More pictures- -part 2

Apparently there is a limit of how many pictures you can use in one post. So this is a continuation of the last post.
Elida and me in front of Drumheller Fountain.

Elida and me driving around in my car.

So that's it for pictures. We hung out at the UW campus for a little while, then went to the Bellevue Square Mall. On Friday I met her and Jerome (along with a friend of hers and a couple of friends of his) at Beso del Sol for some salsa dancing, but I left my camera in the car. That was a lot of fun, too. Essentially, then, much fun was had in little time - because that was all we had. Although we didn't have long together and it would have been nice to be able to spend more time with Elida, I am thankful for the time that we did have.

I realize that this post has basically just been pictures- but hey - I'm in the midst of Post-Finals-Crash - you guys should be grateful that I'm posting at all.

So in closing, it's midnight and I work at 5:30 am, so I'm closing. Bye.

More pictures

Okay, people, so I'm finally posting pics of my time with Elida. Due to our schedules, we didn't get to spend a lot of time together. But she flew in on Thursday, May 18, and after touring downtown Seattle with Jerome, they picked me up near the UW campus so we could all have lunch together.

Elida! I took this picture of her right after they picked me up.
Elida and Jerome in the sushi restaurant.
Elida and me in the sushi restaurant. This is Suzzallo Library, one of the two main UW libraries, and Red Square (although it doesn't look very red and it isn't at all related to communism).
This is the quad. A couple of months ago the trees were covered with cherry blossoms. However, I don't have a picture of that.Another picture of Red Square. Still not red or communist.

Pictures

I rarely take pictures anymore. The days where I would take 30 meaningless pictures without even thinking twice about it (which is, incidentally, how ninjas do most things), are long gone. However, I do take pictures when I have a good reason, such as today. ELIDA IS HERE! It's so crazy, and I'm so excited - even though this is the worst possible weekend of the year for me. I'm meeting up with her and Jerome in about an hour and a half.

Consequently, I charged up my batteries and brought my camera with me to school. And guess what - I have more pictures from my trip to Madrid. I just forgot to put them on my laptop. So here are some from my last few days there.

Ahhh, the Wonderfully Minging Casa Mingo. Matt was trying to pour sidra like the Spaniards, but most of it wound up on the floor. Bless.

This was in the Gatwick Airport. I feel very strongly that there is something inherently wrong with the entire concept. This may be a clue to the origins of the stereotype of Brits having bad teeth.

Ahh, yes. My lovely stay at the exquisite Chez Gatwick. I think I was there for about 15 hours? Luckily for me, it only felt like 15 years...

Well, there you have it, folks. A few more pictures for ya. Maybe someday I'll post daily pics again, who knows. I will definitely be posting some pics of me with my old roomie in the next few days. Hooray!

Visitation or infestation?

Two days ago, I found what I thought was a large beetle in my bedroom. Now, insects are not generally something that I enjoy, but they don't cause me to run screaming from the room either. On this occasion, I decided to capture it and set it free on my balcony. But before you start to think that I 'm one of those really humane people that couldn't stand to hurt a fly, I'm not. I would kill a fly. I had two reasons for not stomping this particular bug. First of all, it was quite large- I don't mind squishing bugs, but I'm not particularly fond of hearing them crunch. Second of all, it was lying on its back unable to go anywhere, so the old glass & paper trick was a cinch (You know the one, you put a glass on top of the bug and then gradually slide the glass sideways until it and the bug are on top of a piece of paper, and presto - your bug is contained!

Once I had the little bugger trapped, I took pictures. I'm sure this does not come as a surprise to anyone, as that is typically my reaction in any situation. A few examples? I hit my head quite hard, it was bleeding and I had a mild concussion, so I felt that the logical course of action was- to take pictures. The bus doors closed on my friend Kelly's backpack and she couldn't get it free, so being the helpful friend that I am- I took pictures. At a fondue party, the fondue pot caught on fire- you guessed it- I took pictures. But I digress. Back to the story at hand.

Yet again, my fetish for taking pictures has come in handy. The next day, I showed my friend Kelly the picture of this "beetle" that I found. She told me it was a cockroach. I fainted. No not really, but the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I felt a little queasy. I realized that the chances of that being the only roach in the flat were slim to none. We don't have cockroaches where I grew up, which is why I was unable to identify it. Last summer, however, I had ants in my flat- little red ants. I had them for about a month and a half. When my landlords started receiving reports of ants on the premises, they decided to spray the perimeter- that only made things worse. Instead of being repelled from the building, they swarmed inside in an effort to get away from the sprayed area. Not fun. So then we were given ant traps. This helped a little, but they never totally went away.

At any rate, the concept of a roach infestation does not exactly warm my heart. My roommate, Elida, is convinced that it was one of our neighbor's roaches that sneaked in the front door. I hope she's right. This was the first time we'd seen a roach and it was full-grown. We're not taking any chances, though. We bought roach traps today and set them up in our flat. Hopefully we won't see any more of them.