A Visit to San Benedetto Po

My sister and her Artisan Consortium has a two-month long exhibit at San Benedetto Po, a town about 90 minutes away from where she lives, just over the border in Lombardia (Lombardy) from Emilia-Romagna, the province in which she lives. Emilia-Romagna is right above Toscana (Tuscany). Hey, go look at a map. :-)

Quite a beautiful edifice, isn't it?

It dates from before Columbus.

Note in the second photo how there were two more arched entrances that sometime in the past were filled in with bricks.

My sister Sally is in the fifth photo.

A Car Aptly Named?

OK, I know it's taking it too far to say a Mercedes-Benz is not supposed to be Mercedes-BENDS, as in, "Oops, who bent this car?" But when you put on the side of the Mercedez-Bends the word "Kompressor" aren't you just asking it to be...well...compressed?

Stazione Centrale in Milan, Italy

Thees photos were taken very quickly and on the fly as I rushed through the Central Train Station in Milano, Italy. But...having lived in Milan as a teenager and having visited it many times since, I have always loved this train station. I just wanted to share its beauty, to which these photos do not do justice, with my many millions of blog readers. :-)

Flying Over the Alps

I love flying over the Alps, seeing the peaks of the mountains jutting out above the clouds, as if to say, you may think you're high and mighty flying above us all, but you will not hide from us what is above you!

Enough said. The photos say it all.

Nervous Fliers Going to Europe

Tuesday I flew back to Italy to see my mom. The first leg of the trip was to Zürich and the second to Milano. The plane to Zürich was full and noisy and I could not sleep a wink the whole flight. One of the flight attendants on the flight is a neighbor of mine and I went to the back of the plane to spend some time with him and the other flight attendants.

One flight attendant came back holding a coffee cup. She said in all the years she had been flying, she had never seen one with so many teeth marks around the edge! We could only surmise that the coffee drinker was one nervous flier!

Doggy Pool Party

This morning I went to my local pool for about 10 minutes to see the doggy pool party and I took lots of pictures and video the whole time I was there. What fun to see all these dogs enjoying the water! I didn't bring my dog because he likes water as much as cats do, or maybe even as much as chickens do...that is to say, he doesn't like the water much! Besides, most of these dogs were big guys, though the smaller kiddie pool did serve the scaredy-cat dogs (cat dogs?) well.

Lots more pictures and videos? Click here!

Mom is Back!!!!

It's amazing that as quickly as mom became ill, she is now almost back to her normal self, at least mentally. She is quite aware of everyone now, her memories have almost all returned, and she is starting to learn how to walk again. She is joking, she is serious, and she is talking. They moved her today to a different hospital, one where they can take better care of her and one where she was a patient before when they operated on her knees. She likes it much better there!

In less than two weeks, I'll see my mom again and she and I will spend some quality time together!

Thank you to all of those who have cared and sent me such sweet messages!

I've found and scanned some pics of Mom I have from her past.

Tonight's Italian Meetup

Another smashing success tonight at our latest meetup. We met at Michelangelo's restaurant again. Good food, good wine, lots of laughs!

More photos and videos too? Click here!

Bridal Show at the Dulles Expo Center

After the cat show (see below), Ofeliya wanted to go next door to the bridal show. I didn't try to pretend I was a potential groom, but all the vendors kind of assumed I was, which was kind of fun. The better news was all the free samples of catered food and wedding cake.

More photos and video? Click here.

Cat Show

Today my friend Ofeliya invited me to a cat show at the Dulles Expo Center. I'm not a huge cat person (Sorry, Ofeliya! Sorry, Noelle!) but this was an interesting show. Cats were being judged in different categories and lots of cat accessories were for sale. Yes, some of the cats were awfully cute.

For you cat people, you want more photos and video? Click here!

Is it Halloween ALREADY?

Yep, Halloween stuff is already on sale! I must have fallen asleep for a month or something.

Someone tell the retailers: it's only September 7th! If you buy these pumpkins now, I doubt they'll look very good by the time Halloween rolls around!