Another Long...........But Successful Day

I went to bed last night just before midnight knowing that the alarm was set for 3:00am so that I could pick up the last half of Game 6 of the NLCS. For some reason, I woke up at 2:00am without the alarm just in time for the first pitch of the game. I had my earphones on and the computer on my lap while I laid in bed with Judy snoring on & off all throughout the game. She would wake up about every inning & a half to ask what the score was and go right back to sawing the wood, having no idea how tense this entire game was and how difficult it was for me to stifle the emotions that were boiling up inside. Unfortunately for her, she was up for good when Juan Uribe made contact with the pitch from Ryan Madson with 2 outs in the 8th inning that started heading for the right filed fence. I think I screamed something like"GET OUT! GET OUT!", which might be somewhat concerning who is sleeping at what was now 5:00 in the morning.

Now that she was awake, she got into the tension that followed with Lincecum & Wilson dragging us through the tail end of the emotional roller coaster. Every pitch in those last 2 innings were hard fought battles and we were never sure that it was really going to happen for the Giants. However, when Wilson threw that absolutely perfect slider to Ryan Howard for the called 3rd strike to end the game.............well, it just doesn't get better than that. Even though it was still October 23rd in the States, it was October 24th where I was....so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! WORLD SERIES HERE WE COME!

We tried to catch a little sleep before we were going to rise again at 8:00am. Judy managed to get back to sleep, but I had a little too much adrenaline running through my system to sleep right away. When the alarm went off, I think I had about 3 hours sleep all night, but, to be honest, I couldn't have cared less. If I knew that all it took was for me to leave the country to get this result, I guess I am going to have to plan an annual international trip at this time each year. I'm willing to make that sacrifice. Hey, someone has to do it.

Anyway, we decided to take a day trip by train to a little town outside of Bologna called Ferrara. The town center has retained its medieval charm with an older palace, churches and town buildings still as they were from hundreds of years ago.

Now that we had seen some of the sights, the primary objective of the day was now on the agenda. If you haven't already figured out what that is yet by reading some of these entries........it's finding the place we were going to eat lunch. We had a plan this time as we had a couple restaurants that we had targeted. After winding through the narrow streets of Ferrara, we found the one that we intended to eat at, Il Mandolino. The reason we wanted to go there was that Sam Ross, my cousin's son that just spent a year in Bologna, had suggested that we try a local dish that Ferrara was famous for, Cappellacci de Zucca con Burro e Salvia. It's a pumpkin tortelloni stuffed with pumpkin in a butter & sage sauce. It sounds weird, but Judy was committed. There was no way in hell I was eating pumpkin, though.  We got to the restaurant and it looked like a real hole in the wall, so we checked out another one right down the street, Antica Osteria Delle Volte. It was filled with locals, so we figured it had to be good and we were not disappointed. All in all, it was a very enjoyable lunch with wonderful local food and celebrating the Giants win and my birthday.......not necessarily in that order.