Nanni, Master of Pitoni

Alicia Keys

Despite the fact that datchforum's acoustics are terrible, the concert was pretty good - (the best parts being when alicia keys played solo on the piano as Holber noted.) i do have to note it was one of the weirdest concerts ive ever been to -first of all, every female concert go-er(and some males) were dressed just like alicia keys (hair, makeup, hats, earrings and all), then everyone stayed seated thru the entire concert, half the audience filmed the WHOLE concert on their phones, and then you know how there is always a part where the artist goes put your hands together and clap, clap, clap - the whole venue was out of sync with each other/the music (usually the clapping fizzles out but, like 15 random people went on, and on and on and on and never stopped clapping or being out of sync), all made for quite an experience. but AC has an amazing voice and the show was good and going to the concert with holber is like watching MST to music, cuz he makes the stupidest, (but funny comments). i actually started to lose my contacts from laughing so hard at one point, so it was fun! my Thanks to Holber and Gweta and Ma-cuh-suh

and dont think it was all about me - in exchange for concert tix and babysitting h&g get language lessons - they learned shi-shi. very useful only if they find themselves at my mom's or in japan and they gotta go, te capii?? (pronounced 'take a pee' and means 'understand?' in milanese- see now you learned something absolutely useless too)!

Dog Days of Spring

sophia is really into dogs right now, she even pretends to be one. mich called and sophia wanted to show off to her and matt (they have a real dog).

Roll over....

Beg...

Play dead!Good doggy!

Oh, come on now... it's funny, not wrong! Get over it.

riding on the metroooooo ooo

extra points to you if you read the title to the tune of the berlin song.

sophia keeps asking to go on the train. luckily to her that's the same thing as the metro. she wanted me to take a picture too. this is what comes out when you put night setting instead of action on the camera:


In order not to seem like gypsies and just ride the metro back and forth all day long, we got off at San Babila and walked to the Duomo. This is a picture of the duomo's tooshy. The front, as usual, is being renovated. you can actually see the gold madonnina on the top from CM on a clear day (need i say it's usually smoggy?). though i've lived here for almost 8 years now, i've never actually been to the top. it's like alcatraz or the mystery spot to bay area folks. its always gonna be there and one day i will go... (needless to say, after i moved to italy, i actually did go and visit the rock and the spot).

and no visit to the duomo is complete without feeding the flying rats, er i mean pigeons.

the tallest oompa loompa

so, for albanian max's other other job (albanians are the jamaicans of italy-stereotypes are always the same, just ethnicities change) he works for a company that outsources sportscasting/news for these ferrari races - more our less. basically anyone who has a ferrari can race, but its only ferrari, all ferrari and nothing but ferrari. (in my opinion i say BFD but maybe thats just the estrogen in me talkin-but it brings in the pancetta). in any case, anyone who works there has to wear the get up - bright red. it must look like a bunch of ferrari oompa loompas down in the pit!


ps he is supposed to be posing like he is working the pit, only it looks like a bad version of the robot dance.

Oliver is a Super Hero

Olber, Olber, Olber. After begging everyone in the office and kissing everyone's feet, he got tickets to Alicia Keys and i get to go with him...Im so excited!
ps in gratitude i said that i wouldnt put up anymore pictures of him eating, do you think this one better?

it's official

we got the call this morning. goodbye car. it has given us its better days. this is gonna be hard to explain to sophia who has been telling us the white car is sick and asking when will it come home...

Little Easter

The day after Easter is called Pasquetta, little easter- it's a holiday and traditionally its a day when people go with on a picnic with their friends. The reality is no one ever really does that, it's usually cold or rainy, and everything is closed for easter and pasquetta so no one ever has enough organization to do it.
Today was a bit cool (frost on the car windows when we woke up), but it was nice. Greta's parents are out of town and so we took advantage of her nice large house and garden to do a BBQ there.

O and G got Sophia a chocolate Easter egg. The prize inside was a little purse - so Sophia went around like a gypsy asking for coins to fill it.

What is the male attraction to cooking outside with fire? Our gas stove has a flame and you never see these three standing over over it like this!

Ilaria and Valeria show the tricks of taking the skins off fire roasted bell peppers.

Sophia caught red handed playing with Mrs Polenghi's dishes.

Photo #16,849,431,902 of olber eating.
That plate in front of him is piled with salamella - italian sausages that are awesome grilled.
I know it looks like host, but it's just the bread.
Max's face of self-satisfaction!
(and well deserved too, thanks chef!)
DJ Topo Funky the Samurai prepares to cut the Colombo!

As for every holiday here, there is a traditional cake that's eaten - this is the Colombo. To be honest, it's just like Panetone (the Christmas one) only a different shape (supposedly dove - but unless its a dove that just fell from 100 feet and splatted flat on the pavement, it looks nothing like any kind of bird). The cakes come in all different flavors now, Criss got the one thats is injected and smothered with chocolate-and oh so good.

The girls snuggle Sophia while the boys go Wii.
Sophia helps Ilaria Wii.

ps for those who don't know about greta's mom - she is obsessive compulsive about domestic cleanliness. their house is always ready for a good housekeeping photo shoot. stupidly, we forgot to change the plastic lined panties on sophia....and of course she pooped...and didnt tell us...on the white couch. somehow she didnt pee too, so luckily it didnt leak- whew! i'm usually on my toes with Sophia in the Sterile Polenghi Lab/House - im always afraid that CSI Agent Mrs. Polenghi will open the door, enter the house, sniff the air, drop her suit cases, and then break out her luminol to re-create any naughty actions sophia has done in her home whilst she was out. hopefully we didnt leave the house in too much of disarray. i've got such a Mrs Polenghi paranoia that she has become fodder for our group'sprivate jokes. and poor sophia doesnt believe in the boogie man, she's got the fear of Mrs. Polenghi for her nightmares instead.

Milestone

Sophia went the WHOLE day without the diaper!! More importantly, without any accidents! Brava Sophia!

An Indoor Urban Easter Adventure

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Okay so we are unexpectedly stuck and home - no car, remember. Plus, it must have poured last night because it was wet and grey when we got up this morning.....But, (get ready to sing cuz i dont know how to link up music yet) there ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no car broke enough, ain't no weather bad enough, to keep us from An Egg Hunt Adventure and this year we went Urban style! (yes, that basically means we hid the eggs inside our flat! and sophia made us hide the eggs over and over eggain! it was a bit eggzagerated!

Going for Broke

Jamaican Max started moonlighting his moonlighting job. Last night he finished the radio at midnight and was up to see the races by 6.30 this morning and then he had some translations to do. Poor Max. Since it was his first time, we had no idea how long it would all take, after he was finished we were going to trek over to the nonni's for easter. By the time he finished, it was noon. It was too late to make it to the cuneo by lunch time (almost a three hour drive) and it wasnt worth it to stop at an autogrill (mom's favorite italian restaurant). So it was a quick jump to the store for some sandwich stuff - shoved food in our faces, cleaned up the kitchen, last minute shoving stuff in bags and we were ready. but then of course i noticed that the latest 'lost' episode was just about finished downloading, so we waited. then i wanted to convert the file to fit on the lg so we would watch tonight. and so we waited a little more. what was supposed to take 10 more minutes for downloading, then another 10 for conversion, ended up taking much longer of course! by the time we were in the car it was 4 pm. sophia was exhausted and fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. max heard a weird noise, but i thought it was just the wind and didnt think anything of it. soon i was asleep. and the n a JOLT and i saw that we were on the side of the road coasting. my first thought was...oh great, max fell asleep too. instead, the car just broke. luckily we made it to one of th e little SOS areas (there isnt really much shoulder room /if any at all) Max only had to help the car along a few feet.To show you what we were near, here is a picture of the only sign of life where we stopped. (It could always be worse, there are slaughter houses along the road that stink to high heaven.) I looked at the clock and it was now 4:43, so we didnt get far. Despite our bad luck we had un colpo di culo (which literally means hit of ass, but figuratively means luck)...
...just seconds after we stopped, a tow truck was passing and he stopped to see if we needed help. This guy was actually really nice, he was on his way to go get somebody else, but he saw us and called his co-worker to come and get us. just before he arrived, sophia woke up and not too happily. we kind of thought she would sleep the whole ride thru, of course that didnt happen. she started asking for milk, crackers and anything else we didnt have in the car. (i had packed some cookies and water). T
sophia was pretty grumpy by the time the other tow guy showed up. when the car started getting towed away she was pretty hysterical, she didnt understand what the guy was doing. Che culo (literally-what ass, figurative-what luck - i just like how opposite ass is used in italian as compared to English, hence the lessons) this tow guy was just as nice as the first. He honked the horn for Sophia and when he realized she liked it, he did it again and again, talking to her and trying to make her smile. he way towing works is like this: its not thru AAA, they only tow your car to a holding lot, they charge per day and will charge to take your car back to your house/mechanic etc. It's Easter wknd so we were stuck for today, tomorrow and monday is a holiday too. but these were actually a bunch of honest guys and they dont charge much. oh its gonna cost a pretty penny (euro?), but things could have gone a lot worse! Both the guys were really nice to all of us.
We were in towed back to their place in Bereguardo (pavia). The lot was next to nothing and they guy might have had to leave at any minute, so instead of making us wait outside the office, he drove us to the town center. there was still not much there- but at least there was a bench and a bakery. the whole town smelled of poop (animal?) so i wasnt much up for eating. but sophia was. oh i forgot to mention, last time we went to cuneo, sophia didnt pee the whole time (and she was awake the whole time). ive been trying to have her go around without the pull-up. today i just put on the plastic lined panties. i asked and i asked, but she said she didnt have to go pee. but then the guy at the tow office gave her a bottle of water and she drank loads. i was getting nervous, and just when i decided to put the diaper on she peed- so there we were, sitting on a bench, all our junk scattered all around, looking like homeless gypsies and changing our daughter who was peeing during the process. it cant ever be simple can it?
the sun started going down, the gnats started swarming and it started to get cold. just in time, our hero arrived Creetz (car on the right). hip hip hooray. now our car is broken and the nonno is heart broken and we are just plain broke.

ps we were 43 minutes from milan/2 hours and 17 minutes from cuneo-it made more sense to go home. the nonni wanted to come and get us -especially because the nonno was worried about the chocolate egg. he was totally upset that sophia wouldnt get her chocolate egg from him tomorrow and it would...what get thrown away? rot? be stolen? just plain disappear? im pretty sure she wont even notice. Happy Easter Eve!

pulling out my hair

max and i will be twins soon!
sophia was so excited about seeing martina today that she didnt nap or eat a snack. so by the time martina got here, she was soooo over-stimulated. so of course they bickered and fought over toys (which i realize is normal for 2 'only child' kids) . by the time martina left, things had escalated and sophia was hysterical. of course as soon as i shut the door, the phone rang. it was now 8 and sophia was totally out of control. i debated about answering the phone, i was sure it was the nonno. but i knew if i didnt, he'd call back a million times worrying about what happened to us or it would be some horridly bad news so id feel guilty about not answering the phone in hindsight. so, of course i answered it. it was the nonno, who i couldnt even hear because sophia was screaming level to the speaker half of the phone. nothing drastic, so i tried to get off - this is the part that kills me. the conversation is with me, not with sophia but every time the nonno starts shouting a conversation sophia, as if ive passed the phone to her - but i havent! it goes like this:
-hello?(sophia crying in background).
-hi luis(they still dont know my name), its, oh madonna, me, whats wrong, beppe.
-hi, dont worry its just sophia having a tantrum.
-i was just wondering what SOPHIA IT'S NONNO, TELL NONNO WHAT'S THE MATTER what time you were SOPHIA IT'S NONNO coming over IT'S NONNO; IT'S NONNO tommorrow OH MADONNA MIA QUESTA BIMBA. Will you DONT CRY SOPHIA IT'S ME NONNO BEPPE arrive DAI, SOPHIA in time for TOMORROW YOU WILL BE WITH NONNO, DON'T WORRY for lunch?
all the time im at my wits end and trying to calm sophia and convince the nonno that sophia is not on the phone, but i am. and neither of us has bad hearing so in any case there is no need to shout. nor do i have any of the information because it all depends on max, since he works late. could he please call him. or could we please call back later. luckily the one thing that italians never want, is for their grandchild to die of starvation. so when i finally got it in that we hadnt eaten yet, since martina just left, he quickly got off the phone and saying he guessed maybe he'd call max to find out (didnt i say to do that??). aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh! oh, grandparents!!! (that is not said as an ode, but as a big sigh!)
then i did the stupid thing to call max and tell him to call his dad, because i know that beppe doesnt usually call max on the cell phone, even if he said he will. and if we dont tell them we arent coming in time for lunch the nonna will have fixed a great big lasagna and roast by 6 am. and i asked oh do you have a second before i did a replay of the conversation. where i was hurried off the phone mid sentence and being told there is no time and all of a sudden he has to work. just for that i am going to tell my dad that max wants to hear all about dogs and fishing the next time my parents call and then im going to shove sophia in his lap and poke her reallyyyyyyy hard! that will teach him for not empathizing!
and then the vendetta for snapping away all her childhood comforts is the fact that every time i wash the floors (which is not often since i hate it) sophia re-marks her territory. the same goes for her arm chair (or the stinking chair as she calls it - not because she pees on it all the time, but because the one in blue's clues is called the thinking chair. she heard her cousin natalie say it once and the name stuck. in any case it is still apropos). it never fails. i clean the floors. ask a million times if she had to pee. nope, nope, nope - the usual response...and then sploosh...

Dying Easter Eggs

Martina came over this year to dye easter eggs. The chaos and disaster are never proportional to the amount of eggs they dye, but at least they have fun.

Good Riddance

Today we said goodbye to the bottle (sophia's not mine, im not ready to be weened from the wine bottle yet. or any other bottle that contains a tasty alcohol for that matter!) . The bottle fairy came (cousin of the pacifier fairy) and whisked the last sippy cup away in the middle of the night and sent it to some other kid out in the big wide world in need of a bottle. and i say 'dont let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!' One by one childhood comforts are disappearing, first the pacifiers, the diapers and now the bottle...woooo hoooo! one less thing to find all moldy in my purse!We are so proud of Sophia. Unfortunately, Max has this thing about shoving whatever hair accessory there is about, on Sophia's head + Sophia wasnt too happy about drinking out of the cup, so she took very few sips, therefore, the only picture we have of her this morning looks like we like we caught nicole richie/john rambo/a WWII patient at breakfast this morning.

I see the moon,

I hope the moon sees me! If anyone is as inundated with Little Einsteins as we are, then you will actually know what tune those words get sung to during an episode. That's Movement 1 by Mozart, for those of you who arent, google it if you still dont know. It is one of those songs that gets stuck in my head and I find myself singing in the middle of the supermarket or something embarrassing like that. ...but I digress. Anyhow, so of course anytime we see the moon, we sing the song-(its involuntary by now), so Max took a picture of it. And somewhere out there you are sitting under the same big moon too. buona notte!

Designers, Make it Work!7

Tradition has it that Khatia and I watch PR together. Last night we finally had some time to watch! But we washed sophia, chatted first and then made some pizza, sang happy birthday to khatia/sophia/max and only had time to watched the first 5 episodes!
but now i am so tired! i used to have to stay up all night, go dancing and drink a lot to feel like this....apparently some pizza and project runway are enough to wipe me out now! sad, very very sad....

Beach, Beach, Beach

Sometimes I get so annoyed with Max when he Italianifies (i know that doesnt exist and it will be ironic that i just did that) English words or Anglicizes Italian words. It's hard enough for Sophia to keep 2 languages straight without him mixing them up for her. It basically means taking off the last syllable of a words to make it English or adding an O or A to make it Italian-o. Are you playing this game in your head? Such as helmet in italian is casco- he calls it a casc, jacket becomes...thats right jacketo. It's just like speaking Spanish with Karen from Will and Grace. And even tho he didnt do it today, I felt it's repercussions- While Max was yanking his bike out of the cantina (being from california, i dont know what that little underground room is called in the basement where you store the stuff that cant fit in the house), Sophia kept saying she wanted to go to the beach. There is no beach in Milan. The closest thing there is to a beach is when the Scirocco brings in the rain drops with sand in them. Beach, BEAAAAACH, she insisted! She was starting to get hysterical. I'm desperately trying to figure out what she wants-what? Park? There's sand at the park. NO! Beach, what beach where? Genoa? Beach, ober der (not pointing to anything)! Soon came the tantrums BEAAACCH, dat one der (still not pointing to anything specific)! I really hate when she does this in public because everyone has to either offer you advice, come and comment and try and console Sophia, or comment to their kid - yes she is having a tantrum, you know just like you have(point stare)! Apparently my mom's rule of don't stare, isnt known here. Nor does the rule MYOB!
Well as it turns out, Sophia wanted to go on the bicycle. Word for bicycle is.....bici (pronounced - bee-chee - which happens also to be exactly how I felt if you italianicize a certain Amecrican word!)

Sophia in Casc with her Dadd-0.

and the pile gets larger...

silver plated copper wire and various glass beads and crystals.

green bracelet

Remember those spirals a while back? Well I've finally done something with them! It must be the marathon of Survivor Man that im watching that has finally inspiraled me!

Good Bye Luisella

Max got a sad call at work today. Our good from Luisella lost her battle to brain tumors. She was 42. Despite her long and hard battle, she always had a positive outlook on life. She will be greatly missed.

Cheers

Happy SPD! Greta's wardrobe lives for this day....she has nothing but green in her closet! (I think Oliver just lives for the excuse to drink beer)

Palm Sunday - spent recuperating from yesterday and reading the God Delusion.

Down and out in Brescia...

Sophia woke with a horrible stomach ache again tonight! I stayed up last night so it was Max's turn. Poor guy, he got very little sleep!
The PES Boys had a meeting in Brescia today, so we made it a field trip for the group. I didnt take as many pictures as I'd have liked, but I snapped a few. It was my first time in Brescia. It's am aesthetically strange city, with a mish-mash buildings-fascist in the center and radiating outward to modern, with a peppering of roman ruins here and there. Thats not a critique, just an observation - i really dont have an opinion on that. Next time I'd like to explore a little more. But its a neat place to walk around and people watch! The people are actually trendier than the Milanese! I really do wish I'd taken some pictures, but with Sophia in tow it was hard to snap. There were people that had dogs that looked like their jackets, striped socks on the outside of their pants, and apparently fuscia is next seasons color, because EVERYONE had it on!

We 2 carred road tripped - criss and ilaria in one, us in another and we went to get greta. Holber was already there hanging at his mom's house. As we got closer to H, I flagged down what she thought was him, but turned out to be a window washer - we need to get that girl some glasses!

We rallied, regrouped,l jumped into the cars, and went downtown. Cars were parked in the main garage. The idea was to go to St Giulia Museum, there was a showing of American scenic painters, a collection from Buffalo Bill, portrait artists and then their regular stuff (the museum is an old monestary built on top of roman ruins so there is lots to see underground, but only max and sophia got to go, since we ran out of time). We mainly saw the scenic/realist painters - i can only remember andrew wyeths name. Lots of Niagra Falls and Yosemite. In front of many paintings there was this guy speaking softly(you couldnt even hear a whisper from him) into a microphone and a group listening to him intently. We couldnt figure out how. Then we realized the people all had cordless headsets. They were clustered in groups so it was hard to get around and we had to manoeuvre thru them. Sophia was quite a good girl, so it so weird when i thought the 'guards' (ie the 20 something year olds dressed in matching trendy grey belted jackets with big fold over lapels) were following us around - was it just to make sure we didnt touch anything? But then Sophia went off with her Dad - and they were still following me around- like a shadow! I would turn around and there would be someone shoulder to shoulder with me. I even did a little test, went around the corner, faked like i was going into the next room, came back in and took the empty spot of where a crowded was standing (and the room was now basically empty) and gazed at a painting turned around and BAM! there was another guard - right behind me! Then Greta made a comment about it - so it was pretty obvious even to her. ' When I move you move!' But, it wasnt just the nipping at my heels that drove me nuts, it was the fact that there were all the old people on the guided tours, shouting loud comments to their friends because they couldnt hear with the headsets in their ears and nobody said anything. Greta would say something to me and nobody said anything. Oliver would say something and no one noticed. But... as soon as I opened my mouth to respond someone would SHHHHH! me loudly before i could finish my one word sentence! After a while Greta and I just busted up laughing every time because there was nothing else to do about it. F'ing racist ( i was the only obviously non italian there) Brescia museum hall monitors! If it wasnt so funny, i would have been annoyed. And of course I did the unfortunate thing of telling everyone what had happened and now they do nothing other than SHHHHHH me everytime i say something!
It's quite a large show. We hurried thru the end but - and of course I got stuck behind a large guided group (and luckily mary cassat paintings), so i turned around to see if i could back track and catch up with the others - of course another group rounded the corner and I got stuck between the two. The guides were all talking in their whispering tones so i couldnt even follow what they were talking about, but i just stared at the portraits like i did.
The boys were now late for their meeting and off they ran to the car. 5 Minutes later we remembered Max had the parking ticket and Oliver ran back to give it to us - they didnt trust just shoving it under the windshield wipers. Sophia wanted to go with them she ran after them calling 'Wait Holber, I'm coming!' Luckily something soon distracted her and she didnt fuss they left without her.
Sophia decided to use my hair as earphones and sing - she did a mash up of Hall and Oates 'Maniac' and Backyardigans 'What Do I Like About the Clarinet?' ...see how happy i am about it!
Now back at the parking near the office, O realized h e left the keys to the office in his car, and G had the car keys. So back it was for another meeting, this time they just drove by and snatched the keys out of I's hands without stopping - practically taking one of her fingers with them.
On the way back to the car Ilaria decided she and Sophia wanted an ice cream. We passed one place, but it didnt have sugar-free ice cream (Ila cant have sugar). Off it was to look for the next one. By now the dt was crowded-everyone and their dog was out! And S was now tired and had to be carried so Ila went off on a little excursion to find another place. It was a short pedestrian street (see foto) but of course by now the crowds were so thick we couldnt find her anymore... and then we realized we didnt have her phone number - nor she ours. So she had to call C, who by now was in the meeting with the others - of course they all bust up laughing -since they couldnt understand how when there were only 3 of us and we got seperated on the short distance to the car!

Apparently was only that 1 gelateria in dt Brescia. Poor Ilaria!
Greta was nominated to drive (she was in the other car with cri and ila and i still dont have a license) and eventually we made it back to our car. Ours is the one on the left and we were parked there first - I have no idea how that guy on the right parked - notice his mirror is in front of ours! Greta, having never drove our car - got it out of that tight space anyways! Brava Greta!
It was off to the international food market (we had vague address and vague name of the store from O) - I dont know how Greta drove - she had GPS but the directions arent always clear because italian streets arent methodical and Sophia cried and whined the whole time! But she didnt and we didnt crash! Eventually we got to the area and there was a big sign that said African Asian Market - but had only clothing in the window, and we wereunsure if this was the one. Luckily it was. There were lots of foods from just about every country that isnt italy - so the name Africa Asia Market was a bit of an understatement. It was quite overwhelming! By now, Sophia was extra hysterical (being now tired/no nap and hungry/no snack) - and we stayed only a short time.
Back into the car again- off to meet the guys. Sophia must have been extra thirsty and she drank a 1/2 L of H2O.
Ever since Ila got on her mission, she had her eyes peeled for a gelateria...We never passed a one! Not even a person with ice cream in hand. but....just as we had almost arrived guess what we passed ???!! hooray! See the smile on Ilarias face?!





Greta tries to hide the fact that she wanted an ice cream too!

Just when we had just finished the ice cream, the boys called to say they were finished too. We were right behind the office, but quick thinking Ilaria gave us a few minutes leeway on our ETA - knowing that if we got lost or anything we would never hear the end of it!! Lucky too because the ice cream and the bottle of water went right thru Sophia and she had pee-soaked pants (and she had a a diaper on too). Got her changed in the car and it was off again. Got the boys, re grouped again and it off to the lake Garda to meet O's mom for dinner. By now I was so exhausted i totally forgot to take pictures...too bad, O's mom and friends are lovely and their lake flat is beautiful. They were so sweet to Sophia, who was in a horrid mood! S and I fell asleep on the car ride home - luckily we had our reliable driver! whew! what a day!