how I spent the 4th of July

Do you know, recently I've stopped calling the celebration of American Independence "the fourth of July." Know why? 'Cause we have a fourth of July here in France as well, but we don't get barbecues or fireworks! I guess it's the same reason "le quatorze juillet" (the fourteenth of july) is called Bastille Day outside of France.

Anyhoo, yes, yesterday was just another day here in the Hexagon. We started the day early with a drive to Troyes for our "big" second trimester ultrasound. I'm happy to report that it seems that French Fry does indeed have all his parts and the technician said that everything looked fine. French Fry was an active little bugger (I don't know if it was because of the big cup of tea I had for breakfast or because he was getting poked with a great big ultrasound thingie) and I swear he did a full somersault over the course of the exam. We'll get the pictures back when we go for the next doctor's appointment on the 16th.

Then in the afternoon I went with Stéph to help tidy up his classroom as Thursday was the last day of school. Some of my tasks included clearing the chalkboard and white boards, stacking books in the cubby holes outside the classroom and sharpening colored pencils and separating them by color. After an hour's work we called it an afternoon and we'll probably go back at the beginning of next week to finish up.

We've just come through a decent heatwave with temperatures getting up to the high 80's but we got through it thanks to plenty of ice cold water and oscillating fans. We even bought an evaporating cooler for the office (which is a small room where two computers live - you can imagine how hot it gets in here!) that cools the air with a combination of water and ice. We chose it over a portable air conditioner since it was less expensive (by more than half!) and can double as a humidifier in the winter. It just makes the office tolerable in the hottest of weather. Of course the office is going to magically turn into a nursery in another month or so but that's neither here nor there...

Anyway, to all my fellow Americans, I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day and ate plenty of barbecue, fresh fruit, cold beer and ice cream, and I hope the weather cooperated wherever you live so you could have nice big fireworks. Happy Birthday America!