Mike stole a sandwich tonight and now he’s afraid the hotel won’t give us a wake-up call.

As we left Margit’s apartment this morning, she asked “What are the chances your flight will get canceled?”

We laughed and said it was about the same as any other day, so 99.9% unlikely.

Well, apparently there was a part “missing from our plane and they couldn’t find it”, so our flight was canceled and we were put up in a hotel. We were rerouted again through JFK with a 6 hour layover, getting us home at 10pm Sunday. Through the magical internet, I went online and found a more direct flight through Amsterdam that gets us in at noon on Sunday, so we called America to have it changed. I had to play the America is the best! card and the these Spanish people don’t fucking understand us! card, but we got it changed without issue. I felt bad about my conduct, but I took a bath.

Mike and I went down to our comped buffet dinner and sat with the superstars of the flight (three overly-made-up middle-aged Spanish women and a med student who we identified in the airport as being “a good talker.”) At the end of the meal, Mike asked if we could take some bread and cheese for breakfast, since our flight left before breakfast started. They said no. Mike decided to go rogue and grab some bread and salami for a breakfast sandwich anyway, but the woman reminded him that it was not for taking away. He waited until the woman had her back turned, then grabbed the sandwiches and ran.

Shelly (the good talker) and I sat there and wondered if he was coming back. He didn’t. About 15 minutes later, they told us the place was closing and we had to leave. Mike was sweating when we got back, afraid that he had been followed. He hadn’t. He called reception and asked for a wake-up call. When he got off, he said, I’m afraid they know about the sandwiches and won’t give us a wake-up call.

I suppose we are all allowed our own kinds of insanity. We have, after all, been rerouted four times already and should have been home two days ago.

by Mike

We spent a day cutting reeds for a fence. My strategy was to cut a reed then launch it out like a javelin. Azure cut them all then dragged them out as a group.
More pictures inside!

(more photos!)

by Mike

Nothing but pretty pictures in this post.

(see more)

by Mike

Meet Sebastian Chabal (aka, Future Mike). He’s a French rugby player and the current ideal man in French advertising:

Chabal is almost “cheval” which means “horse” and “cheval” is close to “cheveux” which means “hair.” All of which is very manly.

Now you know what to expect from the pictures next winter.

I know it seems like we didn’t do a lot today, but we did. We drove all the way from our gite in Ota up to the north coast. We stopped in Calvi for lunch and found a place in Ile Rousse that we really like. We walked through the city and climbed up to the old tower. But in between, we took hundreds of photos of each other. Mike had more opportunities because I fell asleep on his lap on the boardwalk (Susan and Arnie, I almost have enough material for the calendar next year)(everyone else, Mike’s parents made a calendar of family members sleeping–Arnie and I made up the majority of the calendar).

Mike is hard to capture on film. When I try to take pictures of him, he gets really tense and either looks extremely militant or makes a really fake smile (see below)

or will have his eyes closed or something else equally unflattering…

I have taken some good ones of him throughout the trip though. I have learned that he sometimes looks normal if he is doing something else, or I can catch him off guard, or if he does his fake smile and I tease him (tub shot).

The side view has typically been the best for him, since he doesn’t have to look at the camera, but today I figured out a new trick. Get him talking about the things he likes best — scooters, riding scooters, Katie (the beagle next door to us in Seattle).

And of course, his all time favorite topic of the trip. You can’t tame it, but you can capture him saying it.

the H-A-W-K!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYVbKcqR1yk&hl=en&fs=1]