Ahhh Summer

I haven't forgotten you blog. I just had a little time off this year. Now that my mini vacation is over I am thinking I will have less time for book writing (sorry book) and more time for short bursts of inspiration...blog style!

It's been an excitingly lush summer, with all the rain we had in the spring everything is staying green so far and it's all really pretty all over Spokane. I think more and more people are gardening these days and it shows. Everyone I know with a house has a garden and even some of us that don't have houses are finding ways to grow things! ( for instance our apartment house got together and created it's own garden plot).

Been spending some time drying herbs but haven't made it to step two with the processing. Been sort of preoccupied with writing this month, but I am noticing I really need to harvest most of my parent's yard this week so I might have to buckle down and harvest all day tomorrow, in between peeling paint from the porch... that should be fun. Maybe it will be less hot tomorrow? Please?

This time next week I will be either as exhausted as I am today or really energized after a full weeks work. It depends on how I take back to the water of working again.

Map of where I have been and where I am going

Hey, so Jillian found another cool thing to put on the blogs. Its a map that shows where you have visited(blue), lived(red) and where you want to go (green). As Jill said the list of where I want to go is massive, but I narrowed it down to where I plan to visit in the next five years or so. Its certainly not a comprehensive list by any means and frankly I know the list will change as opportunity, money etc presents itself. Its down at the bottom of the page if you want to check it out :)

Bonjour From Paris!

Allo! I hope you guys are enjoying Wednesday. I assure you it will be fabulous even if it started out rough. At least that was our experience :) I will spare you the boring details of traveling since (amazingly enough) they are already fading from my memory as insignificant. Right now it is 22:43 according to the clock here and Sean and I are getting ready for bed (trying to convince our bodies that it is indeed night and not two in the afternoon). Despite all the good advice from friends to stay up all day we ended up taking a nap after breakfast and getting up around five to go explore some more. Hopefully that wont mess us up tomorrow.

(The below picture is our first sight of Paris after we exited the Metro at the Arc de Triomphe).

You can see our first meal here it was soooo delicious.


We started out the day so tired we could barely remember any French and mostly ended up using English for most every interaction. However after our nap we brushed up on our approach and I completed my first complete transaction entirely en Francaise. I was very proud of myself, though he did help by quoting the price in English. Everyone speaks a little English so far that we have talked to and most seem to prefer talking to us in English despite our efforts (and often before we even open our mouths!) I guess Americans stand out.


We have taken a ton of photos and already spent a lot of euros and I don't even feel like we are really here yet! Above is Sean in front of the Place de Geffre stitched into a panorama, I love my new camera. Ok, I am going to watch the rest of French Idol (Nouvelle Star) and drink my tea before bed.

Tomorrow our plan is to hit the Musee Rodin and the Ile-de-Cite. We will keep you all posted! Bon Nuit!

Update

So the bathtub is in place, the window is (finally) installed and it is my job today to install the insulation and measure where to cut the cement and wall boards. If I have time (and the patience) I will actually attempt to cut out the boards and install them, but its not on my to do list :)

In other news, my friends Jillian (from thinklikeajillian.blogspot.com), Gordon and Jaima, are headed to Japan tomorrow! I am very excited for them, but not jealous since Sean and I are headed to France in three weeks time. Really, I'm not jealous...ok maybe a little. So I am bidding them all Bon Voyage or the Japanese equivalent thereof :) zen (good) tokou (voyage)? Somehow I think the online translation could be wrong. Ok, at the very least 幸せな旅行 which roughly translates to "Happy Travelling" :) Ok, how about Japlish: happi-toraberingu!

Also the violets are now taking over the lawn:














Unfortunately I don't think harvesting them is on my to do list today either.

I'm Going To Paris!

Well we did it. We pushed the little virtual "confirm" button and we are now officially going to Paris!
Oh my gosh I can hardly believe it! I can't believe we can afford this...

I feel tres mal.... i think I am going to be sick....