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.

Death, Taxes and Chili

No, no, I'm not dead. Yet!
It's tax time....
In this country, for us, that means 4 different tax forms:

Federal personnal taxes
California personnal taxes
Federal business taxes
California business taxes

Let's keep swimming, let's keep swimming....

Actually I shouldn't really complain since Mark is doing most of it. Just for that I'm sure he should be reincarnated in a higher being.

Except,

that my darling husband decided that now was the perfect time to also fix every little thing that is wrong with our computer:

2 fans,
1 mother board,
1 hard drive,
1 graphic card,
uploading a gazillion CDs in his new ipod.

HaHaHa.

Maybe he'll be reincarnated in a worm instead.

We have had a freezing wind for 2 days, which made me think of Chili, which made me think of Candy froggie, which made me think that I said I'd give my recipes. So here is the basic one I do all the time ( and it's fast and simple enough to do even if you are in a hurry)

Chili con Carne

50 g (3 tbsps) of butter
2 onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
500g ( 1 lb) ground beef
2 tsps chili powder
4 tsps ground cumin
65g ( I always put more than that, like half or more of the little cans ) tomato paste
2 or 3 cans ( 400g each or 8oz )beans ( I put in at least 3 different ones: black beans, cannelini beans and kidney beans )
Beef bouillon

Melt the butter in a large pot and put in the onions and the garlic until just golden.
Add the meat and cook, stirring a bit for 10 mns.
Add the chili and the cumin to the tomato paste ( little kids love to that) and mix with the meat.
Add the beans and the bouillon so that it covers the meat and beans.

Cover and cook for 25 mns.
Serve with rice.

If you can't find chili powder use 1 tsp or less of cayenne. It's worth hunting down the chili powder though, that smoky taste is wonderful in chilis.

I have a lot more recipes of chilis, all delicious that I'll post at some time, but this simple one is really a favorite ;)
I'll be back soon with 2 lengthy posts...

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!

It's here, it's finally here!
Ok, let's turn down the teenage hysterics now.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!



And did you hear the nice little catchy phrase : "If I wasn't mad, this would probably never work. "

They might have to drag me out of the theater you know :)

Questions

A little game by Candy Froggie :)

a colour: deep purple ( like wine or the skin of an eggplant )
a flower: wild rose
a fruit: fig
an animal: wolf
a tree: oak
a drink: wine
a building: an old house with secret passages
a food: just one? man that's hard...smoked salmon
a common thing: pencil
a language: English ;)
a smell: my children, especially as babies :)
a perfume: Hypnotic poison by Dior
an invention: bread machine
a means of transport: horses
an epoch: that's hard...I think I'll go with pre-historic because you could just pick up your stuff and go.
a season: Spring
a month: August
a day: Sunday
a time: midnight
a piece of clothes: coat
a jewel: a magic ring
a body part: the back
a complex : not speaking french much to my children
a girl name : Alizée
a boy name : Thomas
a country : Africa
a city : London
an actor : Johnny Depp
an actress : Meryl Streep
a famous character from History: Marie Antoinette
a famous man : David Beckham
a famous woman : Angelina Jolie
an adjective : restless
a fault : lazy
a quality : generous
a monument : the eiffel tower
one of the seven wonders of the world : the suspended gardens of Babylone
a song : All I really want by Alanis Morissette
a movie: Out of Africa
a job : mama and jewelry maker
a sport : sleeping in my hammock ( well, you have to climb a little bit!)
a figure : 8
a sentence : "I don't see why not"
a word : knowledge
a recipe : chili!
a painting : any of the paintings by Candy Froggie or Daniel Merriam
a pair of shoes: boots and flip-flops ( it's better when you try to get in the hammock! )

Aaaaaaah Spring!

Lovely, lovely Spring.

The flowers



The birds


The Neighbors


Yeah, the neighbors. They tented their entire house to fumigate the inside because they have beetles.
Needless to say the organic gardener that I am, the lover of all things natural and fresh, everybody living happily with everything on Earth is thrilled, just thrilled. And don't tell me " well, it's tented so it's fine" cause I can SMELL it.
I have only one word right now: " gnnnnnnn".
Pffff, people.

California Squirrel :)

La Brea Tar Pits

A few miles from Disneyland, in L.A. a smell permeates the streets. I guess in L.A., it could be a lot of different things (!) ( people from L.A., don't be mad, I'm quite sure you'd have thought of that lil' joke yourself). However the smell, this time, comes from large pools of tar ( goudron in french). The reason this is particularly interesting ( yes it is!), is because a lot of prehistoric animals and at least one human have been found. And many more are still being fished out. They have found hundreds of mammoths, saber tooth cats, dire wolves, condors, ancient camels etc... It is a small museum but extremely interesting and well made. They have a contraption where you can test how it feels to be stuck in tar. And let me tell you, no wonder everything got stuck in there.
My favorite part was the aptly named " fishbowl" which is the part of the lab where you can watch as the scientists are working. We were able to watch some sifting small particles for small bones, a guy was cleaning the tar of a giant sloth head and another one was piecing together pieces of turtle shells ( talk about a puzzle!).




The way back home lead us through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive and then it was hill after hill and more cows and ... well, I think I've already mentioned that huh?




Funnily enough, the kids seemed to have as much fun at the museum as at Disneyland :)

For Ever And Ever

That's what it took to get to Disneyland. You are driving for 6h30 mns in the middle of nowhere. Oh, sure, there are cows, and fruit trees that smell a hell of a lot better than the cows, grapevines, more cows. And hills, lots and lots of hills. And wind, lots and lots of wind. And more cows. And hawks too.
And then, quite suddenly ( nah, I wasn't sleeping pffff..) ( well, maybe a little )you find yourself in L.A. traffic which is always something. First there is ALWAYS an accident. Yes, I do mean ALWAYS. And so you are stuck, and stuck, and stuck some more. And, unbelievably, while you are stuck because of an accident, you witness ANOTHER accident happening on the lane right next to you. This time it's a lady who rear ended the huge truck in front of her. We were going at max 2 miles per hour and she manages to rear end a truck. I wonder if she was talking on the phone, eating spaghetti, doing yoga or if she was just so bored she really really wanted something to happen right now. People, I'm telling you, tssss.

( yes, I'm feeling very superior right now. I mean, come on! 2 miles per hour tops! )

Ok, let's breathe ( well, as well as you can through the smog you know, it's L.A. after all ).
There are lots of people with red cars that look like they could go really fast. Except we are all stuck as you know and "that's what you call ironic" ( Pirates of The Carribean dialogue here ). And after a few turns you find yourself on Disneyland Drive. Everybody is happier and we reach the motel with a sigh of relief.

The 2 next days were spent having fun Disney style. We flew with Peter Pan, had a mad tea party, got shot by pirates, hugged Minnie ( the second my daughter paused to get her picture taken with Minnie, my camera died. It just died. I couldn't believe it. Good thing Minnie is an extra nice mouse: Miss A. got an extra hug and a really nice autograph! I still can't believe it died.).

We ate Jambalaya and Gumbo and Mickey beignets and Churros.

A ghost hitched a ride with us at the Haunted Mansion and we met Geppetto. And we got sunburned and drenched the same day ( I had never been so soaked before, to the point of wringing water out of my underwear).

And then, there was the parade and the fireworks...I love their fireworks! I love the fact that you are in the middle and that they surround you with them.

And there was shopping...too much shopping ;)

It was fun...lots of fun. And there was still one more day of vacation and we decided to spend it at La Brea.

To Be Continued....

Yoho,yoho, no pirates life for me...

In spite of a very tempting proposition from Captain Jack Sparrow to join his band of mecreants, we made our way back to Sacramento on the winds of a storm. And, sadly, after the euphoria of sleeping in your own bed and take a shower in your bathtub has passed, you are left with more laundry than you thought possible and little Jedis wanting food (again?). I'll be back shortly. I think.


I wonder if the offer from Jack Sparrow would still stand.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Yep, that's Disneyland and that's where we are going. Actually, this trip was a gift for Mark's birthday (yes, I know, he'd rather be in Hawaii on the beach, hehe). That's the 2nd time that we'll be going there (with the kids that is; we had been there together before we had kids)(that sounds almost impossible: before we had kids? Can't even form that thought fully!). The first time we went for the wedding of one of Mark's cousin who was getting married very close. At the time, incredibly, I didn't think I'd like it and wanted to spend all my time at the Ocean with the kids. But my mother-in-law insisted we should go arguing that it was silly to be so close to Disneyland with little kids and not go. She was right and so we went...and we had a blast. We all loved it which I really didn't think would happen. But the look on my daughter's face (she was 5 at the time) when she met and talked with Cinderella, Mickey, Tigger and Captain Hook was priceless indeed. We stuffed ourselves with Churros and Mickey ice cream. We watched Tinkerbell flying over us during the fireworks and the parade quite frankly is amazing.
This time, the plan is to have tea with Minnie and meet up with Captain Jack Sparrow on New Orleans Square :)




We'll be back Saturday or Sunday. If you are going on vacation, have a good time and if you are stuck at the office, heu, well, sorry!

Swarmed

Spring has arrived full force in the Sacramento valley. We don't really have a winter here. We have summer with temps in the 100 F. (37 C.) as the norm and staying above that for days at a time with no rain for months (June to end of October). And then it's just a looooong fall/spring being just a bit colder for a few days in January. And there is a downside: mosquitoes. Swarms after swarms of big mosquitoes everywhere. The soil is clay in most parts of the valley which means that puddles stay there for days making the little suckers very happy...and no amount of garlic repels them unfortunatly ;)




Everybody is covered in bites these days even if we are careful...even the dog has had enough. I'm thinking of getting a bat house this year...I'd take bats over mosquitoes any day!

A Little Game

Candy Froggie had a game on her site about movies. Since I had computer troubles at that time I had not played. Now that everything is going well ( crossing fingers and toes), here are my answers:

1. A movie that makes you laugh: Don Camillo
2. A movie that makes you dance: Take the Lead
3. A movie that moves you to tears: E.T. every single time!
4. A movie that gets on your nerves: Sahara
5. A movie that makes you shudder: Any pirates, adventure (like Indiana, Lord of the Rings etc...).
6. A movie that makes you want to travel: Out of Africa
7. A too romantic movie: Shakespeare in Love
8. A movie I've in mind just right now: Lawrence of Arabia
9. A movie everybody knows by heart: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
10: A movie with a real bad ending: Chocolat (not the one with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche) but the one by Claire Denis
11. A movie with a soundtrack you really love: Take the Lead, Real Women have Curves, Buffy (I know it's a show but...)
12. A movie I'd really like to watch again: mmm, there is a lot of them! Let's choose...Cry Baby and The Devil Wears Prada :)
13. A movie with erotic bits that inspire you: Le Grand Bleu
14. A movie you could watch a thousand times without getting bored: Any Indiana Jones
15. A movie for kids that you love: The Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle, Ice Age, Pirates of the Carribean etc, etc!
16. A favorite cartoon: Peter Pan

Voila! Finally did it :)
And here is the trailer of The Devil Wears Prada. Meryl Streep is as usual excellent, a must-see I think!

The Last Few Days

Were lovely! Mark's birthday was great. He is getting 3 parties, no less, which cheered him up considerably ;)
Valentine's day was very good as well. In fact it was great: we all got to dig in the mud to try to make a garden out of the backyard. We had a great time, followed by a great dinner and cake, made by me both in 30 mns. I got raved revues ;)( not that they had the choice or anything hehe ).
Yesterday, started equally great: glorious spring day, everybody in t-shirts, smiling and in a good mood ( see: valentine's day is very good for you ). We got the kids in bed at a reasonnable hour for once and we started to watch a japanese movie that I had wanted to watch for a while:



We were enjoying ourselves quite a bit when we suddenly heard helicopters flying over the house. This is a common occurence. They are police helicopters and are used to follow suspects night or day. So we just continued to watch the movie. But the helicopter was very insistent and usually they don't keep flying over the house, they make a wide circle in between the 2 big streets ( our neighborhood is stuck in the middle). Then they started asking (in a loud speaker) for everybody to close the doors and windows, keep the pets inside and call 911 if anybody saw something suspicious. Which was quite a bit funny, I thought. All right, so, of course we did, and the whole thing went on for a good 45 mns. The sheriffs came with their dogs, and they went in all the backyards with their flashlights. And I don't know if they found what they were looking for or not.
What's funny is that the whole thing didn't faze me one bit. We now live in a very nice neighborhood (I swear it's true, this stuff happens everywhere here) but we used to live next door to drug dealers and across the street from a gang. Which didn't faze me much either. My mom thinks there is something wrong with me. I don't know what to think. She is shocked that after the circus was done I just went to sleep, slept soundly with not a worried thought. I'm thinking: well, the sheriff was there with the dogs, the police was there, Mark was there, Piper the great beast was there, we live down the street from a member of the SWAT team, next street from us lives my good friend M. who is a cop and kicks butt, I had closed up everything that could...I mean, what else could I do at 1 am? Of course she also doesn't think I should walk the dog by myself at night, drink beer when it's not August, eat sausages, work, plant more trees, read too much and for pete's sake Marie-Laure you should wear make-up ;). Mmmph.
And that's my point: I'm not easily scared that's true but I'm not a lunatic! I carry a cell phone at night and keys can be quite useful. I know so many people in the neighborhood by now there are dozens of houses I could run to if I had a problem. Not mentionning a great big dog by my side. But my mom was upset and I don't know what to tell her anymore... Of course it's true: anything could happen at any time. I sincerely don't think paranoia helps though. But I'm sure the fact that I am in the States makes it worse for her. I just read in National Geographic that adults in the United States have more chance to die of a firearm assault than being runover by a car. What about in France though? I've been gone a while but from what I hear it's not safer..
So, what do you think, am I being careless?

Happy B-day!

Happy Birthday Mark!!
He is turning, huh, hum, 26 isn't it? Sure there is a little bit of gray here and there but it just matches my own darling. And really you still get carded when you buy alcohol or ( completly incredible but true ) cough syrup for your sick child. Even though,really, you're 38. Oups, it just slipped out! Sorry!
And you're so fortunate since right on your b-day you get to go on a field trip with 33 eleven years old who have been cooped up inside for a week because of the crappy weather. 6 hours of glorious happiness. Eating a cold sandwich for lunch. Ah, come on, it makes you feel young. And the bonus is: you get to be with 33 happy (ok,ok,overexcited in a give me the ritalin kind of way, but it's the same thing really) little people for most of the day.
And no it's not raining. It's just the sprinkles on the cake :)


ps: I don't really have gray hair. I just said that to make him feel better you understand. I just thought I should be perfectly honest about this.