Light at the end of the tunnel

Yay! Two papers done - one to go! My classes are officially over next week and then I get a 2 week break before summer session. I am looking forward to this - I have so many "non school" "just for fun" books to read and a heck of a lot of house cleaning to do!

I found out this week that I can finish my Masters program and walk in May of 2008. Bad news is that it will take me another year and a half to finish my reading specialist certification - only because certain classes are only offered during certain semesters - boo!!!

OK, I think I may try to get a head start on my last paper. I hope everyone had a good weekend!

One more day until May!

I Heart Daddy

I don't even need to caption these - they speak for themselves!

Yeah, I got Sofia the I Heart Daddy onsie - and look how well she wears it. She has her daddy wrapped around her little finger - I can't wait until she gets older to see what he will let her get away with!

Bono Birthday Update

Following on the coattails of last night's "Idol Gives Back" - you know you watched it - don't deny - just an update for those of you keeping track - the photo auction for this year's Build a Well For Bono's B-day raised over $7,700.00!!!! A huge thanks to P.R. for making this all happen - there is a huge amount of coordination and planning involved and all of us the the AWF totally appreciate your efforts.

For those of you who do not know about the African Well Fund and what we do here is a snippet of the documentary we are putting together from our board member's visit last summer. The wells in this video were built with funds from our first 2 Build a Well for Bono's B-day fundraisers. Like Bono said last night - everyone of us can make a difference in someone else's life - this video is proof of that!

Update

OK, as of 10:30 this morning the thong was still there and NO ONE had mentioned it.

Then my mom called and when I got off the phone it was GONE! No one (meaning my other co-worker) knows where it went to...hopefully the person at the reception desk got tired of looking at it and threw it away...hopefully.

OK, now that the thong is gone I can go to lunch. All this thong intrigue has made me hungry!

Early morning nastiness

I come into work this morning and there is a black cotton thong sitting on the reception desk. I look at it thinking that I must be hallucinating - there is no way that there is a thong on the reception desk. But alas, it is no hallucination. It really is there. I call over my co-worker to discuss this disturbing situation. We also notice old promotional t-shirts and point of sale items near the thong. We remembered that yesterday afternoon our boss was cleaning out his office. We decided that the thong must have been in his office.

Now, if I were cleaning out my office, and found a piece of underwear, I would throw it away, bury it down deep in my trash can so that no one would find it. Not my boss. Apparently, he felt that one of us in the office might "want" the thong and so displayed it on the reception desk along with the other promotional items he found while cleaning.

So my other co-worker comes in, the one who actually sits at the reception desk, and doesn't even notice the thong. In fact it is still sitting out there on his desk. I have officially started a "thong watch" to see how long it takes before someone makes it go away.

I will keep you posted.

Lazy Sundae

Ok, so I will admit to being a bit buzzed as I write this. Dan and I spent a lazy Sunday doing a little bit of this and that which culminated in a bar-b-que at Chris and Suz's house where I helped Suz polish off a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Now here I am.

Sofia came over on Friday with a present for her Zia Paola - an enormous cookie from Mrs. Fields which read "Will you be my godmother?" in yummy vanilla frosting. I took a picture but I am not sure I have the strength to find my USB cord to upload the photo. Seriously, it was the cutest thing ever as is she. She is getting bigger and no longer looks like a newborn but a full fledge baby. Here are some pics Lisa sent me this morning:

Sofia stretching

Come here I gotta tell you something

Weeeeeee!

Seriously, she is so freaking cute! I got to change her diaper on Friday and I almost cried - she is still so tiny and amazing!! I cannot believe how beautiful she is!!! And I am not saying this because of the wine...she really is beautiful!!!

OK, off to try and finish (yeah right) some school work before I pass out.

Later.

More Italianness

Well, I guess mother nature read my post about missing the sun because it is freakin' beautiful outside today. So in her honor I post some more pictures from Italia, mainly Teramo, where my family is from.

The view of the Gran Sasso from our house.

My Nonna Linda showing my mom how to make gnocchi the "right way."

The finished product.

The tiny 15th century church where my parents were married.

Dan in front of our house.

The fortess at Civitella del Tronto.

This 11th century fortress was the northernmost Bourborn citadel to surrender to the armies of Vittorio Emmanuele I in 1860. Civitella is only a few miles from Garrano Basso which is where our house is. Garranno is only a few kilometers outside of Teramo - which is a rather large city in Northern Abruzzo - for those of you that are keeping score.

OK, that is enough Italy for today - this weekend I will dig through my pics to see if there are any other post worth pics of Italia.

Godetevi questa bellissima giornata di sole!!! Ciao, ciao!

Sleepy Sofia

Time for more Sofia worship. I have not seen her for a week since she was spending time with her Nonna Lisa and Nonno Nick in Maryland. She has changed so much in just a week! Thanks to Zio Scott for sending me new pictures!



So much cuteness should be illegal!!!

Happy Thursday!

Where is summer?

Ok, so I broke down and went to the tanning salon today. I know, I know, it is bad for me but I have HAD IT with this cold weather. I only went for 4 minutes so as not to burn but I needed to do SOMETHING.

For those of you that live on the East Coast and have forgotten what summer looks like, I post these two pictures. They were taken in Alba Adriatica (provinca di Teramo) in August of 2005.

The view from under my umbrella.

Tan, oh where oh where did you go?

Since the blog is called Italianissima let's talk about Italy for a bit shall we.

Alba Adriatica is a small sea town on the Adriatic Coast in the region of Abruzzo. My family has a little apartment there where as a teenager I was lucky enough to spend every summer. The beach photo is taken on the "spiaggia libera" or "free beach." This just means that you bring your own umbrella as opposed to renting one from the many beach "establishments" that surround the free beaches. When I was a teenager we rented at "Il Calimero." Still to this day, if I am ever there, the owners, Teresa and Riccardo as well as their children Maurizio and Ilenia still let me stay there for free for the day if I want.

My goal is to one day be able to take my future children here as well during the summer. Hopefully when I am a teacher this will be possible. I can take the kids for 5/6 weeks and Dan can meet us for the last few like my parents did with us.

And BTW,while I am not in the habit of posting pictures of myself with such little clothing on, I am doing so because I need a serious kick in the pants to get my diet and exercise routine back on track before Sept. 22. I look good in this picture. Now, not so much.

Stay warm, peeps!

The Circular File

You know you have a crappy job when you go into your bosses office to ask him about an invoice, he pauses, looks around his desk then bends over and pulls a piece of paper out of his trash can and says, "Is this what you are looking for?"

Sigh...only 22 more work days and I am out of here!!!

Bono's Birthday Well Photo Auction

Hey peeps!

For the second year in a row we are having a photo auction in conjunction with the Bono Birthday Well fundraiser. Click here to see all the photos up for auction. We have a pretty amazing selection this year - spanning all tours. Last year we raised over $11,000. This year we are hoping to top that - so check it out and if you see something you like - bid often!!!

Foot Fetish

Yesterday I finally made it to the dry cleaner. I have been carting the same bag of clothes around in the back of my car since Jan so it was a huge deal for me to finally get to the dry cleaner. My dry cleaner is located in a strip mall next to a Hollywood Tan. I was on the phone with my sister-in-law so I decided to stop in front of the dry cleaner to finish my conversation with her before going in.

Out of the Hollywood tan exit two very orangey brown college girls in sweats. I notice that they have slippers on their feet. Ha! I think to myself, remembering all the times, hung over on a Sat or Sun morning when I went to the 7-11 or McDonald's in similar foot wear. These girls walked towards the parking lot, I finished my conversation with Lisa and went into the cleaners.

About 10 minutes later, I am in my car, crossing the intersection at Henderson Road and Rt 202 (a huge intersection) when I see the same girls crossing 202. The had WALKED to Hollywood Tans in their slippers. Now seriously, when did slippers become appropriate foot wear for WALKING more than to and from your car in the parking lot of the 7-11?

These were not indoor/outdoor slippers either - they were fuzzy (see below). The worst part - it had rained too so the ground wasn't what you would call, um, dry.

I was kind of grossed out and even outraged - I mean come on - if you are going to walk OUTSIDE for over a mile on WET ground can you at least find a pair of shoes? Flip flops even? Where are the fashion police when you need them!

OK, I feel better now. Back to my homework. May all your feet be warm and dry tonight!

More Easter pics

I finally got my camera back from my mom. Here are some more pictures from our Easter get together...Ok, they are mostly of Sofia but she is so pretty :-)

At La Locanda with my parents and Uncle. Notice how Sofia is the center of attention - and so tiny!

Here she is after La Locanda - she actually woke up and we snuggled for a while after this pic was taken.

A tiny smile perhaps? I cannot get over how freaking cute she is!!!

OK, enough Sofia worship for today. I leave you with this horrific picture of me after eating too much while out with Chris and Suz on Friday night. I am only including this because JD is feeling my pain and is sacked out next to me in solidarity which in itself is pretty awesome. Feel free to gouge your eyes out.

Blech. I look like hell. I cannot wait to go on my honeymoon! Later peeps!

Buona Pasqua!!!

So much better than the Easter Bunny if I must say so myself! Especially since the Egg on the table is bigger than Princess Sofia herself! Happy Easter everyone!!!

Human Development and Harry Potter

I have spent the majority of today trying to catch up on my school work and it has been exhausting. That is what I get for leaving everything to the last minute.

While filling out my take home exams for Human Development, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was on in the background. I have seen this movie a dozen times so it provided the perfect backdrop for my studies.

During a break where I checked my e-mail I went to Kit's blog. She has a link to this on there so I went ahead and took the "Which Harry Potter Character are You?" test. Lo and behold the results...


Which HP Kid Are You?

My favorite character!!! Neville Longbottom! Very appropriate I think, especially since I have been reading about how humans develop their personalities and characteristics.

OK, off to do more reading - this time about Dyslexia - is the semester over yet?

Nel mezzo del camin di nostra vita...

When Dante Alighieri wrote his epic Divine Comedy there is no way that he could have conceived a circle of hell like the one I have been experiencing this week while I try to train my co-worker to do my job.

How was Dante to know?

Basically, if you ever want to torture someone, have them train an employee who is unfamiliar with basic windows applications to the point of having to write down things like, 'click print button - tool bar on top of page" and "close page by clicking x in red box in corner of page." I am not kidding. So all of the instructions I have written out have to be re-written. I must have told him a million times, "the print button will always be in the tool bar at the top." And yet he still insists on writing it down every time. Seriously, every time. This is what I get for giving more than 2 weeks notice. I was trying to be nice - now I am the one getting screwed.

Sigh...off to the mall to have pizza and some retail therapy.

Splish Splash...

...Sofia takes her first bath! Weeee!!!





According to mom and dad she was an angel about it as well. Do we have a future swimmer in our midst perhaps? Ahhh the future holds so many possibilities for our little angel!

Sweet Dreams

What is sweeter than watching a baby sleep?

Not much.

The Vent is Open

Some of you may know that in February, I told the EBM that I was going to be leaving in May to pursue other adventures in life...aka...watching my then unborn niece when my sister-in-law went back to work. The reasons behind announcing this so early was that the EBM would be able to put out an ad and interview people for my position ASAP, therein allowing time to pick the right candidate and have me train them before I leave.

On Thursday, EBM calls me into his office to tell me that he has decided NOT to replace me but instead, divvy up my work and delegate it to the 3 less fortunate co-workers I am leaving behind. If I had even an ounce of integrity I would have voiced my opinions about what a bad idea delegating more work to your only 3 office staff who are already overworked.

Alas, I have decided to not say a word. In fact, I am seriously looking forward to see what kind of train wreck happens here in the next few months. It is not that I think my co-workers are incompetent - they are far from it. They are very good at what THEY do...the question is, can they be good at doing what I do while still doing what they do. Again, we are not talking brain surgery here, but the position requires flexibility, the ability to multi-task and knowing how to navigate our computer system. The two unfortunates who will get the brunt of my work are not, how shall we say this, the most computer savvy people. Sigh...what a nightmare. These poor people aren't even getting a pay raise...just more work heaped on their plate. It's not like this place has awesome benefits or any perks whatsoever so at the very least you would not mind the extra work.

Anyway, be prepared for some outrageous posts as the next 6 weeks unfold. My money is on co-worker A quitting and co-worker B having a nervous breakdown. Co-worker C will probably be OK since she has been here for years and is used to dealing with the insanity and bad judgement of my employers.

Christmas in April?

First a new baby niece...now a possible new album!!! Is it Christmas? Am I dreaming?

Below is a snippet from Rolling Stone where Edge confirms my boys are working on a new album.

"The guitarist also confirms that U2 are in the midst of recording a new album. "We're working on new songs and getting lost in the music," he says. "I don't think we're going to try and think too much about what we're going to do with it yet, we're just going to do a lot of writing and just see what gives. We're giving ourselves the luxury of just working on the songs. There's some amazing things coming through." He calls the material the group's been working on with producer Rick Rubin "fascinating stuff." When asked whether the band will team up again with longtime collaborators Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, he merely laughs: "You might be surprised how quickly that happens."

Seriously, it doesn't get any better than this...well, ok winning the lottery would REALLY make this the best week ever!

I just met a girl named Sofia...

More pics of my baby niece. She was sleeping or crying so no good pics with her eyes open but I will see her this afternoon so maybe I will get more pictures. She has so much hair - amazing!