American like Normandy

Monday, July 31, 2006

The final move!

Nous sommes revenus de Rupt sur Saône la maison de mes parents. Nous avons fini le déménagement de la maison de St Arnoult.
Hier nous sommes allés à la fête de Rupt. C'était super sympa!

We came back from Rupt last night! We are so happy. Because the moving of my parents' home is OVER! We went to eat with my parents and all the village. We ate pork near the castle. The weather was very good:)

Friday, July 28, 2006

After a year

Between a first year of marriage, working in Paris, and a major move (from Paris to Strasbourg), I have now overcome blogophobia. I even want to call this thing something like "Old Europe". I'd love to stick up more commentary about stuff going on right now, but who has time? Ok so there are a lot of stupid things I could write about, pretending to be intelligent; I'll talk about what I know.

It's hot here. Our studio gets to about 32 degrees Celsius, and never goes below 29. On Tuesday, we drove to the Falls of Nideck, took a nice hike in the cool 27 degree weather, and were amazed as the mercury fell to a chilling 25 degrees (celsius)!

Virginie is excited about starting her studies à nouveau. She is going to study towards the equivalent of a bachelors in social work. She is feeling very motivated; it will be great to see her engage her studies!

We're going to the in-law's again this weekend. This makes the 7th weekend out of 8, but it's ok. Between farmer friends bending over backwards to make sure you can make it to dinner and the big move from Saint Arnoult, the calendar fills up pretty quickly.

Old furniture weighs a ton. They didn't have particle board back then, and I guess that they thought that pine was for wimps. I almost had a heart attack trying to lift one old piece with Raymond the other weekend. Being the good ex-Scout that I am, I remembered "lift with your legs, and not with your back." So I managed to lift my half, and we moved it to the living room. Consequently, my rear hurt more than anything after moving that booger.

It's an old cabinet from an ancien regime post office. Ancien regime = 18th century!!!!!! Amazing how many of those post offices are still left over -- most of them are restaurants. I go to one of those restaurants once a week to teach a wine steward. Virginia Pilot headline : "Local boy embroiled in internationally renowned French wine steward competition."

I need to take the dog out. We're watching the younger fox terrier for Raymond and Colette while they're zooming to and fro moving the last few things from St. Arnoult.

John Out.