eerie door.

Most of the doors in the old Gothic quarter were covered with graffiti, and I kind of loved them.

This was engraved on the wall during our walking tour along of the old Jewish quarters of the Barri Gotic. You can make out "Palestine Libre" below.

Cool, weird building a block from our hotel. Can you see the wiring on top?

Can you see the top of the monument in the background? Success! This is down by the Port Vell, and it was extremely hot that day. About half an hour after this picture was taken we treated ourselves to popsicles which melted quickly and were very sticky.

Todd would like to apologize for the poor quality of both of the picture and his face.

We've been taking a lot of our joint pictures ourselves with mixed results.

La Sagrada Familia
One of the Gaudi sites we've visited that is definitely one of the most dramatic. Unfortunately, a lot of the sites we've visited appear to be under some kind of construction. We contemplated going inside, but decided to just take photos outside since there were seriously like a katrillion tourists buzzing around.

Rooftop.

Views from the rooftop deck/pool/bar of our very chichi hotel, Hotel Majestic. Our location is excellent. We love the bar up there, but were scared straight by the drink prices.

Barcelona!
It's the late afternoon/evening here in Barcelona. We have one full day left, and it's gone quickly. Our days have revolved around doing maybe one tourist site a day, then stopping somewhere and getting a snack and a drink, then napping for a few hours (!), then a late dinner. I love Spain, partly because they also love: bread, wine, olive oil, and relaxing. The food is rich enough that my stomach is kind of wrecked this afternoon, but I will suffer through! I think our favorite is the pan amb tomates (don't quote me on the language), which is basically thick sliced fresh bread, amply brushed with olive oil, and then topped with fresh tomato guts. It's yummy, and can accompany every meal. Besides the food, Barcelona is hands down beautiful. Today we did a walking tour throuh the old gothic area/roman area and the lanes and buildings are breathtaking. There's nothing like it Stateside. I love how you peer down a skinny lane and in the background you see a mountain or a building or a church steeple peeking out above, so photogenically.

Wed!
The wedding went off without a hitch on Saturday and Todd and I are officially married. Hooray! The ceremony itself was in my parents' front yard, and the weather was phenomenal: it was sunny but cool enough to be outside and kind of rare for August. The reception at the Chinese restaurant was full of food and I danced like crazy, not a little because I was so gleeful that 10 months of planning was finished.

Tonight we leave for the honeymoon, and now we can enjoy life as married people.

Thanks to Suzi for the pictures!

Yeah..
The wedding is like five days away. I'm in VA prepping and there is a lot to do. That's why I'd rather write about the movies that I've watched lately.

1. "Persepolis": As good as you'd expect! It synthesized both I and II of the books and the art was wonderful. I probably learned more about recent Iranian history than I had ever known before. Maybe that says more about my own ignorance, though. See it!

2. "My Kid Could Paint That": Also really good! For those who don't know, the story follows the adorable 4-year old moppet who rocked the art world with her paintings that people compared to the likes of Jackson Pollack. The doc originally started out as a look at the world of contemporary art and examining how people qualify art as valuable. But, then it turned into a really interesting whodunnit, since many began to question whether the kid was solely behind those paintings. Incredibly intriguing and I know that I was convinced that she didn't create many of the paintings attributed to her, although the filmmaker never really came down on any side. Oh, and her paintings were selling for tens of thousands.

3. "Manda Bala:" I just watched this documentary about crime and corruption in Brazil. All I know is that after watching it, I was convinced to cancel any imminent trips to Sao Paolo. Kidnappings for ransom occur once a day there, according to the film, and now the rich are *helicoptering* to and from their locations and buying bulletproof cars in order to escape the kidnappers.

4. "SubUrbia": This was on IFC the other day so I sat and watched the entire thing. I didn't like it at all, and I can dig some Richard Linklater, usually. Maybe it's because every single one of the characters was irritating. Maybe it was because it was full of ennui. Maybe because, as I discovered afterward, it was apparently originally a stage play put to screen (I actually commented to Todd while we watched it that it felt like the lines were being delivered as if it were a play), and I didn't expect that.

5. "Lars and the Real Girl": I will admit that I teared up at one point in this movie about a man's relationship with his Real Girl doll. Still, though, I felt like it dragged. I do love me some Ryan Gosling--even when he's kind of puffy and wears an 80s moustache.

Suitably impressed
Last night, Todd's friend, Brian, got married to his new bride, Cary. We attended the wedding which was in the Ravenswood area in Chicago and was held at a store called Architectural Artifacts.
What a beautiful venue. It's a large building with huge ceilings and various open floors and it's filled with various statues, signs, columns. They got married in the courtyard surrounded by enormous stone statues. It was lovely! It was enhanced by the rumble of the el over the ceremony and the dudes hanging out in the stairwell of the neighboring apartment drinking beers and watching the festivities.

My world has shaken
Has anyone seen the promos for the new "90210?" There's a shot of a young man that Todd and I realized was Michael from "The Wire!"I'm glad that the actor is working, but damn.

Happy Birthday, Daddio!

Happy Birthday, Little Brother!

Listless
Blah: I don't want to do anything. I don't really have an excuse since I am mostly off this summer. As the wedding presses ever closer, though, I feel: annoyed. And full of ennui. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to be married, and am excited to get married, but am not excited to plan for the stupid wedding. I have a terribly bad attitude right now, and hopefully a good work out will cleanse me.

But, isn't it funny that I feel listless, and the reason why is because I am surrounded by lists (to do, mental, etc)?

Wow!
How awesome is this picture? And how awesome is the news that our Hillary (pictured here) won the Alexander Graham Bell Association of the Deaf 2008 Rookie of the Year award???
This picture is from the article that tells all about it in the Australian newspaper Adelaide Now (Hillary works in Adelaide right now).

I knew her when.