You're gonna need an adaptor...

OK, so we have had a large break between posts here. We suck.. It has been crazy! We moved into the house on 30 January and household goods arrived the very same day. Oddly enough, our unaccompanied baggage (which is supposed to get here faster) didn't get here until after our regular shipment arrived and they had to deliver it the next day. So for the first three weeks it was nothing but boxes, boxes and more boxes. Funny, we even left about a third of our "stuff" in Kansas in storage but were still overwhelmed with a crowded house. The second night of Boxopolis freaked us (read Sarah) out a little bit. Nothing in the kitchen was fitting anywhere and dinner was not going to be cooked in any way, shape or form. Even though the hotel had worn us thin on fast food, for Sarah's sanity, we headed to the local Piramidi mall and ate at the Italian Burger King. With Sarah's sanity safely in check (as much as normal anyway), we waded back into the fray and managed unpacking boxes. Somehow, after two days or so, we had internet working in the house and Sarah managed to set up the wireless network. No longer was Tony tied to the office to surf the 'Net.  Unpacking continued in earnest until we realized that nothing was going to fit where it should. After a haul at Ikea on random storage furniture, we finally saw progress. Sarah managed to organize the kitchen with the use of her new super awesome pantry and the kids' play area was nice and organized (for all of 15 seconds) with the new book shelves and storage cubes. Eventually, (when Tony feels the house is put together) he starts (incessantly) bugging Sarah to start hanging pictures. This time I actually waited till the third week before I started bugging her...Sarah actually pulled out the power tools and hung a couple of coat racks to get those winter coats up off the floor - a Costello PCS first!

Let me just take a break and offer a side story. It gets back to our title. So we already knew that the electricity in Italy is 220V and not 110V like in the States. No problem, we left most of our 110V appliances in storage and had already started purchasing 220V stuff while we were in the hotel. "Boy, are we smart" was the prevalent thought as Sarah and I high-fived each other on our genius. Until we realized that Italy uses a different (just barely different) style of electrical plug to plug items into the wall. It instantly reminded me of a commercial from a few years ago from IBM called the Universal Business Adapter or the UBA. Here's the link if you want to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOqOxI0K_I If you watch it you'll see our frustration with living in Italy, even though it is a part of Europe. If you visit just wait until you see some of the crazy adapters we have! Dominic recently told Sarah that it is a fire hazard to have so many different things plugged into a single plug...

So in all that time of unloading the house, we have neglected our blog. It has now been two months in the new house so we can finally say that everything has a place. We almost have all the pictures on the wall too. I can even fit the Mustang in the garage! We haven't done a lot of traveling while unpacking the house. We've really only ventured to Padua to buy things at the Ikea. Unfortunately, I'm heading to Germany for most of the month for training; gotta get ready for deployment. Just as the house is set up, I leave for three weeks. Tony just got home last night!

Kate started in Italian pre-school about a month ago. Pretty slick, our little girl is going to be speaking better Italian than us. They don't speak any English there. We're going to get her to translate for us when we go for any trips or shopping!

Dom is really enjoying his new Kindergarten. Most days he comes home pretty wiped out from three recesses. Two days every week he takes swimming class which wipes him out even more! Somehow they always manage to wake up early though...

Sarah is starting to enjoy her new found free time- language classes, working out, reading UNINTERRUPTED (amazing how fast I can read a book!)... Looking forward to Mom and Dad's visit. Day trips and shopping, here we come!

I was finally hailed by the 173rd, so I'm officially a part of the unit. I was able to jump again after 9+ years from a C-17. Probably, the coldest jump ever. Certainly though, it had the best view - the plane has to bank immediately to avoid crashing into the Alps. I tried to jump with the Italians a couple weeks ago but the winds were too high and the jump was scratched. That would have meant Italian jump wings...allora. Maybe next time.

That's it from here. Arrividerci.

Driving cursive m's and w's...

First, we get to move into our new house on Monday! Woohoo!!! With that being said, our weekend trip couldn't really be all that far since we have LOTS of packing to do...

So, we looked at the map and decided that Asiago needed exploring. I mean really, you can't go wrong with cheese, right?! Since all Americans know that for the famous cheese, we figured since it was less than an hour from Vicenza, why not?! After sealing the deal on our new car on Friday, we hit the road at a little after 1000 today. By the way, (for you car nuts out there- you know who you are) our new car is a 2008 Kia Magentis (it's an Optima in the states) 2.0L diesel. Sorta noisy at low speeds but when you hit the Autostrada at 130 kph it is nice and quiet. It is equipped with a built-in cloaking device...not only is it a modestly styled mid-size car, it's silver - it seems that every European car is silver too. We also have the "Europe-style" long license plates so we totally blend! Yeah, until we get out of the car and start talking, that is...

Back to the trip... Tony being the topo-nerd that he is kept saying how awesome it would be to drive on some of the roads around here. Sarah's belief is that if it looks like cursive m's and w's there is no way she wanted to drive it...This was an awesome drive that included driving from just above sea level to over 1000 m high (like 3000 ft!) There were 10 switchbacks to perilously navigate. 10!!! Each switchback climbed 100 m... It felt like being at the edge of the Earth! I (Sarah) am not a huge fan of heights (no comments from the peanut gallery), it was crazy and high and the Italians are driving on it like Indy 500 racers... The Italians don't mind passing on these types of roads, we were just happy to hang on for dear life. Tony drove to Asiago and Sarah drove her maiden voyage on the way home.

See! M's and W's!!!

This is the mountain we ascended... Yeah, no ice picks involved.

The town of Asiago is like most quaint Alpine towns, lots of little restaurants, shops, and a big hockey rink! We'll check that out later. Riposo tends to get in our way...   Quick side note on riposo- it's the Italian version of Siesta... EVERYTHING shuts down from 1230-1500...  All-in-all a very good day for the family. Kate and Dom enjoyed lunch. Dom actually ate his plain noodles: no butter, no olive oil, no sauce... The Italians (and Mom and Dad) think he is crazy! Kate devoured parts of Sarah's mushroom pizza (so delicious) and her own gnocci. That girl is pure Italian. :)

Dom charmed the pants off a lady in the restaurant with his "ciao bella" which has become his go-to phrase. Kate plays hard to get, which the Italians love to try to tease her to smile... Unfortunately for Tony, nobody gets "forget about it" here?!

Of course, no trip to Asiago would be complete without cheese (formaggio) so we picked up 5 Euro worth. Yum. We bought it at a cheese truck. Tons of cheese and different meats... The metric conversion is a little rough. Tony asked for 1 KG of cheese... Yeah, that's like 2.2 POUNDS of cheese. The cheese guy figured out pretty quick that we aren't Italian. Tony asked for one of the cheeses, and the guy kinda gave him a funny look. He let Tony taste it, just to make sure. I think he was a little surprised that Tony took the cheese! (Hi ho, the dairy-o...  Sorry, getting a little punchy)

Tony, Kate and the cheese truck!

Dominic and Kate's favorite part of the day- a playground!

That's all for now, the best part is we get to move into our house on Monday. Look for a big update next week about that! Check out our Facebook pages for more PICTURES! :)

Pictures from Castelfranco

Love to see from where our name came...

The mean nasty geese... Kate was very interested, until the geese became VERY interested in her!

Walking back to the car. Please note Kate's fabulous self-picked outfit. :)

The First Four Weeks in Italy

So here goes the new Costello adventure in Italy. Technically, this journey started four weeks ago when we left Atlanta and landed a day later in Venice. Our sponsor immediately took us to the Ederle Inn in Vicenza where we have been camped out for the last month. Hopefully, this blog will be able to capture our adventures in Europe; wherever we may roam! [Especially on a laptop with a space barthatworksintermittently.] On our third night here in Italy, the family decided to venture out to a real Italian restaurant (known locally as "restaurants"! [Drop the Italian] You don't have to laugh, this is Tony's joke...) We visited Regina's Restaurant and got an authentic Italian meal. Dom, who loves noodles, was very disappointed with his noodles with real Italian spaghetti sauce. The face was pretty priceless, which, of course, required a picture! Sarah and I learned our lesson and have ordered the very un-Italian kids menu dish of hamburgers!

We did manage to make it to Castelfranco the next weekend where we found a walled city with a moat around it. The kids were pretty impressed with this...except for Kate's brief encounter with a very energetic goose, we had a safe visit to the town. The menu was in Italian with a few English words we recognized but we managed to find something delicious for everyone Sarah and Tony. Dom and Kate once again were traumatized by the plain noodles as they were covered in olive oil and not butter...

The following weekend we decided to venture to the "big PX" at Aviano Air Base in the Mustang. First off, the Mustang is not a family car. Sure it seats four but you are really cozy especially with the large child safety seats in the back. Second, it's not the quietest - Flowmaster does a good job of making sure of that. Somehow Kate manages to fall asleep every time though. Overall it was a good trip when we returned with a 220V CrockPot. Thank goodness! Sarah has made some fantastic meals with it so far here in the hotel...because the food court and Burger King start to get old after a while.

This past weekend we ventured to Padova to the local Ikea. Like Sarah has already said, no matter where you are, Ikea on the weekend is always bad! We priced out a few things for the house. Unlike our last trip to Germany from 2003-2006 Sarah and I were able to go incognito because we could speak a little German and we could dress European. This time though, we know very little Italian (in spite of my name) and the kids are always chattering in very clear English. So it's painfully obvious that we're American. Luckily, we didn't run into any trouble. Dom even had a chance to play at the Smaland which is universal to Ikea - I think he's picking up acouple Italian words. Somehow TV and play are universal as well.

That's it so far. We have one more week in the hotel. Hopefully, by this time next week we'll be the proud owners of a 2008 Kia Magentis 2.0 diesel (my first one) and, finally, moved in our new house.