here we are in barcelona, spain, on vacation and house-sitting for a friend, and i have a funny story about our first night here. M is still learning the sounds of the area, and he’s not used to having windows and doors open and hearing so much outside. (i say that, but actually we do it, too, in NL and DE…) i, on the other hand, have visited our friends in barcelona several times by myself, once even staying for 6 weeks (there was house-sitting included)!, so i’m used to some of the house and neighborhood sounds.
it was 3am and one of neighbors was outside doing something like having a smoke or just sitting out, but he must have kicked something and then said something. anyway all those somethings woke M up, and immediately put him in a panic because he thought someone was in our (friend’s) house! when he woke me to tell me i was pretty sure it was the sounds of the neighbors, but he was so worried, so he got up and turned on all the lights down in our room, then decided to go upstairs and check it out. meanwhile, i’m just laying in bed, pretty sure it was just the neighbors; and the sounds outside stopped, probably because of the lights. funny thing was, M was wearing his (silvery, silky) Snoopy, WWI Flying Ace underwear, and in my sleepy haze, i thought, “that’s not going to be very threatening if it IS someone breaking in…” next thing i know, i heard M in the kitchen, pulling the big kitchen knife out of the drawer.
can you imagine, a Snoopy-clad, half-naked man, going through the house brandishing a kitchen knife, turning on all the lights? i heard him trying to be stealthy, sneaking up to the top of the house, but leaving a detectable trail of lights. i thought about calling him back down, but realized sometimes it is better to just let him do his thing. i dozed back in and out of sleep, and eventually my knight-in-Snoopy-armor came back downstairs again, this time with the (culinary) sword, which he decided to keep under the bed for security.
in the morning when it was light, he heard all those same sounds again. he was reassured that it was the neighbors after all and felt confident enough to put the knife back in the kitchen. 
