Biking trip: day one

Sebastien's car may be filthy, but it holds both of our bikes (which are big) without taking off the front wheels. We drove to our capital city and cycled twenty miles west.

We took plenty of breaks to pose for photos and explore.

After cycling west, we turned around and cycled back ten miles. We then stopped for lunch in Hartsburg. If you go there, bring your own water; that town has the worst tasting water ever. Whether you get it by the trail or in the restaurant, it's bad, bad, bad.

Here we are by the Missouri River. Sebastien climbed down to it. I was afraid that my legs might cramp up on me, so I stayed up by the trail. We saw a lot of bikers on the first day, all kinds. The most interesting one was a man with a dog carrier (and not a small one) behind his bike. Behind that was a carrier thing for a child. He had gear in it. He weaved back and forth on the path. He also had all kinds of gear hanging off his bike and carriers. For all my single friends: I am sure that he's available. He's headed east and probably hasn't made it far from Jefferson City.

After four hours of biking and a lunch break, we drove to our hotel and freshened up. When we stepped out of the hotel to walk to dinner, we came upon a parade. It's been a long while since I've been to a parade.

We walked through a street party/carnival to an Irish pub. Sebastien had dark beer and bangers and mash. I had a disappointing salad, good horseradish/garlic mashed potatoes and great breaded and deep fried portobello mushrooms. The pub wasn't what we had hoped for. I'm the Irish one, and when I was a young lass (Scottish too) we used to go to an Irish pub. Our Irish pub had good food and was based at an airport. My Irish aviator dad must have been in heaven. Ours had Irish music also, sometimes live.

When we walked back to our hotel, we caught a bit of the Aaron Tippin concert. Not our thing, but at least we heard some live music.

Last week

Dinner out. Photos by Isabelle. The number fourteen for him; the vegan special for her. The burger and fries for little him; the quesadilla plate for little her.



Lady at exercise facility filling in application: And what's your job?
Susan: My job? I'm a woman of leisure.
Lady: So, you're a housewife?
Susan: No. I'm a woman of leisure. Write that down.

An update

What I've been up to:

Cycling 55 miles on the Katy Trail over the holiday weekend. More on that later, but here is a photo of me with an apt sign above my helmeted head:

If I can't be a belle femme, then I'll be a bonne femme. And this bonne femme is now ten pounds heavier. Ten pounds in one month. Three pounds gained in the last week. For some reason my body is in pregnancy-weight-gaining mode. But I'm not pregnant. Maybe it is sympathetic weight gain; maybe it is thyroid related. My hairdresser thinks that I'm gaining weight because I'm really happy. As long as it stops soon, I'm fine with it. Actually, I'm embracing it.

Somebody is at Geek Camp this week; others are volunteering at a church; I'm spending a lot of time carrying whiney preschoolers around. They are cute and sweet though, so I'm not complaining too much. Everyone gets whiney every now and then, especially ladies who can't find any clothes that fit.

Animals

The latest from the local paper:


Speaking of dogs, last week I cycled 50 miles. Sebastien did a little less because I went on my own one day; he couldn't go because it was too late and he is not a person of leisure like I am. There were no dogs bothering us all week.

We did see a lot of interesting roadkill. It is different each day. On Friday it was a snapping turtle and a big bird or small hawk. On Thursday, it was a raccoon, a snapper, and half a mouse. On Wednesday, it was a small snake, another snapper, and...the head of a baby deer. Just the head. On the road. The body was nowhere to be seen. Mysterious Missouri roads.

Sting

Freddy loves his friends. This is one of his favorites:

Freddy begs to have him over every week, although he'd prefer every day. They love to play outside. They have a family of mice (living in an old car) that they like to visit. They visit them about once a month and (surprise!) there is a new litter every time.

On this day they were loaded up with all their survival gear: weapons, tools, blanket, food, water, and who-knows-what-else. After awhile they came running in the house and went straight to the bathroom. They accidentally walked into stinging nettle and had to wash it off before they suffered too long. I don't know if this friend will get to come back: He woke up with chigger bites all over his legs the next morning, even though he and Freddy followed proper chigger techniques while playing outside.

Freddy has always lived here, so he knows what to do outside to protect himself from chiggers, ticks, stinging this and poisonous that. When he was two and we were on a family walk through the woods, we left him on his own to see what he would do. We were watching him closely, but he couldn't see us. We knew how the others coped in the woods, and we wanted to know what he would do if he got lost or left behind.

He played for a bit and then started off down the path, continuing on. He recognized the stinging nettle and raised his little arms up in the air to protect his exposed skin. Then he walked along the path until he found us. He wasn't afraid and didn't panic or cry.

A close up of the survival pack (including a rug to sit on to protect little people from little chiggers):

The pack contains the usual survival gear along with some unusual items, like a large trash bag just in case they come across a deer skeleton. The silver thing on the left is Freddy's pedometer that he bought at our favorite junk store for a quarter.

Isabelle

I have only one child who doesn't mind being photographed and posted. Looking through my files of photos, I see mainly Sebastien and Isabelle, frequently acting very goofy. Here is Isabelle through the (digital) years:

A trip to the zoo:

An autumn ride on a friend's boat:

Visiting Grammy:

Dressing up and performing in a play with Grandmaman and siblings:

Getting fancy:

Making something with bread dough:

Dressing up at Grandpapa's house three years ago:

Local airshow:

Today on the dock on a Sunday:

Today lazing about the house:

Susan's Saturday

6:15am: Get up. Freshen up. Dress in new cycling clothes (not the tight kind). Drink green juice and apply sunscreen. Drive to airport. Hop on bike that Calvin rode to the airport. Ride for one hour, stopping for a Cessna, a 750, and a Maule. Drive home. Freshen up again. Go through all summer clothes trying to find something that fits the new, chubby figure.

8:40am: Drive back to airport. Pick up Calvin. Drop him at tennis courts. Chat with officials and decline the invitation to play in the tournament. Drive to fly-in breakfast located in the country. Eat and drink with Isabelle and Freddy. Chat.



10:15am: Drive home. Rest.

11:00am: Return to airport with Lucy and Freddy for fly-in. Talk with many people. Answer question about marital status from men who hear that I have several airplanes at my disposal.

12:30pm: Meet the ladies from Indiana. Tell Lucy that Pink Lady has offered to give her a fancy motorcycle (previously owned by a famous person) if she becomes a pilot. Pick up Calvin from courts. Return to airport. Eat a sad lunch of Doritos. Talk with men from all over. Talk with 16 year old girl who built an airplane. Clean up people's garbage.

3:00pm: Go home. Open mail from ACT because 15 year old doesn't want to do it. Clean up house neglected by Saturday activities and Friday date night. Take a nap. Chat with mom. Make dinner. Return to tennis courts with Calvin, Freddy, and Sebastien for final match. Decide to skip the bonfire party because of the lateness of the hour.

10:00pm: Go to sleep listening to the storm that finally breaks the heat spell.

Calvin's Saturday

6am: Get up. Freshen up. Ride bikes to airport with Papa. Help set up for fly-in. Fly with Papa to breakfast fly-in. Eat pancakes, sausage, biscuits and gravy. Fly back to airport with Papa. Hang out.

8:45am: Get picked up and chauffeured to tennis courts for town tennis tournament. Win match.

1pm: Get chauffeured back to airport. Eat lunch and hang out at fly-in.

3pm: Go home and get mail. Receive ACT scores (30 composite; 95% state; 96% nation). Get congratulated (or should I say congradulated?). Hang out. Goof around. Play video games.

6pm: Eat dinner.

7pm: Back to tennis courts for final match of tournament. Play a very close match with a skilled opponent (who took a nap between the morning and evening matches). Lose. Take second place in the 17 and under division. Go home. Eat. Go to bed.

The personals

Whenever I transfer photos from my camera, I find some that I had no idea were ever taken, like the glue on the floor photo. There are also a lot of animal photos and toy photos and, not surprisingly, Isabelle photos.

Hmmm...what's new in town? Let's take a look in the paper:


What's this? A personal ad. This sounds like someone I know, someone tall, dark and handsome. Someone that I follow around on my bike.

And it sounds like he's looking for someone just like me! Oh, wait. The end of it says to call with confidence and leave a singing message. That rules me out; no one would ever return any singing message from me. In case you can't decifer the eleven year old writing, it says that children are a plus.

Isabelle is writing her daily newspapers as summer schoolwork. They are very entertaining and informative. She'll be happy to include your personal ads. Just send the information to 3 Vanilla Lane, H House.

Following Mia

When Bruce and Sam and Mia come over, the boys all play together and Isabelle looks after Mia. Isabelle and Mia are becoming great friends, despite the eight year age difference. Isabelle's job is more accurately called Following Mia, although they do play with little animals in Isabelle's room. And they play with Pompey:

Following Mia while she tries to follow Bruce and Sam and Freddy:

Following Mia while she goes back to the house for her shoes:

Following Mia through the grass:

and back home again:


Isabelle is very good at playing with and watching over little girls. She seems to enjoy it, not even needing cash in return. I was just like her when I was little.

Sounds like now would be the perfect time to add a baby, doesn't it? Our house is already full of whining and messes and spills and crying. No one would even notice the addition. Plus we have three in-house babysitters; I could still be a woman of leisure with time to gad about town.

New poll

It is summer in Missouri, hot and humid. I chatted with some men this morning from New Jersey and California. They were surprised at the heat and surprised that I was cycling in it. I let them know that this is the norm, and that it will get a whole lot hotter as the day goes on.

I have a friend who is expecting her fourth child in August. Nine years ago I was expecting my fourth child in late July. The others were six, four, and two. And that last one was horribly behaved, throwing tantums and getting physically violent. She calmed down after awhile, but that was not a pretty summer.

Anyway, I was hugely pregnant with a 9 lb 12 oz, 23" long baby, carrying an extra fifty pounds, and parenting my unruly bunch. Freddy was due the same time that Sebastien had an airshow in Wisconsin. He was due at the beginning of the show. The show lasted seven days plus travel time.

The question for you is: Did Sebastien stay home with me or go to the show?

Papa's Day in words and photos

Papa's Day was Sunday. Before we talk about Papa's Day, let's review Maman's Day, which was last month. Maman's Day...hmmm...I can't remember anything...hmmm...oh, the children broke the computer! And Sebastien sent me a lovely email which I couldn't receive because the children broke the computer. And Sebastien couldn't fix the computer because he was galavanting all over the west coast. That was my Maman's Day.

And Papa's Day? Here is Isabelle introducing the man of honor on his special day, just so you know who we are talking about:


And now we'll turn to Sunday's paper for some Papa's Day news:

Some of the children made him a lovely bouquet out of wildflowers. I think that Isabelle did this on her own, but Freddy might have helped a bit:

All of the children gave him presents. He also received cards, four or five of them, and a present from me. The present from me was just the freebie that the nice man at the specialty foods store gave to me, but it was still a present! You can read about the presents from the children in the special Papa's Day edition of the local newspaper:

In the afternoon Sebastien asked me to ride (bikes) into town (!) to buy our big Sunday newspaper (it has a little more of a global outlook than Isabelle's). Because I had vowed to get more exercise in hopes of turning around a health condition that makes my hands and feet hurt like an old lady, I said yes. Twelve and one half miles. In the heat.

Afterwards there was a dip in the lake and lounging on the lakeside. Then a dinner out:

A pretty exciting Papa's Day, I'd say. And speaking of exciting days, someone will be 15 years old at 12:17 PM today. Maybe that health condition in my hands and feet is due to old age after all.

Walk in the park

One Sunday evening we went to our church for a fundraising dinner. After we dined and bought a few things at the auction (a car model, a loaf of banana bread, a set of smelly things, and a tray & four plates--hideous; 47 cents; bought by Freddy), we went over to a park to stroll around a lake on a walking trail.

At first Calvin was a little depressed, Sebastien was drowning his sorrows in his unsweetened tea, and Isabelle was doing a jig. I think that she was trying to cheer them up:


By the end of her jig (a dashing finale), they were a little more animated:


Then small people raced off, paying little heed to the bundles deposited by the dogs and geese:


The boys left us to walk the lake shore and search for good stuff. Freddy found a lot of treasures on a previous walk, and he had high hopes:


And then we headed back to our autos and our home:


Some of my friends who have moved away will recognized the park and church. Many little children in town have attended preschool in the church. Lucy went there for awhile. When I was discussing it with her--she was three--she said, "Maman is good. Ann (the teacher and a friend) is like Maman. Ann is good." Then she nodded firmly and said that she would like to go. She liked it until some boys joined the class and acted all wild and boyish.

Calvin went there for two hours (it would have been one hour if the teacher could have reached me by phone). He was two. When I picked him up, he told me very clearly, "School bad; miss Maman." He wouldn't go back to school for eleven years. School is still bad, but he doesn't miss me anymore.

Dinner

Are last several dinner invitation's have been declined so it was a refreshing change when our Saturday invitation was excepted. (I'm sure that Rachel will most probably explain all about the declinations in the comment section)!

John and Carol came for dinner and John had the fashion foresite to dress hisself to match the kitchen decore. Now that I look at the foto, I see that Carol matches the counter's. I think that maybe Sebastien and me should think on hiring them as our kitchen staff. Their perfect don't you think?

We had Wine and cheese and Shrimps and olive tapenade and homade bread and homade Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie. Tasty.

John learned us that he has met alot of famous people not like I and my many Near-Misses. I don't recall, all the people that he had met. Maybe he would give us the list in the comment's section. I do remember that Carol met Regis Philbin and talked at him in an elevator at a hotel somewheres.

It's clean!

There has been a flurry of cleaning around here. We are trying to get it done while it is officially spring. We did the laundry room and found a tremendous amount of fluff under the washer and dryer. Yuck. I can't move them; how am I supposed to clean under there? This is surely the work of a mouse. Or a colony of mice.

And then something shocking happened: Sebastien cleaned his office all by himself. This has not happened before. Ever. The occasion? His internet connection was down one morning.

If this doesn't look like any big deal to you, then take a look at a before photo. That photo was taken months ago; he had months to pile on more and more.

And the jig is up: Here is Seb at work. He's really a telemarketer and not an aviation mogul.

Food

Someone named Plumilla threw a bounteous brunch here this week. It was enjoyed by all. I received a free ticket in my new post box (#1); others had to pay $1.

Our CSA last week contained:

4 qts strawberries (eaten plain and over angel food cake)
lettuce
broccoli (steamed for dinner with the leftovers going into a quiche)
snow peas (really good; eaten with lunch one day)
spinach (sauteed with garlic and put on a puff pastry pizza with really good olives)

And this week:

1 qt strawberries & 1 bunch rhubarb (pie!)
lettuce
cabbage
snow peas
kohlrabi
green onions
bouquet (that I split into 2, one for the kitchen and one for the living room)
granola (delicious!)
broccoli (braised with garlic and sherry and eaten with veggie eggrolls and cuc salad)

Plus what I bought at the market (peas, lettuce, radishes, and more). We have plenty of greens right now, and Sebastien isn't the only one getting chubby.

Day out

A couple of weeks ago Sebastien and I put on our fancy duds and headed to the big city for a business thing. (I don't really have chicken legs; I have perfectly normal legs that occasionally appear as chicken legs in photographs.)

We've been to these things before. I once tried really hard to follow and understand, but I couldn't. I didn't have the basic knowledge. Now I bring reading material. I usually have to hide it behind my packet of charts and graphs and whatnot; this time I brought a magazine, laid it flat on my table and read about John Dear.

Calvin was babysitting, and all the children knew that they could call me on my cell phone if needed. They are more important than a seminar, so I would take their calls. Well, we sat in the front in a room full of hundreds. My phone rang about a 1/2 hour in. I opened it so that it would stop ringing. I made my way to the rear and then out into the lobby area.

Susan: This is Maman.
Freddy: Can I have a hotdog?

While I was taking this very important call, one of the presenters was taking one too. I was wondering if he was answering the same question.

On the way home we bought our new kitchen linens from Crate & Barrel. I love them! I'm going back for napkins next. We also got (on sale) a shower curtain for my newly decorated bathroom. I can't hang it yet, not until I touch up the really bad paint job.

Church history

I'm reading a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine. She lived in the 1100s and was Queen of France (which was a very small area at that time) and then Queen of England (much larger). She was very beautiful, kind of like that girl pictured above.

This is what the book says about the Bishop of Canterbury (the church leader in England):

...he now wore a monk's habit, and beneath it, to remind himself of the weakness of the flesh, he wore "a hair shirt of the roughest kind, which reached to his knees and swarmed with vermin; he mortified his flesh with the sparest diet, and his accustomed drink was water used for the cooking of hay." ...exposing his bare back frequently to the discipline of flagellation by his monks. His nights were spent in vigil.

If the leaders of the church were undernourished, in great discomfort (vermin??!!), physically abused, and suffering from a serious sleep shortage, it is no wonder that mistakes were made. I make mistakes and bad decisions just on the lack of sleep alone.

The last ten

This was a tough ride. I was worn out at the end. Then I made a note to never go for an off-road (off-pavement) ride on the same day that I get an allergy shot. The big dog chased us again. Then a little poodle dog came out and barked; the big dog ran back home.


The last ten:

1. Sebastien and I got married in New Orleans in '91, on New Year's Eve. Then he dumped me in Chicago and went back to Canada. Did he change his mind? No. We had eloped, so I had a job to finish and some packing to do.

2. I lived in Canada from late January to June of '92. There was snow on the ground almost that whole time. We lived in a French town called Penetanguishene; it had an institution for insane criminals.

3. We moved to Missouri and lived in a log cabin until we bought a house. There were snoring Frenchman bunking down in our loft and living room until I kicked them out. One of those men had a nose that had been horribly broken in the past (more than once maybe), and the sounds that came out at night were loud and hideous.

4. Seb and I have owned three different houses and six different cars together (and I am refusing to count the El Camino and the broken down blue pick-up).

5. We welcomed four children in six years. I've been pregnant nine times and gained and lost 200 pounds with pregnancies.

6. I've traveled to California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada, Arizona (I think), Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Quebec, Belize, France, Jamaica. I've lived in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Ontario.

7. I've been to the house of Elvis. I even took a photo inside (strictly prohibited) of my friend Poodie and me in a stairwell covered with green shag carpeting (the walls were carpeted).

8. I have tried to learn French and failed.

9. I almost died in '99. If I hadn't insisted that the doc see me immediately instead of waiting until my appt the following morning, I'd have bled to death.

10. I make a really good Boeuf Bourguignon.

Four hours sleep

This was my day last Friday, powered by four hours of sleep, green juice, hummus and crackers, and a black cherry slushie:

Morning: Take Isabelle to History Camp and give Sebastien a ride home from the car-fix-it place.

Pick Rachel (my friend from out-of-town) up from History Camp. Go to the store for some needed food. Buy and deliver a fancy coffee to Seb. Deliver food to refrigerator. Eat breakfast with Rachel.

Check mail and discover that I need to get a huge packet of papers copied, organized, highlighted and delivered to a reporter by 5.

Go to many junk stores with Rachel:

This was the fun part of the day, except that we went to too many stores and breathed in too much yuck. I felt kind of sick from it. She did too.

I had decided the previous day that we should have a keyboard with all the fancy stuff. Calvin and I have played around with them at the music store. Well, we now have one--$5 at the junk store. There is a whole lot of background music around here now, mostly of the muzak or disco variety.



I also bought this gorgeous landscape, for $4. Can you believe that price? I just want to climb in there. We are fixing it up a bit; I should have something to show you in a few weeks.

Afternoon: Drop Rachel off at History Camp; pick up Isabelle at History Camp; pick up Calvin's buddy Benjamin at History Camp.

Go home and start working on papers for reporter. Realize that Benjamin has to go to his house for a piano lesson. Rush, rush, rush. Make dozens of copies and take Benjamin home. Use Benjamin's kitchen table to go through papers. Leave Calvin at Benjamin's house; when Benjamin's lesson is over, piano teacher will drive Calvin home and give him his lesson.

Spend 45 minutes with reporter.

Pick Seb up and drop him off in town at fix-it place. Rush home and make dinner. Eat a bit.

Evening: Drop Calvin and Freddy off at movies. Take Isabelle to History Camp final program. Stop for slushies on the way home. At home straighten up and start getting ready for bed. Rush back to town to pick boys up from movies because they misunderstood about having a ride home with a friend (Benjamin).

Fall into bed and sleep really, really well.

Something else new

Wrinkles. Where did they come from?? They just suddenly popped up.

Kristi and I right before we fell to the ground while suffering from a horrid case of boredom on Friday night.

The latest

Something is different around here...

The third ten

This was my only present:

It was a couple of days late, but it lights up. I'm the queen.

1. I was a punker. I have no idea why. I remember hearing in college that I had no right to be one because I was happy and unscathed.

2. I worked as a bus girl one summer. I shined silverware and glasses with vinegar. I set and cleared tables. I folded the napkins as fancy as I could. I once poured water down a man's back.

3. The best concert that I ever saw was the Pogues at a small club in Chicago. The best song in concert? The Pogues final song, Honky Tonk Woman.

4. I also remembering seeing Depeche Mode, Paul Young, U2, Violent Femmes, Sinead O'Conner, and the Jesus & Mary Chain (they weren't singing about Jesus though). I'm sure that I saw more than that, but I can't recall any others.

5. I went to Purdue for awhile. I didn't learn anything except a love of satire. I also learned to read Gaelic while I was supposed to be doing chemistry or something like that.

6. We had an Elvis shrine in our apartment. We also had an illegal cat.

7. My roomie, Lisa, and my sis, Rosie, threw me a disco birthday party for my 20th birthday. They found disco roller skates in my size at a junk store. They also found me an orange, polyester, strapless jumpsuit.

8. I worked in a picture framing store for a year. I loved the art, and I liked working with my hands. I even did some interior design consulting (that's pretty funny) for some desperate ladies.

9. I worked as a nanny for a year and loved it. The girls were 4 when I started. They were delightful, and I learned a great deal about parenting.

10. I got married when I was 22, eloping in New Orleans.

The second ten

This is what I got from my children on the momentous occasion of my 40th birthday:

It was from Isabelle. It was written on scrap paper. It came a couple of days late. I treasure it also.

More about me:

1. The smell of cedar always reminds me of mice because my mother let my oldest brother keep mice in cages in our basement. They reproduced rapidly and we had tons. I accidentally killed mine.

2. My 5th grade science fair project was on mice, because I had some. They were a hit. My 7th or 8th grade project was on epilepsy. I have no idea how I chose it.

3. I went to Catholic schools for 12 years. In grade school, my 6th grade teacher's BO was absolutely noxious and poisonous. Child abuse. My 7th grade teacher smelled of alcohol. Other than that, it was a good grade school.

4. We walked to school and walked to church.

5. We went on a family vacation to Greenfield Village in the Detroit area when I was little. All of us. My mom made us all matching shirts. We had the shirts that were blue with little white stars all over. We had the bicycle shirts--they were white with different colored bicycles all over. And we had the flag shirts--every flag of the world in a big collage. People took photos of us. Some day those photos are going to surface.

6. I had a paper route for awhile.

7. I loved babysitting. In 5th grade we had to write a paper on what we thought we might do for a living. I said that I wanted to work with children.

8. I had perms. I have freckles. I had braces. I had zits, enough to visit the doctor about them.

9. My mom and my older sis made a lot of clothes for me. I remember requesting bell bottoms instead of regular pants. My sis made me a terry-cloth romper, and my mom made me a lovely pant-suit.

10. I remember making up stories at dinner just so people would listen to me for a change instead of my oldest brother who never stopped talking.

A note

See that little thing in the note from Seb? On the left? That thing that looks like a bomb? I assumed that it was an upside-down balloon. Seb says that it's my ring, my $5,000 diamond ring. He still hasn't given it to me though. I'll continue to wait...

The first 10

I'm finally getting around to posting about my 40th birthday. It's only been four months...Sabra posted about her 30th recently and she'll turn 32 next month. We belong to the Better Late than Never Club.

Here is all that I got on my birthday:



I treasure it. Now, on to ten things about me. This list will cover the young years:

1. When I was born, my sis was 6 and my bros were 3, 2, and 1.

2. My younger sis was born 17 months later.

3. I have a wonderful mom.

4. I have a wonderful dad. He isn't living anymore though.

5. My favorite thing to do when I was little was read books, especially on warm days while lounging on my bed with my window open and the breeze blowing in.

6. I shared a room with my younger sis until I was 16 and my older sis got married.

7. My younger sis and I planned to marry David and Shawn Cassidy and live next door to each other and have babies at the same time. It didn't happen.

8. We liked to play secretary. We'd have our papers and phones and checkbooks set up on our "desks" and work for awhile. Then we'd take a lunch break and go to KFC for lunch. During lunch we'd talk about work issues, completely certain that everyone around us thought that we were real secretaries.

9. I despised cats and felt neutral about our dog. I once cut a photo of a squirrel out of a magazine and made a little habitat for him in a box. He was a good pet. There was a little plastic hamburger in his habitat.

10. Once when I got really mad at my younger sis, I bit her doll's foot. When she got really mad at me, she drew all over my new suitcase with my chapstick. We were preschool age.

This and that

The construction on this building is supposed to done by August. This will be where Calvin will take all his classes. And eat his lunch. After marching there.

In Sunday School (which we don't normally go to, so I was new to the class) the leader asked me how Calvin's school year went. I said that it was a bad year. He only knew Calvin through the sports program, and I pointed out that the sports were great. Because I was new to the class, I didn't realize that four out of the eight people present were public school workers, teachers and coaches. There were several missing from the class who also work at the schools. No one asked me why his year was so bad. I guess that they really didn't want to know. Interesting class though.

Our CSA for the week:

bread (that disappeared quickly)
onions (salad)
lettuce (salad)
radishes (raw)
six quarts of strawberries (I made a Martha Stewart pie and it was a big dud. The rest we ate raw.)

From the market:

green beans (Salad Nicoise; Calvin ate an anchovy after complaining bitterly.)
more beautiful onions
radishes
tiny zucchini (vegetable tempura. I hope it turns out.)

I almost had to fight Mr T for the green beans and zucchini. He let me have the green beans because there weren't enough for his dish; we split the zucchini.

And speaking of Mr T...I forgot that I saw the famous Mr T at a mall when I was a teen. Another near miss. We could have met him, but we weren't really interested.

Our weekend

Our weekend started out with a date to a new (to us) restaurant in a little town. I was feeling like our town was just too small and boring, with nothing to do except attend beauty pageants. I didn't feel like going to the usual big town, so we went to another small town and had a lovely dinner while Calvin ran a 5K and had a BBQ, the official ending to his public school career.

Then I put the new table in the living room, and it makes all the difference. Now the chairs aren't used as gymnastics equipment. They also stay in place instead of drifting all over the living room. And the colors never come out right; it's much nicer in person.

On Saturday morning Sebastien skipped his usual bike ride because he couldn't tear himself away from me. We went to the Farmers' Market and bought enough veggies to last us awhile. We had artichokes and lentil burgers for lunch. The burgers were OK, nothing exciting.

Freddy gets all the stamps collected in Seb's office. He got a pile of them on Friday. On Saturday he worked at removing them from the envelopes. I now own all the stamps that say "love" or have a heart on them for my correspondance with Sebastien.

In the big city on Wednesday, we went to Crate and Barrel. I'd never been. I found cotton, colorful kitchen linens. When I commented on how well the green ones match the cabinet fabric, someone made an annoying comment about photographing it for the blog. So I photographed it for the blog. And who's in the photo? A special someone who makes an occasional annoying comment, who also matches the green linens with his shirt that I bought him.

Now that blog comment (who started this blog, anyway???) wasn't half as annoying as the comments about my hairy chest. When it was all done and healed and whole again, it became apparent that there was some thread hanging out of my chest from my surgery. Not hair. Thread. Surgical thread. It's gone now.

We are supposed to have our foundation work of January 2008 finally finished on Friday. In anticipation (and I won't be holding my breath), we are having dirt delivered (in bottom left corner: lovely dirt). The dirt delivery meant that a branch needed to be removed. The remover stresses that this is not the OSHA-approved method of removing branches--big or small.

Calvin was invited to a boy-hanging-out-afternoon and played tennis. Isabelle got to go flying. I heard about a book called Shack in Sunday School and then answered questions about those rumors that folks are hearing about Calvin. And that's our weekend!

It's that time of year

So, dear readers of mine, what did your husbands do today? Work? Mow the lawn? Watch some sports? Play fetch with the dog? Eat lunch with 30 beauty pageant contestants?

What? None of them ate lunch with 30 beauty pageant contestants? Was mine the only one who did that?

While he was doing that, I was cooking and cleaning and doing errands and caring for the whiners. I was buying dog food in small chunks and spray-painting a shelving unit and washing the towels in super-hot water. I was scrubbing the dishes and cleaning up the mess and wondering exactly who called me to "look at my lettuce" (Freddy's been taking phone messages).

I was do some volunteer work and calling my mom. I was forcing a lazy boy to clean up his constant stream of debris and planning a date night. I was trying to set up playdates and take children miniture golfing. I was wearing an apron.

I'm pretty sure that Sebastien's luncheon guests were not wearing aprons.

I saw one of them in the store where I was buying spray paint for Isabelle's plant shelves and cough drops for Isabelle's sore throat. She was wearing the smallest dress that I have ever laid eyes upon. I'm not sure that it was a dress; it looked more like a little bubble of fabric. The striking thing was that she was in the same aisle as some Mennonite women. Serious contrast.

When

When I want to hide out or disappear from whiners, I put on my new dress and go in the children's bathroom:

When Seb wants to do it, he sits in the newest chair:

When Isabelle accomplishes the rare and amazing feat of cleaning her room properly, she takes a ton of photos, proudly displaying her work:

And when a child wants to tattle on another child (a great sport around here) and I'm not home and not answering my cell phone, he'll take photos:

Fishing and buzzing

Freddy and Bruce were having fun "fishing" from the deck (with only a bobber on the end)...

and then someone zoomed over, buzzing our house.

Bruce was fascinated that Freddy's father was flying over (and over and over) while they were outside playing.

He kept pointing the airplane out to Freddy, his voice full of excitement. But Freddy is used to flying and used to buzzing and used to his father zooming overhead during the day. He concentrated on the fishing.


What else in new: Everyone has been arising by eight.

We met Calvin's new French teacher today. We really like her. I might have a little job at his school, volunteer of course.

And a teen came to the door today and tried to sell me some kind of educational program. We are about the last family that would buy an educational program from him, seeing how this house is packed to the ceiling with educational doo-dads. According to this boy, everything that I do is cool and awesome, from cleaning to homeschooling to owning a Pomeranian. I'm feeling pretty full of myself right now.

More news

One day last week we had a mother-children meeting and went over some of the rules for the summer. They ended up in the daily newspaper:

Some of the children thought that it would be fun to stay up half the night, make a lot of noise, sleep until noon, and graze in the kitchen all the live-long day. We had to put a quick stop to that. How did we do on the wake-up time? Let's just check the newspaper from the day following the meeting:

Not so good. I only got up at eight because my eight year old alarm clock woke me up. He really liked having a reason to awaken me because that is the one thing that he is never allowed to do.

What I added to the summer rule list: Leave Maman alone when she is in the bathroom or on the phone. Every private time and every phone call for the past two weeks has been interupted.

Work and play

What was Calvin busy with?

Luckily we are getting a daily newspaper around here, so we could just read the lead story to find out what Calvin was up to and why:

There are all kinds of interesting things going on around here now that school is out. I'll have more newpaper stories to share in the future. Isabelle is the writer/publisher. She also does the humor column. And Calvin has discovered that you can't believe everything that you read in the papers.

Oh, and Sabra, I promise that we'll return your game someday. Do you remember saying, "Keep it as long as you want"? Well, you did, and we are. We still play it all the time. It is the game favored by the young people right now; Scrabble is feeling very neglected.

CSA week 1

I'm so happy that it's CSA time again. I love going to the farm and picking up my bundle, and then figuring out what to do with it.


Our CSA bundle for the first week:

red leaf lettuce (salad)
garlic onions (went into a couple of things)
Egyptian Walking onions (these are tough; also went into a couple of dishes)
radishes (someone gobbled them up immediately)
rhubarb (strawberry-rhubarb pie, above photo; it was really good)
4 quarts strawberries (smoothies, pie, topping for a choc-chip cake that a girl made)
flowers

I'm picking up (and delivering) for a friend this year. In exchange I get a dozen eggs from free-range, bug-eating chickens. Right from the nest. The other bonus is that when we get flowers, I get to enjoy hers for awhile before they get passed on.

Health

Sebastien and I did a health screening at our local hospital. The last time that we did it was three years ago. We got a long report that included our results from this year and from three years ago.

The good news on my report was that my risk of cancer has gone way down because I gave up chewing tobacco. My report of three years ago was fabulous, so healthy!, except for that little chewing problem. Somehow their computer got the idea that I chew, and there was nothing that I could do about it. It made me a little annoyed.

Sebastien's results:

Wow! Don't those numbers look great! So healthy! And what about my results:

Look at that: I beat him on everything. Except height and he wouldn't have married me if I had been taller. He says that my numbers don't count because I'm barely alive anyway. I think that he just doesn't like to be beaten.

He has gained fifteen pounds in the last three years. I have gained one. We both grew an inch. He had been insising that he was taller and we finally have proof. He's pretty sure that we are taller because we spend so much time horizontal, resting or asleep. We didn't used to be lie-abouts.

But, alas, we both got some bad numbers: High triglycerides for him and anemia for me. I can't figure why either of us have those problems yet, but I'm still researching.

The computer puts all the health info together and figures out our health ages. His is 37 (he's 41). I was pretty nervous. If mine was older, he'd dump me. If it was way too young, then we'd be illegal. It is...36.9. Once again we have proof that we are just perfect for each other.

The story about Brad P.

I just looked through my photo album for a picture of moi. There aren't many. They all look like this one, or they are super ugly. An ugly one will illustrate this story nicely though. It's the Brad P. story.



There is no way that I'm putting his name in my blog. I learned my lesson with that famous (but not as famous as Brad) actor that people thought Sebastien resembled. I had people all over the world coming to my blog because of that post. I'm not looking for that kind of attention, so I'll just call him Brad. I think that you know who he is.

This story takes place when Freddy was four and was in preschool. It was winter. He went to preschool every morning (and hated it passionately at first and then cried because it wasn't open on Saturdays too) while the older children got their basic schoolwork done. It worked wonderfully. He even made a forever friend named Spencer. I made one too. But back to the story.

Seb would take him to school, and the children and I would pick him up at 11:30. Then we would stop at the gym on the way home. I would exercise for 1/2 an hour while they watched cartoons or animal shows. Then we would go home and eat lunch. It was such a wonderful schedule...but I'm digressing. I know you want to hear about Brad. I don't find him attractive, by the way.

On this day we were a little early to pick up Freddy. I was horribly ill. Terribly, hideously sick. I won't tell you what I had because it's just too embarrassing. Just imagine the worst. Thank God in heaven above for painkillers.

The library is next to his preschoool, and we stopped in there just so I could get some magazines. I was so sick that all I could do was lie about and read magazines. I was too sick to sleep and too sick to read anything more substantial (like War and Peace, which I finished and was terribly disappointed with...but I digress). We got a few magazines.

I should stop right here to describe myself. I looked sick, and I looked awful. I was not dressed normally. I was wearing something close to pajama pants and a dirty wool sweater. My hair was pulled back in a head band and hadn't been combed in awhile. Greasy too, I'm sure. No make-up; bags under the eyes; depression in the eyes. I was probably wearing slippers.

At the check-out desk there were some odd people. They were taking photos of the check-out ladies. The ladies were giggling (and they are not gigglers...right, Sabra?). It was terribly strange. I was eavesdropping. There were three of them, a lady and two men. They didn't fit in; I knew that they were not local.

Then they came over to us. The lady asked if they could take a picture of me and my scrappy-looking children. I was sick, so I wasn't parenting very well. I'm sure that the children were dressed, but I doubt that they were clean. I know that they were fed because they could feed themselves. We weren't exactly model material.

I asked her why. She said, "For the community." I asked several more questions: The Chamber of Commerce? The city? She was evasive. She kept saying, "For the community." I let her take photos of us. They were all very nice, but something wasn't right.

I kept pondering it. Then I remembered a rumor. And then I asked Seb if there was a jet at the airport that day (yes). And then I used my psychic powers. And then I did an internet search.

The lady was Brad's mom. She was taking photos because he and his wife were looking at properties in our state, including one in our town. The end of the story is that he took one look at that ugly, sick lady with the ragamuffin children at the library and said that he would never live in a town like that.

Very soon after that he dumped his wife for a new lady. I think that they are married now, but I'm not sure. They do have children though, more than I have. I don't think that they are interested in living in small-town Missouri anymore.

And that is the end of my Famous Folk I Haven't Met series. We'll go back to the regular programming now. Unless I've forgotten someone...

Barbara B.

(Yes, that is a tiny Opinel that the Posing Man is holding. He wasn't very careful with it and chopped off his hand.)

How I almost met Barbara Bush:

I like Barbara Bush. I've read some interviews with her, and she is one sassy gal. I like sassiness when I'm not parenting it. No one should be allowed to be sassy until they grow up and move out.

Thirteen years ago last month, Barbara Bush came to town. She came for a literacy event. At the time I was the director of our adult literacy program. At the event I was supposed to give an award to one of our tutors, a wonderful and lovely woman named Martha. Barbara and I were supposed to hand out the award together. And in the group photo, I was supposed to stand next to her. It was a coveted spot.

Well, unfortunately, Sebastien was off cavorting around in Florida at the same time. I had a baby who was three months old (Lucy) and a boy who was 22 mths old (Calvin) and a husband who was gone for twelve days. Back then, whenever Sebastien went away for over a week, I'd go to visit my parents in Chicago. I really couldn't handle the baby and the boy on my own. When Sebastien would come back from his trips, he wouldn't take any time off, and it was very hard for me. He would either be gone on a trip or be home only for dinner and evening for weeks. I was on my own, with no family near, all the rest of the time.

So, I had a choice to stay in town on my own while he was away and get to meet Barbara, or go to my parents' house, retain my sanity and strength, and give up meeting Barbara. I gave up my chance to meet her. I really wasn't a good mother when I was worn down, and I knew that weeks on my own would wear me down to nothing.

They had to find someone to replace me. They looked high; they looked low. They called in a US senator. It's good to know that I can be replaced. Maybe I'll give him a call next time I need a babysitter.

Oprah and Dr. Phil

This would be a really interesting story if only I had been on the Oprah show (back when Dr Phil was one of her frequent guests) and I had been suffering with some huge, awful problem and Oprah felt sorry for me and cried a bit and Dr Phil gave me some good advice and I conquered my addiction/fear/dysfunction/etc. and became a new woman. But that's not the story. I haven't met either of them.

Sebastien works at an airport, so I hang out at an airport. This is a very small airport in a rural area; there isn't a whole lot of action there.

Six years ago I was hanging out at the airport with four children aged 2 to 8. There was a big jet there (a Gulf 4, I think...a really nice personal jet). Back then we always went over and checked out the visiting airplanes. My children had rules to follow (don't touch an airplane that isn't yours) and were very well behaved. They were good and I knew something about airplanes, so the pilots were (for the most part) very nice to us. We got to go in all kinds of airplanes and helicopters.

This day we chatted with the pilot. He was from Chicago, as am I. I can talk airplanes, and he was bored (most pilots for hire are pretty bored while waiting around at the airport). So he gave us a personal tour of the airplane, which was Oprah's personal jet. He didn't tell me that, but he did tell me that he worked for Harpo, and that it is a fabulous company to work for.

The jet was really nice inside. It was also littered with dirty tissues. The occupants were in town for a funeral, so they were very sad. This was about two weeks after a good friend of mine was killed in a car accident leaving behind her husband and four small children. So I could relate; I was very sad also.

We didn't wait around to see Oprah leave. Freddy needed a nap.

And on to Dr Phil... He flew into the same airport. I got a call from someone letting me know that he would be there. I could have popped over and met him also, but we had tons of schoolwork to get through before our afternoon co-op classes. Dr Phil just wasn't worth getting behind in school or missing our classes or not having time to make dinner. We stayed home instead.

A friend of mine was at the airport with her dog. She walks her little dog there all the time. She met Dr Phil. He saw her and just had to pet the dog. I guess he likes animals. They chatted for a bit.

Tomorrow it's Barbara Bush, another near miss.