Right Brain Feed

Usually our blog tends to reflect on fun, happier moments and memories that I want to remember 10 years from now. My intention is to do a big 'wget' on our url when we go back to the US, and have it to read over fondly when we want to go down Memory Lane. But today I'm writing about the heat, because someday I hope to look back on this and be amused. #ifdef SOAPBOX It is bloody hot here! Hello!? Would a ceiling fan kill you? It got up to 96 here today. I know you Texans are scoffing, it's over 100 in Austin today. But guess what, bucko? We don't have air conditioning in the apartment (no one here does). After several days of over 90, the thick plaster walls are nicely warmed up. Last night at 11pm it was still 87 *inside* the apartement. Ugh. At 7pm, Parisiens are awefully fragrant on an unairconditioned, overcrowded bus. Sweat just pours off me wedged into the metro, and I peel off wet clothes when I get home. Oh, did I also mention that no one here *ever* we...

Yesterday was the French equivalent of our July 4th. I must say, they really get it right here. By the end of the day, I was ready to trade in my passport for a French one. I began the day waking up to the sound of the national guard's horse division practising their trumpet and drum routine that they would be playing in the parade. I stumbled out of bed and we had coffee and went to the park. Sarah and our friend Beth went running, and I sat on a park bench and tried to see just how low I could get my pulse. On the walk back along the river, we watched all the different French air force planes fly directly over us, including the jets that were rigged to disperse tricolore (red, white, blue) out their exhaust. A while later I was hanging out on our balcony, camera at the ready, to see if the planes were doing a second pass. They didn't, but several clusters of helicopters flew over, and monster tanks went hauling butt down rue Saint Antione. After a while I heard strains of the...

No, don't worry, I'm not homesick. But I am upset that France lost the World Cup finals, it was a high stress game. Paris had a lot of long faces the next morning, the nation was definitely in mourning. Things are slowly easing back to normal, and I imagine everyone will let loose on Friday (Bastille Day). Living in Paris main page

This morning we were craving a big Kerbey Lane breakfast. I guess after 11 months here, I'm allowed to crave a pancake. We actually found a place run by a guy from the US that serves typical diner food, including something roughly equivalent to Kerbey Lane breakfast. We tried it out for the first time this morning and had a nice big breakfast, including the first pancakes we've had in a year. It was pretty dang decent. We also went to the Lempicka exhibit, it is closing in a week, so this was our last chance. It was at a museum out in the burbs, so we treked out to see it. Lempicka did sleek art deco style paintings, mainly of people, but also some still life. The exhibit was really good, it's always interesting to see something in person that you've only seen in art books. Her paintings really came alive in person. After that we decided to do a run to Chinatown. We have a few things we like that we can only find there (wasabi peas, candied ginger, reasonably price...

Apparently nothing else is happening on the face of the earth except WorldCup football. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. I guess I've got it pretty bad, I'm even joining the worldcup channel on my company's IRC server and hanging out with the real football junkies.  Wednesday's France-Portugal match was a lot of fun. We had our crazy riotous Aussie friends, Vivianne and Beth, over to watch the game. What is it with Australians and stressing their vocal chords? We had a great time watching the game. We didn't fit every sports fan stereotype though, we were sipping cosmopolitians, popped a bottle of champagne, and had fresh french strawberries dipped in dark chocolate. We also had a very nice chocolate mousse cake to celebrate Sarah's birthday. After France won, we headed out to Bastille a few blocks away. The streets were erupting with happy French football fans, French flags were waving everywhere, fireworks were being set off in the street...

So, France is very organized about their sales at shops and department stores. They have them twice a year, January and July. The masses pour out and mob the stores. I went into BHV to shop for a Skype headset Saturday, and almost lost an arm. It seems that certain classes of things are on sale, and geeky stuff isn't on the list. Sarah and I are not big shoppers, and the mobs at the sales aren't really all that fun for us. Think of the day after Thanksgiving in the US, it's kind of like that. We've been having some heat lately. It only gets up to 90 degrees, but nowhere (including our apartement) has air conditioning. I never realized how much heat a computer or a TV pumps out until we lived somewhere without AC. And you really can spend quite a lot of time pouring over the fine print on frozen foods standing around in the frozen section at the grocery store. Some people get little portable AC units, but they are $$, and add a chunk to the electric bill.  Living...

So we have another batch of ducklings in Suresnes at Parc du Chateau. I've gotten into the habit of walking thru the park on the way to work (adds 5 minutes to the walk). This morning I was watching them, and a group of kindergarten aged kids came running up. They got really excited by the furry fuzzy little fellows. We also have had quite a lot of World Cup fever here, and Suzy has finally gotten bitten by the bug. France played Brazil Saturday night. Brazil won the last World Cup 4 years ago, and they were the favorites to win this time. "The Blues" put a stop to that. The French played an amazing game, it was a really good game to watch. ....And the French won. We watched the game live. I hit *mute* when they got to the end of the game, and listened to Paris erupt around me. I've never heard several million people go completely bonkers in a close radius like that, it was quite a ruckus. Our apartement is a few blocks from Bastille, and the crowds swarmed int...