Our Juicy Life

Such an exciting small world...

So, I wanted to do some spring reading and of course I wanted to read about France. I have read "a year in provence" but it was 10 years ago, so I figured I'd read it again. I went to Amazon.com and looked it up, Amazon.com also gave me some recommendations based on my "a year in provence" order...one of them was "French by Heart", by Rebecca Ramsey. It sounded really good, so I ordered it. The books came last week and I started on "A year in provence" and Bruce started with "french by heart". He said it was really good. Today I was looking at my comments and noticed a new one from a blog called Wonders Never Cease, so I went to that blog and started to read the latest post. I was about a backyard garden (not in the ground but above ground) thanks to their golden retriever tanner. Tanner looked so much like Dashell, it was scary....but many goldens look alike. I then read a bit further down and it said "when we lived in france"....so I went back to the bio and who is this blog by.....Rebecca Ramsey....yes, yes..the women who wrote "France by Heart", the book that is on my husband's nightstand right now.

I had to email Rebecca and tell her what a small world it is. Go and get her book, it's a really good read, even if you are not moving to france like us....you'll still get a feel of what it would be like. Thanks for visiting Rebecca, your book is making us so excited for our sabbatical in france!

Waste

I bike by this about 3 times a week. This is a picture of Ballona Creek, a bike bath that goes down to the ocean. Ballona Creek comes from way east...miles and miles and it just flows down collecting more trash each mile. Lucikly there is a net that is about 1 mile from the ocean, it traps all the plastic and styrafoam so that it doesn't go into our ocean. It so amazing how much trash accumulates in the nets.

I usually TIVO Oprah. Most of the time I'm not that interested in the show, but sometimes she has a great show. This week she had 2 shows on how much we waste. Time, food, plastic bottles, electricity, gas, money, etc... It was amazing and made me re-think how we live. We only have 1 car and actually have been biking to work each day, so we only drive our car when we have to, which hasn't been a lot. We are only using $40.00 worth of gas each week (which I think is really good). We recycle, but then Oprah showed that plastic (which I thought would be recycled) doesn't really get recycled like we thought. Most of it stays around forever. We bought a Brita water pitcher and are getting SIGG bottles so that we won't be using plastic bottles. So many kids bring in a plastic water bottle with them for class and then they never drink it and just throw it away, so wasteful.

Oprah also showed how much food we waste. People that buy food and don't eat it and just throw it away. So, I have decided that I won't throw anything away. We are big on leftovers (which are great if the original meal was good) and for fresh produce I shop every other day, so I don't buy something and have it go bad.

We also changed our light bulbs to the new CVS light bulbs, we wash our clothes in cold water and I have re-useable bags for the grocery store, so I don't come home with those plastic bags that will last forever. It makes me sad to think of where this world is going. How much waste we have, how many landfills we have, how many tons of garbage each of us produce. I am not sure that most people really think about where there trash goes. Most of it doesn't go anywhere but to a landfill and it will stay around for thousands of years. We even use biodegradable bags for picking up our pooches poo.

Seeing these shows really made the think...about how we live and what we are doing to this world. We are going to do our best to make our footprints smaller. It's the least we can do.

Frustration!

I always hear of the problems with getting things done in France...the paperwork, the time, the patience you need, etc...but I'm here to say that it's bad here in America too.

Couple examples.  We had to update the deed for our house.  It was bought in my name and we needed to add Bruce to it.  I spent time on the Los Angeles County Clerks website getting all the paperwork that I needed (to save time).  So,  I went down to the County Clerks office which is by the Los Angeles International Airport.  Drove around for 15-20 minutes just to find a parking spot and finally reached the 6th floor.  The line was huge.  After waiting in line for about 45 minutes I was finally called.  I showed the lovely friendly helpful woman (NOT)  the filled out paperwork and of course it was wrong.  First I needed to add all this additional wording about the parcel of land our house was on.  I had to get that from another computer down the hall.  So I went and did that, got back in line and waited.  10 minutes later I was called again.  That part is complete but now you need to get it notarized.  OK, that's easy, where is the notary.  "we don't have a notary on site".  What!  Are you kidding!  This is the Los Angeles County Clerks office and they don't have a notary!  She said the closest was about 5 miles away, but she didn't know the  name of it so we had to just drive around looking for one.  So off we went.  We saw a sign for notary, pulled over, parked and went in.  Only to find out that the business didn't get their notary renewed so they couldn't do it  - so take your sign down!!!  We drove a bit further,  saw a sign, pulled over and went in.  "our notary called in sick today"...this was getting ridiculous!  We finally found another place that notarized the document.  Back we went to the County Clerk, this time Bruce waited in the car, so we wouldn't have to spend forever looking for a parking place.  The line wasn't too bad, I only had to wait 20 minutes.  Finally they accepted the document.  That was easy, not!

We are going to open a french bank account now so that we can buy a large amount of euros and transfer them to our account, there is talk that the dollar might go to 2.00 against the euro this summer.  In order to open a french bank account we need to send a copy of our marriage license.  I don't know where that is, in fact I don't think we even requested a copy.  So I again had to go on the county clerks website and I noticed that you could order it on-line.  Great!  So I filled out the paperwork, sent in a check and waited...and waited...and waited.  30 days later I got all my information sent back to me in the mail, with a letter telling me that I needed to send in 2 copies of the request for a copy of the marriage license (it doesn't tell you that on the website though).  Argh!!!!  30 days of waiting and I get nothing.  So we had to go BACK to the County Clerks office because I wasn't going to wait another 30 days for the license.  This morning we went down there.  I ran up, left Bruce in the car and was sure that I had everything in order.  I had the check that I sent them originally and in front of the guy I just changed the date and initialed it (like you do at the bank, post office, grocery store, etc...) but NO, can't do that at the county clerks office.  I had to write out a new check and void the first.  I said to the guy "you guys sure don't make things easy"...and his response was "nope, we don't".

I finally have a copy of our marriage license and our deed was updated, so hopefully I will never have to go back to the 6th floor known as hell.  Many people rant about the france being so slow with documents and all and I'm sure they are, but it's bad here too.

OK - I feel better.

Christmas in April?

I know most of you will not be impressed with this...although some of you might! This is an amazing french bike - Bruce bought one about 3 months ago, although a different model. It's by a french company called LOOK. He was so excited to have it. BUT...then he noticed a crack in the seat tube of the bike...it was really tiny but it worried him and he HATED having something wrong with his new bike. So he contacted the sales rep for LOOK and found out that what happened isn't supposed to happen. So they took back his frame and replaced it with the frame above. It's the newest model - better than the one he had and he's so excited - LOOK has excellent customer service!!!!! Nothing funnier than seeing a man act like a kid at christmas. He got the frame one evening about 7:00 pm and spent the next 4 hours putting the bike together, he just couldn't go to bed without finishing it. He loves his new bike and I love him being happy (it's the little things that make my man smile). This bad boy will be coming to France with us in October.

OUR ANNUAL STUDENT ART EXHIBIT

Each year we have a student art exhibit. Each child that comes to classes at the studio get to pick their favorite piece of work that they created that year. We clean the studio, paint the walls, put the tables out back, get food, and hang all their work. It's a great evening for everyone (parents, grandparents, kids, friends, etc...). This year we have 100 children that take weekly art classes from us, all of our classes are full, so our turnout was amazing.

The friday before the show we spent the day taking off all the pieces we had hung on the wall, patching all the little holes (from the hundred of pushpins) and painting the walls. We also cleaned everything and painted and spiffed up the bathroom. On Saturday we hung all the pieces (well, Bruce hung the pieces). The show was on Sunday. We had about 300 people come through. The show was only for 2 hours.

I took some pictures of some of the pieces that were in the show....they are all amazing and I can't put all of them on, so here are just a few for your viewing pleasure. The kids that did these range from 5-15.

Don't they do great work! It helps when you have a great teacher and Bruce is the best - his lessons are amazing and the kids no only learn the fundamentals of drawing & painting but are able to be creative and expressive too. We will miss the kids when we go, but know they'll continue to do amazing work with Travis.

Moi!

Our great friends K&E came for dinner last Sunday and they brought their lovely daughter Kellen.  She's 8 and takes art classes at our studio.  I made duck, chez lou lou's onion and roquefort tart, a bow tie, broccoli salad (for kellen) and individual chocolate souffle's for dessert.  It was a great night.  They also brought their 8 month old black lab named "Stella".  The guys took the dogs to the park while I got dinner ready.  Kellen wanted to draw.  OK...my husband is an artist and we own an art studio and we don't have any drawing paper around the house, can't find any colored pencils (we found a few)...so we gave her wrapping paper and a sharpie and she was good to go.  Her first picture was this one above.  It's me. 

This was her 2nd picture, it's on the back of the first picture.  I just love this one (note the words).  Queen Alisa.  It's on our fridge and I turn it over every couple days.  I just had to share them with you. 

New friends far away

In September we went to the Aveyron region of France for 3 weeks. We had never been there before, didn't know anyone, but figured we'd check out this remote beautiful region. We stayed in a gite called Le Roucan, owned by Nala & Neerva. It was amazing and very rural. When we arrived with our bikes Nala said to us "my neighbor down the lane owns one of the lightest bikes in the world". Sure, Bruce said....right...in the middle of nowhere a guy has the lightest bike. Nala promised to introduce us to him.

The next morning Nala is tapping on our door telling us he spoke with Jacques, who is the man who has the lightest bike. Jacques will take you on a bike ride today...now....get ready! WHAT? So back down the road we went. The place we were staying was the last house on a very long road (about 1 mile up), it was at the end of the road. Jacques place was the 2nd house on the road, called Feniryols. So, we drive down to his beautiful french home with our bikes. Jacques is about 60 and fit as anything. He kisses us 3 times and was so warm and welcoming. He immediately took us into his "bike room" and there it was....his bike....and Bruce was amazed. It weighs 4,257 kg. That's nothing! His bike is worth probably 15K - 20K. Seriously, we were shocked. We weren't in Paris or Toulouse or Nice...we were in the middle of nowhere, in rural france and here we are with this man who loves bikes as much as us. FATE.

We went on many rides with Jacques and his girlfriend Fabian and our new friends Fabrice & Anke. We instantly made a connection with all of them. It felt so comfortable...like home. Jacques invited us to his home for dinner one night. Which I hear is very very unusual. Most french people who have only known for 2 week don't invite you to their home for dinner. We were honored. Our dinner included Jacques, his daughter (who was visiting for the weekend from Pau) and our host Nala (unfortuantely his wife Neerva was out of town). We had duck, fois gras, amazing wine, great conversation, etc...it was a truly magical night that ended at 2 am. We knew that we had met people who would be friends for life.

We spoke with Jacques today on the phone. It was great to hear his voice and we can't wait to see him. But we heard some sad news. Fabrice and Anke have separated and are getting divorced. They have 2 beautiful girls, but sometimes that's not enough to keep a marriage together. It was sad to hear that, boy you really see people differently when they are out of their home. Jacques told me that Anke wants to move back to Germany (where she was born and all her family is) and that made me sad too. Anke and I really hit it off. I am very athletic and love to bike, run, swim, etc...and she is exactly the same. I was so looking forward to having a good friend there. I am trying to reach her now to see what her plans are. I hope she'll be around some of time we are there, but who knows.

We are still so excited about our sabbatical, but it's strange how much can change in 6 months. We know that we still have very good friends waiting for us to return, but it's different somehow. When I was there the landscape and the lifestyle, it all seemed so dreamlike to me, but when you look at it you realize that people are the same all over the world, be it in a big city in America or in the rural countryside of France.

Sugar Snap Pea Salad

There is a restaurant across from our studio called Beacon it's about 2 years old.  Lately I've been going there for lunch with my 2 friends Laury and Stephanie.  The first time was with Steph and she recommended this salad.  I loved it so much I decided to make it at home, so we had it for dinner tonight.  I had to share it with you, because not only is is really good, but it's really easy.

The ingredients for the salad are simple (this is for 4 servings)

6-8 ounces of sugar snap peas
5-6 radishes (sliced very thin)
goat cheese - this you'll have to eye, some people like loads of goat cheese (like us) and others might not like so much
cashews (I used about 1/4-1/3 cup)
vinaigrette (recipe to follow)

Slice the radish's very thin

In bowl combine sugar snap peas, radish, goat cheese and cashews.

For the vinaigrette

1/5 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup sesame oil

Mix all together

I then lightly mix up the salad, plate it and then drop the dressing by teaspoon over the salad.  yum yum.