tickets... check!

Well I broke down and bought them... the plane tickets I'd been eyeing for the last month to go home in September for my annual visit.

I was waiting on job confirmation for next year, yup its all set I've got my job again next year!! Yippee! But in the meantime prices jumped in ticketland :-(

The upside is I got my first-ever direct flight from Paris to Seattle! Yipppeee! Try 10 hours of movie watchin' instead of 16 hours of flights and connections in random airports! So folks, for those of you back home, mark your calendars because I'll be in the Pacific NW from Sep 16th-28th and then a long weekend visiting my grandparents in SoCal before flying back here Oct 2nd. Whooooo-hooo!!!

boating pics

As promised :-)

votez!

It's been a busy and exciting weekend. Came out to la Manche yesterday afternoon and took a lovely drive around enjoying the unbelievable weather before treating ourselves to a sushi dinner (thanx Darty for the tickets restaurant!)

Today it is still beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky. Before lunch I got to go with the fam to vote :-) As I've lived outside of my own state since I turned 18 I've never actually voted in person, always by absentee ballot so I was curious to see how it was done, esp in France! So we toodled down to the local mairie (pop. 859) to cast the votes. You take the piece of paper (or several if you want) and an envelope into the little booth and then choose one paper with the canidate's name on it and put it in the envelope. Then you hand your voter card to the guy and he reads out a number, someone else checks the number against the registration list and says "ok Mr. Mystery Guest can vote" and then you drop it in the box. Then they say "a voté" and you go and sign your name on the registrar and thats it!

Because its such a small community we hardly had to wait at all and apparently according to the TV people are turning out in record numbers to vote. Can't wait to hear what's going to happen!!!

This afternoon we went out on the boat for a little tour, it was beautiful and not too cold with a windbreaker, photos to come ;-)

new pad, take 2

Ok so here are some pictures of the new apt! When you first walk in the door this is what you see, the kitchen table on your right, windows in front and stairs on your left.
















Then if you were to turn around the kitchen table is now behind you and you can see the little cooking corner, 2 burners, fridge and oven (the microwave is hidden under those green stairs there).












If you walk up the stairs this is the view looking back down.













When you first walk up the stairs you have the desks on the left (as you can see here) and the click-clack couch along the wall.













Through the hallway is the bathroom on the right with a mini-tub and then the bedroom.





















And thats the grand tour! Can't you hear the silence? :-) Me like-y!

sunshine makes me happy

After a cold foggy day yesterday the sun made an apperance again today :-)

I'm at work now on my hot new computer that they put in my office, yippee!! And good timing too because the free internet we were mooching wasn't working at all this morning :-( Hopefully it will be working again soon, otherwise withdrawl symptoms will start soon! But in the meantime the connection is amazingly fast at work so I'm taking advantage of it to catch up on emails and blogs... hehehe

To go along with the summery weather I got my hair cut and highlighted today, it always throws me because I only get the highlights redone twice a year and when I leave it startles me and I get the impression that I've gone blond blond but then I end up getting used to it and all is good :-)

Now time to get back to real work and stop putzing around on the computer! :-)

mix-up?

I got a phone call on Thursday from a Prof that I had done a translation for last fall. He left a message on my machine saying that he has a collegue who needs some work done and if I would be interested. So I called the collegue who said that he has a CV that he has to give in by Monday morning and really needs some help, and he also said that he wasn't very good with computers so if I could help with the page adjustments etc, easy peasy. So I said I would be free Saturday morning and off I went this morning to help with the translation.

Or so I thought!!

I get there and he's very nice and all and shows me the CV and I asked if he had already started the translation, he looked at me blankly... uh oh...

So I asked what he needed my help for. Turns out he really can't use a computer so he basically needed a secretary! Someone to type up the CV and format it and save it on his computer as well as on the University's USB key cause he didn't know how.

Now I don't think that it is strange or unusual not to know how to use a computer, he's a very old school prof and that wasn't the thing that surprised me. It was however that he needed an American to help him out! I always just assume that when someone calls for help like this its for the "English"aspect of who I am, not typing skills!

So I had a good chuckle to myself and got on with it. All went fine and we got it finished and he paid what I usually charge for English classes (the only rate I had to go by as I've never sold myself as a secretary before... well there was that one time but you know I didn't do all that much typing persay... lol).

weekend getaway

This weekend Mr. Mystery Guest (yes decided I like that nickname better!) and I ran away to Brittany for a long weekend. We had gone last February where we practically froze to death so this time we shot for the long Easter weekend. We were so lucky with the weather!! It was beautiful the entire weekend, not a cloud in the sky and between 15-20C the three days, amazing!

First stop was lunch, we went to a creperie that we had been to last time, by accident but managed to find it again. If anyone heads to the region of Paimpont, stop by Plelan-le-Grand and look for Bodo's Creperie - yum! We had to pray to the crepe gods for those, yum!

Afterwards we went back to Merlin's forest, we had explored last year but loved it so much it deserved a stop this year too. Ended up taking long walks up in the hills and admiring the views all afternoon. Then we headed towards Lorient were we managed to find a hotel room (not booking on the Saturday of a long weekend isn't easy!) and ate some more of some of the best crepes I've ever had (Creperie Saint-Nicolas in Lorient...)

The next morning we got up extra early to beat the crowds at Carnac, the French equivilant (or better) of Stonehenge. It was so impressive, miles and miles of stones all over the countryside. Some smallish and some weighing several tons, including burial mounds that are over 6,000 years old!!

Then we headed off to Auray for lunch, a cute little port town that Ben Franklin once sailed into.

After lunch we headed down the penninsula to the presqu'ile de Quiberon which is very rugged and unspoiled on the west side and crazy-touristy on the east. After laying in the sun wishing we had brought some towels or beach blankets I decided to put my little footsies in the water for a test, cold but oh-so-refreshing!

Then the next stop was Vannes where after finally finding a parking spot we decided it was a very cute town, especially with the sun out and tons of tulips all over. We took a walk around and then decided to grab (yes, surprise surprise) a crepe for a quick snack.

Before leaving Caen I contacted another blogger to see if she'd be interested in meeting up, being the wonderful Minnasotan that she is, she even offered to let us crash at her place Sunday night. We had a blast making dinner (bbq pizza - yum!!) and sitting around gabbing. Fun to finally meet someone face to face that you feel as though you already 'know' through their blog! Thanks again and come to Caen sometime Sam!

Monday morning we took off and following Sam's excellent advice we stopped off in Fougeres, just after Rennes. It was an amazing town, perfectly preserved castle and old town not a soul in sight! It was a nice change after all the crowds in the other towns. We walked around the ramparts and then headed for home.

It was a great 3-day weekend! It was so fun exploring a new region and with the weather and excellent company I had a fantastic time! Now its back to work tomorrow... makes me sad to be stuck inside all day with the weather so wonderful outside, but this escape was just what the doctor ordered :-)

i'm baaaack!

Well after many frusterating hours of trying to mooch off of protected wifis until we can get our own internet up and running I randomly got a connection! Its very weak and doesn't let me do many things at once but I do feel connected with the world once again :-) A happy camper I am.

So news from here, I'm all settled in to the new appt and I dig it! It is soooo peaceful and quiet, I can study, sleep and watch movies in peace. I'm slowly but surely catching up on my sleep, after 6 weeks of deprivation it will take a while but I'm feeling much much better! Plus the weather has turned beautiful again and it is 8:15pm and the sun is just now setting, I love this time of year!

Dartyman left for the weekend but will be back tomorrow, can't wait to show him the new pad all organized :-) Although my have to fight him for bath rights... I've gotten used to my little soak before bed ;-) and little is exactly it! I swear this tub was built for a midget (dwarf, vertically challenged person if you will...) and it has some sort of funky seat built in so its hard to get your whole body underwater unless you want to jam your backbone into the faucet...! But boy is it great to crawl into bed after semi-falling asleep in the tub - yes folks, life is good.

But have some work to do so I'm off, but not far! Connected to the world wide web once again, praise the gods! :-)