Josephine Lynn Kelly - 26 Mar 2014

At 2237hrs my whole world changed (Zeke here) as a new baby girl entered into it.  Josephine Lynn Kelly has a birth story much different then her brother's; however, unique as her brother's too.  Jess found out she was pregnant the first week we arrived in Italy and kept up an amazing, healthy routine that has her now looking like she could be on the beach next week rockin' some hot bikini.  She has been and is an incredible mother and thank God I don't have to follow her act because she made it look easy.

When Liam was born, Jess was in labor for about 16 hours and finally delivered him via bathtub in Sanford, NC.  For this pregnancy she wanted to repeat the same thing (not the 16 hours, the water birth part), but unfortunately being guests of the Italian government (yeah, that's some BS - we are guests because they switched sides right before the end of WWII so they get special treatment unlike our current "occupying" status in Germany).  Sorry I get sidetracked easily.  Anyway, the only options were to have the baby on post at the small birthing clinic or in downtown Vicenza, where they are still apparently not convinced about the marvels of modern medicine or this crazy theory about germs and cleanliness.

So with the water birth option out of the question she became comfortable with the birthing clinic on post and it turns out that the staff there is incredibly awesome, AND about 84% of the nurses and doctors that work there happen to be our neighbors (actually building-mates).  Jess also became very fond of the one Certified Nurse Midwife, LTC Morgan.

She began hard labor on 26 March at about 1700hrs (I think that is still 5 pm in regular clothes wearing world).  We had some concerns so we went to check into the birthing center at around 1900hrs (Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune time - depending on your cable lineup) but she was still only at about 4cm so we decided to go back home and labor it up in our sweet SleepNumber bed for as long as possible.  Turns out that was only about an hour because by 2000hrs she was pumping out some pretty wicked contractions.  I used my special military training to make a physical assessment of her condition...actually this is a lie...her water broke and she was crippled by the contractions every other minute so it was a no-brainer, but I figured I would justify my existence in this situation.  I did drive really fast unnecessarily though because that's what they do in the movies.  So after my Jason Statham-like driving, we arrived at the birthing center just in time...shit, this is a lie too...it only took 3 minutes to get there because we really only live about 800km down the street.  Regardless (or irregardless s'il vous plais - that's for you Mendez) we made it to the place with doctors and nurses who catch babies for a living very quickly and were admitted at 2150hrs.  The on call doctor was Jess' favorite CNM, LTC Morgan and the head nurse on duty was our upstairs neighbor, Crystal, which made Jess very happy.  Long story short - she went from 4cm to 9cm in about 90min and delivered Josephine Lynn Kelly into the world a mere 47min after walking in the doors.

 I made a little video here with the help of Bill Gates and will post all of our pics to the normal site as soon as I figure out how, since the Shutterfly peeps changed their site layout I am not inclined right now to use the Google machine to figure out the new process for posting new albums.  There are plenty of pics in the video below though.  There are all kinds of sappy songs I could've used for background music but it's getting late here and I just happen to like Jason Aldean; if we are being completely honest and transparent here, it just flat out makes me cry them happy tears like Simple Jack (in case you're wondering, this is not a real movie but part of Tropic Thunder, which is highly recommended).  So there.

This probably isn't the blog post route that Jess would've taken so I apologize for the let down and lack of grown up words.  Irregardless - Enjoy!

(18.5 hours later - I figured out the Shutterfly thing.  ALL OF THE PICS FROM THE VIDEO AND MORE ARE POSTED HERE!!

Singing, Dancing, Fountains, and Pigeons

Yeah, so judging by the title of this post you wouldn't think that these things have a lot in common.  Well once you realize that it is me, Zeke here, writing this entry, you will soon realize that your first instinct was correct and there really isn't any common denominator in this random assortment of bad writing and poorly planned collection of pictures and videos.  I guess what really ties this together (like the Dude's rug in The Big Lebowski) is the fact that Liam does some funny shit so I chose to highlight that here.  Oh, if you have not seen The Big Lebowski then shame on you.  It is a fine documentary worthy of 117 minutes of your attention. I've hyperlinked it twice now, so seriously, you need to watch it; it's kind of like a prerequisite for this blog.  Ok, pretty soon Jess is going to walk in here and change the password on this blog because I've compromised the integrity of its content so I'll hurry up and publish this post.  Back to my original thought - yes, there is not a lot of commonality in the title; however, everyone likes seeing and hearing about Liam so this is focused on his antics and the things that I usually sit back and laugh at while filming.
...A few videos first.

For a while we had a repertoire of bedtime and bath time songs that lasted for about a month before he decided that he is too cool for singing, rocking, hugs, and even night lights now.  He now just prefers to check his email and send his east coast broker some final guidance before checking himself into bed and cashing out for the night.  We managed to capture 2 out of 3 of Liam's chart-toppers on video/audio so here they are below -- "The E-A-G-L-E-S Fight Song" and...

 ...The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

The next video leads into the only semblance of a theme, which is Liam dancing, which leads into the comedy behind some of the pictures posted.  He is a huge So You Think You Can Dance fan and showcases his moves regularly when the TV is on or when Mommy is working out via Jillian Michaels on YouTube or Tony Horton's obnoxiousness on P90X.

To cover the last 2 topics of the title post, I picked out a bunch of pics from our trips around here.  When he's not burning off his excess energy with Jillian Michaels or Tony Horton, he chases pigeons.  He also has a thing for fountains and drains.  It's kind of weird, but I know I have plenty of OCD-like traits and idiosyncrasies so I figure he just needs to explore.  If you go back through previous posts and picture albums you might notice him in a lot of pictures staring into the ends of drain pipes.  No matter where it is or how disgusting, if he passes any kind of pipe, tube, drain, sewer grate, or intriguing dark hole, he will undoubtedly stop to take a glance up it.  This video below is from Piazza San Pietro, or the famous St. Peter's Square outside the amazing basilica; a dichotomy of 2 worlds and literally 2 countries.  While we waited in line to enter the basilica, Liam wreaked havoc on the flying rats of Italy / Vatican City.

The rest of the pictures are posted at the normal spot at Shutterfly.  These are not the extent of our Florence and Rome pics; I felt that Liam needed some spotlighted attention here before the baby is born.  Enjoy.  Ciao!

"Defeated" DO NOT ENTER

In actuality these were a bunch of DO NOT ENTER signs in Florence and Rome that were professionally "tagged" with graffiti.  Liam was the first to notice the graffiti on the sign in Florence so once that can of worms was open, we had a mission to complete - photograph every DO NOT ENTER sign.  It's funny because he kept saying, "look there's another defeated sign," obviously meaning graffiti'd.
Here's a link to an article that describes the artists' methods of the sticker-type graffiti.  When we saw them in Rome also, we continued to photo-journal so I thought it deserved its own blog post and picture album; check out the pictures HERE.

Labor Day 2013 - Cinque Terre

Yes, the title of this blog is correct - we are just 6 months behind in posting it.  Cinque Terre (Five Lands) is often seen in photos and paintings for its amazing coastline and quaint villages that blend into the rocky cliffs.  We were fortunate to see it from several points of view - walking through each of the five villages and also from our own guided boat tour.  I could tell you all about the history of each village, but more than likely someone has already said it better, in this case Wikitravel.  I will tell you, however, about our lovely digs and the awesome time we had staying in Levanto and traveling by train to the "Five Lands."  You can check out all of our photos HERE.

Day One:  We made the roughly 3 hour drive from Vicenza through the Veneto region, passing through the scenic Emilia-Romagna and Toscana regions, ending up with a breathtaking arrival to the Liguria region cliffs overlooking the famous Italian Riviera.  The Italian or Ligurian Riviera is essentially defined by the Ligurian Regional coastline, stretching from the Maritime Alps at the northern border with France down to the bustling Gulf of La Spezia.  Although there are plenty of hotels in each of the actual five villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarolla, and Riomaggiore, we stayed in the next town to the north in Levanto.  We found Levanto to be the perfect place to stay for a long weekend to visit the Five Lands.  Because Cinque Terre is a protected National Park and listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, traveling around and between the villages is mostly restricted to walking or train.  There are roads, but you should not count on your car to be your primary transportation.  For 20 euro, you can get a Five Lands day pass for the family and travel freely by train between all of the villages.  We were in walking distance to the Levanto Stazione so we opted for that route which allowed us to check out the sites by day and enjoy the slightly larger economy of Levanto at night.  Levanto is also a popular destination because of the rare sandy beach it offers to tourists. 

We shared a cottage with our friends the Rairdons for the weekend.  It was a gorgeous 4BR house that had a detached guest "bungalow" and a swimming pool.  The most impressive part was the patio and the view that overlooked the town below as well as the coastline and beach.  On our first night we went walking in downtown Levanto and found a restaurant that offered the pretty typical Italian fare so everyone was happy. 

Day Two:  We trekked down from our cottage in the cliffs to the Levanto Stazione (train station) and for a very reasonable price spent the day checking out each of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre.  There are several paths with varying difficulties that one could take to walk the entire national park.  It could take a couple days to do so, but be aware that some of the paths are often closed due to landslides.  Liam was a champ hiking up the narrow roads and climbing staircases through vineyards.  We found a great spot for lunch in Manarolla right at the mouth of the sea; we all had different menu items and sampled some of the indigenous Cinque Terre wine.  As we made our way back to Levanto, the three of us took advantage of some late afternoon beach time and followed it up with some pizza and finally some music courtesy of Jess on the patio back at the house.  Jess also killed her first scorpion as it was creeping towards Liam's makeshift bed on the floor.  It was kind of scary to think that he almost got a healthy dose of scorpion venom, but good old mom saved the day. 

Day Three:  Our last full day was spectacular.  All seven of us chartered a boat and saw Cinque Terre the best way possible.  The views from the sea are amazing and you get a totally different perspective on each village.

 Liam obviously enjoyed the boat ride as you can tell from the video.  We docked in Vernazza and had yet another excellent lunch.  After some more afternoon beach and pool time back in Levanto we had a reservation later that night at Osteria Tumelin, which in my opinion is the best overall Italian food we've had since being here. 

*NOTE on "Italian Food": A common misconception is that all Italian food is made-from-scratch favorites that we get at some of the nicer Italian restaurants in the states.  What I've learned is that although there are restaurants, trattorias, pastaccerias, bars, and whatever else they are called at every corner, they are all pretty average and every menu is very predictable. What is interesting is pizza here in Italy.  Back home you can always hear someone in the northeast talk about how they are the only place with "real" Italian pizza.  If you go to 3 different pizza places on the same block (and that is definitely possible), all 3 places will not only have different pizza but it will vary so much that you wonder if pizza really originated here.  And for the most part, it is all very average.  I am now an even bigger fan of Americanized Italian food and pizza because just like everything else in the world, we added a little bit of freedom and awesomeness to make it better.

  

Now that my rant on Italian food is over, let me digress back to my statement that the food on our last night in Levanto at Osteria Tumelin was truly incredible.  The cuisine on the western coast of Italy is very different from what we had become accustomed to.  Seafood dishes dominated the menus and you could taste the freshness of the local specials.  Even after sharing several bottles of wine with my buddy Steve, I can still recall the magnificence of that meal.  Buonissimo!

We packed up and headed back to Vicenza the next morning but even writing about it now - 6 months later - I realize what a great time we had and what a beautiful place to visit.  I would recommend Levanto as a staging area for any Cinque Terre vacation and am very interested in checking out the rest of the Ligurian coast down to the Gulf of La Spezia.  Ciao!

Dinosaurs in the Flesh and Bone (Dinosauri in Carne e Ossa)

We ventured to nearby Bassano del Grappa to visit the Dinosauri in Carne e Ossa, or the Dinosaurs in the Flesh exhibit.  Actually, this was the second trip because the first time we made the 45 minute drive we were unable to locate the museum.  This was partially due to the address being published incorrectly in the flyer, but it's also kind of funny because had we turned our heads 20 degrees to the right instead of blindly following the GPS, then we would have seen the life-size Dinosaurs in the open park area.  The weather was bad that first day so we'll chalk it up to a poor visibility issue; however, we easily found the exhibit today and despite having to rely on our limited interpretation and translation skills it was still an educational trip.
It consisted of three floors and an outdoor exhibit area of all different sizes and scales of Dinosaurs and Liam walked away with some new Dino figures - since he claimed that he really loves the Baryonyx and needed it to complete his Velociraptor family.  In short, it was a fun day and a cool place.  We also drove through a little town called Schiavon.  Although not the origin of the Italian surname, Schiavoni, it represents the important family name from the Venetian Republic that originated from the the ethnonym or slur for "Slavs" in old Italian.  These descendants of present day Croatia settled into the Veneto region and are found throughout central and southern Italy today.
All of the day's pics are posted HERE!