The Abdominal Snow Dog

We had a great time in the snow this weekend, as I am hoping all of you did as well! As some of you know, Bella, the Wonder GoldenDoodle, is obsessed with the snow. Here is some video shot on our outing to the Sculpture Park/Mrytle Edwards Park on Sunday.

This first one shows how all the ice on Bella's face affects her vision...


This video shows Bella bringing the stick back, which is AMAZING....


And here is video of the beautiful Sculpture Park.


Hope everyone is staying warm!!!

Trevi Fountain Video

Us being tourists at the Trevi Fountain... Slightly embarrassing but we had to do it...Nick is so technical! You will understand when you see it.

Another Video

Here is a video of protesters marching past the Tremini Station. The week the protest took place, the Italian Government had raised the cost of education and it kinda pissed the students off. It was a pretty peaceful protest, not surprising since the Police were following the protesters with AK-47's.

Video from Roma!

Nick took this video when we got stuck in a freak rainstorm. We were trying to get to the Spanish Steps to meet Manuel and so that is why on the video, I am on the cell phone. Crazy!

Reposting some more Honeymoon Pictures

Here are some pictures from Rome. This seems to be the part of the trip that everyone wants to see!

Playing the Tambourine in a restaurant

Cousin Manuel and his girlfriend Valentina

 

Got a little wet after a rain storm!

St Peter's Basilica

The Motley Crew! Katie and Nick Knutzen, Manuel Ursino, Valentina Angiulli, Adriano Papi

Some stadium, or something…. ;)

GRAPPA!!!!!

More in a little bit! J

Where have the Knutzen's been!

So I am horrible at posting. I have realized that the format I have all of our pictures on isn't working out so hot. So I will be fixing this in the next few days, please be patient since I am new at this whole blogging thing.

Anyways, here is an update on married life. We are finally adjusted to life without planning a wedding or being in Europe. It took some time, but we seem to be back to normal. We have been looking at our Italy pictures a lot lately (at least I have!). I think that we wish we could have that laid back lifestyle that the Romans seem to have down to a science. That is part of my New Year's Resolution. I am going to simplify my life and by doing this I hope I won't sweat the small stuff. I think this is in preparation for nesting (no, not pregnant yet...still in the "talking" stages)!

Nick and I are now trying to weigh our housing options. Since right now is a horrible time to sell our condo, we are thinking that we may have to hunker down in Belltown a little longer then we had thought. So, in turn, babies will have to wait. I don't think Bella would be too thrilled about sharing any more space. We are cramped enough!

I have officially changed my name! Well, almost. Haven't got the Passport changed yet because I may go up to Canada soon so I don't want to get stuck without it! I am starting to get used to calling myself Katie Knutzen, however, signing my name is a whole other issue. I actually keep signing Katie Ursino, and a lady at a store last week asked to see my ID! I told her I just got married and sometimes forget my name. Luckily she understood. I really need to get used to this!

We are basically just enjoying our first Christmas as a married couple! We have out Christmas tree put up and our Costco Size Nativity Scene (it's huge!). I put up a mistletoe yesterday but Nick hasn't noticed it yet. He just knows that he has been getting lots of kisses so he seems to think that he is doing something right!

We bought our first stockings together, pretty generic but I am hoping to jazz them up a little this week. Bella's stocking is on order, so hopefully we will get that soon!

By the way, you can check out our wedding day pictures at http://www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=542300. David Streams did an amazing job! Also check out his blog for a cool slide show (I love the last picture the best!).

Ciao for now!
With love,
Katie Knutzen

More Pics

I was doing a little rearranging of photos which is why some of the pics from the previous posts have disappeared...so in the meantime I will post some slideshows from the trip, then get back to posting blogs! Just click on the slideshow below and it will pop up. Thanks for your patience!

Nick's Wifey

P.S. Wedding pics should be ready by the end of the weekend!! YAY!!!

From Movies

Day at Sea Journal

Here is our posts about the first day at sea.... Nick's Post is first, then followed by mine...

Ciao!
Mrs. Knutzen

Day 3 – 1st day at sea
Our first day at sea provided a great opportunity to sleep in and relax. I decided to attend a detox seminar while visiting the gym – probably not the best information to get while on a cruise. We had a nice sit down lunch and then relaxed poolside for a bit. After that, we visited the mini golf course on the very top of the ship. The evening brought us to the Captain’s Dinner. We took full advantage of the open bar reception before heading off to dinner.

For dinner, we had Stuffed Mushrooms, Lobster Tail and Prime Rib. It was delicious!


Die Lobster!
After dinner, we visited the portrait stations and had our pictures taken. We were the only ones there so we were able to go through each station in a minimal amount of time. From there, we went to the New Orleans show. Finally, we capped off the night with a trip to the onboard pizzeria. This time, when we returned to our room our towel was folded up in the shape of a puppy.

They must have coordinated with our server to know we love dogs!

Day 3
DAY AT SEA
Extremely tired from the travels in Naples, we were very excited for a day at sea. Nick was wanting to read some more about our next stop, Croatia, while I wanted to nap in the sun. The day was filled with Bingo tournaments, trivia, live music and of course, shopping. I took this time to sleep. And play mini golf. Nick ran on the treadmill while I slept. And drank. Then while Nick showered up, I slept. Can’t get any better than that!
The evening brought the Capitan’s dinner. Nick wore his wedding Tux and I wore the Bridesmaid dress from our wedding (Thanks Courtney!). We were looking sexy!

At 7:15, we had “happy hour” with the Capitan and crew. All the drinks are free so Nick and I decided to indulge. We went to the 70’s club and met up with a couple who are retired and are staying on the cruise ship for a whole 60 days! They did the previous cruise which went to Greece and Turkey and they are continuing on for the repositioning cruise that ends in New York, where they are from. I don’t know if I could handle that much time on a boat but they seem very excited about it.
So the four of us and their two children (ages 42, respectively) got sloshed off of the free drinks. Nick drank his infamous Godfather’s and I had Bellini’s and champagne and some Whiskey Sours. All of us decided to order as much as we could, and then stash the drinks in our state rooms. As we were leaving the bar, nick had 6 drinks in his hands and I had four. We dropped them off in our room before we headed to dinner (well, Nick took two of them to dinner and I took one). We ate Prime rib and Lobster tail and drank some more.




When we finished dinner, we went to take pictures. I don’t think we will be buying any of them because we looked a little too happy (i.e. Drunk).


After pictures, we took in the show which was a tribute to New Orleans. We sat next to two wild (and drunk) gentlemen who are from New Orleans and they made it more enjoyable. Nick was slowly falling asleep during the show but when all the dancers then danced down the aisle (Nick had the aisle seat), we promptly woke up.
Then we passed out in our stateroom.

Honeymoon Day Two- Naples

Again, same format... Nick's post is first, followed by Katie's.....

Naples Day 2
Naples was a blast. We started off the day with a hearty breakfast in the dining room, knowing that it was going to be a busy day. We then hoofed it through Naples to catch the train to Pompeii. Walking the streets of Naples was pretty intense, as red lights and crosswalks are considered “decorations”. After about 35 minutes, we reached the Circumesuviana train station. Although I’ve read and heard about the trains here being especially dangerous, we had a pleasant ride with minimal hassle.

Departing to Pompeii. Graffiti decorations are prevalent on the trains and along the stops.
After about a 40 min. train ride, we reached the entry of the Pompeii site. Pompeii was an ancient Roman village that was buried in volcanic lava in 79. (that’s 79, not 1979). It was discovered in 1748 and excavations continued until the 19th century. It was amazing to see the layout of how civilization was back then. It’s interesting to note that despite how much progress has been made, people back then still congregated, went to the market, ate, and drank much like we do today.
The starting point is the Forum, the main town square.

The Forum, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Another picture of the Forum

Katie shopping at the market

The eruption was so sudden, people were preserved in the exact state they were in when it hit

Wealthy people had statues in their entryways

… and really intricate tile work on their floors

Lots of buildings had intricate artwork on the walls

The brothel had erotic artwork, presumably to display a menu of their offerings

The main amphitheater is where gladiators fought to entertain the masses. It seated about 20,000 people.

Our walk came full circle back to the Forum, and that really tied everything together in my mind after seeing so many aspects of Roman life. Although we spent about 3.5 hours touring the site, we still didn’t even come close to seeing everything. Next time I come I’ll be doing a lot more homework in advance.
From there we began our journey back to Naples and the cruise ship. Although I had the best of intentions to do the Naples Walk as described by Rick Steves, we were a bit tired from being on our feet all day so we took a more direct path back to the Port. We did stop at the end to check out a few of the sights however.

Castel Nouvo – We didn’t have time to justify exploring the castle, but got some good pics around the entryway

S. Fran Diapola Square

Galleria Umberto I – House of Iron and Glass
The Galleria Umberto was a really cool little place to do some window shopping. Luckily the stores were mostly closed. It was an open air shopping area, kind of like University Village in Seattle except with really cool architecture.
Exhausted, we finally made our way back on board the ship. We got a quick snack, then napped before heading off to dinner to eat even more food. Our chosen entrees were duck and enchiladas, and then we had an amazing tiramisu for dessert. Once again, I magically had exactly enough room to finish the last bite.
We decided to go to the Jazz Lounge and enjoy a cigar and some music in a comfy chair before heading to the welcome show. My main objective was to stay off my feet as much as possible after such a long day.


Since we were enjoying ourselves at the Jazz Club, we waited until the last minute to grab a seat for the show. It was standing room only, so we finally grabbed a seat in the nosebleeds off to the side. Unfortunately we couldn’t see much of the stage, but we did have a view of what appeared to be an empty table in the front row. I rushed down and grabbed the table, then waived Katie down to join me. Right after we sat down, we were interviewed by the Noorje, the cruise director who was asking about newlyweds and others on board celebrating special occasions. We then got invited to participate in a game of Family Feud in front of the audience. In a hard-fought contest, the girls team came from behind and scored the victory. I wasn’t disappointed to lose because we both received a little trophy and more importantly, a bottle of champagne. Those will certainly be nice to have with dinner one night during the cruise!

When we entered our room to crash for the night, we found the signature animal towel on our bed. It was a cute little surprise and a fun way to cap off the evening.

Goose or Cobra?

Day Two
Naples
Naples…what chaos! When we got off the ship, we decided to walk to the train station rather than pay to take the shuttle. We had a map, so we figured we would find it easily. It took about 40 minutes to find the train station, which wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was crossing the street. There are crosswalks, but cars don’t like to stop. There are red lights, but again, no stoppage of cars. You have to run to cross the streets….run for your life! I figured out that if you just walk aggressively across the street in front of vespa’s (they can maneuver around you) rather than the cars, you have a better chance of surviving. Walking in front of buses is suicide. So, for all you Seattleites who know better than to jaywalk? Throw that out the window in Naples.
We found the train station and arrived in Pompeii…jaw dropping. Incredible. Unimaginable. We took hundreds of pictures, but honestly they don’t do any justice. One thing that I found interesting was all the dogs that were wondering around Pompeii. I took some pictures of them and it made me miss Bella, but I got a little bit of a dog fix!




Here is an Ancient Doggie Door (or so I think)...

Pompeii was surreal. I really enjoyed checking out the ancient clay pots that were scattered around.

Anyways, it was a ton of walking and exploring. Nick has more details on this portion of the trip. I am finding it really hard to concentrate on this post right now because the man in the table next to me is wearing a Speedo and he is about 150 pounds too big for it. And his wife (or mistress, I can’t tell) is feeding him grapes. I think I may move over to the kid’s end of the deck. I am starting to feel a little sick. Yuck! I won’t take a picture so you will be spared. But just remember the sacrifice I am making by being on this honeymoon. You can thank me later!
For now I leave you with a picture of perfection….trophies, champagne, and a Goose.