French Fried American

Union Square

2010-05-14T09:56:00.004+02:00

Turns out, anything can prompt a bomb scare after a real car bomb left in an SUV at Times Square failed to explode on May 1st.

'Does anyone have a 1991 Cutlass?'" said Shari Newman, 32, announced during the british punk band Buzzcock's concert. The band had stopped their show at Irving Plaza to make the announcement for the police.

Turns out the suspicious car, which had a couple of 5-gallon gas cans in it's back seat, belonged to a gardner who uses the gas cans to fill his mower and was attending the concernt. The owners were none too happy when they finally did return to their car to see that the police had blown the windows out to get inside.

The bomb scare was the fifth in the city since Faisal Shahzad's failed Times Square car bomb two weeks ago. Some residents are wondering just how many more threats are going to come?

Missing Money

2010-05-14T09:39:00.002+02:00

Who forgets they have money in a bank account? Who forgets to pick up a last paycheck when they switch jobs? According to the US Treasury department, lots of people to the sum of over 33 billion dollars worth!

This is actually easier than you may think. During my divorce and relocation period, I had forgotten about a little bank account I had opened and only remembered it a few years later clearing out old papers. Now there wasn't that much in there when I went back to the bank to see if it was indeed still open, but it made me realize just how easy it can be. Things happen in life, tragedys, hard times, separations, divorces, deaths and so on that we forget some little things because we are focusing on the big things.

If you think you may have some unclaimed money or even if you don't believe you do, it doesn't hurt to go check it out. It is as easy as searching for your state's treasury department online and and then searching the unclaimed property section on their website. Just type in your name, remembering to use variations of your name and your maiden name or other married names if you have been married in the past, and then sit back and watch the screen tell you if you have hit it big!

Apple iPod Touch

2010-05-13T12:15:00.006+02:00

So my middle son asked for an iPod Touch to replace the one he has, which is cracked and about dead. Doing a search online for an iPod Touch, I had no clue just how many different models there were nor how many different generations!

So I started with the newest model (for now) the Apple iPod touch 32 GB (3rd Generation) and this sounds like a great iPod. It's a great pocket computer, and a great portable game player. You can listen to a mix of songs automatically put together by the new Genius Mixes feature. Maybe you want to watch a movie or just surf the web. There you can downlad countless apps, view your email. Plus so many other things that this is quite a convienent little piece of machinery.

Looking at the stats here:
- 32 GB capacity for 7,000 songs, 40,000 photos, or 40 hours of video
- Up to 30 hours of music playback or 6 hours of video playback when fully charged
- 3.5-inch widescreen Multi-Touch display with 480 x 320 pixel resolution
- Supports AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV audio formats; H.264 and MPEG-4 video formats; JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF

I don't know, maybe I should get this for myself instead, what do you think?

YouCut

2010-05-13T11:59:00.004+02:00

What is this YouCut that I'm seeing in the news lately? After a bit of research I discoverd that YouCut is a new project by Eric Cantor that allows the public "to vote, both online and on your cell phone, on spending cuts that you want to see the House enact."

This is the first time this kind of program was launched wherein people are asked to actively participate in government activities. It allows American Citizens to participate and choose on 5 Government money saving program to enact. These 5 programs are as follows:

1.Presidential Election Fund ($260 million in savings)
2.Taxpayer Subsidized Union Activities ($600 million in savings)
3.HUD Program for Doctoral Dissertations ($1 million in savings)
4.New Non-Reformed Welfare Program ($2.5 billion in savings)
5.Eliminate Wealthier Communities from CDBG ($2.6 billion in saving)

Since there isn't too much information about this yet, I'm unsure on how I feel about it. Anything that allows the public more participation in what goes on the government can be a step in the right direction. People like to sit around and complain or say there is nothing they can do. If this works, now Americans can say they did something about it.

Speaking of American Idol

2010-05-13T11:16:00.002+02:00

So who was surprised that Mike went home last night? Yeah I know, someone had to go, there are only four left and only one can win. But was it that surprising that it was Mike and not one of the others to go? I think that Mike has been consistent this season, consistent in singing the same stuff over and over, withouth much range in style or song choice. And it was obvious that the duet with Casey was Mike's song choice. Mike didn't even have to tell Ryan when asked who picked the song, it was so obvious. The judges thought they pulled it off, well judges have been wrong before :)

I was sad to see him go for the fact that he is a good guy, he can sing and he has a good personality. But he has the tour, he can still fulfill his dream in some way as it is obvious he does have a following.

I myself haven't decided yet on who is going to win. I love the last three, Lee and Crystal more than Casey. I wouldn't be upset with any of them winning this. But I think it woudl better for Crystal musically not to win, then she wouldn't be locked into a contract that could stifle who she is. Because thee is no way around it, she is unique, she has her own style, and if anyone tried to box that style in it would kill the music.

Jon Bon Jovi

2010-05-13T10:49:00.002+02:00

Now who was more excited than I to see Jon Bon Jovi on American Idol last night? Who hated the fact that he hasn't aged much, if at all, in the past twenty years? But he still rocked it like he did twenty years ago!

Playing their second single "Superman Tonight" from their 11th studio album, The Circle, the band showed that they still have what it takes to rock even a stage like American Idol. "The harder we work, the luckier we get" is how Jon Bon Jovi seemed to sum up his band's success over all the years. It isn't easy going from one generation to the next in music and stil stay on top. But the band did it with style and screams from fans young and old in the crowd.

I don't know about the rest of you, but listening to Bon Jovi on American Idol was like listening to Bon Jovi on my walkman twenty years ago, walking down the street singing "Runaway". Classic Bon Jovi, is there anything better?

Who mutilated Barbie?

2010-04-23T17:26:00.005+02:00

Almost every little girl has played with a Barbie at one time or another. I remember spending countless hours with my Barbies. Nothing was off limits in the house when it came to my dolls. My mother's jewelry box was her armoire, a horse statue became her horse, my brother's Tonka Jeep was perfect size for Barbie to sit in and drive and the list goes on and on. We didn't have much money, but my Barbie was Queen.

But that was the Barbie of "yesterday". I have no idea what they were thinking or drinking when they redesigned Barbie in the beginning of this century. Seriously now, trying to be "socially" correct or whatever was a bad move in my opinion. How can Barbie hold her giant heavy head up high when the generic Sally dolls are making fun of Barbie behind her back? "Look who's put on some weight!" or "Did you see the head on that chick! How does she manage to get dressed in the morning?"

I have a lot of complaints about this new Barbie but didn't realize how many till I actually had to go buy one. Now I'm talking about the regular Barbies, not those special edition ones which still use the "real" Barbie and those are the kind that I collect. I'm talking about these new mutilated ones where you wouldn't know it was a Barbie if you didn't see the name on the box.

First I found that half of them had their clothes painted on them! Tell me, when was the last time you painted an outfit on you (not counting the latex you did for your boyfriend last week?). What is the purpose of that? Sure it looks cute with that one outfit, but what about other outfits? Are you trying to lose money by discouraging little girls from buying different outfits for Barbie? Are you trying to tell us that chipped, painted on clothes, is going to be the new mode?

Speaking of outfits, that brings us to problem number two: WHERE ARE THE CLOTHES! I could find a small handful of outfits for Barbie, whereas when I was a kid there was such a selection I drove my mom literally batty picking out this one and that one. I guess the company is getting lazy, paint an outfit on and don't bother making clothes, thinking that is good enough? Does anyone there actually have a daughter? Is anyone there actually female?

Now thirdly, let's address those arm poses. Has Barbie suddenly become stuck in a Madonna Vogue video? Hey you thought it was hard before trying to get those straight arms into that cute little Barbie shirt, wait till you try it with the new deformed arm look. Who's idea was that? They need to be demoted a bit till they get their head on straight.

OKay I found some Barbies with just a bathing suit, actually perfect for what I needed them for, but that brings us to number four: flat feet. Now come on! Did you really have to flatten her feet? Afraid she'll get drafted so you flatttened her feet in the hopes she'd fail her physical? You just ended up making her look like more of a freak, but then again maybe she needed those big feet to hold up that giant head she has now?

Which brings us to the issue number five: her big head. Okay you went "socially" correct in giving her a breast reduction (every girls dream right) then you thickened her waist (cause we all want thick waists even on our fantasy doll), so why did you have to give her a bigger head? That almost sounds like a man's idea, but he got the wrong "head" bigger :) I can't figure out the need to enlarge her head, of course unless you flattened her feet first so you had to make the head bigger to balance out the shoeboxes you are surely going to put on Barbie next?

Okay I'm just about done, I want to address the make-up a bit. Yea girls love make-up. I don't care how old you are, make-up is something almost every girl fools with so of course we do like a bit of make-up on our Barbies. But can we stop with the blue and the turquoise eyeshadow and the violet lipstick? Actually can we just stop completely? A little blush, some nice colored lips is good enough really. How is she supposed to wear that canary yellow suit with that horrendouse green eye shadow and purple lipstick? You are embarrassing Barbie with those colors! Let the make-up stay with the Barbie style head okay?

Now that I've got that off my chest, don't you think it is time to talk about those MyScene Barbies .... I'll get back to you on that when I'm done playing with mine.

Cowlick

2009-01-22T12:30:00.004+01:00

How many of you remember Alfalfa from the Little Rascals? Don't tell me that I'm that old that none of you remember the show! I watched it in reruns by the way so it was my parents generation but still ran when I was a kid.

Ok Remember poor Alfalfa and his cowlick, no matter how many times he tried to get that hair to lay down, it always stuck up. Well I have an absolutely horrid cowlick in the front of my bangs, thankfully nothing like Alfalfa's, although it sticks up, it is too long to stand straight up (thank god). It just drives me nuts, totally nuts. I'm too lazy to wash, dry and style daily, I have a life and have other things to do. I like brush and go hair. I've had long hair almost my whole life, till recently I've decided to try out a few different shorter styles. Although I did like most of them, short hair is just too much work! And this damn cowlick doesn't make that work any easier! At least when it was long and the cowlick acted up, I could pretend I was Veronica Lake or one of the other early actresses that pincurled and had the cowlick look in the front of their hair. I can't even do that now :(

So I just needed to complain about it today cause I did my hair yesterday, all nice and perfect then today wake up to my big old cowlick sticking up. Guess I'll have to work with it again, ugh!

Pink isn't just for Champagne anymore...

2009-01-20T11:43:00.003+01:00

So tell me, what is it with French and pink toilet paper? Is it cheaper to make? It is a statement? Is everyone colorblind? Seriously just what is with the pink toilet paper??? It is EVERYWHERE and it is cheaper than plain white toilet paper. Wherever I go, whether a fancy restaurant or McDonald's I'm finding pink toilet paper and let me tell you, I don't like nor want pink toilet paper or any other color. I've a sensitive derrière okay? No dyes or scents need to make contact with what is below, no thank you.

This is just one of the things that does puzzle me, and it would be nice if someone could explain to me WHY???

Ah new layout!

2009-01-19T22:29:00.002+01:00

So since I found out we can actually download cool templates for blogger I had to go find one. Is this not just so perfect for my blog? I love looking at it so that will motivate me to update it (I hope lol). I've been working on my Lenormand Leap site, I'm a tarot reader and have taken the leap to the Lenormand cards which I just love and find so much more intriguing than the tarot. so I'll try to pop in here to update, I'm promising myself on that one!

Mike is a green ball

2009-01-13T09:24:00.004+01:00

So finally figured out what Gabi means when I ask him what film he wants. Ballon is his favorite word, we have balls everywhere in the house. Well he asks for a film and we go through the list:

le tigre et le mammouth (ice age)

les chiens? (lady and the tramp or 101 dalmations)

Balou? (Jungle Book)

Woody et Buzz? (Toy Story)

les poissons? ( Little Mermaid)

les monstres grrrr! (Monster Inc)

and so on and on cause Papa is constantly getting him new movies.

So today we go through all this AGAIN and finally at monstres grrrr! he gives a big smile, laughs and says ballon! So as I was starting the movie it hit me, MIKE! he sees Mike as a green ball, despite the eye and arms and legs lol it is still a ball for him.

It isn't too easy trying to figure him out right now, he doesn't talk alot that I understand. I know bilingual kids take a bit longer to really talk, but he understands everything and has started. When he says "il est la" I always laugh lol, it is just so cute but I'm so glad to hear it!

Flamby : French Style

2009-01-12T21:36:00.005+01:00

OK here is a video done ten years ago on our webcam. We had just moved into a new flat then and had a housewarming party, Hawaiian Luau was our theme. It was great, all our friends came in grass skirts, leis and what not, a great attraction to see a group of 20 people walking down a Marseille street like that by the way ! We had a blast drank, ate danced, did the limbo (drunken style) and then at midnight was "tequila boom boom", which seemed to happen at every party at midnight.

So we had bought some flamby, they are little cups of flamby (flan in a cup I guess you could say lol) and what you do is open it, take the little sticker off the bottom (so it slides right out of the cup) upside down onto a plate. And then basically you "suck" the flamby up lol. This is not exactly easy in a room full of people, half or wholly drunk, and laughing your butts off. I'm the first girl about mid video, the only blond at the party lol. My husband is second guy in the video, after Fred's brief appearance (and his bushy head) lol

I completely forgot we had this video, I mean those days are looooong gone but I'm so glad we still had it. And I thought what better place to share it than on this blog!

Enjoy the video, there is no sound, otherwise you'd hear the laughing like crazy. At the end you'll see how it is done, the flamby being flipped out of it's cup. Why that part is at the end is still a mystery to me lol

No more snow

2009-01-12T09:37:00.003+01:00

Well it was fun while it lasted, but the snow is gone and life back to normal here in Marseille. But in Forcalquier, where my in-laws live, the winter wonderland continues. Although no new snow, the temperatures have kept the white and Gabi was able to enjoy some snow fun over the weekend with his grandma.

On another note, Gabi did a little tinkle in the toilet last night! He is 22 months old and not ready to potty train, morning diaper is still soaked, but before bath we always ask if he has to fait pipi and instead of heading toward his potty, which he hates, we head to the big toilet. I sit him on it backwards, a little tip I picked up on a forum. sitting him on it forwards scares him, he feels like he is going to fall in, holding him up just makes him laugh and kick the toilet lol. So I figured I would try this and it works! He really pushes to try to pee when I put him on like that lol. Now we just need to get to the point that he is ready to tell me that he needs to peepee so we can begin the real training.

Long time no post huh?

2009-01-08T22:01:00.004+01:00

LOL Well you know I completely forgot I had this blog! I'm horrible horrible at keeping up to date on this stuff!!! But Juli so kindly (as kind as she can be anyway lol) that I needed to get my butt over here and that I should be ashamed of myself for not updating in years! Yes it has been years! After Gabriel came well time slipped away. So I guess I should update huh?

As you can see by my little snowman there, all six inches of him, we got snow in Marseille! Twenty-two years in waiting but it came! Of course the city came to a standstill, schools were cancelled for today and now it is going away :( Yes the rain has come so we say goodbye to the snow! But it was fun while it lasted, especially for the skiers near the gare, I'm sure they had a blast with no traffic and lots of snow!

Maybe I'll keep this updated, it will all depend on what Gabi lets me do lol!!

Time to order the bird

2006-11-06T09:09:00.000+01:00

Well looks like Thanksgiving is right around the corner and boy are my friends excited! Of course they don't care about Thanksgiving per se, just the food lol. We normally have a group of friends come over, close friends, for this holiday as it is not celebrated here I usually do it on a Saturday night. This week we will order our turkey. Yes, we must order weeks in advance, it isn't like I can just go to the grocery store and pick one up, they just don't do that here; Now if you want a rabbit, then sure head to Carrefour and grab a couple!

Now I don't go about with all the traditional American fixing, as well I don't really like them all anyway lol. We will have the turkey, stuffing (in and out of bird), REAL mashed potatoes, corn, green beans this year (usually is broccoli but with the pregnancy and gas, well my hubby would prefer no extra gas this year lol) and gravy of course. I'll be making my chocolate cake and an apple tarte also. The first thanksgiving I did go about making a pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin, well lets just say I didn't like it and the guests started at it in shock. I also served sweet potatoes which I hate but figured I would let them try, they did not like them either lol. i also had cranberry sauce (a kind soul shipped some to me) which I hate but figured they would need to try it, well that was a flop also lol. So I will stick to what I like and has been tried & approved among the ranks. Now what really surprises me is how much they love my gravy. Each year I try to make a little more so I can have leftovers, each year I fail as they just eat more of it! LOL

Now about this turkey ordering, I admit it is a pain because you don't know what you will get till it arrives. Take lst year for example, I had my husband order a turkey, the day of the dinner he picks it up at the butcher and brings it home. I'm in the kitchen preparing the stuffing and he walks in with two grocery bags, I asked what else he bought. he said, well um this is the turkey. I said WHAT! Apparantly the turkey was very large and the butcher thought it would be best to cut it in half for us lolol! OMG my shock! Well to be honest thank god he did as I could only fit half in the oven, laying on its side! The legs were I swear the size of my calf lmao. Half the turkey fed 12 people with leftovers, the other half was frozen and slowly consumed lol. This year I'm hoping for something a bit more normal although I'm scared of what will happen when he walks in the door this year!

Madame Zaritska

2006-09-26T09:49:00.000+02:00

Madame Zaritska predicts your birth experience:

I visit a few pregnancy forums, not recommended for thos who are not pregnant unless you want to be attached by a bunch of hormonal bitches for sneezing to loud. Anyway,
The day you deliver, outside will be foggy. Your baby will arrive in the morning.
After a labor lasting approximately 9 hours, your child, a girl, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 7 pounds, 5 ounces, and will be 21 inches long. This child will have hazel eyes and be completely bald.

Considering i have about five more months to go, it will be a while to see how accurate the great computer generated psychics are , first test will be in two weeks when I have my u/s to determine the sex.

Star Ac

2006-09-25T18:27:00.000+02:00

Here in France we have the cross between Big Brother and American Idol, it is neither really but a bit of both called Star Academy. You have 16 students to begin with, mixture of boys and girls. All live in a big-ass chateau together. They go to classes for singing, dancing, acting, exercise plus direction helping them make the best of their performances. At the beginningof each week they are all evaluated by a group of six judges. This year they pick six on Monday with the lowest evaluation score, and they all get a second chance on Tuesday. The lowest three then will be judged Friday. One will be chosen by the public to stay, one by the other students and one will go...adieu! This goes on till there are two. Anyway I'm an on/off fan. I don't bother myself to watch it everyday, I haven't decided who I really like this year but there are several I can't stand to look at. (like Cynthis, god I must cover my eyes each time, sorry)

Baby Pic

2006-09-25T09:32:00.000+02:00

OK after the talk of the ivf below I want to share my 8 week scan pic as I love it. I have had a 12 week scan pic also (well 8 of them) but the first pic is my favorite. I have a doc appointment tomorrow evening to do some talking and paperwork and hopefully to make the appointment for the next scan so we can see the sex of the baby.

Not really much to say today, just posting so I could post the pic lol. The only thing on our mind, besides the baby, is waiting for the results of Regs job interview and where we'll decide to move, depending on the results. If he gets the job, we will move to Poitier, if not we'll stay here for now. I'm really hoping for Poitier though! i'll post more on that later :)

IVF

2006-09-23T14:00:00.000+02:00

Now when i first started this blog it was to track my experience in conceiving a child or trying to conceive a child. I never really went through with updating it because look I'm lazy. I have good intentions but I just forget to update or think I'll do it later and then when I go to do it later I forget what I wanted to say and all that blah. So here is a quick synopsis of what happened:

April 2005: visited a fertility specialist about getting my tubes reversed. They had been cut or tied or both since 1993 when I was 24 years old right after the c-section of my second child. At the time of visiting my specialist I was 35. I went for my lap and dye, very painful let me tell you to have that dye inserted inside of you so that they can get a good look at your fallopian tubes through exray. The exrays were inconclusive so my doctor had scheduled surgery to go in and take a look at what we were dealing with.

July 2005: had my surgery, small, three incisions, one over each ovary and one in my belly button. Unfortunately my uterus is badly tilted and he couldn't see anything. So he referred me to another specialist. The other specialists told us he could do the surgery but there was no guarantee. First he wasn't sure how close to the ovaries the tubes were cut, if too close reparation would be impossible. Even if he was able to repare the tubes it could take up to two or more years to conceive anyway as the older you are, the healing takes longer and we couldn't try before 6-12 months anyway. He said I could be near the age of 38-39 before I conceived and told us about IVF (FIV here). He explained they had an excellent team in Marseille, one of the best in France. He explained how the first ivf baby is now 24 there. So told us to think about it and let our other specialist (since he is also a obgyn) what we would like to do.

July 2005 still: went to see the doctor, told him ivf is what we wanted. Let me explain a bit here, if the operation didn't work, ivf was the next option. which means we could be delaying it if opting for an operation that might not work. So the doctor told us that the ivf doctor would need to approve us before beginning. He gave us the name and faxed our paperwork over.

Sept 2005: we were approved and after a few things to get straight, paperwork and insurance since four treatments of ivf are fully covered here, going to seminars to learn what we would go through and then waiting on my period to regulate we were ready for our first ivf treatment to start in December!

December/January: we had our first ivf treatment, I was over medicated, extremely heavy and sore and unfortunately it did not work

March 2006: talked with our ivf doctor, I needed to have one more full periods (three periods before each ivf is recommeneded) and then I could start my second ivf try.

May/June 2006: started my second ivf, everything went well, medication was lower dosed, went onto successfully conceive and am now 14 weeks pregnant. I will admit I wondered if ivf would really work for me, it seemed like it only happened to others or in movies. I'm really glad I was on of the lucky

If you want to read more details about my ivf experience, the link is to the right, IVF: Trying for Baby.

The bidet incident. What the hell is a bidet?

2006-09-22T23:14:00.000+02:00

Well that is one question I never thought of when I lived in the states. So imagine my confusion upon seeing one in the bathroom of my then fiancé (now my husband), who we will call R for now.I arrived in France with no real knowledge of what to expect, further details on that will come later though. Today's story is the bidet incident. When we had arrived at R's flat I had asked him, where is the bathroom? Simple question you would think. I mean if someone asks me where the bathroom is, I assume they need to use the toilet, at least I hope that is what they need to do and not snoop through my things or shoot up some drugs lol!Anyway, he pointed to what appeared to be the bathroom, so I walk on in and close the door. First I have to look around of course, and snoop! I mean, this is my new home and I have to see just how clean he is (later I learn a little too clean for my laziness lol). Very neat bathroom, clean sink, which thrilled me. My parents bathroom sink was beyond gross when I was a teenager (although now they have changed thank god!). They would smoke and do their hair in the bathroom, and I mean both parents (stories of my father hair-capades are destined to come later, I assure you) and there was hair and ashes everywhere.But back to the incident. Well I look to my right, beside the sink and see what appears to be a toilet shaped thing connected to the floor but with no seat, lid or bowl filled with water. Instead, it seemed to be a toilet shaped sink, complete with faucets and stopper. Confused I looked at it several minutes, really needing to pee at this point but having no clue what I was looking at. Finally I said to myself, I cannot hold it any longer, so I sat down, well squatted really cause I was scared and did my business. Well there was no toilet paper, obviously, so I had to do that little shake since I saw no kleenex anywhere near. Still dazed but what I was assuming was the toilet, I ran the water in it to clean it. Then I thought, my god what if I would have had to take a crap? Where the hell does that go?As I was walking out of the bathroom I happened to glance to the door to my left and what did I see? Yes you guessed it, a right proper toilet! Complete with seat, lid, bowl full of clean water, handle to flush and toilet paper! Well I was totally embarrassed and there was no way in hell I was going to tell R what I had just done, so I continued my first day, ok my first three years with him without one mention of this.Today he does know and he laughs everytime he thinks of it. But I don't feel so bad because one of our good friends happened to do the same thing! He had never seen a bidet before and used it as a toilet the first time too! So although I don't feel stupid anymore I still get a good laugh out of that one.And just so you know, we bought a new flat shortly after I arrived here. The first thing I told R, "the bidet has got to go" and go it went lol. For me it is a useless piece of ceramic that collects dust and is ugly. Sure some people use them to wash their feet or their backsides, personally my shower does a much better job :)