Jodi & Andrea present....DOUBLE!

Now that the cat's out of the bag in all areas of my life (family, friends, work...), I can even bring the news to my blog: WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!! =)

The little one has been lovingly nicknamed "Double" (long story but, no, we're not having twins) and hasn't caused his/her Mom too too much pain! Minor, really, and now that I'm officially in my second trimester I'm feeling pretty damn good actually. (Well, if you don't count my mega headache right now, but that's from my company Xmas party last night, not baby-related!)

The picture above is Double's second ultrasound -- he/she (yes, we want to find out the gender but it's still too early to tell) was in great form. Literal hand-clapping and general wiggling was involved...this one's not going to be much of a sleeper, I can tell already!

Andrea and I are thrilled and -- oddly enough -- feeling pretty ready (not like "bring it on NOW" ready, but well on our way!) and are so excited to be able to share this really cool, exciting, fun, momentous, incredible, mysterious, weird, life-changing period of our lives with you all!

Stay tuned for further updates!!

Rain. Again. How Novel.

Ya know, I am generally that romantic type of person who loves the rain - loves cozying up with dim lights and listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops. But ya know what? 3 weeks straight? A little much!

Perugia, and half the world if the global weather reports are any indication, is *this* close to preparing its ark and organizing its animals in gender pairs. Enough already!!

The "ray of sunshine" in all of this is that we leave soon for JAMAICA. Yep, that's right, vacation away, in the sunshine and heat. My body will probably go into shock after all this rain. At least I'm hydrated for it!

Happy Holiday Season! Hope your umbrellas are festive and your rainboots hole-less. That's pretty much as good as I can get right now.

Turkeying

As I sit here awaiting my guests, I thought I'd share a Happy Thanksgiving wish with you all. I have so much to be thankful for this year - just to name a few: Andrea, friends and family, health, a roof over my head and food on the table and, well - I'm thankful I'm not a turkey!

Take a moment, wherever you are and whatever tradition you're fulfilling this year, to count your blessings today! Whoever you are reading this, I'm thankful for you =)

Da Maria

I haven't posted a picture of us in a while - this one's from last weekend, we headed to the local torta al testo dive, "Da Maria" for some sausage and spinach torta. Mmmm.

Yes we can.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

Election Day

Well, lucky me voted via absentee ballot weeks ago. On the positive side, I avoided all the crazy lines. On the negative side, I guess I'll never really be sure if it (a) got there, (b) was counted or (c) wasn't used by my mailman to block off a leak in his bathroom.

My hopes are high today. These past few days have indeed brought me back some long-lost faith in my country: we are coming out in record numbers, more decisive than ever before. Proof that we do in fact believe in something, a doubt that's been haunting me for quite some time now. We have succeeded in something, whatever happens now. Ok...now maybe that's going a little too far: GOBAMA!!!

Happy Hallows Eve!

I know, I know - I've been horrible at keeping up with my blogs. To be honest, I haven't had much to say! Things are pretty good: working hard (and seeing results), living life and praying that November 4th will bring some semblance of (positive) Change to my country.

I will return soon with more words of wit, pictures and commentary, (I promise, Dad!). Till then, have a very spooky Halloween and a fantabulous weekend!

Congrats Mer & Carlos!

A big welcome to the world to Gabriel Joseph!

Auguri...

Un matrimonio felice è una lunga conversazione che sembra sempre troppo breve.

A happy marriage is a long conversation that always seems too short.

- André Maurois

Romin' around...

Spent the weekend down in Rome for Luca & Laura's wedding, yay!

Mom and Dad came out for the event and we all had a really nice time. Did some sightseeing the first day....


Saturday was the wedding...



Then, we even got some great relaxing in at an amazing hotel on the water about a half-hour outside of Rome. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Wintery Autumn

Someone came and snuck up and plum stole away my favorite season! This is not September weather! I'm freezing my arse off!

Anyway, here's a picture of Andrea and I from our friends Andrea and Morena's wedding. Just 'cause...!

St. Francis

Just got back yesterday from a great week in San Francisco!! Despite 4 days of a weird flu I caught somehow (which was only worsened by the stupidest move ever of downing a Ghirardelli hot fudge peanut butter sundae at the height of my fever...), it was FANTASTIC!

San Francisco is a totally unique, amazing city. It is people friendly, healthy, bright, fun, quirky, hippie and groovy. You can't get a bad meal there it seems (Andrea said he'd move there for the fresh tomatoes alone - extremely high props from an Italian!). I could absolutely see Andrea and I living there - its only downside being that there aren't really any extreme weather changes there, which is sort of sad. Oh, that and the fact that it's on the other side of the globe. Otherwise, though, I think Andrea and I would move there in a literal heartbeat.

We did all sorts of stuff in SF besides the aforementioned Ghirardelli Square. Chinatown, a tour through the Mission Murals, Mission Dolores, Lombard Street, a Frida Kahlo exhibit at the SFMoma, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park and the Japanese tea garden and flower conservatory, a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, the aquarium, Nob Hill, the Financial District, walking all along the Embarcadero up to the Ferry Building (we never did get back for the caviar we wanted to try though). And, like I said, all that dabbed here and there with a fantastic meal.

Our main motivation for going out there in the first place was the arrival of one wholly unique, awesome wedding invitation from dear friends, and so our last couple days there, or the Wedding Extravaganza, were the most wonderful cherry on top to an amazing week. Cheers and congrats, Adam and Eliza (and Patty, who may just be reading this!): may your lives be filled with the same beauty and color as your wedding day!
Andrea and I all dolled up for the wedding.

Drill baby! Drill!

So, I just lived through (barely) the unfortunate experience of watching Giuliani's RNC speech.

I don't know that I've ever been more offended, more embarassed by politics. Ok, that's not entirely true. I've sort of had that same vomit-in-my-mouth feeling for the past 8 years, every time W donned a sari for a press conference or made a wincingly painful joke in grammatically incorrect English. Though, if we're to listen to ex-mayor Giuliani, Obama is the one who's "the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years."

After listening to Giuliani's mindless propaganda, I have to ask myself: am I supposed to be ashamed of my college degree now? Humiliated because I love New York City? Outcast because I don't believe that yelling "zero...zero....zero..." at the other candidate is an acceptable way to run a campaign? Well, I guess they're right...I guess I'll just give up now. Lord knows I essentially hate America anyway, I don't know why I should even get the right to vote! *eye roll*

I keep waiting for the Dumbing Down of America to hit rock bottom (lord knows I thought we'd already arrived there), but it just keeps getting worse!

Whirlwind

I'm back!

What a whirlwind trip - including a missed connection and a fleabag Paris hotel on the way over - to NJ/NY/FL to visit family and friends and my attempt at a vacation! Amid the running and traveling around a lot, we managed to get in a visit to the MET and the Museum of Natural History, we visited Pop Sam and Mariel in Florida (eeek humidity), we celebrated Emily and Andrew's 5th birthday, we got to be there for opening weekend of the 9th annual NaCl Festival and we spent a lovely weekend in Manhattan where we even got in some batting cages and a bit of bowling!

Here are a couple pictures from the trip...

Yankees Game

The birthday boy and girl

Soccer fun at the bday party

Andrea/the world's largest weenie at the Brooklyn Diner!

Visiting with Pop Sam, Mariel, Barbara and Joel in Florida

Surviving the Florida humidity

Hanging with the girls at Mer's baby shower

Guardian Angels

Antonello and Novella very sweetly told their priest about how Andrea and I "took them under our wings," in a matter of speaking, when the twins were born, and explained that though I'm Jewish and Andrea chose never to be Confirmed, they really wanted us to somehow be part of the babies' baptism ceremony. The priest, in an unusually "Christian" manner, agreed to it - said we could "shadow" the two official godfathers and act as sort of "Guardian Angels" for Gaia (me) and Alice (Andrea).

We were both really touched by the sentiment and honored to be there for Gaia and Alice - who just get cuter and smilier every time we see them!

Andrea and I with Antonello with Gaia, Novella with Alice, Diego (Gaia's godfather and Antonello's brother), Davide (Alice's godfather and Novella's brother)

Jazz is in the air

(beer in hand, waiting for the fun to begin)

I heart Umbria Jazz! Hip cats and non, casually strutting around the city with cups of refreshing beer, swinging their head to the beat of whomever happens to be up on stage riffing away. Tickets are around 15 Euros for stand seats and actually knowing anything at all about jazz is an optional (thank goodness, in my case).

For our first pick of this year's festival (July 11th-20th), we went last night with Romina and Gianni to see Italian jazz pianist Stefano Bollani playing together with some fabulous Brazilian musicians - literally music to my ears! Too bad the evening couldn't just end there, though. After that was another 2 hours straight of Brazilian Caetano Veloso...or Caetano "Noioso" (the Boring) as I have renamed him. One man + his guitar + 2 hours of suicidally depressing Brazilian songs that all sound the same = a very fidgety Jodi. Not my favorite, but Monday night we go back for Cassandra Wilson and I'm sure it's going to be awesome!

BBQ!

This picture makes me happy.

The Colpo d'aria

First of all: Happy belated 4th of July everyone! I hope your bbq's and fireworks and beer brawls went smashingly. I had to work all day but Andrea and I are cooking up some burgers on our electric grill tonight in honor.

Which brings us to today's blog, boys and girls. Since the past week at work has pretty much been a constant push-and-shove between me and my co-workers about none other than the AIR CONDITIONING, I thought I would post the translation of an article I wrote a couple years ago for the now-defunct "California" magazine here in Italy. Reading it over gave me a smile and made me realize with both a sense of comfort and of fear that things over here will never change...

Enjoy!

Winded
by Jodi Krumholz

There is a little known fact that in Italy, every man, woman and child is deathly afraid of what they call the colpo d’aria. Even the name is fairly scary (or, at least the way I pronounce it). More than a mother or two has been known to lock her child inside the house because of it. Fathers everywhere have learned all the self-defense methods known to man to protect their offspring from it. Teachers and colleagues, neighbors and local politicians. It is the greatest common denominator that exists in present-day Italy. And evidence of it can be found around the world. Scared yet?

It’s the wind. Yup, you read that right: wind. The wind through the trees, the proverbial wind beneath my wings, a windy morning, a winded statement. It’s all scary, it’s all dangerous. That invisible stuff that you and I have so naively dubbed with the generic name “oxygen”—it’s after you, and it can kill you.

I know, I know, it may seem ridiculous to our untrained ears. But just imagine this: you are sitting peacefully in your office at work. Room temperature at a comfortable 72 degrees. And then your colleague comes around, invites you out to lunch. You stand up, pick up your wallet, walk out the office door and down the corridor, past the front desk and down the elevator. BAM. Wind. It goes up your shirt and touches your (gasp) unprotected neck. Caresses your cheek and kisses your earlobes.

That’s it, right there: the beginning of the end. You might as well head back up to your office, pack up your things and head home to bed for the rest of the day. Life, as you know it, is on its last legs.

At the very least, you will have picked yourself up a nice little fever. 99, 100 degrees. If you’re lucky, that is! If you’re really unlucky (if you forgot to put on an undershirt this morning, or if you haven’t eaten any fruit for the past few days), you will most likely have to run to the bathroom, too. Probably stay there for a half-hour or so, doubled over by the force of (mildly) intense stomach cramps.

Then you will probably start sweating (if you haven’t already made up a living will, this might be a good moment to do so...). That tank top you have on under your t-shirt, layered sweater and scarf draped over your shoulders will most likely turn damp with your own disgusting perspiration. Cover up, young impressionable! Your father would do it, your grandfather before him would have done it...your great-great-great ancestor probably invented covering up. So don’t argue with me, and cover up already!

So why, in (almost) all seriousness, is this colpo d’aria so scary? While the rest of the free world writes poetry about walking through open fields, shoe and shirtless, wind in hair and through fingertips...why are Italians so afraid of the wind?

In layman’s terms, they believe that a sudden change in temperature can weaken the body and cause illness – in particular, can cause fever and stomach problems. Has this, you ask (I can hear you) been scientifically proven? Well, like most old wives’ tales, not really. Is it the power of suggestion? Is it that extra just-to-be-safe gene that their grandparents have passed down through the generations, in a critical attempt at preserving their species? Or could it be an age-old excuse to keep heating bills at home down (the higher the heat in the living room, the more you’ll feel the wind when you go back outside, deary)?

Whatever the reason is, people, I am here to tell you how to protect yourselves. Close your windows tight at night, open them only in the morning hours to make the house feel fresh and new. Keep your room temperatures as close to the human suffering point as possible (only then will you manage to keep away the fever gods). And – whatever you do – do not leave your house without a scarf, a wool hat and a pellet gun (not really, but it can't hurt). Because you never know when the colpo might sneak up on you and – in an unexpected violent turn of events – breeze through your hair and make you miserable for (precisely) the next 14 minutes.

A dip in the pool

We just got back from a great 3-day mini-trip to a lovely farmhouse near Todi. The place was really beautiful - amazing view, tooootally refreshing pool and poolside for baking*, good food, nice people...totally overpriced (in fact, our hunt for The Perfect Agriturismo - price included - continues!), but a nice trip nonetheless!

* throw out your suntan lotion after the recommended expiration (generally 12 months) or you will unexplicably lobster up like I did. And I tell ya, kids, I'm not 17 anymore: those wrinkles popped up PRONTO!

Our room...


The view...


Another view...


The farmhouse pets (Biancaneve the dog and Mozart the talking/whistling/dancing/sound effect producing parrot)...


Happy travelers...

Happy Father's Day!

We'll always have Toledo! I love you Dad!

AUGURI ANDREA!!!!

Con tanto affetto dalle tue due donne =)

Faces

One of the things I've always found so weird about the grownup Work World is that a person spends 8 hours+ a day with the same faces, but generally none of those faces ever mix with the faces in your 'normal' life! So I brought my camera to our new office and took a few shots...

Cecilia

Sabrina
(ciao Sabry - hai dato il permesso no??!)

Francesca

Daniela

Viviana

Marco

There are a lot more...and growing!...but the rest were either camera shy or not in the building! Nice lookin bunch eh? ;)

L'Infiorata di Spello

We woke up at 5 this morning for one of my favorite Umbrian traditions: the Infiorata in Spello. This event takes place once a year in celebration of the Corpus Domini. Basically, the people of the city of Spello line their town with beautiful tapestries made up entirely of flower petals!...



They start planning all the details of their designs the year before...

(see Andrea in the upper part of the pic talking to an old coach/Infiorata designer!)

And start picking and drying flowers months before...


They work setting down the design all through Saturday night...


Until they finish early Sunday morning and the judges come by...


It's something amazing to behold. All that beauty, the sweet-acrid smell of the petals, the glazed-over look in the eyes of those proud artists who haven't slept a wink in 2 days. And, the craziest (and, secretly, my favorite) part of it all is that by 11am on Sunday morning, it's all gone, quietly trampled over by the religious processions - and by the tired but happy tourists making their way through the town.



p.s. I had to add this one in for good measure...

Why????

The older I get, the more capable I become of controlling my anger. Except, and this is a big Except, when I'm driving along the streets of Perugia.

Why? WHY? Do you have to nearly kill me on principle? I'm *sorry* I didn't merge fast enough onto the highway! I'm *sorry* you sped up at the last minute so I couldn't turn left but I did anyway and so you had time to simultaneously give me the finger and honk your horn but apparently didn't have quite enough reaction time to ACTUALLY SLOW DOWN to avoid hitting me! Good thing I slammed on my freakin breaks.

Why? Are you really late for dinner? Is your wife going to kill you? Do you really have to get to work as soon as possible so you can manage to finish paying off your 5 trillion Euro gas-guzzling Mercedes? Or are you just an a**hole?

Well, then a**hole, I just have one final question for you - although I think I already know the answer: Why is my time/car/lane/life worth less than yours?

Rant completed (till I drive to work tomorrow).

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing all the mothers I know - and especially my own! - a very happy Mother's Day! May you always all know how much you are appreciated and loved!

Kites and Labor

Spent May 1st, or Italian Labor Day, at the Castiglion del Lago Kite Festival as per tradition with Clare, Marcello, Chiara and Mary. Had a really nice time, despite a terrible onslaught of allergies (wow, like clockwork...May 1st, POOF: Jodi turns red, itchy, blotchy and cranky...TADA!!).

The Gang:



It was my first experience flying a kite - except for when my father accidentally flew ours from the top of our car driving across the Golden Gate bridge during a family trip back the early 80's...(you didn't think I forgot, did you dad?)

You can see I'm new at this from my intense facial expression...



Luckily the kite was categorized as "Easy to Fly"!

Andrea had a nice go at it too:



A fun time was had by all!

Springtime contemplation

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
- Henry David Thoreau