Well, like Annie, I too feel like its time to get back on the Blog and send greetings and best wishes to everyone.
Dave and I are going to Dave's parents on Thanksgiving Day then rushing home to host some friends, Geri and Kevin, who will spend Thanksgiving night with us. They are flying off to Cabo San Lucas on Friday morning for a week in the wonderful Mexican sun. It will be nice to see them but of course I'm quite envious of their vacation plans. Oregon is dismally wet and grey again. We've had some pretty awesome fall days with lots of sun and clear skys but now Oregon is back to being Oregon.
Debbie and Ken will be coming to Portland at Christmas time and stay with us. It will be nice to see them. Salt Lake City is a million miles away when your only sister lives there. Debbie keeps asking when Dave and I will come visit them, and I'm always hedging a little, saying hmmmm maybe some time in the future. They have a wonderful house that they say they've set up quite comfortably for visitors. Their offer to host us is very generous. We'll see.
I won't get into politics on the Blog either, but I will say, I'm very excited about the future with Barack Obama in the White House. A change in government is usually a good thing for all of us, whether you voted for the incoming president-elect or not. And heck he can't be all bad if even the State of Nebraska had enough votes for him that one of Nebraska's electoral votes went to him...
Dave and I had an absolutely incredible time in Italy this summer. We spent 8 days in Bologna, the heart of Emilia-Romangna (and the culinary capital of Italy) and then 5 days in Rome. I insisted on the Roman trip because I thought we'd get bored in Bologna if we stayed for the entire 15 days, but fact is Dave and I both fell in love with the city. We ate like there was no tomorrow and believe it or not, I only gained two pounds during the entire trip. That was due mainly to the fact that we walked everywhere. But the food was incredibly good and we ate some of the best pizza we've ever eaten. Really. I actually had one with french fries baked directly onto the pizza. Sounds odd but tasted scrumptuous. It was funny though, because it was the pizza joints where my feeble attempts at speaking Italian really paid off. Most of the trattorias that served pizza are family run and they didn't speak a lot of English. So those months of trying to learn some rudimental Italian paid off. I even had to use Italian one night to make a reservation for the next night and it worked. The lady at the front desk complimented me on my wonderful Italian after it was all done and I had to laugh. I knew all of the words and phrases I needed to make the reservations but that was the extent of my abilities.
One of the best things about Bologna was that there were very few tourists (American or otherwise). So we never had to fight big crowds at the good restaurants or shops. The weather was perfect and our accomodations were wonderful. We rented an apartment on Via Arienti. The apartment was nice and roomy with a separate bedroom, good kitchen and a lovely little balcony that overlooked a very nice interior courtyard garden. We sat outside often at the end of the day sipping some wonderful Italian wine and eating fresh cheeses and sausages we bought that day. Very nice.
Rome on the other hand was crowded. Even in mid-September the tourists were thronging to Rome. But even so, the weather was spectacular and we still had a ball despite the huge crowds everywhere. We were lucky and found a couple of very nice trattorias and restaurants with great food. Our apartment in Rome, however, was a bit cramped. It would have literally fit into one of the rooms in the Bologna apartment. But the saving grace was that it too had a lovely little balcony that had a gorgeous view of the Coleseum. At night the sight was just wonderful.
We did spend an entire day at the Vatican and by the time we limped back to the apartment we were dead tired. My feet hadn't hurt that badly in years. Dave was real game though and after a good nap, we got dressed and went out to a nice little restaurant down the street from us and a good bottle of wine restored our bodies as well as our spirits.
Sorry for going on and on about the trip. If you're interested in seeing some photos, you can go to my mac gallery here (
http://gallery.me.com/schwuchtel) and look at the pictures. Beware though. I've tried to pare down the pictures to the best ones but there's still a lot. That's the problem with digital pictures; it doesn't cost anything to keep all of them whether they're good or not.
So, Annie, congratulations on your decision to go back to school. It will be tough to study and work but I know you'll never regret the decision. Psychology is an exciting field and your classes will be challenging but the reward at the end will be priceless. Good luck and keep posting.
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.
