Terry's Weekly Email Newsletter; 14 Feb 10

Hi all,

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mike had his Editor-in-Chief interview for the Santa Clara Law Review last Friday and was told yesterday that he has the position! Today, he met the Managing Editor - Lara - and he and Lara and Santa Clara Law faculty participated in the election of the rest of the Board of Editors - total of 36 in all. It will be a lot of work, but Mike is very excited about it!

Jenn has secured the letters of recommendation that she needs to apply for summer internships. She's hoping to get something in Binghamton, as she is renting a house (a different house than the one she's living in now) for her senior year, and so she'll have a place to live there. Binghamton U has several internships available that sound interesting to her.

Joe and I have decided to take a long weekend and visit Mike during his "spring" break. It coincides with Joe's birthday - we did the same thing last year and had a good time. We got a good price on the airfare, although we have to fly the dreaded Continental! We did get most of the money back from the flight insurance that we paid for the Madrid trip - we also wrote to Continental customer service, but we haven't heard back from them. We'll be leaving Friday, 5 March, and flying back on Monday, 8 March. We're thinking of going to the Chalk Hill Winery one day for a wine tasting - rest assured that I will be tasting the Merlot!

The dishwasher is in - we're running it for the first time tonight! We'll let you know how quiet it is! It was a little effort, but not too bad. It looks very nice. Yesterday, we also bought a new refrigerator - NY State is running a "cash for appliance clunkers" that includes $105 rebate for refrigerators - when we were shopping for the disposer and tile for the counter backsplash, we found one - a Samsung - that we really liked the looks of, so we decided to go for it. We're getting it delivered on Friday. Joe had written to Kohler about the problems he had with our kitchen faucet, and they are sending us a kit and new bonnet (to replace the one that he dinged trying to get it off). So we're going to keep our faucet and just replace the sink, disposer, and backsplash. We'll also be looking for a new cooking range, but there's no big hurry on that.

Last full day in Madrid -

Sunday, 27 December, we spent several hours in El Rastro, Madrid's celebrated flea market (first picture). It was established in the Middle Ages and had its heyday during the 19th century. The stalls carry everything from new furniture to second-hand clothes. Mike bought a shirt-jacket, and I bought some scarves - 5, to be exact! (I think I had one on New Year's Eve.) I've actually been wearing mine at work - I've discovered that I love wearing scarves! Joe also bought a scarf, and Jenn picked up some gifts for friends. For our big meal we went to El Pabellon Del Espejo (second picture), as restaurant that we had passed many times during our walks. It is in the median of Paseo De Recoletos, and is surrounded by windows, so it was very fun to relax and watch the Madrilenos walking by! That night, we walked around the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Major for the last time - one thing that impressed me about Madrid was the beggars. They are different than, say, panhandlers in New York City. We saw two distinct types - those that dressed up in a costume (third picture, JC himself) and those that exposed their deformities. A couple of times I saw a man with both arms amputated - he was stripped to the waist and held the cup for money in his mouth. Across from our hotel was a small church and near the steps was a man who begged every morning and evening that we were there - he was missing one arm, and would arrange his clothing to expose his shoulder. Then he would rock back and forth while seated near the church and liltingly beg for money. His "song" was very unique - we commented near the end of our stay that we would recognize him anywhere! Most of the costumed beggars were comic book characters, but the Jesus Christ beggar was fairly unique - you can't tell from this picture, but his feet are not on the ground! He appears to be floating, and he blessed everyone that left him some money! The next day, Monday, we were off - got a shuttle to the Madrid airport and were back in Rochester that night.

So, in 2009 we had two great trips - Tokyo and Madrid! Joe and I are starting to plan our 2010 trip in October - for our 25th anniversary, we're thinking of southern Italy - Rome, Naples, and Sicily. It's still in the planning stages!

That's it - hope everyone is well.

Kind regards,

Terry