U.S. T. V.

I'm ashamed to admit that I spent the morning in bed watching Grey's Anatomy on my laptop. Ashamed, but I enjoyed every slovenly minute of my morning in my PJs. After I finally got dressed, I made it to the gym for a brief workout and a sauna. I will really miss this wet sauna; it's great! Knowing we had no food left in the house, I had actually planned to grab a bite for lunch at the AquAniene cafe. However, while in the locker room, I realized that I had left my hairbrush at home. Going out with wet hair is one thing (and completely frowned upon by the Italiani) but going out with wet, unbrushed hair.... well, that's just inconceivable. So, I made a bee-line out to the car, hoping that no one would see me, and headed for home. Wouldn't you know it, on this one day, with my wet, unbrushed hair, I ran into a couple I know -- parents of one of Charlotte's classmates. When I say I ran into them, I mean they spotted me in my vehicle, while they were on foot, and waved me down. I know it sounds odd, but Italians think nothing of holding up traffic (on a one-lane street) to stop and have a brief chat with friends! Only, this time, I was the one holding up traffic.

When I got home, Josh, who had just returned from his morning ride, suggested we go out to lunch. Just next door to our favorite Italian lunch spot in the Parioli, is a Japanese sushi place. It doesn't look that appealing from the outside so we were never inspired to try it. But recently, they'd begun offering a 10 euro lunch consisting of soup or salad and 13 pieces of sushi -- maybe to compete with the 10 euro Italian buffet next door. Today, I convinced Josh to go Japanese instead of Italian (no small task).

Once inside the restaurant, we went up a set of stairs and it was as if we were in another world. There was a lovely indoor garden terrace, and a Japanese tea house type of setting...a very pleasant surprise. The set menu was not exceptional; the rice was too cold and hard. Still, the place was a nice discovery.

I made the required visit to the market after lunch. An hour later, Josh picked me up with the kids in tow and everyone helped load and unload the groceries. Simone arrived promptly at 4:30pm for the girls' piano lessons. Soon, I was making dinner and putting the kids to bed. The next thing I knew, I had fallen asleep in my bed, in the middle of an episode of 30 Rock. The day had ended just as it began.