Haaaa I was to forget my contribution to the world's harmony this week!!!

Phewwww... glad I have still some working memory.
So here it is, and for once, it's been really hard to find a *different* picture for this one (I always try to find a picture we don't see often).
I luuuuuve his movies, the aura that shines around him, these eyes and smile! Wooooooooohoooooooooooooooo

I was surprised yesterday evening when I almost fell down like a dry flower!
I discovered I had high high temperature and then felt suddenly really broken. With some pain like in the bones everywhere.

The temperature went down in the morning, but I always worry I could transmit anything wrong to the shrimpette. Soooo wooosh, I went to the doc'. "A virus. You've just caught influenza, your temperature will go high then down like in cylcles for the next 10 days, you gotta rest".
LOL

I feel ok right now. And I'm sure it's because I gotta take care of the shrimpette. It seems I somehow keep my lil virus in a box and it will just open by itself when I know Martin is back and near the shrimpette!!!
Dat's magic!

I wanted to wish a special happy Thanksgiving to my Rican friends (+ big smooooch for Ariel here**~~*^* *) !
Just to get a bit of its spirit, I'm going to cook turkey with cranberry sauce tonight! Who said Frawnch were not inspired by American culture, hm? :P

I really enjoy painting Science-Fiction topic, as much as Fantasy ones actually! Both genres are open doors to imagination, at least to mine. A big source of pleasure :-)

...Pleasure that I got when working on this one (!) :



The Ultimate Trip


Among other things with this painting, I really wanted to try to draw a real kiss. Have you ever drawn one? Gawd, that is one of the most difficult subject I think. The practical trick is to hide both face if you make the characters with bending heads (you know?)... hehe... I tried to make my version of a *spatial* kiss. I like the painting, put I think the characters could be more stuck together, lips included :P ... anyway, that was a first try! :-))

I'm just back from the doc' and the shrimpette has caught her first otitis. And a bad bad one! The doc asked me to come back in a couple of days to check how it goes.
The eardrum in her right ear is pierced and the doc' fears the other will follow.
She's under heavy treatment for 10 days.

Fewwwww, now she gets an appropriate treatment, I'm reassured.
The poor shrimpette is also having stomach probbies (due to the otitis probably) and a rhinitis. All that added to her teef pain. That is much!!!

Anyway, I'm being initiated to all these devilish lil virus that are so frequent with babies. I know that it sounds weird, but I feel even more a *mama* than I did yesterday! LOL
**~~*^* *

Just a month before Xmas, time's driving a very fast red car, huh!!!

There gonna be so much to do till then... I luuuuuve Xmas, its colours and lights and cinnamon smells and warm spirit.
But I wish Santa Claus could be around more often because finding presents is pretty boring.



One sure thing is that I won't run for shopping, no desire... and no $$$ !
With such a big family and 3 xmas to celebrate (one in Hamburg, one with each of my divorced parents' families), we gotta be inventive, I tell you.
Martin and I agree to make a papier mâché Xmas this year!!! We gonna create papier mâché angels and faeries and devils... I just cross bits so that we get the time and talent!!!!

I usually spoil my papier mâché sculptures once I paint dem. I make them so kitsh that nobody would like to show them! lol

Anyway, Martin and I have different technics, that's very funny. We've started to build "bodies" yesterday while watching Terminator 3 (the kind of movie that allows multitasking :P)

And suddenly a new word came to life, maybe good enough to be added to the Magical Dictionnary by the way!....

TO FRICOT
(fricot-fricot, irregular verb, lol)
example: Oh you've been fricotting again with the neighbour, haven't you?
...hehe
meaning... having an affair with someone or at least knowing someone enough to play at the nurse and the doc... There is a part of "secret" + "not very honest" dimension in it. It's cute enough, not a nasty word.

In French, we don't use much "fricoter" anymore, but I can see very well mamas in the 1950s using it a LOT!

Sorry for the linguists, we can't help creating Frankensteinish words when we need them.... which are not easy to understand when you don't *nooooe*, I reckon!

Oh, btw, this word has been created by Esox and I on last weekend. We're kinda proud! :P
(Esox is a new member of the Dog House News Chatroom... I let you discover Esox there :P)

Ohhhh ohhhhhhh and I was to forget!!!
(slappin own face)

Lola has made her first steps yesterday!!!
She's not ready to run and seems to prefer to be on her all four, but dat's a beginning :-)))

personnal victory: I've finished my illustrations of the children's book about hyperactivity!!!!

weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

It's been 2 months I've been workin on it, I really needed to finish it. It was getting too long, preventing me from working properly on other projects.

Now I work on 2 projects: the Aussie book cover and an SF painting **~~*^* * *^^* *

3 new teef coming out : Lola's been crying the whole sunday! :((
They say 20% of babies do not stand it at all when the teeth are coming out... Lola has a bad time with them, having very red cheeks, biting all lil things she can, putting her hands in the mouff to try and ease the pain. But there's not much to do!

She cried last night from 1.30 to 4.30. Poor shrimpette, I hate it when she suffers that way.

Anyway, I think it gonna be a LONG day for Martin and I ... "2 zombies in Paris", that would make a fine Z movie ;-)

To the stooopid question "What would be your preferred way of dying", I agree with 90% of people that during one's sleep is really fine.

I'm all the more convinced of it when I hear such stories as....(you probably heard of it too).... this woman from Bangladesh, 38 years-old, who's been eaten "to death" (head to waist) by a 3 meters long python.

arrrrgggggggggg
And when I read such thing I always get stoopid questions popping out like... did she have the eyes open when her head entered the python?
Was she dead before being eaten or while being eaten (which would not change much to the horror of such a death)!

snakes, sharks, chicken and pigeons... enough to feed all my nightmares!

eeeeck

In case you wondered (I know at least ONE who did!!! hehe :P).... I haven't forgotten my contribution to the World Harmony!
So here's a picture of the man who's been selected as the sexiest one by People magazine.
I could have made the same choice, no problem! :P

Grab your sun-glasses and enjoy!

"Ask me a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g!!!! ......... I'm in the *muuuuuuud* to say YES!"

"Oooops, your time is over :P"

I've spent my day being after Lola telling her...
...NO (don't play with Joe's litter),
...NO (don't try to suck the plugs),
...NO (don't eat anything that look small and pretty)

OR...

...STOP (throwing the food around),
...STOP (screaming each time I tell something),
...STOP (tryng to drink all the water in your bath)

And I tell you, when you spend your day with these ugly words in the mouff, you can't keep on with that!

I'm glad it's the weekend!
YESSSSSSS!
I'm glad Martin can also take care of the shrimpette!
YESSSSSSS!
I'm glad the shrimpette is sleeping hard while I'm having a glass of wine!
OUIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!

hehehe

Black is beauDiful



We've been baaaadly beaten by the All Blacks today, but it was a great game! The game itself, the players, their t-shirts (woooooo!!!... kiddin!!!... not!), yeah fine moment!

It was funny, when we did a drop, the spectators weren't happy at all!!! ... That should make a funny atmosphere on Saturday :P

Anyway, we're not good enough... not yet... but soon! And guess where the next world rugger cup will happen, hm?!!!
lalaaaaaalalalaaaaaala

A purrrfect day is a day where I'm able to multitask.
Yup, i've just realized that. Kinda scary and stressing, but it works that way for me.

Today was not a purrfect one, I've been a mama at 400%, and it is just too much. Lola was in bad mood, she hasn't slept more than 40 minutes in the whole day (usually she makes heaven's naps of 2 hours), so I've had no time at all to do anything more than taking care of my princess.

And I need a 2 hours break, to relax and work (work is even more relaxing than taking care of a devilish 1 year-old shrimpette, rilly rilly ;-).
Now it's about midnight, and I'm not in the mood to start anything.

Tomorrow will be another day, huh :-)

Now... while I've been monotasking, the shrimpette has shown huge qualities for the multitaskin thingie... see:


watchin the teleBubbies+having her boDle+givin a massage to Joe!

I'm a proud mama!!!
RoaaaaaaaaRRRRRRRR
hehe

I've just seen Matrix, no not the final one, just Matrix #2, Matrix Reloaded.
I, so crazy for cinema, am now forced to watch movies only once they come out as a dvd. Try to go to cinema more than 3 times a year when you get a baby, it's an impossible mission!



Anyway.... I've been really disappointed. Just fed up with their serious faces and sunglasses, fed up with their slow action scenes, fed up with the story itself.
Oh and once I thought the real story could started, the movie stopped. Just like that!

I don't know about the third part, but they should have stopped with the first me thinks.

Martin tells me there are lots of elements coming from William Gibson's books (Neuromancer, etc.).... well then, he's not convinced me yet to try reading Gibson's books again! LOL

I had started, but nenene... I did not enjoy at all.
Even though the concept of *cyberpunk generation* sounds terrific (I think I just luuuuve the "cyberpunk" word ;-)

Martin tells now that Gibson's books is a "guy's stuff"... just like... Frank Zappa!...
...dunno, Martin might be right on that at the end! :P

Lola's getting good at playing with Gulliver! She's managed (maybe by chance, but several times) to move the mouse so that her little teletubbies film can start! Not bad, hey :P
I really wonder what she will be able to do with the computer in a couple of years. I think we gonna get some surprises :P

I've just been offered to make the cover of a book!
The author, an Aussie one (yup yup!), has written a Fantasy book and needs a cover for it now.
That sounds great!
But... I'm not sure he's ready to pay for it, and in this case I won't do anything...

Anyway, we'll see. At least I'm contacted for projects, it's already a good thing! :-)

I was surfing when I saw again Le Baiser by Rodin and... I realized I did not like it much! I dunno there is something which is not natural here. It seems the goil is forcing the man (who agrees to respond positively okok), yes dat's it! I think this kiss is not trooooly shared.

OR, the man is shy. Look at his hesitating hand!

Oh santamariajoseph, I've discovered we had pretty kewl neighbours!
Our neighbours, who live just the door in front of ours, and we have friends in common.
These friends had planned to visit us and them yesterday evening, and finally we all gathered for a delicious dinner :)
That was practical to check if Lola slept well, just the other door to open :-)

It was again pretty international, franco-german-canadian. The English Canadian (married to a French goil) one who was there seemed a bit surprised by our manners, maybe because we had all drunk. Dunno. Btw, we've tried about 4 different red wines and real delicious ones!
And we finally ended at about 3.00 with a lil glass of very old rum.

It's 8.00 now, no headache, and I feel ready for the Walloooooooobies / Blacks match! Wooohooooooooooooooo!!!

Today I wanna defend the right and freedom to be SLOWWWwwwwww.

I often see and hear old people apologizing because they just can't hurry.
I think that's kinda terrible because finally they are sorry for what they are: creatures who need time, persons who wish their body could always obey their desires.

So they're sorry for being too slow, sorry for not walking quickly enough, sorry for not always understanding quickly what they're told.

And I still wonder why we all put so much pressure on them since we will all visit these slow lands one day. We should feel concerned.
And I don't know but... sometimes we should even try to be slow ourselves.
Sitting down and relaxing.
Enjoying, for instance, looking at a lil Breton snail making the trip of his life **~~*^* * *

Here's the painting I've just finished, and one that I finally like, which is not often the case!
Oh and again a very female-ish one :-)


Cattitude

I've heard thousands of protesters (against Iraq's occupation I think?) are expected in London next week!
:-)))

The situation is not easy. I wouldn't enjoy being in the shoes of Tony Blair at the moment...
Of course an Iraq without Saddam is better. There's no comparison possible, yes. So weeee *pacifists* are forced to recognized there was no other way than using war to get rid of him?
I still can't agree with that for hundreds of reasons.

We talked of that last weekend, in a sober moment (;-), and we agreed that one of the means that could have helped the Iraqi would have been to stop the embargo years ago. That only was a way to starve the population, deprive it of the means to go against the power and support finally Saddam's dictatorship.

Anyway, I wish the American soldiers to be back at home as soon as possible. It must be terrible overthere.
I'd be the mama of one of dem, I'd go there take my son under the arm and take the liver out of anyone who would try to stop me (lol, did I say I was a pacifist?! ;-)

And here's my weekly humble contribution to the World harmony ;-)
This week, I've chosen an appropriate rugger symbol... Cheers!

(entering my bloggies' cottage... no dust around! kewl! -I wouldn't have cleaned anything anyway :P)

Our weekend in Bretagne was... TOO SHORT. And Fantabizoobidy. And amazingly sunny. And warm inside.
(happy sigh)


early morning view from the front garden

Again we spent much time in our future hobbit house, making plans, talking with the mason, tasting grapes we've discovered in the front garden, enjoying our *Life plan* :-) **~~*^* * ** ^^* *

We've also spent much time kinda partying, creating culinary challenges with other relatives. Gawd, if you wanna try new food, come at home one day. They (we) 're crazy with that when we start!
Each of us prepared a meal. I made "moules à la charenthaise" (curry mussels), Martin cooked *rabbit à la Martin* (his own recipe :P), others cooked stuff like porc with banana and mango or ris de veau (calf sweetbread), etc. All was delicious! Not the right place for those who wanna lose weight, I tell ya! hehehe

We also drank more than reasonnably. I mean much more! Wines, beers and calvas (calvados). Every single bottle we tried was simply terrific: no one got an headache in the mornings!!!
Unfortunatly we were kinda too drunk to go out to dance at 2 fest-noz which were organized just near. Ha well, you just can't have everything :P

It was also absobloodilutely fantastic to spend evenings near a huge old fireplace while enjoying loud muzik.

Too bad it takes 4 hours to go there otherwise we'd be there almost every weekend ;-)

I just could not leave for a long weekend without adding a lil painting to my gallery!
I'm working right now on a quite big one, which is almost finished, but today I show you the commissioned work i've finished last week.
(for my mama's company. Well, you gotta use your relations in biz!!! hehe)

It's a painting for a Xmas card which had to be traditionnal enough.


Santa's Blues

I could call it my own Call of the Wild...
It's getting very intense since a few days, and this Wild I'm talking about is desire for maternity. I'm feeling like an empty nest, ya know? hehe... that will only mean something to some mamas probably ;-)

It's never been like this before, my body feels like ready to welcome a new treasure.

What a unique feeling! What's strange though is that my body might be ready, but I am not! So I will wait a bit, a few months maximum, till my inner and outter selves come to a kind of agreement (G).


This mama feeling is even being a powerful source of energy. Must be the hormones or something.
hehe

No, I dunno really how to explain, it must be very female-ish, but it's here and I can almost feel it pulsing in my veins.

I did not *know* really if I'd rilly want to be a mama another time. Now I get my answer, i'm surprising myself :-)

Martin's down down down :-(
We should have signed for the house on Friday, but we just got a call and the owners's notary has fogotten to order and administrative paper which is necessary!!!

It looks as if it was the first house he's sold! RILLY!!!!! Grmmmmmmmmphhhhhhhhh
I'm more angry than down, but I understand Martin. We've had a lot of pressure to find money with the banks and it's been now 2 months we have it, and we still wait to sign!

And we had organized everything to leave for Bretagne this week. Martin had taken 2 days off, we've warned the bank we needed their cheque now, had taken rendez-vous for the house insurance, etc etc.

Fookin notary who must be the richest guy in his lands.
Remind me to be a notary in my next life, it seems to bring some kind of lazy life while you're sure to be highly paid!

Anyway, reasonnable or not (rather "not"), I told Martin we'll leave for Bretagne anyway.
I think a break is more necessary than saving a few euros;-)

We'll have long walks near the river, happy times near the fireplace and groovy atmosphere with relatives around (a few relatives had decided to join there to celebrate the house with us).

I'm just wondering, is 1st november the Catholic celebration of the Saints or of the Dead?
I think it's of the saints (gonna be my day then!!!! hehehe) actually.
But I'd rather speak of the Dead today.

Yesterday I just forgot to speak of one of the most talentuous artists (to me). Tim Burton! Halloween was really appropriate to tell a few words about him. I rilly luuuve most of his movies, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow... The nightmare before Xmas. Funny, macabre, poetic, unique. That's about my feeling concerning his work.

And I could use the same adjectives to tell how much I enjoyed his lil book *The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy* (the title itself is revealing about Burton's world I think ;-). I rilly RILLY recommend this book. I think there's nothing that can be compared to this one :-)


For Halloween,
Oyster Boy decided to go as a human.

And to finish with the Dead...
As a catholic I should be confident in the "after life" time. I am confident, but not because of my religion. Rather because of my intuition. What I know is Death is not THE end. Whatever it is, there's something after death. I don't tell that to reassure myself, I rather find this scary to tell the truth.

Anyway, we'll *see* when time will come!

(waving at my grand-fathers and my grand-mother overthere, oh and at Jim Morrison too :P)