Angela At Last...............

Our building's "Guardian" is a Columbian lady named Angela who by virtue of that also comes to clean twice a week too which is an odd feeling for me as Kian and Niall and I always kept the house clean in the past but that was in Lynchburg and now we're in Paris so like the absence of the car I suspect I'll pine for the vacuum cleaner and all of our trusty cleaning supplies.

I've heard of "Texas Tornadoes" but had never witnessed a "Columbian Tornado" before Angela came today at 1 PM (not 2 like I thought) and Kian, Niall, and I, tried mightily to communicate with Angela (double whammy of both French and Spanish) but to really no avail and she brusquely shooed us away from the various rooms we were in and the cats both fled when she turned the vacuum on (a Miele) and within a couple of hours the apartment was shinier than a dime in a goat's ass (an old saying from my First Sergeant in Germany that's stuck with me through the years).  Then came the moment where I'd try to explain that we have no checks yet as the bank never sent them to us but which are now on the way.  She probably thought that the crazy American was telling her that she'd get bupkus for cleaning our place so I need to call our French savior Veronique Perrot to save the day tomorrow.  Hopefully she can help me meet with Angela so we can iron out when we can pay her and exactly what her cleaning hours are so we won't miss each other and she won't be giving me the evil eye as only Columbians can do.

I'm cooking hamburgers for me and the guys tonight as Cassie has "another" business dinner.  I went  looking for ground beef in the Casino grocery store here today along with spices and sauces (I used to use Worcester Sauce) but did find Catchup, hamburger cheese, and something called Arome Saveur which has pictures of poultry, beef, and fish on it that I'm taking a chance on tonight.

More on the outcome tomorrow.

Cassie heads to Geneva to a major conference Monday but since our personal shipment hasn't arrived yet, she has to go shopping for a new dress and shoes.  Everything else was packed into the shipment that won't be here until another week passes.  Golly gee whiz and there's no place to shop around here.....*  Actually there are a SHIT LOAD of shops, pedestrian malls, you name it around just our neighborhood.  There were other things planned this weekend but we canceled them to get her ready for her debut in Geneva.

Everyone is fine and again especially fine due to the cleaning our  apartment got today.  I hope she doesn't think we're too funky.  But then again, when Veronique came by yesterday she inadvertently rang our neighbor's phone thinking it was ours and when she told him (we haven't met him yet) who she was and why she was here he pumped her for information on the "Americans" next door.  He's evidently seen the twins who he thinks are handsome and perhaps Angela told him that they're Autistic, not sure, but Veronique asked him how it was for him having us as neighbors and he told her that we were so quiet that he wasn't sure if we were actually here.  She told him of course that we were quite nice even as Americans went or something to that effect........*  What a hoot it is living here amidst the "Gross Bourgeoisie".  If they only knew.......*

More tomorrow pilgrims.......*

Time to whip up some bourgeoisie burgers.  How's that for a restaurant name??????

Love to all everywhere.....

A biento,

sid