Claire's visit

Here it is, almost three weeks since my last post, instead of two. And how was I so busy during that time that I couldn't write a line? I wasn't busy; I just felt more like playing.
Claire and Aurelia came to visit for two weeks. They spent the first full week with us and then went to Six Fours to stay with Pierre and Gillette and introduce Aurelia to the family down there, especially Grandmaman, who celebrated her 100th birthday last June. The photo album above is the same, but since I added the pictures from her visit, I decided to link it again. You can see how much Aurelia has grown from the beginning of October to the end of November. Unfortunately, my camera is kaput. There must be a short circuit that empties the batteries when it's off and not being used. I thought I could beat that curse by opening the battery case when it was not in use, but the other day, just in the short time it took us to go to the park, it managed to empty the batteries. So, most of the pictures are from Claire's or Paul's cameras.
For the most part, we just allowed ourselves to be amused by Aurelia and enjoyed having Claire with us. I didn't miss my painting, though and have now finished my sunflower based on a photo I took at Giverny in August.
Oh my! I am sure I saved more.
Here we go again.
Aurelia is in the "rrrr" stage of communication, with plenty of smiles and squeals. In France, it's easy to move from "rrrr" to "heureux" so that's what adults repeat to the baby's delight (recognition of the baby saying something that we understand?) Anyway, you know how it goes, the more we say "heureux", the more the baby says "rrrr" and you can end up spending quite a bit of time doing that. I have always thought that this is how French babies learn to keep the "rrrr" sound alive for later use. Aurelia's "rrrr" seems to start with a guttural and end with an "eeee" and I understood it as "gris" and that amused her just as much. Needless to say, she loves arms and we grandparents, aunts, and uncle willingly obliged.
Back to the painting.... My sunflower is no Van Gogh, but I like it. While Claire was here, I brought up a painting that I never managed to finish and suddenly realized there was a portrait waiting to come out. I took it back to class on Thursday and Francine immediately saw my point and drew in a Matisse-like face. Now I hope I don't screw it up.
Today, we're having our Thanksgiving dinner. Louis is back from his 2-week training and no one is working today. Laurent is coming over and so is Rita. I'm very disappointed in the poultry lady at the market. She says it's the supplier who prepared the bird, but still, she's my supplier. Whose fault it is is beside the point; it's a terrible looking bird. I'm sure it was raised fine, it's the preparation that's lacking. There is no skin at the neck end. I've never seen anything like it. The lady skinned two chicken thighs to use as patches, but I still was not able to stuff the neck end and was not able to sew the patches in place because the turkey skin remaining was too thin. At the other end, when I stuck my hand in to get the innards, I found a chicken gizzard and two chicken livers. No neck. No fat. I use that stuff and am disappointed they are missing. And, again, not enough skin to really close the opening after stuffing the cavity. I'll let her know what I think tomorrow morning at the market. To make matters worse, I had left the turkey covered, in a big bag, outside overnight because there wasn't room in the fridge. This morning, we found the bag tipped over, the paper torn away and about half a turkey breast nibbled away. Some cat had a nice feast!
Must go now and finish the preparations.

Strange few weeks

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post for the STC France Ning group. Here's some of it: 
Derek Torres was a member of STC France. He was also member of STC Chicago, and if he was a member of any other chapter, please excuse me for not knowing to mention it. Many of us here in Europe might remember him from the Region 2 conference in London a few years ago, back in the days when we still had regions. He and co-author Stuart Mudie (also a member here in France) gave us a preview of Windows Vista. It was a session well-worth attending, for me at least, since I decided then and there to skip moving on to Vista.
Then, he moved to Paris and became more involved in our local events. I saw him last March at our Conference, where he presented the results of his survey on the wiki as a viable collaborative tool. It was right after the birth of his daughter and he was giddy with fatigue.
Since then, I followed him via facebook and Twitter as he battled the Paris transport system on his way to work in the suburbs.
He was so experienced -- a published author, and all. I didn't realize he was so young (33, Carrie told me) when he died at the end of October from complications due to the H1N1 flu. Just a couple of months younger than my eldest!
I've just come home from his funeral at Père Lachaise.
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It's strange how Derek's death has affected me. I think it's because he was just a few months younger than Claire. He's left a wife and three young children. His brother, now taking responsibility for the whole Torres family, is Louis' age. In the last five years, the family has lost all the grandparents, the father, and now Derek. Anyway, as you can see, I've been affected by this.
But what else is new? Nothing much. I went to the chiropractor and walked almost all the way home. Her office is near the Arc de Triomphe and I didn't give up until I got to the center of Vincennes, where I got on a bus: 10+ km. I was not wearing good shoes and had blisters on the bottom of my feet. I also went on a walk in the woods northwest of Paris with Ile de France walks. It was a long, long walk and just after lunch, my right boot lost its rubber sole. I could walk, but it was uneven and I could feel all the stones and other irregularities -- very uncomfortable and it slowed me down. Since I was already the lagger in the group, most forged on ahead and Mary Lynne stayed back with me. We still made it to the café to meet the others before the train back to Paris, but they had done an extra 5 km.
The biggest news is that Claire is coming tomorrow with Aurelia! Geoff couldn't really take more time off, unfortunately. He had taken time in early August for the wedding preparations and after. Then, he took more time off when Aurelia was born and had to take a few more days when Claire had appendicitis later in September. So, now, I'm going to the market to buy some veal (Claire can't get veal in England!) and other things she's longing for. Then, off to the AAWE storage to drop off our donations to the bazaar. That will clear up the basement a little. Louis has now taken a good deal of his stuff, so we're starting to see the floor and walls again.