shave ice & gelato

How strange! Until this morning, I have had 5 comments on my blog. Then, this morning, when I went into my login page, 13 more comments mysteriously appeared! Some were written as far back as the beginning of June!! Ann had emailed me once and said she tried to post a comment but nothing showed up. I thought that was strange. Then today, all of the comments appeared, all from Slow Travelers I believe, and all were published comments. In the past, I had to approve and publish each comment.

I now want to belatedly thank everyone again for all of your kind comments and tips and try to respond to a few.

First, thanks for all the well wishes for my trip. It was indeed fabulous! Even my getting sick at the beginning of my trip and my short lived (thank goodness) swollen foot could not stop me from enjoying Italy.

The cherries...well I can't say for certain if they worked or not. My problem was that I could not remember to eat them at night regularly for the first few nights. Also with getting sick during the beginning of my trip, I was up much of the night and dazed during the day. I did not do much better about remembering to eat them every night when I returned home. BUT, they are delicious and I am sure they are good for you so it certainly did not hurt to take them along.

Amy, I did not find that forno around the corner. I wish I had seen your comment earlier as I would have looked for it. I will just have to return!

I think my only regret was that I was only in Bologna for one night. I really love that city and am already thinking about going back there again, especially since I found such a wonderful place to stay! Palma, I have to thank you once again for the great find! I did not realize though that you also ate at Al Sangiovese.

Leslie, if you like peach gelato, you have to try kiwi sometime!! To die for!!

Anne, I can still picture him standing next to me! He was indeed a hunk!! Did you ever get a picture of your gorgeous Italian and his motorcycle?

Kim, I really think my swollen foot was also some sort of heat rash. Thankfully, it did not last too long.

Again thank you everyone for supporting me in this new venture of writing such a public blog. I never know if what I am writing is just a bunch of rambling words no one even cares about but me or if it is interesting enough for others to enjoy. At least now that I am back home, I can add some pictures to make it a little more interesting.

aloha...

When I was first asked to start a blog to document my travels, I was busy getting prepared for my trip to Italy. I was leaving in two weeks with tons still left to do and no time to think up a "catchy" name. I decided on using a title that would describe my trip. After returning from Italy and adding posts about Hawaii, I decided it was finally time to change the name of my blog. I wanted a title that represented both Hawaii and Italy. I came up with the idea of "shave ice & gelato" because it represents two unique treats - one relating to Hawaii and one relating to Italy. I hope you like it.

Just about everyone knows about gelato, but I am not sure if everyone knows about shave ice.

So, what is shave ice?

I have heard people trying to compare it to a slush cup or a snow cone. It is neither a slush cup nor a snow cone. It is soooo much better.

Snow cones and slush cups are usually made from ground ice. What makes shave ice unique is the way the ice is cut. You start with a block of ice. As the block of ice spins around, the razor-sharp blade "shaves" the ice making a soft fluffy texture. The "shaved" ice is then packed into a paper cone.

I found this video on YouTube which demonstrates how shave ice is made:

Once the ice is packed into the cone, various flavors of syrup are then poured on top. Because the shave ice is so fine, the flavors absorb into the ice rather than settling to the bottom of the cone.

When ordering a shave ice, you are faced with many choices. First, you must decide if you want a small or a large shave ice.

Next, you need to decide if you want just shave ice, a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the bottom of your cone, azuki beans at the bottom of your cone, or a combo of both ice cream and azuki beans. When I first heard of beans with shave ice, I could not imagine why anyone would want to have beans with shave ice. Once I tried it, I understood. The beans are not like regular beans. They are sweet and so ONO when mixed with ice cream and shave ice.

Finally, you must decide on the flavors. You can usually have three flavors poured on top of the ice. Two of the most famous shave ice places on Oahu, both located in Haleiwa on the North Shore, are Matsumoto's and Aoki's. You will always find a long line at both of these shave ice stores. Below are the flavors each offer.

Matsumoto's offers:
Strawberry, Pineapple, Lemon, Coconut, Banana, Vanilla, Root Beer, Grape, Lime, Lilikoi (passion fruit), Orange, Honeydew, Melon, Mango, Raspberry, Coffee, Watermelon, Bubblegum, Cotton Candy, Pinacolada, Banana Cream, Lihing Mui, Lychee, and Cherry.

Aoki's offers:
Strawberry, Banana, Pineapple, Lemon, Lilikoi, Coconut, Rootbeer, Vanilla, Melona, Chocolate, Blue Hawaii, Coffee, Bubble Gum, Cherry, Lime, Orange, Watermelon, Guava, Mango, Rasberry, Cotton Candy, Li Hing Mui, Grape, Strawberry Cream, Lychee, and Pina Colada. As well as the following Sugar free flavors: Strawberry, Banana, & Watermelon.

And here are my dear friends Katia & Guido enjoying a shave ice from Aoki's:

I have learned a lot today. It took me more than half a day, but in the end, I was successful in adding bunch of new links and a cat. Of course I could have spent the time balancing my quicken account, cleaning my house, doing laundry, getting rid of some of my piles and piles of catalogs, or a dozen other things that I really need to do and have been avoiding. But then again, there is always tomorrow.

*Edited - I removed the cat...made the blog too long to load,

One of the reasons I have enjoyed Slow Travel, and now blogging and reading blogs, is the opportunity to get to know people from all over the world. It has always amazed me how we can all be so different but also have so much in common.

Recently, while visiting bleeding espresso, I discovered a new blog, .italiaball. I was pretty excited to find this blog as it is about Italian baseball. I started reading a few of the posts and noticed that there was a post mentioning how the blogger just returned from a trip back home to Boston. I posted a comment on the blog about my love of baseball, the Red Sox, and Italy. The following day, I received a nice email from Lango. He mentioned where he was from and asked where I was from. Well, I grew up right on the border of the town where he grew up. How amazing is that?

After reading a few of Lango's posts, I checked out a couple of blogs that he had listed on his "Check 'em Out..." list to see if there were any other blogs about baseball in Italy. I noticed right away on the bici vecchia: an errant in italy blog that the blogger's name was Fango and that he also lived in Codogno, Lombardy, Italy. Hmmmm, Lango & Fango? I then read a few of the posts and learned that Fango also grew up in the same town as Lango. This was becoming quite a mystery. My first thought was that perhaps Lango was running two blogs. I then wondered if they were twins. I even asked Lango this in my email back to him. Meanwhile, I was determined to figure out the answer to this mystery. I continued to read more of his posts. Finally, I found the answer. They are friends who have known each other since Kindergarten.

I have now discovered two bloggers, both living in a tiny town in Northern Italy and both from the town located right next to the town where I grew up. It sure is a very small world indeed!

I am joining a group of bloggers from Slow Travel, and of course anyone else who wants to give it a try, or I believe as they say in Australia, "give it a go", on attempting to blog every day for the month of February. Turns out this year is a leap year, so that will be 29 posts in 29 days :-)

**Updated to add some of the bloggers posting every day in February:
A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With ... Too Much Luggage
Blonde Momentos
Churches in Venice
Home is where my bed is
In and Out of the Garden
Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!
Kaleidoscope
Old Shoes - New Trip
Palmabella's Passions
Postcards from the Trail
There and Back Again ...
Vagabond Artist
What I Really Think

If I forgot anyone, post a comment and I will add you. AND a special thanks to Vagabond Artist for starting this!!

Thank you softdrink for suggesting this fun topic on your fantastic Blonde Momentos blog and for helping me with my post for today :-)

I was going to try to do the hometown post but was not quite ready, so this idea worked out perfectly!!

Don't forget to check out softdrink's bookish meme.

Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I followed these rule as close as possible, but since I have been reading, or trying to read, three books (I am sort of ADD-ish) and they were all together, I chose "A Thousand Bells at Noon" since it was a book about Italy. The second of my three books was "Eat, Pray, Love" which has been a pretty popular book and I am sure has already been in a bookish meme, and the third book was a "female health issue" book which I am sure would not be as interesting to all readers.

I also will not tag anyone in particular, leaving this idea for as many bloggers as are interested, to use as an idea for a post sometime in February.

My Book: A Thousand Bells at Noon, by G. Franco Romagnoli:

"For you, my dear!" said the duke. Father and daughter were duly impressed; the duke's gamble worked and he gained a wife and a dowry. Rome (legend true or false) gained a splendid fountain.

But now the integrity of the rione that survived persecutions, wars, famine, and plague is beginning to break under the attack of the new affluence.

Can anyone guess the fountain being discussed? I will give you a hint...
The subtitle of the book is: A Roman Reveals the Secrets and Pleasures of His
Native City.

I am surprised at how these three sentences on page 123, sentences 6-8, turned out to be a perfect mystery question for all the Italy lovers out there. I have confidence that someone will be able to answer this question without peeking in the book. I will post the answer here in a few days, after everyone has time to guess.

*Edited to add the answer - the Turtle Fountain in Piazza Mattei

To my February blogging buddies, congratulations, we did it!! We spent a month blogging daily, getting to know each other a little better, and cheering each other on. I have appreciated all of your comments and want to give a big mahalo to Angie for starting this challenge. I also plan to continue to read all of your blogs and plan to try to post as often as I can. We did it!!

Last night, after I published my "countdown post", I went back to edit my post. After I finished, I checked out my sitemeter to see if anyone was visiting while I was making the changes. I had one visitor during that time period, my first visitor from Korea.

Like Jerry and Jill, I have also been curious as to how people find my blog. The details of this visit indicated that the person found my blog by searching "focaccia col formaggio" on the Korean version of google. I went to the Korean google site and then clicked on my blog link. It took me to my blog post - but in Korean!

Computer snapshot of part of my "focaccia col formaggio" post in Korean:

I not only checked out the page that was searched on google, but I also clicked on my blog name at the top to check out the home page of my blog in Korean and even clicked on a few other blog links to see even more blogs in Korean.

I obviously have no life and much too much time on my hands. Either that, or I am procrastinating on more important things like getting ready for my refrigerator delivery, cleaning my house, doing my laundry, and a ton of other things I should be doing.

Sandi, one of my March Madness blogging buddies, awarded me (along with a few of my other March Madness blogging buddies) with this beautiful:

Besides the specialness (is that a word?) of being chosen, what else makes this so special is that I cannot enjoy a bouquet of flowers in person because of my hyper-sensitivity to fragrant smells (a huge migraine trigger). I absolutely love flowers of all kinds but there are only a few I can get near.

Imagine living in Hawaii and having to stay clear of just about all leis! I have been most fortunate to have many thoughtful co-workers who have been very considerate with my need to avoid fragrances. Yesterday, one of my students, who spends the first half of his day with me in preschool and the second half of his day in Kindergarten, brought his first ever home lunch to school. I went next door to alert his Kindergarten teacher that he may need extra help figuring out what to do at lunch time. She was wearing a beautiful ginger lei. It was like a comedy act. She stood at the far end of the room while I stood outside the door as we chatted back and forth planning how we would help our student figure out the lunch routine. The children in the class just stared (probably wondering why the heck we were both talking to each other from across the room).

Thank you so much Sandi for making my day!! Make sure to stop by and check out her blog, Whistlestop Cafe Cooking, where you will find some great recipes and wonderful southern humor.

I would like to pass this award along to Anne who could use some flowers, support, and love right now. Anne, you have always made my day with all of your supportive comments. Sending hugs your way.

It took me a while today to find a simple countdown widget to put on my blog to countdown the days til my trip to Italy. At first, all I could find were widgets that linked to advertisements. Finally, I found one I liked, a simple countdown widget that I could even customize with my own photo. 40 more days and I am on that jet plane!!! I am starting to get in my panic mode and my major procrastination mode. I am also beginning my...maybe I need new luggage, a different day bag, new shoes, etc. etc. Does this happen to you? So, what do I do? First, I spend hours and hours checking out new luggage - this year it is "Should I get a different carry on? One that can roll and slip on top of my check in rolling bag?". Then, I begin the procrastination stage. No decisions are made. Instead, I watch TV and spend time on the internet reading blogs.

Tonight, while reading one of the Italy blogs I follow, the olive notes... , I noticed a cool widget on the sidebar that plays short travel videos. I probably wouldn't have noticed this widget if I hadn't spent much of my morning checking out a bunch of countdown widgets.

I watched the video about the Campo in Siena and I was hooked. I clicked on the link below the widget and was taken to a site called geobeats. This cool video site plays short videos of destinations all over the world. Something new to do instead of cleaning my house, going through all my piles that need to be organized, starting to get organized for my trip, and the many other things I love to avoid. Check it out.

I was also going to add the Bush countdown widget to my sidebar. I actually did, but after 5 minutes, I changed my mind and deleted it. I decided I did not want to look at his name every day. 253 more days.... sigh.... still too many more days (although for me, one day is too many days).

Today was the last day for kids and tomorrow is my last day of work!!! Yippeeeee!!!! Well, sort of my last day, except for the 5 meetings I need to attend and 3 IEPs I need to write before I leave for Italy.

After a long day of closing up my room, I came home to trails of ants, which were marching all over my house. I am beat and too tired to think up a new post so I decided to put a link (click here) to the post I did back in October which describes how I chose the name of my blog, shave ice & gelato.

I have not had time to respond to all of the comments until now.

Hard hat - I did not think about having my picture taken while wearing the hard hat until after I left. I really should have and do regret it, so you will all just have to use your imagination. And yes, I did think about it messing up my hair. It was so hot that day though that it really didn't matter since sweat was pouring from my brow all day.

My swollen feet...actually it was more my ankles and legs (near my ankles) that were swollen although my feet were a little puffy also. I do think it was from the heat on the days that I walked quite a bit. I did do the rice (rest, ice, c ? forgot what that is, and elevate), which all helped. I even had to take off my ring for a couple of days since my fingers were also swollen. I am back to normal at the moment, which is nice. Thanks everyone for all of your tips and yes this happened to me last year also, but it was much worse last year.

I did see the turtles on my second visit (missed them the first time I was there). I watched this one little turtle try so hard to get up on one of the rocks. All the other turtles ignored him or her but finally after not giving up and trying a few rocks, the turtle succeeded and got up on one of the rocks to sunbathe.

Chiocciola, I am sorry to hear that you have tendinitis. Not being able to type must be driving you crazy!

I will definitely post a few of the photos of the jellyfish once I get home. I also had no idea what the hard hat was for and at first thought it was ridiculous to wear until I smacked my head into one of the archways.

It has been wonderful having AC on the vary hot days, although I still kept my room pretty warm - around 78-80? 27-28 degrees centigrade as I am not fond of chilly rooms. Since being in Acqui, the temperature has been more in the 80s with a breeze so I have not even used the AC.

Granita is like a slush drink but oh so good!

Kim - surfing? where? I hate thunder storms. The weather today mentioned we could be in for some here today or tomorrow. I have never thought about the DH and pitchers not getting hit as much when they also get up to bat. Interesting... I could really go either way on the DH issue. The day that the New York pitcher got hurt running the bases, one of the Red Sox pitchers also got hurt swinging the bat. Now that is bad if a pitcher cannot even swing a bat without getting hurt!

Yes, blogging can be a challenge in Italy. I finally after all of these years have gotten the keyboard down and now only occasionally have to search for the correct key. I have been fortunate to have some internet access at my first hotel and found a good internet cafè thanks to Diana and Jan here in Acqui Terme.

I hope I have not missed any comments to respond to. I really did love my stay on the Ligurian Coast. It was a perfect way to ease into the time change and I do think the cherries helped a little bit. Either that or my 6 hour sleep did the trick. I forgot to mention the other reason I only had 1 hour of sleep on the Newark to Milan flight. The flight attendants turned all the lights on and woke everyone up at 4 am somewhere (can't remember exactly which time zone that was) to let us know they would be coming through the aisles selling duty free items. I could not believe they actually woke everyone up for that breaking news bulletin.

And speaking of breaking news, the big news on CNN yesterday - the "just in" report was that 600 Starbuck stores will be closing. What will everyone do?

I have enjoyed though getting to watch the BBC and Sky News. I think that the British news brings much more of a world view to the news. The situation in Zimbabwe is heart breaking for all of the people there and has been covered quite a bit here.

Oh, and my one regret besides not getting my photo with the hard hat is that I went to Portofino on the wrong day! The day after I went there, I read in the local newspaper that Naomi Campbell was in Portofino. I missed being able to hang out with her...what a pity :-)

ciao!!!!

I am alive and well but also overwhelmed and exhausted with the beginning of a new school year. This is not a unique year. It happens to me every year. I have not been able to keep up with any blogs except for a peek here and there. With the Olympics starting (which I am really looking forward to watching), I probably will only have time for two maybe three posts a week (mostly on the weekends) for the next couple of weeks. After that, life should return to normal.

I left work on time for the first day this week and have a little time before the Olympics start. I was just over at Michelle's bleeding espresso blog. She is playing a fun game on her blog (which I am copying...thank you Michelle). She calls it "blog my blog". She got the idea from the blog, An Island Life. Interesting how this is coming full circle - Hawaii to Italy to Hawaii!!

Here's how it works:

I will start with a question.

The next person answers the question and then asks a new question.

The next person answers that question (the question the second person asked) and then asks a new question. And so forth...

The questions can be general questions, fill in the blank sentences, a “tell me about a time when,” etc.

I will turn my automatic comments on for a few days, hoping that the irritating person from Afghanistan (WHOOPS - I don't know why I thought Afghanistan - I should have said Pakistan!!) who keeps leaving disgusting comments on my blog won't be leaving any new comments in the next few days. I don't think you will be wanting to answer his or her comments! Anyone know how to block this??

If you are still confused, check out Michelle's post, and even if you are not, check out her blog! She is a very talented and entertaining blogger. Her blog was one of the first I started reading a couple of years ago.

Here goes...the first question:

If you were given only one day to spend in your favorite place in the world, what would you do? (Oh I guess this is sort of two questions since you will have to also say what your favorite place in the world is).

*Click on comments to play along...

Happy 8-8-08 and Happy Weekend!!

I would like to share a couple of Hawaii blogs...

The first is Honolulu Daily Photos.
I discovered this blog a couple of years ago in a round about way through some of the daily photo blogs and then again through City Daily Photo, a blog which posts entries from various daily photo blogs from around the world. The Honolulu Daily Photos blog does not post a photo daily anymore, but the photos that are posted on this blog are always fabulous. They represent many areas of Oahu and not just the city of Honolulu. If you have some free time check out this blog.

The second is Beat of Hawaii and Beyond.
The full name of this blog is: Beat of Hawaii and Beyond: Travel Deals, Tips, Events, Culture - A Travel Chronicle from Hawaii. I discovered this blog through Pauline's Slow Europe blog last spring. The Beat of Hawaii blog shares lots of great travel deals and tips as well as other interesting information related to Hawaii. If you are planning to travel to or from Hawaii in the near future or just want to learn more about Hawaii, check out this blog.

Cable is out, internet is out...

I am not a happy blogger right now. Earliest someone can come out to check out the situation will be Saturday OR Sunday. I am "borrowing" someone else's wireless connection to post this.

Hopefully I will be back online sooner than later...

I want to apologize to everyone for not keeping up with all of your blogs the past few days. The baking frenzy completely wiped me out. I was up til 1:30 in the morning Sunday and Monday night. Last night I went to bed at 7pm and I am still exhausted. The last week of school before our break as well as the regular Christmas stress has not helped.

Anyways, I have been peeking in on everyone's blogs and will try to comment more thoroughly by the end of the week as well as comment on your comments on my blog, that is if this next storm that is approaching does not do major damage and wipe out my power again.

For now, here are some mini-comments (is that a word?) to some of your new posts:

Annie, the aqua alta photos are amazing.

Kim, I love the hats.

Sandra, congrats on signing up for an Italian language class. I wish we had more options here for classes. I would love to sign up for another class. Have fun!!

Palma, Rome for Christmas next year? How exciting!!

Marta, I hope it is warming up there for you and I am glad you answered my "Where's Borneo?" question. I was going to eventually google it.

Chiocciola, you crack me up that you actually put a link to my ziploc bag!

Jerry, I wish I had the energy you have for baking all those delicious cookies.

Leslie, cool Sorrento photo :)

Jill & Anne, love the lists.

Oh and Anne, I will email you that photo this weekend and I did leave you a quick comment tonight for #1000, hoping everyone else was already asleep and did not see your post yet :)

Maria, I must tell you my story about the French pay toilet someday.

Jane, loved the "you need more drops between them" line.

menehune, Lily is beautiful.

Diana, is that a new layout of am I just dreaming things? Brava on getting your threatening letters to work.

Brenda, Cesar Millan sure is an amazing person.

And to all you slow soupers, the Italian Wedding Soup looks deelish!!

Off to bed to rest my weary head...

OH...and about the photos for the cheesecake bars. I completely spaced out on taking a photo of the finished bars after they were cut up. I packaged them up late Monday night and brought them all to school on Tuesday. I did however take some photos of the process and will post them later in the week when I get my energy back.

ps...Michael & Lisa, if you are reading this, I hope you have power and are toasty warm! (well I guess you would need power to read this...duh!)

I am taking advantage of using the first day of February to talk about our February blogging challenge. Last year, Angie suggested the idea of blogging every day during the month of February. February was chosen because it was the shortest month (although it ended up being a day longer because it was Leap Year). Ten bloggers initially took up the challenge and three more joined in mid-month. Although it was a little stressful coming up with a post every day, especially on days when I stayed late at work and when work was crazy and I came home exhausted, I am so glad I joined the group. I made some really good friends by joining the challenge. And if blogging every day in February was not enough, we ended up continuing blogging every day in the month of March, with more bloggers joining in the fun.

This year, Annie brought up the idea to blog again every day during the month of February. Twenty-three, Twenty-five, Twenty-six bloggers are now taking up the challenge. I am looking forward to reconnecting with some bloggers and getting to know other bloggers. Thank you Annie for starting this challenge!!

Thank you Kim for making this very cool logo!! You will see it on the sidebar of many of the bloggers below.


February 2009 Bloggers:
A Journey of a Thousand...
A Winelover's Wanderings
Baked Alaska
Best Trip Ever
Candi's Corner: Wanderlust and Passions
Churches in Venice
Destination Anywhere
Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings
Follow My Bliss
Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog
Home is where my bed is
In and Out of the Garden
Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!
Keep your Feet in the Street
Let us go then, you and I...
My Place in the Sun
Old Shoes - New Trip
Palmabella's Passions
Postcards from the Trail
shave ice & gelato
That's My Story...And I'm Stickin' To It!
The Trail's Our Thing
Trekcapri's Blog
Vagabond Artist
What I Really Think
Whistlestop Cafe Cooking

Good luck everyone!! Let the blogging fun begin!!

I think I am going to have to cry uncle here. It is only February 3rd and I am already exhausted. I did not even write a post yesterday (wrote my groundhog post on Saturday) and I was still up until midnight trying to keep up with everyone's blogs, although I do admit to taking time out to watch 24 and The Closer.

Last year I was able to keep up with it all. This year with double the number of February Bloggers as well as trying to find time to check in on a few of my other favorite blogs and keeping up with the latest Red Sox news, there is no way I will be able to post daily, keep up with everyone’s blogs, comment on everyone’s blogs, and reply to the comments on my blog every day.

My goal at this point is to try to post daily and read everyone else's blogs daily. I still want to try to comment when I can but I just don't have the time to comment on everyone's blog daily. I also would like to continue to reply to the comments on my blog, but may need to do some of this on the weekends.

One thing I discovered that has been a big time saver is Google Reader. The wheels started turning on this idea a couple of weeks ago when I read a post Kim wrote about subscribing to RSS feeds. I had heard about RSS feeds but never really understood what it was all about. I was able to follow Kim's post until she started talking about Feed Burner and subscribing. I became lost with all of the choices and now realize that I was really stuck on the Feed Burner thing.

Last week while reading a post on the Beat of Hawaii and Beyond, I noticed a related link called Use Google Reader To Find Today’s Time-Sensitive Travel Deals. I clicked on this post and it all became a little clearer to me. I am not sure though if I would have understood without first reading Kim's post, so if you are interested in trying out Google Reader, my suggestion is to first read Kim's post, then read the Beat of Hawaii and Beyond's post and then check out this informative step-by-step beginners video clip (below) on how to get started using Google Reader, which I found on the Official Google Reader Blog.

After adding blogs onto my Google Reader page, I added categories. One of the categories I made was February Bloggers. Now I can easily click on the blogs that are bold (meaning new posts) all on one webpage. I really like having this new option of checking out all of the blogs I read in one place. The only pressure I am finding is that the number of new blog posts can be overwhelming after being gone all day. Manny was big news today so my Red Sox blogs had a lot of new posts.

Now in case you are wondering, I do not own stock in Google! There are many other Blog Readers available. I decided on trying out Google Reader because I already have a Google account.

Happy blogging everyone!!

I am trying to find an online photo editor that allows you to resize the dimensions of a photo and also change the resolution or photo size so that I can possibly add a few photos to my blog posts while in Italy this summer.

I am pretty sure that the resolution needs to be at 72 and not 180 in order for photos to upload on this blog or at least that is what I do when editing photos using Adobe Photoshop Elements. I need to find a program that does not need to be downloaded onto the computer as I will be using hotel/B&B computers. I also am looking for a program that does not require registration. My other concern is making sure that my original image won't be permanently modified.

After doing a google search, I started out by trying ResizeImage. This is a very basic editing program. It basically just resizes images to a few set sizes and crops images.

I continued to search and found Pixlr. This photo editing program has quite a few more features but it did not seem very user friendly to me.

Then I tried FotoFlexer. I found this photo editing program to be very user friendly. The only problem I found with this editing program was that again, I was not able to change the resolution size.

I searched some more and found Picnik. This program seems very similar to FotoFlexer except it also allows you to change the photo size (not just the dimensions) of your photo, which I believe will solve the resolution issue so that I can upload photos to this blog.

While trying out Picnik, I played around with a few of the other features and created this photo. Pretty cool, huh?

Does anyone know of any other good online photo editing programs that are easy to use? Any tips on how to do this without modifying my original files?

**Editing to this post to add: Thank you Jonas for your comment pointing me in the direction of Pixlr Photo Express. It does just what I am looking for - adjusts the dimensions and changes the resolution size.

To use this program, you click on the Open image from computer folder to upload a photo, then click on Basic, and then click on Resize. Make sure to rename the photo when saving it so that the original file will not be affected (very important step)!!

Now that I have this problem solved, as long as I have access to computers with usb drives available, I should be able to add a photo or two to my blog posts (when I have the extra time). I guess this means I need to stop procrastinating now and start preparing for my trip!!

**Editing to this post again to add: Thanks Kim for the clarification that photos don't have to be reduced to 72 ppi. They can be 180 or 300 but will just take longer to load.

I have been sitting in a state of paralysis looking at my list of things to do for my trip. This year for once, I have time between the end of the school year and the start of my trip. If I don't get started on my list soon, I will be running around with my head cut off the day I leave like I usually do.

I finally broke down my to do list into things to do each day this afternoon. That certainly helped a little. I still have a few more things to accomplish for today's list but there are a few more hours left in the day. I have decided that I am going to abandon my blog and try not to do more than peek at everyone's blogs until I get everything done. It is so much easier for me to sit and read blogs than to attack my list. I need to get focused and stop procrastinating so I will still have my head when I leave for Italy next week.

Since I don't have any photos of a chicken running around with its head cut off, I thought I would leave you with some photos of various types of pineapples. that way this won't be such a boring post and besides, this gives me a little more time to procrastinate before getting back to the list.

I took these photos with Candi & Bill up at the Dole Pineapple place. I should have taken photos of the names of each type of pineapple plant but I didn't.

(There's more pinepples on the next page...)

Ciao everyone!

I am still alive here in Lucca and am having a fabulous time. I have free wifi here at my wonderful B&B but only when in the breakfast/sitting room. I do not have access to a computer and I just have not found time to slowly "one finger type" a blog post using my iPod Touch the past few days. I will have lots of time to catch up when I take two trains (traveling to Bologna on Sunday). I will have access to a computer at my hotel in Bologna and should be able to blog mre regularly I head to Bologna on Sunday

Pisa was wonderful. Climbing the tower was one of my top 10 experiences in Italy. I will write more soon.

Thanks for all of your comments. Sorry I have not had time to reply. Hope all is well with everyone.

Ciao!

I have only missed one or two PhotoHunt posts since joining back on March 29th, 2008 (except of course when I was in Italy) but I have reluctantly decided that I need to take a break this weekend.

I would love to be hanging out like Katia & Guido's cat is doing...

but instead I will be cleaning my house, doing bills, and hopefully finally catching up on all the blog posts I have wanted to read. Catching up on blogs though is sort of like hanging out. I started to make some progress last weekend, getting my Google Reader down to 165, but it is now back up at 250 after another week of long days at work.

So, isn't Katia & Guido's cat adorable? Her name is Zara. She was named after a popular clothing store in Italy. She slept with me, attacked my feet in the middle of the night, followed me around, and even greeted me before Katia & Guido when we would come home after being out for a while. Last spring after moving into their beautiful place, Katia & Guido went to some sort of animal place intending to get a kitten, but instead fell in love with Zara and brought her home.

Happy Weekend everyone!!!!

...and GO SOX!!! (we have a lot of ground to catch up)

*To see a larger version, click on the word cloud.

To make your own word cloud, click here. Thanks so much Marta for your help with the pop-up :)

I spent part of the day today doing blog stuff. First, I added new categories for the three Italy trips I have taken since I started this blog.

Next, I went back and added photos to the first four posts from my trip this past summer. The men in tights post already had 3 photos - I added a few more.

Here are the links in case you are interested:

men in tights

a visit to Palazzo Vecchio

the Bargello, rain, pizza, and more gelato

fabulous daytrip to Arezzo

My goal is to eventually add photos to all of the posts I have done while in Italy the past three summers. That is a long term goal.

I also still need to finish writing about the rest of my trip. I think the reason I have been stuck is that my next post is my most difficult post. This was the one day I did not take any notes. I still have most of the details in my head, but it was such a busy day that I just have not figured out how to approach writing about this day. I will get to it soon...

Here are the links in case you are interested:

a tower, a marching band, and a gtg

first day in Lucca

I am also finally replying to comments left while I was in Italy as I add photos to each post.

Sending congratulations to my blogging buddy Kathy (Trekcapri). She has been in the process of adopting a beautiful two-year-old orange tabby cat named Elizabeth. Today is the day she brings Elizabeth home! We are all so excited for you!! I know Elizabeth will bring you so much joy. Elizabeth you are one lucky kitty to have such a wonderful mom ♥

Well... I had no intentions of participating in March Madness this year (blogging every day for an entire month). My plan was to just cheer from the sidelines. But how can I refuse after waking up to find such a cute March Madness logo on my sidebar with my blog listed as one of the participants. So, at the very least, I will try to commit to posting a photo every day this month.

* A Journey of 1000 Miles … Begins With too Much Luggage
* As the Seasons Change
* A Wine Lover's Wanderings
* Candi's Corner, Wanderlust and Passions
* Churches in Venice
* Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings
* Follow My Bliss
* Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!
* Let Us Go Then, You and I
* Old Shoes, New Trip
* Palmabella's Passions
* Postcards From the Trail
* shave ice and gelato
* Vagabond Artist
* What I Really Think
* Whistlestop Cafe Cooking

Happy March Everyone :)

I woke up this morning to find two lovely surprises.

First, I won an ABC Italiano children's book:

(Clicking on the book will take you to the Italian Baby Book site.)

Joe, who writes the blog Italyville.com. featured this book in one of his recent blog posts and also highlighted the author, Sonya Caruso. He gave away three books and I was one of the winners! Please stop by his blog when you get a chance to read all about the book and author. He also has a link with a promotional code of 20% off the book in this blog post.

Every time I go to Italy, I always spend time in the children's section of bookstores looking for great children's Italian books to bring back with me. This looks like a fantastic beginning Italian book! I am looking forward to teaching my children along with the Kindergarten class we visit the words in this book.

Not only did I win a book, but menehune who writes the blog synchronicity passed on this Sunshine Award to me:

It is awarded to bloggers whose positiveness and creativity inspires others in the blog world.

The rules for accepting the award are:
1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award on to 12 bloggers.
3. Link to the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Well, I don't think I can choose just 12 bloggers and so I am going to break the rules a little and pass this Sunshine Award on to all my blogging buddies.

Thank you Joe & menehune!!

Years ago, this was what you would see at the end of an Italian movie:
(pronounced [fee-ney])

FINE -- The End -- the end of March Madness blogging for 31 days straight! Yay!

and...

FINE -- The End -- the end of my frustrating (to put it nicely) saga of trying to upgrade to MLB.TV! Yay!

So here's the update: I called MLB again this morning. I only had 10 minutes but of course I ended up on the phone for 20 minutes and arrived at work with 1 minute to spare!

It was pretty obvious that I was probably not going to get much farther calling the technical difficulty department again. This was the department that sent my problem as a priority up to corporate five days ago. Corporate either decided to ignore my problem, decided it was not worth responding to, or they just didn't give a rip.

This morning, I instead pressed #1 to talk to the billing department again (the department I spoke to the first two times). When my call was answered, before even allowing the person to get a chance to ask what the problem was, I insisted on speaking to a supervisor immediately, mentioning that this was now my 6th phone call to MLB. The person must have understood right away that I was not in the mood to go over everything with her first.

Ray, a supervisor, got on the phone and got the picture immediately just how upset and fed up I was. He started to say something about putting me on hold while he researched my problem but I stopped him right away and told him that I would save him the time by informing him of what had transpired so far myself so I would not have to wait for him to read everything noted in my account before he could help me resolve the problem. I also made sure he was aware of how much of a hassle it was to have to call before leaving for work and that I had very little time to spend on the phone this morning.

Once he understood the history of the problem and the lack of help from MLB so far, I told him that I needed him to either fix the problem today or figure out a way for me to sign up for the regular MLB.TV subscription and then credit me the difference so that I would only be charged $79.95 as returning customer instead of $99.95.

He told me that he understood my frustration (although this was the same thing I was tole from everyone else I had spoken to so far). He then said that he would have someone work on the issue immediately and within an hour I should receive either a reply by phone or by email with progress on what was happening. I thanked him and left for work.

Things were crazy when I arrived at work. Once I got settled, I checked my email (since it had been a little more than an hour). Nothing so far. About 30 minutes later the phone rang. It was MLB! Fortunately it was center time in my class, so it was not a big problem to take the call. I was surprised that MLB had my work phone number after changing my phone number in my account from my work to my home phone number so I would be able to get a call back from corporate (the call that never came). I am guessing it was somewhere in the notes of my account.

The guy on the phone told me that he needed my password to activate my subscription. I liked hearing that word activate! After I gave him my password and waited a minute, he said it was all set. That was it? That was what took 9 days? I certainly was not going to let him hang up until I made sure it worked for me. I asked him to please stay on the phone while I tried to get a game on my computer to make sure it was working on my end. He patiently waited while I went to the MLB website and clicked on a game. Finally!! It worked!!

I watched part of today's Red Sox game tonight (you can watch games later in the day if you are not able to watch them live). Great game. Two grand slams! Victor Martinez hit two home runs (one of the grand slams and another home run).

There is only one bit of bad news in all of this. I found out tonight while reading the FAQ that all ESPN Sunday Night Baseball games will be blacked out. That means that I will be tortured once again by having to listen to Joe Morgan... unless ESPN has finally decided to listen to please from baseball fans all over to replace Joe Morgan. I am not holding my breath.

Four more days until Opening Day! Another baseball season begins. Yay!

Taking a little blogging break until I get through the end of the school year.
Will be back in June :)