Espana bound!

It's almost surreal that in about 36 hours I will be in Barcelona looking at Picasso paintings, strolling through the small streets of the city and drinking fabulous Spanish wine. You know sometimes when you are going somewhere you can imagine yourself actually there, but for some reason this time it's almost like a dream. I can't believe that our big trip to Spain is finally here!

I will be in Spain for about two weeks and I know that it will definitely fly by, but while you guys are sitting at your computers you can dream about me sitting at a Spanish cafe, drinking wine and listening to a Spanish guitarist (if any of you watched Vicky Christina, you will know exactly what I'm talking about). But don't worry, I will try and keep you guys updated while I'm there with lots of pictures, in depth descriptions of the awesome food and the adventures of me and 5 other girls.

Woo! Hoo!

I'm off to Spain!

No puedo esperar para ir a España

okay okay, so I had to go to some English-Spanish website to look up what I wanted to say, which is "I can't wait to go to Spain!" but that doesn't mean my Spanish words of the day aren't helping me out. Just watch! I'll be the most fluent Spanish-speaking Filipino you will ever know. 

16 days and counting...

I think I can still achieve losing 20 lbs. before I go, right? I mean the only reason why I would want to lose 20 lbs is so I can eat all I can in Spain. Isn't that why people want to lose weight? So that they can eat all they can? Hmmm...maybe it's just me.

Anyways, our itinerary is set...FINALLY! Barcelona for a couple of days. Then head down to Denia for a couple of days. Take the coastal tour train down to Alicante and spend the night there. Head back to Denia for the day and then on to Valencia for some socializing. From there Erin and Katie will leave us and the rest of us will spend our last days in Denia before heading home. We'll be there for 12 days. For some reason, 12 days sounds so long when you are here working, but 12 days sounds so short when you are on vacation. 

This trip seems to be coming up at the right time in my life. A much needed break from all the stress both personally and work-related and my last chance before the weather gets cold to hit up the beach. But not just any beach...the nude beach! The sun is going to shine on places my body has never seen before. 

15 days and counting...

Salud!

As most of you know, I'm planning a trip to Spain with 5 girlfriends this September. My aunt is renting a villa in Denia, Spain for a month and invited people to come visit her, so we are making the trek to Denia! As a birthday gift, Maggie got us a Mediterranean cooking class at Whole Foods to prepare us for the Spanish cuisine.

The Menu:

Moroccan Phyllo Cups and Spanikopita with Almonds, Raisins, Carrots, & Chicken
Artichoke Salad with Roasted Red Peppers & Herbed Goat Cheese
Grilled Sea Bass (we actually used Grouper because Sea Bass wasn't in season) with Capers, Charred Tomatoes, & Saffron Rice
Lemon Panna Cotta & Macerated Berries



Maggie's famous rice!



Our Lemon Panna Cotta that never got to settle because it takes 6 hours! We still ate it and it was soupy and delish!



Artichoke Salad



My plate full of yummy food! Look at those caper berries...YUM-O!

Thanks Maggie for an awesome gift! Can't wait to eat in Espana and will of course post about our anticipated trip. We are arriving in Barcelona and will stay a couple of nights and then head down to Denia, in the Costa Blanca region. We will then explore the Costa Blanca region visiting Alicante and Valencia.

Where is Rocky now?

We had to some research on squirrels for one of our clients at work and we came across this video...hilarious! Another sad episode of a child actor gone completely wrong...

Listen to the Music

AAH!! Summer! A time for fun in the sun, hanging out with friends, playing drinking games...well that's really year round for me, BUT, I love summer because that's when all the artists tour and play their oh-so-awesome music!

Today, I bought my tickets to see Ray Lamontagne! I have never seen him in concert before and I'm pretty pumped about it. Although, it's in October, I still just have that summertime music feeling!

I have acquired some new music this year...The Bridges, Modern Skirts, Paolo Nutini, Amos Lee (who by the way is my obsession of the moment because of his song "Arms of a Woman" and I just got tickets to see him Aug. 5 at Variety Playhouse). I would really like to thank Richard for opening my eyes to other music besides Ben, Jack and Ray. I had no idea that there were other artists out there who could really capture me.

If you don't know who The Bridges are, then you are definitely missing out...think all-girl band (well except for one guy) from Alabama who wear boots!! My kind of girls! Some of us went to see them at Variety Playhouse a couple of months ago...



The Modern Skirts are a local band from Athens and I'm sad that I wasn't able to see them when they were here..it was actually the same weekend as The Bridges. That weekend was definitely a music-filled weekend because I saw Blue Traveler and Drivin n Cryin that Saturday night.

Oh and Paolo, when will I get to see him? Who knows...he is touring in Europe and apparently I missed him while he was touring here in the States. I guess I wasn't a big fan of him until after he left..sadness. Why didn't I become obsessed with him while he was here? Now, if I could just get tickets to see Jack Johnson!!

Is God trying to tell me something? (recap)

I think God is trying to tell me something...He is telling me that I'm an idiot! So, I was just checking the url address for this Mega Bible website and I was typing in http://ppellicer.blogpsot.com (notice the misspelling of blogspot). Now that I know what God was really trying to tell me, I'm wondering why this Mega Bible website chose my url address with blogspot misspelled...interesting...

Is God trying to tell me something?

Am I doing something wrong in my life that God doesn't approve of? Maybe... probably. For some reason, when I type in my blog address it seems to go to this Mega Bible website, but then when I type it in a second time it goes directly to my blog. Is God trying to tell you guys something too or is it just me?

2008 Peachtree Road Race

The Peachtree Road Race is a time-honored tradition in Atlanta that honestly I never really had any ambition to do (even though I've lived here all my life!), but since you know I'm a runner and all now, it was really exciting for me to be a part of all this. The Peachtree is a 10K starting at Lenox Mall in Buckhead and usually finishes at Piedmont Park, but this year the finish line was on Juniper Street because of the drought. So the hot topic of this year's race was the new finish and of course the shirt! Can't forget the shirt!

If you know how I am, I am a HUGE procrastinator and I was an even bigger procrastinator trying to train for the Peachtree!! Let's just say my post about wanting to keep running after the Cooper River Bridge Run...umm yea, that was probably the last time I ran. So, my training started on Monday....June 30, with a somewhat run/walk of 3 miles with Maggie and then on Wednesday I ran a mile..on the treadmill...haha! I thought I was definitely going to die on Friday. I just pictured myself on a stretcher on my way to Piedmont Hospital and then the next day seeing myself in the hospital bed in the AJC! But, I was optimistic and told myself that if I had as much adrenaline as I did on the day of the Bridge Run, then I should be fine...hopefully...

Friday morning came around and I had to get up at 5AM to get to Matt's house at 6. The last time I got up that early was...yea, you guessed it...the Bridge Run; although this time I went to bed at 11:30 the night before instead of 2AM! Anyways, I was feeling pretty good that morning–not too nervous–and all I really wanted to achieve that day was to beat my Bridge Run time of 1:14 and that I did! Maggie and I ran it in 1:06...probably 1:08 if we didn't cut in line (we probably started a little under .2 of a mile) at the start of the race, but it was definitely worth it because Matt didn't start running until an hour after we started running.

At the end of the race, we grabbed our coveted Peachtree shirts, which by the way I wasn't very impressed with. I grabbed this image from ajc.com. The model wasn't very impressed either! I think I will come up with a design for next year's shirt and maybe even run it under an hour, but then again I did say that I would keep running after the Bridge Run and that didn't go so well. I'm probably still on a high from finishing. I'll let you know after a couple of weeks.