Book Friday !

It's here, it's here !

Yesterday a book came in the mail.
From a friend from my homeland, who is the author.
First Edition.
Signed, with dedication.
About my city, my land, sea, and then more.
A real treat.
Come back soon for a complete review.

In the meantime, thank you, Simone.

Goodby, CowBoy !

It was a matter of time, we knew that, we were hoping that somehow Cowboy would be around for a long time, even for a cat. Only kitten from our Moka mama-cat, he has been the most long living, real survivor on a property with coyotes, howls, hawks, and many more dangers.

Here we lost countless cats, one dog, and the count goes on.
But no Cowboy. He was a natural born killer cat. Didn't look like it. At first sight he looked more like a lazy, fat cat, content to stretch on the front porch, and play pranks on our dogs...

However, no squirrel, no bird, no snake were safe from Cowboy. His agility to climb, and his unbelievable speed made him a squirrel killing machine hard to beat. Often we would find dead (and decapitated) squirrels by the front door, with Cowboy just few feet away...

Cowboy is no more. One morning he just didn't show up as usual. Guess he found the "faster gun"...

Goodbye, old friend.

Books Books Books ( for free ! )

Well, for once a post with no pictures..

I am super excited, following a friend's link, I found a site called
Book Sneeze.

Here is the deal: if you are a blogger, and love books, you just found a small gem. After you send in an application, this guys will have a look at your blog, and if accepted, you can request a free book at the time, read it, write a review on the book, blog about it, and keep the book.

For a family of bookworms like mine, this is so sweet.

Sorry, Roberto V. from Trieste Daily Photo I am afraid this is only for US residents.

Have a happy weekend, you all !

Flood

If you goo back in the blog, you will find a post about us moving, and the picture of a moving truck in our driveway.



This same driveway pictured right here, only a few weeks ago: yes, water everywhere. Yes, we did move out from there , but we still had some stuff (mostly books) stored in a small garage just a bit to the right, in this photo. It has been a 100% total loss of our stuff, and now it's between mildew, stink, and the insurance company. Only in 337 books we lost almost $7000, and that is an underestimate. My father and mother in law had their house flooded, and their losses are hard to even look at. But life goes on, bleach spray bottle , mop, bucket, and all. Have a safe and happy Halloween, y'all !

I am back. ( again )

After a year ( almost ) of absence, I decided to resurrect this blog.
It's kind of a rebellion to Facebook.
I need *my* space.

So, here we are gain. I will try to do my best to publish few times a week. Daily, is out of the question. There is way too much stuff going on in my life to commit to daily publishing.

Come back, see what's new, leave me a comment, and let's see where I can take this blog.

Welcome back.

The picture of today is a "memory lane" one.
My parents ( couple on the right, with some friends, in Zagreb, Croatia, circa 1954.

Thanksgiving

Oggi e' la Festa del Ringraziamento, negli USA. Thanksgiving, lo chiamano. Ogni anno, questa festa segnala l' inizio delle festivita' Natalizie, e, dello shopping piu' sfrenato che abbia mai visto.

Non per noi, quest' anno. Abbiamo deciso 11 mesi fa che questo Natale, i doni saranno rigorosamente "fatti in casa". Tanto per ridimensionare le cose, e renderle piu' ... personali, se vogliamo. Si sono verificati altri cambiamenti, ultimamente, che modificheranno queste festivita'. Cose nostre, di famiglia, private insomma. E' un momento di riflessione, di intimita' come famiglia e di profonda riflessione personale.

Ci vediamo tra pochi giorni.

Sunset sky inTexas

After what seems an eternity, I emerge from a sea of fever, aches, coughs, Kleenex tissue, nights spent sleeping in a chair because I could not lay down and try to sleep ( cough and feeling of choking would overpower me).

Call it flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, call it any way you want it, it was a nasty bug.

Not 100% over yet, but good enough to get back to work and boy, do I gave a backup to catch up to ...

Now our youngest one has started on the same path of endless, repetitive, dry cough spells at night, and insurance or not, she is going to the doc. right away, like NOW.

In the meantime i leave you with a masterpiece set up in the Texas sky few days ago. I happened to be in the right spot at the right moment, and I even had a camera.

Wrong lens, but hey, who is looking, right ? (hint: click on the picture to really see it..)

This picture is "straight out of the camera" NO editing of ANY sort.

Enjoy the entire sequence here .

And don't steal my pictures, copyright law enforced. And I am coming after you.

Ugali ? No, Polenta.

Well, there I was, in Uganda, East Africa, fall of 2006. It was semi-work related trip, a fact-finding trip for a non-profit that organizes medical missions all over the world.
We were in Jinja, Uganda, guests of a friend, Adam. I was told over and over about "Ugali" and how it was a local staple, very good and they invited us for a meal at a local "cafe'" for a lunch with some Ugali ... While waiting, we went in the back of the cafe' to see the kitchen, and how this famous ugali was prepared... You can imagine my surpries when I saw the ugali.. look below:





























Yes, ugali, in Eas Africa is noting else than polenta.
Our friends in Jinja were so excited that the mzungu knew ugali and liked it ... That was an amazing trip, that will be another post, maybe.

Snack

The difference between an Italian snack and an American snack ?

Painfully evident.

You decide.

Magic

Early Summer, it's dusk, three little girls dance in the light of fireflies, and all of a sudden everything is ... magic.

Oh, to be able to have that spirit again ...

Almost Wordless Monday

Ci troviamo e ci contiamo e manchi sempre tu...

Summer is officialy over.

Some friends from Italy came to stay with us for a while. Actually, they moved back from Italy to the US, after living in Italy for a decade.

My kids and their kids have known each other since they can remember, and they always have fun when spending time together.

This year, they had one last swim day at the pool, just before end of summer. One final swim, one final day of careless fun and pure kids craziness, one last splash before school starts.

Aren't they fantastic ? ...

Saturday

It's Saturday, time to make lunch, and the kids want to help with the cooking. Well, some do, others would rather run and hide ... Angelina is our youngest child, she is three, and loves to help in the kitchen, and often does it with an effort and intensity that surprises us...

This time, she chose to grate parmigiano reggiano ( off course) while we were preparing the sauce and pasta...

She is the sweetest helper... :-)

Ah, the beauty of a photo ...

My daughter, Francesca is 16, and she just came back from a two weeks trip to China.
Off course, being the shutterbug she is, she went with a camera, and came back with oh, let's say about 1000 pictures. I haven't seen them, yet ( she is jealous of her shots ) but some "leaked out" and I was able to grab this one:

My guess is that we will never know what they were looking at and why the adorable little girl was covering her face ... maybe something she saw many times, and she was like : "Oh, no, grandmother, not here again...!" The sure thing is, her expression and body language are priceless.

The lady with the girl ( grandma, mom .. ? ) seems quite amused at the sight of .. whatever it is ..
I need to ask Francesca what they were looking at...

Frankie took a compact camera with her, it almost fit in her hands, and so she was able to take many "street candid" shots, some of them are quite interesting.

More soon.

Be well.

I am back ( again )

July 24th to September 29th .... how long is that ?

There is definitely a number that you can attach to those dates, and for those of you of mathematical personality, I will tell you, it is 68 days.

In Internet or blogging time, it is an eternity. I almost feel like I should start all over, but then again, I ask myself, why ? I think I got something here, it's good. Not perfect, but good.

And, as the movie quote goes, " everybody loses a couple, but you either pack up and go home, or you keep fighting" or my other favorite quote, from the same movie: " You don't throw away a whole life just 'cause it 's banged up a little."

Recovering from the wreck has been a *lot* harder than I ever expected.
Physically and mentally.

I was gone from blogging for a long time, simply because I didn't care, and it didn't make much sense to me, considering all that I was going through.

Until a friend ( a blogger, mind you) told me that blogging is better than therapy, 2nd only to gardening... Hmmm, there was an option for me that I didn't even consider. Central Texas has been in such a state of drought for a long time that gardening is a thing of the past, so blogging (again) could actually be something I should try. Now it started to rain, so gardening is an option as well, but blogging ... I really like it. I don't know the direction this blog will take in the next few weeks, but if you read me, leave a note.

Some friends came in yesterday from Italy, and they brought a *fresh* Corriere della Sera, still with that smell of Italian newsstand that you know only if you grew up in Italy...



















So, this morning, I enjoyed an ancient Italian ritual: early morning newspaper, and espresso.

Oh, yes, even in the mist of adversity, finding small joys in little rituals, helps.

See you tomorrow.
For real.

Steel - Acciaio

Just few miles west of Austin, on Hwy 29, immediately before the small town of Fredricksburg,
on the right, one can see this amazing view.

A bull of steel. It's the entrance of the "Benini Ranch" a "ranch" of artists, they often have art shows, and things of that nature. The bull itself is full life-size scale and is just amazing.

I had no choice but to stop and click.

There is more here.
(click on the picture for a better view)

Still recovering

Well, I am still here. Recovering from spine surgery, with a neck brace on 24/7 and painkiller at close proximity.

After the car crash, I went to a neurologist for a visit, since the pain in my back, neck, left shoulder, arm and leg, was getting really bad. To make it short, after a sequence of MRI, CT scan, and X-ray( I was glowing in the dark!), three different doctors, concluded that I had three cervical vertebrae fractured, C5, C6, and (barely) C7. The neck collar was not going to be enough, and immediate ( as in urgent) spine surgery was a must.

So I went in, on July the 15th, and came out the next day, and right now i am at home, recovering. Depressed, groggy, plain old grumpy, with a gorgeous scar on my neck.

More tomorrow, I will do my best to post something FUN, UPlifting, and bright ! Promise !

vdp

CRASH

It happened. One of those unavoidable, sudden, life changing, painful events in life.
A car crash. Rather bad one too. Car is a total loss, we are hurt but a lot less than what "could have been".

June 19th, 2009, Friday afternoon, Highway 53, East of Temple, Texas. On my way home from the kid's camping trip, with Isabella and other friends. It was a caravan of cars, all friends from church.

From the opposite direction, an incoming car, suddenly jumps into my lane, I try to avoid it, it hits my car in the left side, my car gets thrown off-road, in the ditch, and rolls. I have no recollection of how may times we rolled. According to the State Tropper, from 4 to 6 (!!)


Remarkably, of all 5 kids in the car, and me, there are only few injuries. One girl has two broken ribs, bruised lungs. My daughter has bruises all over her face, I am beaten up like a steak, left arm, back, shoulder and hand VERY painful and sore, not to mention thorn muscles and other parts of me that hurt all over.
But we are all alive.

That's it for now, typing hurts and this is all I can do. (click on the pictures )



Be safe,

Summer, scorcer, heat.

It's summer, down here.
Hot, skin peeling, scorching, sweaty humid, Texas summer.
This weekend we should reach 107 Fahrenheit ( about 40-41 Celsius) and it just rained 2 inches of rain, with one of those Texas hail storms, with 1 inch 3/4 of hail, wind, thunder, the whole nine yards. And now, it is even hotter than before the storm. And it's almost midnight.

It's the time of the year when one learns quickly that form of art that is driving with one or max. two fingers, since the steering wheel is so hot that no way one puts the whole hand on it.

When you walk in the parking lot, you actually think "if I fall down, I will stick to the asphalt ... "

In Texas, summers are hot, and long. There is, however, one small revenge, for us humans.
It's called "Ice Tea" and it is THE official drink of Texas, trust me.

Ice tea is everywhere, in Texas, during summer months. Any restaurant without Ice tea in the menu, might as well close right away. And it must be huge, tall, glasses, overflowing with ice, frosted on the outside .... hmmmm I can feel it now. And off course, free refills.

Few years ago there was a candidate for the office of Governor of Texas. I can't remember his name, actually his ideas were quite good, but he had one great proposal.

If elected, he would have proposed an amendment to the Texas Constitution, and make it so that during the summer months, it was a constitutional right, for every citizen of the great Lone Star State of Texas, to have a free glass if ice cold tea. Big one, mind you.
Unfortunately , he did not became governor, so we still pay for our ice teas.

Oh, well, maybe next time.
In the meantime, be well, and stay cool, and have an ice tea on me.

For Shutterbugs only.

OK, I know, I have been missing in action for ... ever it seems. Life has gotten very complicated, but things will get sorted out, they always do.

I wanted to let all my followers [ both of you guys .. ;-) ] know that a Facebook friend of mine, photographer ( a real one, not a goofball like me ) is a member of NAPP , and is currently giving away some great stuff that any shutterbug would love to have

Click here, check it out, and good luck.

As usual, I will leave you not empty handed: my wife's sister-in-law daughter, is a perfect target fro a camera. She is just just adorable !