As I stand in my little kitchen here in Italy turning a crop of tomatoes into sugo gia pronto (already ready sauce...sounds better in italian) my mind is across the pond in the States. 

Tomorrow my parents will be celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss.

50 years.

50 years is a half of a century.
50 years is 5 decades.
It's 600 months, 2600 weeks and 28,262 days.
It's 11 homes.
It's 2 daughters.
It's 1 dog...and a very short stay with 1 cat.
It's 2 masters degrees.
It's 9 holidays in Alabama and 1 in Arkansas (don't ask).
It's a lot of wall papering.
It's 1854 Friday fish fries and 1278 Sunday popcorn dinners.
It's 2 son in laws.
It's 5 grandchildren.
It's 14 high school musicals.
It's 2 careers educating children in 9 schools and 4 districts.
It's the passing of 4 parents.
It's 8 trips to Europe and 8746 miles logged driving between Wisconsin and Illinois.
It's 1 beautiful life full of family and friends.


My list is incomplete. I'm sure mom and dad will do their own tallying of what a life time together has been, has meant, and what it continues to mean to them.  From my perspective, their 50 years together has meant that no matter where I roam,  the mistakes I make, the successes I experience, I have had and have a home base.  I have always known what it is to have two very different people behind me to push and in front to pull.  From my parents, I've learned unconditional support, encouragement, love....and perseverance.

Auguri, Mom and Dad.  I'm more sorry than you know to not be there to celebrate with you. 

Oh, so I forgot to mention, you know with all the wedding hoopla going on that someone had a birthday.  It was David, my husband. It's not that big of a deal or anything. You know, he just turned 54.  No biggie.  No biggie 'specially when you think that all he's done with his 54 years on this planet is this:

Happy Birthday, Love.  You continue to amaze me with your hope, vision, dreams, and life.  I'm grateful to be a part of it.

Maberga wedding 2013....21 days

Nothing says I love you like chili peppers















 
Except maybe floating chili peppers.

 Or maybe a wall of chili peppers

And nothing says  F*%R&*^&^**!!!!! like I do after fondling chili peppers for a few hours and then rubbing my eyes.

So we're just about 3 weeks out from the big day.  Yes, my little cousin Bumpy and her beau Doud are getting hitched in my backyard 24 days from today.  It's just around the corner.  This I know because:
a. I get 14 emails, fb messages and phone calls a day regarding the event
b. my mouth is covered with cankor sores (which indicates one of two things - either I'm stressed out or about to see my family...this time, both happen to be true)
c. I looked on a calender.

This morning I practiced making garlands and hanging bouquets using greenery I found around (cane leaves, olive branches, rosemary, laurel).  Green is good but it will be fun to add flowers for the real ones. 

That last one there cost me a little blood.  (Sorry Bumpy, yes, that is your white t-shirt you left here last year when visiting that I am wearing...and wiping my blood on.  Sorry about that)

I also drove up to the scene to check on the state of things.  The view from up there always shocks me

ok.  I'd really like to write more but my computer is totally messed up and driving me nuts --my blogger window for writing is only allowing me to see 2 lines at a time and behind those two lines are ads featuring smokey the bear. No clue why that's happening and certainly no clue how to make it stop.  Oh, and the whole computer keeps shutting off spontaneouly.  That I think is because it is over heating because of the massive amount of dog hair that must be inside.  Frustration.  I think I'll go knit.

See these two guys?

They are called Gino and Franco.  They are our new best friends.  I'm only partly exaggerating about that.  In addition to be incredibly nice guys, they are seriously knowledgeable about a lot of stuff that we are not.  For example, all the amazing spots in our beautiful Valley Argentina.  They were both born and raised here.  Every Sunday, come rain or shine, snow or hail they go into the mountains to observe the flora and fauna.  Recently we've been tagging along.  Today they took us here

That's kind of pretty, I think.  I got to see some sheep, which always makes me happy.

And they gave us a little geography lesson on the top of the world (wine included)

How cool is that?  The answer...very very cool when you realize that on Friday night they had also given us a cooking lesson... Ligurian style.

 Gino made pesto

Franco made the lasagne pizzicata

The pesto and the noodles were combined with green beans and potatoes...ligurian style.

Unbelievably delicious.

Then, just in case we were still hungry, they had brought some steaks for the grill

 Please excuse me now.  After writing this post I suddenly have a hunger that must be attended to.  Good thing we made extra of these that went in the freezer

PS. Thank you David for use of your great photos

Design flaws

First I'd like to apologize.  Not for not blogging in so long but rather for having posted those granny square pants before I took my little break.  I'm sure you all have enjoyed, as much as mom who pointed it out to me, checking into the blog for a new post only to find those pants staring at you.  Sorry about that.  I am still going to make myself a pair.  I'm sure they will be less annoying in person.  Hmmm, I wonder if I can finish a pair by the wedding...

Ok, as I was saying in the title, our theme for today is Design Flaws.  I found a few in the past couple of weeks whilst not blogging.  I even made one myself.

D.F. #1.  building a house with no storage space.  Who would do that? Apparently a lot of people because it seems that Ikea has got rich producing, selling, transporting and installing these:

D.F. #2.  green garden tools.  Who would think that was a good idea?  Try finding this in the tall grass

bad color

good color

D.F #3.  hooks for hanging a quilt in the middle of the quilt.  Who would....oh wait, that was me.  I did that.

quilt

quilt hooks

 design flaw

In other Maberga news....the front patio is all done. 

Bumpy and Doug can have their wedding tomorrow if they want, we are read,y well, except for the cake, ...and the flowers, ...and food, ...and the readings for the ceremony.  Except for that we're pretty much ready.