tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50552257239622670672009-11-15T17:41:52.295+01:00Architecture, We are architects both Italian and American. I write about Architecture, Living in Italy, Travel in Italy, Raising kids in Italy. Comments and advice on life, driving, politics, economics, work, skiing, camping, flying, hiking, schools, etc. Do you need an architect for any project large or small - let us know we can help.Helm & Melacini Architectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04262659115977861767noreply@blogger.comBlogger221125ExpatAmericanItalianFamilyLivingInItalyWithChildrenhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055225723962267067.post-48766040774672007142009-11-13T09:34:00.000+01:002009-11-13T09:34:43.191+01:00

Firstt read this:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/us-trucks-security-taliban Now someone please explain what we are doing there in Afganistan.  We are paying the enemy to allow our military to keep it's supply lines open who then use the money we give them to buy the weapons they use to kill our troops. I do know a little, but I admit not that much, about military strategy.  As I

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 Here is a bit of a story about one of my ancestors that fought in the revolution.  There are others.  I am grateful to all those who served and who serve today.  But I'm not happy about what those who serve today are being asked to do.  Let's think about protecting our troops by bringing them home. On the night of December 10, 1777, the British under Sir James Wallace landed near his home in

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Actually it's the original gate to the Villa we live in.

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 Don't you just love pictures of the whole family. Well it's the Italian half anyway.

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We slept in for an hour longer than usual. Giovanni and Julia watched TV for an hour, now they are getting dressed putting their rooms in order, then they have home work to do. Giovanni has a soccer game this afternoon and Julia has a birthday party tonight. Luisa and I are here supervising, driving, and putting the house in order. Seems like I'm describing life most anywhere.

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I'm into developing one pot meals these days. It's partly because of a desire to cook good food in our camper. So I came up with this the other day kind of by accident. You know Italians use a pressure cooker a lot. I refer to it as the Italian microwave. I've seen my mother in law have two going at the same time. Anyway this can be done and on the table in say less than half an hour, if you

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Thinking about Thanksgiving?

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 What do kids do when they don't have Nintendo? Well they might draw their impression of the cockpit of an airliner and pretend to fly it.

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 Our first view of snow on the mountains we see out our windows.

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PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING & COOLING and energy saving ideas. By John Helm These days all the talk is about saving energy and there are a lot of new as well as old systems to take advantage of the sun for heating and even cooling. Since my years in university I have been aware and have studied the various ways to take advantage of this free source of energy. The problem is that while the suns

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A lot of expats hate this, so far for us it's worked to our advantage. I just wrote a whole thing on this but deleted it as I don't want to take a chance of getting anyone in trouble.  The thing is that here it's a big advantage to get to know people.  As it seems that no matter what you need done you need a connection and even in the public health system things go much smoother if you can make a

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Risotto made in the pressure cooker, takes about 15 minutes start to finish. Zucchini, half a red onion or some green onions, olive oil, saute for a couple of minutes, add 1 cup arborio, 1/2 cup white wine, let it cook down a little, add 2 cups water, some salt, a little butter, put the lid on the pressure cooker, heat on high until it starts to steam, leave on very low burner for about 10

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Julia's class hike up to the local mountains. It's so great that they can do things like this by just walking directly from their school.

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Some pictures Julia took on our hike up to the top of Nevegal. Themountains to the South of us

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Grandparents day at the kids school. They put on a little performanceand after had the required tables full of junk food.

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Would someone buy this young women a decent bra.

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Our friends took us there today. It's about 10 minutes drive pastCortina. Seems to be a very popular place for hiking. We didn't domuch a hike today. We got there late and they have a 3 year old, butwe had a nice picnic and it was a beautiful day.

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Just past Agordo which is about 40 minutes from here you turn rightand drive up a very narrow road when you reach therefuggio/restaurant pictured you park the car then walk up themountain trail. It's only a climb of about 300 meters in altitude andjust under 3 k on the trial, but it is a bit of a workout. The viewsof the Dolomites are spectacular.

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Tomorrow is her birthday, but Saturday we had a nice party for her.She invited only the girls from her class plus a few other friends.We also did a bbq for the parents. The weather was supposed to bemarginal but it turned out perfect. Everyone seemed to have a goodtime.

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On Monday Julia will be 10. It's always hard to realize how fast they grow up. In fact how fast they turn 40 and have kids and stories of their own. But today I'm reminded of those so frightening months when Luisa was pregnant with Julia. At six months Julia thought about being born. A routine check up which happened to be at the hospital took Luisa from the exam room to a semi intensive care

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   Julia is in fifth grade and Giovanni is in third. The school put on a great back to school welcoming a combination of faith and singing and simple encouragement to do well this year.

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Di questo corso, Hemingway ha detto: "That's my home", qui mi sento in America"."That's my home, here I feel like I'm in America." He also said which I can't find the quote something like it being where the real life of Italy exists. Luisa's parents home is just a block away and I've spent a lot to time there, most of it fallowing her around to all the various shops. It's always full of people no

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They have been gone for a week so we took advantage of the time toclean up, paint and rearrange their rooms. Kind of a Fall get readyfor school cleaning.

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After 15 years together they decided to get married so it was not aconventional wedding or reception, but great fun and food at anagriturismo.

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When driving a camper one must not be afrad of driving in the city andparking on narrow streets.

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