Hi Everybody! I was hoping to write every week but I’ve discovered we don’t have an action-packed life after all - especially here in foggy Rovigo. The winter weather here is either foggy or rainy, but mostly rainy of late. We were told about the fog many times before we moved here and we’ve experienced it several times already. Today, however, was the worst we’ve seen. The visibility was less than 100 yards from morning to night. It was like a Dracula movie all day long – never saw the sun. We bumped into one of my technicians at the “mall” and he said it would be this way until March. I guess that’s why, when they don’t have very many modern conveniences here, they do have tanning salons. Go figure. And I haven’t seen a single tanned person yet. Speaking of the “mall”, we had our first McDonald’s hamburgers today. The burger was good but the French fries were just so-so. People in Italy are small, very small. Italian women are as skinny as French women. But if you want to find large ones---go to McDonalds. Funny how that works.

To update you on what we’ve been doing, we went to Venice last weekend for something other than Italian food. I may have mentioned it before but there is a Greek/Arab restaurant we love that serves tsatziki sauce, hummus, curry dishes….everything that’s not Italian. It’s our food-port-in-the-storm. If it weren’t for ruining our workout efforts, we’d probably go twice a week. Sad to say but Venice flooded the next day. I think they recover quickly, at least I hope so.

Milan was next on our travel itinerary. Milan is where the main office of Adriatic LNG is located and I had a meeting there on Thursday. (www.adriaticlng.it if you want to see why we’re here. Look at the photo gallery and you’ll see nice pictures of Spain and Gibraltar.) We took the train Wednesday afternoon for a relaxing 3 hour train ride. I tell ya’, that is the best way to travel. Texas should have passenger trains. I’d be more apt to visit Dallas, Fort Worth, or San Antonio more often if I could just hop on a train. Anyway, we went to dinner that night with 5 other Americans and 1 person from New Zealand who is also an American citizen. It was ‘America night’ at this restaurant and on ‘America night’ they serve hamburgers & french fries and show an English-speaking film. We didn’t watch the movie but thoroughly enjoyed the food. The next day Artichoke Heart hung out with Gary (married to my co-worker Debbie). It was Artichoke’s first trip to Milan so Gary showed him the Duomo, the cathedral in Milan which is very beautiful on the outside, maybe one of the prettiest we’ve seen on the outside but nothing close to the cathedrals in Spain on the inside (or maybe that’s my love for Spain coming out again.) He also saw a huge castle complete with a mote. I didn’t like Milan before we moved to Italy because it’s a big commercial city but after living in Rovigo, Milan is great. It’s the fashion capital of Italy and has tons of shopping and restaurants – exactly what Rovigo is missing. Word of warning though, it's very expensive.

On Saturday we went to Bologna for the second time. Artichoke, Romeo, Pierre, Jose, and I went for the day. Bologna is only an hour away, like Venice, so it’s a very easy day-trip. It’s a good place to shop. Advertised to have 40 km of porticos so even if it’s raining you can walk the city. It’s also good because I can find Clinique products there. It has your typical piazza (town square) with a church/cathedral. It’s also known as the culinary capital of Italy and we ate lunch – advertised as tavola calda or hot table – the meat was hot but I swear they don’t know how to keep vegetables warm in this country. For all of you who love Italian food, you’re going to be soooo disappointed if you come here. Please keep your expectations low. Back to Bologna though – many interesting things to see in a small area. Two towers that rival the Leaning Tower of Pisa as far as angle is concerned (also a must see, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, that is). A small angel sitting on a Saint's sarcophogus sculpted by Michelangelo at the age of 19. A photo display, individual pictures, of the people killed in the resistance against Mussolini at the end of WWII. And the Anatomical Theater, a room from the 1700’s where medical students observed surgeons dissecting cadavers. Bologna is also home to one of the oldest universities in Europe and is well known for its gay community. Artichoke just reminded me of the Neptune fountain at the entrance of the piazza. Neptune is surrounded by 4 mermaids and guess where the water is coming from – their boobs. Something all the guys seem to appreciate. A cool looking fountain all in all.

We’re still going to the gym regularly and enjoying Antonino and Maurizio. The other day Maurizio asked me how we liked the food here. I said ‘cosi cosi’, which means so-so, I was being generous. I told him I like spicy – picante – food. So he immediately goes to Mamma’s kitchen (the gym is attached to their house) and brings back this jar of pickled peppers stuffed with olives. OMG – muy delicious! Muy picante! So the next day I told him how much we enjoyed them and he brought us another jar of them along with 2 kinds of jam and 2 other jars of pickled veggies. Such a nice guy, my favorite person here. Artichoke Heart and Antonino are pals, Antonino is a big baseball and New York Yankee fan. That’s almost unheard of here, most Europeans live and die by soccer (which they refer to as football. American football is referred to as American football.) Anyway, Artichoke and Antonino talk smack about baseball the entire time we’re at the gym. Mainly because that’s the only English Antonino knows and Lord knows Artichoke doesn’t know much Italian. He does have an uncanny knack of understanding Italian though.

So December 16 (tomorrow) is my last day of work for the year. On the 19th we go to Bratislava, Slovakia to rescue Anastasia, Randu, and Grey Bear, our friends from Spain. They were exiled to the Eastern Bloc after failing to teach Aldo to speak English and we’re spending a few days there before bringing them back with us to Rovigo for Christmas. We’ll get to see Vienna and maybe Prague and/or Budapest while we’re there. I’ve been told Prague is the prettiest city in the world – hope that applies in the dead of winter. Then on the 27th we’re off to North Carolina, USA!!!!!! Home of Walmart, TexMex food, hair salons where people speak English, the place where stores and restaurants are open all day long, you can eat dinner before 8 p.m., go to the grocery store or drugstore before work, at 2 in the morning, or on your lunch hour if you want, serve more than oil & vinegar for salad dressing, home of Outback, IHOP, Denny’s, HEB, Sam’s, Macy’s, Dillard’s, have it your way no matter where you are, etc, etc, etc. Americans, at a minimum, be thankful that you have a choice in everything you do. That’s what freedom is all about as I’ve learned since moving to Italy. And believe you me, it is not a world-wide luxury, it’s a privilege. But off my soapbox and back to our plans…We’ll spend New Year’s with Miss Ellie and Button, their bipedal attendants and friends Al & Rose, and all those white bears on the Christmas tree. Grey Bear, you would love it, Miss Ellie’s mom decorates her entire house with white bears – hey, maybe you can go with us! Talk it over with your bipedal attendants, Lord knows you need a break from those two, especially her. And anyway, they will be busy in Rovigo with It and Them and learning how to drive a stick shift. For those of you who don’t know Grey Bear, go to http://thegreybear.blogspot.com. You are sure to be educated and entertained. You can also access his blog by looking in the left margin under My Blog List and clicking on the link there.

I probably won’t blog again until 2009 and Artichoke and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We wish we could be with all of our family and friends but it’s difficult to be everywhere at once. We’re grateful that our nephew Ben returned home safely from Afghanistan and nephew John is doing as well as can be expected in Iraq ( I assume this to be the case, Older Brother, a report would be great to have, please keep us informed.) I can’t wait to talk to them in person and learn about their experiences. Christmas should be fun with Coy, Will, & Dante. We wish we could be there to spoil them. We’re looking forward to Kaysie and David’s visit in the spring and wedding in the fall. It looks like we might be here longer than first expected so if anyone wants to plan a trip during the summer, it might be safe to do. If nothing else, Venice and Rome are must-sees and easy to do from Rovigo. Robin, if you and Alyssa want to do Paris, let me know when because we are definitely planning to go and it would be fun to do it with you two. I don’t recommend August because Italy/Europe shuts down in August – even more so than the rest of the year when they’re ‘open’. We’re hoping to be back state-side September/October latest. We definitely don’t want to spend 3 Thanksgivings and Christmases away from home. Please write and let us know how bad the economy is, all we know is what we hear on CNN International – and I never believe half of what I hear on the news. It’s really hard to believe that the US housing crunch has caused a worldwide economic disaster. Dan, how’s the real estate market treating you? Are we the only country that spends money?? People over here say “when the US sneezes, the world catches a cold”. I guess maybe that’s true.

Feliz Navidad!