i threw the sidra

I'm caffeinating, waking up with not quite a hangover but a little raggedy around the edges. We went out to a town called Sevilla la Nueva for a BBQ and party. My old roomate is renting a house out there, a real house with a backyard, on the edge of town. It was a celebration for a guy who defended his dissertation. Like most parties I've been to here, Eduardo instigates a sometimes choreographed dance. luckily I was spared but Becky got pegged for this one. Eduardo is kind of reminiscent of an aerobics instructor and is always surrounded by the girls who, predictably, like dancing. He also made his favorite hot drink from Ecuador with a sugarcane alcohol called aguadiente (teeth water??). The thesis defender and family are from Asturias, a green wet part of Northern Spain with a celtic culture. They drink cider there. There was something like 96 bottles of cider (sidra) brought down form Asturias. I have to admit, my first sampling of the cider was kind of like drinking bile. I have become a fan after drinking it literally all day yesterday. It's flat, uncarbonated and pretty tart, but the ritual is very fun. First the pouring is meant to fizz it up, so you actually pour it from 3 feet above a tilted glass (throwing). You throw about 8 ounces at a time. Once you begin throwing you are obligated to pour the whole bottle. You spill about 50% of it and pour it all over your hand and feet. Then you deliver the glass to some unsuspecting jackass who is obligated to drink it. You are supposed to drink it in one gulp while its still fizzy, but stop your chugging short of the final swallow. The final swallow is poured to the ground to remove sediment and cleanse the part of the glass that you drank from (typically everyone is sharing the same glass-great for getting herpes). This little offering to the ground is also kind of like a tipping a 40 for the dead homies. Also each bottle results in 6 pours and you dont drink the dregs of the bottle because it has too much dead yeast sediment. Also back to the earth from whence it came.

Brains!

I'm such an idiot. The coolest thing ever happened yesterday and I didn't go. Marcha de los Zombis is a three hour parade of zombies across Madrid to honor George Romero. I stumbled across a little blurb about it on some website. I was trying to find out about the rates and opening hours of the gym down the road,, which I failed to learn, but then there were zombies... I read that this occurs on the first Saturday of February and I said to Becky "Shit! There was a zombie parade last week and I had no idea. I've been waiting for forever for anything half as cool!". So trying to salvage the day we went over to the gym on a fact finding mission, and of course the facility we wanted to use was closed (this happens to me literally 5 times more often than not...if I've got the time and motivation, whatever I'm looking for is closed for siesta or for no clear reason) . But at least we found out when it was open and how much it costs. Later, at about 5:00 becky was tired so took a long nap due to the pernicious jetlag, and I went for a jog for lack of anything else to do even though the wind was face-cracking icy. Later at about 8:00 we were watching the news, and the zombies were on. Turns out the goddamned thing was yesterday from 5:00 to 8:00 (!!!), and we had nothiong to do and totally could have gone. The month started on a sunday, so yestereday was the first saturday.

this is what it would have looked like:

Zombies heading down to the metro. Really the same as every day when the working stiffs head down to the metro.

Get your own knuckles at the knuckle tattoo gun.

This is my only submission of knuckles, from Lawrence. i have to agree on this. I have nothing in particular against the steelers, but they already have 5 super bowl wins. Go cards! Seeing as how the game starts at midnight here and I doubt that the bars with satellite TV are open that late....might be missing this one.

It's snowing some of the biggest flakes I've ever seen, but its too warm to stick.