Market Day

Now that our classes are over, life is fairly normal.  Mike is working, and Tommy is swimming.  I pretty much drive Tommy to and from swim and then we just hang out around the house.  It is definitely time for school to start.  Of course we still have to hear back about an appointment to get the kids' schedules set before school, and the wait is bugging all of us.

One exciting thing, on my way out of housing to bring Tommy to practice the other day, I got stopped for a breathalyzer test.  I have never experienced that before.  Thankfully I didn't use any listerine that morning since the DUI number is really low here.  I also found out that day that my car is getting to take a side trip before arriving in Italy.  It's arrival here is being delayed because it is going to Germany tomorrow.  The word is that it gets to Italy August 20th.  I'll believe it when I see it.

I did get to go to the local market Wednesday with one of my neighbors.  I was excited to get some local produce.  There were several produce areas, but one booth had pretty much any fruit or veggie that is in season, so we got a number and waited in like there.  Here is some of what I got

Some white peaches and white plums

bananas

tomatoes, onions and garlic

I have only had the fruit so far, but all was good!  In addition, there was a woman selling fresh chicken and eggs.  I got some chicken, and if you ask she will slice it into really thin slices.  So I breaded and cooked that for dinner as well as trying out a recipe for pistacchio pasta that I had found.

It isn't the prettiest picture, but it tasted great!  I have not been a real fan of chicken for several years now, but this chicken was really good.

There were also people selling clothes, fabrics, plastic junk, and ceramics.  We don't have any good plates for 2 reasons, 1 because our household goods haven't come so we have only the dishes from the loaner locker.  2 because my dishes were old and we didn't have a complete set anymore, so I donated them before we moved with the intention of getting some Italian dishes, and we haven't gotten to the ceramic factory yet.  Well, Tommy has been complaining that the bowls we have are too small, and he wanted a bowl that holds more than 2 bites of cereal.  So I checked out the ceramic guy.  He had a lot of nice stuff, things you would see in TJ Maxx, and pretty cheap.  There were a couple of bowls that were nothing special, but were big.

this one is gray inside and out

This one is blue outside and white inside.

Each bowl was 1 euro, so I bought them and the kids were happy to use them as soon as I was able to clean them. You can't really appreciate the size of the bowl in these pictures.  So here is a picture of my bowl of cereal next to Tommy's this morning

A little bit bigger :)

Other than that, we did go to the mall a couple of times.  Sam and I went with a neighbor Sunday, and then I showed Mike the way the other day.  We went into the sporting goods store, which is unlike anything I have seen.  It is huge, and people were riding bikes, playing ping pong, playing baseball, shooting hoops.  It was crazy!  I also did some shopping at a store that is similar to a super target, but bigger.  I didn't really have a chance to roam, but I will.  So we are slowly learning our way around and getting used to the area.