long island for a year

Marty and Irma - on the left - on their pontoon boat What was I doing lately, apart from running after my son who is now a professional walker? Some days ago we had some Lab related meetings, meaning that there were colleagues-friends coming over to Long Island for work, which led to some dinner and nice talk afterward. We met our friend Marty - who used to be Ralph's colleague back in 2000, in Chicago - and Shen Pen - a Chinese Californian colleague with whom we were sharing our compartment on the night-train from Shanghai to Beijing two years ago: thanks to his human engineering AND knowledge of chinese language we managed not to spend the night with perfect strangers. Aren't we relaxed? We were all invited at Nancy and zio Bob's (that's how Carlotta calls him) place and had a very good time, with me trying to protect the kids from Sierra (their dog). If you know how scare I am of dogs - childhood shock - then it might sound amusing... We were all brave, indeed, and...

I don't want to be talking rubbish right now: found something interesting here . Disaster may happen anywhere, but if you have neither the infrastructure nor enough help, then it can be a catastrophe... What can we do?Someone had an interesting idea .

I saw these at a near by Stop & Shop and I was wondering if anyone here knows the name of this Carnival treat as there is no name on the box... But me, I come from Venice so you can bet I know what they are... (which reminds me of the original intention of my posting - I really got lost reading a blogger diatriba and the news - Jeeez...). Anyway, since I want to keep it light today, I figured out I should share some pictures - sorry Elisa , I wanted to post something of 2009, but now I am in a Carnival mood. Ready? Local coach parade near Venice - no snow, but confetti... Stand -by me! Fritters, another Venetian treat Crowd in front of the Basilica, Venice Self-made ribbon costume - but not me!! Mexican themed wagon...near Venice And more costumes... Carlotta digging in the confetti bag And having her own opinion on Carnival Harlequin at the fair If you ever needed one more reason to visit Venice...

This morning I had a very inspirational moment; brought Carlotta to pre-school - after a very busy breakfast which included several interruptions to prepare lunch, feed the kids, get them started - and instead of the usual errand run I went to the beach. Baby Bastian was falling asleep in the car, so I did not take any walk but stayed at the parking lot for a good half an hour and watched the Sound, the waves and the ferry approaching Port Jefferson and the fumes of some factory down in Connecticut. Also I listened to the radio. Just some cheap pop. But it was nice, very nice indeed. Guess I will miss this view... I don't know if it's the water, the waves...or the horizon...In Berlin there is no horizon: you can go to different Towers and look around and you would still see Berlin. My theory is that this lack of view is one of the reason why Berliners are kind of hard-spirited. Not all of them, but generally they are. Don't get me wrong, I like it here and there, and everyw...

It eventually happened. If you ask me how it feels, then I am telling you I really feel guilty about that, because I am a responsible person and I care about things and well... On the other hand I tend to day-dream a lot and it is a wonder it didn't happen before. Well, I wouldn't even say it is untypical of me - after all I am not really the stereotype Italian young woman. But, now I am feeling most uncomfortable, now it really feels as if I had completely lost my identity. What happened??? I lost my cellphone. And with that all phone numbers that - obviously - I hadn't save anywhere else... Yesterday I thought I had heard it, the typical sound of an empty battery, just it wasn't anywhere to find. Maybe it gave the last goodbye and left me with no clue, naughty device!!!