snippets

This morning I went with Stéph to his school to pick up a few things in preparation for the return to school tomorrow. It was the first time I'd seen one of his classrooms and the first time I'd been in a French school. I love the building - it looks as though it was built a hundred years ago. It was interesting to see a part of my husband's universe that is completely removed from the life we share. Have you ever visited your partner's place of work?

When I went for my walk this afternoon, I wore my lined raincoat, despite the fact that there isn't a cloud in the sky, because yesterday it was just warm enough. Today it was just too warm. Spring is definitely coming!

I was walking through the park and at one point something hit my nostrils and I was immediately transported to Grandma's farm. It was the weirdest sensation! I couldn't figure out what it was that smelled so strongly of North Carolina but it made me smile and think of Grandma all the same.

more pop music theatre

Today, since I apparently don't have anything else to talk about I'd like to share with you another French pop song that I've really been enjoying lately. This is Sheryfa Luna, who won last year's French version of Popstars. This is her second single, "Il avait les mots," which means "He had words." This song got my attention from the first time I heard it, from the syncopated synth to the very first line, "Il était vraiment plus âgé de moi." (He was really older than me) This video certainly does a good job of telling the story of the song, and I just really, really like this song.



Also, she actually is pregnant in this video; she gave birth a few weeks to a little boy she named Vénus. I hope this song isn't biographical...

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Here we are on Tuesday and I'm already changing the menu around. Well, at least I'm not dropping anything. Yet. But we decided to go see the in-laws tomorrow afternoon and run a couple of errands, and the ragu sauce takes pretty much all afternoon, so we're going to do that today instead of tomorrow.

I know I've come over all domestic here lately, but that's pretty true to life since that's what I've been concentrating on a lot lately. I beat myself up a lot for being "just" a stay-at-home wife and then tend to let the domestic things slide and then I end up spending the majority of my time living in a dirty house. A house, I might add, that I take no pride in. Happily, that is changing. It's finally getting into my thick skull that if I just spend an hour here and there on some things, I end up with a house that I like to spend my time in and, yes, it's very 1950's retro and I don't care, that my husband can relax in, too. Yeah, sometimes I get some work assignments that keep me tied to the computer for a few days at a stretch, but when I'm free I don't really have an excuse. Plus, I ultimately do want to work outside the home and setting these good habits now will help me keep up with them later.

So there ya go. I'm not quite a domestic goddess yet, but I'm getting there!

menu plan monday - week 1

I found Menu Plan Monday thanks to my homie La Rêveuse. Making a list of the week's meals isn't anything new to me - I grew up watching my mom do that every week. About a year after moving here I started channeling her and making my own lists. It's true - it does save money and yeah, I struggle a little coming up with a fresh list every week, but I only struggle for that half an hour and for the rest of the week I know what I'm making. It's quite nice, actually!

But the real bonus of Menu Plan Monday is being able to participate with others that are doing the same thing and being able to see their lists and get new ideas. I do have a tendency to make the same things over and over again so these lists are really helpful to me.

Since this is my first week and there will presumably be a few folks visiting, here are a couple of notes before I get to this week's list:

Dang, y'all sure eat a lot of big meals!
Here in France, the main meal of the day is lunch, not dinner. Yes, my hubby is on vacation this week but he works within walking distance and comes home for lunch everyday. The dinners are actually rather light, especially since we typically don't eat until 7:30 or 8:00. They'll get even lighter as the weather gets hotter.

Well, you eat pretty healthy anyway!
Last year my weight got out of control and my doctor warned me that if I didn't lose the weight I would continue to have fertility issues (yes this is not true for all women but it is true for me, please don't take offense). I started seeing a dietitian and we completely changed the way we eat - no more high cholesterol meals, no more sugar. I've loosened up a little bit on the diet but I still basically follow it.

But don't you eat a lot of meat?
This is for two reasons - one, for my husband, a meal isn't a meal without meat, and two, the dietitian had me eating 100g of meat with each meal. I can replace that with a couple of eggs if I want to.

You're pretty big on leftovers, too!
Yep. This is for two reasons - one, cooking two (what I consider to be in my American mind) "big" meals everyday is draining, so having about one leftover meal a day really helps me out, and two, we discovered that it's much more cost efficient for us to buy a little bit extra and make enough for two meals than it is to make a different dish for every meal. Yay, efficiency!

And a note on shopping: I actually go shopping twice a week. This is because I've found that most fresh meat, vegetables and fruits don't last as long as what I'm used to (and my freezer is tiny!). I do my main shopping in the beginning of the week at a store that sells mostly fresh products, and fill in the blanks at the end of the week at a store where I can also buy toiletries and other things not available at the fresh store.

So here we go, Week 1! Don't worry, I won't be so long winded every week!

Notes: Breakfasts for Stéph are waffles, for me they are a bowl of cereal with milk and a cup of coffee or tea. Each lunch includes a piece of bread (bought fresh everyday) with cheese and a glass of 100% juice with no sugar added. Snacks will include seasonal fruits, carrots, cornichons (small pickles) and cheese and bread for Stéph. My "dessert" is a yogurt with no sugar added, cereal biscuits and a glass of 100% juice with no sugar added.

Monday
Lunch Steak hachée (like a hamburger but served without the bun), purée (mashed potatoes), carrots, cornichons
Dinner Tortilla de pommes de terre (potato fritatta) from Légumes faciles

Tuesday
Lunch Mom's meatloaf, green beans
Dinner Tortilla de pommes de terre leftovers

Wednesday
Lunch Mom's meatloaf (leftovers), green beans
DinnerDad's ragu sauce and spaghetti (most of this sauce will go in the freezer for future meals)

Thursday
Lunch chicken & broccoli stirfry (going to make this one up as I go)
Dinner surimi salad (see below)

Friday
Lunch steak, lentil stuffed tomatoes (based on this recipe)
Dinner Free Night (in case something is displaced - if not we'll get something out)

Saturday
Lunch Chicken & onions (see below), lentil stuffed tomatoes
DinnerBeef & veggie skillet (recipe to come in the near future)

Sunday
Lunch salmon, potato something (haven't decided yet)
Dinner soup & sandwiches

As always, thanks to The Organizing Junkie for hosting every week!

Extra special notes:
Here is the Wikipedia entry on surimi. I'd never heard of it before I moved to France. Here it looks like crab sticks (scroll down for the picture). I put them on a bed of lettuce with cherry tomatoes and serve with a mustard vinaigrette based on this recipe.
Chicken and onions: Cut chicken in cubes, chop onion, cook them up in a skillet with salt and Trader's Choice poultry seasoning. Easy peasy!

it's amazing what gets me excited these days

Seriously, I am way too excited about this. I just got back from the grocery store. This particular store offers points with their card and you can claim prizes when you get a certain number of points. We never bothered to get the card because it's more like a credit card and we are stridently credit card free, but I find it interesting to see what they offer as prizes.

Well, today I couldn't believe my eyes. The big grand prize for a bajillion points is a mijoteuse - otherwise known as a crock pot! I have been hunting down a crock pot virtually since I moved here, and it's not one of those things I'm willing to buy in the States and take my chances with an adapter.

So I thought that maybe if it's the big prize at the grocery store, maybe it's becoming more known here and I'll be able to find one online. Much to my delight you can find them on the French eBay brand new for very reasonable prices! I think I know what I'm going to ask for as my birthday present this year!!

happy VD!

Yes, that still makes me laugh. Hello, my name is Vivi and I am twelve years old.

Anyway, yes, today is la fête de Saint-Valentin, and we started it off with a romantic trip to the doctor's office. No no, we're fine, just have some small complaints that have been going on for a while and now that Stéph is on break can actually make an effort to correct. And my complaint, well, it's not totally gross or anything, but it's going to require further attention and it's kind of yucky so I'll save that for a non-Valentine's Day post.

Aaaaaaaaanyway, as I mentioned yesterday, we're celebrating very low key this year and are cooking up some evil yummy food (there will be cheese and potatoes and charcutrie and wine and it's not raclette!) after which we will certainly roll around clutching our tummies - but in a very romantical way.

I am so lucky because Stéph and I still tell each other every single day "I love you" and despite what I said three years ago, I don't feel like we have to go out for dinner because, in the end, I don't have to prove anything to anyone (plus we're kind of broke, thank you car!). I wish for all of you the same kind of happiness and love in your lives.

sometimes things just go right

Yesterday was just one of those nice days where everything just goes right. Stéph and I ended up taking the car together for its inspection and the guy was running behind so we had an hour to kill. First we went to a café and played Rapido - something we haven't done since we quit smoking and can do again now that the smoking ban is in place - and we actually won eight euros. Then we walked around a little bit and just talked about plans for the future. It was nice to just have a little catch up session and make sure that we're both on the same page. Then we went back and picked up the car and was happy to learn that it passed! Whew!

Then we went off to Troyes and had lunch at the in-laws' with my older sister-in-law and her family. We hadn't seen them since Christmas so it was nice to catch up and hear about how Stéph's niece, who is going to University in Paris, is doing (well!). Then we went off to the cinema for the first time in months, and the first time to see a French movie in years. I finally feel like I'm getting to the point where I can follow along without asked Stéph every five minutes "what'd he say?" We saw Asterix aux Jeux Olympiques (warning! loud music on the link, better turn down the speakers!), the third live-action movie based on the popular comic book character. It was cute, mostly filled with sight gags and special appearances, but I'm glad we saw it at a discounted rate!

Anyway, from there we finally passed through Grand Frais and got our grocery shopping done for the week. Plus Stéph had the job of picking out our dinner for Valentine's Day, and he did a pretty good job, I'd say. Calories will definitely not be counted tomorrow evening. I say what better way to say "I love you" than choosing a dinner filled with delicious evil food and wine?

Tricot du coeur: only seven weeks left!

Just a friendly reminder for those that are participating in Tricot du coeur that we have seven weeks to finish up our blankets and get them sent in. Yes, I said "we" because I haven't finished mine yet! In the beginning I thought "seven months? I have tons of time," so I worked on it a little here and there between other projects. Now that we're getting closer to the end I'm paying much more attention to my project! Here's the latest mitered square I've done:



This is the best seaming I've done so far. One of the seams on another square looks so bad (especially next to this one!) that I think I'm going to rip it out and do it again. I have two more miters to make, which I hope to have done by the end of the month, and then I just have to decide on the border. I could get it done sooner, but I'm still working on other little projects at the same time. I did try working non-stop on miters and I found that I stopped paying attention to what I was doing and ended up having to frog a whole corner, so I learned my lesson!

trapped in tiny town

So if you stopped by here yesterday, you may have noticed on my brand spankin' new Twitter updates over there in the sidebar that we have been trapped here in Tiny Town for the weekend. I had hoped that the car would be done by the time the garage closed yesterday at noon but he's still waiting on a part. Looks like we can plan on picking up the car on Monday, which will be just in time for the second car inspection Tuesday morning. The méchanicien very kindly lent us a car for the weekend, which came in very handy since we were scraping the barrel as far as grocery staples go. However, we decided to put off the Grand Frais expidition until next week so we wouldn't have to fill up the borrowed car on top of everything else.

The good news is that the weather continues to be gorgeous so there have been loads of opportunities to get out and enjoy the sunshine. It's times like this when I really wish we had bicycles or roller skates or something to really get out and enjoy the good weather, but we just don't have anywhere to store them right now. Someday...

Stéph's two week Winter Vacation started yesterday as well. This is the traditional time of year that families go skiing, but we'll be staying put. We're trying to sock money away (car repairs notwithstanding) so our big outings will include a trip to the cinema and maybe a museum or something. As long as this wonderful weather continues I don't really care; I feel like I'm on vacation anyway!

just when things were looking up

Yesterday was one big roller coaster. Wanna ride? Alright, hang on...

I stumbled across a new hair salon chain last time I was in Troyes that offers haircuts, color and perms for easily half what most salons offer here in France. Now, I am no hair salon snob and always frequented chain store salons back in the states (mostly because I always colored my own hair and usually just needed a trim). But this new place offers a cut and color for such a ridiculously low price that I thought I'd get my hair colored professionally for the first time in my life. Yesterday, I took off for Troyes just after lunch and arrived at the salon just after 2pm.

Now, the downside is that this chain does not take appointments so you'll be at the mercy of how many people are waiting in front of you and how many stylists are on duty. Yesterday I basically spent my whole afternoon at the salon! Also, they don't have a shampoo girl/hostess to welcome clients, so all the stylists help out welcoming people, taking their coats, etc. so this also played into why I was there so long. Another downside is that they are very, very big on upselling - the reason the prices are so low is that they make up for it with added on hair masks and selling products. The thing is that I totally expected this and was ready to pay more for products because y'all, my hair is so fried from this water that it looks and feels like straw - and that's without ever using a hair dryer! After trying dozens of different products, I decided I'd try the professional stuff.

The good news is that these girls know their stuff! My stylist gave me really good advice, gave me a choice between two different products (the main difference was the price of course), actually listened to me, gave me advice on hair color, and above all was really, really nice. I ended up with a new cut and color that I really like, plus shampoo and hair mask (I think it's called "I Can't Believe You Still Have Hair" for Extremely Damaged Hair) for the same price that my mother-in-law pays for a cut and color. I will definitely go back!

So I swished and sashayed back through downtown Troyes with my fabulous new hair and all was right with the world - only problem is that it was now 5:00 and I had planned to go to the big box grocery for a few things and then across the street to Grand Frais but now everybody and their brother were bound to be there, so I was trying to decide what to do, but then my car decided for me. As soon as I turned the engine over I knew something was wrong. The whole front dash was vibrating and it sounded like Nascar's finest. I drove it down one street and I knew something was very wrong, so I rushed back downtown on foot, bought credits for my mobile (thank god I had it with me!), and called Stéph. Since there were no lights coming on on the dash and the temp wasn't rising too high, I ended up driving home at 60 kph (just under 40 mph), easily pissing off all the "rush hour traffic" we can muster out here in the country.

As soon as I got home, Stéph came out and said, "I heard you coming from upstairs!" He looked under the car and said, "I thought so, take a look!" Y'all, I drove all the way home from Troyes with my muffler detached. Yes, I am that classy. Thank god it wasn't so bad that it was dragging, but I swear if I had looked when I was still in Troyes I never would have driven home, and that would have been a whole other mess of problems. The thing is that we just had the car inspected last month, and while we were told we had to get our brakes worked on before the car would pass inspection (that was done just this past Monday), we were also told that the brace holding the muffler in place was rusted and while it wasn't required, we might want to think about replacing it. Stéph reckons that the rust finally gave up the ghost after the drive to Troyes and snapped after it cooled while I was getting my hair done.

So the car's back in the shop, we're going to have to dip into the savings AGAIN this month, and I had a mini break down last night because it just seems like absolutely nothing is going our way these days. Stéph was awesome and reminded me that hey, we do have savings just for this reason and we're lucky because we have no debt and can cover ourselves when we have these rough patches. Not so many people are so lucky, and he's right.

a weekend well spent

Despite the fact that Stéph had to work this past Saturday morning (he only gets one free Saturday each term), this past weekend was remarkable in that 1) the sun actually came out and stayed and 2) I was able to convince my husband to actually leave the house! Truly the weather was so lovely that as we waited for my pasticcio to finish baking, we marveled at the blue sky and decided to actually get out for the afternoon.

First we went to Cultura, where Stéph found a book but I didn't find anything that struck my fancy (don't worry, I've got two books on loan so I'm not without words at the moment!). Then we checked out a new grocery store that just appeared in Troyes called the Grand Frais (I don't know how to translate this well: The Big Fresh?). As the name would imply, they concentrate on fresh items, so you won't find your toiletry items nor your frozen treats, but man they really impress when it comes to fresh food - easily half the store is made up of fresh produce (and it's a pretty decently sized place), and the quality is pretty hard to beat and the price is very compatible to the big box stores. Plus the fresh meat looked really good and they do have some dry items like pasta and beans, so I could really see myself shopping there. This week I'm planning a trip into Troyes so I may coordinate a shopping expedition there. Finally we stopped by the in-laws' unannounced (since my MIL did this to us all the freaking time when we lived in Troyes I feel no guilt about stopping by without calling first now!) and had a chat and a cup of tea and played with Stéph's niece before heading home.

Sunday was a real lazy day but as the sun was shining I did manage to get out and walk a bit. We've had so much rain here lately that the park is getting to be a very adventurous outing, but I manage. There were loads of families out enjoying the rare sunshine and the usual group of men (who admittedly are present rain or shine) was in place on the pétanque field. It was just nice to get out and breathe some fresh air after being shut in because of the rain for so long.

Of course, the rain came right back, but at least it had the decency to wait until Monday.

knitting for beginners

Ok, here we go. This has the potential to be super mega long, so I'd do my extended entry trick (i.e. you'll have to click on Tell me More! to read the whole thing) (my extendable posts don't work any more, sorry about that!). If you're a knitter and have additional advice please don't hesitate to add to the comments section. I also want to add here in the beginning that this is based on my experience, and everybody's experience is different, blah blah blah, so your mileage may vary. Also also, this is based on the idea that you are in the States, as I am basing my audience on my sister and my cousin, both of whom want to start knitting, so that means sizing will be in US terms.

Step One: Get some yarn and needles.



This may seem like an obvious step but if you're like me you're thinking "okay, but which yarn and which needles?" So I'm going to advise you to do something I couldn't didn't have patience for - go to your LYS. This stands for Local Yarn Shop. Then, pick out a yarn you like. What you're looking for is something that appeals to you, whether it's the color, the fiber content, or the price range. However, I do recommend something a little on the bigger side, so here's where you'll have to pay attention. On the label of every skein of yarn there is a handy gauge chart to tell you about the size of the yarn and the appropriate needles to use. Here's an example:



This little square tells you which needles are appropriate and how many rows and stitches you need to knit to make a 10 inch square, which is the gauge. Let's not worry about the gauge and just look at the needle size. In this example, the optimal size needles are a size seven. For your first skein, I would recommend yarn somewhere around the nine to ten and a half range so you can really see what you're doing. Grab about three skeins because you're eventually going to make a scarf once you get going.

Now, needles. Needles come in a wide variety of materials, including plastic, aluminum, wood and bamboo. For your first needles, I highly recommend wood or bamboo. It's more expensive but the yarn really grips to these kinds of needles and you don't have to worry so much about needles slipping off your yarn which can drive you freaking batty when you're just starting out.

Step Two: Go home and turn on your computer.

Specifically, you want to point your browser to knittinghelp.com. This is where you're going to learn everything you need to know to get you started. This website is amazing because she offers videos for most of the techniques you can think of and you can learn them at your own pace, whenever you need them, in the comfort of your own home. I'll walk you through the beginning, and then you're on your own.

The first thing you need to learn is to cast on, which is how you get your yarn on the needle and start your project. I suggest you learn the long tail cast on which happens to be the featured video on the main page right now, but can normally be found on the page called "Get Started and Learn to Knit" by clicking on "View Knitting Videos." Watch the video, start casting on, and then frog (what we call ripping out the stitches and starting over) your cast on and practice some more! When you feel ready to continue, get ready to knit, so go on to the page about the Knit Stitch.

A couple of things you should know: First of all, if you're left handed (like me!) I strongly recommend you try knitting right handed first. Believe me, I am as lefty as they come, I totally consider my right hand to be stupid, but I knit right handed. This is largely because I didn't have the crutch of someone sitting in front of me so I could mirror them; I only had these videos to mimic, so that's what I did. If you really, really can't follow these videos, you'll have to find someone to either teach you or let you mirror them for a while (or, like the website suggests, you could hold up a mirror to your monitor).

Secondly, there are two major methods of knitting and you'll have to choose one: the English method (which I do), in which the yarn is held in the right hand and "thrown" onto the needle, or the Continental method, in which the yarn is held in the left hand, and is faster but may need a little longer to excel in. Check out the videos for both of these methods and try them, then pick one.

Now. I recommend knitting a few rows, like maybe ten or so, then frog and start over. Your goal is to have your rows and stitches looking uniform; this means that your tension is good and this is very important later on down the road.

Once you feel comfortable with the knit stitch, try out the purl stitch. Remember which method you picked for knitting? Check out the corresponding video for the purl stitch. Then practice your purling technique. Remember (and this will make more sense after you've got your feet wet): knitting every row makes a garter stitch, knitting one row and then purling the next row makes the stockinette stitch.

If you really want to get adventurous, you can try a rib stitch. Cast on in multiples of four (twenty stitches would be good) and then knit two stitches, purl two stitches, etc. until you get to the end of the row. Don't forget that before you purl, you have to bring the yarn to the front of the work, and then to the back of the work before you knit! When you start the next row, you'll do knit two, purl two, all the way down again. After ten rows or so you'll see the rib pattern start to emerge.

So how long does this take? As long as you're willing to practice. It's going to be different for everybody, depending on how much time you have for watching videos and how fast you pick everything up. After a couple of days of practicing and frogging and practicing again, I was starting my first project, and you can, too.

So you've got a few skeins of yarn, what better first project than a scarf? First, decide what kind of pattern you like: garter makes a pretty and warm scarf, rib makes a fun pattern all the way down, or you can experiment with your knits and purls. Then cast on and keep on knitting until you're nearly out of yarn. Don't forget to watch the video to learn how to cast off when you're done and you'll be finished with your very first project!

Next time: Where do I go from here?

clean streak

It's coming down in buckets today, which means it's a perfect time for some serious cleaning up around here. This morning I cleaned the bedroom from top to bottom and this afternoon will be the office's turn, which has been in dire need of a good cleaning for months now. It's weird, the office is easily the room where we spend the most time but is the room I tend to ignore when it's time to clean. Anyway, I'll be turning this room upside down and shaking out the cobwebs and then I can zone out for the rest of the afternoon and listen to the rain, or maybe write that beginner's knitting post. We shall see.

Yesterday the sun came out for a minute so I ran over to Troyes to do some errands. I actually went downtown to take this picture because it is so funny that I had to share it with you:



If you can't figure out why it's so funny, click the picture so you can see a bigger version of it. It's pretty classy, if I do say so myself.

Alright then, out of my way, I need to get back to cleaning quick before I lose the momentum of my cleaning streak!

my new imaginary boyfriend

So y'all may have noticed that I'm finally starting to get into French music, especially since we got the TNT box and I have access to music videos that I can leave on in the background while I'm doing other stuff, which is nice because I cannot get the radio to pick up a signal out here in Tiny Town for love nor money. Occasionally I'll link a song I like to my Myspace page (I've still got a fun song on there y'all should check out) and every once in a while I'll post a video here. But this time, I have fallen, but hard.

I'd like to introduce you to Renan Luce. He is what I guess you could call a folk pop singer. His songs are full of clever lyrics and melodies that stick in your head, and his videos are quirky and clever as well. Oh - and he's easy on the eyes, too. Very easy. Mmm!

This is his first video for "Les Voisines" (which means "The Neighbors"). The first person that can name the movie this video is based from wins a virtual cookie.

state of the union 2008

You can read about why I do this instead of New Year's resolutions right here.

When I look back at where I was a year ago - and one of the miraculous things about writing a blog is that you can do just that! - it seems like I'm reading about the life of an entirely different person. This time last year I was heavily in mourning, having lost my Dad two months before, and since his death was hot on the heels of Mom's death I was simply stunned into inaction. But, at the same time, I could feel the change coming, and I knew instinctively that the worse would pass and I'd be able to get on with it.

But, it would take a few months to get there. In the meantime, I "consoled" myself with food, ballooning up to my heaviest weight ever. Thanks to an intervention from my doctor and the help of a dietitian, I lost twenty pounds last year and I intend to continue with the good habits we learned last year. And I'm here to tell y'all that losing weight will do wonders for your outlook on life. Seriously.

This time last year I was learning how to knit. Now knitting has become such an important outlet for me - not just creatively, but thanks to the internet I can connect with other knitters around the world to learn how to do it better, celebrate beautiful FOs and commiserate when it all goes wrong. I cannot believe that I went from not even knowing how to hold the needles to successfully knitting a sweater for my husband in one year! I've had a lot of friends and family ask me for advice on starting to knit, so I'm going to write about it, hopefully this week. I don't claim to be any kind of expert, but I have been a beginner and I know what it's like!

Of course, we had the ultimate good news in finding out I was pregnant and the worst disappointment when I miscarried in December. I certainly do have a way in making the holidays more challenging! Stéph and I have chosen to see this event in all the positive lights we can - we quit smoking, our healthier lifestyle is certainly helping, and most importantly, it's possible for us to get pregnant! We have high hopes that it's going to happen again soon.

As for 2008, well, Stéph and I have a lot of "maybes" and "if this happens then we can do this" sorts of things in the works. If nothing else, we've learned that life is full of surprises and we can't plan everything down to the last detail. Who knows what's in store for us this year, but like I do every January, I'm ready to turn the page and look towards the future with a positive attitude. Bring it on, 2008!

greetings from fog central

The last few weeks the temperature has been slowly creeping up the dial, so much so that people were starting to talk about an early spring. That is, until the bottom dropped out Thursday night.

Yesterday was supposed to be a cold but sunny day, but thanks to a huge drop in temperatures and the ground being very warm, we had The Fog That Would Not Burn Off yesterday. At no point in the day did the fog clear and it was so bad that you could barely see ten feet in front of you.

It was under these conditions that I drove to Troyes yesterday to meet up with Doc and the rest of the American Citizens of Haute-Marne (of which there seems to be three, total). Thus I am very happy to report that Doc is both alive and well, albeit exhausted from caring for three very sick babies. There was a lot of "I'm just gonna run in here for a minute" up and down the main shopping drag in Troyes, and I actually went inside and bought yarn from Bergère de France for gifties, one of which is LONG overdue. Then we hung out and drank hot chocolate and had snacks of the sugary variety (we had to keep up our blood sugar levels, honestly!) and gossiped before heading our seperate ways back into the fog.

Today, the fog is still here, but as of this writing at 2:30pm it looks like it's finally starting to burn off a little and I can actually see a little blue when I look up. Here's hoping it clears up before the next batch of gray clouds descend on us!

it's still christmas around here

I don't usually post pictures of gifts before I give them to their recipients, but if you listen to the katia and kyliemac show and you listen to episode 112, I was knitting while we chatted and I said that I should be done before the show went live and that you could stop by and see the final product. Plus, my sister, who these socks are for, already knows about the gift, and she'll probably be happy to know that they're done and nearly on the way.

I did actually finish them Tuesday and caught a little ray of sunshine before the sun went down to take a picture:



And before you say "it's a little late for Christmas presents, isn't it?" let me just say "ha ha! you must not be a knitter!" and also mention that I didn't received my gift from my sister last year until February, so we reckon that this clears the slate (though I should note that it wasn't her fault and that she did ship the gift well before Christmas, that's just the way it goes around Christmas time).

vivi goes to hell

I limped my way to Paris this past weekend and had a wonderful time, as always. I got to check in with Miss Flare (who brought me goodies from the US! Thanks Flare!), spent some quality time in the Coffee Table Studio, went to a bar and met interesting people and drank a beer and went home without smelling like an ashtray - and I didn't even crave a cigarette the whole time! - and relived my college days with Kyle Mac by indulging in real American-style pizza and beer.

But the real reason I was there was to go straight to hell. (Sorry, link's in French)

So - L'Enfer de la Bibliothèque, or The Hell of the Library, is an exhibit going on at the National Library of France. "Hell" is the section of the library that was created at the beginning of the 19th century for all documents that were considered indecent, whether political or sexual, and locked away from the eyes of the general public. The exhibit not only covers the history of Hell, but also shows an overview of documents that have been stored there for centuries. Absolutely fascinating exhibit, but only available through March and not open to those sixteen years and younger - there are, after all, loads of penises and vaginae on display.

So after all that excitement, Kylie Mac and I needed something of a palette cleanser, if you will, so we took advantage of one of the many (free!) museums just lying around Paris waiting for someone to come give them a visit, so we opted for the Petit Palais. Built for the 1900 World's Fair, this "little palace" now holds a permanent collection of art through the ages and is an absolutely stunning example of Art Nouveau architecture and style.


Be sure to click so you can appreciate how gorgeous this place is!

I enjoyed this visit very much and if you've got a couple of hours to spare, I think you will, too. Unlike some of the larger museums of Paris, this one is easily doable in an afternoon with time to sit and have a drink in the café and you can leave satisfied that you saw everything there is to see. You can't say that about many others.

from fabulous to annoyed in six hours flat

Yesterday we were due for a whopper of a storm in the afternoon, so I took my foot out for a spin in the morning as I had a couple of errands to run. One of them was one I'd been putting off for nearly a year. I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but I broke my fancy-schmancy frameless eyeglasses, and in the stupidest way possible - I laid down for a nap and put my glasses next to me. Yep, you can imagine what happened next. I've been wearing glasses half my life and now I break them? Anyway, they weren't destroyed, just one of the arms came off where it connects to the glasses, so I'd been just sticking the arm back in its slot. But it's been getting worse and worse and I knew it was time to bite the bullet and just go.

Much to my surprise, not only did the woman remember me from two years ago, but she fixed my glasses for me right that minute for free (yes you read that right!) and told me that if this quick fix didn't do the trick, I'd have to drop them off for a couple of days. So far, the glasses are holding up just fine.

This, y'all, is why living in a small town is the best!

Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. I had a couple of twinges in my foot during my walk, but it got worse while I was making lunch and right when I was finishing up my foot actually spasmed. So, off I went to the doctor.

One of the peculiar things about our doctor is that he takes appointments in the morning and the afternoons are first come first serve. I called to see if I could get an appointment for Wednesday morning but he wasn't going to be there, so I didn't have much of a choice. I arrived a half an hour before his scheduled afternoon time and there were already seven people ahead of me. Then he was half an hour late. Then he took an extraordinarily long time between patients (to the point that we were kind of looking at each other in the waiting room saying "what the hell is he doing in there?"). Finally, my turn came two and a half hours after I walked in the door.

This is why living in a small town can suck.

And the most frustrating part is that he's a really good doctor and both Stéph and I like him. Though I have to say, yesterday he did seem way more rushed than usual. However, he did poke and prod my foot a few times, prescribed me some anti-inflammatory pills and cream, and told me I could go on my urban adventure this weekend as long as I wear shoes with very thick soles.

Why is it that sitting in a doctor's waiting room for so long can drain the will to live?

Anyway, all systems are go for my urban adventure this weekend and I'm hoping to catch up with a few friends along the way. I'll be the one wearing hiking boots in the middle of a very cosmopolitan city. Be sure to say hi.

moaning is the best medicine

Of course you know that the day after I bitched about my foot it started getting better the next day. And here I thought my drama queen days were over! It's not quite perfect but I'm not getting stabbing pains anymore when I stand on it for two minutes, so it's definitely improving. Today I'm going to the grocery and tomorrow I'll try my usual walking route and we'll see where we are after all that.

I sincerely hope tomorrow's walk is good because I've been invited on a very interesting urban adventure this weekend and I really want to go. More to come on that as soon as I know if my foot will be up to the task.

Also, I just have to say that one of the pleasures of living here in winter is walking back home from the boulangerie with a warm baguette in your cold hands. It's the little things, you know.

my stupid foot

Why is it that when I get one thing sorted out, something else has to go all wonky, and why does this always have to happen to something in my body? For about a week now, my right foot has been giving me problems, and believe me, with my pantheon of former foot problems, this is a new one on me.

Basically, if I stand on it for more that five minutes or try to walk more than ten paces, I start getting stabbing pains in the outside of my foot. If I don't have any pressure on it (ie sitting down) it doesn't hurt at all. This means that something as simple as whipping a meal together has me howling by the time I sit down. It's gotten so bad that I've been limping around the house trying not to stay on my feet too long but it isn't lessening up. Going to the grocery yesterday was an adventure, let me tell you.

The only thing I can think of that is causing this is a)I started wearing my old clogs again that I haven't worn in ages, but the pain is coming whether I'm wearing shoes or slippers or socks; or b) all that walking I did last Wednesday in Troyes, but I felt totally fine all day and I didn't notice the pain until two days after. I don't remember tripping or twisting my ankle or anything.

So I'm pretty well annoyed because this is stopping me from taking my afternoon walks (when the weather is nice, which is rare but still!) and some other stuff I'd like to do, like go back to Troyes with my camera and take some photos of some things that tickled my fancy last week. I'm hoping it will sort itself out but I guess if it's the same next week I'll have to go to the doctor... again. I swear we should have a discount.

In other news, I found out that yesterday was dulurking day (thank you to Jaynee for delurking to say hello and also giving me a heads up!). Of course I'm a day late and a dollar short, as usual, but if you'd like to drop a line and say hello in Ye Olde Comments Boxe, I promise to return the favor!

meanwhile, back in france

I know it's been all about me here for a while (and honestly, isn't it supposed to be like that on my own blog? but I digress...) but there have been some interesting developments here in France recently. For example:

France goes non smoking Last year smoking was banned from public places such as malls, businesses, grocery stores (!) and hospitals (!!!), but last Wednesday the new non-smoking rules went into affect, targeting bars, cafés, restaurants and nightclubs. Actually, for Stéph and I, this couldn't have come at a better time. Before we quit smoking, we actually fretted about the ban - "where are we going to go for a coffee and a smoke? how we will enjoy our dining experience?" but since we quit we've been avoiding our local café so as to resist the temptation of buying a pack of smokes and lighting them up right there. Now we feel like we can go wherever we want, and it's lovely. Plus, a lot of people predicted that the cafés would curl up and die with their smoking patrons gone, but I'm glad to report that last Wednesday, strolling around Troyes, they looked pretty busy to me.

Sarkozy gets a girlfriend So if you're not up on French current events, a few months ago, Sarkozy and his wife split up, making him the first President to be divorced in office since... well Napoleon, actually. Never mind the fact that the separation was announced right at the beginning of a massive transport strike in a very "no! look over here at the shiny toy!" kind of way. But now the President is dating Carla Bruni, an Italian model and singer, and the French media has gone absolutely apeshit. Not only has the "legitimate" press been following them on excursions to Disneyland Paris and Egypt, but at Sarkozy's first press conference, the second question was about his relationship with the model. I'm pretty sure we can expect a wedding announcement at the next financial or strike crisis.

It's the soldes! Today marks the beginning of the bi-annual shopping sales, which will last about three weeks or a month or so. Today is kind of like Black Friday in the States, where crazy shopping freaks actually staked out what they wanted to buy yesterday so they would be able to swoop in today and grab what they want without the time consuming hassle of trying it on. Typically we like to wait until at least the first week is over before we go see what's left - it's not that we couldn't use some new things but the crowds are so ridiculous, especially here where we have two major outlet shopping centers, that it just isn't worth the bother.

watch out 2008

Well, hi there! Sorry it's been so long. I was feeling so much better last week that I didn't even dare stop to blog about it, lest it all disappear and sends me back to my icky, crabby self. But no! The first week of 2008 was pretty nice, all things considered! 2007 was crap all the way until the end, as the special shrimp Stéph and I bought to eat for NYE tasted like they had been packed in salt, and we could only get a few down before we had to throw the rest away. Poor little shrimps died in vain.

But the very next day I finally started feeling better! Wednesday I spent the day wandering around Troyes with a friend that came into town. We were so lucky with the weather - finally blue skies after weeks of shotgun gray. It was cold but we warmed up with frequent café stops and shopping expeditions. I came away with a new book and I also rescued one of my all time favorite movies from the bargain bin. Incidentally, we watched it last night and I was so pleased that the movie still holds up and even Stéph liked it!

Friday night we had Stéph's friend JP over for a big dinner of moules frites. We hadn't seen him since summer and it was great to catch up. Then Saturday night we had dinner with Stéph's brother, wife, their three kids and a couple of other guests for a nice big tartiflette (gotta get those calories in while it can still be considered "the holidays"!).

Today Stéph went back to work and so did I, getting some articles written up and making a grocery run. Of course, not everything is running smoothly and I forgot my list, which automatically means I forgot something, but this will give me an excuse to get out of the house tomorrow. For now, the house is (relatively) clean, the sky is blue and the sun is shining through my window, and I'm going to enjoy the rest of this afternoon. All I can say right now is bring it 2008, I'm ready for ya!

2007 ends with a whimper

Oh dear, what an "interesting" week we've had around here! Unfortunately, it was one medical blunder after another and happily I'm finally feeling a bit better and ready to ring in the new year, but it has been a very rough few days.

It all actually started last weekend when I was sort of feeling out of sorts but couldn't explain why. My back hurt, my knees hurt - I was all around feeling funky. It wasn't until Christmas day, when I took an aspirin for a headache and broke out into a sweat that I realized I had a fever! What's so sad is that I didn't even recognize a fever without stuffed up sinuses or a hacking cough. But the thing is, when you've had a miscarriage, they tell you to be on the watch for fevers, as this could be a sign of a uterus infection - not good news!

So we managed to get into a doctor here in Tiny Town on Wednesday, who told me that it probably was an infection, put me on the strongest non-penicillin antibiotic he could think of, and told me that if I still had a fever on Friday that I'd have to get in touch with my icky doctor. Well, don't you know, Friday rolls around and the fever is still there, but my icky doctor is on vacation! (Of course he is, because that's my luck in a nutshell.)

So we call the urgent care of the clinic where my icky doctor practices, and they set me up with the icky doctor on call at the clinic. She doesn't quite know what's going on, as now not only do I have a fever and random back and tummy pain, but a massive headache to boot. She sends me off for an ultrasound, where the ultrasound doctor tells me that there is no infection in my uterus. Hooray! No, he said, it's probably just a virus in my kidneys or liver or something. Do what?

So we go back to the icky doctor on call, who tells me that since it's probably just a virus, it should clear up in a week or less and that I should stay on the antibiotic through today so I don't become immune to it. Of course, my headache only gets worse and we finally realize that it's the antibiotic that's giving me enormous pulsating migranes and we make the decision amongst ourselves to cut the dosage down in half, and the migranes have very nearly disappeared.

Today I'm feeling the best I've felt in weeks and to be honest it's just a relief. But just because I was feeling bad doesn't mean I wasn't productive:



I wanted desperately to get it done in time for Christmas Eve, but I just couldn't do it. At least I got it done for the end of the year! My very last FO for 2007 is certainly my most difficult to date, but it looks great and IT FITS! Hallelujah!

As for New Year's Eve, we had been invited out but I've been so sick for so long that we just decided to stay home this year and have a quiet celebration. We went to the grocery store a little while ago and picked up some New Year's goodies and we'll likely celebrate in front of the tv with a glass of wine and plenty of good food to ring in the New Year.

Wherever you are in the world and however you're celebrating, I wish you a very Happy New Year! Roll on, 2008!!

merry merry!

The bad news is the sweater didn't get done. Having to redo the sleeves put me too far behind and I still have about four inches of the yoke to go. Hopefully I'll still get that done in the next couple of days.

The good news is that we got our butts in gear and got the Christmas cookies baked and packed! Because our EZ bake oven is so small, we can only bake about 10 cookies at a time, we decided to do one double batch on Saturday and one on Sunday. I had cracked and crushed enough walnuts for the first batch over the last week, so while the first batch was baking, we worked together to crack and crush another four kilos (nearly nine pounds!) of walnuts. Then it was just a matter of time to let them cool...


about 1/5 of all the cookies!

and then packed them in these fancy tins (which are commonly used for holding sugar cubes for coffee and tea, so they're practical, too!)...



and I just finished wrapping them all up:


check my mad wrapping skillz!

We'll be off in about an hour and a half to pick up the cheese and wine for the big dinner tonight and we'll probably get home around 2am, since we open our gifts to each other after dinner. Christmas is definitely an exercise in endurance in this family!

Other than that, I'm doing ok. During the last few days I've been unbelievably tired and suffering from freaky flash mood swings, going literally from laughing to crying within seconds (poor Stéph!!). I sincerely hope this is just my hormones being out of whack because I feel like I've been walking through water these last few days.

Well, nevermind, Christmas is my favorite holiday and I plan to enjoy it! Whether you're celebrating tonight or tomorrow, I hope all of you that are celebrating have a wonderful time!

healing

First of all, I have to thank you all very much for the kind comments and emails I've received over the last week or so. It's frankly shocking how many people have been touched by miscarriage, personally or otherwise. I wouldn't wish it on anybody but it's comforting in a way to know how common it is.

So how am I doing? Now that's an interesting question, one which I thought I had the answer to. Yesterday morning I replied to most of the emails I'd received, saying that I was surprised at just how well I was doing - freakishly well, in fact. I somehow managed to schedule a fully packed week this week and that is doing a great deal of good. Of course, just hours after I sent those emails out, I had a full-on breakdown and was useless for the rest of the day.

Perhaps we should just say that I'm getting there, and leave it at that. We're choosing to say that yesterday afternoon I had a "hormonal day." I guess they're still out of whack, those crazy hormones.

And what have I been doing this wacky busy week? Well, I've been writing - twelve articles so far and three more to go, on an assignment that took much, much longer than it should have. Plus I attended a very interesting seminar in Troyes Tuesday morning (more on that to come) and then took the car in for its two year inspection in the afternoon. Plus we'd decided that we were going to make cookies for all the in-laws for Christmas (that's still five families, including Stéph's parents!) and I really wanted to make my Dad's famous Christmas Crescent Cookies, which we road tested last week and Stéph took the results to work. The only problem is that they require 2 cups of crushed to nearly powder pecans for each batch. Pecans in France are brutally expensive, and if I bought enough for five batches it would have cost me 32€ for the pecans alone! So we're going with walnuts. But this means I've been cracking open walnuts and crushing them in my handy nut crusher (tee hee!) every day and I still have plenty of nuts to crush (ha!). The real shame is that my grandmother has more pecans than she can handle thanks to three or four pecan trees at the farm and there are literally buckets of the things lying around. If only we'd thought of it in advance! Oh - I'm also determined to finish Stéph's sweater before Monday evening, even though I only discovered this weekend that I'd knitted the wrong size sleeves and had to start them over.

See? Totally busy.

Tomorrow I'm going to Stéph's work Christmas lunch at one of the few nice restaurants here in Tiny Town. I'm really touched that Stéph insists on including me in these outings, especially since it's at lunchtime I'm sure to be the only spouse there. The best part is that the menu is done in advance, and Stéph forgot to bring me the menu to choose, so he chose for me based on what I don't like. For example, he chose the meat meal because he knows I don't like fish, and the foie gras entrée because I can't stand salade de gesiers. That made me smile today.

Ooh but this didn't - at lunch Stéph came home and told me that we were invited out to a colleague's home for dinner tomorrow night. The invitation was actually made last week, and he does this all the freaking time, but I'm so thrilled to be going out that I really don't care. The only problem is that he volunteered an apple pie, and guess who gets to do that tomorrow? Well, at least we know I'm not having a hormonal day, since I took the news in stride.

loss

This past month has been one of the happiest cluster of weeks in my whole life. It's been a dream come true; something both Stéph and I have been working towards for years. Plus, because of the timing of the thing, we both felt like this was literally heaven sent.

But it wasn't meant to be.

Wednesday night I miscarried at ten weeks, five days. Since that time, I have been experiencing the worst pain I have ever felt in my life, both physically and emotionally. In an unprecedented move, I am letting my family take care of me, for a change.

I know that we are going to get past this, and we are going to try again, and to tell you the truth, I was starting to worry that we couldn't even get this far, so it is a relief on some level to know that there can be an "again." But my heart, well, that's a different story. For now, it's back to the drugs, and oblivion.

seven more things

I know.... I know. I'm exasperated with myself! I promise you, I have a really, really good reason for not posting very much right now. You're just gonna have to be patient with me until about Christmas day. Really.

So Miz JChavais over at No Place Like It tagged me a little while ago for the seven things meme. I honestly thought that I'd done this one before, but I was thinking of this instead, so here are seven random things about me.

1. I really do not handle confrontation well, but that doesn't mean I don't have rip roaring, neck rotating, snap inducing arguments... in my mind. Even if I can't work up the courage to confront someone about something that really bothers me, I'll imagine the showdown down to the last detail, and I'll get so worked up about it that my heart will race and I'll break out in a sweat. I have lost nights of sleep over this.

2. I have been knitting for less than a year and I wish I could spend every waking hour doing something related to it. My goal for next year is to create a knitting blog (from scratch if I'm really ambitious) and my long term goal is to learn how to spin and dye. How I'm going to learn to spin out here in the boonies, I have not yet figured out.

3. I haven't had a cigarette since November 9. I think I have finally flung this monkey off my back!!!

4. For the second year in a row, I have absolutely no desire to put up a Christmas tree. I know that last year it was because Dad was here the year before and the thought of getting through Christmas having just lost him was too difficult to bear. This year I can't be bothered because we're not expecting any guests, we'll be celebrating Christmas Eve with the family at Stéph's parents' home, and I don't want to clean up the huge mess. I still love Christmas, though!!

5. I have been wanting to get a cat since I got here. I got my first cat when I was a freshman in high school (I think) who of course became mom's cat when I went to college, but she would give me preferential treatment when I came home to visit. (The cat, not my mother.) I adopted an older cat the year before I moved here, and he was a great big furball. I even thought about bringing him with me, but I was moving from a small apartment to a small apartment with two people, and I thought that wasn't fair (because he was a big beastie and needed plenty of room to run!). Anyway, there are loads and loads of feral cats here in our neighborhood, and they fight, scream in the middle of the night, and rip open our garbage bags on garbage pick up nights. I'm not so sure I want a cat anymore.

6. I'm not too desperately homesick anymore (except for family and friends, obviously), but I do really miss my Sunday morning routine of picking up my favorite breakfast - toasted bagel with crispy bacon, cream cheese on the side, large coffee, (omg drool) - and the Sunday paper and going home and listening to NPR (I loved "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" and "Prairie Home Companion") and reading the paper from front to back all morning. *sigh*

7. I can't really think of a seven so... as much as I miss my American goodies, I don't know how I could live in a world where there aren't three boulangeries within a five minute's walk. Yay, France!

Now, normally I'm suppose to tag five people, but everytime I tag, I get yelled at, so if you wanna steal it, please do and let me know so I can link you here.

This is the cold that never ends

...it just goes on and on my friend...

Ugh. Ok, it's nearly over, with some residual sniffling and coughing still going on, but this past week has been awful and I'm SO GLAD it's nearly done. Let me see what else has been happening around here...

Stéph found out Friday that he's coming up for inspection on the 10th. Teachers are inspected around every four years or so (depending on how backed up the inspectors are, although Stéph's seems to be right on schedule) and they're required to be up to date with all that fun paperwork stuff that teachers JUST LOVE (oh sorry, did I drip some sarcasm on you?). So you can imagine that Stéph has been working double over time to get everything in order. That's not to say that he paperwork isn't in order, but it maybe wasn't as organized and pretty to look at as it could have been. For example, he spent most of the weekend redoing his daily planning so that it could be legible. Yes, it seems the details do count.

I've come to terms with the fact that no, none of my knitting projects are going to make it under any Christmas or other types of trees this year. The socks I was making for my sister are a complete bust - first done on needles to large, then on needles to small, I'd have to do them AGAIN on needles just right and I just can't be bothered. So I gave sis the option to choose another colorway if she didn't like the one I was using and apparently she didn't because she chose a new one. Well, it's just as well since I'd rather make her something that she'll actually wear.

We have not even started any type of Christmas shopping, thanks to me being ill and now this inspection thing. Coupled with the fact that we are freaking POOR and I don't know what we're going to do this year. It sucks because our inlaws always give us really nice, thoughtful gifts and I feel like we're pulling Christmas gifts out of our collective butts every year. (good gracious, what a mental image!) I've enjoyed making gifts for the nieces and nephew but this year I have neither the inspiration nor the time, so I don't know what we'll do there, either. Panicking shall start imminently...

Oh - I've been tagged (thank god!)! I've been asked to write about Seven Things, which I've done before and will happily do again as soon as I can think of more than one thing (I swear, my brain is leaking slowly out my ear) and also to show you the contents of my handbag, which should be both sad and short, since I don't think there's much in there. Exciting things to come!

down for the count

Yes, that very same evening of my last post I was officially sick. And I've been sick ever since. No/low fever, thank goodness, but stuffed nose, running nose and everything in between, plus some coughing and hacking and general moaning. I hate being sick and this has come at the absolute worst time possible.

I still have to tell you this funny story that Stéph told me before I go faint on the couch again. I really thought I was leaving Precious Little Snowflake Syndrome behind me when I moved here, but it turns out that this isn't so. It seems that Stéph received more than one complaint that the curtains in his second floor classroom are always shut and shouldn't he open them to allow the students to get some sunlight? These complaints came not from other teachers but from mothers. Yes, that means that these women have nothing better to do than wander around the school and stare at their children's classroom. That's the exciting life here in Tiny Town.

So Stéph capitulates and opens the curtains on one of the few sunny days we've had here in recent weeks. Of course, the heat of the sunlight in combination with the radiators that Stéph has no control over sends the temperature of the room to well over 30°C (over 85°F) which means they then have to open the windows, plus the glare of the sunlight means that no one could read the board. Stéph kindly asked the kids to tell their mommies what happens when the curtains are open and came home and told me about it and we had a good laugh.

weekend roundup

I finally got to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday. We had initially planned to do a little Thanksgiving dinner here at home with a few friends, but a few things popped up to make that not really a viable option, so we decided to crash Doc's Thanksgiving bash instead. There were the usual Frenchies plus the extra bonus of Antipo and the three of us Anglos often were seen sneaking off to the kitchen to snigger and tell rude jokes and general snark in English. It was lovely. Oh - and the food was good, too. (photos to come)

This morning, Stéph woke up with a fever, and he even took his temperature on my old Fahrenheit thermometer. When it popped up 101.2, I told him that he should stay home or go to the doctor, but no, he had to be all manly and trudge to school anyway. Well, first he told me that 101.2 couldn't be a very high temperature even after I converted it for him in Celsius (that's 38.5 for those of you playing at home), he still insisted on going to work. At lunchtime he declared he was too sick to go back and needed to see a doctor instead, but it's hard as hell to get in to see just about any doctor in the afternoons here. Our doctor has a "first come first served" policy in the afternoons, but those tend to take forever. Nevertheless, Stéph was desperate to be able to go back to school tomorrow, so off we went and sat in the waiting room for an hour and a half. Turns out he has strep. Also turns out that my throat is getting scratchy. I am none too pleased.

happy thanksgiving!

It's that time of year again, when I have to explain to our French friends the concept of "giving thanks" for the good things in our lives. I get the feeling that most of them think it's a quaint puritan ritual framed around an enormous meal, but Thanksgiving has always been more than that for me. I love that there is a day in the calendar specifically set aside to take stock of the good things in our lives, like:

* my health, which I am constantly working towards improving
* my relationship with Stéph, which is always getting stronger
* my family, which is far away but thanks to modern technology, is only ever a computerized phone call away
* my friends, both here and in the States, who are a constant source of joy and support
* this blog, which has enriched my life here in France in so many ways
* my readers, who have managed to stick with me over the years even when I go through blogging droughts like I have in the last couple of weeks!

Today I invite all of you to take a moment and think about what you are thankful for in your lives, and if you feel like sharing, let us know what you're thankful for in the comments. And if you're in the States, have a great Thanksgiving and eat plenty of stuffing, corn bread and pecan pie for me!

PS: I seem to be having some RSS feed issues (thank you to Wendy for pointing it out). I think it's working for Bloglines but not for other readers like Google Reader. I've tried validating through Feedburner but apparently I have some issues and I might as well be reading that page in Greek, so if you are a computer-literate type person and can help me out, please shoot me an email, thanks!!

the slackiest slacker that ever slacked

Oh, hello. *sheepish grin*

I wish I had a really excellent excuse for not updating, but I don't. The weather's getting me down? Actually, the weather has been pretty miserable - rainy, dark and getting colder every day. I can't seem to focus on anything. I'm starting and frogging knitting projects, which is not helping my Christmas present list at all, never mind the fact that Christmas is like six weeks away and we haven't even thought about making a list of things to buy... ugh. Plus I'm thinking about totally starting over on my charity blanket which means I need to get a move on if I'm going to get it done on time.

So, to make up for it, I'm gonna give you a little treat. This song does nothing but make me laugh and bounce around the room like a big old dork. It's in French, obviously, but I think y'all will get the gist of it. I'm not usually a big fan of the comedian Mickael Youn, but he finally got me to laugh with "Parle à ma main," which means talk to my hand!



My favorite bits are the initials written on the hand which totally remind me of "TMI":

PI - pas interessée - not interested
çc - ça craint - that sucks
FBI - fausse bonne idée - not a good idea

And of course, at the end, Christelle gives her number to the guy, and it's a number for information (118 218) like 411.

Anyway, enjoy!

a walk in the park

The fall break is over and Stéph is back to work. The last week was very quiet, loads of computer and knitting and quiet time, punctuated by a little stomach bug that Stéph caught and kindly passed to me (thanks honey!). I'm sorry I didn't post much, because if I had it would have looked something like this:

Today I knit for a few hours in front of the tv, and then I did a load of laundry, and then we watched some more tv before bed.

Woo! Party time! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, when the weather was still nice, I took my walk through town, which I try to do as often as I can to get out of the house a little if for no other reason, but this time I remembered my camera. I took quite a lot of photos, which can be seen on my flickr page, but here are a few highlights:

First I walk along this river that passes through our town:



Then I walk around the outside of the park and step inside on the opposite corner from where I started. In the park, I pass by my favorite trees, Wonky Tree and his little brother Bendy Tree:



At the end of the park is the chateau, which now serves as the Town Hall:



Once I leave the park, I pass by the church, which I've never been in, by the way, as its not open for visitors, only church goers:



And finally, here's a shot of the main drag of Tiny Town from my lane. You can just make out the church at the end of the street:



So, if you ever wondered, that gives you an idea of what Tiny Town looks like. To tell you the truth, I rather kind of like it.

in which we get tricked

Of course, most of you know that Halloween was two days ago. Halloween isn't a very popular holiday here, often thought of a commercial ruse to get the French to separate themselves from their money, which is a shame. I always loved Halloween, from roaming the neighborhood when I was a kid (remember back in the day when you could do that at the tender age of ten?) right up to Halloween parties as an adult.

So imagine our shock and surprise when someone knocked on the door Wednesday evening. We weren't even here last year (Stéph was experiencing his first American Halloween, carved pumpkin and all) so we had no idea that we should expect anyone. In the end we just didn't answer the door because, since we started eating better, we don't have anything remotely resembling a treat.

Turns out, for our neglect, we got tricked. And the funny part is that we didn't even know it until a someone knocked on our door last night. Turns out that a neighbor from around the corner had her son's car stolen and was going around warning folks (apparently there's been a rash of car problems here in Tiny Town), and it was she that told Stéph to take a look at the windshield of the car. Turns out it had been egged and floured, plus a little green food coloring for good measure.

In the end, it's hardly anything to get upset about - lord knows I've seen worse - and Stéph had wanted to wash the car since we got back anyway, so that gave him a little extra incentive.

However, I do think that if you're old enough to egg a car, you're too old for trick or treating. But maybe that's the bitter old lady in me coming out!

a long weekend away

I can't help it, it just sounds so pretentious - yes we went to the Alps for the weekend. Actually, we have friends there that we hadn't yet been to visit, so it was a trip that was a long time coming. Our friends live just outside of Grenoble, away from the noise and rush of the city. In fact, the poor things have to look at this out their windows everyday:



I don't know how they can stand it.

Anyway, Marc, Pooplette and MP3 were there (as Doc is currently gallivanting around the good ole US of A) and mostly what we did was lay around. It was great! The guys read or played games while I went to town on a new knitting project. There was so much laying around and chilling out that I burned through a skein and a half of yarn!

There was also all kinds of yummy, evil food like raclette and crêpes of both the savory and sweet variety. Plus we took some walks out in the gorgeous country side:







It was a pause that came exactly when we both needed it. Merci pour tous, M & S !!

gone to the mountains

This week absolutely got away from me. I had a ton of things I wanted to do, never mind post, but what can you do. To quote a common phrase from my college days, "Acknowledge, and move on!" So I am.

Today is the first day of the Toussaint, or All Saint's Day school break. Stéph's off for a week and a half and today we're going to catch up with some friends in a town I've never been to before - Grenoble! It's supposed to be gorgeous this weekend, albeit a little chilly, but it's looking pretty crappy out our windows right now, so we'll see. Méteo France is notoriously wrong on a pretty consistent basis. Anyway, we'll be back at the beginning of the week sometime, so I hope to have plenty of pictures and stories, plus some pictures I took last week and I'm going to FINALLY do something with all the photos Stéph took in Romania, when we get back.

surrounded by calabrians

I've heard that the weather back home is unseasonably warm. Here in France, it's unseasonably cold! The highs have been hovering around 50° Fahrenheit, and while the last few days have been full of blue skies, it's gone all overcast today making it feel even cooler.

But I didn't want to talk about the weather today, but about a very international dinner we attended on Saturday night. As you may remember, Stéph visited Romania earlier this month to attend a project conference with schools in France, Romania, Italy, and Spain. There are actually two groups in this project, and the Romanians and Italians in the second group were in our area at the end of last week and visited Stéph's school on Friday. Saturday night there was a big dinner in Troyes and we were invited.

I got the opportunity to meet Stéph's boss (and coincidentally, the only other man working at Stéph's school!) and probably the second thing out of Stéph's mouth was, "Oh, did you know that some of my wife's family emigrated from Italy and her maiden name is Italian?" and I could have sunk under the floor. The last thing I wanted to do is give the impression of knowing more about Italy than I do, especially when it comes to language, but Stéph's boss was intrigued. He asked me where my family was from, and when I said Calabria, he got excited because he has Calabrian roots as well! Then we meet a colleague of Stéph's whose husband has roots in Calabria as well, and we ended up sitting across from them during dinner.

The truth is, we were about thirty, so we didn't really get to mix with a lot of people (I don't think I spoke to a Romanian all night, except to say hello and goodbye), but we had a great conversation with the colleague and her husband and a couple of other Italians that were sitting near us. The teacher sitting next to me, who was French, spent four years in America, the colleague went to America alone when she was 17 to visit some family that had emigrated there, and her husband told us stories about his Italian relatives that had emigrated to New York.

It was an enlightening dinner; I only wish I could say the same about the food itself. The restaurant is more known for welcoming groups for weddings or the like, but the food was pretty disappointing. It was a fixed menu supposedly highlighting food from our area, but the entrance was a salad with salmon and shrimp (thanks to our close proximity to the ocean, here in eastern France? WTF?) followed by an uninspired dish of pork cutlets and a cream sauce with potatoes and lardons that clearly came from the frozen section. They could have made up for this with the cheese course, and as much as I love chaorce, the locally produced cheese, throwing a slab of it on a piece of toast and calling it a day doesn't necessarily impress. The desserts were equally as unimpressive, with a simple raspberry mousse that surely came in packs of ten from the local frozen foods shop swimming in crème anglaise. If I told you how much we paid for this "culinary feast," you'd be quite shocked.

The funniest thing was that the Romanians were clearly ready to go before the dessert was even served. The money was gathered while we waited for the dessert to arrive and most of the Romanian party had their coats on before the coffee showed up.

The most surreal thing happened just before we left. As we were saying goodbye to everyone, an Italian woman was saying goodbye to me, and I remembered enough of my rudimentary Italian to say "arrivederci," and then she place a hand on my cheek and muttered "che bella," before she turned around and left. Now, I am not exactly renown for my beauty, but I found this so touching that I nearly ran after her for a hug!

a quiet week

It has been something of a quiet week here at DFF headquarters, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been busy. Just that there hasn't been too much worth sharing, or at least little time to share it.

Here's one little interesting note. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I am in the process of renewing my carte de sejour, which is the one year residence card, but since I've been here for three years now, I qualify for a carte de residence, or so they tell me. One way or another, this card is good for ten years of French livin', so they tend to take this one a little more seriously. Now, I know I've said before that one of the benefits of living in the country is that we don't have to go to the big Préfecture in Troyes to turn in my documents; we can do it at the town hall and then they send off the paperwork. Well, I got a message from the town hall a couple of weeks ago and I thought I might as well walk over there - it's only a five minute walk, after all. I thought they were going to give me my récépissé, or the little blue card that says my new card is in process which I have to carry around with my old card. Oh, but no! They needed more documents - a copy of Stéph's identification and a written declaration that we live together. This last one annoyed Stéph to no end - "They already have a copy of our livret de famille*, why do they need this?!"

So that was the day before Stéph went to Romania and I went to Paris, and then we kind of put it off for a few days, so it wasn't until this past Monday that I went back with the documents in my hot little hands. I finally got my blue paper, but I had another surprise - a little interview. I was shown into the administrative manager's office, where the following intensive interview took place:

"So, the Préfecture has asked me to talk to you to see how you're integrating in France. You've been here for how long?"

"Three years."

"And do you like it here?"

"Oh yes."

"Are you working?"

"No, I've found it difficult to find a job, but we're planning on moving closer to Paris next year because we think it will be easier there."

"And your husband, he works here in town?"

"Yes, he's a teacher."

"Mmhm. Well, it seems that your French is very good, I'd say you're integrating well, I think I can send back a positive report."

"Thank you!"

You can see I was sweating bullets. Actually, I kind of got the impression that he'd never had to do this sort of interview before. Foreigners are a bit thin on the ground in these parts.

So that was the excitement around here this week. Otherwise, I've been working on a project centered around fitness, which has actually prompted me to get out and walk a bit this week, plus I've been rolling along with the knitting, having just finished up my first pair of socks:



* A livret de famille is a little book that all French families have that has details about the wedding and the birthdates of their children.

What I did on my Parisian vacation

Sorry this is so late, life sort of caught up with me there. I thought about detailing my four days in Paris like I did for our summer vacation, but I ain't got that kind of time (and it would probably be quite boring) (and also? I ain't got that kind of time but I can still write one hell of a long post, can't I?), so here are some of the highlights:

Friends
I am so blessed that I have so many friends and acquaintances based in Paris that I couldn't possibly see them all over the course of four days, but I did get to see quite a few. My host was the totally awesome (wink) and always charming kylie mac, and we had a rip roaring time together. On Friday evening we hung out with rhino75, who showed me where to find a Whiskey Sour in Paris and made us howl with laughter. Saturday I visited the Coffee Table Studio and chatted away with Katia and kylie mac for hours and hours (the results are already posted - thanks for having me on the show, ladies!). Sunday I hung out with Flare and Sarah on a yarn shopping expedition and then chatted in Sarah's backyard with their sons Max and Felix over yummy munchies and tea. Monday night I got to meet JChevais. J has a laugh that can only be described as equal to mine (and those of you that know me personally will wonder at the force of two people that laugh like me) so we easily made nuisances of ourselves at O'Sullivan's Irish Bar over our alcohol and French BLTs. I think the only time we stopped talking was to eat or drink. That was a really fun meetup and I can't wait for the next one!

Food
I must make it very clear - I am not one of those Americans that goes on vacation and only eats familiar foods. That being said, one of the perks of visiting Paris is that I can indulge in all kinds of foods that remind me of home that I can't get in the backwoods of Champagne-land. I'm talking about really evil food, like bacon cheeseburgers, cheddar cheese omlettes with bacon on the side (although, I could probably make that omlette at home now that I have access to cheddar) and java chocolate chip frappuccinos. Yeah, I blew my diet out of the water for four days, but it sure tasted good!

The Sights
Usually when I visit Paris I'm there to visit friends, but this time I made sure to take the time to visit some museums I hadn't seen before. Kylie mac took me to the Musée Carnavalet, which covers the history of the city of Paris, and I enjoyed it so much that I went back Tuesday morning to see more, and I still didn't see everything. I highly recommend it, especially if you can take a whole afternoon to see as much as possible, plus it's free! Saturday night was Nuit Blanche in Paris. Nuit Blanche literally means "white night" but is also used to describe an all nighter, and this night most museums are open quite late and other activities are available all night. Kylie mac and I chose to check out the Louvre so I could see some stuff I hadn't seen before. Unfortunately, most of the precious treasures were secured for the night, so we couldn't see them, but I did get to see the Apartments of Napoleon III, which was especially interesting at night. Plus, as we left the Louvre around 11pm, the streets were coming alive with celebration because the French rugby team had just beat New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup (too bad we lost to England the following week!).

Shopping
Avoiding shopping in Paris is like avoiding getting cursed out in New York City - it happens and you just can't help it! This time I concentrated on increasing my yarn stash, and I definitely cashed in. Thanks to a tip on Ravelry, Flare, Sarah and I checked out Destocklaine, which features tons of different yarns at discount prices. Much of what you can find is acrylic but there are plenty of interesting finds if you're willing to dig. I got some yarn which I'm planning on turning into a sweater and some socks. I also went to check out Le comptoir in the 9th, which offers a lot of high quality yarn and accessories but little chance to fondle the yarns before purchase. If you like to fondle with your hands as well as your eyes before you purchase, this may not be the shop for you, but if you're already familiar with the yarn, this yarn boutique may be a good place to check out.

one year (part two)

I can't believe it's been one year already since Dad died. The weird thing about it is that I don't feel especially broken up about it, and I don't have an interesting story to tell like I did one year after my mother died. He's certainly in my thoughts, but I can honestly say that I think about him and Mom every day.

To be absolutely honest, I feel like he's still with me, like I can still hear his voice. That's not to say that I hear him like someone is physically present in the room, but I hear him in my thoughts. As long as I can still hear his voice, it's like he hasn't totally gone away.

But even this feeling that he is with me can't replace talking to him on the phone or going to visit him. Dad was always my go-to guy for advice or comfort or for a laugh and I miss that connection more than anything else. If I had a dollar for every time I wanted to call him and ask him the stupidest little question, I'd be a very rich woman.

So here's to you, Daddy-o. Your laugh, joie de vivre, sage advice and comfort are sorely missed.

aaaaaaaaaand we're back

Yep, I'm back from my whirlwind four and a half day tour of Paris. Man, what a great visit that was! Usually when I get to go there to catch up with friends, it's for a day and a half or a maximum of two days, but this trip gave me the luxury of actually getting out and doing some touristy things, not to mention a little shopping and loads of fun hanging out. I really need to try to get the house in order (I was working an a huge project and didn't have the time to do it before I left, much to my chagrin - isn't it always nicer to come home to a clean house after a few days away?) before I go to pick up Stéph from the train station this afternoon.

Two things happened today that I have to share, though. First is quite an exciting development - I'm wearing my skinny jeans!!! Of course, skinny is a relative term in this case, but these are my favorite worn in jeans that I've been carrying around with me for years hoping that one day I'd be able to get back in them and that day has come. They're not yet perfect and still a little muffin-toppy, but they're comfortable enough to wear and with the right top no one will know. I am so happy!!

Second thing is just funny - I had to run down to the corner store this morning so I went directly after hopping out of the shower with my hair still wet (I never use a hair dryer). The woman behind the counter is very nice and we've chatted during transactions in the past, but this morning she floored me - she actually told me I was going to catch a cold going out like that! I can't believe people actually believe this still. I said, Oh, it's alright, it's just five minutes, and she said, But that's all it takes! I thanked her, because really something you'd expect to hear from someone who cares about your welfare, but I thought the whole thing was funny.

Anyway, off to run the vacuum and other housewifely pursuits. More about Paris to come!

weekend wrapup

It was a pretty quiet week here at Dispatches From France Headquarters. Did a bit of work, got in a couple of walks, and much knitting was done in front of the tv. We did make sure to watch France take on Georgia (not that Georgia!) in the Rugby World Cup, and it was fun to watch France win. Only problem is, their next match is Saturday against the All Blacks. I don't like to be a pessimist, but that has the potential to be ugly. Poor Stéph is gonna miss it, flouncing around Eastern Europe (or sitting in a boring conference, more like) but maybe I'll catch a little of it while I'm in Paris. If nothing else, I'd like to see the All Blacks do the Haka. Oh, you don't know the Haka? You can see it here at the beginning of a New Zealand at France match in June (which bonus shots of Sébastien Chabal, the long haired, heavily bearded French player that runs over the opposition like a runaway train, not that I'm partial or anything).

Other than that, I am just so looking forward to spending a few days in Paris visiting friends this weekend that this week feels like it will be never ending. Luckily I've got plenty to keep me busy and hopefully not staring at the clock wishing that time would go faster.

Ooh, I do have something fun to share with you - Doc sent me a picture of the bunny with MP3, and it's good to know that the bunny really wasn't bigger than the baby, but only by a hare (get it? get it? bwahahahaha ha heh... meh).