off... yet...


Clerical


The thing that's got me most nervous about my impending matrimony is the unresolved clerical clerical paperwork that has to be done. According to The Catholic Church, neither Marga nor I are prepared for matrimony. And until we get the go ahead, the priest in Mondragon will not marry us. She has not yet been [confirmed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation), and I have not yet been Catholic. Luckily, there are bureaucratic loopholes to slip through. From what we learned from the guy that gave us our Catholic marriage classes, Marga can sign a paper saying that she will get confirmed just as soon as she gets around to it, and that's good enough. And I, with a brief tutorial on the differences between the Episcopalian faith and Catholicism, I can sign something-or-other and become Catholic, skipping all the the baptism, first communion, and confirmation shenanigans and be marryable. Hallelujah!

Our local mentor, Luis, that told us all this, said, "August is a really busy month here, so get back to me in September and there will still be plenty of time to work things out." So, on September 1, we call him up. But guess what?

There's a new bishop in town!

The bishopship of Cantabria just changed. Praise Jesus! So the new guy is swamped under paperwork and figuring out how things used to be done and changing things to how he wants them done, etc. I know what it's like to change jobs. The first few days, you don't get a damn blessed thing done. I understand that. But here's the problem...

By law, they have to post a "does anyone have a reason to object to these two marrying?" poster outside the church where we will be wed _three weeks before the wedding_! It's the equivalent of that "forever hold your peace" stuff they do in America. So this puts our deadline to, let's see.... _THIS SATURDAY_!

We finally got in contact with Luis, who has not been answering his cell phone in the past week. He said that the Cantabrian branch of The Church is still in a huge dust storm and everyone is trying to get their bearings. We said, "Yeah, that's great, but we got a deadline here, pal!" Luis promises to get back with us today, but I see the chances of that happening as about as good as the Pope taking off his funny hat.

So what's going to happen, barring some kind of divine intervention, the fiancé and I are going to go to Santander tomorrow morning and camp out in the Bishop's office until we get what we want.

It's _on_ now, your Holiness!

Check.


Pawn Captures Bishop (check)


Due to the nature of things, and having both words on every page, I'm ruling the google search for: [colindres spain](http://www.google.com/search?q=colindres+spain). The result is that anyone in the English speaking world that has a reason to look for information about Colindres (and there aren't many people like that) will find me. Like [that Australian guy](/2007/03/23/fame/) a couple of months ago. The latest person to find me, and leave [a nice comment](/about/#comment-1086), is Heather. Heather lived here with her family from 1993 to 1995 doing missionary work. Now, when I hear the word "missionary", I immediately think of white people trying to read the "sophisticated" Bible to a group of spear-holding, face-pierced, skinny, confused, "savage" black people. I guess Hollywood and my own ignorance is to blame for this. Anyway, I asked Heather how she could be spreading Christianity in Colindres, _literally_ preaching to the choir. She explained that hers was the more common "evangelical" missionary work that consists of going to some far off place and helping the unfortunate. I can see how the unfortunate would prefer an evangelical "He's here with your right now, personal invisible friend" Jesus to the more Catholic "impersonal holy exemplar" Jesus. Heather worked with AIDS patients and heroin addicts in this region.

With the help of her comments on my photos and other clues, I have found the house that Heather lived in, and, hopefully, I will be able to pass on a hola, pensando en ti message to someone she knew. It makes me feel a little like a detective on [Cold Case](http://www.cbs.com/primetime/cold_case/). That show always does a good job of matching fashion styles and music from the era that they are flashing back to. That's a big part of the appeal of the show, I think. I've already chosen the soundtrack for my episode flashing back to 1994...

ytaudio(O23lF1FPQBE)

Here are a couple photos she sent me from her time in Colindres.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1405669807_b894a4e3c8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1405669807_571b7c4fb7.jpg" alt=""/>
</a>

A taxi driving friend of hers.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1405669975_1384ffe94c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Iglesia de San Juan">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1405669975_6be14af388.jpg" alt="Iglesia de San Juan"/>
</a>

The old church up in Colindres de Arriba. It's the only real "attraction" that the Colindres tourism board promotes, and I've never seen it. Apparently some saint's remains were housed there for a bit, and it's kind of a pilgrimage destination.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1406555396_b0db6c5de5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1406555396_3c70900e8b.jpg" alt=""/>
</a>

Looks like they had a good time!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1406555484_ebb3626675_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Laredo Beach in mid 90's">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1406555484_34e2dbd56d.jpg" alt="Laredo Beach in mid 90's"/>
</a>

Hmm... Where have I seen _that_[before](/2007/09/05/laredo-panoramas/)?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1405670363_0e5542b0f5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Laredo Beach in mid 90's">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1405670363_8cb1746443.jpg" alt="Laredo Beach in mid 90's"/>
</a>

Yep, that's Laredo beach and 90's fashion. Thank god only one still remains.

She told me:

> We also were friends with alot of the people in our building, which the name of the street was Calle Magdalena, there was a pub and a Canon copier showroom.

I thought "Canon copier showroom??? That must be long gone!" But it turns out that that particular "store" is one of those that just blends into the background and you have so little interest in it that you forget that it's there. So today, I took some pictures of Heather's old house for her. Perhaps she'll tell us which floor she was on.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1406742037_baae3e1921_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Heather's House 1">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1406742037_3d2ac9cda3.jpg" alt="Heather's House 1"/>
</a>

This building is on the main road that runs through town, the same one that my building is on. In fact, I can see this building [from my bedroom](/2007/06/15/bedroom-window-panorama/).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1406749987_27bfa7a4f9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Heather's House 2">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1406749987_c3553b279b.jpg" alt="Heather's House 2"/>
</a>

Note the faded sign of the Canon shop at the bottom left. It looks like at least two of the apartments are for sale.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1407641094_135cdd0613_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Heather's House 3">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-19-heather-from-colorado/1407641094_3b0ce328d9.jpg" alt="Heather's House 3"/>
</a>

Another angle from further down the street.

Heather, I'm sure this will bring back even more memories. I'll be in touch to see if we can find someone you knew. As long as it's not this October, you're welcome to come visit.


Heather from Colorado


On Sunday, we went to [Etxe Aundi](http://etxeaundi.com/), the restaurant that will be hosting our wedding celebration, to sample the food and decide on a final wedding menu. It was a very difficult task, as all the food was absolutely delicious. Most restaurants in Spain will invite the bride, groom, and their parents to a six-person tester meal like this. Since my parents were unable to attend, the bride's sister and aunt attended to provide their input. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396175713_4ad517566a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4606.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396175713_0b5ab0f62e.jpg" alt="CIMG4606.JPG"/>
</a>

Here's the restaurant as seen from the parking lot. Not all that impressive from here.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397071478_c76105ff96_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4607.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397071478_56fa0e436d.jpg" alt="CIMG4607.JPG"/>
</a>

We got there at about 1:30 PM, way before the regular lunch crowd, and were the first ones seated.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397307162_9df35f2f01_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Lower Dining Room Panorama">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397307162_ce6a838029.jpg" alt="Lower Dining Room Panorama"/>
</a>

We were seated in the corner of the downstairs dining room. This is _not_ where our wedding meal will be.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396231023_b2831de010_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Zaco - Rioja">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396231023_70c1e50e85.jpg" alt="Zaco - Rioja"/>
</a>

This is the wine we ended up choosing. It also happened to be the one they gave Juan and me in the bar before the meal. At 1.40 €/glass, it seemed pretty pricey at the bar. Good thing it's included with the meal. We all preferred Zaco over the other option, which was also a very nice Rioja.

### The Losers

First, I'll discuss the dishes that lost out in the judging. Note that the serving size depicted in all these photos is larger than for one person and smaller than for six (so we could try many of them).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396216073_1e338ed69c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ensalada con gulas templada">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396216073_88102bc2fe.jpg" alt="Ensalada con gulas templada"/>
</a>

_Ensalada con gulas templada_. A warm salad with fake [angulas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angula) (eels) made of [surimi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surimi) (the fish product used to make fake crab legs). It was good but it was nothing that special. This was the only dish that we voted down quickly.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396196125_37abd4b423_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ensalada de bacalao">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396196125_b489e992a9.jpg" alt="Ensalada de bacalao"/>
</a>

_Ensalada de bacalao_. Cod salad. It was good, but mainly because the overwhelming taste was that of the sautéed onions.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396240045_dbdf8c6e94_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Brik de bacalao">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396240045_6b017eef91.jpg" alt="Brik de bacalao"/>
</a>

_Brik de bacalao_. Cod cake. This was a crisp pastry sack with cod paste in it. Good, but not great. The fun part with these is the crispiness of the pastry.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396255755_9e98c8ec58_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Crepe relleno de txangurro">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396255755_9cef3f3c56.jpg" alt="Crepe relleno de txangurro"/>
</a>

_Crépe relleno de txangurro_. Crépe filled with spider crab. When I heard the name of this dish and the word "txangurro" (a Basque word, pronounced "chan-guru"), I said, "_Canguro_!?!" (kangaroo). I was kind of serious but just got a "ha ha. funny joke." shrug from the table. They were absolutely delicious, but we discarded it after picking another _txangurro_ dish for the main course that we liked better.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397164658_86d0651b7d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Merluza con gulas">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397164658_d9bdaf239a.jpg" alt="Merluza con gulas"/>
</a>

_Merluza con gulas_. Hake with angulas. This tasted too strongly of olive oil. I love me some olive oil, but I don't want a fancy dish at a fancy restaurant to taste exclusively of olive oil.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396286223_8e709f4c67_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Rape al horno">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396286223_186afdf946.jpg" alt="Rape al horno"/>
</a>

_Rape al horno_. Baked monkfish. I was disappointed to see this dish go, not just because it was delicious, but because it has a horribly vulgar-sounding name that would shock visiting Americans reading the menu.

### The Winners

And now I will present the dishes that will be available at my wedding dinner.

#### The Starters

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396187947_ef41b5aba8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Fantasí­a de queso fresco con salmÃƒÂ³n y espinacas">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396187947_2fa4c1b3de.jpg" alt="Fantasí­a de queso fresco con salmÃƒÂ³n y espinacas"/>
</a>

_Fantasí­a de queso fresco con salmón y espinacas_. Fantasy of fresh cheese with salmon and spinach. The subtlety of the salmon flavor was, \[removing his monocle\], simply...exquisite.

_Hí­gado de oca con puré de manzana y salsa de oporto_. Goose liver with apple puré and port sauce. This was so delicious that I forgot to take a picture. Don't worry, it didn't taste at all like chicken liver. The sweetness of the apple and port were lovely. Very probably this is what I will order on October 13th.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397093238_678a04b993_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="SalpicÃƒÂ³n de marisco">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397093238_9b71bdfff0.jpg" alt="SalpicÃƒÂ³n de marisco"/>
</a>

_Salpicón de marisco_. Chopped shellfish. This was good, but I'm frankly too impatient to enjoy all but the most yielding shellfish. Could be a hit among lobster fans.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396222653_b3d613dd26_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Vieiras gratinadas">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396222653_10d1491d18.jpg" alt="Vieiras gratinadas"/>
</a>

_Vieiras gratinadas_. Scallops au gratin. This was the only starter that warranted exclamations of, "Oh my god, yes!!" from around the table. This one is in a close second in my book.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396226179_2a203a54c6_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Vieira">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396226179_ad9b05c1d2.jpg" alt="Vieira"/>
</a>

Kind of reminds me of the picture I took of my napkin at the start of the meal.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397152938_2ab0209ef6_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Mil hojas de langostinos y almejas">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397152938_fe510db3d4.jpg" alt="Mil hojas de langostinos y almejas"/>
</a>

_Mil hojas de langostinos y almejas_. Millefeuille of prawns and clams. For those of you that don't speak snooty French, I can tell you that "mil hojas" translates literally to "a thousand sheets", and must refer to this style of layered pastry. It was, of course, delicious. But at this point, I was starting to lose interest in eating.

#### The Main Course

For the main course, you may choose between either:

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396293721_3a3f7abf87_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Merluza rellena de txangurro">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396293721_09a505b1c1.jpg" alt="Merluza rellena de txangurro"/>
</a>

_Merluza rellena de txangurro_. Hake stuffed with spider crab. This was fantastic. A little seafood explosion on the tongue.

_Solomillo a la plancha con setas y pimientos_. Grilled sirloin steak with mushrooms and peppers. We had to go with at least one "old faithful" dish that everyone will recognize. At this point, I was in too much of a gluttonous stupor to remember to take a picture or try any, but the people that did said it was delicious. The problem with serving steak to a lot of people is that you can't ask everyone how well done they want it. So it will be served fairly rare, and then people can ask the waiters to have it cooked some more.

#### The Dessert

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397188472_20945aaed4_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sorbets">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397188472_61cf8d9926.jpg" alt="Sorbets"/>
</a>

They brought us three kinds of sorbet. Apple (green), mandarin (orange), and passion fruit (yellow). Both the apple and mandarin contained alcohol.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396309605_a97ed4ccb8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4628.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396309605_c17c1f6103.jpg" alt="CIMG4628.JPG"/>
</a>

They were all very nice. The apple was a little more tart that I would have liked.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397202232_830d05756f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4631.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397202232_9223cc60cd.jpg" alt="CIMG4631.JPG"/>
</a>

After seeing how the vodka settled to the bottom after only a few minutes, we decided to go with the yellow, non-alcoholic passion fruit sorbet. It was everyone's favorite flavor anyway.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397209288_2ea2a68f7a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4632.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397209288_25076445fd.jpg" alt="CIMG4632.JPG"/>
</a>

We had three different kinds of ice cream. I can't remember which we picked, but they were all good and will go great with the wedding cake.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396329685_a1104f3b4a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4633.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396329685_e1fabb3636.jpg" alt="CIMG4633.JPG"/>
</a>

And every Spanish meal is followed with a coffee.

So the final menu will be (imagine a fancy font): (choose one from each group)

Fantasí­a de queso fresco con salmón y espinacas Hí­gado de oca con puré de manzana y salsa de oporto Salpicón de marisco Vieiras gratinadas Mil hojas de langostinos y almejas

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Merluza rellena de txangurro Solomillo a la plancha con setas y pimientos

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Sorbete de maracuya

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Tarta nupcial con helado

Each of those respectively in English are:

Fantasy of fresh cheese with salmon and spinach Goose liver with apple puré and port sauce Chopped shellfish Scallops au gratin Millefeuille of prawns and clams

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Hake stuffed with spider crab Grilled sirloin steak with mushrooms and peppers

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Passion fruit sorbet

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Wedding cake with ice cream

Note that some of the items are too sophisticated for the English language and must be written in French, instead.

**UPDATE! \[2007-09-18\] - Guests will be receiving ALL of the items on the menu. You don't have to eat it all, but you're going to get it all anyway. It's not like you can choose items off the menu. It'll all be placed before you. I apologize for any confusion.**

After eating, we went up to look at the main dining room. It was set for a party of 100 people, which is about how many we will be.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397227068_1e48aacf70_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4634.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397227068_ab1d627954.jpg" alt="CIMG4634.JPG"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397237928_240539f5c1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4635.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397237928_4980f72162.jpg" alt="CIMG4635.JPG"/>
</a>

We wanted to have everyone at round tables, but there just won't be room for that. Oh well. The "presidency" will be seated at one end of the room, facing everyone. The order at that table will be: my grandmother, my father, my mother, me, Marga, her father, her mother, and her grandfather. Good old "boy-girl-boy-girl" pattern.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397246336_f226217b76_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4636.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397246336_40333ba8ab.jpg" alt="CIMG4636.JPG"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397256126_d1071fe898_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4637.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397256126_a016cb4c0a.jpg" alt="CIMG4637.JPG"/>
</a>

That's a lot of glasses per plate!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397272778_800a3adfb7_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4639.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1397272778_37652d5418.jpg" alt="CIMG4639.JPG"/>
</a>

Looking down the spiral staircase.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396377387_34c71899ec_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4638.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396377387_c6c6706756.jpg" alt="CIMG4638.JPG"/>
</a>

A cactus garden under the stairs.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396393161_2d4e186595_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4640.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396393161_41f61d5bd4.jpg" alt="CIMG4640.JPG"/>
</a>

This is the patio outside. If the weather is good enough, it would be awesome to have the dance out here.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396399457_4f60146d44_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4641.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-17-etxe-aundi-wedding-menu/1396399457_8b697051f7.jpg" alt="CIMG4641.JPG"/>
</a>

Used to be stables.

We left at 6:45 PM. The first to arrive and the last to leave. Five hours of eating expensive gourmet food for free. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

P.S. Now that I got that gluttony deadly sin out of the way, I'm ready to convert to Catholicism this week.


Etxe Aundi - Wedding Menu


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-12-capitan-mani/1362537020_2757de9967_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Capitán Mani">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-12-capitan-mani/1362537020_eecf5634a2_t.jpg" alt="Capitán Mani"/>
</a>

There is only one brand of peanut butter I've been able to find in Spain. It comes in both _crujiente_ and _suave_. The label on the plastic jar is an attempt to characterize Americans, so I have to share it with you. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-12-capitan-mani/1362498414_2cd708a62f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Capitán Mani">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-12-capitan-mani/1362498414_7835adcc1d.jpg" alt="Capitán Mani"/>
</a>

A big goofy baseball player and some white-on-blue stars. Go America!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-12-capitan-mani/1361622125_6a8675e584_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Capitán Mani ingredients">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-12-capitan-mani/1361622125_298a6b84d4.jpg" alt="Capitán Mani ingredients"/>
</a>

Capitán Mani peanut butter is an ideal afternoon snack for children and adolescents because of its nutrition and energy levels - without cholesterol. Thank Yahweh, it's kosher!

A quick google search for Capitán Mani reveals...

- The [Processed Foods -> Sauces](http://www.american-foods.org/pages/product_process_sauces.html) page of a site called american-foods.org that seems to specialize in shipping "American" foods to foreign countries.
- A half-eaten jar for sale on [Austrian eBay](http://cgi.ebay.at/Erdnussbutter-Capitan-Mani-fast-aufgegessen_W0QQitemZ190145180839QQihZ009QQcategoryZ13271QQcmdZViewItem). How do you say "Gross!" in German?
- A Spaniard's rather [anti-US blog entry](http://soytremendo.chipiron.net/2007/03/27/capitan-mani-go-home/) where the writer concludes that the US is powerful and arrogant (true) and full of idiots (also somewhat [true](http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm)). He is quick to mention that he does love coca-cola, John Wayne movies and _really_ loves [Jennifer Connelly](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000124/). With both pros and cons weighed up, he settles the tie by concluding the peanut butter sandwiches are disgusting.

As for quality, Capitán Mani is as good as your generic supermarket brand peanut butter, which is what I used to buy, in the US.


Capitán Mani


Today marks the anniversary of the day I met my future wife. Eight years ago. So ours will be a story of 2,954 days between meeting and marriage. Longer than the average couple, I'm pretty sure. At least we got in before the 3,000 mark. Whew! The meeting occurred within a few meters of latitude 55.676405, longitude 12.569352. Right about here:

There's an [often-photographed](http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=copenhagen+burger+king) Burger King on that corner, "sandwiched" between a McDonalds and a KFC.

[![BKinDK](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-11-september-11th/330256040_a461ed42ae.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/phototram/330256040/)[![P1090042](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-11-september-11th/1055344564_5600e19dcf.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/11120067@N05/1055344564/)[![BKinDK2](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-11-september-11th/49785194_8d5597f470.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/giacomo/49785194/)


September 11th


This past weekend there were annual festivals in two local towns, Santoña and Ampuero. The festival in Ampuero included _encierros_ (running of the bulls) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning. On Saturday morning, we got up and got dressed with the intent of going to see the _encierro_ in Ampuero, but we ended up leaving late, and when we realized that we had to get gas before going, we aborted the mission and decided to go on Sunday. After lunch on Saturday, we drove to Santoña to see their festival. Santoña is about 10 minutes away by car (less by row boat, I think). When we got there, we drove around for a full thirty minutes, passing twice through every street in the entire town, and found _zero_ parking. Frustrated and angry, we made some explicit gestures towards Santoña's general direction and went back home to Colindres, which had lots of empty spaces since everyone had gone to the neighboring towns.

After dinner, we decided to go to Ampuero, because the nightlife there during the festival is pretty great. We drove up and down several streets that had cars illegally parked on every inch of sidewalk. Since there were cars on either side of the road, the normally two-lane streets became one-lane with people trying to drive both ways. We got honked at by some idiots, spent 20 minutes looking for parking and made some more gestures towards Ampuero and went back home.

Not counting our error in the morning, that was _two_ festival abortions in one day!

I told Marga that it's too bad that these small towns just don't have room for everyone that wants to go their parties. She pointed out that the problem has a solution: Buses. If a town wants people to come to their festival, they should run buses a couple times an hour from each of the nearby towns. That alleviates the parking problem, the drinking and driving problem, and lets everyone in the group drink, not having to worry about driving home. Other small towns should follow the example of the Spanish king of small town parties: Pamplona. During the week of San Fermin in July, there are buses running directly to and from Pamplona from towns several hundred kilometers away. [When we went](/2006/07/09/san-fermin-2006/), we took a bus directly from Laredo, which is over 200 km away!

A town like Ampuero, with 4,000 inhabitants, doesn't need parking for 12,000 people; it just needs a solution to get that many people there during the short time when they want people to come.

We did end up going to the _encierro_ on Sunday morning. I've blogged photos and a video over [here](http://www.bitwrathploob.com/2007/09/10/bitwrathploob-runs-with-the-bulls-in-spain/) as part of the BITWRATHPLOOB project.


Small Town Festival Parking


I was just flipping randomly through some of our upper cable channels and came across a blast from the past. We get this "ESPN Classic Sports" channel (the only ESPN channel we get) that shows old games from years ago. I can barely muster the interest to watch live sports, so you can imagine how useful this channel is to me.

Imagine my surprise to see a UNC vs. Duke ACC game from 1995! What's funny is that there's only a small window from 1995 to about 2000 where I followed ACC basketball enough to recognize any players' names. I knew all these guys!<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1346742393_12254b3716_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4554.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1346742393_03fe9c8738.jpg" alt="CIMG4554.JPG"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1346751739_6400b404bd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4555.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1346751739_1c1d012d4d.jpg" alt="CIMG4555.JPG"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1346760381_b5b0a46d9d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Jeff Capel free throw">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1346760381_16cd93e509.jpg" alt="Jeff Capel free throw"/>
</a>

Jeff Capel takes a free throw.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1346769493_6a479c8042_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG4557.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1346769493_975e36992a.jpg" alt="CIMG4557.JPG"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1347666252_5b6efe24cc_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Stackhouse Dunks">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-dean-smith-vs-coach-k/1347666252_14035de7bc.jpg" alt="Stackhouse Dunks"/>
</a>

Stackhouse dunks.

After a little research (googling "unc duke 1995 basketball"), I can only assume that I'm watching [this game](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNC-Duke_rivalry#February_2.2C_1995) from February 2, 1995. I haven't actually seen Coach K yet, so it must be.

Sittin' here in Spain, watching the tarheels and the blue devils. Crazy, huh?


Dean Smith vs. Coach K


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346399493_730c96c258_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Leonardo's Machines">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346399493_46cf8cc380_t.jpg" alt="Leonardo's Machines"/>
</a>

Last Sunday, we went to an exhibition entitled Leonardo's Machines. It was a really clever idea of a project for a woodworking school. They recreated some simple (and some not-so-simple) machines from drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci, put them in an old fort (that's where their school is) and charged people a couple euros to get in.  Each item had a plaque to read about how it worked (or didn't in the case of the wings), how technology was before Da Vinci, and how his invention revolutionized the world. Most of them consisted of what I learned in school were called [simple machines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_machine): pulleys, levers, cranks, gears, etc. Basically, they are all the things that logically fall out of an understanding of how these items can be combined to convert a simple human movement (e.g. cranking or pedaling) into something useful like lifting a heavy weight, drilling a hole, etc. I think that some items like a bicycle and pedaling car, complete with transmission, a differential, and a spiral fan on the back to add extra thrust, are somewhat debated as to whether or not Leonardo really invented them. But they were all pretty cool and there's no doubt that the man was a genius of the highest order.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346399493_730c96c258_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Leonardo's Machines">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346399493_46cf8cc380.jpg" alt="Leonardo's Machines"/>
</a>

The plaque at the entrance.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347257322_7b0611ed29_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Human Wings">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347257322_0252602cd3.jpg" alt="Human Wings"/>
</a>

Ah, man's desire to fly like a bird.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347261176_8a2c8a5574_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Man's desire to fly">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347261176_905b70fa35.jpg" alt="Man's desire to fly"/>
</a>

Good thing Leo didn't try this himself.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346377171_4201027e96_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Restauracion">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346377171_8197dc9a8a.jpg" alt="Restauracion"/>
</a>

View from the fort window. That's the tip of [Laredo beach](/2007/09/05/laredo-panoramas/).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346382643_9aca9851d3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Multiple Pullies">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346382643_fa2439500f.jpg" alt="Multiple Pullies"/>
</a>

Leo figured out that the more pulleys you have, the heavier a weight you can lift.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347276150_5c7c851a75_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="One-man elevator">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347276150_1bcb0f0f63.jpg" alt="One-man elevator"/>
</a>

This is a human-powered elevator. You stand on a bar at the bottom and hold on with one hand, and crank away with the other.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347284092_eecc5553a5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Spin and push">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347284092_e79add549f.jpg" alt="Spin and push"/>
</a>

This shows his understanding of gears. This device produces both rotational motion and oscillating motion. Presumably for drilling a hole?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347294826_9352dbf632_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Metal Circle Man">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347294826_2129f56ea6.jpg" alt="Metal Circle Man"/>
</a>

Where have I seen this image before? Pretty cool to have it cast in metal. (iron?) In case you can't tell from the bricks, this thing was about five feet in diameter.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347302294_76e3937903_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="SantoÃƒÂ±a Workshop School">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347302294_839a92dffb.jpg" alt="SantoÃƒÂ±a Workshop School"/>
</a>

The workshop school is actually inside the old fort.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346419767_65bccb9ca8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Creepy Spigot">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346419767_fbf4d9d2c6.jpg" alt="Creepy Spigot"/>
</a>

I thought this faucet was pretty spooky.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347312774_51d2599339_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sunset along walkway">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347312774_cd66947493.jpg" alt="Sunset along walkway"/>
</a>

We stayed to watch the sunset from on top of the fort. This is a new walkway that the town of Santoña has put along their waterfront.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347316500_2ac7536674_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Santoña Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347316500_09e8a74ca0.jpg" alt="Santoña Sunset"/>
</a>

I love sunsets!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346429107_1582476229_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Burning Flower 1">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346429107_3667ca6632.jpg" alt="Burning Flower 1"/>
</a>

This flower intrigued me, as you'll see below.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346430881_b390432c65_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Burning Flower 2">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346430881_b4bb726009.jpg" alt="Burning Flower 2"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347319758_6f7e8bd742_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Burning Flower 3">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347319758_5942f5719e.jpg" alt="Burning Flower 3"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346433549_8a2019e1bc_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Burning Flower 4">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346433549_2f8fdd4b4b.jpg" alt="Burning Flower 4"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347325666_980228cba8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Rugby Field in line with setting sun">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1347325666_4114150855.jpg" alt="Rugby Field in line with setting sun"/>
</a>

The sun was perfectly in line with the goalposts on this rugby field.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346443287_f6516b44a7_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Fort walls">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346443287_be356f4955.jpg" alt="Fort walls"/>
</a>

The sunset from behind the castle wall.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346528927_03b988d9a0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sunset from inside a fort">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346528927_5e7a0ef0f4.jpg" alt="Sunset from inside a fort"/>
</a>

This is a mediocre attempt to Photoshop the last image and another one I took with lower exposure settings to get the wall detail.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346520907_aa21b7faa9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="SantoÃƒÂ±a Fort Panorama">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346520907_1a1d7771ba.jpg" alt="SantoÃƒÂ±a Fort Panorama"/>
</a>

A panorama of Laredo's beach from the fort on Mount Buciero. Those darn flag poles messed up my stitching.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346555709_cb67cd02c3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Mount Buciero Map">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-08-leonardos-machines/1346555709_9269dc5000.jpg" alt="Mount Buciero Map"/>
</a>

A nice trail map of Mount Buciero. Click the image to see where the fort was.

You can see from Google Maps just how close the tip of Laredo's beach comes to Santoña.

The most disappointing thing about the exhibit was that you weren't allowed to actually touch the items and crank the cranks. It's not like they were actually 500 years old or anything. All in all, it was a pretty cool way to spend a few hours.


Leonardo's Machines


I'm so happy to have been born! I'm going to make an attempt to explain a philosophy of life that I've been developing in my adult years. Not so much as an attempt to try and convert you...more so that I can refer people back here when explaining my reasons for certain views on issues.

Thinking back, although the seeds of this idea were sown long before, they didn't really begin to sprout until I went to Denmark. In 1999, I left college for a semester and spent 6 months living in Denmark. In the Toronto airport, on the way to Scandinavia, I had the idea to keep a journal of my trip. No one suggested it to me. It just seemed like a good idea. My principal audience was my future self, looking back on my journey and what I, in my naivety, found strange and wondrous about the experience. Looking back, I must have been influenced by my maternal grandfather's habit of keeping travel journals on his trips and the joy he derived from reading them years later.

On a side note, my journal, through the help of my father, ended up getting posted to the internet on more-or-less weekly basis, thereby becoming what we know today as a web log, or "blog". How many people do you know that were blogging about their life experiences in 1999?

It was in writing this journal that I came to view my life as a story about stuff that was happening to me and about things that I was doing. It was this method of introspection, seeing myself as an outside observer would, that allowed me to see parallels in my life with the lives of everyone else, particularly -- and this is important -- with people in history. When you have a crush in high school, you don't realize that your grandfather felt the same way about your grandmother and a dozen other girls before her. Or that you're experiencing the same emotion that Abraham Lincoln or Napoleon or Da Vinci or Julius Caesar also experienced. It's obvious if you think about it, but you don't. Not until you're observing yourself as a character in a story. I realized that I was a participant in The Human Experience, filled with ups and downs, sickness and health, etc. etc. etc.

Ever since that epiphany, I've been happy. Even when I'm sad, I'm happy to be _experiencing_ the sadness. Even amidst the pain and tears of a broken heart is the thought that, "So _this_ is the emotion that has inspired great poems and songs and stories for centuries! Cool!"

It was with this attitude towards life that I came across this passage in a book by Richard Dawkins called [Unweaving The Rainbow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unweaving_the_Rainbow) ([amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Unweaving-Rainbow-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0141026189/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9515851-6494419?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189145600&sr=8-1)).

> We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

Woah! Before I read this, in my happiness, I was just like a rich kid, contentedly playing with all my rich kid toys, never thinking about how there might be others less fortunate than me. But this really put things in perspective. It made me _grateful_ on top of being happy!

In case you're wondering, Dawkins goes on to explain, more eloquently than I can, that this is _not_ a case against abortion and does _not_ mean that [Every Sperm is Sacred](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8) and that we should all be reproducing like Catholic bunnies.

And, as if existing as a living human wasn't fantastic enough, he goes on to explain what a joy it is to be alive _right now_:

> The universe is older than a hundred million centuries. Within a comparable time the sun will swell to a red giant and engulf the earth. Every century of hundreds of millions has been in its time, or will be when its time comes, 'the present century'. Interestingly, some physicists don't like the idea of a 'moving present', regarding it as a subjective phenomenon for which they find no house room in their equations. But it is a subjective argument I am making. How it feels to me, and I guess to you as well, is that the present moves from the past to the future, like a tiny spotlight, inching its way along a gigantic ruler of time. Everything behind the spotlight is in darkness, the darkness of the dead past. Everything ahead of the spotlight is in the darkness of the unknown future. The odds of your century being the one in the spotlight are the same as the odds that a penny, tossed down at random, will land on a particular ant crawling somewhere along the road from New York to San Francisco. In other words, it is overwhelmingly probable that you are dead.
> 
> In spite of these odds, you will notice that you are, as a matter of fact, alive. People whom the spotlight has already passed over, and people whom the spotlight has not reached, are in no position to read a book. I am equally lucky to be in a position to write one, although I may not be when you read these words. Indeed, I rather hope that I shall be dead when you do. Don't misunderstand me. I love life and hope to go on for a long time yet, but any author wants his works to reach the largest possible readership. Since the total future population is likely to outnumber my contemporaries by a large margin, I cannot but aspire to be dead when you see these words. Facetiously seen, it turns out to be no more than a hope that my book will not soon go out of print. But what I see as I write is that I am lucky to be alive and so are you.

You may read more excerpts [here](http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/dawkins3.htm#ANAESTHETIC).

I honestly believe that, if all of my family, friends, and loved ones were killed, my house and money taken away, and I was stricken with illness like good old jobless [Job](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Job), I could still find it in myself to be happy to be alive. I'd be lying, broken and beaten, at the foot of [Maslow's pyramid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs), but I'd be _experiencing life_.

As a result of this philosophy, I have no reason to fear the lack of an afterlife. Death is just the end of an exciting journey that we are lucky enough to take. And once you lose the fear that there is no afterlife, all -- and I mean _all_ -- the attraction of unprovable religious beliefs melts away.

So be happy! Even when you're having a bad day, rejoice in what an incredible lottery you've won to be able to _have_ a bad day at all! I know I do.


Existence


The Moon was up continuously for 14 days in August... One of my favorite websites is the [Astronomy Picture of the Day](http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/) (APOD). I've visited it off and on over the 12 years it's been in existence. The explanations of the images are always interesting and informative.

What blows my mind about APOD is how a website can be updated daily for twelve years and _never change design_! You can even look back in the [archives to 1995](http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950907.html) and see the exact same format as today. It used to have some of those stupid "top 5 sites!" badges that were popular back then (there were only 15 sites total, anyway!), but beyond that it's the same. Amazing. It's still using <center> and <hr> tags.

Anyway, how cool is this multiple-exposure shot of last week's lunar eclipse as seen from the South Pole?[![Lunar eclipse from south pole](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-07-polar-eclipse/TLESouthPole_schwarz909.jpg)](http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070907.html)

Click on the image to see the scientific explanation about it on APOD.

That Schwarz guy has some other pretty [cool photos](http://www.antarctic-adventures.de/2007/pix/pixofweek/pixofweek.html) on [his site](http://www.antarctic-adventures.de/). He hasn't learned any HTML since the [Atlanta Olympics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Summer_Olympics) either.


Polar Eclipse


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-05-dave-and-tim-at-radio-city-music-hall/536618475_b96c79ccfa_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="CIMG2732.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-05-dave-and-tim-at-radio-city-music-hall/536618475_26b6633b46_t.jpg" alt="CIMG2732.JPG"/>
</a>

My recent DVD order of [Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at Radio City Music Hall](http://davematthewsband.shop.musictoday.com/Dept.aspx?cp=1_11715) from April 22, 2007, arrived in the mail yesterday. [iTunes link](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=261552981&amp;s=143441).  Of course, I had to watch it in its entirety last night. I've always wanted to attend a Dave & Tim performance, but never got to. This DVD is the closest I've ever come. I'm really quite speechless about the quality. Let's just say that Dave Matthews is the only person I know of that can actually _bring me to tears_ with a guitar, his voice, and his lyrics. I know of no other singer than can transmit such raw emotion in a way that just "gets to me" like Dave. It's hard to explain.

Here are a few lyrics that I have chosen from the performance. Particular spots of genius have been bolded by me.

> Bartender, please fill my glass for me **With the wine you gave Jesus That set him free after three days in the ground**
> 
> Dave Matthews, _Bartender_

> I could never love again, So much as I love you.**Where you end, where I begin, Is like a river going through.**
> 
> Dave Matthews, _Grace is Gone_

> **But you ain't never had my cornbread A little bit of heaven, and a little bit of hell yeah** Cut it down the middle Open wide and jump right in
> 
> Dave Matthews, _Cornbread_

> Maybe different, but remember Winters warm there you and I,**Kissing whiskey by the fire** With the snow outside
> 
> Dave Matthews, _Stay or Leave_

> Praise God who has many names But the devil has many more**With the love that my mother gave me I'm gonna drop the devil to the floor**
> 
> I'm gonna drop the devil to his knees I'm gonna drop the devil to his knees
> 
> Dave Matthews, _Eh Hee_

While he loves Christian imagery, there's a lot of ambiguity when it comes to his beliefs.

> Strange evolution when people have come to believe That we are its greatest delusion**When really we're just a collection of cells Overrating themselves** Hello God I'm avoiding the truth
> 
> Dave Matthews, _Eh Hee_

And his longing for this confidence that others, with Faith, seem to possess...

> You don't need to prove a thing to me Just give me faith, make me believe Come on, save me Save me Mister walking man If you can
> 
> Dave Matthews, _Save Me_

This is about his sister, Jane.

> Sister, I hear you laugh My heart fills full up Keep me please Sister, when you cry**I feel your tears Running down my face** Sister, sister, you keep me
> 
> Dave Matthews, _Sister_

Obviously, reading them like this does them little justice. One of the fans in the supplement documentary put it really succinctly: "Dave is the storyteller of my generation."

Presumably, most people have a poet or lyricist that really gets to them. I know who mine is. Do you?

A little bit of heaven and a little bit of hell yeah.


Dave and Tim at Radio City Music Hall


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-05-laredo-panoramas/1332390342_973a7c4f0e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Laredo Beach Panorama">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-05-laredo-panoramas/1332390342_0674ac4c7f_t.jpg" alt="Laredo Beach Panorama"/>
</a>

I took advantage of the crystal clear blue skies today to take some panorama shots of Laredo. I kind of surprised myself by finding such a great vantage point. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-05-laredo-panoramas/1332390342_973a7c4f0e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Laredo Beach Panorama">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-05-laredo-panoramas/1332390342_0674ac4c7f.jpg" alt="Laredo Beach Panorama"/>
</a>

Absolutely gorgeous!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-05-laredo-panoramas/1332410954_7dffeb7c0e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Laredo Beach Panorama (wider)">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-05-laredo-panoramas/1332410954_dc23d2ef22.jpg" alt="Laredo Beach Panorama (wider)"/>
</a>

This wider one has notes on it if you click through to Flickr.

I did this for a ['ploob blog entry](http://www.bitwrathploob.com/2007/09/05/bitwrathploob-on-the-beach/).

I'm pretty happy with the 3D magic that I did with Google Earth in this video: revver(386488)


Laredo Panoramas


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-03-cactus-1-erik-0/988973985_1a5677a43f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Prickly!">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-03-cactus-1-erik-0/988973985_ff928c313e_t.jpg" alt="Prickly!"/>
</a>

I had a fight with the cactus last night.

As part of my husband training, I was helping Marga hang laundry to dry out on the balcony. I turned to get some clothes pins and, like a professional wrestler in a china shop, slammed my right elbow into [Mr. Cactus](/projects/cactus-cam/). One of us let out a squeal, and the confrontation was over. Marga, who needs no wife training, ran to get the tweezers and a nurse hat and plucked several large thorns out of my shapely triceps brachii. After making sure she'd gotten all of them, she then pulled some sort of burn ointment out of nowhere and rubbed that on, finally sealing it with a kiss.

I was excused from the rest of the clothes hanging task.

When I was organizing my photos into the new iPhoto '08 the other day, I came across this photo from _only one year ago_:

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-03-cactus-1-erik-0/1310203969_9423bf4299_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Little Cactus">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-03-cactus-1-erik-0/1310203969_1336deb0e5.jpg" alt="Little Cactus"/>
</a>

Look how tiny he was in that huge pot! And now look at him...

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-03-cactus-1-erik-0/1163080478_1234fb92e4_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Visiting with Mr. Cactus">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-03-cactus-1-erik-0/1163080478_4662197339.jpg" alt="Visiting with Mr. Cactus"/>
</a>

It looks like he (the cactus) is about to explode out of that pot like the Hulk out of a polo shirt. (ignore [the pantsless wood bear](http://www.bitwrathploob.com/))


Cactus 1 - Erik 0


What a bizarre coincidence. I just searched Flickr for the word "restaurant". Could there be a more common word? In fact, I have a theory, from my limited European travels, that it's the word that's most similar across many languages. Anyway, the second picture returned was this one: ![The Old Square and Overstrand restaurant](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-03-old-square/1310941495_7f43895317.jpg)

© Copyright [Peter Barker](http://www.flickr.com/photos/pebar/).

It struck me as odd, because I immediately recognized the "Old Square" sign, but I couldn't quite place it. I figured that it must be in some commonly photographed place where a television program is shot or something. Curious as to where I knew it from, I clicked on the image, and I was blown away when I saw the tags on the photo.

This is a photograph of a place in the center of Walsall, the little, completely unfamous town that I lived in for four years in England. I've walked by this place hundreds of times.

Of all the photos of restaurants in Flickr, and of all the words I could have searched for, somehow this link between Walsall and me showed up. That's a coincidence with three capital C's.

I can't even remember why I was searching Flickr...


Old Square


Do you ever feel isolated from the rest of the world? Do you ever feel like all your efforts are futile? Do you ever feel like you're just a mouse running in a wheel, never accomplishing anything? Do you ever feel like you look like an idiot in front of everyone?

If you answered "Sometimes, but not nearly as much as I'd like to!", then have we got the perfect product for you! Presenting: Waterball![![Day trip to Shenzhen](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-03-waterball/442077934_11bdbbfe89.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/domachun/442077934/)

Look at how terribly frustrating this must be:

Dignity supplements sold separately.

Made by an inflatable advertising company: [Biz.It](http://www.bizitairproducts.com/).

At least they're tethered, so your child doesn't just blow out to sea. Supposedly they have up to two hours of air. Personally, I wouldn't get into one of those things without a pocket knife.


Waterball


On Saturday afternoon, we went to Bilbao to buy some clothes, buy the bride and groom to put on the wedding cake, and take some photos of the BITWRATHPLOOB at the Guggenheim Museum. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303167877_af44f85eff_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Westie Boxers">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303167877_3b6ae0f81a.jpg" alt="Westie Boxers"/>
</a>

At the department store, I saw these boxers with a little West Highland Terrier on the box, so I had to take a picture to show my mother (who loves [Westies](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/1127195296/)). It seems to be the logo for the [Kiff Kiff](http://www.kiff-kiff.com/) brand.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303188139_d03fb4a7de_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bear with me">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303188139_76d1682039.jpg" alt="Bear with me"/>
</a>

Marga got a kick out of this huge bear.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303207807_b7e9b6e138_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Thin bride and groom">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303207807_7638af5368.jpg" alt="Thin bride and groom"/>
</a>

The bride and groom decoration shop was closed, but the ones we're going to buy are similar to these in the window. How cool are those little bonbon candles?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303216307_bc60e8944b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Recursive Sculpture">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303216307_d56f8c168e.jpg" alt="Recursive Sculpture"/>
</a>

I love recursive art like this. This was in the window of a marble shop (_marmoleria_).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1302518821_da1376f73c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Erik and the BITWRATHPLOOB">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1302518821_27c810ca22.jpg" alt="Erik and the BITWRATHPLOOB"/>
</a>

The photo shoot.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1304115168_dbfc7dee95_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Maman, by Louis Bourgeois">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1304115168_bf7b6b8ef3.jpg" alt="Maman, by Louis Bourgeois"/>
</a>

How terrifying is this 30-foot spider? It's called _Maman_, by [Louise Bourgeois](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bourgeois).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303251097_2c3400933c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Marga and Erik Shadows">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303251097_3b68d541e4.jpg" alt="Marga and Erik Shadows"/>
</a>

After the photo shoot, we sat on a wall for 30 minutes watching people go by. This is, from left to right, Marga, Erik, Marga's jacket, and the BITWRATHPLOOB in [his Prada Bag](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/1180762291/).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303268641_151c0847c1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Big Dog, Little Dog">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-02-guggenheim-photo-shoot/1303268641_dff455f7a4.jpg" alt="Big Dog, Little Dog"/>
</a>

This little puppy was having fun chasing pigeons. When he approached the Big Puppy, I had to take a photo.

More photos (and a video!) from the photo shoot over at [the web site](http://www.bitwrathploob.com/2007/09/02/the-guggenheim-museum-bilbao-spain/ "BITWRATHPLOOB World Tour").


Guggenheim Photo Shoot


Marga's been working 12-15 hour days this week, preparing for a client visit next week. On Thursday, I walked her to work after her lunch break (the only day she came home for lunch in the whole week) just to spend a little more time together. These are some photos I took on that walk. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-01-engine-gloves-church-clouds/1292621035_6e394d4f16_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Rusty Engine">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-01-engine-gloves-church-clouds/1292621035_e566b4a8a0.jpg" alt="Rusty Engine"/>
</a>

This is an old boat engine on display in front of a car dealership near the town port (and Marga's work). Marga's father and I learned a lot about every car for sale there while we were killing time during Marga's job interview 2.5 years ago.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-01-engine-gloves-church-clouds/1292645011_b16135cec8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Driving Gloves?">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-01-engine-gloves-church-clouds/1292645011_9b524e65a4.jpg" alt="Driving Gloves?"/>
</a>

I've recently started noticing the crap people put in their car for adornment. It's like car furniture, an attempt to express oneself with objects within that restricted space. I've almost taken hundreds of photos, but these Mickey gloves pushed me over the edge.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-01-engine-gloves-church-clouds/1292668091_a2cfded6e2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Church">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-01-engine-gloves-church-clouds/1292668091_ddc320193b.jpg" alt="Colindres Church"/>
</a>

On the way back, I noticed that I was standing in the perfect spot to see our town church at its best angle. The couple standing before it, contemplating it, is a nice touch, too.

We first entered the church earlier this year for our marriage classes. I was stunned to see how much more beautiful it is on the inside. It would be a nice church for a wedding.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-01-engine-gloves-church-clouds/1293548748_4e7e370860_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Golden Vapor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-09-01-engine-gloves-church-clouds/1293548748_a41a1f90a3.jpg" alt="Golden Vapor"/>
</a>

Some water vapor caught my eye later that evening.


26 posts from September, 2007