Work Redemption

Well, we made it back from Florida unscathed. No hurricane, not even any rain to speak of actually.

Turns out the meetings went really well. I think I even received a little work karma. One of the people I presented to responded to my "Thank You" email with the following:

"On a personal note…as I meet and work with many people from many companies I must say you personally provide an aura of energy and positive vibes that I rarely see in individuals…and you do an excellent professional job in your work…it was very much a pleasure meeting you and hope everything works out well!"

Get out-a-town man! I have to say...I was so flattered it was hard to not forward this to everyone I work with. Is that bad? Is it wrong that I want to parade my compliments around like a set of perky boobs and flat abs? I was, in fact, able to contain myself and only forwarded it to the person I presented with. Of course, he does own the company, and he did forward it to the rest of the group. Alas, I also posted it here, on the internet for all the world to see. Ewe...I think I'm done now. I have officially overdone my prideful display of a compliment.

I better be careful or my good work karma will bite me in the butt with the "pride" thing. That may have already happened actually. I mean, I have not heard if we won the deal yet...

The past weekend was great, Cyr and I just hung around the house, watched movies and relaxed. I also discovered that Duncan is shedding fur like crazy. It's like he is actually molting or something. So now I'm trying to brush him once a day to remove the hair in an orderly fashion as opposed to having black hair flying around the house. I hate it when there is a nice ray of sun pouring in a window and just when you smile and think; "Ah, the sun, how beautiful!" you see floating hairs and dust and think: "Ah, the sun, it shows me how I need to dust!" Poor Duncan, he's a little behind for the summer shedding thing, it's been hot here in Texas since March or so. Guess his little body is still on French time.

A New Cat

Well, Duncan survived his surgery and is now lounging around the house taking pain meds three times a day. Although personally I don't really think he needs them, he just likes the relaxed feeling he gets from them...I have to watch that little guy, don't want him pulling a Rush Limbaugh on me.

I picked him up from the snippy place around 4:30pm the same day I dropped him off. I was expecting him to be quiet and drugged out, but he seemed fairly alert and even meowed on the way home a little. Poor guy was probably traumatized. Not only was he neutered, but he got a feline leukemia immunization and some other vaccine thing. Then, in my quest to be a good pet owner I tried to take a short cut home and it ended up making a 15 minute trip a 30 minute trip. Sorry Duncan...it tried.

Being that this is my first cat I had no idea of the aftercare but had looked up the info on the internet. Turned out I needed to use a special kind of little or news paper for a week after the surgery so that the incision didn't get infected. They don't use stitches any more in male cats, they just apply some super-glue type stuff and let 'em go. I bought the Daily News (cute name eh? It's litter made from recycled news paper) and paid for his surgery and the shots. It wasn't too bad, the whole thing cost me $95 at the non-profit SNAP (the Spay Neuter Assistance Program) place. I heard people talking about how their vets were asking $150 for male and $250 for females if the office did it. Crazy!

Now I love the earth and try to do my part as much as I can, but I might have to draw the line at recycled or newspaper cat litter. This stuff is hard to deal with because it doesn't clump plus it smells like a cat in here now. I hate that. Oh well, just one more week of this and we should have our new house (yeah!) and we can bring back the Fresh Step. He seems to be doing pretty well though, and miracle of all miracles...he has not cried during the night since we brought him home. I don't know if the night time crying is fixed (pun fully intended), and I hope not to jinx things with this email, but I am feeling optimistic about being able to let him roam the new house at night without him keeping us up. Especially with the pheromone thing we are going to unleash in the new place before he arrives. As my friend Steph says; I'm going to try to "Kitty Fung Shui" my new place. I hope it works. As you might have guessed from the title of this post; he really does seem like a new cat. Or rather just a slightly improved version of the original.

One more day...

...until Duncan gets his manhood cut off. I hate to be heartless, but I can not friggin wait for this cat to be "less of a man".

Lately Duncan has taken to meowing very loudly and frequently beginning at 11:30 and not stopping until about 6am. The little bastard. We have tried locking him in the bathroom with water and food. He then proceeded to claw for 6 hours (not kidding) under the door ripping up the carpet that butts up to the door. Then he would eat the carpet and throw it up. This is the first cat vomit I have had to deal with. Now I know why I never had a cat.

We have also tried the "squirting with water guns" approach. As a matter of fact I have two (one for me one for Cyr) double barrel hand gun style water guns to get him with. He runs off then is back a few minuets later. I'm fairly certain he thinks its a game.

I have read a lot on line about this and there are many thoughts. Let me share with you what I have found starting from the most commonly suggested:

1. Ignore the cat at all costs and praise him during the day when he is quiet. --- I have tried this but I can't help but cry out for him to "shut the hell up" in my sleep. It just comes out.
2. Shut the cat in a room by itself and pay no attention to it. --- See above tale of carpet destruction and puke.
3. Get him neutered. --- Within 24 hours of this post he will be under the knife. If I didn't have it scheduled I swear I might do it myself with a Ginsu and some super glue to close the wound (no way am I putting a needle near an injured cat).
4. Get another cat to keep the first one company. --- I hope this person gets over his/her crack addiction quickly.
5. Play with your cat and keep him awake before bed. --- Yes, I am trying. I am poking and prodding and playing and such.
   
6. Use a shock collar. --- Is it cruel that I actually thought of this first prior to reading about it online? Our new rental house should have a room far enough away from ours that we won't be able to hear him so I am hoping this won't be a big deal in two weeks. Plus maybe the neutering will help. I know this sounds cruel to many, but all I can think is that my Mom spanked me when I was a kid and I turned out fine. Sort of.
7. Use Feliway, the cat pheromone thing to calm them down. --- Have looked it up and am thinking of getting some to put in the rent house before we move in. How friggin dorky is that?! It would be like "Welcome Duncan to your new abode. Sit. Relax. Be calm because you have nothing to fear here. Smell your acceptance little one. You are the King Cat in this castle."
   
8. Realize you are not meant to be a cat owner and find a better home with a deaf person for your cat. --- Cyr and I are too attached to get rid of the little guy. He just might never get to sleep in the same room, or within 35 feet of us, again.

So wish us luck. We have one more tormented night of sleep ahead of us and then tomorrow it's off to the vet! Maybe he knows it's coming. Maybe that is why he's difficult.

A Kitty Passport

I'm sitting on the couch still full from another great meal at my mother-in-laws. Mmmm...champagne, little appetizers, great wine, some lamb and green beans with bacon wrapped around them and then home made chocolate mouse to top it off. I am one lucky woman!! I was mad at myself that I did not take my camera to take photos of it. She always makes things looks so good. We had a salad that had smoked fish, caviar, tomatoes, lettuce and grapefruit pieces and hard boiled egg pieces on it. It was fantastic. Next time I will take pictures darn it.

As you might have read in my last post; Duncan will be riding with us to Houston in the cabin of the plane. To do this he will need a kitty passport plus some drugs. A quick visit to the vet and about 130 euros and it was all taken care of. Check out the little guy with his passport!

Notice it says "France". Guess he will have to go through the "Non-US Citizen" line.

He also got a rabies shot and a chip put in the back of his neck so that if he gets lost they can scan him (like a can of beans at the store) and figure out where he is from. I guess we register him when we get to Houston with our vet. His chip says he's French. "FRA" plus his number. He will be the tres cool cat on the block. I wonder if he has an accent...

I also asked about drugs to make him sleep on the plane and if I should put a shoe box with little in the bag. You can see the bag, it's like a duffel bag with one end that is firm so it doesn't collapse. The doctor said she would prescribe him a pill for the flight. She told me to give him half a pill and wait two hours. After that I could give him another 1/4 or the other 1/2 if he needed it. When I paid she gave me a box with the following.

Uhh...didn't you say ONE pill? They don't have dosing here in France. I forgot. When you get meds you get a box full and take what the doctor says. It's the same for animals I see. Maybe I can get rich at the airport selling these things...anyone need to make an animal sleep? Just call or email me. Concerning the shoe box and litter idea; she just said to put some paper towels in the bag in case he had to go. I'm bringing zip lock bags in case of poop. I don't want anyone to be subject to that stuff. It's amazing what a big smell comes out of such a small butt. She also said to take his water away about 3 hours before we left. Poor fella...he is going to be thirsty.

So it looks like Duncan is ready. We also walked around a bit after the visit just so he could get used to the carrier. I don't know if it helped, but it made me feel better.

A quick week of travel

Many of you out there live away from your families, I know this because I stalk read many of your blogs. Even those of you that might live close to your family and friends can imagine what a trip home is like. Here is a brief overview of how my trips tend to go:

1. Before you leave you need to plan your time home. Who will you see what days? You might book lunches and dinners and movie times. Don't forget the family time.
2. Arrive feeling like you have actually walked to your destination as opposed to flying. While carrying your luggage of course.
   
3. Feel guilty that you have not made arrangements with more people than you have, so you try to blend a few groups together maybe. Or maybe not.
4. Feel bad that you didn't buy gifts for some people because you know just what they would like but it was raining/snowing all week and you didn't have the will power make the time to drive to the big grocery store.
5. Stand in amazement of how we functioned without cell phones once you arrive (because you don't have one). Sometimes I get a throwdown phone for the time I will be there just in case.
6. Make the rounds, wishing you had more time to visit family and just hang out and watch TV, because you actually REALLY like to do just that. Sometimes just being in the same room with family is what I miss the most.
7. Eat LOTS of Mexican food.
   
8. Board the plane home knowing you forgot to buy gifts for people that you should have.
9. Arrive feeling like you not only walked to France, but that that you had to push a cart with other people in it and swim across the Atlantic.

So I know many of you are thinking "oh I wouldn't do that, I would just let people know that I can't see them. Yes, I try to do that too. The problem lies in that I really DO want to see these people that I miss. So here is how my trip went this time:

1. Pack up a few gifts to take but see #1 above. We also packed clothes to leave in Houston because when we move we won't have our things for another 4 or 5 weeks. We plan to take our honeymoon after our things are shipped and leave two suit cases here; one for honeymoon and one for going back to Houston that we will pick up when we return from Egypt. I made a few phone calls and sent one or two emails but didn't plan much (which I am glad).
   
2. See #2 above, although after a good nights sleep it's not that bad when you fly west. Sunday morning we felt pretty good. Until I almost had a heart attack when the front desk lady handed me a note and told me there was a family emergency. Turns out it was a little serious, but my Dad will always tell me nothings wrong and he is fine (yes Dad, I am on to you and will still worry about you). He's at home now though and making a slow comeback.
3. Spent all day, I mean all day, Monday looking at rent houses. We found some we liked and decided to fill out applications for them.
4. Had dinner with my Mom and some friends throughout the week, even got to see my friend Missy, oops, Melissa (she is so grown up now) and her 4 week old baby. Hello there River!!
5. Waited until Thursday to get responses from house folks. Turns out both of the ones we liked found renters that would move in during the month of March. We really need May 1st but would pay for April 1st. We lost both of them.
6. Friday - stress a little about the housing thing but realize we can find a place when we get back. There is a ton of stuff on the market. Besides, maybe we should buy...prices are great and with the tax benefits Obama is talking about it could be good. Still have time to decide.
   
7. Friday night - go the Houston Rodeo Cookoff!! Rodeo is starting and the cookoff was going on . We had tickets to some booths and proceeded to stay out until 1:30AM. Then we ate at IHOP at 2AM. An American tradition...though Cyr didn't eat, maybe it is just an American thing...
8. Saturday - buy $25 Levi's for Cyr and $25 Converse for the beau-frere at Target. In France Levi's are about 100 euro and Converse can be found on sale for 60 euro. Crazy...should have bought some and sold them to my students.
9. I think I ate Mexican food 6 or 7 times. :-)
   
10. See #8 and 9 above.

I'm glad we went and I was able to see my Mom and Dad and Sandy (step Mom) and even my Aunt Mary. But the week was too short and we were so busy. Right now I'm recovering from jet lag and working this week at my Big School and tutoring three days. I need to start worrying about tax stuff and get that all to my cousin...sorry Sally!!

Looks like my days here are numbered. I have a friend coming in from the 12th to the 20th and we are trying to schedule the movers for right after she leaves. Then we will have our honeymoon, come back to France for one day, pick up Duncan and fly to Houston to live in a hotel for a few weeks until we find a place.

Oh...and on the flight back Duncan (cute little black cat) is going to ride in the cabin with us because he so small. I'm a little worried about this. We are going to the vet to get some Kitty Quaaludes to make him sleep, but this will be a 13-15 hour trip for him if you include the train ride from Lille and time to get to the hotel in Houston. I was told to put a shoebox with litter in it in his bag so he could do his business in it if he needed. Anyone out there have to make a long trip with a cat in a bag? I decided this week he is going to take some field trips in it around Lille to practice. I don't want him freaking out too much. Any advice is welcomed, please post a comment if you know of something!

I was flipping through French tv trying to find something to watch. Yes, it's true, watching tv in another language does help you learn it. Television is where I learned the word "flic" meaning "cop" as in a policeman. :-)

I have posted once before about French TV, it's crazy, I love it. This evening my channel surfing was rewarded with "Starsky and Hutch". I don't mean the movie my friends, I mean the two "flics" in tight polyester pants. Did I mention they speak French over here?! Yeah! Both Starsky and Hutch speak French. They dub everything on television, no subtitles. Cyr told me that they even have the same people dub the same characters, so Brad Pitt has the same guy dub all his films. The dubber (if there is such a word) will also do other parts though, so you might hear "Brad" on "New York District" which in the US we call "Law and Order". Why oh why do they feel the need to change the title of everything? Especially when they change it to an English title?!

Prior to my arriving on my couch I worked at my Big School today. I actually really like that job. ::gasp:: I look forward to them now. It's funny, they seem to actually listen to me when I give them tips on negotiation or a sales cycle. Anyway...I was walking home in the light rain with my Ugly Hat. Thusly named for obvious reasons (see below). It seems to have the proper affect and keep people at a distance. This hat PLUS my iPod is typically 90% effective in warding off unwanted conversations by drunk men in the metro.

Check out Duncan, he's raising one eyebrow at the camera. He's cute though eh? Don't know if you can see it, but he has one white whisker. Awe....

I promise he is a happy cat. Even if he doesn't look like it here. Maybe he is camera shy.

So...as I was walking along with the Ugly Hat in light rain (which by the way I very much enjoy for some reason) I was listening to a little Gary P. Nunn. Translate: Texas Music. Yes, it is it's own genre. Gary P. always makes me a little homesick for Texas. The music, the dancing, the food, the hill country, just the whole atmosphere really. The song that really gets me is "You Ask Me What I Like About Texas". Really Gary, did you read my diary or something? I tried to go to utube and copy one of the videos...but I couldn't get it to load. I'm taking a chance here and just cutting and pasting the embeded link to see if maybe it works. I hope it's a good version. I'll have to give it a look-see tomorrow. Man...I even sound Texan in my typing right now. Better go watch some more French TV...

Raclette!!

Well I did it! Sort of...

I took pictures of our raclette thing, but we were so wrapped up with talking and eating that I forgot to take pictures with all the food! So here is the raclette grill thing, you can see the little pan that each person gets to melt the cheese. I have to say...it is amazing.

Isn't it pretty!? It was the best Christmas gift I have gotten in years!! Cyr's Mom gave it to us...thank you Annie!

Here is a cute picture of Duncan trying to find the missing cheese that used to be in the Auchan bag. He knows he smells something good, but where is it?!

We heard a little news about our move, but not the dates. Darn it! But at least we know the visa for Cyr is in process. I have been waiting two weeks t get the info on my free French classes from the government but still no news from them either. By the time I am able to take them we will living in Houston. Grrrr...

Rolling along...

Well the last week has been spent dreading teaching Zee Class and then finally getting through it yesterday morning. Not so bad, the smart ass kid didn't even make fun of my voice this week. Or tell me about how he doesn't care about his English grade because it's not important to him. Practically a victory.

I had my two crazy classes and then my one eager beaver class at the Grand Ecole, which directly translated means "Big School", as if the others are just little tiny schools that are not as important. Which is actually almost true I guess when you look at hiring practices here in France. I am still shocked at how important your college is here. Even when you are 40 years old they STILL care where you went. Your life is very much laid out for you at 17, scary.

I did have a much nicer weekend than I thought though. Friday I met Steph from Double-Double or Un Petit Cafe fame. She is so much fun! We went for coffee then ended up hanging out until dinner. I had a hamburger, and I ordered it with a French accent and felt completely stupid. "Un ahm-buhr-guhr." I had a Friday night dinner out on the town with a friend, how cool is that!?

Saturday was a fantastic day spent with Duncan. His new favorite toy is an old Champagne cork I had on the counter. He seems to find the fact that it doesn't roll straight extremely entertaining. Here he is reaching for his new favorite play thing with his old favorite staring on with envy.

Sunday I went with a few friends to Gent, Belgium. Gent is a really cute city about 45 minutes drive from Lille that has beautiful architecture and fantastic waffles. Unfortunately I was not thinking and only have one good picture. I didn't even get any photos with friends in it! But here is one of the canals right before we left to go home.

You can even see the moon right above one of the rooftops! Now I'm trying to get motivated to clean house and grade papers. And of course plan for all of next week's classes. But after next week I am free until January from my scary classes.

Crazy Week

It's been a while since the last post. Everything is ok, Duncan is settling in very well and now seems to feel very much at home. At first he hid a lot and would come out to play every now and then. Now he demands attention in the morning and then again about 10pm when he really wakes up. Perfect timing for when we are trying to calm down and get ready to sleep.

Last Thursday and Friday he seemed really sluggish and he had some pretty awful poops. I won't go into detail here, you don't come here for gore. Friday we took him to the vet down the street just to get him checked out since he has never had any shots. Turns out the little bugger had worms!! AND ear mites. I have not stopped itching since Friday. First I was convinced that I had caught some sort of parasite from him. I'm sure I'm ok, but oh man. How icky is that. Worms.

Everyone I tell this is not surprised and everything I read online seems to suggest that most kittens get worms. I don't know, I feel like if my cat has worms I should have wheels on my house and be drinking Milwaukee's Best or something along those lines. Because of all the pooping and such the poor guy was really dehydrated and the vet wanted to keep him overnight just in case he had some virus or something. Animal health is not socialized of course (bummer). He got the overnight stay, an IV, two ear meds, what looks like 6 months of worm pills and some vitamin stuff we have to force down his throat twice a day for 5 days. I think all of that cost us 190 euro, so $245 later we have a healthy and overly active cat. Once all his little stomach passengers died off, which the vet assured me was overnight, he was a new cat! He is jumping all around, chasing invisible bugs and learning how to climb onto the couch. Although he did cost a bit upfront, I'm hoping he is going to be a healthy guy in the future. I swear he seems to be growing right before my eyes...oh they grow up so quickly...

School is ok. I was giving the go ahead to split the class up into two groups and have only one group in the room at a time, that has helped a great deal. I also like working with the kids, but it's not a dream job. I would actually really like to get involved on the administration side in recruitment of students or something along those lines. For now it's perfect though. I have three classes on Tuesday and two on Thursday. Perfect for a little extra spending money. I spend way too much time planning lessons though. I know it won't be like that forever though.

A new addition....

Well...we were hoping to have a "family" of course, but we thought it would be while. We just got married less than a month ago. I still have my wedding dress out in the guest room!

Last Saturday Cyr and I went to his mother's house to celebrate her birthday. We went to eat lunch at a Greek restaurant in Belgium and then went back to the house for the afternoon and had a light dinner there as well. She really enjoyed her presents (three large wooden owls and a bracelet) I think.

When we arrived everything seemed normal. Once we said our hellos and did all the kissing cheeks we headed into the kitchen (which seems to be the meeting area in all countries). Both Cyr's brother and his mother were talking about what I thought was an accident that one of the cats had. "Ewe" thought I. When we got to the kitchen Cyr's brother picked up a little black furry thing and said, "c'est la petit merde!"

Annie found 3 (or 4, not quite sure) kittens at her office in a some machine thing last Wednesday. I think one of them died, but two were adopted and then she still had the little black guy and was looking for a home for him (or her). He was so cuddly! I have never had a cat and didn't really think much of the little guy until Cyr said; "Uh oh, I think Susan might have found a home for the little guy." I actually never thought we would take him home, I just thought he was cute and liked to hold him. Of course I jumped on the boat though and we stopped by a pet store coming home from lunch and bought all the necessities. One thing I can't handle is a house that smells like a cat lives there. So far we have been pretty good. But when the little guy goes...you know he goes...I'm a fairly immediate pooper scooper. Thank goodness it only happens once or twice a day. I'm hoping the poop will mellow with his age, but I'm thinking this is actually the opposite of the developmental cycle of cats. But hey...our house doesn't smell! It actually smells better because I'm so paranoid I am lighting candles and such. Before the kitten the candles just sat around, now they are being used.

So then there was the naming thing. Apparently there is a cat/dog naming convention that I was not aware of. Each year has a letter of the alphabet (as opposed to another kind of letter. Why do people say that?) ascribed to it and you are supposed to name your animal a name that begins with that year's letter. This year is "D". We don't really know if it's a boy or a girl, things are really small down there, but we think it's a boy. We went through a few rounds of names, but then we settled on a strong Scottish name from the Highlands...Duncan. Because there can only be one... Check out our newest addition!!
So far he's great. Very friendly and playful!

As for teaching...today I had The Class and Zee Class both. The Class was first. I went in with the same lesson plan I did last week with Zee Class. Low and behold...it went great! The class ended and we had finished the lesson (advertising campaigns) and I really felt they had learned something. I went to a meeting for the language classes during lunch (chicken baguette sandwich) then went on to Zee Class. We had to finish up the lesson from last week, which we did. After much prodding and poking. Then we moved on to some grammar work. Then all hell broke loose. Seriously...35 kids in this class. A few kids are completely fluent, most of them are conversationally able to survive while speaking English, then there are about 8 of them that are really, really behind. I'm going to have to split the class up next week and plan two lessons because the fluent kids are going crazy with me trying to work with the slower ones and the material I am supposed to use for the class is WAY over the heads of many of them. I am so glad I had the first class because I would have left feeling like a total failure. Blah, blah...I'm not in the mood to be all dark and pissy tonight. I get so irritated when I read blogs that do nothing but complain so I am going to reserve my "oh woe is me" post for another day. Things really are not that bad. Other than the fact that I have to go back to Zee Class next Tuesday. :-(