As a continuation of my birthday celebration week in August 2008, my good friend Joe and I decided to embark on a new adventure. My friend Graham had told me about a place called Twin Lakes and a beautiful hike from the campsite. Being a newbie to the outdoors, I let Joe plan the trip …
I feel like I should be an honorary member of this family being that I frequently take photos of them. 🙂 Two lovely sisters forming two beautiful families. You can see individual photo sessions of the girls, Makenna and Ada as well. Kudos to this family for letting me be a part of their lives …
This beautiful little girl and her beautiful mom. I am missing a ton right now. I am so sad I won’t be there to watch her grow over the next few months/year/who knows when I will be back. I can’t get over her beautiful eyes and spunky personality. Welcome to the world Ada Mary!
Meghan and Nick Pembroke. I love this couple so much words really can’t express it. I met Meghan when I first started with WSDOT, she wasn’t my immediate supervisor but shortly after I started she became mine. On top of being what I exactly imagined myself to be at her age, she was an incredible …
I forgot to mention that Hillary left yesterday morning. It’s been a nice reprieve for me so far…after living by yourself for 2 years, having a roommate that you also work with was overwhelming for me. I sorted my belongings and finally really feel officially settled in my apartment. I’m also really excited to start focusing more …
I failed at the detox. No surprise there. Valeria and her pesto is hard to resist. Today is the first of May and an international holiday. I blame myself for being naiive, but I thought May Day was about flowers and that spring was coming. We never had the day off from school or anything, …
Valeria’s friend Sandra came to visit for a couple days…she’s from Argentina so lucky for us she taught us how to make empanadas one afternoon. This is a rough recipe, as I was just observing and she was speaking Italian, so give or take some of this. It could probably be cut in half because …
Valeria and Corrado have such great friends. I’ve been so lucky to meet many of them in just a short amount of time. The first sunday of my arrival there was a presentation on a wine book paired with a wine tasting. Corrado was among some wine journalists and talked about the book and the …
Luisa, one of Valeria’s friends invited us to her home for brunch today. Luisa has a BEAUTIFUL Italian home. It seems I feel this way about all Italian homes, but hers really is gorgeous and something I can imagine living in. She is a retired artist and every square inch of her home is painted …
Wrapping up my first three weeks here and the work has been a mixture of working in teh garden and working in the vineyard. At first the rainy was pretty iffy so we spent much of our time boxing, but eventually we started some serious work on the vines. This included taking small plastic cones …
I love these guys. Frequently gracing the Ballard Farmer’s Market, these are some of the nicest guys. Luc Reynolds, the lead singer spent some time helping with some relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina, writing one of my favorite songs, “Freedom Song” with some children. It’s a beautiful song…Jason Mraz somehow found it and covered it, …
Funny story how I discovered this group. I was enjoying what I thought would be any regular old Open Mic night at Conor Bryne one sunday evening. Turns out there was some special tribute for a local sound engineer, Kory Kruckenberg, who recently won a Grammy. So as a tribute to him, many of the …
If I were to ever run away and join the circus, I’d probably just run away with March Fourth Marching Band. It’s like the circus except way more fun. Nick introduced me to this band when we were visiting New Orleans in 2009. Lucky for us, it was Halloween weekend and nothing is more fun …
Former lead singer of The Senate, Nick Drummond, has been on a great journey since his days with The Senate. Traveling and working on his solo material, along the way he was reunited with Tyler Carson, a fiddle player who used to play on occasion with The Senate. It’s funny how life works out that way. I …
After spending the afternoon on the beach, we decided to venture into town more for some more exploration. Sennigallia is beautiful. I got carried away with the real estate windows, dreaming of buying an italian home. We stopped by a small museum that was built partially over streets where ancient romans lived. It was pretty …
Spent the afternoon on the beach in Sennigallia…first warm day of the year! Except the Italians didn’t think so. I went for a swim and they thought I was crazy. I thought they were crazy for wearing pants, socks and shoes to the beach! It was a good time especially for a national holiday.
Seattle’s music scene is flooded with everyone trying to have their take on the acoustic folk genre. Hot Bodies in Motion is not that. It’s “baby making mammal funk”. I’ve had the great pleasure of getting to know the guys since discovering them opening for a band I can’t even remember who I went to …
It comes as no surprise to me that working outdoors fulfills a much happier place in my heart than sitting in a cubicle all day. However, its not any easier of a task. While I worked hard at WSDOT, I think most of it was more mentally straining than anything else. Here, the physical labor …
Being able to call Seattle my home has spoiled me with some great live music. So much that I sometimes have a hard time spending anymore than $15 or $20 to see a concert. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see very many big acts this way. But after spending so much time seeing so many …
We had a break in the weather today…I wore a dress for the first time and it was so refreshing. A bit windy but it was still warm out. After lunch Giovanni took me to Fabriano, which is a nearby town, well known for it’s paper. So we went to the paper museum which sounded …
Once upon a time there was a three piece band that could shred, shake, and serenade any room they walked into. They were called The Senate. They described themselves as “face melting acoustic riffage”. I’m sad to say that I reluctantly discovered them in August 2008. Bellingham catches some great musical acts, and my …
It’s been a little more than a week since my arrival and getting settled in has been easier than I thought it would be. Daniela (Corrado’s mother) has been a nice surprise. I always enjoy my time with her, I feel like she’s my adoptive nonna. She likes to gossip (giving Hilary boy advice..even when …
It was only fitting that my last weekend in Seattle before my big trip involved an international sailing trip. Since I was hosting a goodbye BBQ I couldn’t make the first leg from Seattle to Port Townsend, but meeting the crew in Port Townsend early in the morning was easy. I forgot my camera this time …
The title of this entry comes from a song from the lovely Kris Orlowski…he’s still on my to-write list for my music blog as I have come to share some good memories with him the past year, but it will come in good time. (Update: finally got around to writing one months later) So early …
Stages of my feelings about moving to Italy. 1. Pure excitement – It was a romantic idea that I couldn’t get out of my head. Thinking about the possibilities of what I could be doing, what I will be doing, and all those dreams I ever had about doing. This feeling however only lasted a …
