pa-jammy
Here it is, the film you’ve all been waiting for (I mean, since last Friday, at least.)
THE GREAT RACE
Who will explode in a fiery crash? Who will fall in a volcano? Who will lose their engine because of a ninja? Who will win!?!?
You have to watch and see…
Thanks to the Mini Art Center for such a fantastic week!
My favorite nephew and my sister got to Baton Rouge on Sunday and here’s a picture of Andrew to go along with the ones I took of his sister and cousins.
Can you believe he’s five? And starting kindergarten? I can’t. And I also couldn’t stop grabbing him and giving him kisses. He’s so sweet to put up with crazy Aunt Pam. ❤
Who knew, that hunting for Pokémon would make for such great pictures? The boys and I are spending the weekend in Baton Rouge with Emily and my mom and Larry. My sister will be here on Sunday with Andrew, so I expect I’ll corner that little one for pics when he gets here.
I’m just waiting for some photographer to come out with a “Pokémon Go Photo Session.” Maybe this is how I can make my millions.
And then I made them all stand for a sec in the golden late afternoon light for individual pics.
For a change of pace, I signed the boys up for a different camp this week. It was at a little studio in our neighborhood called the Mini Art Center. We really enjoyed walking the six blocks to camp every morning (Ziggy accompanied us and he probably enjoyed the walk most of all) but thanks to typical NOLA summer, weather, walking home didn’t work out so well.
(We got completely drenched on Tuesday.)
The theme of this week’s camp was cut out animation, and all week the whole class of ten kids worked on a film together. This afternoon we got to go watch the (almost) finished product. Next week we’ll get a finished video that I can post, but in the meantime, here are a few pics from today:
Uncle Evan, watch out!
The Europe post really took it out of me for blogging. Whew. But now I can talk about other stuff.
Like how I went to the gym the day after I got home (so proud of that) and afterwards, stepped off a curb wrong, sprained my foot and shattered my phone screen. Winning!
At least it was just a sprain, but it won me a couple of weeks in a boot that the boys are insanely jealous of. (They call it my robot foot.)
Actually, I haven’t been wearing it much. My foot feels a lot better now. Probably didn’t even need to go to the orthopedist. Oh well. At least now I have a cool robot foot costume.
I also went to a fun costume party for my friends’ birthdays. It was superhero themed. I was Super Ute.
The fourth was Monday (in case you missed it) and we went to our friend’s house and then watched fireworks. As one does on the fourth of July.
I’ve also been spending a lot of time working on WordCamp NOLA, which is coming up really soon. Ack! If you’re interested, buy a ticket or sponsor us! Please, so I can sleep at night.
Last night I took the boys to meet a coworker for dinner at Pizza Delicious (and yes, it lived up to its name) and then we finally got to check out Crescent Park. There’s this insane bridge you have to cross to get over the railroad tracks. The boys were quite taken with the park when we got to the other side.
Well, I suppose that’s enough for now. Taking the boys to see The BFG this afternoon after camp (Oliver finally finished reading it) so I’d better get some more work done.
Yep, Linus is back to brown. And Oliver was supposed to be, but when I saw his lip quiver after I pulled the box of brown dye out, I just couldn’t do it. I gave him a boost of blue instead, but the understanding that in a few weeks, it’s back to brown. (And Linus’s is too light, I need to fix that too.)
Anyway, happy Fourth of July!
Okay, I need to just get this written before I forget everything.
For a good recap of Spain, read Erica’s post here.
Friday morning
Arrived in Barcelona, after a flight with no sleep. I tried. I really tried. At least I got to catch up on some movies.
Had my first jamon sandwich, then met Erica at the airport (her flight arrived not long after mine) and we headed into town to drop off our luggage at a locker, and then we just wandered around until our Airbnb was available.
Many, many photos from that day are in this post.
Walked through the Gothic Quarter, made our way through a path of what felt like miles of blankets covered in fake Michael Kors handbags, “Nike” sneakers, and sunglasses. Finally got to the beach! Put toes in Mediterranean!
Erica and I went to the Sagrada Família on Saturday the 18th, after we’d given our talk. (More details on all that later.) I had tried to go when I was in Barcelona last time, cough cough, but didn’t get to.
Anyway, I’m not usually one for visiting old buildings or churches, but this was truly exceptional. So unique and breathtaking and many other adjectives. Construction began on this church designed by Gaudí in 1882 and it’s not done yet.
Erica and I also booked tickets to the tower, which was fun and hair-raising. (You take an elevator up but a tightly wound spiral staircase down, and it’s kind of terrifying.)
Without further ado…
Details outside
The interior
Views from the tower:
Terrifying staircase:
People right as they walk in, stop, dumbfounded, then take pics.
They say it’s going to be finished (finally) in ten years. We’ll see.
I have much to blog about, of course. I initially was going to try to keep up as the trip went along, but obviously I failed miserably there. But I’ll post a bit now while I sit in the United Club lounge with a glass of wine and free wi-fi. (But I really need to make it fast so I can go call Kristina. I haven’t talked to her in 11 days and that is entirely too long, considering we usually talk one or two times a day.)
It’s hard to believe how long this trip was. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing. I had a fantastic, exhausting, busy trip. But it felt like a month, not a week and a half. When I think back to when we were in Barcelona, it feels like eons ago.
I also have to give a shout-out to my colleague Erica. She was an excellent traveling companion, and we had a great time together. I think it’s safe to say we’re both suffering withdrawal from each other. We were apart very very little over the course of the trip. This could have gone horribly wrong. Even traveling with good friends can be a harrowing experience, but I can honestly say she was an amazing travel partner. Probably doesn’t hurt that the girl likes to eat. Heh. She was extremely supportive of my ham cone quest, and she’s a vegetarian. Now that’s a friend!
Okay, here’s a little Pam ‘n’ Erica collage (you’ll probably see these again in future posts too. Deal with it.)
Okay, my wine is done, so I’m going to publish this now and go call Kristina. Can’t wait to see my boys! Cross your fingers that the bottle of schnapps I brought back makes it intact. I’m tired. Stop babbling now.
My favorite thing to eat in Spain is the ham. I suppose more specifically I mean the jamón ibérico? Whatever it’s called, it’s delicious. When Erica and I were in Barcelona, I spied a cafe with a sign outside advertising “Ham Cone”, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A paper cone filled with pieces of jamón. I was determined to get a ham cone before we left Spain, and today my dream came true!
We were walking back to our Airbnb after lunch (I purposely had a very light lunch) when we passed Mercado de San Miguel. Right when we walked in, we saw a stall selling HAM CONES!
It was way fancier than the ham cones at the other restaurant – three times more expensive, and quite a lot of ham, even for me. But I have until lunchtime tomorrow to eat it. And it’s insanely delicious.
Also they gave it to me on a paper silver tray. So fancy!
Gotta give props to Erica, who is a vegetarian, for supporting me on my epic quest for HAM CONE.
Erica and I are working at Google’s Campus Madrid today. It’s a nice space, in spite of the cafe worker who is not a fan of Erica (which is ridiculous, Erica is one of the kindest people I know.)
Tomorrow night we’ll be giving another talk here. Eek!
Not going to write a ton about my first day in Barcelona, but it was lovely. Didn’t sleep on the plane, so the first half of the day after meeting up with my coworker Erica were a bit of a haze. But the weather was gorgeous and we got a lot of walking in.
I meant to post this earlier, but the wifi at our Barcelona Airbnb was terrible.
pyjammy dot blog 