Allie in the South of Spain

This summer Jose and I will be staying here in the south of Spain. It's the first time in many years that I will not be back in pure Michigan to spend time with family and friends during my vacation. I am pretty bummed out but by sticking around here for the summer we are hoping to finally be able to grow our family (cryptic enough for you) so I am trying to keep that in mind so as to not get too depressed about having to brave the sweltering sun during the next few months.  In any case, we have to be pretty close to Seville during the month of July and somehow I managed to talk my younger sister (now Dr. Krieg) and mom into coming for a visit. They arrive toward the end of the month and though it will be hot, we plan on lots of time at our pool and visits to places early in the morning and later in the evening. I love hosting visitors and having at least some of my family here will make this summer much more tolerable. Besides seeing Seville and since they arrive to and leave f...

It's been a while. I'll admit that things around here haven't been too exciting and I took a break from blogging but as you can see I am back from my semi-retirement because I. just. can't. I. CAN'T. Maybe you have heard (or maybe it's news to you) that we had our first case of diphtheria here in Spain since 1987 recently because a family decided not to vaccinate their child.  Turns out a six year old contracted the disease and the Spanish government had to go to Russia to find a treatment since nowhere in Europe had it because it's a disease that has basically been eradicated.   I thought that in this sense I was living somewhere more reasonable than the U.S. and that the anti-vaxxer movement nonsense hadn't really made it to this side of the pond. Apparently I was wrong. There are idiots here in Spain too. From the very beginning of this tragedy the press and government have been portraying the parents as victims. Let's get something straight ...