One of the Things We'll Miss Over the Next Couple Years

Living one mile from Pei Wei, which is PF Chang's more ecomical faster food restaurant, will be something that we will miss when we return to Italy in two months. Mmmmm...lettuce wraps, me miss you long time.

There are chinese restaurants in Italy, but they are an Italian version of chinese food, much like the chinese food we are used to here in America is not real chinese food, but an American version of chinese food. In other words, it's just different, not bad, just different. We'll miss it.

Newsletter - January 2009

Here is our January 2009 newsletter, which is the first newsletter for 2009. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Newsletter - December 2008

Here is our December 2008 newsletter, which is the fifth newsletter for 2008. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Newsletter - September 2008

Here is our September 2008 newsletter, which is the fourth newsletter for 2008. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Newsletter - June 2008

Here is our June 2008 newsletter, which is the third newsletter for 2008. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Newsletter - April 2008

Here is our April 2008 newsletter, which is the second newsletter for 2008. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Newsletter - January 2008

Here is our January 2008 newsletter. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Newsletter - October 2007

Here's our latest newsletter, enjoy. Click the thumbnail above to view it or right click and choose "save target as" to download it to your computer.

Kebabs, Not Shish-Kebabs

So for years, our team in Ancona has enjoyed a delicacy which does not hail from here. It is....(hold for it)....the Kebab. Not to be confused with the shishkebab, which is the small cubes of meat and vegetables skewered for grilling. But this comes from the Döner kebab variant, which in Turkish literally means "rotating meat". It's called this because the meat is on a vertical rotating spit that turns so that it is slowly roasted in front of a vertical glowing orange oven. As it turns the outer edges cook and the slice it off. They put this in a pita bread with various vegetables, including french fries, and mayonnaise and yogurt sauces. If you like it hot, they will also put some hot red pepper sauce. Wikipedia refers to the popularity of the take out kebab throughout europe..."Döner kebab is said to be the best-selling fast food in Germany, Poland and Romania as well as being popular in the UK, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Canada, and Australia." The meat used is usually beef, chicken or lamb. Our favorite place in Ancona has beef and chicken. Here are some pictures of our last outing at Tunital.

Newsletter - September 2007

Here's our latest newsletter, enjoy. Click the thumbnail above to view it or right click and choose "save target as" to download it to your computer.

Our Last Day at the Beach

So, the we spent our last day at the beach. Amazingly, almost every year, September brings in very cool temperatures and it has done so once again. The beach officially closes this coming Sunday, however, yesterday brought temperatures once more in the 80's and gave Angie and I one more day at the beach. It is more than just the last day at the beach for the summer, but our last day at our beach in Ancona. We are moving and leaving it and a million other little things behind. Often, in Italy, you go to the same beach all summer and Angie and I have been going to this same beach since 2002. That's six summers! That is many memories, many sack lunches and icees under an umbrella. God provided us with a wondefully relaxing "last" day, we needed it and we are so thankful to Him for it. Here are some pictures from this refreshing day.

Here's "our" beach, we spent many days off over the past six summers.

Here I am, with the Adriatic Sea behind me.

This is a restaurant on the beach that we like, so we ate there once more for lunch.

We had sauteed clams as an appetizer.

I had the homemade tagliatelle noodles with red sauce, clams, and scampi.

Angie had the homemade ravioli, with a butter sauce, shrimp and cherry tomatoes.


Here's Angie reclining after dinner, with the Ikea signs posted on the wall behind her.


They have great homemade french fries.

The last view of Ancona from our summer beach.

Newsletter - August 2007

Here is our August 2007 newsletter. Click to above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Summer Jamboree, the recap

So, we ended up hearing both bands. They were both really good. We went to the Cajun Tex Mex restaurant booth. I had chicken nuggets, some barbecue shishkebabs and a chicken fajita. All were small portions, but were good. Check out the videos below...

An Evening in Ancona

Tonight after Kids' English Club, we went to dinner at 'Movies Pizza'. It is a half of a block from our facility, "La Via". All the pizzas are named after movies, in Italian of course unless the movie went by the Italian name. So, La Ciociara means "The Woman from Ciociaria" and in English is called Two Women (1960). Then there is The Mexican which is called "The Mexican" in Italian but is pronounced a little more Italian. The pizza was good. Afterwards we walked over to Piazza Pertini, which is across the street. In this big city square was "Santa's Village"...temporarily. It just went up this week and will stay up until Christmas Eve, I think. There are all these little wooden buildings that are divided into four sections for four separate vendors who are sharing their wares. They are selling everything from Christmas decorations and sweets to jewelry and purses. In the middle there was a little cabin with Santa Claus inside, or so I thought because of the line of kiddos waiting to go in. They have the windows covered so that you can't really see inside to see who's there....but you know. After that, Angie walked over to Piazza Roma, where we bumped into Carlo, who works at the clothing store 'Zara" and played guitar at our October Coffee House. While we were talking to him Francesca, our friend Uri's mom, came over and said their Coffee Shop will be reopening on Tuesday and that night they will have a inaugural party, we were all invited (it has been under renovation since the beginning of November). We said goodbye to Carlo and walked over to peer into the windows of Uri's family's Coffee Shop. There were workers inside working on last minute finishing details and outside stood several boxes of new chairs and tables. Angie and I left and began the ascent towards our house, which is about six blocks away. On the way, we passed one of my other favorite coffee shops and I asked Angie to come inside with me. I had a Cafe' Latte and Angie had a Cafe' Macchiato. The drink I had is an espresso inside a glass of milk. The drink Angie had is a spot of milk inside an espresso. Both good, but I like mine better. Then we walked home. We had a good evening out.