See You Soon

Well, shoot. I did it again it looks like, but I have a good excuse this time..actually several :). Family visited, then friends visited, then we went to San Jose to watch the american women's soccer team play against the Japanese soccer team. Awesome game, fast, smart..really great. We hiked for a good part of that day too: up the yellow hill to see mount Diablo and eagles flying over the clouds down to a a forest of centuries old oaks. A great day...and now we are leaving for 5 days for Carmel-by-The-Sea, a great little village on the cold coast of California...really cold, we are dropping down 30 degrees F at least. I mean, we actually need sweaters there in August...unbelievable. It's my favorite place to go: an angry sea with wind beaten up cliffs, seagulls, whales, dolphins and seals. Pure happiness...
My sister did point out that going there with 2 children and 2 dogs doesn't qualify as a vacation :)
I'll come back on fiday night very very late as usual with lots of pictures. In the mean time you can check out this website for an idea of where I'm going to spend 5 glorious days ;)

Have a good week,

Marie

Soccer!

You know, I think I've been unfair with my 2 boys and their passion for soccer. I moaned and whined about getting up early on Saturday mornings to watch my son's team play. I huffed about spending up to 2 hours twice a week watching practices. I've complained about the extra laundry too.
But I'm reformed.
In fact I now think that soccer is THE BEST.
I'm totally thinking about scoring some tickets for the LA Galxy actually.

You don't think soccer is that great?

Are you sure?

Maybe you should click and then tell me all about it ;)
Don't forget to look at all the pictures :). You know, this is research after all. In support for my family. Right.

Happy Thursday!

In The Jam

Literally... Our fruit trees had their branches breaking with all the weight of the fruits so I decided it was time for action. I ordered, I asked the troops to go and pick it. Except that I didn't check how much they were picking. What followed was days of the remake of a bad B movie with what looked like a mad woman with hair that looked like a long haired hamster caught in the spin cycle of a dryer, measuring, pouring, mixing tasting, filling pot after pot after pot in a kitchen that was hot as hell for days. Yes, days. I'm going to cut the trees down.
The results are certainly good though :)
Apricot-basil jam
Plum-cinammon-vanilla jam
Peach jam
Apricot-almond pies and jam
Peach cake
Peach crumble
Peach clafoutis
Etc....

I don't think I'm going back in that kitchen any time soon.
Except that on Saturday we are having a party for my daughter's birthday. And some relatives are staying for several days. They are vegetarian. Forget about easy meals. You know: paté and cheese and bread. Now, do olives qualify as sufficient vegetarian sustenance I wonder...

Yeah, it works again!

Does anybody know why on earth I haven't been able to put a title to my posts..It won't let me click on it..anybody has the same problem?

Yesterday:

Miss A.: "Papa looks like an adult but Mama looks like a teenager."

Seeing the big smile on his mother's face Mr T exclaims:

"Man, you just got mega bonus points!"

In real, I live in a video game :)

Sorry for all the pictures of the fireworks but we had a great time as usual :). And I love my new camera. I could never have gotten these pictures with my old one so...there it is!











The 2 last ones ask for a bit of an explanation. See, we have this guy in the neighborhood who apparently buys illegal fireworks in Mexico and then makes a show on the parking lot near the house. It's always really good actually and I got pics of his and ours going off at the same time :)

Happy 4th!

I find it hilarious that us of all people, would receive 3 invitations to actually BE in 3 different 4th of July parades: we just don't do the all american thing. At all. But when in Rome as they say...so my husband and my son went to represent their soccer club in one of the biggest parade in Sacramento and miss A. and I decorated her bike and herself (and me A LITTLE) with all kinds of red, white and blue and we participated in one of the smallest parade in Sacramento. Mark and mr T. sweated their way handing out flyiers, talking to people and giving candy and miss A. and I strolled through tree lined streets chatting with friends and eating ice cream in the neighborhood. Hehe.
And to celebrate 4th of July in beauty we are having near record high temperatures today. I just put my thermometer in the sun and it said: 121 F. which is 50 C. It clearly wanted to go up more but that's as high as my thermometer goes. Obiously it was not made in Sacramento.
We bought fireworks this morning since it is legal in California to have your own private little show and that everybody does it. I just water the lawn well that morning. Of course you always have the village idiots that take their fireworks in the park across from me and manage to set the dry grass on fire there. Sigh.

I'm going to try my new camera for the fireworks tonight, we'll see how it does. Oh, and Cecile, I promise I'll post the recipe for Kansas city strip steaks tomorrow!

Now, where is the margarita?

Sold!

That was such a hard decision to make: sell our first house, the tiny 1905 arts and crafts bungalow that we bought when we moved to Sacramento. We lived in it for 8 years and we adored that house. Even though it was on a busy street, and the neighborhood wasn't that great...We made it our own with vines and flowers and crazy paint choices ( the fence was pink ), and raised in it 2 toddlers and a cat. But, we each got a business that we needed room for, the tiny room shared by the kids was just too small and the neighborhood was getting worse. And we had to drive too long to get our son to school: he had just started to go to the Rapid Learner program. And then, a house went up for sale just across the street from the new school with enough space for 2 offices and a backyard runned down with fig, apricot, plum and peach trees. We went to see it at the insistence of my mother-in-law, and met the seller who was romanian. We talked about Europe and peaches and we made an offer that he accepted right away even though other people had offered more. It was fate and we love our new house. But yesterday we went to the old house for the last cleaning and touch up and there was a little pit in our stomachs as we drove away. I don't even have a good shot of the house but this one gives an idea :)
At the same time, now that I don't have to take care of 2 houses and all the paperwork it takes to sell a house, I'm finding myself with a lot more time on my hands. The question is what do I do with it?

Quizzzzzzzzzzzzz

So, since I'm trying to get out of cleaning the pigsty castle, I found a really important thing to do...and you, which movie hero are you?

Indiana Jones : 77% Tu aimes l'aventure, et détestes le quotidien.
Batman / Bruce Wayne : 74%
James Bond : 72%
Hannibal Lecter : 71%
Maximus (Gladiator) : 70%
Schrek : 69%
Néo (Matrix) : 68%
Yoda (Star Wars) : 67%
Eric Draven (The Crow) : 65%
Forrest Gump : 63%
Tony Montana (Scarface) : 63%
Jim Levenstein (American Pie) : 61%

Quel héros de film es-tu ?

Oh, and please disregard the Hannibal Lecter part. I mean, yuck! And I've almost never thought of killing my neighbors I swear. And I'd add that if I ever did I'd never eat them, they are loaded with Prozac.