tgif/happy birthday, claudia!

And what a happy Friday it is. Big Jim will be here, in this house, in 12 hours. Yay! Que locura will take place when he steps through the front door and little Mr. Beebs first sees him. And the precious Boo for that matter will be jumping in circles and wiggling her butt, her signature happy greeting. C.K. will most likely crawl out from the pantry, her latest hideout, give Big Jim a staccato "mew", sort of a "hey, what's up?", and then continue on to the kitchen in hope of having her food dish refilled. I'll keep the bucket and mop handy for Mr. Beebs, who tends to have a leaky bladder when tremendously excited. Can't wait. :-) The air this morning is decidedly fresh. I believe the fall has seriously arrived this time. Showers are forecast for tomorrow and next week; the temperature is going to be 10 degrees (F) cooler as well. I welcome the change....it's the 8th of October, and I'm still running around in capri pants and flipflops. It's time to pull out a sweater or two and put on some socks! The autumnal sunsets are some of my favorite here. I usually take the pups out for their evening walk in time to watch sun disappear over Corumbela. There is a bit of waste ground at the top of the street above our house that offers a particularly good view. The fall palette is muted pastels, rosy orange pinks and the softest blues. As late November and December approach, the tones become more bold, more fiery. People here still talk about one December sunset from two years ago, which Big Jim and I happened to miss because we were in the US at the time. I have seen many photos though, and it must have been spectacular to witness in person. The sky was red, I mean seriously red, all around, just absolutely on fire. I'm told everyone stopped what they were doing to come outside, on the terraces, to watch. Reason #2358 why I love living here. A quick happy birthday to my good friend Claudia! She's an old friend from college days, when tuitions were still less than $20,000 a year. It's been too long since I've seen her, 2 years! But Claud, only a couple months until my next visit, and then I can finally meet little Abby. :-) Hope everyone has a nice weekend....next post will be from my new laptop! hasta pronto, mylifeinspain