I apologize in advance for the length of this entry!
Six days, wow…umm oops? Ok so do you want the long version or the short version?
The Short version:
The guys returned on Tuesday night for another dinner out at a French hole in the wall restaurant and a handsome young man’s life story. Wednesday night out with a group of muckety mucks from S’s work at a famous downtown restaurant that is underground in the rediscovered wine cellar of a monastery built in 1345. Thursday was a bad day. Friday was better and busy. Saturday we were going to go to Barcelona but spent the day running errands, e-mailing people about change of plans (stupid M Co.), extending the car rental, getting new Air France Tickets (not) and buying stuff we still need for the house. Sunday, rainy and S worked on finance stuff and work stuff and I wandered around aimlessly flitting from project to project.
And how about those stinking Cubs, of course they’d get this far when I’m not able to be there to see it. Dorks. They don’t show baseball on TV here. Looking for internet options. Any ideas let me know. And what’s up with the Huskies? Un-stinkin-defeated?
The Long Version: (Go get a cup of coffee and get comfortable)
Tuesday night when the guys got back from Turkey/Hungary we let Barry lead us around town again to find a place to eat. The group dynamic is great. We go from restaurant to restaurant looking. Barry looks at the menu to check out the prices, he’s looking for cheap but edible. S’s criteria are a bit more refined, he looks for real cloth tablecloths and napkins. He figures that kind of attention to detail might also translate into good cooking. Me, I look for where the crowd is gathered. I figure if lots of people are eating there it must be good. On Tuesday night Barry found a place that had reasonable prices and S saw good table linens but I saw lots of empty tables, just one being used by three women in the back. So I, being in the minority, had no choice but to follow them into the empty place and to a table.
A spider tried to attack me first thing and I knew I was not only going to hate the place but I was definitely going to get sick.
A young woman greeted us and asked first thing, “Are you English?”
Not certain how to answer that, was she inquiring as to the language we spoke or our nationality or did she...”yes”.
She disappears, we assumed to get someone English speaking. Then a very handsome young man comes to our table with the menu (The menu in places like these is usually the day’s offerings written on a small chalk board) He proceeds in good English to tell us what’s available. Since we were the only other people there and he felt an affinity of sorts with us Americans, he hung out and told us his life story.
As it turns out this boy of 26 was our chef for the evening. He told us the story of how at the age of 22 he had spent a few years cooking in the US where “French chef is God, a real French French Chef can earn lots of money. But I don’t let it go to my head” he tells us with a smile that tells you that he most certainly did. Hmm, handsome 22 year old French man with that accent and he cooks, are you getting a good picture of how none of this would go to his head?
He worked for a man that had ‘many enterprises’ in Hawaii and in California. This young chef was set up as the star attraction at a big hotel in Oahu. (But he didn’t let it go to his head.) He was not ‘papered’ so every three months he had to leave the country and re-enter as a tourist after a week or two back in France. As his employer was paying him ‘under the table’ and was aware of his immigration status (or lack there off) he covered the expenses for this boys trips back and forth. After about a year and a half he was moved to the San Francisco area to run a restaurant there. He followed the same pattern there, except that after making the France trip several times he got tired of making that flight. He decided that he didn’t have to go all the way back to France. He just needed to leave and re-enter the country so he chose to go to Canada instead. This proved to be his undoing. Apparently the Canadian/American authorities in Canada were more vigilant and they sent him packing back to France and listed him as persona-non-grata in the US. He’s never returned. So he tells us sadly that he returned here to France from being ‘god’ to a country where a French Chef is every 4th person, and opened this restaurant.
The food was of course fabulous. Just as a dining out side note, we wondered how long this would continue to be the case. Not how long the food would continue to be good but how long we would continue to think it was. The food is new and all tastes great but eventually will we begin to discriminate between restaurants and cooking and flavors we like better. I’m afraid that this may be the case but we plan on enjoying the process thoroughly.
Dessert made me think of Scott. I ordered the chocolate cake. It arrived, just a small round cake, no frosting, just chocolate cake sitting in the middle of a large square plate surrounded by whole cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with cinnamon. The cake was hot, fresh out of the oven, baked just for me. As I cut into it with the spoon, chocolate came pouring out of it. Hot chocolate syrup, gushing out onto the plate, mixing with the cream… It was heavenly.
(It’s 7hr on Monday morning here now. I started this Blog entry yesterday and if I continue to write this slowly I’ll be weeks behind before I publish it.)
(Just IM’d my sister in California where it’s 22hr on Sunday night. Told her goodnight while I enjoy my breakfast of coffee and brioche. This also begging the question, “What in the hell am I doing awake at this hour of the morning?”)
Wednesday night we went out with a group from S’s work. A Spaniard, a French woman named Sandrine (I love her name) Barry of course etc. Reservations had been made at a restaurant near the ‘capitole’ called ‘la Cave’, yes ladies and gentleman, The Cave. Anyone getting a picture of me at this restaurant? Ok, let’s move on. We met and walked a short walk down what appears to be an alley that led to another alley that led to a large gate/door.
We walk in the door under an archway to a nice sized courtyard where a huge crowd is waiting outside the door of this restaurant. We have reservations so we shove our way through the crowd to the door where we are lead down a winding staircase to the dining room.
The dining room is more like three square rooms with high vaulted ceilings. The walls, the ceilings, the large archways that lead into the next room all made of brick. Maybe it’s really like one large room with three vaulted sections. Anyway it was very cave like but very open, well lit and cool. The front cover of the menu had a brief history of the restaurant. What I gleaned from the French text was that this was believed to be the wine cellar of a monastery that had been built in 1345 and had been rediscovered through a mischance of recent (recent being relative) construction. Of course it’s just a setting, a historical setting of sorts to be sure, but still just a place. What would the food be like?
Wonderful of course. Menus were decided on, wines were ordered to compliment peoples food choices and a selection of appetizers were chosen. I tried a little bit of everything. One appetizer was a puff pastry with a cucumber filling that included some kind of fruit. Another was a pudding-y looking thing that was wonderful, it reminded me of LaVerne’s thanksgiving cornmeal stuffing, but the consistency was softer and less textured. I ate almost all of that myself. There was of course the goat cheese salad and something vaguely bruchetta-like that wasn’t.
Our fellow diners included another group of American business types, a group of Chinese business types and the rest of the place was filled with a large party of people (about 150 of them) whose relationship was hard to discern. Were they family, a business group, a social club, who knows, but they occupied all the remaining tables and were quite loud, continuously toasting each other and joking across the room with each other. I’m not sure who they were, but they appeared to be just winding up as we were leaving 3 hours later. 3 hours for a meal and that was for a quiet group of only slightly tipsy people.
On Friday night we found out that of course the Visa’s aren’t ready. Well, oddly enough S’s is almost done, but there appears to be a problem with mine. No one can say exactly what the problem is, but just that there is one. I’m forced to speculate that either A) The French don’t want me. B) They’ve uncovered some disturbing things in my past that I’ve long forgotten or C) They’ve read my Blog and want me stop immediately for fear of what my adventures will do to tourism.
So instead of going to Barcelona on Saturday we went to the airport to extend the rental of the car. We re-booked our tickets to return to the US on October 29th instead of next Thursday. Then we did something really amazing. We bought a drier.
We had been saying that we should get one for when the weather cools off so our clothes won’t have to hang for two days to be dry. Well, the amazing thing isn’t that we bought one, it’s that we brought it home ourselves. We just put it into the back of the little Peugeot. Thank god for the hatchback! And then, because there was some room left back there, we bought a microwave and wedged it into the car too. The man at the appliance store helped us load the drier into the car and in his deaf person French (deaf person French is when you speak louder to people in hopes of compensating for lack of language with volume.) warned us, very seriously, against sudden stops and starts.
If you go to Peugeot France and click on the link under the picture of the car for 206, you’ll have an idea of what size care we are driving, except that ours is the four door model.
The microwave was a bit of an impulse buy, because we have no place to put it. We have about 2 feet of counter space in the kitchen. Just a little breathing space between the cook top and the sink. S had already purchased a toaster oven (that took 15 minutes to make two slices of toast) and coffee maker to occupy that little space, but we found that having to put leftovers back in a pan or in the oven to reheat was too much trouble. We kept saying we didn’t need a microwave, but it became apparent that we did. We found a microwave/broiler combo, with a toaster built into its side. The microwave and broiler can be used together so you can get cooked food that looks cooked too. It does it all! It is awesome, sort of space age looking. We put it on the counter top and managed to barely wedge the coffee maker in next to it. It’s a tight fit but it’ll work. The toaster oven is currently living on the kitchen table but looking ahead to probable early retirement to the garage.
We also visited IKEA where we bought a nice large rug for the office, a swivel office chair to save my back when I work in the office and then we bought some groceries and stopped at the bakery too. Ok, ok, from IKEA on was a separate trip, we’re crazy not stupid!
Next weekend however we are going to try to squeeze some patio furniture into the car. It seems we have a few months of 70’s left so we might as well enjoy eating outdoors. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
I am currently reading “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris. It’s the story of his life, sort of. Some of it is a little sad and some of it is a bit gross, but the parts about his experiences in France and learning French are absolutely hilarious and leave me hoping I don’t sound like that to local shop keepers.
Precious, my laptop is beginning to look like an octopus on life support. All these wires coming in and out and she still doesn’t seem to have enough receptacles for all I need her to do. Probably a form of self protection, poor thing. I bought a USB hub that plugs into the PCMCIA slot and gives me three additional USB ports so I can plug in my camera and microphone. This enables me to hold IM streaming video/sound conversations with my sister and mother in law, who have similar setups. If anyone else would like to join in this lunacy let me know, it turns out to be quite fun and much cheaper than a phone call. Probably want to have DSL or cable modems though.
Ta for now.
Monday, September 29, 2003
Monday, September 22, 2003
The Guest
The promised thunderstorm has arrived this morning. Not more than a tiny dribble of rain now and again, but the thunder rolls along loudly and ceaselessly. It’s blessedly cloudy and cool. Of course I’ve opened every window in the house so as not to miss a sound. I’m typing next to the window in the office so I can watch the rain and lightning. The rain is coming down harder now and the ground smells wet. Hmm, may have to close a window or two… Ok, it’s officially pouring now.
Well, picked S and Barry up at the airport on Saturday afternoon. Barry is S’s bosses, bosses boss, co-worker, friend, hmm, you’ll have to ask S for the exact pedigree. He’s very nice and extremely well traveled. He lived here in Toulouse before for a while so we happily drove into town with a guide for drinks and dinner. We parked under the ‘Place du Capitole’ and walked to the Place St. George. The Place St. George is a town square that is filled with cafes. The side walks are crowded with tables and chairs all in the color of the café they belong to.
(Getting slightly damp here) (This is heaven, watching thunderstorms is in the top five of my all time favorite things.)
We sat at a café for beers. At this point it’s about 18:30 and dinner isn’t served until at least 20hr, and even that is early. Really if you walk into a restaurant much before 20hr, they look at you funny and some places will only serve beverages until then. They really start to get crowded around 21hr.
Saturday shopping crowds were dispersing as shops closed and cafes opened and diners started to wander around. We had a beer and then I had a coffee. (Must keep stimulant/depressant intake balanced) I’m starting to love the coffee. A small cup of very dark coffee with 2 sugar cubes and (nobody faint, and no incredulous laughter either) no cream. Down the hatch. Absolutely delicious.
We heard people around us speaking French, Spanish and sometimes English. After people watching and listening to stories of Barry’s experiences and discoveries in Toulouse, he told us of a place on the Garonne River that is filled with great dining spots, so we walked.
(Ok, that lightning hit something very near here because the thunder was instantaneous and it shook the house.) (Getting very loud now!)
(I’m listening to Flight of the Bumble-Bee and it makes a great soundtrack to the frantic rushings outside as parents are picking up their children for lunch. Did I mention that school closes from noon to 2 for lunch also, just like all the businesses? They do. Parents or grandparents pick up the kids for lunch and then bring them back. Did I also mention that children start school at the age of 3?)
(Holy Cow that was loud!)
(Power is out)
(Great! Just went into the bathroom to discover that I’d forgotten to close that window and there’s a lake on the floor.)
(And now it’s hailing)
(Took wet towels out to the laundry in the garage to discover a small lake out there. Apparently there’s a leak in the garage roof!)
Umm, where was I? Oh, yeas, the Garonne. We walked for what seemed like miles (small exaggeration) until we came upon the river all lit up. We passed several bars filled with noisy people who appeared to have gotten an early start to their Saturday revelries. We finally came to a street, more like an alley, filled with restaurants on both sides of the very narrow street.
The restaurants have set price menus. The price could be 10 to 50 Euros for a ‘menue’. The ‘menue’ offers several courses and several choices for each course. It’s quite a bit of reading and guessing for three Americans. We finally settled on one that seemed to have a good selection for each of our tastes. I had a ‘Salade du Canard’ which is nothing more than a mixed green salad with large pieces of duck over the top and a nice vinaigrette dressing. The men had a salad with some delicious soft goat cheese on top. For the entrée I had duck, roasted and served with a baked potato loaded with cream. I really love duck, it has such wonderful flavor. The men each had salmon, each prepared differently. We shared. Dessert was of course my favorite, crème brûlée, this one with raspberries in it. A nice bottle of red wine and some good bread with dinner and coffee afterwards to round things out. We were serenaded by two gentlemen who wandered up and down the street playing accordions. We waddled back to the car. It’s a good thing we had to walk a ways.
Two funny things. First, some people brought their dogs to dinner with them. The dogs just lay on the sidewalk under the tables and waited. They were very well behaved. Then, Saturday night is apparently when the garbage is picked up. Between the restaurants were piles of garbage set out for pick up and halfway through dinner the garbage truck came rumbling down the road stopping every few meters to pick up garbage. The truck was inches from us as it drove by and we seemed to be the only ones startled (and grossed out) by this event. It took less than 10 minutes from one end of the street to the other, but still it was weird and very smelly.
(Power is back on, the washing machine is continuing where it left off. This is good because I now have another two loads of towels to do; though they’ll never dry in this weather. We have to get a drier.)
The guys left on Sunday for another couple of days. They’re near Biarritz on the Atlantic coast and invited me to join them but I declined. MCo. has a reputation (with me at least) for booking people into some real dives to save money. After I spoke to S last night, I was glad I had declined, per usual, scummy hotel. And anyway, then I would have missed this lovely storm. S and I will have to go when it’s for fun and not work.
Oh, got the lowdown on the milk. It’s not pasteurized like there, it’s irradiated. (Does that mean I’ll glow when I return?) I guess that the not having to heat it keeps it fresh longer? Also we’d been wondering about the eggs. The egg yolks are almost orange. This is apparently because of the feed the chickens get. (No further questions your honor.)
In other news, it’s ‘fungus’ season here. Mushrooms, you know that fungus you are all soo fond off. The stores are full of them. There are dozens of varieties and prices vary widely, mostly prices vary according to the area the mushrooms come from. Whatever!
The storm is starting to let up a bit, I think I’ll venture some window opening. What the heck, I still have some dry towels left.
Well, picked S and Barry up at the airport on Saturday afternoon. Barry is S’s bosses, bosses boss, co-worker, friend, hmm, you’ll have to ask S for the exact pedigree. He’s very nice and extremely well traveled. He lived here in Toulouse before for a while so we happily drove into town with a guide for drinks and dinner. We parked under the ‘Place du Capitole’ and walked to the Place St. George. The Place St. George is a town square that is filled with cafes. The side walks are crowded with tables and chairs all in the color of the café they belong to.
(Getting slightly damp here) (This is heaven, watching thunderstorms is in the top five of my all time favorite things.)
We sat at a café for beers. At this point it’s about 18:30 and dinner isn’t served until at least 20hr, and even that is early. Really if you walk into a restaurant much before 20hr, they look at you funny and some places will only serve beverages until then. They really start to get crowded around 21hr.
Saturday shopping crowds were dispersing as shops closed and cafes opened and diners started to wander around. We had a beer and then I had a coffee. (Must keep stimulant/depressant intake balanced) I’m starting to love the coffee. A small cup of very dark coffee with 2 sugar cubes and (nobody faint, and no incredulous laughter either) no cream. Down the hatch. Absolutely delicious.
We heard people around us speaking French, Spanish and sometimes English. After people watching and listening to stories of Barry’s experiences and discoveries in Toulouse, he told us of a place on the Garonne River that is filled with great dining spots, so we walked.
(Ok, that lightning hit something very near here because the thunder was instantaneous and it shook the house.) (Getting very loud now!)
(I’m listening to Flight of the Bumble-Bee and it makes a great soundtrack to the frantic rushings outside as parents are picking up their children for lunch. Did I mention that school closes from noon to 2 for lunch also, just like all the businesses? They do. Parents or grandparents pick up the kids for lunch and then bring them back. Did I also mention that children start school at the age of 3?)
(Holy Cow that was loud!)
(Power is out)
(Great! Just went into the bathroom to discover that I’d forgotten to close that window and there’s a lake on the floor.)
(And now it’s hailing)
(Took wet towels out to the laundry in the garage to discover a small lake out there. Apparently there’s a leak in the garage roof!)
Umm, where was I? Oh, yeas, the Garonne. We walked for what seemed like miles (small exaggeration) until we came upon the river all lit up. We passed several bars filled with noisy people who appeared to have gotten an early start to their Saturday revelries. We finally came to a street, more like an alley, filled with restaurants on both sides of the very narrow street.
The restaurants have set price menus. The price could be 10 to 50 Euros for a ‘menue’. The ‘menue’ offers several courses and several choices for each course. It’s quite a bit of reading and guessing for three Americans. We finally settled on one that seemed to have a good selection for each of our tastes. I had a ‘Salade du Canard’ which is nothing more than a mixed green salad with large pieces of duck over the top and a nice vinaigrette dressing. The men had a salad with some delicious soft goat cheese on top. For the entrée I had duck, roasted and served with a baked potato loaded with cream. I really love duck, it has such wonderful flavor. The men each had salmon, each prepared differently. We shared. Dessert was of course my favorite, crème brûlée, this one with raspberries in it. A nice bottle of red wine and some good bread with dinner and coffee afterwards to round things out. We were serenaded by two gentlemen who wandered up and down the street playing accordions. We waddled back to the car. It’s a good thing we had to walk a ways.
Two funny things. First, some people brought their dogs to dinner with them. The dogs just lay on the sidewalk under the tables and waited. They were very well behaved. Then, Saturday night is apparently when the garbage is picked up. Between the restaurants were piles of garbage set out for pick up and halfway through dinner the garbage truck came rumbling down the road stopping every few meters to pick up garbage. The truck was inches from us as it drove by and we seemed to be the only ones startled (and grossed out) by this event. It took less than 10 minutes from one end of the street to the other, but still it was weird and very smelly.
(Power is back on, the washing machine is continuing where it left off. This is good because I now have another two loads of towels to do; though they’ll never dry in this weather. We have to get a drier.)
The guys left on Sunday for another couple of days. They’re near Biarritz on the Atlantic coast and invited me to join them but I declined. MCo. has a reputation (with me at least) for booking people into some real dives to save money. After I spoke to S last night, I was glad I had declined, per usual, scummy hotel. And anyway, then I would have missed this lovely storm. S and I will have to go when it’s for fun and not work.
Oh, got the lowdown on the milk. It’s not pasteurized like there, it’s irradiated. (Does that mean I’ll glow when I return?) I guess that the not having to heat it keeps it fresh longer? Also we’d been wondering about the eggs. The egg yolks are almost orange. This is apparently because of the feed the chickens get. (No further questions your honor.)
In other news, it’s ‘fungus’ season here. Mushrooms, you know that fungus you are all soo fond off. The stores are full of them. There are dozens of varieties and prices vary widely, mostly prices vary according to the area the mushrooms come from. Whatever!
The storm is starting to let up a bit, I think I’ll venture some window opening. What the heck, I still have some dry towels left.
Friday, September 19, 2003
La Poste
Today we discuss La Poste. It’s one of the most identifiable things here. La Poste is, obviously, the post. The mail. The mail trucks are bright yellow and have that little blue logo on them that says … you know. Like a normal post office the lines are always long and I hate going in there and tying someone up while I explain in my broken French interspersed with Spanish and English that I need postage to mail 5 postcards. So on one of their trucks I saw that they have a web site. I went there, but what was I thinking, it takes me 40 minutes to read through the site to figure anything out. Here’s a challenge, go to La Poste and see if you can determine from this site how much it would cost to mail a letter to the US from France. Go ahead, go there now, I’ll wait…Any ideas? Find anything that looks like it might lead you in that direction? I found it to be easier to write the postcards, take them with me to La Poste and hand them over to the woman at the counter and say ‘aux Etats-Unis’ she will then tell you that it costs ‘quatre-vingt-dix’. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it costs ‘four-twenty-ten’ cents to mail a postcard (or letter) to the US. That would be ninety cents (90 Euro cents which is slightly over a dollar). And for further oddities, I really enjoy counting past 80 because of the way you say the numbers. 80 is 4-20 and 90 is 4-20-10, but wait it gets better, 96 is 4-20-10-6. Isn’t that fun!
Ok, in further developments, made another pilgrimage to IKEA today. Our first real house guest will be here with S on Saturday night as it turns out. So I’ve been scrambling to organize and finish the upstairs rooms. Happy to say that the house tonight looks great. I, on the other hand, have sustained another injury. From all the moving and unpacking I have collected a large assortment of bruises, mostly on my legs. Today I assembled a small bureau and then dropped it on my leg while carrying it to the room it’s going into. Ever hurt yourself so badly that it actually takes your breath away. This reminded me that I don’t know who to call in case of emergency, fire, death, dismemberment… I am reasonably sure that there is a number to call but beats me what it is. Something to learn before I cook another meal. Well, you all are probably off to lunch but it’s 20hr here and I’m off to burn some dinner for myself. Tomorrow we’ll discuss the stove/oven issue. Hugs and kisses, I miss you all.
Ok, in further developments, made another pilgrimage to IKEA today. Our first real house guest will be here with S on Saturday night as it turns out. So I’ve been scrambling to organize and finish the upstairs rooms. Happy to say that the house tonight looks great. I, on the other hand, have sustained another injury. From all the moving and unpacking I have collected a large assortment of bruises, mostly on my legs. Today I assembled a small bureau and then dropped it on my leg while carrying it to the room it’s going into. Ever hurt yourself so badly that it actually takes your breath away. This reminded me that I don’t know who to call in case of emergency, fire, death, dismemberment… I am reasonably sure that there is a number to call but beats me what it is. Something to learn before I cook another meal. Well, you all are probably off to lunch but it’s 20hr here and I’m off to burn some dinner for myself. Tomorrow we’ll discuss the stove/oven issue. Hugs and kisses, I miss you all.
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Time and Lizards
Having difficulty keeping track of the day. I forget what day it is and the whole time difference really screws me up. I try to keep track of time there so I can phone J at an appropriate hour and do some banking on the phone too. It’s weird to initiate a bank transaction on Tuesday, but not be able to verify it till Wednesday when I can look at the Tuesday activity. If I initiate a transaction at 10hr my time, the bank in NY hasn’t opened yet, I can’t call them until about 15hr when my day is finally cooling off they are just getting to work. When I check e-mail in the morning it’s all stuff from the previous day. Ok, enough of that, it’s making me more confused.
It’s 17hr and school is getting out. All the traffic down this narrow street scares the holy crap out of me. I just know someone is going to get hurt, but no, everyone remains safe; they must be used to it.
Today’s topic is lizards. I grew up in So Cal I don’t know about you IL people but we had lizards in So Cal. Little brown ones whose greatest entertainment was that if you grabbed their tail to trap them the tail would come off in your hands. The lizard would escape and grow a new tail. Honest. Well there are lizards here. Same kind or a close cousin. I discovered them the other day on my walk and really didn’t give them much thought. Today however one was on the window ledge sunning. I took a handy piece of cardboard and shooed it away so I could close the shutters. It made me wonder if that was another one of those things I should worry about getting in the house. Then as I was hanging a load of laundry out to dry (getting the hang of this hanging stuff out thing) in the garage I saw one. In the garage! I always leave the door between the garage and the office open for air circulation but now I can’t. I’m hoping he was just misplaced, I opened the garage door and he darted for sunshine. Spiders are bad enough.
A special note to my IL ya-yas. Hellooo out there, is anyone there. I e-mailed this link to you all and have held up my end of the bargain, aside from my friends V.E. and M.M. I haven’t heard from any of you. A brief hello in the comments would suffice to let me know that you are reading and still alive.
It’s 17hr and school is getting out. All the traffic down this narrow street scares the holy crap out of me. I just know someone is going to get hurt, but no, everyone remains safe; they must be used to it.
Today’s topic is lizards. I grew up in So Cal I don’t know about you IL people but we had lizards in So Cal. Little brown ones whose greatest entertainment was that if you grabbed their tail to trap them the tail would come off in your hands. The lizard would escape and grow a new tail. Honest. Well there are lizards here. Same kind or a close cousin. I discovered them the other day on my walk and really didn’t give them much thought. Today however one was on the window ledge sunning. I took a handy piece of cardboard and shooed it away so I could close the shutters. It made me wonder if that was another one of those things I should worry about getting in the house. Then as I was hanging a load of laundry out to dry (getting the hang of this hanging stuff out thing) in the garage I saw one. In the garage! I always leave the door between the garage and the office open for air circulation but now I can’t. I’m hoping he was just misplaced, I opened the garage door and he darted for sunshine. Spiders are bad enough.
A special note to my IL ya-yas. Hellooo out there, is anyone there. I e-mailed this link to you all and have held up my end of the bargain, aside from my friends V.E. and M.M. I haven’t heard from any of you. A brief hello in the comments would suffice to let me know that you are reading and still alive.
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Andorra
We visited a small town in Andorra called Pas de la Casa on Saturday. It’s just across the border from France. But to get there was fun. Picture climbing mountains in a very small car, just switchbacks all the way to the top (more fun coming down!) There are two tunnels under the mountains; one goes toward Barcelona and the other toward the center of Andorra. We’ll probably take the second one next time we go to get to Andorra la Vella. We didn’t make it to Andorra la Vella, it was further in and we were running out of time. But that’s the other big town in Andorra.
Pas de la Casa is a border town and basically a ski resort, though this time of year it's pretty barren looking. It's so high up in the mountains (The Pyrenees) that it's above the timber line. Very barren, just grass and hills and rocks, oh, and wild horses. The big draw there this time of year is the shopping. France adds 20% tax to everything. 20%! So people go there for perfumes, jewelry, sporting goods, high ticket electronics etc. It's a steal at 20% off.
Mostly wandered through shops, tried to touch a wild horse but it showed me it's back end so I got out of its way. Walked, drove, ate. It was nice.
We explored some tiny towns on the France side on the way home and took pictures of churches. Stopped and had a few coffees here and there. Z you would love it! No brown water pretend coffee here. I’m not used to coffee this strong but it is surprisingly good.
Still trying to clean the place up and organize. It’s difficult to tell who is winning the spider wars. I was trying the humanitarian approach at first (not wanting to invite bad Karma) but couldn’t keep up. It seemed that every day there were more webs and more spiders in the corners of the ceiling. I finally just took the broom and began sweeping them away and squashing as many as I could get. This seemed to be working until yesterday when I opened a shutter and almost screamed at the size of the friend waiting for me there. Word must have gotten out and they’re sending in the heavies. I swept the big guy off the ledge, he curled into a ball and fell two stories. Of course my bedroom window is right below and now I’m paranoid that he may have gone in there.
S is gone now to Turkey and Hungary. Drove him to the airport at 5hr on Monday morning and will pick him up on Saturday afternoon. At least I have the car. He has encouraged me to go out and explore. I have to admit that it’s a bit frightening. Getting lost in Chicago is one thing, at least they speak the language and I know which way is west. Here I still don’t have my bearings and mostly have no clue which direction I’m driving in and if I get lost, no one speaks the language.
Went to the grocery store for a warm up and out to find a place to send a FAX on Tuesday. Today, though the mission was to find IKEA. I printed the map from the website, then compared it to the 4 other maps of Toulouse that I have, went out. Of course I got lost. I took the wrong turn off the highway and couldn’t get back on. (Damn those frickin circles, where are they when I need them.) So I just drove in the general direction until I found it. I had been trying to get there at 10hr, when they open, and arrived at 10:22. The parking lot was almost full, just like any other IKEA I’ve ever shopped at. It’s the weirdest thing. Anyway, went in list in hand and found a few things I needed. I didn’t get everything because it’s hot, and the store was hot, and some of the people were um…well to borrow a line from Meg Ryan in French Kiss…hygiene deficient. But at least it gives me an opportunity to get lost again tomorrow.
I came home and hit the boulangerie, there are two in town, one is a chain, you see them everywhere in every town. The second boulangerie is local and wonderful. I bought a couple of ‘brioche’ and some ‘palmiers’ too. The bread will be the death of me. Still losing weight though, apparently the stress still outweighing caloric intake. Cannot get used to the taste of the milk; even the nesquick doesn’t mask the flavor enough. This could be a problem, I love milk.
Pas de la Casa is a border town and basically a ski resort, though this time of year it's pretty barren looking. It's so high up in the mountains (The Pyrenees) that it's above the timber line. Very barren, just grass and hills and rocks, oh, and wild horses. The big draw there this time of year is the shopping. France adds 20% tax to everything. 20%! So people go there for perfumes, jewelry, sporting goods, high ticket electronics etc. It's a steal at 20% off.
Mostly wandered through shops, tried to touch a wild horse but it showed me it's back end so I got out of its way. Walked, drove, ate. It was nice.
We explored some tiny towns on the France side on the way home and took pictures of churches. Stopped and had a few coffees here and there. Z you would love it! No brown water pretend coffee here. I’m not used to coffee this strong but it is surprisingly good.
Still trying to clean the place up and organize. It’s difficult to tell who is winning the spider wars. I was trying the humanitarian approach at first (not wanting to invite bad Karma) but couldn’t keep up. It seemed that every day there were more webs and more spiders in the corners of the ceiling. I finally just took the broom and began sweeping them away and squashing as many as I could get. This seemed to be working until yesterday when I opened a shutter and almost screamed at the size of the friend waiting for me there. Word must have gotten out and they’re sending in the heavies. I swept the big guy off the ledge, he curled into a ball and fell two stories. Of course my bedroom window is right below and now I’m paranoid that he may have gone in there.
S is gone now to Turkey and Hungary. Drove him to the airport at 5hr on Monday morning and will pick him up on Saturday afternoon. At least I have the car. He has encouraged me to go out and explore. I have to admit that it’s a bit frightening. Getting lost in Chicago is one thing, at least they speak the language and I know which way is west. Here I still don’t have my bearings and mostly have no clue which direction I’m driving in and if I get lost, no one speaks the language.
Went to the grocery store for a warm up and out to find a place to send a FAX on Tuesday. Today, though the mission was to find IKEA. I printed the map from the website, then compared it to the 4 other maps of Toulouse that I have, went out. Of course I got lost. I took the wrong turn off the highway and couldn’t get back on. (Damn those frickin circles, where are they when I need them.) So I just drove in the general direction until I found it. I had been trying to get there at 10hr, when they open, and arrived at 10:22. The parking lot was almost full, just like any other IKEA I’ve ever shopped at. It’s the weirdest thing. Anyway, went in list in hand and found a few things I needed. I didn’t get everything because it’s hot, and the store was hot, and some of the people were um…well to borrow a line from Meg Ryan in French Kiss…hygiene deficient. But at least it gives me an opportunity to get lost again tomorrow.
I came home and hit the boulangerie, there are two in town, one is a chain, you see them everywhere in every town. The second boulangerie is local and wonderful. I bought a couple of ‘brioche’ and some ‘palmiers’ too. The bread will be the death of me. Still losing weight though, apparently the stress still outweighing caloric intake. Cannot get used to the taste of the milk; even the nesquick doesn’t mask the flavor enough. This could be a problem, I love milk.
Friday, September 12, 2003
Cold
Have cold.
Have fever.
Have “New country and not used to their germs” sickness.
Have INTERNET ACCESS! Yippee!
Have vitamin C.
Have Echinacea.
Have OJ and hot tea.
Have Kleenex
Have lovely new “Serta queen sized pillow top mattress set” bed.
Have fluffy comforter.
Have fluffy pillows.
Have to go there.
Have fever.
Have “New country and not used to their germs” sickness.
Have INTERNET ACCESS! Yippee!
Have vitamin C.
Have Echinacea.
Have OJ and hot tea.
Have Kleenex
Have lovely new “Serta queen sized pillow top mattress set” bed.
Have fluffy comforter.
Have fluffy pillows.
Have to go there.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Conversion
Sunny today but cool breeze blowing. Still no cell phone. We did order one though. This is funny. We found a phone in the phone store that is exactly like what I already have. What I have has the wrong type of ‘card’ in it and won’t work here. But this new one will work everywhere. We decided to go with this phone because I already have all the accessories for it so there’ll be no extra expenses. The batteries, chargers, covers and instructions are all the same and the charger has a transformer on it so either phone will charge in either country. They had to order it from another store though, so it won’t arrive until Thursday.
An idea whose time has come: The intersections that don’t have a circle, do have a traffic light. Unlike the monster light posts, with lights you can see from every direction, in the US, the ones here are small and unobtrusive. The one big charm of these lights is that they discourage those annoying people who creep forward anticipating the light change. You see, the light post that faces you is on the right hand curb on your side of the street. You have to look out your right side window to watch it and if you move forward beyond the limit line you can no longer see the light. I’ve done this out of habit several times and then all you can do is wait for the guy behind you to start honking obscenely to let you know the light is green or take your chances when the cross traffic appears to have stopped.
Baking banana muffins, but oven is Celsius. What’s the conversion again? F - 32 x 5/9 or F - 32 x 9/16…
An idea whose time has come: The intersections that don’t have a circle, do have a traffic light. Unlike the monster light posts, with lights you can see from every direction, in the US, the ones here are small and unobtrusive. The one big charm of these lights is that they discourage those annoying people who creep forward anticipating the light change. You see, the light post that faces you is on the right hand curb on your side of the street. You have to look out your right side window to watch it and if you move forward beyond the limit line you can no longer see the light. I’ve done this out of habit several times and then all you can do is wait for the guy behind you to start honking obscenely to let you know the light is green or take your chances when the cross traffic appears to have stopped.
Baking banana muffins, but oven is Celsius. What’s the conversion again? F - 32 x 5/9 or F - 32 x 9/16…
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
The Office
Slept through the night for the first time! Feel pretty good this morning except that it’s raining and windy and cold. Hmm, must be fall already. This house really does hold the cold in very well. Time for more hot chocolate. Nothing to do today except Blog, read, oh yeah, and organize that office. Funny how the whole unpacking project was not as daunting as this office organization is. Oh well, I’ve got nothing but time.
I found a schedule of events from the American’s in Toulouse. There was to be a “Back from Summer” event today. Too cold and rainy to walk up to the bus stop, and besides aren’t these the kind of days just made for snuggling up with a good book. Lord knows I brought enough of those with me. I’ll go find one now. S is coming home early today (at 17hr instead of 19hr, real early) so we can get over to the ‘Carrefour’ and get me a cell phone in relative peace.
I found a schedule of events from the American’s in Toulouse. There was to be a “Back from Summer” event today. Too cold and rainy to walk up to the bus stop, and besides aren’t these the kind of days just made for snuggling up with a good book. Lord knows I brought enough of those with me. I’ll go find one now. S is coming home early today (at 17hr instead of 19hr, real early) so we can get over to the ‘Carrefour’ and get me a cell phone in relative peace.
Monday, September 08, 2003
More Unpacking
Air Shipment arrives today. That means the vacuum cleaner, power transformers and FOOD. Comfort food. Of course it’s raining and it’s cold. Unpacking will warm me up.
Moving truck arrived with all the branch breaking ruckus of its previous arrival (see Sean’s Blog of August 24th). If the driver would but turn that steering wheel thingy just a bit to the left he could avoid the trees altogether, but what fun would that be.
Unpacked the 12 boxes of the air shipment in a hurried frenzy. I hate the disorder of moving. Still have the upstairs bedrooms (guest rooms) to organize but since I don’t have to look at them daily I can take my time. Besides, our first guests aren’t scheduled to arrive until the week after Christmas.
Going to sit have a nice cup of Mexican hot chocolate from my personal stores.
Moving truck arrived with all the branch breaking ruckus of its previous arrival (see Sean’s Blog of August 24th). If the driver would but turn that steering wheel thingy just a bit to the left he could avoid the trees altogether, but what fun would that be.
Unpacked the 12 boxes of the air shipment in a hurried frenzy. I hate the disorder of moving. Still have the upstairs bedrooms (guest rooms) to organize but since I don’t have to look at them daily I can take my time. Besides, our first guests aren’t scheduled to arrive until the week after Christmas.
Going to sit have a nice cup of Mexican hot chocolate from my personal stores.
Sunday, September 07, 2003
Sunday
The weather is fall like. Cold, highs in the 60’s and rain on and off. I’m still unpacking the few remaining boxes. You know those last few boxes that are full of ‘why did I bring this’, ‘what was I thinking’ and ‘this goes right to the garbage’.
All the odds and ends are ending up in the office which will take weeks to sort through. Did some laundry and, ::gulps:: hung it up to dry in the garage. You’d think that with as cold as it is the clothes won’t dry, but we’ll see. The appliances take forever, almost two hours to wash one load of laundry; a load of laundry so small that we’ll have to wash every other day to keep up. I’ll take a picture of the washing machine, you won’t believe it. It is also a dryer but since it has no vent to circulate fresh air in, all it really accomplishes is cooking of your fine washables. The dishwasher is worse it takes over 2 hours to run, at least it’s very quiet.
Drove into downtown today with S just to try to get lost. There’s nothing to do since it’s Sunday and everything is closed. The sun did come out before we left so we took the wet linens out to dry on the outside lines. Of course 30 minutes from home it started to pour down rain again. Typical.
Even on Sunday, with everything closed, it’s hard to find a place to park. Some of the downtown streets are only wide enough for one small car to drive down. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell which way the street runs, signage is scarce and even then, difficult to decipher. But it was an adventure. Some things look familiar, but not familiar enough to be landmarks. The one big recognizable thing is the ‘Grand Round’ it’s a road way that circles a park with 8 arteries feeding into it. It’s difficult to know where to get off (signage) it’s best to look for a landmark. I can see me venturing into town alone and driving in circles for hours, though after today I know to look for the signs that point me to Montpellier. That generally means east and will eventually get me to something I’ll recognize.
I saw a bird to today that looked like a blue jay on steroids. About twice as big as a jay and much darker blue. Couldn’t find it in my “Birds of North America” book. Hmm?
All the odds and ends are ending up in the office which will take weeks to sort through. Did some laundry and, ::gulps:: hung it up to dry in the garage. You’d think that with as cold as it is the clothes won’t dry, but we’ll see. The appliances take forever, almost two hours to wash one load of laundry; a load of laundry so small that we’ll have to wash every other day to keep up. I’ll take a picture of the washing machine, you won’t believe it. It is also a dryer but since it has no vent to circulate fresh air in, all it really accomplishes is cooking of your fine washables. The dishwasher is worse it takes over 2 hours to run, at least it’s very quiet.
Drove into downtown today with S just to try to get lost. There’s nothing to do since it’s Sunday and everything is closed. The sun did come out before we left so we took the wet linens out to dry on the outside lines. Of course 30 minutes from home it started to pour down rain again. Typical.
Even on Sunday, with everything closed, it’s hard to find a place to park. Some of the downtown streets are only wide enough for one small car to drive down. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell which way the street runs, signage is scarce and even then, difficult to decipher. But it was an adventure. Some things look familiar, but not familiar enough to be landmarks. The one big recognizable thing is the ‘Grand Round’ it’s a road way that circles a park with 8 arteries feeding into it. It’s difficult to know where to get off (signage) it’s best to look for a landmark. I can see me venturing into town alone and driving in circles for hours, though after today I know to look for the signs that point me to Montpellier. That generally means east and will eventually get me to something I’ll recognize.
I saw a bird to today that looked like a blue jay on steroids. About twice as big as a jay and much darker blue. Couldn’t find it in my “Birds of North America” book. Hmm?
Saturday, September 06, 2003
Today
Day was devoted to driving. Have to learn path to airport as I will be taking S on the 15th. It’s only about 20 minutes away so S made me drive it over and back twice. It’ll be a bit tricky. There are no street signs in France. None. And those damned circles will be the death of me.
Need to do some more in depth grocery shopping and need to get a cell phone so off to shopping.
Now picture this, a super Wal-Mart times 3, ok got that, now stick a mall onto the front of it. I kid you not. Mall and then the other half is this ungodly huge store. 60 check out registers across the front of it (alright perhaps that's a slight exaggeration there are probably only 30 check outs). 3 security check points to enter through. (In case you shopped in the mall they check and tag your packages before you enter). It’s like a super Wal-Mart plus a Best Buy plus a Home Depot plus Office Max. You can buy groceries, clothes line, light bulbs, door stops, printer, cell phone, and DVD’s. We visited two such places today ‘Carrefour’ which is closer to our house and ‘E.leclerc’ which is near the airport. Craziness I tell you, craziness! Because everyone works M-F 8hr til 18 or 19hr (They get 2 hours for lunch – everything closes between 12hr and 14hr except the restaurants and some stores), they all have to shop on Saturday (closed Sunday) the crowds are insane.
An idea who’s time has come: When you go these mega stores, or any market for that matter, you will only see carts neatly parked in the cart corral. Why? Because each cart is fitted with a lock and chain that attaches it to the cart in front of it. When you need a cart you put a 1 Euro coin in the slot to release it from the others. When you return the cart to the cart corral and lock it up you get your Euro back. A Euro is currently worth a little over a dollar. Let’s picture the parking lots of Super Wal-Mart or target with no free roving carts.
Didn’t get cell phone because despite finding several places to purchase one, the crowds were huge and we would need someone’s undivided attention to get past the language barrier. Hopefully next Saturday.
Did, however, hook up phone service and order DSL. Phoned the phone company (S’s cell phone) the call was handed off several times when it was discovered that my French was, well, not good. They finally found one nice English speaking lady to help me. When I gave her our address, she told me that that address didn’t exist. I assured her that it did as we have received mail here from our banks and UPS delivered to us here. She asked me if I knew the name of the previous tenant. Luckily I remember the Canadians names and was able to give her the info. She found it immediately and said that in fact the name of our street is ‘Avenue Louie Delherm’ not ‘Rue du Doctuer Delherm’. Ok, but the landlord told us our address and mail gets here so what gives? There are no street signs so there is no way to clear this up. Am not, however, going to change anything as, as previously mentioned, mail is arriving. (Maybe not all of it?) Who knows! DSL will take a week. They are sending modem and service will be hooked up by Friday (9/12) Two weeks without internet access! The mind reels.
Need to do some more in depth grocery shopping and need to get a cell phone so off to shopping.
Now picture this, a super Wal-Mart times 3, ok got that, now stick a mall onto the front of it. I kid you not. Mall and then the other half is this ungodly huge store. 60 check out registers across the front of it (alright perhaps that's a slight exaggeration there are probably only 30 check outs). 3 security check points to enter through. (In case you shopped in the mall they check and tag your packages before you enter). It’s like a super Wal-Mart plus a Best Buy plus a Home Depot plus Office Max. You can buy groceries, clothes line, light bulbs, door stops, printer, cell phone, and DVD’s. We visited two such places today ‘Carrefour’ which is closer to our house and ‘E.leclerc’ which is near the airport. Craziness I tell you, craziness! Because everyone works M-F 8hr til 18 or 19hr (They get 2 hours for lunch – everything closes between 12hr and 14hr except the restaurants and some stores), they all have to shop on Saturday (closed Sunday) the crowds are insane.
An idea who’s time has come: When you go these mega stores, or any market for that matter, you will only see carts neatly parked in the cart corral. Why? Because each cart is fitted with a lock and chain that attaches it to the cart in front of it. When you need a cart you put a 1 Euro coin in the slot to release it from the others. When you return the cart to the cart corral and lock it up you get your Euro back. A Euro is currently worth a little over a dollar. Let’s picture the parking lots of Super Wal-Mart or target with no free roving carts.
Didn’t get cell phone because despite finding several places to purchase one, the crowds were huge and we would need someone’s undivided attention to get past the language barrier. Hopefully next Saturday.
Did, however, hook up phone service and order DSL. Phoned the phone company (S’s cell phone) the call was handed off several times when it was discovered that my French was, well, not good. They finally found one nice English speaking lady to help me. When I gave her our address, she told me that that address didn’t exist. I assured her that it did as we have received mail here from our banks and UPS delivered to us here. She asked me if I knew the name of the previous tenant. Luckily I remember the Canadians names and was able to give her the info. She found it immediately and said that in fact the name of our street is ‘Avenue Louie Delherm’ not ‘Rue du Doctuer Delherm’. Ok, but the landlord told us our address and mail gets here so what gives? There are no street signs so there is no way to clear this up. Am not, however, going to change anything as, as previously mentioned, mail is arriving. (Maybe not all of it?) Who knows! DSL will take a week. They are sending modem and service will be hooked up by Friday (9/12) Two weeks without internet access! The mind reels.
Friday, September 05, 2003
Where did I put the...?
Today I’m re-arranging furniture, because, as predicted by S, nothing is as I want it. It appears that the walls of each room were lined with boxes and furniture until they were covered and then on to the next room. So I’m trying to strategically place furniture so that it’s aesthetically pleasing and functional, oh, and it fits in its room of requirement. (Huh?)
That partner desk has to weigh over 200 lbs. Damn thing is heavy. And those two IKEA kitchen counters are so big they don’t fit in the kitchen. (Swear they didn’t look that large in the store) That’s ok though; they fit nicely in the office and will provide me with tons of work space for crafting. Moved wardrobes into bedroom and arranged all the living room furniture. I’ll tell you, I will be so sore tomorrow, but I’ll try not to think about that now. The good thing is that there is no carpet. Everything slides nicely over beautiful floors. Got to find that broom!
Began unpacking and storing clothing. Looks like everything will fit in bedroom space without having to put things in upstairs closets.
Note to self: Re-evaluate clothing collection. Beyond ridiculous! (Do they do yard sales in France?)
P.S. Bowels still unhappy. Water? Or milk? Still not king.
That partner desk has to weigh over 200 lbs. Damn thing is heavy. And those two IKEA kitchen counters are so big they don’t fit in the kitchen. (Swear they didn’t look that large in the store) That’s ok though; they fit nicely in the office and will provide me with tons of work space for crafting. Moved wardrobes into bedroom and arranged all the living room furniture. I’ll tell you, I will be so sore tomorrow, but I’ll try not to think about that now. The good thing is that there is no carpet. Everything slides nicely over beautiful floors. Got to find that broom!
Began unpacking and storing clothing. Looks like everything will fit in bedroom space without having to put things in upstairs closets.
Note to self: Re-evaluate clothing collection. Beyond ridiculous! (Do they do yard sales in France?)
P.S. Bowels still unhappy. Water? Or milk? Still not king.
Thursday, September 04, 2003
What is this? Did I bring it? Is it mine? What's it doing here?
Where did I put Wednesday? I’m sure I was entitled to one this week but seem to have misplaced it. Oh well, no big deal, I’ve got loads more of them coming up.
Tap water is ‘potable’ but hard, so hard in fact that I don’t think my hair actually gets wet and I had to use so much conditioner in it this morning that I’ll run out soon. Good thing I’ll be making one more trip back. Will start a list of things to buy upon return.
The yard and cherry grove show the signs of a very harsh summer. Hope they recover. And contrary to what I believed, the elementary school is not ‘in the neighborhood’ it is in fact directly across the street. It appears to start at 8hr and end at 16hr. There also appears to be a constant stream of kids coming and going all day long. They’re noisy and it sounds nice to hear their voices, even if I can’t understand them. They’re so far off and the babble sounds like kid babble anywhere.
Had some bacon (?) and eggs for breakfast. The bacon is well not so much Oscar Meyer-ish as extremely thin slices of well marbled actual ham. Would not crisp up, but was delicious none the less.
Ok, the unpacking begins or continues. Set Precious up in the large kitchen and put in a movie. What movie doesn’t matter as it’s just for background noise really.
So far the unpacking is like working a puzzle. You know those square ones made of a bunch of little squares where one square is empty and you move the pieces to their appropriate place by judicious use of the blank one. What are those called, I know they have a name. Anyway, that’s what the unpacking is like. I’m trying to start in the kitchen, unpacking dishes, linens, etc. but running out of places to put things, no cabinets to speak of here. So then move on to dining room to make room but need to move some boxes out of there into the living room (the living room will be last.) trying not to trip over open suitcases that have no hope of being emptied for a few days anyway. And so it goes move this out so I can put that there, so this will fit here, on and on. Either that or my ADD is kicking in and I’m just not able to focus on any one project. Too close to tell.
I have many companions though, there seems to be a wide variety of eight legged creatures. I’ve seen them in every size and color. Spider webs in every corner of every room. They can stay for now, but only because I haven’t unpacked the broom yet and the vacuum cleaner won’t arrive until Monday.
Now, here’s a funny thing, the front door has three dead bolt locks on it, however, the windows in each room are large enough to walk an elephant through and they have no screens. Quite secure, yes?
It’s true though, that all the windows have stout working shutters but if I close the shutters no breeze comes in. (And neither do the flies, and that would starve my spider friends) I thank god I didn’t have to be here during the hot summer when it would have been necessary to keep the shutters closed. Though the shutters in concert with the thick walls keep the darkened rooms quite cool I need light. I worry that my cat acquaintance could just hop right in through one of the windows to explore. There are actually leaves blowing in through my bedroom window, leaves! I’ve got to find that broom. (I wonder if I could train the spiders to weave across the windows?)
The day is overcast though and every once in a while the breeze brings in the smell of slightly, grudgingly dampened earth. Not enough moisture to be called rain but enough to remind us that it still knows how.
By the end of the day have managed to unpack 8 big kitchen boxes and have stacked the resulting paper mountain and empty boxes in the garage for removal by the moving company who will be delivering the air shipment on Monday.
A new cat friend has visited me on bedroom window sill. He ran when I spoke to him about his bandaged friend and asked after his own health. Oh well, have to wonder how much further he’d have come if it weren’t for my intrusion.
Will sleep like a log (til about 1hr when I will spring out of bed as if I had sense. Time adjustment will be tough without a schedule to pin me down) Have soreness where previously muscles were, maybe they’ll return. (Muscles, not soreness)
Note to self: Re-evaluate book collection. Reaching point of ridiculous.
P.S. Ditto movie and CD collections.
P.P.S. Bowels very unhappy, still not king.
Tap water is ‘potable’ but hard, so hard in fact that I don’t think my hair actually gets wet and I had to use so much conditioner in it this morning that I’ll run out soon. Good thing I’ll be making one more trip back. Will start a list of things to buy upon return.
The yard and cherry grove show the signs of a very harsh summer. Hope they recover. And contrary to what I believed, the elementary school is not ‘in the neighborhood’ it is in fact directly across the street. It appears to start at 8hr and end at 16hr. There also appears to be a constant stream of kids coming and going all day long. They’re noisy and it sounds nice to hear their voices, even if I can’t understand them. They’re so far off and the babble sounds like kid babble anywhere.
Had some bacon (?) and eggs for breakfast. The bacon is well not so much Oscar Meyer-ish as extremely thin slices of well marbled actual ham. Would not crisp up, but was delicious none the less.
Ok, the unpacking begins or continues. Set Precious up in the large kitchen and put in a movie. What movie doesn’t matter as it’s just for background noise really.
So far the unpacking is like working a puzzle. You know those square ones made of a bunch of little squares where one square is empty and you move the pieces to their appropriate place by judicious use of the blank one. What are those called, I know they have a name. Anyway, that’s what the unpacking is like. I’m trying to start in the kitchen, unpacking dishes, linens, etc. but running out of places to put things, no cabinets to speak of here. So then move on to dining room to make room but need to move some boxes out of there into the living room (the living room will be last.) trying not to trip over open suitcases that have no hope of being emptied for a few days anyway. And so it goes move this out so I can put that there, so this will fit here, on and on. Either that or my ADD is kicking in and I’m just not able to focus on any one project. Too close to tell.
I have many companions though, there seems to be a wide variety of eight legged creatures. I’ve seen them in every size and color. Spider webs in every corner of every room. They can stay for now, but only because I haven’t unpacked the broom yet and the vacuum cleaner won’t arrive until Monday.
Now, here’s a funny thing, the front door has three dead bolt locks on it, however, the windows in each room are large enough to walk an elephant through and they have no screens. Quite secure, yes?
It’s true though, that all the windows have stout working shutters but if I close the shutters no breeze comes in. (And neither do the flies, and that would starve my spider friends) I thank god I didn’t have to be here during the hot summer when it would have been necessary to keep the shutters closed. Though the shutters in concert with the thick walls keep the darkened rooms quite cool I need light. I worry that my cat acquaintance could just hop right in through one of the windows to explore. There are actually leaves blowing in through my bedroom window, leaves! I’ve got to find that broom. (I wonder if I could train the spiders to weave across the windows?)
The day is overcast though and every once in a while the breeze brings in the smell of slightly, grudgingly dampened earth. Not enough moisture to be called rain but enough to remind us that it still knows how.
By the end of the day have managed to unpack 8 big kitchen boxes and have stacked the resulting paper mountain and empty boxes in the garage for removal by the moving company who will be delivering the air shipment on Monday.
A new cat friend has visited me on bedroom window sill. He ran when I spoke to him about his bandaged friend and asked after his own health. Oh well, have to wonder how much further he’d have come if it weren’t for my intrusion.
Will sleep like a log (til about 1hr when I will spring out of bed as if I had sense. Time adjustment will be tough without a schedule to pin me down) Have soreness where previously muscles were, maybe they’ll return. (Muscles, not soreness)
Note to self: Re-evaluate book collection. Reaching point of ridiculous.
P.S. Ditto movie and CD collections.
P.P.S. Bowels very unhappy, still not king.
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Honey I'm Home!
Arrived around 1:00 pm France time. I lost Tuesday somewhere over the Atlantic (damn I hate that). We visited a local grocery store before heading home so that I could ascertain its location and availability of goods and also there’s no food in the house. (Unless you count spaghetti fixings as food) Also S is off to work tomorrow and that leaves me alone from 6hr til almost 21hr M-F. (When giving opening and closing times we use the 24hr clock for accuracy and none of this foolish American am, pm nonsense that is too long and confusing) I did recognize some brands. I bought Pepsi and Nesquick and some super chunk Skippy. It’s true the milk and eggs are not in a refrigerated section. The eggs are all brown (is that why they don’t need to be refrigerated) (kidding of course) The milk is, well, very thick and creamy with just a very, very miniscule hint of that sour milk taste. I notice it because it’s exactly that hint of taste that makes me dump a one day overdue unfinished carton milk down the drain. Thank god for Nesquick. Also bought some bacon (?) and of course bread.
Arrived at house and found it to be a maze of boxes in every room. What was that man doing? Working I suppose. Trying to stay awake for as long as possible to just get on with the time adjustment. Had a dinner of some chocolate milk and some yummy vanilla yogurt (Yoplait).
As luck would have it, UPS arrived, not an hour after we did, with the side rails for the bed. Have assembled my beautiful bed with all new linens in the midst of chaos. It will be my oasis from madness, if only to hide in blissful sleep. S has commented that it will be my best friend during my bouts of depression. (Isn’t he just a laugh riot!) Dying to sleep so I guess I will.
There’s a cat in my front yard with a rather wide bandage around its middle. I asked after its health but it replied in French and I could not understand him. Hope he stops back by.
Arrived at house and found it to be a maze of boxes in every room. What was that man doing? Working I suppose. Trying to stay awake for as long as possible to just get on with the time adjustment. Had a dinner of some chocolate milk and some yummy vanilla yogurt (Yoplait).
As luck would have it, UPS arrived, not an hour after we did, with the side rails for the bed. Have assembled my beautiful bed with all new linens in the midst of chaos. It will be my oasis from madness, if only to hide in blissful sleep. S has commented that it will be my best friend during my bouts of depression. (Isn’t he just a laugh riot!) Dying to sleep so I guess I will.
There’s a cat in my front yard with a rather wide bandage around its middle. I asked after its health but it replied in French and I could not understand him. Hope he stops back by.
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