Buying Euros . . . .

So basically when oil trades at 100 bucks a barrel the dollar drops and the euro rises. At least that is my pathetic understanding of it. So the question is, will this trend continue?

(The question is, who cares? )

Answer is that I do. I wish I knew more about money and finances and intrest rates and the federal reserve, oil prices, OPEC, and the whole rotten lot of it because if the dollar is only going to continue to drop this year than I sure as heck better transfer all the money I intend to spend in euros now and save myself some money. RRRRrrrrrrr. finances. . . .


On a lighter note Julia has gone to bed at nine tonight and since for the first time in many weeks my hands are free I am blogging again. Huzzah. I have been packing up our apartment and getting so exited for Gravagna. Exited for walks to the cemetary, walks to the campo, walks to San Rocco, to Marietta, to the waterfall and to all the dear dear familiar places. I can't wait to sit in Cafe Bellotti on a rainy market day and sip a hot chocolate or cafe-late. It will probably be really cold for our first month there but that's okay. I'll have Julia snug as a bug in her little sling,. THe Wingates are coming to Gravangna for the month of August and Henry and Ben will paint landscapes while Mary and I sunbathe and the children frolic in the fields. Well that's my fantasy of it anyway . . .its easy to get carried away especially when you think of summertime in February.

Ben and I have been watching the BBC series "Foyles' War" in the evenings and they are so good that I want to ration them out to myself so I can savour and relish each one. They are without a doubt the BEST murder mystery series I have ever watched and I am absolutley in love with Michael Kitchen. Ben and I agreee too without a doubt that Samantha the driver, played by Honeysuckle Weeks is simply the cutest little British girl ever and we wish she was our friend. And I LOVE THAT NAME! Why didn't my parents name ME "Honeysuckle Weeks"? Oh and here they are together, the sweeties.

Happy single's awareness day!

My husband wins the Valentines day prize though because he just sprinted three blocks to the library with six minutes to closing and checked out a DVD for us. That's got to be some kind of record.

Wayfarers all. . .

It was so cold this morning that outside of mass I saw three little sparrows huddled up against the rectory window in the southern sunlight trying to aquire as much warmth as possible. I am always so grateful for the birds that stay in the winter and stick it out, in a season where there are so few living things outside.

The posts are rare right now, because all those precious free moments are getting caught up with things like personal hygiene, spending time hugging my five year old. interacting with real people instead of the internet. . . . and planning the big event of the year, our voyage overseas.

The Hatke gypsy clan will once again pack up our things and hit the open road this spring. Ben has been accepted back at the studio in Florence and we are going to be back in dear dear Gravagna again for a few months as well. So I have been running around getting the five week old babe her passport which arrived in the mail yesterday and purchasing our tickets, going through the girls clothes. etc.

WHY DO WE HAVE SO MANY CLOTHES??? I like to blame it on so many outside factors like the fact that I am always either nursing or pregnant, or the fact that we don't live in the tropics and could run around in sarongs all the time, but really it is my shameless thift store habits.

Lent is here again and as always I am so happy when it arrives. At this time of year it is so good to have quiet thoughtful times. I havne't made it to stations yet but am hoping to go next week. I have been having fun planning the lenten menu and doing lots of vegetarian food and steering clear of richer things (accepting Sundays of course) as we attempt to cleanse our bodies as well as our souls.



Julia has started to smile. It is beautiful.

So the other day, three days ago to be precise. . . I practically burned down the entire Northside Music building, by leaving my pot of stock on the stove. Remember folks? The time when the entire apartment smelled like charred chicken remains and smoke was coming from every window in our apartment? Were it not for brave Mr. Mills, the entire place would have given up its soul in a scene reminiscent of Manderly in flames--- Well nobody called the fire deparment that day. . . .

But this morning when the the snow was falling gentley outside, Ben lit a cosy fire in the woodstove. The same little column of smoke merrily exited the chimney just as it always does and the Lafayette fire deparment shows up at back window because somebody reported smelling smoke!!!!!


What I want to know is WHERE WAS THIS PERSON THREE DAYS AGO?

How Deep?

I just finished a book today called "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future." It is a very new book, just out at the end of 2007, and it poses an interesting perspective on the comming years and what they hold.

The author who doesn't really quite fit into the liberal or conservative box, (though I think both sides of the coin will find the book appealing for different reasons.) posits the theory that for the first time since the industrial revolution people are faced with the choice of choosing between haveing "more" and having "better" two things which we usually associate as always going together. In a time when people like to throw around the phrase "sustainable future" this fellow likes to use the word "durable." I find this refreshing because to sustain something is just to maintain it as it is, but to build a culture that is not only "sustainable" but "enduring" brings to mind things the things in a culture that do endure, which ultimatley have stood the past of time and continue to do so. Exiting stuff.

Anyway this book puts a whole new face on the "dismal science" of economics and even people who run screaming and running at the mention of Global Warming and Peak Oil should find this an interesting read. Because at last it is a book about answers instead of problems. It is ultimatley a book about hope.

I can just see Pope Leo up in heaven nodding approvingly everytime this guy talks about local economies. Also for being written by a person who is as green as this fellow is there is thankfully very little talk of overpopulation. . . (thank goodness.)

In other news today was a very UNproductive day in which I missed a dentist apointment, managed to almost burn down my apartment, and we all five got stuck at CVS with the car battery dead. . . . though in the end all the troubles landed us at the Schnerre's for a wonderful visit and a very enjoyable and delicious dinner in the company of friends. I suppose today "more" and "better" certainly were very very seperate, indeed.

Okay, I'll stop shamlessley posting pictures of my cute family. . . .

I was poking around on the Cealum et Terra blog again and was reading an article where modern television cartoons (as in the last ten years or so) are described as "creepy." This made me laugh because this is usually my general reaction to any cartoon show on cable made after the year 1995 or so. Has anyone else noticed how strange and offbeat the humor has become and how dissproportioate and jerky the animation style is? Why? . What's the deal with that?

Okay I take it back--that is a broad generalization--there is the exeptional Justice League cartoons and, of course, the Powderpuff girls had some good moments. I guess I'm thinking more of cartoons for young young kids. Like seven and under. . . .

Anyway, this is even funnier in light of the fact that I have just introduced the girls to the old Muppet Show episodes. Ben and I put one on for them last night and I was floored at its sheer overwhelming wholesomeness. Sure it was zany and perhaps, might I venture, even "whacky" but the innoncent fun of it all was what I found so refreshing. So I lift my glass high to Jim Hensen. May his puppet legacy , God willing, long outlive the likes of this decade's bizzare cartoonery.


If you want to see a really cute sketch, go to Youtube and look for a sketch of Julie Andrews singing "the Lonley goatherd" to the muppets. Hillarious.

Quick pics. . .

>Julia in stylin overalls. . .
>We are adjusting to three.

Nonna doing what she does best other than making fajitas!