Bleeding Espresso

I’m a fan of being honest.

And I do try to tell my loved ones how important they are to me as much as possible.

Sometimes, though, there are things you’d really like to say to someone but don’t, or can’t, for various reasons–avoidance, tact, shame, embarrassment, shyness, whatever.

I got this idea from -R- at And You Know What Else (who got it from Abbersnail who got it from NPW), and here are 15 things I haven’t said (not all to the same person of course):

1. As much as I don’t want your opinion to matter to me, it does, and it hurts.

2. I’m still sad that our friendship changed so much; I miss you terribly.

3. You don’t know how much seeing your name in my inbox makes me happy.

4. I’m sorry for what is going on with you and your family, but you created the situation.

5. I miss laughing with you *so* much.

6. I am so happy we didn’t work out. So. Very. Happy.

7. I can’t believe you’ve procreated.

8. I’ll never understand your outlook on the world, and that’s a good thing; I’d hate to see the world as you do.

9. You’re becoming your mother. Stop it.

10. I really, truly hope you are happy even though I’ll probably never speak to you again.

11. I’ll never forget the night I met you, and I will always treasure it.

12. Just thinking of you makes me smile. Always.

13. I forgive you, and you don’t even know for what. I forgive you for that too.

14. I think about you every single day at least once, usually more.

15. I’m so very sorry I’m not there watching you learn new things every day.

What haven’t you said?

Buon weekend!

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Soon I will be off on a journey to an island not so far away to spend some time in one of the cities I have been absolutely dying to visit since I moved to this part of the world.

Various circumstances beyond my control have gotten in the way of a trip up until now, but not any more. I’ve got my travel buddy and my travel guide and I’m about to nurture my travel lovebug, who has been neglected for far too long.

[Note to anyone thinking of showing up in my hilltop village and burgling me: you will still have P and the pooches to deal with.]

What? You haven’t figured out where I’m going?

Does this look familiar?

If you’re a fan of Il Padrino a.k.a. The Godfather, and you made it to the end of the third installment, you should recognize this building.

I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve had visions of my re-enacting that fateful scene (what, people run the Rocky steps in Philly all the time!), but when I told P I planned to bring ketchup to make it more realistic, he didn’t seem to think that’d go over well. Go figure.

You think it’s too late to call up Andy Garcia to save me from embarrassment?

*le sigh*

Happy Love Thursday and Happy Trails!

P.S. I won’t be touching a computer for the next several days, so please be patient regarding responses to comments and emails. I’ve planned some posts in advance for you, though, so keep coming by the blog so she won’t get lonely!

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Technorati Tags: palermo, sicily, love thursday, the godfather, il padrino, andy garcia, le sigh

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Ever since I posted a recipe for Rigatoni with Tuna and Christine mentioned doing that sauce without the tomatoes, I’ve been wanting to try this “in bianco.” P finally gave the nod the other day, and boy do I love the results.

This is a super-fast dish (and easy easy easy), so you’ll want to put on the water to boil for the pasta before you even start cutting anything up. I did this with penne, P’s favorite short pasta, but you could do this with pretty much any kind of pasta and it would work just fine.

I’m going to try it with linguine next, in fact, since as I was eating this I realized it’s kind of a Poor Man’s Linguine with Clams.

Pasta with Tuna & Lemon

• 2 small cans of tuna packed in olive oil
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 peperoncino, chopped
• fresh chopped parsley (save some for garnish)
• splash of white wine
• lemon juice (I used half a lemon)
• salt to taste

In pan, heat olive oil drained from tuna cans over medium heat. If your tuna isn’t packed in olive oil, use two tablespoons or so of the good stuff.

Add onions and garlic and sauté until translucent without burning.

Mix in tuna, parsley, and peperoncino. Let cook for a few minutes, then add the splash of white wine and let it cook off.

Add a small ladle-full of pasta water, squeeze the lemon juice into the mixture, and leave pan on the heat just long enough for the flavors to mingle. Add salt to taste.

Toss with pasta of your choice.

Told you it was easy.

Buon appetito!

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Technorati Tags: tuna, pasta, lemon, tuna with lemon, tuna recipes, pasta with tuna, what’s cooking wednesday, recipes

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Last week I received an awesome surprise in the mail from one of my very favorite artists and bloggers, Karen Cole of Artsortments (and I’m not just saying that because her self-portrait from her college days could’ve been done of P’s sister Pina):

That’s a copy of Laura Schenone’s The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family underneath Karen’s card, which shows one of her assemblage sculptures she made while in Cortona in 2006. Isn’t it gorgeous?

If you keep up with my Books link, you already knew I was reading Schenone’s book–what a title, huh? FYI, I’m loving it so far; I’m only a couple chapters in, but I’m relating to so much of what Schenone went through in her search for family heritage vis à vis Genovese ravioli–from the basic lack of interest on the part of her American family to her pilgrimage to the Old Country.

Grazie mille Karen!

I’m also reading two other books that were sent to me by She Who Blogs blogging buddies:

from Karina of Candid Karina and Creative Karina

and

from Qualcosa di Bello of Piacere, Write Away, Dog Blog, and Snap 366.

These books are both *fantastic* reads (as are those blogs–check ‘em out!). It’s taking me a while to get through all these books just for lack of spare time, but I’m truly savoring every stolen moment I have with them.

I can’t thank my book fairies enough–as I’ve mentioned a few times, English-language books are just not easy to come by around here (except through The Sisterhood of the Traveling Books of course!).

But I even have an Italian-language book fairy! Back for my birthday Shelley of At Home in Rome sent me the Italian version of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist (L’Alchimista), which I finished last week.

Ya’ll I read the WHOLE thing. In Italian! And it took me well under a year! Woohoo!

Plus? I *loved* it. I can’t wait to read the English version now too.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

And what are you reading now?

Come on! This is as close as I get to browsing through a bookstore these days.

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Technorati Tags: books, laura schenone, the lost ravioli recipes of hoboken, she who blogs, the alchemist, paulo coelho

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Last week, a high school in my former adopted city of Philadelphia was closed for a day while personnel cleaned up after 85 Rhode Island Reds.

For the fowly-challenged, those are hens.

On Sunday, February 10 around 9:30 p.m., four unidentified males entered Northeast Philadelphia High School and let the birds loose, supplying them with plenty of chicken feed throughout the hall. For some reason, no alarm sounded upon their entrance and the hens weren’t discovered until hours later when the “school building engineer” showed up for work.

Can you imagine that guy’s face?

School was, not surprisingly, canceled that day, and the incident is under investigation by the Philadelphia School District, the Philadelphia police, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Students returned to the bird-free zone the following day. Here’s one them, senior Laura Weiszer, with a t-shirt commemorating the hen invasion:

“I’m into chickens ya’ll” is what’s written on there.

As for the hens, they were taken to nearby Fox Chase Farm. Sorry, but I can’t help wondering about the wisdom of letting the hens in the foxhouse. Hah!

The Philadelphia School District has two farms and will keep some of whatever hens aren’t claimed by their rightful owners.

I have to admit that I thought this was all pretty funny when I read it–especially after I was assured that the pranksters left food for the hens.

Even school officials saw the humor; in reference to the fines that those responsible will have to pay, district spokesman Fernando Gallard said, “It’s not going to be chicken scratch.”

See, if this happened in Italy, all the hen droppers would need to do is come up with a motive behind the “protest” and they wouldn’t have to pay anything.

And really, wasn’t this *so* much more inventive than simply throwing some balls down the Spanish Steps?

A whole lot messier though.

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Technorati Tags: philadelphia, hens, rhode island reds, northeast philadelphia high school, fox chase farm

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