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.

Back with a vengence

Soooooooooooooo...

It's been a while since I posted. Don't bother looking for my last one; I want to spare you the search through the archives. I'm sorry.

What's my excuse? Laziness, work, broken computer? Probably a combination of all three. I just got my desktop back up and running again after a long hiatus. Something with Vista and my NVIDIA card. Fortunately, after a half-off ATI card sale I'm back on the information super-hiway.

I'm going to spare you with a lot of idle chit-chat and re-telling of quasi-humorous anecdotes. Instead I'm going to commemorate my glorious return to blogging with this incredible video of Aidan dancing to Sly and the Family Stone. Jessica says it reminds here of the "Elaine dance" from Seinfeld. Enjoy.

Easter Bunny visits Italy!!

Here are a couple of pictures of Aidan at Easter, finding eggs in our yard and coloring eggs with Joel.
One quick story- I tried to tell Aidan the religious and secular meanings of Easter, so I said that easter was when the Easter Bunny brought candy and also when "Jesus got his boo-boos," since there are many public crusifixes around here and he has seen Jesus hanging on the cross. I thought I did a good job, until he told someone at church Easter was when "The Easter Bunny got boo boos on his neck." Uh, close enough...

Italy is a dangerous place...

A few weeks ago, Aidan bumped into another kid at school and his front tooth was damaged. It wasn't falling out, but it was slightly moved to the side, which was a big concern since it had previously been damaged when he fell in the bathtub in Korea. After being reassured by the Italian ER doctor that it was fine, we went home. Just over a week later, he was hit in the mouth AGAIN at school, this time his poor little tooth barely hanging on by a thread. We went to the dentist on post, and it had to be... pulled. In an awesome parenting move, I cried a LOT at the dentist's office, probably more than Aidan, who was very brave and cheered up with just a popsicle on the way home. In my defense, I am nine months pregnant at this point...hormones, etc...
Then, last Sunday, Joel leaned over to give Aidan a kiss at nap time, and Aidan poked him in the eye. We ended up going to the Italian ER around midnight, and Joel was told he had a pretty bad "corneal abrasion." Four days of eye patches later, he is finally starting to drive again, and is spending less time acting like a vampire, sitting in the dark with his eyes closed.
Consequently, protective eyewear and a mouth guard are strongly suggested for all visitors.

Peanut EXPLOSION!!!

Since we're behind in our posts, I'm going to try to catch up some and post some pictures that I have been meaning to get up here. This one is the aftermath of Aidan jumping into a large shipping box full of styrofoam peanuts, which then exploded at the seams, sending styrofoam dust all over the kitchen. It took me days and days to get it all picked up, but it really did look like fun!

Those college students think they're so special...

This is kind of old, but I wanted to write a post about this news story, which states that college students today are more narcissistic than any previous group since 1982, when they started doing the survey.
First, I take issue with the questions they are using to determine if students are narcissistic. Some of the statements that participants agreed/disagreed with were “It is important to be very well-off financially” and “If I ruled the world, it would be a better place.” I don’t really see how agreeing with these statements determines a person is narcissistic. There are many reasons that a college student might state that it is important to be financially secure, including the fact that they are currently incurring huge debt just by being in college, and are often living hand-to-mouth while they are in school. Neither of those implies that the person is abnormally self-obsessed, just that money and their future earning potential are important issues for them at that point in their lives. As far as running the world, with the current state of international affairs, it is hardly surprising that students feel that they could make positive changes. Again, does that mean that these students are narcissists, who “lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others,” as the article states, or could that be positively interpreted as students are taking a greater interest in world affairs, and have opinions about how to improve things? That sounds like empathy to me.

From Purim to Praise Him!

I was checking out another blogs (this is OK for a blog pro such as myself to do, but you should stick here for all your information), and I came across this one. With a name like "Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again," I was expecting some uber-nerdy Morrissey-loving goth-esque blog by a sad woman/sad gay man who had a rough time in high school (which would have been awesome); what I was NOT expecting was the in-your-face jewishness. Now, those of you that know us know that Joel and I both have a soft spot for the Tribe, but I have never understood the sprinkles of Yiddish in normal conversation, and this blog was chock full of sprinkles.

So, I was wondering if there was any correlating practice for those of us that partake of the body and the blood? It doesn't seem that we have any phrases or bon mots that really let everyone know we're Christian. I guess the closest thing is listening to Garrison Keillor; I actually heard him the other day make a really funny joke about (guess what) Lutherans vs. Catholics: "Lutherans don't kneel when praying; we just close our eyes, or read the program for grammatical errors." Oh, those Lutherans! Ha ha!!

Still, that's not the same, and I have a feeling yelling out "Jesus Christ!" while driving also doesn't quite cut it. Maybe saying "Bless your heart?" But I guess Jews can also get blessings... Heller, Linda, please check your "Jewish Book of Why" and get back to me. Shalom!