$500 To Burn

My friend, Heather P., and I had a mission today - we had $500 of an organization's money to burn on prizes, and we needed to spend it wisely. So, we headed to Venice for a beautiful day of spending someone else's money!

We bought some really fun colorful items to be raffled off at a luncheon in May, and had fun just wandering the streets. We also both happen to be on the Bazaar Committee for October's event, and were handing out some letters to potential vendors.

I have been to Venice four times now since the beginning of 2008, and this was clearly the start of the tourist season. The flowers were not quite out in full force yet, but there were so many more people out than in the past few times I have visited. I took some pictures for you to enjoy. Once my dialup Internet starts cooperating, I will finally upload all of them.

I'm Back...

...in Italia! It was way too short of a trip. I really do miss being back in the States, and seeing my family. I am thrilled that I finally got to meet my nephew. We're BFF's now.

I got to have a great time in the States, and now I need to get back to real life here. The worst part of my trip was leaving my debit card at one of the newsstands in the BWI airport. By the time I realized what had happened, it was closed for the night and my plane was about to leave. Luckily, my parents helped me put a hold on the card, so now I've got to get a new one. What a terrible ending to a great trip!

But, I did come home to find that Chris left me an Easter basket! He is in Romania right now, but took the time to do that for me. He's a great guy!

I'm Writing to You From...

...The United States of America! I am exhausted, but thrilled to be in the Commonwealth of Virginia, visiting with my Mom, Dad, sister and wonderful nephew! We're off to Colonial Williamsburg to do some shopping and high tea at the Williamsburg Inn - a favorite pasttime for us McRoberts girls. Ciao!

Gotta Love Mondays!

Nove is a little town about an hour and a half away that is famous for its ceramics shops. So, what to do on a Monday? Let's go shopping!

Like I said, ceramics is what this town is known for - and they love their ceramics. Different brands in the States - Tiffany, Lenox, Williams-Sonoma - depend on different stores in this town to supply them with beautiful serving pieces. And, Americans who live close by like to journey here to stock up on things that they don't need.

After all, I have three sets of dishes, and I certainly don't need more. But, I always find things I want in Nove. So, I went with three friends on Monday in search of one thing in particular - a bunny bowl.

I saw it at a luncheon - a white large bowl with little bunnies painted around the rim. Perfect for Easter. I had to have it. We went to three stores, and I finally found it at VBC - I should have known it would be there!

I also found a cute pitcher and gifts for some people. We ate lunch in a nearby town called Bassano del Grappa - absolutely stunning river and mountain views!

All in a day's work.

Tarvisio

Well, we had quite the enjoyable Saturday. We decided to head out to Tarvisio for a leather market. I'm not quite sure why, but we didn't think much about where we were going - Tarvisio is further into the Alps on the Italian border with Austria. So, I wasn't quite dressed for all the snow.

Tarvisio was absolutely beautiful. There are lots of ski runs right off the main street, and there was a lot of Austrian influence throughout the town. Everyone thought we were Austrian or German right off the bat, and would try to speak German to us.

The leather market itself was slightly disappointing. They had a big tent set up, and all the vendors were inside. We were accosted immediately by one vendor selling leather jackets, so we decided to have fun and try some things on. Wrong move - he was very persistent, and when we tried to leave he just kept talking down the price and would not let us exit. So, we ended up buying leather jackets, but for a very good price. We need to get a backbone before we go to Turkey. I have a feeling that the merchants will be very demanding there, too.

We continued through the market at a fast pace, trying not to make eye contact with anyone else. There were a lot of regular clothing vendors trying desperately to sell jeans, which was annoying. Chris was a very big target, and all the vendors tried to swarm him, saying that they had "grande" sizes, while making gestures about his big shoulders.

After that, we found a great restaurant, and just enjoyed looking at the beautiful snow-covered hills all around us. It made for a great, expensive Saturday!

Fun!

Well, I've decided to try to fly home for Easter! I am only going if I can get on the rotator (a military plane) on Mar. 20.

Chris is, naturally, going to be out of town for work again. My sister Laura's husband will also be TDY, so she had planned to go home too. I have yet to meet my nephew - so it only makes sense!

I will, if I get on the flight, only be home for a few short days. But, I'm incredibly excited to try this. Everyone please pray that I make it on that flight!

Finally Better!

Well, Rebecca's visit was not as exciting as I had hoped. I was miserably sick during most of it. I went back to the doctor on Friday and they finally gave me antibiotics. I'm feeling a lot better now.

We only really got to go to Venice on Saturday and Padova on Sunday. Not too exciting, but it was still fun.

Chris came home last week from Rwanda! I am very happy to have him home. He has some incredible pictures from a gorilla trek, so I will post them as soon as possible.