Monday, June 11, 2012

The weekend started off on a sour note.  Rachel phoned us to tell us that she had to put down Barak, one of her two dogs.  He seemed very lethargic in the morning so Rachel took him to the vet who determined that he needed surgery and when they opened him up the vet suggested to Rachel that the best course of action was to let him sleep forever.  Let’s hope that this will be the last bit of bad news that will affect Rachel for many years to come.

Soon after Rachel’s phone call we noticed that the temperature in the refrigerator was rising rapidly and when we tried to reset it the refrigerator heaved its last sigh.  The freezer was still working, but that was the extent of the good news.  We called Miguel who has purchased a new fridge for us that will be delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday.  We have turned our fridge into an icebox and will not have to dispose of too many items.

I am still taking it easy with my knee and trying not to do too much.  There has been noticeable improvement and I now have more flexion than I have had in a long time.  For the time being, I have stopped taking Advil, but I am still using ice and elevation as a precaution.

Zahava and Klaus joined us for dinner on Saturday night.  They had recently returned from an extended stay in Canada where Zahava spent some time with her daughter and saw some patients and Klaus did some teaching. The bottom line is they were glad to be back home in Valencia.  Susan prepared a very refreshing salad with a medley of salad vegetables and orange slices.  Our main course was from The Silver Palate Cookbook and it was a pasta topped with a sauce of fresh chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic and Brie.  It was delicious.  Dessert was a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with fresh pitted cherries and accompanied by almond cookies.  At 10:00 they along with Susan made their way to the corner bar to watch the end of the Germany-Portugal soccer match.

Yesterday we had lunch at A Nou.  We started with a bowl of clóchinas and then enjoyed a seafood fideuá.  We had fresh fruit for dessert and then we enjoyed a leisurely coffee.  Javi poured us a chupito and we lingered a bit before we headed back home.

In the evening we decided to take in a film at the Yelmo Cines.  The film is entitled Y si todos vivimos juntos (And if We All Lived Together) and it is a French film that stars Jane Fonda and Geraldine Chaplin among others.  It deals with the problem of growing old and the quality of one’s later years.  The trailer that we saw made it look like a comedy, but it is far from that.  It is an enjoyable watch, but it is far from being a great film.  Although we took a cab to get to the theater we walked home.  We watched TV until midnight and then we went to bed.