Kee-kee-ri-kee

Cock-a-doodle-do?  Italian roosters sound differently than American roosters.  According to the people, that is.  Kee-kee-ri-kee is my own phonetic spelling for chicchirichí, which is what people say you when you ask what sound a rooster makes.  It is super funny sounding because they also do a sort of clicking sound with their tongue somewhere in there.  We think it's funny, but they think we're crazy when we say "cock-a-doodle-do," so I guess we're even.  Tomatow Tamahto right?  I thought of this today because there's about to be a mass murder in our backyard any day now.  The chickens are about to be be-headed and arrive on our doorstep to be cooked up for dinner.  Don't worry.  I'll be there to document the whole thing.

Ida brought over fresh lettuce from the garden today, so we had fresh salads with olive oil and vinegar for dinner today.  mmmm!  It's very uncommon to find restaurants with salad dressing.  First, the salads come AFTER your meal, and they always just bring olive oil and vinegar for dressing, which, quite frankly, is all you really need.  I went on a few posts ago about the amazing vinaigrette in Siena, but the olive oils here are just as good.  The olive oil we have here at home is produced in a grove about 15 minutes from our house, and it's SOOO good.

Christer got a ride to work so we could use the car today.  At least that's how he played it off.  He might have just hitched a ride to work so he didn't have to be seen in this thing:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen.  That is none other than the 2010 Fiat Panda, right there in our driveway.  This baby's stocked with a manual transmission, diesel engine, and a nice, cool A.C.  No radio though so we have to make our own entertainment.  This thing is like a yellow Barbie car!  The trunk is so small we weren't even sure we would be able to fit Jameson's stroller in the back.  I am totally kidding, of course, because it's nice having the car, and plus, we're in Italy, so who really cares.  I just have to make a little fun.  We normally have a VolksWagen Passat station wagon, but Christine might have accidentally driven a little too closely to a wall, so it's in the shop getting fixed right now.  And this is our rental.  Nothing but Fiat love here.

Christine ran some errands today and I stayed home with Jameson.  It was super hot and sunny outside, so I brought out some popsicles for us to eat outside, and Jameson went. to. town.  Holy cow.  Watching him eat this popsicle was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.  He wasn't sure how to hold it at first so he was grabbing the popsicle part until I showed him how to hold the stick and he caught on in a flash.  Let me share with you a few of the (non-blurry from laughing so hard) pictures during this event.

I wish I had a before and after picture.  As you can see, he literally demolished the popsicle.  There was so much melted popsicle on the tile out front that I had to get a bucket and scrub it down.  Jameson's clothes were so covered that I had to strip him and let him run around in a diaper for the rest of the evening.  He was sticky from head to toe so I had to completely wipe down his face, arms and legs, and myself as well.  As soon as I thought I'd gotten everything cleaned up, poor Levi walks up looking like he's been through a war zone.  He had red popsicle juice ALL OVER!!!  All in all, the eating probably took about 5 minutes, and the clean up took about 15 minutes, but it was so hilarious it was worth it.

I had just finished cleaning everything up, and I look over and Jameson is using Levi as a pillow.  He must have been so worn out from all the popsicle devouring.  Or he was put into a sugar coma.  One of the two.

That was pretty much our day.  Christine's aunt (Kathy) and cousin (Jessica) arrive on Friday so we (I saw we but mostly just Christine) have been working on getting the house clean and ready for them.

Today my favorite thing about Italy is:  Olive oil.  MmmmMmmm.  So much better than the stuff from Publix that I used to think was good.