8:40am (I think) My watch says 2:40am and I think Italy is 6 hours ahead. [Wow, sometimes I’m actually right about things!] We’re flying over the mountains. Alps? Could be. [Probably not – I haven’t a clue WRT geography.]
I didn’t sleep a whole lot during the night. I watched Hitch and Robots and then a History Channel special on Ice Cream. Tried to sleep, but couldn’t, so I listened to Unregenerate!, the latest 7th Doctor audio. Not McIntee’s best work, but not his worst, either. The movies, BTW, were fun.
For supper they served us a choice of BBQ beef w/ mashed potatoes and green beans or tortelini. I went with tortelini. Pretty mediocre, but the cookie was good. Plus they had raw carrots for munching on. Breakfast has been a measly buttermilk donut and milk. Wasn’t bad, just measly.
Well, I wonder if judiang made it to (or is on her way to) Amsterdam. Here’s hoping “yes!” to that and a further “yes!” to getting to Rome. I hope they look after her bag! [The irony, of course, being that Judi’s luggage most likely went to Amsterdam. Judi, meanwhile, was enroute to Rome.]
So far the flight has been smooth and uneventful. Hope the others are having a similar flight. Wonder if their entertainment was as good as mine. [It wasn’t, bwa ha ha ha!]
11:20am Sitting in International Baggage Claim waiting for everyone to arrive. The Northwest Flight number is different from the one on Judi’s itenerary – unless there are two flights to Rome from Detroit. And it doesn’t arrive until after 2pm! Unfortunately, I don’t know which airline is Tammy’s (I suspect Delta). [I suspected correctly.] So I’m sitting and waiting and hoping someone comes along that I recognize.
Boy am I sleepy!
1:50pm Still no sign of Tammy. I’m running out of options (flights). Man, if the 2:02 NWA flight isn’t the one that everyone else is on, I dunno what I’ll do. I guess I’ll take the €8 train to Roma and a cab to the hotel. I was rather hoping to meet up with Tammy since she might know more about the other flight time.
No sign of any flights in from Amsterdam on the list of upcoming arrivals. So prospects of Judi are getting more vague. And hell, if the Detroit flight ended up being so much later, surely they could have gotten her to the airport on time for its departure.
My own time in was fine. Thanks to the 15 minute delay in getting started, we ended up being one hour late landing. But customs went smoothly and I picked up my suitcase without a hitch. Nice to know at least one of the 18 made it to Rome!
[More wittering on continues. I was too tired to read, but apparently, not too tired to worry and witter…]
3:30pm Yay! Everyone’s here! Even Judi! Tammy’s flight was delayed 2 hours due to storms in Atlanta, and the Detroit flight was doing a US Air WRT bad lights going off, lots of Tarmac waiting, and stuff like that. [Did I ever write about my US Air flight from hell in this journal? Don’t think so – it’s a real chuckler – now…] Unfortunately, Judi’s bag did NOT make it. So I’m standing in the lost luggage line while Judi waits in the Alitalia line.
Here’s hoping we get out of here and quickly! I’m hungry!
8:12pm Sitting at Quattro Fiumi Cafe at the Piazza Navona. We just had an expensive ass meal, but it was very good and we were very hungry. We’ve been using Judi’s cell phone to call friends and family. Judi and I had supper with Amy & Kathie. Now we’re just waiting on the bill (which will come eventually).
After standing in line for Judi’s suitcase issue, we were told that we had to go back to the Alitalia queue, so we waited some more. Gary, Marcia, and Tammy waited for us and we took an airport shuttle to the hotel for €18 each. (I put €15 and will buy Judi gelato later to reimburse the difference.)
The hotel is really nice and we have a window over the street. Tammy and John have the room above us and they have a balcony – the luckies!
We saw the Pantheon today before coming to Piazza Navona. Neat domed building.
Judi says “zzzzzzzz” and “Ciao, baby!” 🙂
So, a bit of Rome, at last! After this point, the dates and times on the entries have little to do with the actual events as recorded. Finding time to write things up wasn’t easy, because I managed to fill my days quite nicely with sightseeing and swimming and stuff like that. And I’ve just noticed in reading ahead, I really did Rome a disservice in my journal. I have very little actually written about my Rome times. My LJ entries that I posted had more than my paper journal! Well, maybe tomorrow I’ll try to remember everything that we did at Vatican City.
I have another photo from the trip, too. Trevi Fountain, which we saw our first night in Rome, after we left Piazza Navona. This photo, however, was taken a couple of nights later. But it still looked the same.
Many of us (if not all) tossed coins into Trevi Fountain to assure a safe trip home and another trip back to Rome. And it helped me get rid of a couple of US quarters that were threatening to mix with my euros.
*opens mouth, catches site of your icon* … *closes mouth, tries to remember what she was saying* … Hee heee. Wiggy. *WigSquee*
Oh beautiful, magnificent Trinalin, if it’s not too much trouble, could you please read my short into into Back Titration and tell me if it’s all correct and sense-making-ey? Back titration is an indirect form of volume analysis which may be used in circumstances when titration proves impossible due to the properties of the chemicals involved. When the substance being analyzed is highly volatile, a weak acid or base, or insoluble, titration proves unfeasible and back titration is used. By adding an excess reagent to the material being examined, the aforementioned confounding factors are eliminated and an unhurried and accurate titration may take place. Take, for example, the analysis of a substance containing a weak and volatile acid. Titration would give inaccurate results due to the fact that some quantity of the acid is likely to have evaporated before the titration procedure is complete. By following the process of back titration, evaporation will cease to be a problem. An excess quantity of strong base would be measured and then added to the substance the instant it comes into contact with air. The acid cannot evaporate as it must react with the base, therefore no acid is lost. The substance will now consist of the products of the acid/base reaction, and the remaining base excess. By titrating this substance with a stronger acid of known quantity and concentration, the volume of the excess base can be measured, thus the volume of the base which reacted with the acid becomes evident. The original weak acid’s concentration can be calculated using this figure. *insert diagram here* Back titration is used in many industries to measure the concentration of chemicals in various products. The Australian wine industry, for example, is renowned for knowing the exact concentration and volumetric content of its wines. A redox reaction followed by a back titration are the key tools in ensuring that not too much oxygen is mixing with the fermenting wine. By using back titration as a tool, the winemakers can detect and take steps to prevent the ethanol in the wines from reacting with oxygen and producing ethanoic acid (CO3 COOH), which spoils the wine. Do you know where I could find a diagram of back titration?
I wasn’t entirely sure what back titration was (been so long since I hit it in college) but your explanation helped me to understand the process. So, not too shabby. As for the diagrams, I did some googling and didn’t have any luck. So I wish you luck there!
P.S. Spiffy fountain! Does it have submerged lights to make it glowy?
Yup – it’s one of the prettiest out there. 🙂 Certainly one of the most famous fountains in the world. (OK, so I hadn’t heard of it until we were planning this trip, but I’m not as sophisticated as some folks…)