Arrivaderci

That’s “Until We Meet Again” in Italian.  When I was younger I was like that kid in “Breaking Away”.  I spoke Italian, all my friends were Italian, and I lived in “Italian House” in college.  We were supposed to speak Italian all day, but it was too hard, so we only spoke Italian when the RA came to our table during dinner and we’d say things like, “Questi spaghetti sono squisiti!”

This time I’m going to China!  My sister-in-law’s name is Inna Dukach, and she’s a world famous opera star.  Yes, you heard me. The coolness of it is blowing you away, isn’t it?  Yeah, if you think it’s so f-ing cool, try hanging around a gorgeous talented thirty-something-year-old at family gatherings.  Oh – and she’s nice and funny, too.  Ridiculous.  I wouldn’t have married Adam if I had known this would happen.  Here’s my gorgeous sister-in-law and family:

And it gets worse.  She’s tall and thin.  Why me?  It’s like I’m a female Job.

I’m beyond excited.  I put a pad on my shoulder when I got the Typhoid vaccine, because I heard Typhoid is a great way to lose weight.  Squee!  If worse comes to worse I can always drink water from a rural pond.

We’re going to Beijing, where Inna will be performing in the Beijing Opera.  I get to help with squooshy baby.  I’ll squoosh her all day.  Chinese people will call Child Protective Services on me.  I’ll rot in jail – hopefully with a good case of Giardia.

We’ll stay in Beijing the whole time, except for a trip to Xi’an to see the terra-cotta soldiers.  Like the food obsessed people we are, we bought tourist books, but only noted the best duck restaurants.   I’m sure the terra-cotta soldiers will be amazing, but I’m really looking forward to the world’s best dumpling restaurant in Xi’an.  You’ve seen hundreds of thousands of terra-cotta soldiers, all completely different, you’ve seen them all.

Z will be staying with the boys.  Z is tough.  He will keep them from smoking crack.  He won’t buy dog food if it runs out, but they’ll be no crack smoking.  I hope the dogs are OK.

See you soon, bloggy friends!