Sick In Espana!

At Janet and Phil's biking tour, they have two social evenings where they drive from the small village of MonteCorto to Ronda, a very beautiful, much larger village.  The first evening was Tuesday, but Janet wasn't feeling well, so stayed at home.

Please see below, Phil's photos of the evening.  Whoops!  There aren't any!

Tuesday, during the day, they rode 36KM along a rail bed was never actually finished, but has been refurbished for walking, biking and horseback riding.  This was the flattest part of Spain Janet has seen thus far!

They rode from Olvera to Puerto Seranno and had lunch at the end.  Check out this industrial size box of wine!

On Wednesday, a break day, Janet with her head cold and Phil went to Ronda.  They also visited some caves that were discovered in 1905 by a farmer.  The farmer was looking for fertile bat droppings for fertilizer when he discovered the interior of the cave.  There are more than 5000 drawings inside that are more than 5 times older than the Egyptian Pyramids!  Janet and Phil were dumbstruck at the interior of the cave.  The Pileta Cave is still in the hands of the original farmers' family, who strictly control the number of visitors.  Anything found after 1911 had to be turned over to the Spanish government.

Thursday, Janet still had her head cold so decided to skip the bike ride.  Drew took Phil to a really cool village called Setinel de las Bodegas.  It sounded so cool that Janet made Phil drive them there for dinner.  Many of the buildings in the village are carved out of caves.

They had delicious tapas at this restaurant.

The interior of this bar was a cave.

  Friday she mustered up the strength to go and asked their super guide Drew if they could go somewhere easy.  Drew laughed, which Janet read between the lines as meaning "are you nuts lady, we have been on all the easy rides!"  He did comply, however and they went for a nice, mostly flat ride in the country.  Check out their riding buds!

This guy was so cute, but then again, Janet is a major sucker for donkeys.

Look at the little babies!

Oh my, what a life!

Here are Janet and Drew getting ready to ride back out of the village where they stopped for a break.  You can see the incline behind Drew where they now need to go.  Janet is trying rock hard to whip out her sick card, but Drew isn't buying into it.

Best.  Thing.  Ever. And, everywhere in Spain!

Fresh squeezed orange juice.  Janet doesn't drink that much juice at home, but now seriously doubts it's possible to drink anything but fresh squeezed.

Everyone knows that Janet watches several times, each festive season, the movie "Love Actually" so she buys into the hype that love is actually all around us.  Turns out it is.  Whilst Janet was standing in a square, she was watching a couple, when all of a sudden, the man drops to his knees and pulls a small box out of his pocket.  Janet quickly grabbed her phone and took a couple of photos.  She left it at that and met Phil for lunch, but was berating herself for not having said something to them.  Phil encouraged her to go find them, so she left lunch and turns out the same couple were still in the square.  The man could speak some English and Janet was able to email the photos to them.  They were super excited that someone had caught their special moment in a photograph.

Lest you think Janet has become some kind of hard core biker, this is how most big hills end!  Walking uphill is good exercise, right?

Who Said Anything About Spain?

Just like that, Christmas is over, everyone leaves the house and now I'm staying next door with Miss Bean and her handlers!  Not that there is anything wrong with that, but would it kill a guy to let a puppy girl know what's goin' down?!

Amber says Janet and Phil have gone to Spain....wherever that is.  They must be having a good time because nobody can bother to Facetime with me!

First they stopped in Barcelona.  They did lots of sightseeing.  Janet took an all day cooking class that also included a trip to a huge market.

Here is the cooking school all set up.

They made Creme de Caramel for dessert, Grilled Vegetables with Romanesco Sauce, Tomato Bread, Spanish Omelette, Paella and Prawns.  The instructor was Rosa and Janet said she was excellent.

Janet was in charge of helping with the prawns.

They also went on a Tapas Tour.  The first stop was original "Jamon" shop in Barcelona.  Ham is a super serious business in Spain and there were legs of ham in the shop for in excess of 3000EUR!

This particular ham melted in your mouth!


They also went to a cheese shop that was run by kind of a cranky lady.  Everyone who knows Janet will attest to the fact that she is a rule follower.  She didn't hear the "you can't take any photos" lecture and snapped a photo of this cute sheep label on a box.  She was hugely humiliated.

Unbeknownst to Janet, while she was at Cooking School, Phil went back to the Cheese Shop and apologized (like Janet hadn't done that enough the night previous).  Cheese Lady said it was no big deal.  Good to know, next day!

This was the buffet breakfast at their hotel.  Janet says more than 40 years ago when she and our Aunt T went to Europe, they stayed in Youth Hostels.  This spread would have served as breakfast and, when no one was looking, take away lunch!

Check out these cute "Mommy and Me" toilets!

There are lots of street vendors in Barcelona selling fake luxury goods.  All the goods are spread out on a sheet with ropes attached.

When the Policia arrive, vamoose!

Look!  A puppy dog parking spot.  See, I could have gone!

Another Major Disappearance!

Again, Janet does a vanishing act!  What's up with this woman?  We are going to do a blitz to get our heads around this Christmas stuff.

A lot has happened since you saw Janet lounging in bed in PDX over U.S. Thanksgiving and Banana decorating the Christmas Tree.

We went out for Chinese Food, our usual Boxing Day gig, but Boxing Day fell on a Monday this year and the restaurant was closed.  So, this year, we went on Christmas Eve.

Everyone was complaining about going for dinner at 5PM, but it turned out to be an excellent time.

Finley was able to open up a gift prior to going to bed.

Finley loves to give us our cookies.  Check out Watty Man's super Christmas bandana!  I don't have any bandanas!  Not a one....is this not sad and pathetic?  Also, nobody made mention of my 11th birthday on 29 December.  More sadness.  What is happening in this house!

Janet and Phil went next door to see the incredible felt Christmas Tree Amber made.  It was amazing!

It's about 6' high!  Amber thought it would take an afternoon, but actually took 5 days!

We had Amber, Kris, Wolf and Bean, Ken, Karen and Raeleigh in for ham dinner.  In addition, Meg, Derek, Finley, Mikey, Bronwyn and Jer were here.  Barely any photos!

Janet refurbished a needlework she made for Meg more than 40 years ago.  She changed Meghan to Finley and had it framed.

Janet says she loves it!

However, the ultimate gift was from Uncle Jeremy!  Tape, tape and more tape!  Construction size rolls!

Name one kid on the block with this variety of tape!

Some serious relaxtion was had, far and wide!

Well, for some of us, that is!

 Last year, and this year, Janet made baking for the three residential floors of her volunteer job.

And guess what - we got to go on the beach!!  Janet was remembering the next day why we don't do this on a routine basis as there was sand everywhere!

Watty Man was a bit afraid of the waves, but he did well.

And then, before you knew it, it was all done!

Every year, we can take our Christmas Tree down to FirePerson's Park for shredding.  Janet hauled the tree down by herself and went in to make her donation.  The Fireman on duty told Janet it was too early to bring the tree down.  She was not in a mood to be trifled with, so at the end of the day it was left!

This was a couple of days later and there were more trees to keep ours company.

What Happened To Janet?

Janet has been a very bad blogger lately!  But, bad good news, we are back baby!

This is going to be a short, lame post.  Better than nothing, right?

Janet finished up her Watty Man visit in real style.  Relaxing in bed with the "news" on the lap top, Watty Man for a companion and a Baileys coffee.  What's not to like?

 

Mr. Watson has a new bed that he thinks is super!

It looks like Minky fabric on top...so soft for a puppy dogs tummy!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Oak Bay, Briana and Ted came to visit.  They had pizza lunch!

Briana was immediately pressed into hard work and was forced to decorate the Christmas tree.  In truth, Briana really likes to decorate the tree.

Janet could likely reach the top of the tree from the floor as she has freakishly long arms and legs.  Half of her children and her husband are short asses!

Phil and Briana took me down to Firepersons Park for a walk and lo and behold, we came across two pals that were free stylin' it.  No leashes or person in sight.  We lassoed up the new guys , took them home and embarked on a mission to find their owners.  This even included a call to England!

Turns out, they live just a couple of blocks away and their people were so glad Phil tracked them down, they dropped off a really nice bottle of wine for Janet Phil.

Janet and Phil were invited to visit our super next door neighbours, Amber, Kris and Wolf as it was Wolf's birthday.  Amber had mentioned to Janet previously that she was going to make a felt Christmas Tree for Wolf that she anticipated would take an afternoon.  It actually took Amber 5 days, but check out this awesome display!

The tree is at least 5 feet tall.

Janet and Phil gave Wolfie a starter set for Magna Tiles.  Hottest toy in town, so Phil ordered it online and had it shipped to PDX whilst Janet was there.

Phil has lost his Fitbit several times.  The first time he lost it, we were on the deck of the Coho Ferry.  Janet picked it up and never said a word.  At least a couple days go by before Phil notices he no longer has the Fitbit.  Janet let him sweat a bit before she fessed up to having retrieved it.  Janet suggests he change bracelets, but he opts not to.

Again Phil loses his bracelet, except this time Janet has no involvement.  Turns out she found it on the basement floor while Phil was in Lethbridge and Janet was on her Super. At. Home. Staycation!!

Good night from Watty Man.

Janet Goes To Visit Watson!

Watty Man was so happy to see Janet!  He does a real tight sit and little tap dance when you come into the house.  He has the same cute smile he had as a puppy.

This is how it rolls in the dinner department when Janet is left to her own devices:

U.S. Thanksgiving - fried chicken and potato nuggets from Safeway.  That is correct, folks, Safeway!  Safeway the grocery store, not some local boutique restaurant with the same name.

Next night up - popcorn!  Not even real popcorn, but the microwave super salty shit that was on hand.

The really sad part is Janet loves salt, but said this was over the top.  Highly recommended for those whose body sodium levels are lacking!

Finally, something that resembles real food - an omelette!

Close by, is a really fabulous park with lots of trails.  Janet and Watty Man have been three times.  There is a creek, tons of mossy logs and lots of trails with bridges.

The aftermath of the park - huge mess!

Janet says there is a very large and annoying tree outside that is the gift that refuses to quit giving.  Two or three months of needles in the winter and two or three months of pine cones in the summer.  Believe it or not, Janet swept the step the day prior.

Guess what they have in PDX?  Doggy play dates at Lexi Dog.  Bronwyn told Janet that she took me in the summer with Watty Man, but because I'm old, I wasn't much of a participant.  Truth be known, I think she only took me because she discovered it was $2/household, not $2/dog.  Today, at first Janet was standing and watching the action but that proves to be a very dangerous job as you have a really good chance of being bowled down!

Apparently, the bigger Golden is the famous Scout who has tons of followers on Instragram.

Watty Man does his best to help around the house - "I've got this mail to open for you, so no worries!"

Guess where Janet and Phil are going???  It's true, albeit a small fortune!

Sleep tight!  This post marks 5 years of Janets' not so engaging and barely riveting view on our puppy dog worlds!

Watson loves his crocodile/alligator.