Thursday, June 05, 2014

Mouse Apocolypse

Yes the total kills are up, up, up!  Thanks to my own contribution of a LIVE trap that killed one burglar mouse as he exited stage left.  The BUTTER bait worked it's buttery charm and Mr. (or Ms.) mouse fell for it...and the trap's door crushed him/her.  One less.  My small larder in the Kitchen of Doom and Diarrhea has had a small invasion of it's own going but I've put down a trail of HOT, HOT, HOT powdered red pepper to discourage them.  I reset the Live trap too with more butter, we'll see. 


I've been so infuriated about the dropped wireless connection problem I've sought internet advice, seems logical but so much of that is soooo general and these machines are NOT all the same!  Hardware, software all affects it's LOOK to various activities that they are like people, all different in some way.  I did though break a rule I've long set for myself in all matters technical or mechanical...if it isn't broken...don't fix it!  Change for change sake is not the way to go around these damned machines.   Look up what the changes are FIRST and if they don't do something to actually FIX something then don't install them!  Yes...that means ME!  Today, however I took these dropping connections issue(s?) as a "broken machine" message and went on line in search of a newer driver for the RTL8191SU USB Wireless Dongle.  I finally located the file, downloaded it and boy...it's a faster connection and more stable (so far)!  Hooray for RealTek!  Hooray for ME!  So far...

Off to Bourges this afternoon, Kelly wants to go to a certain store downtown and I want to find tile for the counter in my Kitchen of D & D. 
 

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Further on...June 1st

Not any warmer though it IS June.  We freeze at night and the damned Kats are up at all hours doing whatever Kats do.  It's noisy, I can tell you that.  They have been "mopusing" and "ratting" for the last week or so and have significantly reduced the population of those dreadful mammals.  Mucca prefers the tail region while Cara seems to devour the whole thing within a few minutes.  They are both efficient at this activity.  I'm glad they are here, not only for the personal support they provide but for this hunting one as well. 

This last weekend was the Fete de Music hereabouts, we saw three acts, Baptiste, Les Hay Babies and La Belle Bleue.  Each were wonderful, musical and technically excellent!  Also entertaining as they could be!  I just wanted each show to go on and on.  They were cheap too...thanks to the People of France and the national support for the arts that makes this all possible.  Bravo!  Bravo Lignieres too.
The 14th Century Hall  (old market place)  was, as always packed and with an enthusiastic audience.  Just wonderful! Then  Mr. Baptiste was in La Ban-Douche theater.  Annie Forent gave us the "cooks tour" of the whole facility...impressive and beautifully done!  RED CHAIRS for the audience!  So cool!

 

Rain today? Why not?!

Well last night was a breakthrough in the Ancient Kitchen of Maison Blanche.  A fully cooked Pasta Bolognaise Bucatini with  Melanzana(Eggplant) for the first time the kitchen was used this trip.  The mouse, rat and Gerbil population has been depleted by the efforts of Cara (mostly) and Mucca.  It was an unholy MESS in there.  Much ruination and damage from the 2 year invasion.  It is now clean and functional.  I'll start making bread this week and take a rustic loaf next door to the Proxie-man in trade for some local goat cheese...the best in the world! 

Our current wine habit is a Columbard from South Africa, delicious, delicious!  The house red remains a Cote Du Rhone.  Wines are so good and so very abundant here that it seems a shame to have to buy a South African white when there are Reuillys,  Quinceys, Sancerre and others so very available for so little money...it's partly political,  we like South Africa a LOT and want to support it's wine industry.  This dates from our QE2 adventure from Southampton to South Africa in 1999.  A wine producer from the Cape area was onboard with some of his wines and held an abundant and FREE  tasting, we fell in love with his offerings.  The whites stood out as very fine, and it stuck.

Gotta go down to Mr. Gue's garage and ask him to repair the Toyota's Alternatuer (French spelling noted) when he repairs the drivers side front end next week.  I wrote it down in English and had Google Translate offer up a French-more-or-less version.  Smart?  I dunno...