what weed is this

My dream blog

This woman has got it right.

http://feministryangosling.tumblr.com/post/14469966929

I love this cat

If one day in the distant future I decide to get a cat again, I think I'll get a Scottish fold...

Language alert, NSFW

This is BY FAR the funniest video I have seen since the first time I ever discovered You Tube. Ames sensibles, s'abstenir !! Lots of language, but this woman is smart, hilarious and full of intelligent insight. She also gets in more fantastically repeatable one-liners in under 5 minutes than many comedy films do in 90 minutes. I love her and I can't stop watching this. Enjoy.
(Note: if you haven't been following the Eddie Long debacle, this might not be as funny to you... so Google Bishop Long and then come back and watch it. It's worth it.)

Viva l'italia !

I’m having one of the best vacations I’ve had in ages, which is funny because when this trip started last week, I thought it would be the worst. On the night train from Dijon to Rome, one of the other women in my compartment stole all the cash from my purse while I was sleeping. So much for women's solidarity. Then when I got to filthy, noisy, overcrowded, polluted and touristy Rome, it rained for almost 3 solid days. And, I was burning up with fever and suffering from what felt like the stomach flu, except nothing was coming out. Neat. Not.
The tribulations continued from Rome to Puglia. After the rotten first three days, I thought I deserved a first-class ticket for the train down to see Amory & Jim. So, I splurged, thinking I would have a 4-hour ride in the comfort of a modern, well-equipped train. This was true for almost the entire first hour of the journey. Then, the conductor came by and explained that we would all have to get off the train and onto a bus, because the tracks were washed out. (!!!???) The bus would take us to Foggia, where we would get back on another train. Of course, there’s no distinction between first and second class on a bus, and it was impossible to sleep with all the Italians jabbering away on their cell phones, not to mention the unbelievably overwhelming and unpleasant odour of stale cigarette smoke emanating from the couple sitting right in front of me that made it seem as though I had just licked several ashtrays myself. Then the second train seemed to be from about 50 years ago, so not exactly cushy travelling comfort, even in “1st class”. I am preparing another photo essay entitled “Italy: first or third world?” but that’s for another blog entry…
Luckily, things improved vastly as soon as Jim & Amory came to pick me up, right on time as usual (but the train was over an hour late!).
The weather has been nearly perfect, the food fantastic, the wine divine and the company splendid. We have spent time biking, chatting, eating and drinking. Amory has made several delicious meals at home, we were invited to a charming birthday party one evening, we ordered in pizza another time, and we had a fabulous evening out where somehow I managed to finish off everyone else’s pasta except Jim’s. I have overindulged in various kinds of cornetti filled with either vanilla cream or chocolate cream. Although I could almost fit into my skinny jeans before leaving Cormatin, I think that several weeks of major hiking will be required now before a true fit becomes a reality. La dolce vita !

Tis the season

Spring seems to be just around the corner… the temperatures have leaped into the double-digits (in Celsius, of course!), new-born lambs with spring-loaded legs are bouncing around like pop-up toys in the fields that are also full of countless new calves who kick up their heels.
The sun is getting up earlier and going to bed later.
There’s an entirely different feel to the air.
My backyard is full of birds serenading me to let me know they are back for good, no longer just passing through to warmer climes. Even the semi-wild cats have fresh good-hearted mischief and more love in them.
There’s only one thing I can say about it all, or rather, I’ll let Louis do the talking for me…
For some reason, the site is not letting me put the video in here, so please click on the "Tis the season" title now.

My intentions of napping on the train to Paris have been thwarted by the screaming baby in the row just in front of me and to my left… shouldn’t there be an age and/or height limit to get into the first-class cars, like on carnival rides? Here is where I would actually be for a “separate but equal” policy – families travelling with screaming, boisterous children could all go in one car, and business and child-free travellers can be in another car, just like there used to be smoking and non-smoking compartments… I purposely chose my travel dates so as to avoid the school holidays, a time when trains in France are any childless person’s worst nightmare… but I am being punished for my organization by someone too young to be affected by the winter break. I take some solace in the fact that I can see on the faces of everyone else around me that they are also totally irritated. The sign that reads “Voiture silencieuse” on the door seems to mock us. We are travel martyrs but at least we have more comfortable seats than in 2nd class…
So, since I can’t sleep, I thought I’d take advantage of the plug at my seat to follow up on my return to the blog.
In the same vein as that first note of the year, herewith some more reasons why I would never want to move back to Paris or any big city for that matter. This morning I took the photos that follow during a 15-minute walk back to my house from dropping my car off at the garage to have some work done on it while I’m in Paris. Can you imagine getting this scenery during a 15-minute walk in Paris? or anywhere else for that matter? Can you feel the love?
A love which grows as the train whizzes through the rest of Burgundy, which appears to be entirely snowbound and bitterly cold.
Enjoy.