What an idiot.

I get the idiot of the day award today.  I was slicing up some pernil for dinner, that is basically proscuitto still on the bone.  It is utterly delicious, and utterly easy to slice yourself up.

Check!

Our regular knife is duller than the side of my finger, so I pulled out the lovely French handy-dandy folding knife that we have been using for the task.  I think it was designed with nefarious purposes in mind.  The thing is so sharp it's ridiculous.  When I bought it, I specifically bought a larger size because it has a mechanism that locks the blade open. Can you see where this is going?

Those mechanisms?  They work better if they are engaged, and you are safer if you check that they are engaged.  I did neither of these things.  I simply assumed it was engaged, as that is how we ALWAYS keep it.  Since the pig leg arrived in the house, we simply haven't folded it!

Until I folded it closed on my finger.  With some force behind it.

I am such an idiot.

It cut, I bled.  and bled.  and bled.

I phoned down to work to find out if the local medical center would be able to stitch it, or if I would have to go to the hospital.  No the locals could do it.  You see, it is a neat cut, but it is a lateral cut on the back of my finger near the knuckle.  Every time I bend the finger, it gapes open again.  NOT conducive to healing.

I bled some more.

Finally I decided that offical 'direct pressure' was needed, sat down, forced eldest (bless her hilarious crabby heart) to finish cooking dinner and applied the aforementioned direct pressure.  I stopped bleeding like I intended to feed a semi-starved family of Romanian vampires....and things improved.  I then found the medical tape and asked the man to help me out taping the thing up. The man gets a wee bit woozy around blood and is far too nice and careful.  I let him put on the first bit of tape, but it was WAY to loose to control this sucker.

I did this once before - sliced up a finger - though much more thoroughly that time...five stitches and it was still pumping blood two hours later.  In spurts.  Like a little miniature artery working away.  You could take my pulse by it.  Kinda cool in a messy way.

Not so bad this time.  I took over the taping job and lashed that bandage down like I was taping up a stick for the Stanley Cup Playoffs (that would not be the Leafs of course).

The tip turned quite purple, but the bleeding is still under control.  I squeezed a big fat gob of anti-biotic cream in there Mom, not to worry. (more than I am already making you worry)

You know, of course, which finger I did this to don't you?

Yeah, that one. All day tomorrow I am going to be flipping the world the big white bird.

Sweet.

Get 'em Chuck.....

Just so that you know.   It is difficult to take a decent photo when the dog is humping your leg.  They come out something like this....

On another note. We had (another) meeting with the architect and a builder.

Man what a roller coaster this whole thing is.  Mostly we've been headed down, but signs of lift appear.

Both details and large changes were discussed, somewhat confusingly at times, but I think we are all in agreement on the broad plans.  Things about this are very good.  We will have more space in the terrace up top that we thought we would, which is EXCELLENT...the washing machine will not be as separated as maybe it could be, but that's OK.  The design for the dining room has altered somewhat....and it looks like we might be able to get bathrooms!!! WOOT!!!!

I got happy about bathrooms.

I was OK about the dining room changes.

I was very happy about saving 2500 Euros by painting myself

I was happy they think we can reuse the front door.

I was confused by the terrace plan, and then I was happy indeed.

I was not the least bit happy by the time frame.  For a while it looked like 9 months.  I thought I would die on the spot.  I actually considered selling up and walking away from it all.  OH MY GOD!

Revised to San Joan, July 24th.  Let me tell you, we'll be moving that day, finished or not.  I can work with that.   He didn't promise that every last detail would be done, but we'd be done enough to move in.

That made me happier.

Gave the go ahead for the next stage.   That left me heaving a sigh of relief.  When the man and I want to make a decision, it takes us about 3.6 seconds. (plus time thinking before hand). We make good ones too.

The man will have to do the move alone.  That I simply cannot imagine. We'll have to get some kind of help....good LORD!  Packing to go to TO this summer will take on a whole new meaning.  Do you know how hot it is here in July?  BRUTAL.

At least I won't have to do repairs on the house in TO at the same time.  That'll be a pleasant change.
Numbers were bandied about, the number of guys working was mentioned.  

Movement.

This is good.

Still a lot of decisions to be made.  Progress.  Ho hum.

The numbers look much more reasonable and doable.  We have talked to the bank and it looks like it will be manageable from their end.

If we could just START already.....

Maybe I should set the dog on them.  He'd hump them into action.  No?

Fraud

I have heard of someone who actually managed to get embroiled in one of those e-mail 'please open a bank account for us and you will get $10,000 scams.

It is all sordid and unpleasant.  It also got me to a little internet searching, out of curiosity.

I found the FBI's Cyber Investigations New E-scams and warnings page.
MAN, some of those guys have coJONes!!!!
Look at these headlines from the FBI site.....


NEW TWIST ON COUNTERFEIT CHECK SCHEMES TARGETING U.S. LAW FIRMS
Sooooo....they're targeting law firms!!!!


SPAMMERS CONTINUE TO ABUSE THE NAMES OF TOP GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVES BY MISUSING THE NAME OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL


They're imitating the FBI!!!!!!!!!
FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO CONTAIN FBI “INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN NO. 267”


FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO BE FROM DHS AND THE FBI COUNTERTERRORISM DIVISION

FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO CONTAIN AN FBI INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN FROM THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION DIRECTORATE

CIRCULATION OF FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO BE FROM U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (CBP)

FRAUDULENT SPAM E-MAIL PURPORTEDLY FROM FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR JOHN S. PISTOLE

I have to confess, these ones seem particularly astonishing.  Who on earth in the FBI would want to contact me!  I would find that one mighty hard to buy.  Some of them are simply malware and you open them to your computer's doom.....

There are a fair number of simply nasty scams going around too.  Kind of depressing reading there.....but goodness.  They're going after the law firms!  Go where the money is I guess. 

That'd be embarrassing for them, wouldn't it.

Ok JG, this one's for you!

So, this morning when I couldn't sleep I got up vewy vewy earwy and started. We had a mighty busy day and I thought I'd get the jump on it.  The only problem was that I missed doing it this evening cause there was so little left to do!

My first step in the wee small hours this morning...really, it was around 5:30 am......was to come up with an idea.  Most of you will immediately recognise the source for this particular painting.  While it is clearly not a direct copy, it is for instance missing both Mount Fuji and a fair number of boats and sailors, it is basically quite similar.  Drew it, and painted in the first of the defining lines as this style has them.

Here below I came into some decision making about how to manage the lines that indicate the shape of the wave as well as the splashes coming off it.  I also had to decide how to add some balance to it.  As I had removed all of the boats and people as well as the mountain and a fair number of other waves I needed something else.  That was decided.  Then I began to add colour.

I decided, as you have now seen, to add in lines of black and white, which was an idea that surfaced from the Ted Harrison work....then I had to wait a bit for it to dry.  I didn't have to wait too long as the use of the painted defining lines created a barrier so that the background colour wouldn't bleed into the colour of the wave:

This was my, 'hmmmm, this looks a bit of a disaster and I am not sure where to go with it' stage.  I normally sit back and ponder for a minute or two and then plough onwards.  Today though I set it aside. For three reasons.  First, I wanted to darken the bottom of the wave where less light would show through the water, lightening it and I couldn't do that at this point.  The blue I had laid down was not wet, nor dry and I would get all manner of watermarks if I painted in now.  Sometimes that is OK.  Not here though.  Also, the little guy in the bottom right corner needed drier paint around him to begin.  Also people were getting up and wanted to use the table to, oh, you know, eat breakfast and stuff.  This evening as things settled down I got it out again.  There was lamentably little to do.....

I darkened down the base of the waves, tidied up some of the lines and managed the little surfer-turtle.  The only disappointment is that youngest though he looked scared, as well he might, but I was aiming for something a little cheerier......

There you go, step by step canvas a day project.  Though they are on paper.   Cheaper and oh so much easier to transport.

The theory was to live blog this one through, but I got tired.

The etiquette of laying on watercolour is something I have been finding fascinating.  Because of the need for sections of the piece to be worked dry and others wet depending on the effect aimed at a certain amount of up-front planning seems to be called for.  At least it this little corner of the painting table....

The painting also goes in stages too...wash in the background first?  That's what I did today....I actually quite enjoy that process, getting to play with all the colours as they swirl and wander.  Especially the blues. My kids would tell you, I like blue paintings.  I have spent my life being quite unaware that I will almost universally exclaim aloud about how much I like a particular painting in a room.  It is invariably blue.  Intensely, richly, impossibly blue.  No wonder I was so happy in the Bahamas.  A never ending always shifting blinding world of blue blue blue.

I have got THE runniest nose.  Makes this all rather difficult as I have to keep on blowing it.  Always stylish in my neck of the woods.

You may have noticed that I have painted in some of the colours on the turtle-y sweety...he is all greens and gold-y beiges and blues.  Interesting the lines that define his shell sections are actually lighter.  That is also part of what I like about this project, I get to observe a little bit every day.....

But now I have to wait while it dries so that the colour I will apply to his shell and his remarkably bird-like wings doesn't blend.  

So I sit here, write to you, contemplate my nose.  If I had a tap that dripped this much I'd have to call a plumber;  we're talking gallons a day.  Contemplate my warm ovaltine before bed.  Contemplate how our bodies continue to change as we continue to age.  I used to fondly, and profoundly naively, think that once we were adults that was it, we were done.  No more changes.  I must have figured that one day you wake up and discover that your body has gotten old...so it has been a bit of a surprise these gradual alterations.  

Lord how thick I am/was/seem as I confess this.....

Think I can paint a little more....

Then I get to this stage, every single time, when I decide that I have irrevocably wrecked it.

Then I let it dry a little, do something else, when I really ought to be sleeping, and come back to it again. Usually it is better after I have come back and painted some more....

While I wait I resist the urge to go and play tetris because I know it will take me faaaarrrr too long and I will NEVER get to bed....

Then I decide that by 12:30 am with a heavy cold is beyond what I can productively do and call it a night.  Time for bed.  The second stage is going to have to wait till the morrow.

Note to self:  To avoid future embarrassment when posting the canvas a day project, begin before 11 pm.

We (heart) sea animals

Something I miss from home. Nightime cold medicine.  They have no idea what I am talking about when I mention that.  It all seems to be packed with uppers.  Not so fun when trying to sleep at night.

Youngest has been busy lately...I have to relate the tale.

Two days ago she came home from school quite upset because the school announced that they were planning on releasing balloons with peace messages this Friday, which is apparently peace day.  Youngest had pointed out to a teacher that releasing balloons litters the ocean environment, which we are fairly near, and kills off scores of sea animals, from turtles to whales, dolphins to birds.

She got a shrug.

She came home incensed.  We talked it over some more and decided that she should talk to her classroom teacher who subsequently said he would bring it up with the teacher's group.

That was yesterday.

Today she asked what the decision had been, and got the blow off from the first teacher again, delivered in that 'you are such a pain raining on my parade' tone of voice.

Came home at lunch ALL upset again.

Another discussion, and she decided to find, print and bring in a project, like she has to do for school, documenting the damage that balloon releases do to the marine fauna.  Incidentally, we discovered that it is actually illegal in both Florida and Virginia...and possibly elsewhere too!

She phoned up the regional Catalan Marine Rescue group and told them her story. They said that she was absolutely correct that balloons pose a serious hazard to marine animals and promised to send her some info to take into school, which they have done and they have also invited her to visit their rescue centre and see some of the animals!  COOL!

Anyway, she went into school armed with two copies of her work.  She chose not to put a photo of a dead animal on the cover.  It'd be too sad.

She was nervous of talking to her teacher again.  He kind of scares her, but she decided in the end that the animals were more important anyway.

She saw the principal on the way in after lunch and cornered her...gave her the papers and talked to her about the whole situation, she also suggested that instead of releasing the balloons, they could tie them to a tree that is in their playground with the peace messages so that all the students could be reminded of the importance of peace for much longer.

I don't know if she talked to her classroom teacher in the end, but we are pretty sure they aren't going to release the balloons in the end.

Nice going kid.  Animals saved.  A day worth getting up for.

Chuck debates pans and fires.

Canvas a day lesson for the day....starting at 10:30 pm just doesn't work with watercolours, unless your thinking floaty blotchy watery drawings.  I wasn't.  It will be posted half finished and poorly executed.  Ho hum.


Chuck the dog.

Source of much humour in my life.

The other day we were in the mountains again, with Nonna again, and we met the shepherd again.  The one with the dogs that fought with Chuck.  Four on one.

We didn't actually meet the shepherd though, we saw one lone nanny goat.  THAT was enough to put a pure and blinding terror streaking through my noble pup's heart.  He took off.  Sheared away and started blasting down the hill.  Then strangely, he stopped as I was continuing on, I imagine.  We were, at that time, walking beside a large and very isolated farm filled with dogs who all bark aggressively at us when we go by, but never come near the road.  Chuck decided that the pan was better than the fire and blasted up the hill into the farm, charging through a thinnish patch of raspberry brambles to do so.

I heartlessly walked on, there really was no other option.

Nonna contented herself with barking endlessly at the goat and flinging herself against the end of her lead.  She is a big very strong, very fast dog.  I had my hands somewhat full.

Chuck disappeared into the farm, me hoping he doesn't bring the hounds of h*ll down upon us all.  At least the shepherd's dogs are perfectly trained.  As I walk by the gate to the farm Chuck appears again, moving fast and somewhat frantic as there is no obvious way out and the raspberry brambles are rather higher and thicker here.  I kept on walking, the farm is quite open around the corner, about 10 yards on and Chuck is a smart dog.  He'd figure it out.  Besides that Nonna was doing her best to tear my arm off so distance would be good.

Chuck poked his head through the gate, decided it was too narrow and removed it, flitted around inside some more, saw me continuing on and decided he would fit after all.

This was all happening quite quickly as these things are wont to do.  Chuck gets his head through, no problem.  The ribs however are quite the struggle.  Really quite epic, he ended up on only his hind legs pushing and wiggling mightily to try and get them wedged through.  There was a pause before he started on his hips and I thought that if he was stuck we had Chuck on a stick.  The dogs from the farm could have the back end and the shepherd's the front and he'd be sitting there like as helpless as Winne the Pooh in a rather more malignant bit of forest.

Fortunately with another shove and a wiggle his narrower hips popped free and he cruised around the corner of the farm going as fast as he could without actually running.  Ears pinned back and tail low.

I was laughing at him.

Then again, I couldn't really blame him either.

creativity and limits????

I have to admit that the Chauncery from the Bleak House is just a wee bit too close to our experience with the construction industry in Spain.  Expensive and very very very slow.

Don't know how long I will make it with this book.  Just a little too close to home.

Today's painting owes a big nod to Ted Harrison, who I mentioned a couple of posts ago.  I've been letting his images settle a bit, and I then they felt like emerging again today.

I was walking in the hills and thinking about the painting a day project and the rather flat blog posts of late. It occurred to me that there is only so much creativity in me in a given day.  That would be totally depressing.  If I do a painting I am not going to be able to think of something to write?

Pathetic.

I prefer to look at as more a matter of getting the creative muscles used to more activity...they get a little stronger and more flexible ever day.  I get to think about painting ideas and posting ideas in ONE DAY!  Every day!!!!

(And I have to try and remember them...ho hum)

On another topic, one of the things I find that I miss are friends.  I have never in my life had fewer.  Certainly not in a place I have spent so much time.  There is that pesky language barrier thing, and I do have buddies at work, but I've never been to their house, nor they to mine....I truly have one friend here.

It is odd, and somewhat disconcerting.  Not something I am used to at all.  It is a culture, at least here in the village, that is very closely oriented to family.  That is where social life happens principally, and we don't have family here other than ourselves.  The kids have more of a social life, though neither has a 'best friend'.

Odd.

I am going to be up all night waiting for a theme or idea to emerge today.  I may just have to give up and give myself and my voice a rest.

Hope for better ideas tomorrow.  Sorry.

Someday I'll come up with a proper post...for now, updates.

Painting a canvas a day experiment:  fairly good.  Kind of frustrating cause I can't finish much, but a brush in my hand every day = great.  I am waiting for some themes to emerge. 

I have an idea or two cooking around, and with 365 or so paintings to work with, there are some possibilities.

Muddy day for walking again = fabulous, NO ONE ELSE was out!!!!  I'm getting faster too, cool to be able to notice.

Dickons', the Bleak House:   Harold Skimpole is someone I would like to smack upside the head, hard.    I can feel myself grinding my teeth every time he appears.

Toni Morrison's Bluest Eye second time through: more depressing.  Also more interesting because I see the writing more clearly.

Hate it when I have an idea for a post and can't remember it when it comes time to write.  Same idea three days running, but when evening rolls around I CANNOT remember.  Maybe I should write on early onset alzheimers.

My voice has disappeared today and been replaced by a gin-drinking filterless-smoking baritone.   Quite a surprise to all around me when I open my mouth.  Something of a challenge for my students.

Look what I bought myself:

 

This may be Spain, but I can assure you that the floors here are cold.  Not anymore!

Welsh sheepskin slippers.  Imported by yours truly.  I LOVE them, even if they are just a wee bit ugly.  They are so warm I'll forgive them most anything.

Hope you had a lovely day.

Cheers, 

O

Books

Finished Robinson's Gideon this morning.  Can't recommend it highly enough.  Honestly.

We went into BCN today, the Man and I, and we went to the weekly bookfair at the Sant Antoni Market.  It is held on Sundays.

It is HUGE!  We were there for two an a half hours and barely scratched the surface.

You have got to love a city that can have such an enormous used book fair every weekend and have that sort of a turn out.  Some Gegants even went by and few people raised their heads from their treasure hunting.

I got some goodies for the girls, and some tiny little pocket westerns that may get absorbed into the canvas a day project...cheap paper.....I also heard an interview with Ted Harrison on CBC and one of the nice things about this project is that I can have a chance to try out a whole bunch of ideas and themes...try on different styles...check out different work and see what happens.  I like Harrison's work a lot.  The bright colours, the simplified lines....

Back to the book market......

The man got a couple of books to read in Spanish as well for practice.

One thing I found surprising was that there was a surprising (to me) quantity of p*rn, video, comic and books...there was a 'how to shoot and star in your own home p*rn film' book and two separate books of er*tic christmas stories at two separate booths.  Books of animal er*tica and s*x and also a quite old book of s*xual idiosyncrases.

Quite exhaustive.

There was a great deal more of other stuff, most of it in Spanish, some in Catalan and even one or two books in English.....

You have got to love a place that has so many books and so many people interested in them.