past few days have been nice weather wise and in general. a month or two ago we met daniella. her cousins from philly were staying with her for a week or two and we all hit it off. her cousins were very funny alone, just watching their interaction was like a sit com. anyway, we had passed her on via tor millina here and there, and had dinner with her and her friend nicole. nicole's american and her husband too. he's a doctor and was placed here for two years. anyway, we had drinks one night with her irish friend donnel, and his fiancee gabrielle. fantastic people! we laughed, told stories and jokes and well, it was just a great night. our swiss guard friend got them tickets to see the pope and everything. 2 nights later they were back, it was their last night in town. but we finally got to meet nicole's husband wesley who looks exactly like john malkovitch. anyway, again it was a great night, and we've made plans to hang out more often, and also it's a great thing for aubrey to have some "girl friends" to chill out with from time to time... things are looking good for the future socially.

it has been an absolutely wonderful weekend. in all ways...

saturday the weather was near perfection. it was quite warm in the sun, but in the shade was very very pleasant with a nice cool breeze for the most part. we got up late had an omlete and were on our way. we walked to the piazza navona and just sat for a few hours. we were watching this guy try and pick up an american girl. it was pretty funny really, he was speaking his broken english and all stylish in his running outfit. and see seemed into him too. we didn't see exactly what happened in the end, but they shook hands and went their separate ways.

my friend keith from the msnbc investigates crew was in town with his wife and 6-year old boy. we met around 8 at the piazza navona, and took them off to navona notte. it was great, first of all, to see him, since it's been since way before i left america back in june 02. plus i had never met his wife or the boy, and aubrey hadn't met any of them. she had heard most of the stories though. it was great, we told stories about stuff that happened in the past, i heard some new gossip, and we told them our stories from living in rome. then we had a quick glass of wine at giovanni's and they headed off. what really sucks is that they were only in rome saturday and sunday morning, then heading off to milan and leaving from venice. i mean, great for them, and i know they'll have a great time, but it would have been fantastic to spend more time with them. their boy, dylan, is amazing! he's definitely one of the most intellegent 6 year olds i've ever met. (not that i;ve met a lot...) he entertained us with songs from his upcoming rock album (all originals) and during dinner drew a portrait of me and aubrey and then again, but the second one was picasso-esque. fantastic. after they split we had the rest of the evening with the scots and their friend whose name i can't remember, but sounds like "good-ON-ya".

today was even more beautiful than saturday. on the bridge looking to the castel sant'angelo this afternoon we saw a hot air balloon hovering over the justice building. giovanni had told us about a guy he heard of doing half hour tours in the hot air balloon. apparently he's making loads of money. maybe one day we'll contribute to his fund.

we passed the entire afternoon in st. peter's square just people watching and enjoying the crisp blue skies. had a nice lunch at insalata ricca and then to see our friend giovah. by that time it was already 7pm and we had chatted with nico a little at the bar, and then headed home. i called the rents to say what up, and here i am.

tomorrow we're going for the last ultrasound! we're both really pumped to see luca again. and by the choppypost counter we only have 39 days left till due date! (hoping he'll come a little earlier...) it's really gone quickly. i'm sure one day i'll be posting something about luca's upcoming rock album of original songs, and hanging up my own son's picasso drawings on the fridge! ah life.... 'tis a beautiful thang.

a break from the summer heat

last night we finished eating dinner at home and decided to go out for ice cream up on the corner. we call this place japanese ice cream, since it's the only gelateria i've seen run by japanese women. it seemed a bit cooler as we walked thru the alleyways up to the corner. we ordered our ice cream cones (aubrey: chocolate, caffe, tiramisu; me: stracciatella, caffe, amaretto) as we were walking in they were cleaning the floor.

we paid our euro 4,20 for the cones and stepped outside like we normally do. i hear aubrey over my shoulder saying, "oh no, i dropped some chocolate on the newly cleaned floor". as she said that and followed me outside this enormous chilly wind came from across the bridge and the sky was getting black. i was getting excited! the heat was finally dying down a bit. next thing i see is aubrey laughing at the dripping, and i mean DRIPPING, chocolate ice cream down her fingers.

then i felt something on my chest. i looked down and said oh no, i've spilled ice cream on myself. but it was chocolate, and i didn't order any chocolate. then another blast! it was actually aubrey's ice cream being blown from her cone onto my clothing. it was the funniest thing that she had ever seen apparantly, because she almost peed herself twice.

so here we are standing in the middle of a tornado of sorts, my hair is all over the place, aubrey's ice cream is half on me, and half on her fingers, and it got really cold. we finished up, went home and got changed.

today we had an appointment with the midwife. everything seems to be going well. aubrey is 77 kilos (not sure of the conversion) but she's only gainied a few pounds, and it's all baby. me on the other hand....

this coming monday is another ultrasound, so there will definitely be more updates to the video page, probably around tuesday. and we're planning to meet our upstairs neighbor this week for dinner.

we met paul's girlfriend the other night. she brought us some salad dressing and a little stuffed animal for luca from the uk. we had a nice meal at navona notte (mussels again!!) i think she left today. or is leaving tomorrow. and my friend from msnbc is coming out next saturday, so we'll get together with them then.

oh we did see patrick and lara the other night, for the first time in a really really long time. it was a little strange, but great to see them nontheless. we're supposed to meet patrick tonight to meet his aunt who is a jeweler to look at rings! and we've decided to try and set up a video conference when we get married in december. we'll have one web cam on NJ and one in la botticella so our italian friends can "go" to the wedding! if i can figure out the web cam before hand.

blow job shots

last night was sara jane's birthday, and the birthday party. aubrey missed this large event last year, as sara jane and carmen celebrated the birthday earlier since they were heading back to scotland to visit friends and family. in any case, it was a good time, as most times we get together with the crazy scots are. and of course, a party thrown by carmen or sara jane at la botticella almost always includes southern comfort and cokes, martinis, balloons and blow jobs.

another interesting point of this story is that we met a girl named liz who we first met in april. actually it was easter sunday. we had a few drinks each night she was in town, and exchanged info. last month this girl comes into the bar and is naming all of us, saying our names and what not. it was a little freaky. and of course it took us a long time to remember liz! we spent 2 days with stephanie, liz's friend and she went back and told liz how much fun she had. so then i get an email from liz saying she'll be in rome, let's get together. so that's what we're doing.

and we met another person from nj! the girlfriend of a co-worker of carmen and sara jane's. it was actually the first time they had met eachother too. but another english speaker, especially new jersian, could always be a great thing.

i've been hanging out recently with alfonso. he doesn't hang out much while his woman is in town, but she's been in calabria since the end of july. we have another week. i wish he'd hang out more, maybe things will change when claudia comes back to rome.

that's about it, really. we're meeting liz for dinner tonight, and will probably have a mellow weekend. another friend of mine from msnbc is heading out for a quick italy vacation from saturday thru monday. so we'll hopefully meet up with him too.

i woke up this morning at 4am on the nose. not really wide awake, but i knew i couldn't lay in bed anymore. i got up and went online, and found some interesting things. then i went for a walk around 630am to the castel sant'angelo. this happend last week too. same time awake, same sites online, same walk at 630am, same dog with the bum leg (more on that later)

rome is amazing at any time of the day. but early morning sunrises, i am not too familiar with. i've seen a few, or maybe not sunrises persay, but early mornings in general. mostly only when returning to rome from the states, or at the airport picking up someone who is coming over from the states. i certainly am more of a night person, but that's not to say i don't absolutely love everything about the morning. in rome, however, it's even better. roman summers are always hot, but if you've been reading these journal entries you know that this summer is the hottest in 200 years. it was actually a bit chilly this morning. there is no one around during your normal roman summer, only tourists. in the early morning the tourists are still sleeping. i had that bridge all to myself, no purse sellers, passerbys, nothing. aside from your occasional pigeon looking for breakfast. and the lady who has the dog with the bum leg.

last week when this happened to me, i sat the early morning roman sun and thought about my new role in life as a father within the next couple of months. i wasn't really paying attention to anything else, until this dog came up. it was a very excited puppy with a bum back leg. but that didn't stop it from pulling it's owner all over the street. it so happened we were both waiting at the traffic light together to get back to my side of the river on via del banco di spirito santo. the dog was panting and looking very anxious to cross. the light turns green, and we head off. maybe the dog is blind in one eye too, because he didn't see me at all until i started moving. at that point, he lunges at me, in a playful manner of course, but the owner started yelling in italian, "stop it! you can't play with everybody!! stop it!". it was a better way to start off the morning after all.

two days ago we got bad news that the wife of the owner of the hotel where i stayed for a month when i first arrived in rome has died. gino was really my first friend in italy, giving me a place to stay, advice on a constant basis, and a shove in the right direction. after i moved out of the hotel i stopped by every so often to say hello, share a coffee and a story or two. the day that we got the second ultrasound we stopped by. i had heard his wife, pina, had a major appointment the following monday to find out what was wrong. gino was visibly shaken and biting his lips from the inside. it was not an easy thing to see. it turned out she was diagnosed with cancer. she was doing fine, actually, really well. for a few months. then friday night i got a message from claudio who works there, saying she was in bad shape. the next morning, another message that she had died. 2 kids and a husband. late 40s.

that's what i thought about this morning on the bridge at 7am. her death, my son's life. it all seems strange now. as we were learning more about the progression of luca, pina was dying. it's all life, i know, but it makes you think just how precious life is. reading all those pregnancy books they tell you just how hard it is to actually get pregnant. it's like winning the lottery as giovanni said. and it's really a gift.

pina, rest in peace, our thoughts are with you...

hot.... too hot!

HEAT HEAT HEAT. this is the summer that will never end. giovanni, mr conspiracy theorist, says this bad weather is the beginning of the end. there's only a few more weeks left of august, so i'm sure it'll let up soon enough.

week recap: monday i worked most of the day. tuesday i took the day off to accompany aubrey to pick up her "stp" card. this is our gateway into the free italian national health system as foreigners. we had specific instructions from the midwife to go to a certain address, and ask for the "ufficio stranieri" (foreigners office), and then ask for the stp. i went online to find out where the office was, and on the website it mentioned that it closed at 12:30. i also saw some other addresses and clinics and hospitals on the list as well.

so we woke up, got our cappuccinos and cornettos and hopped the bus to go the office. we find it with no problem, except the large amounts of sweat dripping off of our shirts and foreheads. we wait in line and ask the rental cop at the entrance for the ufficio. he says give me a minute and leaves. five minutes later he comes back and says, oh no, that's not here. here's another address to go to, and gave us rough walking directions. i call the midwife and tell her. she says, oh, well i really don't know how these things work. (thanks alot...)

we're walking, we're walking and realize that we're near the san giovanni hospital. i remembered that hospital was on the list too. we take a chance, and get out of the heat, and try the hospital. the entrance is like a big office of sorts. there are about 5 "sportellos" each with large desks with old italians sitting in front of computers. there's a small coffee bar on one corner, and very uncomfortable looking chairs strewn about the place. we stop first at sportello number 3, since it was the closest. the old italian behind the desk says he's not sure where to get the stp, but if we wait a minute, his colleague will come by and help us. being the impatient american i am, i walk over to sportello number 5 where a woman is just finishing. i ask her about the stp. she tisks and waves her finger in my face, like they do, these italians, and says, "not here, not here, sportello number 6, right across the way." ok. we walk to sportello 6, and he says, "no, no, at number 5." the teller behind number 5 yells back, and says, "no sportello 3!" (right where we went the first time)

we walk back to number and i ask the guy if his "colleague" with all the information has arrived. "he's having a coffee right now, five more minutes". so we sit in the uncomfortable chairs and wait 7 minutes.

the man with all the information comes by. i tell him we need the stp. ok. he yells to the teller at sportello 5 to get the stp card. she says she doesn't have it. are you sure? yes i'm sure. then he walks over, opens a drawer and pulls out the blank stp card.

back to our original friend behind sportello 3. the man with the information is standing behind our friend, who is on the computer. another man appears from nowhere, apparantly to learn how to do the stp. aubrey hands over her passport. the man with the information is giving instructions to teller number 3. ok, open up explorer. what? explorer, internet explorer. oh ok. one click. it doesn't open. there's something wrong. the man double clicks and it opens. ok, now what? enter your password. what password? the password that you enter to log on to the system. i don't think i have one... you have to have one. oh wait, THAT password, ok. this continues in the same fashion as he types in aubrey's information, address, phone number, what have you, then he prints out the form and hand-writes it on the little stp card from sportello 5. all in all, had it not been for the man who was using the computer for the first time in his life, or the lack of organization in that hospital, we could have had it done in 3.2 minutes. instead it took about 45 minutes. for more on italian life click here.

after that ordeal, as with any ordeal in italy when you get something accomplished, we felt good about ourselves. we decided to roll up to prenatal to look again at strollers and cribs. they were closing, so we walked a little ways up gregorio xii to chicco, which is normally a very expensive store, but during the summer all of italy is on sale. we saw some things we liked, and other things we didn't really like, and after opening and closing (or at least trying) all of the strollers, we left to go back home, and wait until 4pm when they would re-open. and that's what we did. we said, let's just do it, and so we are now the proud owners of a graco stroller and a graco pack 'n play crib. and we bought some cute shoes and a little skully cap for luca. what a day! we really got some things accomplished, and despite the terrible heat, it was a fantastic day.

the day after i got an email asking my availability for the pope trip to slovakia 11-14 september. so that's where i'll be. we'll probably leave on the 9th and come back on the 16th. this will be the last trip for me, until the luca is born. (please please please pray that he's not born early while i am in slovakia!!!!)

so that's where we're at. tomorrow is ferragosto. nothing will be open. i'll probably go in to work, but not for too long. then we'll go back to the apartment and sit in front of the fans for the rest of the night. a friend from msnbc will be in town sunday and monday, so there's some dinner and drinks in our future... and a little taste of home!

this heat seems like it will never ever end. even francesco is nowhere to be found. we had a nice weekend, spent mostly with the scots (sara jane and carmen) and paul, the new "on-duty" engineer for sng. we all had a nice meal on saturday night, and sunday just ate snacks at giovanni's. the scots gave us 2 chunks of cheddar cheese and some bacon and sausages. we ate the sausages and bacon this morning, it wasn't at all what i was expecting...

the heat was bad again last night and i woke up at 4am. after a few hours on the computer, i got cleaned up, made breakfast and went off to work. aubrey came by later on in the day, i got a good amount of work done. then we ate a tramezzini or two, and walked over to the hotel primavera to book it for my mom and matt. they've purchased their tickets and as long as matt gets his passport, will be here on 15 october - 21 october. big news week, along with the possible birth... it should be a very very interesting time to say the least!

in anycase, life goes on, as rome begins to empty out, hardcore. every day there are less and less italians, cars, and more and more tourists on the streets. on 15 august (ferragosto) we'll be able to walk down the main roads without worry of getting hit by cars. it still blows my mind how everything closes down for august. or at least a week or two in august. you can't steal the vacation from the italians! no way...

not much to report, really, except that it rained a little yesterday. quite surprisingly since francesco was louder than i've ever heard him before. it was sooooo hot yesterday afternoon, i couldn't even go into work. aubrey and i spent most of the day with giovanni, helping him out a little, and people watching with ari. he is the brother of a friend we met there months ago, and now works across the street at the spanish restaurant.

luca is getting bigger bigger everyday. and he really loves his grattachecche! we've been eating these wondeful slushie type things everyday, with fresh fruit and chopped ice. so good! anyway, he's still kicking all the time, and aubrey and i think he will be born earlier than the due date. around the first week of october we're thinking now.

our neighbor just returned from the phillipines with their little baby. in a few months there will be 2 crying kids here on campanella. poor enzo...

i know it's pretty boring, but that's about it. rent is due later today, and this weekend will be very very mellow. especially if this heat keeps up.

it finally rained yesterday!!!! only 20 or so minutes of glorious downpour, but it was enough to cool things down completely. then after the rain, the sun came back out, everything dried up, and it was like a fall evening in the streets of rome... it rained today too, but not as much. it was significantly cooler today than most days this summer, but not as nice as yesterday. aubrey and i went to eat some pizza/calzones/mussels at navona notte, and of course visited everyone's favorite canadian. we also decided to change this part of the website, to include little profiles of all the crazy characters we have met here, or are about to meet. should provide a little more input for those of you who care...

tomorrow is saturday, and not much is planned aside from food shopping, eggplant frying, and meet our scottish friends for a burger! we've found the best burger you can get in rome... you need one of those everynow and then. as much as i love living here, and italian food, summer time always calls for a few beers and a burger once in a while.