mardi 26 avril 2011
Happy Easter one and all.On Sunday, we went over to Alain's aunt's house, picking up his grandparents on the way. Once we all got down to the parking lot in front of their apartment building, Meme remembered that she had forgotten her hearing aids, so Alain ran back up to fetch them for her.
Around 1 pm his parents had also arrived, so we sat down to eat.
I can't really qualify it is as "Easter lunch" or "Easter dinner" only "Easter meal", as it lasts about 7 hours. Thanksgiving is a lot of food too, but that only lasts from about 4 pm to 4:15 pm. I am not sure which is best, but I get restless towards the end of the mega- sit and talk fests.
Here is what we had: a light salad (in photo above) with some tapenade-feuillété rolls, followed by large gambas and mayonnaise, then leg of lamb (side note: just had to explain to Alain that veal is not a baby lamb) with stuffed zucchini (not my favorite) and a crunch basil cheesy muffin thingy, the romarin-olive mini baguettes I made (love my bread machine!) followed by fruit, a fruit-rouge chocolate cake, strawberries, then patisseries and a gugelhupf made by my mother-in-law (they just got back from a week in Alsace, near Strasbourg). I declined the last two desserts (giving my shares to Alain, who was quite happy to have them).
My sister-in-law and her family arrived after we had finished eating the main meal (but before the desserts, bien sûr). They were late as they had to pick up eldest niece from the train station. As she is off from school these two weeks (week before and after Easter) they shipped her off to a camp, where the girls learned how to take care of horses, while the boys rode on mini motorcycles. Figures.
The girls hunted for chocolate Easter eggs, which was quite cute to see Anna looking for them for the first time. Which was a nice change from her first Easter two years ago when she screamed the whole time, and a nice change from last Easter, where Manon threw up all over just before we started to eat.
After dessert #3, the guys went outside to talk about guy-stuff (including shooting off his cousin's BB gun), while the women mostly talked about kids. What a surprise.
We rolled out of there around 8 pm, slept in until 10:30 am as Monday was off from work.
Yay for holidays!
mardi 19 avril 2011
Sorry for not posting in a long time.
I've been out of it, I guess an emotional come down from non-stop studying for the exams at the beginning of March, followed by my trip back to the US for two weeks, then returning to France.
Things are very warm here in the South of France, which probably means a long hot summer. Alain and I may go Portugal for a week at the end of June, he has a conference and I would tag along. Then he has another one in Dijon. We don't have any summer holidays planned, except for maybe a long weekend in San Remo, Italy. (which is really about all I can stand of it, yet every year I want to go back. Strange)
Alain has all of August off, so he is going to try and finish his Habilitation, and the exam results are released the first week or so of August. Each candidate was assigned a number, and the office will publish a list with all the numbers and marks for each exam (A,B,C,D). So you just have to find your number and see what you got.
I am trying to get back into study mode, especiallly to study for exam D, but it is hard to concentrate.
Anyway, Easter is this weekend, so we will be going to Alain's aunt's house, along with pepe and meme, my parents-in-law, and Alain's sister, her husband, and their two girls. Should be a fun time, then no work on Monday, yay!
I've been out of it, I guess an emotional come down from non-stop studying for the exams at the beginning of March, followed by my trip back to the US for two weeks, then returning to France.
Things are very warm here in the South of France, which probably means a long hot summer. Alain and I may go Portugal for a week at the end of June, he has a conference and I would tag along. Then he has another one in Dijon. We don't have any summer holidays planned, except for maybe a long weekend in San Remo, Italy. (which is really about all I can stand of it, yet every year I want to go back. Strange)
Alain has all of August off, so he is going to try and finish his Habilitation, and the exam results are released the first week or so of August. Each candidate was assigned a number, and the office will publish a list with all the numbers and marks for each exam (A,B,C,D). So you just have to find your number and see what you got.
I am trying to get back into study mode, especiallly to study for exam D, but it is hard to concentrate.
Anyway, Easter is this weekend, so we will be going to Alain's aunt's house, along with pepe and meme, my parents-in-law, and Alain's sister, her husband, and their two girls. Should be a fun time, then no work on Monday, yay!
lundi 4 avril 2011
Every six months or so, I rotate my closet shelves. Well, the stuff for summer or winter goes up or down. I also take it as an opportunity to organize, remember what clothes I have, and get rid of stuff I don't wear. Next October, I swear, everything on the "summer" shelf that didn't get worn at least once April-September is outta there.
Which will be, (you know the answer) an excuse to buy more clothes!!!
Anyway, I offer you a comparative study of our closet halves. (I'm still trying to figure out how I, The Woman, got duped into taking the smaller half. Oh yeah! Because he promised me I could put stuff on his side and is now reneging on his promise!)
First up, his closet, as above. If you can't see my labels, click on the picture.
Next, my closet.
well, at least I have color.
And some fabric other than denim or cotton.
Maximum usage of space as well.
Everything starts out nice and folded, but when I reach the vertical limit per shelf, stuff just gets shoved in wherever it will fit.
And this isn't counting my bin of shoes underneath, nor the two shoe bins in the entranceway.
Our coats and laundry hampers are behind the mirrored portion on the right.
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