Lake Garda

Mid-June, we took a trip to Lake Garda, the closest of the three big lakes here in northern Italy. It was really fun- we saw a castle, ate fresh fruit, had ice cream, saw the ruins of a first-century villa... just your normal, every day resort kind of things. Here are some pictures. We are headed back, but to a different part of the lake, in August. Enjoy!

View of the lake from the area of the ruins:

The castle at Sirmione:

The ruins, surrounded by olive trees:Lemons are grown all over in this area:

Sorry, we're all out of red face paint.

I think this picture speaks for itself:

Sibling Rivalry

My friend Lora has two children, almost the same ages as Aidan and Ava, but she has a toddler girl and a baby boy. She sent me an email recently, saying she thought her daughter was trying to kill the baby and make it look like an accident- "she's the sweetest little assassin you'll ever meet," she wrote.

Aidan has his moments, too- his MO is usually to try to suffocate Ava through hugs, but he has also been known to drop toys on her head and bring her "presents" that pose clear choking hazzards. Here he is, on good behavior, lulling Ava into a false sense of security. So tricky...

Pisa-tastic!

I know it's been a while since I rapped at ya...but on the bright side, I have lots of fun pictures to show you what we've been doing!
First, Joel's parents came to visit and meet Ava for the first time! So, we went to Pisa while they were here. I have to say that the attractions here do not disappoint (ahem, Liberty bell, anyone??? Linda, don't even defend it) and the leaning tower was no exception. It was cooler in person than I imagined, possibly because it was so clear on the day we went and it made for a beautiful contrast between the blue sky and white tower. We didn't climb up- maybe next time. Here is Aidan doing his best to keep the tower from falling:
The Springers mentioned that they had not yet been featured in the blog despite this being their third trip to see us here in Italy, so here is a picture of them to thank them for coming over:

The next day, we had Ava dedicated at church. It's sort of like a baptism; follow this link to read about the difference. Here we are, in church with our Chaplain, with Ava wearing my baptism dress:

Finally, how can July end without a family pool day? Here is a picture of Aidan, who is definitely ready for the water:

First of July cookout

We had a July 1st "Fourth of July" cook out this weekend. The unusual timing is due to the fact that post is having a 2-day carnival on the 3rd and 4th, so we didn't want to compete with that. We had fourteen adults and fifteen kids come over, but since most of the guys are deployed, it was pretty much all moms. Is there an opposite of a sausage fest? Joel did have two guys to hang out with, so it wasn't all bad. Joel's parents are on their way to see us right now, so we'll probably be on post hiatus until they leave, but we'll be back with "actual" July 4th and (hopefully)



Pisa pictures!

At left: Joel's friend Chuck and his daughter; Elenora, our landlady's granddaughter; Joel boozing up the ladies in classy plastic cups.

Happy Father's Day, Joel!!

The Army doesn't like Joel to celebrate his birthday at home- he's been deployed or in the field five out of the last six years on March 21. Unfortunately, Father's Day may also be doomed. First, we went to church, where Joel had to sit through a sermon challenging dads to step up to the plate and lead their families; after church, while Joel had to go into work, I took Aidan to the art center, where they were supposed to have a card-making activity, but it was closed "due to illness;" next, we ran errands on our way to a kid's birthday party (you know that no one would schedule a birthday party on Mother's day!); finally, Joel packed for his trip to Bulgaria the next day. The beef and veggie kabobs I wanted to make for him that night were still marinating in the fridge when he left. Sad!

Since I got a picture with the kids on Mother's Day, we wanted Joel to get one for Father's day. As usual, neither kid wanted to cooperate, but we got a few good ones. Enjoy!

In Sofia, city visits you

I'm back after spending a week in Sofia, Bulgaria for a lame planning conference. When I learned I was going to Bulgaria for a week, I didn't know what I was getting into. I had thought that it would be full of thick-necked guys named Boris and lots of borscht. As it turns out, Sofia is a fascinating city with lots of history and thick-necked guys named Boris.

Truth be told, there were three types of people in Sofia: Russian mafia thug-types, skinny hairy guys, and beautiful girls. The proportion of beautiful girls was actually alarming, even compared to Italy or Europe. I'm not sure the reason for this, but maybe it's because Sofia is named after the luscious St. Sofia.



Compare her to the dowdy Statue of Liberty. Snooze!



She's certainly not the gilded, bare-shouldered hottie that St. Sofia is. But I digress.

Here's a slideshow of some pictures that I took around Sofia. Nothing too nuts, just your standard vacation snapshots. I had only a half-day to really explore the city during the day, so most of these were taken on a whirlwind tour in the afternoon. Worth mentioning is the Ruined Soviet Monument. The picture is just a detail of a much larger monument that used to stand in one of the parks there. It's got a lot of classic cold-war motifs going on: the strong square-jawed worker standing tall with hammer in hand, the poor and infirm cradled in by the caring hands of the workers, you know the drill. But this huge (7-10 story) monument has since fallen into disarray since the fall of the Soviet Union. You can clearly see the exposed steel frame showing in the picture. It's as if the people were happy about the fall of their Soviet masters, but not enough to actually tear down the monument. Lazy capitalist mores creeping in already!

Ava "Shiloh has nothing on me" Kate

Little Ava hasn't made too many appearances here lately, mostly because she is the sleepiest baby EVER, and doesn't do much but sleep, sleep, sleep- not exactly Kodak moments. But, there has been a big demand for her pics (almost at a Suri Cruise level!) so here are a few for you:

Italian Rock-a-billy Scooter Shin-dig!

Love Vespas? Have a Fred Perry polo shirt and/or low profile Adidas tennies? Live in Italy? We have we got the most exciting weekend event for you! It's the Vespa Club Lonigo Gimkana Vespistica 2007!!!

We went to this a couple of weeks ago in a town about 30 minutes away from us. It was pretty cool- there were classic Vespas, local bands, inflatable slides for the kids, face tattoos, souvenirs for sale, food and beer, all to the sounds of a DJ playing what Joel called "60's soul B-sides" on 45's. As usual, we were solely responsible for representing the American community, but whatever. We seem to be a fun novelty for the locals we run into.

On a side note, this was another example of how much more family-friendly the Italians are than Americans. There were rides for the kids, and many people were giving the little ones rides on the scooters and asking us about Ava and Aidan. Although I have never been to a Vespa scooter rally in the states, I can't imagine that the tattooed rockabilly participants would pay any attention to any kids there. Of course, I could be wrong... if you have been to a US scooter rally- and really, who hasn't- I welcome your comments!!

An Overdue Delivery

Fact: Carnivale was in Februrary this year.

Fact: I took some great footage from Carnivale in Venice that I was going to edit and put up here for you.

Fact: I haven't produced this as quickly as I would have liked.

That being said, here's a long overdue video of the Italian Carnivale experience. Let me know what you think.

Running stinks

I think that about covers it.

Sopressa FEVER

I got a fever... and the only thing that can cure it is more sopressa.

For those in the know, sopressa is a local Italian sausage made here in the Vicentina area. It's nothing short of spectacular. Last Sunday, we visit the northern town of Schio and checked out their Sopressa Festivale. It was something else. When we arrived, there was a huge table set up along the main road downtown. By huge, I mean it was close to half a mile long. Ridiculous. On this table were set up all these small sopressa sandwiches. Nothing but sopressa and crusty Italian bread. It was delicious.

Around 7:30, they started serving dinner plates and we picked up a couple. Here's what the sopressa-fest plate looked like:



That yellow brick thing is grilled polenta. So... cornmeal-y?

While we were there, I was obliged to buy a little block of sopressa to take home. Here's me posing with the sausage and the "official" print from the event. Notice the "popped up" collar on my pink shirt. I'm trying, and apparently marginally succeeding, to look more Italian.



One thing that I did not know about Italians is their love for fun hats. Here in northern Italy, I've noticed a love for funny little hats by the older set. Here's a close up of said hats:



They're a little Peter Pan meets Heidi. I dig 'em. Anyway, after a couple of cheap Italian vinos, we worked up the courage to ask a group of these old Italians for a picture with their funny hats. Rather than being put off, they were more than accommodating and even let me try one of their hats on. Too bad it was from the smelly, sweaty one. Hygene!



All in all, it was pretty cool to experience the "local flavor". Stay tuned, because we have a couple of upcoming posts that are sure to please. They include: Aidan's dance recital, cherry festival, antique Vespa rally, and much much more!

Living in the dark

Although it is only June 4th, I guess it's officially summer here in Italy, since the energy crisis has started. We've always had an issue here with the power (besides the transformers issue), because there is a governor on the electricity- if we use too much at once, all of the power is cut off until we turn something off and reset the fuse box. Although that may sound draconian to the average American, it's not too bad, and we have gotten used to it- you just can't run three heat-generating things at once, like the dryer, the washer, the dishwasher, the hairdryer, and the iron. There might be more offenders, but those are the main culprits we've identified so far.

However, the new energy issue is that they have lowered the limit, or something to that effect, because I was not able to use the hairdryer at all today. I even went around and unplugged everything else in the house, but to no avail. I'll probably get over this, too; the perks of living in Italy far outweigh awesome hair.

Italia in fiori

Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend, when we went to a Flower Festival in Costozza di Longare. It was held at Villa da Schio, an historic house and gardens that also houses a winery inside caves on the property. The town is near where Joel works, about 15 minutes from our house.

Unbelievably, the gardens and winery were started in 1330! Crazy!! It was really picturesque, and we picked up a few flowers and some bottles of wine. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

School's out...almost

Aidan's school had an end-of-the-year party last night. It was really cute, with several parent/kid games and gifts for the kids at the end.

First, the kids from all three classes got together and snag a song and recited a poem. Aidan got upset, presumably because he didn't know the words, and ended up running back over to us right after the picture.

Next we played some games. I partnered up with Aidan for the first one, in which I had to carry Aidan and run over to get a bandanna when our number was called, racing against another parent/child with the same number.

In the second picture, Joel blindfolded Aidan, who then fed whipped cream to Joel. Aidan snuck a few bites for himself, too.

In the last game, the kids brought balloons to the parents, who had to sit on them until they were all gone. It wasn't clear how a winner was determined, but it was definitely fun for the kids.

The wierd thing was that the "end-of-the-year" party was on May 26th; school doesn't let out until June 30th, followed by an additional July session. Whatever; we're just going with the flow over here.

Mood Swings

For the past few years, I have had a picture taken with Aidan around Mother's Day. This year, we took the picture at home, since there are few Sears Picture Studios around here. Aidan wasn't into it at first; as evidenced by this grouchy face:

However, see how quickly his mood changes when I promise him a Spiderman lollipop (parenting tip: Use the adjective "Spiderman" for anything red, for added child interest):

Don't bother writing to inform me of the inherent irony of using the poor parenting crutch of a candy bribe to get a "good mom" picture; it wasn't lost on me.

Positive reinforcement

It's been said that you have to be cruel to be kind. If the sign below is any indication, SGT Corbin uses that at his personal anthem.



There's a couple of things about this picture that endear it to me, but first a little background. I pulled Staff Duty Officer last night, which means I stay at work all night and answer the phone in the event of an emergency. I also have to conduct security checks of the installation and make sure all the paratroopers are tucked snugly in their little airborne beds. I came across this sign in one of the barracks buildings; haphazardly taped to a supply closet door.

The first and obvious thing that I like about this sign is that the author (whom we can only presume is SGT Corbin) not only refers to himself in the third person, but threatens physical violence upon his subordinates if they fail to clean their hallway. Maybe a little excessive, but I like his enthusiasm.

The next thing that I love about this is that Corbin took the time to sit down at a computer, open up PowerPoint, craft this sign, print out a half-dozen copies, and tape them around this hallway. On one hand, that sort of behavior starts to bleed into the obsessive and may be cause for worry; on the other hand, that sort of dedication does lend credence to his threats of violence.

Which brings me to my third and final observation: the poorly scrawled "He won't do it!" calling Corbin's bluff. Despite all of Corbin's huffing and puffing, despite the professionally made signs posted in his living area, this unknown young soldier has courageously stood up to the tyranny of SGT Corbin.

It's this type of never-say-die attitude that separates the American fighting force from all others. Go Joe!!

Life beyond The Office

I am just a big of a fan of The Office as the next guy, maybe even more so, but what is with the ridiculous episode commentary?!?! I have a good reason I was even looking at it- living overseas, I can't watch the shows regularly, and I needed to have some info filled in about what was going on since I had missed some episodes. I COULD NOT BELIEVE the number of real-life office losers that write comments, as if Jim and Pam (or "JAM," as they call them) are more than just real people, but their real friends, or those that are operating under the delusion that they are writers for the show, making predictions about plot lines and character development. And the worst (or best?) part is that one of the members, Ellelque, wrote a post saying that she had some fan fiction about Jim and Pam's first date that she would send if you wrote her an email, but that it was too racy to post to the message board. Uh- puke! Cosplay doesn't seem so weird anymore.

Choice posts:

"pack-man's back. i'll tell you what pam says. she's decided to be a more aggressive pammy and is moving on to pursue training if graphic design. so, she'll be leaving dunder-mifflin and moving out of scranton to a place where she can have a house that she dreamed about as a little girl. jim will be near her and away from karen if he gets the promotion to corporate."
-packer

"okay...after watching once again...jim's smile (right before she goes off on everybody) is so sweet! you can tell he's proud of her for being proud of herself. plus, when she's happy, so's he. then while she's pouring her heart out to him, he looks shocked but it's like...it's just him and her, everybody else just disappeared around him and it was once again just jim and pam. okay, my tangent is done...omg...i sound like JAM."
-sweetcheeks

"LOVE JAM!!!!!!! LOVE PAM, LOVE JIM, LOVE THEM LOVING EACH OTHER. LOVE PAM LOVING JIM. LOVE JIM LOVING PAM!!! LOVE LOVE!!!!!!!!!!1"
-JAM

Barkeep in Training

Today's bartender market is getting so competitive! I've decided to start training Aidan early in the wiley ways of livations. I submit to you Aidan's Margarita Primer:

Pap Papa and Nana visit Italy

My mom and dad made the trip over to help with the new baby, since Joel was supposed to be out of town. His trip ended up being cancelled at the last minute, so we had a full house for a few days. Here are the proud grandparents with their two grandchildren.

T-Ball Free for All

I don't know who decided that 3-year olds could-or should- play t-ball, but Aidan is in fact on a team. Here are a few choice shots from his practice (in the white t-shirt) and his "game" (in the gray "Pirates" t-shirt). He seems to be getting the idea more and more- he doesn't chase after the ball after he hits it anymore, and he sort of knows how to run around the bases. It's a start.

Happy Mother's Day!

First, happy Mother's Day to my mom, Maryland, and Joel's mom, Jo! We have lots of friends who have recently become moms, so happy first mother's day to Kat, Laurie, Karen, and Michele!

This year, I get to celebrate being amother twice over, with our new addition, Ava. However, I think someone misunderstood about how to celebrate me, the mother, as evidenced by this photo that I just took:

Yeah, you guys take it easy... I'll just be mopping the kitchen, quietly, as to not disturb you...

Just kidding! How can I be anything but thrilled to have these two great children?

Aidan picked that dress out for Ava to wear- he said she looked like Sleeping Beauty. How sweet!

Styrofoam Apocalypse

Here's a short film that I threw together today.

Children are the ultimate reality show.

Ava Slideshow

New Baby!!

As many of you may or may not know, Jessica and I have been expecting for quite some time now. Yesterday, at 4:15, we finally got to see our little girl. Her name is Ava Kate.



She is a big girl, weighing in at 9 lbs, 1 oz! Jessica wasn't thrilled at pushing that heavy baby out, but it was well worth it.



I, of course, am thrilled to have a new baby girl.



Aidan was pretty excited too. We've been telling him to be very careful around the new baby. That elicited this super-cute response:



He's all ready to be the big brother.



Jessica and Ava are still at the hospital, but should be released tomorrow morning. I'll have more pictures and video, of course. So keep posted.

May 1: Festival of the Workers

Here in Italy, May 1st seems like a big holiday. Nearly every store in town was closed today, in celebration of Labor Day, or the communist-sounding "Festival of the Workers," which is how it translated from the Italian name using Babelfish (which I really cannot continue to use- its Italian-English translations are truly incomprehensible). Apparently, a lot of people use the day off to protest working conditions, which doesn't really sound like a day off to me.
Anyway, in honor of the holiday, I thought I'd post this picture, which we took during Carnivale in Venice. Not exactly sure what the creators of this sign are protesting, but they sure seem pissed.
Enjoy!

GET OUT!!!!!

I am so tired of being pregnant! While I know in my brain that babies are often born later than the due date, you just get so used to thinking about that date that when it comes- and goes- with no baby, it's really disappointing. For nine months, you say it to everyone who asks- "April 27!" It's marked on all my calendars. I prepped the house and baby's room for an April 27th arrival, and now the sheets are getting dusty. Ugh. As of today, I'm 40 weeks and 4 days...sigh.
The saddest part was when I went in for an appointment yesterday, and the doctor said I wasn't dialated at all, despite two other doctors at my previous appointments saying I was at 2 and then 3. (For non-baby makers, a bigger number means the baby is coming.)How is it possible to go backwards!?! Not a good sign. On the plus side, I am scheduled for an induction on Friday, if there is no "action" before then.
I'll post some pictures and all the news as soon as she makes an appearance.