#609 dreaming of Tuscany

My work is a bit stressful these days. We have a brand spanking new software system that launched on January 3, and although it's functioning, there are still some bugs to be worked out. In addition, we are in the process of closing the books on 2011, and we are doing all that work in the old software system. We are in a unique situation where we are working out of two accounting systems - last year in one system, this year in another system. The duplicity will be over when close is done, but until then, there's just a lot going on.

I brought lunch with me from home today (soup, cheese and crackers and sweet little Clementines) and I also brought my Nook reader. I finished a good book yesterday, and I downloaded a new book last night from the library. The new book is "Every Day in Tuscany" by Frances Mayes. She wrote the book "Under a Tuscan Sun" that was made into a movie several years ago. "Every Day in Tuscany" is actually her third book on her life in Italy.

She is a wonderful writer. She just jumps right in to her story and carries you right along. The way she describes everything - the flowers, the food and wine, the house, the roads, the colors of the sky, the piazzas - it just took me right there with her. I spent such an enjoyable hour reading and eating, it was a little hard to get back to my desk.

Since lunchtime, I have found my mind wandering a little and it always seems to go right to Tuscany. T is all hot to go to Italy; he has said he would like us to take a month off to spend time there. I can't really take a month, but I'm sure we'll get to Europe, including Italy, sometime in the next few years.

Until then, here's a pretty picture of a town called San Gimignano that I found on Google. When I think of Tuscany, I think it looks like this: