one fav pic so far..

this is linda. taking a photo of a church at night in the rain. she looks very mary-poppins-esque.

it rains every afternoon here it seems. hot & humid in the early part of the day...sunny around 1pm, thunder around 5 with downpours. every day but one so far. so apparently italy weather is very tropical. another new thing i wouldn't have expected ~

i am going to hope and try to upload some photos to my flickr acct and add them to the blog. we'll see if that works.

today's topics:

*10.6 miles this morning. Coach Rudi & Gals, I did my LSD in a foreign place with no directions, 200% humidity (i have never sweated so much in my life....Karen you would have positiviely melted!) and yes, i caved and took the iPod. I couldn't do it without....esp after sleeping like ass last night. got maybe 3 hours of sleep. my brain just would *not* turn off...stupid brain.

*after the run ended (about 10am), i showered and supercalifragilisticexpealodocious!!! I DID shave my legs in the teeny tiny shower! hallelujah! (i know, i know, the things i'll blog about and that you care to read....it's my blog, i'll say what i want ;P

*towel sizes in italy rock. they are like bath sheets and the hotel towels here are actually pretty decent! most past european countries we've visited have had pretty scratchy-sans-fabric-softener feels to them and are not very big. here they actually can almost wrap around me twice and go below my knees! (so on someone like my boss they'd be almost as long as a formal gown ;)

*older men (ie those that have outgrown cat calling women) in their 60s and above walk often very slowly and with their hands behind their backs. not sure why but almost every man i have spied walks like this....and they politely nod if you make eye contact. (not that i'm trying to pic up seniors in italy)

*the group is performing twelve, yep, *twelve* nights in a row while here. tonight's performance is the first one i am going to forgo on and do some reading and wandering (if it stops pouring). last night's show was the last of the 'sampler' shows. all 5 groups, all doing 30 min sets. The first 3 nights of concerts were like that with different repetoire each night. Tonight Rose is performing in a little town i ran through earlier today called Castellanza (i think that's the name) and they're doing a 70 minute rep of early Hawaiian and American music. concerts end around 11:30 and the group thing has to been go 'celebrate' of course after that. due to this morning's run i decided against the boozin' it up pre-workout. after not sleeping i might as well have part taken in limoncello shots.....

glad to hear through KCF that the kickoff went well. Strib said the weather cooperated, so there's a bonus! I hope to hear more about it....

and as i close i just watched my first television commercial in English, featuring, George Clooney hawking an espresso machine..and speaking of coffee, latte macchiatos are my drink of choice here. they're pretty much just a latte from home but go by 'macchiato' here in italy.

so off to flickr-land now....~jd