Venezia

It's been a bit rainy here in Boston which reminded me that I had yet to share photos from another water-logged spot from our honeymoon - Venice. Venice is always truly unique, but there was just something quite magical about it this time...

Cinque Terra

It's been 6 weeks since we visited Cinque Terra on our honeymoon. Even though it's taken forever for us to upload the photos, I'm sure it would have taken us even longer to actually hike the 5 towns (thank goodness for trains, even ones that have no discernible schedule)

Now on Blogcritics!

I'm taking another writing class at Cambridge Center for Adult Education (CCAE) and learned about a site called Blogcritics. Here's the scoop:

More than 100,000 daily visitors rely upon Blogcritics.org — the famously
"sinister cabal" of more than 2,500 writers — for the latest news, opinions, and
reviews on music, books, film, TV, popular culture, technology, and politics.
Blogcritics.org is an online magazine, filtered microcosm of the blogosphere,
and a full service news and reviews source, covering all aspects of contemporary
culture and society.

Every week, more than 250 new articles add to an
archive of over 70,000 pieces dating back to 2002. Published articles on
Blogcritics.org begin the conversation, after which commenters chime in to
create an ongoing dialogue. Overall comments to Blogcritics.org total more than
600,000.

Blogcritics.org is a new kind of online magazine, an interactive
community in which writers and readers from around the globe talk about stories,
issues, and products. If it's happening in the world – from global political
issues to obscure rock bands, from the latest best selling novel to the TV shows
that aired last night – Blogcritics.org has it covered.

I submitted a couple of writing samples, was "accepted" to be one of their writers and my first essay was just published - The Indians, the Browns, and Me - an essay about the lessons you learn as a Cleveland sports fan (you should also be able to find the article just by going to the Blogcritics front page and scrolling down to the Sports section).

Hope you enjoy the essay (would love to hear your thoughts, either on this blog or as a comment on Blogcritics) and keep checking back for more!

Wine, Naked Men, and Unbridled Power and Ambition

AKA - Brunello wine, Michaelangelo's David, and the Medici family

Gotta love Florence and Tuscany.

We did

And here's the photos to prove it

More news from Rome

To tide you over until I'm able to get the photos from Florence posted (soon, I promise), here's a story about how hard it is to truly get away from work, even if only in my own mind