Alison

Someone is comfy and snoring #dogs

Making herself comfy #dogs

You cannot fuck with Foggy (possibly) dying and THEN play Nick Cave’s Into My Arms. That’s too much in too short a period!! #Daredevil 💔💔💔

Making it so US centric is obnoxious. Why not have a rolling open? 🙄

Bastard people! Disney doesn’t give us Daredevil until the 5th in Italy (and outside US, I assume). *swears in multiple languages* I can’t even make the most of my anxiety and insomnia! 🤬🤬🤬

Book cover, Ross King, "Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture." With painting of Florence's magnificenr cathedral

Starting a re-read of "Brunelleschi's Dome." I first read this nearly 20 years ago, so it'll be fun to revisit.

I just (re-)learned that medieval architects would build scale models of their cathedrals. So what? Well sometimes (as at Bologna) those scale models could be 60 feet long!!

I graduated 30 years ago with a degree in art history & a focus on Italian Renaissance architecture. That stuff works its way into your dreams. My brain was still thinking about what I was studying, along with the muffin I wanted to get before class. Thus, dreams of Brunelleschi’s blueberry muffin 😂

Bellissimi!

The other day while out walking one of the dogs, despite being deeply depressed, I heard What Is Love BLARING from a car somewhere nearby. Damned if I did start bopping my head like the #SNL sketch and ultimately laughing. A brief but welcome respite from darker time. 😄

Pure chaos! 😂

I don’t even use food words with her. If I’m in the kitchen or just get up, she’s up and leading the way. She knows “sit”, which I really only use to get her leashed up to go out, but she’s usually too busy losing her damn mind with excitement to stay sitting. Every. Time. 🤦🏼‍♀️

My pittie knows his commands in Dutch & seemingly in Italian too, despite me rarely using Italian commands with him. I was trying to get my Italian dog, who is oblivious in all languages, to come to me, trying Italian when Dutch didn’t work. She ignored me, he didn’t. Pic is pretty representative.🤦🏼‍♀️

I managed to clean something I’ve been putting off for way too long, because many household chores set off my anxiety. I’m free from work this week & am trying to psych myself up to do a lot of things I’ve been putting off. It’s a day-by-day thing though. Still I’ll take this as a win. #mentalhealth

😢

That’s crazy. Even we’re only getting up to 13 a couple of days early next week, from 9 today (but it’s a cold 9 🥶🥶).

THIS IS HUGE! Researchers have developed a nasal COVID-19 vaccine that BLOCKS transmission of the virus. This suggests vaccines delivered directly to the nose or mouth could play a CRITICAL role in containing the spread of respiratory infections. Phase I clinical trials HAVE BEEN APPROVED! 🧪🧵⬇️

JFC. I’ve had issues with the AP the last year, but am generally ok with them. I’m glad they’re standing up to him, but the way the administration is ignoring the First Amendment is terrifying.

Not gonna lie, the nightly sound of the glass being dumped in the recycling bin by the restaurant down the street creates bittersweet memories of the wine bar/enoteca my husband and I had in Utrecht. That end of the night sound.

I have spent too much of this week trying to remember the Dutch word for breakfast while out walking the dogs in the morning. I knew the word; I just couldn’t remember it and kept forgetting to look it up until now, because sure. Ontbijt!! How could I forget that with my love of ontbijtkoek?! 🤦🏼‍♀️

It was a recommended read to incoming freshmen when I started at Tulane University in 1990. It was disturbing then, but I never imagined things would get to this point.

Life with Lila
#dogs

Dutch dog Charlie was sniffing my sweater that had some knoflooksaus (garlic sauce) spilled at dinner. I was saying, “yes, knoflooksaus via zucchini,” and then had to explain the sauce was on the zucchini, not a reference to the nearby street Via Zucchini here in Bologna. Lost in translation. 🤪

Or the methed-out white guys are going to be stealing materials to sell off, like people going through stripping out copper.

I indirectly work in the US new home construction industry through marketing. I’m in Italy but my clients are in the US. Even I could see this coming if the felon got elected, and I think some saw the reality right after the election. I’m worried about my own job, and the greater economic impact.

We are at the stage of oligarchy in this country where we’ve been bought by private equity and they’re currently transferring all the assets to their own pockets and leaving us with the debts.

I’ve had the urge to watch UK Being Human recently, particularly season 4 when Hal (Damien Moloney) joins in and I just got to the moment where he’s talking with Annie and say, “Are you somehow drunk?!”, which I’d forgotten about until I heard it and then remembered how much I enjoyed it! 😆 #context

Just getting emotional over the engagement of one of our first and best customers at the wine bar my husband started in Utrecht. A lovely, brilliant, talented, and kind Turkish woman living the international life. I know Giovanni would be happy for her. ❤️🥲

Forget Eames chairs. My chair porn is anything by Rietveld (and I do long for a Barcelona chair and footstool). A previous season of FBI tv series had a pair of Rietveld’s Zigzag chairs. I’m currently watching the movie Promising Young Woman on Netflix and Oh-ed! when I saw a set of red/blue chairs

I only have one small set of drawers mostly for stuff like that and some sweaters, but this time of year it gets a bit muddled.

This is more my news/politics place, more out of default from following those accounts over here from Twitter. A few friends are joining, but it’s not a particularly interactive place for me yet.