A full day

Today is father's day in Italy. To mark the occasion, RIS held a breakfast for the dads in their honor. Josh and Larry both went and reported that there were so many sweets laid out on platters that they couldn't imagine who would eat them all. I can -- the kids! The Italians and their pastries for breakfast!?!

I made a second visit to the Slovak Embassy this morning. Larry decided to come along for the ride. As I last reported, I needed to have my marriage certificate translated to Slovak by a court agent. Since February 10th (my first visit to the Slovak Embassy) my mom has requested, picked up and had apostled my marriage certificate at the Oakland County Clerk of Court in Michigan. My dad then mailed the document to his friend in Bratislava, who had it translated in to Slovak. He then took the document to have it registered. However, they would not return the document to him without a power of attorney. Therefore, my father gave me -- in Slovak -- the proper language to assign his friend the power of attorney. I put it on my letterhead and took it to the Slovak Embassy this morning to have it notarized. Then, I mailed this notarized power of attorney, along with a copy of my passport, to my dad's friend who will take it to the registrar's office and continue with the process of registering my marriage. After all of this is completed I can then resubmit my request for my Slovak (EU) passport. This is becoming quite a team effort!

Once again, I was so touched by the kindness of the agent at the Slovak Consulate, Pani Torokova, who is helping me through this process. She volunteered that our friend in Bratislava can fax the document to her to expedite the resubmission of my application. Knowing my Slovak skills are limited, and wanting to be certain that I don't miss anything, she also volunteered to speak directly with our friend in Bratislava to ensure proper completion of the forms. This type of personal service is really above and beyond anything I would ever expect -- and very lucky for me.

Afterwards, I just had time for a quick sweat before meeting Josh and Larry for lunch. The reason I had this time is that after 10 minutes of waiting on line at the post office, I bailed and went riding around looking for a "Tabacchi" to sell me some stamps and an envelope. If I had waited to at the post office, I might have been there for an hour.

I met Josh and Larry at our favorite local restaurant -- which is now called Pastis Bistrot. All of sudden, over one weekend, Rose Trattoria had a makeover, was painted white and creamy inside, and changed its name to Pastis Bistrot. How odd, I thought, to take on a French name for Italian food.

We had to get to RIS this afternoon for the Middle and High school performances to celebrate the conclusion of "book week." It was a rather lengthy affair held in the gymnasium where unfortunately, the acoustics are pretty terrible. There were stalls set up all around the gym, selling all sorts of things (including treats) and the proceeds of all sales were going to help the victims in Haiti. In general, I must admit that I've found the school's charitable endeavors to be a very positive influence for the students. The kids are continually being made aware of those less fortunate. Also as part of book week, Olivia along with other members of the student council organized a used book sale -- again with the proceeds going to an orphanage in Haiti. Olivia collected the books from her classmates over the previous week. This past Monday, she set up the table and helped with the sale. She was very proud of her efforts, as were we. At today's performance, Charlotte sang and played the tambourine during "Mama Mia." Her class also wrote and sang a rap song for the theme of Animal Farm. It was a nice idea.

Tonight Charlotte went for a shortened swim practice so we could enjoy a family dinner together. Morris came over to prepare his famous curry dishes -- a must for all of our guests in Rome. When Josh dropped her of at AquAniene, he talked to Luca to get the schedule of events for the Nationals this weekend. Luca explained that the woman who gathers all the information for Aniene has been out of the office -- her grandmother died -- so they don't know yet what the order of events is....(that's funny, right?)

When Charlotte came home we all sat down in the dining room and enjoyed a curry feast. It's surprising how much the kids, especially Olivia, love it! As for me, I crawled upstairs as soon as dinner was over. Two spritz cocktails and wine with dinner.... made me feel very sleepy.