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.