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Thirteen Things

I am now here as I am not happy with my current host. You will come and visit, won't you??? A new year, a new home

Yesterday I played around with this site a friend showed to me. Here you can draw inside a small box, and the system will try to match your drawing with pictures on flickr! , something just perfect for a rainy afternoon. Except for it wasn't raining and I had plenty of things to do which didn't get done. But it is lots of fun! By drawing a blue heart I got this beautiful slope and a Magarita! With simple, colorful dots I got a splash,cheers!

And now please scroll down. The page is somehow broken, can't figure this out...

As always, from lunanina.

1. Better off:: skiing when it is cold... just thought of this today while outside.
2. Girls::just want to have fun
3. Uniform:: school. I wore a uniform all through highschool.
4. Classified:: ads
5. Hard:: cover.
6. Kitty::cat
7. Team:: 11, just because of the Soccer World Championship this year.
8. Massive:: attack
9. Depressed:: darkness
10. Award:: Oscar

A vacation pic from Santiago last december:

This is the first time in over two months that everybody left for work/school and I have the house to myself. I love the feeling, even though I have many things to do but I am my own boss. Life can be so good.

This meme was inspired/initiated by the charming Lady of the Hills , who pictured her garden. I recognized some of the cacti I have in my (wild) garden and surroundings. And here is my part of the greenies, waited for the rain to go away this weekend so that I could go out and take these pics:

This is the neighbors'. Huge cactus, it looks beautiful.

The other side of the neighbors and another big one, our olive tree is up front.

Now this is ours, about 2m:

It has tiny little bumps on top, they will become branches and branches and branches!

This is another one in our garden, about 1,5 m -planted by Mr. Mar about 3 or 4 years ago. A hibiscus in the back, without its red flowers.

This cactus can also be seen in our garden. Lovely orange flowers will be captured in the spring.

Another sort, this is about 5m and came with the house.

Last, but not least, a winter flower - which has seen better days - from our aloe.

Next chapter sometime this spring: the palm tree meme!

Since I am busy unpacking and doing laundry (what a joy!):

A picture is worth 1,000 words... Now, which one is the "real cat"??

Now you can vote not only for your favorite blog, like I have been reading, but also for your special wonder of the world. Since the only existing wonder are the pyramids in Egypt, there is this site where you can let your opinion count to redefine the 7 wonders. The current nominees are:

01 Acropolis, Athens, Greece
02 Alhambra, Granada, Spain
03 Angkor, Cambodia
04 Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico
05 Christ Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
06 Colosseum, Rome, Italy
07 Easter Island Statues, Chile
08 Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
09 Great Wall, China
10 Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
11 Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan
12 Kremlin/St.Basil, Moscow, Russia
13 Machu Picchu, Peru
14 Neuschwanstein Castle, Füssen, Germany
15 Petra, Jordan
16 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
17 Statue of Liberty, New York, USA
18 Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom
19 Sydney Opera House, Australia
20 Taj Mahal, Agra, India
21 Timbuktu, Mali

National pride makes point the Easter Island Statues, although I have never visited. Colosseum and Acropolis are also my choice. So is Christ Redeemer in Rio. I have seen these last three, together with the Eiffel Tower and Neuschwanstein Castle. That's it. But it is a hard decision anyways! What would be your top 3?

Ski vacation is over with a (very) positive balance. No broken bones, happy memories and : the streets were clear! so we made it home safely.

I have actually had a cast on a couple of times in my life but never (*knocks on wood*) because of skiing. I was 17 the first time I ever tried skiing and I was in the US. The Midwest! I am a lucky lady, I have skied the Rocky Mountains, the Andes and the Alps. AND I have blogfriends to visit, so here I am, back again! I am so pleased to see (and visit) you all again!

Update: something didn't seem right. Now I found out blog.de counts every little draft and that's how they were showing 100 posts for this blog. Not quite if you look at the archives...any child could have done the math... I think it is time to do some house cleaning and delete old drafts here. Sorry about that. I have more work pending when I get home after vacation!
The fun part will be to visit my blog buddies. Now back to the original post, written in a hurry as the laptop was free but only for a couple of minutes (just like now!):

Another anniversary! but first of all thank you for the nice comments/wishes on the prior post!!! I am too busy having fun to write a deep comment on completing 100 posts... will do it later when I am home (maybe!). Some pics of the day:

I want some fancy ski goggles like Teen17's. I should start my Xmas list 2006

See me taking pictures?

The glorious Mont Blanc with a gorgeous yellow
pole I didn't see while clicking, it was too bright at midday!

And here I am again, with the Mont Blanc shining behind.

We were married in 1985 and we are celebrating our 21st anniversary today. Since we got married the Xmas holidays have an extended meaning, with the positive side effect that no one of us can possibly forget our day! We are going out to dinner and hope to look as wonderful as we did 21 years ago. At least we feel that way. Feliz Aniversario, would you please join us for a toast, cheers!!

Graphic update! This is where we ate. Love the wall decoration, note the old skis!

This is what we ate.(Cheese) Fondue savoyarde. Green salad with the best mustard vinaigrette and small baked potatoes (spoon drop some cheeese over them!.

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Oh, and we had something to drink too. My favorite before dinner drink in France: Kir (white wine and creme de cassis). Red wine with our dinner.

Live, from the French Alps... well, not quite (pictures from thursday), but wishing you all a Happy New Year!

This is me in my blue (what other color could I wear?) ski outfit. Yes, it is cold!

It seems it was not long ago when we were getting ready to greet year 2000, a milestone... And now we are facing 2006, time surely flies by. Make sure to enjoy the last days of 2005. The holidays are not over then, at least in Spain, where the kids anxiously wait for the Three Kings from the Orient to bring them presents! Santa has started to help a bit in the past years, mostly so that the kids may enjoy some presents during the holidays before going back to school. But THE day in Spain is Jan 6th (stores are open until midnight on 1/5), kids wake up and the gifts are there, the kings have eaten some cookies and the camels have had some water to drink, provided you have left something for them!. School starts again on Jan 9th next year.

I am having a good and relaxed time, have been skiing, going for walks and enjoying the scenery. I am waiting for my ski pal, Teen17, to share some of his pics here. He is out skiing, I am not since the little visibility keeps me inside (doesn't bother me, my legs need some rest!). And the laptop is free so that I can blog some (*holds the mouse tight*).

Update: further pics have to wait since they are too heavy and the connection is slow...

Thanks for the xmas messages! it is simply wonderful to be away, click on one's blog and find nice comments. Merci!

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!
I am busy, busy like most of you and have only a few pics to share. Sorry about the quality of the first one, but it is a pretty tree! and it is my sister's!

My sister's Xmas tree

Xmas tree at a Santiago mall

The Chilean version of Santa Claus, something for the boys.

I am in the middle of vacations, unpacking summer clothes and looking for warm things to take along to go skiing! I am not thinking straight yet as I am dealing with jet lag, not too bad, though, since there is only a 4 hour gap. I am missing my kitchen digital clock (I am lost without it, I keep forgetting I am cooking), Teen17 misses his ski boots, left at a friend's maybe after those skiing weekends last winter. In between to-do lists I have been trying to post something coherent but the Xmas clock is ticking and I have so much to do!!! We are leaving on 12/24 to go skiing for two weeks.

Vacation in SCL (Santiago, Chile - I love airport codes, would you please share yours/last flight destination with me?) was just what I needed. Rest and relax the first days and lots of talking and visiting afterwards. I am always spoiled when I am there, that's why I like it so much. All with pleasant temperatures, nice people around, good food and delightful drinks. Food for soul and body!

Empanada, Chilean meat pastry

Find a recipe here

Palta, palmito, porotos verdes. Favorite salad this time: avocado slices, palm hearts, green beans.

Pisco sour, the national drink, so to speak. Had (at least!) one every day while visiting. It tastes soooo good at home!(1 oz Pisco, 2 oz lemon juice, 1-2 tblsp sugar, ice. Shake well!)

Pisco, technically a type of brandy (45% or 90 proof), is distilled from grapes grown in the warm and sunny regions of Chile and Peru.

My mom's morning walk takes place here. Went along a couple times to use up some of the calories from the above mentioned !

It was nice to have some trees for shadow as we had about 28ºC /84 F and the sky looked like this:

A trip into Chile!

I am back!! came back in one piece, all luggage arrived promptly, the flight Santiago, Chile-Madrid lasted 12 hours. Madrid-Barcelona is only one hour. Thanks to the ones who were so kind to leave a comment while I was away!!! my sister's pc gave up on us when I was there and I had no time to blog anyways, there was too much going on, friends to meet, drinks to drink, you know that. Meaningless post, I KNOW that, but I am tired after the long flight and I simply want to relax and visit people through M&G!!
and a Xmas link I got from a friend is here.

and merry pre-Xmas time to you !!

Many of you probably do not know him, but Ronaldinho is very popular. Not only in Barcelona, but worldwide, if you like football.

He has a special charisma, plays great football, lives in my neighborhood (yes, he does, but I haven't met him- his house is always surrounded by kids wanting an autograph) and now he has been named the European Footballer of the year, a well deserved award to this young sportler from Brazil.

Read more here

More tiles from my house. The blue shades were my selection while Mr. Mar opted for brown, so we have two outside corners of the house - different levels because the house is located on a hill - with this strong Seville influence. You find these kind of tiles in the South of Spain, rather than in Catalonia. The tiles do not cover the whole wall, only about a half or a bit more of it.

Update: It is Xmas time! I received a card today, a dear friend snail-mailed a handwritten card, my first one this year.

This was supposed to be a nice lunch, Mr Mar's highly appreciated home cooking. I saw him chopping and cutting, but I didn't think he would start with the cooking until later. Then he dedided he would take a look downstairs and I got a call from a friend, so we chatted a bit... a bit more... until I got out of the room and saw smoke. All. Over. Oh, well. Nothing happened. Except for the smell and the smoke (the ruined food and the pot). Mr. Mar completely forgot about it and I didn't know something was cooking. Smoke alarms are not common in Spain...No lunch for us now (our main meal of the day) so please don't show up until later on today!

I am busy these days and had some work to do downstairs, where we have these floor tiles. They follow the rectangular shape of a carpet, the rest of the floor tiles have this shade of brown. We were much influenced by short stays in Seville so we have painted tiles in three different parts of the house. The other two types are exterior wall tiles. Which I will post too, unless you tell me this is so boring you won't show up!
Update: they are not hand painted nowadays!

Memes are wonderful for uncreative days. It is my turn now with this picture meme I have seen all over,last time at Mausi's. I have selected the pictures I liked the most.

Find and post Google images (all with copyrights!! all right! ) for the following :

1. The name of the town where you were born

South of Santiago, Chile. I liked this picture of the countryside rather than posting a picture of buildings. I love to look at the Andes.

2. The name of the town where you live now

Barcelona, it is a beautiful city, exceptionally located at sea and near the mountains, excellent weather, delicious food, great people, I like it here! I don't live downtown, though...

3. Your name

This is Tossa de Mar, located north of Barcelona, wonderful little place.

4. Your grandmother’s name (just pick one)

Now it was my turn to discover Modigliani had painted an Elena

5. Your favorite food

Pasta, warm or cold, in all variations. Al pesto, with tomato sauce or just with salt and olive oil. I love it.

6. Your favorite drink

Cava from Catalonia. Wonderful. Serve chilled. Cheers!

7. Your favorite song

I still like Holiday from Green Day. It is not necessarily my favourite one but the image is appropiate for the last weeks of the year!

8. Your favorite smell

The smell of coffee anytime!

First of all, thanks to the ones who stopped by yesterday and left a kind comment. It was fun hosting an open house! And because some of you have noticed - yes, I have been changing this blog's name since the very beginning, in search of an identity... But now I intend to keep the above mentioned name. At least for a while...!!! . This is the definitive name.

Maremagnum is a latin word which means abundance and/or confusion. Composed of two words: mare = ocean and magnum = large. It may refer to many persons or things without a given order.

The word reminds me of a vacation pic (48 hours in Rome) taken from the Spanish Stairs at around 5 pm on a Saturday last September:

It was a busy, busy afternoon. We sat among people for about an hour at the stairs (because we had been walking the whole day) and enjoyed watching the other tourists. People touring the city, walking in all directions, taking pictures, going places, standing in line outside Gucci (yes, on the pictured street - Via Condotti- left side. I guess they only let a certain amount of customers into the store at a time in order to keep the flair, it shouldn't remind you of a store having sales!) and drinking coffee at Caffè Greco , Rome's oldest caffè (1760), same street, right side. We didn't stop at Gucci (bummer!) but had a cappuccino (5,2 €), iced tea (6,20€) and a small bottle of mineral water (4,20 €) at Caffè Greco's. Yes, it was the most expensive coffee I have ever had, but the setting was just perfect!

After all these random thoughts : Happy Thanksgiving to the ones celebrating this holiday (it is not the case in Spain). To those celebrating as well those of us who do not have a turkey dinner today: have a wonderful day with your family and loved ones.

Thanks for stopping by today , specially if you are here on behalf of the charming Michele , who is number one in spreading the comment cheer! You caught me absolutely by surprise! A wonderful surprise, I may add. Please come in, take a look, it's early morning now so coffee will be ready in a second.

Meanwhile let me quickly rescue a couple of notes I had made for this blog to tell you I am leaving (but coming back!) on dec 1st to fly back to the roots to Santiago, Chile , after 14 months. I found this picture through Google, thanks unknown photographer for letting me post it.
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Teenager17 is flying with me for one week, I get to stay two! This was planned as a family trip but the circumstances decided otherwise, Teenager17 was supposed to come home with Mr Mar, now he will coming home alone but he has flown alone within Europe, he is familiar with transatlantic flights , and he is old enough so this shouldn't be a problem. He just needs his music and his English book, as he will be writing an exam right after coming back home. Not a fine subject after an intensive Spanish week with all the Chilean relatives, but I am sure he will do just fine. Teenager17's mother tongue (father tongue??) is German.

MIL and FIL will arrive one day before we take off and will stay with Mr Mar, who is doing very well but needs somebody around the house since he is not completely recovered from his back injury. How nice that they are retired and could arrange this, otherwise my trip wouldn't be possible. We don't have a Xmas vacation this year either , we had booked 2 weeks to go skiing like every Xmas since we live in Spain - 8 hours away from the French Alps... Now we will not hit the slopes, but will stay home instead, listen to Xmas carols and drink some wine. We can make all the plans we want, life itself decides if they may come true . We can only make the best out of it and that is exactly what we are working on!

Thanks so much for the visit, make yourself at home and do come again, anytime. You have made my day!

A vacation pic from Rome this past september. Loved to see the young "old" Roman talking on his cell phone!

He is probably wearing a watch as well. Sorry about the picture quality, it was my old, old digital camera.
I deleted last post about the personalized google search engine because it reportedly caused problems to the nicest blogger. Sorry about that, it has worked well for us and friends.

I met her this summer at a birthday party, a very nice lady , we had a lovely talk and she handed out her business card before she left, web site included. Little did I know she was such an artist. I have enjoyed looking at her portraits, take a look yourself! and stop to smell her
flowers as well!

Craziequeen tagged me with her own "All Time Meme". While the questions seem uncomplicated and straight forward, it took me hours to select my answers. If there is one hard thing for a Libra in life is to choose ONE whatever. I've tried my best, it was fun and here are my answers.

All time favourite song?
All Police songs, I tried hard to settle down for one but just couldn't. They were on top of the charts when Mr. Mar and I met. Listening to them again makes us not only remember that we were once young and beautiful, we feel that way too! Even though the mirror tells us a different story.

All time favourite book?
An all time difficult question to answer. Just because I am re-reading it right now (this time the English version to brush up on my English in order to blog!) I'd say "Sophie's World" from Jostein Gaarder. I love the topic, I like history. I can always read it.

All time favourite film?
Another difficult one. Maybe because it is the season I opt for "Autumn in NY". Love the scenery, the music, the story, I like it when men know about gastronomy, guess who is the one doing the fine cooking at our household!

All time favourite film star?
At least three, in no particular order : Jack Nicholson, Robin Williams, Richard Gere.

All time worst moment?
When my son, then 7 years old, had an appendectomy after a morning in the ER. I still remember this awful feeling being alone in a foreign country outside the hospital while my little boy underwent surgery. Mr Mar had driven home to get me clothes so that I could stay at the hospital with our boy for a couple of days.

All time best moment?
Holding my baby for the first time. He was warm,soft and slippery, I was afraid to hold him tight because I thought he would slip away like a bar of soap.

All time most used saying?
Just leave it where you found it, so that I can find it afterwards.

All time favourite quote?
"Always look at the bright side of life" *whistles*

Favourite wardrobe item?.
Black leather blazer. Made extra for me so the arm length is just right.

Done! now you can leave an all time favourite in the comments if you care. Better yet, spread this meme! Here I am tagging everyone.

I got a spam comment from China this morning (despite authorization code), couldn't understand a thing but it was on my post about that new game Su+do+ku from Oct 15 (well, they are a bit slow...) The url linked to a porn site.I cannot read Chinese but I can see what shows on my screen.

I don't know how they found me since I am not listed under blog.de and I haven't claimed my blog at Technorati just because I want a low profile. So this kind of scared me. Just in case they can trace the word I edited my post and placed an S* instead of the whole word. Am I overreacting? I have such a quiet, irrelevant blog I don't like the feeling of being traced...oh, oh.

Is the Chinese Mafia after me because I didn't let that Chinese woman take my place while standing in line this week? she was the one without manners!

1. Today is the day Mr. Mar is allowed to get up and watch his steps (well, actually his back) for about 20-30 minutes. No step dance for the time being, though. Update: he has done very well! (*thumbs up*) hopefully he will recover soon. There is a scan on monday and a doctor appointment on thursday next week

2. You haven't dealt with bureaucracy until you get sick in Spain. I still cannot believe all the paperwork involved with it. But I won't go into details because then not only Mr. Mar would be the one with medical issues - I would be needing medical assistance too, to calm me down...

3. Went out to our local Basque tapas bar on friday with C.

4.. Here's a picture of some of them, they are all looking tasty, notice the sliced salmon, tortilla, mmmh. The toothpick on your plate when you're done tells the waiter how many "pinxos" you've had. No, you are not supposed to let a few drop to the floor
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5. Had a tall glass of water to drink.

6. Because I was driving.

7. Had a "real" drink when we got home.

8. I am (still) looking for a friendly place to host my pictures for free. Flickr allows about 20-25 pics/month, that's nothing compared to my needs... Any suggestions? Thanks!

9. Bought some German Xmas goodies, yes, you can get them here in a couple of stores: Domino-Steine, Lebkuchen, Stollen...( for those not familiar with this, these are the goodies' names, not the stores!) Mr. Mar can't get enough of them, they bring back childhood memories to him. My childhood's Xmases were in the summer time, we didn't need sweets, we were just happy school was out for a couple of months. But that would be another post.

10. I should start packing.

11. Have a big trip over the ocean coming up. Before Xmas, actually during the first half of December and yes, we booked this trip months ago.

12. The in-laws are coming to son-sit and house-sit for two weeks.

13. It's their (convalescent) son, I am taking mine along!

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Created by Leanne **** Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
"The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!"
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Brought to you by the letter M

1. Name one color.: magenta - reminds me of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. Name one song: Maggie Mae - good ol' Rod Stewart's
3. Name one movie: Matrix - haven't seen it yet.
4. Name one vehicle: motorcycle
5. Name one food: M & M's
6. Name one household item:mixer
7. Name one book: Murder On The Orient Express - Agatha Christie's

It has been raining in sunny Spain, something we are in need of to avoid water shortages! An umbrella is not an essential item in this corner of the world, so I got soaking wet last evening walking two blocks to get to my car. An umbrella wouldn't have helped much anyways. Coming home was a short adventure with heavy rain and some hail.

Visiting Mausi today I found out that she would like to win the lottery - I would like that too, but I think I have participated in one no more than 5 times in my whole life. That makes my chances equal to zero!
How about you?

- would you like to win the lottery?
- do you actually buy lottery tickets?