Enough to be Dangerous... re: Milan and Juve

Eccomi, here I am again with another tale to tell about how I know enough Italian to be dangerous, but not enough to get myself out of trouble...

And why are we not surprised, this case has to do with my vast knowledge (kidding) of Italian football and my passion for what I would like to be my favorite teams but now I'm kinda thinkin' I might need to reconsider that...

I mentioned the beautiful "G" in one of my last posts...he is the man I met in Rome last November - this was a mere 16 hours before I flew back home to LA.  As I said on my SportsBites radio show the other day, that would be my luck to meet someone like him just before I leave Italy, without a set date to return once again.

Anyway, we have finally just begun regularly emailing with - for me - pure pleasure. I write to him in Italian and he usually writes to me in English. Very, very charming English. Did I mention that this is pure pleasure on my end? 

The other day we wrote about speaking on the phone, and I asked, maybe on Sunday? I added that maybe a match with Milan or Juventus would be on TV that day. In that case, I would be "very very busy", so we could speak before or after. 

Mind you, I did not even know if he was tifoso (a fan), and, I happen to know that both these squads have fans all over Italy, including Sicily...so I could not guess that his response would be what it was. But, he had in fact told me he was back in Napoli, his town, so believe me when I say that I wish I'd been knocked upside the head in advance, because...

Those in Napoli....not big fans of northern Italian squads. Not big fans of Milan and Juventus in particular, I'm sure. Do they want to talk - or hear - about them? You know? Not so much.

He wrote, in Italian (my Italian dictionary and I now just about require surgical detachment) - in some capital letters (ouch) - words to this effect. 

And then, that he loves my website, and my work, and that he is waiting, anxiously for my next letter.

But, can you imagine still, how horrible I felt? Oh s--t.

My first thought was  OK you know what? NOW would be a really good time to never, ever speak - let alone write - Italian again. And, if we ever meet up in Italy again (at that moment I was quite sure I'd be a fool to ever expect that), I might do well to just somehow communicate that I had now become a deaf mute - probably the best thing that could ever happen for him. 

But then it occurred to me that this would in turn, equal the idea of my trying to communicate in Italian via, what, sign language?? That would just be disastrous beyond comprehension. This lovely gentle man does not deserve that. Nor does Napoli. Nor Italy.

I am hard-pressed to think of any entity that would deserve that.

And that would still not excuse me from having to write down my words, now would it? And when we were together, what would I do? While pretending to be a deaf mute? Use a magic slate or notepad to script the botching of his beautiful language?

Oh just never mind.

Back to my story. (We were talking about my mention of being a Milan and Juve fan to this man from Napoli, remember?) I needed to back out of this one yesterday, and yet, do I know enough Italian to say how foolish I felt? To express what I'd really like to say?

I do not.

I write to tell him exactly that, and how sorry I am. I did know how to say I never meant to say anything offensive and that I'm afraid he's angry at me. I try to explain that we rarely see Napoli on TV here, Milan and Juve are just the squads I know the best. And, that when I do come to Napoli, that we can be tifosi for his team, together. 

He writes back to say he was joking! He could never be angry at me. (It's a good thing I have that in writing.)

Yesterday I sent him Fabio Cannavaro's recipe for pizza. Canna is the captain of Italy's national (soccer) team, and the one you may remember (shaved head, fabulous smile) in photos after the 2006 World Cup holding up the trophy with tremendous joy. He is from Napoli. It was suggested to me, that great champions come from Napoli. I just wanted him to know, that I get it.

Little sidebar, last note - you'd think I'd have learned a little something from another encounter, with the last Italian man, from Milan, who insisted, "Diane. You can't be a fan of Milan and Juve. It has to be Milan or Juve." Yeah. He disappeared into the ether shortly thereafter. 

Do you think I ought to try the deaf mute thing? For the greater good, to perhaps put beautiful Italian men out of their misery once and for all? 

Maybe not.

The alternative might be way too much fun.

Enough to be Dangerous but...

It is incredibly hot at the beach this weekend. I would be on the sand doing this but I don't think they have wi-fi out there and you can probably guess how unnerved I get when people and their out-of-control children do not practice proper "beach etiquette". Don't get me started. 

Let me first say that if I seem on the cranky side, I am. I do not like anything extreme, and heat with an thick air of humidity is one of those things. And I just learned, having gotten up about 10am, that I seem to have missed an airing of Milan's match today, during which one-of-the-objects-of-my-obsession, Pippo Inzaghi, scored 3 goals. For the record, my post title here doesn't refer to being cranky enough to be dangerous, so I'll leave that alone for now.

What it does refer to, is how I know enough Italian to be dangerous but not enough to get myself out of trouble. Knowing what I do about the power of the mind and one's spoken word, I might do well to stop saying that. Maybe I will after this post because I have such good stories to tell about evidence has yielded in my life so far, especially within the last year.

Pool Toys

Last May I spent a week in Sicily, at the beautiful agriturismo property at Sant'Agata Millitello.

(I wish I was there now.)

If you click on the link above, you will see the swimming pool. It is actually my swimming pool, and trust me, I will be going back one day, sooner than later, to remind them of this! The week I stayed here, it was incredibly hot (kind of like today), and they did not have plans to open the pool until June 1, but I was leaving May 28 and, as I said, it was incredibly hot. See the photos of the terrazza, where for the first couple days I did lounge like a lizard between the shade and sun but, I was very gently but firmly persuasive about them getting the pool ready for me. They finally did.

Now here was the deal. The property was managed by their father and two beautiful brothers, both of whom I was afraid I would fall in love with at the same time and so I did but, back to my story...I told them, in my best (albeit limited) Italian, that what they needed for my pool, were some pool toys.

This was a very curious concept to them, and there wasn't a simple way I could explain things like plastic floats, water wings for children, rafts, styrofoam noodles, perhaps the things a 9-yr-old-child-in-a-grownup-body might play with in swimming pools here. I did not know these words in Italian but, I did know enough to say in Italian, with a smile I'm sure, mind you...

"They're things to play with in the pool. They're usually for children, but sometimes they're for adults, too."

As soon as I said the word "adulti" I knew I was in trouble. They blushed, I blushed, we all laughed nervously, and I realized that I had suggested a reference to something along the lines of "adult toys" of another persuasion. Fine. I decided right then and there I was going to just shut up and not speak any more Italian. EVER.

The good end of the story, I am pleased to report, is that I was shopping in town later that day, and there was a little clothing boutique that offered a catalog of their summer line...and each model in every picture, sported some kind of ("children's") pool toy as a prop. 

Now there was a gift from the gods. Don't I always say that life is so good??

Allora. I gave the catalog to Mauro when he came to pick me up in town (I forgot to mention that he and Massimo were always my personal drivers, concierge, slaves, etc.; as I said, I loved them), I could in fact tell him that these were pool toys, and we had a good laugh. I did buy a toy water pistol for the pool another day. I left it there for them, or better, for their beautiful little nephew, when I finally departed from what came to feel like my home there. In tears, by the way.

Tu sai, you know, that kind of seems like enough for you to digest about now. What I will do is write another post about my second story on this theme. It has occurred to everyone by now, I'm sure, that I perhaps could not tell a story in its condensed form if my life depended on it.

Stay tuned. Another litany on this topic follows, in Part 2.

This week: French accent

Bonjour!

My first news of "French" - can you guess, is about my resident French guy, who alerted me gently this morning that he wants to be known not as "French guy", but as "Antoine" ("my real name!"). So, I will refer to him accordingly, he seems to be so happy when his name appears in my work...I have yet to mention him again on my radio show but from now on, his name will link to my March blogs; read up on "Two French Guys" to learn what all this rambling is about.

Starting on Monday, for Tuesday, Doll (my beautiful sister) and I prepared a meal for about 70+ people - Coq a Vin - and all the accoutrements, including dessert. The complete menu:

Chicken Liver Mousse with toast points

Cheese variety with crackers

Mushroom Palmiers (savory mushroom-filled puff pastry)

Coq a Vin (chicken in red wine with mushrooms, bacon, pearl onions)

Noodles

Roasted string beans, carrot, onion with tarragon

Baguettes with butter

Apricot cake with slightly sweet, mildly-spiced whipped cream

Sparkling pink lemonade

OK so here was the deal. Monday we prepped the appetizers, made the dessert, and got the chicken started. The mousse unfortunately had the color of I-won't-say-what, but while it is a Julia Child recipe and incredibly good, that did not end up translating all that well to our guests because, that color really kind of was a turn-off. As for the Coq a Vin, the initial chicken prep included cooking the bacon - good. The desserts came out fine - very good.

One other time Doll and Suz (our other sister) made a French dish that famously became known as the "12-step entree" because it was so incredibly involved and at that hour was also prepared for about 70 guests. Really, I think this chicken on Tuesday was nearly that kind of commitment (for 70 different guests). Let me try to recall if it was 12 or less steps (I am sure it was more than 12) and who did what even though truly, Doll gets full and complete credit for this dish as I promised everyone, I promise:

1. Cook bacon (reserve fat, of course; everything from now on gets sauteed in that!) - Doll
   
2. Clean and halve mushrooms - Di and Doll
   
3. Boil pearl onions - Doll
   
4. Peel pearl onions - Doll and Di
   
5. Chop shallots (we actually used onions, don't tell) - Di
   
6. Chop garlic - Di
   
7. Saute mushrooms - Di
   
8. Saute pearl onions - Di
   
9. Saute onion and garlic - Di
   
10. Brown chicken pieces - Doll
11. Prepare seasonings - Doll
12. Cook chicken with wine and all of the above - Doll
13. Reduce sauce for serving - Doll

I really should run this by Doll to see if I forgot anything, but since I was there for the duration, I think this is pretty accurate. Yes. We should have enjoyed a bottle of some nice Bordeaux after all that. But, we didn't.

Anyway, it all went over tremendously well. Each of our lovely guests seemed to enjoy everything and there we had it, yet another labor of love. The best part being, we got to be together, and eat El Burrito Jr on Tuesday for lunch - a Dolls tradition that had, up til now, been relatively shelved. We've just love our bean&cheese burritos since we were kids.

Last night, Antoine (formerly known as French guy) decides (with good reason; he'd had a relatively crappy day) that he is homesick and thinks he wants to go home to France for a visit, maybe in June. Just to see his family, be with them, see their new farm-chateau home that he only saw under construction last year at this time, see the farm animals that he loves, eat his mother's cooking...I cannot blame him. In June there is a music festival day, around the 20th, and last year he was particularly homesick on that day. 

Here is a time when I wish I could just wave a magic wand and take someone's hurt away, but, since I can't...I made his favorite roasted tomato pizza last night and we sat up late talking, way past my bedtime but never mind. We chatted up things like he loves that the beautiful Sebastien Frey is one of the objects of my obsession because he's French and plays Italian football. And, that the equally beautiful (Italian) Luca Toni is another, because for he plays in Germany with Franck Ribery from France and, he used to play for Fiorentina with...Sebastien Frey.

The UEFA Cup is going on right now we both hope the final - 14 May I just learned - will be Fiorentina (did I mention ... oh yes. I did) and Bayern-Munich (as in, the beautiful Luca Toni). 

There are also rumors flying around the continent that Frey could be going to AC Milan during this summer transfer season. I can't begin to tell you how happy that would make me.

And, having said that, turning from French to Italian for a moment, stay tuned for my next blog. It will entertain you silly while it gives circumstantial evidence - yet again - that I can speak enough Italian to be dangerous, and not enough to get myself out of trouble.

And one last note -- my beautiful sister Lisa (whom I mentioned earlier as Doll), in her vast spare time, has now brought up the home page for our new Melting Pot Tours - please have a look!

Au revoir for now.

Finally a morning at home

This week has been more demanding than usual and this is the first morning I can do what I think are four of the most beautiful words when strung together: go back to bed.

French guy wanted me to get him up at 7:15 this morning. For some special reason neither his hi-tech phone and up-til-now-reliable watch alarm could not do that job. Do not ask me why these things happen. He said we could have breakfast together! Surely that tugged at my tenderer side so I said OK. And, the one morning I so look forward to sleeping late I have to be both the wakeup call and breakfast fixer which meal, interrupted by his extended cigarette break, made me gently ponder that maybe I'd do well to run away from home soon.

Having said that, the days this week were long and fabulous, including yesterday when a ticket to the Women in Business conference was a gift from my friend and last weekend's bunk&cabin mate LuAnn. With our lovely friend Juli, we had some specific comments about the potential improvement of next year's conference (having written "NONE" when asked on the survey which tasks we'd like to help with in 2009), we ate good food* and especially enjoyed learning about the wonderful Crown Jewel Club and its spectacular work to raise the quality of life for young girls who live at-risk here in LA. I am likely to add volunteering with them to the things-to-do-in-my-vast-spare-time because I was really moved by this story. 

*The morning pastries and Champagne reception at the end were my favorites!

Thursday was Pancake Day at KABC radio, which is every other month, and I go to haunt all the lovely people who are indulged by the world's best pancakes, prepared with the ultimate TLC by one of my angels, an elderly gentleman named Lynn Mink, whom I absolutely adore. I say that my job is to help Lynn, but really I just go to get in the way, visit with Mark&Brian and their entourage at KLOS and the same for the ESPN sportsradio guys, and be generally useless. But it is tremendous fun and worth the 5:30am wakeup call to be there at 7am. 

After that, I met Doll, my sister, to peel 40 lbs. of potatoes for that night's Senior Dinner, for which we and our other sister are the chefs once a month here at a local church...there are typically 100+ attendees. (These lovely people choose their restaurants well!) Each third Thursday from Sept-May we get to work with a host of other angels in the kitchen and serve some of the sweetest people we've ever known, a gourmet meal that is prepared with pure pleasure and all the love we can possibly pour into it. So, it tastes really good - to everyone - and while we all go home comatose and exhausted from head to toe, it feels incredibly good. And, my pure reward for Thursdays in general is to watch the one-hour AC Milan show on GOLTV from 9-10pm...a true reminder that life is very very very very very good.

I had had to break from the dinner prep to do my SportsBites radio show for which I was my own guest! I did the entire show alone and spent the hour mostly making myself laugh with my own humor. When I listened to the archive I had to hope that my listeners didn't think I was completely wacko. I even told of a soiree with a guy in Italy but spared everyone the rest of the story about how (speaking Italian, mind you) I tried to get him to take me to Milan for the weekend to see the soccer match between Milan and Torino. When he'd asked me what was in it for him I had laughed and indicated pretty much anything he wanted!! I really wanted to go to that match!! But he was too lame to even take me up on it, what a fool. 

Meanwhile, I promised to post the recipes I mentioned on the show, and I will get those to you in a future blog, I promise...I probably should be cutting this one short by now.

Wednesday night French guy and I went and watched some sports at a bar down the street and ate little burger sliders. We had tremendous fun discussing which we thought are our favorite worst restaurants which he thinks is a good topic for a future blog, so look forward to that! "Our teams" that night, the Dodgers and San Antonio Spurs, both won so we were happy. I told our bartender this on our way out, but she looked thoroughly confused and I don't think she knew what I was talking about. 

Tuesday I did a big bake job for a client's sales meeting. I got a raging headache from baking 8 recipes that clearly made me OD on the essence of sugar. Now I still have enough packages of mix so that even if I baked it all off it still would be too much to feed the village. Right now the box sits in my car for later-dealing-with. More than you need to know I'm sure.

And then, one of the big highlights of my week, were two emails back-to-back, from the handsome (let's just call him) "G" in Italy, whom I met the last night I was in Roma in November. He had crossed my mind last week and it had been some weeks since we'd written so hoping that he hadn't yet fallen in love with another woman he met near Piazza Navona, I dropped him a note in my best Italian...and he wrote back immediately inviting me to Naples, where he is now...and added that if I wanted to go to Positano, Amalfi, Ischia, Capri, and Sorrento ("all of these are beautiful places!" he writes in his best English as I read with delight realizing that I've always wanted to go to those places, and ideally with a man), that he would be happy to take me there, and signs the last note, you're in my heart.

Move over, Sebastien Frey.

Chef Di goes to Camp

What a laugh. The American Sportswoman herself lands on a top bunk an arm's length from the ceiling, and plays with bows and arrows.

Let me clarify. I am by no means the great American Sportswoman. Just ask my brother-in-law who has a less-than-complimentary name for his wife and me, which I will not repeat here, but it's not "The Great American Sportswomen". My active sports of choice (and with all due modesty, I am pretty fit and in shape) are:

softball - I can play catcher, and I get great hits but I can't run or field well - so if a team needs a great catcher and has a designated runner, I'm their girl

yoga - makes me feel spectacular; it's not a competitive sport, I'm not a competitive girl, I  love a sport that's all about me

hiking - at the beach, daily, and in the hills/mountains as often as possible

archery - as of this weekend; read on

and, I am really really good at 

the hula hoop.

Some of this did in fact set me up nicely to attend Camp Getaway this last weekend. In a note sent a few weeks ago by ("Fearless Leader") my lovely, extremely clever and brilliant friend Patti Londre, she invited me to come for the weekend in April. I saw was the word "Getaway" and I signed up.

I invited my friend LuAnn to be my cabin mate - she gets away about as often as I do. We Italo-American princesses packed our luggage, MacBooks (mine stayed in its bag all weekend), non-sleeping-bag bedrolls, and left on Friday afternoon for the promise of not having to DO anything for the duration unless we really wanted to.

You know, I swore my intention was to sit on a deck for the entire time and read a book (or better, a magazine) yet, I did in fact sign up for some stuff and became - my own version of the great American sportswoman.

First of all, our cabin was some distance from the main lodge (where, the eating was), so right away we got lots of little hikes in. The thin, fresh, pure, amazingly clear air felt fantastic and I was pretty excited about "roughing it"; it was only for 2 nights after all.

They had a great yoga class first thing in the morning! I LOVED that! I could only sleep until about 6am anyway because that ceiling was a little close for comfort and yeah, it just suited me fine to get up early...

Then, I took archery lessons! This really resonated with me on lots of levels because, Diana, Roman goddess of the Hunt (or, in Italian, la dea della caccia) is my patroness, and she of course was quite adept with the bow and arrow (and, she was the only goddess who wore a short skirt...we may have a little too much in common come to think of it...). So, after an hour lesson, I wasn't by any means expert at the sport, but I was high on the idea of exploring it further, which I will report on later. LuAnn had to call her sister, the Gina, to tell her I was 'arching' which I think they thought was funny (why?).

Then, there was a fabulous nature hike in the afternoon, to Jencks Lake, very beautiful...quite the workout. Some hills, a beautiful stream, varied terrain...I LOVED it.

Now comes my favorite food note. Our cabin mates Brandee and Michele brought a fine bottle of red wine and when I came out of the shower Saturday night, they were serving it up in dixie cups, and I spotted their open bag of Mother's brand iced animal cookies. I had thought I'd seen that bag on the shelf and had hoped they would share them with me. They did, quite generously. I LOVE those! I ate so many I almost wasn't hungry for dinner. But, I was. 

And lots of chocolate was easy to come by this weekend. Very good.

After dinner, HIP HOP dance class! Great workout!! SOOOOO much fun! I am not THE dancer by any stretch but Jaami our instructor was adorable and even though she had almost no voice and had to teach pretty much by sign language, it was great and I LOVED it!

Yoga class early Sunday morning! 

Oh, and you know what? My new friend Janelle, fellow camper from San Diego (she read my goddess cards, I owe her a tarot reading) told me they have hula hoops there! Very good information.

I did not get the most athletic camper award but one of the leaders thought I deserved it! So did I!

I was both energized and relaxed to come home early Sunday afternoon and that night, was quick to catch up on the Italian sports highlights on RAI's Domenica Sportiva. 

Milan and Juve played on Saturday, Juve 3-2 - but the bigger game had been Sunday night - Inter and Fiorentina. 

YUM. On the show was an interview, at length, with the beautiful Sebastien Frey, goalkeeper for Fiorentina; he is French and has played in Italy for several years and, speaks very silky Italian. I could only understand part of what he said but never mind. He used to wear his hair longer and blond with a hairband but now sports it dark and spiked and still he's ... did I say beautiful? yum? Oh. I did. 

It was just suggested to me (by French Guy) that I ought to do an interview with him ... perhaps a little something to look forward to on my next trip to the continent. 

Hm, yes, with a bottle of silky red wine in tow. 

Minus the dixie cups.

On second thought...April is kind

I started a post a minute ago, called "Is April cruel?" But big surprise, there was a problem with the wifi in the ether,  so I am forced to start over. Hence, the new title. I need as much positive spin in my experience as I can get right now.

Instead of whining about all that was less than stellar this week, and so as to keep you from hearing some whining (last I checked, no one liked whining), I think I'll just relate the high points. I'm in one of those moods.

(Sidebar: Juve and Palermo match is on as I write and Del Piero just scored. 2-2. Fabulous.)

This week with very little effort on my part, I was able to secure the wonderful Tracy Nieporent as my SportsBites radio show guest on Thursday. He was there to talk about his spectacular Myriad Restaurant Group's spring menus and offerings to go with the April Collision of sports that I was featuring. The first part of his interview turned out to be 'what there is to love about Mike Piazza' and then, once he did get into the food discussion I started to...feel starved.

I called my sister (Doll) and said we had to go out for Vietnamese food (Tracy's chatting up their new Mai House restaurant being my inspiration) so we found a new little place and ate the best noodle dishes and vowed we'd go back for the Ph'o next time. I love when that happens. I wrote Tracy and told him thank you.

(Sidebar: Woo hoo. Now they are subbing in the beautiful Cristian Zaccardo for Palermo. Iaquinta just got put in earlier. My day is just getting so much better.)

I had my taxes done, and my car serviced on Friday. While most would expect bad news from both of these things, both appointments went extremely well. I adore both my mechanic and my accountant, and both had relatively good news for me. My car needed minimal service, my tax bill for 2007 is a fraction of what I thought it would be...and the rest of my day was spent incredibly happily with one of my best friends Tina and her beautiful children on a little field trip to downtown LA. With my mom, we had lunch at Philippe's, shopped in Chinatown, 

(Flash: Palermo just scored again, 3-2 Palermo. Cassani. Yellow card for tearing off his jersey. Isn't it fun when they do that.)

...back to our LA field trip...

(Oh sorry. Final Flash: It's over (the match) 3-2 Palermo. This was an amazing match.)

...again, back to...

After LA, we visited a cousin of mine who talks, alot, and she gave Tina's children all sorts of white elephant items, the receipt of which entertained them silly. Then, another highlight - a pilgrimage to my favorite Italian store, Claro's.

When we returned to my mom's, she made us buttered spaghetti for dinner, and we had a little birthday party for little 7-year-old Vince. Tina had bought a box of Italian pastries, including sfogliatelle for me (which I haven't had since I was in Italy, it is better in Italy but this one was also delicious). Vince described his chocolate cream puff as tasting like "messy" but he couldn't describe that flavor in too much detail. We colored in coloring books,  and they went home full and happy. After watching the Dodgers for a while with my mom, so did I.

So, see how kind April is so far?

Thursday night I built a mockup of Doll's and my new Melting Pot Tours website (right now this link only promises 'coming soon' but at least you can see our logo), in only 5 hours, most of which time was taken up with 'operator ignorance/error' but, the good news:  godaddy didn't exactly lie when they call it 'Website Tonight'. Fine. Stay tuned for more on all that later, and the rollout of the real website.

And just so that you all know where one of the BEST burgers in town is (if you live near me), last night I went to see my friend Ralph who owns the 49ers Tavern in Long Beach to, have a burger. We watched the Chivas LA-Real Salt Lake match on their great TV but, with all due respect, American soccer - not as easy on the eye as Serie A....I forgot to mention that Milan finally won yesterday, thanks to two goals by the beautiful Pippo Inzaghi and some good calls by my favorite ref Roberto Rosetti...I think I've already written about how attractive even some of the refs in Italy are ....

Now the Dodgers are on and Derek Lowe is pitching and I am still distracted so I'll try to finish this up.

My lovely next door neighbors leave for Italy tomorrow for the next month. In a minute I have to go say ciao, and give them my shopping list.

Late last night French guy tells me that his car is sputtering and he doesn't want to drive it. French guy needed to be at work at 8:30 this morning (please see previous post on Sacred Sundays if you are not familiar with this concept of mine). The idea, for this morning, was (for me) to sleep as late as possible. Sometimes when I do just this, I dream about Italian soccer players. So really, I do not like this being interfered with but, as I'm driving French guy to work, I tell him that on Friday, I had said to my mom - and not for the first time - that my dream is to have a driver. Driving, and especially caring for my car and especially dealing with car 'challenges' - mine or French guy's - is just not my favorite way to spend time. 

And yet, this little exercise shows just how kind April is. French guy, at least for a few days, gets to live my dream. 

See?

Life is so good. 

Tax prep and April collsions

Ciao tutti, buona sera,

Yes it's true. I have finally begun my tax prep. My appointment with my accountant, who is actually an angel, is Friday. There's no getting away from it and no point in procrastinating any longer. Once again, I am behind the 8 ball, not all that unusual for me. After all, when I was in Europe last year I did take really good spending notes on little notebook paper sheets. That certainly made things a lot easier today.

The actual, really wonderful thing (I mean that) about this exercise for me, is that made my past year all flash before my eyes, and 2007 was really a stellar year for me. Starting with French guy, that made for a different household and social life, so there were more grocery receipts and In N Out receipts than ever before. There were more restaurant receipts, those for M&Ms at Costco, and those for shopping in general, come to think of it. 

Then there were the 9 weeks in France and Italy last year that, mmmmmmmm, I did not mind sorting receipts for. I can remember every detail...every espresso, every pane chocolat, every baguette, olive, glass of wine, family meal, every pasta, pizza, hair appointment, every train, every plane, every delay, every flirtation, every time I realized I may never in fact master my second language but was willing to risk it, everything I wore - when, why, and how, all the really good conversations, everything. One word: Yum. So yes, sorting through all of that again was not so bad.

At the moment I am watching the Dodgers' second season game, first pitched by the sort-of-clean-shaven Derek Lowe, and now two runs have just been charged to him even though he is not longer pitching. I am sure he hates when that happens.

Yesterday was Opening Day at Dodger Stadium and this is usually a religious holiday for me. However, since I was in San Diego last week, just a few things were waiting for me upon my return, so Monday was not scheduled as any sort of holiday this week. I did watch the game. Wonderful. A win. A fabulous day at the stadium, I wish I'd been there.

Today, Roma lost to Manchester United in their 1/4-final Champions League match. Ugh. I do not like this. It was predicted to be the Cristiano Ronaldo show (ManU), so that made it easier on the eye at least...he scored the first goal, then swapped jerseys at the end. That made watching just so much easier. Roma scored nothing. So they will have a difficult time staying in this competition. Maybe Barcelona will hang in there. I won't even watch if the Final is two British teams (4 are currently in the running. Ugh). But maybe if ManU  gets in there, just because it would seem the right thing, for me, SportsBites radio host, to watch, maybe I will.

This is said to be the month where the biggest variety of sports happens, so I am dedicating my show to "April Collisions" on Thursday. I am thrilled to have scored Tracy Nieporent of the Myriad Restaurant Group in NY (Tribeca Grill, Nobu, etc) as my guest. It will be fascinating (for him too, I hope) to chat up which foods and innovative menus could conceivably be matched with how American baseball and soccer start up (apertivo, antipasti); the likes of golf, bowling, Olympic qualifying rounds settle in (entrees, main courses); hockey and Euro soccer start to wind down as college basketball and curling (who knew?) make their exit (desserts). I was seeking someone who knew sports as well as food. Since I am so lucky, I was connected to Tracy within an hour of sending out my SOS. I love my job. 

Alright, the Dodgers-Giants game is tied at 2-2, I am really hungry all of a sudden because I've hardly eaten all day, so I will leave you alone now. Finally, I hear you saying.

Thanks for reading all that.