Mom Update

Mom is doing better and better every day! At this point she is completely back to how she was except that she will need physical therapy for a while to regain full use of her legs again. She is now back to the hospital near her house in Castelnovo Nei Monti. Dr. Maccari, seen in the photo with me and my sister and my mom, is the head resident at the hospital and has taken a very keen interest in my mom's condition. Her illness and recovery is still quite a mystery and Dr. Maccari is also a very caring individual.

For the last two days, I recorded with my videocamera my mom talking about her life. She told some fascinating stories about when we were very small and about her life growing up. This is a priceless gift that we will always treasure.

Nutty Dog

Klaus, my sister's dog, sure likes nuts. He knows they have a delicious center and is willing to spend time cracking them open with his teeth to get to those yummy innards. Watch the video - Klaus looks pretty funny cracking open that nut!

Alessandro and Lordana

Loredana has been a friend of my sister's since we were teenagers. They still live in Milano, where we also grew up part of our lives. Loredana has also been a friend of mine since we were teens. She married Alessandro and they have two boys.

Today they drove from Milano to visit mom and to see me off before I go home in a couple of days. Of course, they also came to see Sally and everyone else! It was so good to see Alex and Lori again!

Two Confused Kitties

The saga of the kittens continues! My sister has been remodeling the house this year. A few months ago, she had two beautiful arches built into the wall between the entrance hallway and the living room. Bookshelves fill the arches and the idea was to fit them with glass on one side. Today was the day that the glass was put in.

Well...the kittens were born a couple of months ago, way after the arches were built. They had gotten quite used to scampering under the bookshelves through the arches. Suddenly, there is glass where earlier there was just air! They have had the strangest looks on their faces when walking up to the glass, pawing at it, wondering what this strange solid thing is. Play the video too!

Potato Pizza...Why Not?

It's Saturday night, so it's homemade pizza night at my sister's house. She makes everything from scratch and uses a lot of veggies from her garden. The secret to Italian cooking is that everything is super-fresh - nothing canned if possible. No preservatives or additives. Tonight I had a slice of pizza with olives and potato slices. Know what? It was yummy!

Sheepish Area

These sheep, close to my sister's place, are well-protected by the dog who stands guard and herds them when needed. Play the video to see how the dog came after us to warn us not to get to close to that wool and succulent lamb chops!

Yes, You Can Buy Amreican Bread Here

Why would you want to? Dunno...but you can buy that soft white bread that is the mainstay of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs! I love the labels - enlarge the photo to see them better.

Fall Colors in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

iWith all the trees and hills around here, it's quite wonderful to see nature here in the fall - all the different colors of the trees create quite a spectacular panorma.

Don't you agree?

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