I took half a day off work today…I was hosting a couple couchsurfers for the last 3 nights, and figured I deserved a half a day off after sleeping on my uncomfortable couch for 3 nights (tho after the first night it actually gets more comfortable)…

I come home and turn on the TV to find the royal wedding…I now realize that everyone at work probably thinks I took the day off just for this…I’m so embarrassed now 😉

Anyways, great week. Jose cooked proper mexican food for us, and both guests were really great! I had lots of fun and I think they did as well…
After dinner it just degenerated into juggling and margaritas 🙂 I have no pics of me attempting juggling. I hadn’t tried for about 25 years I think, but it was fun! What an exciting life I lead 🙂

This weekend the Sagras (country festival) start. An onion festival on Saturday and maybe a commie/May Day fest on Sunday. I hope the communists won’t try to profit off me buying lunch 🙂

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately (along with other macroeconomic issues)…anyways. I’m glad someone wrote an article so I didn’t have to. 🙂 (like I’d bother)

I’ll link to the others when he writes them I’m sure
http://www.slate.com/id/2292321/

Anyway, I’m sure some PhD student is writing a thesis on how robotics has and will effect employment…Wouldn’t one expect automated workers to lower unemployment and wages while raising corporate profits (certain industries of course – but I heard a podcast on robots that write newspaper articles now – just input data and wait…)…
so what’s the long term effects? A high wage class and a low wage/no skill underclass…chaos ensues…9 hour workweeks are great if you make a massive hourly wage OR stuff is so cheap that one can live on 50€ a week…

We have the day off for whatever reason…I cleaned, played guitar and had a beer!
http://nogodsallowed.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/the-most-overlooked-part-of-the-easter-narrative/

Dear Tourists,
Thank you for visiting Tuscany…Now please go home!

Sincerely,
some immigrant guy

me: Death and taxes.
Leo: Death and taxis?
me: Death and taxes.
Leo: Death and taxis?
me: Death and taxes.
Leo: que cos’e?
Daniele: morte e le tasse.
Leo: Death and taxes?!?!?!
me: yes…Death and taxes.

I realized this week that I’ve met exactly 4 women from Boston. I also realized that they’re all sort of the same…Have you seen “the Fighter”…yeah…it’s just like that!!!

I got stopped by the cops on the way home today because the Vespa was smoking too much….hahahaha!!!!
I think he told me to get it fixed before I ride it again. He didn’t ask to see my license 🙂

I’m going to Norway in May for work…this is more difficult than it sounds…Flying from Pisa requires 2 plane changes, and flying from Florence requires at least 1…it’s more or less an all day trip…ugh!

So a waitress said “have a nice day” to me today…In english. She’s Romanian so her english is waaay better than average. I thought nothing of it at first and said “you too” without thinking….
On the way out tho it occurred to me that I haven’t heard those words in a while…maybe last time I was in London. It’s an odd thing to hear in english for me…

I woke myself up early to get to the vespa shop early…it hasn’t been run since Monday…he fixed it…no problem. I took a trip to Lerici, and got gas at the edge of town. About a minute after getting gas it started having problems…grrr….I think I know why. Easily fixed, but instead of actually going to Lerici I just had to drive through and go back home in a hurry. It only ran with the choke on and I couldn’t do anything about it at that moment. So I wasted the afternoon…sitting on the corner with a broken down machine in a country where you don’t speak the language is just another immigrant experience that is AMAZING!!!! Not stressful at all!

So I made it home and since the Johnny fox is open at 4 on the weekends I decided to go in search of some english footy. found it. Liverpool lost, but I was happy to watch some Premiership football. It’s been a while since I’ve seen some quality football.

Then come home and get a call from Daniele indicating that I was volunteered to make Mexican food…as long as the vespa starts I’ll be leaving for Massa shortly. 🙂