Owen's favorite pasta

Living in Italy means having innumerable -- I'm not exaggerating -- choices when it comes to pasta. It's easy to get bogged down in the choices and, for someone like me who could eat pasta three meals a day if given the chance, it's not always a good thing. (Just ask Kevin, who isn't always fond of my meal-preparation decisions.)
What is a good thing, though, is pasta with vegetables inside it (and I'm not talking about ravioli). Barilla makes a few different kinds, and the one we've tried has carrots and tomatoes. It's an interesting color, and Owen really likes it. Even Laura will eat it.
I prefer it with pesto, of course, but I feel that way about everything.

I don't know I'd go that far

I was on a PTO-sponsored tour today (I'll post on that eventually, we've having some computer issues), and Owen was with me. Some of the women remembered him from the last tour we went on, and one of them came up to me after Owen had fallen asleep in his stroller.
She asked:
"What god do you pray to to have such a little angel?"
It did make me stop and think. Not about the god I pray to -- I think about Him all the time -- but about how lucky I am to have such a (generally) low-maintenance toddler who is willing to sit in his stroller and be wheeled around town for a couple of hours looking at churches and other Renaissance-era buildings and statues featuring Napoleon's backside.
He's not always angelic, of course, but he is a blessing.

Fuzzy math

A few weeks ago, we let Laura get a new Nintendo DSi to replace the one that disappeared into the depths of our apartment in D.C. (No, I never did figure out what really happened to it: lost, stolen, eaten by blizzard fairies. Who knows?)
Because DSis are costly and Laura didn't have the money for it (unlike last year when she bought the first one), we all agreed Kevin and I would pay for it and that she'd pay us back by doing extra chores and such. And she has done some things to lower her balance, but she still has quite a bit to go.
So I wasn't thrilled last night when, to deal with a variety of things that needed to be paid for today, I was in search of euros in small amounts. Laura had a 10 euro note, which she handed over without a fuss -- but then said, "Don't forget you owe me 10 euros."
To which I responded, "Don't forget you owe me $115."
I feel certain she will, though, at least until she's reminded again.

Adventures in northern Italy: Vicenza

Over the weekend we went to Vicenza, and this time we saw things not attached to the Army base. Kevin had seen these things while with a congressional delegation a couple of months ago, but they were new to the rest of us.
Presenting Villa Almerico-Capra, also known as Villa Rotonda:Look familiar? It was designed by Andrea Palladio, whose works influenced the construction of the White House and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Many of his buildings are concentrated in and around Vicenza; it's even an UNESCO World Heritage site. He died in 1580 before this villa was finished, but his replacement kept most of his ideas.
None of this mattered to Owen as he led us up the stairs, though.
Photos aren't allowed inside the house, which I think is a travesty considering the amount of money you pay to go in. But no one asked me. It seems this cat we saw after we came out of the house might agree with me, although he should have known that wasn't an original flower pot.
The statues around the grounds are lovely.
And there are lovely views, including of Monte Berico.
Later in the day we ventured into Vicenza's town center, where the main attraction is the Teatro Olimpico. It's the oldest surviving theater in the world and also was designed by -- wait for it -- Palladio. He kept busy, it seems. The arch in the center is known as the royal arch, and the sets on stage are original (from 1585). There was an oil lamp system to light the houses from within, but obviously they don't use that anymore due to risk of fire. They did demonstrate the acoustics and lighting system while we were there, though, and it was pretty impressive.
I thought it was pretty cool with a red sky.
So, there you have it. The two biggest sites of our weekend in Vicenza. It's a great little town.

Rome Temple groundbreaking

Our church -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- broke ground this weekend for a temple in Rome. It will be a huge blessing for Italian members and others who are able to take advantage of it. There will be a visitors center, too, so anyone who likes can visit the temple grounds and learn about it.
The construction isn't expected to be completed until 2013, so it's likely we will have moved away by the time it's done. It'd be great if we still were here, though.
You can read more about the temple here. General information on temples, including why they're so important, is here.

Things you find on your camera after you've handed it to a grumpy toddler

We went to Vicenza for the weekend. More on that to come. For now, here's a picture I found on my backup camera after Owen used it as a toy during part of the drive Friday night. I think these are streetlights, probably along the A4 but maybe from after we exited at Vicenza Est. Or maybe I'm totally off and there were aliens I missed somehow.

We have identified the enemy, and it is celery

Last night we were having shepherd's pie for dinner. Silly me, being all frugal and vegetable-loving and all, had included some diced celery I'd stuck in the freezer awhile back.
So as we sat at the table eating -- at least Kevin and I were eating -- I noticed Laura was meticulously removing the celery dices from her food before putting it in her mouth. This didn't come as a shock or anything, although she does normally eat celery, but I asked her what the problem was.
"The celery is crunchy, and eating it makes me shiver."
So there you have it.

Going places and seeing things

OK, so the places I've been going are in Milan. Actually, it's just one place: the doctor's office. I had an American prescription for which there isn't a local equivalent, so I had to see a doctor to get a new one. Some scheduling issues meant going to her office twice in the past two days. As irksome as that was, it meant walking through areas of town I haven't been. Yesterday I observed; today I actually pulled out the camera.
This is San Babila. It was built in the 11th century to replace a fourth-century basilica. The bell tower and facade are much newer, but it's still pretty amazing looking.

I really wanted to go inside Santa Maria della Passione, as the paintings inside are supposed to be remarkable, but it was closing for the midday break as I went by. It's Milan's second-largest church and has an interesting octagonal dome you can't see in this photo. I'm hoping to make my way back over soon.

All because of the State Department blog roundup

This week's State Department blog roundup theme is "Where we are." As a bonus, we're trying to get pink in our photos in honor of Jen Dinoia, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
This isn't a great photo -- YOU try getting a better one under threat of being trampled by shopping tourists -- but I happened upon this window scene in Montenapoleone yesterday. It's the heart of Milan's fanciest shopping district, and I was just passing through. But the reflection of the Milan street clock in the window says "Here," and the horse is pink for the very purpose I needed.
I definitely should get some kind of prize.

New York Times Style Magazine on Milan

This is all kinds of interesting in a "What people think of when they think Milan" sort of way. In reality, all of these things are right outside our door but really out of our price range. Some of the restaurants might be doable, I suppose, if we were in the mood to splurge, and the shops might be fun to visit. But as is true even when we're "home" in the U.S., it's not like I'm ever out shopping for Armani.
What I think is the most interesting quote in the entire magazine is from Giorgio Armani, though, an excerpt of a sort of letter to the Milanese.
"As the Italian capital of financial activity and the world capital of fashion, design and opera, Milan derives its unique strength, I believe, from its capacity to promote a continuous flow of creative ideas and harness them into successful commercial ventures."
(He goes on to mention Expo 2015, the planning for which one of our friends from church is involved in.)
Fascinating stuff.

Arco della Pace

I took these photos last weekend but never got around to posting them. I love this monument, although I've never been to the top of it because I can't figure out when the stairs are open. I think it's cool that the chariot originally faced France -- the whole thing was Napoleon's idea -- but now faces the center of town.
This is one of the sculpted scenes on the interior of the arch. If you look really closely you can see the wire that's been stretched over it to keep birds off. Milanese monuments have to deal with copious amounts of pollution, so it's only fair they be protected from bird excrement.

Lessons learned in the Foreign Service (Halloween edition)

When people join the Foreign Service, we often tell them they should keep the original packing materials for their electronics and small applicances. Although it's a pain to store those TV boxes, it's great to have them when it comes time to move the TVs yet again. And my KitchenAid mixer has made no fewer than five foreign and domestic journeys in its original box and styrofoam.
But it's not just about the well-being of our beloved household equipment. Here's what it's really about: Halloween costumes.
You see, this week I was in need of some styrofoam. And it's not like there's a Michael's around the corner like there was when we had to build this. And although I had a chance to order a Statue of Liberty torch back when I got Laura's costume, I didn't because I thought "Oh, it won't be hard to make one."
So there I was, stripping the cover off a fake Hannah Montana microphone to pilfer the small PVC pipe inside. Covering it in flexible craft foam left over from some previous project. Coloring it with multiple markers to get the shade just right. Wrapping it in packing tape to keep the color from bleeding (because packing tape is something I'm almost guaranteed to always have on hand).
But that was just the handle. I needed something for the base and flame.
A humidifier came to the rescue. Or, more specifically, the styrofoam protecting the humidifier. Two small discs -- which Owen tried to eat like cookies -- will be the base, and an oddly-shaped piece will work fine for the flame. All carefully sawed out and sculpted with a paring knife, of course.
I'll post photos when it's all done. For now, I'll leave you with the lesson of why to save original packing materials.

One is the loneliest number -- especially when it comes to functioning chandelier bulbs

There is a not-quite-ugly chandelier in our living room. It has fifteen spots for light bulbs. When we moved in at the end of June, seven of the bulbs were working. Over the past three months, we would notice when one of those would burn out, and we looked for replacements a few times but never bought any. We didn't consider it a lighting-related emergency until there were only three bulbs left, though. (My solution was to move a lamp in from the TV room.) And then last week I noticed this:
Shopping for bulbs meant carrying one of the burned-out ones around with me. But I'm cheap, so I never actually bought any new ones.
Until Monday, that is. Kevin was off work for Columbus Day, and we were shopping at Carrefour. We returned home with 10 little friends for that lonely bulb, and now we have this:
Yes, there still are some empty spots, but it's plenty bright enough. And 11 isn't so lonely a number.

It was a dark and spooky afternoon -- in my basement

I knew we owned Halloween decorations. I remembered seeing Halloween decorations among the who-knows-how-many tons of belongings we have with us here. I was pretty sure I knew exactly where in the basement storage room the Halloween decorations had come to settle.
So this quest was going to require the use of these scary-looking keys:
And a descent to the center of the Earth -- uh, I mean down these stairs:
And a walk down this hallway, which admittedly doesn't look very ominous with the lights on:
The light in our storage room is burned out, so I had to carry a flashlight. With its help, I hit the jackpot:
Just to clarify, Owen wasn't stored in the basement. But hauling him down with me did make it a bit harder to hold on to the flashlight.
And now we have Halloween decorations in our apartment, including this doorway bat that allows us to still use the peephole if we so desire.

Halloween preview

As soon as I saw this costume, I knew what Owen was going to be for Halloween.

Adventures in northern Italy: Como

On Saturday we took a quick trip to Como, which is very close to Milan and on the southern edge of Lake Como. It was overcast and foggy, so there weren't a lot of great photos to be had. But it still was fun.
On the train up, Laura asked whether we were going to go fishing. I'm not sure where she got that idea -- it's not like she's ever been fishing -- but we did see these guys.

We took the funicular to Brunate, which is a little way up the mountainside. The entrance to the funicular is cool, and we had a decent lunch up top. But we'll probably skip this on future trips because the waiting in line just wasn't worth it. Kevin did have an interesting view on the way back down, though.
The Volta Temple was on the 10,000 lira note before Italy switched to the euro. Not that I've ever seen a 10,000 lira note. The building is named for Alessandro Volta, the Italian physicist whose work led to the creation of the electric battery. Now you know where volts got their name.
I'm all about educating people, you know.

San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore

I hadn't been here until the PTO tour I went on a couple of weeks ago, but I'm sure we'll be going back lots of times. Owen and I stopped in for a quick visit Friday afternoon and snapped these photos. It's somewhat close to our house and, being that it's no longer used as a Catholic church, more open than many other churches in terms of areas you can see and photograph.
I think San Maurizio's frescoes are some of the best anywhere. They look similar to works by Leonardo da Vinci because they were done by his students and followers. Of the walls whose artists are known by name, most were done by Bernardino Luini and his sons, particularly Aurelio. The colors are vibrant, most of the scenes are intact, and the subject matter is easily identifiable. I could spend hours here -- but of course can't due to the constant companionship of a certain toddler.
This is my favorite, a Noah's ark scene in one of the chapels in the nuns' section.
This portion of ceiling, also in the nuns' section, is a perfect example of the vibrant colors I mentioned.
And I like this little angel, which isn't really part of a bigger scene.
All in all, it's amazing to me these are almost 500 years old.