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Normandy
After we left Brittany, we drove slowly back toward Paris, with a few stops along the way. On our way out to the coast, we had noticed that we could see Mont-Saint-Michel, which is pretty amazing. You’re just driving along, and then you glance over and see what looks like a medieval fortress that looks like it’s floating. Well, it’s not floating, and it doesn’t look that way when you are close, but from the freeway it appeared that way to me. So we decided to stop and at least look at it on our way to Normandy. Mont-Saint-Michel is an island right off the coast of Normandy (where Normandy…
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Wordless Wednesday
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France – Part 3
Saturday in our French trip, we were on our own. Jean-Marc and his lovely wife had some Business to attend to, so he gave us some suggestions, and off we went. We started in Pleyben (little red 4, above), which has a very old Calvary. Sadly, we did not know what a Calvary is, so we did not take a picture of it. We assumed it was the church. Here is Maya in front of the church. I didn’t really use my phone while I was in France, trying to save money, and Ted was driving, and Maya was just along for the ride. So zero research was done. When…
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Our Time in France – Part 2
Our first day of touring France, aka, not driving 8 hours from Paris to the West Coast of Brittany, Ted’s friend Jean-Marc took us to visit the medieval town of Locronan. As with any village or town in the area, there is a lovely church, St. Ronan. St. Ronan was an Irish pilgrim whose relics were housed for a time in the church. Most of the street signs in Brittany are in two languages, French and Breton. There is a movement to bring back the Breton language, and there are quite a few immersion schools for children to learn Breton. Surprisingly, this was illegal until somewhat recently. Anyway, we drove…
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Our time in France – Part I
We spent our first night in France out by the Charles De Gaulle Airport. Our flight arrived in late afternoon, and we had to get through customs, etc. So we found our hotel, got settled a bit, and had dinner. Maya wanted to shower and go to bed, but Ted and I wanted to try to stay awake a bit. We took a walk, expecting it to be all airport hotels and such, but there was a lovely little village right by the hotel, Roissy en France. There was a charming street with bustling cafes (we wished then that we had not eaten at the hotel, though the food there…
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Wordless Wednesday – Galette Complete in Brittany
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Fun with Plumbing
Back in April, Ted noticed that he could hear water running, and the sound seemed to come from the wall. Once he pointed it out to me, I could hear it as well. We did some internet research, and found some possible causes. A leak, of course, or perhaps sedimentation build up in our water heater. Quite a few years ago, we had to replace our water heater due to sediment. We have very hard water here, with a lot of minerals. Further research informed us that we should flush our water heater once a year. What? We’ve had the thing for at least 10 years, and have never done…
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GRADUATION
It’s been busy around here. Maya had finals, and then we had the graduation. I had family coming into town for the graduation, which made me think, “why not have a party?” So we did. I thought perhaps we would have 20 people, but it turned out to be about 50 people. I am a planner, so my brain gets going and annoys me with its desire to GET THINGS DONE. I planned food for 50, seating for 60 (figuring that people might want to spread out a bit, and what if extra people came, etc.). Planning meals before, who will stay where, how will we get from point A…
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Family Treasures
Monday was my mom’s birthday, and it was also my Great Aunt Flo’s birthday. My mom was born on her 18th birthday, and Aunt Flo always said she was the best birthday gift she ever received. Aunt Flo married my great uncle Wes on her own 26th birthday, and my mom spent her 8th birthday being a flower girl in her beloved aunt’s wedding, a job she cherished. Aunt Flo became a widow after only 11 years of marriage. She never had children of her own, and Uncle Wes’s girls were mostly grown by that point. 2 of them were married, and I believe the 3rd had also moved out…
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Grieving with Flowers
Today is my Mom’s birthday. She would have been 76 years old. I was thinking about her, and remembering how much she loved fuchsias. So I bought one, hoping that I can keep it alive. They do not do well in our micro-climate. It’s too hot in summer, too cold in winter. They do well on the other side of the Oakland hills, in Berkeley, Oakland, and especially San Francisco, where there are lovely fuchsias in Golden Gate Park. My mom would buy them and hang them indoors, but I’m going to try, and am putting mine outside. It’s in the shadiest part of our yard, where they will not…
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#OCYDD – Criticize that dog!
Ted has declared today ‘Official Criticize Your Dog Day’. Most of the time we fawn all over them, but truly, sometimes they are a pain in the butt. Today, in observance of OCYDD, I will criticize Mulder for the following: 1. Chasing a cat while I had the handle to his leash wrapped around my wrist, pulling me HARD into the gate around our pool. I have a stupid bruise to show for it. 2. Waking us up at 2:30 this morning to yell about the newspaper being delivered, JUST LIKE IT IS EVERY DAY. 3. Licking himself too much, so that he ingests too much hair, gags on it,…
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Good Eats / Birthday Weekend / Bloody Mary recipe
Thursday was Maya’s birthday, and we celebrated by going to our favorite Dim Sum restaurant in San Francisco, then we did some shopping near Union Square with her gift cards. At some Dim Sum restaurants, you order off of a menu (like the place we went last year). At others, the staff bring food around to the tables, either on carts or on trays, and you say yes or no to each item as they bring it around. So they come by and say, “shrimp dumplings?” and you say yes or no, and if you say yes, they give you the shrimp dumplings and mark your check to show that…
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Monday Meme
Quick Monday Meme: Love/Hate Relationships (thanks Nance) What song/kind of music always makes you feel good/irritated? I love the Beatles White Album. Esp. Dear Prudence and Rocky Racoon. If I could just please go the rest of my life without hearing Debbie Gibson, I would be happy. What are among your best/worst traits? I’m generally kind and empathetic. I am also a good cooker. (Maya’s term when she was little) I think empathy can make me a bit wishy washy, as I can see the other point of view easily. What food did you used to like but now you don’t? I won’t go so far as to say that…
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Tuesday Thoughts
Ted and I have recently found a delicious Chinese restaurant in our neighboring town, Sichuan Fortune House (Link is to Yelp, they don’t have a website). It’s not really a place to go with Maya, because she is more a fan of sweet and sour chicken and pot stickers and steamed pork buns, and this place has really delicious dry cooked (spicy) green beans, a wonderful mushroom dish, yummy hot and sour soup, really nice cod, etc. All things that are delicious and not up her ally. I mean, they DO have sweet and sour pork (no chicken, but maybe they would make it for her?) and pot stickers, but…
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Happy Ending for a chair
This is (a kinda blurry photo of) my friend Dana, who used to be on my Meals on Wheels route. Back in November, she moved into a (very nice) assisted living apartment building. I stop in for a visit occasionally, and on my last visit she mentioned to me how difficult it is for her to get up out of her chair. She had piled up pillows to help. In one of those twists that the universe sometimes takes, a couple of days later I was having dinner with my dear friend Neva, my BF from 6th grade, and she mentioned to me that she needed to sell her mom’s…