Ahhhhhhh . . . .

I actually went for a run today (patting self on back). I just ran up and down the side of the river around 9 am. The only thing missing was music. Oh, I was wearing my iPod, but the kids listened to it in bed last night so it was out of juice. I felt a little silly running around with the ear buds in so I could listen to silence. My run was almost like a disgusting little game of leap frog because there is so much DOG POOP EVERYWHERE. 

Hey Granadainians please refrain from the following unacceptable behavior:

a) letting your dogs dump all over the sidewalks, playgrounds, etc., and not cleaning it up

b) smoking cigarettes right next to your babies.

Do you all like our recycling bin? They recycle pretty much everything here: all plastic (not just 1 and 2), glass, cans, paper, cardboard and juice boxes. They also have shoe and clothing recycling bins on every street. 

I finished The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick in Spanish. I really enjoyed it and understood about 85% of what I read, a huge improvement upon how much I understood when I read Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer in Spanish. I learned a bunch of idioms that Spaniards use that are useful and funny:

Mind your own business=zapatero a tus zapatos (shoemaker to your shoes)

To be given to faultfinding=buscar pelos en la sopa (to look for hairs in the soup)

As you make your bed, so you must lie in it=con la cuchara que elijas, con ésa comerás (the spoon you choose is the one you will eat with)

To swear up a blue streak=echar sapos y culebras (to throw out toads and snakes)

Finders keepers, losers weepers=Quien fue a Sevilla, perdió su silla (whoever went to Seville, lost his chair)

Get lost!=¡Vete a fríar espárragos! (Go fry asparagus!)

I already taught the kids how to tell someone to mind their own business, but I'm wondering how useful the other ones would be for them.

¡Qué tonta soy! I didn't bring my camera with me tonight on Collin's and my first date in over a month. We went out for tapas and my friend, Annahil (pictured), watched the kids for us. We went to 4 different places, but unfortunately we only got free tapas at one place. We had to pay for them everywhere else. At las Titas we had artichoke hearts with anchovies, roasted red peppers and balsamic caramelized onions as well as some light sauce I couldn't identify. It was beautifully presented as well as delicious. Too bad our server was rude and inattentive, plus we had to pay for the artichokes. The second place did not have granizados (lemon slushies) and our server recommended sorbetes de limon which can best be described as melted vanilla ice cream with bittersweet thick lemon syrup. I loved mine, Collin not so much. No free tapas there and the two drinks together cost us 8E! The food there looked awesome so we decided we would come back with the kids later on in the week. We ordered Shcweppes Lemon Spirit and got the best kind of olives (plump, light green and tender but not mushy) and black forest ham sandwiches with aioli (free!). Our last stop was Cafe Futbol for Piononos, but they didn't have any so we got churros y chocolate instead. Annahil wouldn't let me pay her, as much as I insisted, because she said it was fun for her to play with the kids. They played wig out, hide and seek and practiced the song they have to sing at Big Carlos's baptism on Wednesday. 

It was so nice to go out alone. We didn't have to worry about the kids running ahead or falling behind. There was no bickering or begging for treats. We had a really nice, adult, evening.