Ferocious Snow

Okay, so today I walked to the gym as usual. It was drizzling lightly and there was light hail, but otherwise no major weather conditions happening.

A couple of hours later, I was in the locker room getting dressed to leave and saw snow falling through the tops of the frosted glass windows. So I decided to check it out and opened the window to see HUGE SNOWFLAKES coming down hard and an ankle deep blanket of snow already on the ground. SHIT!! Of all the days I chose NOT to wear my cute new Sorel waterproof boots! :(

I got all bundled up and hit the road. Luckily, I'd worn knee socks under my workout pants and I had a hooded jacket! They had closed the intersection and there were two empty buses right in the middle of the street where I guess they'd made everyone get off and hoof it. They let a couple of cars go by but they were trying to plow the snow and throw down the salt. The snow on the street was at the same level as the sidewalk so it was all just one big street of white. I stopped to take a photo with the Blackberry of the same spot that I posted just last week. You can't see the super crazy snow coming down but it was nuts!

It was kinda fun to make tracks through the fresh powder but after 10 minutes, I was done with that. Got home and took a ton of pics of our back terrace covered in snow. Then I went out and made a snowman complete with a carrot nose. But he fell over and is dead now. oh well. JP got home around 9:30pm (terrible traffic) and told me that they haven't had a snow storm like this since 1996. crazy.

Our tree 2010

I forgot to post the picture of our new fake xmas tree. It's cute, right? (sorry, I didn't rotate the photo)

We decided to go faux for a few reasons:

1) JP says that we saved one tree from being killed in the forest
2) I still found dried pine needles from last year's tree up 'til a couple of months ago
3) I won't be going back to France until mid-January and I didn't want to come home to find a dried up Charlie Brown tree with all our ornaments dangerously sagging on it. (cuz you know boys don't clean up and put away glass ornaments, etc like girls do)

Anyhoo...je present notre sapin de Noel! ta-da!

Oh sapin de Noel, oh sapin de Noel...how lovely are your (stiff plastic) branches (that smell like nothing)....lalalalalala :)

December snow!

Ding-Dong December is finally here!

The fall leaves of November were really nice, and yeah, experiencing "real sweater weather" was cool. But now, the bitter cold has begun to set in and me no likey the weather so much.

I've been walking to the gym almost everyday, because cold weather equals hungry carb eating Grace, which in turn equals 10 lb heavier Grace. (Don't get me started on how it sucks that you can workout super hard and lose 2 lbs and then gain 10 lbs in like a week! ARGH.) Anyhoo, It's a 20 minute partial up-hill trudge where I play the "dodge the fresh smashed dog shit on the sidewalk" game. Incredibly fun and good for foot-eye coordination. I decided to show you part of my walk but have chosen to omit the scary post-workout pic of me in my not-so-sexy winter walking gear. You know how the internet is...it lives forever.
So, at the top of the hill yesterday, even though it was the coldest day yet, I decided to take a different (and longer) path home and look what I found! Giraffe's artful cousins! (reference to my first post with Fontenay street art) Unfortunately little giraffe has been paved over by some rock work and no longer exists. All that's left is a single heart on the sidewalk in front of the wall he used to be on. Hopefully, you'll enjoy some of these in his honor. R.I.P. little giraffe.

I think I wanna be a performance artist

NUIT BLANCHE happens once a year in Paris. I asked the hubs why is it called "white night?"


Apparently, when you work all day, stay up all night then go to work again the next day, it's called a "white night." I, for one, who am borderline narcoleptic, will possibly never experience the delirium of such sleep deprivation, but it was fun trying. ("Try" being the key word. When the metro stops running at 1am but the event lasts 'til 7am, how ya gonna make that work? eh?)
It was Sandy Halloran's first night in gay Paree so we met up in the Marais and had dinner at an old school brasserie, then headed out into the night. Queues were long for every art installation, so we roamed the night with the gazillion others. We saw a purple car with a cassette player strapped to the hood playing a random radio recording, ghost busters in a church playing experimental music, and a really cool architectural cube structure on a bridge that had lights synchronized to music. (none of which I have photos of)

I wanna be a ghost buster with a Bose speaker strapped to my back, pulling a mini vacuum cleaner with blue xmas lights on it...or...NOT.

"...so the Papa Tomato said to the Baby Tomato...KETCHUP!"

The house is a mess. Has been for (checking the calendar) ONLY two weeks. No (checking the calendar again) - two weeks, two days. Feels like two years.

Finally had some time off (two weeks, two days) and decided to begin the long overdue process of replacing the kitchen floor. When I moved in, the floor was horrible. Too costly to completely replace, I chose to cover it with stick down floor tiles. Never imagined almost six years later, I'd be the one pulling them off, one by one, applying the adhesive remover and then scraping the gunk off hours later. Nightmare project. Next time, I'm leaving the endless floor scrubbing to Cinderella.

The test area. Okay, maybe not so bad...

This floor is a liar. It is bad!

By now, I officially hate these tiles.

The new floor will be beautiful "henna" colored click tiles that, once installed, will "float" over the old floor. Problem is, I didn't order enough. Exactly half of what we needed. Such a girl. I can build a set with my eyes closed, but ask me to measure the square footage of my kitchen - fail!

In the meantime, while waiting for more flooring, I bought a new sleek refrigerator and fell in love! Stainless cabinet depth model - the bottles sparkle it's so bright inside.

waiting for the new flooring, hating the old fridge

...five store visits later, I buy my first major kitchen appliance!

Today, I tore everything out of my office, had a faster internet connection installed, and decided with the amount of misplaced furniture, kitchen items, and odd flea market finds, my place looks ready for an estate sale or an episode of hoarders.

"Yes, that is a canvas monkey painting."

"Yes, that was given to me by Ruth."

Old Advantex film...toss!

Siouxsie Peek-a-boo mask - keep!

Luckily, the remaining flooring arrived today and will be installed next week. See why I haven't written sooner? I'm in love with talking about remodeling and refrigerators. Yawn. Even I know I'm boring you. But that's what's going on.

The heat is finally here, everyone is cleaning up and out their shite, and Grace will be here soon to see the new look.

PS - just so you know I'm not exaggerating, I'll add a picture in the morning. In the darkness, the piles look like cityscapes in the shadows.

And then it was August...

Oooh weeeee!

I turned the page on my "California" calendar to the month of August and there it was, in big red letters. The second to the last box in the bottom right corner.

September 3rd- GO HOME! :)
I have officially begun the countdown to coming home. It's strange to see the big red letters that I wrote back at the end of February. I wish I could fast forward through these last four weeks and beam myself (Star Trek style) right into my bed all squishy and warm in my parent's guesthouse in Downey. I can already hear the customs officer saying "welcome home." It always gets me choked up; it means so much more nowadays.

I can't wait to hear your voices, to give you hugs, to hear all the gossip, to taste real Mexican food and yummy frozen yogurt, to smell the ocean, to drive my car and sit in traffic, to go to Target and Costco, to...to...to...

I just can't wait.

I promise...

...I am going to post soon. I was saving it as my special treat after I finished my expense reports. Now, it will be my special treat after Sunday Weekend Edition's puzzlemaster. Bon Jour and Bon nuit. xxK

**Monday, 9/08/2010 - 3:15pm, PST. STILL working on expenses. xxK

now that it's August, let's talk about July

I couldn't seem to get myself together to post a thing in the month of July... and it was an active month. Before it gets away from me, I'm going to start posting some fun things that happened in that sometimes hot, sometimes gloomy, always active month. First and foremost, there were fireworks (as seen here on the 3rd of July at the Reinika Party House).

No party is complete without a box of old fireworks (will they still work? will we catch Douglas/Todd's boat on fire? just light em up and we'll see!)

It's always fun to try to write your name with a sparkler. It would be more fun if Ruth knew the appropriate setting for her fancy camera to capture the action... a lucky shot or two were captured nonetheless. :)

And thus began our July. Another installment of Americana Fun to follow...

Paris Plage

PARISIAN SUMMER = Sun, rain, humidity, tourists, long lines and pasty white Parisians in tiny bathing suits lying on the beach along the Seine. WT?! A beach along the river, you ask? Oh yes, the summer phenomena is back my friends.

Since 2002, the city has been putting on "Paris Plage" for the denizens of Paris. They bring in tons of sand, boxed palm trees and lounge chairs and set them up along one side of the Seine to re-create the beach. I went there yesterday to check it out.

It was pretty fun to people watch...oh, the eye candy and the eye sores. Yowza! Teeny weeny suits on guys and gals and I spied many shades of rosey-uh-oh-I'm-really-gonna-hurt-tomorrow skin in the crowd. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere though and it was so nice to bury my feet in some sand. All that was missing was the smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves...."ain't nuthin' like the real thang baby."

6 weeks and counting...

Brocante Fever

Last weekend the hubs and I hit the road back to Champagne to see some friends, drink some bubbly and check out the goods at the annual brocante in Charleville. Tu veux une armoire? Look no further. Begging for a buffet? Et voila! The sun was beating down so hard that the tar on the streets was melting- thank goodness I was wearing a crappy pair of Converse and not some cute sandals! ha.

With all the treasures to be found, I came away with a solo bag of pretty ribbon to jazz up future gifts. Believe me, ice cream grandma would've been in our back seat in a minute if we had somewhere fun to put her! (Thinking back, she'd look super-bon in our teeny backyard! Missed opportunity- crap.)

Oh well, there's always next year!
A toute de suite!