While in Seattle my sister and I visited the graves of my paternal great grandparents, Frederick and Aimee, as well as my grandmother’s brother, Stanley.

I finally overcame Apple’s betrayal and figured out how to publish www.mygrandfathersoffice.com on another host.

Challenging, but a well worth the visit.

Walking through the fish market with the flu was not such a good idea after all.

Despite Brittany’s bout with the flu, we I decided to keep our soccer visit with Seattle U. During the seven hour camp, Brittany gagged, fasted and gagged some more, but what she didn’t do was quit. She may have only been at 50%, but in my eyes, she turned in her gutsiest performance to date. I wish I could have rewarded her with an early bedtime, but the coach wanted her to stay in the dorms with the team.

Enjoyed a visit with my sister at her home. My Niece has a perfect smile. Her dog, Rosie, not so much.

Trying to muster up the strength.

In Seattle. First order of business, room service consisting of two bowls of chicken noodle soup.

The Good: Urban Tacos in Dallas

The Bad: Throwing them up all night because of the flu.

The Silver Line: Calories not absorbed.

The Dark Cloud: Brittany stayed home today after coming down with the same illness. This isn’t good timing considering I’m picking her up a 4pm to fly to Seattle for a soccer tryout at Seattle U that will pit her against their current team. In the rain.

Moroccan Octopus & Pork Jowls |aji panca, radish, cilantro

A perfect appetizer that set up a perfect dinner write off.

Setting up in Dallas. Almost a year since the last time. Good to be back.

Enjoyed dinner and a musical with Dad and Georgeanne. Turns out you can make a fairly bad musical based on the forming of the Beatles. But the oysters were fantastic.

Breakfast

Clips win again. Not enough to take the sting out of the Marquette loss.

Nearly 80 degrees today meant lunch alfresco at Spagos in Beverly Hills. We sat next to Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence which is about the oddest celebrity pairing we have seen thus far. But the coolest part was when Wolfgang Puck was seated for lunch at his own restaurant.

Too long and not enough of a story, but just enough funny to be entertaining.

I have clearly forgotten what it was like walking to class at Marquette or work in Chicago during the winter because this cold streak has been hard to handle. Jimmy Kimmel sums up the ridiculousness of our plight.

On a positive note, the week ahead is looking up.

Enjoyed.

Hanging with the Hipsters and Hippies on Abbot Kinney in Venice. Was looking for the Luda Bites food truck, but it never showed up.

It’s been a painfully slow six weeks. Hoping to kick off the buying season for Basically Me.

Sonia thought inviting 44 of Brittany’s teammates over for a team dinner was a good idea.

Brit scored two goals in the first five minutes to help her team beat Pasadena 4-0 and start the league season 3-0.

I really enjoyed this movie. Captured the soul of the starving artist.

Lechon. This will be the name of my future hole in the wall if I have one. I’ve been thinking of making this sandwich for some time now. The heart and soul of it is Sonia’s Lechon. It’s a family recipe. But it wasn’t until we went to Spain and ate suckling pig at the world’s oldest restaurant did I start to thing about creating this sandwich. Rome was the final inspiration. The porchetta sandwich is Rome’s street food. So, with Puerto Rico, Spain and Rome as my inspiration, I present to you my perfect sandwich. Lechon. Sweet Pepper Relish. Crispy Onion. Cilantro. Crispy skin on top. Soft roll.

Like Titanic, you know the ending, but it was an enjoyable ride getting there.

Back in the routine. Brit helped her team win their first league game of the year with a hat trick and two assists.

Big fan of Air France. On my third Movie. Looper and Trouble with the Curve are both solid flicks.

4:30am. Last glimpse of the Colosseum on the way to the airport.

Naples is a port city. It’s gritty, dense and Italian in a mafioso kind of way. Fitting that we visited on the only dreary day of our trip. This is Napoli in black and white.

After being disappointed by the pizza in Rome, we took the train to Naples, the birthplace of pizza. In the extremely dense hillside neighborhoods of Napoli, we found a family pizzeria (they’re all family pizzerias in Napoli) and thoroughly enjoyed the Neapolitan style pizza.

The Grandparents who opened the place.

Ensuring our trip back by adhering to local legend and tossing a coin in the fountain.

Happy 2013! We decided to skip the official Colosseum New Year’s Eve Celebration and brave the “People’s” celebration in Piazza del Popolo. Although mostly unregulated and chaotic, it felt right. Everyone was throwing MD-80s and firecrackers into the center of the square, but it never felt overly dangerous. Everyone drinking champaign. No fights. No explosions in the crowd. No way you experience anything like this in the States. And all of it centered around an Egyptian obelisk, known as the obelisco Flaminio or the Popolo Obelisk. It’s the second oldest and one of the tallest obelisks in Rome. And yet, I didn’t see one policeman.