The Blackburn Family

The rabbits really love their time out each night to run, play and explore the bonus room while we watch TV.  Tuscan seems to be the one that gets in the most trouble while he is out.  I always assume it is Moose causing problems, but it is usually Tuscan.  His favorite thing to do is to dig into the occasional trash bag I leave on the floor.  Tonight he found something good (empty bag of their treats) in the bottom and in the process of trying to get it out he managed to get another piece of trash wrapped around him.

Just a quick post while I wait for the clock to say 5:00….   I reserved our room in Rome today.  We will only be there one very short (and I am sure very busy day).  We were not planning to visit Rome on this trip, but it is the only city we can fly out of using my miles on American.  I am pretty excited about seeing it.  I just wish I had another weeks worth of vacation so we could stay a whole week.  Guess we just have to go back in a couple years.  Here is our hotel/hostel in Rome.

Sometimes mom brings Maggie over to run in the backyard.  She got a little haircut too so now you can see her eyes.

There are more Maggie pictures here.

The small bathroom is pretty much done!!!  We just need to trim the door get a plumber to fix the tub faucet, but the floor is finished.  Here are a couple pictures of the finished floor.

We started working on the master bathroom today.  Well, we put the backerboard down Friday night and I started putting down the tiles today.  The hardest part is not knowing if you are doing everything right.  There is no one to say “don’t do that” or “you aren’t doing it right”.  The tiles look good, but I am afraid they will start breaking one day.  Let’s hope they don’t crack.  Check out the two tiles I cut!!  I used the nippers to cut both of them and it was very difficult and took me a long time.  I was really proud of myself.  I would like to state that despite what the people at Lowe’s say it is NOT easy to use them!  It is NOT easy to nip the tiles.  Just ask Casey who has huge blisters from cutting the ones around the toilet.  Anyway, here are the ones I cut:

Here is the room now.  I will be at a yoga workshop next weekend so it could be awhile before we finish it…   Then we can hire someone to put in a new kitchen floor. 

The apartments we were hoping to book are available!!  Here is a link to the website.  Isn’t it beautiful?  I can’t wait!!!

Now we just need to get there.  We have two weeks worth of lodging and no airfare!  It is just so expensive and confusing.  International flights are a pain.  No one flies direct to Florence so we have to get on a European airline to connect to Florence which means our bags aren’t checked all the way.  So we have to claim them and then check in again at the next airline.  There are so many regulations on carryon baggage that I don’t think we can manage to carry on all our stuff.  I research everyday!  Hopefully soon we will be booked.

Things left to book:
Airfare, Rental car (scary!!), and hotel near airport the night before our flight once we have one 

After tons of research we have finally decided on a hotel/b&b in Florence!!  Still no flight….  and working on our Tuscan rental in Montepulciano.  I found a beautiful apartment and I am waiting to hear the price and availability.  I really hope it is available!!  I am checking a few flights tonight and the prices are about the same..  There are a few around 800, but the timing of the flights isn’t great.  If you want enough time for a layover you are looking at well over 1,000 a person.  I found a great flight to Florence, but the flights home all have a tight layover in London.  My other issue is the Euro!!  Or rather the dollar.  The dollar continues to lose value on what seems like a daily basis, not to mention finding Euros is next to impossible (from what I hear).  Last I checked we were at $1.31 to the Euro which makes everything more expensive.  I have a feeling it won’t be getting better by the time we leave.  Anyway check out our place in Florence.  I checked several sites and didn’t see a single negative review. 

http://www.relaiscavalcanti.com/english/index.htm