Getting Our Opera On

I’m not going to say much about the Opera except that it was beautiful.  Verona is a ridiculously cute city that we plan on visiting again.

The famous Verona Arena

Micah waiting for Cecilia to pick up the tickets

The schedule.  We saw the first performance of Turandot of the season

 

Waiting for the show to start

More waiting

 

Cecilia and her friend Melissa

Cecilia pouting because she was given tonic water instead of regular water.

 

View of town square from the top of the Arena

The finale!

We had a great time at the Opera.  We’re starting to feel like super fancy people.  I mean who goes to the Opera in Sydney AND Verona?  While there were a few tourists at the show, most of the audience seemed to be locals.  It was nice to take part in a not-so-touristy activity.  We never go to the Opera at home but if I lived here, I’d get season tickets.  Our tickets were are about 27 Euros a piece.  Not too shabby. 

We try to go to local events when we travel.  If we’re traveling in the States, I always check to see if there is a baseball or basketball game we can attend.  It seems like when we are abroad we try for more artsy type events.  I wish we had been able to get tickets to an Aussie Rules match when we were there last summer.  Oh well…

Today we’re trying to come up with indoor activities since a storm is coming.  Tomorrow we’re off to Cinque Terre and Genoa for a few days. 

The Green Machine Goes To Asiago

We call my sister’s car the Green Machine.  It’s a two door, light green, no air conditioning Hyundai hatchback.  In the States it looks weird and out of place but here it totally fits in.  Cecilia learned to drive a manual car just before arriving here.  Actually, Micah gave her lessons back in Seattle.  We were a little worried about her skills but we didn’t need to be since she now drives like an Italian (not sure if that’s good or bad). She’s a pro but still gets a little nervous up hills and mountains. 

We were driving around when she said we were taking the Green Machine up the mountain to Asiago.   With a lot of backseat encouragement she made it up the mountain fine.  There were a few scary moments when drivers headed down and zoomed past us on narrow steep curves.

Asiago is a really cute village.  It’s a strange but great mix of Germany/Switzerland and Italy.

Town Hall

Cecilia enjoying Asiago.

The town church

We wandered around the town for a while and then decided to walk up to the WWII memorial.  It was a little overcast but it seemed to make for good pictures.

Micah and Cecilia headed up the stairs

The memorial.

 

Micah and I posing over the town

Besides being famous for it’s cheese, Asiago is also famous for a type of cured meat called Speck.  We bought some for lunch and stopped on the way down the hill to document the altitude.

The view from the top

The Green Machine

We stocked up on meats and cheeses to enjoy while watching USA vs Slovenia at lunch.  This evening we’re headed to dinner and the opera in Verona.  We’re very excited.

We really loved Asiago and are glad Cecilia agreed to drive to it.  It’s a town we would have probably skipped if we didn’t have access to a car.  It take 45 minutes to drive there from her house but takes 4 hours to get to via train.  It makes us wonder what other little towns we’ve missed out on during our travels because we didn’t rent a car.

Are you a foot/public transport traveler or a drive/rent-a-car traveler?

Meeting Williams, Sonoma and Tiffany

Ciao Friends!  I’ve been Italy about 36 hours and am loving it.  The sun is a little intense but that’s easily rectified with a scoop or twelve of gelato.  May I suggest the cantaloupe?

My sister and I had an an easy today.  Mostly driving around and shopping.  This morning Cecilia told me she wanted to take me to specialty pottery store.  I agreed but I wasn’t sure it would be for me.  I don’t know if you noticed but our style is a little bit more modern than it is Italian or French Country.

Um, the store was amazing.  I mean just look.

 

Here are some of my favorites:

 

I really loved the basket and wanted it.  Then I turned it over and saw this

So apparently the factory/studio we went produces tableware for Willams Sonoma, Tiffany’s and a few European retailers.  And it turns out the basket was less than $30!

I ended up picking up a few things…

I got these for Thanksgiving.  I don’t usually invest in dishes I can only use once a year but I couldn’t pass on the price.  Each plate was only $2.50!  They will be perfect for sides.

I bought these 2 Tiffany’s platters that sort of go with the plates above.  They were only $15 for both.  Such a deal!

Our place settings at home are a simple white without a printed or carved design.  I’ve been keeping my eye out for fun accent dishes to dress them up.  I found these really cute dessert plates I’m sure will turn up at Anthropologie or something.  I liked the pink/orange ones featured above but they were a little too girlie.  I know, blue lace is just as girlie.

And of course, I had to get the the The ceramic basket.  I also got a few other things for Christmas presents. 

I know what you are thinking, something along the lines of me being nuts, right?  Don’t worry.  We’re not carrying this back to Seattle in our luggage.  My sister is going to be back in October and is going to bring my goodies back for me.  Amazing!!  OK, not entirely amazing since I won’t get to use any of it until October, but it’s totally worth it.

So, are you a fancy china/place setting kind of person or you like us and go for simple with fancy accessories?

Italia Bound!

OK, now you can stop feeling sorry for us. We are getting the heck out of dodge for 3 weeks and headed to Italy. I know, I know. I can feel the hate and jealousy through the screen. My sister is finishing up her 2 year stay in Vicenza in northern Italy this fall. Her husband is in the Army and based there. She’s been trying to get us to visit for a long time and we’ve wanted to for a long time but the house and that pesky wedding got in the way.

We’re both super excited. Neither of us has been to Italy in over 10 years. I studied in Florence for the summer in 1998 and haven’t been back since. It will be nice because we’re older and for the most part not backpacking or roughing it. We’re staying with my sister and doing mostly day trips. We’re sticking almost exclusively to Northern Italy. I think the furthest south we’ll be in Italy is Genoa. We have a few multiple day trips; one to Cinque Terre and one to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I’ve wanted to go to Dubrovnik since I was 18 years old and I’m finally getting to go!

image of Cinque Terre

image of Dubrovnik

image of Verona Arena

image of Padua

We’ve planned day trips to Slovenia, Padua, Lake Como and Venice. We’ve got tickets to the opera Turandot at the Verona Arena, a day of Olive Oil and Wine tasting scheduled and few local Sagras (food festivals) to attend. My sister planned the entire trip for us and despite the schedule, left 3 or 4 days free for us to explore on our own. After the warmth, we’re headed north to London for 48 hours with some old friends (again, from when I was 18 years old) and my family.

It’s going to be a lovely trip. Warm, relaxing and cat-free. We can’t wait. I head out today and Micah comes out mid-next week. We’ve got our house sitters all lined up, our mail on hold and our bags packed. YAY!!!  If you have any Northern Italy suggestions, please send them our way!

Have a great weekend! And don’t worry, we’ll have a few posts from Italy…if we can manage it!

Flowers Make Everything Look and Feel Better

It’s been a rough morning.  The kitties were at it early and I watched in horror as they dug and tried poop around some newly planted rose bushes Momager gave us.  I went charging out the door hissing and looking for rocks to throw but of course the kitty just looked at me and didn’t move until a headed toward the hose. 

In addition to that, DPD has managed to lose all the paperwork related to the slope on our property and my sister’s empty lot.  Of course we need that paperwork to complete our final inspection which should have happened last week and then again today.  Even our Geotech is frustrated and he’s got the patience of a saint.  I mean he has to deal with us AND Dadtractor. 

But we’re trying to look on the brightside.  Micah and the Tailenders did an awesome job today on the Marty Riemer Show (official podcast of Bumbershoot!) and it’s also Micah’s last teaching day of the 2009-2010 school year. 

Anyway, flowers.  This morning I was grabbing my lunch after chasing down the rose killing kitty and noticed our mantel.  It looked so happy and peaceful with the recent addition of flowers.  Who knew a little stealing from Momager’s garden could make such a difference?

Before:

After:

So pretty and it cost me nothing.  I love raiding her cat-less garden!

 

We’re trying to get through today by thinking happy thoughts about the next 3 weeks of sun, exploration and relaxation!Come back tomorrow to find out where we’re headed!

Sunday Suppers : Zucchini Muffins

I didn’t do much cooking on Sunday since we had piles of food leftover from Dani’s birthday party.  I a lot of it away and tried to used what I could.  We had so many gallon bags of veggies and we can only eat so many in a day.  We also had a bunch of Cheesecake topping (almonds, syrups, berries and chocolate chips) from the cheesecake bar.  I know, cheesecake bar.

I found this recipe off Cooking Light and modified it a bit by adding a 1/4 cup of chocolate chips.  The zucchini was already pre-cut, so I just threw 1 1/3 cups of it into my mini food processor and pulsed a few times.  I think I prefer the chunks to shredded  zucchini now.

Before:After:

I had to try one while they were warm and it was SOOO GOOD!  Really!  Very moist and chocolaty.  I had one for breakfast this morning and it was still very moist.  This may be my new go to Zucchini bread recipe!  I omitted the sugar/cinnamon topping.

Enjoy!

Kathie’s Zucchini Muffins w/Catherine’s Twist

Ingredients

• 4.75  ounces  whole-wheat flour (about 1 cup)

• 3  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 2/3 cup)

• 1/2  cup  sugar

• 1  teaspoon  ground cinnamon

• 1 1/4  teaspoons  baking powder

• 1/2  teaspoon  baking soda

• 1/4  teaspoon  salt

• 1 1/3  cups  shredded zucchini

• 1/2  cup  fat-free milk

• 2  tablespoons  canola oil

• 2  tablespoons  honey

• 1  large egg

• Cooking spray

• 1  tablespoon  sugar

• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cinnamon

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Weigh or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine whole-wheat flour and next 6 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine zucchini, milk, oil, honey, and egg in a small bowl; stir until blended. Make a well in center of flour mixture; add milk mixture, stirring just until moist. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.

3. Combine 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; sprinkle over tops of muffins. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans immediately; cool on a wire rack.

Catty VS Kitties. Part Deux

OK, where did we leave off? Ah yes, a little over a week ago I discovered cat poop on top of the chicken wire cover on our garden. Frustrated, I called Animal Control back and told them I was ready to lay traps. They offered it before but we thought maybe a visit from the Animal Control Officer would convince the neighbors to downsize their kitty population. After that failed, I was ready for Animal Control to flex some muscle.

Micah knew the traps wouldn’t appear right away and they wouldn’t keep the kitties out of the veggie garden, so he put this together for me.  Look!  Radishes are coming in.  So are beans and corn!

It’s huge and not at all inviting. He said he came home one day and found one of the kitties sitting in front of it with the look of defeat on its face.

Anyway, that was a week ago. I was back to stalking our front lawn with the garden hose and hissing at kitties through any one of our 26 windows. Yesterday afternoon, I heard a knock at our door at it was the Animal Catcher. He said that the Animal Control Officer spoke with the Mom next door and it was clear she wasn’t going to cooperate. AC (that’s how I’m going to refer to the Animal Catcher) was told that the Mom was not happy at all. That she wasn’t going to help catch the cats or hand them over. She said they were semi-feral cats that they feed. Make note of that last statement. When we saw the cats being taken away a few week back, they going to being fixed. The Animal Control Officer was able to convince the family of fixing the kitties which is a HUGE accomplishment. When Animal Control realized that reasoning with the family wasn’t possible, they agreed it was time to lay some traps.

As AC and I were filling out paperwork, he asked me about the property damage and what kinds of things we tried to deter the kitties. He agreed that we put a lot of effort into keeping them off our property and assured me that this was the only option (bless him!). Basically, he would lay the trap and when we noticed a cats was trapped, we would call and someone would come to pick up the cat. If we couldn’t call before 7:30 pm, we’d have to either let the cat go or put the trap in the garage.

We walked around the side of the house to lay the trap when he mentioned he could smell the cat poop. Awesome. He said there’s no immediate way of getting rid of it except for tilling it with fresh soil and hoping that helps. We laid the trap on the said of the house above the veggie garden. AC showed me how to bait and set the trap. We covered it up and as we were finishing up, I asked him how many animals are you legally allowed to have. He said 3. Three animals. Make note of that fact too.

About 10 minutes after AC left, Micah got home. About 10 minutes after Micah got home, our first kitty went for the bait. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a kitty to get caught or not. I didn’t want to have to deal with it but at the same time I realized it was all we had left. The first kitty got away. It was long and still had it hind legs outside of the trap when the door started to close on it. That trap scared the crap out of the kitty. It took off like it was on fire. I kind of felt bad but Micah and I went outside to reset the trap.

I’d say about 20 minutes later kitties two and three went to investigate. Both kitties set off the trap and both kitties got away. We each went down to reset it and then went about making dinner. Not more than 5 minutes later, Micah noticed that the trap door was down again. He thought another kitty got away but when he got down there, he found one of the grey kitties trapped. I called the animal control and they sent AC back to our house. So it only took 1 hour for 3 kitties to check out the trap and a 4^th to get trapped. Just ONE HOUR.

AC came to our door and said he just found out that the neighbors have 10 licensed cats. TEN. Remember the first fact I mentioned? The one about them only feeding the semi-feral cats?  What about the ‘only 3 animals per household’ one? Why did they have 10 licensed cats when you could only have 3 living with you? He told me that it was actually a zoning issue and it was actually DPD that took care of those violation. DPD, our friend but most of the time foe. DPD, who had given us so much grief about the slope, permits and currently our final inspection. This was very interesting.

As AC was loading the grey kitty into his truck, one of the neighbor’s sons came home. I don’t know what was said but imagine the kid told AC that was his cat and AC told him he was taking it away. The kid went inside and 30 seconds later the Mom came running out with a baby in her arms. We tried to watch and not watch at the same time. AC got to our house a little after 6pm and didn’t leave until 7:30pm-ish. We tried to ignore what was going on outside but we couldn’t. One of us would “get water” just so we could peek through the alley side window. What we can figure out is that AC and the Mom had a discussion. AC stuck to his guns and didn’t just hand over the cat. Dad got home and wrote AC a check to bail the kitty out. AC was suppose to leave another trap but didn’t.

Before I go on, I have to say a few words about AC. AC is easily one of the nicest city employees I have encountered during the entire house building process and kitty fiasco. He was funny, reassuring and very helpful. He shared some valuable information with us (ie kitty zone is DPD territory) and clearly is good with people. He managed to calmly talk to the neighbors for over 30 minutes and they didn’t seem super mad. I say ‘seem’ because they probably were but they didn’t yell at him loud enough for us the hear.  I couldn’t do his job. 

Back to the story. So once AC left and the neighbors went into the house, I went to DPD’s website and finally found the ordinance on keeping animals in the city. I’d been looking on the animal control page for weeks and couldn’t find anything.  If your property is 20,000 sq ft or less and within the City of Seattle, you can only have 3 domestic animals. I looked up their property information on Zillow and found that their property is a little over 6,000 sq ft. So now what? We could decide whether to complain or not. So what we decide was that I would call AC and find out what happened. We’re hoping that he convinced the neighbors to give 7 kitties to PAWS (a no kill shelter) and that no further action isn’t needed. If that isn’t the case, then we decided we’d put in a formal complaint to DPD. Dadtractor is suppose to call our building inspector today about our final inspection and was going to ask for his advice about the cats and the zoning law and DPD.

Micah and I feel really bad about how this all has played out. We’re kicking ourselves for not complaining during construction. It would have been easy. We could have said we were worried about the cats in the house or them peeing in the house. Or we could have mentioned that Dadtractor is VERY, VERY allergic to cats and went through a few inhalers during the building process (which is true).  There would have been 6-8 months between us reporting the problem and us moving in. Things could have blown over. We also feel bad because feral kitties that can’t be adopted at the animal shelter get put down. I’m not sure what can be done now though.

I’m glad I only have a few more days of this madness before I head off for a much needed vacation.

Butt Buffing, The Great Gatsby and The Bad Plus : These Are My Excuses.

Yes, I know.  I promised a pretty and put together craft room on Friday and guess what?  I failed miserably at getting it together.  I do have some good excuses.  Friday I had tickets to see The Bad Plus (who were AWESOME) and Micah had Baccalaureate Mass to attend.  The show was awesome, the mass was touching (so I’m told) and we were both pooped by the time we got home. 

I hoped to make some progress Saturday but we spent the morning raiding my Mom’s garden (thanks for the Garlic plants!) and the afternoon setting up for the Great Gatsby party.  Our friend Jeremy asked if he could throw his wife Dani a surprise Great Gatsby themed party at our house.  Micah agreed (I was suppose to be out of town).  The caterers (yes, caterers) came by in the afternoon, followed by Jeremy’s friends with the Karaoke (yes, karaoke) set-up.  We thought we could have the place set-up in an hour but it actually took us about 3 hours and we didn’t even clean that much.  Needless to say, there was no craft room makeover happening Saturday.

Sunday rolled around and almost the entire day was spent dealing with the aftermath of the night before.  We didn’t get out of bed until 11am and Micah had to be at school (again) for graduation.  I spent the day trying to figure out what to do with a fridge full of leftovers, party cups and sticky floors.  By the time I was done getting the place halfway decent it was about 9pm.  I packed our lunches for today, put together doggie bags for the band (they were practicing) and decided to head to bed.  Again, no craft room. 

OK, so you are wondering, ‘what’s butt buffing,’ right?  Well, with any good party, there will be party fouls.  The party started at 7pm and went until 1:30am.  By the end of the night, our floors were sticky and kind of gross.  Guests tried their best to wipe up spills but some spots got missed.  I spent a good, long while trying to decide how to clean the floors.  Actually, I’ve spent the equivalent of days trying to decide how to clean the floors.  Our house is almost 3,000 sq. ft. and I’d say about 85% of that is wood floors. 

We don’t have a Swiffer, so that was out.  I thought about water and mop but I was afraid too much water would hurt the floors.  So I decided go old school.  I got on my hands and knees, grabbed a clean rag and some orange oil soap, and sprayed and wiped the entire main floor by hand.  That’s dedication.  I had some old fleece sweat pants on and realized if I wiped and then pulled myself (and my butt) across the area I just cleaned, I could buff the floor with my butt.  It sounds ridiculous and I know it looked ridiculous, but the floor looked great and it only took me about 35 minutes.  I did keep my fingers crossed that one of the guys from the band wouldn’t catch me in mid-buff.

So here are the results of the wipe and butt buff:

and here is the before and after color of the rag I used.

Here are some (only some) of the leftovers from the party.

In addition to what you see here, there was an additional cheesecake, and entire untouched tray of pull pork, a gallon sized bag of broccoli.  A gallon of pita chips, 2 lbs of tzatziki, about a 1lb of roasted leek hummus, a dozen limes and various hunks of cheese.  The funny thing is that people ate – A LOT!  We’ll be sorting through leftovers for days.  We sent home a lot of stuff with friends on Sunday and we still have more than two people can eat in a week.   I’m outta here on Friday (post coming soon), so we have some damage to do by then.

So, we have two questions for you today.

1. What’s your method of cleaning wood floors?  I’m looking for something a little less weird than using my butt to buff the floors.

2.  Any good recipes that require 4 or more cups of broccoli, cauliflower or a dozen limes?

P.S.  Pictures of the party, the food and the craft room (for real) are coming.

P.S.S. If you don’t know The Bad Plus, then you should.  They are amazing live.  They have great energy, are super creative (ET walkie talkie anyone?) and you can tell your friends you are super sophisticated because you listen to a hip and cutting edge Jazz trio who cover Nirvana, Blondie, Radiohead and Tears for Fears to name a few.

Ukrainian Spooning in the Craft Room

So I changed the color palate of the craft room…again.  I couldn’t help myself and it really just happened by accident.

It was going to be this

based on this

 image

and now it’s going to be this

based on this

 

What is it?  It’s a decorative spoon from Ukraine.  Once upon a time I used to run a scholarship program for high school students from the former Soviet Union (minus the Baltics).  I, at 22, was responsible for 40 high school students from 12 countries.  If their parents only knew they were entrusting their babies to a 22 year old.  Seriously, it blows my mind to think about it now.  I have do have to say, I was really good at my job and I loved it.  The students were AWESOME – most of them anyway.  Actually, I hooked up two kids who eventually married each other.  They are from Ukraine just like this spoon.  It was a present from one of the students I managed my first year.

I found the spoon one day as I was unpacking a few boxes.  I’ve always loved the colors on the spoon.  They make me happy and the detail are SO pretty. 

My goal (which has been my goal for months) is get the craft room to a presentable state over the weekend.  I’ve got most of Saturday and all day Sunday to get there.  I also want to get the entry table area ready for your viewing pleasure by Monday too. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I’ve got items to frame, pictures to hang and my Gatsby to get on.  That’s another story for next week.

A Prettier, Shinier Blog

Um, see anything different about us?  No, we didn’t lose weight (we wish).  No, we didn’t get a hair cut (actually I did).  If you said the blog looks different (and better) then give yourself a pat on the back from us. 

Looks great right?  The AWESOME and super talented Joy of How Joyful threw this bad boy (and the wedding dress she’s wearing) together and we couldn’t be happier! 

We’re super excited about the layout redesign.  It’s motivating us to get ourselves together.  We’ve been slacking on the posts and content lately but we’re going to fix that.  I think that getting this house off the ground and moving in was ALOT of work and once we got to a good place, we just stopped.  We stopped crafting, we stopped working, we just stopped – mostly because we could. 

Lucky for you we’re not done and something tells us that we’ll never be done.  We don’t think that such a bad thing though.  So get ready, we have new projects (really old projects we haven’t started), a new blog contributor, and all sorts of adventures to share.

And by the way, if you are looking for design services for your webpage or blog, we HIGHLY recommend Joy.  And if you need a good sewing tutorial or just some good crafting inspiration you should check out her blog (just click on the logo). And (this is the last and) if you are looking for something handmade for you or a friend, check out Joy’s shop on ETSY (see her banner on the side). Anyone else sort of burnout on decorating or remodeling their home?