Walking the streets of Pompeii. The girl in the blue shirt and skirt was our tour guide. 

Another shot of Pompeii. I took well over 100 pictures there. (no i won't be posting them all) 

Another shot of Pompeii. It was also *much* larger than we expected! 

This is the first photo from Pompeii. This is not at all how I pictured it - I didn't think there'd be anything alive there! 

This was taken in a church where almost all of the artwork was done with wood inlay. I know it's blurry, but it's actually the best shot we got there. :( 

Well, I'm back from several days of eating and not much else. It was fun, but it feels good to get back to normal life!

I had some bizarre dreams last night. First I dreamt that I caught Doug in a lie. He was giving birthday presents to an old girlfriend who he'd told me was just a neighbor. I was not happy. (he kindly reminded me this morning that it was just a dream and i therefore did not need to be mad at him - thank you) Then I had a very complicated dream that can be summed up by saying that that I was in a kind of reality tv show where there were 10 of us ladies and one guy and he was supposed to pick one of us at the end of the show (to marry or something). I was not chosen which was very uncool since I felt that he'd been leading me on. Also, I looked like Julia Roberts. Again, I was not happy.

After Doug left and I fell back asleep this morning I had another dream about the reality show guy. He showed up at the restaurant that my parents ran (not real) and we made out. I don't know if that actually means that he changed his mind though. Who knows...

After watching the cheese demonstration, we got to eat stuff! We sampled a couple of different cheeses as well as some spreads (which you see here on bread) and the local wine. 

This is her working on the other type of cheese she made. It was some local variety that I don't even come close to remembering the name of. 

Here's the mozzarella after she finished it. It's really pretty simple (well it looks that way when done by a professional). 

This is a demonstration we got to watch of two kinds of cheese being made. This is the lady making mozzarella. 

This is the official entrance to the little cooperative farm in Sorrento that we visited. It was such a neat place! 

Last night was Date Night for Doug and I. We were going to see The Incredibles at the Alamo (for those who don't live in austin, that's the name of a few theaters here in town where they show strange things in addition to regular movies and you can also eat a meal during the movie). We've both been wanting to see The Incredibles (there's another sad story about that) and the Alamo is my favorite location for movie watching, so it was a perfect date idea!

Unfortunately, we got there to discover that The Incredibles was sold out and nothing else they were showing was of any interest to us. We decided to change our plans and go to a tex-mex restaurant in the same parking lot. But it turned out to be closed! We finally found an open tex-mex place (trudy's) and watched 50 First Dates at home (which was much better than i anticipated).

I can't believe how many days have slipped by since I posted last! Here's a crazy and amusing story that happened on Tuesday. This has been edited for language:

I was on my second e-Scrabble game with a random girl (one of us posted a game challenge and the other answered and that's how we started playing each other) and I was beating her by... a lot. (i beat her the first game as well, but not by much) She finally got fed up apparently and posted a message asking what scrabble help I was using and played a non-word using all of her tiles on a triple word score (150ish points).

I posted back and told her which site I used and then asked if I should undo her turn or were we pretending that was a real word (i was still winning anyway). She posted a message back on there saying to undo her turn as it was intended to be a joke... like people who use scrabble help sites are jokes. She also sent me the following message:

"Got your message, undo my last turn please and refrain from using dictionaries and other anagram finding devices. It'll make you a better player in the long run. Any moron can cheat and look up words. Motto - Don't be a moron"

My response was as follows:

"or i could just end the game and not be insulted anymore. :) using the help sites is actually making me a better player by increasing my vocabulary and i play other games without the use of it.

sorry it ended this way!"

I later realized that I could also have pointed out that I'm currently playing another game using the help site in which I happen to be losing by a large margin. Anyway, I then went and removed myself from the game. This was her response:

"You stupid c**t...go peel some potatoes you Texas loser!"

First of all, this is the first time anyone's made fun of my last name since I got married. Second, are we still in high school, or what?!? Anyway, I just started laughing when I read it.

Then she started another game! I opened it and this was the post on the chat log:

"Quit being a stupid cheating c**t, unless you can't help it. You must be a Democratic dike lesbian AIDS - ridden slut!"

Ack!

I then sent her a message saying...

"For goodness' sake, if you feel that strongly about it then why on earth are you challenging me to another game? I appreciate the humor of your insults, but decline the invitation to continue receiving them."

...and then removed myself from the latest game (in which she was calling herself Scrabble Goddess and my name was Stupid B***h).

She then sent me another email that said:

"You can get my e-mails, but I can't get yours! I blocked your address, and I'm posting a message in the e-scrabble room for players to avoid you because you're a cheating f*****g c**t!"

Um... first of all, that's fine because I had no intention of sending her any more emails. Also, I could just as easily block her emails, so what did she hope to accomplish? And furthermore, there's no place on the e-scrabble website to post messages like this.

I really expected her to keep harassing me, but thankfully she hasn't emailed again. Whew! Some people take this game way to seriously! And I honestly think she was equally mad that I wouldn't take the bait and start an argument with her! Whatever your opinion of scrabble help sites, this is out of control!

Final shot of Cordy being cute. Tomorrow I'll go back to vacation photos. 

This one is great. I think she's about to shoot the mouse out of the air with lasers from her eyes! 

Ironically, the mouse toy took better photos than she did. She just doesn't *own* the camera the way Charlie does. 

I decided to do a little Cordy photo shoot because I was determined to get good photos of her. Turns out she's just not photogenic (sp?), but we got some cute ones. 

I just thought this was an awesome photo. Doug is smiley and happy and both of the cats are trying desperately to get away. 

This is an amusing story from the Quick Takes section of this week's WORLD magazine.

Naming Rights

Brazilian lawmaker Reinaldo Santos e Silva is trying to make it illegal for pet owners to give animals names that are common among people. His reasoning: Some children may become depressed to learn that they share names with animals. His bill would require pet stores and veterinary clinics to post signs warning customers of the prohibition. Breakers of the law would face either fines or community service.

I'm not really sure what to say. I'm glad he's not trying this in the United States. I hope he doesn't succeed. Come on - illegal?!? You can't control what people name their pets! I guess Charlie and Cordleia would be unlawful...

Caught being cute! They only snuggle like this when it's cold and then only until Charlie can't stand it anymore. :) 

More of Charlie being cute. He was totally being a super-model during this photo shoot! 

Charlie being cute again. I swear that Cordy is just as cute, but for some reason her photos never come out as well! 

There ain't nothin' wrong with bein' a Mama's Boy! Isn't he so sweet?! 

Can you spot the kitty in this picture? He was laying in that spot and I put the pillow on top of him and he didn't even move! 

Today it's going to be amusing stories and cute pictures. I had an adventure on Friday. I went to the gym to workout and discovered that there was a blood drive going on. I intentionally did not sign up for this blood drive because I have adverse reactions to donation. Like, my blood pressure drops and I try to pass out. This has always happened and it's gotten slowly worse over time. I decided that I shouldn't do it anymore.

Well, while I'm stretching in the same room as the donations, I begin to feel guiltly. So I ended up signing up to donate after all. I've just resigned myself to spending an hour or so laying with a cold towel around my neck. Unfortunately, I was so nervous about the reaction I was going to have that I started getting ill before they even had me on the table (the finger prick started it)! So they forced me to drink Gatorade (bleck!) and wouldn't let me donate. I was so frustrated and sad! :(

On this same cooperative, in the olive oil making rooms, was this old picture. This is how they used to power their grinding stone. 

This is part of the cold-press olive oil making process. Do I remember exactly what this thing does? No. 

And now we are in Sorrento, Italy (well, near it). This is a shot up into the olive trees on a farm/cooperative. 

Last photo from Rome. This is a cool, stained-glass chair... thing. :) 

Another shot inside the Vatican Museum. See how this hall just goes on and on...?