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Ruffing it in the Basque Country with Victor and Lola.

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so, everyone pretends to get in a physical altercation with their spouse to see whose side the dogs take, right?

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Another one bites the dust. RIP Moka Pot   Feb - April, 2016

“You were adequate.”

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Republicans presidential candidates FINALLY answer the question, “How big is IT?”

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THINGS NARCIS DID #45:

Did laundry for the first time in months. Somehow managed to wash a kneaded eraser (?) in his pajama pants pocket (???). It melted--but only on my stuff, of course. Currently scraping gray “gum” off my clothes/out of the washer.

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The viral videos I am most interested in watching will ALWAYS be unlikely animal friendships, but isn't it time to retire lead-ins like “An orphaned beagle was introduced to a mother lion AND YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.” From experience, I'd guess that the lion nursed the beagle like her own baby and there are probably dozens of adorable photographs and possibly a video montage to prove it. The thing that would be totally unexpected is if the lion had eaten the puppy and a video about it went viral.

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Smell yah later, JEB!

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Happy Anniversary, baby !  

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904. David Bowie – Space Oddity

In grade school I played on a little league team. Our games were Saturday mornings, and my Dad would drive me early for the warm-up practice before the rest of the family showed up at game time. Riding alone with him those mornings are some of the only times I remember being with just him. Normally we’d stop for a sausage mcmuffin on our way, and my forever-nervous stomach would barely allow me to choke down a few bites before I’d pass the rest to him.

My Dad was the first music aficionado I knew in life. The Stones, Zeppelin, Floyd, and Hendrix; the soundtrack of my childhood was classic rock. In the car he listened almost exclusively to Chicago’s 105.9 WCKG, and somehow these mornings together, we’d almost always catch David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” In my head, it kind of became “our song.” Despite being a mediocre player at best, the last thing my dad would say to me before I got out of the car was “Give ‘em hell, kid” and give me a little knock in the shoulder.

I lost my Dad exactly 27 years ago this day, on January 12, 1989. I was just 11 then, and even though now I’ve lived more years of my life without him than with him, hearing “Space Oddity” has always made me feel that he was still close, just floating a little bit beyond the clouds while I manned ground control at home. So, thank you for that David Bowie. I’ll be forever grateful for this amazing connection you’ve afforded me all these years. Miss you, Dad. xoxo

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A little cosmic kismet that’s inspired a bit of spillover from my other Tumblr...

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*wishing there was a way to turn off notifications from THIS game*

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My favorite time of year! When I get to explain all of the incredibly odd Christmas traditions of Catalonia! Please meet Caga Tió, et al.

Caga Tió, which roughly translates as "Uncle Poop,” is the primary bringer of presents on Christmas day. (The Three Kings arrive a little later, on January 6th, and bring the bulk of Christmas gifts.) The Caga Tió makes an appearance in homes every year on the 8th of December, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Children keep the log as a pet until Christmas, keeping him warm (wrapped in a blanket) and fed (usually fruit like oranges and apples). As Christmas nears, the Tió grows! There is no such thing as a growing log, of course; the parents actually replace the logs every few days with larger ones. And then on Christmas morning, the children sing a special song while beating the Tió with a stick, and then pull back the blanket to reveal the gifts that he has pooped! 

These are a handful of Tiós I made for the Patisserie Masvidal’s holiday decorations this year. The last guy is a huge (more traditional looking) Tió in a nearby town’s square. Local kids have even been bringing him fruit to eat.

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I’m generally pretty diplomatic in my debating, but when the situation necessitates I can definitely bring the stupid. 

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I’m back in Chicago for the holidays and a handful of recent mass shootings in the US have led to some pretty intense Facebook debates, which OF COURSE have procured this little gem of reasoning.   This car metaphor has existed since the very beginning of the debate on guns and has always bothered me because: 

1. If a car is unsafe/dangerous to operate safely, they are generally recalled. 

2. If a driver is found to be reckless/unfit to drive, they are generally ticketed, suspended, or have their license revoked. 

3. To be granted a driver’s license, you must first pass a written test, a supervised driving test, and a vision test. And then every few years you have to renew this license, and retake any/all of these tests based on any infractions you may have incurred in the preceding years. Elderly drivers are required to renew licenses annually to insure they are still fit to drive safely. Your car is also subject to routine tests to insure it is in safe working order. 

4. The intended purpose of cars is to take you from one place to another. Yes, sometimes accidents occur, but no one WANTS to be in a car accident. Bathtubs are intended for bathing, but every year people slip and die in them too. (But obviously no one believes bathtubs should be banned.) The intended purpose of a gun is to kill, or at the very least injure the intended target; be it animal, intruder, or innocent civilian. When you point a gun at someone, you intend to harm them in some way. 

Personally, I think most Americans would be more than satisfied if the same rigorous licensing procedures were extended to gun ownership. You need a valid drivers license to purchase a car. I think prospective gun owners should need to fulfill a minimum of 20 hours in gun safety instruction before being able to obtain a gun. I also believe that all handguns should be sold in locked boxes to insure that every new gun owner has a place to safely store their gun. I think most responsible gun owners would agree that these are pretty reasonable prerequisites?

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Things Narcis Did #357: Remembered to lock the front door tonight. Forgot to CLOSE the front door before locking it.

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THINGS NARCIS DID #157:

Said he was going to the gym. Was gone for 3 hours. Came home with a new haircut and a pastry box full of bath bombs. Never made it to the gym.

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here comes the sun again

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Congratulations. You sat near a person different than you on a train. Thank you for sharing about it on the internet so we can all know what a good person you are. 

Sorry, I know I’m being cynical here, but bear with me for a moment while I try to make my labored point. My question is, what was the intention of this post? To inspire others, teachable moments-style? Or to find internet validation for being a decent person? (Also, can we agree that the act of sitting adjacent to someone different than you on a train in and of itself really doesn’t rate especially high on the scale of kindness?)

More importantly, was this really even the poster's story to share? What about this woman in the covert camera pic that’s been included. Did he ever consider that maybe she didn’t want to be a part of this viral attention grab? He writes #DontJudgeBytheBooksCover but then was very quick to include a photo so we knew just what type of cover we were talking about here.

It’s one thing if you are on the receiving end of a kind act, and you want to share about it on social media. But if you’re the person performing the act and you share, it’s basically just another duck-face selfie on the internet, right?

MY POINT: Hey, let’s just all be nice to each other all the time, even if we don’t get any recognition for our actions. Let’s collect our “thumbs ups” in the form of good karma. Also, my apologies to this dude for singling out his post to make my point. Just scrolling through the internet today I thought, “Wow, it’s really convenient that every time someone helps a homeless person or a wounded deer, there always happens to be a camera recording.” So, just to be clear, even though I don’t fully comprehend what Dante hoped to achieve by putting this out there, I fully support his actions and if I was on that train too, I’d have joined them both (but mostly because fuck standing.)

Who knows, maybe he had totally pure motives. Maybe he really does believe that kindness is contagious and can result in a chain reaction of good deeds. Maybe the majority of social media humble bragging do-gooders do. I really hope that’s the case. Because all I see is next week’s human interest line-up on Ellen.