We are still here

I'm sorry that I haven't updated for a while - the only reason is life's usual business. Well, I was sick last week, and we had three Thanksgiving dinners during the week. You know, that's an embarrassment of riches we never faced at home, when typically we just had one Thanksgiving dinner, on Thanksgiving Day, just like everyone else. But here we feasted the Sunday before turkey day with our friends Joel & Pam & Jakob from upstairs, then Thursday with Michael & Monica & Tuli & Coli, then Saturday with David & Karen & Logan & Jake. Lots of turkey, lots of fun.

We have a few things going on, of course, but won't bore you with those. Betsy leaves tomorrow for Copenhagen for a girls weekend with Jenny, so I should have some evenings cooped up to post some more. Our main Christmas present to ourselves is that we'll be heading to Florence between Christmas and New Year's Eve - actually, we'll be on the overnight train there Christmas night, and on the way back New Year's Eve - so if any of you have visit recommendations there please let me know. I started a google map with some sights noted, and I think you can add to it. I think.


View Larger Map

Happy Day, Turkey

(We eat it too, even in Paris. But man was it a pain to find cranberries!)

Steee-rike 3!

Yep, tomorrow all the "hautes fonctionnaires" go out on strike. I think it's just for one day, but it's shaping up as a one-day perfect storm - transit, teachers, postal workers, electricity & gas workers, students (university level, my kids aren't striking!), newspaper distributors, air traffic controllers (!), and god knows who else. Apparently the boys' school is going on as usual. The transit strike should end tomorrow evening, after one week of making everybody walk & bike and go apeshit for not being able to get things done. If the weather's not too crappy, I'll hit the streets and report back on the day ...

Everland in Paris

If you think you might visit after January and want to spend a night in the hippest thing I've ever seen, check out Everland. It really is what it looks like.

United again

United is sporting some pretty nice fares for upcoming weeks.

International E-Fares
Sample each-way fares are for travel beginning Monday (November 19, 2007) through Thursday (November 22, 2007), and returning Monday (November 26, 2007) through Thursday (November 29, 2007). Additional taxes and fees apply.*

From: To: Each-way:
Chicago (ORD) Amsterdam (AMS) $278
Chicago (ORD) Munich (MUC) $204
Los Angeles (LAX) London (LHR) $267
San Francisco (SFO) Frankfurt (FRA) $238
San Francisco (SFO) London (LHR) $263
Washington, D.C. (IAD) Brussels (BRU) $321
Washington, D.C. (IAD) London (LHR) $214
Washington, D.C. (IAD) Paris (CDG) $299
Washington, D.C. (IAD) Zurich (ZRH) $318

International E-Fares Specials
Sample each-way fares are for travel beginning Monday (November 26, 2007) through Thursday (November 29, 2007), and returning Monday (December 3, 2007) through Thursday (December 6, 2007). Additional taxes and fees apply.*

From: To: Each-way:
Chicago (ORD) London (LHR) $285
Chicago (ORD) Munich (MUC) $209
Los Angeles (LAX) London (LHR) $274
San Francisco (SFO) Frankfurt (FRA) $243
San Francisco (SFO) London (LHR) $270
Washington, D.C. (IAD) Amsterdam (AMS) $277
Washington, D.C. (IAD) Munich (MUC) $225
Washington, D.C. (IAD) Paris (CDG) $314
Washington, D.C. (IAD) Zurich (ZRH) $323

Visits last summer

Our friend Betsy Robinson sent these pictures from our visits with her family and our other SEEC friends in Arlington last summer.

Steee-rike 2!

Yep, tonights starts our second major strike in a month, this one forecast to be wider and longer.

The state-run SNCF rail network said it expected only 90 out of 700 high-speed intercity services to run during the strike, while one-tenth the normal number of buses and metro trains were scheduled in the capital Paris on Wednesday.

It shouldn't effect us too much, though, at least until Betsy tries to get home from the airport on Thursday night.

Where's my X-wing fighter???

At the risk of turning this into a phot-o-the-day blog, here's another keeper from Derek's scanned slides. Yes, we look like dorks - toothless dorks, even - but where the hell is my x-wing fighter???



Mom leaves tomorrow morning, and Betsy's off to Manchester for work tomorrow afternoon thru late Thursday night. So, maybe I'll have time to go through some of our new pics and post them during my "free evenings" the next few days.

Where are they now?

We were looking through some of the family photos that Derek recently scanned and found this one of Certain family cousins Andrew (3ish), me (5ish), and Karen (8ish) at the National Zoo in Washington, circa summer 1974.

Off to La Manche

Glennell (my mom) arrived safely this morning, while Carter spent the day working with Chef Molé at Les Ormes. Mom, Calvin and I ate lunch while he finished his "service" - lunch was superb, and none of us really wanted dinner this evening. Carter will go back and work there a couple more times this fall on his off Wednesdays. Tomorrow morning we head off for four days on the northern coast of France. Specifically, we will go to Saint-Malo for the weekend and then Mont-St-Michel Monday and Tuesday. We'll take the computer but I don't have any idea about net access, so if you really need us try my french cell phone +33.6.7305.8893. See ya!

School pics, plus one with Marilyn

Here are the boys' school pictures for 2007-08, Carter's 3rd grade and Calvin's kindergarten year.