kitchens and food

So, we have put a new kitchen in the house in Couze (actually Mark and Robyn have put a new kitchen in, with input and financing from us...). It is ALMOST finished, and I took some photos before I had a chance to crap it up with all the stuff I generally bring in to crap things up...

If you've either been here before, or seen photos, this place looks, shall we say, DIFFERENT. Several things are different that are not neces

sarily obvious...

Am having trouble with this business of positioning the photos...however, here's yet another photo, no telling where it will show up...

We got rid of the old table, chairs and hutch, because (I think they were mid-19th century Henri III style, oak not walnut, common here, ugly, I didn't like the stuff and Phil hated it, chairs unbearable, table rickety, and hutch useful but seriously ugly), and bought a 18th century 'table de chasse', unbelievably heavy, made for a basement kitchen where you would butcher boars and things, also too high, but at least it's REAL. Got some better chairs, too. The cupboards in the new kitchen actually have storage space; the drawers actually slide and don't fall apart; the cooktop and oven actually WORK. Whole new concept.

Stay tuned; I've cooked on both the cooktop and in the oven already...Looks good, n'est-ce pas?

Lillie

kitchens and food

Trip (!) to France, May 2011

So we had these tickets to leave for France on Wednesday, May 25, the date determined by activities in Kentucky. Turns out that we (me and Phil) could take two bags each, <= 50 pounds, not just one, on account of my being a Silver Medallion flyer with Delta (believe me, this is the ONLY benefit from that), and both of us being on the same booking. Sooooo, we get to the Lexington airport in plenty of time ("plenty" being determined by the phone call I got saying the flight was delayed an hour..., not a huge worry because we had 3 hours between connections in Detroit), only to learn that not only was it delayed further (hey, it's a shuttle plane going back and forth, one of those baby jets) because of the tornadoes between us an Detroit, but also, that it was sorta unlikely to happen at all...

Soooo, after hanging around awhile, they decided that the flight wasn't likely to happen AT ALL, and re-booked us on a flight the following day, Thursday, can't remember what time, but it was LEX/ATL/CDG/BOD with the ATL/CDG leg on Air France as was the not happening Detroit/CDG, rather than Delta (the food and service on Air France carriers is FAR SUPERIOR to that on Delta carriers, a fact not to be taken lightly...stay tuned). They did give each of us a $100 Delta voucher for our "inconvenience" although, as the guy pointed out (!) they didn't have to, since the delay was caused by the weather... So we went back home, after a detour to El Chico, as we were looking at two months without Mexican food. Problem there was that they didn't have the jalapeno relish I like so much, but this was minor...otherwise it was vintage El Chico...

Thursday...I don't remember all these times, but we went to the airport early, as Martin had to go to work...e.g., before noon. Got there and, guess what, another problem...All the people whose flights were delayed and/or cancelled on Wednesday were there now, trying to get out of town (don't you just love air travel these days?!? EVERY FLIGHT from wherever to wherever is overbooked, what with the airlines terrified of sending a plane out unless EVERY SINGLE SEAT is filled...everything into and out of LEX being one of those baby jets ((hey, at least they are no longer prop planes...)), and Delta having discontinued service from LEX to CVG)...

So, here we are, luggage and all, and the flight to ATL is seriously overbooked on account of the problems on Wednesday. So this guy (all the Delta representatives at the airport were really nice, and what a ghastly job...) asks us if we would be willing to not go through ATL and instead be driven up to CVG in a cab (at their expense, a $150 voucher to the cabbie), have $10 vouchers for lunch up in Cincinnati, and take a direct flight CVG/CDG, connecting (unfortunately six hours after we arrive at CDG) with the same flight to Bordeaux, and as compensation get a $600 Delta voucher EACH.

We said "yes" immediately. The cabbie was nice; I gave him a tip. The lunch at the Cincinnati airport wasn't all that bad. The flight was uneventful, although the food on the Delta flight was inedible (seriously...I had the chicken and Phil had the pasta, and neither was edible...only the green beans on my plate, which were out of a freezer bag, but were undercooked yet warm, crackers and cheese were edible, hey, the "butter" for the dried-out roll was some sort of "butter spread" that was 4% butter...it was basically ghastly, and they don't give you anything to drink anymore to ameliorate the suffering...). It was an uneventful flight, though, we arrived in Paris, had a six hour layover until the flight to Bordeaux, but arrived on time, which meant we didn't have any problems with the car lease/rental. And because I messed around and didn't book it until rather late, it's bigger than we usually get (it's a Peugeot Cielo station wagon), and also, IT ISN'T gray or silver. It's dark blue. Has AC but that doesn't work all that well.

So our "compensation" for the inconvenience was, put together, $1400 toward flights, e.g., it almost paid half the cost of this trip...the vouchers are welcome, but I ask you, did Delta make any money off us?

So we're here, still jet-lagged.. I didn't get up until nearly noon today, after getting up at 10 or 11 or something yesterday, but spending all afternoon running around shopping. Had planned to go to the Issigeac market today, but sorta slept through it; Phil slept through yesterday.

And that's the way it is, Sunday, May 29, 2011, as Walter Cronkite used to say...photos in next message (I have to download them...)

Lillie

new HVAC, etc. and other things

So I decided I CANNOT spend another winter in this house in Central Kentucky without a better heating system. Given that our current heat pump is on its last legs and that the propane boiler heating system is, shall we say, not exactly energy efficient (want to know how much we've been spending on propane lately? send me an email...), I made what could dbe called an "editorial" decision to install a geothermal system. We're all hoping and assuming it will be a serious improvement, on a number of fronts.

So they have been out here drilling wells, tearing out fences, drilling holes in the walls in the cellars, and generally blocking the drive with all sorts of large trucks for more than a week now. And then....

we got a call yesterday evening from George who said that there was a problem...I assumed it was something bad (when George phones and says there's a problem, it's usually not good news). He allowed as how perhaps I needed Phil to be on the phone, too, but then insisted it wasn't bad news...and I said, hey, have they found a skeleton somewhere, and he said well, yes...

So the guys had dug out underneath the porch, and unearthed some bones, including a "skull"...They needed to bring in the coroner...but when Phil and I wend down to the cellar and looked at the bones, even I recognized the skull as an animal skull (!); Phil declared it to be a dog skull...

When the coroner came today, she confirmed that the bones are animal bones (rats!), but delivered an edict to the guys doing the work. If they find ANY bones, they are to leave them alone, and phone the coroner asap. So there.

It was exciting, though, and more interesting than my pneumonia, as well as the damage I did to my face when I fell last Saturday. And I will be able to read better when I get my new glasses as I am using an old pair at the moment. Reading is, shall we say, a challenge....

Cheers, Lillie

Couple of things

It seems that the pneumonia issue is because of the RA. So there. Not a "big" deal, unless it is...so there...

Evidently we killed Osama bin Laden. Took long enough, and (!) a Democrat as President to manage it...Sorry if you're a Republican out there.

Even sorrier if you're a "birther". Gotta admit I'm enjoying the Donald Trump stuff, though. (If this offends you, and I DO try to keep it at a minimum, just quit reading, and wait until June, when we'll be in France, and blog postings will probably be more interesting...)

What with the pneumonia I've had for however long it is, and various other problems, the latest being my fall at the fund raiser gig Saturday night for the Hopewell Museum, I decided to cancel the graduation party next weekend. It would have been Sunday May 8, which is also Mother's Day, but the real issue is that I've sort of not been all that well, and also we have the house guests arriving very soon after Mother's Day for the COmparative Decision Making conference, these including three staying at our house ( Evelyn Korn, economist at Marburg University in Germany, Andy Sih from U.C. Davis, and Sarah Crowley, etc.). One of the problems with this is that these three all have to sleep in separate beds, which necessitated my actually putting words into action and turning the yellow room upstairs that used to be my office into a bedroom...in truth, it looks much, MUCH better as a bedroom than it ever did as an office.

On top of which, it is unlikely that anybody will ever suggest that I actually sleep up there, although the bed I bought for the room is better than the one I actually sleep on downstairs...but I'm not finished with all this preparation for all these guests...At least, one of the them is Sarah, and I can demand, I suppose, that she help me out.

This will, however, make me feel seriously incompetent, because when Philip and I visited his folks in Ft. Worth, everything was always, ALWAYS, pristine when we arrived...at my parents', however, Mother was NEVER ready for us. I guess perhaps it sorta averages out....

The yellow bedroom upstairs is lovely, however, no thanks to yours truly...Lydia and Ben were great...