New Year Tidings 2011

Cassie, Kian, Niall and I brought the New Year in this year like we have for the past10 or so years together with a toast at midnight although there was no ball that dropped here nor anywhere on local French TV although there was a countdown. We had Chinese food New Year's Eve and did our annual New Year's Day Open House but to a very small but quality group of guests and the jambalaya and chili with the bloody marys were all very good.

The guys started a new quarter at Strayer University and from what we're hearing they are on track to make the President's List academically which I think will put them both in the top 5% of students there. Not to belabor a point here but again, what a difference a year makes particularly for Kian who's thriving in the Strayer Model.

Cassie has re-tooled her approach to her job which has left her with far more time to relax and do much of what she loves doing which is GREAT!

AND, on January 12th I underwent oral surgery to have the growth in my mouth removed and several of my teeth worked on and my last 2 wisdom teeth removed. Along with that was a total cessation of any kind of alcohol consumption and restricted diet which has left me losing weight and on which I may remain for a while to drop so more weight while I'm at it. The saga of my mouth is not over yet as I still have some other dental work that will need to be done but my French Doctors have been great and they have my full confidence.

Oh, for those of you who watch, my hair is finally starting to show some gray.

Live is good in Paris.......

Love to all everywhere.....

Sid

Another Day

After taking a jog this afternoon that took me past the Eiffel Tower, I'm enjoying a hot soak with a glass of wine and a good book while the housekeeper cleans my apartment, when it hit me (to steal a phrase from Davy Crockett): You may all go to hell, and as for me, I will go to Paris. Despite another cold, rainy day that left me soaked...another day that the Christmas gifts my sister mailed more than two weeks ago still have not arrived...it was another day that found me amazed to be living where and how I am.

By the way, for those who were wondering, the castrated cock was delicious. I still can't resist referring to the "chapon" or capon that way. He gave well and long: I made a hearty chicken soup that I finished up today. God bless Anthony Bourdain, and my neighborhood boucherie.

Bonne Annee!

Cass

A Christmas Capon

A colleague from a training seminar in British Columbia, Canada, last September is visiting friends and family in Europe for the holidays. We basked in the sparkling splendor of the Eiffel Tower before dinner on Wednesday night. Earlier in the day, Sid and I bought the main course for our first Christmas dinner in Paris. After asking some friends and colleagues here about the traditional Christmas meal, I decided to make Poulet Roti, or roast chicken, using a "chapon" or capon, and following Anthony Bourdain's recipe. We got it from our neighborhood boucherie (butcher). It was in the front window -- feet, feathers, face and all. The butcher doesn't speak any English, but he understood when I dragged a finger across my neck and asked "s'il vous plait." He chopped off the clawed feet, torched off the feathers, and hacked off the head -- the scrawny neck hanging. (And Nora Ephron feels bad about HER neck!) At least he won't be looking at us while we're eating him. Although I've certainly heard of capons, I've never known what they are. Turns out I'll be spending Christmas day cooking a castrated cock. After a few glasses, I'm sure I'll stop giggling about that.

What beautiful Christmassy weather we've been enjoying. Picturesque snow dustings almost everyday. It's made daily shopping excursions that much more festive. Not so festive for travelers, unfortunately. Europe's airports have struggled with the early snowfalls, so much so that de Gaulle airport here in Paris has canceled half its flights because they've run out of de-icing fluid. It's nice not to be visiting here on business and be desperately trying to get home in time. My only rush is to get out of the cold & wet and back to Rue Nic to settle in with a good book and full glass. We may go out and see the lights on the Champs Elysees tonight...or we may not. ;~)

Winter Wonderland In Paris

It's snowing again here this morning and although it's beautiful after living here in Paris for close to year now there are certain things about how things work or don't work here that have really manifested themselves. The foremost recently is the completely lack of any street or sidewalk maintenance during snow events. In the past 3 weeks it's snowed almost every other day with a couple of days generating what they called here the biggest snow event since 1985 which amounted to around 3 inches. The entire city shut down completely and NOTHING was done to clear the streets or most of the sidewalks. I'll never complain about the services in Lynchburg ever again. Cassie did hear from a French colleague last week who told her with a smirk that during the last major snow event the government got so many calls from angry residents of various cities that they were now deploying military troops on the highways to rescue stranded motorists and others waylaid by the storms. For the most part though, France is a lot like other states in the US where no state tax is collected such as South Dakota which just closes the interstate highways when a big storm hits and actually has barricades that come down on all entrance ramps and stiff fines for anyone that is found on the interstates after that happens.

We're in the home stretch here heading towards our very first Christmas in Paris. It's been very pleasant and far less stressful than at home as things for us are just simpler. Even the tree which is reminiscent of Charlie Brown's is actually quite lovely and plans are being made to obtain our own turkey for Christmas this year from a local boucherie. Rest assured we're thinking of all our loved ones, friends and family back in the US.

We miss all of you and wish you could be here to share this with us. We'll post some new photos on Shutterfly today and I'll repost later on with a link for you all.

Joyeux Noel!

Sid

Vernon

An old (literally) friend passed away this week. His name was Vernon and he loved to tell stories, mow the lawn, eat good food, hold his great grand babies, drink good coffee, watch the Atlanta Braves, and everything else a retired fella would love. The cabinet under his bathroom sink was his liquor stash and I never heard him say anything negative about anyone in the too short time that I knew him. He's on the cover of our first CD dressed in a grass skirt while stationed in Pearl Harbor in 1943. We told him we were gonna make him famous.

As Vernon grew older he moved in with his daughter Sharon and her husband Dana who added an addition onto the house they lived in specially for him. His beloved wife Jessie Lou passed a number of years ago and as Vernon got older and older his health issues mounted but he hung in there. A little over a year ago Vernon had to go into an assisted living facility as he'd become weak and couldn't stand without falling a lot. His eye sight and hearing were pretty much gone and his life couldn't have been very much fun but still he hung in there.

This week he ran out of time and entered hospice in a Hampton Roads hospital and peacefully passed away early the other morning. I'm going to miss sitting with him and watching baseball. I'll also miss his stories and his kindness. I learned a lot from him in the time I knew him and I won't ever forget him.

Hopefully he's with Jessie Lou and still trying to keep her away from his liquor under the bathroom sink..........and back mowing the lawn again and working in his shop. Lastly, wherever he is they're gonna be treated to some mighty fine fish fries..........*

Miss ya buddy.........* Fair winds and following seas...........*

Love always,

Sid

Fred And Claudia's New House And Party

What a whirlwind last weekend was. Laura Prisc arrived Friday evening at around 8 PM and we were off to have dinner at Cafe Muette which was lovely and then Cassie and Laura walked up to Trocadero to get pictures of Laura in front of the Tour Eiffel. Then they walked back and stayed up until around 2 AM talking. Laura had to catch an 8 am cab downstairs so I got up at 6:30 to cook her some breakfast and make coffee and Cassie got up to see her out. Then we went back to bed for about an hour or so and Cassie had to get up again to go meet Denise Woernle for lunch and shopping which was in the middle of another beautiful snow storm (see picture included) and she didn't come back until around 5 PM when we all loaded up with back packs and one of my guitars and headed out on the Metro for the suburbs in super packed trains of all kinds for the ride to Fred and Claudia's hood where there was a party planned for around 8 PM.

We were a bit tired but perked right up in the below freezing weather with snow falling as Fred picked us up at the Chatiou Croissey station and we were on the way to their new house.
WOW, what a great space and of course a huge room reminiscent of our pal John Ward's big downstairs man cave/party room with heaps of music gear and lots of space. Kian and Niall disappeared upstairs with Claudia's son David and we got comfortable with Fred and Claudia as they awaited the arrival of 30 plus guests many of who were Brazilian (Claudia is from Brazil) and the rest were old school friends of Fred's. I can't tell you how cool the whole evening was particularly to be surrounded by people speaking Portuguese which is a very very musical language. Then Fred fired up a bunch of Brazilian dance music and that tore the roof off the sucker! Everyone was dancing and drinking champagne. Let's just say that everyone was in a real good mood by then and the party got crazier when Cassie and I and Fred and his friend "Chutt" jammed for about an hour which was followed by more dancing and champagne consumption. Cassie disappeared at around midnight but I hung in until around 3 AM. I don't think we got up until around 11 AM and then helped Claudia clean the house until Fred got up later.

We headed back to the 16th on the Metro and RER and stopped at La Defense for McDonalds and did Xmas the rest of the day and fell into bed early last night and got a great nights sleep.
Today is grocery store and trying to get Xmas lights for our little tree. Pictures of that will be in here as it comes together.

Much love to all everywhere!

Sid

Thanksgiving 2010 And Crow To Eat

This year Thanksgiving as always turned into something that was unlooked for but still welcome in ways that are still manifesting themselves. Doing Thanksgiving in Paris is an interesting proposition even on a good day and getting a large turkey was also quite an adventure but worth the chase. We had a multi-national crowd this Thanksgiving and they were all wonderful to be with and share food with. There was something for literally everyone and our final guests who are French neighbors from 2 floors up didn't arrive until everyone else had left as they're in a local choral ensemble and were at rehearsal. We still had plenty of food left and made them each a plate and then Cassie and I played a couple of songs for them which from the looks of it they enjoyed. We didn't get to bed until 1 AM Friday and Cassie had a meeting at 8 AM that she ended up being late for but overall the holiday was wonderful.

There were of course significant folks missing from either the table or Thanksgiving Day conversation this year which was a loss but still overall it was a great day.

There are occasions for all of us as humans when we either say or do things that shouldn't have ever been said or done and if anyone who's reading this knows anyone who's never done something like that I'd sure like to meet them and hear how they were able to find their through life without blowing it. I had the misfortune of doing something like that about a month ago in a moment of flash anger I should have been able to control but that got the best of me. The ensuing firestorm was necessary and I was rightfully chastened and "re-calibrated". I won't ever do that again.

As it is usually in things like this one will almost always find out what others truly think about them which is always a revelation but sometimes can be far more painful than the event that caused the revelations might have been or at least that come back at either the same intensity or higher. Those revelations have tempered me further but also brought me to a realization of who my real friends are and of and for all of them, I'm am triply blessed and humbled. I am the same imperfect person I always have been and continue to work towards a better me for all concerned.

None of us have an unlimited time on the planet and I'm most thankful for my family and friends who I most certainly would fail miserably without.

I wish everyone I know love and mercy and a joyous holiday season.

Thanksgiving is most appropriate indeed.......*

Sid