Have I flooded your livejournal page yet? My laptop clock tells me it's after 9pm and I have a big day visiting Pisa and Lucca tomorrow. Going through the rest of the week should be a short exercise ( Read more... )

My visit to Italy continues. Classes have begun in earnest. The routine of life takes over. Although I have pulled the plug on Connecticut for six weeks, life at my employer goes on. There are editorial board obligations, emails to answer, a book review to write, and a host of other minutae that consume hours of my time. I dare not overprotest ( Read more... )

I'm on a blogging tear tonight. I have no distractions. No video games. No one to talk with. The memories of Italy are fresh in my mind. What a beter time than to get all this down before it quickly fades behind the next experience ( Read more... )

Yikes, Ive written a whole bunch and have barely covered a few days. I keep posting so as not to lose it all through some freak crashing of windows or Internet Explorer. My laptop is frazzled and the smallest quirk from my loaned machine makes me nervous ( Read more... )

So here I am. It's 2pm and Ive just eaten breakfast. Some sights have already closed. I know there is much preparation to do. I stroll past the Duomo, the fashion district, and reach the foreign study institute to check mail and catch up ( Read more... )

Today is Friday, May 22, 2010. I sit in a cheap plastic fold up chair next to a small white kitchen table scarred with black scratches. As I finish my explorations for the day, the students are intent on starting theirs. I know this because my apartment is a stone's through away where about fifteen of them live. The audible but indiscernible ( Read more... )

As many of you know, I am teaching an undergraduate for six weeks in Florence. The undergradutes are able to enjoy themselves in Europe and said instructor creates a new course from scratch and takes some time here and there to see the proverbial sights ( Read more... )

For one glorious week a year, huskywife's parents go to Rhode Island for a week to vacation at a time share. During that week, we have the honor of hosting their little white Lhasa Apso named FuFu ( Read more... )

A older man stopped his pickup in front of my house. He gets out, kicks some debris, and gets back in the truck. He drives about twenty feet more, gets out, and picks up a aluminum can from my forested yard. He takes the can, pours out whatever was left in it, and throws it in the back of his truck. He drives another twenty feet, stops, gets ( Read more... )

The holiday marathon begins -- 36 straight hours of travelling and eating and gifting. Sure it's fun, but for that long? Maybe not so much.

I gotta go downstairs. As I type this, the family has gathered and is noshing on Egg Nog Donuts. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Talk about heart attack in a box.