emelie in rome

Amazingly awesome

2008-03-28T15:42:00.004+01:00

i just came across the funnest sneak peak ever on design*sponge (obsession? yes.) i would totally recommend checking out Adam Wallacavage's funky-to-no-end space. it reminded me that we have a couch just like this one (from his home) in storage that belonged to my nana. my mom and i have been planning on reupholstering it for agggges. any fabbo ideas on a good fabric pick? i was thinking something clean and canvas-y maybe in cream and light blue, but i'm not totally sure. i'm hoping to help her pick one out while i'm back in the US in a few weeks. Right now it's a dark red velvet, which is a bit intense for m&d's sunny beach-y house.

(photo credit: design*sponge)

Grosse Boite

2008-03-15T16:39:00.000+01:00

http://www.grosseboite.com/

All dressed up with no where to go.

2008-02-27T17:37:00.019+01:00

Lately I've been kind of obsessed with all these new artists and the animals they draw all dressed up for a day on the town, er, or maybe it's humans with animal heads... well, however you choose to see it, I'm loving it! Since I often spend too much of my time sieving through etsy, I thought I'd share with you a few of my favorite finds, just so that you don't have to do all that work... aren't I great?!
"Elephant Love", which is about the sweetest thing ever, is a print of an original, ink piece by Wendy Allegree of orangewillow, a Cincinatti-based artist. I love it too much. You can purchase her prints at her etsy store for a teeny-tiny fifteen dollars, as well as some of her really affordable, original, ink drawings (fifty). There are quite a few great ones to choose from, and she's having a sale - buy three prints, get one free! What a snag. Here are two more of my favorites... ("Musical squirrel" and "Tea Time")

These two cloaked owls at Sydney-based yellowmonday's etsy store are really just too cute!Another great artist, Marjorie of MarmeeCraft, creates these wonderful, whimsical, little critters. Check out her prints at her etsy store. A few of my favorites ... Bashful Birdlings ($16)...
Mr. Fox, Esquire Cabinet Portrait ($16) and Bunny, Cabinet Portrait ($16)We got tempted a few months ago by Berkley Illustration's immaculately-dressed powerful owl, bunny and billy goat (trust me it was a hard decision choosing just those three). I found out about Berkley Illustration from design*sponge, another place where I spend too much time. We're planning on framing and hanging them together, somewhere, and at some point. Knowing that they are sitting in an envelope at my parents house is just fine for now. There are a lot more to choose from and very reasonable at 7 bucks a pop! (p.s. I love the tiger and the horse!)
So when you start searching for animals all dressed up, you are bound to end up on some children's illsutrations pages. Since some of my friends are starting to make children, I figured it's not totally off the mark to throw these on. They are super-cute and, who knows, maybe someone I love is trying to decorate a baby room!

I mean, Kylie Parry's "wellie collects starfish at the beach" made me laugh out loud. (i love that he's a little bit cross-eyed.)"Dance avec moi" by sarah jane is also really sweet and would look great on a bedroom wall (there are other background colors to choose from). Check out her store for some other really cute children's illustrations. So this post has also brought back some really fond childhood memories of sitting in a friend's playroom having her dad read us "Babar" ... I just want to pass a hello along to Mr. M. because without him we would have barely known Babar and never met the Berenstain Bears.

If any of you come across some more artwork that falls into this "dressed up animals" catagory, let us know!!

Hello Again.

2008-02-24T18:48:00.002+01:00

Hi guys.
so i've been hibernating. it's been a while. i know.

for a while i considered just dropping my blog, cause you know, there are other things to do with my time! i felt busy and lazy all at once and i just wasn't sure how important it was for me. i thought a lot about that and then... i started getting complaints. "what's going on with your blog? seriously?" "where the hell are you?" and it really made me happy. i guess i realized that some of you out there, sitting at your desks, playing on the internets , missed me. so i felt kind of honored. and happy. and inspired.

but i had to decide how could change my blog into something that inspires me - something that i could feel motivated to keep working at. i like writing about my goings ons, but it can feel like keeping a diary and i'm soooo bad at that. i guess i started to think of transforming it into more of a platform to share things that i find interesting, beautiful, well-made, hip.... i decided to make my blog what i want it to be... so i will start to focus a little less on what i'm up to personally and socially and a little more on the things that i'm caught by. things that i find. things that i do. concepts and art and design and crafts and projects and and and ... and maybe a little less on how long we stayed at the OTR last weekend....

so i know... it'll be a transition, and i hope that you guys will help me out a little bit in the process, maybe guiding me and giving me ideas, your opinions and sharing what you are into these days. i'd love for this to evolve into something wonderful that represents me and my world and to include a space for you to share what you are loving... so we can all play together again... like when we were kids, but cooler. don't forget, there are the comments or you can shoot me an email - whenever and about whatever.

ok. thanks for coming back after the long cold... and sorry for the ..... pause.
love and kisses,
emelie

Seattle, Olympic National Park & Portland, OR

2007-11-06T10:44:00.003+01:00

Welcome back to "the chronicles of USA, 2007" (installation 3). So after all the gluttonous loving from our favorite canucks and the incredible aventure of whale watching with Capt. Ron we had the pleasant surprise of landing in Seattle, WA. Seattle is rad.
Katie, the best nurse in Seattle, brought us to the Seattle market, which is called Pike's place. We had lots of fun walking around and shopping. We bought some great prints - which in a remarkable effort of never-seen-before completion skills have actually been framed and HUNG - yeah. i was weirded out by that. We also framed a print from Cairo - not a bad turnaround and much more normal.

So the best part of Pike's Place is the fish stall, where the fish dudes all dressed in orange rubber outfits throw a fish across the display to all of the would-be buyers. This would-be-buyer is meant to catch the fish. The rules are simple. The outcomes vary. It's really quite humorous to watch... which is why i suppose the crowd is huge. The customer is put on the spot to perform. Oh it's all in good fun. Seattle is all in good fun.

After loving seattle for a bit (the food, the billiards, the beer, the company...) we headed off to Olympic National Park with fills up most of the Olympic Peninsula. Olympic National Park is host to stunning beaches, temperate rain forests and loads of animals. It was such a great experience to hike around and camp at these awesome spots. We had ridiculous amounts of fun.

After the friendly rangers at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center gave us some guidance, we decided to stop for a short hike along a nice trail that brought us to the Marymere Falls.Afterwards we did the two short trails around the Hoh Rainforest Vistor Center (Map). This is where we encountered many Dr. Seuss trees.
Along the way, one of the most exciting parts of the adventure was bald eagle spotting. this was a great spot by peppe. later on there was an even greater one by katie (as she drove.... very impressive). Seeing a bald eagle is a very, very cool thing.We ended the day with just enough time for a sunset beer at Rialto Beach. It's hard to describe the roughness of this beach, but if you can imagine immense trunks of driftwood sprayed on the dark sands with an unbelievable rough sea, you can start to get the picture. It is a very special spot. And then sitting around the campfire in the rain, roasting marshmellows and bragging about our waterproof gear was also fabulous.... We started the next day by driving out to the tip of the coast and grabbing some lunch. We finally pulled into Portland, OR around 9pm to the welcoming face of our old friend, Morgan. It was fun catching up and chatting over some nicely brewed beers. Though we didn't have much time in Portland, what we did have we spent almost exclusively in Powell's Bookstore - the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Possibly, in my totally uninformed opinion, the coolest place in Portland.the next part was the hard part... parting with katie. it sucked.

Gola di Fara San Martino

2007-11-02T14:17:00.001+01:00

I wanted to start this post off with a great clip from Creature Comforts. We were at some friends for dinner this week and started talking about this hilarious show by the creator of wallace and gromit... it's humor just speaks for itself. this is one of my favorite clips:

Last weekend we headed out of town for a little nature escape. We got to Cansano around dinner time on saturday. Here i am doing a little knitting (more on that to come), which i've found to be a rather challenging endeavor... but am still finding the patience to push on. Sunday we woke up early (even earlier with the time change!) and headed to fara san martino for a bit of a nature walk.
it was our first time to this specific part of the National Park of the Majella, and it was a really pleasant surprise. In the area there is evidence of prehistoric settlements with the Grotta Porca Arcangeli and artifacts from the bronze age. The town, Fara San Martino is located around the tenth century monastery, San Martino in Valle, founded by Bendectine monks, which is now being unearthed after it was destroyed in a landslide in 1846.

the hike brought us up to this view where we greedily ate a sandwich and then turned around to head back down. hopefully we'll be exploring more of the region in the weeks to come. at the moment i am really loving abruzzo and all of it's rustic charm...

Oh Canada, eh?

2007-10-26T18:20:00.004+02:00

So back to the trip *this would be "installation 2" if you're counting... Looking at these photos is bringing on a bit of gloom... oh, why can't i be on permanent vacation? being back in roma, lovely though it is, with winter coming on strong (i can't believe my mom went to the beach the other day!), and all the friends leaving and making plans to leave... well it's a bit gloomy, let say. a lil' bit dark and friend's leaving just stinks... well, so on that note, oh what i wouldn't do to be back in bean town right now!? i can just IMAGINE the ridiculous displays of team spirit that must be taking over the city in some kind profane, almost euphoric way... i will say no more than "go sox!" and then just get the heck on with it.

so waking up from the wedding was the least fun part of that sunday (thanks alex and paul!!) ... cause arriving in vancouver was a treat! the airport provided us with all kinds of... native specimens? shall i say? there were birds, boats, and a big First Nation eagle - all displayed in a Welcome to Vancouver Passageway (i.e. "customs this way...") COMPLETE with a recording of birds chirping and waves softly lapping. oh, we were in Vancouver... welcome to Canada, eh? it was like being at a natural history museum... and oh, in case you were wondering, FREE! totally free.

so Vancouver was amazing. we had the absolute best hosts (obviously), but to emphasize even more the most repeated phrase of the whole trip - we didn't have enough time :-( we were there for two nights and two days. we saw tara's campus. we met the stars of jay's film. we watched her belly. we hung around town. we ate noodles. on the second day we cruised around vancouver and checked out vintage shops in gastown. it is such a great city. amazing vibe. beautiful beaches. and just clean, clear and lovely. oh and The Adorables are really cute there too....

this photo peppe took with his new holy-sh*t-what-a-nice-camera camera in one of the great community vegetable gardens that dot the city. we found it over by the Granville Island Market, where we had also seen loads of lovely looking foods and beautifully carved and spun objects. so vancouver seriously impressed us --- a few more days would have been totally welcomed, but instead we filled up some coke cups with beer and hit the busride/ferry to victoria. what a gorgeous ferry ride! oh yeah, we saw orcas on the way... right... (obviously?!?!) and just the most impressive wide open skies and fjord-like land masses plopped into the frigid looking waters. oh and the trees! green and blue and blue and green.

Victoria was also really lovely. it had this very charming thing going on. we had a real nice couple of nights with T&J... here's some shots of us messing about in the park.dinner at the diner...we headed over to the Fisherman's Wharf on T & J's last day with us in Victoria for some fish and chips at "BARB's". I had gotten myself kind of obsessed with Barb's since the first day. seriously, it's in your best interest not to give me the guidebook... i tend to take the task rather seriously. so we were told (i mean, the guidebooks says...) the ABSOLUTE best fish n' chips was at Barb's place. therefore, i was on a real mission to get us to the best fish n' chips (bestness of it confirmed by random taxi driver and other "respectable" looking locals, namely a rather sad looking dude watering the flowers at a big hotel). So anyway, the guidebook said it was a must do and i was a believer. amen. Luckily, the company either a) agreed with me or b) thought it wasn't worth a fight. so we headed over to Barb's right before they left.

It was nice really cute along the floating wharf where Barb's was. barb's barb's barb's. la la la la la. and there were harbor seals right there (i think they were begging for little nibbles of fried cod)! Oh and yes, the fish n' chips were quite delicious. free refills on fountain soda too. god i love that so much.
the best part of it was that being over there we met Captain Ron of Sea King Adventures, Inc. We had considered taking one of the bigger whale watching tours from the inner harbor, but when we saw Captain Ron's set up in Fisherman's Wharf, we knew it was all coming together. 40 people crammed onto a huge zodiac, all strapped in OR just P & I on a small 10-seater with the only owner-operated tour in Victoria.... Easy choice! We were so lucky that Captain Ron decided to take us out, even though it was just the two of us... well Bro, the dog (who made awesome company), had to come too... (ya can't leave the dog locked in the shop, people.) It really made it an unforgettable experience. With Ron's knowledge of the sea and our ability to just ask him questions and make him stop for photo taking... it was just awesome. oh. and i mean... we saw freaking killer whales, my friends!!!!
here's a tidbit about Sea King Adventures. If you are ever in Victoria, i not only recommend going out with Captian Ron, but I also would go so far as to try to dissuade you from going on one of the more commercially available tours... it's just that much better. Plus you get to leave from fisherman's wharf and you can probably squeeze in a fish n' chips before you leave... i hear Barb makes a decent plate...

The Legendary Captain" Ron King, Owner Operator of Sea King Adventures, has over 35 years of experience in the beautiful waters around Victoria and Vancouver Island. He is a certified Master Skipper with naturalist and conservation education.

Because SeaKing Adventures is Victoria’s only 100% family owned and operated marine tour company, Ron’s commitment to quality, safety and satisfaction is guaranteed! His central location on board the vessel allows him to provide Victoria’s most comprehensive fully narrated, totally interactive and personalized tours. Boasting a spotless safety record and sightings guarantee, Ron’s qualifications and experience combine to make him the city’s premier guide. (www.seaking.ca)

Me and bro.Crazy Bull Kelp, of which you can find more info here. This impressive stuff is everywhere and supposedly has all kinds of uses that it's not being used enough for.So one of the highlights of the ride was when we pulled up alongside of this other boat which had three Dall's Porpoises bow riding.

here's a shot of Captain Ron and Bro.Finally we get to the spot.... ORCA WHALES!!!! oh god, it was just so amazing. it's really hard to put into words how, literally, awesome, it is to see these big creatures in their habitat. It's amazing. We headed out of victoria on one of these guys.....

Six passengers and one tiny, ity, bitty, little seaplane. P was stoked with the Pilot looked at him and said "Ok, you're my copilot... you're up front with me." i swear i saw him do a YES! outloud. either way... kid looked pretty happy. i, on the other hand, was squished up against a door that i didn't quite trust not to open while flying thousands (?) of feet above a fridig water full of killer whales. but i'm not complaining. there were some rather spectacular views from up there and it was really cool. honestly, the commercial flights were more expensive and didn't leave or drop you off anywhere convienent. So we took Kenmore Air - the seaplane airline and would never regret it. they drop you off right downtown in seattle (the pilot even radioed ahead for a taxi. i sh*t you not.)... i mean talk about convienent ;-)

P the world renowed co-pilot:
Flying into Seattle was great... such an awesome view. one i'm sure many seattlites would be very jealous of. i think i'll have to leave with this view... seattle, olympic national park, humboldt, san francisco and santa barbara to come....

Dear Jon...

2007-10-23T16:31:00.000+02:00

I really do refrain from talking about the Daily Show and posting about the Daily Show. At a point in my life (and my discussions with others), I realized that my obsessions did not have to be other's obsessions. I think it was the eyes rolling in tinto the backs of heads. Anyway, I'm o.k. with that. So Jon became a bit of a secret obsession. Some have Second Life. I have Jon. And Samantha Bee. I love her. Today is a special occassion. I really just had to share this clip with you. It's not only brilliant, but really funny... hehehehe. the Meta-president.

Week 1 and 2 USA tour

2007-10-13T19:45:00.002+02:00

in a way, i've been just kind of dreading this.... not that i don't want to share all of the wonderful things that we did and amazing places we went and great friends that we saw... it's just that there is so very much to say. i'm not sure i can do it all justice. i guess since you've all been BEGGING ME (yes, i am aware that i said begging) i'm just going to try to show some photos and go over what we did... on the USA tour 2007.

let me first say that it was so amazing to see all the friends and family that i DO NOT see nearly enough of. let me also say that one of the best surprises was that caitlin decided not to go back to africa when she was supposed to and she stuck around to hang out in duxbury. christian and alana came down from new york and we just chilled.... and chilled. and drank lots of wine and soaked till we were raisins in the hot tub. it was ... magical.

after their visit we went down to new york and crashed with p's big brother. this is the view from his place. as you can see, it's a pretty average view ;-)

Since my sister, erin, lives ON a cranberry bog (notice i didn't say "NEAR"), she had organized a "Harvest Party" for the weekend after we got back from new york city. her house is awesome. the dogs are superfun and it's just really nice and very new englandy to be there.

The intention was to eat and be merry and watch all the cranberries being harvested and such. Unfortunately due to the dry season, the harvest was not ready to start on cue, but whatever, that didn't matter - we still had an awesome time. The icing on the cake - it turned out to be a little bit of a birthday party for p and i... something i really didn't expect at all!

auggie:Later on that week we went to Maeve's soccer practice - ted coaches the team. Dillon was cool enough to come along and keep p and i company. i know everyone says to younger people (yeah, i called them younger people) 'oh my goodness - you've gotten so much bigger since i saw you last!', but when i say it i really mean it. i mean, not that they don't, but i feel like i mean it more. anyways, i mean... it's not really fair... all this growing up behind my back.

they are awesome, anyways. the best. just the best.

Somehow, and i really have no idea how, seriously, i have NO good photos of alex's wedding. i robbed a few from katie and i'm hoping hags is gonna pull through with some amazing ones. it was just such an AWESOME night. she looked amazing. her dad made me cry. and then made me cry again when i told him how much he had made me cry. gail cracked me up. josie raised the bar and the roof with her speech. dad danced with me. grace danced the whole night. actually everyone danced the whole night. the dancing was amazing. a set list that was OUT of this world. the grand finale being, of course, stairway to heaven - just as alex wanted... straight out of a middle school dance. 'cept a lot prettier. we got to meet loads of people. we got to see mr. hagerty seriously get down. we got to see alex tuck her wedding dress into her underwear and get down. we got to see a kid fall and take out a table. the night was this and oh so much more... most importantly it was my dear, dear friend alex getting married. and then we walked home, in a desperate attempt to let it all sink in, oh and sober up... so that's all for now.... stay tuned for the second installment... vancouver, victoria, seattle, olympic national park, portland, redwood park, humboldt state forest, san francisco, monteray bay, santa barbara and duxbury... wow.

Born in the USA....

2007-09-07T15:08:00.002+02:00

i will most probably be taking a leave of absence from blogging... as P and I are returning to the states for a long anticipated, totally exciting trip! there will be tons of photos and stories, i'm sure. and i do hope to update at least once while i'm away, but if you don't hear from me till mid-october you can just assume that the bagels and burgers stole me!
ciao ciao!

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This picture is for me, while i'm away from my little, sweet, darling simon.

fig jam!

2007-09-05T16:25:00.001+02:00

Figggggg jam!!! so in preperation for the winter. like a little squirrel (do squirels eat figs?) like a tree full of birds... oh this is going no where. umm... i had never made fig jam before. but was fascinated by the prospect. or i mean, i wasn't like fascinated, but i wanted to use these things. honestly i was pissed off at the birds. the figs came and we never really ate many of them. and so finally i decided to take them all and make them into jam. here they are in all their glory.

P (ie Mr. Longlegs, Mr. Longarms, Mr. Oh-can't-you-reach-that?-sarcastic-"fun"-guy) was sweet enough to help me reach some of the many of the ones that were out of my reach. what i don't get is... if you're a bird why does it matter how close they are to the ground. so what i want to know is why there are a gazillion figs on the top branches and the bottom ones just picked clean. i guess my annoyance with the birds is coming out rather strongly. i had hoped to kind of make it seem not that big of a deal. god i am going on now.
anyyyyway, here are the beautiful figs

and here they are again... there's no turning back mr&mrs figgytops. it's all over. it's fig jam outta you! sorry.
the final completed package. ready for delivery to many a smiling face upon our arrival back in the USA.

Fig Jam:
take all of your figs and cut the ends off then peel them to some degree... you don't have to be that exact about it - a little bit of peel is fun! then weigh them. you want to have about 2kg (1lb-ish). cover them with about 3 dL of water (that's not that much!).
cook on a slow heat.
once it starts to cook add about 600g of sugar for each kg of figs (actually this was a big much ... i found mine to be a bit sweet so i would go for more like 400-500g).
cook on a slow fire until the sugar is melted, then turn up the heat, let it boil and remove the froth as it arrives. stir it occasionally - don't let it stick! when the vapor is less dense and the bubbles that form are smaller and closer together. reduce the heat and start to test it for jam consistency (there are a few ways: 1) with a plate that you've left in the fridge beforehand, put a spoon of the mix onto it and see if it forms a "skin" after being refrigerated for a few minutes. or when you put the wooden spoon in the mix see if the jam drops from the spoon when tilted into two drops, instead of one.). once it has reached this point follow standard jarring procedures.

use sterelized jars and pour the HOT jam into them. quickly close the jars tightly and then boil each jar for about 10 min to prevent bacterial growth. afterwards the jars should all reveal their sealed state by popping IN their tops. it's a beautiful sound... it means "jam is ready. jam is perfect!".

As they say in Port de la Selva...

2007-08-22T17:55:00.002+02:00

Adéu!! which means goodbye. bye bye beaches. bye bye late-night pictionary. bye bye rosado seco. bye bye pichon di pallas. bye bye beach and sun. and jamon con manchego. bye bye arnaud & oscar's yellow floating ring. bye bye cataluña. bye bye. adéu!

i would like to start my weary reminsicing by saying that it was very, very hard for the boys to admit two things: 1) alex was the best waterskier of the group 2) alex and i were the best Pétanque players of the group. now to be fair... peppe, gaspard, oscar and balthazar gave us a run for our money and yes, cort and arthur may have "won", but by just stating the obvious, we were the best... you know what i mean - consistancy, accuracy (i'll give that part to alex) and knowing how to talk the talk, scare tactics, etc. we were just better. so now that that's out on the table... we can get down to business.

Gaspard giving it his best shot....
The games were THRILLING. i mean, if you're into curling, you'd probably LOVE pétanque! i am a big pétanque fan, personally. i love the knockouts. i love the aiming. i love moving the little pig. i love the sport and goddamn it(!) i love the hanging around with before dinner drinks and a bucketfull of spirit! our pétanque spectators and fans were also really into the matches - as can be expected. we had people stopping to watch. heck, we had DOGS stopping to watch. well... it's just a fascinating game to watch, especially when the "ALL GIRL" team is kicking a little a**:

not going very well for the boys...
"wait... did i just loose at pétanque or was that a dream?" "no, balt, i'm afraid to say that it's true." heheheee... i'm totally playing - i mean what kind of @##hole reminds people weeks later that they (savegely?) beat them at a silly little game!?! not me, surely. not me. that's just ridiculous behavior!

so our nightly pétanque matches were not the only highlight of the trip!! (hard to believe???) there was also paella, lots of dry rosé wine and lots of big diners, plus the beach, the sea, the boat (entrance to which was mastered by noneother than the famous Arnaud LeMenach)....
what what? take out paella dinner? OK!

chillin' in Figueres...
the tomb of Salvador Dalí
inside the museum.....

Now back in Port de la Selva, where the first historic references to the settlement go back to 974, although it did not become a fully-fledged village until the 18th century, with the construction of its first church, we are playing on the sea. (totally plagerized from some site)

Here we get to see the happy faces of arnaud, oscar and alex. we were lucky enough to get on the boat on the way to the beach.... others drove, some even walked (!). not us, we were on the boat. i do have to say that it was the most freightening experience of my life... but i still feel cool for being on the boat. we went pretty fast and got totally soaked. it was more of an amusement park ride than a method of transportation... but hey, i'm not complaining... i love amusement parks!!!

here arnuad is demonstrating how to get on the boat.

there were alot of moments sitting in the little window sill... many moments of funny laughter and there was even a "what noise can you make" session where some of the friends really impressed some of the other friends with water dripping and dolphins (personally my favorite) and horses and all kinds of other barnyard fun noises. I think we can all agree that those 5 days in Port de la Selva were a most welcomed holiday and more fun than any of us could have imagined. Wow. THANK YOU, BALT!!!!!!!!!!!! I <3 U!!!!

Hotel Raphael

2007-08-16T12:04:00.002+02:00

Before i get carried away with all the tales of Spain, I wanted to put up some photos of the lovely aperitivo we had on the terrace of Raphael Hotel in Rome for Ella's goodbye. It was just such a lovely evening full of wine and sunset views and laughs and good times. Ella's departure is coming soon and it is a very sad thing. On top of that today I had the very bad news that Vanessa and Vincent are leaving on the 15th of October, which means that i'll hardly see them as we'll be in the US for most of that time. I won't even comment on how depressed that is making me.................

Sunny, sunny sards.

2007-08-09T16:50:00.002+02:00

it's been a few weeks since we got back from sunny sardinia (or Sardehh ggna as we prefer to call it for some unknown reason), but i guess it's just been kinda busy and i haven't had time to do much, aside from have all of this "required" fun for ages. apologies therefore for the lack of posting. so loads of stuff has happened really since the sunny, sunny trip to sards. Namely Balt's return from the congo (or as we hip UNers call it - The DRC - i mean, i guess a lot of people call it that too - i guess it's just the abreviation - but it does sound really fierce and for some reason, which i can't completely understand, it makes me feel cool to say it.). He showed up in rome a bit furrier, looking for pizza with a little backpack and a dream. so since then we've had all kinds of drinks and dinners and chats and mirtos and gardens and mozzarellas and parties and so on and so forth, all in a kind of sad celebration - knowing that he'll be returning to DRC very soon, leaving us here, lingering for more.

On the very same vibe, our very, very dear friend ella is leaving rome. It's gonna be wicked hard (insert boston accent) to have her go, but we all are wishing her the best of luck on her new blank page and will miss her so very (freakin) dearly. so ugh. the summer moves on.... sad celebrations. i feel cheeky to admit that it's actually amazing how much fun can be had at these sad celebrations... i guess it's never really real and really sad until it's the last one. i just hope i don't cry. anyhow, the last celebration "may" be tonight, depending on if the plans to party at the train station as she passes through town in about a weeks time (i will not lie alcohol has been involved in some of this planning), will come to fruition. but it should just be a lovely night. another rooftop aperitivo. with all of us glamming it up for the photogs. gawd, it hurts to be so lovely. i'll try to take some photos for you all tonight.

anyway...... back to sardegna. seeing alana and christian was amazing though a due reminder of just how hard it is to live so far away from your people. so good to be together. like a sitcom. and in my opinion, a really, really good one. one that's funny, interesting and fascinating all at once. time was scrunched. we had lots of fun and lots of beach time. but it is just never ever ever enough. when they left i felt like i had so much more to say. it was sad. luckily we've have this trip to the states in september so we get to look forward to seeing them again. we're planning on just spending lots of time in the healy hot tub and lounging around with frozen margeritas or something of the sort.

here we are in the harbor on the first day.
about to go for a cruise in stefano's new boat. you can see how utterly small those other little dingys are. they do not even compare in the slightest way to the kind of boats you can see at porto cervo. like the lady moura for example.... what a piece of *&#$! anyway, it's not my style. and i mean that... no offense, sultan of brunei.

here's a shot from shore as the molinario's joined us for a dip in cannigione.Something that we did which i've always wanted to do was go to the ritual which is this club that has been around since the 60s, completely carved into the rock face with all kinds of caves and secret passages. i've been dying to go to for ages, not cause i really need to go to posh clubs, but because it looked like just about the coolest place ever. and i have to say, it was. i mean architecturally - the most outstandingly funky place. the fauna left a bit to be desired... but hey... what can you say? christian was fascinated with it all. there's a very special place that we go for a beer at sunset. these pictures were all taken at the fort. those of you that have been to sardinia with us know about the fort for sure. there's a lot of mystery surrounding this place and i guess i just prefer to keep it that way... makes it seem a bit more surreal than it already is. it's just the coolest suset view ever. i hope that they don't like kill me for putting this one on. but i'm sure there are tons of people dying to see what they look like together and aside from that, they didn't really sound like they checkedt in to the blog that often... and on top of that it's not like i've got a millon readers out there.... actually just three ... signed up at least - not that i wish there were more or anything ;-) anyways, what they don't know can't hurt them. right? how adorable?!i'm going to finish this off by showing you the most luxorious and fancy meal i've ever had in my life. this lobster catalanese (cataluna - catalán) was even more delicious than can be imagined... a serious splurge, but well worth it!! making this post has actually got me a little depressed. so i'm gonna go sulk now. please let me know what you think in the comments!
ciao

Piero and Giusy's Wedding - Ravello, July 6, 2007

2007-07-27T13:36:00.002+02:00

with a bit of delay i'm posting some photos from Piero and Giusy's wedding on the 6th of July in Ravello.

RICE!!!

Hellooooo friends!

2007-07-18T17:58:00.001+02:00

so i've been getting a lot of emails asking about the wedding.... i've been thinking about what to write about it, but i've just been so busy trying to "work" that i've really had no time to put anything together. since i have my fabulous friends alana and christian coming to rome tonight (a bit later than expected due to an alitalia strike which will make us miss our boat to sardegna - not that i'm bitter or hate alitalia workers for pulling this S*&T in the middle of summer or anything... sorry... what was i saying?) right..... i realized that i won't have time for a while. so instead of making you wait and wait, i'll just say simply that the wedding was divine. everything was beautiful, especially Giusy. and it was just such a gorgeous setting. i'll leave it at that as i'm running out the door and share with you some photos from David and I. ...

Alex and Paul come to Rome!

2007-07-09T13:50:00.001+02:00

So what an amazing summer this has been. I was just graced with the presence of my dear, dear friend Alexandra and her B-F Paul (or fiance, rather) and his friends. It was SUCH a fun weekend and i managed to squueeze a lot of fun into a few days. they, on the other hand, managed to squeeeeeze an incredible amount of Rome into just a few hours. i give them props for their finely tuned tourism skills.

after picking Alex up at the airport we walked around town and hung out with Paul. the weather was great (actually the weather is just amazing these days). when we got to the pantheon the sun was streaming through the opening in the dome, lighting up this sculpture just as it must have been intended to do. remember - this photo was taken from inside a church where the source of light is an opening at the top of the "largest unreinforced concrete dome in the history of architecture". (says wiki)
then we walked around and played "spot the cats" at torre argentina. Paul also made a friend here.

Friday we had special guests at the usual OTR events. (over the road). it was fun to show Alex where i can be found every Friday after work. and to show them a bit what it's like to live here. alex and paul enjoying the 2E beer and 3E prosecco....

Cortney
we then headed off to miraggio and had a lovely dinner all together with FAO friends.

Saturday night we organized a little cookout and after tossing around the frisbee sat around the table and celebrated a few birthdays. we even brought the shisha out for the occasion. (thanks Francesca!!)
Russ:Peppe mans the grill:Alex and steve:

Sunday Alex and i saddled up the car and headed south to Sperlonga. She didn't really know what to expect from Settebello camping, but BOY was she IMPRESSED!!! i don't have any photos myself, so i'll have to wait for hers, but let's just say that she had expected a little something more "roughing it". ahhhhh Italian campsites... the serenity ;-) the beach was great and we had a lovely dinner in town after carousing the little streets looking at all the items for sale.
beach with kitesurfers:aperitivo spot:
we woke up and hit the town for a last coffee and to admire the bougainvillea:there was a good amount of hustle and bustle for a sleepy beach town on a Monday. then we hit the beach one last time before taking off and heading back to Rome.
walking around Rome and looking at all the pretty monuments. here Paul and Alex patiently pose for me at the Capitoline hill park.

wandering through the streets we came across quite an eclectic bar, but on further thought decided against the bartaruga and settled on something a little more mainstream for a few predinner beers before our Sicilian dinner in trastevere. I did manage to snap alex reclining on the baroque couches in the bartaruga before we ran out of there fearing having to pay for that service
the following night we met up in campo dei fiori before hitting dar filettaro de santa barbara. for some fried cod. here you see me showing off my new jojo that my mom gave me for my birthday and that the girls helped to pick out. at this point it had gotten tired of being worn as a necklace for five days in a row and had moved on to being my new bracelet. isn't it adorable?
here are Alex and Paul at the fried cod place as twilight sets on Rome. p.s. there's a copyright on this photo - so don't you dare use it (mom, that includes you!)! the last night we had a lovely dinner at giggetto with Giorgio and David who had arrived for Piero's wedding.... but that's another day..... another blog entry..... i just hated saying goodbye to Alex. it all went by so quick - as i knew it would... one week is not enough cause I'm a spoiled brat. at least i have just about the funnest thing to look forward to now... their wedding in September, which i could NOT be more excited for!

Piero e Giusy

2007-06-29T13:29:00.000+02:00

last night was the lovely pre-wedding cocktail party at Peppe's parent's home. the food was delightful... kebabs, fried italian goodness, prosciutto, melon, little tasty things, sushi... and an amazing cocktail bar serving up mojitos and other crazy concoctions. the weather was perfect. the day was gorgeous and the best part about it (for me) was that my wonderful friend, alex, was there all the way from boston!

Things i'm obsessed with (june 2007)

2007-06-26T10:15:00.000+02:00

of late I've found myself obsessed with a few things which, due to obsession, i feel obliged to share with you. i do realize that it's probably of little or no significance to you, but obsession is overpowering and one can't really help themselves... can they? The first new obsession is hibiscus tea. I got hooked in Cairo. Cairo dude getting people hooked:This was actually a big mistake due to the fact that it was probably what got me soooo sick when i was there. (oh god. daggers in my stomach.) But I knew it couldn't be the tea as a concept, rather the water used to make it, and therefore have since brewed some with our more reliable water and continued to chug it all day. It's not as sticky sweet as what you'll find in Cairo, which I suppose is further proof that we had really been drinking a hibiscus syrup and tap water and that that is what i fell in love with, but nonetheless it's very refreshing. Supposedly it reduces your blood pressure and is a good alternative to medicines for hypertension. Lucky for me I have lowish blood pressure. On the sixth glass I asked peppe if this would mean that the stuff was gonna make me faint or something. I did feel rather relaxed....

this "craze" is further compounded another obsession i have - the hibiscus plant that peppe's mother gave me for my birthday. it is not the same species as the tea type, which makes it simply a related obsession. i don't want to brag, but i think it may be the most beautiful one i've ever seen. i'm really hoping to take good care of it and learn how to 'hibernate' it over the winter. i am very faithful that this plant can be beautiful forever. but not really sure. i truly don't want ot let it down. it may be the most beautiful thing that i own.
the last and final obsession that i'll bore you with is getting into handmade/new designer art. there are lots of extremely talented people out there who make some really incredible stuff. i feel that looking at it and contemplating what you WOULD buy - if you were buying stuff - is a great way to foster your taste and make you feel you have a real opinion about art. cause you do. and it's great fun. my favorite things to look at are Design*Sponge and Etsy.

from the site: design*sponge is a daily website dedicated to home and product design run by Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney. Launched in August of 2004,Design*Sponge features store and product reviews, sale and contest announcements, new designer profiles, trend forecasting and store/studio tours. In addition, Design*Sponge features a unique section dedicated to covering student design, national and international design shows. The site is updated constantly throughout the day (with an average of 6-10 posts a day), and attracts a core group of devoted readers. Design*Sponge currently has over 20,000 daily readers.

it's wonderful stuff - really. I'll highlight a few things that grace recently pointed which I have loved! These vinyl wall stickers from Domestic. They really give a room a fun twist and make it it very special, while not being permanent or very bothersome to put up. There are tons of really cute ones on the Domestic site. I recommend having a look.
this is also a really cute pitcher that design*sponge found for us. it's from Jonathan Adler who makes all sorts of really wonderful things for very affordable prices. It's a perfect gift shop!

If you are getting into this design fun too then definitely check out the Etsy website. Etsy is a place to buy and sell all things homemade. You can find just amazing things - like this cute bag. you can also search by shop. so if you find something you like, you can see what else the person makes. Really be ware, it's a huge site. there are so many things to look at... it can be a real time sucker.

a few last things to share... there are figs... they are delicious!
and look at this crazy insect who blended in SO well on the mint. i almost grabbed him in an earnest attempt to garish my hibiscus tea. thank god for good eyes.

Blonde Redhead

2007-06-19T16:22:00.000+02:00

Last night i managed to convince peppe to go to see the Blonde Redhead concert at Villa Ada with me. It was really fun and then he bought me a tee-shirt, which i'm so excited about! Villa Ada is such a great venue (there's an aerial photo of the park from our plane ride...). Basically the park sets aside a piece which is for this lovely outdoor concert area, complete with food and bars and a big stage and plastic tables and chairs. they have a pretty good lineup this summer (click here to see) (personally i'm looking forward to Juliette & the Licks next tuesday, the 26th). Last summer we saw OK GO and the Flaming Lips, which was a fabbo show. here are some photos from the show and some clips of the music.

Capalbio

2007-06-19T14:51:00.000+02:00

There is this lovely, little secret beach in tuscany. It's part of a World Wildlife Foundation Oasis called Lago di Burano. The best thing about this black + glass sand beach where the sand is so sparkely, is that it's empty. Italy has some really nice beaches scattered along its coast, but the problem is that they are so very overcrowded. Really, it can be overwhleming. This place is extra wonderful because it's so mellow and secret... shhhhh (wait, did i just spoil the secret?!?!).....

helping to clean up the beach... To get to the Lago di burano oasis, drive north of rome for an hour and a half and then you arrive in this little town, Capalbio. There is a parking lot in this town, that is quite well indicated, where a WWF van from around 1970, complete with rickety everything and no shocks comes every so often (but mind you, not THAT often) and picks people up from said parking lot and drops them off at the beginning of a trail which leads them through an estuary (top photo) straight to the beach. It's this part of the "getting there" that I think turns all the Italians off. That's why it's so empty. Sure it's a bit of a hassle to wait for the van, but it's not that big of a deal if you time yourself well and know the schedule.

So we decided to go up on saturday night after our flight over rome and stayed at a campsite in Chiarone Scalo (the town next to Capalbio). The old camping village in Capalbio Scalo had stopped allowing tents for some unknown reason. The chiarone scale campsite was o.k., but it was very expensive, plus they made you park really far from your tent and lug all your stuff to the tent. (o.k. so they provided a wheelbarrow and a golf cart but they were being shared by about 200 people and obviously not available when we needed it!). The campsite did have it's own beach which was pretty nice, but we decided to go to the oasis as it's just beyond "nice".

peppe at the barme at the campsite waiting for the coffee to kick in...
So the site was fine, but the highlight was its proximity to this great restaurant called "La Dogana di Capalbio". We kinda ended up there by chance, but were so surprised to find that it was this beautiful place with really, really good seafood and fish! lucky us!!!
Peppe at La Dogana
We had a great time, even if we got stuck in some merciless traffic on sunday coming back to rome... i still highly recommend going to the lago di burano beach and la dogana restaurant.

Volare .....

2007-06-18T12:06:00.000+02:00

i organized a little trip up and over rome with CityFly which, i guess, is an "airline" which takes you for a little touristic flight over rome. I gave it to peppe for his 28th birthday. it was quite spectacular - the colors of the city from above are magnifiscent - it's all terracotta. it's all pink and orange and it's really so beautiful. here are a few shots of some landmarks.
us taking off:

the cabin:
the auditorium designed by renzo pieno:Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II:
Villa Ada:

Ponte Milvio:Stadio:Corso di Francia:The farm at the bottom of the hill:

Happy birthday, peppe!

2007-06-15T17:01:00.000+02:00

peppe was king for a day....
thus followed a lovely birthday dinner. after downing a prosecco at aristocampo we headed to "dar filettaro de santa barbara" (roman slang for "the fillet place by saint barbara's") or more formally "filetti di baccala" (italian for "cod fillets"), a lovely little spot where the specialty is fried cod or fried cod. you can also have the fried cod. they make a damn good fried cod though, i must say. it's a pleaseure to sit in the little piazza of the deconsecrated church by campo dei fiori and watch the scenery and the evening unfold. the busy, sweaty fried cod guys whistle to the café at the other end of the piazza and then yell out "AOH, DUE CAFÉ!". a few minutes late the bar tender/coffee-maker abandons his post and his bar and walks over with a small tray carrying two coffees. He collects the used cups and walks back to his café. It's really a perfect symbiotic situation... the fried cod place has no desire to be bothered with a café machine - they are very busy. and the café owner sells a lot more coffee's when he get the entire restaurant ordering from him. on top of that, it's just great "aoh, due café!" ...

June the month of Birthdays!

2007-06-13T11:28:00.000+02:00

So i decided to celebrate my 28th birthday in style... vincent says that 28 is the new posh. so i'm trying to live up to that. we had some drinks on the terrace at the Grand Hotel de La Minerve on friday for aperitivo. It was very elegant and had a rocking view. Everyone came to see me. i felt like a real princess. When was the last time i had to reserve for 17?!?after drinks we headed to Miraggio in Trastevere. The place was empty because people had planned around the walking tour that Bush had planned and then pulled out of last minute due to safety concerns and protesters. After dinner I managed to pull some friends into Freni e Frizioni for a Mojito and then was bid goodnight by all my well wishers. It really was a rockstar birthday. and now i'm looking forward to Peppe's (tomorrow!).
So saturday was time for another celebration... we celebrated Seb's birthday at Cortney's apartment. There was a lot of Guacamole and Tiramissu and loads of drinks and dancing. it was a pretty rad time. Cort has the best place for parties as the terrace is huge, but on the flip side the neighbors suck. and always threaten to call the cops just as we're getting warmed up... i will never be a bad neighbor. (i don't think.) Dervla, Cortney and OscarArnaud looking pretty...

Sunday we caught up with Mike and Ewa who were in town for a "lab weekend". All the kids in the high-tech molecular lab in basel went to rome together for the weekend to "get to know eachother" and play trust games... (no i'm just kidding...) we went for a walk through the castel sant'angelo and had cold beverages at the top. it was a really sunny, hot day in rome - but very lovely as well.
So the birthday weekend really was quite a weekend. now we're prepping for the next birthday... tomorrow.........

Peppe's amazing spatial memory

2007-06-04T21:52:00.000+02:00

ok so some things like "the houseboat" any of us could locate on a map after staying there for a week... but things like "walk around islamic cairo" are absurdly rainman-esque. (was he commiting to memory every step we made? how did he do that?) we did have a running joke that peppe always knew where we were in cairo and could point in the direction of landmarks that we had no idea where they were, but when we came back and he put together this little map with icons and paths taken during the trip, i think everyone was quite impressed.

For map lovers and curious friends and family... check out the really very super cool googlemap that he created by clicking here. zoom in with the sliding bar on the left and click on some of the icons for a great view of our lovely trip to cairo! (dad, you'll love this!)

Cairo (Al Qahirah)!

2007-06-04T10:48:00.000+02:00

i really, really don't know where to start... or how to even do this. i just had the most amazing week ever. not only was i fortunate enough to see my great friends and spend so many minutes chatting, catching up, watching the sunset and drinking wine on the Nile, but i was in Cairo, or rather afloat on a houseboat in Cairo. Francesca was just the best hostess ever and really tried to show us what it's like to live in and love Cairo. She thoroughly succeeded. It was impossible to leave my friends, but also hard to leave Cairo. She even put up gracefully with us wanting to do lots of touristy things and also managed to squeeze in very untouristy things like The Virginian (above in banner) and eating at Al Omda (the mayor).

The houseboat that she so amazingly organized for us was just really out of this world... this kind of Victorian, colonial, antique, leftover look. like everything there had been placed very carefully... 90 years ago. it was really picturesque... even the dust added to the feel. we were so at home and had the whole place to ourselves to party and catch up. we brought tons of wine and spent countless hours chilling on the deck. i just can't imagine a better housing situation for the week. i don't think that i can ever stay in a hotel again - to have a space like that makes such a huge, huge difference. here are some photos of our (i liked to call it "our") houseboat, its view and us lounging on and around it's stately furniture.I can't really recap this whole adventure. I do want to describe a few highlights though...

We first met Said on the way to horseback riding by the pyramids at Giza. As the evening came on Caitlin, Francesca, Peppe and I, and, of course Said, our taxi driver, who later became almost a friend, headed south and west to Giza. Said drove us through the craziness of the stable area like a pro and didn't attempt to alter our original destination even though there was considerable pressure for him to do this. Men were almost jumping in front of our cab to convince us that their stable was the best of the 20 or so that lined the dusty, dirt road - or not even the best, but what do we care?! This tactic was not very convincing. "We know where we are going, but thank you very much.", became kind of a slogan, or at least it did for me. That was the phrase that the Lonely Planet recommended one use when being ballyhooed. It is a bit of an over simplification... when one guy started banging on the back window as we drove past...finally we arrived at stable F.B., never really knowing what that meant, but very happy to see that their horses looked fed, and healthy, which could not be said for all of the stables. Caitlin was relieved. After getting on the horses (oh god, don't ask how this went), we took a leisurely stroll through the wildest, little shabby-town ever, dodging (well we weren't really going so fast that we had to dodge, but you know... avoiding, i guess) camels, cars, kids flying past on donkeys, teenagers on camels, men galloping Arabian horses, buses, old people, cats, etc., all of this on a street just about the width of a car itself while i was trying to get comfortable with the idea of sitting on top of an animal. no, I'm not a real horse-gal, but it was going o.k.
it wasn't long before all the stresses began to pass and the pyramids fell into sight. ya salem!!! (wow!) majestic, regal, humongous, just like you can imagine, but maybe grander... it was such a breathtaking experience... breathtaking also because soon i started to wheeze with allergies... and then sneeze and then sniffle. but nothing could overpower the feeling of clippity-clopping through the sands of the desert with wide eyes focused on the great pyramid and her little sisters. after our ride we came back for a little respite on the couches in the "waiting room" of stable F.B., and a cola, while Francesca finagled the fees for our lovely ride. everything in Cairo is done first and then the prices are discussed after, which inevitably leads to some pretty outrageous conversations/discussions/arguments... in the end we probably paid too much for most things, but such a small price, really extremely small, that the question becomes: too much for who? that's the concept, i suppose. it's not too much for you, you rich american lady, so pay me more! which is really completely understandable and acceptable. and which we genuinely and completely accepted. but there was always a little haggling by francesca, done in her impressive arabic, to get us a more just price. thanks to francesca!we went later in the week to touch the pyramids. which was also a truly amazing experience. yes, you are asked while walking through to buy quite an astonishing number of Egyptian trinkets and it can be tiresome, but you are also allowed to touch the pyramids! i mean most places have ropes these days. there are countless more stories to tell: the Egyptian museum, mummies!, sailing on the Nile, parties, shish tawook, mosques and minarets... and so many more scenes to describe, but for the moment, i have to leave Cairo for a bit and get back to life here in Rome. i hope in the coming weeks a few more stories can pop out - maybe even someone will write me a story and let me pass it along to you all?... caitlin? For now I'll leave you with our photo book which you can view by clicking here. it's hard enough being back here, having said goodbye to francesca, caitlin and stef and not really knowing when i'll see them next without still pretending that i'm there... i must get to work!

Can you dig it?

2007-05-17T11:56:00.000+02:00

can someone please help me come up with a bunch of funny gardening puns? this is getting pretty bad.

here's the latest from the garden... we received the biodegradable ground covers from www.quibio.it and things are starting to get more serious. we also ordered some biodegradable "plastic" cups which are really cool... just like normal plastic cups but they can go right in the compost! crrazzy... anna had some stuff weeded which is also cool cause peppe and i have a day job... so now we're getting ready for a big gardening weekend... poor matt and mirjam are coming to visit and to this point have no idea how much work they're in for....

tomatoes:more zucchini:peas:new covers with some pickling cucumbers:

Camomile

2007-05-17T11:29:00.000+02:00

from: the english teastore
It is often sipped for relief of health problems ranging from toothache to nervousness. Camomile has also been noted as beneficial for soothing headaches and is a natural relaxing herb known to assist the restless and those suffering from insomnia. In many circles Camomile is called nighty night tea or sleepy tea on account of its natural properties which promote restfulness and drowsiness. It is also known to assist digestive disorders by settling the stomach and calming the nerves. The plant’s botanical name Matricaria, is derived from the Latin term for womb because it was once used as an herb to treat female troubles. Camomile is derived from ancient Greek and translates as “Ground Apple” in reference to the fruity aroma.

The other weekend peppe and i spent an hour or so picking some of the camomile that had grown like crazy in the garden. then i went through and kinda clean them up, and put them in a simon-safe place to dry, which is a bit of a boring job, but luckily i had alana on the phone - so we gabbed and complained and generally missed eachother. and she always makes the tedious much less tedious.

so now we have the makings for camomile tea.

Estate Romana 2007!

2007-05-16T12:08:00.000+02:00

Ohhh!! the roman summer is arriving. ... can't you feellll it!!?? all the lovely evenings in celimontana and the late apperitivos that turn into dinners. campo and v.governo vecchio. oh and all the shows and events! yeee haw!

so keep yourself in the know with my new google calendar thingy on the sidebar. Anyone can edit it, find out more about an event by clicking on it, or drop me a comment there or here if i'm missing some awesome event. I just started putting events in and the official Estate Romana 2007 guide is not out yet (is it?) so it's definitely just a start. You can also use this calendar for your dashboard to check up on what's going on without having to come here. cool, eh? so let me know what i'm missing or what sites to check for shows. also i went through the Circolo degli Artisti site, but only know like 4 bands that are playing... who else is good? anyone??? bueller....?

this summer is gonna rock out! let's get organized! let's be prepared! let's not miss the white stripes!!!

Karen's Grandmother's Chocolate Cake

2007-05-16T09:53:00.000+02:00

I thought I would put up the recipe of Karen's Grandmother's Chocolate Cake partly because a few people have said that they really liked it (oh it is good!) and i feel bad taking all the credit and partly because some people have asked for it and I keep forgetting. Karen was a French friend of Julien's who visited us back when we were in Saxa Rubra and this was the way her grandmother made chocolate cake:

Melt 170 grams of butter
with 2 1/2 bars of dark chocolate (250g)
and stir until smooth
while it is cooling, in a seperate bowl
add 150 g of sugar
to 4 egg yolks

in another bowl fluff till stiff the 4 egg whites

when the chocolate is cool enough
add it to the egg yolk/sugar mixture
with a little bit of flour (about 30g)

and then carefully fold in the egg whites (no liquid though - spoon them out of the bowl don't pour them in!)
pour into a greased pan of some sort - it will rise a bit.

as for how to bake it - my oven is unpredictable, i just turn it to 200 (C) and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. sorry that's not very precise.

and then enjoy! this is a very rich, delightful cake that's really easy to make and really, really good.

Oh, yes, we're organized!

2007-05-15T15:38:00.000+02:00

As you may have noticed there is now a feature on the top, left-hand side of the page which allows you to enter your email address and get notified when emelieinrome.blogspot.com has been updated. it's a handy little device and works well. basically you'll just receive an email later in the day after i've updated the site. it's very simple to sign up and i recommend it! i also promise not to use or sell your email addresses to anyone.

i've also organized the previous posts into catagories. which is kinda handy and you just may like it.

thanks for all your comments (i love them!) and for using my blog as a way to drop a line and just say hi... send me love... comment!

em

Let the teardrops fall.......

2007-05-14T13:54:00.000+02:00

so the sad, sad news is that tara left. it was a fun party. but it was a sad sunday... god we're gonna miss her.
it's like she's always coming in and out of our lives... and each time it's much harder to say goodbye. at least we are gonna get to see her and jay soon when we go out to vancouver this fall. and that's an awesome thing to have to look forward to. and it makes it just a little bit easier... maybe we'll even see them sooner. i know i never thought i was going to get to see caitlin before like years and now it's just around the corner... two weeks!

since arnaud wanted "less vegetables and more fun" i will post a few photos of friday night as we did our usual friday night activites, but with extra ummph and went from the OTR (Over The Road) to pizza and then to a party.

anthea (tara's sister) gets her first moto ride and crosses something else off her life list:
As things wind down at the OTR Tara hands Oscar the bike keys and with this solemn gesture passes life onto a new generation of broken-bike riders. it was a sacred moment with lots of thanks to tara for orchestrating it and to caitlin and me, the previous owners of the bike.
the truth is, she's smelling his armpit. i'd like to say it's something else. but it's not.these are from saturday night... the real goodbye party when peppe brought out his b-b-q set which really puts to shame any other more "conventional" set. It seems that his brother, piero, gave it to him for christmas and had wanted him to "get more serious about his hobby". i think piero would have been pleased.

then just in case we hadn't eaten enough on saturday we took anthea and tara to ariccia for her last porchetta (this time!). and a little lazy lounging in the sun. it was a beautiful day. i hope the t-dawg had a nice last weekend. it was sad, but it was oh so fun.................

arnaud, vanessa, alex and oscar the hottest kids on the block!

2007-05-11T16:47:00.000+02:00

i really never thought my friends would get mad at me for not getting enough exposure on www.emelieinrome.blogspot.com, but i guess i was totally wrong. it seems that they do care. it seems that it may actually be "cool" to be on my blog... featured on my blog. with your name in the title... in neon lights... "VANESSA!!!!!" "ALEX!!!" "ARNAUD!!!!!" it seems that they want to be famous and think that being on my blog may propel them into that realm of famousness which is so coveted by the french and belgian... no but seriously, they do have a good chance of being famous in france or in belgium cause there's only like two famous people in each country as of now.... the odds are for it! here is vanessa channelling paris hilton and alex channelling nicole richie.... aren't they just the cutest? and arnaud, well he channeled something, i think... on this one... or someone....

and then this one is his ford's modeling agency shot... it's available in wallet and 5x7 sizes. he is a cutie-pie and likes being called 'honey' cause he's full of love. we love him for that... he's actually got a GREAT story about how an american waitress called him honey once... it's a great story if you've got some time to kill... but no one tells a story like arnaud. you gotta stick around for the punch line... wait is there gonna be a punch line, arnaud? ARNAUUUUDDD???????

he's funny, adorable and almost impossible to understand all at once...
i also want to say that the funniest thing that i heard today was:
"Ya know... Cauliflower is BULLS*#T, i think". which means two things: 1) oscar is hilarious 2) you guys have another chance at the OTR to outfunny him... Good luck! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the Road Again!

2007-05-11T16:01:00.000+02:00

My friends, Oliver and Cecile, welcomed little Emil into the world about a month ago (could it possibly have been two?) and now they are doing the coolest thing ever. they bought a VW van and are taking their maternity/paternity leaves to travel around europe introducing little emil to all their loved ones... i absolutely love the idea. so neo-hippy... i hope they send us some photos along the way, but for now you'll have to be happy with the initial, haven't-pulled-out-of-the-driveway-yet ones that i took as they were about to depart...
i'm hoping to make a series in this style - reminiscent of the gnome in Amelie:
precious, little baby emil....peppe and emil....this really has nothing to do with their adventures... really i swear, just the idea of traveling in a camper brought to mind cousin eddie and his chemical toilet and i just had to put on a little sample of what may be the best movie ever made.

Coming up roses

2007-05-11T10:54:00.000+02:00

For mother's day this year i wanted to give my mom something that doesn't just wither and die. usually i send her some flowers and although she says that they're really beautiful, i thought i'd go for something that hung around a little longer. i found a great site with lots of roses to pick from. she said that one arrived a bit dry (i'm not surprised cause UPS had informed me well about their transit and they were on the road for more than two days), but it looks like they are reviving. hopefully they will climb up the fence like we used to have.
I just had to post these pictures of gracie planting her climbing roses cause they're really cute!

Bringing in the bounty!

2007-05-11T09:41:00.000+02:00

I was so super excited last night when i discovered that we have zucchini!!

personally i like the round ones cause i think that they're fun. but they were all really, really good. and i'm not just saying that. i swear.
when watering the garden i spotted a few that were ready - as far as my standards go - and i also got the overwhelming sensation by looking at how many plants there are that we're going to have A LOT of zucchini this summer. Luckily my friends like it, but i'm also probably going to have to learn how to jar it, which will be fun. Oh god, i'm such a dork. really. i'm going to dedicate this post to how dorky i am. it's scary, but i can't stop it... like yesterday when i asked oscar to bring me his avocado pits when he makes his famous guacamole for the party we are throwing on saturday... it just slipped out. "bring me a few pits and we'll try to grow a plant." and then i'm thinking... oh god, i'm really crossing a line here. soon there will be no going back. i could loose friends like this. oh whatever. who cares. in honor of louisa and all my other slightly dorky friends... (oh you know who you are...) i am posting the absolute dorkiest picture i have ever had taken of myself. it may rival the one she sent me a while back. yes, it may... thanks to Tara for knowing how to spot a real geek.i figure this can give you an idea of my working environment. peppe is super jealous of my "double monitor situation". ha! looks like we may have spotted another dork!! it also shows you just how very messy my desk is.annnnnnywayyyyyyyyy, back to the first harvest. stefano was cruising around the garden on the tractor and just so happened to have a huge swiss army knife in his pocket that he's very proud of. i believe it was a gift from piero. it had it's debut on easter day and what a debut it was! so he was passing by as i was contemplating ripping zucchini off of the plants. or using my new fingernails to somehow cut through the vine. it really was quite fortunate that he was passing by. i can be so impatient. and dorky.

ZUCCHINI! tomatoes and lettuce... (let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together... that one is for Tara as she says that every time i say lettuce... i think this sufficiently puts her in the dork group too.)Peas!if anyone else wants to join the group just write a comment explaining why you think you deserve to be part of the dork group. and yes, being part of dorkestra counts.

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence!

2007-05-03T14:13:00.000+02:00

Thanks julien!! What a wonderful weekend... from start to bottom it was just so nice to hang out with the old friends and new friends and do all the things we love... like eat, drink, play and gab.
We were so lucky that Mike and Ewa managed to drive all the way from Basel, Switzerland. And that Bernardo drove all the way from Bologna with a car full of tortellini and grapa. And that Diane, although she had a super important exam on Wednesday and another on Thursday, managed to rally and make it too! map of where we all came from!

(L-R) Bernardo, Peppe, Emelie, Julien, Ewa, Mike, Diane

Luckily we had time to do the things we like to do and in such a g-damn lovely setting. Provence is so beautiful!I was amazed - irises everywhere, flowers like you just can't imagine. Unfortunately we were a little early for the lavender, but next time... and yes, there will be a next time.

The first evening, before nano arrived, we did some grilling and swimming in the pool.

the pool was soooooo beautiful... if only the weather had been a little better, i don't think we would have left it! the house is a really special place. the setting is gorgeous and the interiors are very unique and lovely. i want to especially thank judi (julien's mom) for letting us stay and hope she's not too upset about the wine all over the couch.... just kiddingggg!!!!

As became the custom very quickly, dinner was preceded by some pastis or beer and pétanque which most teams managed to have their lucky day with. personally, i like to think that julien and i were the real winners, but it appears that peppe and ewa, aka the "wet turtles", (don't ask) may have been the actual champions.
"it's totally ours, dude."D lines up her lob
Sunday Mike and Ewa wanted to take us climbing. This is a sport that i participated in once when i was 14 at camp takodah (all hail takodah T-A-K-O-D-A-H, takodah all hail... all hail hadocat...) - needless to say, i may have forgotten a few of the key moves. I never really made it back into a harness until this past Sunday. Mike and Ewa are pretty experienced climbers and they really impressed me (to be fair nano is too, but he hadn't arrived yet). it was a lot of fun to watch them and to try it out and just overall really cool of them to teach us the ropes. (I'm sorry, i had to do that...)
Mikey - the lead climber - takes on the challenge and sets up our climbing thingy. (there's a lot of lingo - some of which we picked up and used and reused all weekend long for various non-climbing related reasons and some of which we didn't bother learning at all. the word for climbing thingy is surely not climbing thingy, but you know what i mean...)Ewa - aka spiderwoman, finds all the jugs even though it was pretty greasy and manages to clean up on her way down. (see i told you we learned some lingo . I'm not promising that I'm using it in the right way... but whatever, who cares?)Julien - aka The Monkey - no one was very surprised that he seemed to be a natural ;-)peppe rocks it (hehe) even though he's without the "superduper climbing shoesies". (can you believe that's what they call them?!)me.... climb on!finally nano joins in the fun and all together we finished this great day off with a lovely meal which julien prepared for us and some divine wine from a local winery that was really just so good. as had become custom the evening was concluded with some cut throat card playing and a**hole was the game of choice, chosen specifically because it allows you to bully your friends.

Monday we went on a great hike just around the corner from the house. It was a walk into and along the ridge of the Alpilles near saint-rémy. On our way to the hike we walked past an airfield that carries gliders up, up, up and releases them into the wind. It was really cool to see this little plane shuttling these gliders into the sky and then coming back down and reloading. it sparked up some great stories of planes crashing into cars while camping in Poland... and all the aviation experience in our group of friends. i think that's what may have led us into the trivia war that lasted a good portion of the hike. i feel smarter now that i know how long it takes for us to see light given off by the sun.... any guesses?????
glider being pulled:glider gliding:
the weather was gorgeous and we had baguette sandwiches and pain au chocolat in our packs. what more could you ask for??? the hike was stunning. these massive rocks jutting into the sky made one understand why this part of France is so famous for it's climbing.

some fauna:these boys try to climb everything they see...it's our last night all together and we did some amazing grilling. plus nano had brought some tortellini con prosciutto with panna (cream)... absolutely delicious! so that was a light meal... hehe. the region was full of these awesome heirloom tomatoes that i became kind of obsessed with... here's Diane and i "making art".
after a hitting up a local winery and purchasing some exquisite vin, a little pétanque and apperitif we nestled in for dinner and a**hole.

last day in st-rémy we hit up the town and hung out...
it was hard to say goodbye to all my lovely friends. but we did. because you have to. and you can only hope that it's not too long before you see them again and are surrounded by people you luuurve....
bye bye saint-rémy. thanks julien for organizing everything. and thanks to d for finding us a room in aix--- we owe you one ;-)

December 29th - The Best Day Ever

2007-04-26T11:04:00.000+02:00

Nairobi has contacted. the pigeon has landed. there are new wedding photos online...
the night that went down in history as December 29th, The Best Day Ever!

Radishes and police women...

2007-04-23T17:12:00.000+02:00

we're beginning to reap the benefits of all the gardening we've been doing.... which is great cause it's becoming a part time job. a little inspiration is definitely welcomed. the radishes are gorgeous... and super spicy.... here's one for you to see...

i also thought i would put up a picture of some agretti which we made recently. it's not as wild looking as roman broccoli, but still pretty fun. it's a lot of work to clean that stuff, and i'm not quite sure if it's totally worth it... but it's kinda fascinating stuff. i would describe it as a veggie, in the line of chicory and swiss chard (bieta), or spinich... i guess that's not too helpful. but anyway, i'm kinda fascinated it's messy hairdo and so maybe some of you are too ....
on a much more fun note, last night we went and saw what i thought was a stunningly great show at the circolo degli artisti... very fun, indeed. joan as police woman rocked the house... and then sushed it and then screamed at it and finally slurred over it... she's an adorable little character and i highly recommend checking her and her group out if they come to your parts...

it was a fun night out with some great friends... although a little late for a sunday. we're all slugging through today.... Oi Vey!!! (p.s. we miss you jay-bird!)

Pizza Toss

2007-04-19T14:49:00.000+02:00

i'm sure all my boston peops saw this a million times. ... maybe not?? but for some reason, i just couldn't stop laughing. i love the commentators.

Red Sox Fan Pizza Toss - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Ice Ice Baby!!!

2007-04-18T18:14:00.000+02:00

So remember how i was just saying that it feels like spring in Rome? well it still does... but i guess it feels like spring in like, oh i don't know, Tampa or Tallahassee or something. Yesterday i started to get over this horrible affliction (yes, f&f, i have been sick - pharyngitis = really sore throat and temperature thing. I've been held hostage in my house without the energy to even water the plants. ) i got better and yesterday afternoon i came in to work and the beautiful spring day was pouring in the windows. Italians around me all in cheery moods. laughing and smiling. then a dark cloud took over the sky, leaving bright, sunny bits still on the roof top.
"wow", we said.
"Ominous."
then came the rain. it was really unbelievable. we were all at the windows like little kids. "wow!". And then, like it came; it stopped. Immediately! 1.5 min of incredible, overpowering rain. But wait.... there's a big rainbow!"Wow!"
"But the sky is still so daaaarr...... HOLY !$*!@ HAIL!!!!! RUN!!!!" (well we didn't really have to run... but a little added adventure never hurt a blog.)
it was the kinda hail that you just never see. These two are from out our window at work (courtesy of a colleague).

it reminded me of a day in Sydney...
The problem was that I had to go out in it! iI had to go to the ground floor and walk through the plastic-ceiling "atrium" with leaks pouring water all over the floor and the noise of a million shooting ranges echoing through your ears. I had to!
Iarrived at the front door with 50 people waiting... for a break. no break. waiting. nope, no break. running. then i got to the street. it was a river!!
"How do we cross this river?", the people were asking each other.
"Let's look together and cross together. "
but there was no good place to cross... it was just a river. Strong like the Tiber, but instead replacing the Aventino road.
"There's just no way to cross... we must go through!". people up to their knees wading across streets!!!!! ahhhhhh..... and when i arrived my doctor was like... "umm... you're wondering why your sick?"
no. not really.
the roman drainage system. we'll leave that complaint for another day.....
anyways. i didn't have my camera, but someone else always does....
disclaimer: I come from new england - where weather is news - and everyone thinks it interesting.

Spring Forward.

2007-04-13T09:08:00.000+02:00

there's a lot to say about Rome in spring. there is outrageous fashion to make fun of - it's something like a city full of Glamour No-Nos. there are young couples just going for it in parks - taking PDA to an incredibly new level. all the scenes and all the people - sounds the alarm... Spring is here!

Last night i went for one of my first outdoor apperitivo's of the season. Which is a real testament to spring arriving and good weather. Rome is lucky enough to have a copious amount of bars and cafés with outdoor seating. Once spring sets in one can expect to sit down for a wine or campari in the waning sunlight, munching on little snacks at least once a week.

I have been trying to be a bit more creative with my photo taking. here are a few of what Rome looks like now.

and a little video i made of my bus ride to work.

These are some shots from lunch the other day. FAO has a lovely terrace and we eat in the sun (well we push part of the table into the shade cause vincent has delicate skin and eyes) but mostly we eat in the sun. This specific day we were celebrating because Vincent just signed a new contract. Vincent celebrates with two peace signs - he's a bit like lindsay lohan. I'm pretty sure that they're going to stay for a while longer... which i couldn't be happier about. The one of Vanessa is very cute.

Happy, happy Easter!

2007-04-08T20:47:00.000+02:00

Happy Easter to all my bunnies! What a day!?! It was a bit excessive, but really lovely. Ahhh.... long weekends coupled with feasting... what more can you ask for? We had such a nice Easter lunch. The table was so pretty and the weather was lovely (though it did rain in the evening).

Anna made an unbelievable artichoke tort. It was just delicious. There was also the traditional umbria pie - which is a bit like a cheesy bread pie with little bits of salami and ham in it. There was the Easter cake, another cheesy cake with ham and hard boiled eggs in it, more hard boiled eggs, fave beans, cheese, salami, the Colombo (a sweet cake), lamb, potatoes and this lovely pie from down south. She made pretty much everything herself and it all came out perfect!! (and ridiculously good.)and of course there was chocolate. lots and lots of chocolate. and chocolate disguised as fish. nap time....But before easter, was good friday... and I thought long and hard about actually going in to work on Friday. I mean no one was around to play with and I thought it would be good to make up some days that I'll be having to make up later on... but when push came to shove, I just couldn't do it. Instead I spent the whole day drinking Iced Cafe Latte and reading in the sun. It was deliciously nice.

Thursday night we had gone to the Circolo degli Artisti There was CocoRosie playing and it was a great show. The most spectacular thing about this band was their drummer, or rather human beat box. unreal.

I have really never, ever seen anything like it in my life. They are pretty eclectic and very cool. we had a great night. The "Artist's Circle" is just such an awesome place to see shows. We are hoping to go see Joan as Police Woman there very soon.

Yesterday we worked the garden like crazy. We were so tired afterwards. i don't think we did anything... oh wait. we watched LOST. What is going on with that show anyways? It makes me angry, but i can't stop watching it. I'm totally addicted.

The artichoke plants are really gorgeous. I'm not sure how many years they've been there, but this year it seems there are a ton.

here's where we put in the zucchini, radishes and peas.
little tomato plants, please bring us lots of tomatoes.

peas and zucchini:

spring spring spring

2007-04-05T11:43:00.000+02:00

So yesterday i found out that my great friend, alex, is really gonna come for a visit! it's been talked about for a while, but i've learnt to try not to get too excited till the ticket's been bought. and i'm so happy to say that it's for real. the real shizzle. watch out rome! so now i'm totally planning what we're gonna do. i think we have one/two days together before her friends arrive and i was thinking about hitting up sperlonga with her.... i guess it's a while away, but still - no harm in a little planning. this summer is gonna rock.
pretty sperlonga:

so onto the gardening:

this is the wicked little mint area...
this area was inspired by the concept of mojitos... yay mojitos!! we are planning on having quite a few this summer and now we don't have to go far for the mint!
we've got four little plants of three differnt types.

over the weekend we really did work hard. tara and jay came and helped out alot. that was fun. we put some zucchini and radishes into the garden and we're getting ready to plant some others this weekend.
the crazy orange tree ended up with a big haircut. it was kinda scary, but in the end i think she looks much better. and we ended up with a lot of oranges - so it may be preserving time again....
we also spent some time ripping apart and separating our little strawberry mess. it resulted in this whole strawberry area. which is totally great. then we tamed the jasmine-beast and the guys made this great little space which we tossed some bulbs and plants into... we'll see what becomes of it. i think we have to wait three months to see.... simon is still kinda curious about it - which is funny to see.

that's it for now...

Ambassador John Bolton

2007-04-02T13:50:00.000+02:00

inch by inch, row by row....

2007-03-30T15:26:00.000+02:00

Peppe in the rain... now that's dedication!for those of you interested in the growth... here's your update!

little baby basils ... aren't they cute??

Fraggle radishes:Tomatoes:Round zucchini:Roman zucchini:

Eggplant:
We also started a bunch of mint inside and planted a few plants outside. peppe made this whole little mint and rosmary "area" which i think is totally awesome! or rad even.
Tara and i made a little plan to plant a little flower area over by the shed and try to tame the crazy jasmine. So that may be what happens this weekend. depending. i'll keep ya'll posted cause i'm sure someone out there is very interested in all the goings ons.
right?

Grow baby grow!

2007-03-20T13:34:00.000+01:00

there is news in the seeds. i think we're getting close to putting them in the real dirt.
little basils...
bigger zucchini:
other bigger zucchini:
bigger radish:there's not too much else to report. things are looking good in the greenhouse though.

i'm throwing this video that i found on youtube on here because time lapse never got old and watching things grow will always be cool.

you laughing at me, or with me?

2007-03-15T16:02:00.000+01:00

March 13, 2007

Findings

What’s So Funny? Well, Maybe Nothing

By JOHN TIERNEY

So there are these two muffins baking in an oven. One of them yells, “Wow, it’s hot in here!”

And the other muffin replies: “Holy cow! A talking muffin!”

Did that alleged joke make you laugh? I would guess (and hope) not. But under different circumstances, you would be chuckling softly, maybe giggling, possibly guffawing. I know that’s hard to believe, but trust me. The results are just in on a laboratory test of the muffin joke.

Laughter, a topic that stymied philosophers for 2,000 years, is finally yielding to science. Researchers have scanned brains and tickled babies, chimpanzees and rats. They’ve traced the evolution of laughter back to what looks like the primal joke — or, to be precise, the first stand-up routine to kill with an audience of primates.

It wasn’t any funnier than the muffin joke, but that’s not surprising, at least not to the researchers. They’ve discovered something that eluded Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Kant, Schopenhauer, Freud and the many theorists who have tried to explain laughter based on the mistaken premise that they’re explaining humor.

Occasionally we’re surprised into laughing at something funny, but most laughter has little to do with humor. It’s an instinctual survival tool for social animals, not an intellectual response to wit. It’s not about getting the joke. It’s about getting along.

When Robert R. Provine tried applying his training in neuroscience to laughter 20 years ago, he naïvely began by dragging people into his laboratory at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to watch episodes of “Saturday Night Live” and a George Carlin routine. They didn’t laugh much. It was what a stand-up comic would call a bad room.

So he went out into natural habitats — city sidewalks, suburban malls — and carefully observed thousands of “laugh episodes.” He found that 80 percent to 90 percent of them came after straight lines like “I know” or “I’ll see you guys later.” The witticisms that induced laughter rarely rose above the level of “You smell like you had a good workout.”

“Most prelaugh dialogue,” Professor Provine concluded in “Laughter,” his 2000 book, “is like that of an interminable television situation comedy scripted by an extremely ungifted writer.”

He found that most speakers, particularly women, did more laughing than their listeners, using the laughs as punctuation for their sentences. It’s a largely involuntary process. People can consciously suppress laughs, but few can make themselves laugh convincingly.

“Laughter is an honest social signal because it’s hard to fake,” Professor Provine says. “We’re dealing with something powerful, ancient and crude. It’s a kind of behavioral fossil showing the roots that all human beings, maybe all mammals, have in common.”

The human ha-ha evolved from the rhythmic sound — pant-pant — made by primates like chimpanzees when they tickle and chase one other while playing. Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Washington State University, discovered that rats emit an ultrasonic chirp (inaudible to humans without special equipment) when they’re tickled, and they like the sensation so much they keep coming back for more tickling.

He and Professor Provine figure that the first primate joke — that is, the first action to produce a laugh without physical contact — was the feigned tickle, the same kind of coo-chi-coo move parents make when they thrust their wiggling fingers at a baby. Professor Panksepp thinks the brain has ancient wiring to produce laughter so that young animals learn to play with one another. The laughter stimulates euphoria circuits in the brain and also reassures the other animals that they’re playing, not fighting.

“Primal laughter evolved as a signaling device to highlight readiness for friendly interaction,” Professor Panksepp says. “Sophisticated social animals such as mammals need an emotionally positive mechanism to help create social brains and to weave organisms effectively into the social fabric.”

Humans are laughing by the age of four months and then progress from tickling to the Three Stooges to more sophisticated triggers for laughter (or, in some inexplicable cases, to Jim Carrey movies). Laughter can be used cruelly to reinforce a group’s solidarity and pride by mocking deviants and insulting outsiders, but mainly it’s a subtle social lubricant. It’s a way to make friends and also make clear who belongs where in the status hierarchy.

Which brings us back to the muffin joke. It was inflicted by social psychologists at Florida State University on undergraduate women last year, during interviews for what was ostensibly a study of their spending habits. Some of the women were told the interviewer would be awarding a substantial cash prize to a few of the participants, like a boss deciding which underling deserved a bonus.

The women put in the underling position were a lot more likely to laugh at the muffin joke (and others almost as lame) than were women in the control group. But it wasn’t just because these underlings were trying to manipulate the boss, as was demonstrated in a follow-up experiment.

This time each of the women watched the muffin joke being told on videotape by a person who was ostensibly going to be working with her on a task. There was supposed to be a cash reward afterward to be allocated by a designated boss. In some cases the woman watching was designated the boss; in other cases she was the underling or a co-worker of the person on the videotape.

When the woman watching was the boss, she didn’t laugh much at the muffin joke. But when she was the underling or a co-worker, she laughed much more, even though the joke-teller wasn’t in the room to see her. When you’re low in the status hierarchy, you need all the allies you can find, so apparently you’re primed to chuckle at anything even if it doesn’t do you any immediate good.

“Laughter seems to be an automatic response to your situation rather than a conscious strategy,” says Tyler F. Stillman, who did the experiments along with Roy Baumeister and Nathan DeWall. “When I tell the muffin joke to my undergraduate classes, they laugh out loud.”

Mr. Stillman says he got so used to the laughs that he wasn’t quite prepared for the response at a conference in January, although he realizes he should have expected it.

“It was a small conference attended by some of the most senior researchers in the field,” he recalls. “When they heard me, a lowly graduate student, tell the muffin joke, there was a really uncomfortable silence. You could hear crickets.”

it's been a while

2007-03-12T18:13:00.000+01:00

since i boasted about my cat being the best cat and ect. and on and on. so i thought it might be an appropriate time... but i don't want to rub it in or make anyone's cat feel not-so-fluffy, but, well, anyway, here's peppe and simon hanging out and simon on her own being just about the cutest, fluffy, orange cat to hit town since garfield... sorry, but it's true!
in other completely unrelated news, i thought i'd share with you the size of this ginormous locust/beast (or "grasshopper" as my favorite entomologist has informed me... yes friends, a locust is just a glorified grasshopper - hard to belive but supposedly true) that i caught hanging out on the famous orange tree while picking oranges for my numerous orange projects.

Amarancello?

2007-03-12T17:40:00.000+01:00

why not?? Or rather, why...? because, as i've recently found out, it's delicious!! so that's what i'm gonna do with my orange tree.... i'm going into liqueur business. i like it. thanks to our extremely pregnant friend who has "a lot of time on her hands" the idea has come to fruition. yes, she walked to the FAO to buy me and her 2liters a piece of pure alcohol while being just three days away from her due date... now that's what puts the fun in bitter orange liqueur. and in return she got a bag of oranges... fair trade? ... hey no one thought she'd walk it.
did i already ask if anyone wants any oranges? right. sorry.

Here we have the trusty ingredients of the amarancello (yes, i made that name up, i think.)

you basically cut off the rinds of 8 oranges and let it soak in pure DRINKING alcohol for 5 days or so...

then it'll look like that. you then remove the rinds and add a syrup made of 1L of water and 800g of sugar. I added more water after cause i got nervous it would be too strong. but i think it'd be just about right that way. that's why i'm giving myself a second and third chance... always room for improvement in the liqueur business.second and third chance. i wish i could have you all over for a nice chilled glass of amarancello. it rocks.

Growth update with shorter hair

2007-03-12T17:12:00.000+01:00

Ah!!! Hair!! i'll leave ya'll with this interesting image and save the surprise for next week... that's how ya keep 'em coming back! it's the suspense factor...
hehehe.
So the seedlings are doing well and that's much more important. it's been two weeks now and their progress is coming along nicely. you can see our roman zucchini are loving life. the baby basils are just sooo cute!!
the radish was specifically for peppe's mom who loves it and for all those fraggles out there cause i associate them... mystically.

U Grow Gurl!

2007-03-02T10:57:00.000+01:00

It's growing time! I started the process out by going through the "BIBLE" of planting. it's in italian, so i mostly skim. i picked things out and looked at when they had to go in, and was reminded of all the things out there to plant. i made a little sketch of a possible garden. and i rather liked it. and then peppe reviewed it and most of the original plan passed step one. i felt proud. my first garden design. i rock. Step two was a second inspection of the gardening area and a redrawing of crop boundaries. and then the next step was to bring said proposal to parental units for final approval. We were very happy when the garden plan was given full approval and even talk of a pumpkin and watermelon patch was included. this part especially excited me as pumpkin is in my veins. or something. it at least gave me big ideas for pumpkin pie.

The next thing i had to do was to buy the seeds. i was sent alone on this mission and found it a bit daunting. there was a whole isle for seeds! ok. relax. different brands. but how do you know? different types of zucchini... they all look the same? roman, milanese, sicilian. ahhhhh!!! what do i like? what do we like? how do i know???? so i think i spent two hours there, pacing the seed isle like a lunatic and i came back with most of what we needed. and a serious case of the dizzies. i even picked out some fun ones - i like my round zucchini.

then the planting started. t and peppe spent sunday organizing the greenhouse and making cute little planters with all the things that wanted to start now.

Bitter Orange Marmalade

2007-02-27T15:12:00.000+01:00

Inspired by beautiful recipes and a tree full of bitter oranges, this weekend we made jam.
Jammin' (or preserving as formally known) is what Tara considers "A lost Art". And i think i have to agree with her there. After studying up (because believe me, this is not child's play) I felt i had the basics under control. I'm worried that this might become an obssession
.
Bitter Orange Marmalade recipe
You will need about 6 oranges
Sugar
Water
Some gauze or a piece of muslin
Some string (preferably not dyed)
(for every kilo of oranges you will need 3 liters of water and 2.5 kilos of sugar)

Step 1. Wash and dry oranges

Step 2. Using a hand juicer cut oranges in half and juice. Pour juice into a big plastic bowl (Not seeds!). Set aside seeds in a small bowl - do not throw away as they are a key ingredient.

Step 3. Slice very thinly the rind and the remaining bits stuck on the rind and toss into bowl with juice.

Step 4. Make little baggies of seeds. The seeds of oranges contain pectin which when mixed with the acidy oranges will produce a lovely gel that in turn makes the jam jammy. it is very important to not skip this step. i used 10 x 10 cm gauze strips and put four baggies into my bowl.

Add half the water. Cover and let sit in a cool place for 24 hours.

Step 5. Put the mix into a pot and bring to a low boil until the pieces of rind are soft and smooth and squish a bit when you squeeze them between your thumb and forefinger. This should take at least an hour and maybe a quite a bit more.

Step 6. Now remove your little seed packs and squeeeeeze out all of the jelly substance. Try to get as much out as you can, not only cause it's fun, but also cause it helps.

Step 7. Add the sugar, making sure it all dissolves and doesn't stick to the pot.

Step 8. Turn the heat up until it is at a full boil. Now you want to turn it down so that it remains at a "rolling boil". This part is left up to your instinct. Or at least that is what i'm led to believe. Does it feel like it's rolling? Does it sound like it's rolling? gooood. This is my impression of a "rolling boil".

Now the tricky part is to understand when it's done. One trick is to put a few saucers in the fridge and when you think it may be thickening and becoming syrupy you spoon a bit onto a cold saucer and put back in the fridge for 2 - 4 min. When you take it out again you should see a thin layer on top of the marmalade, like a thick skin. If you put the plate on it's side, it should wrinkle.

Once you reach this point, you want to pour the marmalade, while still hot into sterilized jars left to dry in a warm oven. and then process for about 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

And then you will have made marmalade!

Get to know your bike.

2007-02-23T15:46:00.000+01:00

get to know your bike by taking parts of it apart and putting it back together again.
Ingredients:
Friends
Someone with some knowledge
Paper Towels
Grease in a spray form
Grease in a tube form
Grease all over the place
Special soap to remove grease
Beer
A box of tools
Tubes
More tools
Beer
More grease
Trusty butter knife

When Tara got to town and inherited caitlin's bike, there was so much joy in the idea. having a bike. biking around rome. becoming fierce. i am glad for cait that her bike didn't just rust away and die in the fao bike parking area. and i know she misses it. so it must bring some comfort to think that it's merely being kept safe for her and it will be here for her if ever she pops back in... crazy chain 'n'all... in the mean time my Schwinn cruiser had become sluggish, even obstinate - at times refusing standing pedaling, at times refusing abrupt braking maneuvers. we thought, what a great time for a tune-up. and what do you know? peppe was free.

so thus began the great bike tune-up day 1. the day started with getting said bikes into upside down position. aptly performed by star mechanics 1 and 2. (who later discovered much easier method than wresting the thing into sideways first then arms all around oh - crap - flipping over i go i'm going over it no i've got it yeah there we go i'm fine that was easy i'm fine peppe and i didn't scratch my ankle with the pedal doing something you consider easy no i didn't that was already there thank you). then step two we go purchase beer and snack, leaving peppe to work out some details. step three. this is where it got interesting. t's got the tire off, tools all over the place, putting in new tube, adding tire back on, pumping, nozzles. looks like a pro. she's got it all under control.

i've got my bike upside down unscrewing all kinds of things and leaving them in order to screw back on. greasing. cleaning. we literally worked wonders. peppe was there as a guide and very useful in flipping bikes upright and pumping tires. we'll give him a little bit of credit for that part, i guess... well he was also doing a small bit of instructing.

needless to say, in the end, the prettiest cousin bikes sat, looking adoringly at us for our hard work, patience and love. and for this we hope they will support our bums through many a trafficy roman day.

The Uncaged Tiger...

2007-02-07T14:58:00.000+01:00

No longer munchkins. Will now be refered to as big cats. wild cats. or just cats. Here you see the cats sitting in their dad's super-hot truck.

Well, I had a lovely saturday and on sunday i managed to skype, video-style with my sister, Erin. She had me close to tears describing the scene in Melrose at the wrestling event that her and dad had just come back from. i really wish i could be a part of the cheering squad for these events as it seems i have family that might just have a serious future in this sport. Thankfully, dad has become an amazing sports photographer... She was recounting the tension, the steam, the intensity of the auditorium, as she explaining the face of my "sweet" (really he's a devil, but a cute one) nephew and the utter concentration that he was maintaining during these long moments of a strenuous, struggling, tiring hold. Suddendly his eyes changed, his face became red and there was this clarity that everyone could see... and then he threw the other guy on the mat. BAM!
it was referring to this exact moment when she looked to dad for his exact words... "dad, what did you say Dillon reminded you of?" To which, Dad replied, "An uncaged tiger. He was like an uncaged tiger - Like a tiger freed from his cage." My god what have i missed? Luckily, I think that very look was captured on film. I am so very, sublimely, ultimately proud of my ferocious cat. Dillon, the uncaged tiger?

Needless to say the he tied for FIRST place. i think this may be the beginning of something big.

Stay tuned for news from the girls basketball court.....

Duxbury Girlz...

2007-02-06T10:17:00.000+01:00

This is where we are from...
I would describe duxbury as a nice, small town. the sea is beautiful and it's very, very new englandy. there is a strange tradition of riding out ONTO the beach in your suv's and trucks that is hard to belive. it's not the most sustainable event, but you do have a great time doing it. i miss duxbury.

I've gotten some updates about what my girls are up to and i found it so interesting and even funny and definitely shareable that i thought i would make them all famous and put them up on my blog! i guess we don't usually talk to each other that much about what regular days are like... so here you have it! we'll start things off with Al.

ALEX - Alexandra Michelle Muenze

A few days ago their childhood obesity campaign started at work. This is the website that Alexandra did (don't worry, a webmaster actually made it, she just wrote it) http://www.metrowestkids.org/, and below is the first billboard going up in the next few days all around the towns here. they have gotten lots of press in papers here, the globe, channel 5 etc. Shortly thereafter another email explaining that they were on the front of boston.com and then shortly after that no one could get in touch with her cause the press was banging down her door!! now she's pretty much famous in the metro-west area.

HAGS - Erin Hagerty -
http://mimio.com/products/

Erin recently created, in one afternoon, the most successful email campaign thus far for her company which sells interactive portable whiteboard solutions (which are very cool!)! And the sales are already pouring in! This is the first time she truly took control of the templates - all images (including the signature) are totally erinized using graphic design and software. Here is a movie clip that a school in Virginia made about mimio for their web site - see for yourself just how cool interactive portable whiteboards are!

LOU - Louisa Smith

Louisa is "just learning for the sake of learning really" and doing little that means anything besides a consulting project for Iams dog food. its still sort of a grind and full of constant embarrassing moments... a few days ago she had to give a little speech to an amphitheater.

as for fun.... don't worry! she went to Montreal with 200 classmates last weekend and ran around and went to hockey games and all stayed in the same hotel! Then she went to the samples concert over at Killington last Thursday. Oh yes, there was a "beach party" on Saturday
here at school...dressed up in summer crap like a looser and danced around to steel drums. John came cause he loves dress up events.* i just LOOOOVE these photos!!!

* i made that up cause i thought it was funny. john did not visit because he loves dress up events, but rather cause he wanted to hang out with lou.

Jo - Josie Hewitt
miss josie has just returned from a biz buying trip in Tuscon, AZ. She bought enough beads to start her spring/valentines day collection! http://jojolovesyou.com Her awesome creations are bejeweling the necks, wrists and ears of only the hippest chicks in town!!
a few of my favs are:

** I should probably note that all of this is pretty much direct quote. i'm not that clever.

Hiking near Tivoli

2007-02-04T20:21:00.000+01:00

Went for a beautiful hike on saturday near Tivoli. It was so lovely and we saw all kinds of furry horses!!! the weather was warm and there were crocuses everywhere!

And we all went home at the same time...

From Week of Joy!

2007-02-02T17:56:00.000+01:00

These are some photos that i'm finally getting around to posting from what i have termed the "week of joy". it was a crazy, crazy time.

That's christian and nano sharing the couch with simon. her bed was stolen by kate and dave.

Christian, Peppe, Francesca and Alana at the Pincio... for sunset.This was from a day trip to Amatrice where we all ate ridiculous amounts of food.

alana and francesca dropped a euro in the bucket for me to take the cutest picture of them that ever existed. guess what he did when we dropped the coin in... you'll never guess! Caitlin and Stef share the love on one of the crazy nights that followed their wedding.

Caitlin and Stef's wedding photos.

2007-01-29T12:23:00.000+01:00

I'm trying to collect and compile the photos from Caitlin and Stef's wedding. and i've made a blog where i'm putting all of them... www.caitlinandstefano.blogspot.com So if you're curious to see the lovely bride and handsome groom, you are welcome to check out what is up so far.

Snowshoeing In National Park of Abruzzo

2007-01-29T11:11:00.000+01:00

This weekend peppe and I went to the OTR and then had a nice dinner with Lisa. It was probably the last dinner we'll have before she leaves on Wednesday :-( But you never know, maybe we'll see her tonight for a big sendoff.. She's off to Oaklahoma to be with her fiancé, Gary, who we all got to meet on new years.

Then saturday we thought about going up to cansano, but in the end decided to go up on Sunday morning to the National Park of Abruzzo (Lazio and Molise). the park was no where near as wonderful as the Majella. we drove around for hours looking for trails that we saw on the map...

but that were no where to be seen on the ROAD. poorly marked trails and the people were...well... not really sporty, but more like pains in the as*.

BUT we were so super lucky, because just as we were about to give up (Peppe acutally said "i'd rather go back to rome." when i pointed out a x-country ski path full of screaming children and lazy grandparents knocking eachother over with their poles as an option for trying out my new showshoes..) we found a real off-the-beaten-track trail that ended up being really beautiful! it was a lovely, warm, sunny day. there was a lot of snow on the ground. and it was really fun. and i love my snowshoes and my new camera. yay!! (CLICK on photo to enlarge)

so now i don't know whether to love or hate that place. i do doubt that we'll be back there anytime soon. but at least we know one nice place to go... (press play to view)

Caitlin and Stef!

2007-01-24T17:25:00.000+01:00

I still have to gather up some better pictures and really go into detail about the night, but i just wanted to put up this one, cause i thought if was very pretty.

Mucho Mas Muggio

2007-01-23T16:03:00.000+01:00

peppe would like me to share with you all an image of the hike we took.... that red-dotted line... that's the path we took.

Here's another picture of the pretty horsie we came across...

Mucho Muggio!

2007-01-23T14:02:00.000+01:00

Ciao!
So, I promise wedding photos are to come, but mine aren't so good... i'm kinda waiting to see if the friends manage to share a bit so that i can select the best of the bunch. HINT HINT. Instead, i'll tell you all about our weekend in Muggio!
*p.s. this is the first post with new, fancy camera (thanks mom and dad!) so if you click on these photos, you'll be AMAZED!!!

we took the train to milan and rented a car. Even though we took the "slower" (ie scariest, twistiest, narrowest road in the world!) road to Muggio, we were just in time for Mirjam's fondue and ana was already there!

on saturday we went for a walk through the gorgeous countryside that is the Muggio Valley. matt and mirjam have a special little place to call home. the view is breathtaking and the village itself, adorable, rustic, yet not isolated. this is the entrance to their home!
We walked up the mountain and had a little picnic all together. then we walked back down again.
when we made it to the swizterland/italy line peppe stood on the wall and jumped into italy. what he hadn't realized was that the leaves were not just covering the ground, but were two feet deep. needless to say, he ended up face down in the leaves, but he was a really good sport about it. once we knew it was o.k. to laugh, it kind of became the highlight of the day.
This stuff is for my dad, because if anyone is interested in intercontinental boundary drill holes... it's him.
I is for Italy. S is for Switzerland. and yes, they are on opposite sides of the same rock.

When we got back to the casale Mirjam made us a swiss specialty which she referred to as the "bomb". it rocked. she also made some traditional swiss bread for sunday morning.

i regret not taking a picture of the final product... as it neared perfection. it was so nice to sit by the fire with bread in the oven... i'm sure you can imagine the country home sensations running through the place. after all the craziness that was december and january, we thought going away for our first weekend without craziness, was crazy, but alas, it really was perfect! it was also really nice to see them and think about what our caitlin is experiencing in nairobi in the same moments. Speaking of which, we have news from kenya! i can't even try to paraphrase the email (which was soooo wonderful and i appreciated so much, cait!) ... but as a summary, it seems that their spirits are high and that, although it's all very foreign and strange, they are enjoying it (o.k., spliced with some harrowing moments, but still, the animals and the scenes are all very exciting). and i think that they are o.k. and i'm glad. really glad to know that.

on sunday we explored lugano a bit after seeing Matt's architecture project at his school in mendrisio. the project was very cool. Lugano is very ritzy, which i didn't expect at all, but i guess everyone else knew. quite a contrast to the natural landscape of muggio. it has a pretty lake surrounded by mountains. we walked around a little and ate some food by the lake. Ana took us to a public garden which was very fairytalesque. it was so wonderful to see her and get some hiking, eating and drinking in... ahhh muggio, i miss you already!

How embarrassing?!

2007-01-22T11:12:00.001+01:00

Hi friends!
i'm so embarrassed! and i feel bad. i hope there isn't a bad gossip thread going on around there about me.

i've been very negligent with my blog writing.

it's just been a little bit hectic and i got distracted. I kinda felt like i should backtrack... but then i just got overwhelmed with how much happened and how crazy and amazing and sad and powerful this month has been for me. So i guess i'd like to start out with one of the highlights of my trip home. and that was secret santa.

OHHHH SECRET SANTA! you never let us down. and all the ELFSTERS you are so thoughtful.
Lucky for us Alex supplied a craft. As we joined together with holiday spirit and artichoke dip and spaghetti pie.... the craft became a work of art.

At katie's place in southie. It was the 19th of December.

We had such a good time! it's always so fun to get together, and even though i see almost everyone of my friends quite a bit when i'm home, the grand slam effect of seeing everyone together, really, at this point, has no other name than "secret santa" and it's just too much fun. it was great that alana managed to stop by. everyone was very glad to see her, especially me. i miss them all, a bit too much to be very productive at work :-(

I think i'm going to have to start from whats happening now and then backtrack just a little about christmas and the wedding (December 29th! the best day ever!) in the next few weeks cause otherwise this would become a full time job. and i already have one.

cait and stef

2006-12-04T11:23:00.000+01:00

Caitlin and stef get back today. Anna is chaperoning cait and me to the seamstress after work. The seamstress will fix caitlin's wedding gown. i'm sure it'll be an experience and i wish that i could put photos of it up, but i guess that's bad luck or something.... i suppose the rest of the week and the weekend will be full of stories from australia and fun, as it will be the last normal (ie not wedding) weekend with my buddies, before they head off to lionland.

Summer!

2006-12-02T19:07:00.000+01:00

It's not like our trip to france was last week or anything, but i just came across these photos that our dear, dear friend balt-o gave us before leaving for the D.R. of Congo, where he is now. balt is very missed by all of us. me especially. and simon too. we are crossing our fingers and hoping that he'll be able to make it to caitlin and stef's wedding and the new year celebrations...

Birthday's !!!

2006-11-30T13:57:00.000+01:00

since peppe's mom let me take some of her photos, i also have some from our birthdays in june. i thought that they were a good reminder of warm weather (look how tan cait is!!!) and of being the gang in rome. i am sure to miss those days oh so very much.

Here's a few more of thanksgiving.

2006-11-30T12:14:00.001+01:00

There were some techincal difficulties with the camera, so they came out a bit dark. Luckily picasa let's me lighten them up a bit! Here you can see how much fun we had and tinfoil we went through.

Thanks!

2006-11-28T16:56:00.000+01:00

Gobble. gobble.

I guess i was kinda distracted during the actual dinner part of thanksgiving because all my photos are from before everyone arrived. maybe i will get some from the others... if so, i'll put them on to. sorry that these are so boring.

Peter!

2006-11-24T14:45:00.000+01:00

I have to highlight peter's blog for two reasons
1) he is an avid reader of my blog and always comments
2) he is the only dog that i know who is able to upload photos.

(apologies for the language choice... i'm on his case to get it translated, but you try talking to peter about anything logical and see how he reacts!!)

Thanksgiving!

2006-11-24T11:37:00.000+01:00

Hi... apologies for the lack of posting. i definitely do have to get you all updated.

Unfortunately, i don't have any photos yet from thanksgiving dinner, but it was a great night. we had a lovely time. the turkey was great (thanks to that thermometer thing), the mashed potatoes too, the pies were yummy. and everything turned out o.k. i can put some photos on when i get around to downloading them from my camera.

For now, you can enjoy some photos from the weekend of me dog-sitting vanessa and vincent's peter... isn't he adorable? he took me for a walk on Saturday. i asked him so many times where we were going, but he wouldn't tell me. and then the leash tightened... he launched forward, gasping and huffing at his tiny prey, helpless, but for the thin metal wires of a plastic cage -- full of baby bunnies. i realized at this point that they were only safe because of my hold on this leash. i felt the responsibility tighten around my wrist. i really would have felt horrible if peter destroyed the baby bunnies in front of the adorable children who were there... begging for a bunny for christmas. lucky for them, i restrained the beast from his attack (but i still had to wait about 20 minutes before his highness was ready to leave...). we made a bond that day, peter and i, he'd love me forever because i let him go to the pet store and drool at all the little helpless animals - something his parents don't really accept as normal behavior. i'm like the cool babysitter that gives you chocolate before sending you to bed really late after watching a PG-13 movie.
This is just because she is irresistible.

My workmate sent me this photo of simon from when she was just a little kitty. i am so sorry, but i had to put it on. do you all hate me for this excessive cat attention? do you think i'm weird?

Cansano

2006-11-13T10:27:00.000+01:00

We managed to convince matt and mirjam to join summer and peppe and i for a nice break up in cansano.
we left rome saturday in the afternoon, got to cansano and tried to heat up the house. then we lit a fire in the fireplace which caused Summer to have to evacuate her room because the room upstairs fills up with smoke when you light the fire downstairs... but we got some good roasted chestnuts out of it. matt found those under a tree in swissland and brought them all the way to us. here's a picture of this craazy cloud over giorgio's house that we marvelled at for a while...after eating some fried scamorza and pasta alla chitarra and polenta on saturday at the lovely Faggeto, we hiked a bit on sunday up the Marone. here's the view from our "top" which wasn't necessarily the top of the mountain or anything. matt had commented that it was "the fried scamorza version of weather". and i just loved that. here's summer and peppe and peppe and me, the view and how far we got according to my photo from the Majella last week and a glimpse of the corno grande del gran sasso ...here are a few of Summer's photos... peppe's house is the one WITH shutters on the left of the photo.when we came down we were surprised to find a VW beetle meeting. It was cute. here's some photos of that too.... it was a great time, with some great friends.

Apologies

2006-11-11T00:10:00.000+01:00

I have to apologize for putting so many pictures of simon on... but it's just so funny!! tonight, i made her mad cause she was sooooooooo comfy and i couldn't control my laughter while i was trying to take pictures of her. oh god. she's got some hilarious sleeping positions...........

Friday!

2006-11-10T16:04:00.000+01:00

it's friday... and i'm glad. the sun is shining. went for a walk with summer for lunch. really was so nice out... it's Friday OTR time in just a bit. we have some plans to go up to cansano again this weekend. it was really nice to be there last weekend. so i hope we don't encounter any obstacles with the plan. rome is nice in the winter and the summer, but this in between time... just makes you want to get out a bit on the weekends. it's still nice up there. so might as well take advantage of it before it becomes one big icicle province...
i don't really have any photos to put up.... so how about one from the funnest wedding ever? try to find peppe!!

and here's a few from the weekend over the summer that peppe and i went up to abruzzo... it looks very different there now...