La dolce vita

About a week and a half ago, I got a new job.  It was a long time coming.  There were two and a half years of grad school, tests, practicum hours (like an internship) and lots of time spent searching job sites.  I applied in six different independent school districts for a school librarian job.  Because I want to stay with middle or high school kids, I saw exactly seven jobs even come up.  I managed to interview for four of them, and when a job offer came, Cas was ready with a very cool gift.  To congratulate me, he purchased a virtual tour of a Tuscan vineyard.  

It was supposed to be a real time tour of the vineyard, hosted by the friendly, smiling Italian man in the image they used in the promotion.  Cas booked it, and the company cancelled.  He booked it another day, and they cancelled again.  Maybe no one else booked, and it wasn't worth the hassle for our fee alone.  Cas had already purchased three bottles of wine from the region as a part of his super-thoughtful gift, so he came up with something even cooler.  He projected his computer to our living room TV and used Google Earth to "travel" to where the wines were from.  He even started at he airport, then "flew" us across the ocean to Italy.  After zooming in on the first vineyard, we went to the bar for a tasting.  Here's what my super creative and thoughtful guy came up with: 

We went to the couch (tour bus), traveled to the next vineyard (on Google Earth) and stepped off the bus to go to the tasting room (the bar between our living room and our kitchen).  For good measure, I found a Pandora station that played The Three Tenors.  Seemed correct.  

After the tasting tour, we poured a pair of glasses full and watched a few YouTube presentations from different Tuscan vineyards.  We rounded out the evening by eating lasagna and watching The Italian Job, because why not?  I didn't leave the house all day, but we spent the afternoon in Italy.  How cool is that? 

Photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2XJ3mX7a61qq3KRj7