Pffffffffew....

100.8 F (38.3 C.) today. Thank god for ceiling fans, hammocks, and pastis.

Heeeeeelp!

My camera is broken :(. All of the shots are blurry even the close-ups...It was never an easy camera but I managed fine for 2 years but no more. That's my second digital camera in 7 years (both Minolta's) and I'm really getting annoyed. It seems to me that the manufacturers are making throw away products all the time these days. At least that was my impression talking to the guy at the repair shop. Not happy. Sooooooo, does anyone has a suggestion for me?

Wanted, preferably alive:

One digital camera,
Easy to use,
Good light adjustments,
GOOD focus,
Macro function,
Last more than 3 years.

See, it's not too much, is it? I've heard good things about Kodak...does anyone have one?

Hers is my best shot out of the blurry 50 pics I took:

Children are so ungrateful

My son comes back after a week away with his class.
I tell him how much I missed him which seems to please him.
Then I ask him " and you, what did you miss the most?"
His answer: " my dog and my bed "

Humph.

Vacation

And, so, for Easter we stayed in town...which is pretty unusual for us. I'm dead tired these days, falling asleep on the couch at 9pm...unheard of!
And you know, I thought I'd be able to rest. Pffff....Well the thing is, I'm just a little bit compulsive in the amount of things I want to do every day. Just a tad :)
And so I baked
And we went to the zoo
And we planted a really big vegetable garden
And we planted flowers
And we visited old town to look for a birthday present
And we went for long walks
And we had friends coming over
And we went to watch high schoolers do some ballroom dancing...and they were excellent
And I worked
And I worked some more
And we went for bike rides
And I made a new friend
And I went to a lunch with the other mothers in my son's class
And I went shopping
And we went to the farmers market and my daughter bought me flowers
And we packed for my son who was leaving the day after vacation for a fieldtrip with his class

Well, there is more but it's making me tired again :)

Easter came and went

Easter is always a bittersweet time of the year for me since I've moved to the US. It had always been my favorite vacation: it's spring, there is chocolate that you have to hunt for, and we would see the family. And in my case it was a big family. My grand-ma had 6 children, who each got at least 2 children. All of my cousins and I were born at max 3 years apart. My sister and one of my cousins are the yougest, born 5 years after the older ones.
We were with each other constantly, not only for each holidays but most week-ends too. When we were little we shared everything and took naps together.Then we grew up, and in the teenage years took care of each other during difficult times of divorces, fights with parents, girlfriends and boyfriends.
And family secrets that slowly got revealed.
And through it all we stayed together, keeping in touch and all of us meeting at my grandma's appartment. I remember the giggles, the tears, the whispers.
Et les betises :)
And then I moved across the ocean. And not only that, but I moved in the part of the country so far away from France that it takes 13 hours (and way too much money) in an airplane to get to Paris. I'm not going to go in the details of why I decided to live in the US in this post, maybe another time...
But what is for sure is that I remember big family reunions with a lot of laughing, talking, joking, good food and a lot of it and my dad opening bottles of champagne with a big "pop" while everybody was cheering.

Our first Easter in the US was fairly desastrous :)
I missed my family. I was sad that my son would not be with my family. I felt guilty that I left and the chocolate did not taste good. And I cried. And then we colored eggs and hid them and ate chocolate bunnies and I was happy again. But it comes back every year. And never at Christmas.
Mark's family is very different from mine and quite frankly very stressful. There are a lot of things that are wrong with them ;). Let's just say, that visiting his family is not a relaxed, happy going kind of event. And I decided that we would be spending Easter this year just by ourselves. Us and the kids.
Not surprisingly our kids are very close to each other and with us. Sometimes moving so far away feels very lonely. I think that's the very first time I said it...maybe I should open a bottle of champagne :):)
My son is gone for the week on a fieldtrip with his class and we miss him already. But I'm sure he'll have fun with his friends studying the ocean and marine life. And I hope there will be laughter, whispers and not too much tears.

Bored

Not being able to use your hands properly is very annoying. There seem to be some hope: I can now bend my fingers enough to type although it hurts. I still can't see my knuckles however. So I decided, since we are speaking of stings to put up these pictures I took in my neighborhood last week:




I wonder if it would have been better to be stung by one of those rather than a stupid mosquito.

Sorry but Aouch.

And I'm not posting again. Actually, I'm not working, cooking, gardening or doing much of anything either. Want to know why? One of my hands is triple its size. Yep. I've been stung by something and all evidence points to a mosquito bite. I've never had anything like that before, ever.
I have little children coming up to me asking if they can touch it.
I'm becoming a circus freak show.
I'm getting very grumpy.


P.S.: Tonight we have received an invitation to go to the zoo after hours to see some animals up close. How many mosquitoes do you think there are at the zoo at dusk?
Yeah, it's the cherry on top.