Now that I'm finished chronicling my Italy trip, what can I possibly blog about that can even compare. Don't get me wrong, I love my life, but it's not something anyone would tune in to read about daily.
Today was our first day back to school since Ike. Since we were at my parents last Monday and came back Tuesday we weren't settled enough to have a day of school. And since we only have school Monday through Thursday, I don't like to start on any day but Monday, if we can help it. So we had our first week of school then a week off. But like I said before, I'm in no hurry for this year to be over. Today we did our usual stuff but when we did Biology I pulled some of our human body books off the shelf and we looked at some of the body systems to supplement what's in our text book. I swear, we could probably spend a very long time on the human body. The circulatory system alone is amazing!! It all just continues to prove to me that God is and He is the creator of it all!!!!
It's kind of like when we started this history progam several years ago. I could have spent years on Egyptology alone. I didn't realize how quickly we would be in our last year and trying to finish it all up!!
There are still lots of people I know that don't have power. It's been tough for them all. Why were we so fortunate that ours came back on the 2nd day?? Tonight, Jasen, Chuck's assistant manager came over after they closed the store and ate dinner with us. He is one still without power. But he heard that they are trying to get everyone up and running by Thursday!! I hope so!! But, on the good side, I know people further south who came through with little or no damage or not as much as you would have thought. But I also know other's possessions were wiped out. I feel so sorry for them.
But to put it all into perspective, there's a couple I know who went to the hospital for the 2nd time last week to have their baby. For some reason her doctor let her go 2 weeks past. When her full-term baby was born she wasn't alive. Both of their families are devastated. Their having her funeral tomorrow!! It's such a horrible tragedy.
On a much lighter note:Knitting...
I don't really have much to report in the way of knitting progress. I'm still working on the 2nd jumper and I hope to have the main part done by tomorrow. I'd like to take them to the Knit Out with me this Saturday. I found a hat pattern and as soon as I saw it I knew that it needed to be worn by our preacher's 2 year old daughter. It will be fast and cute!! I can't wait to see it on her! If I can get the jumpers completed, I'll get that started and done quickly.
Here's the pattern:
Issue 57 – Daisy Chapeau
I'm not sure what color I should use. I usually don't use the color in the pattern, but this green is awfully cute!! But pink, purple, or blue would be awesome, too! I'll let you know my decision by the end of the week and hopefully some progress by the weekend.
Hopefully my next entry will be more interesting to read...
Knit On and More Later,
Shama D
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Ike and Knitting
As I said yesterday, my family made it through the hurricane pretty much unscathed. Here's the rest of the story...I was keeping an eye on the hurricane all last week. It started off with us on the extreme west side. Then we were smack dab in the middle. Last Wednesday morning I checked the Weather channel before we started school and we were on the extreme east side of the projected path. By the end of school that day I checked again and it had turned back and we were back in the middle of the projected path. My immediate thought was to get out. Wednesday night was the first Bible class of the new quarter and I'm teaching the 2 year olds this time so we went on to Bible class. We got to the church building early to make copies of a picture for the kids to color. Of course, people were discussing the hurricane, so I was listening to what they were saying. No one had any plans to leave. Of course, no one said I shouldn't leave. They were just giving their own reasons. Between that and what was being said on the news we decided to stay. The evacuations were being done by area, starting at Galveston and going north. They started talking about strength of hurricanes and how far north you should evacuate for each category of storm. Up to a category 5 we don't have to evacuate. That makes me feel better. And since the mayors of Galveston (Lyda Ann Thomas) and Houston (Bill White) did such a fantastic job evacuating and staying/and keeping everyone calm things were SO much better than when Rita hit. I'm so proud of our area because you never hear of looting, vandalism, blaming when things like that happen here!!!
Friday afternoon the wind began picking up like a thunderstorm was coming. I saw people out in our street. Kids were holding tarps or something and letting them fly out behind them like a cape. After dark our electricity started blinking off and on. Logan decided that the XBox needed to be turned off so that it wouldn't get the red ring of death. Also the satellite receiver would have to restart every time. I wasn't ready to turn the TV off for so many reasons. I wanted to watch the weather and I also wanted to keep some noise going. We'd kept our cell phones and Zunes charged. I fell asleep sometime after 1 on the couch, but I was up less than 2 hours later. The wind was whipping around outside. I don't know if it was real or my imagination, but it sounded like it was going in a circle. Everyone else in my house slept through most of it. I just sat here with a candle burning and knitting on an intarsia pocket for the little jumper I'm working on. I call it my hurricane pocket. The storm went on for several hours. I finally settled back down once the sun came up, but I never really went back to sleep. We finally took our frozen meat out of the deep freeze and put it in coolers. I had to work to get all the ice out of the deep freeze before it melted all over the laundry room. Once that was done I was finally able to sleep. I slept really hard for a couple of hours or so. All we had were some downed limbs and lots of pine cones and pine straw. Also the fence between our house and our neighbor's finally fell. That fence has been rotten and falling apart for years but they've refused to fix it. Now they'll have to if they want to sell it. By that evening we decided to pack up and go to my parents until we got power back. My parents had also lost power (2 hours northeast) but they got their's back the next afternoon. (Plus, they were connected to their neighbor's generator). Sunday night we called our house and our answering machine picked up.
Chuck came back home Monday morning. He was asked to check out several Mattress Firms on his was to see what/if any damage had been done. None of those stores had any damage. The biggest problem he had was getting gas. He stopped at a Walmart gas station and had to wait in line for 3 hours to get gas!!!!!!
My parents brought the boys and me back home on Tuesday. Costco and the Walmart nearest us were both shut down. I was able to get some milk. Yesterday we were able to get what we needed at Costco (milk and frozen food) and then we went to Walmart and got most of the rest. Walmart had almost no frozen or cold foods on the shelves. There was some milk.
We didn't have Bible class Wednesday night because there was no power at the church building. But it's back up now and we'll have Bible class and worship Sunday morning.
This whole thing has been so strange. But I'm thankful things are starting to get back to normal up here. Of course, my prayers are with all of those south of us who were hit so much harder!!
Knitting:
I've been working on Anouk ( knitty.com ) for my friend's newborn baby girl and the baby they're adopting that they'll have within the next month or two. This is a fun little knit. It's a little jumper that is not seamed up, but left open to wear a onesie or top and pants under. I'm about halfway through the second jumper. This time I'm knitting front and back at the same time.
Here's Rosemary's:
Here's the Hurricane pocket:
Here's what I've done so far on Maya's:
I also knit a miniature Christmas sweater ornament while I was at my parents. This is a super-quick knit. Probably just an hour or two.
Well, That's all for today. Tomorrow I plan to tell a bit about the people were with in Italy. What a great group of people!!!
Knit On and More Later,
Shama D
Friday afternoon the wind began picking up like a thunderstorm was coming. I saw people out in our street. Kids were holding tarps or something and letting them fly out behind them like a cape. After dark our electricity started blinking off and on. Logan decided that the XBox needed to be turned off so that it wouldn't get the red ring of death. Also the satellite receiver would have to restart every time. I wasn't ready to turn the TV off for so many reasons. I wanted to watch the weather and I also wanted to keep some noise going. We'd kept our cell phones and Zunes charged. I fell asleep sometime after 1 on the couch, but I was up less than 2 hours later. The wind was whipping around outside. I don't know if it was real or my imagination, but it sounded like it was going in a circle. Everyone else in my house slept through most of it. I just sat here with a candle burning and knitting on an intarsia pocket for the little jumper I'm working on. I call it my hurricane pocket. The storm went on for several hours. I finally settled back down once the sun came up, but I never really went back to sleep. We finally took our frozen meat out of the deep freeze and put it in coolers. I had to work to get all the ice out of the deep freeze before it melted all over the laundry room. Once that was done I was finally able to sleep. I slept really hard for a couple of hours or so. All we had were some downed limbs and lots of pine cones and pine straw. Also the fence between our house and our neighbor's finally fell. That fence has been rotten and falling apart for years but they've refused to fix it. Now they'll have to if they want to sell it. By that evening we decided to pack up and go to my parents until we got power back. My parents had also lost power (2 hours northeast) but they got their's back the next afternoon. (Plus, they were connected to their neighbor's generator). Sunday night we called our house and our answering machine picked up.
Chuck came back home Monday morning. He was asked to check out several Mattress Firms on his was to see what/if any damage had been done. None of those stores had any damage. The biggest problem he had was getting gas. He stopped at a Walmart gas station and had to wait in line for 3 hours to get gas!!!!!!
My parents brought the boys and me back home on Tuesday. Costco and the Walmart nearest us were both shut down. I was able to get some milk. Yesterday we were able to get what we needed at Costco (milk and frozen food) and then we went to Walmart and got most of the rest. Walmart had almost no frozen or cold foods on the shelves. There was some milk.
We didn't have Bible class Wednesday night because there was no power at the church building. But it's back up now and we'll have Bible class and worship Sunday morning.
This whole thing has been so strange. But I'm thankful things are starting to get back to normal up here. Of course, my prayers are with all of those south of us who were hit so much harder!!
Knitting:
I've been working on Anouk ( knitty.com ) for my friend's newborn baby girl and the baby they're adopting that they'll have within the next month or two. This is a fun little knit. It's a little jumper that is not seamed up, but left open to wear a onesie or top and pants under. I'm about halfway through the second jumper. This time I'm knitting front and back at the same time.
Here's Rosemary's:
Here's the Hurricane pocket:
Here's what I've done so far on Maya's:
I also knit a miniature Christmas sweater ornament while I was at my parents. This is a super-quick knit. Probably just an hour or two.
Well, That's all for today. Tomorrow I plan to tell a bit about the people were with in Italy. What a great group of people!!!
Knit On and More Later,
Shama D
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Second Sunday in Italy and Hurricane Ike
On the second Sunday in Italy we were still staying in Rome. This Sunday morning we got up, went down to breakfast, got on the bus, and Maurizio took us to the church building. I think this time he was able to drop us off right there. There were many places on the trip that he had to drop us off and we had to walk the rest of the way or we finished a tour and had to keep walking to meet him. The main reason was that the bus wasn't allowed everywhere. I think it was because of how narrow the streets were. As a matter of fact, there were some cities, including Florence, that we had to stop and get a permit to drive a bus in that city. Those permits cost money. In those cities there are businesses that pay for those permits, so it's a stop on our tours each day. When we stopped at the cameo place in Pompeii it was because they paid for our bus pass.
Anyway...We got to worship pretty early that morning. The little church building was pretty neat looking, but it was a small building. This building had pews instead of the miserable chairs in Trieste. It also had window units that they used.
The preacher at this congregation is one that we help support. And we helped support his Father-in-law until he passed away. Now we send some money to his widow because if you preach in Italy but you aren't Catholic you are not recognized as employed, so she has NO money to live on. This particular congregation has been in their building since the 50's. They could sell this building and make millions of Euros, but they still wouldn't have enough to buy another place. Real estate in Rome is ridiculous!!!! Several members of this congregation were related to one another. Once again, these brethren were very sweet and friendly. They had a guest book they call "The Book of Life". They pass it around to visitors and we all signed it and put down where we were from. This book has been around for many years. Once again we sang in Italian and, once again, the fruit of the vine was real wine!!! GOOD GRIEF!!! After worship we stayed around and visited for a while. In a bit we walked down the street to this really neat restaurant. It was a very cool (as in temperature) place. So I really didn't mind staying. However, the room we were in was long and very narrow. I went on down to the end of the table and ended up being separated from the adults. I really liked the kids I sat with, but I felt like I was being antisocial. I couldn't understand the menu and some the people with us were helping, but I was too tired to ask for help. I even dozed off with my chin in my hands. I ended up getting a calzone that really wasn't good. But that was the very least of the meal. They brought out plate after plate of meats and cheeses (including fresh mozzarella!!!!!!) We weren't charged for any of that. We stayed there for about 3 hours. From there we started walking - and walking - and walking...My stupid blister started coming back...Needless to say, I was not a happy camper - AGAIN. We ended up back at the Colosseum. It was amazing from the outside - again. From that point it seemed a bit more tolerable. We passed a really neat statue of Julius Caesar.
If you'll notice at the bottom of the statue are the letters SPQR. We actually had that when we were studying Latin a few years ago. I couldn't remember what it stood for. It took Logan a bit to remember the Latin saying, but he remembered what it meant.
Senatus PopulusQue Romanus - The Senate and People of Rome. It really made me feel good that it had stuck with Logan all this time!!! We saw that everywhere in Rome - even on man hole covers:
Once again we walked through the streets and they were very hot and crowded. We came through a street and suddenly we saw this:
This is the Trevi Fountain. It is absolutely breathtaking!!!! I didn't get very many pictures and they aren't as good as I would have liked. But we were supposed to go back after we ate dinner and get pictures after dark. Unfortunately, we didn't go back. The fountain is really lit up at night.
We finally got to our last restaurant in Italy. It was probably my favorite. It was called:
We stood around outside for a while. While we were waiting we decided to look at the menu. (Even though our meals were pre-planned just for us) Here's what the salad page looked like:
There were pictures all over the walls in this restaurant of people like Dean Martin and Audrey Hepburn. I took pictures of their pictures! We weren't all that hungry because of how recently we'd had lunch. I did eat some of the food, but I mostly enjoyed the atmosphere. We were all exhausted, but we laughed and enjoyed our last evening together.
After we left we started walking again. (It was getting dark but I was still sweating like a pig.) We all walked to Hard Rock Cafe'. It looked so much like the ones in the US, but we still enjoyed it. We walked around and took pictures. I felt a little awkward walking among the paying customers, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. But I was able to get quite a few. Here's one of my favorites - I imagine Kelli's too!!!
Here's one of Logan's
It was a really neat place. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot...We were right across the street from the American Embassy:
After HRC we split up. Some of our group went back to the hotel, the rest continued sight-seeing. It was too expensive to sight-see independently in Rome because you either had to take a bus, subway, or taxi back to the hotel. On top of which, I am very uncomfortable on public transportation. I won't even take a city bus in Houston downtown for jury duty. And, I was so afraid of getting lost and not finding my way back to where we were supposed to be. On top of which, I was so exhausted every night, that I was more than ready to get back to the hotel, take a shower, and rest. We also wanted to get all of our stuff packed up and ready to go very early on Monday.
Obviously, we made it through Ike in one piece. It could have been so much worse. However, I feel like I've written too much for one reading. I'll go in to more detail tomorrow.
Knit On and More Later,
Shama D
Anyway...We got to worship pretty early that morning. The little church building was pretty neat looking, but it was a small building. This building had pews instead of the miserable chairs in Trieste. It also had window units that they used.
The preacher at this congregation is one that we help support. And we helped support his Father-in-law until he passed away. Now we send some money to his widow because if you preach in Italy but you aren't Catholic you are not recognized as employed, so she has NO money to live on. This particular congregation has been in their building since the 50's. They could sell this building and make millions of Euros, but they still wouldn't have enough to buy another place. Real estate in Rome is ridiculous!!!! Several members of this congregation were related to one another. Once again, these brethren were very sweet and friendly. They had a guest book they call "The Book of Life". They pass it around to visitors and we all signed it and put down where we were from. This book has been around for many years. Once again we sang in Italian and, once again, the fruit of the vine was real wine!!! GOOD GRIEF!!! After worship we stayed around and visited for a while. In a bit we walked down the street to this really neat restaurant. It was a very cool (as in temperature) place. So I really didn't mind staying. However, the room we were in was long and very narrow. I went on down to the end of the table and ended up being separated from the adults. I really liked the kids I sat with, but I felt like I was being antisocial. I couldn't understand the menu and some the people with us were helping, but I was too tired to ask for help. I even dozed off with my chin in my hands. I ended up getting a calzone that really wasn't good. But that was the very least of the meal. They brought out plate after plate of meats and cheeses (including fresh mozzarella!!!!!!) We weren't charged for any of that. We stayed there for about 3 hours. From there we started walking - and walking - and walking...My stupid blister started coming back...Needless to say, I was not a happy camper - AGAIN. We ended up back at the Colosseum. It was amazing from the outside - again. From that point it seemed a bit more tolerable. We passed a really neat statue of Julius Caesar.
If you'll notice at the bottom of the statue are the letters SPQR. We actually had that when we were studying Latin a few years ago. I couldn't remember what it stood for. It took Logan a bit to remember the Latin saying, but he remembered what it meant.
Senatus PopulusQue Romanus - The Senate and People of Rome. It really made me feel good that it had stuck with Logan all this time!!! We saw that everywhere in Rome - even on man hole covers:
Once again we walked through the streets and they were very hot and crowded. We came through a street and suddenly we saw this:
This is the Trevi Fountain. It is absolutely breathtaking!!!! I didn't get very many pictures and they aren't as good as I would have liked. But we were supposed to go back after we ate dinner and get pictures after dark. Unfortunately, we didn't go back. The fountain is really lit up at night.
We finally got to our last restaurant in Italy. It was probably my favorite. It was called:
We stood around outside for a while. While we were waiting we decided to look at the menu. (Even though our meals were pre-planned just for us) Here's what the salad page looked like:
There were pictures all over the walls in this restaurant of people like Dean Martin and Audrey Hepburn. I took pictures of their pictures! We weren't all that hungry because of how recently we'd had lunch. I did eat some of the food, but I mostly enjoyed the atmosphere. We were all exhausted, but we laughed and enjoyed our last evening together.
After we left we started walking again. (It was getting dark but I was still sweating like a pig.) We all walked to Hard Rock Cafe'. It looked so much like the ones in the US, but we still enjoyed it. We walked around and took pictures. I felt a little awkward walking among the paying customers, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. But I was able to get quite a few. Here's one of my favorites - I imagine Kelli's too!!!
Here's one of Logan's
It was a really neat place. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot...We were right across the street from the American Embassy:
After HRC we split up. Some of our group went back to the hotel, the rest continued sight-seeing. It was too expensive to sight-see independently in Rome because you either had to take a bus, subway, or taxi back to the hotel. On top of which, I am very uncomfortable on public transportation. I won't even take a city bus in Houston downtown for jury duty. And, I was so afraid of getting lost and not finding my way back to where we were supposed to be. On top of which, I was so exhausted every night, that I was more than ready to get back to the hotel, take a shower, and rest. We also wanted to get all of our stuff packed up and ready to go very early on Monday.
Obviously, we made it through Ike in one piece. It could have been so much worse. However, I feel like I've written too much for one reading. I'll go in to more detail tomorrow.
Knit On and More Later,
Shama D
Monday, September 08, 2008
Third Day of School and Pompeii
Well, today was our third day of school. This is the same time we started last year. We still get off from the Friday before Thanksgiving until after the first of the year. And we finish up by the middle of April. This is bittersweet for me. I absolutely love homeschooling my boys and being home with them everyday. Coming into the school room and closing the door (to keep the dog in) feels so right to me. We're in our special room, just the 3 of us and all's right with the world. But this is the last year I'll be homeschooling my Logan. He's a senior!! No one asked me if growing up was OK. It was never part of the plan!! At least I'll still have 3 more years with my Kelby. At the end of the year we'll have a graduation blow-out at home for Logan. There will be a lot of preparation for this throughout the year. I have some very special things I want to knit for him. Plus, I'd love to get him a new guitar.
On to Pompeii...Pompeii was our last big outing in Italy. It was on Saturday before we left early Monday morning. Let me go back to the day I found out Pompeii was one of our destinations. We had gotten a list of places and I was reading throught the list. When I came to Pompeii I screamed like I was at a Rick Springfield concert!!! I have just found the whole story of Pompeii so fascinating - sad, but fascinating. I had an idea of what I thought it would look like. I figured everything would be totally flattened. Just rubble lying around everywhere. It was still very exciting to me. Our trip up there was a lot of fun. We had bus ride from Rome to Pompeii that ws 150 miles. That trip was a lot of fun. For several days we had been making playlists on our Zunes and iPods and they were being played on the bus's stereo system. Logan took mine up front. It started off being down too low so no one heard my first song - the best song ever - "Jessie's Girl"!!! In a few minutes "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles came on and everyone wanted it turned up and started singing at the top of their voices. The boys next to me, Kent and Jeremy, started acting crazy!! They had us laughing our heads off!! Here's are 2 videos:
Kent and Jeremy getting down to Love Song on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
More Kent and Jeremy getting down to Love Song on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I told you, these were the best people!! So much fun!! I am so ready to go on another trip with this exact same group!! (like that could ever happen)
Anyway, before we went on our tour of Pompeii we ate lunch. It was some of the best pizza I've ever eaten!! It was big (and not too cheap) so I bought one to split with Logan. I cut out a slice and gave him the rest. The plan was to let him eat all he wanted and I would eat what was left. Guess what?? There wasn't any left!! Mike practically forced me to eat some of his. I don't know if he was really full or if he felt sorry for me!! But I ate a slice of his, too!!
All week there had been talk about how this was going to be the hottest day of all!! I was really dreading that part. It turned out not to be as bad as I expected. I don't know if it was because I was so excited or if it was a bit cooler than expected. (cooler - not hotter than any other day)
Our tour guide was an older man who had been giving tours in Pompeii for several years. The really neat thing about him, aside from his outstanding personality, was that he had worked on a dig in Pompeii for a year in the late 50's. He knew what he was talking about!!! I was completely surprised at how much is still standing!!! Temples, stores, a bakery, houses, even the whore house!! The first big thing we saw was the Temple of Apollo.
Apollo shooting arrows
Diana facing Apollo
The next big thing we saw that day was a warehouse-type building where they store items as they are excavated. About 30% of Pompeii is still buried. This building had a lot of pottery, tables, statues, and other decorative items. There were also plaster casts of people and animals who died when the volcano erupted. The most interesting were a 17 year old pregnant girl who was lying on her stomach to protect her unborn baby:
And a dog that was tied to a wall and it balled up to protect itself:
As we walked along the cobblestone streets (one of the most difficult places to walk) there were so many small things to see that really stuck in my mind. For example, we saw some piece of broken marble. This is one that our tour guide referred to as the first Lego:
Pompeii was a very advanced city. They had running water. Unfortunately, the water ran through lead pipes. They had baths - cold. hot, and steam. I don't know how they accomplished that. We got to walk through the baths. In the first bath we came across a dog asleep on the floor. There are dogs all over Pompeii. Apparently these homeless dogs come in to Pompeii every morning and leave every night. One poor dog got up and walked off and he was SOOOOO skinny!! It made you want to cry! One of the next things we saw was a house. There was an opening where the front door used to be. There are partial walls, a fountain:
There was even a garden area. The houses in Pompeii apparently had up to 60 rooms in them. As we were leaving this house there were several dog asleep against the wall. Tempestt had a reputation for sleeping every time she sat down on the bus. They told her to sit down with the dogs and pretend she was asleep:
The next big thing we went through was the red light district. At the beginning and the end of the district were phallic symbols - one on a wall and one on the street. We actually walked through the whore house. There were several rooms. On the wall outside each room was a painting. These paintings were VERY graphic that showed what each girl's "specialty" was. I was amazed at how graphic it was and how the paintings were still so clear. After this we were headed for the Temple of Jupiter. It was a big open area. It was very attractive. There were lots of marble columns. There were columns on the ground and columns on top of those. This had been two stories.
This was basically the end of our tour. And my description is very abbreviated. While we were standing in Jupiter's Temple we got to visit with our tour guide. He told us about when he was working on the dig almost 50 years ago. They had found a metal box. They had a special oil they put on the hinges so that the boxes wouldn't fall apart. When they opened the box it was full of coins!!!! He asked his foreman if he could have one for a memento. He was told that it all belonged to the Italian government. At the end of his year his foreman came up to him and told him again that he couldn't give him a coin, but he had gift for him. They had uncovered a red cameo of a Roman soldier's head. He had it mounted in a ring. I was so excited that I wanted to squeal!!!!
It was in the the Temple of Jupiter that we got several group shots...It was then that I began to realize how much I was going to miss everyone. There were 3 girls that stayed together (2 of them had strep) and they had were from Alabama. I realized I was going to miss hearing them talk and laugh, and their cute accents.
Allison, Jennifer, and Emily. They were so sweet, despite their strep throat. They laughed and talked and were so sweet to everyone. Jennifer is getting married in November. I certainly wish I could see them on a regular basis.
In my next post I'll tell a bit more about our group.
Our tour guide told us that there were actually 3 different tours of Pompeii. I was more than willing to stay and go through the other two. Despite the heat and cobblestone streets, I could have stayed in Pompeii ALL day!!
After we left Pompeii we went to a shop that made cameos. We got to watch a demonstration of a cameo being made. The old man that did the demonstration had been making them for over 50 years. His hands were distorted from the work and the way he holds his tools. The cameos were beautiful and I found a couple I would loved to have owned.
That night we ended up back in Rome at another restaurant. This was such a cute little restaurant. I can't remember what we ate, but I do remember our waiter. He was absolutely hysterical. He started picking at the kids. He fed several of them including Logan. For some reason I was having a hard time getting pictures. Here is one of him next to Logan after feeding him one bite and waiting to feed him another:
Tomorrow I will post about our last day in Rome and in Italy.
Since I last posted I've done a good bit of knitting. I did a pair of socks for my Olympic knitting. I started them the day of the Opening Ceremony and finished them the night before the Closing Ceremony.
I think I'll save the other things I've been working on for another day. Tomorrow I will finish up our Italy trip.
Prayers for all of us that are in the path of Hurrican Ike!! I pray that is weakens and turns from the Texas coast!
Knit On and More Later!!
Shama D
On to Pompeii...Pompeii was our last big outing in Italy. It was on Saturday before we left early Monday morning. Let me go back to the day I found out Pompeii was one of our destinations. We had gotten a list of places and I was reading throught the list. When I came to Pompeii I screamed like I was at a Rick Springfield concert!!! I have just found the whole story of Pompeii so fascinating - sad, but fascinating. I had an idea of what I thought it would look like. I figured everything would be totally flattened. Just rubble lying around everywhere. It was still very exciting to me. Our trip up there was a lot of fun. We had bus ride from Rome to Pompeii that ws 150 miles. That trip was a lot of fun. For several days we had been making playlists on our Zunes and iPods and they were being played on the bus's stereo system. Logan took mine up front. It started off being down too low so no one heard my first song - the best song ever - "Jessie's Girl"!!! In a few minutes "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles came on and everyone wanted it turned up and started singing at the top of their voices. The boys next to me, Kent and Jeremy, started acting crazy!! They had us laughing our heads off!! Here's are 2 videos:
Kent and Jeremy getting down to Love Song on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
More Kent and Jeremy getting down to Love Song on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I told you, these were the best people!! So much fun!! I am so ready to go on another trip with this exact same group!! (like that could ever happen)
Anyway, before we went on our tour of Pompeii we ate lunch. It was some of the best pizza I've ever eaten!! It was big (and not too cheap) so I bought one to split with Logan. I cut out a slice and gave him the rest. The plan was to let him eat all he wanted and I would eat what was left. Guess what?? There wasn't any left!! Mike practically forced me to eat some of his. I don't know if he was really full or if he felt sorry for me!! But I ate a slice of his, too!!
All week there had been talk about how this was going to be the hottest day of all!! I was really dreading that part. It turned out not to be as bad as I expected. I don't know if it was because I was so excited or if it was a bit cooler than expected. (cooler - not hotter than any other day)
Our tour guide was an older man who had been giving tours in Pompeii for several years. The really neat thing about him, aside from his outstanding personality, was that he had worked on a dig in Pompeii for a year in the late 50's. He knew what he was talking about!!! I was completely surprised at how much is still standing!!! Temples, stores, a bakery, houses, even the whore house!! The first big thing we saw was the Temple of Apollo.
Apollo shooting arrows
Diana facing Apollo
The next big thing we saw that day was a warehouse-type building where they store items as they are excavated. About 30% of Pompeii is still buried. This building had a lot of pottery, tables, statues, and other decorative items. There were also plaster casts of people and animals who died when the volcano erupted. The most interesting were a 17 year old pregnant girl who was lying on her stomach to protect her unborn baby:
And a dog that was tied to a wall and it balled up to protect itself:
As we walked along the cobblestone streets (one of the most difficult places to walk) there were so many small things to see that really stuck in my mind. For example, we saw some piece of broken marble. This is one that our tour guide referred to as the first Lego:
Pompeii was a very advanced city. They had running water. Unfortunately, the water ran through lead pipes. They had baths - cold. hot, and steam. I don't know how they accomplished that. We got to walk through the baths. In the first bath we came across a dog asleep on the floor. There are dogs all over Pompeii. Apparently these homeless dogs come in to Pompeii every morning and leave every night. One poor dog got up and walked off and he was SOOOOO skinny!! It made you want to cry! One of the next things we saw was a house. There was an opening where the front door used to be. There are partial walls, a fountain:
There was even a garden area. The houses in Pompeii apparently had up to 60 rooms in them. As we were leaving this house there were several dog asleep against the wall. Tempestt had a reputation for sleeping every time she sat down on the bus. They told her to sit down with the dogs and pretend she was asleep:
The next big thing we went through was the red light district. At the beginning and the end of the district were phallic symbols - one on a wall and one on the street. We actually walked through the whore house. There were several rooms. On the wall outside each room was a painting. These paintings were VERY graphic that showed what each girl's "specialty" was. I was amazed at how graphic it was and how the paintings were still so clear. After this we were headed for the Temple of Jupiter. It was a big open area. It was very attractive. There were lots of marble columns. There were columns on the ground and columns on top of those. This had been two stories.
This was basically the end of our tour. And my description is very abbreviated. While we were standing in Jupiter's Temple we got to visit with our tour guide. He told us about when he was working on the dig almost 50 years ago. They had found a metal box. They had a special oil they put on the hinges so that the boxes wouldn't fall apart. When they opened the box it was full of coins!!!! He asked his foreman if he could have one for a memento. He was told that it all belonged to the Italian government. At the end of his year his foreman came up to him and told him again that he couldn't give him a coin, but he had gift for him. They had uncovered a red cameo of a Roman soldier's head. He had it mounted in a ring. I was so excited that I wanted to squeal!!!!
It was in the the Temple of Jupiter that we got several group shots...It was then that I began to realize how much I was going to miss everyone. There were 3 girls that stayed together (2 of them had strep) and they had were from Alabama. I realized I was going to miss hearing them talk and laugh, and their cute accents.
Allison, Jennifer, and Emily. They were so sweet, despite their strep throat. They laughed and talked and were so sweet to everyone. Jennifer is getting married in November. I certainly wish I could see them on a regular basis.
In my next post I'll tell a bit more about our group.
Our tour guide told us that there were actually 3 different tours of Pompeii. I was more than willing to stay and go through the other two. Despite the heat and cobblestone streets, I could have stayed in Pompeii ALL day!!
After we left Pompeii we went to a shop that made cameos. We got to watch a demonstration of a cameo being made. The old man that did the demonstration had been making them for over 50 years. His hands were distorted from the work and the way he holds his tools. The cameos were beautiful and I found a couple I would loved to have owned.
That night we ended up back in Rome at another restaurant. This was such a cute little restaurant. I can't remember what we ate, but I do remember our waiter. He was absolutely hysterical. He started picking at the kids. He fed several of them including Logan. For some reason I was having a hard time getting pictures. Here is one of him next to Logan after feeding him one bite and waiting to feed him another:
Tomorrow I will post about our last day in Rome and in Italy.
Since I last posted I've done a good bit of knitting. I did a pair of socks for my Olympic knitting. I started them the day of the Opening Ceremony and finished them the night before the Closing Ceremony.
I think I'll save the other things I've been working on for another day. Tomorrow I will finish up our Italy trip.
Prayers for all of us that are in the path of Hurrican Ike!! I pray that is weakens and turns from the Texas coast!
Knit On and More Later!!
Shama D
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