Update - March 2008

A rare event -- all 6 Paolicchi's in Scottsdale AZ

USNA, Annapolis, MD




Back and forth -- most of the year in Annapolis, winter in Scottsdale. Danny, Scarlet & the Cuties moved to Annapolis in Sept 2007 and live just 10 minutes from Cristina's home so we have plenty of good family time with Sierra & Leo, who get cuter by the minute...


Snack time at Aunt Cristina's
La merendina dalla zia Cristina

Update June 2006 - Wow .. the great Oriental adventure is over & what an adventure it was! Re-entry after 7 months was not that easy .. no one bows to me anymore! Plus, the money is dirty, the cars are dented, there is trash on the ground and .. what happened to those ultra-modern trains that whisked us everywhere we wanted to go??
Usually returning to the US from abroad feels like going back to the future .. but this time it felt like going back to the past! Really strange. I will miss Japan. Hopefully I'll soon have pictures and commentary uploaded to this site. Enio, Danny, Scarlet & Sierra all visited and Michael came over twice (the second time we also spent 4 days in Hong Kong before returning to the US. We left Hong Kong at 10:45 am on Wednesday and arrived at LAX at 10:40 am the same day! And that's with a 3 hour layover in Tokyo. We're already planning the next trip back .. where else can I find those packets of salty black sesame seeds for my rice???

Now living in Scottsdale with frequent trips back east to Annapolis and Atlanta. Next goal: get fluent in Spanish (I read & understand it now, but still need to learn to speak better). This 'may' involve a trip south of the border for a few months ... in the meantime I can practice with Michael's new mexican girlfriend, Marcela :-))

After several great years in beautiful Tampa Bay...
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...Cristina & I decided it would be "synergistic" to become roommates. I needed a quiet place to pursue my new career (day trading) and she needed .... home-cooked meals, a fellow DVD-lover, a fellow wine, artichoke & caper lover .. and (sometimes) just "Mommy"
So .. the adventures have begun!

First there was Charleston... (CHAHLS-ton)

... soft southern summer nights, endless walks downtown, breakfasts of spicy shrimp cream grits & other delicacies, exploring the Low Country, dining in some of the finest restaurants in the US. Downtown Charleston is like a cross between New Orleans & Savannah, but prettier, cleaner & more historical than either. It was a great place to live for 10 months & Cristina talks about maybe returning there permanently one day.

Then .. new orders came and we were off to another beautiful city....

SAN DIEGO!
We lived right downtown on Market & 3rd in the Gaslamp District so we had the whole city in our backyard...
Coronado, La Jolla, Seaport Village, the Zoo!, Sea World, Old Town, Mission Bay, Tijuana & Baja California beaches, California Wine Country (Temecula) etc etc etc etc. And yes, I am still earthquake-o-phobic but San Diego is the only CA city I can live in comfortably .. for some reason the energy here is different .. more like the California I knew a long time ago. And it feels safe (even tho we did have 4 small quakes in the past few months!). We had a great summer here .. with family members & friends coming in to visit, but now it is time to go because...

..San Diego was just a transition point for the "real" assignment. On August 12, Cristina (now a Lt Jg & the DCA of her ship, USS Lassen) set sail for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and points east.
On September 20, Michael & I fly to join her in ...

Japan!
Konnichi-wa!
Arrigato, doozo
Wain-o moo ichido kudasai!
(the last is my favorite .. it means "more wine please!"
Michael returns stateside after 2 weeks, I stay on to learn Japanese cooking, language & (hopefully) a deeper knowledge of something that will help me in my new profession: Japanese Candlesticks!
And most likely, many more adventures during the 14-18 months we will be there, including trips to Hong Kong, Shanghai .. and who knows where...
We'll be living in Yokosuka, about 40 minutes south of Tokyo and 20 minutes from Yokohama. Friends are invited to take advantage of our sojourn there to visit ..
we will have extra futons available & lots of "wain-o".

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