PICTURE TIME V

Today is, for once, a quiet Saturday at home cleaning up the house, the yard, finances, and our IT (another full-time job!) -- including the phone cam and other image files from the past many months. So here are some nice pix, recent and not so, that we did not otherwise get around to posting....



Sea dog? An, uh, interesting painting of HM King Juan Carlos, on
display at an artsy-fartsy ACM party during Act 4 here in Valencia in June.



Moving to Valencia: Leslie and Meg arriving Valencia Airport in July after closing down the house in Hamburg.



Apollo 13? BMW ORACLE's catering jefe, Sandra de la Mancha, fixing the first paella at our new home, and cooking her first paella ever -- with instructions over the phone from a friend. Sandra had graciously filled in during a party for the "regular" paella chef who had a last-minute conflict. Hate to see her mobile phone bill from that day, but the paella turned out great.



Small world: Christine Connelly and Meg say farewell to their mutual best friend, Sophie Kaiko, whose family has moved back to Perth. Meg and Sophie were born within a month of each other in San Diego. Last year Christine and Sophie met at the American School here in Valencia. Soon after we moved to Alfinach in July Meg met Christine, who lives just around the corner, and -- go figure -- now they, too, are best friends.



Modern conveniences: we may live in un pueblo pequeño, but this vending machine outside of a local farmacia is open for business 24/7 -- something you don't see everywhere, let alone in a largely Catholic country?