Halloween, Where's the CANDY?

I don't have a pumpkin this year so you'll have to look at my post from two years ago for Halloween jack-o-lantern. This year I see more pumpkins around but still they are for eating and not carving. Also check out the next day when I celebrated All Saints Day with Turibio in 2004. I haven't heard from that crazy kid this year. I wonder what happened to him.
Last year I didn't post on Halloween but I think it was because I was too worried about getting back to USA for my cousin's wedding. I still can't believe I made it.
Tonight there is something going on at all the bars but no costume parties. My mom will confirm that I was never that excited about dressing up for Halloween so I'm not missing that aspect. The only good costume I ever had was in 1999. I was the "millenium bug". I dressed up as an insect with computer parts and big clock hanging around my neck.
I do miss the candy. I'll solve that problem with a quick trip to the store tonight!!

Happy Birthday Teddy

It's Teodoro's birthday and I'm saying it in the blog so everyone knows!! He's the guy in the middle with the yellow and green shirt and baseball hat. Buon Compleanno Teddy!! This photo was taken over the summer after one of the wins in the World Cup. Not the Finals but some other game.

Black Cat in the Sun

This is a photo I took today of the kitten. She's growing fast and I found you need sunlight to get a good photo of black cat. It's getting dark really early these days so my best chance for a photo is on the weekend. Right now Nello is in my lap and Smeagol is climbing my leg. Ahhh, what claws she has.....Go play in the curtains you crazy kids...

Road Work part 2

Look what they did to my street. It was only a few months ago that finished repaving it and now they have destroyed it with that black mark you see in the photo. This new work was filled in very badly so I have no doubt it will be a nice pothole in few weeks.

The good ole days

In this photo you see a piece of history, a reminder of much different time when life was much simpler, more focused and well planned. What am I reflecting upon? I noticed that my pilot’s license was issued on October 28 1990. Sixteen years ago tomorrow. What a time that was. I was 18 years old! I was working my butt off every weekend in Hardees (fast food like McDonalds) to make enough money to take flying lessons and it all culminated with this license. Also in October of 1990 I was just starting my freshman year at the University of Cincinnati. Man how things have changed, but Paul Simon once said, “After changes upon changes we are more or less the same, after changes we are more or less the same”. Where's that from Kent? Mom and Dad can't answer because it would be easy for them.

Light email day

What a boring day so far. I come in and there are no work related emails and just one personal email in my inbox. Now I don’t feel too unloved because there were 19 spam emails to delete. Even for those $^#^* that’s unusually low. I’ll have to check the news on the Internet to see what’s going on.
I need help. My iPod has been diagnosed as terminally ill so I'm drooling over the possibilities. Should I wait and see what comes out next or dive into the biggest monster Apple has available right now? Dare I even think of buying a Microsoft product like the Zune? There’s getting to be so many choices. I don’t feel like shelling out a lot of money this time but I really liked having ALL my music in the car.
Also in the technology department, I'm one step closer to having high speed Internet at home. I know what you’re all thinking. Wasn’t he saying that a month ago? Yes I was. But now I have a note that says a package is waiting for me at the post office. They tried to deliver it yesterday but I was at work (how inconsiderate of me). This package is, I believe, the modem and wireless router from Fastweb. I’m hoping that I can hook it up myself but I think they will need to send out a “tecnico” who will do the installation from what I’ve heard. So I’ll have the equipment but I’ll still be waiting. Still if there is anything I’ve learned in Italy, it’s to be patient. Once I have this I will be surfing 24/7 and I’ll be able to watch and upload YouTube videos, which may not be a good thing.
And last but not least I found out that Giuliano Palma and the Bluebeaters are in concert in Rome on November 16. I would love to go to this but it's on a Thrusday night. I suppose I could try that same train I was supposed to take last weekend. Or maybe go the plane route. I really would like to see them in concert and they don't tour a lot.
Here are the lyrics from one of their Italian songs, Come le viole (means like the violets)

Come le viole

Son tornate le viole quaggiù
Ma non hanno colore per te
Quella calda tenerezza che tu
Portavi nei tuoi occhi
No, non c'è più

Come le viole anche tu
ritornerai
La primavera con te riporterai

Avevi la mia vita
Avevi la mia vita fra le tue braccia
Te ne sei andata non so
Te ne sei andata con chi dai sogni miei
Forse domani chissà tu piangerai
Quando il mio amore lo so tu capirai
Rifioriranno tante primavere

Come le viole anche tu
Ritornerai
Rifioriranno tante primavere
Come le viole anche tu
Ritornerai.

It's about lost love but the song itself is upbeat and fun.

New Ostuni

Lori wanted the big version of this picture so I'm putting it up. I take so many pictures of Ostuni that I loose track of them. In this one you can see the church is just finishing up it's renovations. It was covered in scaffolding for most of the summer.

The Lonely Fruit Fly

I don’t know why but the other day I had one fruit fly in my bathroom. Maybe this is the result of buying a bunch of bananas at the market on Saturday but it still doesn’t explain why this one fly was in the bathroom. I tried to rationalize it, because the bananas are gone. So I thought, maybe he was on a desperate search for food and while on this search he came across a big mirror in my bathroom. There are only two things on the mind of this dumb insect and that’s food and other fruit flies. I can only assume from his actions with the mirror that this fruit fly was either vain or incredibly lonely. It seemed like he hadn’t seen another fruit fly in days, which is a long time in the life of this poor insect. I made a couple of stabs at killing him before taking a shower but I kept missing and I didn’t like all the fingerprints I was putting on the mirror. I thought “I’ll take a shower and come back and smash this bugger after I get nice and clean”. Sure enough after the shower the little guy was still hard at it trying to get at that other fly. So I took aim and squashed him against the mirror. And that’s the end of the story of the lonely fruit fly. I’m sure there is a lesson in there somewhere….

congrats sis

Well my sister and brother in law have joined the collective. Go see their blog at:
Lori and Kent! Now I get to harass her about not writing often enough. She's lucky though because Kent is always taking good photos.

Video!!

video! This is a link to a video Nello and Smeagol playing. I posted it on You Tube.