I'm Back...

Say it like James Brown would. I’m back… in Italy after almost 2 weeks in the States. Most of the time was spent driving around, which in retrospect was really a bad idea because gas prices were at a record high. I was paying around $3.55 a gallon and I still kept driving back and forth from Indianapolis to Cincinnati (hence the picture of the sign). Good thing my rental car was a PT Cruiser because it was pretty good on gas mileage. What's really strange is that I think when I last lived in the US gas was a whopping $1.25 a gallon!!!

There's good news for you, my faithful blog readers. I picked up a digital SLR (Canon Rebel XT, I’m too cheap for the XTi). Now you will get to see even more stunning photos in this blog, I hope. I've never had a digital SLR before so I played around with it and at the end of this entry are some of the photos. Of course the actual photo files are huge so I’ll cut then down to post them. I went to my favorite camera shop in Indy, Robert’s Camera. I always check their stock of used and refurbished cameras first then get a new camera if I can’t find what I want. In this case they didn’t have a used camera that I wanted so I went with a brand new one. Prices are as good or better then the discount stores and they also have people that can really help you. My Rebel XT was $634 with tax and came with 3 extras; a 1 GB card, a big Canon camera bag, and a pair of binoculars!

How do I wrap up the activities? I got to see a lot of family on the weekends. I saw my Nonna on both weekends that I was in the States and I saw my nephew for the second time and he’s only 5 months old (he was 2 weeks old when I saw him at Christmas). He seems like a great kid to me but then again I didn’t hear him at all during the night. I was told he made some noise but I’m a sound sleeper. I still can’t accept the fact that my parents are grandparents. I know it’s not unusual it’s just strange. I also went fishing with my dad who is also a grandpa.


This is me in my favorite T-shirt again and I’m holding my first largemouth bass of 2007. My dad and I had a good day on the lake. I caught three and he caught two. We also had about 3 fish apiece where we practiced our “Jimmy Houston catch and release”. That’s when the fish gets off before you get it in the boat. For you non-fishermen out there bass are not great for eating so we release everything we catch. Also I’m probably the only fisherman in the Midwest wearing Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses!

This is random artistic shot in Indianapolis right after I bought the new camera. I had a little trouble as this is not a point a shoot camera.

This is my nephew, Kyle, at 5 months with grandma. My mother is a grandmother. There I said it again.

More photos and news from the States to come...