Happy birthday to me

Greetings! You'll be glad to know that Lizzie and I have survived the great food poisoning of '11. We were even able to eat a little today without forcefully ejecting it from our bodies seconds later. We are both a little weak on our feet, and won't be entering any hot dog eating contests soon, but after the hell of yesterdy, it is good to have just a plain ol' stomachache instead of projectile vomiting.

We both got up around 7, cautiously ate some dry bread, and waited. When nothing other than piteous groaning happened, we decided to celebrate my birthday in style, by going to tour a buffalo farm. Lizzie serenaded me, followed by the rest of our bus mates, and I regaled them with tales of how I was lucky to make it to this birthday. Who doesn't like hearing about other people's barf adventures? (Note, this did not dissuade one of our fellow tour members from filling his water bottle up from the tap in the bathroom at the buffalo farm. I do not suspect that things will go well for him. LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES)

We drove an hour and a half to the buffalo farm, and saw the buffalo doing various buffalo things, like pooping, and scratching, and sniffing each other's butts. I felt a little vomity, but it passed once we were out of the stench. They let everyone have a sample of their organic mozerella cheese, but Lizzie and I declined, not wanting to break our 4 hour vomit free streak.

After the tour (where they tried to sell us expensive leather...so sad) we went to Paestum, which is the site of some cool old Greek temple ruins that predate the parthenon. The Greeks occupied this part of Rome a bazillion years ago, and when the Romans came, they just used the old Greek temple and built a couple of their own. The ruins were super interesting, and they let you climb around in it, except for in the temples themselves. I wish we'd been feeling better, because there would've been some serious exploring, but we did almost get attacked by two Lizards, who were fighting, fell off the stone wall, almost landing on our heads. I don't normally find Lizards very frightening, but I still do not want two angry lizards falling on my head. We also visited the associated museum, and saw lots of hot dude on dude frescoes. (Does the plural of fresco have an e?) Seriously though, the Greeks and Romans were not into exaggeration, and all their naked dude paintings were, well, let's just say cute as a button. There was one of two guys sword fighting (not a euphemism), covered in blood, but naked. If I were going to be a solider during the Roman empire, I would ask for some damn underwear, at the very least. (Preferably sandals, too, oh, and some pants. And a shirt. And maybe some armor).

Interestingly, Paestrum is where the American troops landed back in 1943, and there was some heavy fighting in the town. Our guide, Pina (as in Colada) seemed miffed that the Americans landed there, and one of our group said, crabbily, "Well you shouldn't have let Mussolini take over then, should you have? We came to save your mother or grandmother." Hee.

So we're going to attempt a small bit of dinner later, to further celebrate my accrual of another year. I'll let you know if it stays where it's supposed to. The rest of you go have a giant piece of cake for me! (Look at me wearily holding my guts in that picture. Ugh)