Cooking Adventures

You ever have that one food from home that you crave more than ever? Mine has been nachos. I tried them from TacoBell at the little PX (Army version of a mall), but they tasted weird. So today while we were shopping for groceries, I was determined to find a way to make my own.

Making nachos with minimal cookware and tin foil is an adventure to say the least. Since we don't have a microwave, I decided to melt the cheese and tomatoes in a sauce pan, then heat the bean dip up on a sheet of foil in the oven by placing a little spoonful on each chip, and then pouring the melted cheese sauce over the heated bean dip n chips.

Let me tell you...after all that work. They never tasted soooooo delicious!

Since moving here, I've fallen in love with sparkling water. It's almost as good as drinking champage. Tastes so good when it hits your lips!

Happy New Year to everyone. Much love from Italy!

One of Those Days

Exhausted. I felt this this older picture of my sleepy little niece "BooBears" fit the bill pefectly.

It's not like we did much all day. Studied for the Italian drivers license test tomorrow. Hope hubby and I both pass!

Went to the little gas station-like store to pick up food. It was the only place on base open at the time. Tried cooking bacon with two plastic disposable forks. That was a sight! Finished off the rest of the day watching movies and trying to nap.

Only three more nights till we are in our apartment! I can't wait. It will be so wonderful to have more than three shirts to wear again. We might be without internet for a little while. But don't worry, we'll come back to base ever so often to connect back with the technical world while we wait for our internet to get setup.

Happy Monday everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to my husband and Merry Christmas to all!

Hubby and I went to Venice for Christmas and it was truely amazing. We toured Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco Marco, known in English as St. Mark's Basilica. It was so beautiful. If any of you come visit us in Italy, this is one place that I'm going to drag your little jet-lagged butts to. It's worth it!

Now we are back on base. Just came back from spending a little time in hubby's haven (aka. bowling alley). Enjoyed watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on the bar's tv...and drinking the best wine EVER.

Just finished calling my mom and wishing her a Merry Christmas. Think I'm going to call it a night now and go watch the Grinch (animated version), or M*A*S*H. Love that old TV series! Alan Alda cracks me up every time.

Love to all. Merry Christmas from Italy!

We Picked Our Home!

We went down to the housing office today and selected one of the two apartments we toured yesterday evening.

You won't believe how awesome it is. We have a DISHWASHER and AIR CONDITIONING! (Note: You can tell I'm over the top excited because I'm killing this post with caps and exclamation points.)

We get the keys on December 29th and will hopefully have our household goods moved in on the 30th. Once we move in, our next step is to fly our dog, Jack, over. I miss him so much. How can you not resist these soulful brown eyes!

Hubby and I are off tomorrow to a little Christmas escape. I'll post all about it including TONS of pictures, when we get back on Sunday. Thank you Uncle Mark for letting us borrow your camera while in Italy!

Sipping an Italian capuchin (cappuccino) as I type. Absolutely amazing. And I'm not even a coffee drinker.

Pretty Little Windows

Snapped this hazy picture yesterday while walking around Vicenza.

First Night Out in Italy

We've been here five full days and finally decided to venture out of the Caserma Ederle gates and into the city of Vicenza. It was really dark out, so it was hard to mentally capture the look of the area, but we did have fun!

After rambling down the sidewalk, we finally found a tiny little Italian/American restaurant. Most of the employees spoke broken English and they had American Christmas songs playing in the background (to bad - they should have been playing some of Il Volo's songs!), but the menu was in Italian. I was told not to visit restaurants that had menus in English because the food wouldn't be good.

We both had pasta and some wine...and it was all so delicious! We bought a bottle of wine to take home as well =0)

All in all, it was an amazing evening. Much better than what took place earlier this morning.

Because I Said So

I believe that should be the Army's motto. Why do I need to go through hours of orientation and interviews to be a VOLUNTEER before I can even found out what positions are available? Because they said so. That's why. It's the way of the Army.

I feel like they believe my time is of no value. One wouldn't go thru a job interview without knowing what kind of job they were interviewing for...right? And if I wish to be a volunteer instructor, then I have to pay for the training.

Today I reached a bit of a boiling point. All the insane and stupidity finally got to me and when my wonderful hubby tried to console me by saying I'll get use to it...that kind of lit me up again. I don't want to get use to all this nonsense because that means I'm one of THEM...the little dependent drones that do things just because the ARMY says.

My poor hubby. He didn't know what to say after that.

Getting off my soap box now.