Aw, what's the use?

WELL...last night went well UNTIL I brought a nice balloon glass of red upstairs to ease the evening into oblivion with my sweetheart and my computer. SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY RIGHT TURNED INTO WRONG and I crashed into said balloon full of the fine red juice of the grape and l'viola!, crash, bang, tinkle, tinkle...right into the keyboard and onto the floor. Nice (Not the French City). Shit! So clean up the myriad of broken glass shards, stem intact yet and use a can of air to rid the keyboard of it's 4 oz load...then off to bed, enough for one day don't you think?
Up in the morning, off to school! ...no...computer...to see a CMOS screen up and all sorts of random events happening simultaneously. Oh Shit! Keyboardosis! It was running amuck! Oh noooooo. So shut it down and took the keyboard apart to REALLY dry it out with tissues, dry air etc. No use, the whole bottom row is inert. Blast! So off to Champion to pick up a cheap replacement French keyboard (uhhhhh) with all the keys somewhere else...not a QWERTY one, something else entirely. Nope, none there. So remembering I had a small computer job to do for L I wondered if she brought the fine Scottish keyboard with her. So off \I drive to her house to investigate. She and lil' Nik are home and up and perky. We discuss the computer issue they have and I tell them of my keyboard disaster. They just want the data (images) from the HD, I can HAVE the bloody machine for spares! Yippee! They saved my skin! So Nik loaded the machine in the back of the Avensis and I was shortly homeward bound. Home I disconnected the keyboard of death and installed this one...it's only problem for me seems to be the location of the uppercase key and the keylock key...reversed on this one making me TYPE uppercase once in a while when I don't want to. Otherwise...fine now, just fine.
___
Downstairs I went to work putting up the fuzz on the wall in preparation of the cloth hanging by Kelly. I moved the mass of fuzz into the entry hall as it is such a pain in the ass to deal with all folded up in the parlor that I can hardly stand cutting it there. The mass now fills the entry but at least I can cut it fairly straight now.
Back to work.
___
Later: The doorbell rung, ding-dong! I went to the door expecting A&R or D&S...no...our friend from across the street from the house at Dix. With him were three others. Now our friend is deaf and now we know it (more about THAT later) and the other three with him are equally deaf, with or without hearing aids...I couldn't detect them no matter. They were all equally drunk, about 2 sheets worth...and all hands and gestures and explanations and re-explanations.
He wanted to ask if he could store his new car in my garage, he already has a key...I nodded yes, of course, and they all came inside. The tour was on! First the ooh and ahh for the dining room and the fuzz encombered entry, the small sitting room adjacent and them on to the new work in the old ding room. They were charming beyond description, and there was never a problem communicating in gesture Francaise...arms and fingers pointing at this and that, it all worked and worked well. They touched the padded walls and the new cloth and were surprised by the padding itself and the look of it all. Then they wanted to see the garden/courtyard...so I openned the back door and we all took a short walk. This entire episode was just easy and friendly as could be, no pain, no strain. One poor vocal American explaining his home to 4 deaf persons, each interested and open and gesturing their way through. All good, all charming all an amazing extension of our experiences here. je suis France! Je suis Lignieres!

#94 Sundai School in Chezal Benoit

#94
Not just ANY Sunday either! Chezal - Benoit (Che-sahl - Ben-Wha) was having it's annual Brocante (junk sale) and mental health summit. You see Chezal - Benoiy is the home of a Mental Hospital and the sellers occupy the town right up to it's gate. Too, many of the patients are present adding their own color and grunts to the event. L came to the Ruin at 9 am and while she made the huge green salad for the party we were attending afterwards at A&R's, Kelly and I scrambled to both wake up from the party the afternoon and early evening of Saturday (yes we do these things serially it seems) (where 5 of us drank 7 bottles of the finest below 2 Euros sparkling wine and wine). I made Spinach Canneloni and it was very, very good if I do say so myself. Followed some hours later by a Pasta Povera with garlic, capers. It always works, a very simple dish that I've described in my blog before. That was Saturday's food scene, Sunday afternoons at our friends A&R's was an Asian-styled food fest. A and R had preped vegies galore, carrots, radishes, green and red bell peppers, onions, lemons and had various bottled sauces and condiments. I was put in charge by the Master Chef herself who provided me with the valued kitchen support I needed to create an asian feast. It was great creative fun and there was more than enough food at the end for A&R to have leftovers for two meals at least! I came up with Oyster Sauce Beef, Musselman Curry, Vietnamese Lemon Pork, Red Pepper Chicken, Chop Suey (YES!), and a couple of other ad hoc dishes thrown in for good measure. All over rice, thai rice noodles. Much wine was drank, as usual. The French couple from up the road (Chicken Farm) chatted amiably with all of us, in French of course...but we seemed to rise to the occassion. I had a bit of trouble understanding which isn't unusual as the speed at which the French speak is, at times, intimidating. They also brought along their own product...goat cheeses from their heard of Goats, it was, without doubt, the FINEST goat cheese I have EVER enjoyed! The Ash coverred round loaf was spectacularly good. Wonderful light texture and a lemony aftertaste that just faded to the next bite. Anyway, we all enjoyed ourselves emmensly in A&R's sunroom under ever darkening skies and eventually the late afternoon pouring rains. Here's the link to the YouTube movie of the Brocante we enjoyed in the morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT6Ztt_Iz1o
What a lovely day, rain or not. Great fun with great people, tons of chat and laughs galore, Life hardly could be better than this.

Off to China...

I have begun The Search. Pipes, drains for the precious water system, Blackwater (shit) and Rainwater (fresh almost) exist somewhere in the olde courtyard. The Veolia inspector person indicated they ran adjacent to the new ancient kitchen. Sure. And, of course, the ONLY fault in our entire dye inspected system was MY connection of the olde kitchen's sink to the rainwater downpipe from the roof. Seemed convienent. Damn. So I have begun The Dig. I have "sign", an old rusted bottle cap at 12 inches and a fragment of a plate found about 16" under the surface. But no sign of an actual PIPE carrying actual shit. I have three tools for this project, 4 if you count me. A 6 foot breaker bar, a square tipped shovel and a gardening hoe-type tool. I chose a spot between the kitchen and where the effulent comes out of the showerroom and disappears into the ground at some oblique angle. Who knows? This could take a while especially at the rate that I dig.

___
The front window painting exercize is going forward while I lurch dirt into the pile in the courtyard. Kelly is scraping away, it's looking better as she goes. She is also painting the coffee table black that I have set up in the courtyard on metal sawhorses. She says she is in her Black Phase, guess so.
___
No Lean came out of the kitchen to examine the courtyard with me in it. She ringed the area sniffing here and there and chewing whatever vomit-grass she could locate. That promises a little wet surprise somewhere real-soon-now. Nice...cats.
___
The language lesson yesterday at A&R's went off pretty well, embarrassment was at it's height as no one there other than A herself can say much in Francaise at all. We all listened attentively at Don as he gave some language theory and explained verb endings to his languid class. Remember, these are all native English speakers, it is 6pm nearing dinner time and their brains are challenged by French no matter what. Mine certainly is. We yawned a bit, listened intently and had a generally swell time. Next time we are at the teacher's house. He wouldn't accept our payment either so we decided to pool the monies and do something wonderful with it when this exercize has reached some natural ending. Buy the teacher a nice bottle of scotch and a straw was one suggestion.