Happy Valentines Day!

We hope everyone had a great weekend sharing it with loved ones and hopefully eating lots of chocolate and special Vday candy....you know that is what I was doing :)

It was a very HAPPY Valentines Day here in the Binetti house because we WON!  Tony had a  game on the 14th so we kept things pretty low key, but to win and be able to come home happy is really a great present in itself.  

Dinamo beat Rimini by about 20 and it was a nice and relaxing game, which are few and far between over here.  In college we were used to beating teams by a nice comfy margin and there weren't too many games that were stressful.  Now every time I watch a game and Tony goes in my heart starts beating so fast because it is so intense!  Lucky for me Tony is always so calm, and makes running the show look easy.  

It was a very quiet week around here...but the one exciting thing that happened was that is SNOWED!  It hasn't snowed here in almost 6 years or something, so of course everyone was a little nuts, and they cancelled school and shut down some of the streets.  I had class the night it started snowing and only three students came, but at least it was enough that we could still have a good class.  About two hours into the next day it was all gone, but a lot of the kids were still trying to play in it for as long as possible....I would probably too if I hadn't seen snow for 6 years!

Our Neighbors House

I also made a funfetti Valentines cake and talk about a taste from home!  Funfetti brings back so many good memories of birthdays and every other excuse to make it...it was so yummy.  I did share a little with Tony's teammates, and let's just say it was a hit!  Good thing I brought 3 mixes back with me :)

We also went to a birthday party for the GM's son on Saturday.  It was fun to be there and be around all the kids...it really makes me miss my nieces and nephew!  And of course Tony played on the blow up fun houses too...

That is the toy the team bought for Luciano...nobody could tell if he really liked it....oh well!
(That is the Team's General Manager Pinucchio and the bday boy Luciano.)

The team will take off Saturday for their game against UCC Casalpusterlengo on Sunday.  I will be back next week to share the scoop :)  

The countdown is officially on for our visitors to arrive:

5 weeks!!!!!

(First up, Mimi, Joe, Nonni and Papa)

Ciao Tutti

The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful :)

Well let's start with the bad so we can just get it out of the way...Dinamo took a hard hit last Saturday and lost to Brindisi at home.  Not much to write about the game, it was not their best showing, and so I think we should just      move on.

The good is that they are STILL in 1st place in the League, but now only by one game.  But it doesn't matter...they are still holding the title.  This week we have another home game against Rimini which is a solid team in the middle of the pack.  Stay tuned for results...

(Oh and best part about the game was that one of Tony's teammates girlfriends sits next to me every game and she has started to bring her dog...yes...her DOG!  The dog has tried multiple times to crawl on my lap, but of course, I don't let that happen)!

And finally the beautiful....once again the beach!  It has been so nice out so I have been trying to go to the beach and get some pictures of the this place we call home.

 

Oh and still under the beautiful category...Tony CUT his hair off!  He has been growing if for 10mths...but it was just time for a change.

Before

After

It has been a pretty quiet week around here (the lose on Saturday was a real mood killer)...but next week will be exciting.  I am finally, at age 26, getting my wisdom tooth pulled.  Only one for now, but hopefully the other one before we go home.

Hope everyone has a great week!  Ciao Tutti :)

Keepin' Busy :)

One of my favorite views in Porto Torres

Well I am little on the late side of a blog update, but it has been a busy and fun week.  A quick re-cap unfortunately starts off with bad news of a Dinamo lose last Sunday.  They played at Jesi, who are one of the worst teams in our league, and I guess Dinamo just didn't show up to play.  Lucky for us the other two teams creeping towards us in the standings didn't show up either!  So we are still two games up in 1st place...so that is happy news :)

This weekend Dinamo plays Saturday night because it is on TV.  They play Brindisi....and it is a showdown!  I am already getting nervous for the game, and so happy it is at home!

Besides the game, I went to Philadelphia for a quick work trip!  I left Friday morning, arrived there that night and then left again Monday afternoon.  I have to say the flying wasn't too bad even though it was back to back.  February is definitely a down travel time to Europe so I had a row to myself both ways :)   Also...I have figured some important travel necessities:  my Ugg slippers, my Brookstone NAP blanket, my Bose Headphones, and some snacks.  These 4 things that fit easily into my carry-on make the flight sooo much more comfortable!  So...if you are flying on a flight over 6 hours, I would recommend all of these belongings :)

http://www.uggaustralia.com/index.aspx   

http://www.brookstone.com/

www.bose.com

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day outside, sunny and 60.  So I decided to take advantage of it and head to the walking trail in Porto Torres.  The walking trail is along the water and it is so peaceful and relaxing to walk there.  Then I stopped and read for a long time...the book Freakanomics...it is pretty interesting!  I think I actually got a little color on my face too ;)

This is what you see while walking along the boardwalk

 

Not a bad place to go for a daily stroll :)

Then if was off to class....only 4 of my students were there, but we ended up having a great class.  They are really starting to open up and share...which is often times pretty entertaining!  After class we had a team dinner at the only Mexican restaurant in Sassari.  It was a fun night of live Mariachi musicians (see pic) and some pretty interesting renditions of Mexican food ;)  The onion rings were my favorite...yes onion rings at the Mexican restaurant..haha!

There are "petal pushers" as we call them that come in and try to sell the men flowers for their women...they are super expensive...but I guess Coach was feeling generous :)

The ONLY girlfriend on the team Ilaria...we are best buds!

Now we only have today before the big game, and Tony is sleeping soundly getting ready to take on his old team.  The best part about a Saturday game is that the guys will get two days off!  So Tony and I might actually get to go explore somewhere on Monday...I'll keep you posted :)

Ciao Tutti!!

Back on track

Dinamo sure knows how to get back on track...they came out on Sunday and ripped it up against Imola.  We won by 30 in front of a packed house and very happy fans.  Tony had a great game and finished with 7 pts and 7 assists.  It was so fun to watch them play such a great game at home...now it just has to continue for the next 13 games so the "PLAN" can go on!

 

They are still 2 games in front of the everyone and we are still on our way to winning the League.  The next home game will be against Brindisi (where Tony played last year) and that will he HUGE game because they are the team in 2nd place!  

Last week was pretty busy actually with both of us having practice every night and me teaching on Thursday...the only thing that really suffers when this happens is dinner...sorry Tony :)  

Then this week was the first time ever I went to have my hair done in Italy!  I was sooo nervous because I just wasn't sure what it was going to be like.  But nice enough I was talking to my star student about it and she offered to take me to her salon and help translate for me!  She was so sweet and sat there the whole time with me!  It was so funny because when I first got there, they were just opening up again (4PM) and there was no one there except us three, but then within in moments the place was buzzing and full of women gabbing away.  It was then I realized everything was exactly the same as home, just a different language, and everyone was brunette ;)  

It was a fun experience and the ladies were really funny...they would try to say something in English, and then I would try to respond in Italian...lots of laughs :)

Then Marta told me her mom wanted to have coffee, and I was assuming at a cafe, but no she meant at her house!  So I after I was finished I drove us to her house and we enjoyed a typical Italian cookie and sat and visited in English for about an hour.  They then invited me to dinner anytime, or if I just wanted to go to the grocery store anytime, just call.  They were so cute :)

After I headed to the gym to watch the end of Tony's practice and then it was off to SUSHI for my birthday dinner!  Of course showing up at 8pm we were the only ones there so it was quick and good.  We ended deciding that $50 bucks for one california roll, and one tempura roll was a little much so that will probably be our last sushi run!  But then the best part was the place across the street that Marta told me about that had fresh desserts with your choice of topping....I got a fresh hot crepe with Nutella of course and we headed home.   

It was definitely a great birthday day with my new hair, sushi and a Nutella crepe :)

This weekend Tony is heading to Jesi for their game on Sunday and I am heading to Philadelphia for some work! 

See everyone in a week or so!  CIAO TUTTI :)

Snapped :(

Well the winning streak has officially been snapped and Dinamo finally lost.  After winning for 3 months straight, I guess it was just time.  I am sad though because I had just given the guys their pep talk...and they go and do that!  So we are still in 1st place, but now only two games up from the next couple of teams!  

Exciting news for our team is that we are hosting the Italian Cup here in Sassari!  The League takes the top 4 teams at the half way point and they have a little tourney.  There really isn't a reason for this tournament because it rarely predicts the end of the season standings, but I guess it is a nice mid-season accomplishment for the team :)  I am just happy it is here so that I get to watch it live!

But even more exciting news is that we got a dishwasher this week!!  Whoo hoo!  One of our teammates wasn't using his, so Tony asked if we could have it, and he said sure!  So I hung out with a couple of Italian men for about 3 hours while they installed it, good times.  It is so nice to have a dishwasher...


This week it was back to teaching and practice for me!  It was so fun to be back with my students...best topic of the day: the Mafia!  And practice was fun too...but man alive was I SORE...yikes!  Practice wasn't too bad, considering I hadn't been playing much at home, but the next two days I could barely move!  And now this week the coach asked if I could come everyday...hope I can make it :)


And hard not too mention the terrible tragedy in Haiti.  Not being able to go and help ourselves, we hope that the power of prayer from us, and so many others will help to save lives and heal the broken bodies, and spirits of the people there.


Psalm 46: 1-3
God is our refuge and strength an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though it's waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.


Hope everyone has a great week, and I hope when I write again, Dinamo will be back on track with a win over Imola :)

CIAO TUTTI!!

2 More Games....2 More WINS!!!

Dinamo has done it again...twice!  They have won the last two games which brings their winning streak to 11 games in a row.  I am not going to lie they have squeaked past a couple of the teams, but I guess that just shows us that they know how to find a way to win.  It was so good to see them out there again, since I have seen them play since the end of November! 

So I have given the team (well Jason, Marcelus, Tony and Jiri) a pep talk about how I would like the season to finish up, and they seemed to agree with me and are planning on following my plan :)  The leagues over here have a completely strange system when it comes to play-offs and champions.  So I am going to try my best in explaining it :


-The Legadue (the 2nd League) has 16 teams
-Each win earns you 2 points

At the end of the season the top 2 teams move UP a league and the bottom 2 teams move DOWN a league, and this of course depends on how many points you have.  

-IF you are in 1st place in the league when the regular season ends you AUTOMATICALLY go UP to the next league.  (This means you don't have to go through any play-offs)


-IF your team is one of the other top 8 teams in the league then you go through the PLAY-OFF system and try to earn the 2nd team spot to move UP to the next League


-IF you do end up going through PLAY-OFFs, then the season could potentially be about a month and half longer.


SOOOOO...what I told the guys (after I buttered them up with cake) is that I would love it if we could just keep winning and take 1st place in Legadue and go home at the beginning of May :)  They all said OK and that my plan sounded good...so hopefully we will be the Champions of Legadue!!

Anyway...

The last two weeks have been nice and relaxing and I feel like I am back on this schedule of not having too much to do :)  It was my birthday last Saturday and Tony brought me some flowers and did all the dishes for the day.  Since my bday was the day before a game, we decided that my birthday dinner would have to be another night so we could relax and enjoy it.  My birthday dinner choice:  SUSHI :)  (hence the reason Tony couldn't eat it before the game...he has history with seafood the night before the game...I will spare the details).


We also went to our friends wheelchair basketball game.  If you have never been to a game, I would highly recommend it...it was amazing!  It was so fun to watch and they are so talented and skilled in their chairs.  We didn't quite figure out all the rules but maybe next game.  Our friend Jamie is from Boston and he has been playing over here for a couple years!


This week I start teaching again, and possibly bball practice again too!  Tony has a normal week and then heads off to play Pistoia this weekend!

OH and yummy meal of the week:  BBQ Chicken Pizza :)

CIAO TUTTI!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tony and I hope that your 2010 is filled with many

blessings, laughter, and love!

Thanks Manca for a wonderful time on New Years Eve! :)