Joe's Blög

Your slice of Americana for the week…Changed themes and threw that up as a test. Guess it’s staying for the moment…

I wonder if IE6 will handle this theme

My gramps is 3rd from the left, front row…

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From Matteo…

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That’s gotta be one of the most insulting questions one can be asked…I’m pretty sure there was a question mark at the end based on inflection. She was either giving me a chance to defend myself or she meant ”You are bored?”.
I guess it was a fair question. I really haven’t done anything since going to Rome in December. That was two and a half months ago. Fair question indeed. Just to prove I’m not boring I might change my theme again.
Strange though…This week I have a dinner party tomorrow night, a concert on Friday, and another dinner at the Mexican restaurant on Saturday (still searching for good mexican food in Europe). Holy crap…three nights in a row might make my head go bang.  I’ll have to pace my socialism-ness over 3 nights. Not sure I’m capable anymore. Bit out of practice.

At least Cory Feldman is still alive eh? Guess those reunion movies are out the window…I guess they could still do ”Stand by me 2…STAND HARDER!!!” (btw partially filmed in Lebanon Oregon).

Perplexed by the weather this week. People in the states think the weathermen are wrong, but here it’s even less accurate. Microclimate indeed
I just wanted to tag “weather” (Matt’s mom: what’s a tag?).
I just wanted to tag Matt’s mom

I’m finding I’m a bit reckless on the Vespa. Hopefully I will figure out how to ride it before I crash it
This is epitomized by the fact that I have to look for the rear brake everytime I need to stop. I haven’t really memorized where it is yet…

Booked to Frankfurt for March 30th-April 12th. Should have cleared it with the boss first, but RyanAir (me: you suck RyanAir!) only had one seat left at their stupidly ridiculous price.

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Made it home and back via the Vespa. It was really cold this morning and I wasn’t properly dressed. I have some old cotton gloves with holes in 3 of the fingers and I just decided today that they don’t work very well. In my head the ride would take about 2 minutes, but with the weather it felt like 2 hours. Will hopefully remedy this by next winter…
Added to to do list…

Also made a note to self not to use slang from high school as not everyone will understand me…
“I’m just gonna chill at home tonight”.

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Next up…4th gear and driving on sidewalks to avoid traffic laws and obstructions…a true Italian skill.
If I don’t show for work tomorrow someone please  check the hospitals

Columbo is on TV right now. The one TV show that I’ve seen in every country I’ve been too….america’s greatest export???

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Me “fixing” my ever present CSS problems involves me just selecting a new theme…I’m really technical like.
Not so fond of this one. It’s a doozy. If you aren’t reading this in the next five minutes then you missed out…

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So today had to do something with my health insurance. Always an adventure to do beauracracy in a country where you don’t speak the language. The staff was quite helpful even though they didn’t really talk to me. They were not nearly as helpful to the homeless guy who came in right after me.

btw…why does everyone giggle after they say “American boy”. I feel like there’s some inside joke I’m missing out on…
As in “oh…so you are an american boy <giggle>”.

I also picked up the Vespa today. Thanks Piero!
Bit scary to ride at first, but after a few minutes not so bad. At least I didn’t kill it while trying to start from traffic lights. Did have to make my way through the crowd of youngsters hanging out near my flat. They didn’t seem to know that not getting out of my way was putting their own lives in jeopardy, but hey that ones not really my problem is it

…and tonight was listening to the Reverend Horton Heat. Great guitarist. If I had a guitar with a tremelo would I be good? Is he the only guitarist that actually uses a tremelo these days?
He never looks like he’s concentrating or making any kind of effort.

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…you don’t really need to check for updates every hour…You know I don’t update that much.

and…

Hey, cool…Check out my new theme…

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Got my Vespa insurance today. This means I can drive the Vespa as soon as the weekend. I have not driving anything two wheeled with a motor since I was about 10.
Let me rephrase that…I haven’t driving anything with two wheels and a motor for 25 years.

Any statement that starts with “I haven’t” and ends with ….”for 25 years…” Pretty much is a sign that you are an old fogey. It’s funny – there’s not a lot of sentences I can form that end in …”for 25 years”, but the list of things you can say that about only ever gets bigger. I’m pretty sure it’s not capable of shrinking.

I’m also pretty sure that I’ve completely lost my mojo…

…and my favourite opening line of a song I’ve heard in the last week:
“He was trapped in a haircut he no longer believed in”
Billy Bragg – King James Version

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I feel sorry for the Italians who seem to read this regularly. This blog used to be occasionally amusing, but of late it is not worth reading…This one will be no different, so you can stop reading now. If you go back 6 months or more it’s way (not really) better…

So random things…

Last week was really productive. I got several articles of legal paperwork from Italy.
I bought a Vespa.
I paid taxes for the Vespa.
I am trying to get insurance for the Vespa.
The previous Vespa owner has fled the country even though he still has said Vespa in his garage
I heard birds singing this morning…
Spring comes early to Italy.
Being a light sleeper that is awoken by birds chirping is a pain.
Being a light sleeper who is awakened by birds has caused me 4,231 tired days.
Being a light sleeper has never prevented a burglery, a fire, or a  murder.
Being a light sleeper is not good.
The  italian word for diarrhoea is diarrea.
That came up in conversation a couple weeks ago.
The english and american spellings just don’t jive.
Nero is black.
Bianco is white.
The street sweeper comes by every day at about 7:15.The neighbour lady slams her door every morning on the way out.
blue is blue!?!
I missed Carnivale…again…
Ching chong gum???

It’s dialect?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

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