AliThinks

T minus 60

In about an hour I'm going to a bikram yoga class. Some of you may remember that I've done this before. Some of you may also remember that it kicked my ass.

So why am I doing it again? Here are my reasons, in no particular order:

• Because I'm a cheapskate. The yoga studio is holding a challenge: complete 29 classes in 30 days. If you succeed, the studio refunds your $60. That's a great deal, either way.
  
• Because I'm out of shape and need to do something about it.
• Because I'm hurtling toward 40, and you know, my health and all that.
• Because 90 minutes of bikram yoga burns a shitload of calories.
• Because I want to feel like a MILF again.

I'm both terrified and excited. Terrified because I remember feeling like an exhausted noodle after doing this before. Excited because I'm eager to see what kind of changes happen in my body and mind.

So, I'll keep you posted. That is, if the yoga doesn't kill me.

POST-YOGA UPDATE: Well! That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only sat out of the second set of two poses, which is better than I did two months ago. I do rather feel like I got hit by a truck. This will all pass after the third class, supposedly.

Oh, and I took photos this morning. There will be a Before and After.

Things I Have Accomplished Today

Bullets:

• Emptied my two squares in our coffee table. (There are four square compartments underneath the glass; they're hard to see in that photo.)
• Filed papers (albeit somewhat haphazardly) so that they are no longer in the coffee table
• Moved a lot of my crap to the basement.
• Cleaned up the mess my kids left on the table down there.
• Yeah, it's only been a month since they left.
• Hung my kids' art on some walls.
• Made crème fraîche in anticipation of making a terrine. I found the recipe in this article, which was very interesting since the author traveled to the Ile de Ré, and that's just off the coast of La Rochelle, where I lived for ten years. Here's an article about Ré in the NYT Archives. I do love La Rochelle and its environs.
• Made Alton Brown's macaroni and cheese. Holy. Crap.
• Cleaned off the sideboard in the dining room.
• Got a care package ready to mail to my kiddos.
• There might be more, but I can't remember it.
• Point is, I got a lot done today, and it's a good thing.
• Oh yeah. I avoided answering e-mails. Like, all weekend.

Page 252

The kids are almost in Paris; one hour and twenty minutes until landing. You gotta love flight tracking. After Allan and I got back from the airport and ate dinner, I started reading the latest Harry Potter book. (No link, because really.) I'm thinking of the French word for "the latest," le dernier, which is also the same as "the last." It really is le dernier Harry Potter. And dayum, it's GOOD!

Speaking of good, the four of us saw The Simpsons Movie last night. You have to be impressed by a movie that can make a Nine-Year-Old, a Twelve-Year-Old, a Hurtling-Toward-OMG!-Forty-Year-Old, and an AARP member all laugh. And at the same stuff!

OK. It's 2 am. I've got some wizards to attend to.

De Retour

We're back in Lexington after two pretty great weeks with siblings and cousins (and parent — hi Dad!) in Pennsylvania.

My kids are going back to France on Friday, so this week will be filled with shopping (clothes are cheaper here, natch) and Activities That Please The Children. I've asked Nine-Year-Old to make me a list of things he wants to do, but all he can come up with is POOL.

Um, that's as in swimming, not billiards.

Twelve-Year-Old has just one thing on her mind.

I've taken more than 1000 photos this month (Quick, how many words is that worth?), and while most of them will remain for Family Eyes Only, I will put some up on Flickr as the week goes on.

Somebody, Please

Explain to me why I woke up singing Foreigner's "Double Vision"? And no, it's not because I overindulged at the launch party for 24 Hours of Flickr. 

(Now you hate me because you're singing that song too, now, aren't you?)

The Flickr shindig was a lot of fun. I went not knowing a soul, and got to meet a number of VERY cool people, including some of my Flickr contacts. It was a great way to spend my first night in town. Also? Yahoo! knows how to throw a party. The venue was intimate without being crowded, the food was spectacular, the wine was delicious, and the music wasn't overpowering.

This morning I'm having coffee with Jeorg. We live in the same damn town and never see each other, so I'm laughing at the fact that we are meeting here in Paris. And this afternoon I'm having coffee with Gentry, although she has also told me we'll be eating cakes as well. In between the two coffees, I have no idea what I'll do. The French have a great word, flâner. Je vais flâner dans les rues. I'm just going to mosey about.

I love this city. My children are the reason I came to France, and I can't wait to see them tomorrow. But I'm glad to have this time in Paris; I visited only a handful of times during my marriage, and that was early on.

There's more to say (there's always more to say about Paris), but I'll leave it for now.

Sweaty and Grubby

We've been working on the basement in earnest these past three days. It's good to break a sweat. Friday morning we primed the ceiling down there, and yesterday I did a glaze on it. It looks pretty cool. The trim is done. All we need to do is sand the steps (I've been scraping old carpet adhesive off them) and either paint or stain them.

Next step: deciding what to do with the old linoleum floor. It's in good shape, but it's ugly and stained in a couple of places. And it reminds me of school. Do we lay down new vinyl tiles, get a few sea grass rugs, or lay some rubber "puzzle" mats? Decisions, decisions.

In other news, last night I ate chiles rellenos for the first time. Yowza!

Go, Clotilde!

Clotilde's cookbook was released today. She is on a US book tour right now, but unfortunately will not be in any cities near us.

Fortunately, Allan and I got to meet Clotilde a year and a half ago, when she hosted a party to celebrate her blog's 2nd anniversary, as well as her book deal. This is the culmination of nearly two years of work, and after a few minutes perusing the book, I can say that it's one to treasure.

Also, and yes, I know this is pimpin', I interviewed Clotilde for The Parisian. We spoke on the phone at length, and she was so very gracious. I'm grateful for the opportunity to get to know her a bit!

Thank You, Jamie!

A month or so ago I sent an e-mail to the Lexington Herald Leader's Culture Writer, Jamie Gumbrecht, informing her of the threat to internet radio. She thanked me and told me she'd be out of town, but that she'd keep an eye on the issue.

Yesterday I e-mailed her again, after I read that the Copyright Ruling Board had rejected webcasters' appeal for a hearing. Today Jamie wrote a blog entry about the issue, and she mentioned MOI! [insert grin]

So thank you, Jamie, for helping spread the word.

                                                       *****

In other news, I'm finding it hard to feel anything about what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday. I think it's a self-preservation mechanism. Columbine shook me hard. This? I can't let it; as it is, I'm hanging on by a hair.

To end on a happier note, twelve years ago today I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. She's still beautiful and healthy, but she's growing up fast. 

Happy Birthday, ma belle.

Sunday Coffee And Other Tidbits

This weekend Allan's oldest friend and his wife came to visit. R. and B. (hehe, R&B) arrived Friday morning and left at the crack this morning. It was great to see them again (I met them at Christmastime). We ate well and laughed a lot.

So here it is, late Sunday morning, and the coffee is delicious. I had a whole bunch of fun things to say, but I've forgotten them all, as you do when you don't write stuff down immediately. I either need to find my moleskine, or open Typepad as soon as a thought enters my brain.

The weather has been crappy for the past, oh, TEN DAYS, so maybe that's sucking the life out of me. Friday was nice, and we spent the afternoon at Keeneland, but it was chilly in the shade. I need warmth and sunshine.

I don't mean to complain. My doctor recommended melatonin for the insomnia, and that seems to be helping. As for the rest, I am under extreme stress right now, but I just don't feel I can put the issue I'm dealing with out there for the internets. Yet. Suffice it to say, I can't get my mind off it.

That's the news from this corner of the world. Oh yeah, below the jump is a really cool thing. Check it out.

Blurbage

Tired and stuff, wanting to blog, not knowing where to start or what to say.  Here's a list, then:

• I just joined Manpower's online thingamabob.  And got my cv out there on Monster France.
• I have 4 months to get me a job.
• Kein stress.
• Teaching sucks rocks.
• At least for me it does.
• I cried in front of my bad 8th graders this afternoon.
• Led Zeppelin on the radio makes me feel good. 
• There are lots of little quirky cultural things I noticed in England that I want to blog about.
• I'm too strung out to do it now.
• But I will mention how I got a kick out of the garbage cans rubbish bins that had ashtrays in them, and the indication "Cigarette Ends".  Not butts. Cigarette ends.  Nice, huh?
• In Oxford I discovered this cool shop during our scarce free time.  I bought this magnet, because I collect magnets now, dontcha know? 
• Remind me to post a photo of my fridge and its magnet clothing.
• Time to stop the blurbage from my brain.  Have a good one.