Puppies and Weddings

Things are busy here around the Radawicz household, as usual. We went to see the puppies yesterday. How fun!! Sara has 5 adult berners and right now, 5 puppies...whew, that's alot of dawg!!! Here they are:

Peter, Greg & Bobby!!! We don't know which one will be ours but they are all so adorable we don't care. They are 4 weeks old right now so we have 4 more weeks before we can bring our little boy home.

We are home now for the summer...no big trips planned. I am so glad to be nesting for awhile. Here's some snaps from our Key West wedding adventure. It was a great trip...although not without some drama.

Dick and Jason with the rest of our group on the Sunset Cruise. We had to stand in line to get our "boarding passes" for an hour at 6pm on a concrete sidewalk with no awning...I have never been so hot!!!! Luckily, once the boat took off and the champagne was flowing, it was much more comfortable.

Here's the view of our hotel (note the big cruise ship that completely blocks the view). We stayed at the Westin, Key West. Nice location but warning: if you get a room with a view or even a partial view, your "view" will be the cruise ship which is docked right in front of the hotel.

Here's Dick hanging out on Duval Street, Key West's main party street...tons of restaurants, bars, tacky souvenirs...you name it! As you can see, the weather was perfect!!!!

Here's me at the end of the world....mile marker zero on Highway 1.

And don't forget, we were there for a wedding! Here's a pic of Leonard, the father of the bride, with the female wedding guests. It was a beautiful wedding...a beautiful setting and small & intimate...only 10 guests that weren't family!

Here's the minister and Jessica, Regina's best friend and maid of honor...she was so much fun and another friend we look forward to spending more time with!!

Here's Regina...that gorgeous bride with her dad, new hubby Jason and his parents. The drama: Regina's mom got sick Thursday night and was hospitalized the entire weekend. Regina & Jason went out to the hospital and took pics with her before the wedding but we were all sad that she was unable to make the wedding.

The reception was delightful...dinner at the outdoor restaurant on Sunset Key Island which is where the wedding took place. But afterwards, we went to Regina & Jason's cottage and continued the celebration...Kelly pulled out her IPod and we danced until the wee hours of the morning!!!

And last, but definitely NOT least...here's Dick with Jennifer, his gorgeous first born. We met Jen and her friend James in Miami at the beginning and end of our trip. This is Sunday night at Monty's in Coconut Grove. Jen is not only gorgeous but funny and talented too!!!!

New Puppy on the Way

Well, these aren't great pics but you get the idea! We are getting a new puppy! A little brother for Kimi. These are the three boys in the litter and we're not sure which one we're getting so for now, I'll share all three with you. We are very excited and are going this weekend to see them in person. Aren't they just adorable?

Kimi is still growing like a weed, I'll post pics of her later. She is such a fun, although mischievous, dog. She loves to counter surf...not necessarily looking for food but anything she can get her "paws" on...she's dragged postcards off the fridge, nail polish off the counter and even brought the phone outside!!!


We just spent the past weekend in Key West for Jason & Regina's wedding. I'll post pics later this week. I'm still trying to get all the Italy pics organized, but I promise I'll post some wedding pics soon. The weather was beautiful, but HOT!! HOT!!! HOT!!! More details to follow!!!!

Our friends Kate & Curtis, from San Diego, spent the night with us last night, after a long driving trip through the wild, wild west! It was great seeing them and their two beautiful children, Drew & Kendall. It's been several years since we've seen them so it was great to catch up over a relaxing dinner at home. Kate makes awesome notecards so you should check out her website at www.hwbt.com/customcards

More Italy Memories

This was Sally's chicken in San Gimignano...it wasn't her favorite but I think it looks pretty tasty!

My lunch in San Gimignano.....WARNING: Tuscan white beans are addictive!!!! I had them EVERYWHERE they were on the menu. Here they were served with sausage....reminded me of home (Louisiana) but my favorites were tossed with olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper....Yummy!

Carla's caprese. Fresh tomatoes, fresh mozarella and that amazing fresh basil. This was another favorite that we had several different places...why do tomatoes taste different in Italy???

This is Carla, our chef, fixing up Dick & Ron's favorite: Melon & Proscuitto...again, the melon was ripe and the sweetest I have ever tasted!

Pam & Ron enjoying some alone time in the hammock...yep, the villa had a hammock...does life get any better?

Here's proof that the entire trip wasn't filled with eating, drinking & shopping. This is on our hike in the Cinque Terre....a 2 hour hike that took us from the town of Monterosso to Vernazza...absolutely one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Monterosso

Overlooking Vernazza...is this a beautiful place, or what? And in this pic you can't really see how gorgeous the colors of those buildings were...those fabulous, fabulous sunwashed yellows, pinks and greens all set against the blue of the Ligurian Sea!

Home Sweet Home & Missing Italy

Sorry I haven't been very good about posting. A combination of the new job and a little jet lag has kept me from spending any time here at the computer. I found myself really missing Italy today...probably because tomorrow it's back to work. We're heading down to Florida on Wednesday for Jason & Regina's wedding so work is incredibly busy....catching up and getting ready to be gone again.

I'm throwing in a few pics that are in my first group of organization....mostly villa pics that just make me sad to see them but so thankful we had the opportunity.

Our pool at the villa...living in Colorado, it doesn't make sense to have a pool in your backyard but every time we go someplace with a pool, it makes me long for one!!!

Our inner courtyard where we had our chef prepared dinner....there are big white lights in the trees and from the table, there is a view of the Tuscan countryside. At night, this was such a beautiful spot!

This is the girls posing the night we had our dinner at home. This is just the first of many pics where we are laughing....LOTS of laughter during this trip!

Yves, our villa owner...who lives in a restored barn on the property. Yves is a famous mime artist who hails from Paris!!

"Happy Hour" before our dinner. This is on the other side of the villa...there were plenty of outdoor spaces to hang out!!!

Fun at Flickr

Sigh...I am exhausted today and have been working to get pictures organized. 15 days and 4 cameras...I still have lots of uploading to do. So I thought I'd take a break from the picture organizing to do a fun little project that Robin at http://www.mymelange.net/ inspired me to create!!! Robin is a friend I've met solely through blogging and she keeps me grinning at her fun and creative posts!!! Here's my mosaic created with answers to the questions that follow:

Each picture coincides with the answer to one of these questions. Robin has great directions on her site if you want to do it yourself!!!
1. Your first name.
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Under The Tuscan Sun #2

Yesterday, Dick and I spent the day in Cortona...the city where "Under the Tuscan Sun" takes place. What a charming little town. We had lunch...pasta fagioli zuppa for me, pasta for Dick (of course). And a little white wine to wash it all down. After Cortona, we drove up to Arezzo to see the frescoes at San Francesco church. These were the frescoes that were featured in "The English Patient". Can you tell I'm a movie buff? Here are scenese from Cortona.

Here's Bibendum & Gianni at the scenic overlook in Cortona.

Grappa Can Cause Serious Headaches

Ouch...that was the first word out of my mouth this morning....too much grappa!!! Grappa is an Italian brandy made from distilling grape skins that remain after wine production. Warning: grappa can cause serious headaches!!

One of the best things about this trip has been spending time in our little town of Montespertoli. A wine festival has been going on all week and for 5 Euro...you can buy a souvenir glass and use it all week for tasting at various vineyard stalls. The stalls are open every night and all day on weekends and a taste is not all you get...in fact, for 5 Euro we could have had all the wine we can drink in one week!! Even though we have bought many (and I won't tell you HOW many) bottles of local wines at the festival, we continue to go up there every evening and drink the free stuff. We've also established the Italian version of "Cheers"...we have a restaurant in town where they now know us...and we know them...it's the only restaurant we've been to in Montespertoli...Dick and I found it for lunch our very first day here and we've been at least six times so far in the past week. It's a family owned restaurant and although the name escapes me right this moment, it's run by two brothers (Gregory and Giuseppe), one sister (Rosa) and Rose's husband whose name has been erased by my grappa memory. The food is great and cheap...typical local dishes...pizza, fabulous fresh salads, and white beans with local olive oil from Lucca. We are all hooked on the beans!!!

I'm sorry I haven't had more time for blogging....our days have a very slow feel to them but I never seem to have time for sitting at the computer. Luckily, the girls have been posting on http://www.8initaly.blogspot.com/ so you can see lots of pics there. Today Dick and I are home at the villa...lying by the pool....everyone else is in Florence visiting David and the Uffizi. Not that we didn't want to see David again...but we both needed a down day so it's been perfect so far. I just finished reading Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture"....what a perfect place to read a book about how to live your life!!!! If you haven't bought it...it's a must read.

It is so incredibly gorgeous here that it's impossible to describe. The rolling hills are covered with grape vines and olive trees. The roses are in bloom right now so everywhere you look, the earth is bursting with color. They've had an unusually rainy May so it's also very lush and green.

The villa is great as well. Plenty of room for 8 adults to roam around without bumping into each other all the time...and the pool, albeit a little cool today, is perfectly relaxing on a hot May day. Now, here's a few pics to recap where we've been so far.

Florence

Greve in Chianti

Pam & Dick in San Gimignano

Angie atop a wall in San Gimignano

Sienna

This is a ceramic shop in Sienna...the reason it's here is that in talking to the saleslady, she mentioned that they had a workshop in Montelupo....that's less than 20 km from our villa!!! So, on Friday, David, Sally, Gina and I headed there to see if they had a "shop" there because the prices in Sienna were $$$$$$$ but the stuff was gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!! We all dropped more Euro at the workshop.....prices were about 75% lower than retail here in Italy so I can't even imagine what we would have paid in the U.U. And we made friends in the process which we seem to do everywhere we go. Marco and Giovanni...both artistes at the workshop helped us pick out pieces and negotiate the awesome prices!!!! If you ever get to Montelupo, stop into the Ceramiche Tombelli workshop. When I get home, I'll post pics of the pieces I bought.

I shouldn't even have to label this since every person in America knows what this is. Pisa was okay....it is Italy, after all...but too many tourists. We got out...got our pics and headed over to Lucca.

Lucca - our favorite city by far. This picture does not do justice to the colors here. We rented bikes and biked around the city for about 2 hours....our best day yet!!!

And we ended up here....Giuseppe, Stanage & Angie about to "sample" the local lemoncino.