what a good idea

we should go to a medival town without a map. on a train in a country where we do not speak the language. great idea. better if it is done in the rain. yes?

siena was amazing. we had quite the adventure though. this is our last night in florence. we are up at 6am and on to ravenna. not sure if i will have computer access. will try too. riding the trains has been the biggest cultural obstacle thus far. tomorrow should be interesting!

greeting from florence

we are here (obviously). right now aaron is sitting on the couch knitting. he has been eager to get to this yarn shop we heard about. now that we found it he is content.

all is good. today we had the tour, the woman was an art historian so it was very interesting and filled with details I am sure to forget. but it was well worth it all in all. Florence is a amazing city... since we do not have a lot of time here there is just so much we cannot do. we keep saying that we will have to come back. in the staw quarterss we put a coin in the pigs mouth then rubs his nose, lore ensures us that we will return (with rest of family of course)

the trip over was long. the ride to paris was nice. much better food than aerlingus. time in the paris airport was annoying if anything... so much perfume in the air my allergies went nuts... security made me put my film through x ray... just that type of annoying things. our trip from paris to florence was nice, we went over the alps, but the ride was about half turbulance... felt pretty sick by the time we landed!

italy has been great. great food, art, people. I wish we had siesta in the US. we really miss our family. luckily they call often. I just got off the phone with Max and Aidan.

now...

why didn't I think of this !

Forget you Milan

We're going to Paris.

a new airlines.. time frame (much better)..more cash. but we are getting there.. word is the french airline may strike. hoping not.

oh my...

the Italian airlines went on strike. we can get to Milan but will either have to wait until 8:30pm (we arrive 7:30am) for an alternative connection to Florence or take a train. We will take a train.

Needless to say this adds a bit of adventure to our trip. From Malpensa will take a train to the train station and on to Florence. From there I believe we can then walk to our apt.

It will be 1am our time. This is fun, right!?

Aidan's school makes national news.

yesterday we were driving in the car, talking about this issue. Max pointed out a girl walking by that he went to middle school with (so she's about 14/15 years old) who is 6 months pregnant. He said this is the first pregnancy she is keeping.

"Obviously, Dick Cheney is sort of the black sheep of the family."

this cracked me up. not sure if it's really funny or I am just way over tired.

I saw her on John Stewart. He did a good job being courteous and honest. I was sort of impressed with her for going on... talk about walking into the line of fire. think that there may be some serious political spinning behind that move.

She brought John a Darth Vader doll. odd duck, I'd say.

17 years

we've been married for 17 years. it sounds like such a long time. damn... it IS a long time.

We didn't' have a very festive day... Just so much going on... football, photo stuff, Italy, a pretty girl cat pooping on our bed (yes. your read that right. anyone want a cat?). I am thinking that she feels that she has not conveyed just how much she hates Tommy. she keeps trying new tactics. sigh....

oh... I am going to send out an e-mail regarding the show at the local gallery on the 2nd of November for the photo book. I am adding it here in case I do not get to it.

what else? boys are all doing well. were very happy this morning when the cat poop was not on there bed. We met and loved Judy. Walked around downtown and the Old Port. Had dinner at Flatbread. Yum. Papa is very happy. life is good. I am a bit freaked about Italy. Not so much about being there.. getting things ready here before we go. I also forgot to learn Italian. I just say I'm Canadian and all will be forgiven. Si?

Trippin'

We leave in 9 days. My Mom came up the other day and we laid out the trip. Here it goes:

we arrive in Florence and spend the first two days roaming the city. She did organize a 2 hour personal tour for our second afternoon. There were longer group tours but it sounded like it would be too much for Aaron. This way the tour guide will gear it toward our interests.

on our third day we head out to visit Siena . Which I hear is an amazingly beautiful city. I first saw it in the movie My House in Umbria , let's just say it was love at first sight. then we are back to Florence and on to Ravenna for two days. My Mom has set up a tour guide here too. This the city where her Grandmother is from, we are hoping to find out a bit more about her. My Mom and aunt Paula went to Kingston MA yesterday to do some research. I know that they did find out that there is a 700 page book (written in Italian I believe) written about the family in the Harvard Library. The people historical society were pretty impressed and said we will find the family name all over Ravenna.... that's all I know so far.

From Ravenna will then head up to Venice . I am very excited about Venice.. I do hear it's very expensive and hard to navigate though, luckily my Mom set up a tour for Venice too. One form of advice we received was that if you are walking down and alley and it opens up into water just shrug your shoulders, turn around and walk the other way. Sounds like a good plan to me. My only concern is that we need to be @ the Venice airport by 5:30am, so we will need to get a water taxi around 4am. not sure how that's going to pan out.

our last day in Venice we will take a day trip to Verona . Aaron has wanted to go here ever since they studied Romeo and Juliet last year. Word is that this is where my Great-Grandfather comes from.

movies

I have been reading books & seeing movies that take place in Florence or Venice (I have Verona imaged by Romeo and Juliet...don't want to mess with that and not many take place in Ravenna that I know of)...a very fun task. Last night I rented a movie that takes place in Venice, In the Company of Strangers, yikes. did not love it. I liked that it was not an American made, isn't' Italy perfect and glorious, film but it may have been a little too dark (even for me). we are not talking to ANYONE nor going to there home... no matter how beautiful it may be. It did make me excited to be in Venice (during the day minus crazy killers)

any book/movie recommendations?

to blog or not to blog...

i am getting ready for the 2 shows (yikes, yikes), Italy (yikes) and finishing up some jobs (yikes yikes yikes) haven't' been on the computer much except to work... boring.

I am slowly updating Michael's blog. mostly @ 1am.

that's all my news.

this is pretty cool. you need to scroll down to find the info on the exhibition I'm in.

Last night Jen and I had a photo shoot with Barbara Bush. A pretty bizarre place to find myself. She was very very nice and afterwards gave a (rather good) speech and volunteering, family and community. Was very odd to see her talk about honesty and humanity knowing that her son is well.. the president. (by the way.. she is tiny and her son has her nose). Despite this, i liked her.... maybe like isnt' the right word but saw her as a human. she did make one joke about her family knowing they are not perfect except for one member.

Now that that job is done I am just getting ready for the 2 shows, finishing editing some photo's and getting ready for Italy. Aaron is getting pretty excited.

Our plans thus far:
day 1 arrive in Florence
day 2 visit Sienna
day 3 day in Florence
day 4 arrive in Ravenna
day 5 day in Ravenna
day 6 day in Ravenna
day 7 arrive in Venice
day 8 Venice
day 9 Verona
day 10 Venice

or somehitng like that.

You could win...

(please imagine game show music playing)

behind door number one a 50" plasma tv, door number 2 an 8 GB Ipod nano or behind door number 3 $100.00 cash!!

And... YOU would be supporting Portland Youth Football.

fine print:

tickets are $10.00 each or 3 for $25.00. contact your local PYFL dealer for offer details.

I have added another few letters to Michael's blog.

not so happy about the gas think. I do think our forces need competent people to handle the money but must they put him through this?

A few nights ago we went to parents night at Max's school. I am feeling so happy that he is there. (Who knew that inside my son was a prep school boy) I know that Chris's Jesuit education really had a positive impact on how he sees and interacts with the world. Knowing that Max's is going to get such a solid education and makes me happy. also, I really thought (though Chris told me over and over it was not true) it was a Catholic school like I went to. while the Jesuits are Catholic they are ultra educationed and socially/emotionaly aware. In one of his classrooms there were signs off all the major religions and how they express/work towards peace.

pretty cool really.

Michael

I have started a blog for Michael. I am posting letters as they come in. Please pass it on to other family members and friends http://michaeltg.blogspot.com/ I will post on my blog when I update.

whew...

All the first days of school are all done. Max is loving school, I am so relieved and happy. Aidan is in heaven, in the same house as most of his friends, is with his bff (see how hip i am with tween lingo, at least according to tv commercials) for all classes. Aa and G are sort of blase about school. no big changes.. just getting back on the horse.
so, all in all life is good.

i know you want a funny story from the subculture of my house.

Tommy has cooties. How do I know this? Because I must ad lib through their actions. Mica and Henry hate him. the other day Tommy gently touched Henry's face, Henry swiped the spot with his paw then rubbed his entire face on the rug for about 1 min. If he could speak human he would have been saying, "ew... Tommy cooties.. get 'em off me...get 'em off me.. Mica.. help...get me a towel, soap and water.."

I wave the white flag

I can resist sports any longer... I am surrounded. I surrender. I still may not understand football but I will try to enjoy it. A, A & G have their first game today (max next Friday)...G was in full uniform at 8am (his game is @ noon)... Aaron half in his. If it makes that this happy it must not be that bad. yes?




and....
last night a red sox pitcher pitched a no hitter.. even max, whose dedication to the Padres still stands strong, was excited. The realization that the sea dogs signed poster that chris brought home the other day was signed by this guy AND papa was at the game just escalated the excitement of the moment . Aidan was out of his little mind....

* oh me gosh... I was just writing down some last min items I need to get for Max and I wrote white sox rather than socks... I think my surrender took immediate effect on my brain.

Help Me

Michael

Since my dear brother is away at boot camp (how I feel about my brother joining the national guard is a subject worthy of it's own post. Since I do respect him and his choice to do what he believes I will not. He is going into the accounting dept so he should be fine..fingers crossed)

he is sending mail and Karin and I are posting it on our blogs so the family can all keep up him. Karin posted his first letter here . If you want his address e-mail me or Karin.

sorry I have been an absentee blogger lately. just been going so fast haven't' had time to write nor even process what going on. big things... max starts school on Tuesday.. everyone else on Thursday. I will really really miss them. I started bean. not so much fun but will help pay for Italy (my mom got the tickets...we leave on the 21 of October and get back on the 30th) and holidays.

I hate when my family splits up so much. tonight I am off to Vermont, Ai, Aa and G to the Cape and Chris and Max will stay here. bowes of all over new england.
hmmm.... why am I so anxious 'bout such things? Do I think that my children will never leave me? Do I have a secret desire to clip their wings? Limit their life experiences to what we do together? not good.