The McKinney Touch Strikes Again

Don't usually think of myself as a clumsy or costly person, but I am proving to be both. Remember that nice grey marble table we had in our kitchen? I was trying to sweep underneath it today and decided to move it so I could really get at the mess under Ian's seat. As I pushed the table aside, the marble top fell off and shattered on the floor. I closed my eyes for a second because I could not believe that I was seeing what I saw. When I opened them again, the table had not reassembled itself and was still shattered, it wasn't just a bizarre diet-induced day dream liked I hoped. If I had been standing any closer to the table, the top probably would have crushed my foot. There are definitely times when I think anyone can be forgiven for swearing. I called Collin right away and he started searching for a duplicate table. I suggested a kitchen remodeling store. He ended up driving to Salobreña with a chunk of of our table top in hand, to a place that specializes in marble. He ordered a new table top that should be done by Thursday. Not in time to fool the cleaning lady. It is going to cost us 105E. There goes my clothes money! I also cut open my hand as I was cleaning up the pieces. I had to smuggle chunks of the table top out to the dumpster past the porter, who of course stopped me to ask a question. We are going to be eating at the counter for a couple of days while the table top is being made. Stinks to be me today.

I had my first Spanish lesson with Rebecca since she returned from Holland. I had sent her an email with all the grammar stuff I was having trouble with and she had sent me some attachments with answers to my problems. I neglected to print them out and study them so she is going to bring them tomorrow. She told me that I need to have confidence in myself as far as speaking Spanish. I don't get nervous when I am talking to her or someone from church, the words just come out fairly naturally. But today when I wanted to talk to Ian's teacher to see if he behaved better than yesterday, I had to really think hard while I was speaking and I felt really nervous.

Aidan's homework is seriously hard! He had to read a long story and then answer questions related to the story, equivalent to reading comprehension in America. I was having a hard time understanding the story and couldn't help him answer the questions. It took Collin and Elena's help to finish his homework, and that was just Spanish homework. Right now, he is drawing a picture of the virgen de las angustias (the Virgin Mary holding a crucified Christ, otherwise known as a pieta) for religion class. I forgot to mention that when we signed the kids up for school they had to declare either Catholic or Muslim as their religion. We signed them up as Catholic.

After lessons today, we went for a short walk to see the Flower Offering to the Virgen de las Angustias, the patron saint of Granada. I have never seen such a crowd anywhere in Granada before. The line to put flowers up on the scaffolding in front of the church wrapped around the block. There was also a parade of sorts with a live marching band playing and different guilds marching, as well as a group of cyclists for a bank and a motorcycle club. It seemed like everyone in Granada was in line waiting for their turn to place their flowers or watching everyone in line and in the parade. There was definitely a festival mood in the air with people hawking flowers, balloons, toffee almonds, candy, roasted corn and baked potatoes. Puerta Real had been converted into an outdoor flower market. Ian and Aidan had roasted corn, Emma had toffee almonds. Then we rushed home to eat dinner before Collin's Champion's League game between Real Madrid and Zurich started.