Italy

Well, I dipped through Paris to Venice and Aviano Italy.

Italy is very nice. The weather has been nice and cool.

It a short 7 mile run yesterday it managed to go from sunny, to drizzle, to steady rain, to downpour to hail, and back to sunny again. I reminds me of a place I once knew. haha.

The run was majeestic though, there was something very calming about running through the vineyards that have so much history in them. The Italians are very friendly, and yes, they really are really good cooks.

During the trip I was afforded the opportunity to tour a local vineyard that has been in business for many generations. It's amazing how simple, yet how complex the process of wine-making is. An interesting note from the owner was:

"In Italy, if I were to shoot and kill someone I would be classified as Mafia and the Police would probably never come to talk to me about the murder. If you are caught adding sugar into your wine however, it carries a 5 year prison sentence."

True story. Adding sugar to wine (if you are a winery who bottles for resale) carries a 5 year prison sentence. I'm bringing a few bottles back (one that was born on November 10th), and the white wines are so sweet it's hard to beleive there is no sugar added.

Interesting fact #2:

The left over grape mush and skins are put into large vats and purchased by American wine companies who fly the scraps to the US to make a good portion of the high end bottled wine in the states. He couldn't tell us which wine company it was, only that we would be very surprised at how popular the brand is.

Another funny thing...... The language is beautiful.... But for some reason, it sounds strangely similiar to my Father when he speaks Spanish.... Now I know why my Mom used to make those jokes.... I don't blame you Dad for getting the language stuck to your tongue. It really is a cool dialect.

Paris, on the other hand, just doesn't impress me. I don't know why. I think I just don't like French in general. The language is really annoying. I think next time I'll just turn my headphones up really loud so I don't have to listen to the language. maybe then I will have a better time.

I'll post up a couple pictures later.

Well, what are they? I thought mockinbirds outside the window were annoying.

O.K., the honeymoon phase is over.

This place sucks.

Seriously.

The people trick you into thinking that they like you because they are all so in to saying hello like a thousand times. But in all actuality, they are just smiling while they are trying to figure out a way to rip you off.

Today we found out that the grocery store (the only nice one in town), has been double charging our credit card for slightly different amounts as to not tip off the bank. Real nice............ No wonder all the money we (the U.S.) sends here never materializes into anything. Even the grocers are corrupt. Hard to feed the hungry when the guy who sells the bread is a crook.


Anyway, all I can say is appreciate what you have in the way of food sources there in the U.S. We realized to day that all we really eat is candy and bread. Everything else that you have to cook costs a fortune. We cooked spaghetti for dinner the other night.

It cost us about $60. Noodles, sauce, ground "meat", coconut/pinapple juice.

The word for "gringo" here is "toobob". Maybe because when they see Bob they charge him two times.

Gangster Rap Made Me Do It

So we were having a discussion

You know, the kind where you sit down and solve all the problems in the World using your endless supply of infinite knowledge of topics that you have no experience to really discuss in the first place?

Yeah, well, anyway, I came across this..

This article, agree or not, comes across to me as the best explaination (so far) as to why Africa is like...well... Africa...

http://www.the-american-interest.com/ai2/article.cfm?Id=548&MId=24

BONUS ROUND

SSSShhhhhhh... Be vewy vewy quiet.... I'm hunting Rostyles.