We started our daily routine this morning like every other workday. I got up around 07h10, showered, shaved and dressed. Stephen got the table set for breakfast. It took sometime to get Kristie to wake up. I also think I've figured out how to consistently get some coffee made in this coffee pot. The past couple of days the first pot never brewed. I'm not sure what I've been doing wrong but I think I haven't been screwing the base on hard enough. At least I'm getting coffee consistently now.
We were all dressed and ready for Gabriella to show up but she didn't make it until 09h30. She said she had missed her bus. I hope this isn't a going to happen again. That's twice this week she has been late. Today moreso than usual.
I went to work and did what I do. Then around 16h00 someone came into the room with 3 bottles of wine. I share a large office with 4 other guys. Turns out it was Oscar's 24th birthday. He had also brought over some homemade pastries and we had about 15 people attend. I met some more of the folks and two of them are ex-IBMers from Roma. They didn't like living in Roma and really did like Trento much better. I can sort of see how that would be the case. One of them also said that it only snowed a foot here in Trento last winter. Although I'm finding out real quick that these people get confused when converting into English measures so it might be a meter that he really meant.
On my way out Vincenzo said that he was organizing a trip on Sunday with a few other people at work and invited me and the kids along. I said we would go. That was nice of him.
I came home and paid Gabriella for the week. Gabriella picked up the laundry today and that went without a hitch. She left and the kids and I went to the super mercati to do our shopping. Well, it took a long time because we pulled #98 for the deli line and they were on 61 when we got there. You have to pull a ticket at the super mercati to get to the deli counter. That is a good idea because I think it'd be complete chaos otherwise. But we got most of everything we needed. Although we still need the insect candles and that is on the list for tomorrow morning's shopping. We also need to buy some more dish towels and shower towels so I can throw what we have into next week's laundry. Shopping here has turned out to be pretty reasonably priced and our total today was only 79k Lira, or roughly $50 for a good quantity of food to make it through the weekend.
We got back, ate dinner and then headed out to the soccer field. A game was playing so we just stayed in the park and tossed the frisbee around for a while and then kicked the soccer ball. There were alot more people in the park today than there have been throughout the week. We got home around 21h20 and the kids had an icecream cone we got at the market. Now they are in bed and quiet, so possibly sleeping?
I've messed around with the dialer trying to get it to pulse dial. I still don't have a phone line so it doesn't matter. But I don't see how I'm going to get the dialer to use the ATDP command instead of ATDT. This is really starting to perturb me. Something is either messed up in WinNT or the IBM Global Network Dialer. And I'm not sure how I'm going to get the modem to connect when I do get the phone line. I've double checked and the pulse setting is set in the dialer location properties.
It's a lot warmer tonight. Or possibly just more humid. A rain storm blew through around 16h00. I think that left some humidity behind.
This weekend we're going to venture down to the monument to the fliers that were killed in WWI. That should be a nice trip. Hopefully it won't rain like the CNN Weather channel predicted (I have net access from work). Then Sunday we will go on the journey with Vincenzo and company. Next weekend my good friends from Cologne Mike and Maria Pia will come down. I had one of the secretaries find a hotel in the Gardolo area and they will probably stay there unless I can find a sofa bed before next weekend.
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