Really?

Here we are day number too many without hot water. I'm quickly learning that domani doesn't necessary mean "tomorrow" but more like some time in the future. I guess with the holidays this week they are having an issue tracking down the necessary part for the repair. Well, maybe. I haven't actually heard from Fabio today with an update and now at 1130 I probably shouldn't call...but again, super motivating for getting up in the morning to hit the gym. We'll see how tomorrow fares since it's so late and my alarm goes off at 430.

Today was once again one of those days I caught myself asking "really?" far too many times. Yes. These days seem to happen a lot here...it's an Italian thing. Must be. Don't get me wrong; it's not always a bad thing and sometimes it's entertaining.

Yes. Entertaining.

Reviewing travel  (authorizations and vouchers) unfortunately still falls as one of my tasks out here. 1 January I'm implementing the official "Gold Star" award system because a) I want the travelers to realize the volume of requests we deal with and b) for folks that travel 3+ times a month they really should have perfect vouchers and they don't. I've teased for months now that I only see a few gold star vouchers a month and since they actually talk about it I figure why not? It's all part of my "help me, help you" workplace attitude.

At any rate, while reviewing, returning, and pounding my head in over these authorizations and vouchers today I had to stop and just laugh. Why? One of our guys had submitted a (legit) claim for $0.72 or you know, 1 euro for parking. Worse part? We require substantiating records (receipts) for all expenses (not just like the rest of the Navy and ignore >$75) AND (oh yeah, I'm not done yet) he hadn't check what he uploaded or else he would have seen the blank page. Yep. I had to email him and admit it was ridiculous but that didn't change the fact that I needed him to spend more than $.72 of his time on it and re scan the receipt. In fact, I think the time we spent talking about it in our office far exceeded $72 in wages but it was rather entertaining. Sorry tax payers...I know these aren't the stories you want to hear. 

Speaking of entertaining please sit back and read the final chapter of Signore Nico vs. Mr. Lizard. (Um yeah, because it really was like a horror movie that you never escape.)

When you last left,  Nico had given me a Halloween trick; a lizard knocking on death's door in my entry way. After distracting him with some new toys, I figured out a way to collect the lizard without ever touching it and took in on the patio. He was tucked under a large planter and blocked off with a few weeds.

This evening I was apparently not paying too much attention to him while he was outside, so when I headed up to call him in I really shouldn't have been too shocked to see what he had found for me. But I was. (I'm telling you, it's a reflex when I see a lizard.) Yep. He found Mr. Lizard, now really dead and partially desiccated and brought him back- again. I've got to say, Nico is very determined with his hunting. Best part? I think he found the missing tail while he was also outside so in one FINAL I can't touch this lizard paper shuffle ceremony all of Mr. Lizard was buried in the trash before it went out to the street for early AM pick up.

And if Nico finds him again I just may need to go visit the priest across the street!

"Sorry- I had a lizard situation"

Yeah, I realize that sounds ridiculous but the kids got a laugh out of it as their coach ran onto the field just a few minutes before game time.

"A lizard situation?"

Yes. A lizard situation.

(Don't adjust your computer screen, those waves are to signal the flash back.)

After a super slow start to my Saturday due to a 1pm kick off, I pulled weeded the large flower pot on the patio while Nico chased butterflies. It was a great bonding time and well overdue with my guilt near an all time high with all the early morning closing of the door while he sit there with a "don't I get to go look?" combined with all the vet trips. When I realized that the time in my head was the time I need to be there, not leave, I dashed off to take a cold shower...oh yeah. This was day #2 of no hot water. Yes, I should call someone to take a look at that but I'm determined to trouble shoot it on my own...when I have time.

Dressed and make up on (can't have anyone else mistaking me as a 16 year old), I realized I hadn't seen Nico. Eh, no biggie- he's probably outside in his planter soaking up some sun.

Wrong.

As I reached the top of my stairs I saw him staring at the oven. Hmm. Did I drop a piece of eggplant from my pizza? 

Wrong again.

He'd finally captured the lizard that  lived here before either of us and had him pined under his paw. I scooped Nico up and as he wiggled and clawed to the best of his ability, I took him downstairs and threw him in my room. Of course as soon as I removed the cat threat, Mr. Lizard wedged himself between my kitchen cabinet and wall. Crud.

When I made it back up the stairs I was freaked out about a lizard in my kitchen. Icky ick ick. So I took a box (since I have a surplus) and walled off the rest of the kitchen with it and a towel...in hopes that the lizard would use this path through my laundry room out the patio door that is a metal door with lots of openings but can still be deadbolt. Hey, if they use them in nature to prevent road kill, maybe this Italian lizard would get it?

Yes. These are the things that go through my head.

At any rate, it was a great soccer match- the Blue Dragons added another win to their season and they actually applied what we taught them in practice!

When I got home, I was still freaked out by the fact there may be a lizard in my kitchen but I was tired (it was hot in the sun) and crashed on the couch. Nico still doesn't get this nap time but he will one day. When I finally woke up once again Nico was MIA.

Seriously, his collar with a bell needs to arrive ASAP.

After searching downstairs, upstairs, and the roof I heard a little "miao" (remember- he's Italian). Once again going on the roof, I saw him pacing on the neighbor's patio, apparently stuck. With some spider like abilities I got as close as I could to him, but the dork wouldn't jump up on the platform. Then I realized that not only is there a window, but also a door from our main stairwell to this balcony area. I had to un-barricade the door but I rescued him.

As I told a coworker later, who needs the Fire Department? Although...

Shopping, Hiking, Unpacking

I can't believe I've spent another Saturday in Italy! In fact, when chatting with Joe today I realized that between the move, trips, & having so much fun I've lost track of the time. I arrived in Italy on 26 May, stayed in TLA for 90 nights, and then have been at my (freaking huge) house for 3 weeks..so how long have I been here? Eh, I've got the majority of my 3 years to still have fun with but that's only if I get this unpacking done.

After a later night of unpacking than planned, my Saturday kicked off with coffee. I then migrated to get Signore Joe before hitting up the Bacoli market. We very much went the back way/scenic route but that was good since I'm still trying to convince him he wants to be a little further south than in the areas he's been looking at. (There's got to be a closer villa that will be perfecto for the family but also close enough for me to hijack their pup for running.) We left Ravi at the same place I used before and even got to take my car keys with me this time. AND I even got the gist of what the guy was telling me.

The market had even more vendors than the previous time I hit it- amazing what the difference in weather will make. I tried my best with new acquired Italian skills but I think they still caught on that I speak english since they would reply when they could in english. The one vendor who sold me the lettuce was super nice though. He just may be my new produce guy. We left the market  with nectarines, lettuce, tomatoes, mozzarella, olives, garlic and onions. I made the mistake of acknowledging the old lady with her shopping cart of onions, garlic, and oregano and despite the "no grazie" she sold us enough garlic to last through the year. (Seriously, my kitchen smells of garlic but at least I'm safe from vampires!) Now I just need that cilantro to grow another foot or so so I can finally make the salsa I crave!

The next stop on Katie's Round About Tour was Carney Park, but heaven forbid we went straight there. No ne possible. The round-abouts from this direction still confuses me a tad so we ended up seeing Solfatara (aka the stinky sulfur volcano) but the views are amazing from that mountain so again, just taking the scenic route. (Seriously though, that was strike 2 on taking the wrong turn off so I only get one more mess up before I have to learn it/actually look at the GPS while driving.) Eh, my coworker Scott wasn't meeting us anymore so we were in no hurry to get there. Don't worry- we did finally make it. Honest!

For this round of hiking at Carney we went up the ridge where I came down last time and wrapped around away from Pozzoli Bay, towards a monastery (with monks!) with the plan to continue along the ridge so I finally could say I hiked the entire crater. Hey, it was just a plan. After trail blazing from the 500 (?) year old house to the monastery and all the effort it took to continually being able to jump when a lizard ranging from tiny to enormous ran out of our way causing a ton of noise in the dried leaves, we were too tired to follow an unmarked road that we weren't sure if it would take us to where we wanted to be. (Let me clarify- I was doing the jumping, not Joe.) Unwilling to backtrack the way we headed up, we followed the other path which was wonderfully downhill and fairly lizard free. Yep. Too good of a path and we found ourselves in the driveway of the houses you can see from inside the park. Ha. They have a great vineyard up there and it was pretty...unfortunately it meant we had picked the wrong path and it was time for an about face. On the way back we took a turn off that Joe had seen and I still swear it just looped us around. As we started to discuss if we'd been on this stretch of trail or not we compared our foot prints to others on the trail. Um yeah. We'd been there before...but not sure when. I think we did find the real trail that we ditched for our climbing over rocks and going through the brush. (My legs have seen better days.) Clearly we made it and since it was a "do whatever day" we were in no hurry but by this point the sun was hot and although we looked tanner, it really was the volcanic ash and other grime coating our arms, legs, shoes, eh, pretty much our entire bodies. (Seriously- my hair even felt grimy.)

After snacking on our market buys Joe and Signore enjoyed the cross breeze upstairs while I worked on a box of things I realized should have already been put away. By the time my room was box free and I headed back upstairs, Joe had solved my hot water heater mystery of the E10 error. Turns out the water pressure was low and although I had almost solved it on my own the night before I didn't but it just goes to show that I really could be an engineer- right? (Possibly more on that idea to come later this week...) At any rate, with a few less boxes and hot water again we headed out to try the place I live above. We were side tracked though by an event happening in the adjacent piazza. Although we're still not sure what exactly everything was, we knew it was part of the patron saint of Naples holiday occurring on Monday. We watched some little kids play soccer (why aren't they on my team?) and then headed back over to place our pizza orders. As we were walking in a pack of boys (probably around age 12) walked in. When the owner realized we weren't sure if we were staying or taking it out he went over and told all the boys to be quiet. Amazing right? Apparently a soccer match was about to begin so they were excited about that. The owner wasn't thrilled since he couldn't hear the phone, let alone take orders. He was really nice (English speaking) and the pizza was some of the better tasting ones I've had recently. Um yeah, since Joe arrived I've had my fair share (or more) of pizza. And since it was on the menu I had to order it- pizza con Nutella! It wasn't wrapped like last time, but more like Woodstock's dessert but just as yummy. To think, Joe was just asking what someone does with a 5lb container of Nutella.

My night ended when I came home from taking Joe back, had Signore in my arms only to hear fireworks starting and seeing flashes of light practically coming from my living room. I'm not sure why I wasn't thinking "oh event in the piazza, of course there will be fireworks...this is Italy after all", but I wasn't. Signore wasn't either based on his flying out of my arms and hiding until they were over. When I was on my balcony the fireworks were practically over my house- it was amazing. Way better than the 4th of July celebration ones and probably a longer show too. I recorded some of them because I just love them. I guess it goes back to all of those foggy 4th of Julys growing up in Monterey. At any rate I'm looking into where I can purchase some of these beautiful things and just how often rules are enforced. I'm thinking not all that much as pretty much every night I either hear or see some.

Somethings Never Change...

Yes I find it rather ironic that after yesterday's post about talking how I need change today's post is going to talk about how no matter how far away I travel there are just a few things that won't ever change. Why? Well, as I'm sometimes reminded by my mom (or was it Clint Black?), "where ever you go there you are." Hey- it's true. So often we try to escape a situation or change the outcome but when you get down to it, until you modify yourself the outcome won't change.

Example #1: Some of you may recall my Facebook status about a month back when I gave up my run at the beach for the hills behind my parents' house....then run that quickly became a hike to Laguna Seca? At first I thought I was going to appreciate the change in terrain until I kept jumping and getting freaked out by (dead) lizards and "stick snakes." So I don't like scaly things things! I've tried to work through this (watching Iggy the classroom iguana over break, interacting with the various anoles we had as pets, even taking herpetology in college which required a field trip to the desert to trap the nasty critters) but alas, it just may never happen. 

So last week on a sunny afternoon I headed through central park  on my way to the gym. Well, there were lots of little lizards scurrying back under the cover of the plants as soon as they saw me. No big deal. I knew there are over here and it was nice to see a new species rather than the blue bellies and alligator ones back at home.

Fast forward a few days as I'm walking back over to the orientation via the same paths I use to get just about everywhere. As I was moving along all of sudden I saw something. After my feet stuck the 10 point landing and I was a foot behind where I started, I had to laugh because in front me was a really pathetic looking, 2D, tail-less, torn up, dried out lizard. Epic fail Katie.

Worse part? Just on my way back- thinking about how I was going to confess my lizard run ins, knowing that they'd be out sunning themselves I still managed to jump (and more than once) when I saw them. See? Something never change.

Example #2: As you may have read it was driver's license test day. I spent some time (an hour or so) reviewing and learning the signs. Should I have spent less time blogging, tracking the Giants game, or talking with Andie? Probably but that's where my priorities were yesterday/this morning.

Yep. I missed a few too many. Again, not a huge deal but when he told me my results or rather I helped him spot where they weren't lining up, I was transported back to when I was 15 and was told I missed my permit test by 1 lousy question. The quick video montage then went through my head left me with further confirmation- I'm not a test taker. Real tests are fine but as soon as you give me a standardized test or something as simple as a multiple guess test...forget about it. I consider myself so lucky that I've never had to take one for my career because I'd be stuck forever. FOREVER.

So those are my 2 "case studies" that I had to chuckle about today because really....it's funny to know I can always count on some things to stay the same (especially when it's due to my character flaws).