Day 2 in Locarno

Here we are on a little walk. Pietro's parents have an apartment that is a 10 minute (or less) walk to the lake. The area around the lake is very pretty, if a little touristy. There is no shortage of Swiss German tourists.

We decided not to bring a stroller, instead we had my Ergo Baby. It is very comfortable. Now that Amedeo is about 30 lbs, it is still comfortable, but it makes you very tired if you're out all day. Note my sunglasses. They're on my face, right?!?



Well, I managed to drop them in the lake. Grrr. I asked this swan if he would mind looking for them, but he didn't seem to speak Italian or English.



As you can see from our clothes, the weather was not super warm. There was still a bit of snow on the mountain tops. In this view, you can see Vira Gamborogno across the lake, the little town where Pietro's mom grew up. Her sister and brother still live over there.



Here you can see more of the snow. There are usually a number of boats out on the water. Tomorrow, I'll show you the boat that we rode to see the Isole di Brisago, an arboretum on an island.

Amedeo enjoyed throwing rocks into the lake. Who doesn't?


Yup, tomorrow there will be more...we took 800 pictures.

Nothing Like Coming Home

I'm going to interrupt our little journey in Switzerland with a short tale so I don't forget. The second day that we were home, Pietro and Amedeo went out in the backyard to play. Pietro came in to tell me that he found two snakes tangled in our fence near the garage. We have a plastic mesh attached to the top of our fence to keep the cats inside and safe. These dumb snakes squeezed themselves into the holes until they got stuck. I went out to investigate. The first thing I noticed was the stench. If you have never smelled decomposing body, you won't have any trouble recognizing it for the first time, believe me! Ew.

Ok...so the snakes are dead. We'll deal with it later. I made lunch, put Amedeo down for his nap. Pietro and I sat down to drink coffee. Remembering the smell, I told Pietro that we needed to take the snakes down ASAP. He agreed and headed outside. A few minutes later, he came back in with the news: only one of the snakes was dead. He informed me that it was a very much alive nonvenomous black rat snake.

I felt pretty sorry for the snake since he had to sit there while his snake-friend kicked the bucket right next to him. I trotted outside with some scissors. My plan was to cut the fence down with the snake still twisted in it, then I could snip around until he was free. The part where I cut him down worked well. He landed in the bucket just fine. The scissors wound up being too dull and thick to clip the tightly bound mesh. I had to use my good embroidery scissors with a sharp point. Pietro pinned our guy down with a stick as I snipped away. I had difficulty seeing exactly what I was doing, so Pietro started snipping instead.

The more netting we cut off our snake, the better he felt. He started thrashing around, flashing his big mouth at us. It was hot outside and both of us were sweating. Pietro finally got the last bit of fence off of him when the snake popped out of the bucket and sat on the grass. He kept a close eye on us, following every move we made. I wanted to move him away from the house and down into the woods. I got a broom and swept him towards the overturned bucket. Pietro carried the bucket down the slope using the broom to keep the snake inside.

I'd say it took about an hour to rescue the dumb snake. I had to wonder if I was messing with Darwin's survival of the fittest.

Next...more pictures from our trip!

Switzerland!

We came back on Tuesday night from a 15 day trip to Switzerland. Pietro's hometown is in the canton of Ticino. The little town is called Locarno and it is on Lago Maggiore. This lake extends into Italy.

Pietro hasn't visited his family in 3.5 years, so he was tremendously excited to start our journey. We wanted a non-stop flight to Zurich, so we left from Dulles. We expected a bit of waiting. We expected a fair amount of standing in line. It was CHAOS! I have never been to Dulles when it has been so crowded. The security lines were endless. The trip from the check in desk to our terminal was extraordinarily long. Once we got to the gate, they (the idiots at United) told us that we could not sit together because they had overbooked the flight. Ok...a two year old in his own seat surrounded by strangers might be a little amusing. Pietro is a fairly calm person. He doesn't make much fuss over problems. This time, he was a teensy bit more assertive. The lady at the desk asked him to stop yelling, she's see what she could do.

At this point, I wanted to turn around and go back home. I still had a 8.5 hour flight left with a 2 year old. I was able to sit with Amedeo, but Pietro had to sit in the middle seat in front of us. The lady sitting next to Amedeo on the flight asked me if he was going to sleep. I said, "Ummm...I don't know. Probably not. Maybe if you want to sleep you could switch with my husband." She said, "oh, I'm fine." At that point, I gave up on trying to prevent Amedeo from kicking her, or jostling her or squealing. After 5.5 hours of being in her aisle seat, she finally made the switch with Pietro. It was only then that Amedeo was able to settle down and sleep. Only 2 hours of sleep! Ack! It was a stressful flight. I almost asked the flight attendant for a bottle of whiskey and some Ambien.

When we caught the second flight to the airport closer to Pietro's town, we got the news that my suitcase was still at the Dulles airport. Another major bummer. I was resigned to wearing the same clothes for 15 days, my mood bolstered only by large quantities of home made wine from Pietro's dad's cellar.

My conclusion after this: don't fly United. They are incompetent. Don't order the children's meal for your child. They are disgusting. Also, keep a spare pair of panties in your purse when on an international flight. At least you'll have them when your suitcase doesn't arrive.

On the very very bright side, Amedeo recognized Nonno Romi instantly! He raced over to him in the airport and hugged him. They were instant pals. Or at least Amedeo recognized that Nonno was willing to follow certain orders such as, "Nonno, Come here!" "Nonno viene qui!!!"


Amedeo is thinking, "I have Nonno right where I want him!!! Playing with me!"

Pietro was delighted to be back at home, eating Nonna Annita's cooking. Cheese, salami, pasta, soup, salad, roasts....etc etc...and of course, oodles of wine and buckets of coffee.


Nonno and Amedeo share a love of music. Shown here are the two virtuosos playing a duet on the harmonica.

And, of course, Amedeo was able to find a playmate any time, any place. There was always a willing person available! "Come here, Nonna!"

Next, a brief discussion of What We Found When We Came Home, followed by a continued rehashing of the trip.

Butt, it was a nice weekend...

Nice weather calls for some blatant nudity! Naked pool time!


Naked playtime...I guess the co-ed naked volleyball comes later...


Pietro spent most of his weekend hauling mulch around the yard. Between the two of us, we have used about half of the 10 cubic yards that we ordered last weekend. It is depressing when I think of having 5 yards to go...

Here are the boys after happy hour at grandma and grandpa's house.


Here are the chefs in person...yummy dinner!

Lately, Amedeo has been asking for a 'big, sharp knife.' What do I say, "Well, yes, o, son of mine, here you go...the biggest and sharpest that I've got." No no...we can't have that. Grandma found a toddler knife...hee hee...it is pretty funny.


And now for something which made us all laugh hysterically...we were talking about my sis in law, Debbie, and how to get her out of jury duty. I said, (loudly) "Just tell everyone that you're a racist!" Amedeo kept repeating all night long, "I'm a racist. I'm a racist." Oh no. I really hope he forgets that particular phrase...this could be really bad!

Weekend o Fun

This weekend, we had a busy time. Amedeo and Pietro spent as much time outside as possible. Here is one of the rare moments of indoor activity. I bought some opaque paints for him to use...this tickled him tremendously! The box has 6 colors. I put some of each on his palette. The paintings near the end were mostly brown but enthusiastic.




We have a raccoon living in our oak tree in the backyard. We aren't sure whether this is his/her permanent residence yet. Pietro spotted him way up in the tree, thinking it was one of our cats....


But, no...because here he was...enjoying the sun!


Our bathroom is nearly done. I have taken several baths and many showers in it. I declare it to be excellent. I will give it another star when we can replace our hot water heater. The tub is so deep that I can't fill it up to the top before the hot water runs cold.

Pietro did all the tiling work. You did a great job, honey! Our plumber remarked that Pietro's work was beautiful and he could start a side business as a tile man. I suppose if he starts losing grants, he'll think about it!
Here is the tub with a bunch of clutter around. We need to find a soap dish and some kind of thing to put the shampoo in. Once we hang the mirror and towel bars, it will finally be done!

Next weekend is our 5th wedding anniversary. Since I have an ASG meeting and we have a birthday party that night, we went out for our childless dinner last night. Grandma and grampa picked up Amedeo at our house. We went to Victoria's Gastro Pub. It was an enjoyable adult dinner. Thanks grandparents!

Easter 2010

Happy Easter, everyone! This picture sums up how it went with Amedeo that day. He was a bunch. All day. He was a hooligan in church and didn't take a nap. I am never giving him chocolate for breakfast ever again. On the other hand, we had a nice dinner with my parents at their house.


Our little tulips are coming up. Amedeo thought he'd molest them a little bit before the deer ate all of them.


We changed him out of his Easter clothes to do an egg hunt. His powers of observation are excellent...they just aren't attuned to eggs. We had to point out every single one.



Once he discovered that the eggs contained yummy things, he wanted MORE EGGS! Grandma surreptitiously hid some of the ones he just found. Good work everyone!


It was a not very relaxing day, but I am grateful that I could spend it with my lovely family.

Egg Dying

I love Easter and Springtime. One of my favorite presents for Easter one year was a bike...a big pink one. Usually we got small things...candy, little toys...but one year I was surprised with a bike. Everything is greening up. I am ready to do a little work outside, but I'm not ready for the mosquitoes. I have a feeling that it will be a bad year since we had so much rain and snow.


Grandma is a good at crayoning!



Pietro is giving us the standard 'Tommasina' face. Whenever you ask his relatives a question that they have to think about a little bit, they'll pull a face like this. I think it's hilarious...and I wonder if Amedeo will do it too.


It is good to have seasoned egg dyers like grandpa around for this...
We managed to get a rainbow selection of eggs this year....I forgot to do an ugly egg. Usually I make at least one brown or puke colored egg. Next year, I guess!


Finally, Amedeo wears the sunglasses. I have been pleading with him to wear some. He picked them up one day and struck a pose. He has been more insistant that his name is Nemo. We'll call him..."Amedeo, come over here." He'll say, "NO! Nemo!" I think it is a cute nickname, but most people associate him with the fish. He has never seen the movie. Ah well.


So, we'll be spending the next few days eating egg salad sandwiches and staring at the yard wondering where to start.