Category: Fall 2011

WordPress provides a way for the owner of a blog to check its “stats.” Of greatest interest to me over all these months has been the number of “hits,” or visitors, this blog gets each day. Since each of our computers has a unique address, it only counts your visits here once each day (and it doesn’t count mine at all). On a daily basis, then, there are between 50 and 100 people looking at this blog. For instance, yesterday the blog drew 87 visitors. Are that many people interested in lentils?

This begs a question. Just who are you anyway?

Don’t get me wrong. I love the fact that dozens of people are coming by each day. It’s why I decided to keep writing after having returned from France. But I am very curious who you are, and therefore have a favor to ask.

Tell me who you are. Do so by leaving a comment, okay? Just click on the “comments” link in the lower right of this post and tell me. If you want to remain anonymous, just say something anonymous-like.

By the way, today’s picture is another old one, a self-portrait taken inside the largest cathedral in Nantes. As a connection to today, I wore that same striped shirt today that I’m wearing in this picture. But I chose the picture because it seemed to go well with the question, “Who reads this blog??”

One of our favorite meals in France was the simple combination of lentils, sausage and onions (coupled with a baquette & cheese and a salad). This meal was easy to make because grocery stores in France carry pre-cooked, steamed lentils, vacuum sealed in a plastic covering. They are very inexpensive and easy to fix. On top of that, lentils are delicious. This combination makes it the perfect meal when you want something fast.

Yesterday Melinda, Chloe and I went shopping at Trader Joe’s, one of our favorite grocery stores in Seattle. The prices are excellent and the diversity of products offered makes shopping there a unique experience. We sometimes find things that look almost identical to products we found in France (in fact, we think there must be some kind of overlap between Trader Joe’s and Picard).

Imagine my surprise yesterday when I found lentils packaged just like we’d find them in France! I grabbed a couple of packages and some chicken sausage. Guess what we had for dinner tonight?

Today’s photo is a close-up of the back of the lentil package. Here’s part of what it says, “These small lentils are produced for us in France…”

See!!

STORY #1 — When Chloe was a very little girl, maybe 3 years-old, she and I regularly went to visit my grandparents, bringing dinner once a week. On one occasion, Chloe expressed fascination with my grandmother’s bright red fingernail polish. This was something that my grandmother took great pride in. Despite painful arthritis, she painstakingly worked to keep her hands looking good and painting her nails bright red was a trademark.

On this night my grandmother offered to paint Chloe’s nails. Chloe agreed and than sat quietly and patiently as her great-grandmother painted her nails bright red. When the job was finished and my grandmother had gone to put the nail polishing tools away, Chloe burst into tears. I was able to discern that she thought each of her fingers was bleeding.

STORY #2 — Visiting my grandparents involved a number of rituals, including one involving malted milk balls. This was a favorite candy of my grandmother, and the great-grandchildren and I enjoyed dipping into her private stash. She kept them in a special “Santa Claus” candy tin. To this day, this tin is kept filled with malted milk balls by my parents, available to the grandchildren when they come visit.

CONCLUSION — With Chloe in town this weekend, we went to visit my parents today. Entering their apartment, she went straight to malted milk ball tin for a little treat, then made the connection between her fingernail polish color, the malted milk balls, and her great-grandmother. Melinda snapped this picture.

Ahhh… It’s so nice to have Chloe back at home this weekend. She walked in the door last night within 5 minutes of me hitting the “publish” button for last night’s post. Melinda, Ella & I all converged on her to greet her, bisous at the ready and delivered. She was equally pleased to greet us. As she entered the house I heard her exclaim that it smelled like her house. Man, I know that feeling, of knowing you’re home when you smell your house. She was even more excited to be in her room, to sleep in her bed, to sleep in.

I think she got up around 10:30 this morning.

She reconnected with her best friend Carly from across the street, seen with Chloe in today’s photo. The two went for a walk around Green Lake and spent time at University Village. Chloe also made chocolate chip cookies, something she said that she was really looking forward to doing given she does not have an oven in her dorm. She’s done several loads of laundry, just like a college student home for a long weekend is expected to do. She pointed out that our machine is not only bigger, thus able to handle more clothes, it doesn’t require “loonies” or “toonies” (Canadian dollar and two dollar coins).

I think she meant that it’s cheaper.

She intends to return to school on Monday with several things, including clean clothes and sheets, chocolate chip cookies, Wheat Thins, and toilet paper. College staples.

It’s 10:15 on a Friday night. I’m messing around on the computer, having just read some sports articles. Melinda is doing some online research for PSCS about relational databases (she knows how to have fun on a Friday night!). Ella, apparently, has just finished a version of her holiday/birthday wish list and is now cleaning up her room (wow, she also knows what Friday nights are for).

Mostly, though, we are waiting for Chloe to get home.

That’s right, Chloe is making an unplanned trip home this weekend! It’s a holiday weekend in Canada (Thanksgiving up there) and Chloe’s friend Alex (yes, the same Alex as seen here) who also attends Quest University, is from Seattle and has a car is heading home for the weekend. Chloe is hitching a ride.

So here we sit, whiling away the time on laptops and desktops, looking forward to seeing Chloe. This has been by far and away the longest we’ve ever gone without seeing her.

So we’re excited.

Isn’t that what the gambler says just as he’s about to roll the dice? Or is it, “Baby needs a new pair of shoes?”

No matter. Behold my new pair of running shoes!

I know, I know. What could be more boring than ANOTHER post with a picture of my running shoes. But I figured the regular readers (by that I mean Laurent) would be reassured knowing I wasn’t going to be out running in my torn shoes. Indeed, I went in to Super Jock ‘n Jill (yes, that’s the name of the store, Super JOCK ‘n Jill) this afternoon, right there along Green Lake in Seattle. I was wearing my old shoes, the pair I bought in France last winter, those that tore during the 10k on Sunday. The man who helped me asked if I liked them. I said yes, quite a lot. He checked the size, then appeared with this pair, the same basic shoe, updated. As is the custom in Super Jock ‘n Jill, they encouraged me to go try ’em out by running around the block. Which I did.

Then I bought them.

Then I ran around Green Lake.

Oh, I almost forgot. One of the other employees at Super Jock ‘n Jill spoke to me in French.

I attended a conference in downtown Seattle this morning (as in Wednesday morning – it’s been such a busy day I’m actually writing this after midnight, making it Thursday morning as I write). After it was over, I walked to PSCS, about 15 minutes away. On my walk I passed a building that had this piece of art in its lobby. Walking by, I did a double-take, surprised to see something in French. I entered the lobby and took this picture.

The art piece is by French artist Bernard Villemot, known for his advertising images for Orangina, a popular French soft drink. The piece is specific to a national lottery. I took the title of today’s post from the statement in the lower right, “des millions a votre portée,” “millions at your fingertips.”

Now I’m no big fan of lotteries but I do like Villemot’s art and I do like seeing French. And on a busy day like today, it was a nice distraction.

The next two days, today being the first, are very busy days at PSCS. Tonight we had a board meeting, which means Melinda and I didn’t get home until after 10pm. And tomorrow night is the school’s fall potluck, which means something similar in terms of when we will get home.

That in mind, I don’t really have a blog post plan tonight. Some days I think about what I might post as the day goes on. I even stage photo opportunities. Some times I even plan things days in advance. Then there are days like today in which I really haven’t thought a lot about the blog. Come night time, I don’t really have an idea what I might write about, nor do I have a picture in mind.

When that happens I find that I like to go back and see what we were doing on this day last year in Nantes. It’s funny. I remember this particular week like it wasn’t as long as a year ago. The week included a lot of rain, so much that it became clear it was time to move from heating the pool to heating the house (The Heat is On). It was also the week in which I saw my first hockey game in France (Hockey Night in France), what has turned out to be one of my most viewed blog posts.

Today’s photo comes from this week a year ago in Nantes. I’m at the tram stop outside Ella’s school in the rain waiting for her. Ah….

After yesterday’s 10k I looked down at my feet and noticed that my running shoes, both of them, had tears in them. This may explain why my back is a little sore today. I think I outran my shoes.

I bought this pair, really my first ever running shoes, in France and have been running in them for months. I’m sure there is some sort of formula for determining when one’s shoes have “run” out of usefulness. I’m not sure what that is but I’m guessing mine are past that.

I took this picture tonight to honor my shoes and, in so doing, honor the miles and miles I’ve run in them. Pardon me for going on about this. It’s just I never really imagined myself being a runner, especially at this point in my life.

So here’s to you, my first pair of running shoes. Well done!

So I ran my first “official” race this morning, a 10k (6.2 miles) in Kirkland, a large suburb of Seattle. The race was called “SET the PACE for Prostate Cancer.” Today’s picture was taken by Melinda of me crossing the finish line. Ignore the time on the right. That’s for people running the 5k. My final time was 47:59.

For you competitive types, I finished in 18th place overall out of 103 participants. I was 14th overall for all the men, and 5th out of 15 in my 40-49 age group. I average 7:45 per mile, which I am very pleased with.

In getting ready for the race I tried to get set in my mind what an 8 minute mile pace would feel like for the 10k distance and set that for my goal. As I was running I had a hard time knowing how I was doing with it. Up until the 4 mile mark I hadn’t seen any distance markers. Then at the 4 mile post I was at about 31:30, ahead of schedule.

Among the challenges in running today’s race was trying at times to block out the presence of other people. Also, both the uphill and downhill portions of the race were more taxing than I expected.

To see the results, click here.