Sport, Shanoah, Keys

Odds and Ends from the camera

Most of you will have never seen our stealth cat, Sport. She is cute and adorable but very shy. When she isn't hiding she will search out Olivia, her hero, and hang with her but if there is the slightest bit of uncertainty she is gone ... like the wind...leaving traction marks behind. We have had her for about ten years but she is still not used to us.

King of the house and balcony, Shanoah, our almost 20 pound Maine Coon!

Thought you might like to see the keys we use here. This type of large block key is very common.

Carnivale Season!

Carnivale! The season has arrived. Carnivale is the time before Fat Tuesday and the beginning of Lent. You do not see children's costumes in the stores for Halloween, it is not really celebrated here, but you do see them now for Carnivale. My friend, Kristin, first alerted us to the celebration in the piazza last year. Unfortunately we missed it then but I remembered it this year when we saw the tell tale confetti on the ground last Monday morning as we were going to school and I made a mental note to check it out. Crowds of parents and children gather in the piazza around noon on Sunday and shower each other and passersby with confetti and silly string.

Little bunny

Little Red Riding Hood

Zorro

Mr. Incredible, Spider Man and the back of Bat Man

Tiger

Smurf

Hello Kitty

Fashionable princess

Stunning hooped costume

Caribiniere (Italian police)

Little blue prince

Guys selling confetti and silly string

A lot of the silly string ends up on trees

And this will happen again next Sunday and all Sundays until Lent! Who do you suppose cleans up after all this?

50th Birthday

Wow! Turning 50 was a BLAST! My friends and family here in Italy conspired to throw a semi surprise party for me...I knew they were having one, I knew who was coming, I knew where it was, but that was all. What a great moment when I walked into the room, saw it decorated, a fire going in the fireplace and a real live band warming up at the far end of the room!!!! Yeahhh! Dancing!!!

(Yikes! For some reason this picture has disappeared! It was great though. Flowers almost as tall as me!)

Rick went to the florist across the street for some flowers. He just told her he wanted some for my birthday. When he went to pick them up he was shocked to discover she had put together the above ... I don't know what you would call it! It is too big to be called a bouquet...It was amazing.

We shared a rose with Gilda, the organizer of the event, and a dear friend.

Mario got stuck holding the flowers later in the evening. They took on a life of their own!

Eileen trying to feel her feet again after dancing all night.

Olivia and Jim doing some setting up.

The band warming up.

The cake!

My favorite dancing partner!

Our friend, Francesco, just "happened" to have his harmonica with him so he could join in with the band!

A group of tired ladies soaking up the last warmth of the fire. Thank you all! I am still smiling when I remember the evening.

Size Matters

Today I thought I would show you the sizes of some of the products we purchase here as they are vastly different than what you are used to at home. I am using our 20 pound cat, Shanoah, as a visual gauge...OK, I know that a 20 pound cat is off the charts anyway but he does serve as a reference...and such a cutie!

Mayonnaise. Largest bottle I can get at the local grocery is 250 milliliters (approx. one cup or 8 ounces). It is a familiar brand though! I like the saying under the label "Morbida e delicato"...sounds like morbid and delicate but actually is "soft".

Peanut Butter (calve) 350 grams (12.34 oz). I have to drive to the big box store about 20 minutes away to get this product as I have not seen it anywhere else closer. There is a brand that the health food store sells but it tastes so bad the girls won't even eat it in a pinch. I buy 5 or 6 bottles of the pictured brand at a time and pay 3.15 euro each ($4.54). A mom has to do what a mom has to do!

Milk! Our milk comes in these one liter plastic bottles (approx. one quart). Initially we would get the one liter tetra packs but cutting the pack and not spilling the milk all over the refrigerator got to be a problem that we solved with buying the milk in different packaging. There are no larger containers for milk. No gallon sizes here...where would they put them? These fit nicely in the micro sized fridge plus can be kept on the floor before opened...they need no refrigeration until used. Ditto for eggs. Don't look for them in the coolers at the store. They will be stacked up somewhere else.

Washing Machines

When I first turn my washing machine on it shows a cycle time of one hour and fifty seven minutes to complete the wash in 60 degree centigrade water with 1200 spins per minute.

I switch to 30 degree centigrade water and my wash time drops to one hour and twenty nine minutes! Yeah! Normal wash time! If I am really lucky I can get three loads done a day. Progress!

French Press Carcasses

To us there is nothing better that a cup of coffee made in a french press. We use strong coffee and then let the grinds sit in the water for a few minutes, press them down and drink the results..with lots of cream and sugar, of course! However, I have a problem with the presses. I am constantly breaking the glass beaker. Why don't they make them out of Pyrex?

We can't just have one press...what if you have lots of people over? You need lots of coffee, right? So we usually keep a few handy...Today we have three in working order and sitting on the counter waiting to be cleaned.

Here are the press parts for 10 others we have gone through. I can't seem to throw them away. You just never know when you're making a pot and might need a clean press. I also keep saying that I am going to make an art piece out of these carcasses just to show our dedication to this method of coffee making.

Shanoah is investigating the presses I pulled out of the drawer and lined up to count.

Books I've Read

This is my book of books. It is a lovely cloth bound book and inside it I keep track of all the books I read. I have been doing this since 1989. We have moved frequently and it always goes with me. It doesn't get left for the movers to pack, I keep it in my carry on. It is too precious for me to risk at the hands of others. Silly, I know, but I hope to keep making entries for a very long time.

The first entry was in 1989. That year I read 12 books. It was the year our oldest daughter, Rachael, was born. I have made entries every year except 1990...new mom syndrome, I guess. I must have spent a lot of time taking care of the baby. Anyway 1990 was my most unproductive reading year with zero books read. But, I had quite a spurt in the low naughts as I read 41 in '02, 40 in '03 and 42 in '04. My high was '05 with 55!

This is what my current page looks like. Ten read in '09 and a whole lot of spaces to fill in 2010. I added up the books over the years and was surprised to see that as of today I have logged a nice round 500 books read over 21 years. Not too bad.

Traffic on Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Trani

Corso Vttorio Emanuele is one of the busiest streets in Trani. There is a light just past our apartment so traffic frequently gets backed up and we hear horns and breaks as people, cars and motorcycles negotiate the intersection. I thought I would show you a series of shots throughout the day to give you some idea of the ebb and flow of traffc here.

This shot was taken out our bedroom balcony at about 11:00 a.m. Notice the line of cars already backed up heading to the light.

This is at 3:00 p.m. during riposo. Everyone is home having a big lunch. The streets are empty and parking is plentiful...my favorite time of day to arrive in town.

OK, this is at 5:00. Riposo is finishing up. People are starting to go out again.

And this is 8:00 p.m. Gridlock!

Blue Plaques of London

As you walk around London you notice blue plaques on the sides of certain buildings. The plaques have, since 1867, been placed on buildings to honor great people who lived or worked on that spot.
We didn't realize the importance of the area we were staying in until we started seeing the blue plaques all around us. Here are a few of the persons in our temporary hood:

Mark Twain stayed here from 1896-97

Bram Stoker of Dracula fame

and Mr. Oscar Wilde

Wouldn't it be fun to have all these people walking around the square at the same time? What interesting converstions one would overhear!

London Shows

One of our favorite things to do in London is to go to the shows. Here are some that are showing now.

Les Miserables (actually saw this in Seattle)

Saw this in London a few years ago...a good "who done it?"

Did see this! Our friend, Chris, has been in the orchestra of this show for all the time it has been in the west end...something like 13 years! Knowing someone in the show made it special.

This is what we went to see on New Year's Eve. Over the past years we have found ourselves in London for this special day and have made it a tradition to go to a show in the evening. Last year we saw Wicked on NYE. As we were spilling out of the theatre the crowds of partiers were heading past us to the waterfront to watch the fireworks at the London Eye. Everyone was in a good mood.

Epiphany in Trani

January 6, Three Kings Day, Epiphany! The end of the Christmas season. We saw the beginnings of the town's manger display before we left for vacation so we wanted to see the finished project. It took over a lovely triangular piazza in town. They brought in rocks, no boulders, and set up this lovely precepe. The red carpet takes you right to the center and focus...Jesus in the manger.

Shepards and their flocks...

Townfolk doing chores...

And at night the scene is lit and for three minutes...at the top of the hours... they activate the snow machines seen in the upper left hand corner of this shot so you can see what it would be like to have a white christmas.