Food Finds

One of the coolest things about working in an international environment like SHAPE is that the local GB (a kind of mini-mega-mart) stocks food from all 26 member states. Yesterday I discovered bulgur. I know we're 30 or 40 years behind the rest of our hippi-granola cohort, but the product we were getting in Carrboro was not the same. This is the good stuff. Turkish! There's also Greek yogurt, real feta, tons of pastas, and Dutch peanut butter. If we want German stuff, we go to the US commissary.

La convocation

Tuesday afternoon David found a little note from the police in our part of Saint Ghislain commune summoning us to show up at the police station the next morning at 0830. No indication as to what it pertained to. It was addressed to Madame and Monsieur (although since the Monsieur was a little difficult to read, David tried to pretend that they were after just me). With a little analysis we devined that because they didn't address us by name, it didn't have anything to do with the car (like a speeding ticket). The agent had added the notes "Could you please contact me" and "urgent," so we figured we'd best show up even though it meant juggling a meeting at work. So we presented ourselves Wednesday morning at the police station, whereupon our agent de quartier (beat cop) exclaimed, "Oh, you could have just called..." Turns out he was trying to locate someone who had lived in the house two tenants ago. But it wasn't a wasted trip because he gave us a booklet listing the rules and regulations of the commune, including the new regulation that prohibits mowing on Sunday.

Another interesting cultural adventure...

Cuckoo d'Hautrage

The Francophiles among our readers will recognize this as a play on words.

I was sitting out on the patio doing Sudoku this evening when I heard a cuckoo calling. Yes, a real, live cuckoo. I'd never heard one before but it was instantly recognizable by its distinctive call. How cool is that? Horses, goats, sheep, huge magpies, pheasants, and cuckoos. We do indeed live in the country. Now if only we could tame that wild European washer...

Things you thought you'd never see this side of Heaven

You can keep your 72 virgins. Give me a woman who mows the lawn any day! (And guys, check out what she's using. Self-propelled, mulching adapter kit installed, central height adjustor, 53 cm cut, and a 5.5 hp Honda engine. Sweet!)

Not exactly Wyoming but still...

Our neighbors have deer. Little ones. They're apparently confined to the yard. We've both seen them, so it's not the beer talking. No idea if they're for food (not at all unlikely) or for fun. The people up the street have a couple of really scruffy-looking sheep (they used to have three, but one disappeared right before Easter) and a goat. Almost everyone seems to have horses, both draft and riding, and there are lots of small herds of cattle and dairy cows scattered about. There are also lots of healthier sheep. This afternoon while we were eating dinner, a pheasant walked through the side yard then flew away into the woods. And on Easter I had to bury a cat that had died in our tool shed. Life is tough out here on the frontier.

Long days and longer nights

While David scampers down the autobahn in his zippy little VW Polo, I'm back at the Hautrage Hotel getting ready for our next batch of guests. We discovered long ago that entertaining is the best incentive for cleaning, and that axiom still holds true. The downstairs is shaping up and the upstairs will be fine as soon as the parquet guy gets done with the floor in the master bedroom. He made remarkable progress today - replaced the rotten floorboards and sanded the entire room (except for the alcove - guess the insurance won't pay for that...). The process is supposed to take 3 days so I'm hoping to start moving stuff in that room before David gets back with our guests.

It's staying light here until well after 8:00 PM. Tonight I opened all the doors in the kitchen while I did the dishes. I did not, however open the bedroom window. Because last night I opened it and thought I'd never get it closed again. And flying things kept buzzing me all night. Hence the long night. No knight in shining armor to ward off the evil spirits because he's up there in Germany doing obscene speeds in his VW Fiesta...

David gets his comeupppance

I'm being punished for bragging about our sweet ride while we had the rented BMW. For my TDY I have a VW Polo: 1200 cc of three-cylinder German muscle. On the autobahn I had it up to 172 kph. Downhill. And only for a few seconds. It was turning 5500 rpm. Red line is 5800. Paige, it's the VW version of that Fiesta you had. A guy cut me off going uphill, and I thought I'd never get it back to 130.

Girl version: I have a silver rental car.