We are staying at the Hotel Regno in Rome and it turns out, after spending a good 15 minutes trying to find the EasyInternet Cafe, it has an internet console. So Judi and I both put in €5 to get 2 hours of connection time while in Rome. Hopefully that will be sufficient.

So, how did everything go in the getting together stakes? Well, my own trip was pretty straight forward. After a 5 hour layover in Philly, we got started about 15 minutes late due to a connecting flight issue, but that made us an hour late getting through the queue for take off. So we got to Rome and hour later than scheduled. No matter, I thought, I’ll have less time to wait in baggage claim for everyone.

The flight itself was uneventful, and joyously, the plane was an Airbus A330, so each seat had a TV screen behind it and we could pick our own programming. I watched Hitch and Robots and a History Channel special on ice cream. And with my noise reducing headphones, I could actually understand the dialog!

So I arrived at 9:30am and the main group was to arrive at 10:20am. So not long to wait, right? Well… Firstly, the folks at Alitalia didn’t know what flight 1189 was. They assured me that the Northwest flight would be hovering around claim 8 when they arrived. So I waited & waited and no go. Then finally Northwest flight 66 out of Detroit showed up on the monitors as arriving at 2:02pm. Was that them? Well, I thought, I’ll wait for Tammy to come. Except, which flight was hers? FOr every US flight coming in, I scoured their respective baggage claims for Tammy, and never saw her. As it neared 2pm (I was very hungry by then and extremely tired) I finally saw Tammy. She was shocked to see me, figuring that we’d all headed on to the hotel. But the main group wasn’t there… Still, within half an hour, they showed up.

Due to circumstances which I’ll let judiang go into herself, I was surprised and delighted to see Judi there. I gave her a big hug and we all stood around waiting for bags to come through the chute. And they all came. Except Judi’s!! Bugger!

So, Judi goes to wait in line at the Alitalia help desk, only to eventually be told to go to the airport help desk. I was already waiting in line there and we stood there for another half hour waiting to get through – only to have the lady there say it was something Alitalia has to sort out. Another 15-20 minute wait at Alitalia and the lady there (different from the person Judi first talked to) got Judi’s details, et al. Hopefully she’ll have her luggage tomorrow! (Stupid Northwest!)

After we got done with that jive, we, along with Gary, Marcia and Tammy, took an airport shuttle to the hotel. The fellow driving was very nice and informative. And did a U-turn in front of the hotel to drop us off. The hotel is very nice. Skinny tub/shower unit, but very nicely remodeled place. And there’s a lift! (Only holds 3 people, but it’s glass-fronted.)

After everyone had time to decompress in their rooms, we gathered downstairs and then headed off to see the Pantheon. Then, while at Piazza del Navona, we ate at some of the tourist traps restaurants. Judi & I ate with Amy & Kathie at the Quattro Fiumi (4 Rivers) Cafe. I had rissoto with cream & prawns – very tasty. On our way to Trevi Fountain we stopped for Gelato and I had really decadent cioccoloto (chocolate) gelato. Mmmmmm! I tasted Jo’s caramel ice cream and it was wonderful too. Then we stopped at the fountain to throw coins in, get our photo taken by a charlatan, and watch all the people around it. Finally, we stopped at the Spanish Steps, which were neat to see at night, but might be even better in the daytime. (Only two of our party were hearty enough to climb the steps. I’m saving myself for tomorrow at St. Paul’s.)

It was on our way back from the Spanish Steps that Judi and I attempted to find the EasyInternet Cafe, but I took a wrong turning near the end of the journey and we decided to head back to the hotel instead of risk the place being closed (it was nearly 11pm). I got the bright idea about the Hotel’s internet access once we returned, and here I am now, typing this up.

Judi’s turn next!

Well, today’s the day! After almost 2 years in the preparation, I’m flying off to Italy today for 3 days in Rome and a week in Tuscany. It was in October of ’03 that our BW3 group started talking about renting a villa in Tuscany together, and we’ve had many meetings since then to figure on where and when and whom and all that. There will be 18 of us in the party. I invited judiang to be my roomie (we tried to see if elsaf could come as well, but it just didn’t work out for her – alas!) Most of the others are either current co-workers or former co-workers (and spouses, some of whom fit the current co-workers description as well). The only two who were unable to attend any of the meetings were Judi (the whole living in another state thing was a bit of a hindrance) and Kathie (who’s part of the non-co-workers contingent). Still, some of the folks going on the trip (Steve & Beth and Gary & Marcia) have met Judi, so it shouldn’t be all that bad for her.

Due to buying tickets later than I should, I’m flying in on a different flight than most of the folks. The only other one on a different flight is Tammy, who got a freebie flight and could only pick the dates. Judi, meanwhile, will meet up with the rest of the contingent in Detroit. I’ve given her photos of two of the guys and passed her photo around at the last meeting. Who knows, maybe John has made a “JUDI” sign to hold up for her. 🙂 I hope they do meet up, I think she’ll have fun chatting with these strange people we’re going to be spending 10+ days with.

I’m flying US Air (“If you’ve got time to spare, why not fly US Air?”) today, and theoretically should arrive about 2 hours before the main party. Let’s hope they’ve got their act together and this is, indeed, the case. (They’re the airline who left me stranded at Gatwick for a night and then Philly for another night on a Spring Break one year.) Tammy’s flight gets in about half an hour after the main group is supposed to arrive.

The goal is to head out from the airport in Rome to Rome proper to the Hotel Regno, where we’re staying. We’ll play around in Rome and Vatican City for a couple of days, then Saturday morning, 5 of our brave men will foolishly rent 5 cars and drive (in Rome!!!!!) to the hotel to pick the rest of us up. Then we’ll drive off to the villa which is near a small village near Cortona. It’s the Villa Francesco, which has a swimming pool!

While at the villa, we intend to do several day trips to places around the villa. A day in Florence, a day at the seaside, a day in Venice, etc. And hopefully some quality time by the pool (or rather, for me, in the pool). My goal is to swim every morning and every evening. We’ll see if I can manage that goal. Supposed to be sunny and in the high 80s (°F) throughout the trip. Sweet. 🙂 (OK, so high 80s is a bit warm for me, but I should be OK. It’s actually cooler than it’s been here the past week or so!)

We’ve no idea what sort of ‘net connection we’ll have while there. There might be internet cafes where we can report back in, but if not, you’ll just have to wait for my magnum opus when I return. You poor things! 😉

Anyhoo, be good to each other while we’re gone! Have fun, cuz we certainly intend to!

I’ve been in an unusually good mood for the last day or so. Little things have just been working out nicely for me. In particular, last night I finally got my Roku Soundbridge and my new PC to talk to each other successfully using Windows Media Connect. (It was all file permissions problems.)

Yesterday, I returned the video card and the power supply that I bought earlier in the month but later decided I didn’t need. Got cash back for the PS and the video card was placed back into my bank account. Sweet.

We’re pretty much ready for the Italy trip (which we leave for on the 19th) and I’m getting excited about that. Yesterday I sent off to judiang a packet of paperwork that we’d been collecting at our Italy meetings. This is going to be a fun trip! (So far, the weather is looking good – warm, but good!)

This morning, I was playing a little bit of City of Heroes when someone sent me a message wanting to know if I wanted to join in their power leveling team. Sure! Though I warned that I was cursed at being power leveled. (Power leveling is basically letting someone else do all the work and you getting XP – it’s a quick way to get to a higher level.) I’m now close to being level 42 (a key level on my way to level 50). Woot!

Now I’m sitting at mom & dad’s cabin at the Lake and drinking a grasshopper mist while I type this up. The weather is perfect and there’s a steady breeze into the 3-season room. We’re going to have grilled steaks & strawberry shortcake for supper. Life is GOOD! 🙂

When I first heard that folks were doing a movie on the old 60’s sitcom Bewitched, my first thought was “Woohoo! Maybe they’ll finally release the series on DVD!” And, as some of you might know, this is indeed what happened. When DeepDiscountDVD was having their latest 20% off sale (evil bastards!) the season 1 DVD set of Bewitched was one of my many purchases (indeed, the only TV series, for once). I popped disc one into my bedroom DVD player the other night so that Leo and I could watch some quality TV together (we like doing that) and watched the first two episodes.

The next day, I examined the paperwork which was in the DVD set more carefully and noticed they’d included a free ticket to see the Bewitched movie! So the Bewitched movie rewards me by getting the TV series released on DVD, and the DVD set rewards me with a free screening of Bewitched! How nice!

Yesterday, I decided that 3 hours was enough work for me, so after dad and I went out for Chinese Buffet, I went on to Piqua to the Cinemark at the Mall instead of heading back to work like poor (retired) dad did. I used my freebie ticket (woohoo! Saved $3.75!) and got in during the trailers. (Wow – Rent is coming to the movies? Neat trailer.) The movie was my kind of simple fun. I laughed, I cried, I had a good time. The lady doing Aunt Clara was perfect. And even Uncle Arthur was well done. Shirley MacClaine as Endora was inspired casting, as was Michael Cain as the Maurice-style character. I liked Will Ferrell better than either Darren (Darren was never my favorite character in the show – I wonder if he is even in the top 5?). But the most amazing casting coup was Nicole Kidman as the Samantha character! Wow! She even does a nose twitch! 🙂

What I liked best about the movie was that it treated the original series with respect. In particular, Elizabeth Montgomery was treated like the goddess she was. 🙂 There were a few scenes that I thought should have been in the film but weren’t; however, I enjoyed myself (and figure some of ’em will probably be on the DVD when it comes out – if they were ever filmed).

If you’re not a big fan of the original Bewitched series, I really don’t know what you’d think of the movie. If you did love the show as I did, this was a nice heartfelt tribute to a great sitcom!

Perhaps the worst time for me to shop are the times when I really don’t have a set shopping agenda. Today was one of those times. Merely going into Walmart for some milk and cream, I ended up finding some pajamas and a robe for my Italy trip. Oh, and some shirts. And a Gameboy Advance SP. And some anti-noise headphones (reasonably priced, I thought). But the real shocker of the outing was when I bought a skirt! Me???? A skirt?

People who know me best know just what a shocker this is. I am not a dress or skirt person. Jeans, shorts, slacks if I have to. That’s it. But for the Italy trip, I’ll need to be dressy from time to time, and this is a skirt that’s light, wrinkled already, and purple. I got 2 tops (also purple) to go with it, so that gives me two dressy outfits. With my Chacos on, no one ever need know that I’m not a dressy kind of gal. Of course, for most of the trip, I’ll be the typical American Tourist. 🙂

So anyhoo, my $2 milk turned out to cost me a hell of a lot more money. But I got lots of cool things in the process! (And even a skirt!!!)

PS – a very happy birthday to our own drake57!

Hope that those of you who celebrated had a great Independence Day today. We certainly did. Practically everyone from dad’s side of the family showed up for grilled chicken (and burgers & dogs). It was all good eats. I ate too much. I probably drank too much. But we all had a blast, the glow-in-the-dark necklaces & glasses were a hit, the sparklers were fun, and lots of neighbors were firing off illegal fireworks which were fun to hear & see. I’d be outside with mom & the girls by the fire, but I got eaten by mosquitoes too much so came inside for hydrocortizone & screen doors. 🙂

PS: Happy belated birthday to timjr!

After a bit of a late start today (where mother bought herself a new bike at the local bike shop), we went to Yellow Springs, one of my sister’s old stomping grounds from her college days. She wanted to show off the town to Rachel (and we all love shopping there, so we all went along too). We had lunch at Ha Ha Pizza, where I got a pesto, ricotta, mozarella, & tomato calzone, and everyone else got the lunch special (a slice of pizza with 2 toppings and a trip to the salad bar). They have a number of interesting toppings with 3/4s of our party getting the special got falafel on their slices. They even have a choice between white and whole wheat crust. It was very yummy. Oh, a Stewart’s cream soda rounded out my meal.

After lunch, we shopped around the town. I stopped in Mr Fub’s Party, a cool (but very small & cramped) toy store. Saw lots of cool things, but was a good girl and didn’t buy anything. We stopped in a number of shops – clothing, jewelry, booze, etc. While looking for Moody Shoes, the really cool shoe store in town, we found out it was gone! Awwww! So sad! We checked with another shop and they said the store was gone, not just moved. The store with the bongs, however, was still there. They didn’t have the big “Please don’t call these bongs!” signs like I remember, but they still had many disclaimers about their water pipes. And, damn, they were still beautiful pieces of art. Almost makes me wish I smoked to get some of those beautiful bongs water pipes.

We had a wonderful afternoon shopping in town, and when we were done, it was off to Young’s Dairy for ice cream. I actually saw Young’s Dairy on “The Best Of” on FoodTV once. Cool. It’s got really good homemade ice cream. And I just couldn’t decide what I wanted, so I was a bad gurl and got a triple scoop waffle cone. 1 peaches & cream, 1 chocolate peanut butter, and 1 chocolate fudge brownie. All three were wonderful. 🙂

Since I had the largest cone of the group, I was the last to finish. Everyone headed back to the car before I was done, so Amy stayed with me while I finished. “I hope they don’t leave without us,” she said. “They do have their favorite daughter with them.” “Yeah,” I agreed. “They got to choose her. We were thrust upon them.” 🙂 As you might guess, they didn’t leave without us. (Though Amy and I were trying to figure out how to commute from Yellow Springs to our jobs sans cars…)

On our way back from Yellow Springs, we stopped at Fulton Farms for some fresh produce. I actually bought several preserves, but mom bought fresh peaches and veggies. We got there just as they were closing. Amy was disappointed to discover it wasn’t the farm from her memories. It has changed a bit over the years (a bit more of a marketplace and less of a farm).

Once we were home, the folks mowed and trimmed the yard while we watched. Then we had salads, cheeses, nuts, and bread for supper. Oh yeah, and wine and beer for those who wanted it. (I tried the Zinfindel, but stuck with water.) Everyone was really tired after supper, so they all went to bed and I came home. I’ll probably play some City of Heroes before going to sleep. 🙂

Tomorrow we head for the Lake. And the four girls (mom, me, Amy & Rachel) are going to spend the night there. Should be fun! And on Monday, the Shorts are all coming for the 4th of July dinner. 🙂

For this Fourth of July weekend, Amy & Rachel decided to come visit us from Minnesota. Their plane was scheduled to arrive around 11pm tonight and we’d then spend quality family time until they left Tuesday. Earlier this week, however, Amy received word that all of the Nature Conservancy employees (of which she is one) would get Friday off. So the girls left early for the airport today and applied for standby tickets on an earlier flight to Ohio. And got it! I received a phone call around quarter to 11 saying they’d gotten their boarding tickets and would be arriving around 1pm. Woohoo!

I was, at the time, working on a computer in the business lab. My goal for the work day was to get half of the business lab computers cloned to their new specifications (they’ll be going into other classrooms this summer). However, with 2 bad CD-ROM drives and the three 3-com switches hooked together (a quicky replacement for a 16-port hub that died at the end of the school year) not playing nicely with Norton Ghost, cloning wasn’t working. When Amy called, I was fighting with a piece of elementary software that will be going on every elementary machine this summer. And then realized I hadn’t installed the updated version yet. Whoops! 🙂

So, I basically worked 2 fruitless hours today and then went home to pick up dad. Mom was working, and dad was only allowed to accompany me to pick up the girls as long as he had a miserable time (so sayeth mom). We didn’t have to wait long at the airport before they arrived, and then we headed off to Stop 8 to the Panera Bread there and had lunch. Dad made sure to have a miserable time. 🙂 Then we stopped at Krogers on the way home to pick up the groceries needed for snacks and supper. And we got home about half an hour before mom came.

I had this inspired idea last weekend that perhaps Amy and I could work together on making an Indian meal for everyone. I have this nice kitchen and all, and it’s good to have folks around who like to cook so that it gets used. (It’s one of the reasons why I love it when elsaf visits!) I worked on the tandoori chicken and Amy made the vegetable curry. Basmati rice, steamed pita bread (instead of nan), and fresh peaches rounded off the meal. For dessert, we’ll have strawberry ice cream which I made earlier this week. (Everyone was too full after supper for ice cream. So we’ll have it after the girls get done visiting one of our cousins.)

This has been a wonderful day for sisters. 🙂 (Crappy day for computers. I was having troubles with computers. The dentist’s office where dad & Granny were today was having computer troubles. AAA was having troubles when I was off getting my euros for my Italy trip. Just a bad day for computers.) Tomorrow, we’re off to Yellow Springs to shop and so Amy can show off her old stomping ground to Rachel. Yay! Cool toy store! Great shoe store! And probably some Ha Ha Pizza! Oh yeah, and that store that sells bongs. 🙂 (Yellow Springs is still stuck in the Hippie Years.)

The drive back from Wooster is, like the drive there, 3 hours (plus change). I left Wooster around 3:30 and got home at 8:50. Why so late? Well, this camp was by far the best B-WISER camp ever. But the drive home was by far the WORST drive home ever. Blech!

Construction on I-71 – of course, there’s usually construction on interstate highways. Areas of slowdown, but nothing major in the way of delays. 5 minutes max for the delay.

Sawmill Road – My usual rest stop on the way back from B-WISER is a trip to the MediaPlay just off Sawmill Road in Columbus. I take I-71 south to I-270 west and take the Sawmill Road exit. But today, EVERYONE was taking the Sawmill Road exit. And what’s worse is that there wasn’t anything at MediaPlay for me to buy! Wah! I miss my half-price computer books! (Well, I missed ’em, but my pocket book didn’t!) Still, the Sawmill Road rest was only about 10 minutes traffic and half an hour shopping or so.

After I-270 comes I-70. There was a bit of slowdown before I got to I-70, but once I was there, we all just speeded along west. And then, half an hour to home (well, just over that) we hit the BOTTLENECK FROM HELL!!!! To give you some perspective, I text messaged judiang about 10 times during my long, long wait. At one point, I hadn’t moved a jot between text messages that were about 15 minutes apart! It took one hour and 20 minutes to get out of that bottleneck – usually the same drive is less than 2 minutes. BLECH! Towards the end, it looked like it might have even been construction (my hope) but instead, it was a car accident (what I hoped it hadn’t been). A single white car, which had had the jaws of life used upon it. 🙁 I hope the people involved are OK! (Though the j-o-l is never a good sign.) I must admit that I was relieved when I saw it was a white car and not a gray van. Two of my camp co-workers go home the same route as I do and had left before me. They were in a gray van.

The whole time I was in the bottleneck, I was nursing a 24 oz Pepsi Cola. (I don’t normally drink caffeinated Pepsi, but for long drives, it’s best if I caffeine up.) So, of course, before we were out of the bottleneck, I needed to pee. Before I could get home to my kitty, I stopped at the McDonald’s in West Milton and used the restroom before getting supper for me (and Leo, it turns out). And then, finally, I was HOME! With Leo! Who was VERY happy to see me.

After refreshing Leo’s water and food bowls (nearly empty and empty respectively), I had my Big Mac & fries, and Leo stole a fry from me and happily munched on teeny pieces of burger that I pulled off for him. So we’re now happy that we’re together again! Woohoo! Oh, and as tired as I am, the hot chocolate at breakfast, Coca Cola at lunch, and the 24-oz Pepsi on the way home will make sure that I’ll not get any sleep tonight! 🙂

This year for B-WISER, the new co-directors decided to use Friday as a day for the girls to meet other women scientists and hear about their lives and ask questions. Plus, they only scheduled half a day of that, so we’ll do the mentors, have lunch, then have the final ceremony. Will probably leave here by 2pm. Woohoo! I getta see my kitty again!

With this all scheduled for Friday, that means we had only 4 teaching days. So we smooshed our two electricity days into one. We’ll do current electricity and static electricity today. I’m hoping to get the Van de Graaf working to its best potential (heh) today.

Well, last year at B-WISER, Carolyn and I discovered that the building generator is located right under our room. And the night before last, we were reminded of this when the power went out and the generator went on. Hell’s wiskers… Still, it didn’t go off until around 6:00am. I remember seeing the clock time of 6:20am, but the power was already off for the folks on the other side of the building. Oh, and we discovered that the main point of the generator is to generate noise, not electricity. I mean, when Carolyn went to take her shower, no hot water! (Heh, I had hot water for my shower.)

Another part of the joys of living in an old dorm are the bathroom experiences. Douglass is a co-ed dorm and each floor has 2 communal bathrooms. On the first floor, each bathroom has 2 showers and two toilets and 3 sinks. Last year, we had practically no water pressure for either shower, but the front one had more pressure. This year, the first shower has 0 water pressue (think running faucet, not shower) but the second shower is WONDERFUL. And I’ve always prefered the back shower anyhoo because there’s a lot more room.

In other years, we’ve had the joys of cold showers and undrinkable water. Whenever we come to camp, we just never know what we’re going to get until we come here. (At least Carolyn and I know that we’ll always have the room with the noise generator underneath us.)

We’ve received compliments from folks all over. One of the people who works on campus every summer (probably all year) said that our camp and the tennis camp have the politest students and that everyone on campus knows it. Cool. 🙂 Also, last night one of the girls said she was sad because tomorrow (that’s today now) was the last day of classes. And then camp would be over Friday. And she’d never get to see all her new friends ever again. So it looks like we’re doing a good job in the “make it friendly and fun!” department.