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.

And Today is....

My Birthday!!
So, of course I had the usual questions:
- do you feel old?
- are you traumatized?
- do your knees squeack when you kneel?!

Well, really I don't see how any of these could possibly apply to me since I'm only turning 36 26. Hehe.
I have been feeling a little weird though lately...a bit like Alice in Wonderland, seeing weird people doing weird things that obviously makes sense to them but not at all to me. And like Alice I'm kind of floating around, feeling in turn curious, giddy, angry, exasperated and finally throwing my arms up in the air in frustration at not quite understanding what these people are all about. Ah well, maybe I'll be more patient and understanding when I grow up :)

Summer Time

The farniente, the hammock, the naps in the hammock, days that last forever with no schedule...
Well, what happened?? Cause my summer doesn't look like that AT ALL. Nope, nada. I haven't even looked at the hammock for 3 weeks. Pffff... I'm hoping that starting next week, summer will feel a bit more like summer should. We'll see :)
In the mean time here is what's happening in the garden these days:








If you click on the pics, particularly the bee one, you'll see how good my new camera is: you can see the grains of pollen and the details of her wings :)

And in the series of....

Events that curiously makes you use "no sleep" and "Miss A" in the same sentence...
Last night 4:30 am:
Miss A: "Papa, papa, wake up!"
Papa: "Mmmmmmm, what's wrong?"
Miss A.: "I just lost a tooth"
Papa and Mama: "What??? How can you lose a tooth at night!?"
Miss A.: "I dreamed about it and then it happened."

And I Present....

The newest member of the family:

He remained nameless for 3 days...and then we had 3 choices Mazi (means Sir in Swahili), Lucky (miss A's choice) and Legolas :Mr T's choice. Of course :)
And Legolas it is! He is very attached to my son so Mr T picked the name :)
Legolas is from a rescue of course, as is Piper. The two of them get along fabulously. He is an extremely easy and fun puppy and we couldn't be happier :)

And if I thought I was bored, that's definitly out now.

Vacation is Very Tiring

Last Day of School:
Laurienna is bragging to everybody that this is awesome, tomorrow she can sleep in. Right.

First Day of Vacation:
Miss A. enters the last remnant of personal parental space still available (my pillow) at 7:09am (9 mns later than the usual "everybody on deck" morning mayhem) and asks if she can watch tv. Of course I don't go back to sleep.

Second Day of Vacation:
Miss A. is up at 7:30am and so everybody else is too because there is no choice in the matter really. At 9:30am she announces that she is bored. This is going to be a loooooong summer.

Third Day of Vacation:
Miss A. loses a tooth. So, of course, the tooth faerie came at night. So, of course, miss A. wakes up at 6:30am with squeals of delight over her present. And just to make sure that we all got that she is happy she comes and jumps up and down on everybody's bed. Including the dog's.

There is no hope in my life.

It's the Final Countdown!!

The 2 gremlins will be let loose from school tomorrow at 1200 hours. Run! Run for your lives!!



Speaking of Europe (the group I mean!), I got to go to one of their concerts in Ireland a long long too long time ago. I must have been around 14 and it was a tiny room. Boy my friends and I made so much NOISE, we got to go up on stage and shake hands with them at the end. They were very nice, very sweaty and I did wonder how they would manage to peel off their oh so tight leather pants ;). I remember that the singer and I compared notes on hair: he was the only guy I've met who had as much hair as I do :):)

Another Little Game

This one is from the excellent Candy Froggie....have you checked her gallery recently?


a writer: Robin McKinley
a painter/artist: Van Gogh
an actress: Kate Winslet
an actor: Johnny Depp
a director: Peter Jackson
a musician: Stephan Eicher
a singer (female): Alanis Morissette
a singer (male): George Michael, hehe
a band: Scorpion
an adventurer: Indiana Jones
a king/queen: Louis XVI
an inventor: the one who invented hammocks
a tv character: Veronica Mars
a movie hero: Zorro
a movie heroine: Hermione
a cartoon character: Road Runner
a tale hero: The Ogre
a tale baddie: Mr Mac Gregor (Peter Rabbit)
a mythologie character: a mermaid

I Have Been Tagged!

All right so my good friend Heike tagged me...thank you my friend for passing along your punishment...have you heard of Karma? Hehe...So, I have to tell 8 things about myself that presumably people don't know and would like to know...dear god.
All right, here we go:

1. I make my own bread and yogurts. No, this is not a remake of the Little House in the Prairie. I just don't like what I find at the store :)

2. I blow dandelions seeds so that they go on my neighbors lawn on purpose. ( American people have a hatred for dandelions and I have declared myself their savior. Yes, I do realize that this is very immature but they bug me with their chemicals that they spray everywhere, it goes in my water and my air too ).

3. I'm very short tempered but I'm getting better. Kind of says Mark. Nobody asked you darling ;)

4. I want to move every 2 years.

5. I'd love to have a farm or a B&B by the sea.

6. My son and I have been "extended the privilege of the floor of the Assembly" at the Nevada State Legislature. Which means that we got to seat amongst the assembly women and men and watch them vote and talk (they pass secret messages to each other by the way. They also have secret meetings hehe!). We were also formally introduced to everybody and got a greeting from all of them. Then we went to dinner and they were quite funny :):)

7. I have been in ghost towns, real saloons in the middle of dusty nowhere, my car broke down in the middle of Death Valley and I slept in a room that was so slanted we kept having to scoot back up the bed all night long.

8. When nobody is at home I make myself a big bowl of ice cream with a giant scoop of whipped cream smothered in chocolate sauce and sprinkles. And when the others come back and that nothing of the good stuff is left I pretend I don't know what happened ;)

And now I have to pass it along to 8 people. Mmmm, don't know that many who have a blog so obviously it'll have to be Candy Froggie, Miss Penny, Helene and Hiro if she passes by? No, no, don't thank me :)

At World's End

It was great! The special effects were incredible really. All my favorite characters were there: Captain Jack Sparrow of course but also Captain Barbossa and the excellent Tia Dalma the gypsy queen. Miss Swann manages to not be so annoying and, total miracle, Orlando Bloom manages to look like a pirate at the very end.
Critics here have complained that there is too many plot lines, that it is confusing and that the movie is too long. Well, actually, it seemed pretty straightforward to me: betrayal left and right :). Seriously, even my 11 year old had no problem whatsoever to follow the story sooooo, I don't know, brain change maybe? Reboot? As for the length, time flew by :). I loved the fact that the movie was about the last stand of the only truly free men and women of their era. And that "good business" represented by Lord Beckett gets blown up is very fitting.
Just go and enjoy yourself... I heard that Johnny Depp loves being Captain Jack so much he'd be happy to do another one. The final scene certainly leaves room for another story so let's cross our fingers and toes ;)

What Would You Be Willing to Do?

Would you breath the weird and haunted shores at world's End
To fetch back witty Jack?

Oh yeah, I'm all for it :)
I'll tell you how the fetching went ;)




The picture is from yahoo movies.

Mother's Day!

I know, I'm really bad, I haven't written anything for so long and I'll give hints of why in the next few posts. For now, I'll share a bit of my Mother's Day with you ( it was almost 2 weeks ago here). First I want to say that it was a lovely day: Mark and the kids cooked the meal ( roasted chicken with herbs, tomatoes a la provencale, strawberry pie: all my favs!).
They had little gifts and cards that they always make themselves and that I love. They were particularly good this year. For example, let's see what my son's card says:

First page: "Happy Mother's Day!!"

( nothing out of the ordinary, lovely and sweet as you would expect )

Second Page: "I hope you like the present, but you have to guess what it is to get it"

( follows: a drawing of a bird with a seed in its beak. I guessed bird feeder and I was right )

But, wait, there is an asterisk at the end of the sentence. I'm told it refers to something written on the last page of the card.
And so I turn and at the top of the page there it is:

" I wanted to get you a $100.00 fountain but it was too expensive."

And then there is another asterisk so I look at the bottom of the page and it says:

"If I had a bigger allowance I could have bought it."

Mouahahahhahahahahahhaha! Well, played darling, well played! Sadly for him he only got a big kiss ;)