Shit show: party of 2

Day:2

First things first, we have made it safely to Varenna, Italy and our B&B, Casa Stacy is UNREAL. We adore the girl who runs in, Diana and we have decided to adopt her. We are her only guests while we are here for the two days so she has taken us all over this amazing little lake town and tomorrow she is taking us an hour north for a wine cheese tour and tasting!

Ok, on to the shit show: Party of two

So,  we land in Frankfurt, enjoy a fab cup of coffee and an amazing pretzel and enjoy an hour of down time while we wait for our flight from Frankfurt to Milan.

We are breathing easy as we actually have confirmed tickets on this quick one hour flight that is due in to Milan at 9:50am. We board the flight and immediately the attendant laughs at Alexis, and says her suitcase, which was normal carry on size is too big and must be checked. Don't worry he says, it will be on the jetway for you when you deplane. HA!!!

We arrive in in Milan, no bag. We assume it was checked in the cargo area so will will then be in baggage claim. HA!! We were also told my bag that went without me to Newark would be waiting for me in Milan as well. HA!! So if you are following along, neither of us have luggage at this point. Mine is still in Newark....
Hers in in Germany...
Yes I am still wearing the clothes I left Seattle in on Saturday.
Yes I just washed my clothes in a sink and snuck them in the house keepers dryer.

The saga continues...

The adventure begins!

Eurotrip day 1!

So for those who don't know, Alexis and I are spending her spring break in Italy! Our plan was to fly in to Milan, then take the train north to Lake Como for two nights, then rent a car and drive down to Tuscany for three nights and then drive down to Rome for another 3 nights  with our flight home from Rome. However, Go with the flow is the new motto for this trip! So far nothing has actually happened that was planned, but since we set out for an adventure, an adventure is what we are really having!

It all began on Saturday night 3/21. We headed down to the airport to try and get on a flight to Newark that left at 10:00pm, we would have then had a day in NYC. As luck or lack there of would have it, we didn't' get on that flight or... Or the four others that followed. Sitting there staring at the standbys screen praying they would call our names was so nerve wracking! We finally gave up as the last flight left for the night and we decided to spend $60 and get a hotel for 3 hours so we could have a bed and shower rather shower rather than a hard airport floor.

At 4am our alarm went off, a mere 3 hours after check in and we headed back to the airport. We assumed since it was so early on a Sunday morning and hour would be enough time.... Apparently half of Washington state had the same plan. As luck would have it, Lex lead the way to a different security line and not only did we literally walk up to the scanners with no line, but we somehow go t to avoid unpack all of our liquids and electronics and he let us leave our shoes on! We then power walked our way to the terminal, but.... Didn't get on. The next flight wasn't for 3.5 more hours, so we randomly thought, hey why not try and fly to Chicago, we seriously were the last two people on the plane and I may have hugged the gate agent.

This is where shit started to hit the fan...So, we were the last on, which meant that the overhead bins were full. The flight attendant forced Lex to check the suitcase she happened to be carrying... Whichever was mine. No big deal you say, sure if you actually get on the connecting flight! Which we didn't once we got to Chicago. We needed to get to Newark to catch the flight to Milan. We couldn't get on! But my suitcase did. So many phone calls! And begging of gate attendants later, I am currently typing this en route to Frankfurt, Germany with my make up and a clean tee shirt... I somehow doubt that there are Targets in Italy. Praying that my bag will be greeting me at the Milan airport. Throw a prayer up for me too would ya?

I just enjoyed a whole can of ginger ale, (Did you know if you ask they will give you the whole thing!) and a strange meal of chicken, rice, and a butterscotch brownie (x2 -- traveling with a health it has it's perks, she always hands me the chocolate and the carbs, and I hand her the tomatoes) now gig am going to gate the most of this $12.99 inflight wifi and then hopefully my melatonin will kick in enough that I can sleep. We hope to catch others. Train or another flight into Milan once we land... Stay tuned and if you see my Love and my Little, give them a hug! Big Cor is holding down the fort this week while I play globetrotter.

All is not lost

Pen to paper. Words to the cursor. Pressing send, and clicking publish. Why is that so hard? Too much work? Too much effort? It shouldn't be, but it is. Publishing a post without a photo, isn't the end of the world. Yet, I still use that as an excuse. "Oh shoot, I have no photo's of what I was going to write about, better not post anything then". That ends. Now.

So here I sit, adding words to my cursor.

This weekend was a whirlwind. While it was a "normal" weekend that began on a Friday evening, and ended on a Sunday evening. It feels like it was soooo looooonng. A lot of activity was packed in to 48 hours. Friday night started with a barrel race in Monroe that went late (for this old lady, 11:00pm). Saturday morning was up and at em' as my friend Alexis' sweet springer spaniel Annie went missing from the back of her truck somewhere between the barrel race at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds and our house in 7 Lakes. #heartbroken.

We spent the day trying with no luck to find her... Social media posts, calling area vet offices, the Snohomish County Sherriff, WSP, Animal Control, Everett Animal Shelter. Nothing. As Alexis said, Annie is Gone With The Wind. Saturday night was the second late night of barrel racing, followed by a late night of Mcdonalds drive thru's and $30 worth of cheese burgers for our carload of people.

Today was spent hanging up Missing Posters (#comehomeannie) between home and Monroe. Squirrel moment: While in Office Depot this morning gathering poster supplies, the Michael Jackson Song "Smooth Criminal" was playing. For those that live under a rock --  the chorus is "Annie are you ok?" A sign? I think so. Moving on...Then we hauled horses home from the barrel race in Monroe, picked up fence panels and balanced them on a tractor bucket so they could be strapped to the roofs of a horse trailer and hauled home to my house. Oh ya, we now have a horse at our house to join our 2.5 dogs, 2 cats and 4 chickens. Does that mean I now have a farm?

It's 5:10pm and I am exhausted. I am always exhausted when Alexis comes home. She never. stops. moving. So I feel like I have to try and keep up with her crazy. I am too old for this. #justwaituntilItaly My house is now a wreck, and I have frozen steaks on the counter to try and appear like I had a plan for dinner, when really I am typing this instead of picking up my house (so I can sit down for a bit) and randomly opened the freezer and threw the first thing my eye landed on, on the counter.

Another squirrel moment: My FitBit should count my hefting fence panels as activity minutes... alas, it did not.

I am signing off to go make something of the frozen steaks on my counter and to rotate a load of laundry thru. #productive

I really should avoid hashtags in a blog post, but honestly I find them highly entertaining...