Our first gorgeous summer-like day.  Blue, blue skies, lamby clouds, soft breezes and everything in bloom.  It's marvelous!  And yet.....major freakin' tragedy in our house and that of millions around the world.  Ask any teenaged girl and they will tell you the sun will never shine again.  One of the members is leaving the boy band One Direction.  Grace is a mess.  You would think her grandfather had just died.  Oh wait!   He did die and she didn't take it half this badly!  I remember the depth of emotions at that age, (just barely), and understand what they're going through, (just barely).  Sunday is an official day of mourning for the daughter and her friends.  They are going to gather, cry, listen to music, cry, eat junk, cry and then they are going to cry.  Hopefully she'll get it out of her system and not walk around looking like someone just ran over her dog.  On the plus side I have put out the table and chairs on the terrace and dragged the BBQ up from the garage!  xxoo me

Oh what a year to be in Italy, in Torino, a Christian!  (Unless you're in Libya.  Then it's not a good year all!)  So many exciting events are coming our way.  First the Pope has declared this a Jubilee year.  The opportunity to have all of our sins washed away and to start life again with a clean slate is upon us!  I looked it up.  There is way too much repenting and attending masses etc.  I'll hold onto my sins.  Then there is also the viewing of the Shroud of Turin from April til June!  The actual Shroud, and not a duplicate, is only pulled out a few times a century.  There will be possibly millions of tourists from all over the planet coming to Torino.  The lines will be epic.  I am not going.  However, sometime during those 3 months The Pope will be coming to Torino.  I would like to go see him.  He's lovely.  He evidently just performed a miracle in Naples.  The Patron Saint of Naples is San Gennaro.  A vial of dried blood, (creepy), belonging to this saint is kept in one of the city's churches and on January 1st of each year the blood miraculously liquifies.  Yesterday when the Pope kissed the vial during mass the blood partially liquified.   Bingo, miracle!  I wanna see that!  Add to all this the World Expo in Milan starting this May, (being in Italy, the theme of course is Food), and the hotels will be packed and the streets impassible.  Torino as the nearest city will get all of Milan's spillover.  We'll have to hide away in our burb.  Just thought I'd fill you all in.  Off to clean bathrooms.  xxoo  me

Holy Hitch-hiking Hookers!  No really.  Yesterday I passed two hookers hitch-hiking.  It was raining hard and their fake tans were probably running.  I was returning from a doctor's visit in Carmagnola, a town about half an hour from here where for some reason I had to go to see this guy about insides falling out.  (Don't ask).  The appointment only lasted 30 minutes but it took most of the day.  I left work 45 minutes before my appointment to give myself time to get there and find parking.  Then I had to find his office in the ancient maze they call the hospital.  The building is very cool with inner courtyards and towers and arches.  I don't know if it was originally built as a hospital but I doubt it.  Too regal.  The receptionist directed me to a door where someone then directed me to another, then another til I ended up back in reception, having done a complete circle.  This time the receptionist WALKED me down to the correct area and pointed me to the correct desk.  The receptionist at this desk asked to see my receipt for the payment of my "ticket".  (Sort of a copay.)  I didn't have my receipt because the machine one uses to make these payments asked for an amount and I didn't know what to pay until I'd had my appointment.  Heavy sigh on her part.  So she told me what to pay, some amount with 27 cents or something ridiculous, and then I had to go back to the original entrance, and my friend the first receptionist, and pay my "ticket".  Back at the doctor's office I was ushered in to find him texting someone and his assistant, who types up his diagnosis for him, on the phone.  They finally got around to me, I had my humiliating check-up, (no details), and then he told me that I will need to have 8 sessions of therapy to learn how to do certain exercises to hold my insides in but that these sessions may not start til next autumn.  Or next week.  He couldn't be sure.  Aging sucks.
 xxoo me