And we're off..

..well, almost. Tomorrow we jump on a plane and head to Italy! Yeah!!! Our first real vacation here in Europe. Practically our first vacation by ourselves - ever. In almost 11 years of being together we have only gone on holiday by ourselves once (that doesn't include a night here or there at a B&B). After my sophomore year in college, the summer before DH headed off to graduate school, we stayed in his mom's condo in Florida for a week or maybe it was two weeks I can't remember. Other than that when we have holidays we either go visit family or end up at the beach with a group of friends. Don't get me wrong all those vacations have been fabulous (in fact we often think of how we can get a big group of friends here to do a European vacation together) but it will be nice to just have the two of us relaxing and enjoying Italy.

We will be staying at the Italy Farm Stay. It's definitely not everybody's idea of an ideal vacation, but we are really excited about it. We will be staying on a working farm and no, we do not have to work the farm unless we feel so inclined to lend a hand, the farm has vineyards, animals, orchards, the whole shabang. It is located near a town called Sora and is right near the Abruzzi National Forest. We'll go hiking, swim in waterfalls, visit a shepherd who makes cheese...we can go horseback riding, take Italian cooking classes...whatever we want to do. It will be so nice and relaxing. You can eat home-cooked meals with the family if you want and sample the wine made right there on the farm. How cool is that? I can't wait.

Ally is going to have a petite vacances of her own. She will be spending the week at a lovely little chenil - kennel (or pension canine - their fancy name for the kennel). Ally had a trial night there last week and seemed fine. Can you believe you have to pay them to take her for a trial and they have the power to reject her if she's too much trouble or whatever? In some ways it's a great way to weed out dogs, but then again it sucks that she had to stay there on a night when we were here AND we had to pay for it. Oh well, the things you will do for your dog!
The only big frustration has been getting Ally her vaccination toux de chenil (her kennel cough vaccination). I took her to the vet yesterday having a schedule an appointment for the kennel cough vaccination, I had a pamphlet in French about the vaccination which I immediately handed to the vet while saying, "elle a besion de la vaccination toux de chenil" (she needs the vaccination for kennel cough). The vet proceeded to look at Ally's little passport, which shows all her vaccinations and when she had them, when she needs her next one. She says, "OK. I'll get the vaccination." she injects Ally asks me if there is anything else. I say (in French)" No. it's her first time at the kennel, is there anything..." The vet says, "Oh! she needs a vaccination for kennel cough." What!??? wasn't that what she just got? That WAS the whole point of the appointment. No. For some stupid reason the woman gave Ally a vaccination for Rabies and distemper. Which, when I later looked at her passport she had clearly had in MAY - 3 months ago! I rushed back to the vets and asked if she was in danger? They said no, no, of course not. Then I asked why the vet had given her these vaccinations when it quite clearly stated she didn't need another until May of 2009? They tried to tell me that it was completely normal for a dog to get two rabies vaccines. In fact, that was what she was supposed to have. Then I asked why didn't the first vet tell me this? Because I would have come back in a year for her next shot and she would not have gotten 2 only 1. Then they gave me my money back. I'm glad I got my money back, but I'm still pretty furious over the whole thing. Thank god I said something about her going to the kennel otherwise I would have come home thinking that the vaccine they had given her was the one she needed. We would have showed up at the kennel this evening and they would have sent her back home with us, then where would we be?
ugh. I'm not good at confronting people in English, much less in French. At least I got my point across even if I wasn't completely coherent. sigh. I need a vacation.

speaking of which, I gotta boogie. ally and I are off to pick up DH from work then on to la pension pour chiens!