A few days after I got back from my trip, Angie, Brian & Johnny came over for dinner. I put a roast with all the fixins in the crockpot before leaving for work so dinner would be ready when I got home. On my way to work I wondered to myself if I had forgotten to turn the crockpot on. I told myself that I definitely turned it on. Then on my way home from work I wondered to myself if I had forgotten to put the lid on the crockpot. When I got home the kids were already there and as soon as I walked in I saw the lid laying on the counter next to the crockpot. I immediately started cussing and when Angie walked in the kitchen she told me that her, Brian & Johnny had each asked the same question when they came in the house, "Is the lid supposed to be off the crockpot?" Well, I thought I could still serve the roast but soon found out that the vegetables were still hard. No problem, I'll throw the whole pot in the microwave and finish cooking in there. Didn't work. So my next plan was to order pizzas. I walked over to my little desk in the kitchen, opened the drawer to get my coupons out and just about fell over. There were NO coupons in the drawer. I was crushed! It seems Jim cleared the drawer of ALL coupons while I was gone. I couldn't believe that he acted proud of his deed. I cut him to the quick when I told him it ended up costing over $30 for 2 pizzas.
I scrambled to replenish my coupons before the Smiths came for the holidays and wanted to order pizza....
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Pictures from Tunisia & Italy
Widely-seen statue of Romulus & Remus the founders of Rome - kinda nasty, don't you think?
Ok, so I'm having the same problem with posting the pictures that everyone else has. I thought I put them in order of the trip but now they're all mixed up so let's just go with the flow.....
Colloseum - Rome
Pisa
Murano glass factory - Murano Island outside Venice
Venice
Verona - Shakespeare's setting of Romeo & Juliet
Cinque Terre - 5 small towns along the northwestern coast of Italy that they have turned into a National
Park (my favorite part of the trip).
St. Peter's Basilica - Rome
A ceiling in the Vatican
The Vatican - Rome
The lemon in the middle is our normal size - Sorento
The Amalfi Coast
Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius in the background
Trevi Fountain - Rome
Sidi Bou Said (City of blue doors) Mediterranean Sea in background - Tunisia
Roman Bath house with Mediterranean Sea in background - Tunisia
UNESCO World Heritage Site in Carthage - Tunisia
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Mysteries, Challenges & Poor Design
Some things I’ve found in my international travels:
In all three of the hotels I’ve stayed in while traveling in Italy there were mysterious cords hanging down in the shower. The first hotel in Rome had 2 cords and I pulled them both to see what they were for and nothing happened. When I came across cords in Florence & Venice, once again I pulled them and nothing happened. When I asked Jim what he thought they were for he said maybe they were for an emergency. If so, they sure don’t work because nobody came. There are also exhaust fans that mysteriously come on at any given time. Don’t know how to turn them on or off.
The toilets are also different. When I was in Tunisia, many of them didn’t have a visible tank. I guess they were inside the wall but what the heck happens if there’s trouble? How do you get to it if you need to stop it from running or if the chain gets stuck or falls off? In my various international travels, it’s sometimes a challenge to figure out how to flush. Sometimes, when there’s a tank, there’s a button that you push in, other times there’s a foot pedal that you step on, and still other times there’s a big panel on the wall that you push. Also in Tunisia, there was a coiled steel hose coming out from the wall for cleansing but luckily, most of the time (but not always) there was also toilet paper available. I personally think the hose is a bad & dangerous idea because almost all the time the floors in the stalls were wet & slippery. Before pulling my pants down, I’d have to roll up the bottoms so they wouldn’t drag the floor and get wet. One of my co-workers said she fell down in the stall when she slipped on her high heels. When we travelled to Cinque Terre & Jim and I had to go to the bathroom, a little shop said they had one and it was a hole in the floor. I also experienced this in Mexico & Japan. In Japan some of them have an actual toilet seat on the floor and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to actually sit on it or not. When you gotta go you gotta go but it sure is hard getting back up! And you better be careful that you don’t drop anything!
The showers are always a challenge, not just figuring out how to turn them on but trying to get the pressure right, the shower head in the right direction and the water to drain can be tricky. A lot of times, the floor ends up all wet in the process. Sometimes the showers are in the corner of the bathroom with no tub or lip on the tile and you’re lucky if there’s a shower curtain to keep the spray from going everywhere in the closet-sized room.
In my opinion, the toilets in a lot of places are very poorly designed. There’s only a little bit of water in them and most of the time they don’t flush all the way. So many times, I’ve been so grossed out at restaurants that I’ve gone to because there are such huge piles of toilet paper in the bowls that there’s no way they can be flushed. Even sometimes in the hotels, they don’t flush properly even if you try twice. And I won’t get into the skid marks. I feel sorry for the housekeepers at European hotels!
Excuse me, I have to pee --- (written on the train from Venice to Rome – use your imagination about the toilets on the trains) – to be posted when I get home Wednesday or Thursday….
In all three of the hotels I’ve stayed in while traveling in Italy there were mysterious cords hanging down in the shower. The first hotel in Rome had 2 cords and I pulled them both to see what they were for and nothing happened. When I came across cords in Florence & Venice, once again I pulled them and nothing happened. When I asked Jim what he thought they were for he said maybe they were for an emergency. If so, they sure don’t work because nobody came. There are also exhaust fans that mysteriously come on at any given time. Don’t know how to turn them on or off.
The toilets are also different. When I was in Tunisia, many of them didn’t have a visible tank. I guess they were inside the wall but what the heck happens if there’s trouble? How do you get to it if you need to stop it from running or if the chain gets stuck or falls off? In my various international travels, it’s sometimes a challenge to figure out how to flush. Sometimes, when there’s a tank, there’s a button that you push in, other times there’s a foot pedal that you step on, and still other times there’s a big panel on the wall that you push. Also in Tunisia, there was a coiled steel hose coming out from the wall for cleansing but luckily, most of the time (but not always) there was also toilet paper available. I personally think the hose is a bad & dangerous idea because almost all the time the floors in the stalls were wet & slippery. Before pulling my pants down, I’d have to roll up the bottoms so they wouldn’t drag the floor and get wet. One of my co-workers said she fell down in the stall when she slipped on her high heels. When we travelled to Cinque Terre & Jim and I had to go to the bathroom, a little shop said they had one and it was a hole in the floor. I also experienced this in Mexico & Japan. In Japan some of them have an actual toilet seat on the floor and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to actually sit on it or not. When you gotta go you gotta go but it sure is hard getting back up! And you better be careful that you don’t drop anything!
The showers are always a challenge, not just figuring out how to turn them on but trying to get the pressure right, the shower head in the right direction and the water to drain can be tricky. A lot of times, the floor ends up all wet in the process. Sometimes the showers are in the corner of the bathroom with no tub or lip on the tile and you’re lucky if there’s a shower curtain to keep the spray from going everywhere in the closet-sized room.
In my opinion, the toilets in a lot of places are very poorly designed. There’s only a little bit of water in them and most of the time they don’t flush all the way. So many times, I’ve been so grossed out at restaurants that I’ve gone to because there are such huge piles of toilet paper in the bowls that there’s no way they can be flushed. Even sometimes in the hotels, they don’t flush properly even if you try twice. And I won’t get into the skid marks. I feel sorry for the housekeepers at European hotels!
Excuse me, I have to pee --- (written on the train from Venice to Rome – use your imagination about the toilets on the trains) – to be posted when I get home Wednesday or Thursday….
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