Willow and Juanjo's SplashBlot

Check the wedding blog soon for a post about our plans to have the ceremony in the Cathedral of Toledo…

Another rainy day today, which we hardly noticed because we drove into Madrid with Juanjo’s grandmother to have lunch with his uncle that works in Madrid. We ate at a Galician restaurant–all seafood of course, spreads of barnacles, oysters, and lobster. I ate little bits, as seafood is still hard for me to eat as a result of my vegetarian past (especially served the way it is here, looking so much like the real creature, and with all the work you have to do to get to the meat!). Vegetarian and non-seafood lover wedding guests beware–we’ll have many options, but there is sure to be several spreads of “marisco”, as the Spanish love this and typically serve it at weddings! I did have delicious “pimientos del padron”, one of my favorite Spanisih appetizers as well. They’re small green peppers fried and served with raw sea salt–and every few of them are REALLY spicy and leave you gasping for water.
Here is Juanjo with his uncle and grandmother, and two views of “La Cibeles”, one of the most emblematic plazas of Madrid.

And as it would appear that all we’re doing is eating delicious meals and planning the wedding here, I’ll add that our afternoons and evenings are spent working. Juanjo’s dad tells us several times a day, “¡cómo trabajáis!”, because we spend from 3 or 4 in the afternoon until well past any normal person’s bedtime working. Me on school and work, and Juanjo just work. We’re both so thankful to have jobs that let us do this–come visit the family here for a week and work from here (in my case) and for a month at a time (in Juanjo’s case)! This can’t last forever, so we sure are going to enjoy it while we have it!

Mirad en nuestro blog de la boda para ver las fotos del sitio, y un enlace a su propia página web. La recepción se celebrará en “El Cigarral de las Mercedes“, una localización preciosa con vistas espectaculares de Toledo. Pronto os daremos más detalles–visitad nuestras páginas de boda!

See our wedding blog for pictures of the place, and a link to the webpage. The party will happen at “El Cigarral de las Mercedes“, a beautiful place with spectacular views of Toledo. More details to come–check out our wedding page!

Juanjo and I both worked most of the day from home today, him downstairs in the “den” where he always works, me up in the living room camped out in an easy chair near the window. We took a break at 7:30 in the evening and went for a run under the pines. Our first run in a long time (since the 10k, I think!), and boy, did it feel good! I keep asking Juanjo why we haven’t been to this park in earlier trips! It started to rain as we ran, a slow drizzle, and Juanjo commented how much he loves the smell of new rain on dirt. I inhaled deeply, feeling my lungs pushed from not having been exercised this hard in weeks, and enjoying the smell of spring rain. We did three loops through the pines, enjoying more each time we rounded the hill the view of the sun dipping down against the horizon, casting a golden glow through the trees and illuminating the raindrops as they fell.

Here we are at the park yesterday (no new pictures today!):