W is for WALT! and washington state

spring break this year found me traveling to texas and washington - a bit of business, a bit of pleasure... i got to hang out with my mom, play with my nephews, see a bunch of family, stuff my face with tex-mex, rock out with the w-g's, talk about linda lê, chat with my favorite vietnamese teacher... all ingredients for a pretty fantastic trip.

first stop, big D:

this is walt's magnadoodle portrait of uncle knox. i think it's awesome!

snack time at the straughn's - sam and harry take this part of the day very seriously!

walt-man, who turns 5 today!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WALT!

next stop, seattle and chez w-g! they fed me fajitas, sammies, and coffee, let me sleep in their living room, gave me rides to campus... friday night was also dance party night (the w-g dance party mix is very similar to the one k&i have going). bref, it was a good time.

hazel did my hair for dinner friday night and then took the picture - she's 6 and totally awesome

this is from the "specters of hazel" series (i think she is rocking out to lady gaga here)

specters of hazel, 2

dance party, self-portrait with nora - she was game for the pic but really just wanted to get back out on the dance floor

but as much as i could've spent the whole weekend hanging with honsdawg, i did have some conferencing to do... (no pictures of the actual conference, though i must say, the room we were in was amazing).

cherry blossoms on uw's campus - who could get any work done here??

with the ever adorable cn on uw's campus

the view from our conference host's home in seattle

mt. rainier

planetary coolness

i would say the only negative of this trip was the fact that i have apparently racked up some pretty lousy flight kharma. first flight cancelled due to crazy winds in paris (combined with a broken RER - i was NOT a happy camper); second attempt to leave paris was delayed 4 hours for lack of crew; seattle-dallas flight was delayed 4 hours for lack of plane; dallas-london delayed for 2 hours due to thunderstorms; london-paris delayed 30 minutes just because... it was a great trip but i'm happy to know that there are no more flights in my immediate future!

flight delay # 4, reason: thunderstorms over dallas

V is for vacances d'été!

vacance d'été :: summer vacation

...which we will probably not be having this year. sigh. i should save this post for june, when i'll be frantically trying to finish my dissertation and wishing we were back in provence, but i can't help it. the low today is 3 degrees C, which translates to... well, COLD degrees F! and it was in the 20s a few days ago! so, i'm hoping that a nostalgic trip down memory lane will help warm our spirits...

the fab four, almost arrested in beaune... not really.

so, a&n started planning this adventure shortly after their january 2007 trip to paris. i believe n's words were "F this cold weather, let's head south" or something along those lines... so, two short years later, they made the trip back over and we did just that. rented a car, packed some sammies, and hit the road (a&n deserve a medal for surviving the road trip navigation dynamic that k&i have going, by the way. we bicker a lot when we're lost and sometimes even when we're not. plus we had a fender bender... it was not pretty).

we spent a week on the road, stopping for drinks and photos (and often in that order) in beaune, bonnieux, and cassis. we ate well. we lounged about. we drank far too many bottles of red wine (some of which turned into late-night microphones during raucous dance parties, the photos of which i will not be posting here...). we burned ourselves crisp on the beach. we hiked. we drove. and drove. and drove. and we laughed. a lot.

blue skies, bluer ocean, early fields of lavender, farm houses, vineyards, cherries, cold beers with a shot of pèche, good music, vegetables, bread, cheeeeese, sandals, short skirts, floppy hats, sunglasses, card games, good books, better friends... all the ingredients for a fabulous holiday in the south of france!

behold...

road shot #1 (courtesy of andh - ah got pretty good at these after 7 days!)

road shot #2 (andh)

the view from bonnieux

the view of bonnieux

the backyard

an afternoon in roussillon (andh)

mont saint victoire and lac du bimont

ndh (ah gets such great shots of her...)

love these two! (andh)

this one's not bad either, even when he's grumpy

wine tasting at bouachon (totally lost on us thanks to the previous night's shenanigans, andh)

road shot #3, provence countryside (andh)

cassis - love it here

(andh)

(andh)

(andh)

back in paris, at the favorite neighborhood bar

indoor picnic, or, ah discovers cantaloupe and prosciutto

U is for UBU

Ubu père :: pa Ubu

alfred jarry's masterful theater of the absurd, mastered by KP. and he was only 16. ah... memories! we saw a performance of this at the comédie française last spring, and it had nothing on WWHS 1995. de par ma chandelle verte!!

T is for tour

une tour :: a tower

tour eiffel

tour montparnasse

shapes, or, opposites attract

or, how to entertain yourselves on the métro...

SQUARE

ROUND!!

S is for SOLDES

SOLDES :: sale!!

the state sponsors two sale periods a year in france, one in january and the other in july (though this year there has been an increase, thanks to wall street's complete disregard for reality). we picked up a black suit for knox at a pretty decent price, and i got a new skirt for 15 euros! not a great score, actually, but it's still cute. by the time they do third markdowns, you can get all kinds of stuff for 70% off, but by that point, it's mostly the dregs. and never in my size.

R is for en retard

en retard :: late

travel plans this holiday season took us through chicago's o'hare, which has now replaced atlanta's hartsfield jackson in our book as the #1 most obnoxious airport in the country. it is to be avoided at all costs, particularly when flying in from europe during winter. sadly, we knew this already thanks to a christmas travel nightmare a few years ago that saw ol' LB break down in tears in the security line... but we'd forgotten, the vivid memory of atlanta's shockingly stupid design and uber-irritating security practices still dominating our "hated airports" top ten.

anyway, o'hare is back on top for now, thanks to the ONE dude working passport control, the only food option - chili's - which nearly put us both into sodium-induced shock, the hours we waited for a flight to philly after ours was cancelled - in vain - and the inane 24-hour news cycles that run non-stop in airports, that have been gloriously absent from our lives for the last year and a half, and which fill me with nasty, violent, humanity-loathing thoughts within minutes.

it wasn't actually ALL o'hare's fault. that genius on the 12/25 detroit flight made us 3 hours late getting out of paris... and then there was the snow, for which, technically, chicago is not to blame. but i still hate that place.

landing in chicago and pulling into the gate. ice on the wing already.

knox has gold status and could have gotten on this plane, but his low-priority, economy-class wife dragged him down the stand-by list. (you can see in the background that they're de-icing another plane - always an unnerving experience for a couple of texans!)

instead of going on to philly, we spent a night in an airport hotel, as did all these other poor saps. the shuttle scene was a total disaster, with people clawing and scratching to get on the one 15-seater that turned up once every 30 minutes or so. watching this unfold was almost as depressing as CNN.

Q is for quartier asiatique, or, knox discovers durian

knox and i regularly head over to the 13th for provisions - fish sauce, rice, tofu, etc. - and have a few favorites spots for vietnamese and thai food in the neighborhood. this is a picture story about one such outing...

now, according to wikipedia, durian is the "king of fruits" in southeast asia, known for gigantic size and "unique" odor. (have you ever been in an asian supermarket and thought, "WHAT is that smell?" it's durian). anthony burgess apparently once noted that eating durian was like having vanilla custard... in the latrine. i wouldn't know because i've never been able to get close enough to taste it.

there's a vietnamese legend about it... something about a poor, wondering mandarin wooing the daughter of a local big shot with its remarkable qualities, but i forget the details.

caution: one must be careful when standing under ripe durain fruit. if it falls on your head, it could be fatal.

this is the durian/black bean dessert knox insisted on ordering at a vietnamese joint in the 13th... (he has a thing for ordering the strangest dish on the menu)

and here is his reaction after the first bite.

lb: "don't say i didn't warn you..."

kp: "i think i like it..."

figures.