And while I'm up...



A very happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was so good, getting to bed by a little after 10 and all.

Then I was having dreams about babies and imagine my surprise when I woke up to find one in bed with me! I was so tired that I slept entirely through one very Isabelle, just screaming her head off. She refused to go back to bed, so Steven brought her in our bed with us, and she had just been sitting there quietly, maybe babbling every now and then. So now I took her up to put her down and am going to sit up until about 4 to see if she gets up again. Poor little bub bub - I wish I could figure out what they're getting so upset about when this happens :(


Back to bed in about 10 minutes for me.

French lesson tonight with Charlie, at the "adults only" time of 8 pm.

I remember channel 10 in Australia putting things on at "adults only" times of like 8.30; made me laugh.

Since the lesson is so late, eating dinner immediately following (about to make a sauce now) - inviting Charlie over since I know he won't have eaten as he's coming straight from a lecture in the city.

I got almost no sleep last night due to a) me going to bed at 2 am and b) being attacked - attacked, i say! - upon returning to the bedroom. Mmmmmmmm.

It's an absolutely glorious day here; it must be about 65 or 70 outside, clear and sunny. I think it's time to start going outside and playing with the girls in the back yard! Yay!

17. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, 347 pages.

Wow, what an amazing book. I'd heard so much about this that I had to read it, and what a glorious read. Part literary criticism and part memoir, Nafisi really does intertwine them beautifully. My only complaint is that I wanted to know more about her special book group, but alas......it was a fabulous read that I'd recommend to anyone.

18. Diary by Chuck Palahniuk, 261 pages.

I'd always heard what an interesting writer he is, so I had to finally try him out. I think I'm one of the few people who hasn't seen "Fight Club" yet, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. It took me about 40 pages to get into it, but once I was in - bam! - I was hooked! I'd recommend him in a heartbeat to someone who likes quick wit and evocative phrasing. Simply fabulous.

Total pages: 5,395.

X-posted.

French lesson with Charlie last night - holy wow was he a vision of hotness! Though he's got a funk goin on with his hair, cause he's either lettin it grow, not using product, or both - just looks a bit funkier than usual. But still, hotness was overflowing from him. Mrawr!

When Charlie was away last week, he was doing some work experience at the EU in Strassburg - ooh la la! Anyway, he was talking to a guy who deals with the US for foreign relations, and basically he's been told that the US will be in Iran within the year. Yay, or something.

Had steak again for dinner tonight - goddamn it was good. I reduced a little red wine at the end and made a nice little sauce for it; pity the red wine was pretty shit otherwise (even Steven thought so). Also made what Steven dubbed "yummy potatoes" - potato slices fried in a mixture of butter, olive oil, garlic, chili, and parsley - they were very yummy indeed!

Just gonna surf around for a bit.....I told Steven I was going to start giving him ideas for my birthday soon so he has no excuse to be unprepared :p

Oh, speaking of Steven, he's a freakin teacher's pet! No joke, he takes lessons twice a week from a proper teacher, he just scored 49 out of 50 and is now going to be having one on one lessons because he's doing *that* much better than the other two people in his class! So yeah, go him n stuff :)

Really fab day.

Jo and Michael came over at around two in hopes of watching the carnivale thing, but while it was scheduled to start at 2.30, by 3.00 it still hadn't started - typical French, really. But we had a really lovely chat and the kids had fun playing together as they always do, which was great.

Cece got carsick for the first time today. Unknowingly, Steven got caught up in the Paris to Nice Cycling Race - so there was lots of stopping and starting and that set poor Cece off :(

Speaking of cars, ours should be ready by the end of next week! We're getting a 2005 Opel Zafira (same as the Holden Zafira for those in Oz):


It's got leather seats, GPS, an automatic diesel engine....I'm just so excited! Right now we're paying €2,000/month to rent one - that's going to be a huuuge deal for us! All that money comin back in! Oh yeah, the best part? We're going to pay for it all in one hit - right then and there! Talk about wow! So....yeah.

Had a fab dinner tonight - just a very simple steak, salad, and really nice red wine. Slowly but surely I'm going to adjust my palate.

French lessons with Charlie tomorrow! Woo!! It's been over a week since I've seen him!

http://www.sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com

So so soooothing!

I made the most awesome dinner tonight.

Steven bought some little pork steaks last night when he went shopping, so it was up to me to do something with them. After looking through my cookbooks, I found a great recipe for seasoned pork medallions with a camembert cream sauce. I'm not crazy about stinky creamy cheeses, but this sounded really good. I cut the steaks so they were about a 1/2 inch thick, then seasoned them with garlic, chili, and pepper; cooked them in butter for about 5 minutes and then put them in the microwave on a plate I'd warmed for a minute. To the butter and spices leftover from the steaks, I added some dry cider, brought it to the boil, then added some cream and spices and brought that to the boil. The final step was adding half a block of camembert cheese without the rind and a few teaspoons of dijon mustard. Yummmmmm! Served with some egg noodles sauteed in butter, garlic, and pepper, green beans, tomatoes, fresh bread, and cider to drink. Had some coffee and some chocolate flan for dessert; brilliant.

I talked to Keith and Lori tonight - mom had them at her house painting part of her kitchen for her. He was telling me how he has an iPod mini that he accidentally put in the washer and dryer - and how after a week or so of drying out, it actually started to work again - just as good as before, without any memory loss or anything. Seriously, that's pretty amazing if you ask me! It makes me want to get an iPod even more now! Though I think Steven wants a palm pilot that can act as an mp3 player too......rather, a palm pilot sort of thing for travelling and such. I dunno.

Tomorrow there's some sort of Carnival parade (no, not Carnivale) going through the main street right by our house - so Jo and Michael are bringing their kids over in the afternoon so we can watch all the fun and then maybe have some coffee and treats back here afterwards. Maybe pics, hmmmmm.


I so love alfabettezoupe - I just talked to her for over 2 hours!! xoxoxoxoxoxox to you gorgeous - sleep well when you get there :x

I was good and got to bed at 9pm, but unfortunately the husband came with me. I'm not sure how he was so tired since I was the one that got up last night and he had a decent night's sleep, but there it is. I feel asleep fairly quickly, but then he woke me up about an hour ago with his loud snoring right in my ear. Actually, it alternated between really loud snoring and some odd noises he was making with his mouth........and it was hot due to extra blankets.

At least I got a few hours in before I got woken up this time - and hopefully I won't be up as long either.

Current Mood: tired

A few things from the miscellaneous file.

Last week I got an email from Classmates.com saying "Kira, you have a message waiting for you from Kira!" Well hot damn, I better check it out, hadn't I? So I click on the link, and lo and behold, there's an email waiting for me from a girl named Kira, who wanted to write me to say that we had the same maiden name and that she thought it was pretty cool. I kinda thought it was cool too, I mean she's probably about 8 years or so older than me, so I imagine Kira would've been a more unique name for her than it was for me (not like my school was riddled with them or anything, but it seems a bit more common). But even more amusing was when she told me that she was currently living in France with her French husband and daughters, but soon moving back to California. On my classmates profile it still has me listed as living in Australia, so to find out that she lives in southern France really is hugely coincidental! Talk about a small world, eh?

In January, I decided to treat myself to some little extravagances by way of magazines. I figure that I'm worth a few subscriptions a year, aren't I? You're damn right I am! So I went and ordered Vanity Fair, Glamour, Epicurious, Esquire, and GQ (which, btw, isn't nearly as good as I remembered it - I remember it as having really great articles, but now it's got *way* too many ads for my liking. Still, Steven seems to be enjoying it so that's good). So far I've received Vanity Fair and GQ; I don't remember the last time I read a magazine from cover to cover - I'm so glad I subscribed to VF! But anyway, today I received in the mail a deck of cards from Esquire for subscribing - a "women we love" sort of thing (though it would've been helpful to have the names of the actual women, not the photographers on the cards) - and man oh man they done fucked up my address! They've left out part of my city, and France is Frace (which is apparently difficult to figure out) - so I have to call them and straighten it out. But honestly, if you have an online form where the maximum letters for a city is 13 (just the first word of my city is 8 letters long :p), then there's going to be problems. And of course, Esquire is the only magazine I subscribed to that isn't Conde Nast - it's not like I have a preference on companies or anything, but apparently Hearst Magazines need to get a bit more tech savvy with their online subscription forms. Just a note of interest, nothing more.

So...erm...yeah.

Oh, and no French lessons this week - boo! Charlie's in Strassburg until late tomorrow night, and then he goes back home to Cornwall on Thursday morning for the weekend. So booooo!

Tonight's going to be an early one - Catie woke me up at 11 last night cause she wanted a cuddle (and then she got up again at around 12.30). That's not so bad, really...but she got me *right* as I was falling asleep, so once I heard her (because Steven was in a bloody coma), I was up until almost 2. I volunteered Steven for dinner and clean up as I want to be in bed by 9 at the latest tonight (in return, he's getting a yummy roast chicken dinner with all the fixins tomorrow night); mmmmmm, sleep.

It was a good weekend in general.

It was fairly nice having Steven around on Friday during the day. Though he managed to tick me off at the end of the night by bitching about how little he'd done during the day - because apparently he had this internal list of shit he wanted to get done, which in turn made me feel like I did fuck all during the day even though I watched the kids and whatnot. That's just damn annoying when that happens. And then he was going to make dinner, but opted not to in favour of assembling something for the girls room that had to be done right that minute. That was even more annoying, lemme tell ya. But in general, it was good :p

Saturday and Sunday was just more of the same, really. It snowed on Saturday, and we just did stuff around the house, really. Steven bitched because he was up too late the night before, but then proceded to stay up late on Saturday too - oh well. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em...or something :p

Saturday was a day of movies, though - "Singin' in the Rain", "The Breakfast Club", and "The Man from Snowy River". All brilliant flicks in their own right - I forgot just how much I loved "The Breakfast Club"! I really do need to obtain "16 Candles" to make my collection that much more complete.

Yesterday was more of the same, though I dug into a new book and started doing some odds and ends that never quite got finished - go figure.

On a girly note, I started new birth control. And it only comes with 21 pills, and that really fucks me off. Now, I could understand if the 21 pills were the pills you took when you weren't on your period, but they aren't. There's 7 pills for when you're on your period, and 14 for when you're not. Where's the harm in giving me 10 extra pills so I don't have to worry about remembering to take my pills? This is going to get old fast, I can just feel it.

Catie is really starting to get a bit braver now. A few times over the weekend, she's let go of whatever she's been holding onto to try and stand on her own. If she's not walking by my birthday (late May), I will be very surprised indeed. Steven and I were just talking last night about how when the girls were this age, they were nowhere close to walking. I mean, Cece was still lounging around on her side - I don't think she was even sitting up yet! Izzy was rolling over and sitting up like a champ, and they could both crawl, but they weren't trying to stand on their own, that's for sure! She's just growing up so fast.....too fast for my liking!!

And stonybloke, you really need to see wtf is up with the Royal Mail! I'm starting to think you fibbed all along! *sniffles*

13. Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, 196 pages.

Another great collection of essays by Sedaris, the standout of which is by far "The Santaland Diaries." It was stuck in at the very end, so it was a very good note to end on - but really, how can you not love something that finishes with Don't tell the store president I called you a bitch. Tell him I called you a fucking bitch, because that's exactly what you are. now get out of my sight before I do something we both regret. Makes me warm and fuzzy just thinking about it!

14. Split Images by Elmore Leonard, 356 pages.

This is the first full length book by Leonard that I've gotten my hands on (the other was a collection of short stories), and I'm very happy that it didn't disappoint. He had me hooked from the very first page; the story, the places, the characters, the twists - all of it was simply beautiful. He's dark, gritty, light, and smooth all that the same time, and with such a seductive quality, you can't help but want to read more.

15. A Year In the Merde by Stephen Clarke, 335 pages.

Of all places, I heard about this book on amazon.fr in the english book section. English writer Clarke spins a tale that's supposedly, possibly, partly true about his experiences while being on a contract for a French company and living in Paris. It's hilarious and entertaining from start to finish, and I'd highly push it on to someone who wants a good laugh.

16. I'm A Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson, 288 pages.

Yet another fabulous book by Bryson. Mainly this is a collection of columns that he did for a UK paper, but there's a few extras tossed in as well. Favourites would have to be "The War On Drugs," "Hail To The Chief," "Word Play," Last Night On the Titanic," and "An Address to the Graduating Class of Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire." Like everything else of his that I've read, he's wry, witty, critical, and sentimental - highly recommended.

Total Pages: 4,787.


X-Posted.

Some photos of the snow here.........

First we'll start off with some pictures of French traffic:

( more snow pics here )

Way to go to the US soldiers who managed to injure recently freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and killing the intelligence agent who helped guarantee her release.


U.S. Forces Injure Freed Italian Reporter
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Nursing an injured shoulder, an Italian journalist held by Iraqi insurgents for a month headed home Saturday, a day after she came under gunfire from U.S. troops while on her way to freedom. An intelligence agent who had helped negotiate her release was killed.

President Bush expressed regret and promised to investigate the incident, which happened at a checkpoint in Baghdad. The military said U.S. soldiers, not knowing the car was carrying journalist Giuliana Sgrena, fired after it failed to slow down.

But Bush's phone call late Friday to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did little to assuage anger In Italy, which has been holding its breath over Sgrena's fate for weeks. The shooting was likely to set off fresh protests against Berlusconi for keeping 3,000 troops in Iraq despite strong opposition.

"Another victim of an absurd war," said Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, leader of the Green Party.

A communist senator called for a protest Saturday in front of the U.S. Consulate in Milan.

Sgrena left Iraq after she was discharged from an American military hospital in Baghdad where she had been treated for shrapnel in the shoulder. She was expected in Rome later Saturday.

Sgrena, 56, was abducted Feb. 4 by gunmen who blocked her car outside Baghdad University. Last month, she was shown in a video pleading for her life and demanding that all foreign troops — including Italian forces — leave Iraq.

Friday's shooting occurred shortly after her release. It was about 9 p.m. in Baghdad at the time.

The U.S. military said the car was speeding as it approached a coalition checkpoint in western Baghdad on its way to the airport. It said soldiers shot into the engine block only after trying to warn the driver to stop by "hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots."

The intelligence agent was killed when he threw himself over Sgrena to protect her from U.S. fire, Apcom quoted Gabriele Polo, the editor of the leftist Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, as saying. Sgrena works for Il Manifesto.

Berlusconi identified the dead intelligence officer as Nicola Calipari and said he had been at the forefront of negotiations with the kidnappers. The prime minister said Calipari had been involved in the release of other Italian hostages in Iraq in the past.

The Americans said two people were wounded, but Berlusconi said there were three — Sgrena and two intelligence officers. One of the officers was in serious condition, according to the Apcom news agency in Italy.

Insurgents have repeatedly attacked checkpoints, and soldiers have often fired on cars that don't obey commands to stop or slow down.

Berlusconi said he had been celebrating Sgrena's release with the editor of Il Manifesto and Sgrena's boyfriend, Pier Scolari, when he took a phone call from an agent who informed them of the shooting.

"It's a shame that the joy we all felt was turned into tragedy," Berlusconi said.

The shooting came as a blow to Berlusconi, who continues to face huge protests over his support for the Iraq war and his refusal to withdraw Italian troops. Sgrena's newspaper was a loud opponent of the war.

"It's incredible that a man who was busying himself with the difficult task of saving a life was killed by those who say they are in Iraq to safeguard the life of civilians," said Piero Fassino, leader of the Democratic Party of the Left.

Bush called Berlusconi and expressed regret about the incident, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Friday night.

"The president assured Prime Minister Berlusconi it would be fully investigated," McClellan said.

McClellan wouldn't comment on what the incident might mean for participation by Italy or other countries in the coalition.

Another European reporter, Florence Aubenas, a veteran war correspondent for France's leftist daily Liberation, is still being held in Iraq. Aubenas and her interpreter, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, disappeared nearly two months ago.

Iraqis have reported numerous incidents where confusion at U.S. checkpoints has led to U.S. soldiers killing innocent civilians.

In a 2003 friendly-fire incident involving Italians, American soldiers in northern Iraq shot at a car carrying the Italian official heading up U.S. efforts to recover Iraq's looted antiquities. Pietro Cordone, the top Italian diplomat in Iraq, was unhurt, but his Iraqi translator was killed.

Also Friday, four U.S. troops were killed west of the capital in sprawling Anbar province, where American forces launched a sweep two weeks ago to root out insurgents, the military said. The four were assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

About 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq in the past year, and more than 30 of the hostages were killed.

Current Mood: infuriated

It's been snowing here.....a lot! I think yesterday we accumulated at least 4 inches or so. I know that doesn't seem like a lot (particularly to anyone in the midwest), but for Paris, that's a lot! To give you an idea of how bad it was yesterday, it took Steven almost 3 hours to get to work yesterday! Steven took the girls out in the snow yesterday, and I think they had a fun time - Izzy kept licking the snow off of her gloves :)

Steven ended up taking a snow day today.....he figured it wouldn't be worth going in, not only because of the travel time, but because the gates to the park would be closed and he'd have to find a parking spot in the town and walk into work (which is a huuuuuuuuuuge bitch) - and that would be fruitless because no deliveries would be made, and add to that the fact that everyone else in his department was gone, and it really was pointless for him to go. So he ended up doing some odds and ends around the house.

And I'm up far too late.....bed (and I'm sure Steven) is calling.

The night was pretty good, all in all.

Had my French lesson and did a pretty good job. Charlie was looking delicious as usual, and I really do need to get a picture of his hotness. After my lesson we had dinner - I made roast chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, the best gravy I've ever done before, and green beans; I know it went over well since Charlie oh so politely asked for seconds. Charlie brought a really lovely bottle of red wine - if I liked it, it must've been smooth, as I'm not huge on reds. After dinner we had coffee and an apple tart, and it was lovely. We had a great chat....talked politics, the royal family, education, etc. He left at around 10, and we have another lesson scheduled for Thursday.

While Steven and I were talking this morning, he said he had a good idea - he said that maybe Charlie would be interested in doing some babysitting of the girls; after all, if he's just sitting at home doing homework or whatever, he can sit at our place and earn some extra cash. So I think we'll propose that to him tomorrow and see if he'd be interested. That way Steven and I could go see a movie or whatever :)

I'm surprisingly tired today......I think it's going to be a fairly early night.

Yahoo can kiss my fat white ass for posting an article on Million Dollar Baby and revealing what the big plot twist was without so much as warning. I actually didn't want to know, but they just went right on and said this is what happens, blah blah blah, let's ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it.....

Fuckers.

Current Mood: annoyed

Okay, so three out of six isn't bad - but I was voting with my heart!

I haven't watched the show yet (and won't be able to for a week or two due to my sister-in-law recording it and sending it to me :p), but from the ceremony photos, it seems that Beyonce pretty much sang all the best song nominees? WTF is up with that? I like a bit of Beyonce, don't get me wrong......but that's just wrong - particularly the fact that she sang the song from Les Choristes; wrong, wrong, wrong!

From the photos, it seems that in general everyone looked pretty amazing - particularly Cate Blanchett - but then, when doesn't she?




The weekend was good.....yesterday was just a day of vegging, really. Steven didn't make it to Ikea due to the fact that it snowed a bit and the roads were slippery. I know it's all relative to where you are and whatnot, but I find it terribly funny that Parisiens can't handle less than an inch of accumulated snow. Honestly, when we had snow this past week, there was loads of footage on the news of traffic jams, accidents, etc. Steven said that he heard the weirdest thing behind him while he was driving to work - it turned out to be someone with chains on their tires! They wouldn't really have heavy duty tires here for snowy conditions since they rarely seem to get it.....so it's funny for me to watch - just like when I was living in Aus, and they'd think that 45 degrees was cooooooooold! But of course in their case, most Australian homes don't have central heating, so 45 really is damn cold for them! Anyway, Steven did a few things around the house, we watched some rugby matches, and I made some amazing tomato soup for dinner! I roasted all the vegetables first - tomatoes, red peppers, onions, and garlic......then I whirred 'em all up in the food processor, added cream, milk, sour cream and various spices, then made up some pasta and put it in there as well - it was absolutely delicious! Yummmmmmm!

Ooooh, a package is here!!

I'm almost annoyed that tarpo hasn't put his usual yahoo oscar contest up this year. boo!

But let's see just how wrong I can be with my Oscar picks, keeping in mind I've seen only one of the movies :p

Supp. Actor - Morgan Freeman (If Blanchett is owed for 'Elizabeth', Freeman is owed for his entire career)
Supp. Actress - Cate Blanchett
Actor - Jamie Foxx
Actress - Kate Winslet (Even though Swank is the favourite, she just really annoys me to no end)
Film - The Aviator
Director - Martin Scorsese (Talk about overdue)

Very good day today indeed.

Woke up at around 10 after a fairly fitful night of sleeping. I thought I did good by getting to bed a little after 1, but I just tossed and turned for a few hours and ended up throwing off one of the blankets and all my clothes - I was just boiling.

Much to my delight, I woke up due to a combination of Isabelle whining (that wasn't the delightful bit), and the postman making a huge delivery! jadz, thank you so much for the extra goodies along with my clothes!! The pyjamas are especially delicious - Steven thought I was very alluring indeed ;) Along with the huge box from you, 3 shipments of books arrived from a seller on http://www.abebooks.com! I found a whole bunch of books, particularly some suggested from Lucinda Holdforth in True Pleasures - ordered them just a few days ago and they're already here! Yay for even more reading!!

Had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon so I could get some more birth control.....the doctor is a really lovely guy who has his practice set up in a huge expat area near-by, so it's perfect.

Steven made a rather amazing tuna casserole tonight - he used a different kind of cheese and added some sour cream to it....very yummy!

We watched "Ray" tonight....holy wow, what a movie! From start to finish, it was by far one of the best movies I've seen in a long time - and if Jamie Foxx gets denied an oscar, then I'm going to be even more upset than when Cate Blanchett missed out for "Elizabeth". If you haven't seen it, get your ass in gear and do it!

I'm up way too late.....I think it's just about time for bed. Tomorrow holds Steven going to Ikea for some things, studying some French, and maybe watching a movie or two while we have fun with the girls :)

Not a bad day all round....the trio were pretty crabby in the afternoon, but it would really be too easy to expect that they actually sleep in the afternoons when they're tired. Sheesh.

Charlie came over for a French lesson tonight and it went pretty well (besides the fact that he was some delicious eye candy). We scheduled for next Tuesday instead of Monday and after our lesson I told him that really, I know how hard it must be to grab a decent meal since he's a) a student b) on his own and c) 20 and probably doesn't cook very well, so I told him that he should feel free to invite himself to dinner at any time that he feels like it. So he took me up on it and invited himself over for dinner after our lesson next week - yay :) Nah, it'll be fun though - it'll benefit everyone, or something.

Steven went all out and tossed a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner while we watched some telly.....and bed will shortly be the port of call (I think Steven is "reading" on the sleepy couch.

11. True Pleasures: A Memoir of Women in Paris by Lucinda Holdforth, 226 pages.

This one was recommended to me by the lovely bluemurf, and it's just wonderful. It's basically Holdforth's love letter to Paris; about the beautiful freedom it gives to women that come here - how they can become whatever it is that they desire. She talks about Chanel, George Sand, Madame du Pompadour, Edith Wharton, and Nancy Mitford just to name a few. The book is beautifully written and full of tidbits of information on the women that often had me scrambling for paper and pen. While the book itself was wonderful, probably the best thing that Holdforth did was include the reading list that she used to compile the book - I've already gone and bought some of the books on it, so that was probably the best thing about it for me!

12. The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Alboom, 208 pages.

Who knew that a sports writer would write fiction so very beautifully? I'm probably one of the few people who haven't read Tuesdays with Morrie yet, so I wasn't sure what to expect - but this is one that got talked up so much, that I really had to read it. It was gorgeous, from start to finish; everything about the book just sang - the premise, the characters, the actual story....I read it in one evening - I just had to finish it! Of course, by the time it ended I was in tears - with the last two people, how could you not be? It's a beautiful book and one I'm sure I'll read it again more than once or twice in the future.


Total: 3,612 pages.

X-posted.

Well boo, Charlie called and cancelled. Oh well, seeing as I haven't done any work lately, it's probably for the best.

Mom sent a box of goodies mainly for the girls - eating utensils and such now that they're starting to feed themselves. One of the things that she included was some goldfish crackers for them....but these kind change colours when you eat them? Anyway, I had the girls in their high chairs with their plates in front of them, including the crackers while I prepared fruit and stuff for when they were finished...and my eyes just about popped out of my head when I saw Cece's hands covered with red wetness - I thought she'd bitten herself or something fucked up like that! It was all over her hands and food - it took me a second to realise it wasn't blood but the goddamn crackers :p Stupid goldfish.

Bunch of dvds from ebay came - yay for dvds! Highly annoyed at the raping I got on the shipping fees, but not much I can do there.

Mmmmmm....sleeping babies, I'm savouring this :)

Shopping on Saturday was good. I picked up some new shoes and pyjamas for the big girls, a sleep bag for Catie, a bunch of stuff for this months project29 exchange, and i bought some really lovely pasta bowls for Steven; well for both of us really, but he was annoyed that the bowls we had in Sydney got left in Sydney. They were these great big bowls that were somewhat misshapen...they were fairly cheap but we loved 'em......unfortunately, Steven was rather annoyed when he went to make some noodles and found we didn't have a big bowl for them! I managed to find some really beautiful and somewhat pricey bowls, but they really are lovely so they're worth it.

Sunday consisted of a lot of laziness - big shock there! Steven went to the markets on his own as it was fairly bitter and nasty out, and I made a nice batch of spaghetti sauce that made the house smell oh so delicious!

French got sorely neglected - I'm sure Charlie won't be at all pleased. Well he'll say it's no big deal, but we both know he's secretly disappointed :p

Baby wise.....I shut Cece's fingers in the door because I didn't see them there - that made me feel so incredibly awful I can't even begin to properly say. Izzy took a header off the couch while I was out shopping, and Catie is really anxious to start standing - she really looks like she's going to pull herself up anyday now. That's some scary shit - she's just growing up way too fast.

Plans for the day.......review my French (maybe), heat up some leftover pasta, have some coffee, and be in bed by about 9.30.

Cancelled my French lesson on Thursday. By the time Steven got home, all three of the girls were crabby and it just wouldn't have worked out. Charlie was most understanding and concerned that I was okay, etc....very sweet of the lad, I reckon.

Last night was pizza and a movie - we watched The Cooler with Alec Baldwin and William H. Macy; it was a most excellent film, I must say. No one plays...losers, for lack of a better word, like Macy does. But in this movie, he's a loser that you can fall in love with - and that's what Maria Bello does. The premise was great, that there are people with such shitty luck that they affect everything and everyone around them; but it's kind of a dark fairy tale....and it works out brilliantly. Vegas, mafias, good guys, bad guys, and a love story; this one is a must see, really.

About to go shopping for some goodies....then do fuck all for the rest of the weekend - except work on my French, that *definitely* needs to be done!