Category: Fall 2011

See this? It’s duck confit and I really, really want some. I can almost taste it. I can almost feel the meat melting in my mouth. I can just about smell it. I can see it falling off the bone. It formed the basis of my favorite meal in France.

Before living in France, I don’t really recall having eaten duck. It’s possible, I suppose, perhaps when I was a kid. But the sense I had of duck was it being a dry, dark meat, nothing like duck confit.

I’ve been looking for it here in the US and found I can order it on Amazon. It’s just ridiculously expensive.

I was told I could special order it at Metropolitan Market. But it’s ridiculously expensive.

See this? It’s duck confit and I really, really want some.

This photo is from March of 2010, just over 3 months BEFORE we left for France. It was taken in San Francisco in front of the French Consulate, where we had to go to get our visas to live in France. Many aspects about this were either challenging or frustrating, the biggest of which was having to travel from Seattle to San Francisco to apply for visas. Another included the challenge of getting appointments. We had to make a specific appointment for each one of the four of us and due to the nature of the scheduling, one appointment was before lunch and three of them were after lunch. Fortunately, once we were there they processed all four of us during the first appointment.

Another, um, interesting thing was being told that we were applying about 5 days early for visas. Technically, no one is eligible for a visa more than 90 days ahead of their arrival date. Not knowing this, we had timed our trip to coincide with the spring break at PSCS, thus making it so Melinda and I wouldn’t miss any work and the girls wouldn’t miss any school. Given that, we could have been turned down and told to return, all four of us, a week later. Fortunately, we weren’t made to do that. But when our visas were granted and our passports returned, the visa expiration date stamped in them was a couple of weeks earlier than we requested. That showed us.

Speaking of this picture, I think it’s pretty awful of me but it’s one of my favorites of Melinda. I think she is absolutely gorgeous, just like in real life.

In one of Ella’s classes she is reading The Grapes of Wrath, which happens to be a book I love. Given this, I offered what I hoped would be, and what has turned out to be, a win-win situation. I asked if she’d let me read the book aloud to her. So on many evenings each week this fall, just like we did with ALL of the Harry Potter books, Ella crawls into bed and I read to her. Not bad when your kid is almost 15 years-old.

Another thing that makes this experience not just fun but even more intergenerational is the fact that the copy of the book we are using belonged to my mom [pause for effect] from before she was married. Inside the front cover in my mother’s recognizable handwriting is her maiden name. I think that’s pretty special. As you may have guessed, today’s photo is a picture of that copy.

So, yes, The Grapes of Wrath, the story of the Joad family. I think Ella’s favorite character is either Jim Casy or Ma Joad. Wait a second, those might be my favorite characters.

Rumor has it that the next book may be The Odyssey. Really? Am I going to try to read that aloud??

This may very well be the first picture I took in France. Yes, I doctored it up tonight with some serious contrast to make it kind of fun and different for tonight’s entry. But I still think it’s the first picture I took.

It was July 6, the day after we arrived, and Romain had come to meet us at his aunt’s apartment where we were staying for our first couple of weeks. A short walk from the apartment was Ella’s soon-to-be school so he walked us over to take a look. I snapped a handful of pictures, this one first and then, seconds later, the one I used for my blog post on July 7, 2010.

I mentioned recently that at times I get nostalgic. Tonight was one of those times. I get to looking at pictures or reading past entries and get all fuzzy inside. The whole sabbatical thing really happened, right?. Sitting in our Seattle house tonight, the darkness coming early and it being cold and damp, I was ready to return to our first week in Nantes and those 90 degree sunny, sunny days.

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I admit the photo has nothing to do with spam. Truth be told, it’s a year old and I’m enjoying the aroma of my mom’s homemade apple pie, the one she made when my parents visited Nantes last November. Somehow, it seemed like the right balance for a post about spam.

This morning Melinda said to me, “Let’s get an early start on our errands and get them done quickly.” A great plan. Too bad it didn’t go as we wanted.

First, we had to wait to get started until after we picked up Ella from her overnight birthday party. That was 10:30. Then, errand number one, closing our safe deposit box, took much longer than what we thought it would. It was already past noon when we moved on to errand number two, which involved trying to buy me a vintage suit. We first tried the Goodwill in downtown Seattle. No go. Not even close. Then we tried the Value Village on Capital Hill. No go. And upon returning to the car we discovered we had been given a ticket. Our license tabs had expired and we had totally forgotten to renew them. That’s $47.

That’s $47 and a new errand to run, I mean, renewing the license. We arrived at the nearest licensing station 5 minutes after it closed, so set off across town to Ballard to another that is open much later. Because of construction, it took an eternity to get there. And once we arrived, we learned the car needs an emission test before we can renew the license. Thank goodness the kind clerk allowed us to reverse the order. But arriving at the emission station, we found it was closed.

What was left? Get some Mexican food at the taco truck in today’s photo and come home to write today’s post.

There is this unique organic, gluten-free, vegetarian restaurant in our neighborhood called Thrive. Melinda and I thoroughly enjoy it; in fact, in our perfect world we have a personal chef who makes us the kind of meals, snacks, beverages and desserts that you can order at Thrive.

After a busy Friday late afternoon/early evening that involved getting Ella to her dance class and then quickly to a friend’s birthday party (and pick up a present for her), Melinda and I decided to stop at Thrive for a quick dinner. It was a good decision. If this kind of food interests you, click on their menu and find the Nori Rolls and the Awaken Warm Grain Bowl. Those Nori Rolls, man, I could just keep eating them. There they are in today’s photo.

Sitting there tonight we started talking about next summer when we hope Frédérique and Laurent will be visiting us. We keep noting places we want to take them.

Thrive is on the list.

Here’s another picture from last weekend’s trip to Target. While this one didn’t strike me as being quite as funny as “men swear,” the idea of placing a sign saying “Better For You” above the Cheese Whiz and snack crackers in the food department still gave me a chuckle.

What do you think is on the “Worse For You” aisle??

I don’t recall seeing anything in France that resembled spraying a cheese-like product from an aerosol can. I feel fairly confident that such a concept is uniquely American. And, boy, does that make me feel proud, kind of like when I think of “Freedom Fries.”

Looking at the photos the last two days leads me to consider the concept of something being “blog-worthy.” I referenced this before but feel it’s time to refresh your memories. So, raise your hand if you’re a Seinfeld fan. Keep your hand in the air if you remember the episode in which Elaine evaluates potential suitors from the standpoint of whether or not they are “sponge-worthy.”

Men Swear. Cheese Whiz. Blog-worthy.

Melinda & I were in Target over the weekend. For the benefit of my French friends, Target is one of those “all-purpose” stores, kind of like Leclerc although not nearly the amount of groceries. I really don’t know how to describe it much better than that, other than to say that I always feel tired after having been there. Christine, I think you know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, as we were walking through the store I started to chuckle and then laugh out loud. Admittedly, I was in a bit of a nutty mood to begin with, but walking through the clothing section and seeing this sign struck me as very funny. Menswear. Of course they do. So do teenage boys.

That’s almost all I have for you today other than to wish a happy birthday to our good friend Théo in Nantes. Théo, are you reading this blog regularly? Want to come mow our lawn in Seattle? We miss you!

One of the craziest events each year on the PSCS calendar is comedy night. Each year, we get a professional stand-up comedian to volunteer to teach a stand-up comedy class. A handful of students sign up for the class which includes the opportunity to hone their material and then present it on stage at one of the best comedy clubs in the Northwest, the Comedy Underground (co-managed by the father of one of our teachers). To tell you how significant the Comedy Underground is, Ellen DeGeneres once performed there.

So, yes, tonight was comedy night and we just got back home (it’s about 11pm). My photo is of the three student comics who performed on stage, interspersed among some professional comics, including Ty Barnett who was a finalist on Last Comic Standing. Check out this video of Ty on YouTube. Regarding the students, that’s Maddie on the left, Spencer in the center and Joshua on the right.