Mostly Knitting

Yesterday, I went for a walk in the Bois de Vincennes.  First stop was at Stade Pershing to see some of the game between the PUC and the Wallabies. PUC I get; it stands for Paris Université Club and the baseball section has been around for more than a hundred years. It might not sound great in English, but we speak French, here. This is the club I belonged to when I was a scorekeeper and this was Louis' club when he played. Wallabies? They are from Normandy, from Louviers, not far from Rouen. Why did they choose an Australian animal?
Back to the game. I don't know what the score was when I strolled in, but I think I watched 2 innings, maybe it was only an inning and a half. There were so many errors on the part of the PUC defense, I couldn't keep track of how many runs were scored. Then, when the PUC finally came up to bat, without hearing the slightest clink of the aluminum bats, I saw too many walked in runs. The bleachers, if that's what you can call them, have been condemned, already, for several years. The city replaced the old splintered wood with plastic that melted out of shape, almost immediately. So, you climb over the barriers and sit, sort of, for as long as you can stand it. It was warm and sunny, but after losing all interest in the game, I got up and continued my walk.
The fall colors are starting to show up nicely. Lots of people were out rowing on the Lac des Minimes. I finished going around the lake and had, what I assume will be, my last ice cream cone of the year from the stand. I turned towards Fontenay-sous-Bois and came home that way. According to MapMyWalk, that was a 5.67 km. walk.
I got home and picked up my crochet work. I'm adding a scallop edge to the skirt hem of a dress I knitted on the machine last week. It's an Anne Lavene design. I'll add the same edge to the sleeves and to the waist, when I join the bodice to the skirt. I made it with a fully closed skirt, seam on the side. I used Yeomans 100% Cotton Slub CK2, which, I have decided, I don't like. The idea is to dye this once it's all assembled. That's why I chose it, but the yarn kept getting all knotted up, coming off the cone, and I found it tedious to work with. Even crocheting, it gets all knotted up, so it's not because of the speed in machine knitting that made it do that. Also, it knitted up slanted, so it's awfully hard to block and get straight, again. I'm still not sure the center of the bodice will find itself in the center. One think I can say in favor of the yarn is that it is economical. I bought 2 cones and have not even used half of the first, even though I made 2 bodices! I thought I had made a mistake, when the first one looked so off-balance, so I made a second one, paying extra special attention not to make any mistakes -- and I didn't -- but it came out just as skewed. I'm going to finish this thing and see what it's like all put together.
Before that, I had tried to make a sweater for Paul, a double-knit. It looks all knit on the wrong side and on the right side, it looks like vertical stripes. It looks all stretched out in the picture. Doing the 5-stitch crossed cables every two rows turned out to be too much for me. There were some dropped stitches; I had to start over; again, dropped stitches, again, start over. When I discovered the dropped stitches, again, I gave up. The color doesn't show well, here. It's a dark, inky blue. Beautiful, fine, merino wool, also from Yeoman's. I had the yarn shipped to France. Yes, it was a bit expensive to do that, but still cheaper than a trip by car to England. (I ordered a lot of yarn!)
For anyone still interested, AARO had its own presidential election debate on October 19. We invited all four parties, but the Green party did not respond to our invitation. We posted the video the next day. It was a good evening. Cordial. Nothing like what we see going on in the US.

Thanksgiving done

First I just want to say how much I admire people who manage to post something every day. You know who you are. I just manage these summaries every few weeks!

Sacha and his other grandmother!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch yesterday at Anne's. Her oven, not to mention her kitchen, is too tiny for a turkey, so I stuffed and cooked the bird and kept it as warm as possible for delivery to her apartment. This was a perfect venue because Emma was leaving from the Gare de Lyons, just a couple of minutes from Anne's, right after lunch. And it's convenient enough for Louis and Gwen to bring Sacha via public transport rather than have to drive. Gwen prepared the vegetables, a tsimis (looks like I've got them hooked on that), much better than my own last attempt on that. Anne made cornbread and pumpkin pie. I thought I had cranberries in the freezer and was going to make a sauce, but they were no where to be found, so I was going to substitute with my neighbor's chutney made with gooseberries from our yard. But I forgot to put it in the bag with the turkey. Luckily, Anne had a jar of mango chutney, which was excellent with the turkey. Sacha ate before us: tsimis purée and chicken -- almost the same meal as ours! And he slept soundly while we ate. He's absolutely adorable. And last week, we had a family lunch with Gwen's parents (the photo is one of Anne's) after which we went for a digestive walk to the Jardin Tropical in the Bois de Vincennes. No one ever goes there; the entrance is along the Nogent border, so not really where people can find it easily if they are in the Bois. Such a shame; it's not taken care of and is in the process of disintegrating!

Last time I wrote it was just after the election in the States. I wrote about how frustrated I was, not so much with the process, but with the incorrect information. After reading the post, one of my kids wrote me that she hadn't sent in her write-in ballot because of the mis-information on the PA website. She was not happy about missing an election. 

It turns out the AARO had scheduled a meeting with Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, the president and CEO of Overseas Vote Foundation so I was even more determined to attend. I had filled out the post-election survey on the process and I had entered a report on the PA mis-informative website. It turns out that the report was bumped up and it was Susan, herself, who had replied to me. We didn't have the turn-out we had hoped for. Maybe because we were using a locale our attendees are not accustomed to, maybe because the meeting was a little later than usual, maybe because of election fatigue. I don't know. Because there were fewer people, the presentation served more as a backdrop for a large conversation with Susan and all the attendees. It was very interesting to note how Overseas Vote Foundation has grown and improved and is serving ever more voters, even if the exact number could not yet be announced. (The research team at the foundation has not released its numbers, yet, and OVF is not the only site overseas voters use to get their information or process their requests.) What was confirmed is that it's more than in the last presidential election cycle. There are a lot of young voters abroad and they are not neglecting to vote; that's wonderful. The overseas absentee registration and ballot request process is so much more efficient than what is going on in the country, it might become the model for voter reform. Still, not enough overseas voters vote. Many still do not know they can vote; many do not understand that the absentee ballot request is not the same as for local absentees, and there are quite a lot who just prefer to remain off the records, all records. Susan is remarkable; this is an exhausting job and she has a family and other work. I really enjoyed going to dinner with her after the meeting.

And that brings me to taxes. There's another meeting this week about end-of-year things to do regarding our US taxes. It looks like that meeting is drawing more people; it's at the Mona Bismarck American Center and a little earlier in the evening.

As I said, we did not celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday. It's a regular work day here. I went to painting. We're supposed to be working on the inspiration of one of two poems. We're not supposed to be using any photos as support. Well, I am not following instructions. A few weeks ago, Jon forwarded to me the link to some photos taken in Boston during a rowing competition Tobi was in. So, I'm using one of those photos as my inspiration. (I think it's one of those, but it could be from somewhere else, as I haven't really classed these photos.) There's a bridge spanning the river. There's the crew in their boat. And I'm adding a couple of airplane trails in the sky. I'm really trying to deal with the bridge structure and perspective.

And that brings me to the Hopper exhibit. I went back to see it on Wednesday with Rita. I love the geometry of the structures and shadows. There are also some pretty fabulous paintings and sketches by artists who influenced Hopper or who were influenced by him. I love the Degas, A Cotton Office in New Orleans:

PUC-Montpellier, Game One

I declared on facebook this morning that I wanted to go to the ball game. In France, the Elite division plays double-headers on Sunday and we're getting to the end of the season. The last game I went to was last year in the spring! I had said I was going to the game last week, but we had lunch out with the family, instead and I never got over to the ballpark.

One of the advantages of living in Nogent is that the ballpark, "Stade Pershing", is within walking distance, in the Bois de Vincennes, just behind the sports school, INSEP.

My walk, so you can see how close it really is. If you click on the map options you can choose the satellite view and see the ballpark.

Swan family in July

Game One is supposed to start at 11:00 a.m., so leaving home right after lunch, I thought I'd make it in time for the end of the game. I went a little out of the way to get an ice cream cone at the Lac des Minimes. On my way around the lake, I heard there was a Jewish wedding reception going on at the restaurant (the music gave it away) and the baby swans I took pictures of early in June are thriving. Here are two of them with one of their parents. The other parent and little one were out of range. And the picture of them from June 4!

Swan family in June

When I got to the ballpark, I went immediately to the scorers' booth and spent most of the time up there with M.D. who was scoring on his own. We caught up on news of our kids, our spouses, ourselves and watched the game. It had started late, so I really hadn't missed much. I only knew a few of the players. Others are altogether new and some were just kids last time I saw them play. I did see some old friends in the stands and others who came up to the booth. No pictures, though. Sorry. The game didn't end until after 3! PUC lost, 6 to 9. 

There's nothing quite like a baseball game in France. The pitching was off, so the first pitcher was relieved by a center-fielder who has a strong arm -- not really a pitching arm, though. There were errors. There were hits. You have to really pay attention because anything can happen. You think it'll be an easy out and you end up with another run in and another guy on base. Professional games are downright boring, in comparison.

Pleasant weather

We're having a drought, the hottest spring on record, and gorgeous sunny days. We need rain, but ideally, that would be in the evening or at night so we could still have these beautiful days. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but they said that for last weekend, too.
In the meantime, the raspberries are almost as abundant as last year's crop even if I think the berries are a little smaller. The tomatoes are coming along fine. I planted the zuchini and cucumbers so late, it's too soon to see what's going to happen.
I'm not really worried about cucumbers, tomatoes and salads coming from Spain or closer to home. I prefer closer to home, but I always have preferred local when I can find it and it's not twice the price of Spanish. It's really a shame that the authorities were so quick to pinpoint the blame for the E-coli outbreak in Germany on Spain and its produce. I understand the growers' rage. I can't understand why people are continuing to boycott the produce and even refuse to buy produce from elsewhere, like here. The stores are not helping. Paul bought a cucumber (a French cucumber) the other day and the price was not any cheaper than before this scare.
I spent Wednesday and Friday helping a friend move her stuff from one storage place that's closing down to another. It made me think that in the early days of Gameboy, I played Boxxle and the training paid off. I'm feeling a little sore, but I did nothing horrible to my back or shoulder; I could use a good massage, though.
On Thursday, she and I went for a little walk in the Bois de Vincennes. On the first lap around the Lac des Minimes we saw mama swan and her cygnets eating on the bank; on the second round they were cooling off in the water. There were also ducks and other water birds. I think I saw some geese. Thursday was a holiday in France (Ascension) and although Paris looks deserted, there were still enough people around to fill up the Bois. There were cars parked all along the road to Nogent and it looked like every row boat was out on the little lake. We had some ice cream at the food stand and people were waiting for seats, and then scrambling to find a place in the shade. It's a shame Paul's not feeling up to these walks any more.
Last week we had a real scare with the cat, Rocky. He didn't eat a thing over the weekend Paul made an appointment with the vet on Tuesday for the next morning. The vet ran a blood test and found that he had an infection in addition to general dehydration. They hooked him up to an IV, started antibiotics, and Thursday afternoon, we picked him up. He's old, for a cat. We can't just leave him under the care of the neighbors any more if we want to go anywhere for a few days; he's too needy. He's got his thyroid medicine twice a day, the antibiotic until tomorrow and he's very irregular as far as eating is concerned. We're down to half-can doses from 2 to 5 times a day. No more dry food (2 years already); no more fresh meat from the butcher or leftovers from us -- except the other day, he did manage to eat a little of my left over swordfish. We have to take him back to the vet for another checkup in about 10 days and I think we'll arrange another "hotel" stay with the vet so we can go to England. For a trip to Tours and St. Aignan, we'll ask one of the kids to come stay at the house for a weekend.

Quiet Week - Semaine tranquille

We had a quiet week. A few more complications for me, but I'm still confident all will be fine in time for our trip. And if it's not all fine, then I'll just go in less than fine shape.

There was an Ile de France walk this week. It was very conveniently in the Bois de Vincennes, (the wikipedia page) so I didn't have to do the whole walk back to the starting point. We started out at the statue at the Porte Dorée which was the main entrance to the Colonial Exhibition in 1931. The museum of Immigration is one of the remaining buildings. Until becoming the museum of Immigration earlier this year, it was a museum of the colonies. We used to go there with the kids. In addition to the North African exhibits that attracted us, there was the aquarium in the basement. I think the aquarium is still there.

From there we went off to the right, to the Lac de Daumesnil. We could see the fairgrounds of the Foire de Trône; the fair just got started on March 22. We saw the Buddhist temple and had a moment of thought for Tibet. We kept walking close to the edge of the woods, from the Lac de Daumesnil to the Lac de Gravelle, next to the race track. Wednesday is not a race day at Vincennes so we didn't see any trotters out exercising. I used to ride my bike over there when Emma was a toddler; we'd drop Claire off at school and go for a bike ride. She loved watching the horses. I miss that. It was relaxing and beautiful to see.

We went around the race course, past the police academy, towards the back of the horticulture school, along the edge of Mortemart (but we did not go down to the playing fields, so baseball and softball fields there are still well-kept secrets). At the new round-about at the intersection of the wood, and Nogent, we continued along the edge of the wood towards the Institute of Tropical Agronomy and that's where we split. The others continued towards the Lac des Minimes and I headed into Nogent to go home. I treated myself to a pizza and some ice cream.

For the first outing since the operation, it was long enough for me. Next week is a walk in Paris from the Butte-aux-Cailles to the Cité Universitaire. I don't know if I'll go, though.