Is there any better entertainment for a 3 year old ?
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While you wait for the proper write-up and additional photos, please enjoy this long-ish video of our 2h+ hike along the Mather gorge at Great Falls National Park:
For lunch we went to this place, since it has been a long time that either of us had a good bowl of Phở
This is a no frills, quick eat shop .. but the one dish they serve, that one they have down to perfection .. rice noodles in a beef broth with different meat extras (toppings … as if we were eating a pizza) ..
Service was swift and friendly and we enjoyed this quick and fairly cheap lunch a lot … Ritsu kept saying ‘why can’t we have a place like this in Turin?’
For dinner we took a fairly long ride (45 mins in rush hour traffic) to Matsui Sushi to pig out on raw fish bites. Ritsu had found it and the reviews were all very positive.
From the outside you might miss the place, it is located in a mall nestled among other typical mall eateries. Once inside we got a very warm welcome from owner Charlie, who immediately identified us as the people who called an hour before.
The menu had everything my sushi heart desired, including ikura and uni and also and old time favorite: white tuna. The quality was amazing.
For Julius we had ordered yakisoba combination with chicken, shrimp and beef, and of course he used his ever growing chop stick skills to get them into the general mouth-vicinity.
Pretty much everything you read in the reviews is true, if there is anything I had to complain about would be the use of surimi crab meat imitation stick in the soft shell crab roll and the slightly tacky plates with images of sushi on them. Oh, and they even had our beloved Orion beer.
In the end we paid like 85$ incl. tax and tip. Not bad at all. I want to go back!
This morning, after we drove Ritsu to her second work shop day, Julius and I went to Great Falls National Park, a 40 minute drive on the beautiful George Washington Memorial Highway.
While the falls are not Niagara in size, Julius had a lot of fun running around, picking up leaves, do a choo choo train with me and Stitch, trying to get the attention of older school kids by holding up his favorite plush animal.
Funniest was probably a group of Asian tourists (Korean?) of which all were suddenly ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ seeing him, pointing their cameras at him and taking pictures (especially the ladies of this group) .. too bad I am still too slow with my new camera, I wish I could have video taped that.
2 hours playing out there, enjoying the stunning view and the forrest, the little man fell asleep in the car pretty much right away on our way back.
New! You can also check out the below pictures as a gallery @ .mac, which might make navigating a bit easier, make sure to try the different display functions, i.e. ‘carousel’.
| (Again, only some very minor cropping, most pics are as is. And no photoshop adjustment at all. I really love this new camera) |  |
… it is Julius’ first Domino’s experience! *
On our US road trips we learned to love Domino’s … they make fast food pizza really tasty and their chicken wings are great, too … and from my perspective .. I have never encountered such a great tasting Italian sausage .. not even in Italy …
After our recent dinner trouble we decided to stay in and order (a luxury we also do not have in Turin) … and it was a first for Julius and he loved it.
(* For the non US readers, “Get the door, it’s Domino’s!” is the slogan broadly used by Domino’s pizza)
Too much going on … I am writing notes .. and I will get it all nice and pretty some time soon … but here some pics in the meantime …
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| Note: These were taken with my new Fuji FinePix F50SE(as my old Canon said bye bye on the flight over here) .. and so far I am very impressed with the results … for a change I have not used any photoshopping on the above pics other than changing the size … |  |
Just a quick note to let everyone know that after a long day of air travel we have arrived safe and sound in Alexandria, close to Washington DC, where we are going to stay for a week.
We started with a 6 AM taxi ride to the airport, then with Tyrolean Airlines to Vienna, which turns out to be a small airport, too small actually … there was not enough space in the waiting lounge, so half of the passengers had to stand or sit on the floor.
Overall Julius behaved well, just at the end when it was ‘tray up, buckle up, window shield up’ .. he had all other ideas about that … and started a little power play ..
Getting through immigration this time was not as easy as last time in Miami, I had to undergo a second interview, but people were surprisingly friendly.
Next step was picking up our car and Julius had fun inspecting it. Will post a picture of our funky, orange car later.
This is where I have some problems right now .. something is wrong with my camera and Ritsu’s cam is pretty much out of battery (and she did not bring the charger for that one) … so, looks like I need to buy a new camera early this year.
Also, about updates, I am scheduled to bring my computer to a free tune-up at the apple store and not sure when I will get it back.
So far we are very happy with our hotel and the weather has been nice (nicer than Turin when we left it)
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Sometimes this kid is a real basket case …
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| .. why won’t you talk to me? You are my internet provider and we have known each other now for 2 years … And even in your phone wait line you say ‘hold the line, please’ in perfect English … |  |
And still, you do not speak my language .. or any of those I speak … you are a friggin ISP .. which means your commodity is the internet … don’t you think this is a very international thing and that at least some of your service staff should be able to speak English?
We have been together now for 2 years and you have given me good and steady service .. the few times I had technical problems I was actually able to get an English speaking tech guy, who I think you should pay extra for his ability … but when it comes to billing … I am totally screwed and I think you do not love me anymore ..
Not once have you called saying ‘for only 10€ more we can double your speed’ .. no .. it stays the same and you have not been able to give my TV even though you tried twice …
But here is the thing … for some reason you were not able to get the money from my credit card end of July … but it took you until end of September to tell me so .. and then giving me a very nasty deadline and only a last millenia method of payment option .. So .. I had someone who speaks Italian talk to you and confirmed that you are not able to charge my credit card again, but that we have to run to the bank … we also asked if the most recent payment went through and the answer was yes …
Today I called you to follow up and again .. your billing people told me very clearly that they would not even try English … and that there is no one around who speaks English … so .. in my measly Italian I communicated and found that the last payment has again not been able to be charged …
As I called my CC company I found the usual problem which has been haunting me for years … My CC is based in the US .. but I live abroad .. I order stuff from all over the place, Ritsu is charging hotel bills from all around the globe .. and every now and then, the red flag comes up and they block the card … though I pay my bill every month in full ..
So .. once again .. as far as I understood, I am to do a money transfer by bank and send a fax (anyone remembers those?) to confirm the transaction …
I totally admit that some of the fault is mine .. as the workings of my CC are on my end, not yours … and am actually quite happy with the your internet service .. I hardly had any outages .. but more speed would be nice … but when things are not working as planned .. there is a total gap of communication …
Really .. is it so hard to have some English speakers on your staff???
You are based in Milan, home to plenty of expats who I believe use your service .. you are an internet company … I so much would like to talk to you ..
Since I could not even find an email address on your website .. I am writing you this open letter .. hoping that you will read it some day …
In case you cannot read this here is an Italian version thanks to babelfish.
If you try to contact me .. please know, as I told your staff many times, that I am not using the assigned @fastweb.it email address .. since I cannot read the website that is supposed to help me …
[update 10/25/07] Thanks to Cristina using her phone charm, Ritsu’s credit card and my new best friend at fastweb Luana, it seems that everything is ok now … I just hope there will be no further surprises … and a speed upgrade would be nice some time ..
After 3 years of cutting and peeling apples nicely for the kid I decided to try to show him how I eat apples as did as a kid … and he totally got it …
in return he showed me that he can run circles around me while I am pointing the camera at him … (click the pick above to get the video)
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I mentioned it before .. but it is great for pictures … Julius has to make sure that Stitch is sleeping with him …
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This is just a placeholder for a much bigger post …
We went to Como again over the weekend to catch up with Chris, Cris and Lucca …
The 2 boys are incredibly compatible .. both of them ususally have some reservations about sharing toys and attention … but they get along very well ..
Many more pics and stories will follow
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I am having way too much fun with this time lapse function in iMovie.
Try putting one of these together while a 3 year old wants to help … interesting indeed. I was actually surprised about the amount of assembly, which goes as far as bending metal. I had 2 of those boxes as part of my desk setup since New York, but they kinda rotted away in Fiji.
I had paid 99USD each back then, they came pre-assembled and were a pain to schlepp around Manhattan. So this time IKEA asks for only 29€ .. but as the movie shows, you need at least 45 mins to put one of them together.
Julius was at times too aware of the camera and felt like showing off styrofoam blocks, parts that papa was frantically searching for and, of course, Stitch …
And here is the video:
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Yeah, one of those pics again 
We are now about a week totally diaper free, which is especially new for the nights … so far, no accidents at all.
Part of the new game is the rule that Julius has to sleep in his own bed … and well .. that can have mixed results when I check on him later .. as shown here:
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Remember this post ?
Since then, from time to time, Julius asks for banana, lollipop style (does not have to be frozen all the time)
So .. I quickly cut the banana, poked it with toothpicks and served it … and 5 minutes later he came to show me his latest creation:
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I had noticed Julius running with Stitch to the bathroom … a while later, he took Spongebob … and then it dawned on me that he was bringing them to do potty … next in line was Paon .. and that was the only picture I got.
Very diligently Julius would make sure that the stuffed animal’s legs are on either side and when finished he would even wipe them
And no animal drowned or was flushed away.
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Ah, a boy’s love his favorite plush animal can be amazing … every time we go out, he packs Stitch in his bag and carries him along .. and then takes him out when it is time to sit on a swing …
… or just walking through the park …
… or exploring all the other cool playthings …
… but Stitch has to come along!
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We were meeting David and John for wine at our neighborhood wine place and we had a fun time.
It has been a lazy Saturday so far, everyone had some nap time, but of course not Julius, and that resulted in him falling asleep while we were sipping wine … and I ended up carrying that 17kg chunk of toddler back home.
Interestingly, this coincided with our next step in potty training … we had noticed for about a week now that his night diaper was bone dry in the morning and we took it as a sign that maybe we can start trying out diaper free nights …
But I insisted that first we need to stop the co-sleeping and that Mr. J finally needs to get to know his own bed (very cheap mattress, easy to exchange) .. and since he was sleeping when we got back home .. and I had kept track on his liquid intake, I deemed it possible that he would have a night without accident … and this is exactly what happened!
Hooray … now let’s see how that continues.
[update 10/17/07]And 3 more nights without diaper nor incident. Yeah!
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I just had to quickly pick up something from the pharmacy that I had ordered in the morning … and first Julius was not to enthusiastic about going out.
But once he made it clear that he would bring Stitch along, we were on our way.
This one pharmacy in our neighborhood has a collection of toys and sure enough, Julius had to explore them all … and a bit later, other kids joined.
I kept wondering if this one boy’s name was also Julius, because he was the only one to look up at me / camera when I called that name
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Since we really like the place and told David about it (and we had Alice again to take care of Julius) we returned, yet again, to Mare Nostrum (just look for ‘nostrum’ in that search window over there and you will find our previous visits).
Oh, look, they now have a website.
This time we actually got to see the daily menu, which they seem to hand out when the food presenter guy is busy … but I was very glad that he showed up 3 mins later to do his mouth-watering presentation.
We skipped the appetizer parade this time and went straight for the pasta. Ritsu and I had a pasta dish with fried squid pieces and a pesto based on mint and almonds while David had a pasta based soup. And the he went for the chunk of tuna they seem to always have, while we had noticed that instead of the usual fried mix platter, they had a grill platter this night, and we both opted for that one … just look at that baby.
Of course, “Grigliata di nasellino dell’isola d’elba scamp mazzancolle filetto di dentice e seppie” sounds way more impressive than ‘mixed fish grill platter’
Although we mentioned the wine we had last week, the guy talked us into trying another, equally nice wine, a Terredora Coda di Volpe, which we enjoyed a lot.
For desert this time, Ritsu and David had the super evil chocolate cake. An individual minicake, dry on the outside and liquid on the inside … very nice. I had the panna cotta with berries, which was also very good.
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