Old Wild West

Oh the weekend...time for rest and relaxation. This weekend was the exception. I got up at 8:30 and had breakfast by myself while I listened to the parents telling the boys to get ready for the swimming pool. Pat and Alberto had a conference for the weekend and had to leave a little before 10. Pat took the three of us to the swimming pool and then went to the conference. I watched the boys and was amazed by Fil cause he is a terrific swimmer. I had Olympic gold medals in my eyes watching him. I really hope he pursues swimming because it would be a good way to use his built up energy, plus he's not a very good team player so this would be a good sport for him. After swimming we took the tram back to our house. We had a really nice morning together walking around the city. When we got home we had a enough time to get ready for lunch and then we met Nonna Deana for pizza. There was a mother and son, about Fil's age, at the next table and they stared at me the whole time cause I was speaking English. I was trying to speak Italian because Nonna Deana doesn't understand any English. I got nervous, being under the spotlight and was resolved to eat my pizza in silence. When we finished, I gave Ruggie over to his grandma and Fil and I went home until we had to leave again for boy scouts. Once I dropped Fil off for scouts I took a bus to the center to meet Christiana. We went to this really small cafe called Olsens (Real Italian sounding I know) and had coffee and pie. Even though we live in the same building I hadn't talked to her in ages. It was great to catch up. After my 3 hour break, I went back to pick Fil up. I fixed mac and cheese and grilled fish. Barbara came over and we watched half of Peter Pan the Disney version before Fil had to go to bed. Babara and I went back to my room and watched another movie and then talked and laughed until 2 in the morning!

Sunday I still had to keep Fil so I got up again at 8:30 aand ate breakfast with the family and a friend, Monica, from Milan that was in town for the conference. We had a nice visit and then they left for the conference. I was excited that I had a chance to clean my room while Fil listened to music on his mp3 player. At 11:45 his grandmother came to take him for the afternoon...FREEDOM. I made a simple pasta lunch with eggplant sauce and then got ready for the day. I met Barbara and we went to the center to do a little shopping. I returned two books Alberto bought me and then we listened to these two amazing street preformers. One was playing the guitar and singing while the other was playing the drums, tamborine and the harmonica all at the same time!! Really entertaining. We met Andrea at 5 and we went to an art exibition at the old Fiat plant. The show was huge and had pieces from young artists from all over the world. You could also buy the art so it was fasinating for me because I know a lot of designers that go to these kind of things to buy art for their clients. I saw a few pieces I really liked but there was a lot of creepy art...which I have a hard time appreciating. After 2 hours of art we went to the shopping mall next door and ate dinner. We agreed on this awesome looking restaraunt called Old Wild West. It was decorated in the stereotypical western motif: Wagon wheel tables, totem pole doorways, wanted posters on the walls, latern light fixtures and my favorite....cover wagon booths you sit in!! I felt right at home as soon as we sat down (plus they were playing live latin music so it felt just like Booker on Fiesta night :-) I ordered the chicken and was really impressed cause it was thicker than a piece of paper-unlike most meat I've had here. The food was really good and for dessert we each had an American brownie. I had to explain to them what it was before it came out but they both loved it. It reminded me of a Little Debbie brownie but it was ok....it's hard to be Betty Crocker. After dinner we drove to the center to to look at the Christmas lights. A great end to a wonderful child free evening.

As we say in the wild west...I'm gonna hit the hay so talk to ya'll tomorrow!