Sintra bound
Okay, we're off to Sintra tomorrow! Sintra is a prime tourist spot, being
near/in Lisbon (sort of the first-ring suburbs) and having gaudy, gorgeous
castles to show off, so we wanted to wait until the tourist season was 
passed to go look at it. But it's been a month since we went on a decent
trip, and I have been getting punchy. 

The next trip after this one will be to Lisbon to see Jose Gonzalez in
concert. He's performing on the same night that Brandi Carlile is performing
across town, so we had to choose which one to see. I've seen Carlile perform
since she used to open for Indigo Girls at the Minnesota Zoo and staff her
own merch table after the show, so I wanted to see Gonzalez. He's the music
behind my favorite movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," but he's also
got a wonderful quiet style that I really like.

Been studying a LOT of Portuguese. There's the Portuguese word "puxe" 
that you find printed on a lot of doors. Now if you pronounce the X the
right way, the word could sound like "push." Which is nice, except that
the word means "pull."

Then there's the word for "dog" which is "cao," pronounced exactly like 
the English word, "cow." That's right, in Portuguese, "puxe" means "pull"
and "cao" means "dog."  NOW do you see why it's so hard to learn?

Anyway, off to Sintra! Man, this life is rough I tellya!