NEW YORK, NY: A Silly Tale About a Silly Tail (7/21/10)

Darcy and I were playing when she decided to lounge on the floor. But, her tail would not stop wagging. Her ears perked up. She looked at her tail curiously. Normally she wagged on purpose. She wagged when it was time to eat. She wagged when it was time to walk. She wagged when it was time to play. She wagged when it was time to cuddle. She wagged when the Human came home. She wagged when the Human looked at her. But none of those things were happening. Why was she wagging?

Wag

She flipped her head to one side. Why was it wagging? She did not want it to wag. She wanted to rest.

Wagwagwag

Really, it was being so silly, acting like it wants to play. But she was tuckered out from playing and did not want to play with her tail. She had better try and catch it so it would stop.

Wagwagwagwagwag

She wiggled left.

Wagwagwagwagwagwagwag

She wiggled right.

WagwagwagwagwagWagWagWagWag

Finally she barked at it, "Why won't you come to me?! I'm your boss!"

She wiggled Left. She wiggled Right. Left. Left. FAR left. Right. Right. LEFTRIGHTLEFTLEFT

WAGWAGWAGWAGWAGWAWGWAG

This tail was out of control! It needed to be stopped so she could take a nap. She jumped up, quickly sat on her tail and bit it.

Hard.

Then she remembered, "Oh, it's me. Okay, I'm gonna go lie down now."

MADRID, SPAIN: I don't speak Spanish, but I'm fluent in napping. (7/9/10)

For my birthday this year, Mama McG sent me to Spain to bug my friend Felicia, for a change. Felish has been living in Spain for about a million years and is (finally) moving home to NY in a few weeks. A perfect time to visit, because she's getting all nostalgic for things she won't have for much longer- namely, food opportunities.

I landed in Madrid at 8:25 am. I checked into my hotel (Plaza Basilica) shortly thereafter, and thought "Hey, why don't I take a two or three hour nap, get up for lunch, do some work (all vacations are working vacations) and then maybe see some sites?"

Bobo salchicha.

My two or three hour nap was seven hours long and I woke up at 4pm to Felicia calling me to say "Hey... I'm downstairs... and I'm hungry..."

So after exchanging a brief hello and how are you to her and her lovely doggy Ysa, we headed off on a brief walk through Madrid. We saw the Plaza Real...

Cibeles was excited for World Cup...

Our walk made us work up an appetite for dinner. Mercado San Miguel is an awesome food market where you can purchase high quality food and drink, and eat it at booths there! Also everyone is super friendly. Felicia bff-d a French oysterman.

We started with oysters and champagne before moving onto a delicious cheese. Here's something Felicia will miss about Spain- she went up to the lady and said, "we have champagne. Pick a cheese for us to pair." And the cheese the cheese lady picked was amazing- a distinctly European talent.

Then we moved on to langostinos

And polpo (octopus) fried with huevos and roasted red peppers. Amazing. You dip the polpo into the huevos and the red peppers is a perfect match for the salty fried cephalopod.

After dinner we headed to after dinner drinks, and ended the night a gorgeous rooftop bar,

Where we saw this.

In Spain, playgrounds are built next to bars so that parents can drink in peace and send the children to play.

I don't think there's anything left to say about that.

Stay tuned for tomorrow: Llanes.