We made it through the Alps in Youenn's little car!  I must admit, I had my reservations:


...but the trip was breathtakingly beautiful.  I've done it a few times now and the scenery never gets old.  The weather was gorgeous most of the way through Florence and all of Italy.  We hit an awesome storm in Austria, but emerged to blue skies soon enough:


We're in Munich now, staying with Mick & Miggl and I must admit it's nice to have high speed Internet again and a long hot shower (the beach house's hot water didn't last long with 20+ people staying there!).  It's unseasonably cool in Bavaria, but feels good after the heat and humidity of Italy.  Today Alan and I headed to the Marienplatz to buy him an iPod Touch.  His poor wife Bine is about to become an iPod widow.  Boys and their toys!  Tomorrow we will spend the day visiting Mick & Bine's families and get to see Tom, Cathy & Patrick who just arrived from San Francisco.  I'm looking forward to seeing them all.

Update:  Sabine & Alan's wedding party was a sumptuous feast for all the senses!  The Tuscan hills will be whispering about this party for years to come!  About 35 "GLY" members old and new were in attendance from 7 countries and a good time was had by all.  The air card I have for Internet here is pretty expensive and we're pretty remote, so keep checking this link for new pictures as I won't always be updating Xanga.  Until next time, I leave you with our party pictures. 

Happy 4th!  We're celebrating Bine & Alan's marriage in grand style.  The party is in full swing at our Tuscan villa.  We have 6 Americans, 1 Czech, 3 French, 1 Togolese, 6 Italians, 1 Englishman and 12 Germans.  I can't begin to describe how difficult it has been to get these pictures uploaded.  Suffice it to say, it was very involved, nothing is easy in Italy.  I think we've got it worked out now though, so here are the pictures from yesterday.  I've had to shrink them to a small size to conserve my SIM card credits, but you get the idea.  We're having a lovely time...hope everyone else in the States is having a Happy Independence Day.  Sorry I'm not going to have much time to comment back or email.  Thanks for all your well wishes though.  And a special thanks to David for making this all possible!  Ciao!

Earlier today, while the rest of the world focused on MJ's funeral plans, (some are saying up to a million mourners could pour into Los Angeles, making it bigger than Elvis and Princess Diana...I sure am glad I'm leaving for Italy Thursday!!) Farrah Fawcett was remembered in a private funeral mass downtown.  I was in the 6th grade and had just turned 11 years old on September 22, 1976 when Charlie's Angels premiered on television.  I was instantly smitten with all of the "Angels" and Farrah Fawcett held a special fascination for my prepubescent self.  Perhaps it was the diva in her that attracted me, but nevertheless in that Bicentennial year, it was all "Angels" all the time for me and much of America.  I collected photos and clippings from every magazine I could find, and kept them in a special box that I made that looked like this:

The LA Film Fest is in full swing and tonight Vince and Wendy were nice enough to invite me to a screening of "I Sell the Dead" starring Dominic Monaghan (of "Lost" and "Lord of the Rings" fame) and Ron Perlman of "Hellboy" fame). 

Since I usually go down to the O.C. on Thursdays, Lisa has been watching Chazz and he's been pretty good.  The last two weeks however, she was busy so I had to make alternate arrangements, as I'm usually gone 12 hours.  I called a couple of doggie day care places and they were all about the same price, $35-50/day.  On a whim, I called a new place on Santa Monica & Highland called, "The D".  It's like "The W Hotel" but for dogs.  I thought it would be ridiculously expensive, as that's where all the A-List Hollywood celebrities take their dogs.  Surprisingly though it was only $35 for 8 hours and $45 for 12 hours.  Before Chazz could go though, he had to have a "temperament test".  I felt like I was trying to get him into an elite private school!  I coached him before we went in..."No humping Chazz", "Keep your nose where I can see it", etc.  Needless to say, he passed the temperament test with flying colors.  Then the gal at the front desk gave me a tour of the place.  It really is like a luxury hotel for dogs.  When she told me that every room had a flat screen television (with remote), I didn't know whether to laugh or ask the obvious question! (Do they watch it?)  Then she told me that they play a dog friendly Disney movie in the common area every night at 7:00.  They also have a spa, gym (for dogs) and a grooming salon.  I kid you not...see for yourself: