Malpaga

I am sooo far behind on blogging and each that passes, I just dig myself a deeper hole.  Therefore as of today, I am just going to start posting the latest stuff and then try and catch up one of these days.  But if I dont start somewhere and some time son, I will just fall farther and farther behind.  

We did the coolest thing today.  Last week our friends came over and mentioned that they were going to tour this castle out near Bergamo and did we want to come too.  I know that castles are like Starbucks here, there is one on every corner.  And just like Starbucks, I never get sick of seeing castles (unlike the famous coffee place, it's not very expensive and it's an adventure where the memory lasts a lifetime).   But I digress.  Anyhoo on with the tour: 

We walked all around the castle and a lady dressed in traditional medieval garb told us about the history of the land and surrounding area.  She explained the frescoes and maps.  It was all very interesting, unfortunately not to our two little kids, because they started to get bored/hungry and it was hard to keep them interested and listen at the same time.

Standing on the drawbridge looking at the gate.

In  addition to my door obsession, I add on locks.

Standing in the courtyard looking up at the tour and bedrooms.

The frescoes were really well maintained. (Max wanted me to mention that: the dude in red is Cristiano I, the king of Denmark and the dude in black with the plate is his official taster.  I am just diggin on the spikey flying saucer hat).

Looking down the door opening of the bedrooms (I was hoping to catch a ghost or some sort of orb, since one of the main owners died in the room at the end, unfortunately, no such luck!)

Nice knocker.

The Seven Virtues were painted on the bedroom wall.  Is abstinence one of them, because if those are realistic portraits of real women from back in the day, some of them were down right ugly.

These are the soldiers quarters.

 So here is the coolest part.  After the tour, anyone who wanted to got dressed up in costume too!

 Sophia and I are princesses and Max is the ambassador of China, Viv is just some chick that time warped into the 13th century and got all up in our photo.  Unfortunately this is the only pic we have of all of us and of course sophia is playin around with her headband.  Ah well, guess we'll use a different one for our xmas card.

 All the kids.

Max

Yara, Luna and Sophia dance.
After everyone was dressed, we went into the main hall and we each were handed various roles and reenacted a reception ceremony with various medieval characters.

Giancarlo knights Sara.

  


And at the end of the ceremony there was a big dance.

Group foto. (Thanks Valeria!)

(Let me just add that, I am very glad that I don't live back in the olden days, because that dress does not compliment my already blobby figure.)

ps Special thanks to our new friend Valeria (the Duke at the bottom left corner).  She organized this whole soiree, which I'm sure was not easy.  There is a minimum of 20 people in order to do the tour and dress up.  She belongs to a site called goparty  which you can find other people to do events like this one.

Fancy Stairs and the Bettolino Branco

Well guess who has started climbing up the stairs, guess it's time we stop procrastinating and get those gates!  This is also a good time foe me to show off our fancy stairs.  Notice the elegant dirty linoleum that covers them.  Can't wait until Max's dad fixes them for us!

Today is the Festa di Paese di Brugherio (the festival of the patron saint of our town) and the festival at the church in front of sophia's school.  We were going to try to go to both, but ended up just going to the one at the church because its smaller and there is a fence around the whole thing, so we could keep the group of rascals under control.

Scarafaggio

CHE SCHIFFO!!! New word to add to your Italian vernacular.  It rhymes with Caravaggio.  We brought up some more boxes today.  Luckily this is from some portable drawers that hold art supplies, but I think some of my brushes will have to go, unless I am going to go for that modern art look with poop in the paint. The drawers were supposed to go in a closet with our clothes, Max was in a rush to go  to work so we were stupidly/lazily going to just shove them in.  One of the drawers happened to be stuck and when we pulled it out, that big giant guy happened to pop out.  And YES I did SCREAM and Max told me off for being such a drama queen until....

we saw that nasty mountain of poop in the back and a couple of babies and the baby daddy in there.  He didn't scream, but he did get grossed out and then just leave me with the nasty mess to clean up. So now we all learned a little Italian lesson, you now know the word for cockroach and I know that any box that has been left downstairs for 3 months needs to be check BEFORE being brought upstairs and wayyyy before Max leaves for work.

what's up with the photo bucket thingy?

due to being in between houses, grandma/grandpa coming out, going back to cali and coming back home, i haven't kept up with the blog very well. sorry. sophia is back at school full time so i will be prequelling (i hope). so i have no idea what that photo bucket pop up window thing is about. will try and fix that (dunno how i am not very tech savvy).

ha! fixed it! wow i'm smart! nahhhh, just kidding. i'm just as unsavvy as ever...the blog background must have expired or something and i just happened to notice.

Crooked house and a Hypocrite

We're about to go back to the States for the summer and they are about to begin work on the house, so here are a few of things that drive me crazy that hopefully will be fixed by the time we get back:  Aside from the fact that the tiles are u-g-l-y throw backs from the 70s, they are also totally crooked.  If you look closely at the way the light reflects you can see all the tiles are laid at different slants.

And the thin, cracked and dirty linoleum of fake ugly throwback tiles from the 70s.  Who puts linoleum on stairs??  We're the third owners since the original guy who built this place and nobody bothered to change it, I guess it's just me that thinks its gross.

Ripostiglio or closet/pantry/place to hide our junk.

Remember a few weeks ago after my parents cleared out the weeds and then my dad cut out that nasty plant that was full of bugs and had nothing to do with the rest of the plants?  And then that crazy lady Anna Maria came and yelled at me because she said that plant belongs to the condominium and besides the gardeners were supposed to come and clean up the place any day now...well guess who went and hacked up one of the plants (probably because the gate wouldn't shut). If you guessed Mr Anna Maria you would be correct.  I just shot her the evil eye and laughed it's still full of weeds and over grown trees, but now there is an ugly hacked up bush too.  Now it's totally confirmed, I know who the old psycho busy body of the building is.

I Think I Killed the Old Lady Upstairs!

OH HELLS NO!  Of course this happens the day after my parents (namely my dad) left and on the day Max is in Rome for a class.  I went outside to take the garbage to the curb (at this new place, each house takes out the garbage from his/her own general garbage can and puts it on the  curb and it must be in large transparent bags.   That's so that the garbage people can see whats inside and fine you if you don't separate your garbage.  Inside the bag can been opaque bags (like shopping bags), but the exterior bag must be transparent.  Weird and contradictory.  The other garbage (cans, glass, plastic, food) go into separate bins and we haven't quite figured out who takes those out yet.  In any case it's a nasty mess over there.  But I digress).  I as I picked up the bags, I noticed that some peanut shells were falling out and I was muttering begrudgingly under my breath about which idiot member of my family just through the shells into the bin and not put them in a bag (and they were in the wrong bin too). Then I noticed that the bags had holes and PLOOF, as I pulled one of the bags towards me a little black scurrying ball fell out... and so of course I screamed bloody murder.  I scared the people walking down the street and the old lady upstairs, god I hope I didn't induce a heart attack.  And I still had to walk the stupid bags to the curb!  I walked in the most awkward position keeping the bag as far away from me as possible in case another one of those things fell out!  As revenge, the people across the street were falling over with laughter as the realized from my stance what I was screaming about. I the proceeded to run back to the bin, slam the top shot and run upstairs, slam and lock the door-you know just in case he came back a knockin.
side note:  I have now seen a mouse scurry across the whole court and dart into a whole under our garage.  Max just bought packets of poison and shoved them in the holes and bin, but what if one of those stupid things dies outside the hole and I have to see it or walk over it....thank god we are LEAVING soon!

Goodbye Grans

My parents are going back today.  I realize that we are leaving in a few days to go back for the summer too, so it's not like we will never see them again, but A) does my dad have to wear that shirt again??? Is that really his fancy shirt, I just noticed he wore that when the Nonni came over and now, two times he could dress up a little.  And now any slim chance that he had to being bumped up to first class is now gone.  Ups to my mom for not fighting with the guy and still pretending she knows him.  If I were her I would have stayed back a few people in the check-in line just to get gain that chance back.  and B) does my daughter HAVE to make that face in every picture?  This year's Christmas Calendar is going to see 12 months of that! We are such the Adams Family.

Ciao for now, see you in a week.