Andy Smallman

That’s my brother Scott on the left, with Laurent. At long last, the two got to meet today. You may know, or you may recall, that last summer Scott hosted Laurent’s son Romain for three mornings at his office (Scott is a stock broker), experience that proved to be very valuable for Romain. Laurent was able to personally appreciate Scott today with a bottle of fine French wine.

This photo, though, was taken in the tasting room of a small winery just north of the little town of Woodinville in Western Washington. Knowing Laurent (and Frédérique) would be in town, Scott had set up a private wine-tasting event for all of us. It was a great time, culminating with Laurent buying a bottle of wine to take back home with him to France.

The wine-maker was very pleased. As was Scott. As was Laurent.

That’s how Frédérique referred to Dwight tonight. And it’s that connection, Frédérique with Dwight & Michele, Melinda’s parents, that has lead to so many positive things in our families. Years ago Frédérique needed a place to stay for a short trip to Seattle and was placed at the Shaw’s. That began the family connection. In short order, Dwight & Michele had become fast friends with Joel & Monique, Frédérique’s parents. A short time later, Annabelle, Frédérique’s sister came to live with Dwight & Michele for a year. Two years ago Melinda & I chose Nantes for our French sabbatical because of the presence there of Frédérique’s family.

The lesson in this is to be friendly with every person you meet and to see these meetings as the potential start of something significant. You never know if your children might become best friends with your friend’s children.

Ella spent the night last night with her good friend, Chloe (not to be confused with her good sister, Chloe). Chloe attends PSCS, just like Ella, and I think it’s safe to say that each is the other’s best school friend.

Both girls will be turning 16 in the not-too-distant future and in anticipation, Chloe’s mom acquired a fixer-upper old car for Chloe to use once she gets her license. The girls have been having a great time cleaning it up, which, as I understand it, involved removing rust from the car’s interior. Amy captured this shot of the girls cleaning the inside of the trunk. The shot gave me a chuckle.

In other news of the day, the Boudeaus traveled to Mt. Rainier this morning for a little tour and picnic. They are due back in an hour or so for dinner, and will be joining representatives of the Shaw family. On top of that, it’s my brother Scott’s 53rd birthday. Happy birthday, Scott!

Our ace photographer Manon took today’s picture early this evening in our living room while we were enjoying a glass of wine and pre-dinner snack. Laurent and I were all showered and changed after a speedy run to Green Lake, around, and back (we ran the lake in 21.5 minutes), and Frédérique and Melinda had completed a leisurely stroll. We must have appeared photogenic for Manon appeared with her camera and got this quality picture.

A conversation ensued as to whether the quality of the picture had to do with the subject matter, the camera, or the photographer. I leave it to you to decide.

Soon after the picture was taken, we decided to go out to dinner, wanting the Boudeaus to experience our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Carta de Oaxaca in Ballard. We twice took Romain there last summer, and took Manon last week. Certainly, their parents needed their turn.

First, a confession. The three posts I made on Friday, Saturday and Sunday were written on Thursday night and set to auto-deliver at 6pm on each of those days. That’s right. I cheated. I didn’t actually write those entries on those days.

Why?

Well, we (as in Melinda, Chloe, Ella, Manon and me) left early Friday morning for an extended weekend in Nevada to attend my niece Jessica’s wedding. That’s her in today’s photo, flanked by her parents, my brother Steve and his wife / Jessica’s mom, Deb. The photo was taken by Manon as Jessica walked down the aisle.

What a great time it was, and what a fun thing to share with Manon, an American wedding. She liked that it was set in a beautiful locale (Incline Village, overlooking Lake Tahoe), that it was quick (the ceremony was all of 20 minutes), and that it included two very cute flower girls and a ring bearer.

Apparently, now Manon wants to have an “American wedding.”

If you have spent ANY time reading this blog, you’ll know that Melinda & I have grown VERY close to two families in Nantes, the Boudeaus and the Bertails. It was because of the Boudeau family that we chose Nantes as our home for our sabbatical two years ago. In fact, the Boudeaus located for us the house in which we lived that year. And we met the Bertails because they live just a few doors down from that house in Nantes. What a bonus it was to find them (they found for us the house in Nantes we lived in this year).

Living in Nantes, though, means we’ve never really hosted either family in OUR home. We’ve long dreamt about being able to show the Boudeaus and Bertails Seattle. Tonight, the first part of that dream came true when Laurent & Frédérique arrived. I tracked their flights all day online, getting slightly distracted at work doing so. Just before their long flight touched down in Seattle, I captured this screenshot of what I’d been tracking.

It’s just past 10:15pm as I write. The Boudeaus are snug in our house, getting ready for bed, all jet-lagged up.

Next summer, the Bertails (I hope).

So I mentioned Manon’s camera yesterday. Here’s a shot she got of Chloe and me the other day. It went something like this.

Manon got out her camera and asked Chloe and me to stand close together. I asked her to give us a countdown to when she planned to snap the picture, wanting to time my initial pose to one in which I give Chloe a big fat smooch on the cheek. But she was too quick for me.

Chloe recoiled quickly to try fending off my, her loving father’s, kiss attack. I brought my hands into play, holding Chloe steady in order to get in my kiss.

Meanwhile, Manon kept snapping pictures. Of the several she got, this one is my favorite.

Manon has got this incredibly nice camera. A few nights ago she asked me to snap a picture of her and Chloe inside a record store, the one where Romain, her brother, bought an Edith Piaf record a year ago. She takes the camera with her on most of her outings and has been getting some great shots. On Friday night I asked her if I could borrow her memory card to download what she’s taken so far. Among the great pictures I found include this one, taken early in the week.

Want to know how great this camera is? The girls don’t look the least bit jet-lagged!

Speaking of jet lag, that’s been my enemy all week. I’ve described me being tired as coming in waves. One minute I’ll feel pretty good, wide awaken even. Soon thereafter I’m wiped out and ready for a nap. Unfortunately, those wide awake moments are coming at about 5am and those wiped out ones at about 3pm.

After I posted last night, we took Manon to Blue C Sushi at University Village, a short drive from our house. If I understood things correctly, this was Manon’s first experience with sushi. She liked the salmon roll, liked the albacore, didn’t really care much for the avocado roll, and loved the fried calamari.

I know what you’re thinking, fried calamari in a sushi restaurant?! Chloe said it’s the Americanization of sushi. She might be right.

On the subject of Americanization, after dinner we walked over to Menchie’s and introduced Manon to frozen yogurt. It was my first time there, too, and I was astounded by the size of the bowls. They’re huge! If you don’t know, at Menchie’s you grab a huge bowl and proceed to serve yourself from a wide variety of frozen yogurt flavors and various toppings (ranging from candy to hot fudge with a few fruit options tossed in for good measure). You then pay by the ounce.

All together now, Americans. “Super-size me.”

Who doesn’t like corn on the cob, right? It’s an American summertime staple. Cooked on the grill, bathed in olive oil with some salt and pepper for seasoning, it’s a treat!

Manon got to experience corn on the cob cooked this way last night. She stopped long enough for me to take this picture of her, soon commenting, “I love” and that she hopes her parents fix it for her this way in France.

To answer your obvious question, she was neither an “around” or an “across” eater. She was more of a random biter. I’m sure with experience she’d develop a preference, but for now she ate her corn like the rookie she is.

Chloe, on the other hand, is a corn on the cob cheater. She grabbed a knife and cut the kernels off the cob before eating them, saying something about how she doesn’t like getting corn stuck in her teeth. Wah, wah, wah.

What’s the point of having corn on the cob if you cut it off the cob? I did not allow Manon to follow Chloe’s lead, of course.