end of year meme...

thanks, michelle!! this sounds like a terrific way to say goodbye to a fabulous year before i embrace the new one. here goes...

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? take italian classes in italy!!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? yes i did & yes i will! (that is a whole other post!!)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die? quite a few acquaintances, a friend from years back, a very favorite high school teacher, & a dear neighbor.

5. What countries did you visit? italy, haiti, jamaica, grand caymen, italy, italy again, & costa rica!

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? i am having trouble finding something i lacked in 2008...seriously.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? the week of the girlfriend gaggle...:-) a week with my best girlfriends needs no answer to "why"!!!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? getting laundry done between travel excursions.

9. What was your biggest failure? grumbling about little things that don't matter...things usually forgotten the very next hour, day, week.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? thank God, no.

11. What was the best thing you bought? plane tickets!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? D.'s patience with all my travel, most of which did not include him.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? anyone who was mean to children or animals & anyone who lied.

14. Where did most of your money go? plane tickets again!! (fuel for our autos came in a very close 2nd!)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? holding entire conversations in italian & actually understanding & being understood.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? leona lewis's bleeding love that was sung by every single person (y'all know who you are!!!!) at the top of their lungs in our suburban on the way to the beach at midnight to see noctiluca ...although after 6 months of text messages, the gaggle of girlfriends just *might* have a differing opinion about that one! & no, i cannot post the song you are thinking about L., J. & Mrs. T.!!!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? (a) happier all the time! (b) the very same (c) richer in love for sure!!!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? slept on the transatlantic flights!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? slept while at my travel destinations.

20. How did you spend Christmas? Christmas eve Mass with the family, gift exchanging Christmas morn, a bit o' surfing at the beach, & way too much indulging in brunch, dinner & baked goodies followed by a power nap that seemed to stretch right into bedtime!

21. Did you fall in love in 2008? over & over again, every single day.

22. What was your favorite TV program? the office (US version, though i also enjoyed a BBC episode or two)...bears, beets, battlestar galactica for all you fans out there!

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? awww, don't be hatin'

24. What was the best book you read? quo vadis

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? how to download songs from iTunes onto my iPod!!

26. What did you want and get? at the risk of sounding like a broken record...travel!!!

27. What did you want and not get? not a thing...

28. What was your favorite film of this year? into the wild (though it came out in 2007, i did not see it until this year)

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? i turned 42 & the day involved fabulous company, an awesome meal, a great wine, coffee, & chocolate!!!

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? my year was immeasurably satisfying as it was...

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? whatever fits into my backpack & looks good at my destination!

32. What kept you sane? my soul sisters!!!

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? johnny depp (get in line girls!!!) with a bit of edwin on the side!

34. What political issue stirred you the most? piacere doesn't do politics online!

35. Who did you miss? the soul sisters & my parents

36. Who was the best new person you met? all my blog buddies (+ chef christopher) i was blessed to meet in person!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. let go & let God.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "the moment i let go of it was the moment i got more than i could handle; the moment i jumped off of it was the moment i touched down." thank u by alanis morissette

that's all for me, folks! if you do this meme, please drop me a line so that i may enjoy your answers. ciao for now...

Bee~ing there!

road trip!!& at the end of the road...a warm welcome to the table with old friends...take a walk with me in my favorite US city...charleston SC...every turn of corner is a thing of beauty...behind every wall is a secret garden...& the art!...the french quarter is a feast for the eyes...especially at my favorite gallery~~ robert lange studiosrobert is usually found at the easle with a smile & kind word for every visitor, eager to share his joy in the creative process.charleston isn't without some italian influence...yes, that's my ride (i wish...)& they even have gelato at modica (it's not quite san crispino but it's good!)as you stroll along, don't forget to look up...& even wander a bit out of town...maybe you'll find yourself 'up the creek'...shem creek, that is!here comes tonight's dinner on a shem creek shrimp boat...but enough of that...it's time to take a peek at the 'secret'...the premiere of 'the secret life of bees'!!!tickets in hand...a red carpet stroll...the movie was fabulous, very true to the book & extremely well casted. even Little Man, who did not read the book, thoroughly enjoyed it. we were excited to see what they did with the parts we had seen in production, particularly the ones which were filmed in D.'s hospital. the after-movie reception gave us the wonderful opportunity to chat with sue monk kidd...& to enjoy the music of mark bryan from hootie & the blowfish...a gracious 'thank you' to W & W, our dear friends who hosted us this week for a time of true southern hospitality!! all too soon we found ourselves back on the road to home, but not without a little help...next on the horizon...racking up more air miles & a jaunt in the windy city with boyworld!

on the horizon...

first...a little shout-out from the home team for Baby Girl...thanks for the awesome 'guest post' & buona fortuna with your mid-term exams!! (or should i say 'in bocca al lupo'!? cherrye can explain...)(Baby Girl made these very cool 'solidarity' bracelets for us to wear while she was away...whatta sweetheart she is!)

do y'all remember this little 'secret' from january?? well, stay tuned for a bit of an update soon! my quiet 6 week hiatus from travel is coming to an end & you know what?...i'm excited & ready to go! i have enjoyed this stretch of down time so much but my backpack is beckoning me & the jets' contrails over our home seem like love notes written in my sky...plus, my struggling italian is just begging to be put to good use! lucky boyworld, too...because they homeschool, they are able to join me at least some of the time.

beginning this week my blogging & blog visits may be a bit sporadic for awhile, but i carry you all in my heart wherever i go...& who knows?...sometimes i am even graced with the good fortune to meet some of you!

weather or not...the end of our first week

or as some of us like to say, "5 days down, 175 to go!"now, that's optimism! our first week was a fine one, both in terms of weather (one perfect, rainy day that made you *want* to work on school sandwiched between 4 to-die-for perfect summer days that do not fit the eastern NC august pattern) & school.we generally start out on the light side of work as our routines shift...this week was a 3 subject only week. (next will be the full deal.) i like it that way & boyworld concurs. Little Man began his high school career with algebra, latin & literature (we're reading the aeneid), ending his first week with an outstanding paper on virgil's themes present in the aeneid. who knew?? a meteorologist who has a way with letters! way to go!!Big Bro managed to sneak in a jack johnson (i'd love some banana pancakes!!) concert with his sister Baby Girl and still rule with his pre-calculus, physics & literature (we're reading beowulf).for me, it was lots of coffee, a time to get reacquainted with the infamous red pen of corrections, & more of my own school work with lots of reading, several papers due & many, many more to go!what's cooking wednesday (omg, shan! i sure could use a sip of that!!)???...you'll have to ask D. about that one, as *he* picked up the slack with some awesome okra & pork tenderloin. (i love you, man!) love thursday...well, let's just say i loved when it was thursday & we were in the home stretch with lots of successful work behind us!poetry...at least i managed to squeak out some creative stuff & to stay true to my snapping of 366 photos in '08 this week. on tap for the weekend...i have a big surprise for D.!!! y'all will just have to wait til next week to read about that one! until then, have a delightful late summer weekend!

fallout from a blogging holiday...

what did i learn in more than a week away?

that the super-size paper i had due for a class last week was written in half the normal time.

that the email & internet icons are huge sources of temptation while i am writing a paper on my computer.

that i can make a very large dent in my to-read pile of books (hello, five quarters of the orange!)

that i really, really missed visiting blogs & found myself wondering how everyone was doing.

that taking a blog holiday with a school holiday & a home full of extended family is a very fulfilling way to spend one's time :-)

we had a fantastic time with lots & lots of cooking, eating, celebrating. (sorry, no recipe for what's cooking wednesday...:-( but hopefully there will be a yummy one next week) D.'s parents are safely back in PA (but will return shortly~yeah!) & Baby Girl is back at school to finish her spring semester (only 1.5 months to go~yeah!). Boyworld is back to school. D. & i are gearing up for **travel**. and...spring has sprung!

& the counting of 1000 gifts continues...

63. bathroom remodeling that was *complete* before D.'s parents arrived!

64. trees full of flowers...gardens full of flowers...blossom petals on every breeze

65. a holy Easter celebration with loved ones & friends

66. a moonrise glimpsed through the church window on Holy Thursday

67. that first glorious bite of chocolate after the Lenten fast :-)

buona pasqua a tutti!

playing catch-up...

jackie, you are one swell blogger, entrusting me with yet another post that needs my response even though i am slower than a tortoise & have not followed up on the last which was bestowed a whole month ago! i am so glad you have faith in me...i can be slow, but i will eventually plod through :-)

i'll start with the most recent...a book tag...oh, how i love my books!

the 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.

oh this is fun! there are exactly 10 books on my desk today. i'm going with the one on top of the pile (thank your blog-reading lucky stars that it is *not* one of the books for my ethics class!)...

rick steves' venice 2008!!! (something tells me britt-arnhild & spf will appreciate the likelihood of this)

do you want to know something quite funky??...this past week i have been fine tuning our museum plans for the april trip. just guess where the bookmark was?...

yep! good ol' page 123! which contains information about one of my very favorite artists~~ tintoretto! the section containing the 3 sentences is discussing his trafugamento del corpo di san marco found in gallerie dell'accademia.

"see the wisps of baby-angel faces in the storm, blowing on the infidels. look hard, on the left hand side. meanwhile, the venetian merchants whisk away the body."

there you have it! & now i tag some unsuspecting bloggers...annie, pam, jennie-boo, lissa & karina.

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back tracking...hanging my head for being sooooooo slow...

thank you, jackie & carol for the blog love~~ rating my lil' ol' blog "E for excellent"! i'm blushin' hons!the rules for this award require passing this honor along to 10 bloggers. this may be why it has taken me so long to finally act...it is very hard to narrow this down. really, every blog i visit is excellent to me. why would i spend my time hanging out in less-than-excellent places? it's just a downer to do so. rather i have made a blog-reading choice to stick with visiting positive places...so if you don't see your blog here, it's only because i'm following the rules today!

& here are my randomly chosen 10 (except the 1st...he's not random!)...

because he is my Little Man & because his hurricane blog rocks...hurricane tracker (he is on a bit of a hiatus til hurricane season gears up, but he's still quite excellent!)

because that girl can cook & she cooks italian...finding la dolce vita

because she is one queen of adventure & her travel writing keeps me on the edge of my seat...glory ho

because her title is just too funny & her posts are filled with wit...green eggs & pam

because their current journey is one of our future goals & they are doing it so beautifully on the blog...the olive notes

because her wit just kills me & she likes to alter the language setting on GPS's too...avert your eyes

because her poetry regularly blows me away & i am so dang grateful she is posting...the common hours

because their travel posts leave me wanting more...somepinkflowers & britt-arnhild's house in the woods

and because she is the queen of she who blogs, somehow managing to corral the lot of us & keep on top of that amazingly long list in the sidebar so efficiently...blogjem

have an EXCELLENT sunday y'all!!

updates

new day, new week...full of hope! spring is around the corner (but the north wind still has his say about things!)...this third sunday of lent~ in the early morning quiet~ has me reflecting about how much more busy my lenten prayer life has been, oh-so-much more busy than i bargained for back on ash wednesday. such is the way of things.

in so many cases, when another is suffering in some way, there is only so much those around may actually do. sometimes that is because of distance. or because there is nothing more left undone. but prayers winged heavenward...there are never too many of them. we can never be sure of the answers we will receive, but we can take comfort in their holding us together in tough times. they are seeds sown in time from which abundant fruit may later come.i'm feeling a great relief after a week of events that rock, or at least shake, one's world. M. is home from the hospital & that in & of itself is nothing short of a miracle given how her situation started. she still has a long road of rest & recovery but she is tough!

Brooke has been able to walk & though she also has a long road of recovery, her progress is encouraging & the love around her will bear her up.

& boyworld is off the couch & back out into the world...

thank you all so very, very much who have kept those dear to us in your hearts & prayers!! we are all so grateful.

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on a much lighter note~~an update about the secret life of bees! would you believe that while boyworld & i wallowed in the flu, they filmed at D.'s hospital??? where is the justice in that? they could have waited until we were back on our feet, right... ;-)

there is some salvation though...a very thoughtful person did bring Dakota Fanning's autograph home for certain members of casa piacere! & D. did take some photos that are still on his phone (i will work on that later this week...)

gratitude tumbling into the new week...

42. a breathtaking total lunar eclipse last week with a clear starry sky43. airplanes~~ that carry us closer to loved ones, that ferry us away on great adventures, that raise us above cloud cover to magnificent skies

44. healing in spite of great odds

45. that from the barest of branches in winter's holdwill soon push a budthat will unfold into long-awaited beauty!
may your week bloom with joy!

boyworld, on the road to adventure...

...& a mom 'secret'!

Little Man (aka lil' jim) & his road crew (that would be his dad & i) are on location in charlotte, NC for the great southern snow (not really, but that is what he thinks ;)...please don't tell) with photos to follow, hopefully later today or tomorrow! maybe he'll even live-blog this thing (while his dad & i are giving eternal gratitude to God for 4 wheel drive vehicles!)...

while we are behavin' all weather-channel-like, Big Brois trying out the college lifestylenearby with Baby Girl for the weekend.

who is having more fun...? (please don't answer that!)

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notes from the road...or, i've got a 'secret'!!!

15. when you travel with boyworld, it really is one big adventure. these guys are up for almost anything (i say 'almost' because i am with them...if they were alone, it would probably be anything!), so when we see things along the way...like roadsigns that read 'crew'...well, hey! they think that means them. staying in the spirit of boyworld adventure, i turn the vehicle in the general direction of the arrows & suddenly we are 'the crew'...barreling down a country road...

what did we find???

oh, the 'secret'...

the day's set for filming 'the secret life of bees'....i mean, OMG!!!! one of my all-time favorite reads!!in production. in the middle of nowhere.(remember that cute pink house!) to be released in '09. starring queen latifah, dakota fanning & alicia keyes. there we were...in the middle of it with a very nice policeman who had no idea why i could hardly contain my excitement~~ he simply was out of the loop regarding how profoundly awesome this book is! but i told him. & in turn, he did not escort us out of the production area. thank you, kind sir!! you made my day!

so, there you have it!

everyone should be so lucky as to travel with boyworld!! i love these guys!!

book to movie challenge review...

the SMS Book Reviews book to movie reading challenge is on (click on link for details)...



my first completed read (very timely as i begin my ethics class)...



Title: Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States
Author: Helen Prejean, C.S.J.
Publisher: Vintage Books, a division of Random House
Date: 1993
Pages: 276

First sentence: "When Chava Colon from the Prison Coalition asks me one January day in 1982 to become a pen pal to a death-row inmate, I say, sure."



And thus begins Sister Prejean's journey out of her ordinary work as a Catholic nun in Louisiana, into the darkest parts of the prison system in the US. Initially I had some reservations about doing this particular book for the review, given my choice as a blogger to avoid political commentary here at piacere. However, the book was on my "to-read" list before the challenge was posted at Callista's site, and so I took the challenge in spite of the political volatility of the issue of the death penalty.



Sister Prejean tells of her journey from pen pal to spiritual advisor for two men who are eventually electrocuted. Her journey is not an easy one, as one would imagine. She relates her personal struggles of getting to know these men as humans. She portrays them in an honest light that is often unexpected and sometimes difficult. Throughout her story of the time spent with these men, she weaves encounters with various levels of government officials and knowledge she uncovered as the workings of the judicial and prison systems were revealed to her. She is brutally honest about what she considers her own faults (for example, not befriending the victims' families in the very beginning of her time as the inmates' spiritual advisor). And Sister Prejean is uncompromising in her pursuit to see every single human being as a child of God - victim or criminal. She is able to convey this and yet strongly advocates for the accountability of the inmates for the wrongs they have done. She does not excuse them, but she does not see death as the answer for crime.



Sister Prejean's story is written in a very matter-of-fact manner. She presents her personal and public struggle in such a way as to let the reader know that what she is doing is very difficult and it is done without sloppy sentiment. Overall, in style of writing, the book is easy to read in spite of the difficult subject matter. Sister Prejean's choice of words for this difficult topic is strangely comforting. Her inclusion of pertinent statistics, chapter-by-chapter detailed notes, and an extensive index are very helpful to the reader who demands an accountabilty of the author to back up her points. Given the age of this publication, it is helpful that Dead Man Walking Update maintains information updates.

My recommendations?...I would say that if the issues of violent crime and the death penalty hold interest, then the book is a very good choice for human insight. It does contain images that are not for the faint of heart. I have not yet seen the movie, but based on the book, I would like to do so.

& now it is on to the Freedom Writers' Diary...

Back to School...At Home!

we (the boys & i) have just arrived at the end of our first week of homeschooling for their 8th & 10th grade years. our start this year was a gentle one...i had managed, by some major quirk - or hopefully a new habit!- to be ready to roll a month ago & over that time the boys & i discussed how we hoped the school year would be.


2 opinions instead of 3 or 4.


it is so very odd...in just 2 short years we have lost half of our school! i am tempted to feel very sad about this - i miss my girls very much! sometimes i give in to that sadness (you must lean into grief or it will overwhelm you eventually). & then i shift into new focus & gratitude...


i am so grateful that the girls have moved successfully into college & transitional jobs.


i am so grateful that i had the time with them through all those years (we started homeschooling after a move out of state when they were in 1st & 3rd grade).


i am so grateful when i hear the girls tell me that something we did has helped them in their new ventures (one of my biggest fears when we began homeschooling was that i would somehow "damage" their academic progress).


& i am so grateful for this new time with just my boys! the are amazing young men (where did the time go?) filled with brilliant ideas & lots of energy & humor. i appreciate the unique views they have of so many things - points of view i would miss without them.


our gentle start to the new school year included...


math - it has always taken the children a week or so, after a summer off, to get the math gears moving efficiently.


literature - i *love* sharing this with my children...there are so many great books that can take us away - it is pure magic (more on this topic next week!). Big Bro started out with the first book of the Aeneid & Little Man is into Tom Sawyer.

Latin - Little Man gets off easy with this one...he begins formal Latin next year...but Big Bro is ready to start his second year of Latin. this week was a much needed review of conjugations, declensions & vocabulary...for both of us!


& finally...weather & experiments - believe it or not, this was not on the agenda...it just happened! while D. & i were away for the weekend, science was happening!! of course, there was serious storm tracking with Hurricane Dean - maps, internet searches, a visit with our neighbor who is retired from the National Weather Service/NOAA. there were experiments using food dye & ice (convection currents), paper cups, cotton swabs & corks (homemade anemometer), & 2 liter bottles with water & dye (tornado in a bottle)!

i can hardly wait to see what adventures await in week 2!

Book to Movie Challenge

ooooh i love a challenge. especially one that requires me to read! (good excuse to curl up with a book, yet again!) i saw Terra's post this morning & followed think linking trail to SMS Book Reviews.

Your challenge is to pick and read at least 3 books that were made into movies. There is a LARGE list here. This challenge will run September 1 - December 1. (3 months)

My choices...
1. Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States

2. Chocolat (I cannot believe i’ve never read this; it is one of my absolute favorite films - fabulous & johnny depp too!)

3. Freedom Writers’ Diary

Thanks for the link, Terra!