Going back on promises...

I am kind of feeling like a politician. I had promised to be a better blogger, and I have not followed through with my promise. I have several drafts of various entries from the past few months to finish up (one about the beloved Befana from January) that I will post in the next few days. For those of you who still come to my blog, thank you for doing so. I will try to be better about giving you something to read.

TIP OF THE DAY


Never try to assemble anything large from IKEA with a 15-month old in your presence. As soon as I regain my sanity, I will elaborate.

Back Again

Yet again I have been a blogger failure. Life just keeps getting on top of me leaving me little time to do much of anything "extra" like blogging.
Here's a little bit of what's been going on recently:
1. Henry is officially walking, or should I say running, and is a master at destroying everything that I have just put in place. Answer to this problem: To save time and a lot of energy, I don't put anything away anymore until he goes to sleep (only to have it all thrown into a frenzy again when he wakes up), and my house is a disaster. But a happy disaster.
2. It has gotten really cold here. We have heating on one side of the house but not on the other. I called the plumber, and he said "maybe Tuesday. Call me after lunch on Monday". That means next Friday at the earliest in Ronciglionese, our town's dialect. Thankfully we have a fireplace on that side of the house and one electric heater.
3. Raoul's been working a lot, and I have so many translations to do that it's crazy.
4. I have spent the last 8 or so weeks feeling "under the weather" because.....I am pregnant! 12 weeks today. So if my life isn't chaotic enough now, it will be in 6 months!
I promise to be a better blogger...

It's a long story

If you are wanting to know why I haven't blogged in such a long time, it's been for many reasons that I won't go over. Anyhow, I am back in blog world and will be blogging again more frequently.

Summer highlights:

1. Henry took his first steps. We celebrated his first birthday. Hard to believe..
2. Henry and I went home to Texas after stopping for a few days in Philadelphia. We had so much fun. It was nice to be back.
3. Raoul traveled by train from Venice to Beijing filming a documentary.

Now here we are almost at the end of September. Where is the time going?

Lago di Vico


This is Lago di Vico (Vico Lake). It's about 5 minutes from where I live.

The best restaurant

This place is yummy. I love sitting outside to eat, and with the great food and view of the lake...well, it just doesn't get much better.

Lago Man

This man is ALWAYS at the lake. I love his approach to life, as well as his year-round tan.

My BIG Little Boy





Henry turned 9-months old yesterday...(Deep sigh). Here is a little about my little man:

1. He LOVES the dishwasher. When he hears me open it, he'll come crawling at 90 mph to be apart of emptying it or loading it.
2. He LOVES animals. Our cat, Peppino, is so patient with Henry, who loves to kiss him (unfortunately with his mouth open) and remove wads of his fur. Henry will go for any animal, pigeons included.
3. He has entered into a phase of being scared of things. He does not like people with sunglasses. He got scared yesterday of a picture of Saint Padre Pio that our vegetable grocer had on her wall. He does not like the vacuum cleaner and has begun to be scared of things that he used to love, including the "yup yup" alien/monster from Sesame Street.

4. He does not like riding in the car. If he is tired he'll sleep, and all's ok. If he's not, it will be a long ride.
5. Still no teeth.
6. Although he is so much better about eating solid foods, you usually have to sing to him for the last half of the meal to get him to eat everything.
7. High-pitched squeaks and squeals make him laugh.
8. He likes to be chased.
9. He has a temper.
10. If you make clicking noises with your tongue, he'll click his right back at you.

I love my little man!

Ronciglione







I would like to introduce blogworld to our town: Ronciglione. It's located about 35 miles north of Rome and 15 miles south of Viterbo. There are approximately 8,000 people who live in Ronciglione. We're five minutes away from the lake, Lago Di Vico, and live on the main street of the historic city center. Because there is quite a lot to this little place, I will write on-going blogs about the different aspects of the town, making this only an introductory blog.

This area is most famous for its production of hazelnuts. In fact, it sells its hazelnuts to the world-famous chocolate manufacturers, Ferrero, famous for Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Nutella. For those of you who don't know Nutella, it's what I would call Italian peanut butter, except that it's a chocolate-hazelnut spread. You eat it on bread (no jelly...it's quite enough on its own). When I first tried Nutella, I liked it, but I wasn't just like, "Wow! That's the best thing I've ever eaten." But there is something strange about Nutella: once you start eating it, it's difficult to stop, and you don't know why exactly. Nutella is available in America, and I recommend buying a jar and trying it out. Spread it on a fresh baguette. Yummy.

Telecom Italia and the Other On-Going Telecommunication Nightmares

When my time has not been spent chasing Henry or working, it has been spent on the phone to this number, 187, customer service for Telecom Italia. Our phone company battles have quite a long history.
After Raoul and I first married, we decided that it was time to get Internet at home so that I could easily stay in touch with friends and family back in the U.S. In-home Internet had just become quite the thing here, and new telecommunications companies were coming up in droves to compete with the former monopoly of Telecom Italia. Raoul was quite happy to veer away from the Telecom giant, and we decided to try out a new company, Fastweb. Prices were quite steep at the time, but we happily signed at contract for 85 Euros (about $100) a month for free local calls and constant Internet access. After about a month, we received our modem, and we were happy. The first bills arrived and were in agreement with what we expected; however, they were not sending us a list of our charges, and we politely asked that they do so in the future. Shortly after, bills began arriving with hideous sums. 685 Euros (around $900), 435 Euros ($550), for two months of service and a few phone calls. We kept calling customer service and asking for them to send a list of the charges, and they asked us to send them, in writing, our request for the lists via registered mail. We did just that. We said we would not pay until we received the lists. We canceled our phone service with them, and 4 years later, we are still waiting. Every once in a while we get a phone call from a Fastweb lawyer saying we need to pay these fees. Our response: SEND US THE ITEMIZED LIST OF CHARGES, AND THEN WE WILL PAY.
Feeling discouraged with the little men, we decided to return to the big guys at Telecom Italia. Hence began my relationship with the operators at the number, 187. Our phone service was quickly activated, and a technician came out within two weeks of making the request to set up the Internet line. All we had to do was wait for the Telecom modem...and we waited about 7 months. Now, one would think that to make you wait 7 months for a modem that it would be some kind of special device, requiring a technician to install it with some really fancy tools. No. One evening right before supper, the doorbell rings, and it is a courier with a package. Inside, there is the modem with simple instructions for installing it yourself. When we began to start complaining about the long wait, he said "I don't work for Telecom Italia." I never really understood why we had to wait 7 months for a package to be sent from Milan to Rome...
Up until last July, everything worked very well with Telecom. Itemized bills came with the prices we expected; both phone and Internet worked well. Then I call 187 to say that we are moving. I would like the same phone and Internet service but in the new house. A simple request, I believe. All bills should be sent to the new address. They give me a new phone number because we are moving to a different city. I tell them that I want to keep the modem that I have because I don't want to wait 7 months for a new one. They say no problem. Simple. Technicians will be sent out to set up the phone and Internet lines. Great.
We get into the new house. The technicians came within a week. I even got a confirmation message of the appointment on my cell phone. "Wow!" I think. "Telecom has really got it together!" They came and said everything was fine, and that my new phone number would be activated by the end of the day. The end of the day came, and the phone line was dead. I call 187, listen to the music from "Austin Powers", and the operator tells me that there is some complication and that the next date the technicians can come is October 6th. That was the first week of August. When I asked why there was a problem and why it would take 2 months for them to come out they told me that they couldn't tell me. Hmmmm.....
October 4, 2006: My cell phone rings at 8:00 a.m. It's the Telecom technicians wanting to know if they can come. Wow! A whole two days early after waiting two months! Thank you, Telecom Italia! They came, and before leaving they said that the phone was activated and working. Internet? "Oh, you wanted Internet, too? You'll need to call 187 and set up another appointment." I was upset about that but so happy to have a working phone line! After dinner, the phone rings. "Maria?" "No, you must have the wrong number." "Sorry." The phone rings again. "Maria?" "No, Sir, this is the same number as you dialed before." "Sorry again." "No problem." The phone rings a third time, and I tell Raoul to answer and explain. He does so, and within another 10 seconds the phone rings yet again. "Is this 076162---?" Turns out our technician friends have hooked us up to the wrong line, taking away the phone line of our neighbor downstairs. Great. I call 187.
October 5, 2006: Technicians come back. The neighbor gets her phone line back, and we get ours, too. I ask about Internet. The line is set up, but we just have to wait for activation. "How long will it be?" "Call 187".
October 6th until beginning of November: I call 187 every day. Finally I get a phone call from somebody who doesn't work for Telecom Italia but is hired to handle their complaints. The day after, I had Internet. Don't know what he did, but I hit automatic redial to call and thank him. He seemd a little scared by the fact that somebody called to do so.
So now you would think that all would be fine. This post has gone on long enough.
Two weeks ago I picked up the phone to make a call, and there was a message saying that I could only call, you guessed it, 187. Actually, I had been calling them every three weeks because, since we have been in the new house, we have never once received a phone bill. There were "administrative problems", and they assured me that one would arrive shortly. Nothing. I called 187 again. They said that I had an overdue payment, and I responded by saying that I couldn't know this because I don't get their bills. They blamed it on another department, and I had to call back 187 and then dial 1. This department blamed it on the department that I had just spoken to. I said that I really didn't care whose fault it was and that I just wanted my bill with the itemized list of charges. From then on, every two months a man calls me, saying he's from Telecom Italia, and tells me that I need to pay X amount of money. I go to a place where they sell lottery tickets, give my phone number, and pay the amount that they tell me to pay. I keep telling him that I want my bills but to no avail. He called me three weeks ago and told me to pay, and I did so. Then a week later I had no phone line. Internet, yes. But no phone. When I called 187 they said that I had an outstanding payment from the beginning of 2007. I told them about the fact that I never received bills, of the Telecom man who calls me every once in a while (who had just called me but not said anything about this other payment), etc. They told me to go to the lottery shop and pay. I tried. But when I gave them my phone number and the amount I needed to pay there was a message saying that either the amount was incorrect or that the amount had been paid. I called 187 from my cell phone. The amount was correct. I decided to try another lotto shop. Same thing. And then I tried every lotto shop in the vicinity of St. Peters Cathedral in Rome. I called 187, and I had it out with them then and there, right in the middle of the lottery shop, the last one possible. I lost my cool. "I want to GIVE you money, not take away money from you, GIVE. You won't even make it easy for me to do that. I have always paid, and mind you, this is based on trusting the amount that you say I need to pay is correct because you never send me ANY bills. Please just let me GIVE you the money so that I can have my phone line back." By then, Henry had woken up in his stroller and started fussing, which helped my case because my phone line got turned back on several days later. BUT, I am still waiting for a bill....

So...

I haven't blogged in a few days for quite a good reason: Henry started crawling and not slowly. Then he started pulling up to standing and falling a lot (we don't have carpeted floors, unfortunately). Now he's bear walking. So, apart from the fact that it also seems to be translation season, and I have been working more than ever, I am constantly chasing after my little baby gorilla. Raoul was gone all of this week so I have been alone in my chasing. Henry desperately missed his dad, and when I held the phone up to Henry to talk to Raoul, he looked very disconcerted, as if Raoul had been eaten by the telephone. He cried and cried. I think that I will have to buy a toy phone this week and work on this.

The good news of the week is that our little town got a new grocery store! Wow! It has a real parking lot! And it sells French's mustard!

I started another blog recently, nursingpoetry.blogspot.com, of the random thoughts that I have when I feed my baby, which I can't do anymore in front of the TV or while reading a book because he gets distracted. I promise that these thoughts are not brought about by any drug, just the good ol' hormone, prolactin.

Henry's Hair
Since we had all of my husband's family over at Easter, I decided to try to make Henry's hair calmer than usual. This was the result.

Teething

My six-month old son, Henry, recently entered into the lovely phase of teething. I was searching for some information on the subject and came across this picture. Need I say more?

Blogs and Blackberries

The first time I heard about a blog was about two years ago. It was 6:25 a.m., and I was on the 31 bus going across town to work. The nice thing about taking public transportation at the same time and place every day is that you can meet people. My new friend on the 31 was a man in his late 50's who worked for the government in the workers' compensation department. Our daily conversations varied from family life to how it should be required to have a license to push a shopping cart around our local supermarket. Sometimes we spoke for five minutes or less, sometimes for the entire hour of our bus journey.

One morning, he hopped onto the bus with a folded newspaper in hand. The expression on his face showed he was ready to talk and that he had been preparing for our morning discussion. "You're American so you have obviously heard of blog," he said, putting emphasis on the 'o' in the word 'blog', making it rhyme with 'vogue'. Long 'o' or short 'o', I couldn't make out what on earth he was talking about. "How is it spelled?" I asked. He then unfolded the newspaper and put it on my lap. There it was, a picture of a man in a business suit in front of a computer "blogging". I don't think it would have been much easier to understand if the newspaper had been in English...I just couldn't get it. Everybody in America was blogging according to the article. I felt that, as an American citizen abroad, I had been left out of some sort of national secret. When I got home from work that afternoon, I called my sister. Honestly, I wasn't sure if 'blog' rhymed with 'dog' or 'vogue' so I pronounced it both ways under my breath. She went on to tell me that my cousins and a good majority of our mutual friends had blogs, and I was feeling more left out than ever.

Take another example, the Blackberry. To me, 'blackberry' was just a fruit until I began watching satellite TV where all of these American stars talked about their "Blackberries". I understood that it wasn't the same blackberry that I was thinking of but some sort of expensive electrical device that seemingly does everything. I then found out that Blackberries aren't only reserved for the famous people, but I, too, knew relatively normal people with Blackberries.

When I went back to the States just a few months ago, I was talking to my friend trying to arrange a time and place to meet up. We were exchanging cell phone numbers, and she told me to tell her my phone number again because she couldn't read her "chicken scratch". For several brief moments, I forgot the idiomatic expression about bad handwriting and thought that some new device similar to the Blackberry called "Chicken Scratch" had been created (Note: if anyone reading this decides to create such a device by that name, please kindly remember the person who gave you the idea).

You may be reading this and thinking that I am very dumb. I am the first to admit that I am NOT Einstein, but, to my credit, the technological world is rapidly expanding, not giving me much time to catch up on my knowledge. In addition, I live in a town where shops close 3 hours for lunch and where there is still a majority of an entire generation of people who have never eaten in a McDonalds. Granted, children here tote around their Gameboys, too, and computers are a part of the daily lives of many, but as for all of the little extras, they are a little slower at making it across the Atlantic. And although I sometimes feel a little bit out of loop of my fellow countrymen, sometimes not knowing about certain things makes our lives a little less complicated...and to me that can be a good thing.