Author Archives: Susan Rink
Snapshots of Venice
After our dramatic arrival on the day of the Acqua Alta, I’m afraid the remainder of our stay in Venice was quite conventional. The city was beautiful, the food was excellent, and the main sights were packed with tourists following a guide bearing a red flag, yellow umbrella, stuffed Minion on a stick…you name it. […]
The miracle of the lens cap
We arrived in Venice at high tide, in the midst of torrential rain, and on a day when the city was experiencing the highest water levels since 1966. “Acqua Alta” (high water) is what the locals call it. And they probably use some profanity, too, because the disruption of the water levels, plus the confused […]
Liquid Gold
The olive trees are everywhere you look — they cover the hillsides of Chianti, line the streets of the small towns, decorate the gardens of the ancient villas and border the vineyards all over this region. Over the course of our first week here, we have learned the importance of olive oil to the Chianti […]
You will never see this on an Olive Garden menu
It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows Louise, mom and me that we LOVE food. We love cooking it. We love eating it. We love serving it. We love talking about it. And we LOOOOVE learning how to cook new things. So when we began to plan this trip, an Italian cooking […]
Wine, women and olive oil
The first big highlight of our Tuscan adventure occurred on Tuesday: We took a private, all-day tour of the Chianti wine and olive region with a local guide. Miriam, a French/Italian who grew up in Livorno on the east coast and spent a great deal of her young life in Paris, showed up in the […]
No lives were lost in the process
We made it! The journey which began with a crazy idea two years ago…and after I was diagnosed with uterine cancer in December became my motivation for getting through all the crap related to cancer treatments and recovery…started on Saturday in South Carolina and ended with our arrival in Tavernelle Val di Pesa, a small […]
Follow-ups
I had my six-week post-radiation check-up with my GYN oncologist last week. He greeted me with, “There’s my SUPERSTAR!” Not sure that he doesn’t say that to all his patients, but I’ll take it! Had already met with the radiation oncologist a couple weeks before, and both agree that I responded well to the radiation. […]
Life is a strange and wonderful thing
A former Marriott coworker posted this quote on his Facebook page a couple of months ago. It really resonated with me for so many reasons. In the most literal sense, this quote echos a conversation mom and I had when I was in the hospital recovering from my hysterectomy in early January. We were reflecting […]
The finish line
Today was my final radiation treatment. The Ironwoman Cancer Triathlon is over, and I’ve won. I am no longer a “cancer patient.” As of now, I am officially a “cancer survivor,” a badge which I will wear proudly for the rest of my life. Over the past eight months since this Triathlon began, so many people […]
Three cheers for the nerds
It was the Fall of 1975, and I was sitting in a hot, stuffy classroom in James Madison High School (Vienna, Va.) struggling through Algebra II/Trig. I remember staring blankly at a complicated equation on the blackboard and muttering under my breath, “I know for a FACT that I will never use any of this […]
Everyday Discoveries 