Trattoria dei Cacciatori

When we tell people that we're moving to Brugherio, they always say "Oh, near Trattoria dei Cacciatori?" Ever since we found out, we've been dying to try it. It's Italian homestyle cooking. It's a set lunch menu, so there are very few choices. Mostly workers in the area go there. And for the amount and quality of food you get, the price is very cheap. First (pasta or rice), second (meats or cheeses) and coffee is only 11 Euro. Our new house is right next door, I think we will be going there a lot. And...they say if a really heavy meal can be a catalyst for starting labor.This is the back room, it looks like it's been recently done and must be nice to sit in with all the windows opened during nice weather.

Max and I had saffron risotto with sausage and porcini mushrooms.

Max is totally satisfied with his choice.

Mom and I digging in.
(Must remember to tilt head downward, I look like Grimace)
I forgot to take pictures of the second plates because we were soooo into eating by then! Next time I will try and remember.

BTW - I was extremely uncomfortably full, I was totally hating it for a few hours, but no labor pains.

just in case...

...just in case it wasn't a false alarm, Sophia and I took a picture together, because we don't have one with the tummy!

So I say...

...I think my water broke. This is how everyone took the news:

Well, everyone try not to get so excited!
it was a false alarm anyways.

Carnevale 2010

It's that time of year again! time for chiacchere and confetti! last year (minus the self inflicted silly string eye shooting incident) we had such a good time at Brugherio's Carnevale parade, we got a little group together to go again.

Luna (the strawberry), Yara (the witch), Giorgia (the princess),
Sophia (the fairy) and Pietro (spiderman)

Before the parade begins, the kids throw confetti and blow streamers at each other.

Sophia gives it a go!

Grandma tries too!

What? No more streamers? Nothing wrong with recycling!

Watching the parade.

After we went to mc donalds and then the kids had a bath because they were DIRTY!
I guess you can tell the amount of fun the kids had by
the amount of dirt accumulated in just a few hours!

F'n Italian Bureacracy

When the due date nears, they start baby monitoring here-it's basically being hooked up to a machine and the baby's heart rate and possible contractions are recorded-and it needs to be a good read for 20 minutes. Our due date is Saturday, we started going today. At our last Gyn visit we were given a pre-prescription to start the monitoring.

Then we had to take that to our HMO who gave us a prescription, which we then took to the hospital admittance, fought the old ladies at the number machine and waited in the priority line (which took forever), paid and then walked over to the monitoring area's closed door. After a while somebody came out and Max went up to give her our paperwork. She said she was full and would come get us. Since there were no chairs immediately in front of the door, we sat in the chairs about 10 feet away and waited, and then waited and waited. I got my first 100 percent on Rock Band. After about an hour and a half and two trips to the bathroom, we finally knocked on the door and the nurse said she came out and looked for us (she must have very bad peripheral vision!!!!!) and didn't see us. Eventually I got admitted, the monitoring was quick, thank god because she was sort of bitchy. An appointment was made for this monday, but since I no longer had a pre-prescription or a prescription Max asked if the last pre-prescription or prescription counted for the next monitorings. Of course they don't, so I had to go to Dr Dickhead (you know the one that wouldn't give me antibiotics, that eventually led to pneumonia) and beg for another prescription. He didn't really want to give it to me because I had already used my pre-prescription and wanted to make me go back to my gyn and make him do the prescription. He was just being a dick, because after ripping me a new one (and the thing is, he acted like the first time this has happened, which it can't be because it's standard procedure) he wrote the damn prescription anyways. Could he not have saved us both the bellyaching and JUST written the prescription without being a dick first? Apparently not. BTW on top of everything else, my mom, despite there being millions of scrap pieces of paper around the house, decided to use the back of the pre-prescription for a note:

it's actually funny, except that the first word everyone sees is police so on top of everything I ended up having to explain to everyone what the note said. Of course not knowing my mom, I don't think Dr Dickhead got the humor and just thinks we are a family of ball busting freaks (ha he should look in the mirror!)

Chip off the Old Block

Like father:


Like daughter:

Parco Increa (Quarry Lakes in Brugherio)

After lunch, we went for a walk around Parco Increa. We finished lunch a bit late, so we left a bit late too.

Sophia hasn't been out on the bike in a while.
(notice it's still bright outside).

Sophia decided she wanted to play in the park, so Grandma and I kept walking.
(only 2 minutes passed since we left Sophia and Max).

hmm getting darker, I guess we'd better walk faster. (we're only a 1/4 of the way around).

This is an old farmhouse on about 1/2 way around the lake and as you can see it's getting even darker.

no more pics because about 2/3s of the way around the lake, it started to smell VERY badly of cow poop and my Mom started to gag, so we had to turn back and haul ass to get back to the rest of the others. You know I had the fear of going into labor right then and there, but whew...we made it back!