Yeah, but can they stream video?

Renewed hope for the homing pigeon industry.

and Holocaust poo-poo-ers, too

As usual, love Bill Maher.

Particularly Babbly Mitrailleuse #779

In no particular order, as usual, and not particularly interesting, so you've got that to look forward to...

• I have been craving raisin toast lately - thank goodness for Pepperidge Farms! Yum! It is helping with my new resolve to eat better. This week I had a banana and a slice of raisin toast with margarine and a 1/2 glass of tomato juice and my habitual coffee for breakfast each morning (plus my vitamin and calcium which I am so bad at remembering). I'm trying to jumpstart my metabolism by actually having breakfast (which I blew off most of this month er summer er most of my life except for times in France - because, let's face it, baguette and café au lait is enough to get the most breakfast-skippy of us to eat breakfast every single day, if not four or five times a day) - plus it helps with the new fitness strategy (I finally am back at the gym almost daily, too) since I've been taking lunch as well (which I also was blowing off all of July and August and caused me to binge eat upon getting home each eve, after which I was anything but wanting to go to the gym).
• I do find it frustrating that at my age I still have to reteach myself self-care every year or so. I'm running out of time for it to help in the long run if I am not able to make it a permanent trend one of these years soon.
• I wish Chris Noth hadn't gotten eye surgery. I know it's been years but I only just noticed since I'm watching old episodes of Criminal Intent online. Let's hope he stops there at least; it's not too noticeable probably to most people but I find him a good chunk less charming (which is fun to say really fast) that way. Actually I remember now I noticed it first when I saw him in the Sex & The City movie last year, but I had probably blocked it out as too painful to dwell on.
• Random inexplicable thought of this one tabac close to my apt in Paris where I went a couple of times the first few days in May. I got my phone recharge there one of the times; it was by one of my less-frequented cafés (due to their extremely slow waitstaff, which is why I normally went to Café Notre Dame where the guys were not only faster but more courteous). I made a mental note to keep going to that tabac because the Franco-Chinese guy who ran it was kind of goodnaturedly jokey with you as you paid. Anyway the third or fourth time I dropped by I found them not only boarded up but the victim of an apparent fire - smoky windows and a few melty bits of ware just visible through the stains. Plywood over the door and smoke streaks coming out above the door. Freaky. And sad since the owner was particularly nice.
• Two out of my three surface-mail book boxes arrived within two weeks of my return to SC (read: first couple weeks of July) and in pristine condition even tho surface mail can take anywhere from 4-16 or so weeks and usually looks like it's been through Armageddon by the time of arrival. Third one took 8 weeks and arrived having been repair-taped pretty extensively by some very very nice postal worker somewhere in the world, although not, apparently, before a few key items had fallen out. I admit it was my fault - I was worried about all of them in fact because I meant to double tape everything like usual but was so freaked out getting to the post office on time that day that I completely forgot. (I've always covered every single inch of surface France >> US pkgs with at least two swipes of packing tape in the past but this time I had just done the initial hold-the-box-closed swipes.) In my defense, it was almost time to come home and I had lots of fin-de-programme stuff in my head. Probably I had used up all remaining un-spoken-for brain cells that afternoon in my bright idea of using my rolly suitcase for the trip to La 14-minute-walk-away-from-my-flat Poste - particularly good call given that I mailed 3 book boxes each weighing just under 7 kilos (a little less than 40 lbs total).
• Saddest thing missing from third box: fun 1963 (i.e. same age as moi - kee) mini Larousse French-French dictionary, hardcover with cool orange and black glossy cover; best part - I had found it in the 1€ bin at Gibert Joseph, except it was only €0.80. :)
• Most inconvenient thing missing from third box: notes from my meetings with Study Abroad person last spring so I would know how to do the transfer credit forms for the Paris students when we got back; luckily I remembered I had email-scanned all but one page of them to myself just before leaving for France. Far more luckily, the part I hadn't scanned, the part that explained the conversion from European contact hours to Clems*n credit hours, I had explained to a colleague via email a few days after my meeting at Study Abroad. So I was able to look back in my mailbox and get those details, too.
• Finally have a new/second crêpe pan. It was on my Paris purchase list but I never got around to looking for one until the last week and by then I didn't feel like schlepping it home... so yay for Bed, Bath and Beyond, which had a very nice one 3 weeks ago on sale. Now when we do crêpes for French Club or just for the heck of it we can have more than one pan going at a time. Plus it's the slightly smaller one so if you ladle in the correct amount of batter it forms your perfectly circular and just-the-right-diameter crêpe with no pan-swishing to spread the batter around, or at least no crêpe spiders. Those of you who've had my crêpes know what I mean. Admittedly crêpe spiders are just as yummy as the standard form but still one likes not to have too many of them happen.
• So much to do I can't hardly see straight. As usual. :) So I'm blogging. Hmmm. Not even blogging anything necessarily interesting... Much more justifiable if I had something earth-shattering to talk about like French tractor-pulls or something. har.
• Or maybe my motivational energy just can't be aimed at two areas at once - it's all being used up with healthy eating habits and fitness trends right now so it can't be focused on work? It's a theory.
• The house is a Big Mess and I bet you a dollar Sam & Lucy didn't clean a single thing today.
• Yeah, watching DVDs on the laptop now. Susan the Somnambulist unplugged all the TV/VCR/DVD player connector cords and Susan the Conscious cannot figure out how to get them plugged back in to any functional success. It is pissing me off quite a bit actually. I go play with the cords occasionally for a few minutes until I get frustrated (it takes less time each time now of course to reach that point) and then I clench my fists and jaw as I physically remove myself from that part of the room or stomp outside to run an errand or something, fearful of succombing to the tingling urge in my fingers to launch a piece of A/V equipment out the window. It's utterly ridiculous; the moreso, undoubtedly, since I really very rarely come up against something I can't get the better of.
• Still no sign of that stupid Blockbuster DVD by the way. It was a virtual unknown (of course) Brit (of course again) flick called French Film. Yeah, I had never heard of it either. Plus it was one of those "featured Blockbuster exclusive rentals" or whatever, which are usually dreadful (two other such rentals come to mind: I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, and I Really Hate My Job, both abysmal - granted I should have figured as much by the crap titles but...) But the actors intrigued me so (I mean, come on! What self-respecting anglophile can resist Victoria Hamilton and Hugh Bonneville in something that is kind of Frenchified to boot!? Not me, at any rate)... Anyway I cannot of course tell you how it was since STS hid it before I had had a chance to watch it. I have searched in every drawer, cupboard, laundry basket, shelf, etc., and there is no sign of it. I looked in the trashcans as well... Just dawned on me I have yet to check the oven, the washer, the dryer or the piano bench... hmmm. It's due tomorrow so if no sign I guess I'll stop and pay for it Sunday. gah!
• Off to munch, canoe, and gab with a bunch of the UHOA gang tomorrow over at Bill & Marianna's on the Tugaloo. Yay on all counts.
• Three million things to grade and read and respond to and rework on the Paris budget excel and post on BB and otherwise Do! and it's already 4. I might actually have to break my non-work weekends resolve and come in on Sunday for a while. Especially as I am obviously NOT in the mood to be productive today.
• Chinese food night I think. I am SO craving fried rice. And I finally might dig into Harry Potter et le prince de sang-mêlé...
• And you know, it just dawned on me... the lack of excitement in my own life, or this post at least, aside - anyone still reading by now must need distraction even more than I!

And in the "you learn something new every day" category...

...we find we did not know as much about France as we thought. For instance, we did not know there were tractor-pulls there.

Faits Divers 1

• My building has its own personal Ratatouille. Surprised myself by not getting freaked by it hardly at all. He ran when I stomped my foot and said, "Va t'en!" (Get out!) To be clear, he was downstairs in the entryway which is really kind of a glorified alley, and we have another door inside which closes the entryway from the stairwell. Crazy that that is my first ever Paris rat. Or even my first France one. He was relatively small, nothing like the gargantuan we saw one time on our way to the universidad in Madrid in 1983.
• Dragonheart is on TV as I work - they got a GREAT voice for the dragon - Sean Connery did it originally I recall, but this sounds almost exactly like a French James Earl Jones, which works to great effect also.
• Lots of student friend social time lately. Natalie, one of the Paris group, came thru early on her way to another program and then she'll be back for ours just after orientation. Anyway she stayed with me two nights. Now Allison, of Une Grande Recherche fame (see sidebar, one of my followees) is up here for a few days, too, from Aix. She was one of my students in Aub*rn. It's wonderful to see her. Today Justin arrived, one of my advanced FR friends who joined our Paris group more recently and has already been here once (with Chris in 2007, for those who know him from AU) and so has proven to be a great resource on numerous occasions. I have to say it is tremendous having someone in the group who is already baptized in and duly attached to Life in France as well as finally being able to see all the stuff we've been excitedly reminiscing about for weeks. Anyway Allison will stay with me two more nights and then it will almost be time for the arrival of the rest of our crew.
• Of course baguettes taste exactly the same and yet simultaneously hugely better than one remembers.
• My French is perking up admirably. Even the most gifted of us linguists tho get the occasional Parisian who jumps into English at the smallest provocation. It happened the other day at the phone place. We were getting Natalie's phone I think and when he was explaining some stuff for me to translate to her (she wasn't quite up to catching all the minutiae) at one point he said something that confused me - from a technological angle, not a linguistic one - but as soon as he saw me frown slightly he automatically restated the thing in his best English. Surprise! That didn't help at all! I was still confused and asked him about what I was confused about in French, then he continued in French. So there.
• I've only gone crazy in the Gibert Jeune papeterie once so far. A few gifties will be on their way to Kate and Jessica and Katie and Aunt Charlette. I'm sure I'll see more stuff for some of the rest of you... :)
• Cannot seem to remember to go to the post office when it's open. Gah! So my promised postcards will be a bit delayed...
• LOL Tasha spent the first week or so with Sammers miraculously NOT waking her up at 5am, and she was thinkin' she was all special, but he eventually reverted to his feline breakfast-time alarm clock mode. She was amazed she really could NOT sleep through it (that Sammers is nothing if not persistent!) so now gets up to feed them and goes back to bed. I feel a little bad, but she's young and resilient, so I think she'll recover. :)
• Only bought two dictionaries so far this time. (My big addiction.) One of them is a fun little 1956 hardback Larousse Petit Dictionnaire Français that I got at Gibert Joseph for 0,80€. And yes, I always buy French-French dictionaries these days :) You'll have to go elsewhere to borrow a dual language one! Anyway if you average that with the truly fun Larousse Maxipoche I bought in, of all places, the Louvre bookstore then really they only each cost 6,35€. Controlling myself quite admirably, I'd say.
• Four million phone calls still to do; got 3 big ones done today. One could go no further because the office I needed to consult wasn't open (l'Ascension - of course the French still take advantage of every possible religious holiday! Who was supposed to find me a French husband so Sam & Lucy & I can move here and benefit from hyper holidays?!). The others were productive tho, plus I got some more stuff done online and tonight will keep organizing everything so tomorrow when places are open again I can hit the ground running.
• The calendar is all but set... just waiting to confirm a few things with various musées, etc., and (mostly) waiting for the students to find out their Sorbonne class schedules so we can finalize things.
• Incredibly bright out - I had forgot how late it stays light. Those pix I took out the window the other day, for example, were at about 9:20pm!
• Can't decide what to do for supper. I had kind of a lot for lunch... maybe I should just eat some fruit. I have one luscious French pear still in the kitchen. Oh and I have a cup of fromage blanc left... heh heh heh. I had forgotten that particular food miracle. Oh là là là là.
• The French think they're getting fat. (Hey! No comments on the obvious mental segue there! Doh!) I guess there are a few more hefty ones than there used to be but compared to the States everyone still looks veritably svelte! I was watching a game show the first night while I ate and you had to really scrutinize the audience to find anyone even marginally overweight - try that with an audience of The Price is Right or something at home - it would be almost the opposite. Still, there are interesting governmental controls on fatty or high sugar foods now, or not controls but differences in merchandising, etc., that I've noticed in the stores. Also any time there's a commercial for something edible, there is an unassuming little text at the bottom of the TV screen (kind of like the surgeon general's cig warning) expressing any one of a variety of messages: "To stay healthy, one should avoid eating too much fat and sugar. Consult www.mangerbouger.fr." or "To stay healthy, engage in regular exercise. Consult..." I also read somewhere that if you need certain diet foods, you can claim them on your health insurance for full reimbursement. Another thing that is truly frappant (striking) is the increase in commuter cyclists everywhere - it never was that unusual to see Frenchies on bikes but they are almost thick now. This has probably been helped along by the Vélib' program, which was criticized to no end when it came out and I saw lots of references online about how it was never going to take off, but as far as I can tell it is going like gangbusters. There are Vélib' parking/pickup points all over and most have upwards of 20 or so bikes and bikestands. A lot of people just use them as commuter vehicles instead of having their own bikes. I've seen a few tourists on them but the vast majority of riders I've seen were French, obviously going to work or to the market or whatever. So so so cool.
• Speaking of transport, altho not self-powered... I am SO excited about my metro pass! We had the old time passes back in '82 where you had a little metro system ID card, and had a wacky metro ticket that fit in a little pocket at the bottom and you had to (if I remember correctly) pass that ticket thru the machines each time... or something... there's some part of it I've forgotten. Anyway now instead of having anything you pass thru or stick into anything, there's a crazy plastic holder for your card which has a smart chip in it somewhere and you just rub it on the top of the turnstile machine, and if you have it in a bag or a billfold you can even just rub your bag on top of the machine and it still reads it. (Full disclosure: I've only seen people do this - for me it didn't seem to work so I got my billfold out and it read it thru the billfold but wouldn't read it thru my [not unusually thick] cloth bag for some reason - even tho I'd seen people go thru even with leather briefcases and it seemed to read through the bag - hmph) anyway it is (still) quite cool, and so fun to include that in the program for both me and the students - such a load off one's mind not having to mess with metro tickets.
• Tomorrow I'm heading back to the Louvre (after my phone calls) to pick up our Louvre passes, which will be equally fun I think - and much cheaper :) even tho one could argue that art is every bit as important as transport, altho perhaps less directly influential on one's practical everyday goings-on...
• An old man cussed at me yesterday. It was rush hour and a bunch of us sidewalk speeders were trying to get thru kind of a skinny place due to a couple of (of course) tourists who were stopped, gaping at some souvenir stand offering or other... Anyway the critical mass broke down a bit just as I got to the squeeziest spot and someone nudged me into this old pépère who promptly scratched out a wheezy, "Putain!" (somewhere between Shit! and Fuck! in spirit, probably a bit closer to Shit! but satisfaction-wise it's closer to Fuck!) It made me giggle. Not that he really said it at me, more at the situation, but still, probably not the reaction one would expect. But I found it almost endearing.
• I'm quirky. Newsflash.
• Cookie commercial just now. This time the little text says "For good health, eat at least five helpings of fruits and vegetables a day. Consult www.bouger..."
• Oh yeah, that pear...
• Salut.

Mitrailleuse #4711

• Week improved resoundingly, thank goodness. Meeting with dept. head where she saw my evals and showed me that actually there were only a couple of awful comments and everything else was quite strong; plus most of the awful comments were about how hard I grade which, conversely, is something the dept. likes to see gripes about (at least instead of bunches of people saying you're really easy). So sometimes if your perspective is torqued, someone else can lend you theirs, which is nice. :)
  
• New couch is fantastic. Buying Carrie's IKEA Klippan loveseat that she didn't want to lug back to Atlanta. My little foldout PierOne loveseat I bought from Elizabeth a few years ago was being held together by duct tape (thank goodness for the cover!); still usable but I was getting tired of how short it was for lying on (altho I persisted!) and the cushions were getting squishier and squishier. I'm donating it to the Language House - it's good enough with the cover for people to sit on at occasional parties and events still. I took a pic the other night to send to Elizabeth so I'll post it one of these days and you can have the full before and after effect.
  
• The IKEA piece doesn't really go with my furniture super well but I'm not too worried about it. And tho they call it a loveseat it is about 40% longer than my old one was; really more of a small couch. It has a black cover right now - big mistake in our house! I put my big red striped throw over the whole thing to help with cat hair and since the cover is all squares and rectangles I plan to use it as a pattern to make a more fun one after France. Had been aiming for another quilt project but I doubt I'll have time with teaching, plus since Tasha is staying on for Summer II it will be close quarters for having quilt stuff spread out everywhere.
  
• Getting a healthy handful of things done for Paris... bit by bit... still not where I wanted to be with planning by now of course (Mrs. Susan Perfectionism's calendar is rarely able to be adhered to consistently) but really fun that Kelly dropped in yesterday and when I listed the stuff I still didn't have set yet, goes: "Oh I didn't do any of that til I got to Paris!" So, while I still want to get that stuff done before leaving, it did make me feel better that if I don't get it all 100% done, the program will still be OK.
  
• Weird, but I'll take it. My biceps are still quite hard even tho I haven't done upper body weights since fall.
  
• Nescafé rocks.
  
• The students are soooooo excited - another reason to be thankful for Google. I set up a googlemap to show everyone where all their families are and of course since Wondrous Streetview is accessible there as well they have been having loads of fun looking at their neighborhoods, etc. Technology really is amazing, I have to say.
  
• Speaking of lodgings, a few people apparently missed the posting of my apt link, so here you can feast your eyes again on my miracle flat. Oh yeah.
  
• Equally miraculous is the fact that none of my students have yet tarred & feathered me for being so behind on grading. I've set a new career record on this this semester and in particular the last couple of weeks. So you know what my weekend looks like I guess. :)
  
• So fun reminiscing about bike touring to get ready for my French Club presentation yesterday. Fun scanning gobs of old pix (project to be continued after Paris) and ideas of perhaps getting an unofficial cycling trip organized for before or after the Paris program in 2010 or 2011... Will depend on money of course and on summer teaching schedules. As long as they can give me classes Summer II then I pretty much have to come back and teach to keep filling our coffers but one of these days maybe there won't be a class for me or maybe I'll be organized enough with Paris by then to manage a cycling trip prior to the program, after spring finals. Stranger things have happened... It's a good goal anyway and I bet a handful of students would be interested. Plus Toulouse is quite upset that he can't come this year with his new tires and all... I can't even look him in the eye when I go in the office these days.
  
• Shorts!!!
  
• Loads and loads of catpix to catch you up on. Might just start posting them willy nilly. My mood is obviously better but my freetime isn't so this recent blogpost surge will likely not be a lasting trend... the better to toss crazy cat shenanigan photos at you in the interim!
  
• Uh oh, just realized I have yet to check with Molly about whether I have to move all my office crap home for Summer I yet. So dread the answer... (Ordinarily a few of our desks have to be available for others' use during that session.)
  
• Really wish I could snap my fingers and have my iTunes issue all resolved. It makes my head hurt.
  
• Also have yet to sit down and figure out my Palm > Outlook > Moto transition. Basically know how to do it but no time to get it done. Oh, it SOUNDS easy online but they don't tell you that if your contact address data categories don't match Outlook exactly, then after you export the excel you have to change all the column headings so that they are exactly the same or it doesn't work to import it into Outlook. This is particularly pissy since I only use about 6 out of the 14 or so stupid categories, but in order for it to import correctly they all have to match even if they're not being used. Partially the fault of my Palm Pilot's being 4 years old (more recent models apparently use the same headings as Outlook), but still...
  
• Oh and there's the slight worry about how every time I plug in the laptop which is slated for France anywhere out in the livingroom or dining room, it throws the breaker. I can see the headline now (translated for you):

Last Night's Mysterious Power Outage All Over Latin Quarter Fault of Stupid American Using Too Much Electricity

• The other (heavier and far less dependable) laptop causes no power problems. Ahem.
  
• Au boulot! Salut

Today's prizewinner for best use of the word "profiteroles"

Of course, it's Flight of the Conchords.
Hurt Feelings

Who couldn't use a small man's wetsuit?!

When all else fails turn on some music...

Recent tweet from Andy about Amazon's free music offerings...

Come ON, people!

OK I hate to be a nag but some of you are definitely not crossing your fingers very hard about my apartment issue. Two more apt's have fallen through! What is the deal?? I am ready to cross my fingers for all of you anytime, but when I ask for a little fingercrossing in return, I'm SOL. Geemony Christmas, a woman thinks she has friends and then...

Now the apartment fates have decided to give me one more chance at a really incredible apartment. Maybe if you see it you will have extra motivation for fingercrossing, so go check it out.

Then, get those frigging fingers crossed!

To quote Glory, "Um... NOW would be good!"

Way Too Funny

This from The Onion thanks to Andy today. If you aren't a Battlestar fan this won't be as funny, esp. the part about Lee Adama letting himself go.

Personally I am not sure if Obama is depressed about the series' ending or about the fact that the finale (and the whole final season in my opinion) was so blah in the first place.

So say we all.

‽

My new favorite thing. Thanks to Jefe. And a great description of my week. In the last few minutes of the 2020 test now. Of course I should have been working the whole time. Actually I did work for a solid 40 minutes! (Plus administering the oral comprehension part, so really 50 minutes.)

I have not stopped all week, I swear. Well at home in the evenings I haven't been working much but at school honestly there has not been a spare moment. OK well not a spare half-hour anyway.

Gobs to do still for Paris of course and meanwhile trying not to let any actual teaching stuff fall thru the cracks. On my best day this semester I'm still completely scatterbrained but have been pretty OK with following lesson plans and creating productive classes. On my worst, um... well there have been a few of those. Mostly just forgetting to take stuff up or grade stuff or accidentally telling them the wrong thing about an assignment and then later remembering that was how I did it last semester or at Aub*rn, not how I wanted to do it now... gah!

And so it goes.

• Paris flights are purchased - Greenville > DC > Charles De Gaulle on 5/12 (arr 5/13 - ask me if that will be the best [if a bit stressful] birthday EVER!!!!!!). Return 6/28, CDG > Chicago > Greenville.
• Students no longer need visas (US students going to study for less than 90 days that is) - this didn't make my life hugely easier except for not having to field visa app. questions now, but it is a huge weight off of my Paris students' backs.
• Waiting about my apartment - cross your fingers. Now my three favorite ones have fallen thru the cracks due to the time change between Simon's (my apt. agency contact guy) workday and mine. Today I sent him a selection of 5 at once, numbered for preference. If one of those doesn't work out then... well let's just not think about that.
• The Sorbonne lady has been super responsive lately, which was a big piece of stress a few weeks ago. We are all set with a placement test time, our pre-reg. paperwork, and just have to pay. Well Study Abroad has to pay from our account that is. :)
• Ge

Later... might as well leave that there so you can feel all the more in the moment of my flurries! Nyernt nyernt.

Too true

A blog is defined by the hive mind over at Wikipedia as “a website usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.” I have to admit, however, that the definition Urban Dictionary cooked up is often more apropos. “A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life. Consists of such riveting entries as ‘homework sucks’ and ‘I slept until noon today’.”


http://waiterrant.net/

World News

Check out Today's Front Pages; they even have the Opelik*-Aub*rn News! Thanks to Ed the Head for showing me this. Pretty interesting.

Album Fun

Sleeveface! And I swear I only spent about 5 minutes there this morning.

Happy Valentine's Day

The Wounded Cupid

Cupid as he lay among
Roses, by a Bee was stung.
Whereupon in anger flying
To his Mother, said thus crying;
Help! O help! your Boy's a dying.
And why, my pretty Lad, said she?
Then blubbering, replyed he,
A winged Snake has bitten me,
Which Country people call a Bee.
At which she smil'd; then with her hairs
And kisses drying up his tears:
Alas! said she, my Wag! if this
Such a pernicious torment is:
Come, tel me then, how great's the smart
Of those, thou woundest with thy Dart!

Anonymous, Greek, c.100 BC-600 AD
from the Anacreontea
translated by Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

The most interesting and -seemingly- complete explanation about the authorship of this work...

How much I don't want to work today

This is how much I don't want to work right now: I am seriously considering using my new Zip-It drain cleaner tool in the shower drain, which job I have been dreading and blowing off for about 3 weeks now (despite the fact that even during 5-minute shower, one's feet become entirely submerged). But all of a sudden, pulling hair and goo out of the drain seems like a Really Appealing Task. Tell me again why I have a job involving constant and redundant homework. Focusing on Paris (the fun, non-going-crazy with stress about 14 college students' shenanigans part) and the fact that this first year is more and more past halfway done.

Le Retour de Toulouse le Trek

Just to post... and thereby further avoid syllabi editing... (Since school is soon starting back up there will be the benefit of procrastination-fed blogging.)

Great bike ride a few days before Christmas - John from Meetup helped me mount my new road tires on Toulouse, who has been ecstatic to get his first exercise in (ashamed face) 6 years...

I'm in yellow, Marianna is in the foreground. John is behind me still under the bridge, and Bill is snapping.

We were riding country roads out near Westminster SC by Bill & Marianna's house - almost in GA. We were right by Yonah Dam and did some of the roads which are part of the Tour de Tugaloo. (Basically it's in the very tip-top west corner of SC and a little in GA.) It's a great place to ride because up by the dam are a couple of huge cul de sac/dead ends (several-mile loops with no egress), so not much traffic. Also as you can see it's quite beautiful. Rolling hills but not scary steep make for an outing that is pretty gentle on those new to biking or who haven't Really Cycled for a while.

Bill on left, John helping Marianna adjust her derailleur. Bill and Marianna are two of my best friends from the hiking group. John is in Meetup as well, but I met him thru the French group altho he's a member of our group, too.

Me and John loading up after the tour. Much happiness to have had such a great day out enjoying the sun and nature.

We ended up doing 21 miles. Not huge but respectable given how long it had been since I really rode - moreso for Bill & Marianna since they are just getting into riding. I at least have commuter muscles which were pretty ready altho my endurance wasn't what it used to be. I surprised myself by being much more fit than I expected, tho much of the credit goes to Toulouse, who is hugely easier to pedal on than my mountain bike, Spike. I really couldn't believe how it felt to be on Toulouse again after all this time. I'm much more at ease on that bike than on Spike, altho he's also way lighter; I hadn't realized how much until we started off. The difference is pretty amazing.

We had a huge scary wind that would come and go at an instant's notice. It increased throughout the ride but we still made it back to the vehicles. If it had started earlier I doubt very much we would have gone more than 10 miles. It really was kinda freaky, hitting out of nowhere and full blast against us, then 5 minutes later it would stop just as suddenly. Better than being on us all the time at least. Even John was wobbled a bit by it even tho he rides all the time.

Looks like tomorrow I'm going to ride with Bill & Marianna again - we're going to Fants Grove here right outside Clems*n. I'm not sure there is road riding potential so I'll take Spike instead of Toulouse just in case we have to trail it a bit. Meanwhile I'm gearing up to use Toulouse as much as possible for commuting to school this semester. Way easier than the mountain bike. Anyway partly to save the car and partly b/c I really need more exercise and it makes me feel so good. I won't be heading out on super chilly mornings but will try to ride anytime it's just this side of Super Chilly. It's considerably colder here than it was in Aub*rn but still way more feasible (for Susan the Cold Wimp) than farther north.

Jean Burchill tutted.

Of course hardly anyone reads me and far less bother to comment but still here I go posting a meme for you all to have fun with. Thanks to Curb Girl, my favorite person with whom to spend the weekend in Bloomington, Indiana. :)

So here. If you care to share, please tell us what sentence you found in your 2¢ below.

Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 56.
Find the fifth [full] sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

As for me, my closest was The Falls by Ian Rankin which is a moderately cool accidental closest book. P. 56's 5th sentence gave me the post title. (The St. Martin's Minotaur massmarket ed. that is.)

cranberries cranberries cranberries!

It's that time of year which means I'll be making cranberry sauce, partly to take to Bill & Marianna's Thursday. Since Jessica and I were talking about it on the phone the other day I thought I'd share the recipe with you all just in case you don't have it handy and want to make some yumminess.

Cranberry Relish
(from my great grandmother Mary Jamison Core, to my grandmother Grace Muse Core Booth, to my mom Sara Lee Booth Clay, to me)

• 1 lb. cranberries
• 3 oranges
• 3 cups of sugar

Sort cranberries (like beans), wash and grind. Finely grate orange zest of all three oranges on grater. Add the juice of the oranges and some of the pulp into the mixture. Add sugar, combine thoroughly, refrigerate, and let stand at least overnight (2 to 3 days is best).

That's Mom's original wording (except for the parenthesized part). Funny - one of the things I always tell people when I give out the recipe is that they need to figure out a way to grind coarsely - the "grind" here was always done via a meat grinder when I was growing up - doubtless that's the way Grandma Booth did it and her mom, too. So anyway on NPR the other morning Susan Stamberg was talking about her favorite cranberry relish recipe and she said she grinds hers with an old hand-crank meat grinder, too. I don't have a meat grinder so I always use my Moulinex with the food processing attachment on it but it still is sometimes too runny. Last year I drained half the liquid off for about a day before serving and it turned out great. That is, I drained it for about a day and then I added half the liquid back into the pulpy part. It was the perfect consistency for the first time in ages. For years it's been too runny. Anyway take all of this into consideration when you make yours. Oh and for the record I always go ahead and put all the orange juice in, despite Mom's detail here. It's a bit orangier than Mom's was but I like it both ways and most friend/tasters over the years have like it as well. It's probably also more orangey because of my fantastic microplane zester/grater that John gave me a few years ago. Besides helping you get that much more zest and a finer grind so its flavor is more potent, it makes the zesting so much easier. Before that I always had achy arms the day after cranberry sauce day.

Anyway here's the really yummy-sounding Susan Stamberg's Mother-in-law's Craig Claiborne's Cranberry Relish I might make this year sometime in addition to the family version. It sounds really intriguing. (Tip: they did some weird montage of election soundbytes which Susan works into her lead-in and it is Really Lame so I advise you just to read the article and recipes.)

In the immortal words of Lemony Snicket,

Things are getting worse.

Maybe this is what I need. Now I just have to find what essential oil makes you un-paranoid, un-perfectiony, and un-procrastinaty all in one and maybe I'll actually become productive again.

They probably don't make a scented oil for attracting local friends.