recent events

Danny played in the regional youth basketball tournament last Saturday. He was so thrilled to have been chosen to play, only half of his class group was allowed to participate. And they won four games out of four! They even got a real plastic medal for their efforts! It was a big experience for him. He is also loving his flute lessons. He actually plays a recorder - they call it "straight flute" in Italian.

Our local pro basketball team made it to the playoff finals and have won the first two games. They have to win three out of five games to win the championship. Forza Virtus!

Gabri was invited to his friend Lara's house this afternoon. They sit together at school (first grade). Lara apparently has a crush on Gabri. She told him that he was a "giant Oro-ciok" - which is her favourite kind of chocolate covered cookie. That really cracked me up! I mean, that has to be a BIG compliment coming from a 6-year old! Her mother tells me that the date for Lara's birthday party depends on Gabri's availability . . . she wanted to know when we were leaving for the States so she could plan the party!!! She suggested either the 10th or 14th of June and I said that she had better make it the 14th (hey, that's MY birthday, now that I think of it!) because we will celebrate Danny's birthday on the 10th! Gabri says he likes Lara, but he doesn't LOVE her. They are very cute . . .

We are bogged down in house details . . . we spent 3 and a half hours last Saturday choosing and ordering tiles for our kitchen and bathrooms. We actually only finished working out the kitchen and a bathroom and a half in that time. This Saturday will be wasted on finishing the other bathroom and a half. Then maybe we will change the kitchen completely, so all that work will get thrown out of the window. I do not have patience with this kind of thing. Yes, I want my house to be nice . . . but the details drive me crazy! I think it's a good thing that I am going away this summer. Poor Francesco, left to deal with it all, but at least he won't also have to deal with me on the verge of a nervous breakdown!

Which reminds me, Francesco and I went out to the movies Monday night and saw "Volver" by Almodovar (who also made the movie "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown"). I enjoyed it very much. No car chases, no explosions, very nice. Sunday night I went out with my friend, Svetlana, to see "The Da Vinci Code," which I did NOT enjoy. I did NOT enjoy the book either, I thought the writing was abominable!!!, but I hoped that they would have improved it in the movie version. Wrong . . . it was identical to the book, but with less attention paid to the theories (which were the only interesting part of the book, IMHO). Too many murders, car chases, albinos jumping out from stage right . . . bleh.