real rural brewery

time has flown by far too fast. when i booked the trip, nearly 3 weeks seemed extravagant and luxurious, but in reality, it's the blink of an eye. i have to return to partial reality later this week...boo

 

hot hot hot

it's a scorcher in Paris today - 93 degrees in the shade... so we are sloth.  avoiding unnecessary movements, only leaving the apartment when absolutely essential, planning cold meals, and groaning.

just another street.  breathtaking. 

yesterday, the picnic in the park was terrific.  it was my first time biking thru Paris, and i only felt near death once.  we went to a little park that is the courtyard of a hospital.  women with giggling tumbling children, patients pushing IVs along the gravel paths, old fat trees.  guards with whistles reminding us of the park's closing time.

so we retreated to another park along the canal until we were motivated for the bike ride home.

watch out frenchies, i'm back!

so so SO happy to be back in Paris.  reveling in beauty and quality time with M, likely my favorite person ever. our lovely friends from Oslo met us to join in the fun for the first week. last night we went out for a crazy fancy dinner, and today we're cooking for a picnic with some other friends.

so while i'm here, i hope to rekindle my blogging fire. my twos of readers will be thrilled.

the ladies

the boys

beef with green beans, roasted onions, pickled cherries and chunks of feta

view from my bedroom window

babyfistfuls

so, last saturday i was cleaning up for an open house that was to take place sunday. i threw out my back when i decided to adjust the TV position a little. i only wanted to move it a few inches, and as i lifted it with my back, i felt the right lower side pop. i dropped to the floor, short of breath and soon became nauseous from the first waves of pain. i had to cancel the open house since i was not able to walk, drive, or sit anywhere. sunday i was still gasping with each step - unreal how much serious back pain affects nearly every single movement or bodily function.

took a sick day on monday to see my chiropractor and my doctor. my primary Dr was on vacation, and i wasn't able to get an appointment until 3pm, the pain was still intense on monday, although i was finally able to walk without holding on to something. my chiro did a slight adjustment, and the Dr gave me some nice meds to get thru the week. so, needless to say, i was feeling FINE on monday night - sitting up and everything. feeling that i have missed too many days already this year, i decided i would go to work on tuesday. the meds i got are too strong for me to take while working with students, so i suffered thru the day with advil and slow movements.

today i was feeling extra stiff and sore in the morning, so took one more sick day - ahhhhh! i am getting close to being able to stop shuffle-walking. time for a nap, me thinks.

been having to kill a ton of time of course, loved these random moments of poor dumbasses over-focsed on their cell phones, like the guy who almost bumped into a bear when he was leaving his house.

so much fun to watch other people's idiocy, no?  in china, a woman chatting on her phone fell into a sinkhole.

kirk cameron does not like boner (anymore)

back to school this week after having our spring break last week. i spent several days in CT with my boys, then flew back last weekend with the hound stowed discretely in a duffle kennel. normally Minnesota days in March get to about 45 degrees, but it has been over 70 for the past week - hooray for a summery spring break.

i saw that today would have been Mr Rogers' 84th birthday if he was still around. i often giggle at the thought that when i was getting older (LOVED his show when i was very young - especially the land of make-believe and the transgender cat that ran the carousel) i would mock his arrival routine of changing his shoes and putting on a smart cardigan. i giggle because that is basically what i do the instant i arrive home after work - change out of work clothes and into sweats and slippers. i AM Fred.

another tangent making my idiot detector flash wildly is kirk cameron's recent "news making" comments about gays. a wonderful discussion of it here. being a young gay boy in the 80's meant that i loved him and the coreys and more. i mean, was there anything gayer than mike seaver?!? mr cameron has obviously been struggling with tea bagging urges since Leo joined the cast of Growing Pains. not to mention that kirk's BFF on the show was named boner - little too on the nose?

his hilarious defense of his comments was essentially, "i have always been a brainless spewer of nonsense. people should not be surprised i say shit like this. i like jesus, have i mentioned that?"

his TV stops are also "promoting" his "movie" where he explores the true principles of america by uncovering the beautiful wisdom of the pilgrims. i swear, people are the worst...

bite my word

unbelievable as it was, today is a snow day! unbelievable because we had one (or two?) last year, and there wasn't that much snow over most of the metro. what better gift can a teacher receive than a magical wednesday surprise day off? answer, there is none. hooray for leapsnowday!

we only got about 4 inches of snow in my area, but it was preceded by an inch of freezing rain thru the night. i got up grumbling as i made the coffee at the thought of the ridiculously long drive ahead of me, then got the "school's closed" text from several people. no better way to build bonds with coworkers at a school than to keep us home for the day. had we been open, my normal commute of 15-20 minutes would have taken 90 minutes, easily...

after the fabulous news, i decided to whip up butternut squash soup - it's simmering in the crock pot as i type. mmmmmm

i take no credit for the nerdy graphic below, completely copied from a favorite blog - but then really, what else is a blog posting if not a pile of other blogs' crap and sprinkle blather. but i will post it anyway, because it is so fascinating to contemplate the perspective on our existence compared to the age of the earth.

one final favorite thing of late - this amazing short film called "Alma". it is not new, but is beautiful and wonderfully creepy. i love where all the shitty little kids end up...

just 50 million years away

hooray for long weekends. i have never loved or internally honored our presidents harder...

a recent story made me giggle and perked my perk. scientists have known for a long time that the continents are moving slowly and readjusting themselves on the planet. most of us learned about the supercontinent named Pangea in high school. if your school didn't teach you that, you probably were told that the continents were intelligently designed and put into place by big bird.

Pangea split apart into the continents we see today, and they continue to move around. scientists believe that they will collide again and form another supercontinent, but they weren't sure where it would occur. a recent study predicts that the new supercontinent will form over the north pole, and (my favorite part of the story) it is referred to as amasia. fucking love that name -- i have a lovely friend in paris who needs to use that as her stripper name... you know who you are

the following week, a taiwanese basketball player did well somewhere, and this quietlyracialslur appeared. white people are so creative.