This post is for you

If you are the Computer Geek Person who lives in the Seattle area. My emails to you keep coming back. Fix it please.

Go Cubs!

In case you were wondering...

I've learned a lot of different things from my friends.

From Beth in Spain, to correctly position a street map.

From Maria, the difference between dishing and dissing.

From Julie, to have a boundary. Or at least try.

From Beth in California, that you can count on some people forever.

From Adrienne, to never go out looking like crap.

From Lorraine, to plan a weekly menu.

If you're not on this list, don't be offended, I've learned things from you too. And I could continue, but those are just the ones that popped into my head.

Anyway, Lorraine (Here's the Thing) also has a food blog, Here's the Dish. But she's been super busy lately. Turning 50, starting a new business, receiving important out of town visitors. And while she usually posts her weekly dinner menu on her food blog, she hasn't in a couple of weeks. So I'm posting mine. Because she's the one who taught me how and two of the recipes on this week's menu are hers.

Thursday - Black bean and beef burritos

Friday - Apricot chicken with almonds

Saturday - White bean and sausage soup

Sunday - Boeuf carottes, which is basically like a daube

Monday - Tandoori chicken

Tuesday - Sage and garlic pork tenderloin

Wednesday - Beef Stroganoff

There is no vegetarian night at our house, Husband would seriously say, "Where's the beef?"

You think I'm kidding, but when we were dating he'd show up at my apartment for dinner (which I was cooking and which was always vegetarian because I was one at the time) with a couple of slices of ham.

And we don't eat a lot of fish because I'm just not sure about the whole mercury thing.

It would seem that I rock

This photo is not to show you how well I can decorate cakes or how nice an eggless birthday cake can look. I would've taken a better photo. It is only to show you how little it takes to impress a nearly 4-year old boy.

It's Boy2's birthday this weekend and today is his birthday party with school friends. (I'm sane, I only allowed him to invite 3 friends.)

For the past year he's been telling me he wanted a spiderman birthday cake. I found a bakery that would make one, I even found a purely chemical one at the grocery store. But then the egg allergy thing came up. So nothing was possible at the bakeries. They looked at me like I was crazy to put the words 'cake' and 'eggless' in the same sentence. And the chemical one had just too many petrol derivatives to be fed to small children.

So, I was left to my own devices. I told Boy2 I wouldn't be able to make a real spiderman cake but that I would do my best. When I showed it to him he said, 'Spiderman's web? You rock Mama.'

In case you've been wondering

What glamourous things I've been doing the past week.

Well, let me tell you.

It's mostly been about scraping that ************ floor and nursing my family and self back to health. We all came down with something that seems, at first, like a simple cold, but, in fact, is much worse.

So basically, no glamour at all. Except for:

1. There is a currently a very confused wasp in our bedroom. It's 9:00 p.m., it's very dark out, it's about 50° outside, and she flew in while I was closing the shutters. Why would she do that?

2. Boy1 peed three times before going to bed tonight.

3. I went on a school field trip today with Boy1's class. I spent the morning in the swimming pool being splashed by 27 2nd graders, most of whom had green snot running down their noses into the pool.

This should be a picture of ice cream

I'm not an impulsive person. Well, perhaps about ice cream flavors, but that's it. And that's for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I tend to take a while to make decisions and, of course, obsess over them afterwards. It's called peaceful living and I highly recommend it. It may be one of the possible causes of my headache but whatever.

Anyway, again.

Above is an example of why I'm never impulsive.

See, it was during one of the headache weeks. And the carpet in the dining room has always bugged me. It's the only room in the house with carpet. It's ugly and yucky and useless but it's just a rental and who cares and so it has been a low-grade bug.

Until that fated day during one of the headache weeks. I tripped on the little edge of the carpet that had worked its way out from under the metal carpet holder down thingy. About 4 times. In one day. And that was it. I just grabbed that little piece and started ripping.

The good news is that I'm no longer tripping. Well, actually, I am, but only from the fumes of the carpet backing remover chemical thingy I'm now having to apply all over the floor to loosen up all the gluey foam residue so I can scrape with the scraper pictured above.

Again, impulsiveness should be limited to ice cream flavors.

It's the annual living in a second language update

Well, let's see.

I've been living here for 10 years. As of last week. I'm still very much the foreigner, when it suits me. But I don't get picked out on the street as one, unless I'm speaking English to the kids. I get my hair cut and buy my clothes here so I guess that explains it.

As for my French, well, I don't know. I think I've sort of hit a plateau. I don't think it'll get much better than this unless I start reading more in French, which I doubt I'll ever do. I read a lot and the fun is watered down when I read in French. Too slow, too much passé simple (an nearly obsolete verb tense that is almost exclusively reserved to written French), too artistic. I understand everything in newspapers and on television but still run into words I've never met before.

My pronunciation is stable also. No real improvement in sight. Some people hear the accent immediately and others take quite a bit longer. I don't know if it's them or if I have on and off accent days.

Husband swears I don't have an accent but that's just because he doesn't listen to me most of the time is used to it.

It's the annual bilingual child update

Actually, it's the first ever, so we'll see if it ends up being annual or trimestrial or whateveral.

Honestly, I shouldn't really complain.

Their French, of course, if fine. Boy2's French is not as far along as his English, which I like.

Their English is also fine. Really. Boy1 is very articulate in his pronunciation but he still has some problems with [th]. (I won't bore you with phonetic symbols, even though I'd like to.) He's sometimes lazy with vocabulary, using a French word now and then instead of asking me for the English equivalent. Boy2 uses complex sentence structures and irregular past participles with ease and his English vocabulary is much richer than his French. School will take care of that.

And, bonus, they're still speaking English to each other, even when I'm not around.

So here's the drill at our house. Husband and I speak French together. Because he's too lazy to speak to me in English. No, seriously. When we were in the States he told me he had no problems understanding the television. Now that we're back, he gets all huffy if the subtitles aren't working.

Husband speaks French to the boys (mostly, although he does read some books in English to Boy2 - which makes Boy2 laugh) and they speak French back to him. And the boys and I speak English together. And I don't ever make an exception. No matter where we are or who is around.

A few things

1. I made chocolate fondue for dessert monday evening. I served it with peach and apple slices, miniture butter cookies, and little spelt pretzels. I filled an espresso cup for each of us and served it on a plate with the dipping choices. The boys' preferred the peaches, Husband the apples, and me the pretzels. After a few bites, Boy2 looked down at the cup, looked at me and said, "Let's just drink it."

2. Last night after dinner both boys wanted to know where the 'Tuesday night fondue' was. Seriously, since when does doing something once create a habit. I haven't heard that since high school health ed class when they were talking about sex drugs.

3. I've had a headache for 5 days. Seriously. Didn't this happen to me last year too? I went to my new gynocologist (just for a check-up) yesterday and when I told him he said, 'Hormones.' Yeah, I kinda figured that out.

4. Speaking of my new gynocologist, my search is over. He's nice and professional and polite and doesn't say things that make me cry. Everything you want in a doctor who does pelvic exams.

5. Speaking of pelvic exams. Just kidding.

Attention

Dear Person Who Linked To My Blog Today From A Mary Kleyweg Google Search,

S'up?

Yours Truly,

The Person Who Still Talks About The Great Disappearing Therapist Incident of 1994

No, really, I swear

The boys are back in school and I really am going to get back to regular blogging.

I'm one of those people who functions much better with routine. And school is nothing if not rountinier. Well, rountinière actually.

Anyway.

And the bride wore red shoes

I helped cater a wedding this weekend. It was long and hot and tedious at times. I scooped the flesh out of 200 tomatoes and julienned zucchini for hours but it all turned out well and everyone seemed happy.

I only got to a see a few minutes of the ceremony and I apparently missed the dramatic moments - late Parisien guests honking as the rode up to the chateau drive and saw that, duh, the ceremony hadn't waited for them. And someone's granny tripping over ribbons and ending up in the grass (she's fine).

But I did get to see the arrival of the bride. And she was wearing beautiful red shoes.

ohmanohmanohmanohmanohman

I am in the biggest funk ever. Not like depressed funk, just can't get anything done funk. Certainly not creative or inspired enough to blog funk.

In other news, I heard a new expression recently. Il a un hérisson dans la poche. As in 'he has a hedgehog in his pocket.' As in when he reaches in to get out some cash, he gets pricked by one of the little hedgehog prickly things and yanks his hand right back out. As in he's, well, I don't know, what do we say for that? Tight with money. Less creative but it'll work.

Just ignore me.

Kid stuff

Husband and I took the kids to a horrible amusement park thing place. It was really awful. It was hot and dirty and crowded and the lines were long and the food was disgusting and most of the attractions looked unsafe to me. But anyway, we got a little lost on the way there. There being about 90 minutes north of Laval. We were driving around a village looking for signs and we finally found a little grocery store that was open (it was sunday so nothing else was). So I hopped out of the car and went to ask the grocer woman for directions. There were no parking places on that block so Husband kept driving. Boy2 yelled, "No Papa, you can't leave Mama here! I need her."

A few franco-americano things

1. The US government is planning on making visas obligatory for all European travellers, tourists and business poeople alike. Husband's very pleased about that one.

2. It goes without saying, of course, that if they go ahead with that plan, some European governmental body will then make visas obligatory for all American travellers.

3. Isn't this fun?

A few things

1. Husband and I have been invited to a wedding by a count and a countess. Never really thought that would happen.

2. I had a coffee in a castle today. Ditto.

3. Leftover buttercream frosting should be immediately frozen or it should be discarded. It should not be left in the refrigerator. Because I have discovered that everything is better frosted. Butter cookies. Slices of cake that were already frosted. Spoons. My index finger. I know no moderation.

4. My work schedule is a mess for this year. Wish me luck with the whole working mother cooking housecleaning determining life's purpose thing.

Cake anyone?

So, while I was in the States, I bought a Martha Stewart cake decorating kit at K-Mart.
In an effort to nip any bickering in the bud, I also made small cakes for the boys to have fun with.

This one is Boy2's. He was going for a maximum amount of frosting in a minimum amount of space.



And this one is Boy1's. He was going for art. As usual.

The cake's actually a vegan recipe, thanks to Boy2's really fun egg allergy. Oh gosh, I've come full circle and I didn't even want to. And the frosting is the recipe from the Magnolia Bakery. Very tasty. And not vegan, it's buttercream. Buttercream should never be vegan. Although I did have to search for hours to find one without eggs. Did you know most buttercream recipes have eggs, or meringue powder. Like I can get that here. And even if I could, I bet it has eggs in it too.

Laval in August

Well, not much is open. At least not until after the 15th or 21st. All the bakeries in the neighborhood are closed. As well as the butcher shops, magazine shops, and even some cafés.

However, my favorite salon de thé/café, La Maison Renaise, is open. All summer long. Which is so nice. And the owner, Laurent, a most charming man, even makes iced coffee drinks.

And, my good luck doesn't stop there. Remember Ze World? That new place opening up that I made fun of because of that ridiculous name? (And I still stand by that.) Anyway, it opened while we were away. And today, while on our penny walk, the kids and I stopped in to have a look. And we were all very pleased with what we saw. Café and wine bar. One stop consuming for me. It's big and very chic for Laval and a 3 minute walk from my house. On the way to my favorite bakery. How cool is that?

And in case you're wondering, a penny walk is when you let the penny decide where you go. It's vacation, we amuse ourselves however we can.

Happy Birthday Mom!

A dear friend asked for impressions about my homeland. I'll start off with the most important items.

1. The coffee there doesn't make me as jittery as the coffee here. Strange.

2. The kit-kats are better here than in the US. More chocolaty and less sugary.

3. Being uninsured in the US sucks.

4. I'd be really fat if I lived in the US.

I know this is a lot to take in at once. I'll try to make tomorrow's post a little less profound.

Really back home

We got back to Laval yesterday. And it's very nice to be home. In our home. Although I could use a friend like Lorraine to help me get it back (was it ever really?) in order.

August is always a strange month for me. It's summer, I know, but I'm all about fall and winter so I just sort of muddle through these hot months. And honestly, the new year starts for me in September, not January. Too many years of school, I suppose.

It's strange and not to be back here after being over there. And it was strange and not being over there after being over here. For ten years.

Like all of us, I am a stranger and not both here and there.

Honey, I'm home

Well, we're back.

And I drugged up on the flight back so I didn't even need to use a 'motion discomfort' bag.

I found a wallet on the first flight, big and fat and full of cash and cards and I of course gave it immediately to a flight attendant and hoped that the poor soul who left it would have the time to realize he had lost it before getting on another plane.

I didn't find much on the other flight, including sleep.