The Good, The Bad. and The Ugly

These last 2 months have been very interesting. I really have a better sense now of human nature in general and my family in particular.
It started well enough.

The Good

Mark was on TV because he was refeering a soccer game.
I'm going to be in the paper because of the Jewelry Business.
This prompted Mark to say: " Watch out Posh and Becks!"
Hehe, he is cute.

There was Halloween.

My little sister is now officially qualified to take care of other people's children on top of her own. Congratulations Cilette!

That's it.

The Bad

3 weeks ago my son started to complain about his ankle and calf. Since it wasn't going away we took him to the doctor. It seems that there is a particular muscle there that can become a problem ( meaning it could come back again and again and again). So we gave him anti-inflamatory medication, iced the area after every effort and he tried to be careful.
So, when he was trying to be careful he was rushing with his friends across the blacktop and, this is not very clear how exactly, managed to crash.
He has now a bruise on his knee the size of a football, a bruise the size of the palm of my hand on his hip, his entire right elbow is one big bruise and so is the right temple. The most worrisome was of course the blow to his head since his eye was affected: he had a crescent of light on the side of his vision for a few minutes. His arm was also of concern since it could have been broken. So, emergency room. His arm is ok and his vision came back normal but the doc said to take him to the eye doctor for a check-up.
However, mr T. reports that his ankle and calf are just fine now.
Well, that's lucky.

And I have developed a strange thing with one of my eyes: it looks fine, it feels fine until I put my contacts on. Then it burns, water and become red if I rub. I changed contacts. Nada. The eye doctor thinks it's an allergy. I don't do allergy. I already never admit that I'm sick and to prove my point I work and cram more things than usual in my schedule because damnit, I'm not sick. So, an allergy? I don't think so.
I think it's voodoo.

Which brings to:

The Ugly

Big fight with my mother in law. I used to not be a patient person at all and I've gotten a lot better over the years. And then, after meeting Mark's family I devellopped A LOT of patience. Apparently there must have been a quota. And it was reached.
Maybe she is doing the voodoo thing.
In the meantime, we won't be seeing them for Thanksgiving and it sucks for the kids since they are the only family that we've got on this side of the pond with Mark's sister and her fiance who are going with the fiance's family this year as it was already planned.
Me, however, I'm feeling lighter and relieved. Go figure.

Thank god there is Mika :)

???

Laurienna comes back from the hairdresser.
She made drastic changes to her hair. It's way shorter and a bit spiky. And very dark.

Husband says:
You look great, I love it. And then he kisses his wife.

Daughter says:
I love it mama, it's cool.

Son says:
It looks less mature.

Seeing the look on his mother's face he adds:
You know, age wise.

Husband says to the son:
Do you want a shovel?

Son:
???

Husband:
So that you can keep digging. Deeper.

Sweet

As my son would say...What could be better than another Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie? Mmmm? That's right nothing :)

Here is the Sweeney Todd trailer just for you:

People Are Insane

Courage and insanity, where does one end and when does the other one begin?

A jaw dropping video for sure!

The Zombie Cow-Girl

Happy Halloween !

I hope you are all having a great time out there. My crew is gone with various friends doing their tricks, leaving me to the hard work of opening the door to cute little children,

protecting the candy bucket,



drinking the blood wine,


admiring the glow



and getting compliments on my socks,



and my house "ooooh, it's a fairy house!"



Have Fun!

Jack

Alrighty. There are several ways of doing advertisement for someone and so I have been thinking about this post all day long. How should I go about it? Let's see...I don't do that often you know..

Jack is an incredible photographer. Yep, and you don't have to trust me on that, look ( click on the pictures to make them bigger):






The light, the composition, the way the pictures pull you in...remarkable. And it is so difficult to achieve photography at that level.

Ok, and on top of that, Jack's current horrible job is preventing him from blogging. The horror. I want Jack back on the net. So go buy his artwork here so that he can make a living with what he actually loves to do. There are plenty more outstanding photographs on this site: http://www.redbubble.com/people/intimatestrangers/art . Actually, there wasn't one that I didn't like.

Can you imagine what a great Christmas present these would make...mmmm Mark? Darling I want the 3 top ones for sure. And don't forget that it takes time for the shipping etc...you know, I m just saying.

Mmmmmm....

Well, well, well. It has been a while. Way too long I'd say and I've missed writing in this blog. So much things have happened and at the same time it's same old, same old. Mark and I have had a surge in work and so did the kids . Mister T. was doing a powerpoint presentation and was hogging the computer, hehe, and then both kids got sick with a strange stomach ailment that was going around the school, then it was a big cold for mister T. ( of course I got both). Then I had a huge fight with my mother-in-law and now something is wrong with one of my eyes: it is puffy, red and itchy. And it burns. Lovely.
But lots of good things also happened and these I'll go in more details tomorrow. And tonight is a stormy night and I love stormy nights.
I hope you are all well.

Last night

It's bedtime.

Miss A. ( jumping up and down on the bed):
I'm so excited that the tooth faery is coming tonight!

Me:
I can see that! She is doing some overtime with you this month...

Miss A.:
I think she is going to bring me a wii !

Me:
Mmmm, darling I don't think so..that's way too much for a tooth faery!

Miss A.:
Too much what?

Me ( trying to think fast, this conversation is not going the way I'd like it to):
Well, mmmmmmm, uh, oh I don't know...money?

Miss A. ( laughing):
Mama! The tooth faery doesn't BUY toys!

Me:
Ah. Where does she get them, then?

Miss A.:
Well, she goes and visit Santa of course!

Me:
Ah, of course, silly me!

Miss A.:
So, he can just loan her his sleigh and then she can bring the wii. No problem!

Home Decorating

I worked particularly hard this summer and was very well payed for it. So, I decided that the house needed a little sprucing up and I started thinking.
We need very badly a new sofa, several lamps, a rug and new cushions.
And, hopefully one day we'll get all of that.

But for now, I went for the refined and understated for which I'm so well known for.

And, plus, everybody needs a gargoyle, right?

So, without further ado, I present to you Edgar The Gargoyle:





Isn't he cute? My son thinks I have a really warped sense of what cute is. He doesn't know what he is talking about. Actually, Edgar looks quite a bit like Piper when you wake her up in the morning ;).

Made With Real Potatoes

6 pm, It's time for dinner. Get up from the desk, stretch and turn off the music. Piper does the same, she knows what comes next. Legolas trails us wagging its tail and yawning. Miss A. arrives and ask what's for dinner mama?
Let's go see...
She grabs a bowl and the kitchen scissors and off we go. The air is warm with just a hint of coolness, just so that we don't forget it's October.
We get into the vegetable garden...what looks good today? Tomatoes, eggplants, celery, oregano and thyme. Perfect! Add an onion, make the sauce and put it on the gnocchi I bought yesterday.
Back to the kitchen, everything is bubbling happily and it's smelling wonderful. Especially with Irish soda bread cooking in the oven. Even the dogs come and try to peak at the oven door.
I get the two packages of gnocchi from the cupboard and start opening them.

What's that in the front of the package?

"Made with real potatoes."

How funny.

What do they mean exactly?

I mean, it was not on the package I bought last week with another brand.

Does it mean the gnocchi from last week were not made with real potatoes?

Or does it mean that the gnocchi from tonight used to be made from not real potatoes and now they are?

Or does it mean that some potatoes are real and some are not?

Mutant potatoes?

Bleh.

What if it looks like a potato but it's not.

But if the other potatoes are not real potatoes then what are they?

Maybe I could google it.

No, I don't think I really want to know.

" Mama, I'm hungry."

....Fine, let's put the stuff in the water....

Was I feeling ok when I ate the other gnocchi last week? Shoot, I can't remember.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm SURE I was feeling queasy.

Oh god, maybe I poisoned my family with mutant potatoes.

Later, at dinner:

Mark: " You're not eating much, you are not hungry?"

Me: "Heh, not that much no. Could you give me some wine?"

Mark" "How is it?"

Me: " Fine, fine."

Me: "Do you think it's made with real grapes?"

Mark: " ????"

The List In The List

The plan was to do a nice long post but time is running out today. Are you like me? Do you have lists? I never put them down on paper but they are in my head swirling around. All the things I need, have to or want to do this day/week/month. And it's just the list in the list. The big list of the stuff I want to learn or do before I die. You know, The Big List.
But there is so much, too much! And everyday I add something: wouldn't it be neat if I could...?

The Dog Who Would Not Be Trained

( I know, bad Harry Potter imitation title)

A few days ago I went to the bookstore and got a dog training book that I had heard about for a while. I happily took it home and sank into the couch reading it. 4 pages later I realized I needed to get dinner started and put the book down. Later that night I wanted to keep reading it and looked for it everywhere. It seemed to have vanished. Since this is not exactly unexpected in this household I dropped the hunt and went to bed.
Next morning I took my coffee to sip in the backyard as usual and I found this, lying about in the grass:



Let's examine the likely suspects:



I present suspect number 1, miss Piper.
As you can see from the state of that soccer ball, strength and teeth are present and fully sharpened. But, come on, look at the bambi eyes. Can't be me, right?



And here is suspect number 2 aka as bad boy Legolas. Excellent thief with good agility and speed, always looking for trouble. And, is he laughing at me?
The nerve.

I think it is hilarious that this book is the only one that he has ever destroyed. He hasn't shown any interest for chewing books since then either. Luckily.

If only he would stop destrying every pair of flip-flops that I own ( 6 pairs, all gone ), it would be swell.

8 yo and my purse

That's a really rotten title, sorry. Today, I'm taking miss A. to my hairdresser for a haircut. We used to go to a kid's place out in the middle of nowhere with chickens on the doorstep living freely in this little village and the haircut place had all kinds of old kids toys that were neat. And the hawaiian lady who cut miss A's hair was kind, funny with all kinds of good stories. Oh, and they had chocolate scented shampoo.
But miss A. turned 8 and she decided that she wanted a grown up haircut. Mmmmmmm, ok, I said without inquiring much further and I took an appointment with my hairdresser. Haha. Yesterday she finally said what she had in mind: short spiky hair died pink.
We negociated.
Hard.
I'll take a picture when we come back but I can already tell you there will be no pink ;)
I know, what a letdown ;)

And now, The Purse.



Bought at the Pirates of The Carribean store in Disneyland, of course, where else?
It's really roomy in there, as you can see.

From the top, clockwise:

An empty sunglasses case. I have no idea where the sunglasses went.

A ziplock bag with salted sunflower seeds. Generously given to me by the H. family when I was starving at a soccer game. They grew the sunflowers, harvested the seeds, roasted and salted them. Yum.

The poop bag. Right, for the dogs.

My wallet which is too full. Not with money unfortunatly.

Coupons that will probably never get used since I didn't remember having them in the first place. And the menu for Mr Pickle's, a sandwich place.

An unsharpened pencil. Could I do more useless than that I wonder?

My keys. Incidentally I found 2 keys for my front door that I wasn't aware existed. I think they are multiplying when I'm not looking.

Little papers that you find in the chinese fortune cookies, from the last time I went to Chinatown.

The lens cap from my camera. I had been looking for it for 5 days.

French candies :)

Miss A dirty socks. Don't ask, I have no recollection of putting them in my purse. Yet, here they are.

An orange thingie for my hair.

My cell phone. Apparently it's dead.

A thank you note and invitation from J. She makes the envelopes herself from old magazines pages. Very cool and always pretty.

A pen. Oh goody, it works too!

A rock, some shells and beach glass collected in Carmel in August. I'm not sure why they are still in there. Apparently the 2 lbs of stuff I removed when we came back was not everything.

Kleenexes. Yes that's Nemo.

A gigantic acorn. I think it's made for a weresquirrel.

Little reminder papers from my dentist and hairdresser in the hope that for once I won't forget my next appointment. So far this has been a fruitless endeavor.

Ticket from a soccer game seen in July. Need to clean purse more often.

Bandades. I have to restock often. The scooby doo ones are in high demand.

And The Week-End is Over

Saturday was spent cleaning my office ( yes, still, I hear you) and a very nice surprise came with a phone call from a very good friend: " what about coffee?". Hey, you don't have to ask me twice! I came back a bit too late I'm afraid and the whole family was sleeping already. Well, my son was at a sleepover and he slept only 3 hours which is way worse than me ;).
Unfortunatly, I had forgotten completely that we were supposed to go to a museum the next morning.
Good thing it was actually really good. It was an exposition about Leonardo Da Vinci. Actually it was better than that: they had recreated his inventions and you could try them ( well, most of them). That must have been a cool job.
On top of that we met my friend from the night before with her 2 kids while we were standing in line and it was a total surprise. And it lead to some great cooperation trying to build one of Leonardo's clever bridges.






The only bad thing for the whole day was that the guy serving drinks at the cafe called me sweetheart. Yep. I don't think he is going to try that again on anybody after what I told him. I don't think sweetheart was what came to him looking at me when I was finished either.
The nerve.
Nobody calls me sweetheart.
The idiot kept grinning at me the whole time after that.
University students obviously have too much time on their hands.

And now it's Monday afternoon and my interview is almost over, just the pics need to be done.
However, I discovered that my mother in law more than probably stole pearls frome me. And these particular pearls are hard to find and they were reserved for a customer.

I'm wondering what to do about that.

I know, I'm moving to Mongolia.

A Slice Of My Day

I had planned (!) to do a post about everything we did during the last 10 days but it is too overwhelming for tonight. Too many great places we went to and way too many pictures to wade through. Today was spent cleaning up my office for the interview kind of but also because I had wanted to do a thorough cleaning since we moved 2 1/2 years ago. You know, you move and you put boxes full of stuff under the desk because what on earth are you going to do/put pics of babies, weddings, Halloween and Christmas decorations, shells from the Reunion island, stamps from France, Christmas presents people gave you and you couldn't even figure out what the hell you are supposed to do with this but you don't dare throw it away. So, true to myself everything went/was stuffed in the closet, under the desk and behind the desk, in the corners and on top of the Ikea armoire. Everything is very thoroughly covered by dust, dirt and insects exoskeleton ( sorry, love that word and not many occasions to use it, unless you excavate in my house that is ).
I stole a few minutes in the garden watering just before getting dinner ready and I'm just going to post pics of that moment for today and will come back tomorrow.
Arf, I just remembered I've got to get up extra early for my son's soccer game.. and it's supposed to rain. I wonder if J is going to bring her homemade scones again. I've got to remember to bring my coffee...

Ahahahahahaha

So, the family flew away on Monday. The rest of the day was spent rushing around trying to accomplish all the stuff that needed to be accomplished 10 days ago. But in the back of my mind was: on Tuesday morning, date with Mark for 2 hours sipping coffee at a table looking at books and magazines. Right. So I've got a bad cold and I tried to cough my lungs out all night, but who cares, I'm going to the bookstore tomorrow to drink coffee with my husband. I get up in a daze to hear Mark say: "Oh, you're up! I was going to let you sleep in since you didn't sleep well last night." Ah. Well, too late I guess. But that's ok, cause I'm going to relax this morning. Send the kids to school, drink coffee and even though I know I shouldn't because there is no time, I turn on my computer. And that was a big, big mistake. I couldn't resist a peak at my favorite blogs that morning, even for only 15 mns and that cost Mark and I our sanity and sleep for a full 20 hours.
I got a virus on the computer. No, no, not on a blog mind you. TALKING TO MY SISTER ON MSN. Of all things. I was in a hurry ( I think I said that already), and I clicked on a download that I thought was coming from her. Turns out she didn't send anything but she was chatting with someone else who was also chatting with someone else, etc...Somehow in that chain, someone sent a virus that infected every single person who was on msn at that moment. And I was in a hurry. And I didn't check that she was the one actually sending the download as I usually do. Well, long story short, Mark got rid of it after 20 hours of effort. I think I actually invented new swear words and my nails are now a lot shorter. But at least we won.
Oh, and I had an interview with a journalist that day at 1pm for an article written about me and the jewelry business. I felt so relax and inspired I can tell you that. Just great. Oh and I had no voice because nasty cold + too much swearing is a really bad combination.
The paper wants to send a photograph to my house for the article. Ahahahahaha. Here is a tiny pic of what state my house is in.



I'll spare you the panoramic view.

But , today, wednesday, the virus is gone, the floor is mopped and the house slightly cleaner, laundry is done (almost) and everybody has underwear again ( I know you didn't want to know that), my voice is back to the delight of my family :):) and it's sunny outside. Ah, actually no, it's freaking cold, windy and cloudy and the weather people are threatening us with rain tomorrow. A full month early? What's the world coming too? Hehe....

Well, I need a cheer and that pic of the Golden Gate Bridge in gorgeous San Francisco is doing the trick for me as I hope it'll do the same for you. We had a great day there last Sunday but I'll tell you a lot more about that tomorrow. Right now I need to eat and rush miss A. to her gymnastic class and then work, work, work.

Sigh

I stared at that page for a while, wondering what the title for this post should be and that's what I came up with.
I feel spent, I think that's what it is. Family visits here, are more emotionally charged and harder on everybody than when I was in France. The distance, the feeling of borrowed time have taken their toll in between my family and I. And the story in between me and my dad is a complicated one, broken up in pieces: the happy childhood, the months long business travel where he would live in another country for most of the year. Then, the divorce with my mom and his very long abscence during, well, all of my teenage years really. He is not an easy person to live with either. And then his wife, of course.

And all I heard for 10 days, Marie can you do this, Marie-Laure what do you think, can I, where are we going today, what are we doing today, mama, mama, mama.

The visit went ok. Definitly better than I thought it would, but I'm relieved they are gone now. Silly me who thought I'd finally have some time for myself. Instead the 3 people I live with have filled every single day to the brim with their stuff, that of course require assistance from me. I'm getting desperate and I don't know how to approach life anymore. I'm hopelessly behind at that point. Even if I worked every hour of every day I'd not make it. And I'm happy to steal 2 small ones crunched up in between all the other stuff. I'm feeling rushed and I stare at my pile of beads and thread and nothing is coming. Instead there is a maelstrom of dates and times twirling and twirling. Ugh. I need to sleep.
But like Hiro says: tomorrow is another day.

Defcon 1

I haven't said anything earlier on this blog but tomorrow is going to be, how shall I say that, a wee bit stressful.

I have to get up at 6am on a Saturday because my son has his first soccer game of the season. They are all bigger now and the potential for injury is greater. And they are playing against a team notorious for playing dirty.

Then we'll rush home to get a bite to eat and then it's off for his first game as a referee this time. The players will be older than him. But he'll be refeering with one of his best friends and Mark. And I'll be on the sideline glaring at unruly parents. If one gets out of line with the 2 kids, he or she is dead. I'm not in the mood to discuss another option.

Then, we'll rush home again to clean the house.

Then, we'll rush to the airport to pick up my dad and his wife at 6pm. I'm thrilled beyond words. That's right, right up my alley.

We have had an intensely hot and dry weather for days now. And now fires are burning all over California. Sacramento is covered in a big thick smoke that burns your eyes and throat. The sun is orange and it is raining ashes.

This Saturday Playing in Sacramento:

Apocalypse Now

12

My son turned 12 today :). He is an amazing human being and I'm very honored to be his mother. I can't wait to see how he'll grow up to be. I hope he'll stay just as he is: quirky, funny, amazingly smart, handsome and caring about the whole world and the people in it. Happy birthday Thomas!