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

Rome - The Eternal City

We're finally getting around to uploading, organizing, and captioning photos from the Italian leg of our honeymoon.





Here's the link to our photos of Rome. We hit the high points - The Vatican, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, Coliseum, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. Not bad for essentially 2 days.


In addition to the fun of watching Matt experience all these sites for the first time, I thoroughly enjoyed the moment in St Peter's when, 30 minutes into our 40 minute Rick Steves podcast, Matt quietly came up to me and asked if I was listening to the podcast for St. Mark's.


"Umm no, we're in St. Peter's in Rome. St. Mark's is in Venice. Like the title of the podcast says. So I'm listening to St Peter's"


"Oh, that would explain why I'm having difficulty"


He was really jetlagged

Quick update

We're wrapping up in Florence (spent today in the Tuscan countryside tasting some fantastic Brunello wines) and heading to Cinque Terra tomorrow.

The internet connection at the hotel is crazy slow (yes, we're taking lots of photos but not nearly enough to warrant 7 hours of upload time). Blogger's "Post via e-mail" function let us down so we're going to give SMS and MMS updates a try. This feels dangerously close to Twittering but I'm going to try to ignore that and focus on the band-aid solution it offers for the next week.

"I don't think 'casual' means what we think it means"

(Since we now have to pay for Internet access posts will be slightly less frequent, there will be no photos, and filled with a lot more typos since I am relying on Matt's iPhone)

When Di moved to Seattle, she lamented that her "Boston casual" was apparently "West Coast formal." Knowing that East Coasters tend to erron the formal side, Matt and I were reasonably confident that ourcasual attire would meet the "casual" requirement for our hotel'srooftop restaurant with the panoramic Views of Rome.

We were wrong

we walked in - the waiters were in coats and tails, all the malecustomers were in dark suits, and the women were in cocktail dressesand fab jewelry. In contrast, Matt was in jeans and a dress shirt andI was wearing a t-shirt capris and flip flops. Nothing but class.

Only one thing to do in a situation like that: own it.

The meal was amazing and I was able to survive with only a minor complex.
More from our next city - Florence - soon (I hope)!

Do they make Bull Bars for the VW Eos?

Matt and I concluded Phase 1 of our two-phased honeymoon this afternoon when we departed Bermuda and, after a surprisingly uneventful flight, arrived back home in Boston.

Although we had many non-fun chores ahead of us (unpacking, laundry, errands, re-packing), we were happy to be home, if only for a few hours. That happiness quickly faded once we realized what we had come home to - college move-in time

There are many many colleges in Boston and they're all on the same calendar (not literally, but it sure feels that way). This means that there are two truly horrible times of year for Boston/Cambridge residents. Graduation is one - when new graduates drink away the rest of their loans and stumble about our streets while their parents try to pack 4 years of college stuff into whatever rental vehicle they could get their hands on.

But far, far worse than graduation is move-in week(s). This is because (1) tens of thousands of people who have never driven are now driving in Boston, (2) tens of thousands of people who have never walked in Boston, let alone tried to cross a street in Boston, are now walking around and crossing streets, (3) every store that sells anything resembling necessities - grocery stores, office supply stores, Target - look like they have been ransacked by the barbarian hordes.

It is a truly truly horrible time. So while running around and navigating around the new residents of the Commonwealth, I remembered something I learned about last summer when working on my Trucks project. We spoke to a fair number of ranchers and farmers and several mentioned "bull bars." For the city-folk reading this, think of the half pyramid thing on the front of train engines and the imagine something like that (except more rectangular than pyramid shaped) attached the front of a truck and used to move stubborn bulls (or cows) out of the way without damaging the truck.

I wonder if they make something like that for people because, seriously, the new pedestrian/drivers are no smarter than the average head of cattle. I don't want to hurt them, just nudge them out of the way.

It's a good thing we leave for Italy in 12 hours. We're taking a taxi to the airport.