Cappucci e Brioche

i swear this blog shows us doing nothing other than eat!! and yes here we are again....Max worked at 5 pm today so we took sophia to school on the bikes and then went to 'the center.' there is this small cafe there that serves the best cappuccinos (with illy cafe) and brioche (like croissants, but not necessarily in the crescent shape, not as buttery and often filled with stuff like nutella, pastry cream, marmalade), and if you've ever come to visit us we've probably taken you there. and if you havent been there, we will take you there when you get here, cuz it is sooooooo good! they also have really good panini and amazing hot chocolate (its thick and almost pudding like) in diff flavors- cinn, ginger, spicy, with baileys, and a million other different ways with whipped cream, sprinkles and etc on top.

La Cassoeula

Sophia couldnt wait to go to Casa Whilhelm to see Pietro and we couldnt wait for the Cassoeula. Not really sure how you spell it, nor am i really sure whats in it. but basically its a stew made from cabbage and just about every part of the pig you can stick in-snout, feet, skin, plus sausages and some ribs to add a little meat. Not easy to digest, but extra good to eat!! fyi, paolo did not add in all the afore mentioned parts, just some of them.


paolo adds the cabbage


the cassoeula


romantic table for 2


the kids wear out virginia


left to right there is (me), virginia, guia, franci, max, lorenzo and paolo (max parisi is taking the pic.

Complimenti Whilhelms!!

Lots of Smog...

...makes for the best sunsets! (Even the crappy view from our balcony looks wonderful during one of these babies).

andrea, pietro and pia

the whilhelms and another family- giancarlo, simona and their son andrea came over for dinner tonight. the kids played (and fought) together and had a good ol' time. unfortunately i forgot to take pix when g, s, a came...ps i wont describe what we had for dinner cuz it didnt come out that great...happy auntie holly?? ha ha!

ick a big ol spider

woke up this morning and sophia came into our room to ask for tv (as usual) and then says 'oh incy wincy spider'. of course we think she wants to sing the song. but she says 'noooo.... incy... wincy... spider!' and points up at where the ceiling and wall meet. oh, incy wincy my @$$! there was a big ol friggin spider crawlin on the wall. good thing max was home or i would have had to close the door with a wet towel to seal the opening and i wouldnt have entered all day! the thing was straight out of arachnophobia, and wayyyy to high for me to reach. max got it down and stuck it in a glass for sophia to see and study. she was sooooo bummed out when we threw it out the window. i, however, was not!

some new stuff

this morning sophia woke up early and went to play and bounce on her dad and wake his lazy but up! there was some nice light in the background so i shot some pix, this is about the only one that came out.








here's some stuff ive been working on:

the bracelet is from eni oken's tutorial.











not crazy about this copper ring, but i wanted to just play with some different weaves and new twisting technique










it was hard and complicated, but it was kind of fun to do something new. it took me forever to figure out how to attach the bead/cab...i think i lost quarts of blood from all the small cuts i received in the process...but at least we got some safety glasses, so i didnt lose an eye!

pietro house

from the time she woke up this morning sophia has been shouting ' pietro house, pietro house.' she even sang a song in the car about 'pietro house.' the kids are getting so good playing with each other, especially since pietro is soooo good about sharing is toys with sophia! and of course we ate loads and loads again. fra and paolo made brasato, which is like a pot roast cooked in veggies and wine and eaten with polenta. OMG it was sooo good. and there was also an artichoke torta and some fresh olives (soaked in parlsey, garlic and peperoncino), gorgonzola, then fresh fruit and pastry cream, i made a chocolate cake and there was an apple cake too. i must weigh a ton now! i cant go back to their house until after the class reunion or else i will be as big as a house! max and i are like 2 old people, we just cheered a glass of alkaseltzer...plop plop fizz fizzzzzzz!

raclette trois...

it was actually criss, ilaria, gre e ol who gave max the raclette/pirrade set for his birthday, so finally we had the group over to use it. it was a dinner that had been rescheduled so many times this year due to various versions of the stomach flu for various people on various days. finally we are all healthy! the set is always great fun because there is not much preparation, no returning back and fourth to the kitchen for various courses, and food cooks slowly so you can take your time and eat, drink and chit chat. i usually dont over eat because its a slow causal thing, but due to the numerous times we rescheduled i had a big hankering for the grilled meats and bagnetto verde and i totally over did it this time. whats bagnetto verde you ask? well its a green sauce that is made of OO, parsley, boiled egg, anchovies, bread crumbs and garlic cut into tiny tiny pieces by hand (no food processing), it takes forever to make - but its friggin good! the first time i heard of it, it didnt sound so great - but it is. it's typical a piemontese sauce for boiled meats, but its awesome on just about anything. we did a pretty good job and didnt have loads left! thank o/g for taking home the leftover cake!

the next set of spirals

okay here are a few more added spirals. but i still dont know where to go from here....

going to castorama to get some wood now, so i can finally use my new drill. i cant wait!

here comes the sun...

finally it stopped raining!! we took sophia to school by bike today, then it was off to see about preschool inscriptions. the state preschools here go for birth to 2 and then after that 3-5 and then at 6 kids start kindergarten. that means sophia switches school after this summer. we are in search of a new school. i think i mentioned before that the one she is in gets divided, and she has the possibility to go there, but it is old and so are the teachers and it seems just like a kid parking for working parents. it is really close, just a 5 minute walk, but thats the only advantage. we went to another school in the center last week and then another today. we didnt actually go in, but we did see the school on the internet and apparently its one of the most requested schools. max really likes the program, so hopefully we will be able to sign her up tomorrow. its a 10 minute bike ride, so its gonna suck in the middle of winter and the heat of summer, but hopefully it will be worth it!
we also went to an agency to look at some new houses that are being built down the street. the real estate guy was busy so we made an appointment for tomorrow. fingers crossed.

almost finished with the poncho. its giving me carpal tunnel (or however you spell it). my wrists and forearms and shoulder ache, so im giving it a bit of a rest. will take a picture when i finish. hopefully there will be enough yarn.

saw this site called metalworks.org. they have some awesome bling on there. i cant figure out how they do the weaving techniques. ive been looking on the net for tutorials, books anything but i havent found anything so far. for now im just twisting and bending on my own, trying to figure it all out. its not like knitting, where you can look anything up and figure it out on the internet. metal working and wire wrapping just doesnt have as much info available yet...but here's what i did today:
i cant figure out where to go from here...

It's raining, it's pouring...

ugh...if it rains any more, noah's ark is gonna pass in front of our house soon. it's not been raining hard, but it has been raining almost everyday for quite a while now. on the one hand it's a good thing, because the rain is like milan's natural toilet flush, with out it the dog poops on the side walk build up and get all crusty. (the first few days of rain suck because of course it all gets mushy before it gets washed away). sophia and max have a game called 'watch out poo poo'that they play on the way to/from school. it's like freeze tag, only you have to 'freeze' before you step in the poop. ahhhh bella milano.

End of the Christmas Break

...and back to school for Pia. We also went to visit her Scuola Materna (which is like the next level of school from ages 3-5) that's part of her school. OMG it is such a sad little area and the teachers are a bit old - not just in age but in action. They arent lively and young at heart, they are all grandma-ish. It's the neighborhood school and the school thats closest so her friends will be there. But i think we are gonna check out at least one more school to see what it's like. It's so hard to send Pia to Boccaccio (our school) after seeing what a nice school Gingerbread was (where chan, ian and lucas went/go). I know i shouldnt compare. It makes me want to go back to the States for Pia's sake!! Maybe it wont be so bad, i mean it's just preschool, so maybe it wont be so bad, but you know i really want her to get off to a good start.
It's still dark early and cold and damp and foggy so Max went to go get Pia and they fingerpainted with a new set of paints that ML and F gave to her for xmas.

A Walk

Well the snow has melted and the sun is breaking through so we went for a little walk into 'downtown Co Mo' today. We went to the cute litte cafe in town and had some Prosecco and munchies.
The picture is of the sad fountain that's in Dog Poop Park. We had to jump and dodge a dead pigeon and poops camouflaged by dead leaves and muddy snow, it was drama just to snap the picture.

Snow

It's starting to dump snow. This is the view from the kitchen and that's Max's Vespa that's starting to get covered.

Digital Camera's Will Be Our Downfall

Martina gave Sophia a Play-dough set (here its called dido - pronounced like dee-doe not like the singer, which rhymes with fido) for Christmas. We broke out with that today too! Sophia watched so much TV between me trying to keep up on the jewelry making and either she or I being sick all Dec, I am more than happy that she does ANYTHING aside sit in front of the boob-tube! (altho i must say that her spanish has improved loads- she says empujen, abajo, arriba, lo hicimos and can count to 10!) Anyways we all had a lot of fun with it, perhaps max and i had more fun than our daughter!

Escaped Pyscho Killer

Actually this one isnt much different from real life.

Nor is this one if forget to wax!

Why pay all that money for bee-stung lips, just break out with the play dough!

yeah, again not much diff from reality...

And you know we would not be documenting this kind of stuff if we didnt have a digital camera. I used to be so chinsey with the film sometimes i'd have a roll in my camera for years, now look at us!

Lunch time

Zia Paola and Zio Ale gave Pia a kitchen. So today we made lunch together.

And then Pia discovered another good use for the kitchen...


...peek-a-boo!

Safari Stamps

Holber and Gweta gave Pia some stamps with a safari theme.
I think Pia looks a lot like AuntieChell, its the pouty mouth and poofy hair!


I ended up doing all the stamping and having all the fun, and she just did a puppet show with the caps.

Happy Due Mille (cag)Otto

...as Oliver and Greta rightly put it.

We skipped out on the NYE party due to the fact that my stomach started hating it in the middle of the night after the Thai dinner...I got a stomach virus AGAIN! What count am i at, three for Dec? good grief! it wasnt food poisoning if thats what you are thinking, since im in only one that got sick. also i had a nasty fever and the chills so that confirms it. AND now im all freaked out because you know that old tradition, house clean on NYD house clean means all year round/what ever happens on new years eve is basis of what will happen in the up coming year and all that jazz...well lessee now... house a disaster, spent the night on toilet, ugh what a year to look forward to! well on the bright side at least this is the first time ive followed my new years resolution to lose weight! not exactly what i had in mind, but i'll take it anyways!