In which January gets even shorter shrift than November, but at least the Venice week post was long. Mostly because we spent so much of January just kinda living in Italy and getting groceries and occasionally being snowed in.

8.1
Today I did laundry and hung it out in the morning. Bright sun, blue sky, and 62 degree low humidity weather is ideal for hanging out laundry, I think. Elise and I went for a walk at lunch and saw rabbits, lizards and butterflies. Not what one expects in January 5 days after a big snowstorm, but we are NOT complaining.

Weather is supposed to cool off through the week, but no snow in the forecast before the weekend. We're hoping it stays nice so we can take in another castle or two before Elise heads back west in February. Other than that, we're pretty much back to the usual schedule. This weeks’ project is sorting through all the Venice pictures: we took over 500!

16.1
Well, the "light rain" that was forecast for last night and this morning turned into heavy snow. They had school this morning but closed at 1 and no school tomorrow.

I went out and took some pictures and was on more than one occasion assaulted by snow falling in great clumps off the trees. When Maurizio left with the girls I got out the shovel and shoveled for about an hour. I went out for my walk and pictures at 11:30 and it was not clear that I had shoveled at all. So yeah, we'll not be doing much the next couple days. However, it's not terribly cold, so I am hopeful that by the weekend it will be melting. We're actually in good shape here -- we have about a foot, but Maurizio said that at the Allelujah, only 1.5 kilometers away, they have about 17 inches. I did discover in my travels that we have another neighbor who's here, whom I had not met before: Cheo and his wife live in Milan most of the time but are preparing to retire here and so are spending more and more time here. Might shoulda stood in Milan this week :)

Otherwise quiet. House is warm, I got groceries yesterday so we are well-fed, Elise got an A+ on her English test. Life is good. I've discovered that part of the migraine problem is a physical manifestation of her fear of doing badly in school. She's been getting further and further behind and not telling me she had issues. We are working on getting her caught up now, and just have completed stuff to hand in is already giving her a better outlook.

19.1
Still no phone -- we've had only a bit of melt and now they're saying more on the way tomorrow. Ornella was of the opinion that there would be no school again on Monday if the forecasts are to be believed. However, I was able to get out yesterday and get LOTS of groceries in (poor little fridge is just bursting at the seams). It's interesting -- there was definitely snow on the ground in Salso, but that was all. Just enough to cover the grass. None on the trees and the roads clear and dry. The closer I got to home the more intense it got. Angela lives up at Pietra Nera, and she said they had almost twice as much up there as here. They might be as much as 100 meters higher up than we are, but I don't think it's that much, and yet what a difference. I'm told we got 50 cms here, or almost exactly 18 inches; Maurizio said they had over 65 at the Allelujah on Thursday evening, and it snowed well into the night, so I'm sure it's considerable up there.

Elise has really been working on her archery exercises. She still can't quite pull the bow as far as she needs to, but can now pull it over twice as far as she could when he first brought it. Real progress. And she's been in much better spirits just generally this week. I guess it's the anticipation of going home in a month. Matt tells me the insurance will take effect just a day or two before she gets home, so that's good.

Aurora's godfather David LeMoine will be arriving for 5 days on 8 Feb. She has never met him, but he always sends her $50 at Christmas, so she is very excited to meet her personal Santa Claus. I hope the weather is good so we can take him to see some castles and things!

Lunch with Ornella and co tomorrow -- she is making brodo con agnelotti, our favorite kind of soup, the rich broth with the little ravioli, and said we should come. I'll make brownies in the morning to take over there.

Roisin tried to call around the village and Pellegrino and said no one has any landline service, but I just topped up my cell so it has loads of money on it now, so we’re not cut off from civilization really. SO glad Roisin changed Wi-fi services – we’d be really lost with no web access

22.1

Snow is significantly melted and we are not at all housebound -- it's been nearly 50 with lots of sun the past few days, and hasn't frozen overnight. Streets are clear all the way up the mountain - I drove yesterday afternoon and this morning with no issues at all. However, it's supposed to snow again tonight. I can't get a forecast for closer than Salso, and Salso is not helpful, as they're nearly 500 ft lower in elevation and so they get only a tiny fraction of what we get. Salso says 1-3 inches. For us, that generally means anywhere from 3 to "lots and lots." As it stands now, I will drive in the morning unless Alessandra calls.

The weight of the melting snow on the lines apparently is still interfering with my landline. I'm going to call Telecom Italia from my cell tomorrow if it's still out.

Ornella taught me to make Carnevale cookies today -- basically sweet torta fritta, but they only use the yolks (in Italian, the reds :) of the eggs, so I have 6 whites lying around.   I hate to throw away all these whites, but I really don't have anything to do with them and I don't feel like making mouse or more marshmallows.

Elise and I went for a walk yesterday and got most of the way to Pellegrino before we turned around. It was nice. I hope the weather stays good enough that we can go for a few more before she leaves. Her ticket, by the way, was $900, but to change it would have been more because I paid $800 but the current cost of that same ticket is 1600, plus the $200 change fee. And this way, if she wants to come back and no passport types object, she can.

Worked on the book for an hour today and nearly 3 hours yesterday, finished one entire chapter with exercises and supplementary materials! Most progress I've made yet.

28.1

Elise had complained of water dripping on her bed back when it was raining, but I could never figure out where it was coming from, and it was never much. Tonight, with a new snow pack and 7C temps, Aurora said it was dripping again, and this time I found it. It's NOT the skylight. The water is actually dripping down between two of the wooden planks of the ceiling. Ugh. Not much we can do until spring, other than simply move them downstairs full time. Alessandra asked me to look at her translation of her marketing materials into English, and it was DREADFUL (in her defense, it was obviously mostly Google-translated, and while dandy for one- or two-word translations, Google can’t really make sense of anything more intense). So I've spent the last three days completely reworking her stuff so it's usable for an English-speaking market, and in return she's going to give me a day of fabulous relaxation in her spa when she reopens it in April. I'm totally demanding a herb bath and a massage after my sauna and steam room. It's 11 pages of text and so far I've spent about 8 hours on 6 pages. At commercial rates (remember, I used to be an Into-English editor) that's about 400E, and there are 3 pages still to go. I'm getting a NICE spa day. :)

It snowed again today. Aurora has croup and will not go to school most of this week, but Elise is doing okay. I was supposed to go to Parma this morning at the crack of dawn, but obviously between 4 more inches of snow and sick baby that didn't happen. Hoping for Thursday at this point.

31.1
So I went to the Questura today to try AGAIN to get this visa thing handled. I arrived at 8:05, having been told I needed to arrive before 8. And the reason why was clear upon arrival: the line to get in for a first come appointment was LONG. I was #28 in my line, which doesn’t sound too bad until you realize that each appointment takes 5-10 minutes. I waited for over 3 hours. I presented the docs that I had been told I was missing, always excepting the letter from the university saying I’m a student, since it doesn’t exist, and started to go into the whole student visa spiel again when the officer interrupted me. “Where is the Italian verison of the letter from the father?” Lat time I was here that guy down there (I could see him!) said I didn’t need it. “Well, you need it.” So now I have to get a translation of the permission letter Matthew signed, with a stamp from the consulate, and the originals of both the English version and the translated version. I opined that she had a stamp from the consulate, she opined that it wasn't in Italian. If I were to have this thing in hand by Feb 12, I could conceivably get it issued before Elise leaves, thereby ensuring her ability to come back here in June. If not, getting her back here may be impossible. I'll still need it in any case to get Rosie the correct visa. I have been told that Italian bureaucracy employs over 10 times as many people as French bureaucracy. At this rate I can believe it.