I'll update this blog post regularly throughout the week. Jeff left Sunday to head to Atlanta. He and his longtime friend, Howard, (Best man at our wedding in 1990!) are making the trek together to Spain to pickup our new, amazing show pug, Jagger "Diabolbric's Start Me Up". (Amy is staying home to oversee the grumble, do the final preparations for puppy baskets and graduations of the Coffeehouse Litter, and also watch over Lilibeth who is expecting any day now. Oh yes, and teach piano.)

They flew out of Atlanta airport Monday 10-10-22 and arrived in Madrid an hour ahead of schedule! For the first day, the challenge of course is trying to stay awake. Here are some photos from Madrid Jeff took ... a random street scene, Plaza Mayor, and the train station . . . .

This street artist from Plaza Mayor looks familiar from the last time we (Jeff and Amy) made the trip to Madrid years ago when preparing for Jeff's choir trip. (Jeff is the organist/choirmaster at a very traditional church in Birmingham and they tour different countries in Europe every few years.) 

On 10-12, Jeff and Howard had Tapas for 'brunch' before they went to a bullfight. Well, I probably would have chosen a museum, but....

Jeff actually video called me during the bullfight .... he wouldn't let me see the final part where the matador kills the bull, and I'm thankful for that.... but, quite honestly, I don't 'get' the mystique of all the bullfight stuff. On the other hand, witnessing an arena full of 25,000 people ALL hushed in silence .... THAT was actually quite fascinating to me.

After Madrid, they took a high speed train down to Seville. For his birthday present to himself, Jeff took a cooking class on how to make paella and he got some special spices at the market.

They went to some LOUD concert ….

Then they headed over to Malaga where they got to see the Pablo Picasso museum and, of course, some ocean views. The beach was more rocky with gravel versus sand…..

There was a sign at breakfast at their hotel … it was Jagger’s show name, “Start Me Up” so it (us getting Jagger) all must be ordained ;)

At 3 AM USA time Amy awakened to join Jeff in a video call to see Mireia bring Jagger! I could see his intelligence in his eyes even over the internet on my tiny cellphone screen. And his temperament! There are so many amazing things about this pug and we can’t wait to start a life together!

Mireia met Ieff at the Malaga train station and went inside to help Jeff buy his ticket (her Spanish is much better😉) Because of our work schedule and other timing things this was the soonest we could get him so I know it was so difficult for her to say goodbye to her 6 month old baby boy. I got to chat again with Ieff when he was on the high speed train back to Madrid. Why can’t America have such amazing trains? There was even a tv! Here are some shots of the terrain outside the window.

Once they got to Madrid, Jeff booked it over to the registration office to get Jagger’s pedigree. This will make all the paperwork much easier once back to the states. The flight is tomorrow/Tuesday 10-19-22. As I type this, Jeff will probably be waking up soon to get to the airport (Spain is 7 hours ahead.)

I’m so excited to see both boys … Jeff and Jagger … tomorrow night! The final part of the trek is the drive back from Atlanta airport to Birmingham. Sending prayers now for safe travel tomorrow. Here’s a sneak peak at Diabolbric’s Start Me Up.