Turtle!

July 11 ... spotted.... a little turtle chillin in our front yard!

As you can see, PD was the first one to notice. We kept her away though! Jimmy and I were making fun of how slow turtles really are when we noticed it barely moved from that spot for about 45 minutes despite a heavily panting dog creeping over its back!



Apparently, according to some turtle blogs I've been reading, if the hole the turtle has been hovering around is now covered with dirt, that indicates that actual EGGS have been laid in the hole!! Little baby turtles! I felt a bit voyeuristic when I realized that we'd been spying on a laboring mom! But it made perfect sense, she definitely was doing something funny in that hole and made sure to cover it up with her little back flippers.

So we've got anywhere from 45-90 days of incubation. I don't know what kind of turtle this is, despite comparing patterns of shells online.

We've been challenged to make sure these little turts hatch. I'll be watching...

(Not our eggs above) - I'm too afraid to do anything to them but I hope this crazy Alabama heat doesn't spoil the eggs! We might put some chicken-wire over their home though...


I might want to keep one! I wonder how Piper would handle the competition for my affection?

A little bitty Anne

Guess which one??



I might start a series of 'little bitty Anne' posts as I have recently gone home and rediscovered some amazing pics!

Italy

Ciao!

Hello - I've been avoiding blogging so far because the idea of uploading all my pictures from the trip was a bit overwhelming! We had a great time, of course, and are so glad that we went and have lots of cool things we took from it - our cooking class, my leather jacket, Jimmy's Ferragamo's, etc.!

I finally got around to uploading the pictures because we had dinner the other night at Sarah Soule Webb's house - and Cover commissioned her to do a painting for us for a wedding present based on our pictures! While none of my pictures are necessarily star-quality, we were able to show her a bit of what we liked and didn't like, and she is going to run with it and make us a beautiful masterpiece!

Our favorite place - probably Lake Como (above), but as far a cities go we loved Florence (and driving around in our convertible in Tuscany- below). I think next time we go we'll probably hit fewer places and stay in each for longer. We went to Rome, the Amalfi coast (Sorrento, Capri, Amalfi, Pompeii), Florence, the Cinque Terre (Vernazza, Monterosso), Lake Como (Varenna, Bellagio), and then to Zurich and Lucerne in Switzerland. We probably gained 10 pounds between the two of us, if not more!

Us looking ragged in the Blue Grotto in Capri!

Now that we're back I'm obsessed with the idea of making our own pasta...you know I love to cook, and it actually isn't that hard! I made some fettuccine-turned-papardelle the other night when Troupe, Molly, Cover, and Jeff were here, with tomatoes and leeks and basil...yumm!! I rolled out the pasta over some wax paper on my grandparent's old mahogany dining room table. I need to try the gnocchi recipe we have and the tortelloni! But, my parents are coming up tomorrow so I think I'll stick with the one I've already experimented on. You might be wondering how I am doing this during my first week of residency.... I happen to be on Radiology first, though, and have been basically forced to go home by noon at the latest every day! Not too shabby, especially considering that I am finally getting a paycheck!!! (First one this upcoming Friday).