St. Peters Square (and a very watery run-in with disaster)

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Caught this group of nuns walking through the square in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

In other news, in the "you can't make this stuff up" style that is my life, I'm slowly recuperating from the trauma of having not one, not two, but THREE hugely serious and expensive - and completely independent - plumbing disasters within the space of 24 hours! I'm too exhausted to share all the details - just picture me standing on the landing of my flat at 7:30 in the morning, wrench in hand, IN MY BATHROBE as the whole freaking main water pipe for the building literally came apart in my hand and started flooding me, the landing, the elevator shafts, the stairwell, and half of my neighbors who'd come running to help (note: this was NOT the part of the pipe I was attempting to close to stem the disastrous leak that was currently flooding my kitchen and living room with scalding hot water - nor was it the large somethingorother that failed later that day and sent thousands of gallons of water out into the parking lot, leaving 32 flats without water for hours, AGAIN. At that point we gave up and went out for dinner.). This was seriously beyond ridiculous, if I'd been filming a sitcom they'd have rejected the plot summary as too farfetched! (Oh and we had houseguests too, who'd just arrived at 2:30am the night before. Welcome to Israel, please grab a mop. Thankfully they're dear friends who just took it all in stride - far better than I did in fact, by episode number three I lost my mind and just sat there laughing hysterically at it all.)

Jay comes home from a business trip tomorrow, and not a moment too soon...

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Back, I think. For now anyway.

There is nothing in this world that makes me turn into a screaming raving lunatic like trying to deal with our beyond awful cable (and phone and internet) company. Seriously, I consider myself a fairly rational, calm, sane person most of the time (Miriam, stop laughing!) but there is something about the incompetence and general evilness of the cable company that sends me round the bend. I've already told Jay that if he ever comes home to find me catatonic on the floor his very first phone call should be to a lawyer to sue the cable company for the costs of my psychiatric care because there is no chance in hell that it won't be entirely their fault.

In any case, the internet is back. Slowly (because they never gave us the upgrade they were supposed to), but it's back. Only two months after the last technician claimed to have solved the problem permanently (cue maniacal laughter). Anyone care to place a bet on how long we'll last this time? I think the record is three or four months without a catastrophic failure of some kind on at least one of the three systems...

In there meantime, here, look at some oh so sparkly and shiny little things that I saw on my recent trip to Rome that I'm posting to distract myself from my aggravation (without becoming further distracted by thoughts of how many months I'd spend in traction if I ever so much as thought of wearing a pair of these!) so that I can refocus on getting back to work around here, finally.

And now it's back to work, writing about things significantly less sparkly...
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HOT Internet is CRAP! Don't use HOT!!

My internet is not functioning, AGAIN. AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. I am at my wits end dealing with the (insert LONG string of expletives) cable company.

I'll be back when this is resolved, or I have switched to the competition, a day which is not at all far off in the future at this rate.

So so so angry, forget blogging, I work from home and can't work this way at all.

#&%^#$%@#%$#%@$%%&
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Saint Peter's Square - Bernini's Saints

Or more precisely saints, popes, martyrs and evangelists, sculpted by Bernini and his students to top the colonnade with surrounds the square outside Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

Oh, and if you wondered where I've been, I was swamped with work (photo and otherwise) last week and then I snuck off to join Jay for a most wonderful weekend in Rome :).

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Medieval French Chateau, Brancion

The tiny hilltop village of Brancion in Southern Burgundy is one of the most magical, evocative places I have ever been. The entire village seems to have appeared straight out of history, a Middle Ages France version of Brigadoon, another wonder around each corner turned.

Visit my Society6 shop to bring a bit of the Brancion magic into your own home.

Click here (on Wednesday, I'm jumping the gun a bit this week) to see what other people aren't saying, and here to see what they are.