Bad Blogger pt. 437

Oh, so many things going on, and never enough time to write about them... Here's a quick snapshot:

• Bub had his last chemo appointment last month, and got a clean bill of health from the oncologist last week, but ever since that visit (although he didn't get any chemo or even have blood taken) he's been mostly uninterested in food. I'm seriously stressing out about it - there are few things worse than when a pet won't eat, because, of course, he can't tell us what's wrong. We've got him on an appetite stimulant now, and we're trying every kind of food we can think of, but we're still in a wait & see mode. We may have to bite the bullet and pay for an x-ray or ultrasound to see if there's a tumor in there somewhere that the vet can't feel (maybe behind his ribcage) that's making him feel poorly. It sucks, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that it's just a temporary thing and he'll start eating again soon. And that the cancer hasn't come back.
• We're making progress on the things we need to get our Italian visas. One item was that our newly-minted birth certificates had to get what's called an "apostille" from the state in which they were issued. Which meant sending them back to the East Coast states from which they'd just arrived (to another department, but still). They both arrived back here at our house today, so we've checked another thing off the to-do list. Our marriage certificate didn't need an apostille, because we got married in Scotland and that meant it was already "good in the European Union." We certainly didn't plan that when we got married, but that's a bonus. Next step is to get the birth certificates and marriage certificate translated into Italian, and then we have to figure out if we need to actually go down to San Francisco to visit the consulate in person, or if we can do it by mail. We've received mixed responses on that question, but ultimately we'll do what the guy in the consulate tells us we need to do.
• I've become all-consumed by the Euro soccer tournament, especially as it concerns the Italian national team - the Azzurri. I get completely worked up & stressed before & during every Italy game, I scream at the TV when they do something stupid, and I swear like a truck driver. I actually made my throat sore during one close game. It's highly amusing to Chris and my co-workers (I've watched one Italy game at the office, and hope to not have to repeat that for fear of more ridicule). Italy plays Spain on Sunday, and if they lose their tournament is over. I'll no doubt start stressing out on Saturday. Hell, who am I kidding? I'm already stressing out about it. I never thought I'd be this into a sporting event. The bummer is that I realized (thanks to Chris) that I have a haircut scheduled for Sunday right in the middle of the Italy match - a haircut that was scheduled months ago, when I had no idea about the outcome of this tournament. So we've got to record the thing and watch it later when I'm done, and in the meantime we've got to ignore the internet, the phone, and all incoming text messages on the off-chance some so-called "friend" tries to talk to me about the game before I've seen it.

Okay, I think that's it for now. Hope you're all well...

Flickr Mosaic: Who Am I?

I saw this Flickr meme over at Bleeding Espresso, and I couldn't resist it. Of course, there are a few of these things I could have had several different answers to, and I kind of changed one of the questions a bit, but overall it's a fun little meme.

The gist is that you answer 12 questions, and then use those answers to search Flickr. You then put the photos you get as search results into a mosaic. They're not your photos, but they kind of describe you. It's an interesting game. Here's mine:


The questions I answered were:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What did you want to be when you grew up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.

(#9 was originally - "What you want to be when you grow up?" - but since I feel like I've inadvertently gotten my dream job, I figured I'd reflect on what I used to want to be. And I'll confess that for #5 I very nearly had to toss a coin between a couple fellows, but this one is on my mind lately because the Italians are playing in the European football championships. So, there you are.)

If you want to play, here's how to do it:
1. You have to type your answer to each of the 12 questions listed above into Flickr Search.
2. Then, using only the first page of search results, pick one image.
3. Copy & paste the URL for each image into this cool mosaic maker (after adjusting it to make sure there are 12 squares).

And these are the folks whose photos I used for my Flickr mosaic:

1. Jessica(s), 2. Pear Gelato with Dark Chocolate Cookie, 3. North of Corvallis, 4. Orange as any orange on a tree, 5. andrea pirlo, 6. Ripasso Valpolicella, Villa Vinea, 7. Myra - turkey, 8. Gelato, 9. racoon-singer, 10. The Road Less Traveled By, 11. Must be careful when you cross the road,:P, 12. Andiamo tutti al cinquecento

Catching Up

Chris got back safe & sound on Thursday night from his trip to Milan, and we're laying low this weekend - he's exhausted (he almost never suffers from jetlag, but this time he's got it) and I'm not feeling much more energetic myself. I have a bad habit of staying up way too late when he's not around, and that went on for the entire 10 days of his trip - so I've got some catching up to do, sleep-wise. At any rate, a slow weekend is looking really nice from both our perspectives.

His trip was, overall, really good - and we still don't really know anything more. He had good meetings, met some more people, saw the end of the Giro bike race, caught a free Andrea Bocelli concert, and caught up with some of our new Milan friends. And the folks who owned the apartment he was staying in had a cat and a kitten, so he got all kinds of feline attention even while he was away from our own cats!

We're both still feeling optimistic about a move to Italy, and we're confident it can happen, but with summer coming up quickly - and with Italy being a country that virtually shuts down in August (not to mention part of July), we figure something will either come through in the next 4-6 weeks or it won't happen until September. So, we wait and see.

On the other front, we're also pushing ahead with obtaining our Italian visas. We had to get new copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate, and are still waiting on two of the three items to come in the mail. Then we've got to take all of them to Salem to get a special stamp put on them, after which we have to take all of that to the Italian consulate in San Francisco. So we'll be planning a quick trip to SF here in the near future, whenever we can get an appointment.

And in other SF news, it looks like I'll be heading down there in mid-July for a bloggers' conference - my first professional conference as a blogger. I'm pretty excited. The last year has been really amazing for me, career-wise, and I still sit back and feel amazed that someone pays me to do what I do for a living... I am very lucky, and very thankful.