It's Friday, Plombier Day at Rue 35! Whoopee...new toilet has been installed expertly by Maurice our Chef Plombier!  Tickled, neither of us have christened it yet!  The floor, wet with water from the cracked tank has a fan blowing air across so it will eventually dry from the soaking it got for the last two weeks or so.  Then he repaired the slipped solder joint in the kitchen allowing us to remove the fine paint bucket that was catching THAT drip!  Joy of Joys!  Dryness prevails once again in Kelly's kitchen AND...Ta DAAAA! He examined my repaired pipe in the little potty's hot water line that I had taken apart, applied some joint compound (pate du plombier...plumbers paste) and reassembled and said "ce bon".."it's good!"  So we are now repaired at last til next year when this will all repeat itself unless I figure a way to get anti-freeze into the lines in sufficient quantity to douse the standing water to keep it from freezing...we shall see.  Just another great French experience!  Ce la vie! Kelly is napping...exhausted by the joyous celebration! Zzzzzzzzzz. 

And...I've started a movement...no...not that KIND of a movement but an important real one.  It's called Occupy your Ovum / Occupy your Vagina!  Yes boys and girls...this one to put a bit of wisdom back into the courting ritual as it is experienced by some of my personal female friends and relatives.
T-Shirts will be made with the slogan and a picture of an aspirin tablet between two perky but demure knees!  BAYER to the rescue!  Enough of this sex stuff already gurlz, you gotta get some structure back in your moral fiber and stop giving IT away to every two legged creature you say Hi to in passing!  You simply MUST know their names...both of them and a middle initial anyhow, that they have a decent job and make enough money to buy their own rubbers BEFORE the act!  Those are IMPORTANT attributes Before fucking anyone...either sex or the "stranger" one's anyway, for that matter.  I'll make signs! We'll march on Chris's Club, the Wooga Bugga Klub, Snake Farm and the Hideaway whereever it is!  This'll give your tender parts some time to heal from the excess wear your assaultee has given them and time for you to reexamine your sense of duty to yourself...or at least to your Precious Parts.  Go forth and OCCUPY YOUR VAGINA ladies, for IT's sake!

Bi for now!

Another Brocante Experience...

Failed garage sales as there are damned few garages here in the heart of France.  Bring your junk out to the street often with some flat surface under SOME of it, most tossed on the pavement. Mark prices you want or don't, it's about 50-50 that way, easier for us foreigners to grasp value from condition and a sticker price than just it's condition and a guess at what they replied when you said "Combien SVP" to the kind man/woman/child.  I like them in a sort of "isn't it cute" way but...not really very strongly, I'd rather stay home but I am "The Designated Foreign Driver" and duty calls.  So off to Venesmes...near Chateaunuef Sur Cher but well hidden down the lanes from the center of town.  It's a real town, er ah Village though, a church, a Marie, a main street and all the rest, even some shops and a bar or two thrown in the mix.  So what DID I buy for 3 Euros you asked...a hand mill for Legumes my child...to make SUGO, tomato puree with or without other vegies in the mix. This one was in fine shape with a very fine milling grater, finer than the one I have so it'll come in handy.  Then down the crocked streets a bit farther another damned needlepoint, this one rather tasteful of a serenely posed woman of middle age, very nice...2 Euros with a nice frame too.  Then we walked and walked and gawked at all the rusted tools, baby clothes endlessly, cheap purses and tagines from Morocco but really Spain.  Then off across the countryside after grabbing the best things we bought...2 Chausson Du Pomme and 2 Croissants still hot from a local oven. Excellent!  We ate them sitting in the car while it warmed us from the 41 degree cold. Brrrrrrr such a cold day in spring and blustery winds as well.  Off we drove across the countryside towards home stopping to take a few pictures for you. Here they are now!

Wednesday and off to Bourges...

Nice day out...cold...41 degrees, Brrrrr.  9 am we left bound for our BIG CITY Bourges...
pop. 68 988...looks and feels much bigger than Fairfield and Vallejo COMBINED!  It has many commercial areas, not limited to just the ancient downtown and it's wonderful shops.  Not exactly "strip malls" as we percieve them in the US but not as polished on the outside or made to fit in with the surrounding buildings as we experience in California.  The electric yellow fields of COLZA/RAPESEED/Canola surround us on the way.  The stores are very modern, change of the layout is regular, the clerks and helpers are kind and very friendly.  It's an easy transaction to buy anything.  The language of exchange is easy.  Be polite, smile, hand the appropriate amount of currency...merci (thank you) goes a long way, and it's done.  Easier than Mexico, though they are friendly as well. 

Then to our hardware store of hardware stores, Leroy Merlin, to get a book on the electrical systems here and so Kelly can look over paints.  Off to Mondail World...huh? World World...? Anyway the interior is bright, cheery and well laid out and far different than last year.  Rooms laid out, modern, highly styled, olde...beautifully laid out, fair prices.  Nothing to entice us though.  We're difficult these days. Very.

We drive home amongst billowing cumulous clouds, a big sky indeed!  We went north towards Verizon then left (west) towards Chateauroux.  Again we are assaulted by the brightest yellow fields of Colza all ringed by poppies and a tiny blue flower that complements it.  Beautiful! 

Tuesday is it? Yep...well stay home today and do everything possible with these hands and feet to better the place a bit.  First to attack the umbrella in the yard, tie it to stationary objects like buildings so it won't fall over again and break and arm like it did a few days ago.  Now fixed the arm is doing well and is holding the umbrella from the barn side.  Another is wired to the kitchen wall and then another to the laundry wall.  That done I tackled the unfastened and bulb missing lamp cord that rings the umbrella for night sitting in the rain, sleet and drizzle.  Then upstairs to attempt to get one of these damned computers to see the 3G SFR connection that lies hereabouts in the ether. 


Shit! Shit! Shit! 1.5 hrs and no such luck, can't even see it on the wireless connections list in either machine...XP on one and Vista 64 on the other.  Oh well. Damned SFR anyway. The only thing |I can think of doing to recreate the situation before I did the 1st install and actually connected to a 3.6 Mb/sec "High Speed" wireless signal is to remove all traces of Vodophone and this junky SFR driver stuff and reload it fresh again.  Of course I could lose everything of the slow speed "normal" dialup wireless but what the hell...it's worth a try anyway, isn't it?  Anyone with some experience with this SFR 3G Dongle please enlighten me as to how I reliably get the high speed connection and do the install correctly as there are no instructions whatsoever with this thing!  What a bad joke this has become.

Making Chicken stock now, Chicken thighs and legs, 2 med. onions, a couple of stalks of celery and a couple of cut up carrots w/enough water to cover...some herbs from the garden, rosemary, thyme and tarragon tied into a bunch..a bouquet garni.  4-5 hours is about the right time to cook it, then pull the chicken and the vegetables and continue to reduce the stock for another hour or so.  Do not salt!  Risotto tonight with sdhitake mushrooms and slightly used boiled chicken.  It'll be good and it's a thrifty way to make stock.  Make your stock and eat it too!  Fun!

Such a Day!

"Poor man" I say while watching some French film about a woman who'se daughter murder's her husband during a rape assault attempt on the daughter. Kelly's replay "Poor man! He was a shit-head!"

The war between the sexes is still happening here in 35 Rue Marechal Joffre.

We went to the Monday market, good for us! We normally have ignored it but today I bought lettuce, tomatoes, a cucumber and a cantaloupe. We are trying to go every week we are here...we always see friends and today was no different, Nicole, our French teacher some years back and then Sue and Dave and then Liz. Dave, Sue, Liz, Kelly and I went to the PMU, Cafe Commerce for a coffee, I had a great hot chocolate...fabulous, foamy delight! After laughing about various faux-paws...he,he, we said so long and we wandered back home to await the plumber or his call on the cell to tell us when he is actually going to come and do the deed on our cracked toilet and broken solder joints!

Then...a stroke of genius, we are actually FREE to do anything we want as he will NOT be coming to 35 today in any case...so off to Montlucon we went, across hill and dale. To the Troc 18 junk store first to wander the loosely laid out aisles and try to find forgotten, forlorn treasures. A small galvanized pail and a pretty decent glazed jar, total of Euro 4.50 were captured and packed in the car. Then off to the hardware store for a wireless glue gun...connect to heat, remove from stand use, then re-plug...nope! Not here today! The a couple of thin plywood panels to repair the ancient wicker chairs we use in the courtyard that have seats that are falling apart. Yes, they had those. Then some white adhesive caulk for various uses around the place and we went next to a small grocery store for misc. purchases, beets, tomatoe paste, pasta, fruit juices, beer...the beer here is a fine, clear, crisp lager and is delicious and refreshing. Then home across on a different route, about an hour later home to cook a sweet and sour chicken breast dish I dreamed up over basmati rice with green beans as a side.

 

Such a day, such a day!