babel

Ok first and foremost, how are you supposed to pronounce this? I've heard conflicting pronuciations, is the "a" that of babel like "navel" or babel like "paddle"?

I went to go see a showing at the university tonight at the last minute because I had missed it in theaters and really wanted to see it.

It reminded me of Love Actually. You know how in Love Actually all these little well written stories are entertwined and end up coming together leaving you with a warm gooey feeling inside? Well Babel stories are also very well written and perfectly entertwined stories, however you leave with the feeling like slitting your throat might just be a good 'ol time comparetively.

It is one of those kinds of movies where you think, how could it get any worse? Oh... nevermind there it just did...

There were some very powerful moments and a few surprises (the best one being an unknown-to-me apperance of my favorite Mexican actor!) and overall it is very, almost poetic movie.

lots to do...

Busy busy around here and yet I find a million ways not to do all that I need to. Amazing how that works? All of a sudden I'm making real dinners and my appt is spick & span! I have to grade 200+ economic exams that my students took, do research for my thesis and start organizing my craploads of stuff.

Yeah, I don't think I've put this on my blog before, I try not to go too much into work related stuff or other personal details but I decided to move out of my appartment... Mystery Guest and I have decided to take over my friend's place when they move!! So all is moving along, a million little things to do even when moving across town. We can move in starting February 12th which is coming up soon! Lots of boxes to fill... ;-)

Send me off an email if you want my new address!

java

When I went stateside for Christmas I brought back lots of Starbucks coffee... Yum Yum. I even picked up a Pikes Place Blend which has the original Starbucks logo (yes, heaven forbid you can see the mermaid's nipples!)

My old coffee grinder back here in France died a year or so ago and I just couldn't break down and spend over 30E on a coffee grinder, so I'd just take my whole beans to Nat's house and mooch hers.

But great timing came! Mystery Guest's brother gave me a brand new coffee grinder for Christmas! I had already bought some pre-ground coffee (I know, shame shame) and I didn't want to lose all that wonderful Starbucks freshness just to try out my grinder while I still opened coffee... So I waited, and then today, oh no! No more pre-ground Carrefour coffee! What's a girl to do? Well... whip out the bad boy!













Hehe, no no not gettin' dirty here, just proud of the beautiful sleek black coffee grinder which now sits happily dirty with the grounds of Starbucks coffee.

That was a good cup of joe. :-)

calzone!

Momma Mia!

I just tried out a recipe I had seen a few weeks ago and Yum YUM!

I made it all basically as said in the recipe, including the dough (which was fun, I haven't baked much with yeast). I didn't put in any of the sausage just because I wanted to keep it all veggies and that was still good with lots of flavor. I think the only thing missing was that I didn't use enough mozzarella (I bought French mozz in balls and just sliced it up but didn't follow the recipe calling for a total of 1 1/4 cups) but it was still gooooood!

The recipe makes a lot, 4 big calzones so I had one for lunch and I'm sure will grab another for dinner tonight :-)

Was feeling so Suzy Homemaker with the dough rising and snow falling outside ;-)

il neige!

Yea!!! Whodda thunk, last Saturday it was 12C (low 50s F) and now its snowing! Yipppeee!!!!

From what I can see (my windows face the courtyard) it dosn't seem to be sticking except on my lovely poubelles but maybe it will later!!! yeah baby! snow!

so pretty :-)

treasure hunting!

This weekend like I said Mystery Guest, his brother and I went treasure hunting with his GPS. Its really fun because you have just random people hiding boxes (usually tupperware) in random locations just leaving a log book and the GPS coordinates, then its up to you to find it! The first one we tried to find was just 8km away but it took us 3 tries because it wasn't exactly where it was supposed to be, but here are the happy boys with their treasure :-)

Then we took off near La Hague (the western tip of Normandy) where there was supposed to be another one. We never did find it but the weather was unbeliveable, we really lucked out. If it hadn't been for the wind I never would have guessed it was January!

Here's a picture of me in the wind in my bad-ass hat!

fixed!

Well it looks (fingers crossed!) like Mystery Guest has fixed my computer and more! Turns out one of the thingys of RAM (memory) died and so I bought 2 new ones, actually adding RAM. The installation seems to be going ok so not only will my computer work again but it will be faster! How cool is that??

In other news there has been huge storms out in Normandy and around Europe, we're on the beach this weekend and the gusts of wind must be gale-force at least! Luckly there have been a few breaks with some sunshine so we were able to go out geocaching, pictures to come!

have not lost hope

Yesterday I was using my computer, just after publishing a blog post actually, and it up and died...

It's weird, I couldn't get it to turn on... it would make a whirring noise like it was going to but then give up and stay off. My Mystery Guest took a look with his magic computer hands and got it to turn back on and run all sorts of scans but when I used it on my own it died again. I have no idea what happened but I hope its not dead for good cause I think I might die!

So its been brought up to Mystery Guest's house and hopefully he'll be able to work his magic again... let us all pray...

first frost

Well thanks to global warming we've had an unbelievably mild winter here in Normandy, especially compared with the insane weather the Pacific Northwest is having. Normally we have the same climate but over there they've already had 2 snowstorms where things have been totally snowed in and a big windstorm which knocked out the power whereas we've had nothing but grey skies.


Where as this morning on my way to work I saw our first frost... yes folks that'd be January 15th! It was beautiful though walking to work this morning, the sun was just coming up and shining on the frost covered grass in front of our chateau. Yes that was briiiight and early this morning. I realized I must have been really out of it this morning when I saw that I had put my underwear on inside-out... Maybe that's a bit too much info for you but it sure made me giggle :-)

culinary experiences

Today was just a wide variety of tastebud madness! Started off all innocent with cereal and coffee just like any other day... But then things got wild and crazy when I got the fève in my part of the galette des rois this afternoon when Mystery Guest's family came for a belated Xmas celebration.















Then came even wilder times when everyone was invited around to Lawrence's house for dinner. He brought back a haggis - especially for us to try! Lucky us!!

No but it really wasn't that bad, usually when you eat something ... er... unidentifiable (ie random animal parts) the texture throws you and it doesn't sit well. But the haggis isn't bad, the texture is more that of a rice pilaf or something and is quite flavorful. That said I think that 1 haggis in a lifetime is enough for this American :-)

tome 7!

Yeah baby! I got an email from Amazon.co.uk saying that the new Harry Potter (last one!)should be released sometime in 2007! Two years ago when I got the 6th book I read it for 2 days straight. They don't have the date yet but the title is out, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows... shivers up me spine! How will it end? The wait oh the wait... but still oh yeah baby!!! Happy little dance!!

la rentree

Well after two blissfull weeks of sleeping in, or rather sleeping whenever it pleased me, it was back to the alarm today...

So hard to get motivated after Christmas vacation every year, the holidays are over, its still dark at 8am and my lessons seem to be fairly bareboned... So all you out there in cyberland wish me luck on this Moday morning! I need some encouragment!

xmas aux states

Well the whirlwind vacation is over, so as a little recap I thought I'd post some pictures!!

We flew into Seattle 2 weeks ago and my mom picked us up with my little sister and her boyfriend at the airport and then made the 2 hour trek home out to the Olympic Peninsula. The time spent there was very relaxing with little planned other than enjoying fires and the jacuzzi. We did however, plan a wonderful sushi dinner the 23rd to celebrate Mystery Guest's birthday! We also built an awesome gingerbread house to enter in a local competition, like our Norman design? :-)

Christmas eve dinner was a low-key event. I brought 2 kilos of raclette cheese with me so we scarfed that down leaving the Christmas presents for the following morning.

We were surprised with personalized Christmas stockings for everyone which were stuffed full when everyone rolled downstairs on Christmas morning. That afternoon Mystery Guest and I took advantage of the sunshine and went on a walk through the State Park before an early dinner of a beautiful bbqed turkey and other yummy things to eat (including mom's homemade bread! yum!)

On the 27th we all flew down to San Fran to spend a few days with my dad and step-mom. It was a jam-packed trip with visits to Google (where my dad works), Carmel /the Montery Bay Aquarium and SF. We also managed to fit in some shopping and came away with tons of jeans! yippe!!

Down in Carmel Mystery Guest even braved the cold temps to experience the Pacific Ocean for the first time! It was sunny and warm out but I'll believe him when he says the water was freezing :-)

We had a couple days left back in the Pacific NW where we celebrated New Years in style - some flutes of champagne in the jacuzzi - before flying out so we went on a quick day trip to Seattle. From what everyone said everything should be open downtown on the 1st of January but sadly it was only the big department stores. Even Pike Place Market was all closed up!! I've never seen it closed before but we still walked around and checked out the 1st Starbucks and got stocked up at the Levi's store.

It was a wonderful trip, it was good to be home and see my family again (after a year and a half!) but too short, especially with the jet lag!

Just thought I'd leave you francophiles with this licence plate which just cracked me up ;-)

karaoke channel

Yup it's 4am and I've been up for an hour already... ah jetlag!! I'm still exhausted but can't sleep so I curled up in front of my tv and decided to channel surf. My freebox has new tv channels as of January 1st (including TF1 and M6) but I found a new one that I was not expecting -

The Karaoke Channel!!!!!

I can see hours and hours of countless fun coming up! :-)

back home?

Well I've arrived safe and sound back home, home France that is. It has been a busy past 10 days and I have many pictures to post but right now my body clock is completely messed up and I'm running on very low energy so I just thought I'd share this picture of a bottle of wine Mystery Guest spotted, just for laughs :-)

'Night!