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.