long island for a year

Cedar Beach is a very nice place by the Sound, in Mount Sinai Harbor. Lot of pebbles, clear water, relaxed atmosphere and...not too far from our house.

Smith Point is one of the closest beaches for us, but we always have to keep an eye on kids, because waves are unpredictable. Last week-end the beach was closed, because Hurricane Bill was reaching this part of the country, not really causing winds or thunderstorms, but higher waves than usual. Well, it might not have been Surfers Paradise but it was impressive: waves rolling like cannoli and then sucking part of the beach away - I don't know if we can talk of inches of sand missing from Fire Island but you could feel the power of those waves just looking at them.

We found it. Cross fingers, because we did not sign a contract yet, but we saw it and we literally fell in love with it. It's a house - 'r we crazy a HOUSE? - and it's not close to our pretty dream of living near to some kind of town because it's on a hill in Rocky Point. It's not a little house with two rooms and a bath, but a large house with five bedrooms, two baths, a basement and a pool. YES a pool. Our landlord was so nice to us and said we can use anything she leaves- appliances and stuff, so we don't need to buy all we thought we'd have to. Very important thing: no garden to take care of, just a small yard without plants - most people would hate that but for me it is perfect, because I don't have a green thumb and I'd rather go to New York on the week-end than plant tomatoes. Also, they wouldn't even grow up there. Well, another nice aspect is that we can walk to the sound .

One of the most annoying things of our "on-site", i.e. at the Lab, life is definitely washing our clothes. We don't have a washing machine, so we have to walk (or take the car) to the laundry and WASH WASH WASH. Nothing so special about that, just that our clothing don't get clean, no matter how much detergent and no matter how hot the water. Maybe we should sew the washing-machine company for that, or buy more clothes. Both things are quite common.

If you ever thought that your blender was making a mess...that's why, you dumb***

Carlotta and Buster - that's the American name Bastian got! - are having fun together.

No, there's no place like that because we don't have a home. The realtor called us and said our home is...gone. So WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD, the wonderful wizard of Oz!

We are about to find a place - not the container on site - where we will be spending the next eleven months. It's going to be in Port Jefferson. At the beginning we were pretty unsure whether it would have been a house or an apartment, but why have a house you can't really enjoy - two kids are reason enough - and why be isolated?and why leave lot of empty room and...? Besides, houses in Port Jefferson are often on top of hills - I will have to win the bad feeling about steep streets and curves I suppose. So we had a look at a couple of apartments, thinking back and forth, still unsure about some details - two or three bedrooms, basement or not, how many bathrooms, price, kind of development. Then our friend Mauro, who is looking for a place to stay for the next six months, said he could be our "roommate" and thus help us with the rent. That said, we had to reconsider couple of things again and in the end we decided that we will be sharing a three bedroom (2,5 ba) apar...

Last night we were at Gabriele's for dinner. His a very fun person and his family is really sweet. So...let's talk about sweetness!He is an incredibly good ice-cream maker. He probably has an ice-cream maker BUT he is mastering the machine. So, now I have to be careful not to become addict, since he might have things to do other than throwing ice-cream parties with 13 - yes, you got it right, 13 - flavors, including tiramisu, cinnamon, blackberry, mango, safran (he is from Milan that's explains it) and so on. Gabriele's VS Ralph's ices 1 to 0

...things are happening fast in the last days and I can't keep the pace, but there is something I want to say about friends. As we came here we knew we wouldn't be alone: some old (not actually old, of course) friends live here: Bob (also called zio Clooney) and Nancy, an Italian colleague of Ralph, Marge and Don... But also Mauro, Ralph's friend and colleague from Abano will be here for six months -I know he wishes his family could be here too, but to his regret that wasn't possible - and SURPRISE SURPRISE our Korean friends Kiman and family are going to be here too. One of my dearest friend is moving to Korea, so I will think about her even more now. Friends are important and being able to meet many of them while we are here is luck and a privilege.