Acquario Civico di Milano

The best thing about the aquarium in Milan is that it's free. Don't get me wrong, it's got some decent fish displays, including the "Nemo tank" that every zoo and aquarium in the world felt obligated to have after the movie. But I'm glad it's free because I doubt I'd think it was worth whatever price they'd charge for entry. I'm cheap like that.
When things are free, though, you worry less about seeing everything and more about real issues. Such as: Doesn't this starfish look like a person hanging upside down?
And: Doesn't this fish's face seem sort of baboon-like?
Walking home from the aquarium, we finally got a photo of the "dog parking" outside Blockbuster Video. But this particular location, like pretty much all other Blockbusters, has closed, so we'll never get a chance to see actual dogs parked there. Oh well.

One set of window treatments in three different houses

In 2006, I wrote about the valances I'd made for my kitchen windows in Colorado and the unusual way in which one was attached to the wall.
In 2008, I wrote about recycling one of those same valances to use in my kitchen in Port of Spain.
And here were are in 2010, and one of those valances has just been chopped in half to go on the window in my kitchen in Milan.Best use of cheap fabric ever. And yes, I still have those cows-advertising-cheese signs from the 2006 photo. They might be finding a home on the wall of my kitchen here, too.

Adventures in northern Italy: Turin

Turin -- Torino in Italian and to NBC Sports during the 2006 Olympics -- is an hour-long ride on a fast train from Milan. You don't want to change a toddler's diaper in the bathroom of one of these trains, I assure you, but in general it's a great way to travel.
I recommend the Turin Card, which costs 20 euros for two days and covers entry to all of the big attractions. Yesterday we visited the Museo Egizio (Egyptian museum), the observation deck and National Museum of Cinema at the Mole Antonelliana, and the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica in the Palazzo Madama.
At the Egptian museum, we discovered a previously unknown mummy:
and saw some sphinx:
There also are many, many represenations of Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess. We don't seem to have gotten any photos of her, which is somewhat of a miracle considering the number of statues there are depicting her.
We saw the city from the observation deck of the Mole Antonelliana and visited the National Museum of Cinema there.Unfortunately, Turin's signature dome IS the Mole, so we didn't get any photos of the skyline with it. We'll have to take the Superga Rack Railway up the mountain to do that, and we definitely will on a later trip. We didn't visit the replica Shroud of Turin, either.
But we did see an interesting variety of artifacts at the antiquities museum. We didn't have the camera with us, but here's a look at what it offers. There's a modest Greco-Roman section, some interesting Baroque things, and a special ceramics exhibit at the moment.

Our house in Milan: An early look

Lots of people have asked about our house -- it's actually an apartment, although it's quite large -- in Milan. We're in a great location not far from a couple of metro stations and some decent shopping, restaurants and gelato. We walk most places. In fact, I haven't needed to drive yet.
As there still are boxes everywhere and we're still waiting on our last set of household effects, there aren't many decent photos to be taken. But this is the kitchen:
Yes, there's a beach ball in my kitchen. If you have children, you won't find this odd. For the rest of you: Just wait until you have kids and you'll know, too.
Are those plain old cabinets?No, silly, it's a refrigerator/freezer. But it doesn't hold much, so we have a regular, U.S. style refrigerator/freezer as well. It's in the dining room at the moment but will be relocated to the service hall someday.
If you look closely at the top shelf of the refrigerator, you'll see a milk carton. The milk was purchased at the U.S. Army base in Vicenza, and the ads on the side are a little different than the missing-children bios you see on cartons in the U.S.

Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia (Leonardo da Vinci)

We've seen and heard mixed reviews of this musuem, so my expectations were pretty low. Laura really enjoyed it, and I thought it was OK (but not great). We didn't see everything, and I'm pretty sure we'll be making at least one trip back to see the submarine.
The best part, at least to me, are the models and explanations of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions, innovations and sketches. Here Laura appears -- she didn't actually touch anything -- to demonstrate a study of flying.

We're cheating on the Bob stroller, but please don't tell him

I've talked before about our stroller -- the Bob Revolution with 12-inch wheels in front and back -- and still love it. I bought it with Milan in mind: lots of places to walk, stores with narrow aisles and tight corners, etc.
This is an example, though, of even the best-laid plans not always working out.
1. The elevator in our building is too small for the Bob unless it's folded -- and even then it's a chore getting it in and out.
2. Most metro stations here don't have elevators.
3. Train luggage compartments are designed more for small-to-medium-sized suitcases.
We'll still use the Bob, but that will be for around-town outings where we won't be using the metro or for trips on which we drive. Our portiere -- sort of like a doorwoman -- even has offered to let me park it downstairs, and I may take her up on that offer. It still will be the stroller of choice for grocery shopping and other times I need to "haul" things in addition to Owen.
But yesterday our First Years Ignite arrived. We took him for a test drive, and he performed wonderfully. The biggest advantage he has is that I can carry Owen in one arm and the unfolded stroller in the other, which will be key for the metro. He's a little bulkier than a traditional umbrella stroller but still folds small enough that he'll be great on trains and for car trips where we need to fit other things in the Volvo's luggage area. And although it's a squeeze, he fits on our building's elevator without being folded.
Bob, meet your new friend Ignite:May we all have many exciting adventures together.

Shopping with the cool kids in camo

One perk of being a U.S. government employee posted overseas is the ability to shop at the commissaries and P/Xs at U.S. military installations. For those of us in Milan, the nearest such place is Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy, where the command of the U.S. Army's African operations is based. It's 2.5 hours or so from Milan, and we made our first trip there this week.
We can find pretty much everything we NEED in Milan, but it's nice to be able to buy things we WANT. At the P/X, we got a decoder that enables us to watch American Forces Network television. But wait, that's not all. We also ate at Taco Bell. It'd been so long since I used my debit card that I couldn't remember my PIN. But eventually I did. (Kevin was getting a military-style haircut at the barber shop during this time.)
The commissary is great for meat, and we stocked up on chicken. On later trips we'll probably get steaks, too, but this time we were checking out the selection of what's available as much as we were buying things.
That's not to say we didn't spend a lot of money. We did. But it's a trip we'll probably only take every couple of months, so the things we got should last us for a while.
On the way home I snapped some photos of the scenery. It was hazy, but our windshield also has some issues due to a wiper problem. But you get the idea.

Rule #63 for the State Department: Carry a camera everywhere

This was a quote from Laura today when I lamented not having a camera with me. It was almost like she had a whole list of rules, although I didn't ask her about the first 62.
We had to go to the store -- we're in Italy, so we visit a grocery-type store or market pretty much every day -- and pick up Kevin's dry cleaning. As we were coming out of the store, I noticed a woman pushing a stroller with a baby much smaller than Owen. Then I noticed a man I assumed was her husband -- and he was pulling a small animal carrier on wheels. In the carrier was a very frightened-looking cat.
This little family wasn't Italian, although it's not like I could have conversed fluently enough in Italian to ask why they were subjecting their cat to such an experience. But I do wish I'd been able to get a photo. And I hope their outing was a short one and that the poor cat recovered quickly.

My dad isn't the only person who watched Walker, Texas Ranger?

Today some workmen are in our building working on the buzzer/intercom system. One of them speaks decent English and started asking where we're from in the U.S., what we think of Italy, etc. Upon hearing we're from Texas, specifically Houston, he knew two things.
1. George Bush is from Texas.
2. Isn't Houston where Chuck Norris lives on Walker, Texas Ranger?
The first one is correct, of course. I have no idea about the second. I thought about calling my dad, because he's the only person I know who would know the answer to that. But I decided against it. He might think I actually CARE about Walker, Texas Ranger, when the most I've ever thought about it is cracking up that the kids on Talladega Nights are named after him.

Owen becomes a kitchen snob

"Mom likes copper-bottomed pots for their heat conductivity. I just think they're tasty!"

"It really is a big building!"

This is what Laura said to me yesterday when we visited the Duomo, which probably is Milan's most recognizable landmark. We'd been telling her about it for months, including that it's the fourth-largest church in the world. (I think it's also the largest Gothic one.) We didn't make it up to the roof on this outing, but I'm sure we will be soon.
Among other things, we paused for a moment to allow Laura to have her debut at La Scala.
It's great to be able to hop on the metro, see a bunch of cool sites, and be back home within a couple of hours.

Castello Sforzesco

This is a not-too-terribly-far walk from our house, and I'm sure we'll be visiting a lot. We walked over Monday even though it was horrifically hot and the museums were closed. It was fun. Owen especially enjoyed the Powerade he got to drink.
Later: There's more about the castle here. It dates to the 14th century, and now it houses some of Milan's most popular museums.

In case you had doubts about keeping a home inventory

I'm not a keep-a-list-of-everything-we-own kind of person. I know some people who are, and that's great. I'd like to be like that. Perhaps it will happen some day.
After our things from storage were delivered last week, there was some discussion about whether we'd received all of our dining room chairs. Four arrived, in wonderful condition after their three years spent in Hagerstown, Md. But for some reason I thought we had six. I know I have the movers' invetory lists somewhere -- including the one Hagerstown used to keep track of what we wanted sent here -- but I wasn't ready to wade into all the papers I've got sitting around.
But despite my lack of a personally maintained list, I do have photos of everything in our house in Colorado before the movers packed it all up in 2007. And this seems to suggest we only own four chairs for this particular dining set:

Now we're thinking we only have four chairs because they came with the set and I was too cheap to buy more. That does sound like me, doesn't it?

Laura 1, Mikasa San Marco 0

We made it more than 11 years without breaking any of our wedding china. The first victim fell Saturday at the hand of Laura, who was playing with the broom as I unpacked some things in the kitchen. It was only a cup, and we don't use them very often, so I wasn't traumatized. But that kid will be doing some sweeping in areas not inhabited by china to atone for the damage.

Gelato face

Friday we took a break from unpacking to walk around the neighborhood. There are many gelaterias from which to choose, and I get the feeling Owen will like all of them.

That whole moving thing

Thursday we moved from our temporary apartment to our “real” one. I haven’t taken any photos of the apartment yet because we have boxes EVERYWHERE. The movers started bringing them in even before we made our way across town from the old place, and we walked in the front door to see the piano sitting there. How the piano made it upstairs likely will be a post of its own soon.
Back to the actual move, the one where we left D.C. …
Somewhere along the way I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could live blog this move?” But I probably would have thrown whatever electronic device I was using at more than one point during the process, so it’s just as well I didn’t.
The first glitch became apparent when we arrived at the airport: Lufthansa’s computer system was down. We stood in line for about two-and-a-half hours to check in for our flight to Munich. We also realized early in the wait that our flight would be delayed, which would almost definitely mean missing our connection to Milan.
The only humorous thing I remember is a comment from one of the women in line behind us, who asked one of her travelling companions why anyone would take a baby on an international trip. I don’t know whether her question was referring to us, but I wanted to pipe in and ask, “You think we’re choosing to do this? You think we do this for FUN?” But I managed to not talk to them at all.
The flight itself was rather uneventful. Owen slept with me holding him, Laura slept with her head on Kevin’s arm (painful, I’m sure, but at least he wasn’t holding her), there was minimal irksome chatter from passengers surrounding us.
And then we missed our flight in Munich by minutes and had to fill about four hours until our new flight. Owen saw to it that we spent part of this time driving our fellow waiting passengers crazy with his wailing.
But we finally made it to Milan – the second flight was mostly calm, too -- were met by one of our sponsors, Kristin, and made it to our temporary apartment. We spent less than a week there before moving to our “real” place, where it might take us two years just to unpack boxes and move unneeded items to our basement storage area. I will take and post photos as soon as some normalcy descends upon a room. Of course, we only have our household effects from Port of Spain and from storage – we’re still waiting on our unaccompanied air baggage and HHE from D.C. – so I don’t know how long “normal” will take.
We haven’t done many “fun” things yet – Owen was sick the first few days we were here, and then I got sick, too – but the time is coming. Laura asks every day when we can go to Venice. Kevin did take the train to Rome on Saturday, but that was just to drive back the car we bought from a diplomat down there. I got the impression he didn’t classify the long drive back as fun of any sort. But at least now we have a car.