T-minus 7 days and counting....

Don't blame me, it was the Celtics.

I spent the better part of the month of June in a green haze, watching my beloved C's rise to the highest heights, only to get smacked down in the end...by Ron Artest of all people. Not just the hated Easter-egg-purple-and-yellow-colored, look-at-me-I-paid 3 million for courtside seats-fans, boil-on-my-butt-Lakers, but one of my least favorite players of all time, Ron Artest.

Watching the NBA finals while in Spain is an experience I never want to repeat. First of all, the games are all broadcast live. That means I had to stay up (or wake up) to see the games between 2 and 6 AM. Not ideal for a guy whose kids (by this I mean Ben) begin to wake up at 7:45. Also, people in Spain claim to like hoops, but when I managed to mumble something semi-coherent about watching the finals every other night, all I ever heard as a response was "Yeah, how about that Pau Gasol?"

OK, I get home town pride, but that's it? I think I was the only person on the whole Iberian penninsula to stay up all night without the aid of a discoteca.

I'm done hating the Lakers for now. OK, I'm not done. I'm just done talking about hating the Lakers. Here. On this blog.

We spent the past 2 weeks with Andee's sister Trina and family, in Barcelona, then Zaragoza, then Madrid. It was a great time, and we spent many hours eating and visiting art museums. In fact, the act of doing cool things with Dan and Trina led me to the focus of this posting (beyond hating the Lak...oops); I submit here a list of some really cool things that we got to do as a family (and individually) this year in Spain:

(in no partcular order)-

1. We visited some of the great art museums of Spain (Prado, Reina Sofía, Thyssen...)
2. We visited some very cool single-artist museums (Miró, Picasso, Sorolla, Gargallo)
3. We saw El Greco's Entierro del Conde de Orgaz- twice.
4. We saw manymanymany cathedrals and churches, some really breathtaking.
5. We visited Gaudí's masterpiece Sagrada Familia- THREE times!
6. We went skiing above tree line in the Pyrenees.
7. We visited the tombs of the monarchs of Spain, Francisco Franco, and Columbus.
8. We visited the Alhambra in Granada.
9. We ate doner kebab with the kids at 2:00 in the morning.
10. We visited 10 of the 17 regions of Spain.
11. Andee and Chaia participated in a traditional Zaragoza procession (with 300,000 other people).
12. I went to the Tomatina (Google-it).
13. We drove to France to have a croissant and coffee.
14. We visited Spain's biggest plaza (Madrid) and its most beautiful (Salamanca).
15. We had 14 people visit us here!
16. Chaia ate snails, and liked them.
17. Ben and Chaia ate blood sausage, and both liked it.
18. Andee ate pistachio croquettes, and hasn't stopped talking about it.
19. We ate ternasco (traditional Aragonese lamb chops) cooked in the fireplace of two houses.
20. I went rabbit hunting (only shot with my camera) in La Mancha.
21. We got "trapped" in Brussels-by a volcano.
22. We visited both Jewish museums in Spain, in Toledo and Gerona.
    
23. Ben and Chaia swam in a city fountain.
24. Ben spent his first week away from family- skiing in the Pyrenees with school.
25. Chaia spent her first week away from family- at a "farm school" with her class.
26. I got my first Spanish speeding ticket-6 months after the "camera" photographed me speeding.
27. We (Andee and I) watched every episode of NCIS, Glee, Modern Family, and Big Bang, on Megavideo.com.
28. I learned just how fabulous a sauna can be.
29. I went food shopping every other day for a year, at three different places.
    
30. We ate 12 grapes at the strike of midnight on New Year's Eve.
31. I learned my first words in Aragonés.
32. We watched Ben perform in a play- in Spanish and German.
33. We watched Chaia dance with her rhythmic gymnastics team.
34. We watched Ben get the honor of carrying home his soccer team's tournament trophy.
35. We ate all kinds of food, including some "unusual" parts of animals.
    
36. We saw the Roman aqueduct in Segovia.
37. We made some terrific friends.
38. I read the entire Lord Of The Rings trilogy to Ben and Chaia.
39. We listened to Ben and Chaia argue- in Spanish.
40. Ben and Chaia read the library's entire collection of Asterix & Obelix.
41. I took about 9,000 pictures.
42. Ben and Chaia swam in the Mediterranean- in March (they were the only swimmers).
43. Andee went rafting in the Pyrenees.
44. Andee also drank wine from a glass porrón.
    
45. Chaia danced in a school play. A "sexy dance" (her line said so).
46. Ben and Chaia learned to roll their "r's" Spanish-style.
47. We took a horse-and-carriage ride around Sevilla.
48. We walked through a life-size nativity scene that would fill the Bethel common-twice over.
49. I helped cook Thanksgiving dinner for 90 people.
50. Andee found out that having a house-boy can be a pretty good thing.

Obviously there were more things, but I am getting a headache right now and should stop. This has been an amazing experience and the next week looks to be a great finish to a great year. Ben and Chaia are going to birthday parties this weekend, we are going swimming, more tapas, saying goodbye to friends, and so on.

Oh yeah, and I hate Ron Artest. Just saying.