guess what!

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!

that's right. yup, you heard me right. Joseph and I are going to have a baby.

The baby will be born sometime around May 15th.

I'm hoping for under 9 pounds, but considering my family history, that's unlikely.

homemade

I promised many people a picture of the chairs Joseph and I recovered with the help of my mom and dad. So here they are. They are definitely not perfect and I'm not sure I would ever do this project again since the chairs are still wobbly even though we tried to reinforce them.



One thing Joseph and I have started doing regularly is baking our own bread. We use the simple no-knead recipe from the New York Times and it is always yummy.


A few times in the summer we took a loaf of bread and had a simple picnic and searched for geocaches around the city.


I've made a lot of treats lately but my fourth of july oreo-esque cookies were the yummiest.
The best craft of the summer, however, goes to our new quilt my mom and I sewed while I was visiting at the end of summer.

It looks mostly blue in this picture which is misleading. only that corner has blue in it the rest is warm colors. It fades from blue in the bottom left corner to dark pinks and yellow in the top right corner and the two other corners are light pinks, yellows, and greens. I love the fabric, it comes from Anna Marie Horner's Good Folks collection.

San Sebastian/Donostia

My favorite place in the world is now San Sebastian (Donostia in the Basque language), Spain. It's amazing beauty, rich culture, and laid back feel had such a soothing effect on me. I love that while it was a relaxing place to stay it was also energizing. I would love to rent a house here for a summer sometime in the (distant) future.

See how beautiful it is:

Joseph and I on the funicular.

Me on the beach:

The church right down the street from our tiny hotel:

an admonition: wear sunscreen

A few of you know that a few months ago I went to a dermatologist to check out a weird mole I had on my face. It turned out to be basal cell skin cancer. Don't worry, that is the less dangerous non-spreading type. On Wednesday, I had Mohs surgery to make sure all the cancer was removed. Luckily they got it all out in one go, but then I had to wait 3 hours until they had time to stitch me back up. That's Canadian health care for you. However, let me be a lesson to you all. Learn from this and, from now on, wear sunscreen. Otherwise you will end up dealing with this:

(note: this first picture is mild, if you are squeamish about blood, do not scroll down.)

This first picture shows the swelling I am dealing with and a bit of bruising. It looks more mild in the picture than it actually is. See how the corner of my eye is enveloped in massive bulges, yeah, thats not normal.

This is the wound in all its glory. You can see the large blue suture at the bottom and there are smaller dissolving stitches underneath the surface. They could not stitch the whole thing up because of where the incision is located; stitching it up would have left really ugly ridges of skin. This way the scar will be smooth.

And, lastly, here is a good close up. Sure makes you want to slather your face in sunscreen, doesn't it?
Good. My job here is done.

Spain, the last day

I decided to start with the last day of our trip to Spain and work backwards from there, because I'm crazy like that.

Last day in Spain: Bilbao.

We arrived in Bilbao in the late morning on a bus from San Sebastian. We left that same night on an over-night bus to Madrid.

Our first, and really our only important stop, in Bilbao was the famous Guggenheim Museum. We actually went to the cafe first because the beautiful bus ride through the Basque countryside left us a bit peckish. We had an amazing slice of quiche that involved spinach and pine nuts.

We then commenced our tour and I have to say that the Guggenheim has the best free audio tour I have ever had. You just dialed in the numbers posted next to the artwork and listen to an explanation of the work and sometimes listen to the artist talk about his or her work - fabulous!
There was also some audio tracks about the amazing building itself.

As you can see it is an amazing place. The second photo also shows one of my favorite pieces: a huge metal spider called "Maman" by Louise Bourgeois. There are a few other Mamans scattered around the globe and I hope that we will see the Ottawa one sometime while we are living here.

This picture is of some sweet nostalgic graffiti. While it is not a part of the museum, I was standing on the patio of the museum when I took this picture.

After perusing the museum for hours. We took a stroll along the river, drank some famous Spanish hot chocolate and ate a waffle, and wandered around the old town area. This was a beautiful balcony in the old town:

After our walk we continued to walk around the city seeing some really cool bridges, a nice opera house, and even saw part of mass in a small church (it was Sunday), but we could not find a place to eat and finally ate at a Chinese restaurant near the bus depot. It was pretty yummy and our pineapple chicken dish came served in a hollowed out pineapple, which was pretty awesome.

While I liked Bilbao, and its beautiful setting in the green hills, it just didn't wow me like San Sebastian did. However, the museum was worth the trip.

Stay tuned for the next segment: San Sebastian.

To Do

wash kitchen and bathroom rugs
clean kitchen thoroughly
rearrange furniture
buy containers for closet storage/food storage
clean off patio
make yummy organic meals full of fresh veggies
workout much more
plan trip to Spain
figure out finances
and find a new job

life is a strange mix of boredom and stress