A 2 1/2 pound steak that Enzo and Demetrio shared in Chianti. I had the wild boar pasta. Yummy! 

Our first night it snowed about 2 inches or 4 cm 

The crowded city of Torino 

View from our terrace 

Our New Digs

Our current apartment is being supplied by Deme's employer, Microsoft. We have the place for about 2 months and he says it is up to me to find our new place before April. The accommodations are nice, we have a 24 hour doorman, daily cleaning (although I asked her to only come on Friday b/c the dog gets upset and I want to be able to leave him in the apt.), and garage attendant. I have a new cell phone and will pass the number out via e-mail.

My first impressions of Torino, are somewhat like that of a smaller Milan. Lots of buildings, concrete and sidewalks. The dog won't relieve himself even on long walk because I think he is looking for some grass. Thank goodness there is a large park 2 blocks from the apartment. A very long boardwalk snakes along the Po River in Torino. By this river there are benches, trees and lovely birds swimming and sunning themselves. Two mornings and two evenings in a row we have gone out for long walks as I get a better idea of what is available to us in our neighborhood. The shops are gorgeous and their windows are much more sophisticated that those in Seattle. I have gone grocery shopping everyday for fresh fruit, vegetables and bread. The food is fresh and very reasonable, 2 lemons for E .39 and buffalo mozzarella for E 3.98.

Our tiny bathroom with shower stall and my fave, the bidet 

Small kitchen with all the essentials, wine opener and cheese grater 

Bedroom 

Our apartment living room 

Flight to Roma

Red-eye flights are evil, I am so glad that I decided to leave at a decent hour. When my sister Kentra dropped me off at the airport, my only worry was Zavier. Even with his cute blue and white striped sweater, would he be warm enough? Would his ears pop the way mine do when the plane takes off and lands. The vet prescribed a sedative and I was skeptical but ended up giving him ½ a pill. Everyone commented on how good he was a how quiet too. They don’t know him well enough to make a accurate judgment but I said “thank-you” and went on my way.I must have my fairy godmother watching over me today. Since I am flying with a bit of a head cold, I was hoping that I might have some room to stretch out a bit and sleep. I’m sitting in the middle row with 5 seats and the only other person in my row is a Polish gal, who spent last night flying over the Pacific. She’s headed back to Warsaw from Hawaii, now that’s a long flight. She’s asleep now but there are still 2 ½ empty seats right beside me. Yippee!!

The flight to Roma from Amsterdam was okay 2 ½ hours and I slept for about an hour, by now I was very worried about the dog. When I picked him up in Roma he had not gone to the bathroom for 15 hours or so. He was okay, excited to see Demetrio and checking out all the Italian dog smells. We went to the Demetrio’s mom apartment and stayed until Sunday morning. We are now on our way to Torino, a 5 ½ hour drive. At his point I am exhausted and ready to get home.

We break up the trip by meeting Enzo, Demetrio’s friend in Tuscany for lunch. He takes us to Greve, a small town in the Chianti, one of the most famous wine regions in all of Italy. The vines are bear and dusted with snow but the hillsides are gorgeous. After lunch, we head out again. I was exhausted and so was the dog, Demetrio drove 110-210 km/hour or 70-150 miles and hour the whole way and so we made good time. My nerves were frazzled but there were other drivers flashing us from behind because the wanted to get by. I am happy to see my husband who was gone for 2 weeks, he was happy to see the dog and I also. See the gift below: (With a sweet note, Welcome Home!!)

My welcome home gift 

Auntie Jane and Indie 

Emily and Erik after dinner at Kisaku 

Load it up and get it out

The 20 foot container arrived today and it is massive. Two of my neighbors were nice enough to move their cars out of the way so the driver could park as close as possible to my fence without taking it out. He parked right in front of the house, unhooked the back end then drove away. Before he left he gave me a quick lesson on how to open, close and lock it up tight.

To make a long story short; I spent most of Wednesday moving boxes and loading up the container. See photos below:

1/2 empty moving van 

3/4 full container. 

Empty Garage 2 

Empty Garage 1 

Loading up the container. 

Very Late Post of Wedding Photo

Our Special Memory

Indie Baby

Indie, his mom and I going for a ride.

Hasta La Visa Part II

After receiving the dreaded phone call from the people at the consulate, we were resigned to the facts that we wasted a whole day, 500 dollars (for plane tickets, parking and rental car) and headed to the airport to try to catch an earlier flight home than our schedule 8:30 pm departure. No such luck on the earlier departure. While we waited Deme decided to research a bit more on the consulate, its duties and responsibilities, visa protocol and other aspects of immigration law. This is what he found:

1. It does not matter if he was not registered with the consulate for at least a year, they should have granted the visa and registered the marriage.

2. If they choose to deny us, we have the right to request the reason for the refusal in writing.

3. When he applied for various visas before (e.g. when he lived in Dublin, while working in Redmond, WA.) the consulate should have registered him automatically.

He then drafted a letter explaining that we had a misunderstanding etc... blah, blah, blah....and proceeded to quote various articles/sections of law. We e-mailed, faxed and snail mailed the letter to the consulate and waited. Less then 24 hours later we receive a phone call, they explained they had the wrong information and they would do it. We rejoiced but not too heartily. It's been a week and still nothing. I called them and left a message to ask if my visa was being processed and if not could they please send me back my passport since I am traveling on the 25th. So far, there has been no answer.

My Pretend Godson/Nephew aka Dagne and Brandt's Baby Boy

IndieBaby

Old Pals both Marry Chinese Chicks

Demetrio and Roberto in SF

Guess Who is Suffocating in a Bear Outfit

Valentine's Day Surprise

Hasta La Visa Baby

Everyone has been calling me and asking me about my Visa trip to San Francisco. Here’s the lowdown…..
Because Demetrio had to leave to Italy so soon for his job and he knows the “in’s” and “out’s” of Italian bureaucracy; he thought it would be best to go the Italian consulate in SF in order to register our marriage and get the visa in person. As I have learned over the various months, my husband’s hunches are almost always correct, although I have a much better memory.

We leave Seattle at the crack of dawn so we can be there when the office in SF opens, we head to the window, pass a guy named Eric our papers and he says to come back after lunch and talk to him about the visa since he already has some of our paperwork. Not too shabby, we drive our rental car to a Starbucks and wait for lunch. While at Starbucks I give Rusa a call and Deme calls his old friend Roberto (who is also married to a Chinese lady, I think it is an epidemic.) We all end up at Yak Sing and have some nice dim sum, good conversations and catch up on old times. Since the visa office only sees the public on Monday’s and Thursday’s from 1:00-3:30 we headed back right after lunch. There was a long line and we were seven deep.

We saw Eric going to lunch and when he warned us to be nice to the lady behind the window, we knew we were in trouble. The people before us in line received the worst treatment from a civil servant I have ever witnessed. By the way, all the following information was screamed out via microphone to the entire room.
1. The first guy was told his international health insurance was not good enough even though he insisted he had used it 3 other times to Italy and France.
2. The second couple was told they did not have the right bank statements to prove they could support themselves in Italy. They had unknowingly brought investment account statements.
3. Third guy had an expired passport and an expired US visa. The lady abruptly stated they do not issue Italian visas to people who are in the US illegally.
4. The fourth guy was planning to go to Italy on a sabbatical with his 5 kids and wife and was just there for some information; he got more than a earful; asked one question and left.
5. The fifth lady was elderly back lady from Trinidad and Tobago. She was going on a retiree tour of Tuscany for 17 days. She drove 3 hours from Sacramento but was denied b/c she did not have bank statements; even though she would have been supported by the tour group. Her entire trip, food, transportation and hotel were all paid for and she stated herself that she would not be doing that much shopping.
6. A Russian lady and her daughter were right before us, the mother wanted a visa for her daughter who was traveling with a school group. They had everything except a detailed itinerary. They provided the itinerary that was given to them by the school but that was not detailed enough, she was denied.
Now it was our turn, I was nervous but Deme said I should do the talking.
I explained that we were there this morning and that I wanted a family long-stay visa, she asked why and I told her b/c I would be joining my husband (the man standing right next to me) in Italy. She looked at him and for the next 20 minutes or so they spoke very loudly to each other across the bullet proof glass window. In the end, she took all our papers (we had everything) and told us she would try to crank out my visa in 2 weeks, it usually takes a month, and send me back my passport if they could not do it.
We relaxed but half an hour later we get a call that they can do nothing for us b/c Deme has not been registered with the consulate for at least a year.

Valentine's Day

Demetrio’s flight left last night @ midnight. He got me a Valentine’s Day card but forgot to get it to me before he left. Being all alone and a newlywed on February 14th is not as bad as I imagined. Kentra came over in a bear outfit to present me with a gift wrapped bear and chocolates. Not only did she scare me to death when I looked out of the peephole in my front door, she caught me while I was in the middle of filing out forms upon forms as I tried to redeem rebates from the three companies that I purchased my laptop and software from. Still I am grateful, I’m just glad she did not show up at my job that way, lucky Frank!

Sunday evening we were the guests of honor at a party that included all the families and all the children I have been taking care of from as recently as 6 months ago to up to 12 years ago. It was all very bittersweet and not tear was shed, I had thought about bringing a handkerchief but realized. I had packed them all away.

Now I feel a bit overwhelmed as I look about the house and see all the leftover things I need to pack. My darling husband left me with quite a few things to do. The most daunting task so far is to place shipping labels on approximately 500 boxes, most of them in his garage. The condo still needs to be cleaned professionally before our tenant moves in.

Zavier had his teeth cleaned, got a new EURO microchip that cost a fortune, and both cats are getting a full examination and their shots updated. I sold my car last Friday for 16,800.00 which Demetrio is very proud of b/c he found the buyer on the Microsoft classified ad’s. After a year and a 4 months of ownership I only lost about a thousand dollars on the car…. Not bad. There is still more to do thought…Whew! I get tired just thinking about it.

Hi it's me

It's me, Leslie. Ok I don't have anything to say except you might wonder who it is. Glad you found new homes for your belongings. I just signed up with Freecycle.com and gave away some of my own stuff. I have also acquired a new dining room set, which will be delivered this Saturday. I sold my old one. It has a glass top with pewter metal base, totally opposite of the old "country-style" oak set I had before. I need to get an area rug to add splash of color. Will send you a pic when the room is done. It'll be awesome! Ok I guess I did have something to say after all... later...

Garage Sale or Giveaway

For one chilly but dry day last weekend, I am particularly thankful. I chose to have my garage sale this past Saturday. We drove to the ends of my block and posted garage sales signs pointing to my crowded driveway. The starting time was 10 a.m. and right on the dot people started to appear, first in a cluster of about 3 cars then more and more. There was a nice respite in between "What about whole box for 50 cents?" and "Is this a real Prada bag?" but was pretty much kept on my toes the whole time.

Sophie and Jamie came to help but since it was chilly Jamie and a few of the other boys ended up in the house playing on the computer and turning up the subwoofer on my CD player until my house shook like a jack-up pimp mobile.

There were some interesting characters; I led people to the shed in the backyard and I have never witnessed how "one persons junk can be another's treasure" until this day. Someone took my rusty, dented BBQ grill, a yard waste container filled with decomposing leaves, my 2 houseplants (right off the bookshelf where they have lived for 8 years) and box full of plastic hangers, a semi-rotting wooden arbor but the strangest of all was the lady who hacked and hacked away at the weedy ivy in my backyard. She took a flat full of roots and leggy stems to transplant in her garden even though I told her they were basically invasive SOB's and she called me today to ask if she could come back for more.

When I called it a day, I had made 457 dollars, on all the other items I marked "FREE", within about 3 hours just about everything found a new home.

Going, Going, Gone....

Last weekend, we spent the entire 2 days at the condo, cleaning it out on Saturday and getting the carpets cleaned on Sunday. Our good friend "Perry", a former 34 year veteran garbage man, came by with his truck and loaded it up with Demetrio's junk. From BBQ grill to framed photos of old girlfriends, everything went. We were merciless, at least I was. The entire condo was basically packed up and ready to go but many things still slipped through the cracks and that is why we needed Perry.

There is a certain gum ball machine that houses 7 year old gum balls. (That's the entire time he has been in Seattle) It's kind of cool b/c it takes any type of coin; this gum ball machine was a gift to Demetrio from an ex he had a whirlwind relationship with and I am guessing he wants to keep it for sentimental reasons. He is also an avid traveler and I found a ziplock bag filled with miscellaneous coins and old lire from Italy. From is motorcycle days, I found stacks and stacks of iron-on and sew-on patches for jackets and pants. He is not a pack rat to the degree that I think I need to do an intervention but I think he is well on his way, especially when he keeps old computer, business, and motivational books from his office that becme obsolete as soon as they leave the shelves of the last office he hung his hat in.

For my house, we purchased a large box on contractor grade garbage bags. I have been filing it with old Tupperware containers, old office supplies, just plain old junk from the remnants of my life in Seattle. I even got a few friends to come over and take things like, houseplants, dishes, garden pots and stone, garden tools, I sold my blower/vac to another friend. Basically I am getting rid of everything. This Saturday I am having a moving sale, everything goes except a few choice pieces of furniture and a few rugs, if the price is right I may be persuaded to let them go as well. When we were cleaning out my closet, he held the bags open with great fervor as he pointed into my closet and said "donate, donate, donate..." "From now on you won't be wearing GAP, Abercrombie and Fitch, Express or any of that other cheap stuff" I was also forced to get rid of my fake Kate Spade and Prada handbags, now it's only Mandarina Duck for me. "What is a Mandarina Duck?" I asked.

The 20 foot container we are renting should arrive in about a week and a half, we fill it up and they take it to the port of Seattle and about 30-50 days it appears in Naples. Did I mention he has one garage full of boxes and I have about 30? There seems a bit of inequality here, I hope this is not a measure of a future filled with such disparity.