Creating a Stylish Brother

So how often do we actually get to play dress-up with our brothers, particularly when they are grown?  In a nice surprise our brother Barry has advised us that he would like a kilt from Scotland while we are there.  On his recent visit to my house, he and I talked about kilt styles and I advised him of  Dee and my preferences as gained during our "Monarch of the Glen" stage.  Those not familiar with that particular BBC show are missing out.  It is situated on a gorgeous Scottish estate http://www.flickr.com/photos/31256888@N08/5158697786/.  One of our favorite characters was a worker on the estate named Duncan (that's Duncan on the left in the photo below)

 The fun thing about Duncan is that he always wears a kilt and compliments it with hiking boots, thick socks and usually a t-shirt or cable knit sweater

The look worked for us, so that is what I passed on to Barry as his style goal.

He in turn has handed over the purchase responsiblilties of this totally cool outfit to us - which will be fun.  We just have to find the right tartan, the right accessories and the right shop.  Barry's plan is to wear his kilt to a golf tournament he participates in every year. Should make quite a statement!

I got another little touch of Scotland this past weekend during a visit to the Northern California coast. There is a small, very lovely town called Ferndale where there was a dog show I wanted to attend (along with having my annual ocean fix).  To my great surprise, this gentleman attended and was dressed to kill while showing his Scottish Deerhound.  I thought it was a wonderful look.

And finally, while driving through the farms/ranches between Ferndale and the beach, I passed these darling creatures.  Yet another preview of Scotland.  These are Scottish Highlander cattle.  I think this was all a sign!

San Marino: An Italian Turducken*

(*Tur-duk-in:  For those not familiar with the Food Channel, a Turducken is a chicken placed inside of a duck which is stuffed inside of a turkey, sewn closed and then the whole thing is roasted in the oven. The only relationship to my blog post is that neither the duck or the chicken have any easy access to the outside world, and nor does San Marino.)
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Apparently, one of the casualties of the formation of the EU was the fun of getting your passport stamped. With the open borders, there is little need to track people traveling from one member country to another, so not only are passports not stamped, but seldom requested.

Passport stamps used to be one of the few free souvenirs you could bring home without buying additional luggage. Now, although you can sometimes request a stamp, most of the time it just isn't done. There are a few exceptions, though....

Il Vaticano
Most people know that the Vatican is a City State within the city of Rome, and as such have their own version of the Euro and they will stamp your passport at a kiosk if you ask.

San Marino
What a lot of people don't know (me included until I came across it in something I was reading) is that there is another country entirely within the country of Italy. It is called the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (Repubblica di San Marino), and is a 24 square-mile "enclave surrounded by Italy (Wiki)", and has a population of about 30,000.

 

San Marino is the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, as the continuation of the monastic community founded on 3 September 301, by stonecutter Marinus of Arbe.

San Marino is considered to have a highly stable economy, with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, no national debt and a budget surplus.... Wiki

This tiny country is divided into nine "castelli" (meaning castles) or municipalities; eight minor munincipalities; and 43 hamlets or "curazie". It has its own local euro.

AND they stamp passports,although there is a small charge, so actually I guess they "sell" passport stamps. I am hope we might be able to make a small detour to San Marino to get our passports stamped, and visit another country, but there is no airport, no train station, no actual bus station. The best way to get there is to go to Rimini and catch the bus there, spend the day, and then go back to Rimini. Or, there is a hostel in the main town, so that would be another option. Since it is 3 hours from Padova, and three hours from Perugia, there is no easy way to get there, and it may be a bit of a hastle to just get a passport stamp, but who knows how long they will even be available, and if the time allows, it could be a fun adventure, as long as the dramamine holds out.

One Day At A Time

Tomorrow is ninety days.  Three months.  It seems that June came at us and past us with the speed of a freight train.  I am almost afraid of July.  What do I need to do, yet?  Well, I don't know, because I have been trying to ignore all of it so completely that I haven't even made a really good list...and I am a major list maker.  I have spent my time chatting with my Italian Facebook friends, surfing the internet, reading Italian blogs, and day-dreaming about the trip.  Maybe the first step should be making a list?

Ok, so what sort of things do I have to do?  Let's start at the beginning, always a good place to start.  First, categories:

1. Things I need to do at home for while I am gone
2. Things I need to do for the trip
3. Things I need to do for "traveling" (what goes in the pack)
4. Things I need to leave at home.

So, in the first category, I am putting:

1. Finishing my living trust and will
2. Setting up automatic bill pays
3. Arranging for someone to put my checks in the bank
4. Making sure everything in my room is organized for company to stay there (OMG-there is ninety days worth of work)

Number two includes:

1. Buying the train passes
2. Checking on the ferry tickets
3. Making reservations for Venice/Padova
4. Reservations for sleepers
1. Amsterdam to Munich
2. Munich to Vienna
3. Vienna to Venice
5. Reservations for Cinque Terre (if we can decide when)

Third, the pack:

1. Completely pack the pack. 
2. See what I forgot to pack
3. Unpack the pack and pack it again
4. Ok, what did I forget?
5. Maybe spend the last five weeks wearing only what I am taking?  That could get really boring, especially when it will end up ten weeks in the same clothes.

Fourth, what I want to leave behind.  This is really the hardest one, and the one I have to commit to the most.  I don't want to take:

1. 30#
2. Well, at least 20# (let's get real)
3. I want to leave behind my cellulite, belly fat, bat wings, double chin, grey hair, and wrinkles. 
4. Too bad I also have to leave behind fantasy

I do want to be in shape for the walking, and we have talked about this so much.  I have started walking many times, and last about four days before life gets in my way.  I have to stop letting it happen.

I also have done a pretty good job of losing weight, but I have also done an even better job of putting it back on.  The way it stands now, I have about broken even, maybe a pound or two less. 

So, number four, with all of its self-inflicted challenges, barriers,  procrastinations and excuses will be the hardest to deal with, and that is the main reason I decided to blog this.  I want a public (well, as public as a blog that nobody reads) forum in which to air my dirty laundry, and hopefully to also record my successes...and maybe, just maybe get some encouragement.

Allora, as the American song "Tomorrow" says "Tomorrow...you're only a day away", or maybe more accurately as the Italian song "Domani" says, "domani è già qui" (tomorrow is already here).

Dee

Cento Giorni

ONE HUNDRED DAYS TO GO!  And more than a hundred things to do.  I guess that is only one thing per day :)

Dee

Surviving an OMG! Moment

My fun summer project this year (aside from planning the trip of a lifetime) was to begin to ride JR, my cart pony.  I thought it would be fun to get back in the saddle again since hauling the cart in and out has become a bit of a physical chore.  I sent him to a trainer for a week to get him started, hopped on a couple times myself and all was going pretty good.  I did come off once or twice (actually twice) but no harm, no foul.  He's not very tall and it's not very far down.  Both instances were preventable and not simply vicious on his part.

2 weeks ago I went over to my friend Patty's place to trail ride with her. It would be our 3rd trail ride - the first two being simply fantastic.  While mounting from a plastic mounting block, I inadvertently moved my leg into JR's right side and like a good boy he moved away from it - which is what he is supposed to do.  However, it caused him to step into the plastic mounting block and tangle his rear leg(s) in the block.  Short story.....a rodeo ensued and I ended up on the ground rather hard.  I knew it was different from my other falls immediately and moved slowly.  I decided the prudent thing to do was to have Patty take me to the ER and get my hip checked which we did.  All was well, so I hobbled home, and got on ibuprophen, ice and vicodin.   A week later I went to the chiropractor who straightened out the problem with the right leg, but two days later the left began to H U R T. Since then...about 6 days now, I have been unable to use it without serious pain and resorting to my cane to get around.  Went back in to the ER again Sunday, re-xrayed and still nothing shows broken. BUT I'm telling you, this H U R T S!

Bottom line is that my summer now will consist completely of working to get back into condition to walk Scotland and Italy without pain and/or a cane.  No riding for me this summer :(.   I'm very sad about that, but priorities are priorities.  Oh, and just for the record let me tell you that 60 year old plus-sized ladies don't fall worth s**t.  Wish me well.

Becky

"Would You Like A Little Cheese With Your Whine?"

Ok, so I am going to bring it up one last annoying time, and then I won't mention it anymore.  Here it is, the timeline from one of the all time great poor planners:



Zucchero's last concert tour, 4 years ago
Zucchero's current tour, started early May 9, 2011.
Zucchero's Italy leg of the tour... now
Europe and Italy until August 4, 2011.

Our trip September 29 to November 2.  Bad timing number 1.

Nomadi's tour season: November 2010-September 11, 2011 (Yes, an entire year.  37 official performances so far in the past 6 months.  There are at least another 31 scheduled for the summer. And this is their way cut back schedule from past years because of the heart attack of their lead singer.)
Did you notice that there are no concerts in October...Yup, good timing number two.

Nomadi's cruise to Spain for fans:  October 26 to November 4, 2011.  Number 3.       

        

OK, now Zucchero's schedule for October?  North America.  Yup, number four.

Now for what set off this rant?  Well, Zucchero's birthday is September 25. I just found out he has added two big concerts at the Arena in Verona for the 25th and 26th, and is inviting a lot of his friends to come perform, including...  Yup, you've got it...  Number five. 

Così vicino, ma così lontano... (so close, but so far away)

I can only hope for Becky's sake I can do better with the train schedules or we may never even get to Italy.

생일 축하, 루크

Well, I hope that says "Happy Birthday, Luke" in Korean.  If not, I sincerely apologize to anyone I may have offended, and I would love to know what I actually said...and shame shame, GoogleTranslate!

In any case, this is (as they say these days) a shout out to my nephew (and incidently, Becky's son), Luke who is serving in the US Army in Korea, and whose birthday is tomorrow (but today now for him there-ok, so this is a compromise).





(Gee, Becky...even our children travel more than we do.  Now granted, where they go isn't exactly where we would chose to go, but hey, they are traveling, aren't they?)

So, in any case, I hope you have (or ARE having) a really happy day {I am soooooo confused}.  Maybe if you get some time off in October, you could pop on over to Italy and say hi...or maybe next deployment, try for Germany and we will force ourselves to go there to see you.

Buon Compleanno, il mio nipote.  Abbi cura di te [see previous post :)]

Zia Dee