It's an Italia kind of week.

I stopped watching the Today Show a couple years ago. All that joking around is fake, they can't stand each other. The newscast was becoming too tabloid driven. Usually the first half hour is hard news, then you start to ease into the entertainment/lifestyle stuff. For me the last straw was on the Monday after 4 journalists were killed in Afganistan, CBS and ABC led off with that story. The Today show led off with some Happy Potter story. Since then I'm a GMA person. I did read the new producers at the Today want to do more hard news. Given everything that is going on in world we can do with less stories about Britney not having her kid in a car seat.

However, this week I did watch because they were broadcasting live from Rome, Florence, and Milan. Not sure why Katie let some pigeons sit on her head but otherwise there were some really great segments on art, culture, food and fashion. In Rome, Giada De laurentiis did a segment on market shopping then she cooked a meal for Katie at a relative's house. The palazzo was stunning, the views! I think it was her uncle's place.

Class on Thursday was fun. I had to tell the class about the movie "Cristo si e Fermata a Eboli" (Chirst stopped at Eboli). One of my classmates lent it to me. It was about a Northern writer under house arrest for his political views. Mussolini had sent him to Eboli, a small, remote and poor village in Southern Italy.

Thursday after class the four of us went to dinner. We "spoke" Italian for about half the night. My friend is still dating her Florentine boyfriend. She might rent an apartment there this fall. She was thinking about taking a leave from work before she even met him. She is so happy....awww amore.

Friday morning I decided to got to the Barneys Warehouse sale at 8:00 a.m. at the Santa Monica airport instead of the gym. Bought a pair of Co-op pants for practically nothing. Saw a pair of Prada pumps for under $250 but they did not have my size.

Since I was on the westside I went to the VW body shop to get an estimate. It will cost almost $700 to replace the decorative moldings on the doors. I guess I will keep driving without them. If I get a production bonus or something I'll take care of it. For now I would rather use that money to put toward my Christmas trip to St. Martin so I can see my family.

Went to Bay Cities deli and bumped into a producer who produced a film my boss started in last year. Very random. He told me he and his girlfriend go to Italy a couple times a year. He has a bunch of friends there. One of them is the director Gariele Muccino ("L'Utimo Bacio", aka "The Last Kiss") who's in town working on a project. He said next time "The Italians" come over for dinner he'll let me know. I looooove that deli. I bought salami, cheese, bread and Larzaroni milk chocolate with Amaretti di Saronno crumbles. It's all one of my classmate's fault. I went to her house on Sunday to do homework and she went to Bay Cites and came back with quite the spread. It was the first time I had that chocolate and now I'm hooked. Damn her, I better get it together before I regain the weight I lost. :)

Was invited at the last minute to some industry mixer but stayed in and watched the opening ceremony for the games. Very interesting. Disco, Fellinish acrobatics, Opera and fireworks. It was great to see the diverse group of women chosen to walk the Olympic flag in.

Went to the gym, read a bunch of scripts yesterday, made a really good soup (chicken with pasta and mushrooms) then watch part one of "La Meglio di Giovane" aka "The Best of Youth". It was a 6 hour miniseries that Miramax released theatrically last year for about a week. I will watch part two today.

Off to the Farmer's market to buy some flowers. It's held every Sunday on Melrose Place which is maybe 3 blocks from my apartment. For dinner I think I will have the rest of that soup. I don't know why I never made soups before. I made my first one a couple weeks ago. It was really good and filling. I guess if you make a cream based one it can be fattening but otherwise I assume they are pretty healthy.

Next weekend is a holiday but I think we still have class that Monday. I wasn't going out of town anyway. My sister-in-law is going to Turks and Caicos. I know she will be happy to get out of the cold weather. They just got hit with a Nor'easter. Yesterday it was in the low 80's here. Very dry and windy so there was a fire alert for most of this area.