Friday, May 02, 2008

The Day We Got DSL!

It happened about 9:05 this morning, I was just up, barely awake past staggering stage but before coffee. Into the comp rm I went to check on the weather program...and much to my surprise (It HAS been 6 weeks you know) the Network Magic program popped up with a "Internet Connected" message! I looked at the LiveBox and saw the normal blinking lights, no joy, just another bity of noise to confound and confuse. The message faded then came on again a minute later, I looked again at the LiveBox and the DSL light was ON! Not Blinking...ON! Wowee! Then it went off...huh?
So I tried Internet Explorer and l'viola! There it was...Orange.fr! Hot shit! Got it! I walked into the bedroom to announce to Kelly the great news and back again it was still alive and well. I sat down to see every @#$$#@ application on my machine doing downloads to update the now seruiously out of date (5 weeks) software. Sooo cool this is, we are back online again! Upon examination we have a 20MB/sec ADSL-2connection, bloody quick compared to our old 8 MB one and the even slower 1.5 one in California.
___
We drove to Bourges and Mondail Tissues to get the required cloth for the entry hallway, it's curtains and the curtains for the waiting room. We chose three wonderful designs and got the required yardage for each and wandered off to the Carrefour store to fill my list of needed groceries for next week.

Happy Anniversary!

Blog Entry Thursday 1 May, 2008 May Day!
A SIGNIFICANT Anniversary for Moi (Mwah)(Me), 11 years ago today I had my first heart attack!
11 long, joyous and fruitful years EXTRA time. Thank you Kiaser Doctors and St. Mary's Doctors for your skill, perseverance and knowledge of all things HEART. It was a long 9 days in the hospital(s) and the care I got could NOT have been better, I'm LIVING proof of that! Lots of drugs, exercise, diet and keeping everything positive has kept me going. I laugh a lot and that helps. I'd laugh a LOT more if I had DSL, alas Tuesday and Wednesday have passed and TODAY is a BANK HOLIDAY in France, ol' socialist republic as it is, they DO dance around the May-Pole! We don't anymore, it was never and IMPORTANT Holiday like 4th of July, Christmas or Thanksgiving, it was a low key one with little billing and once taken over by the communists that was pretty much the end of its celebration for US citizens. I still can remember in the early 50's having a May-Pole in the schoolyard at Walnut School in Selma and dancing around in wrapping ribbons as we went. Pretty silly but made the day special to a kid from Panama who would have rather been with his Mom than there, but that's another story for another day.
Today HERE it is a Bank Holiday and a Day off for all government workers and most shops are closed, at least those we frequent seem to be. Ah well, I'm building the bookcase for the waiting room fireplace wall, I like building furnishings though I'm by no means an expert at it. I have only the plans from between my ears and as such I make silly mistakes here and there. My shop is very limited too, not enough table space and the one I have is too small for this project. A Ryobi 10” table saw, a router, a portable planer, a belt sander abd a spray painting rig and a liberal grouping of hand tools makes up my tool cabinet (where?!). Not enough clamps, light and brains to do the job RIGHT but adequate to get something that'll hold books and can be painted to cover my crooked nailing and general poor construction technique. I spent the afternoon fabricating the bottom, sides and supports for the shelves before the weather became too cold and windy to deal with the open layout of the barn.
I was so cold I was shaking, enough! I took all the completed pieces inside the house to allow the glue to cure. Tomorrow we'll fasten the sides together and Kelly will paint samples so we can decide what color it should be.
Made a Madras Chicken Curry over Saffron rice for dinner, it was good but way too hot (spicy) for Kelly. I'll try to calm it down next time but it is a conundrum in order to have sufficient flavor in the coiconut milk/onion base one has to use more Madras Curry and that brings heat along with it. One day I'll figure this curry thing out but not yet I guess.

Covering the walls...

Blog Entry Wednesday 30 April, 2008
Rainy and cool, windy too...shit weather, mucky. There's a music event downtown at L'Halle this afternoon, we will go with an umbrella. It's the annual fete du Bain Douche (our event location in town about three blocks away), many musical acts that come from far and wide, well...not so wide I guess, France mainly and maybe they visited some other place before or might have even come from there for all I know but...you get the picture. Not pricey, generally under 20E a seat or less, always some freebee performances held at various locations about the village which always attract a crowd. It starts today and runs through the weekend. We have plans to attend all the free ones as we spent PLENTY at the Pretemps Du Bourges a couple of weeks ago.


This is my Lignieres_Weather Cam image just a few minutes ago, typical morning traffic as the commuters rush off to coffee...oops work. Looks out the TV/Computer Room window towards the
northwest. Ah Lunch hour is but 4 hrs from now then 2 hrs off to think about the rest of the day. Hmmm.
3 pm, still no DSL with the clock winding down on the France Telecom workday. Nothing ever is as promised with FT. What a way to run a business. It is now 9:58pm, many resets and attempts to configure the long lost DSL service brings nothing but the blinking INTERNET light. I saw an ad today in the old Connexion newspaper for an all English DSL service for 29 bucks a month, maybe I'll give them a call tomorrow.
We spent much of today working on the old waiting room, new fabric on the walls except for over the fireplace which we will do tomorrow. Then I begin the build of the bookcase.
Kats: Interlopers in the form of ferals, also known as terrorists, or insurrectionists are using the courtyard for secret meetings and attempts to enlist one or the other of or Kats in their own causes. So far Furry has been singled out for rough treatment as she fails to attend their meetings and doesn't supply food or drink to the cadre which now includes Long Tail, Sammy, Blackie and at least two others whose names we don't know. The Barn is their hideout at least we know that much. Their goal? The take over of all kibble supplies, both Kat and Dawg with the long term goal of trading the Dawg food for Kat food and cooperative Dawgs. That's all I know now, more to come.

Fuzzy Stuff

Blog Entry Tuesday The Day It Might Happen Maybe
That's what the kind lady told MC at the tourist office last week, Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Well, here we are, no joy yet. I reset the Live Box and tested the DSL line via the Live Box installation software...nope.
We spent the morning hanging the cloth over the fuzzy sheet goods I spent part of yesterday installing.
The hanging went well given we had to come up with the method of installation to cram the cloth in the tiny gap between the wooden battens I nailed and glued into place a few days ago. Beat it with a small hammer and a spackling knife. All in all it went well, two walls are up on the top support battens held in place by the battens themselves and a few gluings with hot glue, their sides and bottom yet to be done...tomorrow I guess.
The sun shown this morning while the barometer told a different story entirely, the bottom appears to have dropped out, rain in MY forecast and it came true as the day went on. We drove to Bourges to the Mondial Tissue store and bought out their supply (25 meters worth) of the fuzzy stuff for the fireplace wall and the parlor which is next in the sequence. They looked at us like we were deranged when I told them I wanted the entire roll. They laughed their way thru folding and tying the huge wad so it could be stuffed into our car. The ol' Avensis swallowed it right up, filling the backseat entirely and blocking the view to the rear as well.
Tonight we will have brochettes of Cod with red bell peppers and onions sauted in bacon fat, over saffron seasoned basmati rice with a Lemon Mornay sauce over. Peas with onions on the side. Dropped the Peas...not required as there were enough vegies with the onions and peppers. Was good but not terrific to my taste, no kick.
Kats:
The cease-fire continues into it's 4th day, how long it will last is difficult to determine as neither side is talking. No Lean is posted to the TV room almost continually, Furry wanders the premises unabated curiously peeking about our various work sites to see for furself what we are doing to fur house. At night we sit in the TV/Computer room with whichever kat has taken up residence. Life goes on.

Alice and Rob

Blog Entry Monday April 28th, 2008
Rain this morning after a very warm yesterday afternoon that dissolved into a chill wind amidst our reveries with our good friends, Alice and Rob from Chezel Benoit. I did a Mexican lunch thing, quick but quite good if I do say so myself and I enlisted their chopping help with the onions and garlic and apple. Mexican Hash (Pecadillo), Spanish Rice, Beans in a Pot, corn tortillas. It was all good but the chill wind took the temp down quickly and frankly screwed it for me, I like food HOT and this was not. Rob really LIKED it and had seconds and thirds, Alice soon followed suit, so cold to me was fine for them.
We had gone out yesterday morning to see what we could see at two local brocantes (junk sales), great fun for the French and Brits who seem to adore these things but not so much for Kelly and I who have become pretty jaded after 6 years of attending these events with some regularity...piles of knick-knacks and rusted tools, old crap that nobody wants any longer. Every once in a while something terrific shows up but with the dollar at 1.6 to 1 or worse it would have to be a Mona Lisa to get our money. We did find a bargain with a man selling plants, 10 very healthy looking strawberry plants with flowers and tiny berries for 6.20E, so I bought 20 for our courtyard planting. That was it. It was warm enough I sought out the shade of a nearby seller selling crepes, iced drinks and at the moment eating their lunch.
Today? Well, stay home and work on the ruin a bit. Nail the strips in the old waiting room so that the cloth for the walls can be fastened, not many left to do then Kelly can start hanging the wall covering material. Have to go over to DIX (Deez...10 Rt St. Amand) to empty it of extraneous odds and ends in preparation for sale someday real-soon-now. As I finish that up there is a knock at the door, it's our original English speaking friends Jack and Hortense who told us last week that they would be by to “have a look” soon. Today was the day. So we gave the grand tour including the barn for Jack. He is very familiar with the style of construction as he was a contractor in the UK for years. He is the funniest human being I know, he is very animated, all arms and gestures galore, constantly commenting on many subjects and an open door in every verbal way. He is VERY suspicious of almost everyone here, with many examples of paranoia-like thinking, The French, The Gypsies, The neighbors across the street, the local bar-master, The Cafe, US for all we know. We sat in the dining room and gabbed for hours about the house and their future abode in Spain which they have adopted as their next home...and we laughed our asses off! Like many Brits they like the heat of warmer climes so prefer Italy, Spain, Morocco and other locales to this particular one. So be it, something for everyone hereabouts, mostly anyway.
Music:
Listening to Bob Dylan in my iTunes Library takes me back to my Air Force days,
listening to him rap his way thru his tunes while I laid in my bunk at Beale AFB.
Seems a million years ago now, before anything of consequence to me, my mother dead a few years before and my father gone away to god-knows-where.
My grandmother and her husband Harold in the not-so-distant past and only down the road a few hundred miles, I listened on, dreaming of a future, jet noise in the background. Yes, at the time it took a wild ear to listen to ol' Bob,
not the most melodic sound one let into one's ears, he said things that we all felt but few spoke. I found him intellectually stimulating if not highly entertaining in the time. Now I listen and enjoy him very much, older, much older, and wiser too.
Then things happen out of the larger nowhere that encompasses all of us and our lives. Friends I have long lost came back. The first was SC, a letter arrived the day AFTER we returned from our stay in France, hello, Hi! How are you? It began, now several years later I review the miracle of his finding me after I had looked for him many times in the past. Gone, in a bus travelling across the US,
once in Seattle, a computer repair business then just g-o-n-e. Now back we share thoughts and memories often, reveries amidst the storm of Life. So very good for the soul, old friends renewed. Another happened too, a friend from longer ago yet, an old girlfriend T. She was gone while I was still in the USAF.
Afriend stole her away as I was courting her. Mad? No...just looked elsewhere.
Long, long gone she was, another letter came via email, she had read my blog!
Amazing! Over 40 years had passed since I saw her face! 40 years! Now we regularly exchange emails about our families and lives. I'm a happy man.

Tourist Office to the rescue

log Entry Saturday April 26th, 2008
Well I might as well break the silence on my “little(BIG) problem”. I STILL have no Internet, the DSL indicator on my LiveBox (HA!) is just blinking away, resetting it does nothing. Yesterday I went BACK to my dearest friends at the Tourist Office and asked their help ONCE AGAIN in contacting France Telecom about “Our Little Problem”, which CM promptly did. After much re-dialing and correct-number-getting, she reached a FT person who told her that the “Problem” was one of IDENTITY! It seems Mr. Theodore Berry is named on the telephone line's account as it's owner and the application for DSL indicates one Kelly Lute. So in the infinite wisdom of FT instead of telling us that problem via a letter or perhaps a smoke signal, they just put the application on HOLD. Ah! So after some quick clarifications by CM via my dearest Kelly about who was who on the account and how it got that way (?!) it has, apparently, been ironed out...that wrinkle, whether it results in an actual DSL connection is yet to be determined (supposedly Tuesday or Wednesday next week). So there is some hope I hope. This morning it blinks.
The sun is shining thru the cloud layer over our little village in the heart of France! Yippee! Life here is soooo very much easier with a bit of dryness, warmth and sunshine. Indeed!

Lost In The Woods

Blog Entry 4/24/08 Thursday
One of my talking points has been abolished, at least for now...it was 81 degrees F here today. So much for the cold of Lignieres, the continuance of winter, the obnoxious clouds and rains, the river out of it's banks. So much for it all...we had a breath of summer today and it was wonderful. We sat in the sun this afternoon and drank rum and coke and talked to our wandering cat Furry as she explored her territories. Her nemesis Long Tail was no where to be seen so Furry was free to examine her domain without challenge today, tomorrow may not be so good for her. Such is the life of our cats.
Later in the afternoon we made a grocery run to Issoudun and then promptly I made a right turn a bit early and we found ourselves wandering thru new territory headed towards Chezel Benoit and our friends house there. Lost in the woods, we saw the managed forest cut here and there; the individual trees lined up against the dirt road for miles and miles. Finally we exited the forest and headed off in the right direction for an evenings visit, a few laughs and a bit of using their computer for our latest fix of email and news.

Tickets!

Blog Entry Tuesday 22 April, 2008 Lignieres, FR
Rain, clouds, light wind and chilly beer temperature. Sun? No sun. Reasons to stay inside and do little...many. Reasons to go outside and work, zero. The winner? The cats get a heated warm room.
We read, I stare at the weather screen on the computer and we wait for France Telecom to take some action that will result in us being back on-line again via DSL other than send us the letter stating our passwords (two days in a row). That is the summary of this less than energetic morning at Rue 35 Marechal Joffre. I turned on the water heater and we have waited the requisite hour and a half for the water to get sufficiently warm to shower one of our every three day shower routines underway. Kelly is first. I next. Fun and warm.
Got a @##$#@! speeding ticket this morning from the 24th of March. The machine along the route du St. Amand got me going 100kph in the well marked 90kph zone allocated for it's divine presence. Merde! 45 Euros worth of speeding enjoyment. Oh well. It's frankly amazing I don't get more, I have become so used to just cruising in the green world of middle France that I miss the un-miss-able 5 X 7 foot signs that announce the presence of the radar box and all that means to one's checkbook. I just go blank. Then I realize as I'm about parallel with the @#$$! box that I am going OVER the LIMITE...shit! Too late, it's beady square eyes have me in it's sights, photo taken and weeks and weeks later I (The BIG We) get the notice. 45E to you buddy. Pay up! They mean it. You have 15 Days before it's 68E, 21 before it's 108E! Fun huh for 6 MPH over the limite. Kelly writes the check and inserts it into the envelope provided, sigh.
So off to my swell olde kitchen with it's wood beams and roof for a ceilin, red tile floor and wooden cabinets 100 yrs old to make a warm potato salad.

Warm Potato Salad with Lemon and Red Bell Pepper

2 lbs white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1” cubes more or less.
1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 stalks of celery cut into bite sized 3/4” pieces
2 cloves garlic diced finely
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 canned red pepper diced 1/2” pieces or substitute fresh red bell pepper roasted and skinned.
½ lemon – juice (About 1 Tablespoon)
½ teaspoon lemon zest.
1 tablespoon Italian Parsley chopped fine
1 Tablespoon Celery Leaf chopped coarsely

Put potatoes into a medium pot with water just above them, place lid on and cook for 25-30 min. til done to al dente. Mix Onion, Celery, Garlic, Mayonnaise, Mustard, Vinegar, Salt and Pepper and the olive oil in a small bowl and stir vigorously. Add lemon juice and zest. Taste and adjust for salt. When potatoes done, drain and allow to cool 5 minutes. Place into large bowl, mix in Parsley, Celery Leaf and rest of ingredients.
Bye for now!

Guilt

Blog Entry 04-16-08 A Wednesday w/o you know what...
Today I tackled the wall fittings for the curtains all 10 feet of them. Drill holes, then bigger ones follow, then install the retainers that hold the bronze curtain fittings, quite a job but done after about three hours. I hung the rods too after drilling them for the end fittings. Ladder going back and forth and me climbing up and down got the job done. Kelly worked to seam the curtains, cut and cuss at her chilly sitting job. She worked for hours to get the curtains ready for hanging. I lounged in the sun part of the time. Guilt.
The day was clear and sunny, cold but endurable. I worked at my kitchen cleaning things up and prepping for dinner. The kats wandered in and out watching carefully for the feral kat gang that has invaded the courtyard and displaced them. None found they still dove into the open door of the laundry room when the slightest breeze made any sound. Cowards.
So Kats and Duck and I sit and watch TV Francaise...”Nouvelle Star” chock full of “Stars” who aren't ...YET! But TALENT seems somewhat missing in this group. Tired Franck Sinatra covers and hip rock-like ballads just can't do much for this group in my mind. Yet I watch...hoping someone INTERESTING will appear with real TALENT instead of ego-centric posturing in each and every one contestant. Oh well.

Brrrrr still...

Blog Entry 04-15-08 A Tuesday without what you suspect...
Today was soooo cold, a high of 10 here...50 degrees and the promise tomorrow of more of the same, only colder, down to ZERO! That's 32 for all you Californians and this is APRIL! At least there isn't snow! Shit! The house project was put on hold as we sought refuge in the Toyota to keep us warm for the day, yes diesel is expensive but comfort is comfort and we needed a dose of it to keep our spirits up. So off we went to Leroy Merlin in Chateauroux to get wood for the wall clothing project and new aluminum tubes for the curtains in the dining room, they needed to be stiffer and in one piece. Leroy has LOTS of Quincallerie (hardware) and I found the bits (good English term) I need to repair and create the new rods. Off then to other stores to fulfill our needs for the rest of the afternoon, at least we were warm.
Back to Rue Ruin Americaine I undertook the job of replacing the existing computer with the one I brought from the US. Far more modern and capable of video it will do us for the next year or so. I am a computer conservative...I'm at least one generation behind the current and sometimes more...I am holding on the Windows XP as well in deference to Windows Vista until I hear something good about it and it's been almost 2 years since it was released. Where's Google when you need them?
Tomorrow the curtains will be made and installed in the Parlor with any luck at all. I bought the material needed to hang the curtain rod holders so all I need to do is fabricate the holders. A simple job, surely!

Kats at War

Blog Entry Monday April 14, 08
Still no Internet, oops, I said I wouldn't bring the subject up. Sorry.
The Kats are officially at war. Every move makes the other suspicious and growling, slinking away to hide under a bed, couch or at the remotest corner of the house. What is up? I don't know, could be they are simply house-bound and determined that the other one caused this situation in some way. They sit and stare at the top of the stairs, at the half-opened doorway into the Tv room or dining room just waiting to throw a paw at the other one. Only the food bowl arena is apparently neutral territory. Many short skirmishes without many wounds or serious damage being done, yet they are definitely at war today.
Our friends D and S came by today with a huge bag of books for Kelly's perusal, mostly modern fiction that they share an interest in the authors. Kelly traded a few of hers to somewhat balance the books. They are headed across the little pond to the UK for about a month to tend to a rental and a paint job D landed to bring in a few precious Euros. I wish I could do something to make a few bucks but alas here that is neigh impossible for a nearly 65 year old man or woman for that matter especially two from the United States.

Another Saturday - Oradour Sur Glane

Oradour Sur Glane
Blog Entry for Saturday 12 April, 08
Well, we still do not have internet service. Maybe not enough time has drifted by but we have it not in any case. This is just too bad. So it will remain as I can tell little from the France Telecom site since I do not yet have the required account name and password. I will no longer bore you with this aspect of our misery, the next time you hear anything about the i-net it will be that we have it and I have posted all the blog entries as history. So there.
Yesterday we drove south 2.5 hrs using Bonnie the Tom-Tom to the ill-fated village of Oradour Sur Glane. It is but a ruin of the day the Nazi's came to town, June 4th, 1944. They destroyed it and all inhabitants in a frenzy of tank shelling, machine gun fire, fires and explosions. The populace of some 642 persons was almost completely wiped out. Men, women and children shared the same awful fate. The place has been left en situ (as it has remained) since. It is a hauntingly and at the same time terrible reminder of the horrors of all wars. There were but 7 survivors of that day who lived to tell the tale. The Nazis partied until late into the night revelling in their “victory” over the residents, it was no victory in the normal sense as the residents were largely unarmed, surprised and cut down before anyone could respond. Horrible. The trials that speak of this war crime became a laughing stock as well when most of the soldiers and French civilians that were in charge of the operation were freed from their jail cells, some even had death sentences that had been overturned.
We drove the 2.5hr route home in the late afternoon with scattered clouds and spotty rains. The weather remains cold and wet day in and day out preventing my work outside in the garden and preventing the painting inside (too cold).
We had our dinner with 4 of our closest friends Thursday night, it was great fun and went on for hours and hours, 7 to be exact! Only 4 bottles of wine passed our lips as well, a new LOW record it was too!
We are usually good for several bottles more but somehow the atmosphere did not allow us that freedom this time. The Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese food came off OK, I was disappointed in my garlic/lemon grass soup, too dark, cloudy and in need of a kick of something, perhaps mint or basil...too late now. The red chicken thai curry was mildly hot and very tasty I thought but brought little comment good or bad, the oyster sauce beef was ok, but I thought it a bit confused, too many flavors (R thought the same), I'll rework it next time with fewer sweet peppers. The pork nems were good but the rice paper dissolved somewhat when frying, opening the interiors to the fry oil of ½ sesame and ½ grapeseed oil. My apple/ginger tart was ok, I would have liked the apples more cooked...er ah...softer but it was ok, also the pastry shell needed more time to pre-bake so the bottom would have been crisper. With the vanilla ice cream on top it was good though if not great. We finished up with tea and coffee and a bit of Floriovo liqueur and a nip of Scotch. Very nice beginning for our visit I thought, Now to plan the next one.

Tele Repaired! Whoopee!

Blog Entry_04-09-08
Well sure as heck France Telecom came and went today at about 9am as scheduled. They found a bad connection OUTSIDE on the side of the house...huh? How's that got anything to do with anything? Let me review this telephone problem as I have lived it.
1.Inet and Telephone worked fine on the day we arrived. That was the 21st of March as I remember.
2.10 days later it all went away. 4/1 came and all was inert, dead, mort, fini etc.
3.On the 4th we got a letter telling us they cut off our Inet and Telephone for non-payment.
4.We paid the balance in arrears and were told we would have our phone back last Wednesday or Thursday.
5.That didn't happen so we went to the Tourist Board, they called for us, found out that they had turned the tele back on and were surprised we had no phone and got a crew to come out today and check our connection.
6.They came, they fixed it.
7.Huh?
So now we have a telephone with the promise of an actual internet connection sometime in the next week. Good luck to us. Kelly called Jane.
The dining room is shaping up, we worked on it all bloody day, cloth is hung on all the walls and Kelly produced the curtains as well. A full day. I prepped the beef marinade for the oyster sauce beef dish and made the ice cream mix as well. Tomorrow will be a cooking day as well as cleanup of the dining room to make it ready for our guests, now all 4 of them.

What Else Is New?

Blog 4-08-08 A Monday
Ok, It's now Monday night, no...I don't have a telephone and with that said...I have no Internet as well. We went to the Tourist Office this morning to consult with our resident French Cultural and Technology Specialists E and MC, MC was caught up in another major operation regarding a new computer being installed in the office for use by patrons...like us. E called the lovely folks at France Telecom for an explanation of why did we receive a notice this morning of some billing issue re the NEW phone number when there is NO DIAL TONE on the aforesaid telephone line. They referred her to the technical office who is sending out a techie tomorrow morning...er ah by 1pm that is to check our line and find out why they think our line is GOOD and we have no telephone instead. When we disengaged ourselves from the office I came home and checked the telephone in another socket, no hope, doesn't work. Oh well, someone who really KNOWS how this system works will be here tomorrow with luck and maybe oh maybe we will get connected. What a bore this is.
We have a dinner planned with friends Thursday evening. Thai food promised, but what they will get is my interpretation of Thai food using French ingredients and my addled memory of the recipes of my books in California as I have none of those here. So yes, I'm faking it a bit but I understand the differences between Thai and Chinese and Vietnamese and their similarities as well so it'll be a good fake I hope. A soup with lemongrass and ginger, nems with pork and spring vegetables, Oyster Sauce Beef with red peppers and snow peas, Thai Shrimp Curry over rice, apple/ginger tart al a mode. Wish me luck.
So today we worked on the walls of the dining room, YES THE Dining Room we will be using night after next for the Thai dinner. Hanging cloth by the yards, quite a process, nailing up the wood strips to hold the cloth on all sides, hanging the cloth with installed battens at the top edge of heavy paper after placing the fuzzy stuff over the area that the cloth will cover. It looks great though and we are almost through with the 3rd of the 4 walls with only the window wall left to complete. I doubt we will get that part done before the dinner but we will see.
Kelly went to the doctor that speaks english today, first this morning to find the office open, warm and empty with a notice saying the first patients will be seen at 2pm. So she returned home to continue the wall project, it's a three block walk more or less so not a lot of time was wasted. At 2pm she went back to see 9 patients sitting in the room and decided that was a bit too much of a wait for her sensibilities today so she came home again. Maybe tomorrow.

Incineration

Blog Entry 04-05-08 A Saturday Nite
Ha! What Internet? Tuesday they said Wednesday or Thursday, well those days are gone and here we are in Saturday evening with no sign of a telephone or the DSL service. I'm afraid this is going to take an in person visit to the St. Amand France Telecom office AGAIN, this time we are armed with our new telephone number for the dead line...maybe that will help. Maybe.
On other fronts, I've attacked the courtyard, pulling weeds, trimming and pruning overgrown bushes (now resembling trees) and burning in an incinerator the resultant twigs and sticks. Lots of smoke and this keeps Kelly out of the courtyard as her asthma doesn't stand this kind of pollution at all! So I cut and snip in the afternoon breeze between rays of rare sunshine and load the downfall into the incinerator and watch the billows of smoke rise into the cloudy afternoon. I finish (sort of) and go inside to shower in wonderfully hot water to rid my bod of smoke and dirt from the outside cleanup.
Once all cleaned up I'm called into service applying the wood strips for the cloth wall-covering application in the dining room. Kelly directs and I use the nail gun and glue to apply the strips top, sides and bottom. Tomorrow we will apply the 1/2” thick padding to the walls and after that begin hanging the cloth panels. Special...very special. It will be several days before this room is complete but the results will be well worth the effort.
Tonight we are having roast chicken, mashed garlic potatoes and fresh harricot verts (green beans).
Simple and just what is needed after today's day of work.

A trip to Bourges (Boor-zha)

April Fools Blog April 1st, 2008
Much done today, MC not at the tourist board but E took up the challenge of contacting France Telecom re:the inert telephone and the equally dead internet DSL connection. After some negotiations she successfully established a new telephone number for us as the old one was now dead forever. One or two days was the verdict regarding when the beloved dial tone would miraculously be restored. Good, one down, one to go...what about the internet? Well...the internet will have to wait until the telephone is restored, then we can go to the France Telecom outlet in St. Amand Montrond to get it back in service once again. Why this cannot be accomplished at the end of THIS telephone call is not discussed. Shit. Gads what a screw-up this has been. Kelly keeps apologizing but it's really not her fault, it's the situation itself, 6000 miles from the bank and with so many players involved in getting bills paid in a timely manner as well as putting money in the account, grrrrrr. It's tough. That part accomplished, we thank E profusely and we were off to Bourges to get window glass for the 6 projects.
There are 2 picture frames containing prints, two windows with cracked or missing glass and the Louis 2nd hutch with the awful top crossed torches carving...Kelly pulled out the offending panels and those will be replaced with glass. It'll look a lot LIGHTER and reveal it's use as well as the holder of the wine glasses. Now the fun part...I look up the glass companies in the yellow pages, find 4 and select one, and put it into the Tom Tom GPS, takes about a minute. Then Bonnie, the disembodied voice of the great GPS in the sky takes over and about 45 minutes later we pull up outside of Mirroirs du Berry in Bourges. Terrific performance! Not that I didn't misunderstand her “bear right” and “Hard Right” commands and lead us off into god-knows-where but she kept at it, corrected my mistakes and l'viola!
The young woman at the front desk was very helpful, and no she spoke no English but eventually the message was received, notes dutifully taken as to quantity and size of the glass desired and then she smiled and said “Friday”! No English huh? She just didn't want to do “the struggle” as we were doing.
Oh well, more to come. We will see how well we did Friday.
So “Where to now” I ask. Kelly responds “Downtown Bourges, I just LOVE the place!” So do I so a left turn and follow our noses to the Bourges Cathedral and a few lefts down the medieval cobblestone streets and I park at the newly renovated car park adjacent to downtown Bourges and all it's wonders.

No Fun This...

Blog Monday 31 March, 2008
Bah humbug! Phone and DSL still down, some screw up huh? So off we go to Issodun to hunt down a few groceries and some potting soil so the seeds can be planted. The countryside is green, green, green. Chezel Benoit looks as sleepy as ever, no psych cases fill the street today as is usual in the summer, too cold I guess, have to smoke elsewhere. It's 10 degrees C, broken skies with clouds from horizon to horizon. Looks like Montana's “Big Sky Country”. In Leader Price we pick up a few groceries and look over each aisle for bargains as this place can deliver them now and again. Then we wander downtown and peer through a couple of shop windows full of old antiques. The shop is closed on Mondays so off we go to LeClerc to hunt down the potting soil. 2 – 50 liter sacks are but 3 Euros, 4.50USD, still a bargain. Then roam back to Lignieres to put it all away and discover the telephone SOUNDS have changed, alas NOT FOR THE BETTER...now Silent where there was a dial tone before, merde'! So Kelly plants the seeds in the new potting soil in her kitchen across the way while I get a beef stew prepped and cooked for tonight's repast. I used Ox tail as the marrow from the bones adds much to the stew, a depth of flavor that can come from few other meats. Here's my recipe:
Lute's Beef Stew:
1.1.5 – 2 lbs chuck roast cubed 1.5” or similar (That's the shanks I've used tonight sans bones)
2.2 medium onions, I like red ones for this dish, coarsely chopped
3.3 – 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut to 2” lengths
4.2 large white potatoes peeled and cut into 2” cubes or approx.
5.2 Tablespoons tomato paste
6.8 oz tomato puree
7.2 slices smoked bacon cut into 2” strips.
8.2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
9.1 Cup red wine.
Cut away the bones from the meat. Saute the bacon for 2 -3 minutes till it releases some of it's fat. Saute the bones separately and allow to cool. Add pieces of beef and brown on all sides. Add onion saute for an additional 2 minutes. Add tomato paste, saute for 2 min then add the tomato puree. Add the vegetable stock and simmer for one hour. Now push out the marrow from the bones into the stewing pot. Add the carrots, potatoes and wine.
Simmer for an additional 1 to 1.5 hrs until the potatoes and carrots are cooked thru and the meat isjust barely falling apart. Serve in bowls with buttered slices of french bread.

Daylight Savings Time

Blog Entry Sunday 30 March
Daylight savings time...YIPPEE! Across the equinox now and the days will get longer, possibly warmer..yesterday was a beaut...16C! 61! We actually sat outside in the sun for a short while in the late afternoon. Not a cloudless sky but enough to warm our backs like cats in a window. Went to Chateauroux yesterday to gather a few items like fuses to replace the blown ones from the night's dinner episode. I needed a few groceries too, celery, onions, eggplant for upcoming dinners this week. Found a new green grocer store Grand Frais (grand fresh) with a wonderful variety of beautiful and fresh vegies, ones I've never even seen or heard about before! Olives and nuts too. Auchan should take notice. A wide variety of meats too, but not much fish, a smallish cheese section. No cleaning products, no clothing, just foods of every kind. We bought Globe eggplants, red onions, garlic and though I had already bought celery from Auchan this looked better and was 20 cents cheaper. Oh well, now I know. It is a wonderful store that's for sure. As we drove away I knew we'd be back soon. I nurse guilt though for not being a participant of the street marche in Lignieres every Monday, it should be a must and for me it isn't. I love the IDEA of it but I don't revel in it like I should. Alas I'm hooked on the American Supermarket model and it has me by the gills. Give me Nugget and I'm a happy camper.
Still no telephone, no dsl either. If it hasn't been turned on by Friday next I'll go to see MC at the tourist board and see if she can sort this little disaster out.
Tonight we will have Kelly's cabbage with lardons (bacon) fried, this cabbage is sweet actually and has a lovely crunch. She thinks it's simple but I think it's brilliant as a side dish and well worth the small effort it requires.
Kelly's Kabbage:
1 Large common green cabbage, coarsly chopped
4 slices of smoked bacon, cut into 1/4” wide crosswise strips
water, ¼ cup.
Coarsly chop the cabbage, ½” - 3/4” wide chop. Cut up the bacon and place in a large frying pan over medium heat. After 2 minutes, add the chopped cabbage. Stir often to allow the bacon to loose it's fat and to keep the cabbage from sticking/burning. Cook until done to the tooth, a slight crunch is very nice. I find this side dish robust enough for boiled beef, various sausages, wild game etc.
Goodnight for now,
H

The French Cold

Blog Entry 03-26-08
It is now Wednesday, we have been “in country” since Friday evening, we are adjusting to The Cold day by day, hour by hour. The largess of the mansion stays at 43.5 degrees with a little rise during the day and a little drop at night, less than 2 degrees either way. The Office is our place of daytime residence, we have an oil-filled standing heater with 2 heater gizmos that keep the room at or near 60 degrees, not the warmest I've ever been but livable. The Dining Room is similarly equipped and has a similar temperature gradient. So much for the heating, the weather is cloudy, very cool and has occasional rain, sleet and hail along with snow. Nice. The trees look dead, no flowers like in California, Spring is somewhat a while off here. We ran around yesterday doing banking, telephone and power company chores along with a visit to the wonderful folks at the Tourist Board for which we would likely have packed it in and moved elsewhere if it weren't for them. We owe them, big time!
We prevailed upon Mary (of Tourist Board Fame) to help us reestablish our telephone/DSL connection with good ol' France Telecom AFTER we drove, billing papers in hand to St. Amand to get them to accept our apologies and payment to date and turn our precious communications with the world back on. Alas after several minutes of utter language confusion it was discovered that the only way we could restart the service was to send payment to the France Telecom office in Orleans. Damn. So we wandered off, back to the car and drove back home. On the way I was struck by a flash of genius! Let's get Mary to come over for lunch and she can do the calling to FT for us and all will heal itself right away. So we stopped at the Tourist Board and spoke with Mary, she agreed but only to do it after work, fine with us and away we went. Home, we puttered about, napped as is our habit and awaited the arrival of Mary. She came, she went, she came again and went again...and was successful at making the payment and reestablishing our service ON-LINE as it turns out. If we had only known we could have avoided all of this that first evening. Oh well...
The Kats: They stay near us, or on us, for the most part. Because we are warm or hang around where it is warm or like, in the case of the bed, have Ted's electric blanket ON. Else they crawl into folds of blankets or clothing and sleep their furry lives away dreaming of the California sunshine no doubt, just like us. Furry spent much of yesterday while we were out in the courtyard sniffing at dead flowers and grasses, cautiously looking around every bush and corner to see if any other denizen of the area has invaded her territory, if so she will run! No Lean has no such interest right now, heat is numero Uno for her and she stays where there is some parity towards warmth. She is smart that way.
We are sitting right now in the Office awaiting the warming of the hot water for showers, se stink I'm sure as it has been days! We brought the little hot air blower over from #10 yesterday for just this purpose. The oil-filled heater downstairs has been turned off and all other appliances of an electrical nature likewise are inert. We must turn off everything else as various combinations which we do not know WILL cause a power outage if they are on. Why? Because we are limited to some kind of power conservation scheme of EDF (our Power company) which will not allow more than some small amount of amperage to be consumed at any one time, thus the outage if we overuse...forced conservation. It will take a while for the water to heat, an hour should do fine to heat the 100 liter tank to 145 degrees F. and get the room to something warmer than it was with the little blower. Then shower, dress and turn off the hot water again and reestablish the heaters in each room for the rest of the day. Whoopee!

Easter Monday, huh?

Blog entry 03-24-08 an Easter Monday
Ah well, besides freezing every minute of every day so far, I cannot get on-line...nor can I watch TV,
the why's of these little inconveniences have eluded me for the last 24 hours, a few answers, a few more questions. The router...(Alice-Box) in our case a “Live-Box” is anything BUT. It flashes every light it has and actually Saturday nite I connected to the I-net, received our email, read it and then sent many “safe arrival” messages to our friends and family. Then Sunday Morning it was inert, lots of flashing lights but no connection, not even wirelessly from the laptop. What gives here? At the Easter Drunk, oops...dinner with 24 other hungry Brits I approached Don with my problem, he said his Live Box died and had been replaced after much railing at France Telecom. Ah ha! But in HIS case the damnable box was DEAD...not flashing every light and not connecting to anything. Further...the bloody telephone line has a dial tone. Hmmmm. The Easter Dinner was at The Black Price's Castle, spectacular as always and much work has been completed...all the interior walls of the bergerie have been insulated and dry-walled over to make it possible to use year round. Such fun, so many familiar faces and all the kissie-kiss greetings make it a most festive occasion. Much wine flows, many long and involved conversations with people we haven't seen in 6 months. It's charming beyond words to have this connection with so many others, we have a large extended family here, people we care about and want to be with. It's why we come back.

EASTER MONDAY...the Monday after Easter Sunday. We fire up Teresa the trusty Toyota and head off to do our chores. First the Bank, Credit Agricole, HA! It's closed. Shit ...oops merde'. Then off to St Amand to find out why our telephone service has been cut off...besides the fact that we didn't have enough money in our account to have the autopay actually PAY because EDF had DRAINED our account by 265 Euros per month for the last 6 months because they couldn't get inside to read our meter! Thus the Telephone people weren't paid and we have no actual telephone (yes a signal that indicates that the line is there but nothing but incoming calls are allowed) service...no phone, no DSL!!! So we drive thru the beautiful green countryside admiring the trees and forest and puffy cloud cover.
Upon arriving in St. Amand we discover that the France Telecom office is quite closed...oh no!! It's some kind of HOLIDAY! Oh no...tricked again by our always open economy, church be damned.
The boulangerie is, of course, open until all the bread is sold out or nearly so as far as we can tell. I stop at the one nearest our house and buy a loaf for today's repast for $1.05 Euros, at the current $1.55 USD to 1 Euro that makes this loaf cost $1.63 in real (read US) terms. Still a bargain but it could be much better.

So we while away the evening watching French TV and having Earl Grey tea with a bit of Cognac and a lump of demerara sugar to keep off the chill. The house remains at 43.5 degrees F. We have placed the small oil-filled convection heater in the office room and it is holding fast now at 57.7 degrees F. Cold but warmer than anywhere else hereabouts. The other heat source, a somewhat larger oil-filled heater is in the dining room downstairs and diectly under our bedroom (heat does rise), these are the two rooms we have decided to keep warm for ourselves and any guests that drop by with and without invitation. The cats are definitely unhappy with the cold, fur or not, the annual molt and upchucking of hairballs is over for now. They seek us out to lay on and about us, on top when we are in bed. We made the bed over using Ted's electric blanket, a BIG help. The 6” pile of quilts, blankets and thermal sheets were barely adequate, the electric blanket is The Answer (until you turn it on while any of the other heating appliances are on full blast..then it's LIGHTS OUT)! Yes we blow the main circuit breaker until we figure out what can be on and how much, then we rest.

Our Lignieres Arrival

Blog entry 22 March, 2008.
Brrrr, the temp inside this room where we run the computer and watch TV (when it works) is now 52.8 degrees f! Outside of this room there are many other rooms including our bedroom in which we were nicely ensconced until we awoke from our jet-lagged stupor at about 6am, that room was 43.4 degrees f, as are the others. It IS a huge refrigerator at beer temperature and we float about like so many ice cubes looking for a bit of heat to melt the chills away. No luck. I have plugged in one of the little oil-filled convection heaters in this room to assist the shivers a bit and it has successfully raised the temp to it's present toasty 52.8 within the relatively short period of an hour. Hallelujah! More to come I hope. I carried the larger oil-filled heater upstairs last night and plugged it in in our bedroom, nice idea that, it blew the mains circuit breaker and crated a house-wide blackout. Unplugged the unit, went downstairs with my frozen flashlight in hand and reset the breaker. Brrrrr it sure is cold down there. Heat does rise. There's no heat down there though. Damn.
The United flight was fine, filled with a small group of happy adults taking a large group of sullen, mostly female 16 year olds to tour Paris' finest museums and sights. Oh joy. Good for them. The 7:55 flight itself was supposed to leave at 7:55AM to Dulles in Wash DC but for some reason, no pilots, no plane, no gas, no chance...we were routed onto a following flight into Chicago at 8:10...not much of a delay but a delay and oh, what about that nice tight Dulles 1.5 hr connection? Did they duplicate THAT at Chicago? Not a chance. That connection going on to Paris didn't happen until 6:30PM. That meant we had a thrilling 5+ hours on the ground in Chicagos O'Hare Airport as our flight crew knocked off 30 minutes of flight time, oh joy. At least the luggage was booked through...wasn't it?! YES, YES, it was. I had a nice little pizza and Kelly had some Chinese food from the purveyors on the mall-like strip in the C-Wing. We read, ate our food, had a cup of ice cream and people watched to while away the time. The weather outside was cool, in the 50's but sunny and the sun beams on us felt especially good as I now remember. Temp now at 7:20am Easter Sunday 53.6 and climbing! Whoopee!
About that luggage, the worst load we have ever hauled aboard a small car to take to an airport. The following items were carried. 2 Cat Carriers with Two Cats, one medium sized backpack, one small suitcase, one humongous cloth dufflebag with wheels, One huge Samsonite wheeled suitcase, one medium Samsonite wheeled suitcase and one 18” cube cardboard box stuffed with linens, computer parts to update this ancient beast, a Pfaff serger with all accessories and miscellaneous clothing items for summer wear. Let's talk about the box shall we? It weighed 77.5lbs. Yes, that's OVER the 50 lb no charge limit, further it weighed 7.5 lbs more than the $50 dollar charge for the over 50lb fellas...so I charged the 381 USD against my Visa card and thanked myself for that little oversight. They waived the 50USD charge for the 55.5lb large suitcase at least and only charged us 340USD for the two cats round trip. We were upgraded to Economy Plus however so we had nice knee room on which to lay our heads and cry. Temp at 7:40AM Easter Sunday in the room now = 54.3 degrees f.
Currently the DSL is dead as a doornail, it worked Friday night but Sat nite it was out and now it is similarly inert. Electrons probably frozen. We left sunny, warm (70 degrees f), dry California for this?! What the hell were we thinking? Coming thru the gate into the courtyard we parked the rental car (a dandy Toyota Corolla Verso 4 dr small diesel SUV) and proceeded to unpack from our 7 + Hr journey south from CDG Paris. Oh what traffic there was on the Periferique (ring road around Paris), trucks by the hundreds, cars, motorcycles, everybody going somewhere else for Easter weekend, lemmings! Grrrr. The ride took 7 hrs as we had to stop for breaks every half hour or so as we were so jet lagged, terrible! We'd cat nap with the cats for 15 – 20 minutes then startup and take another run at it. Gads, awful. I kept thinking of that extra 5 hours we spent in Chicago thanks to United's screwup, not nice United, not nice. At 7:47AM Easter Morning it is now 54.6 degrees! Terrific. It poured rain, sleet and snow here yesterday just after we arrived so I guess we aren't past the last freeze of the year yet are we?