Let it snow!

The forecast said 4 days of snow ending Wednesday night.  Fabri and I were worried, our flight leaves at 7:15 on Thursday morning.  We got a few hours of snow yesterday.  Big beautiful flakes.  Nothing stuck (here in Saluzzo, Cuneo got 3 - 4 inches).  Now the forecast says no more snow until after Christmas.  So much for that giant snowstorm. 

I took Olney out for a walk when the snow was falling.  We're pretty sure that was his first time seeing snow.  We don't know if he was born in December or January, but either way, he would have been VERY little during last year's snowstorm and wouldn't have gone outside.  Yesterday he caught some snowflakes in his mouth and jumped around a little.  We might take him up into the mountains this evening to let him run around in the snow.  I'm sure he'll love it.

From Sunshine Gospel Choir

Last Sunday Fabri's work celebrated the 10th year of the Hospice.  One of the nurses organized a lovely performance.  There was an a cappella alpine troops singing group.  Then the nurse who organized the event read a poem.  Then it was time for the main event: the Sunshine Gospel Choir.  They had a lot of energy, but the singing wasn't that great.  There was one soloist that had a good set of pipes on him, but the others couldn't make themselves heard without a microphone.  The conductor sang and danced and performed and for the second act, he came out in a gold suit.  I wanted to ask him afterward where you buy such a thing, but I didn't have the guts.  But they were having fun, so it was fun to watch and the whole thing was in a beautiful renovated church that is now a part of the Cuneo town hall.  The most important thing was that Fabri networked with doctors and politicians, though, as usual, I had to pull him away from talking to nurses so he could do so...


Sunshine Gospel Choir from Jessica Goldstein on Vimeo.

This might be the last post this year depending on how quickly I post the photos from our upcoming trip!  I hope to see everyone in Washington!

Italian Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was an overwhelming success.  Everyone was so happy and I got so many compliments!  When dinner was ready, I was ready to go to sleep.  It was an exhausting day.

Olney and I arrived at the Motta's house a little after 10 Saturday morning.  Fabri was at work doing rounds at the hospice.  At 11 or so the cousins started arriving.  I made us a pancake breakfast to start the day off American style.  We will definitely skip the breakfast next time I cook Thanksgiving dinner.  After the pancakes, people left to go shopping and I came back to Saluzzo to meet Fabri and to pick up the pumpkin pies and quiches that were still in my fridge.

From Italian Thanksgiving

At 3:30 we arrived back in Savigliano.  We worked on the table settings and at 4 we lit the fire.  We decided to do the turkeys in the wood oven because there was room for both of them in one oven that way.  Also it was pretty cool and rustic.  The cousins returned soon after and I put them to work cutting onions, celery & mushrooms for the stuffing.  I prepared the turkeys and got those in the oven.  It was really great because everyone helped with something.  It was truly a communal effort.  That was Fabri's favorite part of the holiday.  The family working together to create a delicious meal.

From Italian Thanksgiving

I had been worried it wouldn't be enough food.  I had never cooked a dinner for 17 people before, but in the end, we had plenty of left overs.  We started with quiche (Aunt Pam's recipe) and baked brie (Stephanie's recipe super-sized).  The main course was, of course, roast turkey (Mom's recipe).  I cooked all the traditional sides as well: mashed potatoes, stuffing (Mom's recipe), green bean casserole, creamed corn (Aunt Pam's recipe), cranberry sauce and gravy.

From Italian Thanksgiving

Practically everyone brought a dessert.  I made two pumpkin pies.  Maria Pia made an apple cake and a chocolate cake.  Detta made a delicious Sicilian ricotta & chocolate cake.  Antonio & Laura brought pastries from the best pastry shop in Savigliano!

During dinner and also later in the weekend I got a lot of thank yous and compliments from all the guests.  Maria Pia & Antonio were so happy with the dinner, on Sunday they gave me an iPhone! Sunday I returned to Casa Motta to pick up my left overs (they did all of the cleaning and packing up without me).  Then Maria Pia, Detta and I went to the Christmas Market in Savigliano.  Before heading home, Antonio brought out the iPhone and I did a happy dance.  Good weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving

Tomorrow we're doing our Thanksgiving.  I'm cooking dinner for 17 of Fabri's family!  I don't know how I get myself into these things.  This afternoon I'm going with Maria Pia to buy two turkeys!  No 40 pound turkeys thankfully.  Two smaller ones will work much better I'm sure.

Yesterday Fabri got off work early which was really nice and we had lunch together and toasted to Thanksgiving.  Then I did some cooking for tomorrow.  I had to make my own evaporated milk.  It's not that hard, you just heat milk on very low heat, but it takes HOURS.  I needed 3 cups for 2 pumpkin pies and it took about 4 hours to create it.  I think that will be the hardest part (at least I hope so).  Last night we went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Saluzzo, La Taverna del Artista.  We had steak with grilled veggies, french fries, foccacia and our favorite wine.  Yum!

Now I have to hop to it and make those pies before it's time to go turkey shopping.  Have a great holiday weekend!

Tar Baby

Does anyone know the story of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby?  Well I have my own Tar Baby.  Olney cannot walk past a mud puddle without rolling and digging in it.  He just loves to be dirty.  Yesterday I let him run around in the fenced in dog area to get some exercise.  Unfortunately, that area has been incredibly muddy for months and Olney felt the need to dig and slide around there.  That wouldn't be so bad, except that upon exiting the dog area, Olney needs to jump on me and rub against my legs so that I can get all dirty too...

Someone said that I don't write about the museum enough.  My work at the museum is going really well.  I'm about to start a new project.  I am almost finished organizing the butterfly and moth collection.  Gian just gave me a copy of a publication where he thanks me for helping him write in English and we might coauthor an article about an unusual sex ratio in a beetle species collected from Africa.  So that's all good and exciting!

Last Friday we went to the Leek Festival in Cervere.  There was a 10 euro buffet with raw meat (very popular here) and leek, a chicken coleslaw with leek, little baked leek cakes, leek risotto, ravioli with leeks and ragu sauce, and leek-free hazelnut cake.  It wasn't bad, but we were forced to eat quickly (and compete with others for food) so that wasn't so great.  We went in a big group of our friends from Savigliano who we hadn't seen in a long time.  We were pretty lame though and ready to go around 11:30.  There was a band, but the music wasn't very good and all of Fabri's friends were outside smoking, so we headed home.  I prefer nicer, slower, sit down dinners I've decided.  It was not as good as the gnocchi festival or bagna caoda (that being my favorite food festival). 

Anyway, it was awful weather today which I think was responsible for a recurring headache.  Hopefully this weekend will be nice.  There's a Christmas Market in Saluzzo which we will definitely be going to and I don't know what else.  But Fabri's not working, so we'll have fun!

Dinner Party Machines

Amy A. (the first one) said Fabri & I were dinner party maniacs yesterday.  We just really enjoy having people over and I like to cook, so things seem to go together quite nicely.  It's a good excuse to always have dessert & booze in the house as well. 

A week ago we had Fabri's cousins & sister over for fondue.  Fondue is great because it's a party, not just a dinner.  I made two types of broth, a French bouillon and an Asian inspired broth.  They were both big hits, especially the Asian.  One thing people have come to expect from our dinner parties is to have wine charms identifying everyone's glasses.  Italy, the land of wine, doesn't know about wine charms for some reason.  Everyone we've had over has gone crazy for them.  I have some wedding ones my mom gave me around wedding time.  I have a bunch I made myself with beads & old charms.  My newest are a set of insect wine charms I found at TJ Maxx.  Gaetano seems to really like those....

From Blogger Pictures

If those weren't colorful insect wine charms, he would be such a bad-ass biker dude. 

Saturday Fabri & I went to Ikea.  They opened a brand new store in Turin right off the Turin Beltway.  We got a new carpet for the family room (Olney's slowly destroying ours) and of course couldn't resist buying some fun Ikea stuff.  I got a beautiful red orchid, Fabri got a new fluffy pillow and Olney got a new mat for underneath his dog bowls. Though Ikea is, by definition, crazy, we had fun!

The weather has decided to play mean tricks on us.  It has been gorgeous all week.  Cold, but dry & no fog.  Look at how gorgeous Mount Viso is from the field next to the house!

From Blogger Pictures

The problem is, the weekend arrives and so does the rain and fog.  The fog started rolling in around 3 or 4 this afternoon and it's supposed to be foggy & rainy all weekend.  Stinks.  And this weekend and next Fabri isn't working at all!  Not one shift!  This is the first time in a long time.  It would be nice if the weather would cooperate a little so we could get a lot out of these weekends.

So I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving.  I have all of my recipes copied; I have a shopping list and a basket full of food and decorations ready; and I'm getting my game plan in place.  Maria Pia is buying the turkey for the occasion and went to order it on Wednesday.  She called me while I was at the museum and asked if I want a female or male turkey.  I had no idea.  I asked her what the difference was and she said the size.  Females are about 8 kg and males are 20 kg.  I had told her before we want between 10 and 13 kilos for our dinner of 15 (thank you butterball website).  She said then she'd better get the 20 kg bird.  I said ok, not having a firm concept of how much 20 kg is.  When I got home I calculated that in pounds.  FORTY-FOUR lbs of turkey!!!  I started freaking out.  Where are we going to cook this massive bird!?!?  How long should I cook it for!?  Butterball's website only goes up to a 30 lb turkey!  I'm going to have to put this thing in the oven the day before.  As I did more turkey research, I got even more nervous.

Thankfully Maria Pia came over last night (we had pizza & cake for Francesca's 20th birthday) and we discussed the turkey.  Gaetano had already said the same thing, it's too big for the oven.  I said if she can't get one that's between 10 and 13 kilos,  then maybe she can get two small birds.  I am sure we could find room to cook them.  I wanted to try cooking in their wood pizza oven anyway.  She said she would call back the turkey store, so I'm feeling better about it now. 

From Blogger Pictures

This is a wooden turkey made by Grandpa and Fabri bought me those flowers today for no reason. :)

Wintery Weather

We're back in Saluzzamore after a wonderful vacation in the US.  We rested, relaxed, ate and shopped the entire time.  It was great.  We got to see almost all of our favorite people....

From US October 09 Visit

From US October 09 Visit

From US October 09 Visit

From US October 09 Visit

From Micah & Anna's Wedding

..... and we ate all of our favorite foods including crabs!

From US October 09 Visit

We bought a new winter wardrobe for Fabri and some fun stuff for me.  We also came home with all of the American-made ingredients I need to make my first Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm super excited about that.

At the end of our trip we went to Micah and Anna's wedding at a beautiful vineyard outside Charlottsville, VA.  It rained the whole day of the wedding and then an hour or two before the ceremony it cleared up.  They had the ceremony outside with the mountains, the autumn leaves and the sunset in the background.  They didn't need flowers or lights, it was just naturally gorgeous (as were we). 

From Micah & Anna's Wedding

So that's a very brief summary of our trip.  You can see more pictures in my Picasa web albums (as always there's a link to the right).  It was nice to get home and see the puppy.  He's gotten taller and filled out a lot.  He is looking a lot like a Labrador.  He was very happy to see us, but he did fine at the Motta's house and it was clear they really enjoyed having him.  Maria Pia called the next day to check and see how he was doing and everyone was happy the other night when we came with Olney for dinner.

Fabri immediately got back to work and hasn't slept in since the US.  Sunday will be his first day off since we got back and I'm looking forward to that day.  When Fabri doesn't sleep in, Olney doesn't sleep in, so I don't sleep in.  A horrible chain...

I've been back to work as well, but I gave notice at the Wall Street Institute where I teach.  I will be teaching for another month and a half with them.  Then I'll find other ways to fill my time.  Fabri and I are advertising our services as English ~ Italian translators specializing in medical & scientific themes.  I want to study Italian some more so that I can speak better/more correctly and I want to spend more time at the museum.  They are redoing all their displays in this period and I'm really excited to help with that and learn a new aspect of museum work.

Last night we had our friends Anna & Cladio over for dinner.  Anna is from California and has lived in Saluzzo for I think 5 years now.  I made Maryland steamed shrimp (one of Fabri's favorites) and a new pasta recipe from Rachel Ray.  Everything was really good and we had a great time.  Olney for a little wild and kept jumping up on Anna.  We have to do some more training...

Tomorrow we're having Gaetano & Detta, Giovanni & Brunella & Lulu, and Paolo & Giovanna over for fondue.  I think that's a good winter weather dinner party.  Did I mention that it's like winter here already?  And not the good winter moments when it is very cold but sunny & clear; it has been foggy,  grey, overcast and COLD.  Yuck!  We had a couple of days of clear blue sky and I could see the mountain peaks have quite a bit of snow.  No more hiking in the alps this year.

The City of Lights

From Paris Sept 09

We went to Paris 2 weekends ago with my parents.  The weather was perfect and the city was amazing.  Fabri and I arrived Friday afternoon.  It took about an hour longer to get from the airport to the hotel than we thought it would.  The Air France bus took us 2 blocks away from the hotel which was very convenient, but we waited for at least 30 minutes, if not more for the bus to pick us up.  Oh well.  We arrived at the hotel and Mom & Dad were waiting for us.  The hotel was very nice just down the street from the Arc de Triomphe!  Here are a couple views from our window.  It was very close quarters, so you couldn't stay there with just anybody.  The bathroom even had a relatively see-through glass door!

From Paris Sept 09

After relaxing a bit from our trip, we all hit the subway and went down to the Pompidou Center.  It was neat, but the Musee D'Orsay is still my favorite art museum in the world!  After all that modern art, we walked to the Jewish quarter of Paris and saw the house/road where my grandfather was born.

From Paris Sept 09

Then we wandered around Paris until we found an acceptable bar for an aperitif.  They were sooo stingy with the aperitif snacks, but the drinks weren't overpriced.  Then we followed Dad to a Belgium Pub/Restaurant.  We shared the Belgian specialty, moules frites and drank a bunch of beer.  Then we headed to a beer brewery called the Frog & Rosbif where we get some more food, and of course more beer.

From Paris Sept 09

On Saturday morning we headed to Montmartre, my favorite area of Paris.  We took the cable car up to the top of the hill and walked around watching the artists.  Fabri and I are still looking for a piece for above our couch, but didn't find anything we liked enough to deal with the hassle of getting it home.  We had lunch at another Belgian Pub/Restaurant (Dad doesn't travel without a list of all these types of places).  Then Fabri & I went to the Eiffel Tower and took a boat ride down the Seine.  Next time we'll try to take the nighttime boat ride; we hear it's amazing when the city is all lit up.

From Paris Sept 09

Saturday night was the Jimmy Buffet Concert.  We had an aperitif with cheese & meats and rose´ wine.  The rose´ was very appropriate because Jimmy had a new song, "Turn up the heat and chill the rose´!"  The concert was a lot of fun.  Just like all of his concerts it was more like a party.  The theater was small and intimate and full of wild & crazy Americans & Brits.  I think there were very few Frenchies.  After the concert we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner and more rose´!

Sunday Mom & Dad left early for the airport and home.  Fabri and I had an afternoon flight, so we walked around Paris for a couple hours.  Unfortunately everything is closed on Sunday, so I wasn't able to any shopping even on the Champs d'Elysee.  We visited a flea market on the banks of the Seine, but didn't find anything.  It was fun (and romantic) walking hand in hand through Paris Sunday morning. 

From Paris Sept 09

Mom & Dad Visit

Mom & Dad are safe & sound back at home in Maryland and I think we can safely say we all had a great time.  We met in Paris this weekend which was awesome, but I haven't loaded the photos yet, so those stories will be featured in the next post. 

Mom and Dad arrived Friday morning in Turin where I picked them up.  We headed straight to Saluzzo for them to meet the Olney pup.  He was not sure about these new people and all their luggage, but everyone quickly became friends when Mom & Dad brought out the liver treats.

Friday afternoon after Fabri got home from work we all went for a private tour of the Convent of Saluzzo.  Fabri had been the doctor of a monk from the convent and the other brothers were happy to thank him.  We got to see a lot of behind the scenes murals and woodwork.  The Chapel was breathtaking and it was extra special to have the brother as a guide.  They're Franciscan monks and gave Fabri a book full of amazing pictures of Franciscan monk convents.  I think Fabri & I will be going back soon as they're having a festival this weekend and invited us to come.

Saturday we woke up and headed to the Saluzzo market.  It's always neat to walk around the market especially the food stalls.  Olney came with us, and his favorite part is the food stalls as well.  We bought food to make for dinner that night as Maria Pia & Antonio were coming over.  We also bought some fresh pasta for lunch and some plants and flowers.  We went home and had a type of cheese ravioli with butter and sage or with oil and parmesan.  We ate on the balcony as it was beautiful and sunny for the first half of the day.

Saturday afternoon we headed to Manta Castle.  It's the most beautiful castle I've ever been to.  It is beautifully decorated inside and there's a small chapel next door full or paintings as well.  Though the chapel has had many of the paintings destroyed by water damage.  There are photos in the slide show below.

Saturday night we had a nice dinner with our parents.  Dad helped by smoking some chicken & pork.  I made steamed clams with garlic oil and cauliflower popcorn to start.  Then I made chicken and sauteed veggies to go with the smoked meat.  We had cookies and pastries Mom bought when we were at the market.  We drank the dolcetto wine we made last fall with Gaetano.  It was finally really good.  When we've drank it earlier it's been too sweet.  We ate on our fancy Butterfly Meadow china.  It was a special occasion to have both sets of parents over for dinner and the dinner went very well.



Sunday we woke up early and headed up past Limone to the Colle de Tende.  It's a passage through the alps between Italy and France and part of the old salt road from the middle ages.  Fabri, Olney and I hiked it before in better weather.  There was a possibility of scattered storms, but hiking in the alps was something Mom & Dad had wanted to do, and we were all willing to risk it.  It was getting sunny in Saluzzo, so we all opted to wear shorts.  That was sort of a silly decision, but we were fine.  When we got up to the mountains, we opened the trunk of the car and put on all the layers we brought especially the wind breakers.  You can see the photos in the slide show.  After hiking and visiting the forts, we had lunch at Le Marmotte refuge up in the mountains.  We had some delicious mountain food: polenta, boar, cheese, tagliata and wild mushrooms.

On Monday I took Mom & Dad to the museum to see where I work.  It was fun to show them around and we of course received a private tour from the museum director and Gian, the museum entomologist.  For the rest of Monday we took it easy, played with the pup, Mom and I went shopping.  Monday night we went out for burgers and beer at Fabri's & my favorite risto-pub.  Then Tuesday morning I drove Mom & Dad back to Turin and they flew to Nice where they caught a train to Holland.

Haven't written

Ok, I'm bad.  I haven't written for practically a month.  It's been a busy month.  Classes started up again so I've been trying to get back into the groove of teaching.  It turns out I don't actually like teaching English, so that's been a bit difficult.  Also we had the dog neutered (poor pup) and he had to be watched closely and kept from licking his wound for a week.  Finally I was studying hard for my driving theory test for my Italian driver's license.  I took that & passed on September 15.  Now I'm practicing and taking lessons for the actual driving exam.  I'll probably take that next week (we'll see what the instructor says this afternoon). 

So that was the busyness, but there was some funness too!  Mom & Dad were here visiting for a few days.  Pictures and stories of the visit to be added soon!

Party Weekend

Fabri's birthday party on Saturday was a major success. We worked hard Saturday morning cutting the grass and setting up the pool chairs. Friends began arriving around 4 in the afternoon and we all began enjoying the pool. Olney was of course in the pool right along side us. Also Antonio (Fabri's Dad) brought Tom (English Setter) to the party too. Tom and Olney have played many times before, but I think Olney's at a point where he's trying to show that he's ahead of Tom in the pack, so Olney can be aggressive towards Tom when he doesn't want him around. Especially when we're at the table and Olney's guarding food. But there was a third little puppy there and Olney was very good with her. Zoe, a 3 month old Australian Shepard played with Olney for hours. It was really cute watching the two puppies play together and they wore each other out.

At 8:30 or so we began dinner. Some girlfriends of Fabri's planned and cooked everything. I mostly just showed them where things were in the kitchen. There was a lot of aperitivo/appetizer food and by the time it came time for pasta, we were all full! My favorite were rolls of speck (smoked prosciutto) with gorgonzola inside and heated. They were delicious!

The party continued all night and included a midnight swim which was a lot of fun. At about 3am a storm started brewing. With thunder and lightening in the distance, Fabri and I took this opportunity to kick everyone out; I mean end the party. We were very tired and my eyes were all red from the chlorine (so were poor Olney's). We got to bed at about 4:00 after cleaning up and closing all the shutters to prevent them from being blown around in the storm. The storm ended up being very mild with little wind and light rain, so everything was fine, but we did not sleep well. After a 12 hour party that's to be expected.

The next morning we woke up and started the final cleaning of the house. Fabri and Olney worked outside and I gave the kitchen a scrub down. On our way home we stopped in Savigliano to bring a little left over food and some things Antonio had forgotten at the house. Right after we pulled up to our house, while we were getting our things out of the car, our neighbor Mauro came down to say they're waiting on us for lunch (it was a bit after 1 I believe). He had mentioned lunch on Sunday, but plans hadn't been finalized so we were a little surprised. We said we needed a few minutes to clean up and ran upstairs to take showers. We got there a bit before 2 and our other neighbors from upstairs who we've been having meals with were there as well. We were exhausted, but at least I didn't have to make us lunch and they were drinking Nebbiolo wine, so I was happy. We had a lovely time and came home exhausted and a little drunk after 6! It was a long lunch. I don't even remember what we did the rest of the evening, but I'm sure it was mostly laying around the house.

There will be pictures once I get them from Fabri's friends.

One last thing, I would like to send out an SOS. I can't find any of my bookmarks! I read all the time and I have been using scraps of paper and business cards. If you could find it in your heart to drop a bookmark or two in the mail, I would greatly appreciate it.

Postage to Italy, 98 cents; having a free place to stay in Italian wine country, priceless.

Fabri's Birthday!!

Today is Fabri's 28th birthday so make sure to send him an email or card. We're getting to be so grown up! Tomorrow we're having a pool party for him so that should be awesome. There is a concern about rain though... All of our pool parties are rained out!

So this is silly, but I'm ready to talk a little about Thanksgiving. I know it's early, but living in Italy means I to need to plan far in advance. Fabri and I are coming to visit for the second half of October and that means no Thanksgiving at Lady's house a month later. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite meals ever, so I will be in charge of my first Thanksgiving dinner this year. I've decided to start freaking OWT about it early and I'm writing to get recipes and ideas. I want to arrive to the US in October with a shopping list of everything I'll need (that I can't find here) to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Fabri's family & cousins are very excited about their first Thanksgiving, so I'll have their help. So start thinking about that and gathering your recipes and ideas a little earlier this year. You can post them or email them or save them for me in October! Thank you!

We celebrated our first anniversary last weekend. Our plan was to spend the whole weekend in the Alps at our apartment in Limone. When we arrived we were a bit disappointed to find it almost as hot and humid as in Saluzzo! The whole point of having a mountain retreat is to get a break from the summer heat! I suppose some people would say it's for the skiing... When we went down to the city center, it was full of people, a little too full. We walked around town a bit and decided on the restaurant for dinner, but when we got there, there was a mean, aggressive dog that barked and nipped at Olney. Olney didn't react at all, but we couldn't be there because the other people couldn't control their dog. So we went to another restaurant where we had very good wine, but the food wasn't as good. Then Friday night in the apartment Olney was not happy and kept waking up and barking. He's afraid of the elevator and just was not happy there. The plan was to wake up and go hiking Saturday morning, but Olney had been barking since the early morning (every 15 minutes or so) and we were too tired for that. Also it was another hot & humid day and we had packed for a cooler more comfortable climate. So we decided to head back to Saluzzo that evening.

When we were ready we hiked down to the center stopping to play with Olney in the river along the way. But even the trail was very crowded and it was hard to find a good spot for him to get in & out. When we got to town it was SUPER crowded not just of people, but of aggressive and annoying dogs. Olney got barked and growled at 4 or 5 times. He never really reacted and the owners pulled their dogs away, but it was unpleasant. We think it must have effected him because as we were eating lunch, he started barking & growling at a nice dog sitting next to us. Olney had never done that before. So we changed tables and he was good & fell asleep under the table while we had lunch. But that was the final straw, and we headed back to Saluzzo that afternoon. We went out to one of my favorite restaurants here, La Taverna del'Artista with the pup. We have been there several times and the waiter recognized us and tried to give us a table immediately, but some folks who had been waiting bitched about it and they got the table. It wasn't a big deal, but we're regulars and entitled to special perks! We had a delicious meal with my favorite wine and tried to ignore the heat.

Sunday we relaxed and Sunday night I made us a fancy dinner of porcini mushrooms and fresh pasta. We ate on our china for the first time and had candles and our special bottle of Dom Perignon 1990 which was a wedding gift.

So that was the anniversary weekend. Not what we planned, but very nice. Oh! I forgot the beautiful gift Fabri gave me. He got me a pretty silver cocktail ring. Hey, I found a picture! Isn't it pretty?

A Bit of Excitement

I just wanted to post a quick story before we began our anniversary weekend celebration.

Olney has a best friend who he plays with several times a week. She's a 3 year old mutt that lives at the other end of our apartment complex. Her owner invited Fabri, Olney and I to dinner last night. It was sooooo much food and soooooo much wine. Everything was really good, except the pasta didn't really do it for me. Olney got a LOT of treats as well. We were all stuffed by the end of a late night. We got home at about 12:30. When we walked in and turned the lights on I saw a shadow in the living room. When I walked forward to investigate I realized it was a bat circling around our living room!! I don't know how the poor thing got in, the windows were only open a crack. Fabri was a bit scared and stayed back saying "you're a biologist, you know what to do." Well all I knew was they're good fliers and he wanted to get out, so I opened the doors and windows all the way until he flew right out. It took less than a minute. So that was our excitement last night! Watch out for bats in your belfry!

Repetitive

Did anyone notice that my last blog post was very repetitive? Not within itself, but with the previous blog. At least I had some great pictures to go with each!

Last weekend we did the hiking thing again. This time in Valle Stura. It's pretty important around here to not know the different valleys and the main cities in each of them. You can't be a real Piemontese without knowing the valleys and the mountain peaks. I'm proud to say I'm doing pretty well! Below is Pietraporzio from above. We began our day down by that lake and ended it with some gelato from a restaurant/bar down there.

From Pietraporza Hike Aug 09

There was a river at the very beginning of the trail and Olney went CRAZY over it. The water was really cold, but he liked wading in and eventually went swimming. The current was strong, but he did well swimming from side to side. I want to get him some floating pool/river toys to play with. Maybe we can train him to be a good retrieving dog. Not that we do a lot of duck hunting these days...

From Pietraporza Hike Aug 09

So Olney is going through a stage. Besides being adorable and sweet and a great swimmer, he also has been chewing on our couch and barking a lot. I guess he's going through his rebellious adolescent stage. I just sewed up the couch as best I could and we're going to try to keep it protected from the pup.

From Pietraporza Hike Aug 09

Oh, I got distracted, I was going to say that while Olney was going crazy over the river, I was going crazy over all the moths and butterflies. There were a bunch puddling (getting salt from drying puddles) by the river. As we hiked up, we found 2 fields full of wild flowers and butterflies including the endangered Apollo butterfly. I collected what I could, but I don't hike with my net because it's so cumbersome. I did get a couple cool beetles and a bunch of butterflies and a couple moths. Fabri said he knows a field we can drive all the way up to so that I can bring all my collecting gear. Next time I'll take some photos of the pretty bugs before I catch them so I can post them on here too! Also I collected some wild lavender from the mountain and that's currently hanging up and drying on the balcony. The above photo is Olney in the lavender.

Amphibias International Travel Pup!

I was going to write all about Olney and how he swims in the pool now and we got him a pet passport so we can bring him to Nice, but he just ran around like a crazy pup jumping on the furniture (and me) and I'm annoyed with him. So instead I'm going to get a little ice cream and relax on the couch a little before writing this blog. It's sooo hot here, and ice cream is perfect for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

So like I said before, Olney's a great swimmer! He can go in and out of the pool by himself and does a couple laps around us while we're all in the water. He's really fast too and beats Fabri at swim races! This is me about to grab him so he can rest in the water with us for a sec.

From Olney at the Pool

Here's me holding him so he can take a break from paddling. I think he gets tired because there's no where for him to rest except for on the steps. Maybe we can get a special dog friendly raft for him!

From Olney at the Pool

Look at how cute the little swim pup is!!

From Olney at the Pool

We took Olney to the vet last week for a general check up and a rabies vaccine. We needed the vaccine to get him a puppy passport and you have to have a passport to take him abroad (for example, to Nice where we're going for a weekend in August). We also had them do a heart worm test, which was negative and we gave him the preventative pills. In Saluzzo the climate isn't right for heart worm, but Ruffia (where the pool is) and Monasterolo di Savigliano (where Olney was born) are hot spots. So we decided to have the test and get the pills. While we were waiting to go into the exam room, a horrible pit bull came out and was vicious and bit another dog waiting on the face and would have bit Olney if he had been closer. The other dog that got bit (which was very sweet and had played with Olney before the bit pull) was bleeding on her face, and the vet took care of it of course. Fabri was so mad, and I was upset by the whole thing. And of course the dog's owners were as well. So it goes.

A few days later I went and got the International Travel Pup his passport! It was very easy because the office is in our apartment complex! It was very easy, the hardest part being Olney got bored waiting for the woman to fill all the necessary information in for the passport. Puppies!

Now I can't wait to head over to France! We wanted to go this weekend, but Fabri's parents are there, and we don't want to have that kind of family vacation there right now. Instead we're going to go on another mountain top hike tomorrow and hopefully put together our shelves for the cellar on Sunday.

We're hikers!

So Fabri and I are officially Alpine hikers. Last Saturday we went for FOUR AND A HALF HOURS with a colleague of Fabri's and his wife (Davide & Elena). We were between 2,200 and 2,500 meters. It is hard to breathe up there. I don't think I've ever been that high on the outside of an airplane. Yikes.

The entire experience was exhausting and I still have a sun burn on the back of my legs. I managed to collect some excellent insects and I took a lot of beautiful pictures especially of the beautiful alpine flowers.

Davide and Elena are REAL hikers and brought us to this somewhat difficult trail. When we arrived at the parking lot and they pointed out where we were headed, I thought they were joking.

From Sampeyre Hike July 09

We were headed for the top of that valley in the middle, but I couldn't make it. We ended at the valley to the right and had lunch there. This is Elena and I relaxing on a rock waiting for the guys to join us for lunch.

From Sampeyre Hike July 09

So that was Saturday. Oh wait, then after the most exhaustive hike ever, we went to Ruffia to have dinner with Fabri's cousin Pina & her fiance Achille. They were at the wedding in Brookeville. They're getting married next June in Caserta. Then Sunday we slept in and relaxed until the early evening when we went to the pool and relaxed and had dinner with Gaetano & Detta. Not a bad weekend.

On Monday Olney went to the vet for the first time. He played with a sweet dog in the waiting room and was generally very good. He was a little nervous about the exam table but got a vaccine with out a peep. He didn't like having his blood taken at first for the heart worm test, but I gave him treats and he was fine. There was a little incident with a very ferocious pit bull which bit the nose of the dog Olney was playing with. She was fine and the vet fixed her up, but everyone was upset by that. There was also a cat in a cage and Olney was play barking at him. I imagine he wanted to know why he was in a cage and asking him to come out and play. Olney is only interested in playing with everyone, getting pets, and mostly getting food. Anyway, he's heartworm negative and now has an animal passport so we can take him to Nice soon.

Last night Fabri and I had two neighboring families over for dinner. Both families have 4 year old boys and one also has a 1.5 year old girl. We had a lot of fun and now we're friends not just neighbors. They loved our house, their's houses all have the original floor plan with a closed off kitchen. Olney was pretty good, but it was stressful for him having little boys running around his house. He barked a bunch both begging for food & at the boys, but it was a good socializing experience for him. And Fabri & I didn't yell anymore at Olney than the moms did at their kids!

The Day I Walked from Italy to France

First, a bit of housekeeping. I fixed my blog settings so that you can comment without having an account/password. Under your comment, select the Name/URL button. Then you can just put your name in (URL optional) and press publish. So now I can get your comments!! Hooray! That will certainly help me write more often because it's hard to write when I don't get feedback. Leave those comments!

So this weekend we took the little pup to the mountains. We decided to go to Limone instead of to Nice. Fabri and I aren't big beach people, and Limone seemed like a good way to beat the heat. And it was. It got chilly at night and I loved it!

Limone is a ski resort town in the alps located at about 1300 meters. Altitude is important here, so pay attention. It is a really sweet little town with very narrow cobblestone streets so there is almost no car traffic. Fabri's parents have had an apartment there for over 20 years. So we grabbed the keys and on Friday I met Fabri at work in Cuneo with the puppy and our bags. We transferred everything to Fabri's car and after a pleasant drive of only 30 minutes, we were in Limone. That's another nice thing, Nice is 2.5 hours, Limone is 30 minutes (from Cuneo, +30 minutes from Saluzzo).

When we arrived we unpacked a little and aired out the house. Unfortunately it started raining, but it was a quick storm. We had planned on walking down to Limone from the house (the house is up the road at an altitude of 1400 meters), but drove instead so as not to arrive in Limone completely muddy. We walked around the town with the pup and had dinner outside. Then we went to an Irish pub (the only Irish beer on tap was Guiness, the rest were Belgium). We met an Italian guy who spent 4 years in England and was looking to possibly travel and teach English. I told him about my experience teaching English around Cuneo.

The next day we woke up early; partly because we wanted to and partly because Olney wanted us to; and headed to the mountain peaks. We decided we wanted to walk part of the old salt road from France to Italy and see some old forts the Italians built on the French border. We drove up to about 1800 meters and parked by a refuge. There are refuges all over the alps for skiers, bikers and hikers. This one was easily accessible by car so it was a pretty nice restaurant and very crowded at lunch time. Anyway, with the pup we hiked from there for about 2 hours up to 1915 meters and around 2 forts. We walked back and forth from France & Italy a few times. It was very windy on the French side. Fabri had thought the forts were built between WWI and WWII in preparation of Italy's invasion of France, but they were actually built in the 1880s.

From Limone Summer Hiking 09

There was a second fort that had a dry moat, but we couldn't explore inside because the bridge had been half removed. That was too bad. We wanted to hike to another fort further in France, but the French side of the peak was very windy and cold. We did see a marmotta there which is basically a big groundhog and the mountains are full of them.

Then we walked back down to the refuge and had a wonderful lunch. The bread was especially good. Fabri explained that the bread from the mountains is so good because they have such clean and fresh water up there. On Sunday we bought a kilo of bread from Limone for our freezer.

From Limone Summer Hiking 09

That evening we did some shopping and hanging out around Limone and then had dinner at this pizzeria we were familiar with. Olney was a bit of a pain though and kept barking during out dinner. He is always hungry and barks when he wants us to give him food. It's harder to ignore it when you're in a restaurant...

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. We woke up a bit later than usual and I made french toast for breakfast. When we were ready we walked down the old Roman road along the river to Limone. We let Olney go down into the water in a couple places and he loved it. The water was really cold, but it's fresh and we allowed him to drink it (he's not allowed to drink pool water which isn't easy for him to understand).

From Limone Summer Hiking 09

Later that afternoon we headed home to Saluzzo. Now we're all about hiking the alps and on Saturday we have plans to go with a nurse friend of Fabri's, his wife & their dog (Na-na). The two dogs know each other and get along. Well, Na-na just ignores Olney, and Olney follows her around like she's the coolest thing on 4 legs. Eventually we plan to go hiking some of the tunnels dug during WWII. They're supposed to be honeycombed all over the alps connecting several forts. I think this sounds like the perfect excuse to buy a new head lamp! (Yes I'm a dork and I own a crappy $5 head lamp).

There are more photos in my picasa web albums (link to the right). Don't forget to comment!

Busy Bee

I have been so busy. Trying to keep the house clean is a full time job! Emphasis on trying. Also I've taken on 4 new classes this week which keeps me busy. And of course the puppy is generally crazy and wants to play all the time.

This weekend we had a 4th of July party at Ruffia. As soon as it was time to start cooking and set things up, it started raining. People were huddled under umbrellas and hiding in the house. I made a couple of pasta salads and everyone devoured those while we waited for the rain to stop so we could cook outside. Eventually we were able to make sausages and a couple dozen hamburgers and eat outside. Fabri's friend Robi made FOUR desserts to share with everyone which was awesome. After eating we sat around outside and Fabri, Miki, and Danielle played the guitar and sang. That was a lot of fun. We saw some friends who we haven't seen practically since our wedding party last September. Fabri's family was there having fun too!

We spent the night in Ruffia and Sunday morning poor Fabri had to wake up early and go to work. Thankfully he showed up in time for lunch. The extended family came back to Ruffia in the afternoon for lunch and to play by the pool. We ate a bunch of left overs plus some salamis that Francesca's boyfriend Ellio brought. His family has a farm with 100 cows, so they make their own salami and meat.

Fabri had a dicey patient he was worried about, but he didn't have to go back to the hospice which was very lucky! He was able to take a nap and then play badminton and swim all afternoon. Olney was really happy getting to play outside all day, but we're worry he got a little sunburned on his face.

That night we made hamburgers & hotdogs again and had a little pasta. A huge thunderstorm rolled in and dropped a lot of water. It was very windy and the guys had to run around the house closing the shutters. Everyone was very worried about having left their windows open and such, but I wasn't. And when we got home, the house was fine. I'm always right!

Anyway, that was our weekend in the country. Now this week we're both working a lot (Fabri's in the hospice all week instead of visiting his patients at their homes'). Then our plan for this weekend is to go to Nice! We need to do more traveling/hanging out together just us. The plan is to bring Olney too cause we're crazy dog people. We're those people who always have our dog with us and assume everyone loves our dog as much as we do... Just a warning.

Ok, back to work for me! Busy, busy bee!

Home Sweet Home

I'm back in Italy and Fabri, the house & Olney all survived my absence just fine. Now I'm caught up on the laundry and the cleaning which is good. Fabri and I went to the grocery store on Friday and bought lots & lots of groceries to refill the fridge.

Saturday we're throwing a 4th of July Barbeque. I'm excited about that and bought a bunch of American Flag decorations and such. Too bad there won't be fireworks. We're going to make hamburgers & hotdogs & bbq ribs outside on the grill. Also pasta salad and maybe cole slaw. I want to get a keg, but we'll have to wait and see. Oh, did I mention the party is at the pool in Ruffia? So that should be fun. Go America!!

6 Days!

This post is more for my own information than for all of you, but you should feel lucky to be a part of it. I'm getting ready for my solo trip to the US. Cleaning and doing laundry and such. I have to say I'm nervous about leaving Fabri & Olney alone. Fabri will have to take a break in the middle of his day to come take the puppy out.

So I arrive Wednesday evening in DC. Through my years of experience, I can guess that I will be tired and won't be doing anythign that night. Then Thursday night I'm going for crabs in Baltimore with my sis & rents! Yay! Crabs! Friday I head to Gettysburg for the family reunion. We're getting back Sunday afternoon and that night I will be hanging out with Amy & Vicki (hopefully) and anyone else who wants to hang out. Then I have no plans for Monday & Tuesday other than shopping at the advantageous rate of 1€ = $1.40. Wednesday I will pack, hang out at home, have an early dinner and then fly back to Italy arriving Thursday evening after a looooong flight.

Some things I want while in the US:

yogurt covered raisons
Callinectes sapidus (look it up)
grilled/barbecued everything
American flag paraphernalia
Pancakes!
clothes sales
sushi
microbrew beer
Pancakes!
and
quality family time (CHEESEY)

9 Days til DC

I'm going to be home for a little visit in 9 days. I arrive the evening of Wednesday, June 17 and I leave on Wednesday, June 24. That weekend (Friday late afternoon to Sunday early afternoon) is the Latchaw Family Reunion in Gettysburg, PA. So that weekend is full of wild Latchaw merriment. Unfortunately, Fabri won't be traveling with me. He has an oncology exam tomorrow for specializing school. When he goes to that, he'll learn when a second exam will be, also in June, so he couldn't plan to come to the US and risk missing the second exam. It's not such a great system if you ask me.... Anyway, I'll be traveling alone, which doesn't make me happy, but I've done it many times before.

Meanwhile, Fabri will be working, studying and taking care of the puppy! Poor guy.

We've been spending a lot of afternoons in Ruffia next to the pool. Olney really loves it there because he gets to be off the leash and has a huge yard to run around in. He's still not sure about the pool. We carry him in with us and he swims no problem, but he just heads right back out of the pool. Maybe as it gets hotter he'll want to go in on his own.

I've been keeping busy with my classes. I also have 3 private students which is 3 hours a week. Fabri and I are also starting a business where we do Italian English translations of scientific and medical documents. We had one person interested in our translating a CT report into English, but they wanted to pay only 12 euros for it. Our estimate was 50 euros. You have to pay for a doctor and native speaker's time. We're going to advertise in the hospitals around here and maybe set up a website.

I'm excited to say that I have been seeing a lot of honey bees around here. It's been sad in the US with all the honey bees dying. They're all over the clovers. The dog run at our apartment complex is full of them!

Olney's Growing!

Olney has gained almost 5 lbs since joining our family on May 4! He's now 35.3 lbs! It's only 7:30 in the morning and he's already been playing with all his toys and found a large, dead rodent under a rosebush in the garden. Isn't puppy life great?

I don't work on Fridays. Whoot whoot! So after laundry and cleaning, Olney and I are going to Ruffia to sit by (and hopefully swim in) the pool. Then Fabri will join us after work. But I think it's better to tell you about my weekend AFTER it happens!

From Olney Puppy

Weekend in the Country

Fabri tries to convince me (and himself) that he's not a country person and we're not living in the country, but then there comes a weekend like this one. First of all, the roads around here are often clogged with tractors, and I've seen a big farm tractor parked out in front of someone's house in Savigliano! Country people.

Saturday we spent the entire afternoon & evening at Fabri's parents' country house in Ruffia. There's a link to the website with a lot of photos on the right side. They turned the house into a bed and breakfast called La Ruffianella. They were hosting a party for Fabri's cousin's wife, Sylvia. She wrote a book and this was a party presenting it. It was a pretty full house of mostly family and friends of Sylvia. We brought the puppy who behaved very well despite all the strange people. We hung out all night and eventually had pasta with Maria Pia, Antonio, Gaetano & Detta.

Cows - No Panning from Jessica Goldstein on Vimeo.

When we got home around 11 or so the field next to our house was full of cows! The cows come to Saluzzo and spend the night next to our house before they march through the town and up to the Alps for the summer. Then they do it again on the way back. So we spent the night next to a field full of cows! There was one little catch though, they were all wearing HUGE alpine cowbells. So the bells were ringing very loudly all night. It was crazy. Make sure to watch these videos with your sound up so you can hear how loud the bells are! We slept ok though, and the next morning we took Olney out and walked around to see the cows. For a smelly farm pup, he was pretty unsure about all the cows. Check out the cow pics at my Picasa album (link to the right).



After that we took Olney to Savigliano where they were having a fair/event. There were a lot of booths set up around the historical center with flowers, herbs, spices, and local food. We bought cookies, salami & some veggie plants. Olney was just about perfect and let a VERY little boy pet him with out a problem. Then we had aperitivo with Pac and his father and Olney just slept underneath our chairs. Afterwards we went to La Ruffianella for lunch with Giovanna, Maria Pia & Antonio. We had yummy grilled eggplant & peppers and then hung out outside for a bit. Fabri, Olney & I all took a little nap together. So sweet. Then other family & friends started arriving and we hung out, planted sweet corn, and then made pizza for dinner in the outside pizza oven.

The weekend was great because Fabri and I spent the whole time together and almost the entire time with Olney as well (except for one brief errand where we bought the puppy a bed). Now it's all back to work...can't wait until next weekend!

Puppy Days

No pictures this time unfortunately, we've been sooooo busy with the puppy. And I started 4 new English classes a week. I've also taken on a private student for an hour of conversation once a week. I don't really enjoy teaching English, but I'm happy to be making some money and keeping busy. The only problem is that my schedule changes every day and things can change very last minute because students can cancel until 9 pm the night before the lesson. Oh well, it's not forever.

So Olney is doing very well. He is practically house trained (knock on wood) and hasn't had an accident since he was sick on Monday from too much food at a family dinner. We have been taking him all over with us, so he's getting used to people AND he let a couple kids in the center of Saluzzo pet him this weekend. That was a big deal as he is still terrified of kids; kids & bikes. We're working on that. We want him to be very well socialized. He has been to Ruffia several times and loves to run around the big yard. He's interested in the pool, but hasn't been in yet. If it is sunny at all this weekend (outlook doubtful), we're gonna throw him in.

We need to pick up Olney's training. He jumps way too much on us and also on the furniture. It's not bad now because he's still little, but he's going to be big and that won't be good. Also I don't like it when the dog gets up on the couch next to you, so Olney's gonna have to learn. When he wants somethign and jumping up doesn't work, he's learned to sit. We're also learning wait, down, come here, go to bed & heel. The best would be if he understood "off" & "stop biting." But he's been with us for less than 2 weeks, so I think we're doing pretty good.

On Wednesday we brought him to an outdoor party for Antonio's political party. He's running for Vice Mayor of Savigliano or something like that. Fabri & I didn't know most of the people at the party, but they all thought Olney was cute and he hardly barked at all, and he let lots of people pet (and especially feed) him.

Anyway, our lives for the past 2 weeks have been all about the puppy and work, so I don't have anything that exciting to say. Today is a good day to be a duck, so we're going to be staying dry inside mostly. Tonight we'll probably go to the Irish pub I love with Danny & Anna. Tomorrow we're going to a book presentation at Ruffia for Sylvia (Fabri's cousin's wife). She wrote a book of short stories. Then Sunday we're going to the 5 Senses Festival in Savigliano. I've been told there will be a lot of herbs and spices and fun stuff.

Take care and have a good weekend all!

Bundle of Joy

Amy & Vicki are back in the US, but things are not getting back to normal in our house because we adopted a puppy on Monday! He's a 3 month old mutt with a lot of lab and maybe some type of sight hound. We named him Olney. We got him from a farm not far from here. Our friend, a horse vet, found him because she looks after the family's donkeys. He is a big sweetie and we are very happy with his behavior considering he's only been with us for 3 days. At first he freaked out about the leash, now he walks pretty well on it. He's getting closer to being house trained too. He hasn't chewed on anything yet either! He's just a super sweetie that follows us around when we're home.

Both Fabri and I had a lot of fun with Amy & Vicki. We ate a LOT and celebrated our birthdays. I drove us to Nice for my first time which was both scary and exciting. The road through the Alps has a lot of hair pin curves and not a lot of guard rails, so I was nervous about driving it, but it was no problem and everyone was impressed. You should look at all the photos with Amy & Vicki on my Picasa albums (link to the right---->).

On Sunday the girls went to Turin to see some museums/galleries and Fabri was working, so I went to a flea market in Savigliano. Maria Pia came with me for a little while before she went to a lunch and we bought a bunch of stuff including some gifts for Amy & Vicki. Now I have all sorts of new glassware that we got for next to nothing. Presents are fun. Also, Maria Pia offered to pay for a cooking class for me for my birthday which was nice.

Anyway, I have to get ready for my classes this evening. Now there will be puppy stories in addition to cooking & gardening stories!

The best part about living in Italy

First, check out pictures from our trip to the US on my Picassa Web Albums. The link is to the right of this page. Second, don't forget to leave comments or send me your stories. It's hard to keep writing these with out any feedback!

Living in Italy has it's good points and it's bad ones. My least favorite is that practically everything is closed on Sundays and Mondays. It's getting a little better with grocery stores and some stores in Genola (Cuneo's version of Rockville Pike) being on Sunday and at least a few pizzerias being open on Mondays. But my favorite is on a beautiful day you don't have to go far to sight see and wander around beautiful medieval streets. Last Wednesday Fabri and I spent the afternoon exploring three small towns around Saluzzo.

Our first stop was Revello. We walked around the historic center and checked out a couple churches there. Then we set our TomTom to Barge, and passed through Envie along the way. We stopped in Envie when we saw a castle that interested us. Unforunately it looked as though it's a private residence and therefore unvisitable. I really have to go to the Cuneo Office of Tourism and get the Open Castles listing for 2009. That is a tourist pamphlet with information on all of the visitable castles in the area. Then we continued on to Barge. All of these cities are at the foot of the alps like Saluzzo. Envie was interesting because the whole city was terraced. The hilly portion of Saluzzo is not. Barge is the largest of the cities we visited. The Barge church featured in the slide show below was covered with square holes and every single one was fenced over to prevent pigeons from nesting there. The most spectaicular site was by far in Barge where 3 rivers come together. That's what I'm posing in front of in the last photos.



Also, we've had our first harvest from the balcony garden: baby greens! We had them with store bought lettuce for a delicious lunch out on the balcony the other day. We're really going to enjoy having this extra room.

From Blogger Pictures

Earthquake

I should have written this when it first happened. Fabri and I were unaffected by the earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy as were our friends and family here. That region is very far from Saluzzo and nothing was felt up here. It was incredibly devestating and upsetting even more so because that is a poor region of Italy whose people will have trouble rebuilding. I think the Italian government is doing a good job though, much better than how the US government handled Katrina.

I heard on the news that about 50% of Italy is in an "earthquake danger zone" and only about 14% of Italy's buildings are up to US earthquake safety standards. That's because a LOT of Italy's buildings were built hundreds & even thousands of years ago. And what are they supposed to do, tear down Roman farmhouses and medieval churches to build something earthquake proof (which doesn't really exist anyway)?

I just wanted to mention that we are not in that 50% earthquake danger zone, and though we do occasionally get very small tremors, there's never any damage. Ok, I should have written that earlier, but better late than never.

Agrilus goldsteini

Fabri and I are in the US! He's being a bit unrealistic about his ability to stay awake. We arrived on Friday at 1:15 in the afternoon. That was about 40 minutes late. The flight was fine, but we waited for a half hour on the plane for additional passengers whose connecting flight was late. Anyway, we're here now and having fun and doing lots & lots of shopping!

I didn't get a chance to write about some of the museum-related events that occured before we came to the US. On Wednesday I went to the museum and while there I overheard Giovanni, the head of the museum and an ornithologist talking on the phone to someone about me. I usually tune out the Italian when someone's on the phone, but "entomologa americana" makes my ears perk up. He was reccomending me for a job. The museum had a project on the dragonflies of the national parks of Piemonte that began last year. The gentleman who did the project last year is now employed full time, but they are happy to have a replacement ready to go! The only hitch is that they have to verify the funding is still available. I am not sure what exactly I will be doing, how much it will pay or how much travelling I will be doing, but I'm happy that they love me at the museum.

Speaking of the museum loving me, Gian, the entomologist who I work with, named a new species of metallic wood-boring beetle after me! Introducing Agrilus goldsteini!! It's a very small beetle (approximately 1/4 of an inch). It's from the rainforest of Nicaragua. The larvae bore into trees and feed just under the bark. When they become adults, they leave the trees and fly around the forest looking for a mate. Anyway, I have a beetle named after me, s there! Also Gian thanks me twice in his manuscript describing this and about 11 other new species. Once for my work curating the butterfly and moth collection of the museum and again for helping him write in English. I spent about 6 hours correcting Gian's English. But I'm happy to do it to make a name for myself and hopefully get more paid work in biology/entomology!

New January 3 Wedding Photos

You can check out new January 3 wedding photos at my Picasa albums.  There's a link on the right side of this page.  These came from Brunella who's been holding them hostage (aka I've been forgetting to get them from her).  They're all group style photos.  This is my favorite

From Third & Final Wedding Party

Anyway.  See you all soon, we're arriving in 4 days!  Just a reminder, I don't have a US cell phone anymore, so you can email or call my parents' house to get in touch with us in the US.  

Spring Time!

Yesterday was the first day of spring and that means more gardening posts!  I planted a bunch of daffodil bulbs in February.  I was worried that they weren't cold long enough to come up (usually they're planted in the fall), but they're coming up and have buds!  Fabri and I have both been delighted watching they grow taller and taller.  Everyday there is a substantial increase in height!  I also have a bunch of lettuce planted that I hope to keep around until the hottest part of summer when they'll probably wilt.  Check out the slide show to see some photos of our additional living space!  It's still too early for some things, but I plan on having a nice little vegetable garden out there.  I'm going to have a grape or cherry tomato plant and then I hope to find an eggplant & a zucchini that can thrive in containers.  Also Fabri and I are going to get a trellis and transfer the ivy to the back balcony that doesn't get any direct sunlight.  Any ideas of other vines that do well in only indirect sunlight?  

Tonight we're doing the Melting Pot in Saluzzo again.  This time we're taking it a bit easier though.  Antonio and Laura are coming over and bringing the appetizer AND dessert.  Fabri and I are just doing the broth this time with sausage, beef, chicken, shrimp, cauliflower and broccoli.  That seems like plenty!  I feel like I'm missing a couple good vegetables though.  

In our apartment complex there are (in general) two apartments per floor.  Our next door neighbors are two single brothers in their late 60's & early 70's.  One had a medical issue one night and came over to get advise from Fabri.  Fabri checked him out and told he needed to go to the hospital to have something done.  The next day Fabri checked up on him and our neighbor was very grateful.  Last week our neighbor brought his medical test results over for Fabri to look at.  When Fabri brought them back on Tuesday night, our neighbors invited us over for some dessert.  It was about 8:30 in the evening and we hadn't had dinner yet, but we went on over to make a good impression.  The guys were very nice and their niece was over as well.  We deduced that they are a rich country family that owns a lot of land and rents it to cow herders.  They gave us a bottle of rum from Santo Domingo.  One of the brothers has been to the DR 21 times!  We told them that Nebbiolo is my favorite wine and they said next time we'll have a tasting of their nebbiolo.  Whoot whoot!

Visit to the States

It dawned on me that I haven't announced Fabri's & my visit coming up.  We'll be in the Washington Area from the afternoon of Friday, April 3 to the late evening of Sunday, April 12 (Easter).  We have a few plans so far, but I'm hoping after this announcement we can get pencilled in to some more calendars.  Wednesday, April 8 we're going to the O's - Yankees game in Baltimore with Sweetums and her newish BF.  Then Thursday night we're having Passover with the family in Olney.  For Easter we're going to Aunt Pam's (I assume).  Otherwise we have no plans.  We might have to go to the Italian embassy to translate some documents and have them sent over here to Italy.  We also plan on doing a LOT of shopping.  Basically I'm chomping at the bit to go on a shopping spree.  Hooray for making euros and spending dollars!  Comment or email me to make some more plans!  USA USA USA USA!

Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day.  It's funny that it's called International as I've never heard of it outside of Italy.  The yellow mimosa (pictured above) is the official gift of International Women's Day here in Italy.  Fabri and I bought a small potted tree yesterday for our balcony.  Yesterday we bought all sorts of stuff for our balcony.  We got a nice teak table with four chairs, some more pots and dirt and more flower seeds!  Today we treated the new furniture with teak oil.  It was fun getting dirty and getting stuff done around the house.  We also got rid of the last of the packing material from my shipment.  Getting ready for spring!

On Friday I taught 3 classes in Cuneo in the afternoon finishing at 7:30.  Then I came home and changed and Fabri and I met Giovanni, Brunella, Lulu, Gaetano & Detta for pizza in Monsola near Savigliano.  Lulu is in her terrible twos and was at first shy and upset about being to dinner with us.  She wouldn't even look at her aunts & uncles!  What a little baddy.  But she got over it and started behaving eventually.  I taught her Itsy Bitsy Spider which she really liked, especially when I made the itsy bitsy spider with my hands.  After dinner we invited everyone back to our house.  I made a big batch of popcorn and then played with the baby.  Oh, you know what Giovanni did when he got to our house?  He came inside, picked up the dish of candies and threw them up so they landed all around the room!  Giovanni is CRAZY.  He picked them up of course, but he's an animal that one.  But it was a lot of fun.  

Last night we had 3 members of the band Schneeflock.  Schneeflock is Mickey's band & Mickey was the best man in our wedding.  Anyway, we had Pej, Steo & Mickey over.  They're all friends of Fabri's.  They were going to a concert at this bar/club just a block from our house and we told them to come to our place first.  We had some drinks and showed off the house to Pej & Steo who hadn't seen it before.  Then we all went to the bar.  This pretty famous singer was supposed to be playing an acoustic set starting at 11 or so.  Well sometime after midnight he finally hit the stage.  Instead of singing the songs that made him famous (what everyone was there for) he read his diary loudly and horribly to bad music with a lot of background (not unplugged).  It was horrible!  Fabri plugged his ears.  We grit our teeth through the first song, but then a mass exodus started and we heard that he planned on continuing with his performance for the whole night.  Fabri and I decided we were out of there and joined some friends outside complaining about the performance.  Steo was there and he was really sorry for me because I couldn't even understand the monologue.  So Fabri and I headed home, but we still had fun.  It's good to go to a dive bar/music club and drink a couple of beers with some friends.

We don't have many plans for this week.  I'm teaching classes on Thursday night and Friday evening/afternoon.  I'm volunteering at the museum Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  Hopefully we'll find lots of fun stuff to do too!

Pictures!

I finally got around to loading some random photos from my camera to Picasa.  You can see Fabri, Gaetano & I bottling the wine we made back in October at the end of the Wine Time album.  I am dressed ridiculously in Fabri's soccer clothes, so that's always good for a laugh.

A couple of weeks ago we made Bugia at Fabri's parents' house.  Bugia is basically fried dough with powdered sugar on top.  It's a dessert typical of Carnivale.  You make the dough and then you flatten it out with a pasta press.  Then you sort of knot it in a particular way and fry it in oil.  We actually made batches two Sundays in a row.  Fabri and I have been completely bombarded by desserts and I'm gaining weight again instead of losing as I had been.  Boooooo!

Part of the dessert problem is that when we go to friends' houses for dinner they always make dessert(s) AND when people come to our house they always bring desserts!  The worst is when we go to a friend's house, they serve us dessert and then they make us  take some of the dessert home with us!  Basically it doesn't matter that we don't buy or make desserts, we still get thwarted and end up tubby!

Here a picture of the cake our friend Roby made when her and her husband Lorenzo came for dinner one night.  It's pretty cute but she left the ENTIRE thing at our house.  The frosting and designs were done in marshmallow.  She had to buy special dye paste to get the colors, but she was sad that she couldn't find red, only orange.  I think the effect is still pretty good though. Speaking of Roby and Lorenzo, when they were over for dinner Fabri told them how we were going to rent a truck to pick up my shipment from the US in Milan.  Lorenzo's Dad apparently owns some sort of trucking/courier company and Lorenzo had to go near Milan to pick up something related to that.  He said they had a big truck that would hold everything no problem and he would be happy to take us to Milan to pick up my things.  Well Fabri and I were excited to accept because that saved us about 150 euros for renting our own truck and that meant we wouldn't have to drive the truck either.  So on Monday we met at 11 am in Savigliano in front of the Motta's house and headed out.  We stopped a little after noon at an Autogrill for some sandwiches.  We arrived at Lorenzo's stop outside of Milan just before 2.  We had to wait about fifteen minutes but then they brought out these sheets of plastic with the forklift and stuck them right in.  Then we headed around the Milan beltway to the other side of the city.  An hour later we were driving around looking for CFG Overseas, the company with my stuff.  We had to call their office because it's actually impossible to find without directions from the company.  There isn't even a sign visible from the street!!  It's behind another building and we didn't see the sign for the business until we were in their parking lot.  First Fabri and I went upstairs and saw the jerk who we've been "working with."  He seemed pretty scared of us.  Fabri and I both were wearing angry faces.  We asked him how much the additional bill for storage was going to be and the guy said it was only about 20 euros which is sooooo not right, but makes us happy.  We have two theories on this.  Either he was lying because he was afraid of us and we're going to get a crazy high bill in the mail or the American company that I complained to (who never responded) spoke with them and they discounted the fee based on that conversation.  Either way we haven't actually gotten the bill yet, but if it's something we're not willing to pay, we will be contacting an attorney again.   The most important thing is that we have my stuff!!!  It's already unpacked and organized.  Some things got packed up and put in the basement and the boxes are still on the balcony, but the house does not look like a tornado hit it.  I haven't brought the boxes to the recycling yet because it's been raining all week!  Hopefully this weekend it will be nicer and then we will clean off the balconies.   One last thing,  I have set up my blog so that some of you will get an email when it's been updated.  There are only 10 slots for email addresses for this feature (which is dumb).  Please let me know if you got the email or if you didn't and would like to.  Otherwise keep checking back for new updates!