sorrowmonkey

Friday, got up with zohra and we grabbed our stuff and headed to the airport. Drive was easy, so we were stupid-early to the airport. Just as an FYI, there are basically NO gluten-free food choices at Bradley. In due time we boarded and flew out. Landing and arrival in Detroit was uneventful.

I had a nice evening catching up with the in-laws, and then John and I were up at dawn to go fishing. We caught loads of bluegill and speckled trout, and tossed them all back. In the afternoon, zohra and I went to visit my grandmother. She had invited pretty much the entire family over. We saw Steven, Aiden, Katie, Denise, Alice, Laurie, my great aunt Katy, and my grandmother. My aunt Marnie was supposed to show but was AWOL. It was pretty neat, really.

Sunday, we went to visit Jessica and Craig and their cute little boys. Much Nintendo was played. We left when the boys were starting to get tired and irritable.

This morning zohra ran off to her pottery class, and John drove me to the airport. Once again, the drive was relatively painless, so I spent a lot of time hanging out at the airport. The flight was similarly uneventful, but apparently if your flight gets in at 3:37 PM, that puts you in Hartford's rush hour (oops).

So I got home, unloaded the car, fetched the dog and started the laundry. It has ceased raining for a bit, so I ran up to Sam's (after juggling the cars) to buy an A/C unit for downstairs. Unfortunately, they were out of the one that I wanted, so I ended up just getting the groceries I needed.

Then when I got done unloading the truck, I had a splurge of productivity:

• I took the garbage down.
  
• I changed the cat litter.
  
• I read all of the wet postal mail. Almost all of it was junk mail anyway.
  
• I roped up the cardboard and put it out.
  
• I moved the couch to the other side of the porch.
  
• I moved the dining table to the porch.
  

Now it's almost 8:30 and I'm just sitting down to eat. It's not that hot, but it's really humid. I'm just dripping. Bleck.

Tomorrow I have to work in Danbury, but this is my last week there. Hopefully, it won't be a whole week of stupid.

First, a heartfelt thanks to vonsussen and parsedgarnish both for going to Italy with us, and for doing almost all of the hard work planning and organizing. I had a wonderful time and hope you did as well.

To sum up, my ten favorite points, in no particular order:

• The local wine
• Italian customs
• Pompeii, pretty much all of it, but most particularly the forum, coloseum and theaters.
• The Caribineri and their "lollipops"
• Bars
• Grottoes, crypts, and abandoned Roman terraforming projects
• Delightful (mis-)translations, such as "St. Mary Runs With Scissors"
• Staying in a Trulli
• Italian driving
• The oldest doors in Puglia

I would go again in a second, although I think I need a nap first.