Executed Duckie and other various things... You know, before we had Carlee, we had our cats to add some laughter to our lives. Then Carlee came and she added even more. Some days, there's an event that involves both cat and kid, such was the case today. When we came downstairs this morning, Carlee found this:

The poor annihilated duckie was funny enough to start my day, but Carlee's reaction was even more priceless. "OHH NOOO! DuGK! Oh NOOO MOMMY DUGK! Head! Dugk! Head!" She repeated the phrase while she diligently tried to place the head back on the duck. After several unsuccessful attempts she finally handed the pieces to me, and simply said, "Dugk. oww. head. yeah."

"You're right," I answered. "Looks like Dori got a hold of your duckie." She was happy with that answer I suppose because then she took off, and I took the duckie away with a smile on my face that I couldn't get rid of.

***

The tiramisu the other day was so delicious. oh. my. goodness. delicious. It just melted with sweetness and the vanilla flavored coffee that I used. It barely lasted the two days. I had originally planned on taking a small piece to friends, and Tony insisted that I didn't. He wanted to be selfish with it, and I let him. I even gave him the very last bite.

***

I am finally done with my geology course. I once again feel that release of stress and weight on my shoulders. I always feel that after finishing every class though. Tony thinks it's funny that I stress out so much about it, but I take my classes very seriously, and I want to do my very best. Once I'm done, though, the feeling of accomplishing something is worth it.

***

Yesterday I went to the market with my friend Angela, who I just found out blogs as well. She loves photography too, but she's much better than me. Her photos are gorgeous, AND she and her husband get to travel a lot more than we do. I'm jealous. :D

Anyway, we went to the Mineo market, and I was so happy to go. I really need to get out in the economy more often. Angela introduced me to her veggie vendor and when he offered his cheek, for a split second, I COMPLETELY forgot that they kiss on the cheeks. lol. I felt like such a DA. I recovered quickly though, and I think I played it off okay. hehe. I ended up buying 2 kilos (4.4 lbs) of ripe peaches for 1.50 euro, and 1/2 kilo (1.1 lb) of cherries for 1.25 euro. You can't beat that. I also found some gorgeous wool yarn that I'm looking foward to using in my next crochet project. I want to start going to the markets more often, and I promise I will take my camera, because I really want to share it with you guys. I love the market, people watching, and seeing all the wares. It's fun.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Labels: carlee, college, food, italy

  ¶ 4:26 AM 1 Comments

  My weekend was awesome, how bout yours? Friday we joined our friends for dinner at the Valle dei Margi agriturismo. It was our first time going, and it was soooo worth it. The restaurant's orchard surroundings were serene, the food was so delicious, and the company was fun. But the food... ah, the food, I can't go on enough about the food. When we first arrived, we were offered fresh grapefruit juice and an assortment of nuts and olives, etc. We stood and enjoyed the sweet and tangy juice and chatted for a bit until the waiter came and took us to our table.

It was a very empty night, Emy says usually Saturday and Sunday are the most packed nights. But it was nice to be able to hear the music, each other's conversation, and the occasional Italian conversations going on the background. At Valle dei Margi, they have a set menu every night. You go, eat what they bring out, and pay, but I hear you never have to worry about not liking something on the menu, and I definitely believe it.

I can't be positive about the order of everything, but I believe we first tasted the vegetables and cheese appetizers. The eggplant was so tasty, the cheese a bit strong, but good, and the bruschetta was awesome. There were artichokes, too, but Tony liked them better than I did; they were soaked in some kind of vinegar maybe? I didn't care for it too much. There was also quiche, and I don't remember what else....

Then the pastas.... Two different kinds. One with sausage and fresh tomato sauce, my goodness it was so good. The other had a mushroom sauce, and was just as delicious. It made me want to keep taking just one more bite, so that I could taste it again....

The meats came out next. One was sort of beef steak that had a somewhat sweet taste; it was interestingly good, definately a new flavor for us. The other was pork with what I think was some kind of cheese inside, and that was also very tasty.

Thankfully I had paced myself perfectly and had just enough room for dessert. A small sweet biscuit cookie thing with cream on top, very sweet and yummy. But then, my favorite, a sort of mini sweet empanada with sweet cream inside, oh it was so delicious. And a bowl of fresh fruit! One type I had never seen before, and it was so good. A mix between a plum and something... or other. I don't know honestly, but it was good. Fresh fruit right from their orchards! How amazing is that!?! And to imagine that we just found out how incredibly close this agriturismo is to our house! After living here for almost a year! Oh my, had we only known earlier..... :) It was a perfect night really, and to top it off, Carlee was very good for the babysitter. How perfect!

***
Saturday was awesome for me as well. I got to go with a few moms from our MOMS club to the mall! Etnapolis is one of two malls here *I think there's 2. American style malls are a very new concept here, as I understand it. The cities' economies are still largely based on mom & pop shops, each business having it's own little specialty. So, it was fun to see so many big stores all in one place, like back home. I came home with so many bags, lol. Mostly filled with summer clothes, since for some reason, most of my accumulated wardrobe is for fall or winter. I fell in love with so many tops. The colors are so bright and alive, that just looking at them made me feel happy. So I picked up quite a few of them. :D

We ate lunch at a Mexican style restaraunt. Mexican food cooked Italian. hehe, it was actually pretty good. I got the taco plate, with three different types of tacos (which I have no idea what types they were now that I think of it). But two of them I liked, and one not so much. The hightlight of the meal was dessert. The whole reason we chose this restaraunt over the others: the mango lime icecream. Boy, do the Italians know how to make their icecream! I was in love with this flavor. And when our friend V didn't finish hers, I couldn't let it go to waste. LOL. It was THAT good!

We shopped and chatted and shopped and chatted some more, until finally we headed home around 6! I had so much fun that the day really just flew by. It was so nice to just get out with the girls.

***
Sunday was Carlee's birthday party. We got up early in the morning (well early for us on a weekend anyway,) and started the cooking. We had the deviled eggs, the potato salad, and the cake to make, and the decorations to put up. All before 2 pm. So we got to work.

Everything was going well, until the cake. I had found a new recipe for frosting online, since I didn't want to use the Wilton's recipe anymore, because of the shortening. Yuck. The first batch I made came out the right conistency for decorating, but I was going to do the outline first, so I thinned it out a little bit. Well, I ended up, not using all of it for the outline, and since I felt pressed for time, I didn't want to make another batch just to be able to do the stars. So, instead I just colored it and used it for the coloring in part also. So, there were no stars on the Dora cake, except for her hair, which I used premade icing since there was no way I was going to be able to make my white icing black. In the end, even after the cake breaking in half while I tried getting it out of the pan (before icing it), the cake came out okay. Not my best, but Carlee knew who it was, and that's what mattered. :D Plus, just knowing that there was no trans fat in the icing was nice.

The box cake however had me mad. I never thought to check the box cake for the hydrogenated oil. I mean, why would they need to put it in the box cake? I don't get it. But they do. For the whole cake - 12 grams of trans fat. How awesome is that? Needless to say, I will never make another box cake again. I will be making my own from now on.

Carlee had a blast though and loved eating all the icing off her cake. And I let her. She played with all of her friends. She opened her presents, they played with play dough, and at the end got to blow bubbles and take rides in her new wagon outside. After everying was said and done, I really felt we gave her a fun party. Which I was a bit nervous about, since it was our first real kid's party for Carlee.

I can't wait until next year, when she has more of an idea of what's going on. Even when we sang her happy birthday, she had this bewildered look on her face, like, "What the hell is going on?" lol Thanks to everyone who sent or gave her presents, she is really having fun with all of them. She made out like a bandit this year.

***
The only part that sucked this weekend was last night... While we were playing with Carlee in her new tent (set up in the dining room) I looked outside the back window, and not realizing how much hair the cats have gotten on the drapes, took in a face full of it. In that second, I knew I was in for a world of hurt... and in about 5 minutes after getting out of the tent, it hit. Last night was miserable. I immediately took my allergy medicine and my sinus medicine and hoped it would take care of it quickly. It didn't. My head felt like it was going to explode, and I was sneezing every few seconds it felt like, and Tony laughed at my two piles of tissues, one one each side of me on the couch. Gross. I don't feel as bad as last night, but I'm still not completely through this episode yet.

And now back to our normal hectic schedule. I gotta cram for my next geology test due this week, a lab (with about 7 parts to it) is due this week, Carlee's doctor's appointment is tomorrow, and Tony doesn't get a day off this week. So the upcoming week is busy for us, but this past weekend made up for it already.

Labels: cake decorating, carlee, food, italy, shopping

  ¶ 7:52 AM 2 Comments

  Long time... No Post... I know... I've been M.I.A. for a while... We made it home okay after about 4 times trying to get on the mac flight. It was a little stressfull, but definately worth it. We've been keeping busy. I'm still working on my classes. My finals are coming up the first week of May, so I'm a little stressed about those. Accounting is a little harder than I thought it would be. Then again, if I had the time to just sit down and complete all the assignments I would probably understand it more. But, I just don't have 3 to 4 hours to sit down and do it all in one sitting. I try to break it up into smaller segments, but it takes a while just to figure out where I was at, what step, etc. It's a pain. But hopefully I will pass. I start another class this month also, Geology. I'm really excited about that one, it should be fun.

I've actually only been home for a month. I can't believe it. It feels as though I should have more to talk about, but really not that much time has passed. We haven't been able to travel this past month, because the weather was rainy and cold. But it's starting to warm up, and I'm really looking foward to getting out again.

This past friday we went to Ramacca for their Artichoke festival. It was a lot of fun. I tried the little funny looking veggie for the first time. It was roasted with garlic and some other herbs. Soooooo yummy! I really liked it. And for only 50 euro cents? Come on! We had to try it. We also grabbed some artichoke canoli on the way out. That was very tasty. I really liked it. I usually can't finish a canoli because they are way too sweet, but the artichoke took some of that sweetness away, and made it perfect I think. It didn't taste veggie-ish at all. It was delicious. There were so many people out, and the atmosphere was so fun. It really reminded me how much I had wanted to get out and see the culture when we first arrived here. So, now it's renewed that excitement about Italy all over again.

Yesterday, Carlee colored Easter eggs for the first time. She loved it. I'm going to post pics over on her page. And that pretty much brings us up to date. I will try to get back on track with my posting and picture sharing.... :P

Labels: college, italy, travel

  ¶ 6:34 AM 0 Comments