Great news!

 Our goods have cleared customs and are ready to be delivered.  We have spent the last week updating paperwork and clearing out the ground floor of the castle and the hotel getting ready to receive everything. 

Antonio has rigged up two hoists so we can get the puzzles to the top of the castle and the hotel.  It will be easier to bring things down the stairs than climb up with them.  

Now we just wait on a date for the first truck.  

I have been working on my Italian driving license and have attended the first two night classes of driving school.  This is fun.  The book is in Italian, the class is in Italian.  Double duty!  I'm learning all sorts of things at once.  Unlike when I lived in Hong Kong, I am not getting translation headaches.  In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to be reading a page of the book yesterday and I realized I was comprehending without having to translate all of it.  A word here or there, but not a lot.  I mean really, how often does one use windshield wipers in daily conversation? 

George's Christmas gifts have arrived early and he is eager to open them, but is holding back until the rest of our goods are here.  Really, I think he's waiting for the staricase to be removed from the hotel.  We don't need that secret passage to the kitchen and both of us would rather have the space in our respective rooms.  

Larry, Curley, and Moe are hard at work in his office. Now he can add Laurel and Hardy to the mix and get them running.

We met with the interior designer for the construction of the kitchen and bedroom/bathroom last week and have made decisions on materials and appliances.  They loved our bathroom design and have said it was a first for them.  Neither had installed a Toto toilet here, or a rainshower that plays music and has lights in a Turkish sauna before.  

Today is Thanksgiving back in the states and we are having dinner at a local hotel run by Americans.  Sadly, this means no left over turkey.  Perhaps I will buy one next week and cook it anyway.  There is nothing like an open faced turkey sandwich after the holidays.  

And I thought I had posted this. Wo much stuff to do so little time.  The trucks are arriving and the fun is now just beginning! We have a great system down, the pallet is removed from the truck and brought to one of 3 opening locations.  We then Open the castle pallets first because we don't want to disrupt parking (although, the locals seem to do a fine job of this on their own).

Next, I mark the room number that the package needs to go into and they either hoist it up using bags or they take it up using the electric stair climber.  This makes short work of things. We are able to unload and move14 pallets within a few hours.  So far we have taken in 41 pallets.  Today we will unload 2 trucks and Saturday a few more. Then we just wait for the truck we went to Rotterdam to show up and all is here.  

Forgive the long absence.  I'll be back to normal (is there such a thing) soon.