AliThinks

Quote Of The Day

Allan, the moment I dished up a slice of quiche on his plate:

"Egg pizza! Mmmmm..."

Okay, maybe you need to know that Allan doesn't like eggs. At all.

He likes my quiche, though.

Next Time I'll Take My Camera

I am not a sports fan.

Not.a.fan.

Alison and Sports have never been in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. The World Series/Super Bowl/
World Cup? I could care less, unless the home team is winning, and even then I don't really care (unless we're talking about France taking the 1998 World Cup from Brazil. That? was bitchin').

You get the picture.

Unseasonal

It's been warm and sunny for the past two days. Yesterday we did some stuff, which you can read about on Allan's blog. This afternoon we also went out, on foot this time.

First we walked down to Common Grounds and had coffee. We sat out on their back patio area and enjoyed the mild breeze. Charbucks is much closer, but we prefer the ambiance (and the coffee!) at Common Grounds. When the sun was no longer shining on my face, I suggested that we start walking back. We had plenty of time before dark, but I wanted to make a stop on the way home. And we still had to go to Kroger for some things for dinner.

Next we stopped in The Black Market (no website for this eclectic little shop). I love the different kinds of items, jewelry, and clothing here. We spotted a clock we have been wanting to get, and I found just the thing I've been looking for to hold my rings. Bonus!

Feeling good, we left The Black Market and headed for Kroger to get some cheese. We're making pizza for dinner.

The entire time we were out, I just had this grateful feeling. I'm so glad we live in a neighborhood that has access to such local treasures. I'm so glad the weather is beautiful (and as I write this, the sun is just beginning to set). But mostly, I'm grateful to be where I am today. One year ago, I was in Lexington, but it was a week-long visit. Two days later I had to go back to Small Town, France, to my life that didn't have much purpose. Once I realized that I wasn't going to find work besides going back into teaching, I mostly just stayed in my apartment all day long. I did see my kids on the weekends (29 hours straight with them; I calculated). It wasn't all that great. So here I am. I miss my kids like crazy, but I'm happy to be where I am. In a year's time, I hope my kids will live here with us.

Boy, that got all long and rambling, didn't it? All I thought I wanted to say was how much I love living here.

As Promised

Yesterday I posted a photo of my candied cranberries. It's time to tell you what I did with them.

We didn't decide to celebrate Thanksgiving at my dad and stepmother's house until Sunday. The lot of us will be there: my dad's children, my stepmom's children, and our respective families. If we all make it, there will be 26 of us. That's not counting my two kids, who've never celebrated a real American Thanksgiving.

Since there are so many of us, we all bring something to take the load off my stepmother. I asked what Allan and I could bring. "Red wine* or a fruit pie." I said we'd bring both.

Sweet Jewels

Inspired by my friend NewWaveGurly, I made candied cranberries this afternoon. NWG covered her cranberries in chocolate. I have another plan for mine, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the full story.

I'm Ready For My Hobby, Mr. DeMille

Wish me luck with this. I am not sure I can make what I see in my head appear on these scrapbook pages. As the French say, "C'est pas gagné."

Inside and Out

   

     Click image if you want to see it bigger

Mr. Jones had an encounter with Tonks yesterday. This isn't the first time they've seen each other, but it was the funniest. Tonks had the Bucky ears going. Mr. Jones was ready for a fight: look at his paw! (And really, is there anything cuter than that paw?)

The window spat didn't last long, and soon Tonks took off for someone else's yard. Mr. Jones looked out the window for a while, then curled up in the his chair and went to sleep.

Le Beaujolais Nouveau, Redux

In which I taste this year's model. And uh, no, it wasn't my first glass.

Last year's video post about the Beaujolais Nouveau. The sound is worse, but I look better.

Edit: Looking back on all my video blogs, I see that this one is MUCH smaller than the others. Time to check back into Dailymotion or YouTube. I just would like to be able to transfer all the videos I made with Audioblog (now Hipcast). Does anybody know if that's possible?

O Modernity!

Although I am now living in the States, I still have to pay some taxes in France. One of these, the taxe d'habitation, was due today. I got the notice a few weeks ago and promptly threw it on a Pile of Papers That I Need To Do Something About.

Well, sort of. I studied the thing and noticed that I could pay online. With that little nugget of information in my brain, I relegated the notice to the Pile.

Yesterday I went to pay the tax, thinking that I could even use my American account, and wouldn't that be easy peasy?

Uh, no.

A Pre-Internet Pregnancy*

Before the existence of parenting websites and mommyblogs, we had to cope with our pregnancies the hard way. Motherless and in a foreign country, I read What to Expect When You're Expecting and wrote in my journal during my first pregnancy. I was the first of my family or friends to have a child, and boy, was I clueless. It all worked out, of course. I had a healthy baby girl three months before I turned 25.

For my second pregnancy, not only was I more experienced, but I was also fluent enough in French to feel comfortable reading parenting magazines. My favorite was famili, and I bought it every month. One of the rubrics I enjoyed was "La Future Maman du Mois," which profiled a different woman every month.

I started thinking about all this recently because at least three of my "Lost In Francelation" bloggers are pregnant. Riana, Aimee, and Deb are all expecting their first child. These future mamans have an advantage I didn't: a built-in support system via the internet. I think it's wonderful that they are able to tap into the rich source that is the interwebosphere, and that they are blogging about their pregnancies. Oh! If I'd only had a blog when I was expecting. (Sample entry from my journal: March 31, 1995. I can't believe I'm going to have a baby! Here I am with my huge belly, two weeks from my due date, and I just can't fathom the fact that a real live baby is going to come out of me. I know it's in there, heck, I can feel it moving! But it's a little person and it will grow up to be a big person and I made it! With some help from J, of course.)

But I digress. So I've been thinking about these three American bloggers in France and how lucky they are. And I got to thinking about how I dealt with being pregnant, eons ago. I thought of famili magazine, and how I sent my photo and a description in to the magazine. I thought of the phone call I received from Anne Wieme-Dufour, inviting me to be a Future Maman du Mois. I thought of that November Wednesday that I spent in Paris, being dorlotée by famili. I thought of that March day in 1998, when (with my baby son in his sling) I bought famili and opened it to this page:

Why I Didn't Create A Food Blog

I haven't mentioned food much on AliThinks lately, but I really love to cook. And eat. And I'm kind of a food snob. So how come I never made this a food blog?

1. Laziness
2. Dim-wittedness (no, really)
3. Working Mom Fatigue
4. All of the above

A Little Slice of Life

I love when the older women at Curves just keep on exercising while the music rocks out. They didn't even flinch when "Radar Love" came blaring out of the speakers.  It made me laugh.

But maybe you had to be there.

What To Do, What To Do...

Just before our trip to Scotland, I had the idea that I would make each of my kids a scrapbook for Christmas. This was sparked by the giddiness I felt while wandering the aisles of Michael's. I'm a sucker for paper goods and office supplies. I love Office Depot, but Michael's practically sends me over the edge. Thing is, I know nothing about scrapbooking.

Just before our trip to Scotland, I had the idea that I would research my ancestors. See, my name is the name of a Scottish clan. I actually joined a genealogy website (floating window alert) Using the database there, I traced some forebears back to 1750, although not the Scottish clan line. I also asked my dad for some information. While in Scotland, I made no effort to follow up on this.

Just before our trip to Scotland, I told myself I'd start expanding my photographic horizons, and that I'd start by reading the effing manual for my camera.

Now here we are at home, and I don't know where to start. The genealogy thing can be a long-term effort, so I'm not really thinking about that. Same for photography. Anyway, right now I'm feeling like my photos suck, so I'll probably wait until my self-confidence is back before I do anything with that.

The scrapbook idea, though, is eating at me. I want to give my kids a really personal gift, so this would be a great idea. But I don't know where to start. I also don't want to spend a boatload of money on supplies. What if I decide that scrapboooking sucks the big one?  I found this site, which looks like a good resource. On the other hand, before I buy supplies, I want to SEE them. (Did I mention my thing for paper goods and office supplies?)

My point is that I'm looking for a new hobby, but I'm afraid to start. Half the time I start things, then don't finish them. I get bored and move on. What to do, what to do?

Update: Half-Price Books opened today in Lexington. (Yay!) We went there, and I got two books: The Everything Scrapbooking Book and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Scrapbooking. Also, thanks for the ideas and suggestions in the comments, everyone!

Alrighty, Then

Here ends the political chapter of this blog. It's time for me to start rambling about my own little life again. Also, some of you have been clamoring for Mr. Jones. Here he is:

Live-Blogging The Returns

Greetings from Buffalo Wild Wings, where the Lexington chapter of Drinking Liberally is meeting for wings and election returns. And beer. There are 11 of us here, the place is packed with sports fans, and it's loud. My jetlag wants to take over my brain, but I'm fighting it.

We just got seated, and they haven't changed the TV channel for us yet we're watching MSNBC, but so far it looks as if Lexington has a new mayor (which is a good thing) and that Sick Rantorum (of my home state) will not be was not re-elected. Woo-hoo!

More news as it happens. Not that this is breaking or anything.

8:47 pm: Rock on, Pennsylvania! Rock on, Ohio!

8:51 pm: Quote from Elle: "Rick Santorum's going down like Mark Foley on a page."

8:59 pm: Time to close the laptop for a bit. Our group has expanded and the tables are small. Plus the wangs are on their way.

9:36 pm: We've consumed our wings and other bar-type food. Yum. Wet naps have been passed around, Robert's mango margarita has been sampled, and we've got our eyes on MSNBC and Fox News (I know. Can you believe it?). Tennessee has a Democrat for a governor. The Allen-Webb race in Virginia is still too close to call. Fox news seems to be insinuating that Santorum would have won if CBS hadn't called it for Casey. Yeah, right.

9:53 pm: I need to pee.

9:54 pm: "Thanks for sharing, Ali!"

10:01 pm: Santorum concedes!

11:41 pm: We're home now. Back to a steady internet connection and power supply. At this point, the House has gone to the Democrats. I've had quite a bit of Bass Ale—hello, 23-ounce drafts!—so I think I'll stop here. I don't have anything to add to the results. I will say that it was great to be out with the Lexington Drinking Liberally group this evening. And I'm pleased with the results of the election so far.

Got Rights?

Those of you in the United States, are you going to vote today? I am. We didn't coincide the return of our trip with Election Day. It was more like, "Wait, there's an election coming up? Shit, are we gonna be back in time to vote?" [insert sheepish grin here]

For a couple of years now—since the last election, now that I think about it—I've been a member of MoveOn.org. This group has been working hard, and their latest effort, Call For Change, means that nearly 6 million phone calls have been made by volunteers, urging people to vote to end Republican control of Congress.

Our trip meant that I couldn't participate in the campaign, but I'm here now, telling you.

Today's the day. Get out there and vote.

The Cat Is So Glad To See Us

And we are glad to be home. Three solid days of traveling has turned me into a dazed and confused (for so long, it's not true) mass of cells. Or something like that.

We flew from Glasgow to Paris via London on Saturday afternoon, and arrived at our hotel just in time for a late dinner and bed. On Sunday, we woke up with the chickens—so to speak—rented a car, and drove the kids back to La Rochelle. It was really foggy until we got past Tours, but the traffic was fluid and we made good time. The trip back to Paris was another story. Forty kilometers outside the capital we hit a massive bouchon, a traffic jam so...jammed that it added 90 minutes to our trip. I suppose it could have been worse. It was the retour des vacances, after all, and everyone was trying to get home. Twelve hours and 1000 kilometers after renting the car, we returned it to Hertz and went back to the hotel.

This morning we slept in, relatively speaking. It's a good thing we left the hotel before we'd planned to, though. After passing through the tightest security I have ever seen in any airport, we boarded our plane to Cincy. And bla bla, 90 minute layover there, bla bla, 20 minute flight to Lexington (just enough time for the flight attendants to hand out mints), bla bla, our luggage made it, too.

Allan's sister Jo Ann picked us up at the airport (thanks, Jo Ann!) and we all had a bite to eat. Now we are home. My ass has found its hollow on the couch, the pile of mail has been picked through, and I'm trying to stay awake for a while longer.

Our trip was really great, but we're glad to be back.

Once Again...

...I'll let Allan do the talking.

See you next week.

A Bedtime Scene

A bedroom at night. Four children lie on four mattresses. The lights are out, and have been for an hour. The children are not asleep. They have quieted down at the sound of adult footsteps.

Me: Kids, it's time to go to sleep. I know you've been talking. I could hear you downstairs.

A chortle emanates from a child.

Me: I'm not kidding.

My daughter: But Mom, I was just sharing the emotion of a fart.

Giggles ensue.

Cream Crackered*

Thatisall.

No, well, I can tell you that after a weekend of staying close to home, we've started visiting other places. Allan has some things to say about the weekend and yesterday. Today we drove to Loch Lomond, and spent the afternoon in the lovely village of Luss. I took lots of photos today, but haven't looked at them yet. What killed me was the horrid traffic on the M74. What should have taken 90 minutes tops took THREE HOURS. BOTH. WAYS.

Tomorrow we're going to Edinburgh, where we'll meet fellow blogger Katherine of Chatiryworld. That ought to be cool, don't you think?

*knackered