Tax season was busy so I haven't been on in a bit. That being said gosh my last post was about insurance. And this post about insurance. That same kiddo? Hit 2 parked cars trying to park between them yesterday. What can I say? Except I'm glad she's okay. I'm glad no one was hurt. It was an ideal accident of hitting two parked cars. I would never have tried but you know with age comes wisdom of not trying to squeeze in a spot.
Oh yeah so it's already happened. The good news? I already turned the car in for repairs. The bad news? Well she hit two cars so my insurance premium i'm sure is going up. The worse news? She hit one of DH's coworkers cars. We left a note and we talked to building security and they left a note. Coworker thought it was a scam. So they complained about it on the internal slack channel which is how my DH found out. Oh boy. Talk about embarrassing. But at the same time we really did try to do the right thing. Oh well.
On a different note we are house hunting right now. The market is softening but we are looking for something bigger that fits us. I don't know if we'll end up moving mostly because it depends on if we find something that clears the bar of "better".
Also I leave on wednesday for a trip to Rome with my mom. We are going with my aunt and uncle. I am leaving the kids with DH for a week. Should be amazing. Where are we staying? Martis Palace Hotel. Minutes to Piazza Navona and Pantheon. What are we doing?
I booked with LIV tours all these day tours. First day we do a private golf cart tour. Then that evening we got to a Food Tour with Roman Food Tours because my aunt and mom are not big drinkers but foodies. The next day we got o Tivoli day trip private tour to see Villa D'este and Hadrians' villa. Then we have a free day to walk around. Then on Monday we do a deluxe Private Vatican tour with secret rooms of niccoli chapel and brachamante staircase. The next day we go to breakfast at the Pantheon and in the evening we go to the Catacombs with Santa Maria Maggiore. And we end with another first entry into the Colosseum and Roman Forum tour.
I am so excited. It's my first trip to rome and likely my mom's one and only so we are trying to hit all the highlights. So off to finalize our plans!
April 25th, 2026 at 12:45 am 1777077934
April 25th, 2026 at 07:00 am 1777100431
One thing that I sometimes still do to this day is, if it can safely be done, before running into something, I would step out of the vehicle and literally check to see if that is indeed true or not. I have actually repeated this process up to a dozen times before, not because I can’t park or anything, but because I really want to practice and learn what is too close and what is still workable for my vehicle.
That’s kind of something I feel like we don’t do enough in our lives, especially with younger people. Just because we passed the examine and is given a license, that doesn’t mean we are all magically experts now. Methodical practice is still very valuable, and not just from driving around, but actually taking the time to train certain isolated and emergency maneuvers in a safe area, before we are put ourselves in real life situations with real consequences.
April 26th, 2026 at 06:38 pm 1777228706
Have a wonderful time in Rome!
April 28th, 2026 at 07:03 pm 1777403029
Enjoy Rome!
April 30th, 2026 at 10:17 pm 1777587465
May 13th, 2026 at 05:10 am 1778649045
May 13th, 2026 at 08:36 pm 1778704618
Tivoli was nice - our personal guide drove us around the nearby marble quarries on the way back to Rome.
Did you get to Trivoli Fountain? Back in 2024 it was being restored, and so was fenced off unfortunately.
The Pantheon used to be free to go in certain times of the year - it was free for us back in 2022. I believe that went away recently. Amazing to see the hole in the roof of that place.
Lastly, was your tour really on golf carts? We did a tour, but it was on those small scooters they drive all over Rome. I don't remember seeing golf carts on the streets, but maybe I missed that.