Man, have I been slacking. But we´ve been so busy. First, we finished the trip to Italy. Venice is a wild place. Water everywhere. Streets just end at a canal, without a bridge. Maps are useless. But they were filming a movie with Mandy Moore, so we might have seen a famous person. If we knew what she looked like.

We got home, hung around for a week, and then headed out for a weekend on the Costa Brava with Jose and Melissa. It is so unbearably hot here that staying in the city was not an option. It´s pushing 100 degrees every day. When we drove, it felt like a hair dryer was blowing in the windows. The Medeterranean was, therefore, hot, and not so refreshing. We snorkeled anyway, at these little rocky islands called the Medes. It was a good time, even though the Spanish idea of a snorkeling trip is something along the lines of shoving people onto a boat, tossing some old equipment their way, and pushing them into the water. It made for a lot of people floundering around and kicking us with their flippers.

The next day we went to a little beach town called Palamos and went sea kayaking up the coast. The Costa Brava is lined with tons of tiny coves, only accessible by a long walk or a boat. Mostly we found naked people sunning themselves on pristine, deserted beaches. Since we didn't want to risk bringing the camera on the kayak, the only porn you'll get here is the David.

This week has been occupied by our, um, new business. Jose has a few weeks off, and has come up with a wild plan: He has long wanted to keep tourists from eating bad food by organizing a tapas tour, and now he's convinced us to help sell it. We wandered around, being friendly and asking people if they´d like to join us for lunch. Jose got a bunch of backs turned in his face. I got people to talk to me, but only to say such gems as, "Not in the least. Now go away."

Leah, though, wins the sales prize. On our first day of operation, we ran two tour with 14 people. Leah sold 14 tickets. One group was five guys from San Francisco who had sold a dot com and were celebrating. They were pretty mellow and mostly wanted to know where to meet 18-year old backpackers. The next group was a gaggle of 18-year old girls (rotten timing for the guys on the first tour) from a Swedish-speaking island that is a part of Finland. They were so happy to be told what to eat and not get cheated that one of them actually cried. Now Jose has to figure out how to sell tickets without Leah.

Also, we´ve been infected with a "worm," which makes the computer turn off about a minute after you turn it on. It is very annoying and so we are ending the trip as we began, in internet cafes. All this to (sporadically) keep you posted.