As you can tell from the picture, Louie is getting bigger and today he got his first grooming. Every night he sleeps in a crate in our room. Like any dog they make noises in the middle of the night, and he is sure to try and wake me up around 6:30 for food. Last night was not different in the noises, however there was something of interest that did happen.

We’ve been back from Italy about two weeks and are still trying to get it all together. It’s a big transition that I’ve made even more challenging by trying to get a new dog.
I dragged the kids down to the Franklin County Animal Shelter where we adopted a 2 year old Shepherd mix. We tried. We even extended her name from Princess to Princess Kelly Rocket Shoes. But she had some emotional problems I couldn’t overcome and it was a horrible afternoon that I took her back to the shelter …

Last night was to be our last night in Italy and the kids got gelato. Today we woke up very early to catch our taxi to the airport, and arrived early only to find out that our flight was canceled. Ironic, isn’t it, if you remember that our flight to Italy was canceled. The reason for the cancellation this time is the ash cloud from the Volcano that can’t be named, because no one can pronounce it.
At the airport we reserved a flight to Paris to leave this afternoon, and …

Warning – long post ahead.
This last weekend we travelled south to Tuscany! Despite the trip’s beginning, the end turned out well.
We left Bologna on a dreary note, namely rain. It was soured further by a poor experience renting a car from Eurocar – I advise finding someplace else to rent a car from. Eurocar was costly and the man who “helped” us was discourteous and unkind. To top it off, driving out of Bologna left us fearing for our lives as we interacted with Italian drivers. The whole morning …

There are times when I regret taking my own advice.
After my last venture to Venice, two years ago, I suggested to my readers that there were too many bridges with too many stairs to make bringing a stroller worth it. At every bridge we had to carry the stroller and the child up and over.
That advice was made when I had a child who weighed half of what he does today, and couldn’t run nearly as fast. Believe me, a fearless 40 lb three-year-old, surrounded by murky, green water (and …

As if this week wasn’t exciting enough, what with LJ’s race and our leaving for Venice tomorrow, we went and visited the Towers of Bologna.
You can see from the picture that there are two main towers, one larger in the back, the other leaning dangerously to one side. We climbed the one in the back. There are actually many more towers than these in Bologna, but these are the two for the tourists and one of them you can climb.
An interesting thing about Bologna is that there are many …

By Laura
Long before coming to Italy for the spring, I had repeatedly searched for some sort of race to participate in to prepare for the Cleveland Half-Marathon in May (which I still hope to run). I found two decent races – marathons in Milan and Rome – but the timing didn’t work. Imagine my surprise when I found that a 10.8 kilometer race was happening right here in Bologna this weekend! I couldn’t quite figure out how to register or what time it started, but yesterday I found a nice …

My allergies have kicked in high gear and I would be miserable except for some medicine we found here. It’s made me a little speedy or something. But overall I am doing great.
Sunday we rode the train about 35 minutes to Florence. We took 1st class on the way down in the Euro-Star. On the way back we tried 2nd class and found it to be very nice.)
I’ll attach some photos of our day to this entry, in gallery form at the bottom. We had a great time all-in-all.
The …

Two days ago the day was pleasant. We found ourselves suddenly inside an amazing building and then we walked into what used to be the room where they taught anatomy at Bologna University. We were in the five hundred year old Anatomy Theater. Encased in wood, with amazing wooden statues all around, including depictions of fabled beasts attached to the ceiling, the room centered around a slab of marble where they dissected bodies.
Later we went to a park, where we came across a place where the kids could drive Go-Carts. …

It was my birthday at the start of this month.
I actually had several events that could be counted as parties, one of which included cookies layered with icing. Here Griffin is using the cookie as a vehicle for distributing icing. He doesn’t actually eat the cookie. I had fun at all the events, and I want to thank everyone who gave me wishes and good tidings on my birthday. Thank you