Shall we dance?

Saturday Josh and I took our second Milonga Lisa workshop. It's a great deal of fun. Our Argentine Tango teachers, Domenico and Paula, teach it. They're are great. For those who don't know the Milonga is similar to the Argentine Tango, but faster. From what I understand it is more basic and came before the Argentine Tango. I believe that the Argentine Tango has it's roots in the Milonga, but I could be wrong about that. I tried to insert some videos from YouTube of our dance instructors doing the Milonga in the upper right side bar. Hopefully, it worked. You should be able to click on it and the youtube video will pop up. This will give you an idea of what the Milonga is like.
Josh and I attended both the beginner and intermediate classes. So, our schedule was: 3:30-5:00 beginner class, 5:15-6;15 Milonga/Argentine Tango guided practice, 6:30 - 8:00 intermediate class and then 8:30 celebrating Paola's birthday (food and drinks provided to all who wished to attend). We stayed for it ALL! My legs and feet were so sore, even Josh complained about his leg being sore and that's saying something for him. We learned a lot and we had fun though we were exhausted by the end of the night. There is a tradition among Tango dancers that the birthday girl/boy has to dance with everyone in the room. So, they got out a mop and you would pass the mop to the next person to dance with Paola, the birthday girl. When you had the mop you could cut-in on the dance and then the next person would cut-in on you after a few minutes. Josh didn't want to participate - he hates dancing in front of people, but he was a good sport and did it and he did a great job. I, on the other hand, did a lousy job! When her new partner cuts-in Paola has no choice whether she leads or follows (does the man's or woman's part). Of course, i made her lead because I don't know how to lead to save my life. After our 3 minute dance I realized I also had no idea how to follow either, but oh well! As the
party was progressing we both were so tired we didn't really feel like Tangoing and it was nice talking with people and getting to know them a little better, but you know that point when you're tired and all you want to do is go home, but you can't find a way to leave without seeming rude? that was where Josh and I were for most of the night. It wasn't that we didn't like the people at the party and it was enjoyable, we just wanted to go home, see our puppy, and relax. We didn't want to have to think about making polite conversation or what the next dance step was. Thankfully, after we had Tangoed with Paola we thought we could make out escape without being rude....but, no they then brought out a birthday cake. So, of course we stayed a bit longer. Can I just ask, what is the deal with cakes with no frosting here? There were 2 different cakes and neither one of them had frosting, they were just the plain old cake? what's that about? In my humble opinion, the frosting is the best part of the cake! but maybe I'm just spoiled because my mom made the world's best frosting. Yet, I digress. After the singing, everyone sang in English, then individual people sang in: Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Polish, Swedish, and Russian. I think I got 'em all! It was very nice. Luckily, after the cake was finished we chatted for a few minutes then made our escape. Whew! It was 10:30 p.m. by that time. 7 hours of dancing is enough for anyone. But, I think that we are better Milonga dancers now. We just have to try and force ourselves to practice at home. Does anyone else do that? They take a class or participate in an event and have tons of fun, yet you never practice it at home. It's not as though you actively try to avoid doing it you just don't think about it until the next class, or next event and then you think, "Gosh, I really should have practiced that. I barely remember what I'm supposed to do!" Hopefully, we're not the only ones out there who do this.....

A few small accomplishments

So, this weekend turned out to be a quiet weekend at, again, despite the fact that we had planned a busy weekend. We were going to go to a Milonga dance workshop on Saturday. The Milonga is, apparently, the simpler, faster dance that spawned the Argentine Tango. Our Tango teachers run these workshops every few months or so. I will digress here for a moment to gush over our Tango teachers, Paola and Domenico. I love them. They are just too cute and they think we're a step ahead of the rest of the class - at least my cutie Domenico does. I told Josh at our Friday night class that I wanted to give Domenico kisses. You might think this sounds like a strange comment to make to your husband about another man, but what I meant was those three little air kisses that Europeans always give each other in greeting and farewell. I always feel excepted when Europeans give me these little air kisses. Even though I know that they don't really mean anything here because people do it all the time, it's like a handshake, but I feel very European when I get a chance to give kisses! I know, I'm a dork, what can I say?
So, it turns out Paola's mother's sick so the workshop was canceled - postponed till next Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes (if I remember to post, that is). So that left Saturday open. So, we did a bunch of cleaning and rearranging and I knit a Christmas stocking for Josh! Isn't it soooo cute? I think it's adorable. I had to make it out of random yarn I had left or, thus the sort of random stripeyness - but I like it. When I added the lighter blue color I had a few misgivings because it suddenly became highly reminiscent of Hiram College's colors of red and Columbia blue (read powder blue) all that this little baby needs now to become an official Hiram stocking is to attach a little Terrier in a "Columbia" blue sweater vest!
Doesn't it look so perfect hanging by the fire? Now I just need to make one for myself.
So, that pretty much covers Saturday. Sunday we had planned to splurge by attending a Wine and Food fair in Villeneuve, Switzerland. It's about an hours drive on the opposite side of lake Geneva (or Lac Leman as it is known to the Swiss -which begs the question why do the English change the names of everything? Like English people can't say Leman? It's absurd...). Unfortunately, when I called half way through the week to reserve our tickets for this glutton fest I was informed it was full. Boohoo, I was so looking forward to strolling through the old city of Villeneuve where we would stop at 10 different locations and sample a variety of foods and wines at each place. Next year we are signing up well in advance. So, instead of a fun "European" wine and food orgy we hung out at home with a roaring fire all day. It was fairly cold, so maybe we were better off missing the festival - yeah, keep telling yourself that maybe some day you'll believe it! Instead I spent most of my day like this. Isn't Ally just the
cutest thing ever? Don't be jealous. I know she's the most adorable dog alive, but that doesn't mean your dog isn't cute too...just not as adorably cute as mine.
And this is the, "OK, stop taking pictures of me while I'm lying around like a sloth looking scuzzy and unkempt." You know you have given that look to your spouse before - or maybe you were the one receiving it! I did do a bit more than snuggle on the couch with Ally and a book. I made my first attempt at making Ratatouille - sort of vegetable soup popular in Provence. I figured while in France we should make some sort of effort to eat like the French. It turned out pretty well, although it's less like soup and more like large chunks of vegetables in very little liquid. Nonetheless is was eatable and I think we'll make it again.
Well, I know this has been incredibly exciting for you so I will leave you with a few pictures of my other great accomplishment of last week - pictures of my finished shawl! Yay! It only took me 7 months to make - oi vay.

Here's an extreme close-up so you can see the lace pattern. Here I am displaying my shawl.

Yes, that is Mickey mouse on my butt, and yes, I am still wearing my pajamas at 1:30pm on a Monday. Hey, don't get upset with me just because I have no social life. Not everyone is cut out for a life of slothfulness, a life devoid of human contact but full of doggy breathe. I'm sorry, I'm just lucky that way - truly, it's not my fault. Well, have a good day and I'll try to be better about posting for those desperate to read about my amazing life- ha, ha, ha