Archive for the ‘puppy love’ Category
Celebrating St. Patrick with Vino & Co. in Palermo, Sicily
Today is the day when the Irish all over the world celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick.
Italia’s day is coming soon (Wednesday for San Giuseppe to be exact), but far be it from me not to join in the festivities with my Irish brothers and sisters.
After all, I may be just a wee bit Irish as I had a great-great-grandmother by the name of Maggie Kennedy.
I’m not into the green beer thing, I’m afraid, but I will offer up some vino for the occasion; how about a fabulous red from Vino & Co. in Palermo, Sicily?
I personally can’t think of a better excuse to take an empty 5-liter jug and head to a filler station like this one.
This was just a few minutes from our hotel, but unfortunately, Cherrye and I didn’t plan ahead and bring a container large enough–no regular old plastic bottles allowed.
But back to the green-themed day, I also found this page for those of you in need of some last minute party supplies that will also make you laugh as you’re browsing. The faces on some of these models are just hilarious.
And, I guess, effective because a lot of this stuff is actually sold out. Go figure.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those celebrating!
Dreaming About the Meaning of Life
I had a different post planned for today (come back tomorrow for more Sicilian adventures–sneak preview in my Flickr set!), but this morning I woke up after having a most interesting exchange with a random bearded man in un sogno–a dream.
In italiano.
We were in a souvenir store, and he was near the back listening to my conversation with the woman clerk about what I’m doing in Calabria.
He walked towards us, rubbing his hands together, turned to me, and said:
Cara signorina, mi dice, tra un Papa e un povero,
chi passa la vita migliore?
[Dear miss, tell me, between a Pope and a poor man,
who lives the better life?]
I paused, looked up to my left then into his dark eyes, and responded:
Caro Signore, questa non è la domanda.
La domanda è . . . chi ha apprezzato la vita di più?
[Dear sir, that’s not the question.
The question is . . . who has appreciated life more?]
When I told P about my dream and he said simply, “Hai risposto giusto.”
You answered correctly.
With all of this churning through my head, I took off for my morning walk with the pooches, and guarda!
The first margherita of the season:
Life is good.
Have a fabulous week my peeps.
Love Thursday: Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie
I am *so* lucky to be able to work at home.
I especially appreciate it when the weather is nasty outside — cold, rainy, and windy — and I can sit at the kitchen table with my laptop, papers and files and notebooks spread all around me, the small space heater nearby, a fleece blankie over my legs, and Luna and Stella at my feet.
Well, nearer to the stufa than to my feet, but who’s measuring?
Happy Love Thursday!
(Yes, it’s officially back!)
and the winner is . . .
Yesterday the sun rose:
The girls frolicked:
The sun set and the moon made an appearance:
And a few hours later, I used the Custom Random Number Generator to choose a winner of the $30 Amazon.com gift certificate as promised in the contest post here.
Can you believe the winner was Lucky Number 7?
FYI, I used 161 for the upper value as it was the number of total comments, then started from the first comment counting down only those eligible, i.e., those that told me they had linked/relinked and/or subscribed/resubscribed (or that they were going to these things and then in fact did).
And the winner is . . .
none other than my most favorite baseball player in the Bel Paese:
I’ll be in touch Lango!
With all the work you’ve put into .italiaball.com recently, you certainly deserve it!
A lot of you probably don’t know how much I *love* baseball, but it’s definitely one of the things I miss most from America (read about what else I miss here); Lango’s site and stories help fill that void a bit, although I wish someone would build a field around here so I could go to some games. Where’s Kevin Costner when you need him?
Anyway, thanks *so* much to everyone who stopped by, commented, and made the transition to the new place such a wonderful experience.
And I hope those of you who were unsure of the change are getting used to it. Because honestly, I just don’t have it in me to change looks again anytime soon.
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[tags]contests, italy, expats in italy, expats, dogs, sunrises, sunsets, calabria, badolato, ionian sea, moon, custom random number generator[/tags]
What’s New with the Doggies
It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned our four-legged friends around here, and some of you might be wondering what’s going on.
Well the puppies have all been adopted out–the last one the day after Christmas. Sniff sniff. I definitely miss their energy but not so much the crazy hours and, ahem, the smell.
From about that time, I’ve been working hard on the blog and trying to juggle other work projects so other than our 5 walks a day, Luna and Stella have had to entertain themselves. Poverine, I know.
Don’t worry though because their Nana in the States hooked them up big time for Christmas. First of all, they’re keeping warm *and* stylish in their brand new sherpa jackets:
And they’ve had plenty to play with as well, including these adorable squeaky snowmen.
Indeed, this was a common scene around here over the past couple weeks.
But the snowmen have since surrendered.
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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