I am so excited! October 14th 2009, I am leaving the North American continent for the first time and heading....uh....that a way. I guess I can sum it up best with...
All Roads Lead to Rome!
All Roads Lead to Rome!
The best part, I am going with a really cute and handsome guy, who just happens to by husband, thankfully and surprisingly for 25 years now.
Who am I?
You can call me Lou.
You can call me Lou.
Some close friends nicknamed me this years ago and it stuck.
Who is he?
You can call him Bert.
You can call him Bert.
That's the affectionate nickname I gave him about 30 years ago, and the nickname I use for him when all is going smoothly and we're having fun.
The other nicknames we have for each other, are varied, usually spoken under the breath or at ear-piercing levels depending on the situation. These nicknames are not so affectionate, but definitely effective.
I diverse.
This past June we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We began as high school sweethearts and somehow we've managed to ride the rollercoaster so far. We are parents to an amazing, caring, talented and soulful 17 year old son. If you're a parent, you know what I mean. If you too are a parent to an only child, well then you really know what I mean! We have the love and support of a wonderful extended family and fun-loving and diverse friends. Our home is here in the Okanagan Valley in BC Canada where we live with our real head-of-household, Grover "the world-is-my-oyster" Shiatsu.
As we celebrated our anniversary this past June, surrounded with good friends, music, laughter and copious amounts of Vino, Bert gave me the best anniversary present I could hope for. He took that big leap of faith and decided he too was ready to travel to Europe. We are stepping out of our element so to speak. Our normal comfort zone of 'what we do' is being stretched. I have had a wanderlust to explore Italy for years now. I am fascinated by it's history, it's landscapes, it's architecture and probably foremost it's wine and it's food. For Bert, though, this is a new revelation. Now we are going to explore it together, for the first time.
Ain't love grand.
In vino veritas
Translated, this means
In Wine There Is Truth"
Stay tuned and feel free to follow along on Bert and Lou's Excellent Adventure!
Music Keynotes: The Best is Yet to Come- Frank Sinatra
I really struggled to find the song to go with my blog entry today (Bert and Lou's Excellent Adventure).
Had a lot of different ideas…thought about including the song Bert and I had as our wedding song or the song we claimed as ours when we first dated....but thought better. I'm not going to name them, but let’s just say they mean more to us then they would to anyone else. Bottom line, they really are that scmaltzy and really don't translate well when shared with others!
Best way to avoid schmaltz; hit it straight on with a dose of Frank Sinatra Live!
The song 'The Best is Yet to Come' seemed the perfect fit as we headed on our big adventure and the next chapter in our married life.
Over the last few years I've come to fully appreciate Frank's suave style, impeccable delivery and interpretation of songs. I've taken some time to really listen to his older material, a lot from my dad's collection. What I've discovered is it's like tasting a big full bodied wine for the first time. At first the sensation may seem to bold, to vintage. But the more you sip, the more you want. You begin to feel the effects of what a big wine that is well-aged can deliver…soft tannins, warm and weighty on the palette and one heck of a smooth finish. That's Sinatra. Franks ability to take any song, make it his own and make it speak directly to the listener is a rare thing. I'm hooked and man I can't get enough. My dad would be so proud!
Had a lot of different ideas…thought about including the song Bert and I had as our wedding song or the song we claimed as ours when we first dated....but thought better. I'm not going to name them, but let’s just say they mean more to us then they would to anyone else. Bottom line, they really are that scmaltzy and really don't translate well when shared with others!
Best way to avoid schmaltz; hit it straight on with a dose of Frank Sinatra Live!
The song 'The Best is Yet to Come' seemed the perfect fit as we headed on our big adventure and the next chapter in our married life.
Over the last few years I've come to fully appreciate Frank's suave style, impeccable delivery and interpretation of songs. I've taken some time to really listen to his older material, a lot from my dad's collection. What I've discovered is it's like tasting a big full bodied wine for the first time. At first the sensation may seem to bold, to vintage. But the more you sip, the more you want. You begin to feel the effects of what a big wine that is well-aged can deliver…soft tannins, warm and weighty on the palette and one heck of a smooth finish. That's Sinatra. Franks ability to take any song, make it his own and make it speak directly to the listener is a rare thing. I'm hooked and man I can't get enough. My dad would be so proud!
