What a Random Internet Search Can Produce:

La mujer tiburón

I've been meaning to blog about this for at least two months, so to use my friend Sara's phrase, here's a "retro-blog" for you:

Some of you know that I kind of hurt my knee toward the end of summer. It wasn't anything serious, but every now and then, if I stepped funny, I could feel it. Just to be safe I decided to stop running. I bought a knee brace and ran a few times with it, but I ended up just stopping all together--what's the point of putting myself at risk of a real injury?

As part of my cross-training (I want to maintain a minimal level of fitness), and also because the doctor recommended swimming for Angelines's back, we signed up at the indoor pool in Antequera. It's only a 25 min. drive and the installations are far superior to the pool we used to drive to (now closed). Each month we get a ten-swim bono and so we go between twice and three times a week to swim for an hour.

It is great! I am fast becoming a swimming fan. After 45 min of swimming laps, I'm a new person. :) Those of you who swim, know what I mean...and for those of you who don't, all I can say is it is the most relaxing form of cardio exercise in the world. I usually swim between 1.5-2km each time we go, and when I'm finished I just feel good (for lack of a better adjective!). There's nothing like working up a good sweat on a 5k run, but getting out of the pool after a kilometer and a half, is a whole different thing. I get the same kind of post workout high, but almost without realizing it. Instead of being tired, I'm just completely relaxed. And there's no residual soreness or muscle fatigue from pounding on my joints.

At first, getting into a rhythm with my breathing was hard, but now I can do thirty laps without stopping. I'm finally getting to the point where I don't need to focus all my energy on breathing and coordination; and I can think about what to do with my afternoon classes, what to cook for lunch, what to do about X problem or Y... That is to say, swimming, just like running, has finally gotten to the point of being a mental outlet as well as physical.

...Are you wondering about the title of my post: The shark woman? On a Friday night way back in November, when I took A her dinner to the bar, a friend stopped me on the way out and said, "So, I hear you have gills." I didn't know what to make of that until he explained that Angelines had apparently been bragging about my swimming. "Sí," he said, "me ha dicho que eres la mujer tiburón".

So far I don't have gills, but it is true that when I get into a rhythm, I feel more fish-like than human. :)

My Helpful Puppy

...So at the risk of becoming one of those annoying people who only talks about her pet... here's another post about the World's Most Adorable Dog. :)

(I promise a non-puppy related post soon!)

I think the pictures speak for themselves, so without further ado: Bela the washer-puppy.

The Weasel

Last night Angelines and I nearly wet our pants laughing at this little one. She knows well enough that she shouldn't leave her bed...but her favorite toy rolled onto the floor! What to do?! We spent a good minute laughing at her before I finally got up and gave her the toy. ;) And then because it was just too cute, we decided to take a video. Yes, it's a little mean to steal her toy and set her up to disobey me, but... Well, I think you'll laugh when you watch her too.

Bela the weasel dog:

Training...or Playing?

I am in the process of teaching Bela that when she's in the house, she needs to stay on her bed. Unless, of course, I call her. This will be especially important once she's bigger and more mischievous! She's pretty cute about it all. Yesterday, I had her bed (a pile of towels...¡estamos en crisis!) set up in the salita and as you can see in the video the corner of the towel forms a sort of peninsula. Well she realized that as long as she stayed on the towel I didn't say anything so she cautiously walked out to the end of the little towel peninsula and when her paw slipped onto the floor she quickly sprung backwards onto her bed all of her own accord. Pretty cute.

I decided to get out the camera to record some of these adorable antics...but as you can see in the video I'm pretty sure she decided we were playing as opposed to training.

Oh well, little by little.

Puppy porn?

Do these pictures qualify as puppy porn? I felt a little bit wrong taking them...but my little squirt is just too cute. :)

I didn't want to leave her in the patio because it was getting to be night and it's pretty cold. I was talking to Miriam on the computer so I couldn't keep track of her if I let her loose. The only option was to sit on my lap. The little rat chewed my hands for about thirty minutes and finally fell asleep. What a doll!

...Scary: vampire bat dog! Doesn't it look like she's about to attack?

She's a little camera shy. :)

And finally she fell asleep. ¡Qué postura!

Sweet Dreams

Bienvenido Bela! (and other news)

Feliz Reyes!

I've been hassling Angelines for a dog for years now, but in the piso she had a good excuse: no room. She successfully warded off my begging saying, "when we have a patio, you can have a dog." So it's been a full year in the house (with a huge patio!) and for Christmas she surprised me with the cutest little puppy ever! :)

This is Bela. She's a 5-week-old (!), chocolate lab. She is pretty much to die for. The second best part of all of this (first being Bela herself, of course) is that I didn't ask for her; this was all Angelines's doing. I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea that we couldn't afford a dog, etc. etc. I'm thrilled to have one, but the reason this is so wonderful is that any time Angelines starts to complain about the puppy (noise, smell...) she's only got herself to blame! :) (hehehe)

... And smell she does. I think the nickname "Smelly Belly" is appropriate. She's too little to have a bath yet so we've bought some dry shampoo to try to make her smell a little better. Angelines insists that she won't touch her until we can bathe her. That's two weeks away! Who can resist a face like this one?? She already smells better than when we brought her home Wednesday. And Angelines played with her a little yesterday since she was about to shower anyway. ;)

This little girl will make a dog-lover of my big girl in no time flat... so long as I can keep her from destroying too many shoes, clothes and pieces of furniture along the way! ;)

Other news:

Ni Hao! This year for the annual Kings' parade through town, the Asociación Amigos de San Pancracio did a Chinese-style float. Our little remolque is turning out to be quite versitile! (Western covered wagon, ginger bread house, Chinese pagoda...) As always, it was a fun walk around town, bowing to the crowds and throwing candy. ;)

Here are some pictures of the crew:

Happy New Year, 2012!!