Jamie Wakefield

Wendy likes to host parties. Luckily, after decades of not even going to parties, I find that I also like to have people over and play host. So, this year we hosted Thanksgiving in Madrid. We can have it whenever the hell we want, because (you may not know this) but they don’t actually celebrate Thanksgiving here! They’ll take two weeks off to celebrate a Saint’s birthday and a weeklong festival to revel in the glory that is the first onion harvest of the season but can’t be bothered to kill a bird in honor of being shown how to grow corn by the… This is going nowhere. I’m trying to pretend to be ignorant of the fact that it’s solely an American holiday and I clearly haven’t had enough caffeine to make that amusing. Fail! Let’s move along shall we? Turkey is quite popular in Spain but if you want to roast a whole turkey you need to special order it. We check a few butchers and they all assure us it is no problem. We settle on the nearest butcher that just happens to have the nicest peo...

The airlines deserve to go out of business. Because they are insane. Having worked at an Inn in the past, I know how things work. If the room is empty, that equals zero dollars. If someone comes in at three in the morning and wants a nice room, you can sell them the bridal suite for sixty bucks and make a profit. See, I know this is hard to comprehend, because math is hard, but sixty bucks is greater than zero bucks. It doesn’t matter that the bridal suite usually rents for over two hundred bucks. 60 > 0. Airlines have some insane business practices that I will never understand. It seems like they want to go out of business. For those of you who do not fly often, let me enlighten you to some of the crazy things they consider smart business practices. It costs more to fly ONE-WAY to Madrid than it does to fly round trip to Madrid and back again. Actually, it is cheaper to fly round trip ANYWHERE than it is to fly one-way. How does this make any business sense at all? When I flew from...

I'm actually starting to make a small amount of money off the "Project Wonderful" ads on the side, so thank you to those people who have been clicking them!

I think I mentioned that Wendy and I have joined a gym. I look forward to going every day. Much like traveling to Europe and seeing the world, I did not know that I needed it, but I do. It feels fantastic to be working out again. After three weeks I am finally to the point where I have to push myself very hard to be sore the next day. I am sore today, but not horribly so. I used to work out with a couple people over the years in college. My last workout partner in college was Doug Shepardson, the man watching my house and dogs in Vermont right now. We are of similar, slender, wiry builds. No matter how much we worked out, we got more cut and the weights went up but we didn’t get bigger. We didn’t bulk up like we wanted. After months of this we approached our friend Lloyd who was an extremely nice, powerful, squat, incredible dancer and also Vermont State Champion in amateur bodybuilding. First thing he asked was: “What do you eat?” “Eggs, fish, steak… lean proteins mostly.” “How much o...

So, no one liked the last entry? No replies at all? Much like the old days of writing about Magic, I can never guess when I have done something really good and when I have not. I thought it was great and last night asked Wendy what she thought of it. "It wasn't one of your better pieces." Huh. I would write a Magic column that I thought was utterly brilliant and get ten emails the next day, more polite than effusive. I would write something that I struggled with and knew it wasn't my best effort and I would get seventy-five emails the next day and another twenty-five the day after that, all glowing with praise. I just never know. What does this have to do with Swine flu? Absolutely nothing! Just ranting I guess. I'll get back on track now. I hate Doomsayers. I have read in many places that Swine flu is actually less dangerous than the regular flu, and I have also read that Swine flu could be the next pandemic. I always choose to believe the more optimistic news ab...

It might seem odd to post something from book two when book one doesn't even have representation yet, but I wanted to have something up here besides more rambles and I just don't have time to compose something recent. Nor do I want to post anything else from book one. (The two Provence chapters are both high-larious, but I need to save a lot for the book right? I can't just publish everything to the blog.) New rule : If you like something I've posted, you have to click an ad link. I think you'll like this one. Cordoba 5/9/08 Today we are heading to Cordoba for the terrace festival. It is essentially a way for people to show off their pretty terraces and because Spaniards will invent any reason so that they can have a fiesta. There will be lots and lots of flowers, some gardens, maybe a koi pond or two. We’re very excited. Okay, Wendy is very excited; me, not so much. Today we’re taking the Ave and about that I am very excited. Atocha train station is only ten minut...

(If you are an agent, possibly drawn here by my query letter, please look to the right and see the link "The Best Articles On This Site" and read any of those first. Thank you.) I had hoped to have a Santorini post here for you today but the story is 1) not as polished as I thought it was and 2) is about the middle of the trip and doesn't make sense unless you have read the previous days. Hence, it will have to wait.

I can't even imagine having kids. I feel like I am always going, as I struggle to get this up before Wendy and I head to the gym in thirty minutes. If the Santorini thing isn't with it, it will be up tomorrow. Okay... that is the fifth time I have tried to paste in my rambles and nothing is happening... Okay, restarting didn't work... Ah, pasting in "Edit HTML" mode worked. Bizarre. I am predicting that we will never run out of oil. If we do, it will be long after I am gone. A recent article in “Time” magazine is talking about electric hybrid cars in development that will get 100, 250, 300 and even 367 miles to the gallon. And they aren’t coming soon, they are here. Cost is prohibitive at over forty-grand apiece, but the next wave is being built as I type this. Every day a new wind farm is built or a permit for a new Nuclear power plant or a field of tide power pistons is being proposed. Solar power continues to get more advanced, thinner, more resilient, easier t...

Before the food is laid out and the guests arrive. Spooky graveyard scene, spooky bats and spooky...flowers in little bowls? Wendy putting the finishing touches on the kitchen. Arg! Look out for the spider behind you milady! Happy and scary ghosts. One! Two! Two kinds of ghosts! Everyone who arrived early enough (except JB who was 1) not in costume and 2) very kindly offered to take the picture.) There are a LOT more pictures on Facebook that others have taken including one of me on my knees after a little speech I made then proposed. I don't take very good pictures so most of mine came out like crap. Hope you get the idea and if you join Facebook you can see a lot more. (P.S Click some links ya bastards, I got a wife to support now!)