lisaloud’s blog

Paris was brief.

Avignon was beautiful and peaceful. I slept a lot there, felt at home, even bought a top.

We had an hour layover in Nice and we ran off the train, found a restaurant, gobbled and ran back with only 5 minutes to spare before getting in our Italian sleeper car train. That meal continues to win as the best meal so far. Nice was very rewarding.

The train ride last night to Florence was not very sleepy. We were a bit bleary-eyed today.

This morning we arrived in Florence with a 40 minute layover. Marissa took me on a whirlwind tour of some amazingly beautiful duomos and buildings. We were back with 5 minutes to spare for the 1.5 hour train ride to Siena.

Siena, where we are now, is delightful. The hostel we are staying at is perfect and elegant - Residence Paradiso on Via del Paradiso. We walked past it at first- so nondescript at street level. Our room, on the 4th floor (stairs only) is large and has a lovely view. The kitchen on the other side of the hall has a balcony with a lovely view. We will eat our breakfast there in the morning.

Siena is mostly for walking. Paving stones on the streets, gorgeous ornate churches, duomos, and basilicas to be stumbled upon everywhere. We love this city. Sorry to be leaving tomorrow, but maybe we will come back early.

Marissa is our photographer. Pictures to be added later.

Tomorrow, Grosseto.

I just discovered this:

"The generally accepted birth years of the USA Baby Boomers is 1946-1964. In Canada, the Baby Boom extends to 1966."

(from this macabre site: http://www.boomerdeathcounter.com/)

That explains it. I was born in late 1964. Not in the US, in Canada. I am officially not a baby boomer. In crossing the border, I not only became a resident alien, I lost my generation. ;-)

Here's where the water heater and furnace live now:

Resize of CIMG3781

A view of the garage loft. All painted now.

Resize of CIMG3779

A better view of the loft. You can also see the white walls, that were just painted today.

Resize of CIMG3778

Here are the cabinets in the bathroom, all put together. Do you like the blue?

Resize of CIMG3784

Resize of CIMG3777

The girls' beds were put together today... thanks, Petra!

Resize of CIMG3785

Resize of CIMG3776

The master bedroom closet above and below. Hard to photograph

Resize of CIMG3775

Here's the beginning of the job:

Garage pre-storage

The tools and workmen:

Garage tools

The loft got built on the first day!

And the ladder was installed soon after:

Garage loft ladder

Here's the kitchen:

Kitchen new cabinets

Sorry about the Trial Version... I'll fix it as soon as I find a way to save my mpg files to mp4.

My article on drumtable.com was included in a Mashable post today

View the Mashable page.

There's me and Elvi in the photo booth, a private moment (not so private anymore) memorialized.

I wonder if the standard 15 minutes of fame is still valid. With how fast things move these days, maybe it's reduced to 15 seconds. That's the longest anyone looks at a single web page, isn't it?

It's a duplex. And it's delightful.

Here are photos of the front, the street, and the community garden down the street.
Here are photos of the main unit, where we'll live.
Here are photos of the back unit, which we'll rent.

Come visit!

It's 2BR, 2BA.