Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

Lucca Good morning, gentle readers! We appear to have a repeating glitch in whatever plans we make--and here I am using the aggregate we of our framily.  Our intentions the night before are always very good.  We'll get up early tomorrow so we can get going, as our home is within driving distance of many beautiful locations in the Tuscan countryside.   Then one of two things tends to happen. 1. A contingent, usually a large contingent, pulls out a game or cards and refills the wine pitcher and the night morphs into the next day and getting up early is not the viable option it appeared to be a couple hours prior. B. A contingent, usually a sizeably smaller contingent, does get up early the next day and convenes on the patio with coffee and a variety of breakfast options (we have cleaned out the local bakery of its wares) and starts talking and the early morphs into oh, let's say close to noon before more people are up and everyone says, I should ta...

Three Days in Germany Don't ask me why, but we always get turned around in the Frankfurt airport.  The first time we were there, we stood in the luggage hall wondering why our German daughter, Claudia, was not standing there to meet us...even after the luggage hall cleared out and we were the only stupid Americans standing there.  Turns out you have to go through the doors to exit the hall. Monday night, we followed the Ausgang signs (I learned that Ausgang is exit for pedestrian traffic, Ausfahrt for motor traffic) and turned ourselves around a couple times, even after talking to the waiting Claudia on the phone who gave us very good directions. We made it out of the airport.  Dumb American tourists.  Which was good because otherwise we would not have experienced three beyond wonderful, love filled days in Germany. I'm not sure I've previously written about our role in the Rotary International Exchange Program.  The short and long of it is we h...

Today we fly from Florence to Frankfurt, where our exchange daughter Claudia will pick us up for a couple days visiting her and her family in Trier, which is near the Luxembourg border.  It's been 2 years since we've seen her and I'm always excited yet saddened to see how much her beautiful daughters have grown!  They speak fluent English as well as German, good for communicating.  The first time they visited us the girls didn't speak English.  I remember a 'conversation' with Eleanor, her younger, who was telling me something quite definitively with a facial expression connoting how frustrated she was with this stupid American woman who didn't understand her.  It's much better now. I promised a photographic tour of where we're staying in Cuscina and that's the substance of this post. Ceiling in the main room.  Dan-o says that architecturally it is called a groined vault ceiling. Breakfast and crossword puzzles are a staple ...

The first full day at the Agriturismo Pinzale in Cuscina found us adjusting to the time change by sleeping until almost noon. We took a walk around the area where we're staying and met a neighbor who celebrated what a beautiful day it was, following early morning thunderstorms that  bellowed though the valley.  Most of the day was spent around the pool; we think the kids spent upwards of 12 hours in the water.  Chicken, pasta and vegetables served us well for dinner.  These photos showed what happened with the gallon of Montipulciano I showed you in the earlier post.  Think it's all gone.  I also think Montipulciano is grown/aged locally so we'll be looking for that.  Tomorrow we head for Trier, Germany, where we will spend a couple days with our precious exchange daughter, Claudia, her husband, Andy and our German granddaughters, Olivia and Eleanor.  More trains, planes and automobiles. Tonight, as we were sitting around the tables outdoors a...

The title is not stolen from Bill and Ted, rather our grandson, Jackson.  When his mom told him that Grandma and Grandpa would be gone for a couple weeks, he replied, "The're on a field trip."  We are on an excellent field trip, indeed. Planes (2), Trains (2) and Automobiles (1) Our dear friends Bill and Jeanie are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, as well as Bill's 75th (years young) birthday.  They rented an old farmhouse outside of Pisa where they are hosting their children, grandchildren and us for two weeks. One might hope that travel plans for a group this large (12 children, 14 adults) would go smoothly.  Ah, one hopes in vain except for me and the Spousal Unit.  Our travel plans went swimmingly well--Minneapolis to Paris (plane 1); Paris to Florence (plane 2); tram from Florence airport to Santa Maria Novella, the central train station (train 1); train from Santa Maria Novella to Cuscina, where the farmhouse is located (train 2); pi...

We're off to Italy on Friday and, amidst the planning to make sure I pack enough underwear, the power converter, passport, you know the drill etc., I've been thinking about what I will say if and when people challenge us about America. If you've been overseas, you know this happens. If you haven't, this happens. We haven't been out of the country since the current POTUS was elected so this should be interesting. Editor's Note:  When I wrote this blog last night, I decided to let it sit before posting because it felt just too pessimistic and just a tad snarky.  The tone seemed to go against what is a common theme of this blog: that people are people are people no matter where you encounter them and that people are good.  Kind.  Helpful.    Which was reinforced when the Spousal Unit ™    and I volunteered at the annual Excelsior (MN) Firecracker Run this morning.   So I'm adding, in italics, thoughts that formed while volunteer...

Not infrequently, I babysit for my youngest daughter and son-in-law.  When I do, I stay overnight.  From my perspective, I can go to sleep in a nice, warm, comfy bed in my jammies when I’m tired as opposed to curling up on the couch, feeling grungey.  I also don’t have to drive home in the dark. From their perspective, they can stay out as long as the spirit moves them without worrying about getting home.  I’m going with the win/win on this one. Yesterday I babysat and as I was getting my stuff together to stay over, it dawned on me that this wouldn’t be quite as easy an evening because once I got the 3 1/2 year old granddaughter to bed, there was the 2 month old grandson who still is getting acclimated to the societal concepts of time and sleep.  As in, you go to bed like at 10:00 pm-ish and then you sleep through the night.  (Or, in my case, you wake up to go to the bathroom but then directly back to bed in the hope of falling back to sleep.)  The ...