Notre premier project de construction: le conteneur de compost

Les ex-proprietaires de notre maison nous avaient laisse des planches en bois dans le garage, en bon etat. De meme, quand nous avons installe la nouvelle cloture en bois, nous avons du retirer un bout de l'ancienne.
Avec tout ce bois, nous avons decide de construire notre premier projet "outdoor": un conteneur de compost en bois. Les planches sur le devant sont dans des rails en bois, que l'on peut donc retirer si on veut retourner le compost.

On a donc decloue les planches (l'ancienne cloture), recloue les planches pour former le conteneur, scier des bouts pour pouvoir former les rails en bois sur le cote...et voila le travail:

The former landlords of our house left wood pieces in the garage. A lot. In good shape. Moreover, when we installed the new fence, we had to remove part of the old wood fence and we kept the wood, in good shape too.
With all this great wood, we decided to build our first outdoor project: the compost container. The wood pieces on the front are removable so that we can turn the compost.

Hence we did un-nail the wood (former fence), nail them together to build the container, saw the wood...we felt like real carpenters:

Notre jardin! Nuestro Jardin! Our Garden!

Notre jardin a bien grandit, grace aux pluies diluviennes, orages, et grand soleil:

Our garden is growing strong, thanks to stormy weather, torrential rains and sun:



Qui pourrait me dire ce qui est en train de pousser? On ne se souvient pas de tous ce qu'on a plante...

Who can tell me what is growing? We don't remember what we plant...oops...

Les meilleures meatballs "al colombiano"

Quand Ivan m'a dit: achetons de la viande hachee, car je veux essayer une recette de meatballs, j'ai saute dans ma voiture pour me rendre directement a Trader Joe's....
Car quand il dit "je veux essayer", ca signifie qu'il va cuisiner pour nous, trop top! Lui se charge de la viande, et moi du reste.

Les ingredients de bases:
Viande hachee (boeuf ou dinde)
4 ou 5 blancs d'oeufs
1 jaune d'oeuf
1 cup ou 200 gr de flocons d'avoine
Sel, poivre, autres epices "al gusto"


Cuisson: 20 mn au four, termostat 7-8

Apres, on peut faire de variation en ajoutant des oignons finement haches, du fromage rape, etc.


Ces boulettes de viandes, super proteinee a cause du blanc d'oeuf et de la viande, mais pauvre en matieres grasses (a condition que la viande ne contiene pas beaucoup de m.gr.) se sont revelees etre les meilleures boulettes pour moi.

Muchas Gracias mi colombiano!

Who needs a pick up truck when you have a Chevrolet Aveo?

Ma Voiture:



Moi et ma voiture, ainsi que quelques meubles d'Ikea...

Pumpkin Bread - Gateau a la citrouille

Traditionnellement, les gateaux a la citrouille sont tres populaires durant la periode de Novembre-Decembre pour Thanksgiving et les fetes de Noel.
Je n'ai pas eu l'occasion de faire cette recette l'annee derniere. Trader Joes vendant encore de la citrouille en boite (la meilleure facon d'obtenir de la citrouille en bouillie sans s'embeter avec une vraie citrouille), je me suis dis que c'etait une bonne occasion d'essayer la recette de ma copine Melissa.

Traditionally, pumpkin bread are very popular during Thanksgiving and Christmas time here in the US. I didn't have the opportunity to try the recipe last year. I saw in Trader Joe some pumpkin cans, and I told myself that this would be a great time to try it.

Voici la recette - merci Melissa pour me l'avoir donnee....

Here comes the recipe thanks to Melissa...

Ingredients: 2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter (softened at room temperature)
1 can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking power
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves - I replaced it with 1 tsp cardamom I added a little bit of chocolate chip

Preheat the oven at 325 F

Beat the butter with sugar. Beat in with eggs, one at a time. Beat in pumpkin puree.

Sift dry ingredients together and add to the first mix, and then add the chocolate chips.

Pour into 2 buttered loaf pans.

Bake one hour and 10 minutes or until knife is clean.

Resultat: trop bon...

Fencing is not only a great sport to watch!

Les bonheurs de l'apprentissage d'une langue est que l'on en apprends tous les jours. Comme je le dis souvent "you think you know but you don't", en gros, tu penses savoir mais en fait tu es encore ignorant.

The joy of learning a language is that we learn something new every day. As I usually say, "you think you know but you don't".

Par exemple, en anglais, le mot fencing signifie escrime ou bien...grillage. Ceci explique cela.
En francais, l'etymologie du mot escrime vient de l'ancien francais escremie lui-même dérivé du francique « skirmjan » signifiant : défendre, protéger.
Je suppose que les americains, voyant se sport pour la premiere fois, ont du se demander: mais pourquoi ils portent du grillage sur le visage...d'ou peut etre l'origine du mot pour ce sport.

For instance, in English, the word fencing has double signification: it describes the sport featuring combat using swords (among others) but as well what is supposed to be around your house, at least in france, in the US, a lots of houses d'ont have a fence.

Si vous vous demandez si nous avons pratique l'escrime la semaine derniere, la reponse est non.
Cependant, nous avons fait installer une nouvelle cloture tout autour de notre terrain, a fence.
Pour vous expliquer un peu le contexte, quand nous avons emmenage dans notre maison, il s'est avere qu'elle avait un grand terrain. Cependant, le jardin etait "coupe en deux", avec toute une partie cloturee separement du reste de la maison. En gros on avait deux petits terrains:

Now, if you are wondering if we did practice fencing last week, the answer is no. However, we decided to install a new fence around our house. To put you in context, when we moved to our new home, it appeared that this house had a huge backyard, but you could not notice it because it was "cut" in half, one part of the garden had an ugly fence all around it.

Premier terrain avec la maison et une belle cloture en bois:
First part of the field, with a pretty wood fence and the house itself:


Le garage au milieu des deux terrains:
The two car garage in between:



Le deuxieme terrain avec un grillage en fer, pas tres elegant:
The second part of the field, with a not so elegant foil fence:


Nous nous sommes donc decides pour une belle barriere en bois tout autour de la maison, en incluant le garage.

We decided to replace the foil fence, and to link the two fields all together, including the garage.

La cloture a ete enlevee, et les poteaux installes:
Fence is gone, wood post are in:


Apres deux jours de "pluie" qui a empeche l'equipe de venir travailler, ils sont venus a quatre ou cinq personnes hier pour terminer le travail.
After two days of "rain" that prevented the crew to come and work on this project, they came yesterday with four to five persons, and finish the work.

Chimi-churri, a longlasting Colombian love story!

NdlR: Post modifie March 28th

Il semblerait, selon Wiki, que le Chimi Churri serait d'origine argentine. Selon Ivan, elle est d'origine colombienne.

According to Wiki, the Chimi-churri comes from Argentina. According to Ivan, it comes from Colombia. Pick your battle.

C'est une sauce a base de coriandre, utilisee sur les viandes grillees. Si vous parlez a un colombien, il vous dira que cette sauce ne peut etre utiliser que sur des viandes. Par contre, si vous voulez, vous pouvez l'utilisez sur n'importe quoi, mais ce sera moins traditionel - mes collegues de travail aux Etats Unis ont demande a ma collegue colombienne si on pouvait utiliser le chimi churri en tant que sauce salade. Ma collegue colombienne a refute toutes utilisations autre que sur de la viande. Elle m'a fait penser a mon ex-collegue italien en Suede...les Suedois utilisent de la sauce bearnaise sur les pizzas a son grand desespoir...

It is a cilantro sauce, used on grilled meats. If you talk to a Colombian, he/she would tell you that Chimi-churri can only be used on meats. However, you can use it on anything you want, but it is not going as traditional as when using it on meats. You are warned!

My US colleagues asked my Colombian colleague if they could use the Chimi-Churri as salad dressing, and they got a "no at all" as answer. This discussion reminded me my Italian colleague in Sweden. He was quite desperate to see Swedish people enjoying pizza with Bearnaise sauce

Pizza med bearnaisesås:

Voici ma recette de Chimi Churri, elle provient de l'edition dominicale du Wall Street Journal:

130 gr de coriandre

70 gr de persil

120 ml d'huile d'olive

80 ml de vinaigre au vin rouge

2 gousses d'ail - j'en ai utilise 4

5 gr de piment rouges seches

2,5 gr de cumin en poudre

5 a 6 gr de gros sel - je n'en ai pas utilise, car nous ne mangeons pas de sel, mais je conseille vivement de saler la sauce en fonction des gouts de chacun!

Here comes the Chimi-Churri recipe, taken from the Sunday edition of the Wall Street Journal:

1 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves - I used 4 garlic cloves because we love it!
3/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp coarse salt - I didn't use any salt, only because we don't eat salt, but feel free to salt according to your taste buds

Pour ma version a la mangue, j'ai tout simplement remplace le persil par une mange entiere, bien mure - elle etait restee deux semaines dans mon frigo.

For the Mango version, I replaced the parsley with a whole ripped mango. Make sure the mango is very ripped (mine waited in my fridge for two weeks) so that the taste of the mango is really present

Can it get any rainier and colder here in Charlotte? Chimi-Churri-Mango sword fish & Green Curry Milk Coco Rice

And can a Blog title get any longer than that? I doubt it!

Looking back at last weekend, where we enjoyed a very sunny Saturday and Sunday, we came across an interesting Basketball field:

Right side:

Left side:

Cherchez ce qui cloche! Ivan vous mime la scene, sans ballon mais le coeur y est!

Yesterday night, testing new recipes in my kitchen, I came up with:

Swordfish with Chimi-Churri-Mango sauce
Rice with a green Curry - coco milk sauce

Ca donne ce resultat:

Recettes au prochain numero...

Our plants in the living room

Two new guests in our living room

Our Bamboo day 1

This is our new bamboo - Day 1

Sun, cold and oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies

Le soleil est de retour a Charlotte, bien que les temperatures soient encore un peu fraiches.

Sun is back in Charlotte, although the temperatures are still on the chilly side

Le weekend n'est pas encore planifie - on se tate entre aller faire un tour a Ikea, pour finir l'ameublement de la maison (la chambre d'amis n'a pas seulement besoin d'amis, mais d'un lit et d'une table de nuit) et aller faire un tour au parc. On essayera de faire les deux. En attendant, la matinee a deja ete bien remplie avec une fournee de cookies, recette venant d'une ex-collegue de Portland:

We did not plan the weekend yet. We are divided in going to Ikea, to have a look and maybe purchase the remaining furniture we need for our guest room, and in going to the parc to enjoy the great weather. We will try to do both. Meanwhile, this morning was already very busy and I made some delicious anti-diet chocolate chips-oatmeal cookies, recipe is from a previous colleague from Portland:

Cookies aux pepites de chocolat et flocon d'avoine

Melange 405 gr de farine + 5 gr de baking soda + 2.5 gr de sel -Mix 1 3/4 cup of flour + 1 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp salt. Set aside

Dans un deuxieme saladier, melange:
230 gr de beurre fondu + 345 gr de sucre brun + 114 gr de sucre blanc (il est d'important d'user deux sortes de sucre differentes, sinon, la chimie ne va pas marcher - croyez en mon experience)

Melt 2 sticks of unsalted butter + 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar + 1/2 cup white sugar

Ajoute au deuxieme saladier:
2 larges oeufs + 10 gr de lait + 10 gr de sucre vanille - Add to the buttery mix 2 large eggs, 2 tsp milk and 2 tsp vanilla

Ajoute saladier no 1 (farine) au deuxieme saladier - Add the flour mixture to the buttery mix

Ajoute 575 gr de flocons d'avoine - Add 2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

Ajoute 460 gr de pepites de chocolat - Add 2 cups of chocolate chips

Melange bien

Pose des petits tas de la pate obtenue sur une plaque (si possible qui n'attache pas, ou bien avec du papier sulfurise). Les petits tas vont s'etendre a la cuisson, alors pas la peine d'en mettre beaucoup par tas. Espacez les bien, pour ne pas obtenir un cookie geant au lieu de 12 cookies.

Faire cuire chaque tournee 15 minutes dans un four prechauffe a 190 degres.
Spoon onto parchment paper and bake at 375 F for 15 minutes


Les cookies seront encore mous a la sortie du four; cependant, apres 5 minutes a l'air libre, ils seront prets pour la degustation!

Note: cette recette aux quantites astronomiques permet de realiser au moins 36 cookies (trois fournees de 12 cookies).
J'ai congele le reste de pate crue pour une autre occasion.

Note that this recipe will make more than 36 cookies....I did freeze part of the dough, we can definitively not eat all these cookies by ourselves.

Voila le resultat:

Rain, cold and corn muffins

Oh well, I guess this rain is only here in Charlotte to remind us a little bit of Portland. As a rain consequence, we are staying home this weekend, enjoying some B movies and our new black office.

As promised, here comes the fabulous corn muffins recipe, taken from the light and fit Dannon recipes:

Ingredients:
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1-1/4 cups Strawberry, Vanilla (or whatever tastes good for you) yogurt
1/4 cup canola oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 F
In a bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt and oil. Then, add the yogurt mixture to the lour mixture and stir the batter until it is combined.
This should be enough batter for 12 muffins tins.
Bake the muffins in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes

Et voila:

Painting and enjoying the spring!

Apres la tempete de neige dimanche dernier, en moins d'une semaine, le temps s' est rechauffe et on a atteint les 26 degres au soleil aujourd'hui. Comme les habitants de Charlotte disent, le mois de mars arrive comme un lion et repart comme un agneau, faisant reference aux habituelles fortes intemperies du debut du mois de mars et a la chaleur et au beau temps des la fin du meme mois. Pour nous, c'est une grande premiere...nous ne sommes pas encore habitues!

After the snow storm last Sunday, in less than one week, the weather warmed up to reach 80 F today! As the Charlotteans say, if March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb, which means that March usually starts with bad weather and will end with warm and sunny weather. For us, this is new and we are not used yet to it!

Comme d'habitude, weekend bien rempli.

As usual, busy weekend.

On a commence a 8 heures du matin, de nouveau avec l'equipe de Habitat for Humanity. La maison est presque terminee! C'est assez impressionant. Cette fois-ci, nous avons peint la porte d'entree (ndR: nous n'avons pas choisi la couleur)

We started at 8am, helping out the crew of Habitat for Humanity. The house is almost done! It is quite impressive. This time, we paint the front door (for those who wonder, we did not pick the color)


De retour a la maison, on s'est occupe du jardin, et plus precisement le jardin potager. Ivan a construit une petite barriere en bois tout autour du jardin pour le rehausser, tandis que je le remplissais de feuille, terreau, terre.

Back to our house, we took care of our backyard, and especially the vegetable garden. While Ivan built a little wood fence around the hole, I was filling it with compost, leaves and stuffs.




Demain, petit brunch entre voisins chez nous. Photos et Recette seront publiees mercredi prochain....Quel superbe teasing!

Tomorrow, brunch at home with our neighbors. Pictures and recipes will be published later this week..what a teasing!

View from my car window

Saltillo, Mexico:

View from my window

Mountains, sunshine, calor, mucho calor, enjoying my last days of farniente...



Ivan, looking very professional and preparing his meeting with President Calderon:

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai avec le meuble...

Pour ceux qui s'inquietent de l'etat de mon meuble, voici quelques updates:

1. j'ai termine de peindre le meuble en debut de semaine - apres avoir bien gratte - que cela me serve de lecon
2. j'ai achete un produit pour faire la finition du meuble - une sorte de laque. Ivan m'a conseille de monter le meuble avant de la poser

For those who worry about my furniture, here are some updates:

1. I finished to paint the furniture beginning of last week - after a nice session of scratching - something I will definitively not forget for the next project
2. I bought the coating to apply to the furniture for a smooth "finition". Ivan recommended to assemble the furniture before applying it

3. C'etait une bonne idee...en effet, en essayant d'assembler le meuble aujourd'hui, leger probleme technique: il ne s'emboitait plus! Les couches de peinture (rappellez vous...je n'y suis pas allee de main morte) ont reserrees les embouchures, les ont rendues plus petites, et par consequent, impossible de le remboiter. Heureusement que le physicien de service est la...Ma technique au debut a ete de grater l'interieur des embouchures jusqu'a ce que la peinture disparaisse, pour pouvoir re-emboiter. Bon. Ca n'a pas vraiment marche, et puis, c'est quand meme assez long. Le physicien qui partage ma vie a dit que selon la theorie de Newton, si on tape avec un marteau, non pas directement sur le meuble (car le meuble est tres fragile) en un point, mais sur une planche en bois, l'impact va se repartir sur cette surface et ne va pas abimer le meuble, et aura le meme effet: emboiter la piece du haut sur celle du bas. Je lui ai repondu: je suis sure que ca va peter le meuble, pas question! Et puis, j'ai dit: ok, on essaye mais si tu me petes mon meuble, on va chez Ikea pour le remplacer.

3. It was a good idea...Indeed, when trying to assemble it today, slight technical problem: it did not fit together anymore! The paint layers (remember...I was heavy handed) tightened the openings, openings became smaller and consequently, no way to re-assemble the furniture. Luckily, I live with a physician, I mean physicist. My first thought was to scratch (again) the inside of the openings, to remove the layers of paints. Well, it didn't really work and it was a bit time consuming. The physicist explained me that according to Newton, if we hammer the furniture using a long piece of wood as cushion, the impact will distribute itself on the whole surface and won't damage the furniture, while fitting together the two pieces of wood. To which I replied: I am SURE the furniture will break with the impact, no way! (the wood's quality is very basic). Then, I said: Ok, we'll try, but if break it, we will go to Ikea and you will replace it.

Conclusion: Newton avait raison, meuble emboite sans avoir ete endommage - dommage, j'aurais bien ete faire un tour chez les Suedois...

Conclusion: Newton was right, furniture has been re-assembled without damages - too bad, I would have loved to visit my fellow Swedish friends...


p.s. Ivan m'a explique la theorie de Newton avec des chaussures a talon qui s'enfoncent dans la boue, et bien j'ai tout de suite compris.

p.s. Ivan explained me the Newton theory with High heels shoes which sink into the mud; well, it made much more sense to me!

Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity - Volontariat avec L'organisation Habitat for Humanity

Le weekend est enfin la, avec le soleil en prime! N'oubliez pas que chez nous, il ne pleut que la nuit...

The weekend is finally here, and sunshine too! Don't forget that it only rains at night where we are...

L'entreprise de Ivan a sponsorise un projet avec l'organisation Habitat for Humanity. L'entreprise a recolte des fonds (environ $60,000) pour acheter les materiaux necessaires a la construction d'une maison et a fournis beaucoup de volontaires (les employes de l'entreprise) et l'organisation Habitat for Humanity a organise le projet: construire une maison pour une famille qui n'a pas beaucoup de moyens.

The company where Ivan is working is the proud sponsor of a build-a-home project with Habitat for Humanity. The company raised about $60,000 in one year to purchase the materials needed to build a home and is providing an army of volunteer (the willing employees). Habitat for Humanity is managing the project: building a 4 bedrooms home for a family that can't afford to purchase a home. The organization is screening thoroughly families. The selected family will have to volunteer as well at least 75 hours with the organization and will still take a mortgage on the home - but for a very low price.

Nous avons donc participe a la construction de cette maison aujourd'hui. Le projet a deja commence depuis quelques semaines, alors les fondations et le toit etait deja en place. Aujourd'hui nous avons installe les portes ainsi que les bordures en bois situees en bas des murs.

Ivan and I did participate in the construction today: because the project started a few weeks ago, walls and roof are already in place. Today, we did install the interior doors and the trims.

La preuve en image:
Take a look:

Peindre un meuble 101 - Painting a furniture 101

Puisque nous avons de grands projets de peinture dans notre bureau - notament les tables - nous avons decide de faire un essai avec un meuble en bois que l'on avait recupere gratuitement a Portland. Meuble tres basique, donc meme si on se plante, la perte ne sera pas trop grave. En fouillant notre garage, nous avons trouve de la peinture noire et un pinceau - parfait pour commencer!

Since we have big paint projects in our home office - the desks - we decided to try out our painting skills with a small wood furniture we got for free in Portland. Basic furniture, which means that we can make mistake, it's Ok! By looking up in our garage, we even found black paint and a brush - we are good to go!

Je suis en charge de cette tache. La peinture a l'air tres bien, pas seche alors qu'elle date surement, mais je suis bien partie, et me voila a peindre tous les cotes du meuble. Pratique ce petit meuble, car on peut le demonter tres facilement (il est emboitable).

I am responsible for this task. Paint looks good, not dry even though it looks like it has been in the garage for ages. I get started and decided to paint all sides except for one that I will do tomorrow. This furniture is really nice - we can assemble and un-assemble it very handily.

La lecon de peinture arrivera le lendemain: j'avais pose mes planches sur des journaux pour appliquer la peinture, et je m'etais dis: "pas de probleme si je deborde, car il y a les journaux en dessous". Que nenni...la peinture qui a deborde a servi de colle et les journaux places sous les planches ont colles sur les planches....le lendemain, c'est qui qui gratte pour enlever les bouts de journaux sur le cote encore vierge?

The first paint lesson will come the day after: I had put the sides on newspaper to protect the floor. I paint very generously and didn't bother not to jut out of the sides. Well....the paint acted like glue on the other side (the one that still needed paint) and the newspaper got glue to the wood piece. Guess who is going to scratch the mess?

Lecon numero deux: n'oubliez pas de laver le pinceau a la fin de la seance peinture...le lendemain, sinon, il sera tout dur, et impossible a utiliser. Je crois me souvenir vaguement que ma maitresse de maternelle m'avait deja enseigne cela...mais j'ai du oublier en route....la preuve en image:

Lesson number two: don't forget to clean the brush after being done with painting. Otherwise, the next day, the brush will be unusable. I think I can remember my kindergarden teacher giving me this advice a long long time ago. Oh well.

Toute fiere, qu'elles sont belles ces planches repeintes:

Very Proud of my brand new wood pieces:


Apres lecon numero 1 (voir ci dessus), c'est moi qui m'y colle:
After lesson number 1, I am the scratcher:


Suite au prochain numero...application du vernis...Stay tuned!

Next, coating the wood pieces...Stay tuned!

Comment construire un Collecteur de Pluie/How to build a rain collector

Rendons a Cesar ce qui appartient a Cesar: le collecteur de pluie n'aurait pas ete possible sans wikihow et nos voisins American Beauty Garden Center. WikiHow nous a donne les bases - American Beauty Garden Center nous a montre qu'une version simplifiee marche aussi.

Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar: This rain collector would not have been possible without wikihow and the American Beauty Garden Center. Wikihow gave us the bases, ABGC showed us that a simplified version works as well.

Pourquoi un collecteur de pluie? Puisqu'il pleut autant a Charlotte qu'a Portland - preuve a l'appui apporte par mon ami John - il serait dommage de gacher cet "or liquide". D'autant plus que la construction du collecteur s'est avere tres facile. Les gouttieres americaines me semblent beaucoup plus facile a demonter que les gouttieres francaise. En meme temps, j'ai jamais essaye cela en France...

Why a rain collector? Since it is raining as much in Charlotte as in Portland - proof brought by my friend John - it would too bad to waste this liquid gold. Especially knowing that the construction turned out to be quite easy. American gutters look easier to unassemble than the French ones. At the same time, I never tried to unassemble them in France.

Tout d'abord, pose du robinet dans la poubelle recyclee en collecteur et stabilisation sur des paves:

First, build-in the spigot in the trash container recycled into rain collector and stabilization with cinder blocks:


Ensuite, decoupage de la gouttiere pour la faire arriver au niveau de la poubelle:

Then, cut the gutter to make it it to the level of the drum:

Resultat final: tada!

final result: et voila!

L'organisation du bureau

Le bureau. Piece ou le "coeur" de la maison bat, je veux bien sur parler des ordinateurs! Puisque nous n'avons ni telephone fixe (on en avait marre de recevoir des coups de telephone - telemarketing, ils appellent n'importe quand, weekends, soirs, la folie), ni television (c'est tres cher pour le produit final qui est une vraie daube), alors les ordinateurs nous permettent de tout faire.

On a recycle:
- la table du salon
- le bureau d'Ivan - en retirant les etageres du dessus
- un autre bureau noir que Ivan avait achete en arrivant aux states

On a forme deux jolis "L" colles l'un contre l'autre, et voila le resultat:

Avant:

Regardez mes belles lunettes:
Resultat final:

This blog se habla francais

Comme vous avez pu le constater, ce blog va parler Francais.




Y Espagnol tambien
(NdR: ca, c'est seulement pour voir si ves stats augmentent - solo para ver si las estadísticas del blog van a aumentar - just to see if the blog's stats will increase)


And English...if I still have the time!!

January 30th: New window treatment in the master bathroom

Another great thing when having a new hobby in a foreign country is to learn a whole new bunch of vocabulary.
Window treatment: la traduction en francaise serait le traitement des fenetres, en espagnol, el tratamiento de las ventanas.
Hm. It doesn't mean much in our native languages, nor do we have (as far as I know) a proper traduction. It actually means: "Window treatments add refinement and style to otherwise dull, boring windows. Shutters and awnings decorate the outside of your house, while blinds, shades, cornices, trim and draperies enhance the inside appeal".
Ca vous en bouche un coin, hein? You're amazed, eh ? Esta asombrado, cierto?

Anyway, we added a blind to the window, since it was pointing directly to our neighbor's windows - I am sure he missed seeing us in the bathroom...

Here are the highlights of this amazing performance:

Avant - Before - Antes
Durante - Pendant - Meanwhile
Apres - despues - after

Merci mon cheri!

2009: Home & Garden Improvement!

2009 will definitively be the year of our home and garden.

Starting from scratch, we have to find furniture for our new home, to start our vegetable garden and landscaping project in the backyard, build a new fence, build a home theater, have a nice guest room, etc, etc. The list seems to be endless!

The first issue that we encounter was with the wheelbarrow (la brouette - la carretilla). It was not possible to fit it in Ivan's car, and it just fit in mine - We had to drive back from the store with opened trunk. It was our first green adventure!!

I already got busy with the garden, and we were able to build our compost container (by recycling an old wood closet that was rooting in the garage: Ivan is taking the challenge to have the compost ready in three months! I am just saying...Good Luck with that! We will see...

And finally...welcome our new 'babies':

Green babies:

Tools babies:


Stay tuned...

Vacation Summary

We are back in Charlotte and slowly recovering from the 2 wonderful vacation weeks in Paris and Helsinki.

High points of the trips:
Family time - playing "the hat" with the whole family was definitively a blast



Food & Drinks - difficult not to mention the amazing food we enjoyed, especially the one we don't have here in the US at our regular stores, such as cheeses, rabbits, deer meat, dinner with food coming from my Grand Pa's vegetable garden, Champagne, Orangina rouge, and much more!


Sun: finally, after few years of terrible weather in Paris during the holiday season, we finally had two weeks non-stop sun. However, it was still winter and temperatures were averaging -3 Degrees (37 F)

Being able to visit Paris, Honfleur (Normandia), Helsinki (Finland) in two weeks, and in-between Christmas and New Year Eve celebration. Believe me, it required a very tight timing and a very lean organization...we did it!

Being able to bring some good French seeds back for our future vegetable garden in my luggage...even though my luggage has been searched through somewhere in the US.

Low Points:
Shall I mention the Chateau de Versailles? I think someone already mentioned it...


Our luggage didn't make it on time in Portland, but arrived two days later in Charlotte. I would say that the low point here would be to have to deal with disastrous customer service. We almost had to apologize to the airlines rep to ask for information about our lost luggage.

In all, best vacation ever for our December trips to Paris!

Our stay in Helsinki - December 30th to January 2nd

We were welcomed in Helsinki by my cousin Henry. He was a wonderful host during our stay in Helsinki and we would like to thank him again for this.

Helsinki is a very nice city with just one problem : "the cold" . For people like me it is always a challenge dealing with extreme cold climates.

We visited several places during our stay there. We were in Cafe Ursula, a nice place close to the ocean. We also went to a local museum and to a Mexican restaurant called Santa Fe.

For new year's eve we spent the afternoon watching movies (Apocalipto) and then we had a very nice dinner.

After midnight we decided to mix with the locals at Havana club a Latin bar where Latin music is played.

January 1st was used to go to Porvoo, a small town north east from Helsinki. There we enjoyed the cold by walking the streets and then by drinking some hot beverages. In the afternoon we chill out watching the transporter.

Chateau de Versailles - We are angry!

Well, we continue our vacation in France, today we went to the palace of Versailles. Our expectations were very high (not a good thing to do) and we were disapointed.

Versailles is a very beautiful place but the administration of that place does not have a clue about what it means to provide custumers an unforgettable experience.

First, we faced the waiting lines. You have to wait in line to buy the ticket, once you have the ticket, then you go to a different place to wait in another line to enter the place, then you wait in another line to get the audioguides........ And only then you can finally begin the tour. Why can not one get the ticket, enter the place and get the audioguide at the same place??????, this will reduce the waiting time of all customers.

Once we were in we were heavily disturbed by some pieces of contemporary art from Jeff Koons, what a distateful presentation. Can you imagine one of the rooms of the palace of Versailles, full of XVII art and in the middle of the room a Hoover vacuum cleaner displayed as the main attraction of the room???

One thing I can recommend, should you decide to go to Versailles, enjoy the garden and save the 16 euros of the ticket for a coffee after you are done wandering around in the garden. Do not waste your time in Versailles, at least until they get rid of those horrible pieces of art.

Cross Country trip: recap & stats

Total miles driven: 3,071 miles - soit 4942 kilometres

Total hours driven: 46 heures et 54 minutes

Crossing 8 states - la preuve en image:

Idaho:
Utah:

Wyoming:

Colorado:
Kansas:

Kentucky:

Tennessee:
North Carolina:

Traveling cross country from Portland OR to Charlotte NC - Day 7 and Last day - October 25th 2008

Do you know this feeling, where you will accelerate your pace knowing that you are getting closer and closer from home?
Well, our last day of drive from Nashville to Charlotte, NC was very exciting. Finally, we are reaching our destination. Not only this is the final destination, but this is as well the beginning of our new life in another state! We are closing one chapter and opening a new one at the same time.

We drove 428 miles in 6 hours and 9 minutes. "We" was actually Ivan, he made the whole drive this time. What an accomplishment! I was just shooting pictures of the welcome state signs...I am starting a new collect!




Temperatures are rising, sun accompanied us during the drive, what a great way to arrive to our new home!

Traveling cross country from Portland OR to Charlotte NC - Day 6 - October 24th 2008

On the road again...We are heading to Nashville TN on our 6th day of this road trip.

We drove 549 miles, in 7 hours and 43 mn, and we went through 4 different states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The Saint Louis famous Arch:


Our navigation tools:


Crossing the Ohio river:


After 6 days of driving, we are glad to arrive in Nashville. We are starting to get more and more claustrophobic inside the car and need some fresh air.

The weather in Nashville is much better than in Kansas, we can see that we are going south.



However, the hostel I picked was overpriced and very loud during the night, so it was a little bit of disappointment. It was the only one so far that didn't meet our expectations, which is a great average knowing that we booked everything online.

The unwelcoming hostel, the urge of arriving home, made us switched our plans and we decided to drive on Saturday to Charlotte, instead of staying one extra day in Nashville.

Traveling cross country from Portland OR to Charlotte NC - Day 5 - October 23th 2008

This was a traveling day, in which we had all the known weather conditions:
sun, wind, snow and rain.....

Well we had snow almost 60% of the time.

We covered 635 miles in 8 hours 34 minutes until we got to our destination for the day: Independence MO, Hometown of Harry Truman.

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast called Serendipity. This is a nice old and big house that has a lot of "stuff", antiques mostly.

Tomorrow we are up to 550 miles of driving to Nashville TN.

Traveling cross country from Portland OR to Charlotte NC - Day 4 - October 22th 2008

Our first day of real vacation during this trip! Finally, one day where we don't have to go anywhere...just chill out and enjoy the day quietly.

After a simple but yummy breakfast at the Foot of the Mountain Motel, we decided to go first to the laundromat, and to get rid of this chore. Luckily, the laundry had wifi and a coffee shop next door, so we were able to work online and enjoy our green teas while waiting for the laundry to be done.


Then, after picking up our lunch (sandwiches at Wild Oats-Whole Foods - who knows they were the same company?), we took our car and headed to the Rocky Mountain.

Even though the main road was closed due to the climate (the main road is always closed from mid-October to June), we were able to drive few miles inside the National Park, we enjoyed the wonderful scenery during the drive up, and we watched some wild wild life under the snow.

Our last stop for the day was at the Sink, boulder's famous spot for its burgers and its graffiti art all over the walls.


Then, back to our motel for a good night sleep. Next day was going to be a long one: more than 8 hours drive to Independent, Missouri (closed to Kansas City)

Traveling cross country from Portland OR to Charlotte NC - Day 3 - October 21th 2008

After having a wonderful breakfast at the Parrish Place (cereal, muffins, fresh fruit, yogurt, orange juice), we took off for our next destination: Boulder, Colorado.
We crossed three states (Utah, Wyoming, Colorado) and drove 7 hours and 35 minutes to cover 523 miles. The drive was pretty dull: Wyoming is quite monotone and even the freeway remains surprise less: straight ahead for miles and miles.
I drove 5 hours, and Ivan did the rest.



When we approached Boulder, the scenery changed a lot and wonderful mountains, the Rocky Mountains were ahead of us. Boulder is located about 1 hour from the Rocky mountains, and therefore, the feeling of being in a small town in the middle of the mountains is a great one! Very refreshing.



Boulder is a very popular tourist destination, in summer and winter. Right now, it is quieter - not many tourists in view - however, students are everywhere, there is a beautiful campus within the city walls. As well, parks, trees, small streets makes the city a perfect location to stay few days to relax and enjoy the mountain air and view.



Luckily, we picked Boulder to stay until Thursday morning, yippee!! :)

Our motel, the Foot Of the Mountain Motel, is ideally located and is made of small wood cabins, rustic but very clean and so cute. We feel like being in chalets. Very nice.



More on the Rocky Mountains tomorrow...

Traveling cross country from Portland OR to Charlotte NC - Day 2 - October 20th 2008

The day did not start so good, Laure had to call Hugo (this is an expression that we use in Colombia, when somebody is vomiting).

She could not have breakfast and was not feeling at all very good, however we started driving again hoping that she was going to feel better as the day progressed. (Actually hoping that she would not vomit inside the car)

The drive to Salt Lake City was 6 hours and 33 min and we covered 469 miles.

The weather in Salt Lake City was great, the city was very nice (at least the neighborhood that we saw, "sugar house neighborhood") and the place where we stayed was excellent.


We spent the night at Parrish Place, a bed and breakfast house that we recommend to all the people planning to go to SLC.

In SLC we had to go and look for some medicine or cream or something that would help the mosquito bites I got in the Grand Canyon. Each and every bite I got from the mosquitos were itching like crazy and they were getting bigger and bigger.

We were lucky finding a Whole Foods, where I could buy homeopathic cream and medicine to calm down the itching.

The rest of the day was spent eating (sushi) and sleeping.

Traveling cross country from Portland OR to Charlotte NC - Day 1 - October 19th 2008

After finishing our hike through the Grand Canyon, we took a plane at 7:15am from Phoenix to Portland. There we were welcomed by the lovely Shery.
In Portland we finished to pack the few things that we had at home and at around 1pm we started our drive to our first destination: Baker City OR.

We spent the night at a very nice hotel: the Geiser Grand Hotel. We were very tired, Laure had a upset stomach and my knee and right calf were hurting so we went to sleep as soon as we could.




Our next day's destination: Salt Lake City, Utah.

Grand Canyon from Rim to Rim in one day. Oct 17th - 18th

What a nice trip we had.
Laure and I met in Phoenix AZ, she was coming from Portland OR and I was coming from Charlotte NC. Everything worked as planned and the excitement of the trip started to get bigger and bigger as we were able to meet some of the 107 people that were going to be hiking the Grand Canyon with us.
Friday Oct 17th
This was basically a traveling day. We met all the hikers at the Palm Croft Baptist Church, where we took 2 buses that would take us from Phoenix to Kanab in UT.
In Kanab we had dinner with all the hikers and our guide, Scott, gave us all the instructions for the next day.

Something very amazing was that from all the 107 hikers, 50 were going to adventure in this trail for the very first time!
Saturday Oct 18th
The challenge has arrived. We woke up 4 am, since we had to go from Kanab to The North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is like 90 minutes from Kanab.
We started our "Grand" hike at 6:46 am. Our goal at that point was to make it to the other side the canyon by 5:30 pm. The weather was perfect and we were feeling full of energy. The scenery was magnificent, different colors, shades, trees and stones colored the trail.

Our first major accomplishment was to get to Phantom Ranch by 11 am. This first portion of the trail is a moderate hike that does not test your strength, since you are going the whole way downhill until you reach the bottom of the canyon, however your knees and feet get all the work. (You better tape your feet before you start this portion of the trail, otherwise you can be almost certain to get blisters.

Up to this point we had covered already 14 miles. For the 2nd part of the trail we decided to take the longest one, but the one with more shade and water. From this point forward we were facing a 10 mile trail that goes upwards from the Colorado River to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Our energy levels at this point, we were feeling great and the weather was just perfect, we were also glad that we were using different muscles since we were now going up.
We just kicked ass for 6 miles. At this point (in Indian Garden) we made a pit stop. This stop proved to be a not very good thing for me, since my muscles got cold and immediately after retuning the hike I started to feel a small cramp on my left hamstring and my right calf that impeded me to keep the same pace we had until then.
Laure continued to kick ass and should I have maintained the pace we had, we would had finish the trail a lot sooner.
At 4:02 we finally reach the top of the Rim, we finalized our 38 Km or 24 miles hike with at time of 8 hours 40 minutes.




After that we chill out with some of the other hikers and wait until everybody was finished, then we took the bus back to Phoenix where we arrived at 12:30 am. This allowed us to have 4 hours of sleep before we embarked in our new adventure....... Traveling cross country from Portland OR to Charlotte NC.....(But that is another story)

August 28th - September 5th: California Dream - Partie IV: We are not little chicken

Les prochains postes seront rediges par notre special guest Mseth7

Apres cette intense experience, nous nous octroyons deux jours de repos a Yosemite Valley. Nous nous decidons alors de refaire fonctionner nos gambettes (jambes) et de nous atteler a la randonnee menant a Glacier Point.


Celle ci est soutenue (4.6 miles soit 7.4 km), et la denivellation est importante (3,200 ft elevation gain soit 975 m d'elevation). La montee vaut le coup, car (NdT) la vue sur toute la vallee en haut du sommet est imprenable.


Apres quelques minutes de repos au sommet et n' ecoutant que notre "we-are-not-little-chicken" leitmotiv, nous nous engageons sur la "panorama trail" qui malgre ses 8,2 miles annonces (13.19 km), est plus facile car principalement en descente, puisque l' on se situe au Zenith de la vallee.


Chemin faisant, entiere est notre deception lorsque nous nous apercevons que la randonnee s' avere etre composee d' autant de montees que de descentes.
Apres cette deconvenue, nous nous enorgueillons d' avoir marcher 6 heures en tout, d' avoir pu observer de magnifiques point de vues et de nous avoir surpasser aussi bien physiquement que mentalement.


Traduction Libre avec l' aimable authorisation de Cherdass

After the backpacking experience, we allow ourselves two days of rest at Yosemite Valley. We decide then to go back to our favorite activity of the summer, hiking, and to tackle the Glacier Point hike.
Length: 4.6 miles ie 7.4 km
Elevation gain: 3,200 ft
The ascent is definitively worth the hike, because the view on the valley from the Glacier Point is breathtaking.


After few minutes of rest and chilling out, listening to our "we-are-not-little-chicken" leitmotiv, we headed down hill on an alternative trail, the panorama trail, which, despite the 8.2 miles length, should be easier since it will be going downhill.
However, a little bit disappointment pinches our hearts, when we notice that the trail not only goes downhill, but uphill as well.
Anyway, at the end of the journey, we are very proud of this 6 hours hike, of the great views we encounter, and the physical and mental performance of the day.

August 28th - September 5th: California Dream - Partie III: Yosemite

Les prochains postes seront rediges par notre special guest Mseth7

Le lundi suivant, a la premiere heure que nous autorise notre horloge biologique (4 heures du mat), nous decollons en direction de Yosemite National Park.


La premiere etape consiste a se rendre au plus jeune des "young lakes", situe a trois heures et demi de marche (7 miles) depuis Tuolomne Meadows, le premier arret effectue a l' interieur du parc national (nord est). Apres une excursion relevee, nous arrivons a destination: Young Lakes, 9,850 ft soit 3,002.28 metres d' altitude.


Le panorama est somptueux, nous passons une nuit au bord du lac qui, malgre le froid et les engelures sur la tente, restera memorable, et imperturbable.
Le retour se fera en passant par le "Dog Lake", nomme de cette facon en reference a la chienne et a la portee trouvee par Robert Marshall au abord du lac.

Traduction Libre avec l' aimable authorisation de Cherdass

The following Monday, early birds we are and we take off for Yosemite National Park at 4 am in the morning.
The first stage of the Yosemite discovery consists in backpacking until Young Lakes, located 3 hours and a half (about 7 miles) from Tuolomne Meadows, in the north east part of the park. After a intensive hike, we arrive at Young Lakes: 9,850 ft or 3,002.28 meters of elevation. The view is gorgeous, we spend the night along the lake, which, despite the cold and the frozen tent, remains unforgettable and unruffled.



We return to the Tuolomne Meadows hiking down by Dog lake, named in memory of a dog and its puppies found at this location by Robert Marshall in late 19s.

August 28th - September 5th: California Dream - Partie II: Lake Tahoe

Les prochains postes seront rediges par notre special guest Mseth7

Nous passons deux jours a une encablure du gigantesque et magnifique Lake Tahoe.


Notre campement est installe a cote du lac "Fallen Leaf" qui se trouve au sud est du Lac Tahoe, a environ 5 minutes en voiture.
Nous y goutons les premieres joies de la randonnee avec une petite balade de deux heures et demi dans la zone attractivement nommee "desolation wilderness".
Cet effort est recompense pour la premiere mais pas la derniere fois par une sortie en bateau gonflable sur le lac.


Cet hedonisme est puni le soir meme par une nuit tres agitee puisque un vent de force 47 empechera l'ensemble du camping de dormir. Le bateau a tenu bon, et est reste ancre a la tente de Laure et Ivan, plus precisement sur leur tetes.
C' est dans ces conditions certes idylliques que nous prenons le large vers le parc Yosemite le bien nomme.

Traduction avec l' aimable authorisation de Cherdass

Day 2: we are spending 3 days next to the great and immense Lake Tahoe. Our campground is located next to the Fallen leaf Lake, south east from the Lake Tahoe, and separated with a short 5 minutes drive.
We start our journey with a easy hike to the Cathedral lake, located in the Desolation Wilderness National Park.


This strenuous outing will be celebrated with a inflated boat trip on the famous lake.
This hedonism will be punished the very same night, as a strong wind blows on the campground throughout the night.
In these dreamy conditions, we nevertheless left the area and head up to the world famous Yosemite National Park.

August 28th - September 5th: California Dream - Partie I: Ashland

Les prochains postes seront rediges par notre special guest Mseth7

Debut du voyage: Jeudi soir, a peine 24 heures apres mon arrivee sur le sol Oreganais, nous sommes deja en route pour un periple qui durera approx. 1,900 miles parcourus en voiture.


Nous sommes donc partis pour avaler les 4 heures nous separant d' Ashland, ou se trouve le sympatique "Ashland Motel" et sa tentante piscine qui nous servira de havre de repos pour cette premiere nuit sur la route.

Traduction avec l' aimable authorisation de Cherdass

Trip begins: On Thursday night, 24 hours after my arrival in Oregon, we are already on the road for a road trip that will last about 1,900 miles. We left in the afternoon and drove 4 hours to arrive at the Ashland motel, where its comfy and simple room and tiny and cute swimming pool welcomed us for our first night.