Long Time, No Blog!

As usual, no blogging means I'm completely crazy with everything else in life--my apologies.  It seems lately that every time I have a free minute when I could sit down to write about things like the amazing rainbows I've seen (yes, two in one week!) or our Halloween celebrations at the bar, something urgent comes up that I must do or I'm just altogether too tired, and crawl into bed. 

The first of November is All Saints' Day so Halloween weekend was a holiday here.  Everything was closed starting on Thursday so it was a four-day-weekend.  I had thought to go to Granada and pay a visit to my family there...  Did that happen?  No.  Wednesday night we opened the bar for Halloween, which despite a terrible lack of decorations--we couldn't even find fake cobwebs at what is the equivalent to the dollar store!!--it turned out quite well, I thought.  I spent the better half of the week making 200 raspberry and strawberry jello shots (coagulated blood for your inner vampire...) ;).  And we had a little "trick or treat" drawing for some free drinks or beers.  We did pretty good business, but I was there helping most of Wednesday and then up early cleaning the place the rest of the weekend.  

The weather since Halloween has been terrible!  We've had nearly solid rain.  This week seems to have let up a bit, but it's supposed to rain again come the weekend.  That means my poor puppy is depressed once again, although we have devised a mud-free way for her to get exercise.  There's a big parking lot between the football field and the city pool that is perfect for playing with her ball and there are minimal puddles.  She seems pleased with the new routine.  As long as it's not actually raining, we go play for about half an hour in the mornings and we've been able to find another part of town that's not too muddy for a little walk in the evenings.

All this rain is needed, of course.  Until the beginning of October I think we hadn't had rain since May!  Still, people here are solar powered and quickly forget how much they prayed for rain over the past six months when the sun goes behind a cloud. ;)  The rainbows I mentioned above are the best part of these storms, of course.  I was able to get pictures with my cell phone.  Luckily I discovered the panoramic capabilities in time because both times it was a full rainbow. 

Rainbow one

Rainbow two...a little bit fainter, but still beautiful

So the long weekend wasn't much of a break for either me or A, but this past Monday we decided to leave everything behind and head to Granada for the morning.  We did some needed shopping--shoes for both of us and a jacket for me--and then had lunch with the family.  It was lovely.  Just getting out of La Roda for a few hours felt great and when we were headed to Granada and the Sierra Nevada came into view I just couldn't resist smiling.  I'm a moutain girl, what can I say?  Just seeing those huge, snow covered peaks made me feel calm, free, and right at home.