Author Archive
“We Took the Cannoli”: Trip to Messina, Savoca, Tindari, and Palermo, Sicily
I’d love to give you a great recipe for today’s What’s Cooking Wednesday, but although my traveling buddy Cherrye and I are physically back from our Sicilian adventure, my mind, heart, and stomach are still in Palermo:
We took the cannoli. Get it?
And in case you wondered, no, you have not eaten cannoli until you’ve had cannoli in Sicily. They shouldn’t even be allowed to be called cannoli anywhere else. Seriously.
More details soon.
international you call the holiday day
Brian Vaszily of IntenseExperiences.com has written about how every calendar day has a holiday attached to it–from the biggies like Christmas (Dec 25) and U.S. Independence Day (July 4) to more, ahem, minor celebrations for Cable Cars (Jan 17) and Holding Hands (Aug 9).
Unfortunately, we just missed Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day on February 18, but today? It’s apparently National Pistachio Day so grab a nut and get crackin’! Hah!
Anyway, based on the idea that “We need more celebrating of the universe and every marvelous thing within it” (right on!) Brian came up with International You Call the Holiday Day and asked his readers to create holidays.
His questions to consider are these:
- If you could designate your own holiday, what would that holiday celebrate?
- Consider what you cherish that doesn’t get the attention you feel it deserves — that which you feel should be recognized and celebrated more — and perhaps go with that. Or go with whatever your heart tells you to go with.
- What would you name your holiday?
- In the way that chocolate and love notes are exchanged on Valentine’s Day and turkey is consumed at Thanksgiving, what actions would you want people to take to honor and reflect your holiday’s theme? Why?
- In the way that green equals St. Patrick’s Day and orange and black equals Halloween, are there certain colors you’d want to associate with your holiday? Why?
- Specific food and drink you’d want consumed on the day?
- Any existing songs, films, poems or the like that would be a good fit for your holiday?
- Famous personalities that come to mind who best embody the spirit of it?
- Particular stuff we’d all stick up in our windows and inside and outside of our house to celebrate it?
I’d love to hear what you come up with, so if you don’t mind, please post your ideas here and then again (copy and paste is your friend!) over at Brian’s in the form at the bottom of this page and you just might see your holiday appear in his free IntenseExperiences.com newsletter.
What would your holiday be?
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[tags] IntenseExperiences.com, Brian Vaszily, International You Call the Holiday Day, holidays[/tags]
carrabba’s italian grill’s “profess your love” contest: win a trip to vegas!
OK Italian food lovers (and legal U.S. residents), here’s your chance to show just how deeply your passion flows and possibly win a trip to Las Vegas in the process.
That’s right! I said Vegas!
Carrabba’s Italian Grill recently announced the “Profess Your Love” contest in which Italian food lovers can submit a short love note to their favorite food or dish, expressing how it has made time with friends and family more special for a chance to win a variety of prizes, including a trip to Las Vegas.
One grand prize winner to receive the “Ultimate Love Escape” including:
• Airfare for two to Las Vegas
• A romantic dinner for two at Carrabba’s
• Tickets to The Beatles LOVE Show by Cirque du Soleil
• A two-night stay at The Venetian and private gondola ride
Nine runners up will receive dinner for four at Carrabba’s, an apron, and signed cookbook.
Entries can be submitted online here until March 31, 2008.
See official contest rules here.
Now Profess Your Love–and in bocca al lupo!
P.S. And although I’ve mentioned wanting to go to Vegas, if you win, I really won’t expect an invite. Really. Enjoy yourself. I’ll be fine. I’ll just go to the real Venice to spite you.
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[tags]Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Profess Your Love, Profess Your Love contest, contests, Las Vegas, Ultimate Love Escape[/tags]
things left unsaid
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!
Love Thursday: Nurturing My Travel Lovebug
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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[tags] palermo, sicily, love thursday, the godfather, il padrino, andy garcia, le sigh[/tags]
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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