cugini

Saturday we did something that we haven't done even once in the 28 years that we've been together - we went into the city to Preston/Corsa Italia for Italian Week. We left home at 1:30, thinking that we'd have a quick visit with Carm's sister and then be in time to enjoy the festivities in the afternoon.

Carm knows his way around that area of town so finding parking was no problemo. We could see some activity down the road so we headed in that direction to see what the excitement was about.  A section of the road was cordoned off and there were Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and dragsters roaring up and down the road, revving through their gears and squealing their tires as they fishtailed around the curves.  The dragsters had giant tires that laid rubber onto the road when they are accelerating - I imagined that the folks at Goodyear were seeing $ as all those tires were worn down. I was a little partial to the Lamborghinis, but don't know where we'd put the dogs.

Once we'd gotten our fill of screeching metal we headed to Preston street where Nothing Was Going On. There were no food stands offering delectable tastes of Italian food, no bands playing, just the odd hotdog vendor and some foot traffic. We kept on walking, hoping to find something interesting when... bump... there was Carm's cousin Aldo and his wife Michelle walking in the opposite direction. They knew the drill, letting us know that things don't start until 5 or 6 pm... and did we want to join them at Dow's lake for some nachos? Our afternoon was set with some congenial company in warm sunshine. Sweet!

Sweet indeed! After enjoying our nachos on the patio we hiked back along Preston St. until we found a gelato shop filled with pastries. Icy, smooth sweetness soothed our jabber weary throats, and as if that wasn't enough we shared some pastries. Yowsers!

Friday night was another surprise get together. Just before 9pm our neighbors called to say they were having a bonfire and a bunch of the neighbors would be there. It didn't take any convincing to get us into long pants. As we sat there through just over 2 hours I watched the moon, with Jupiter and Venus in tow, make its way across the sky, finally sinking below the horizon.

"Nobody will understand the craziness of your family better than your cousins" ~Unknown