Monthly Archive for December, 2005

Xmas

Published on December 29, 2005 in Paris and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

I feel that I should maybe get around to posting about Christmas now that it’s been days since it passed. I just don’t know what to say about it.

I missed being with my family. I didn’t try calling because I thought I’d start crying. But T and Sophie were here visiting so I had a blast for most of the day.

We put up a tree. We listened to Christmas music. We had spiced apple cider and spiced wine. We made french toast in the morning and ‘les made a huge dinner that night. We sat around and chatted a ton and I will be terribly sad when I can no longer expect periodic visits from T while she’s in route to somewhere else.

The haul this year was excellent. ‘les, T, and Sophie know how to pick out gifts, let me tell you. And I have to say that T’s joy in opening packages, wrapping gifts, and then watching other people unwrap them is like a present all by itself. She’s so cute! And loves thingstoysandstuff! Happy!

I’ll refrain from listing off my gifts because it seems slightly rude. Plus they were all wonderful so I don’t want to single anything out and make the other gifts feel bad.

But I will talk about my birthday gift form T. It’s the sort of gift only someone who’s known me since college could possibly give. A LEFT HANDED LADEL. Left.Handed.Ladel. My God.

For those of you who don’t know, I had a short run writing spoke word. Well, just the one piece. About right-handed oppression and the making of ladles. It’s a masterwork, I assure you. Although you may need to hear it preformed for the genius to become apparent.

The awesomeness of the left-handed ladle became clear regardless of being in on the joke when I watched everyone attempt to get some mulled wine or hot apple juice. I don’t generally seek out leftorium tools but this thing makes me want to fill my house with nothing but left handed stuff. For fun at parties. *Dares to dream*

Now that Christmas is over, I have a question. What does one do with dead Christmas trees in Paris, anyhow? Do you just stick them in the trash? Leave them on the curb? Call a professional who will take off all the decorations and haul it out for you? How does this work? In Oakland, you just sorta leave the tree in the street and it magically disappears, I think. At least in my neighborhood. I blame elves.

Don’t open until Christmas

Published on December 24, 2005 in Paris and ResidentHipster. 1 Comment

I just saw an email from Ann that says “Don’t open until Christmas”. And then I nearly opened it. But gmail is kind enough to show me the first line of the email wherein she repeats that it had best be Christmas. Thanks gmail, for keeping me from the wrath of Ann. :)

I don’t know why i felt the need to share this.

It’s Christmas Eve. Sophie and T are here. We’re going to try to get into a midnight mass at Notre Dame. We think it is going to require going early and sitting through some horrible video presentation first. Heh.

Merry Jolly Winter Holiday, y’all.

Just so you know….

Published on December 23, 2005 in DailyGrind, Politics and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

You’re being monitored right now.

The National Security Agency, in carrying out President Bush’s order to intercept the international phone calls and e-mails of Americans suspected of links to Al Qaeda, has probably been using computers to monitor all other Americans’ international communications as well, according to specialists familiar with the workings of the NSA.

Bush hasn’t denied doing this. And he hasn’t said that he’ll stop. I’m overseas right now.

Good times. Good times.

Are giant babies still cute?

Published on December 22, 2005 in ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

I was reading an article about that huge baby that was born Oklahoma recently. The kid was 14 freakin’ pounds, folks. 14 pounds. Jesus. I gotta wonder if that poor woman was able to get out of bed towards the end of her pregnancy.

Anyway. I was reading this thing in Slate about how birth weight correlates to average BMI and health issues later in life. Apparently big babies have a higher average IQ as adults but they’re also prone to being chunky. They also tend to earn more money as adults (assuming that they’re thinnish as adults). Weird.

I was a big baby. Not 14 pounds big, but nearly. I was 11 pounds and 22 inches long. And 3 weeks late. Mom, I would like to take a moment to apologize. Ouch.

I took a look at the little chart showing birth weight and average BMI later in life. I’m right in the top of the ranges for my weight and height. Fun. I think I’m short for being such a long baby. *Shakes fist in air*

This article also says that women who were bigger babies tend to have bigger babies themselves. Assuming that I ever decide to have babies,I’m doomed to have a 20 pound baby. People will ask will ask me if I’m have 5 babies and I’ll have to say “No, no, just one giant monster baby that will eat all the other babies in the hospital. Watch out.”

Bordeaux

Published on December 19, 2005 in France, PostsWithPictures, ResidentHipster and Travel. 0 Comments



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Originally uploaded by un_cola.

Timanna came to drop off some stuff on her way to Barcelona last week, jet-setter that she is. Before coming into Paris she mentioned that she was thinking of going to Bordeaux for a few days and I got it into my head that this would be an excellent idea and that ‘les and I should go with her.

And we did.

And it was an excellent idea.

And a good time was had by all.

Bordeaux’s a mid-sized city. It’s about 3 hours by TGV (that’s the French high-speed train) from Paris. We were left for the city on Friday and came back Sunday. Getting in just a day or two was ok, but I’d have liked to spend a little more time exploring the old churches or maybe checking out their museums. However, those aren’t the main attractions of Bordeaux.

The Romans brought grape plants to the area and it’s been an important wine exporting center ever since. So of course the thing to do while in Bordeaux is to go wine tasting.

And so we went wine tasting.

The tourist office offers a vineyard bus tour with the tour given in both French and English. Each trip involves going to two independently owned vineyards, touring their cellars, a little talk about the process each vineyard uses to make their wine, and a glass or two of wine at the end of each tour. It was great fun. I’d never been wine tasting before so the whole experience was novel. The first vineyard was owned by this very posh couple. The wife was well turned out, knew lots of english, and was appropriately charming. The owner of the second vineyard greeted us wearing goulashes. Fun!

It was grey and rainy both days that we were in Bordeaux. The day we left was bright and sunny, but we were in transit the whole time so we didn’t get to enjoy it. In spite of this, I found the city to be lovely. There was a Christmas fair going in the middle of town. Local shops had booths set up all along a big square. There was food, coffee, hot wine, and hot beer. Hot beer is apparently a regional treat from Alsace. It was…interesting. And pink. And spiced in an unusual way. I didn’t hate it but I don’t think I’m going to be searching it out again or anything. I bought mulling spices for mulled wine at the stall selling hot beer, which I’m planning on using at Christmas.

I took about 30 photos on film and a bunch of my digital camera. The highlights of the digital photos can be found at my flickr account. I commented the photos, so they have a few more tidbits of information about our trip.

Bordeaux photostream

Art?

Published on December 14, 2005 in ResidentHipster. 0 Comments



Tampons1

Originally uploaded by un_cola.

I got my photos of Venice developed while I was back in the States. I’ve been meaning to scan and comment them for a while, but I’ve been lazy.

But then today I saw this and it reminded me of something I saw while I was in Venice. I had to share.

Venice photo set

French Classes

Published on December 13, 2005 in Paris and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

So I missed the deadlines to start French classes this month. I’m looking at two options for starting classes next year.

First off there’s the Alliance Francaise. It’s been recommended to me by a few people so I know that they will provide solid language classes. The classes tend to be a month long so I could go for a month and then take a month off to travel and then come back and go for a month again. My French learning will be broken up and stalled, which is bad. But the flexibility is good. It’s also a tad expensive (although no more so than any other program like it in Paris) at over 600 euros for a 4 hour a day month long class.

And then there’s the Sorbonne. They have a few French as a second language courses. The one I’m most interest in is the 20 hours a week “language and civilization” course. The advantage of going to the Sorbonne are many. First off, I’d be going to the Sorbonne which is pretty awesome. Secondly I’m interested in the culture lectures so that would be neat. And thirdly, they’re significantly less expensive. The downside is the the class is a semester long, which means that it would probably be difficult for me to travel during that time and I know I’m having at least one visiter who wants to travel with me. Although there’s a 2 week spring break which I will absolutely use to travel. Also, I need to get some kind of certificate stating that I have a BA, which is a mild pain in the butt.

I’m leaning towards going to the Sorbonne. Less travel, but more French. Also, it’s the freakin’ Sorbonne.

*head spins around*

Published on December 9, 2005 in Politics and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

Just read yet another article about Bush’s pre-war non-intelligence

I posted about it on my other blog.

I’m trying to keep the political ranting off of here for the most part. Doesn’t always work, obviously. I don’t update that other blog very often.

All I want for Christmas…

Published on December 7, 2005 in ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

I’d say it’s my two front teeth, but I’ve got those so I’ll have to think of something else.

My list of stuff-that-is-too-expensive-for-me-to-buy-myself-so-I-don’t-know-why-anyone-else-would.

  1. Random knitting items. There are all sorts of pretty knitting accessories that I’d never ever buy myself, like purses and bags made specifically for holding projects (‘les already made fun of me for wanting one of these, but seriously carrying around my knitting in a plastic bag inside a my messenger bag is really annoying. My needles poke holes in the bag, my yarn ends up dirty and tangled, I can’t knit with the yarn in the bag so I have to pull it all out. Plus I don’t have a purse that’ll hold good sized knitting needles at the moment.), pretty stitch markers, needle caps, handmade knitting needles. The list goes on. (Although I did just make myself needles cases so I don’t need those.)
  2. Camera stuff. I really need a new lens to replace the zoom lens that I broke. My old one was 60 bucks used. I’m not that picky and I’m cheap. Also, a camera bag backpack would be fab, as it would lessen my chances of falling over and dropping another camera. Good times.
  3. I’ve been really into broaches lately. Also, this sort of jewelry.
  4. A new wallet. I love the wallets I have, but I need something that’ll hold my passport *and* a lot of change.

Ok. And I have an actual list of things that are somewhat reasonable to want.

  1. Anything you make yourself. It doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll like it. Even if it’s a little comic made out of stick figures or a bird feeder made out of popsicle sticks I’ll enjoy it.
  2. CDs of just about any kind. I meant to buy myself some Johnny Cash while I was back in the Bay Area, but I didn’t manage to get myself to a record store.
  3. Bath stuff. I have a great big bathtub in my apartment here and no bath salts. How tragic is that?
  4. Things to hold photos. Frames, photo boxes, or scrapbooks. Nice photo boxes would be great since I’m more inclined to throw all my favorite photos into some kind of box sooner than put them in a scrapbook all proper and commented.
  5. Books. English language books are a bit expensive here (go figure) and I didn’t bring many with me. I haven’t read the Chronicles of Narnia ever and I’m sorta thinking I should do that sometime. Also, anything that you like a lot I’m happy to give a shot.
  6. Subscriptions to various magazines. Vogue knitting would be dandy. I let me subscription to Bust run out and I rather miss it.
  7. Yarn. I love yarn. I’ve kept myself form having much in the way of a yarn stash, however. I think this has more to do with the fact that I can never figure out how much yarn to buy if I don’t have instructions sitting down in front of me. However, getting a ball or two of pretty yarn would inspire me to make things I wouldn’t have thought of before. Also, this gives the buyer an opportunity to pick out (a different) yarn that they’d like to have something made for them out of sometime. So everyone wins.
  8. Interesting fabrics. A couple of yards will make just about anything. I don’t have a sewing machine now, but I can work on my hand sewing.
  9. Arrested Development DVDs.
  10. Fancy bar items like decanters. I recently read about how most red wines, even cheap ones should be decanted and now I want a decanter. I’m pretty sure a simple glass thing isn’t too expensive, although I haven’t checked prices or anything. Maybe this should be on the other list?

My day

Published on December 6, 2005 in DailyGrind, Paris and ResidentHipster. 0 Comments

The highlights:

-Having a French police officer wag his finger at me as I was trying to lock my bike to a no-car-parking sign in front of the American consulate. There’s nothing funnier than having dudes who are probably packing heat wag their fingers at you all disapproving-old-lady style.

-Locking my bike to the gate of the main entrance to the Tuileries. The one that opens up to the place de la Concorde. I didn’t go wonder around the gardens, see, because I’m not a tourist. I had Stuff-To-Do-Nearby. Surreal.

-Taking some clothes to the dry cleaners. Pointing, speaking slowly, and nodding a lot. I need to learn some basic French like “this is a deodorant stain.”

-Playing with the man who runs the copy place’s dog while I wait to get some forms copied.

-Being able to get to and from the American consulate on a bike without having to consult a map.

The lowlights:

-The American consulate in Paris is *exactly* like every other government office I’ve ever been into. Drab colors, a look of decay, uncomfortable chairs, poor lighting, and a lot of great big bullet proof glass windows. You’d think it would be more inviting somehow, what with being across the street form the Tuileries and all. The French at least have the decency to have good lighting at their consulate. Also, they took my flashlight from me while I was going through security. What am I going to do with a flashlight, folks? Blind people with a not-so-bright-light?

-It suddenly got really cold at around noon today. Which makes not having my coat actually a bit of a problem.

-Knowing that I’m going to go deal with getting my residency card tomorrow. I’m probably too prepared (I’ve got the originals plus three copies of papers ‘les needs for her residency card) so I’m going to be sent home needing some piece of paper that there’s no way for me to get.

-Riding my bike on the roads following either side of the Seine continues to scare the crap out of me in particular places so I end up turning off the street too early or passing my street every time I try to ride them.

-My favorite bakery is closed for the day. I was forced to purchase an inferior baguette at another location.