Let's Dish!

I discovered a gem! Come to find out- 30 minutes from my doorstep is the ceramics capital of Northern Italy. Nove is a tiny little town at the base of the alps where you can't throw a stone without hitting 5 ceramics factories.  Ceramics originally didn't sound interesting until I found out that American companies like Williams-Sonoma and Tiffany & Co order their "Made in Italy" stock from this tiny town.  Which means..........WHOLESALE!!!!!!!!!!  4 dinner plates that would cost $172 in the United States are only $28 here!

Ummm...yes, please?  Tiffany & Co cheaper than Target!

Coming out of the kiln

Where your dishes are born~       hand-painted in an Italian warehouse

This might be what Martha Stewart's heaven looks like: floor to ceiling serving dishes!

Jon is mad that I'm blogging about this place because he was planning on giving out Tiffany & Co serving dishes for Christmas and never mentioning Nove's factories.  But in true girl fashion- I can't help but share with EVERYONE when I discover a great deal!

As a side note, since many of you have inquired privately, my own dishes etc have still not arrived yet.  No word from Kuwait on their whereabouts.

It's in my blood

They say you can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas outta the girl.  Well...the same can be said for the car business. Yes, this Post girl moved half way around the world and STILL found a car dealership to work at.  How you ask?  Well, like how all of my ventures begin....it started over drinks.  Jon and I started talking to a guy at an Italian bar who runs the dealership on base, I mention that I grew up in the car business and next thing I know I'm selling Ford trucks in Italy.  It's in my blood I guess. My Grandfather Pop would be so proud...selling cars on an army base.

It is just part-time, filling in when the main guy is out. So I worked there full-time the past 2 weeks while he was on vacation. After practicing my lines of "What's it going to take me to get you to drive away in this car today?"  you know what?     I actually sold one!  (but he custom ordered  his car and it will arrive in Italy in 3 months---living in Italy is all about delayed gratification)

Yup that's the car dealership trailer  and the one car on the lot. Nothing but the best for our soldiers. (Most of the inventory is in Germany on bigger military posts)

I'm also starting my job at the online travel guide company.  My first freelance assignment is....get this....review all of the local restaurants, bars and beauty salons. Yes, I'm getting paid to go out to eat and have drinks.  So tonight Jon and I are headed to one of the new restaurants in town to take pictures and taste their food for a review I'm working on.   Then we are headed to a wine bar...you know...for RESEARCH  : )

I will let you know when my first assignment is published!

Happy Birthday Loren!!

My amazing cousin Loren turns a quarter of a century today! I hope you have a great day and drink a mojito for me at dinner! muah! 

Since you refused a gift from me this year I will show you what I WOULD HAVE bought you (you know...if I was in Dallas)

Brand new Christian Louboutin heels

 

  a new Balenciaga bag

                       and a brand new Michael Kors watch

Oh well...maybe next year....

Checkmate!

We went to a live chess match the other day- which many of you have already made fun of us for doing. But it wasn't just watching people play chess...it was a show! The history is that in this town a Lord had a daughter who had 2 suitors who both wanted her hand in marriage.  The suitors were going to duel till the death; but the Lord instead suggested a chess match instead.  The winner would get his oldest daughter and the loser would get his youngest daughter (poor youngest daughter! jeez!).  So now every 2 years the town of Marostica (45 minutes from us) hosts this huge chess match in their main piazza and recreates the story of their historic chess match.  It is like the Medieval Times on steroids only with real castles involved.

Lighting the chess board on fire!

Raining fireworks off the Marostica Castle (built in 1312)

It was b.y.o.w. (bring your own wine) which made for a very rowdy chess crowd (oxymoron?)

When in Rome...

We went to Rome last weekend with our friend Sharon who flew in from London to visit.  It was Jon and Sharon's first trip to the ancient city so we hit all of the big sights:

Said Hi to the Pope

We tossed coins in Trevi Fountain. After I found out the Trevi Fountain makes over $3000 euros a day I decided that the Trevi should have been tossing coins at us.

Sharon and Jon listening to the audio guide in the Colosseum. As you can tell by their expressions...it was thrilling.  Note to self: pay extra for the guided tour next time.

We ate fettuccine at Alfredo's.  Turns out the dish we all know and love in the states originated at this restaurant when a man named Alfredo doubled the butter he put on his fettucine...and voila! The original fettucine alfredo.  Yummy. 

2.5 hours

The title of this blog is the amount of time it takes my brand new teensie weensie washing machine to finish a laundry load. Not to mention that it is the size of my teensie weensie dog as seen here:

The Italians don't typically have laundry rooms; so my washer only fits in one of our bathrooms.  The dryer (which is the same size) only fits in my closet. The dryer takes 2 hours to dry clothes. So if you want clean pants you need to commit at least 4 hours to laundering them. No wonder it was so hard to find an apartment with a big closet here....

Captain Marshall

Jon was promoted to Captain!!!

Not a regulated uniform.  Jon probably had an unprecedented promotion ceremony in his board shorts on the beach

His whole office already had a group trip to the beach planned for the weekend when the Colonel stopped by Jon's office to see if he would mind getting promoted on the beach instead of in the office since everyone was going anyway.  (ummm...is that really even a question?)  So we went to a little beach town named Tirrenia near Pisa. Tirrenia is actually also near another army post, so we had our own reserved "American Beach" for military only.  Man, we thought it was nice being stationed in Italy...these people are stationed in Italy on the beach! 

What is more masculine than grilling on the beach? Grilling on the beach holding a football. Jon and Todd were the grillmasters for the weekend

View from our balcony. The Italians love their speedos! Hence why this is such a distant view instead of zoomed in.