Italian Living: An unlikely vacation

So here's another "which one of these did NOT happen" quizzes?

1. we had a guest stay with us from Azerbaijan

2. we rescued a dying kitten

3. I frequented an Italian tattoo/piercing parlor

4. Chris changed jobs

5. We got to see friends from Montgomery

And the answer is..(drumroll)..once again, I can't imagine this stuff, you get bonus points if you guessed that ALL these happened.

Now explanation time:

First up number 4, it's the easiest. A few weeks ago Chris started his stint as the Aviano ADC. Originally this job was going to start off with a bang and he was going to leave the day he started to head to England for a trial. Luckily for me there was a postponement and he got to stick around here instead. There will probably be a pretty good chunk of travel with this job, obviously. The upside is that he's doing defense work, right where he originally wanted to be.

Now onto 1,2,3, and 5. Jackie was our visitor from Azerbaijan. She's currently "stationed" there in the Peace Corp. As a former AF child, travel and changes are nothing new to her. As one of my friends who met her said (and I wholly agree) Jackie's the type of woman that 1. gives us a good feeling about how our kids are growing up 2. is the type of person we hope they grow up to be and 3. is the type of person we wish we had been brave enough to be ourselves. Not only is she an incredibly cool person in her own right, but she also was able to educate us a bit on the Azeri (hope that's spelled correctly!) culture. Here's the wiki entry on Azerbaijan if you'd like to get a brief overview of where she is. I also included the Peace Corp web site, they do great things. ( And yes, to answer and reassure family reading this, Chris has already nixed the idea of us signing up after he retires.)

http://www.peacecorps.gov/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan

As an illustration of just how cool Jackie is...numero due. Her first night here we walked down to the local bar to get coffee. As we are walking back through town we spot a little smudge in the middle of the road crying piteously. The little bundle was immediately rushed off to the emergency vet, and although things were pretty touch and go for a while, we now have Jack as a new member of our family.

He's still having some health challenges, and will always have one blind eye. But other than his fondness for climbing up my body (with his claws) to sit on my head (with his claws) and his need to play right during the smack middle of the night, he's a great little kitten. We're getting a lot of laughter from having him around. The cool part of Jackie was that not only was she hip to the idea of spending her first night in Italy nursing a sick cat, but I can guarantee that she wouldn't have had it any other way.

Here's Jackie, her great sister Jessica, and Mom-Janet.

While Jackie was here we were happy to show her around and to help her get a few things done that are difficult, or impossible, to do in Azerbaijan. One of the things on her to-do list was to get a few things re-pierced. So, no, to answer my families next question-I did not (nor did the kids) get anythings tattooed or pierced. Honestly, I'm just too darned indecisive to be a tattoo type of girl, and my ears are enough for me to keep up with in the piercing department. It WAS fun to go with her, it had been a long time since I'd been in a tattoo parlor. The shop was great, right in the Aviano square if anyone needs a recommendation.

Jackie's time here was too short and before we knew it our new familial add on headed off on a cruise with her family, whom we knew from Maxwell. And that leads us to numero cinque...friends visiting. The Dents were going on a cruise leaving out of Venice, so we were able to see them while they were in. Chris and I had a great time heading down to the city for a day and visiting with them. Check out Chris's plate-he was brave once again and got another local specialty. It's pasta with squid, colored black with the ink....A big plate of flat black pasta with squid doesn't sound that appealing to me, but he reports that it was pretty tasty.

While we were there I saw one of the most romantic and charming things that I've seen in Venice so far. This couple was dancing in the middle of San Marco square. They were obviously learning, not perfect dancers by any means, but they were having so much fun and were so sweet together. Sitting there enjoying a spritz with friends, this was people watching at its best.

I've never been in Venice this late, so I couldn't help but get a "panoramic" evening scene of what is now one of my favorite cities. This is from the steps of Santa Lucia train station looking out over the Grand Canal.