For the most part, the flight from Madrid to Philly was uneventful, even nice. Because the flight was virtually empty, I had my own row of 2 seats, so I could stand, move, and spread out as I wished. Since our flight was expected to land at 3:35 ET, I stayed awake and watched several movies and tv shows then jotted some notes down in my journal. The airline remembered my vegan meal (sorry, Mom), and I was fed and warm and happy to be seeing my family soon. At 3:00ish the flig

One of the ways that C and I were preparing ourselves for living in Spain was to watch a whole lot of travel videos on YouTube. A few months back, we got rid of cable, save for our Apple TV. As such, we have very few channels to watch live television, but we can watch as many YouTube videos as we'd like. Initially we'd search for videos about Valencia, and we'd watch vloggers talk about a typical day in Valencia. However, we also stumbled across a guy who writes travel guides

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was going to video a little of my morning walk, and I actually hit the record button this time. Unfortunately, it is baaaaddddd and I don't want to give you all horrible vertigo. Rather than sending you running for Zofran, I'll shelve the video and explain a little bit of pedestrian etiquette. There are 5 primary ways to get around Valencia: metro, bus, car, walking, and bike. The metro is great: clean, timely, and usefully-situated. I took it to

Today, #1 turns 18. I'm in total disbelief that he is a legal adult and have already tried to intervene in at least 2 "bad" decisions that he's made this morning. However, I'm working hard to let him forge his own way. Half-way through the first "Don't do...." lecture, I stopped myself and said, "It's up to you...you have to be responsible for yourself and your choices." Of course, 3 minutes later when the second issue came up, I forgot those words and began spewing unasked f

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers and warm wishes on Friday; everything went very well. I was on the table for less than 30 minutes, and after 8 years with the port, the PA was impressed by how easy it was to remove. I'm a bit sore, but the pain is manageable without so much as an Aleve. This is precisely why I'm aggravated that I'm having such a difficult time getting my thoughts out today. Typically I can put two or three sentences down and I can weave these dispa

Earlier in the week I mentioned that I'm a planner. In the age of the internet and smartphones, it's been easy to have access to information that, even 10 years ago, would have required months of digging and years of community building, with a good dose of luck for meeting the right contacts thrown in. However, in the 10 months since we began this process in earnest, I've found some of the most fascinating apps and sites and I'm going to do a quick roundup of my favorites. L