Vacay 2015--Gotta Go!

Our Mediterranean cruise stopped at a different port almost every day. On Saturday night at 6:00 the ship left the dock in Civitavecchia. When we woke up on Sunday we were in Palermo, Sicily.

Instead of purchasing a shore excursion for this port, we decided we'd just explore the city on our own.  After breakfast we left the ship and navigated a small gauntlet of locals offering taxi services and tours.  We decided to sightsee via a hop-on-hop-off bus, so after looking at a couple of different options we bought tickets and walked a short distance to the bright red bus parked just outside the port area.

It took a while for the bus to fill up and get going, but while we were waiting the guide passed out ear bud headphones that would allow us to plug into the sound system and hear the commentary in one of six different languages.  Unfortunately, when we got going I figured out that the system on the back of the seat in front of me was static-filled.  I could understand enough to get by, though, and enjoyed riding by the historic attractions.  In my area 'old' is considered 250 years, and I had a hard time contemplating the timelessness of the centuries-old things I was seeing.

Building

Tony and I got off at the first shuttle stop, a museum, but when we realized the admission fee was hefty we decided to pass and explore the area on foot.  It didn't take long for us to see the steeple of a church (the Palermo article on Wikipedia lists 17) and we decided to step in and take a look.  There was an older woman sitting on the left side of the entrance with a girl (I'm guessing her grand daughter, about 5 or 6 years old) at her feet.  We smiled at each other as we went in.

The sanctuary was modest, but beautiful.  There were several other people doing the same thing we were, and Tony and I wandered around admiring the building's statues and multiple side chapels. Before long I realized I needed a bathroom break.  I went back to the front door, and asked the woman where I might find one.  All I got in return was a blank stare.  I don't think she spoke any English, and my Italian is limited to just a couple of words.  I tried asking for the 'baño' and got the same result.  The woman must have read into my expression, though, and when she asked "pee pee?" I enthusiastically nodded.  She had the girl guide us to the far recesses of the building, where there were two rooms labeled W.C.   I used the seatless toilet and flushed it with the foot pedal, then washed my hands in the small sink.  When  both Tony and I were done the girl was waiting to guide us back to the church.

As we made our way towards the door the church bells pealed the call to worship, which indicates that Mass will be starting soon.  Tony and I looked at each other, and quickly decided to stay and join in.

church shortly before Mass started

I've been to a couple of non-English services a couple of times over the years.  The order of the Mass is always the same, but there are local differences that are interesting to see.  Not understanding Italian I can't say I got much out of the homily, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the cadence of the priest's beautiful deep voice.

When Mass was over we walked back to the shuttle stop.  We must have just missed a bus, because we had to wait for almost a half hour in the hot, humid sun.  By time the next bus came all we wanted to do is go back to the boat, have lunch, and cool off.

Dinner dessert

Five years ago today: Would You Like A Tomato With That?

Vacay 2015--From Shore To Ship

Our first night in Rome Hubby Tony and I slept for almost 12 hours.  However, since we had crashed so early the night before it was only 8:00 when we rolled out of bed. We dressed quickly, then went downstairs and helped ourselves to an excellent buffet breakfast in the hotel's dining room. After we were filled up and caffeinated, we gathered our things and headed out on another adventure.

We knew a car would pick us up at noon to take us to the cruise ship pier, so we only had a short time to take in as much more of the city as we could. For a little more than two hours we walked up and down streets, getting a little lost and then finding our way again. We stopped at the Spanish Steps, and admired the “Fountain of the Old Boat” at the bottom.  Next we walked down the Via Condotti, gawking at the displays in the high-end designer store windows.

Spanish Steps

When nature called we were too far away from the hotel to go back, so we followed the signs to a familiar place that we knew would have a bathroom available:

The fanciest McDonald's I've ever seen!

All too soon it was time to head back to the hotel to check out and wait for our ride.  The driver showed up right on time and loaded our luggage in the car for the 90 minute ride to the Civitavecchia port.  As we were leaving the city, he took a less-direct way that took us by the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.  Seeing those ancient monuments made me realize I needed to come back to Rome some day.

The cruise check in was uneventful, and before we knew it we were settled in our cabin and ready for what the week would bring.

Five years ago today: Play Ball!

Vacay 2015--When in Rome...

Before we could begin our Mediterranean adventure we had to get there.  We left our house about 9:30 Thursday morning for a flight from St. Louis to Charlotte.  There was a short layover, then we boarded the plane for our nine hour red-eye flight across the Atlantic.  We arrived in Rome about 10:00 Friday morning.

I knew that if I didn't sleep on the plane I'd have real jet lag problems, so after a surprisingly edible airplane dinner, I arranged my memory foam travel pillow around my neck and attempted to catch some winks. It was hard to get comfortable, though, and the voices in my head kept telling me that if didn't go to sleep NOW! I'd be tired and ruin my dream vacation.  I finally tuned them out by listening to the inflight jazz channel.  I probably only got a couple of hours of fitful sleep, but it ended up being enough.

Thanks to our travel agent we had a driver to meet us at the airport.  When we got to the hotel the room wasn't available yet, so we left our suitcases and went out to explore.  First we got a grab-and-go lunch, which we ate while walking to the Metro station.  Our destination was Saint Peter's and the Vatican Museum.

St. Peter's Square

The hotel desk told us that the station was 15 minutes away.  We found it with no trouble, but since the instructions on the automated kiosk were in Italian it was a challenge to figure out how to purchase a ticket.  My 10 Euro bill (the smallest one I had) got rejected, and I wasn't sure what to do.  All of a sudden someone was there to help us.  From his handful of 1 Euro coins he handed me five, deposited three in the machine to pay for two tickets, then smiled and walked away.  He was gone before we realized he'd earned a nice commission for his good deed.

We could have bought tickets for the Vatican Museum online before we left, but since there were too many unknowns (Would our flight get us there on time?  Would we have energy?) we decided to wait until we got there. Our driver suggested we skip the sure-to-be long-line to get in, and find one of the people standing on the sidewalk selling tours for about twice the price of the official entrance fee.  Sure enough, when we walked up to the building there was a line snaking down the sidewalk.  There were also salespeople on the sidewalk on the other side of the street.  We talked to one of them, figured out the price wasn't too much of a gouge, and let him walk us to a nearby storefront to purchase tickets.  He walked us back to the building, where we met the tour group inside the lobby.

The museum was very noisy, so I was glad to find out the tour would be using a wireless transmitter system. Our guide (a middle-aged lady who spoke English with a lovely Italian accent) handed out the transmitters, then led us through the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, stopping often to tell us about what we were seeing.  She collected the receivers before leaving us to explore St. Peter's Basilica on our own.

The afternoon was hot, and there was no air conditioning in most of the buildings. Tony and I had been wearing the same clothes for more than 24 hours. When we left St. Peter's Square we were sweaty, dirty, and tired.  We made it back to the hotel, where we collected our key and headed up to the room.  The first order of business was a shower!  We set our alarm and took a quick power nap, then headed out for dinner. After the best Italian food I've ever had, we came back to the room and collapsed.

The perfect Margherita pizza

Vacay 2015--Let's Go Cruising

I'm back! And (thanks to the power of pre-scheduled posts) you probably didn't even know I was gone.

Almost two weeks ago Hubby Tony and I left for a big-time anniversary trip. We flew to Rome, spent a day there, then boarded a cruise ship for a wonderful week on the Mediterranean Sea.

Our home for the week

We returned home late Saturday night. It took several days for my body to re-adjust to the local time zone, which made it hard to tackle the piles of paper and multitude of e-mails that were waiting for me.  However, this morning I woke up on time (instead of two hours early) and feel like things are getting back to normal. 

I can't wait to share some of our adventures with you.

Five years ago today: A Little Fish In A Big Pond

One Day Of Beauty

I'm not a fan of the current 90 degree, 88 percent humidity weather, but our hardy hibiscus thrives in it.  Each dinner-plate sized bloom only lasts for a day but there are enough buds that the show goes on for weeks.

Five years ago today: New Year, New Job

Accidental Onions

A couple of months ago I opened the lid to the the compost pile and saw some fresh-looking green onion ends laying on top of the coffee grounds and grass clippings. I don't know who tossed them in, but I knew it wasn't me (if I had been doing the cooking I would have thrown them in the stock scrap bag I keep in the freezer).  Back when I tried to re-grow green onion from the stem ends it was in water and I didn't have any luck, but I wondered what would happen if I planted these stubs in the dirt. I used my finger to poke holes in the wet garden bed next to the compost pile, inserted a onion bottom in each one, and tamped the dirt around tightly. When I was done all you could see were two little green stumps poking out of the ground.

 I didn't do anything to those stumps. There has been (more than) enough rain to keep the garden area saturated. Because of their location theonions weren't particularly easy to see, and after a while I kind of forgot about them,  However, a couple of weeks ago I noticed the green tops, which were now long, luxuriant, and very thick. I couldn't wait to see what the bottoms were like!  When I dug them up they looked like this:

The one on the right was like a green onion on steroids, but the one on the left was actually starting to develop a papery onion skin.  I chopped them up, ends and all, and threw them into the fritatta I was making for dinner, where they added a great onion flavor.

Five years ago today: Fat Cat

A Sunday Story

(From a friend....)

There were five houses of religion in a small town:

• The Presbyterian Church
• The Baptist Church
• The Methodist Church
• The Catholic Church
• The Jewish Synagogue

Each church and synagogue was overrun with pesky squirrels.

One day, the Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels. After much prayer and consideration they determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and they shouldn't interfere with God's divine will.

In the Baptist Church, the squirrels had taken up habitation in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a cover on the baptistery and drown the squirrels in it. The squirrels escaped somehow and there were twice as many there the next week

The Methodist Church got together and decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God's creation. So, they humanely trapped the Squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back.

But, the Catholic Church came up with the best and most effective solution. They baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter.

Not much was heard about the Jewish Synagogue, but they took one squirrel and had a short service with him called circumcision and they haven't seen a squirrel on the property since.

Five years ago today: Thirty Years Ago Today...

Distracticat

I was driving down the road the other day when I heard my phone 'ding' to let me know I had a new text. At the next stop light I checked to see who was trying to contact me.  The message turned out to be a snapshot Son Donald took of Pepper the Cat sprawled on the desk in front of the computer monitor. 

He called the photo "Distracticat".

A "Snow Day" In July

In an effort to beat the heat and get my exercise in, this morning I rolled out of bed early to join Hubby Tony on his before-work walk. After a brisk 30 minute tour around the neighborhood we returned home, where Tony showered and left for work. I made and ate breakfast, read the newspaper, then went upstairs to take a well deserved shower.  My phone rang just as I was beginning to wash my hair. When I checked the call log, I discovered I had a missed call from Tony. I finished getting dressed and was just getting ready to return the call when I heard someone that sounded an awful lot like Tony calling out "Hello?" It was him.

He told me that when he pulled into the office parking lot he saw a large group of people milling around outside the main door.  They told him that thanks to some pretty powerful storms that rolled though the area last night the building was without electricity. It wasn't expected to come back on until late afternoon, so after waiting around for about fifteen minutes longer they got word that the office would be closed and everyone had the day off.

It felt like a snow day in the middle of the hottest part of the year.  I had a list of things I was going to do, but those plans changed so I could enjoy a little bit of Tony's freedom.  After some necessary paperwork, computer stuff, and lunch I got ready to go for the pedicure I'd been looking forward to since the weekend.  Tony decided to go with me (his first time ever).

When we walked into the nail salon there were no other customers, and they looked happy to see us.  Tony wasn't having polish put on his nails, so he watched over my shoulder while I picked my color. Even though he didn't get the colored toenails, he said he thoroughly enjoyed the foot soak in the whirlpool bath, the nail and cuticle maintenance, the foot and leg massage, and the hot towel to remove all the crud from his smoothed lower extremities.

On the way home he was already talking about the next time.

OPI Dutch Tulips "A bouquet of blooming pink-red"

Cooking In The Car

How hot is it today?  Right now the temperature is 94 degrees, but when you factor in the humidity the heat index says it feels like 112 degrees.  That's pretty miserable.

Before I left to go to the gym I cut up some fresh, perfectly-white mushrooms to eat after I got done. I left the bag in the closed up car while I was taking a class. When I came out, my mushrooms were halfway to cooked!

As I was eating them I kept thinking they'd taste really good with a nice juicy steak. Probably a good thing I didn't have that hunk of beef, though.  I don't think it would have done as well in the hot car as the mushrooms.

Five years ago today: Age Has Its Privileges