Surfing in my bedroom

I have been surfing the web a lot more than usual lately. It has been rainy and cold (well, all things relative) in Salvador lately, so we have been indoors for the weekend. Mary watches Alias while I look at things on our computer. Not as interesting as actually surfing. Why do they call it "surfing the web?" That doesn't make much sense to me. I've never seen a fly surf in a spider's web. I've never seen a fish surf in a fishing net. So, why, pray tell, did someone come up with such an active phrase for such an inactive thing to be doing.

Speaking of activity, I have been running, outside, even when it has been chilly. I feel better already, even though it still hurts after about 15 minutes and I have to push myself to keep going. I do keep going. I also do push-ups and pull-ups. I am getting in shape, or at least I am starting to. I think this will help with my attempt to become a surfer. I am also considering training to be able to participate in a triathlon, which would probably take me about 10 years to do. As far as I know, there are no competitions in Salvador, but I am sure there are in other parts of Brazil. I know that Florionopolis has an ironman, which is probably longer than I will ever want to swim, bike, and run all at once, but a short one could be fun.

I learned a new surf term the other day. An ax is a wave that crashes right on top of the surfboard causing a wipeout. I learned this playing a board game called "Huggermugger." I have played this game maybe once or twice before, though I am sure I have had it for at least 10 years. It is fun if you are a real language nerd, or like to play the word scrambles in your daily newspaper. We had fun playing it with Thomas while he was staying with us, although we have been so immersed in Portuguese that our English knowledge was very much not available.

Gripe (gree-pee)

La gripa, or a gripe, or the flu, or whatever language you want to say it in, I have it right now. Lots of sinus junk and a really sore throat. I can't talk without pain right now. So, I'm writing.

I have been to the beach twice in the past couple of weeks. Neither time was with my board. I was there Friday night, with some youth guys from our church, playing futebol. I played for about 10 minutes until one of them kicke me in the shin, and man it hurt. They are good at kicking these guys, been doing it all their lives. Anyway, I was out for the rest of the game. It still hurts to walk a bit, not that I'm complaining. After that, we sat around a while and sange along with one of the guys playing guitar. He played some Beatles, Queen, Extreme, and some other stuff that you may be familiar with. It was a fun time, and guitars on the beach are staple of the surf scene. So, I still feel like I was in the right mode.

The second was with my wife and our friend Thomas, visiting from Greenville, AL. He has been in South America for a couple of months now. He was here for about two weeks with us. We got to take him to the Ilha de Itaparica in the Bay of All Saints on Monday. We rode a Catamaran over to the Island and took a short taxi ride to what they said was the prettiest beach on the island. It was really pretty, and we pretty much just relaxed on the beach. I went in the water about knee deep. I was already sick, so I didn't feel like going out and swimming, although the water was really calm. There is a beach on the island that has waves and is good for surfing; big surprise to me since I didn't think there was any good place to surf in the bay. Although, now I think I will find there are good places on a few of the islands out there. I'm going to have to try them out eventually.