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Since returning to Seattle, several people have commented about the fact that I lost some weight while in France. Truth be told, “getting in shape” was one of the goals I set for myself for the sabbatical.

I started off pretty well in August with yoga, walking and, to a certain extent, biking. I even started tracking my weight, using an online tool called WeightChart.com. I began doing this on August 16, 2010, weighing in at 167.2 lbs.

But you may have heard about things like, um, well, delicious cheese and French pastries? I’m here to tell you these things are true. By September 13, what with the delicious food and all, I was over 170 lbs and basically stayed above 170 until January. Go see what my face looked like on September 10.

In January I got sick, as I mentioned on January 9. Once I felt better, I renewed my commitment to getting in shape but this time I took up running. I also cut down drastically on the French pastries and started practicing portion control at meals. The pounds started to drop, as if by magic. I felt great.

I’ve continued all of this since our return to Seattle, including my regular updates at WeightChart.com (every Monday!), complete with a photo (today’s!). I weighed in this morning at 150 lbs, a weight that seems to suit me just fine.

That cute little girl in the front there is our niece, Perrin (if you are Ella or Chloe, Perrin would be your cousin). Perrin turns 5 on Tuesday so her parents, Brenda & Greg, threw a little family birthday party for her tonight. Also in this photo are Dwight & Michele, Melinda’s and Brenda’s parents. Greg set up the timer on his camera to snag this shot just before we all left, about an hour ago.

You veteran sabbatical blog readers will be familiar with this entire cast of characters, given they all visited us in France last December for Christmas. Perrin was prominently featured on the blog, including on December 16th when she, Chloe & Ella posed outside of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.

Returning to today, at Perrin’s request Greg made scampi for dinner (how many 5 year-olds request scampi?). It was incredibly delicious. Earlier in the day, Melinda & Ella were over at Perrin’s to assist with her “kid party.” Brenda put together quite a bash for that one — hidden treasures, face painting and Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Me, I’ll take scampi.

The other night Melinda and I watched a documentary made by a man who regained his health through juicing. Years and years ago, we bought a juicer, wanting to make our own concoctions. But the amount of juice generated was small and the amount of mess generated was large, leading us to ultimately get rid of that juicing machine. Watching the documentary re-inspired us.

This morning we were doing a little online research about 21st century home juicers and learned about those made by Breville, considered by many to be the best out there. They provide juicers in a wide price range but all are still at least $100. Making a quick detour to CraigsList, I found a local yard sale listed in which the entry level Breville juicer was being offered for only $25! Melinda and I snatched it up.

By mid-afternoon we had become mesmerized by the ease of juicing with this machine. Two pears, an apple, a carrot and half a lime yielded each of us a huge glass of absolutely delicious juice. Tonight, as a nightcap, I made another batch, this one consisting of celery, carrot, snow peas, apple, grapes and ginger.

We’re hooked!

Melinda and I just got back from seeing Nick Lowe tonight at the Triple Door in Seattle. Wow, what a show. I mean it. He was absolutely great. That’s a picture I took of Nick on stage tonight. We knew every song he played, including a a cover of Elvis Costello’s “Alison,” “I Knew the Bride” and “When I Write The Book.” He introduced the latter song by saying Seattle was the first city to embrace his old band Rockpile. That took me back to 1980, my senior year in high school, when a group of us saw Nick and Rockpile at the Paramount.

Remember the Nick Lowe salute, Marc Burns??

Speaking of stories involving Nick Lowe, the first time Melinda and I went out together was to see Nick Lowe. This was 21 years ago last month and is a very funny story because Melinda made a huge point that day to tell me in no uncertain terms that her going to see Nick Lowe with me was not a date. Of course less than 4 months later we were married. I referenced this in my first ever post on the Kind Living blog.

I also referenced Nick Lowe about a month ago here when I wrote about listening to his new record. We’ve been listening to the disk regularly since, leading Melinda to lean over at one point tonight and ask me if such and such was a new or an older song. That one there, Melinda, “I Read a Lot,” it’s brand new.

So we had some leftover fingerling potatoes from the other night. And we had some sliced ham (jambon). There was plenty of sliced cheese, too. Add one 14 year-old girl named Ella and you know what you’ve got?

A raclette party, that’s what!

Okay, so maybe this was not the real thing. For that we’d need to go back to France and get an authentic raclette appliance (device). If you are interested, you can learn more about that from Day 238 of the sabbatical.

But let it be known that Ella loves raclette, even when it’s made with leftovers and the cheese is melted in the oven. On several occasions she has reminded us that we are to buy an authentic raclette device (appliance) and that we are to serve / eat raclette for dinner on Christmas Eve.

Today’s photo is of the remaining serving of faux raclette from tonight, what Ella has insisted is her lunch for tomorrow.

First, many, many thanks to everyone who commented in response to yesterday’s post. It’s great to hear from you! I now have a greater sense who is reading this blog. I apologize to Ed for the “fluff” but am pleased he and everyone else manages to slog through it. Actually, I don’t apologize at all. Fluff is the elixir of life (or this blog…)!

Speaking of fluff, I am feeling downright nostalgic and, if it’s possible, homesick for Nantes tonight. Not only did Melinda and I get a lovely, lovely email from Frédérique and Laurent, yesterday was the opening day of the horse racing season in Nantes. The video replays have all been added to the racetrack’s website so I’ve been sitting at home watching them, fantasizing that I am there. Melinda watched one with me, and we found ourselves not just watching the horse race but looking at the trotter track (the place I took up running) and the surrounding area.

You might recall, we lived not 10 minutes on foot from the track so this is our neighborhood. And on this note, nostalgic and otherwise, a year ago today was one of my favorite days in France, opening day at the track. Take a look.

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.