Thursday, September 11, 2008

5 Days To Go...back in 2 weeks!

I wish...alas, we will NOT be back in two weeks, too many people to see, too many Mexican meals to consume, too many rare steaks to make a meal of. When then, you might ask, do we come back? October, nice month, being Autumn and all, but too soon I figure, no sponsership from spouse Kelly either I imagine. In November, there's Thanksgiving, always a wonderful All-American holiday, friends, relatives, kids, grandchildren and a turkey to prepare for who knows who? December, a REAL candidate believe me, I can not stand Christmas as it exists in our neck of the woods...it seems such a Christian Holiday (really you say, really?) and has become for a long, long time so very commecialized, so in-your-face ANTI-Christian that though I am NOT a Christian it feels disengenous to a high degree. I would rather ignore the entire holiday, it-doesn't-exist like than suffer through the day and the weeks before and after (the sales you know!). So onto January...well...a candidate for sure BUT it is damned awful COLD HERE then, like Winter personified. This giant house will be freezing day and night. Currently we have no way to heat it. That's right, nothing. The heater (chauffage) is an oil burner and we have NOT filled the 2000 liter tank as the cost to do that is beyond prohibitive...it's outrageous! 2000L X .80 (price per liter) X 1.39 (current exhange rate, going the right way but not there yet!) = 2224 US Dollars! Huh? Not me poopsie, no way. How many months is winter here you might ask. Well it was a nice warm 81 degree day here today but who knows about tomorrow. It was getting cooler and cooler in the last 2 weeks...60's during the daytime and 50's at night. Soon it WILL be colder, the horse chestnut trees leaves are browning to golden and that, according to our French friends is one of the first signs of the coming winter, so early this year it appears. By the end of October perhaps will be the first freezing night. Brrrrrrr. So heat will be needed Late October thru...April?
Yes and maybe part of May. Six and a half months, will the chauffage have to be operartional that whole time? Maybe...if it's cold enough. We though have adopted a radical system both here and in California where the winter is mostly mild. We only heat the room we are in. That's right, floorboard heaters or more clothes or both and the central heating remains at a cool but supportive 60 degrees all the time. That was all about January as a return date. Hmmmm doesn't sound too likely does it? February we understand last year had both extremes, snow to a depth of 2 feet and a warm period that lasted a week...what is warm after 2 feet of snow? I dunno. So onto March, we came this year on March 20th...and the house was a freezer.
We weren't warm until late April and I'm not really sure that we were then. Terrible actually, we ran from the TV/Computer/Master Closet facility to the bathroom and back. We heated the place here and there with oil filled electric heaters, it worked but we didn't move about much and little was done to the house in a constructive way during that frozen time. So much for March. So April, the song "April in Paris" comes to mind but I have never been in Paris in April and it's 200 miles NORTH of here...wanna Parka Poopsie before you go? I do. Late April maybe is the Right Time for us, maybe a bit colder than we like but will get us back in time to enjoy the joys of Ligniere's horse races and Donkey Faire as well as the change into spring with all the Poppies and wild flowers blooming. Look for us then...though we might have come sometime a bit sooner...like in two weeks?!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Day The Earth Stood Still

What shit. Today was the turn-on at CERN, the Large Haydron Collider machine on the border between Switzerland and France close to Geneva. 12:30 was supposed to be the End Of The Earth as the LHC would form a tiny black hole and the earth would go POOF!
Well 12:30 came and went and here I am writing my blog, it appears that nothing happened. Oh well, I thought the end of the earth would be at least a moments full of adrenaline but no. Shit.
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We found ourselves once again being taken for a ride, this time art Carefour in Chateauroux. We went there expecting to find a couple of rollaway beds we could use for Kelly's sewing room and Dix as an extra bed. No such item was located and we searched every single square foot except the meat department. The AD paper circular that we get weekly had one shown for a rather agreable 40 Euro price including a mattress. Oh well, so much for those rags, some stores get them, others do not or they put them out on some other day during the sale, who knows. In any case we bought a few other things and tried to buy a bed frame, a nice iron one, black in color for 39 dollars including the rail kit. When we got to the checkout counter suddenly the item was rung up as being 83 Euros TWICE, once for the headboard part and another 83 Euros for the rails! What?! No way! The checkout person scouled at us, THOSE DAMNED BRITS, CAN'T THEY READ?! No theose damned Brits can't read at all...the Americans would be better. 8-)!!!
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Then home but not really, stopped by the Tourist office where our savior MC was tasked with trying to get France Telecom to explain our bill AGAIN. She grows tired of this I know, and so do we but there is definetly something very wrong when they use the prelevment to take out 4 separate payments for our bloody telephone line and the internet DSL connection every month! We cancelled DIX over a month ago and yet there it is! France Telecom is a bust, a disaster. It's the most complained about consumer service in France they say and we know why. The $$%$##@ billing is impossible to figure out either on-line or off the paper bill. When we come back we will try to switch to something else though I KNOW it won't be easy or fast. Nor is France Telecom!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Americans! Americans!

Well we met 'em! Ensconced in a hamlet south of us. Karl and Madge, she from Wisconsin sort of and he from Germany sort of. A remarkable couple they are and were. Took an olde pile of rocks and mad a fine German modern villa of it. Beautiful interior and exterior, fine work to be found throughout the place. Great fun talking with them and stayed so long they had to make dinner around and through us. Such is our social life here. Great wines too! A bright and fruity Quincy (our absolute favorite!), a fine Reuilly, crisp Sancere and a nice smooth Cote du Rhone. 4 bottles and 6 people, moderate consumption to all. Her spaghetti was wonderful. Very generous they were, funny and happily displaced expats like we of the 6 month variety. We chatted for hours of our personal histories and the American Situation. Once again we KNOW that Americans are a breed apart, our rebellious nature, our short history and hegemony in world affairs all blends into a unique people. Glad to have met them and knowing we will become fast friends in the coming years, we bid them Boun Nuit at 12:30 AM! Yea gads!
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I made Jambalaya last night, I always enjoy the preparation and the final product equally. Made too much like I always do...it's a proportion thing, I want to use a certain amount of sausage and the recipe, being in my thick skull, just calls out for everything else...and then comes the rice. One cup seems inadequate doesn't it? So another 1/2 cup then stock, not 6 cups but 8 and so on. At the end it was good as it ever is, which is pretty good. Here's the real recipe and remember it will feed more than you might think, this is stick to the ribs food if ever there was some.

Lute's Jambalaya:

4 Shallots diced very fine - 1/8th in or less.
4 Slices smoked bacon chopped to 1" pieces.
4 smoked sausages precooked cut into 1/2" slices
2 chicken breasts cut into 1" cubes
1 bell pepper cut into 1" pieces
2 stalks celery cut into 1/4" slices
1 cup basmati rice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon chopped oregano
6 cups chicken stock
1 16 oz can chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon chili powder or flakes.

In a large skillet (w/lid) saute over medium heat the bacon to release it's fat, limp but not crisp.
Saute the shallots first til transparent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped celery, continue to saute for another 5 minutes. Add the bell pepper and cook an additional 5 minutes.
Add the smoked sausage and cubed chicken, cook for another 10 minutes to brown, turning often.
Add the basmati rice and stir thoroughly into the mix.
Add the canned tomatoes and stir.
Now add the 6 cups of stock.
Add the salt, pepper, chopped oregano and chili powder/flakes.
Cover with the lid and cook over LOW heat for 1 hour. The rice will absorb much of the liquid during this time. Remove the lid and cook until the rice is done through.
(It probably IS already) Season with salt to taste. Add red pepper for more heat, be careful on tender mouths.

Best with a cold beer.