essere
io sono
tu sei
lui/lei e
noi siamo
voi siete
loro sono

avere
io ho
tu hai
lui/lei ha
noi abbiamo
voi avete
loro hanno

After three Italian classes, I now know "to be" AND "to have." Those Italian ladies better watch out now....

Looks like the oranges (and clementines) in my backyard are just about ripe. My landlord says give them three or four more weeks. I have a total of 9 trees--6 orange, and 3 clementine. One of the clementines was actually pretty ripe already, so I picked it off the tree and ate it...and it was good.

Speaking of my landlord, I asked him to show me where the local Catholic church is, so I can start going there to improve my Italian. So we hopped in my car, and he showed me. And he also took exception to my poor stick-shift skills. He started critiquing me (in Italian, of course, since he speaks no English) and noted, "you don't have much experience with this, do you?" I pointed out (in my broken pidgin Italian) that this was the first car I'd ever owned that was manual; all my others have been automatic. So then he started critiquing me and reprimanding me for using the clutch too much, and gave me a quick lesson (which is actually the first lesson anyone has ever given me in my life about how to drive stick). Then he went on to lecture me about how dangerous it is to ride the clutch. He also pointed out that my engine seems to be running much louder than it should be and that I should probably at least get it checked out before too much longer. I think. He made a lot of useful "vroom, vroom"-type noises to help me understand.

So I'm listening to the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, giving his press conference for the Libby indictment. The guy is brilliant. He's answering every question perfectly and not giving away anything. If you can find the audio later, listen to it.

Woohoo! And so it begins. At least, I hope it's just the beginning.

Listened to about 5 minutes of Rush this afternoon (it took a strong stomach; I can't believe that guy still has a show). He was whining about the whole thing, of course. About how this wasn't even what the special prosecutor was appointed for, blah, blah, blah. Funny...I didn't hear him complaining when Ken Starr started going into obstruction of justice issues in the Whitewater case.

This is sad. He was a good guy.

You know, every now and then I find a Republican I can agree with. At least on some things. Listening to NPR's "Talk of the Nation" tonight, former (Republican) Senator from Missouri and UN Ambassador, and current Episcopal minister John Danforth talked about how a political leader can be very religious but how that doesn't need to intrude on how he makes political decisions. Or at least, how it's incredibly arrogant for him to let it. Basically he said that anyone in politics who presumes to be doing "God's work" ends up being self-righteous and can't govern with the humility required of a good leader (or legislator). I recommend listening to the show sometime.

Truthout.org also carries a great New York Times article by Danforth about how the Republican Party has abandoned its traditional causes and become merely the political extension of a religious movement. (Not that I'm a fan of all of the Repulican Party's traditional causes, but as long as I'm paying taxes for their salaries, I'd rather have my Congressmen arguing over the grand issues of states' rights and welfare reform than over whether or not to pass a law to keep some brain-dead lady in Florida attached to a feeding tube.)

My landlord and his sister just gave me another round of low-carb Italian food. (This is a word puzzle; you now get to delete the word from the preceding sentence that will cause it to make sense. Consider it practice for the GRE or LSAT. I'll give you a hint this time: it's got a hyphen in it.) They called it "pizza" because I don't think they thought I'd understand otherwise (and they're probably right). But it's really more of an olive-tomato-and-pepper pot pie. Or maybe pizza with an extra crust folded over top. Either way, it's great.

I told them about the Italian class that I started tonight. I thought they were going to jump off their balcony with joy. Should be a useful class--2-1/2 hours every Monday and Wednesday night from now until the middle of December. Tonight was kind of painful--rehashed a lot of stuff I had already learned, but in some ways it was very useful review. The only problem is that it's a conversational class, not for credit, so it sort of goes at the pace of the class. Which means it sort of slews towards the lowest common denominator. Who happens to be a really good guy, but he doesn't seem to have a particular aptitude for the Italian language. Which makes it go considerably slower than I'd really like it to. On the other hand, it's really nice to be taking a class again.

Tonight's dinner.





In contrast to a similar post by my brother last week.

I got to participate in the ultimate exercise in democracy last night: municipal elections. Yup, got my absentee ballot in the mail and promptly filled it out; mailed it this morning. I was a little disappointed to see that there wasn't a lot of choice among the candidates, and a few were even running unopposed (*cough* boardofeducation *cough**cough*). Although for the first time since I can remember voting in Colchester municipal elections, the Republicans actually ran a candidate for First Selectman. Maybe when I move back I'll register with the Green party and run as a third party candidate for selectman. That'd be a fun part-time thing to do.

This is my livingroom as viewed from my television set. Note that the big rectangular thing in the center of the background is actually the view through my screen door to the backyard, no matter how much you may think it looks like a painting. If you look closely through the door, you will note, from top to bottom: lovely sunset-tinted sky and clouds; the Mediterranean Sea; the vineyard behind my yard; my fence; a citronella candle sitting atop my outdoor bistro table (made in China); my little yard; the back porch.

This is my living room as viewed from my screen door. Note that the big rectangular object over the TV is, in fact, a painting, not an actual naked Italian woman surrounded by angels (I keep that one in my guestroom).

I'm going to move my neighbors back to the States with me, I think. They're awesome. Dinner tonight, courtesy of them, was some sort of beans (the white kind that you put in soups) mixed with seafood--squid, octopus, mussels, and salmon. It was awesome. Oh, and they gave me some sort of great dessert pastry that I can't put a name to, because I could barely pronounce it and certainly can't remember it. I was invited to dinner in their apartment on Saturday, and I can't wait. Suppose I should pick up a decent bottle of wine or something. Although I did give them a couple of bottles I picked up for them in Montalcino, which they seemed to really appreciate.

On an unrelated note, here's an interesting article on the decline of American civilization....

Yet another reason to like Richard Blumenthal.

And something I meant to mention last week: yet another reason to be disgusted with our political process and disappointed in the short-sighted view of "the majority."

Ever wonder what roughly $600 of Italian wine looks like? Well, it's on my guestroom floor (still bottled, thankfully). That's the picture. Went up to Tuscany and set up headquarters in Montalcino, home of Brunello di Montalcino wine, which is pretty much considered the best in Italy. It is really good stuff, but unfortunately it's really expensive.






And I've always said, "yeah, I don't know enough about wine to tell a $20 bottle from a $100 dollar bottle." Turns out I was wrong. There's a wine shop in a castle in Montalcino (it's pretty cool, actually), and we paid 19 Euro each for a tasting of 5 wines. So when I was done, I asked about the two that I liked best. Yeah, they were the most expensive-- $107 and $62, respectively. I asked about the one that I like least, and, yup, it was "only" $24. (Prices converted from Euro to dollars for your reading convenience.) The next trip up, I'm going to have to go somewhere else and load up on the really cheap Chianti wines that I won't be afraid to actually serve to people or drink myself.







We did manage to visit two of the vineyards (most are closed on weekends) and bought a couple cases from each, and there were enough wine shops and outlets and direct vendors from the other vineyards that we had a really good selection in town. And it was all really, really good. The town itself was awesome, too--one of those old towns left over from the Middle Ages with walls and a castle and cobblestone streets that look like they probably did 500 years ago. It'd be a great place to take a date (so if anyone knows some cute girls who want to be treated to some really good wine, send them my way).

Also went to church this morning. In an abbey. The original building had been built around 800 AD. Unfortunately, it had burned down, so we had to attend mass in the reconstructed building--which was done in 1117. The draw for this particular one is that they do a Gregorian chant Mass on Sundays, and it was actually very good. So I bought a Gregorian chant CD from the Gregorians. (Well, they're actually Dominicans, but who's counting?)

Off to bed early tonight. Getting up early tomorrow to head up to Tuscany (which includes Chianti) on a weekend wine-touring-and-buying spree with a couple folks from the office. Apparently October is the time of the year to do it. I'm envisioning it sort of like "Sideways" but without the incredibly annoying whiney guy. (Did anybody else who saw that movie also think it kinda sucked? I really don't get what the hype was all about....)

Went to the "NATO Bazaar" this evening. Which is pretty much just like it sounds: an exciting evening that the NATO base here holds every year for charity, where they invite in vendors from "all over Europe" to sell their various cultural wares. Which basically means they have a bunch of booths set up that resemble the tourist shops in all the major cities where you can buy postcards (not here though) and all the other little kitsch stuff that the particular country is known for (amber jewelry, Christmas eggs, leather jackets, etc.). Although to be fair, there were a few pretty good booths, some of them with some extremely good values. They also had a bunch of international food booths set up, with food from all over Europe (well, NATO, anyway. The people from these countries actually worked there and made the food, and it was quite good). Anyway, I ended up blowing some cash on a set of six wine glasses and six champagne flutes, all hand-blown (or rather, I guess, mouthblown, crystal from Hungary) for a very reasonable price. This was before I asked myself, "when the hell will you ever need six champagne flutes?" (Wine glasses are a whole different story; you can never have too many of those. Especially since I'm planning on sending my allotted shipment of 500 bottles of Italian wine with me when I move back to the states.) At one point, in front of the booth selling fine bone china, I also found myself saying out loud, "Man, I could really use a nice tea service." Fortunately for the good of mankind, I punched myself in the face and moved on.

Proof that there's always hope for next year. Promoted by, of all people, Bill Buckner.

Went to a "hail and fairwell" for work tonight, an old naval tradition wherein we greet the new people in the office, but more importantly, say goodbye to someone who is leaving us. One of the admirals for whom I work was there (a two-star; to his credit he makes it to almost all of these things for the submarine guys, being a submariner himself). His wife is hilarious. Apparently she has three gorgeous triplet daughters who have just graduated college. You can see why that might be interesting to me. Anyway, she was thrilled with the fact that I was wearing a leather jacket, especially one made of such nice, soft, good quality leather, and she just went off on how good it was to see that being here for such a short time I had already started buying Italian clothing and dressing in Italian fashion.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was a Dockers jacket I bought at JC Penney in Waterford two years ago for about $90 at a 60% off sale.

CT Attorney General (and Harvard alum) Dick Blumenthal announced that he won't be running for governor this year. Which is too bad, because I think he'd make a good governor. But he IS running for another term in his current job, which is great, because he makes a kickass attorney general. Suing the crap out of everything and everybody who bothers CT (including pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, the tobacco industry, and the US government over the "No Child Left Behind" Act) is a decent way to make a living, I suppose.

So sad.

Got back from Vienna this evening. It was a pretty good time, and I know you're just dying to hear about it. Therefore, in an effort to make this forum more interactive, I am presenting this post in a question-and-answer format, wherein you, gentle reader, may place yourself in the role of the person asking the questions, and I, as usual, have all the answers.

Q: Vienna, huh?
A: Yup.
Q: Must have been fun.
A: Yup.
Q: So you got there on Saturday...let's see, since Vienna is such a young, vibrant European city with lots of young people, and you're about the coolest person I know, Saturday night must have found you at some Euro-club out on the dance floor with hot Austrian chicks grinding all over you, right?
A: Well...not exactly.
Q: Well then, you were probably leading hordes of young Austrian blondes from bar to bar to bar, right?
A: Um, no.
Q: So what DID you do Saturday night?
A: I went museum-hopping.
Q: Come again?
A: Museum-hopping.
Q: Please tell me that in some Austrian dialect of German, "museum" means "bar."
A: No, no. "Museum" is English for "museum."
Q: Wow, you ARE cool, aren't you?
A: Let me explain. I tend to have this really wierd incredibly good luck when I travel. One night every year, Austria has what they call "Langes Nacht der Museen," or "long night of museums." Every museum in the country throws its doors open from 6 p.m. until 1 a.m. So I was pleasantly surprised when I landed in Vienna to find out that Saturday night was, in fact, that night. How could I pass up that kind of opportunity? I paid 12 Euro for access to all the museums in Vienna. Also, the art museum had a nice little wine bar set up in the middle of its rotunda, so I finished up there. Live jazz and everything. Have some wine, go look at a Renoir. Have some more wine, go look at a Rafael. Listen to "Me and Bobby McGee" and go look at ancient Egyptian sarcophagi...that sort of thing. The whole night is a huge draw for people all over Austria. Ended up being a lot of fun.
Q: Oh, okay. That's pretty interesting, then. So how many museums did you visit?
A: Four or five.
Q: Four or five? In seven hours? That's all?
A: Well, I took a time-out to go to a concert.
Q: Well why didn't you say so? Of course. A concert. You are cool. So U2 or Coldplay were in town, and you managed to score some tickets?
A: Um, no. It was Mozart. And Strauss.
Q: So, like a symphony?
A: Yeah.
Q: Are you like 70 years old or something?
A: Apparently. I just thought it would be kind of neat to listen to the works of famous Viennese composers (i.e., Mozart and Strauss) in the actual hall in which their works were originally performed.
Q: Oh. That is pretty cool, actually.
A: Thanks.
Q: With all that musical historty there, did you manage to make it to the opera?
A: I really wanted to. "Die Fledermaus" was playing on Saturday, but it conflicted with the other excitement that I just got done telling you about. And the show on Sunday was something I didn't have any particular interest in seeing.
Q: Well, since you didn't see the opera, did you at least go into the underground shopping arcade near the opera house and use the famous "Opera-Toilette," the oprea-themed public restroom in which they play classical music, label the stalls as "Loge Boxes," and have the urinal section made up to resemble the opera house's bar?
A: Yes. That was 60 cents well spent.
Q: So, since you did all the museum stuff on Saturday, did you pretty much just spend Sunday going from cafe to cafe and soaking up the Viennese ambiance?
A: Pretty much, yeah.
Q: And then hit a couple bars Sunday night?
A: That's about it.
Q: Any good ones?
A: Actually, there's an area with a bunch of little bars that are supposed to be a lot of fun, but it was pretty dead on Sunday. So I wandered back toward the hotel and there was an Australian pub (that's "Australian" as in "kangaroos and koalas", not "Austrian" as in "of or having to do with the country I was visiting at the moment") right around the corner.
Q: And you went in?
A: Well, I felt this strange sense of being drawn toward the pub. There was a soft, golden glow eminating from the doorway where they had the ostrich burgers and fried grasshoppers advertised. So I figured I'd go inside for a beer...and there I found the source of the light. The holy grail. My travelling luck had kicked in again. There was a TV on over the bar...with the Patriots game on. I knew this was the pub for me. So, not having seen a football game all year, much less a New England game, and still smarting from the whipping the Red Sox took in the ALDS, I grabbed a bar stool and made myself comfortable. Turns out the Austrians/Germans actually have a fair number of people who follow American football.
Q: Sounds fun. So, did your high school German come in handy?
A: Yes, from time to time. Being a major European capitol, most of the people spoke at least some English. But it's still fun being able to get a meal and buy stuff without having to use English. Although I kept mixing my poor knowledge of German with my even poorer knowledge of Italian. So I had one of the harshest languages in the world mixing with one of the most melodic languages in the world, which I guess about averages out to English.
Q: How was the food?
A: Good question. The Austrians, like the Germans (I presume, since I've never actually been to Germany), seem to subsist on sausages, potatoes, and various iterations of cabbage. Which, while filling and very tasty (on occasion) gets very old very quickly. Although I do like the sausage stands on the street corners.
Q: But isn't Vienna famous as the birthplace of the Sacher Tort?
A: Yes. I had never heard of it before I went. And because I'm not big into dessert (chocolate is chocolate in my book), I didn't have one while I was there. So I still don't really know what it is.
Q: Any other interesting food there?
A: Well, I got into the hotel around 1 or 2, and was ready for lunch. So I went across the street to this trendy little restaraunt, where the menu was all in German. (Actually, very few of the places had English translations, which I kind of liked. I'm a big kid, and if I don't know what something is, I can ask. Unfortunately, this works better in Italy where things on the menu often have very literal translations that are easy to figure out, like "little pasta shells with cheese in a red sauce with cheese and mushrooms;" in Austria, the translations weren't quite so useful--it's more along the lines of "large sausage in the style of your brother's nose" and that sort of thing.) Anyway, I asked the waiter what one of the appetizers was--all I could decipher was some kind of fish with apples. He looked at me with that smug, superior European waiter half-smile and informed me that it was, "herring. Raw herring." Knowing that I, the wussy American tourist would cringe at the thought of raw herring. So since I knew that he knew that, I had no choice. Sucking it up for my country, I mustered all the enthusiasm I could manage and loudly proclaimed, "that sounds great! I'll have that." Besides, I've been to Norway. Nothing could be as bad as the dried, cured cod they eat there. So in a little while, he brings out the plate. And it's not like a couple nice little pieces of sushi or a nice grilled ahi steak or something. No, it's two pretty good-sized fillets of, well, raw fish. And it was quite evident that it was raw. So smug Euro-waiter guy sets it down and is obviously waiting for a classic American, "no, I was expecting sardines in mustard or something; I'm not going to eat this." I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction. So as he's watching me, I cut off a giant piece and shoveled it into my mouth. And it was absolutely delicious. It must have been smoked or salted or something, but it was great. And it came with green apples, diced up and tossed in some sort of mayonnaise or cream sauce, which went perfectly with the fish. Much better than sausages and potatoes.
Q: While you were there, did you buy one of those green felt Austrian hunter's hats?
A: Yes.
Q: I bet you look pretty funny wearing it.
A: Shut the hell up. Nobody asked you.
Q: So after visiting the cultural capital of Europe, you must feel pretty...cultured.
A: You betcher sweet ass I do.

@#$^ me. If there's any team that can find a way to blow a bases-loaded no-out situation.... Welcome back to being a Red Sox fan. To hell with last year.

While I've never actually been shelled by heavy artillery before, I'm starting to get a feel for what it must be like. For the second night this week there's a giant thunderstorm just hanging out right in my yard. The entire house keeps shaking. Twice in the last hour, lightning strikes have caused the main breaker to my house to trip off. Fortunately the electricity is still there when I shut the breaker again, so I can reconnect to watch the Sox.

I'm going to Vienna tomorrow for the three-day weekend. I should be finishing up packing and then go to bed, since I'll have to get up at 5:30 to drive up to the Rome airport.

Instead, I'm squinting at my computer screen watching streaming video of the Red Sox trying to keep my (and your) postseason dreams alive.

Hey, if there's one thing I've learned in my time in the Navy, it's how to prioritize.

I'm not a huge snake fan, but this is a pretty cool picture.

You know, if I had the money, I would SO pay millions of dollars to go into space.

(Okay, so who's going to be the first to respond, "If I had the money, I'd SO pay millions of dollars to send you into space"?)

The two best things about the Internet:

1. MLB.TV (I just paid $14.95 for the right to stay up until 4 a.m. every night and watch every single postseason game on my computer; I need to find a cord to connect it to my TV...)

2. Google Earth

Apparently things were a little tense at the White House today. George W was informed that two Brazilian soldiers were killed in a bombing in Iraq. "That's horrible," he said, as his eyes got wide. After a minute he whispered over his shoulder, "Hey, Karl...how many zeroes are there in a brazilian?"

Driving home today made me realize the truth in what one of my friends from work mentioned over the weekend. There are actually rules to Neapolitan driving. Two rules, in fact, and they are equally important:

1. I must get there first.

2. There is nobody behind me.

Which dovetails nicely with my theory that if you take the most maniacal New England driver and the slowest Sunday-afternoon-20mph-in-the-left-lane Southern driver, and smash the two together in a particle accelerator, the resulting reaction yields a Neapolitan behind the wheel of a Fiat Cinquecento.

Came across this old post from my sister a couple days ago. I've had an ongoing game in my spare time. So far, I've made it to level 12. Beat that.

I hate the f-ing Yankees. So much.

Just got back from a party hosted by a couple from work. Phenomenal food. I picked up a newly-arrived couple and drove them to the party, and got a severe case of small-world syndrome. Turns out the guy was college roommates with one of my best friends from the boat. And his wife just left a job at a law firm in Boston, where she worked with one of my best friends, a guy with whom I roomed for four years in college. Imagine that.