Capisci?

Tu parli e capisci Italiano? (Do you speak and understand Italian?)



Not yet, but I'm working on it.



I am using a program called Mango to learn Italian. I saw a little flyer for it at the library. Weird, because I was thinking about my options in my previous post. You have to pay to use Mango on line, but since my library subscribes to it, I can do it for free! I made Joe promise that we would do this 2 times per week, Tuesdays and Saturdays. We did it together this past Tuesday, and it went real well. I am way ahead, though. I've been doing a lesson every day at work at lunch time, and I am now on lesson 4. It is HARD! Sometimes I just want to put my head down on the desk and groan. I took German in High School, and the similarities to English are notable. Not so much with Italian. And, like so many languages, Italian has formal and casual ways of saying the same thing, plus different ways to say things depending if the subject is male of female. It was the same with German. All of this is good exercise for my brain. My goal is to see how much Italian I can learn in a year. At some point I will want to seek out some people who speak Italian and try talking to them, but I need some time to get past, "Hi, how are you?"

Apart from learning Italian, I am trying to have a nice summer. We went to the Jersey Shore Sunday, Seaside Heights to be exact. We like the crazy boardwalk. The people watching is primo, and I just don't feel right if a summer goes by and I haven't had a sausage and pepper sandwich and Kohr's Ice cream. It's a Jersey thing. There was a good band playing on the beach called Swamp Donkey. One of the people in the band was wearing purple shiney hi-top sneakers, yellow socks, purple shorts and yellow t-shirt. Just based on that, I loved him.

We will also go to Cape May in August, thanks to generous friends who rent a house there for 3 weeks and invite us for one of the weekends. Cape May is a whole different deal than Seaside. I think the people who visit Cape May are a little different, because it is more expensive and a little calmer. If you want to party, you should drive a little ways north to Wildwood. If you want to party you most likely don't really care about Victorian Architecture, anyway, which is half the point of Cape May.

Kate's 26th birthday was yesterday, happy birthday, Kate!

Settling Back in.

Monday morning after a long weekend. Wish I could have stayed in bed longer, but it was not happening. Also, we were blessed for 2 years in a row with weather that was so fine for April that you just know you will have to pay somehow. The weather for the coming week includes high temperatures in the 40s, lots of rain and even a slight chance of snow. April is indeed the cruelest month. Meanwhile, have a look at some pictures of the beach at Cape May.

On the Run

I have exactly 16 minutes to post. Tonight is the last regular rehearsal for the talent show. After this, Kate's father takes over. Joe and I managed to book a hotel in Cape May on the very weekend of the talent show. At first I told Kate she could not be involved.  She wailed. I asked her if it would be OK if I wasn't there, and she blurted out, "I don't care!" I suggested that her dad might be able to do it and she was OK with that. Fortunately, he's OK with it, too.

Joe and I are staying at the Victorian Motel. It's about as victorian as the 1960s, when the place was most likely built. Our friends, whom we are meeting, stay across the street at Congress Hall. This place is fabulous, and the price reflects it. We would stay there ourselves, but we spent all of our money on that damned chair...

Anyway, when we were making reservations at the Vic, we took note of their rather draconian cancellation policy. If you cancel at least two weeks ahead of your date, they skim 20% off the top, and the remaining 80% is applied to your next visit. If you cancel closer than 2 weeks, you are totally screwed. We figured we would not have to cancel, so no problem. About 2 days later, we realized that this was crashing into the talent show. It never fails. But anyway, it's gonna be alright. I just wish I could be there to do Kate's hair.

I am probably going to finish a huge project at work in the next couple of days, and then sail into the weekend, which starts on Friday for me. I love going away for the weekend. And, get this!  We are going to stop and see Lucy the elephant on the way down! I promise promise to bring my charged-up camera.