joyeuse fête des pères!

happy father's day to my dear old dad! a few years ago i scanned a bunch of family pics onto my computer, and looking through them today, i realized i have only a very few pics of my dad! i guess that's what happens when you're always the one behind the camera (thanks, dad, for taking so many great pics all those years!)

i did find a few recent-ish ones, though..

father's day, 2003: on our way to horse shoe bay

2004: dad and lib come to san fran

2007: on the front porch in dallas

while i'm at it, i'll send a big happy dad's day to my dad-in-law, who, by the way, is the best dad-in-law i've ever had!

knox and jim, circa 1981? doesn't this one just melt your heart? i love it.

...and a little comic relief

j&j come to san fran, july 2004

wish we were there to spoil you, dads... but we send lots of love. and you should know that knox and i consider ourselves pretty darn lucky to have a couple of dads as great as you two.

untitled

i never realized how difficult it would be to finish the dissertation and leave paris at the very same moment in time... all i want to do is run outside and play. i want to go take pictures, eat confit de canard at lunch, drink champagne at the bois de vincennes, take evening bike rides, scour the book stalls on the seine, spend an afternoon drawing notre dame (possibly also whilst eating duck and sipping champagne - why not?). i need to soak it all up!

but instead, i am more often than not stuck inside, in front of my computer or at the library...

fortunately, inside has its own charms:

let's call this one "photographer descending a staircase" (fully clothed, bien sûr). it's not as inspiring as marcel duchamp's version, naturally...

"nude descending a staircase" (1912) marcelduchamp.net

but the checked floor and yellow door make me so happy that i almost don't mind being stuck inside all day.

runaway kitty

it's warm here (not as warm as it is there, i'm sure: today's high was somewhere in the mid-80s), so we've had our windows wide open lately... bob was, of course, very interested in this development. he'd spent all winter either on top of our modem, under the covers or tucked behind the space heater (singed kitty fur - yuk)... but once he saw this, he got himself a new spot.

the birds are back - it's like "24" for him

at first we were very careful, only letting him sit in this window and only while one of us was sitting there with him. but we have our own lives, after all, so eventually we slacked a bit. kp and i, as it turns out, have very different 'parenting' styles... he said, "no way, he'll make a break for freedom." i said, "where's he going to go? it's fine." and it was until we looked out the kitchen window last weekend to find bob in the neighbor's courtyard.

i thought we could trust him here. i thought he would just watch our exhibitionist neighbor do her modern dance routines like we do during dinner (first window to bob's left)


"ha ha! i'm out of here, suckers!"

well, i couldn't have been more wrong. you can tell he's checking for us here, getting ready to go for it... knox had to run around the block to get into this courtyard while i stood at the window calling to bob. he instantly regretted his decision, of course, and was mraowing semi-frantically while i cooed and sang 'twinkle twinkle little star' to him. fortunately knox got to him before he wondered off into the maze of parisian courtyards... if he'd slipped out somehow, we never would have found him.

what an exhausting adventure! (he's lost all window privileges, btw)

Y is for yaourt/yogurt

yaourt :: yogurt

if winter was all about mariage frères green tea with petit écolier cookies, this spring we've discovered the many uses of plain greek yogurt. french yogurt is good, and we've eaten our fair share, but greek really is better. and think of plain yogurt like a painter's canvas - so many possibilities!

here are two of our favorites:

**the homemade creamsicle**

1 C greek yogurt

1 C oj

1 C strawberries, raspberries, whatever berries you like, really

2 t vanilla extract (the original recipe calls for vanilla bean pods...? too much work)

1 heaping T clover honey

i added half a giant banana last time, which i think is a nice touch. otherwise, it's pretty tart.

toss it all in the blender and pour into popsicle molds (we use old yogurt glasses, which also make great picnic wine glasses. you can't eat them like a popsicle though because of the way the glass is shaped, but that hasn't diminished my enjoyment one bit.)

**greek treat**

1 C greek yogurt

a handful of dried apricots, cut into bite-size pieces

a handful of sliced, toasted almonds

a good drizzle of honey

the lousy quality of the light isn't helping this last pic much, but i must say, this is SO GOOD. there was a two-week period in march where i ate it daily. sometimes twice a day.

bon appétit!

X is for x-ray!

who knew there would be two posts for x?? but this is sort of cheating since i have just discovered that x-ray is actually "radiographie" in french. and here i was, all these years, thinking it was the same word, just pronounced "eeks-ray." oops.


anyway, i couldn't help but post it. it's a keepsake, i guess, something to remember paris, and in particular, all the nightmarish hours spent securing my carte de séjour (my residence permit). pretty groovy, huh? definitely better than an eiffel tower keychain, that's for sure. and i think the pink rubber gloves are a nice touch.