Alan’s Last Day At the College – Retired

December 16, 2012December 16, 2012 | Alan

December 14th 2012 was my last day teaching at Truckee Meadows Community College. I am officially retired as of January 7th, 2013 after 32 years of public service in law enforcement and higher education.

TMCC President Sheehan kindly granted me Professor Emeritus status upon my retirement. I greatly appreciated the honor and recognition.

It was a very bittersweet moment to walk out my former and now emptied office then leave the college for the last time. I loved teaching and loved working with the students through the years. The best day of the year for me at the college was always commencement day . I always thrilled watching the graduates cross the stage to receive their diplomas while their family and friends cheered their accomplishment. It was also the greatest pleasure to see former students become successful in their careers and know I contributed to their success in some small ways.

I am proud of my both of my professional careers, police work and teaching. I am incredibly lucky and can say I’ve had two dream careers. But now I’m anxious to move on to the next step in our lives. Our “Forever Honeymoon” starts soon.

Confirmation letter of Alan’s professor emeritus status.

Thanksgiving, Final Good Byes, and Final Notices

November 30, 2012November 30, 2012 | Alan

As we race toward our rapidly approaching departure date for Italy (which is now just 38 days away) we are trying to spent extra time with family and friends to say our good-byes. As much as their work and college schedules will allow, we have had lunches and dinners with the local adult children, Sarah, Nick, Casey, Adam, and Adam’s girlfriend Liz. We’ve spent time with friends Kelly, Kathy, Cindy, (another) Kelly, and Echo and Dan. We realize that in the very near future visiting won’t be so convenient and intercontinental flights back to the States will not be frequent.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with Tracy’s Aunt Debbie and Uncle Gerry in San Martin, (outside Gilroy) California. Nineteen people, two Chihuahuas, two Pit Bulls, and one very large and tasty turkey. Along with Tracy’s mom, sister, brother-in-law, aunt, uncle, nieces, and nephews we got to spend time with daughter Danielle, her husband Joe, and granddaughters Lorelei and Lily. We also visited with son Dirk, his boyfriend Trey, and their “fur baby” Milo the chihuahua. There was a great traditional Thanksgiving feast, great conversation, and all around fun.

After the Thanksgiving celebration, Tracy headed to Long Beach with her mom, sister, aunt, to meet two Northern California cousins, and one more sister for a farewell “Girls’ Cruise” to Catalina Island and Ensenada on Carnival Cruise Line. It was a chance for Tracy to spend some final one-on-one time with her family.

I drove back to Reno, with Kiara the microdog in the passenger seat (“Dog is my co-pilot”), to finish out teaching my final semester and to take care of some additional departure details. I cancelled our post office box which has been my primary mailing address for the last twenty years. I also gave final notice to our apartment manager to advise her that we will be vacating our apartment New Years Eve. Our remaining car is listed “for sale” on Craig’s List and we are waiting for an agreeable offer. Those are a couple more small steps toward cutting loose our remaining ties in the US.

I’m somewhat apprehensive as we continue to cut our domestic links since our visas from the Italian Consulate still haven’t arrived, but we are being bold and proceeding on faith since people request and are granted visas all the time and we believe the documents’ arrival is just a matter of time and patience.

Eight Straight Wins

November 4, 2012November 4, 2012 | Tracy

On Saturday, October 13, we attended the UNR vs UNLV football game with some of the kids – Dirk, Trey, Nick, Casey, Nicole, Tina (Nicole’s Mom), and grandchildren Carter and Avery. We had a fantastic time although most of us ended up with pink faces due to the great weather and Las Vegas sun! Avery and Carter enjoyed seeing “The Uncles” as the group of sons came to be called by everyone.

UNR didn’t handle the first half of the game very well and we were a bit worried that our last State Rivalry game would not end well. Thankfully our beloved Wolf Pack pulled it together in the second half and won the game! The two bands had a post-game play-off of their own when a spontaneous “Battle of the Bands” occurred as the two bands left the field. Grandchildren danced as UNR played the instrumental version of “Call Me Maybe.”

We celebrated with the family with drinks in the Stratosphere tower and dinner at the buffet with Tyler in attendance after a day of drill with his Marine Reserve unit.

Our stay at the Stratosphere was fun and the rooms were pleasant, the food was good, the company fun and the trip memorable.

A few of the kids couldn’t make it to the game and they were missed, but duty calls in all sorts of ways – Guard drill, Saturday classes, caring for tiny babies – and those who were not with us in person were with us in spirit. Some were even getting text updates on the game!

All in all, a great weekend, a good game and fantastic company for our last Rivalry game – who could ask for more?

The Uncles watch the Battle of the Bands in a post-game show during UNRs Victory Dance.

Consulate Journey

November 3, 2012November 4, 2012 | Tracy

A week after UNR defeated UNLV for the eight straight time, we found ourselves on a flight to Los Angeles for our visa appointment at the Italian Consulate.

We were prepared. Or so we thought. We had not one, but two binders full of documents (in triplicate), a list from the consulate Web site of the documents required and enough passport photos to choke a hippo.

The evening before the appointment we landed at LAX, took a taxi to our hotel, arrived three hours early and received a nice upgrade to a suite. After a glance at a map realized that we were just a few blocks from where our sister Trina and her husband and daughter lived and gave Trina a call to let her know that we were in town.

She immediately asked if we were free that evening and said that when she was finished with an appointment that they would stop by our hotel to visit. We eagerly awaited her arrival, sort of . . . both of us were exhausted after a day of travel and fell asleep within minutes of sitting down, thankfully our afternoon respite didn’t last too long and we were both awake to greet our visitors a few hours later. Trina and her husband, Glenn, took us to dinner at Norm’s, a favorite of theirs and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Rarely do we get such great one-on-one time with family as most family events involve many more people, so we were both excited and pleased for their time and attention. After dinner they took us by the cottage they’ve rented in LA, which is absolutely adorable and Trina walked her sister around the quiet neighborhood where they live while the brothers-in-law chatted at the cottage.

Trina had offered to pick us up the following morning and to drop us off at the consulate for our appointment, saving us a great deal in cab fare. We were happy for her company and really enjoyed the afternoon when we finished at the consulate. Trina took us to the California Academy of Science (the new home of the Space Shuttle Endeavor) on the USC campus where we explored for hours all of the great exhibits, then she took us on the route the Endeavor traveled from LAX to it’s new home at the Academy of Science. We were both amazed and awed at the size of the Space Shuttle and the ingenuity it took to get it from one place to the other.

Our afternoon exploits helped us to forget our morning at the Italian Consulate.

After arriving an hour early and waiting in the small room with a very large window looking down at Avenue of the Stars, we were called promptly at our appointed time by Patricia Maroni, our intake counselor for a visa.

She quickly looked through the binder of our paperwork and asked where we got the list of documents. Stating that she hoped we hadn’t used the one from the Italian Immigration site as that is not the same list as the one for the Italian Consulate General in LA. We smiled and told her we had the list from the LA Consulate Web site, whew close call, because weeks earlier we had called the consulate and were told that the list was on their Web site. She smiled and said “Oh no, that is not the one to use. It is outdated, you should have called and asked for the right list from us, then you would have been prepared.”

There are no words to describe the swearing that was happening in our heads as we looked at Patricia incredulously and stated “Well, now we know better for next time.”

Patricia graciously gave us the super-secret, can’t get it till you get here in person, list of documents and as we eagerly read through the list to see if we had the additional documents in our “other” binder of documents. We had one of the three we were missing, our marriage license. The other missing documents were a letter from us to the Consulate General stating why we wanted to live in Italy – that has to be signed and notarized – and a letter from our banker stating our monthly income, account types and balances.

We asked Patricia if a bank statement would suffice as many of us in the U.S. don’t actually know our banker. She said “NO. It needs to be a letter from your banker and needs also to be signed by your banker.”

So after our lovely afternoon with Trina and our niece, Etta-Kimiyo, we found ourselves back at LAX waiting for our flight and reviewing the events of our visit to the consulate and making a list for the following Monday.

1) write a letter explaining why we want to live in Italy

2) find a notary so the Consulate General knows that our next door neighbor didn’t write our letter for us

3) find our who the hell our banker is and get them to write us a letter

We pick up the letter at 10 am today and will be visiting the notary this afternoon, followed by a trip to FedEx to send everything back to Patricia, including the thank you card for all her help during our recent visit.

Fingers crossed people, we are hoping to get a favorable reply and the visa stamp in our passports by Christmas so we can book our flights, get the dog certified for travel and move in early January.

Whew, almost there.

Battle for Nevada 2012

Fremont Cannon, college football's largest trophy, a replica of a 19th century Howitzer cannon.

September 10, 2012September 10, 2012 | Tracy

Our last “in person” game between state rivals, University of Nevada, Reno and University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is soon approaching. This game and state rivalry has been an important event in our lives for the past 12 years. It’s right up there with Superbowl Sunday and the Academy Awards for our family.

When we married 12 years ago, we knew that it would be difficult for the children to spend holidays with more than one household a day. Children need to play and do not generally like to be opening gifts and eating and getting in the car to go to another household to open more gifts, eat again and get back in the car. We decided that holidays could be celebrated when we were together without disrupting the children, and then we thought it could be just as much fun to create special family days that were not traditional holidays.

So Superbowl Sunday became a family holiday, the kids would pick a team to support, so did we, food was laid out to be grazed upon during the day and lively shouting ensued. The Academy Awards were another family holiday. We printed up the categories, the nominees and everyone voted for who they thought would win and at the end of the night correct answers were added up and a winner named. These were the family days we most looked forward to, more than Christmas and Thanksgiving because these were our special times with our kids and we looked forward to them every year.

The UNR vs. UNLV game isn’t one where anyone picks a team to support. We are now and will forever be UNR fans. This isn’t just any state rivalry . . . we play for the largest trophy of any college team in the U.S., the Fremont Cannon, and it’s a very, very serious event. The winner of the game paints the cannon in their school colors and the cannon has been it’s rightful blue color for the past 7 years. UNR can lose every single game in a season and as long as they beat UNLV they remain champions to all their fans and supporters, and this family. This year, like all the others, we will scream, holler, kick the back of the bleachers and have the time of our lives and will love and support our Wolf Pack for another year . . . as long as they bring that cannon home to it’s rightful place.

We are making the arrangements, getting tickets, arranging a small bus and generally beginning to get pretty excited for game day at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. This game will be bittersweet, but even that can be overcome as long as the cannon stays blue and comes home to Reno.

So say a prayer for our Pack on Saturday, October 13 for a hard fought victory . . . game starts at noon, prayers should start at approximately 11:45 am! Go Pack!

UNR vs. UNLV Football History

1969 Reno UNR 30–28

1970 Las Vegas UNLV 42–30

1971 Reno UNLV 27–13

1972 Las Vegas UNR 41–13

1973 Reno UNR 19–3

1974 Las Vegas UNLV 28–7

1975 Reno UNLV 45–7

1976 Las Vegas UNLV 49–33

1977 Reno UNLV 27–12

1978 Las Vegas UNR 23–14

1979 Reno UNLV 26–21

1983 Las Vegas UNLV 28–18

1985 Reno UNR 48–7

1987 Las Vegas UNLV 24–19

1989 Reno UNR 45–7

1990 Las Vegas UNR 26–14

1991 Reno UNR 50–8

1992 Las Vegas UNR 14–10

1993 Reno UNR 49–14

1994 Las Vegas UNLV 32–27

1995 Reno UNR 55–32

1996 Las Vegas UNR 54–17

1997 Reno UNR 31–14

1998 Las Vegas UNR 31–20

1999 Reno UNR 26–12

2000 Las Vegas UNLV 38–7

2001 Reno UNLV 27–12

2002 Las Vegas UNLV 21–17

2003 Reno UNLV 16–12

2004 Las Vegas UNLV 48–13

2005 Reno UNR 22–14

2006 Las Vegas UNR 31–3

2007 Reno UNR 27–20

2008 Las Vegas UNR 49–27

2009 Reno UNR 63–28

2010 Las Vegas UNR 44–26

2011 Reno UNR 37–0

Total Wins: UNR 22, UNLV 15

Our last Rib Cook-off

August 31, 2012August 31, 2012 | Tracy

It's all about the RIBS! — It’s all about the RIBS!

We attended our last Rib Cook-off today. This one like so many in the past was all about barbecue sauce and roasted ears of corn, looking for a place to sit and eat that may or may not have a little bit of shade or somewhere to set down your sampler tray. And this year, like every year in the past I’ve left the dental floss at home. But that negligent aspect aside, it is the smell and the taste of well done barbecue and sweet and tangy sauces that has kept us going back year after year after year.

The Rib Cook-off is but one of the many events hosted in the Reno-Sparks area that we will miss in the years to come, yet as any good organizer knows you cannot add something new without letting something go or you just end up with chaos.

So we said our farewell to the Rib Cook-off with a sampling of excellently cooked and basted pork ribs, roasted corn on the cob, Alan indulged in a bit of deep-fried peaches with whipped cream shared with our son Nick who came along to spend a couple of hours with us out in the smokey, barbecue-flavored haze that is Rib Cook-off.

The foodie in each of us is pleased and our inner organizers plan to substitute barbecued ribs for the annual horse race in Siena in 2013 to keep life balanced and free of chaos while accepting that we will do without the familiar and embrace the unknown as we prepare for a future abroad.

See Alan’s event portfolio.

Portfolio Preview

August 30, 2012August 30, 2012 | Tracy

An Italian Point of View has a new Web site. This new site has portfolios of our favorite photos from excursions we’ve had recently.

Updates will occur as we continue on our journey and our hope is to connect the new Web site and our Twitter, Flickr and You Tube accounts to our Word Press blog. For now I think we may have to memorize all of the Web addresses and add links, but as we become more proficient we expect that these things will also get easier to link together.

So visit the new site and view some our current online portfolios.

We got it!

July 25, 2012July 25, 2012 | Tracy

We have secured our first apartment in Italy!

50 square meters off via Laura just a block from Piazza Innocenti on a pedestrian street. It has all the features we were hoping for: terra cotta floors, dark beam ceilings, a garden/terrace area and room for company. We were looking for apartments in the historic district and this gem of a place is just a few blocks from the Duomo in Florence. One of the nicest features is that it is a ground floor apartment and all the areas that Kiara needs to access are on one floor, no stairs for her.

Our lease is 18 months and has an option to renew, so we’ll need to decide if we’re staying on a little longer in Florence or making the move to Venice which is stop number two for our Italian adventure.

Master Bedroom - Florence Apartment — Master Bedroom – Florence Apartment

This shot of the master bedroom shows the terra cotta floors (which will help keep the room cool in the summer) and part of the study loft above.

Study Loft - Florence Apartment — Study Loft – Florence Apartment

This is the study loft in the master bedroom which shows the dark, wood beam ceiling as well.

Living Room - Florence Apartment — Living Room – Florence Apartment

The living room, which is actually part of the great room which includes the living room, kitchen and dining room. The space is not very big, but is nicely appointed without being crowded so even the small space looks larger.

Guest Loft - Florence Apartment — Guest Loft – Florence Apartment

The guest loft has two single beds that can be made into a double bed for couples (this is a standard in Italy which allows for a lot of flexibility for hotels and vacation rentals).

Dining Room - Florence Apartment — Dining Room – Florence Apartment

The dining room has a nice view of the terrace garden, we are hopeful that the fountain actually works! This was the shot that sold us on this apartment, we could just picture ourselves having breakfast at this table every day.

Kitchen - Florence Apartment — Kitchen – Florence Apartment

The kitchen is all pretty normal as Italian basic kitchens go, except for that nice big oven. That is definitely an upgrade from the average Italian kitchen and one that we’ll appreciate all winter long.

The statue and greenery are a welcome sight, we never expected anything so beautiful or even a backyard at all, this was such a huge bonus for us.

But as far as apartments go, this one is actually very nice and quite spacious for it’s minimal square footage and it is so beautifully situated within the historic district that it will definitely be a great starting point for us.

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