Late night filming

Zari and I are up well past midnight working on college application stuff! (Not initial applications, but post-admission stuff). The last step was to film a video response to a discussion question, 1-2 minutes long, so evaluators can see how she might be in a classroom setting. We have one hour to do it and we'll get it done with 15 minutes to spare.

It was our last day with my parents. They leave at 4 am tomorrow. We're already looking forward to their return next January. We had a delicious dinner (big salad, wild rice soup, chocolate lava cakes).

Sun in the morning, more rain in the early evening. I went on a few walks, one with my parents, Dio, and Ivy.

Zari was gone much of the day at a soccer game in Draguignan. Her team lost 5-1, but honestly it's an improvement over some of the other massacres! She had some shots on goal and I think she felt good about how she played.

Inga had a match this afternoon, winning 3-1 (I think...sometimes the scores get all mixed up in my head!).

Here's a video of last night's crazy rain.

Read more ...

The day started with pancakes and ended with swing dancing and rain (but not in the rain!). We slept in and woke up at various times, me first and the last two kids at 9:40 when I roused them out of bed. We made pancakes mid-morning.

We finished the last episode of Night Sky and we are very sad there is no season 2. Now we need to find something else to watch.

Eric brought Ivy to a soccer game mid-afternoon, which her team won 8-2, with Ivy scoring 2 goals.

I went grocery shopping with Zari and Dio's assistance, carrying home 270 Euros of groceries. We had to stop several times to rest our arms. Now the kids cannot complain that we have no food! (They will start again in a few days, I am sure.)

We went to a swing dance / party thing this evening. Ivy danced the most. Zari and Dio weren't as thrilled and mostly sat off on the sidelines.

Read more ...

You can't beat free

I found a dresser via the online classifieds that was originally listed for 30 Euros. Then the seller said--"tell you what, I'm cleaning out my grandpa's apartment. I'll just give it to you for free." I figured that was pretty low risk!

And it's actually very pretty and in good shape! Eric and I picked it up today and put it in the bedroom of Le Chateau. Now there is finally a dresser and an armoire!

Crazy wind today. All of the parks were closed, shutters were banging, roof tiles and gutters were blowing off. Part of our street got closed off and the firetruck was there with its crane extended 6 stories to secure something loose near the roof's edge.

Then it started pouring in the evening when Eric and Dio were at soccer practice!

We had dinner + games together with another family who are friends of my parents. Their kids--3 boys from 1st to 7th grade--LOVE playing with our kids. They have begged us to come visit them in Florida when we are next in the States.

Read more ...

I started the day off with a run (sprint intervals) around the port and back. I'm glad I got out. I've just been so unmotivated lately, in part because I have so much work that it feels hard to justify taking time away to exercise. But the work will never be done, no matter how fast I complete my to-do list.

I made Toulouse sausages roasted with fennel, mustard, thyme, and red wine. French comfort food. We also had aubergines à la provençale for our vegetable. It's very close to ratatouille, just a bit heavier on the eggplants. We made chocolate chip cookies after dinner.

What else? Zari is still gone at soccer practice, Inga is showering, and Dio and Ivy are playing Brawlstars together. Eric is watching a soccer match, Francs vs. Croatia.

Read more ...

My parents have more visitors, although this family is staying at their own Airbnb since they are a family of 5. They arrived early in the morning and I joined them for lunch at our favorite restaurant, L'eau de Vie. So delicious!

I had lots of meetings sprinkled throughout the day.

We took family pictures in the late afternoon with an Australian photographer who has recently moved here from Italy. She was looking for families to photograph to add to her portfolio. I'm excited to see the pictures!

Inga made the first round of selection for a special regional soccer team. They started with 60 players and ended with 30. There will be another cut to get the final group to 15.

Read more ...

Earthquake

Well, that was exciting--we had an earthquake in Nice this evening! Nothing super strong (magnitude 4.1) but it's the first one I've ever felt in my life.

Zari was in class and she said the auditorium windows began to rattle and the building shook. She thought at first it was an explosion.

The other kids and Eric were at soccer and are super disappointed that they missed it--they were driving at the time.

Zari got really sick yesterday (fever, chills, body aches, headache, sore throat) and spent most of the day on the couch. She is feeling better today, enough to give a big presentation in one of her classes.

Read more ...

Fun with family finances

I used Mint intermittently, but for the past several decades I've mostly done our family finances the old-fashioned way: Excel and/or calculators. But after doing taxes this last year, I decided it was time to level up and find a tool that would help me keep track of and categorize everything.

Now I am really missing Mint--it was free and more than functional for what I needed.

This weekend I've been on the hunt for finance tracking software. Free would have been nice but there are very few totally free services out there.

I do have a Fidelity account and they have a really great free program, Full View. I was hoping I could make do with that, but it doesn't allow customization of categories and it doesn't sync with Paypal.

I finally settled on Simplifi and I think it will be great. I love having all of our accounts, assets, investments, etc all in one place. Everything is imported and categorized. (This is not an ad--I paid for Simplifi just like everyone else!).

What else? We started the morning with a pancake breakfast, as per our usual tradition. We ran out of maple syrup, which caused much sadness among the Freeze children. The sun was out and I took my usual walk up to Cimiez and back.

Eric took the kids for an impromptu Freeze Family Foot this afternoon, because Inga has a conflict tomorrow evening. I stayed home and (surprise!) worked on financial stuff.

Zari is memorizing a presentation about the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and studying for an exam about reproductive cycles of various types of organisms. I helped Inga study for a physics test about resistance and resistors. Ivy had some studying for math. Dio...well, he doesn't have a lot going on tomorrow, so he has been playing Brawl Stars! Eric just got out of a long meeting regarding La Maison Baldwin, which he has been helping out.

My parents and their friends just got back from a fun, if water-logged, trip to Italy: Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca. My mom is the expert on navigating European train systems, far more than me at this point.

Read more ...

Three halves

I went to Ivy's soccer game at Cavigal, which was a friendly match between the U11 and U13 girls. They had one half, then a short halftime break, then the second half. After that was done, I figured the game was over. But none of the parents were leaving the bleachers. Weird.

Then everyone went back on the field and played a third half! I was so confused!

Turns out that they kept switching up the teams after each 25-minute half, so it was like 3 mini games. No matter what team Ivy was on, her team won every time, sometimes by a lot.

I was quite chilled by the end, though. I dressed in several layers but the sun disappeared behind clouds at the end.

Inga also had a game, in Grasse, and it was pouring during the first half. She came home chilled and a bit grumpy. I don't blame her. They won 14-0.

We had time, finally, to watch a show together. We saw two episodes of Night Sky. One more to go! We also baked chocolate chip cookies, which turned out perfectly! I only let the kids have one each, despite vigorous protests. (They'd also had a pain au chocolate earlier in the day, so they weren't deprived of sweets by any means.)

Read more ...

I only had like 4 meetings today! Haha.

More rain today. Soccer games tomorrow for Inga and Ivy and Eric. Zari and Dio and I will probably go to another movie!

We got a "panier surprise" via 2Good2Go--I haven't done this in a while--and it was excellent! 6 pastries, 1 fruit/yogurt/granola cup, 1 large whole grain baguette, 2 smaller baguettes, 3 large sandwiches, and 1 large salade Niçoise...for 4 Euros total! I should do this more often.

Read more ...

6 meetings

I had 6 meetings scheduled today from 10:30 am - 10:30 pm. Phew! Definitely a record day, or close to it, for me.

I got enough motivation to do my sprint intervals this morning. And we had sun! Rain arrived early evening but it was glorious to have hours of sunlight. And dry laundry.

Read more ...

I'm so tired that I can't even think of what to write. Soccer afternoon for half the family. Lots of computer-based work for me, much of it feeling like swimming against the current (trying to figure things out but with slow progress). I have meetings all day and into the late evening tomorrow! I need to make sure I exercise or otherwise get outside.

Read more ...

Best in show

Zari's drawing of Ivy was submitted to an art show at our public library. Zari's drawing won 1st place... AND, Tri-Kappa Choice... AND, Best in Show. We just got the news today.

More rain today. Dio, Inga, and Eric came back from soccer practice totally soaked. I'm doing laundry but it will be wetter after I hang it up!

My parents and their visitors will be in Italy for a week, and unfortunately the forecast is several centimeters of rain each day! Normally the weather is sunny and gorgeous this time of year, with the occasional day or rain.

I've made tremendous progress on my to-do list today. Of course, it always has more tasks being added...but hey, it counts for something, right?

This evening, Ivy's stomach started hurting. She was curled up in pain, whimpering and crying. I gave her a hot water bottle and tried to distract her. Finally she puked up her dinner and then started feeling better. Phew. That was no fun.

Read more ...

My brain is really foggy tonight due to fasting. I'm definitely feeling it more than usual today!

I had work-related errands this morning (and I saw the sun!). Eric and I took a walk in the afternoon before the rain started up again. We had to cancel Freeze Family Foot.

Ivy got really frustrated this evening because she wanted to "do" something (make/craft). We got out all sorts of craft supplies but we either didn't have all of the supplies for a project, or she tried something and it didn't work out.

Le Catamaran recently opened up and I was able to show it to my friend. I love that apartment! It's just so perfectly cozy. It's fun to revisit it after some time away.

Read more ...

Wind and rain

All of the city parks were closed today because of the wind. It wasn't extraordinarily windy. We always laugh when things close down because of wind.

It started raining mid-afternoon and hasn't stopped. We have two loads of laundry getting washed again outdoors on the lines. Oh well, the price we pay for living here. Zari played in the rain and they tied 0-0, which is a vast improvement over some of their losses.

We all ate together with my parents and their visitors: green beans, Tuscan butter gnocchi, and lemon cheesecake. So delicious.

Read more ...

While Eric, Ivy, and Inga had a super soccer Saturday and were gone all day until 6 pm, the other half of us had a nice lazy day. Well, lazy for the kids. I did taxes! I got them off by early afternoon and there was much rejoicing.

Then the 3 of us went to a movie. Zari has a Pass Culture, which gives her several hundred dollars towards cultural events, books, performances, movies, etc. She and Dio went on her pass and I bought a ticket. We saw "A Real Pain," which was interesting and definitely not what I had expected. But still fun to get out and see a movie!

My parents and their visitors went to Èze and Villa Kerylos today, then bought pizza at the local pizza joint, Pizza Pili. We ran into them taking a walk on the Promenade des Anglais after the movie.

Read more ...

Taxes

On top of all my other duties, I've been doing our taxes. It's not an easy feat because we have so many expenditures and receipts to track and of course I'm doing it all by hand. But...it's almost done and ready to send off to our tax person!

Dinner was sauteed vegetables and hamburgers (Ivy's request) and some cookies I found at Aldi. Fasting day for me so I got to prep but not eat!

Dio's soccer cleats came completely apart. After multiple gluings, they could not be resuscitated so he and Eric went shoe shopping today. It look a long time but he finally found a pair that fit well.

It's feeling like spring here. It comes on slowly and gradually. But mornings are now 9-10 degrees instead of 4-7. I ran without a jacket or gloves (which I usually take off, even in the winter, once I'm warmed up).

Read more ...

My day:

yawn run shower work taxes meetings dinner socialize read write yawn

Read more ...

My parents have their second set of visitors. They'll be hosting guests for almost the rest of their stay! We all ate dinner together, managing to cram 10 people around our dining table.

Inga's flooring in the back of her room has 2 coats of finish installed. I'll see if it needs a third coat tomorrow. Then we're mostly wrapped up for home improvement projects this year, except for the kitchen counters and perhaps some repairs in the staircase and common areas. Maybe. We keep saying we want to get to that but other things have gotten in the way.

I have lost my motivation to exercise lately. I love getting out for walks and running errands, but properly "exercising" has not been very appealing. I should, and I like how I feel when I do.

Anyway it's late and I'm tired. Bonne nuit!

Read more ...

Ivy woke up feeling much better. She was so relieved because her class had a Carnaval party and people could dress up. She was a spear fisher, dressed in a wetsuit, diving mask, weight belt, accroche poisson (with paper fish attached!), and flippers. She won a prize for the most original costume.

I got the flooring in the back of Inga's room done--first I had to fix the wood cleats to the wall with threaded rods, then fit and glue the plywood in place. We were going to install hardwood flooring over the plywood, but honestly it's such nice plywood that I think it will look good just with a few coats of finish.

Dinner was "what's in the fridge?" risotto (mushrooms, Toulouse sausages, red onions, white wine, parmesan cheese) plus roasted cauliflower. It turned out pretty well.

Read more ...

Happy 14th birthday, Inga! (yesterday)

We had a busy weekend and birthday. On Saturday, both girls had soccer games. Then we had a HUGE gathering at our house with 4 other families and all of their kids for a potluck dinner. It was incredibly fun and incredibly noisy.

We all then walked together to the beach to watch the burning of the king and the fireworks.

Then yesterday, Inga's birthday, we started the day with a pancake breakfast. Dio then had a soccer game in the morning (winning 3-0, which I watched). Zari had a game in the afternoon, so we made sure to do the ritual reading of the birth story and opening presents before Zari left.

Later in the afternoon, we had a smaller gathering with just one other family. They arrived as Inga was starting to pipe the decorations on the cake, so we ended up decorating, then singing/eating/opening presents, and then at the very end, sending the kids to the park.

After they left, we had a delicious dinner cooked by Eric: steamed artichokes dipped in cream and blanquette de veau.

I can't believe she's already 14 and so tall! Sigh...

Today she and I went clothes shopping after school. I bought her a pair of pants and a sweater and she bought herself a zip-up sweatshirt with her birthday money.

Ivy came home at lunch very sick and hardly moved off the couch after that, wrapped in several layers of blankets and shivering and complaining that her whole body hurt.

Read more ...

Many Zoom meetings today...comme d'hab!

I captured a candid camera video of Inga and Dio goofing around speaking with very bad accents.



3 out of 4 kids had soccer today.

Oh--great news--Zari got accepted into Trinity College at the University of Toronto with a first year scholarship that would cover tuition and a bit more! She also is accepted at the University of Ottawa. All of the other places she's still waiting to hear back from, but so far these are both excellent choices and very interesting to her.

It's still going to be a challenge to fund housing. Room & board, if she lives on campus in Toronto, is $20k Canadian ($14k USD) for 8 months. (Ouch!) We crunched some numbers and even if she worked 20 hours per week, she would not make nearly enough to pay for room and board. So now we have to apply for more scholarships and see if she can get enough financial aid to make it affordable. We're also going to see what the cost is to live off-campus and cook her own food.

Meanwhile in France, the *entire* yearly cost for university is 175 Euros. Gasp.

I still harbor a hope that she would stay here. She'd graduate in 2 more years and then could be starting grad school at age 20! But of course she needs to live her own life so we'll just give her lots of options and help her figure out how to make them work.

Read more ...

We've made some delicious cookies yesterday and today: apricot butter cookies (like my German grandma used to make), also with another flavor variation of red currant filling, plus thin mint cookies.

My day was filled with breech work (lots of meetings, working on the video analysis project & a new twin publication, video captioning), plus treating some mold that was growing on some spots on the walls. I did go running, which I haven't done for a while.

Dinner was roasted potatoes with creamy herbed pork chops.

Lots of homework for Inga and Zari.

Oh, Zari applied for her visa yesterday and was provisionally accepted, just awaiting the final card! We had to go to the prefecture with her. We handed the clerk a stack of 150 pages that we had prepared, with help from our attorneys. She looked at them, frowned, and said, "Vous avez trop de documents! Vraiment trop!" She gave about half of them back to us and continued frowning as if we had done it just to annoy her. By the end she looked less grumpy but at first, phew! I felt like a misbehaving school child getting sent to the principal's office.

Progress picture of the kitchen. All done except the countertops and backsplashes (arriving in about a month) and my desk, which will go on the far right side. We're deciding between making a built-in desk vs buying an antique.

Read more ...

Back to normal life...7 am wakeup, school, work. We had some tired children this morning!

I got a lot of things checked off on my to-do list, which was satisfying.

Zari has her appointment at the Prefecture tomorrow morning, for which we had to print almost 150 pages of supporting documents. Our attorney advised us to go along with her; I'm hoping they'll let us in since the "convocation" doesn't name us specifically, just her. They can be like that at the Prefecture.

Read more ...

Some wins, some losses

Everyone but Ivy had soccer games today. I went to Dio's this morning, and his team won 3-0. Inga and Zari had afternoon games. Inga's team won 3-1 with Inga scoring one beautiful goal. Zari's team lost 5-0.

My mom made an amazing dinner, which I couldn't eat because today is my fasting day. It will be so good tomorrow!

• Mixed greens with beets, goat cheese, pistachios, pomegranate seeds, and a homemade dressing
• Roasted butternut squash
• Lemon basil salmon
• Molten lava cakes with whipping cream

I'm feeling a bit fuzzy headed but that's probably the fasting :)

I have tons of work to catch up on tomorrow--well, all next week! I always have more work than time so this will just add to the pile.

Back to school tomorrow after 2 weeks' break.

Read more ...

Home

Except for a super long line at the Mont Blanc tunnel, we had an uneventful drive home with no stops required. Lots of goofiness in the car, sometimes too much noise (from Dio and Inga), many snacks consumed.

I'll deal with putting all of the ski gear away tomorrow. Right now our living room is stuffed with bags of equipment.

I forgot that I'd turned the water heater on vacation mode, so we have a lineup of kids who want to shower but no hot water.

Two soccer games tomorrow, hopefully some good down time as well.

Read more ...

Chamonix day 6

We had a lovely last day of skiing. Sunny, calm, and probably the warmest day yet. The bottom slopes were like skiing on a "granita" (slushy drink)! We stayed up top as much as possible and the snow was still good almost everywhere.

No one got injured, which is always a stressor during ski vacation. I feel like I'm holding my breath until day 6 has passed and then I can finally relax :)

Pictures at the very top with Mont Blanc in the background

Read more ...

Chamonix day 5

Well today was a bust--for me. I went to bed last night, quite tired, but then I was wide awake. Hours passed and I was so bored listening to Eric breathe, listening to the grooming machines grinding and beeping in the distance, listening to various kids and Eric wake up a few times to use the bathroom. And here I was still wide awake. I read for a bit but mostly just laid there...all night...still wide awake when it got light out. Still awake when my alarm went off.

Ugh. So I skipped skiing today. I tried napping in the morning but wasn't able to sleep either. So then I just kept myself going by doing work, walking to the grocery store, etc.

I'm surprised I've been sleeping so terribly, given that we're skiing all day. I've only had one night of normal sleep and the rest has been significantly disrupted.

Anyway enough of my (lack of) sleep saga. Tomorrow is our last day so I am determined to go skiing no matter how much or little I sleep. The snow has been getting worse so it will probably be both icy and slushy tomorrow, especially on the lower slopes. We'll stay as high as possible.

Read more ...

Chamonix day 4

We had some talk of insubordination today: "I'm tired. I want to end early. I'm bored of skiing the same things every day." I admit, I felt some of those same things, too! It's hard work skiing 6 days in a row. And while there are several resorts all part of our ski pass, we've been staying in our favorite one because it has the best snow. But that means we ski the same runs...over and over. There is a ton of "hors piste" (off trail) skiing, but that is losing a bit of appeal since we don't have any fresh snow and it's getting more compacted.

But, Eric came up with the idea of playing "follow the leader" in the afternoon. We took turns letting one person choose where to ski and we all had to follow. So far 4/6 have had their turn. Everyone else has chosen off-trail but I like sticking on the groomed runs and going smooth and fast.

Tomorrow morning Ivy and Inga will have their turns.

I had to end about a half hour earlier than everyone else because my left shin started killing me--like being stabbed every time I leaned on it. Very out of the blue. It was not fun skiing that last long run home!

We saw another priest/Father skiing today. It may have been the same person as yesterday.

We've been watching very random TV shows, and the kids' favorite is an Australian reality TV show where the airport customs officers stop people for all sorts of infractions. My and Eric's favorite is Chateau XXL, featuring several couples/families who are renovating chateaus in France (all English people, so I'm guessing it was first an English TV show and then got dubbed over). Inga was groaning because it was "so boring and I want to watch the customs show!! Not this stupid boring chateau show!"

Read more ...

Chamonix day 3

Despite being exhausted from skiing, I couldn't fall asleep until something like 2 am or later. I opted to rest in the morning and rejoin everyone after lunch.

Most interesting thing we saw today: a Catholic priest/monk/friar skiing in full priestly robes. I'm not sure of the correct terminology for his office, but he had a long black dress on, no rope around the waist that I could see. Plus he was skiing! Not something you see every day!

Read more ...

Chamonix day 2

Not much new to report. Same gorgeous, clear, calm weather, slightly below freezing at the top and slightly above at the bottom. Lots of great skiing. Sore legs, tired bodies, happy minds at the end of the day.

Eric and I did a quick grocery run after we got home (a 10-minute walk to the center of the village). We have most of what we need for the week but there are always miscellaneous ingredients that we need.

The 3 youngest had enough energy to go sledding in the dark after dinner.

No snow in the forecast at all this week, so alas no fresh powder this time. There are a few remote places that you can get to if you're intrepid where there is a bit of unskied powder, but every day it shrinks. Amost everywhere you can imagine, and some places where I cannot imagine how people even got there, has been skied over.

I did a load of hand washed laundry tonight (no washing machine--the big downside of this apartment). Otherwise it's pretty fanastic. A few minor inconveniences such as no knives for chopping vegetables, no hot pads for taking things out of the oven, etc. But we can make do.

Read more ...

Chamonix day 1

We finished our first day of hurtling ourselves down a mountain on sticks, with great enjoyment. The apartment has no wifi, so I either have to sit outside in the snow or lift my computer up to this one area by the bedroom window (about 4' off the ground) where I can get a very weak signal. Anyway all is good over in sunny, snowy Mont Blanc.

Read more ...

Packing up

Our ski gear is organized into piles. Everyone has ski pants, jackets, gloves, helmets, goggles, and other accessories. We didn't have time to plan meals and buy groceries ahead of time, which I prefer doing. I'll see if I can do that tomorrow but if not, I guess we'll have to go grocery shopping once we arrive. (I hate thinking about that after a long drive. I just want to settle in and relax.)

I ran lots of errands today between breech work.

Ivy and Inga have been crafting all sorts of Valentine's things out of paper. They're still up gluing and cutting and giggling, way too late. But "it's vacation!" as they always say. Plus they can nap in the car tomorrow.

Edit: back with pictures of the Valentine's cards, which were "from" me to Eric and vice-versa. They spent all day making these elaborate cards. One of them has a 3-D popup thing inside.

Read more ...

Saved by the Frenchman and his hammer

We finally were able to go hiking! We chose the Crête du mont Macaron, which is a 7 km hike rated as "easy" with a total of 300 m elevation gain (keeping in mind my parents were coming and they both have knee issues).

We left in the morning and thought we'd be back my early to mid afternoon, even with taking our time, stopping for a picnic lunch, etc.

It was a lovely day--totally calm, a bit overcast, but with the occasional burst of sun. Chilly but amazing when the sun came out.

We had just loaded up in the car and had driven a few km down the roads back towards Nice when a big truck came speeding up the other side of the road, taking up part of our lane as well as his. Eric had to veer off onto the side of the road, but unfortunately right at that spot there were big rocks. We heard *crunch bang bang bang bang* and it immediately became apparent that we had blown a tire.

We were on narrow, winding mountain roads so we couldn't really pull over, but we kept going maybe another 50 meters until there was at least a tiny place to stop the car.

Our front passenger wheel was totally destroyed--shredded open in at least 2 spots. So then we had to unload the whole car and figure out how to open up the tool kits and unhook the spare tire. Once that was accomplished, we started loosening the nuts and jacking up the car. It all went more or less smoothly until all of the nuts were off and the car was raised up high.

Then we couldn't get the tire off! It had completely rusted together onto the mount. (Sorry, I don't know the technical terms here!). We tried kicking it, then whacking it with a big rock in multiple places. No luck.

A very nice man pulled over to see if he could help. More whacking and hammering and prying...no luck. Finally he wished us well and drove off.

We finally called roadside assistance, and they said they'd send someone in 45-60 minutes and that we'd get a call from the local "depanneur." I gave them the name of the road we were on and explained that we were out in the country hiking.

More kicking and hammering...more frustration...and my phone rings: "Hello, it's the depanneur. Where are you?" I explained that we were out in the country between X and Y villages and he said, "Oh, they said you were in Nice! I can't help you. You'll need to call roadside assistance again."

I was just about to call when Mr. Frenchman shows up again, this time with tools! In particular, a hefty hammer. "You're lucky--my son realized he had forgotten his stuffed animal so I had to drive by again!" We cranked the wheel all the way to the right so he could hammer at the tire from the back and it started working! Finally it gave way fell to the ground.

We thanked him profusely because this tire would not have come off without that hammer. It was fairly quick to put the spare tire on (a bit deflated, but still ok) and then drive slowly back home. Phew.

Read more ...

The best themepark

I had some returns to make at Ikea, so we made an excursion out of it, bringing Ivy and Inga and my grandparents. We took the tram and enjoyed wandering VERY SLOWLY through the entire store while Ivy and Inga opened every door, drawer, and cupboard they could find. They loved all of the little apartments they could explore.

Who needs Disneyland when you can go to Ikea for free?

We ate lunch, enjoying half off the hot meals (a Wednesday special, as evidence by the packed cafeteria). We so rarely eat out that it's a huge treat for the kids.

Eric joined us after lunch and we made a quick stop at the Musée National du Sport before going home.

We had a friend of Eric's over after dinner for crepes--someone a few years younger who he hadn't seen since high school. He and his wife and one of their children were spending some time in France. They have 15 children ages 3-23! Fifteen! And they both look super young. I of course had to ask about her births and it was a really fun conversation. Eric made an enormous stack of crepes and we have just two left.

Read more ...

We've been here for 2 months and still haven't gone hiking once! It's driving me crazy. We were going to go tomorrow but rain is forecast all day.

Lots of meetings today, punctuated by errands and a quick walk to see the Carnaval setup. Not much to see yet, since it doesn't officially open until tomorrow

Read more ...

Putting my life in order

We did a huge tool reorganization, moving all of the renovating tools out of the apartment, cleaning out and organizing our small storage area in the basement, and bringing the less-used and larger tools over to our storage area in our garage. Dio helped me for about 2 hours, carrying every item up and/or down many flights of stairs. I agree to pay him with a new Brawl Stars pass. (Why is that game so interesting? I have no idea!)

Ivy thought she was going to have a baby tooth pulled (needed for her orthodontia) but the dentist we went to doesn't pull kids' teeth. I had to make a new appointment with a pediatric dentist and that will be after ski week. She was much relieved.

I did a huge spice/pantry reorganization. Everything is now in glass jars, labeled, and organized alphabetically and by size. There is something deeply soothing about organizing my household. Eric doesn't get it but at least he puts up with it.

Freeze Family Foot this evening was lots of fun. I had breech meetings while they were gone. Zari can't participate due to her class schedule, unfortunately.

Oh, Zari went to the Prefecture because she has to go there to set an appointment to put in her papers to request a visa. (Typical of a prefecture). The convocation just said to come any day so we looked up the hours (open until 5 pm) and she got there at 2:35 pm.

They wouldn't let her in. "Sorry, you can only be in line from 1:30-2:30."

Of course this isn't posted anywhere on their website. You just have to know.

She has to go back tomorrow (and miss class, because every 1-hour opening at the Prefecture the rest of this week overlaps with her classes and next week she will be 5 hours away hurtling herself down steep mountain slopes on 2 pieces of wood).

Now she knows the joy of The Place Where Hopes and Dreams Go To Die.

Read more ...

Wave of dizziness

I woke up this morning, opened my eyes, and was hit by a wave of vertigo so strong that I thought I would throw up. I got myself downstairs and to the bathroom and it subsided. Very strange and out of the blue.

I wasn't feeling very well this morning--a bit feverish and quiet "off"--so I stayed home and slept almost the whole morning! If you know me, you know that is so out of character for me. Meaning I really needed that rest.

I'm feeling pretty good, in part because I only fasted 24 hrs and decided to have dinner. I just didn't have the drive to power through until tomorrow on top of feeling unwell.

We watched 2 more episodes of "Around the world in 80 days" and spend some lovely time as a family reading and sunning ourselves on the beach. It's so hard to get the kids out, though! "Do we have to? It's so boring at the beach." Ugh, if only they could hear themselves!

I finally installed the facade door on the washing machine in Le Chateau, after 2+ years (due to a lack of a template).

Lucky Ivy gets to have one of her baby teeth pulled because it's keeping her aftercoming adult tooth from coming in. We have an appointment tomorrow, although I'm not sure if they'll put it right then or have her back for a 2nd appointment.

Everyone but Zari is on holiday so I foresee lots of hikes and other fun activities. Then we go skiing on Saturday!!!!!!!

Read more ...

I came down with The Plague yesterday afternoon. It hit hard and fast and I could barely move shortly after it started.

I'm feeling a bit icky today but definitely better than 24 hours ago.

Inga and Ivy both had games. Inga's team lost 6-0 and yet again they played Inga on defense the whole time, to everyone's frustration (including a lot of other parents: "Why are the playing Inga on defense? That makes no sense!"). Ivy's team won 4-2. Then they went to a professional game at the big stadium, joined by Dio who I had to basically push out the door because he was feeling a lot of teenage inertia.

No soccer games for anyone tomorrow!

Read more ...

Help me choose new glasses!

I'm ordering new glasses online. Prices are amazing but I can only try them on virtually. This is as good as I can get, trying to ensure they're to scale but it's not 100% certain. Some may be a bit bigger in the pictures than in real life.

I'm going to buy 2 pairs so help me choose your top 2 favorites!! I'd prefer one pair that are more invisible and the other can be a bit more dramatic. Other news: I came down with a fever, chills, and bodyache this afternoon very rapidly. I'm now huddled under a blanket and next to a hot water bottle.

We're officially on school vacation for the next 2 weeks, everyone except Zari. She gets just 1 week off, the following week.

We had lots of meetings today: with our immigration attorneys to discuss the next steps for us and the kids...me with breech-related stuff...Eric with nonprofit-related stuff with the Board he's serving on.

Read more ...

Bad vision

My vision has been seeming off and wearing contacts or glasses seemed worse than foregoing entirely. I finally went to an opthlamologist and my "bad" eye is still the same (-1) but my "good" eye is even better (used to be -1, now -0.25). That's why I didn't like wearing glasses or contacts--they were too strong in one eye! I now offically only need to wear contacts in one eye since they don't come in -0.25. I need to get new glasses, though.

Not a whole lot else going on besides the usual. The plumber comes tomorrow and we'll have a fully functioning kitchen with temporary countertops! So excited!

Read more ...

Every day I'm working my way through little kitchen tasks. We're so close (except for the counters)! But not done and so it drives me crazy because I want to FINISH things.

We'll have a functioning sink, dishwasher, and washing machine by Friday, which means we can finally cook up here again.

I co-taught a big lecture at UCSF yesterday and had tons of other breech work going on. Still catching up on various tasks that seem to multiply faster than I can resolve them!

We had a nice evening downstairs with my parents where we talked and the kids worked on their book nooks. Dio was mostly upstairs doing homework, though.

Read more ...

After several weeks of rain and/or illness, we were finally able to have our Monday night FFFF: Freeze Family Football (and Friends!). Zari had class, but the rest of the kids went, along with one of Ivy's classmates (who lived in our apartment while we were in the States).

We made a trip to Ikea to return All The Stuff and to buy More Stuff. Not much else to do on the kitchen for 5-6 weeks until the countertops arrive.

I'm getting a big presentation ready for UCSF tomorrow--Whitney Rose Pinger and I will be talking about "Vaginal Breech Birth: Why It Is Important and How To Establish a Collaborative Breech Service."

Read more ...

Rain, soccer, and more kitchen work

Ivy had a tournament this afternoon, 4 short games. She played a bit but was still quite tired in her post-flu recovery. Inga had an afternoon game (they won 5-0, but she came home depressed because she was yet again put on defense although all of her training and skills is in offense). And more rain much of the day.

My dad and I installed the oven and the crown moldings. I cleaned off the dining room table--I haven't seen the top of it for a few weeks now! We measured and drew up the plans for the countertop and backsplashes and got them sent off to the quartz manufacturer. I did the initial measuring, drew up the plans, and then had my dad come with me and measure again to be sure I didn't miss anything obvious.

Dio and Zari made spicy crab sushi for dinner, along with roasted brussels sprouts (my mom) and tiramisu (me).

I've been waking up way too early the past several mornings, usually between 5:30-6 am--and not on purpose! I just have so much on my mind, mostly planning the next kitchen renovation thing.

Read more ...

I brought Ivy to a family doctor after school (yes, she was finally feeling well enough to go! No more fever!). Based on her symptoms, Ivy has the flu: 5-7 days of fever, extreme weakness and fatigue, sore legs and back. We came home with multiple prescriptions (of course!) including "Saint Doliprane." They LOVE Doliprane (tylenol/acetaminophen) over here. I filled just the cough syrup antihistamine one.

She also got a prescription for a full spine x-ray since she has had lower back pain for more than a year now. Since Eric has mild scoliosis, the doctor suspects Ivy may have the same so we'll see what's going on there.

And, since French medical care is amazing, our total out of pocket fees were under 11 Euros including the prescription. Had we had no insurance, it would have been 33 Euros total. Nearly unaffordable :)

We went to a few kitchen stores today to look at countertops and finally found one that we both really liked (Quartz Silestone in a pattern called "Blanc Elysee." We are waiting for a few quotes from the kitchen stores, but most likely we'll order from the same place as last time and DIY install it, since it will save thousands of Euros.

We had some brief sun today, then more pouring rain. Rain = snow in the mountains so we are happy!

Read more ...

Day 6 of The Plague

Ivy is STILL sick! She was looking a bit better in the morning, so we thought she might be able to go to school in the afternoon. However, by lunchtime she was looking just as bad if not worse, and she still had a fever. So no school for her.

I have put almost all of our kitchen things into our kitchen. So exciting. I need to install the knobs and drawer pulls tomorrow. I have also organized all of our craft/sewing/drawing/painting supplies as well as our board games. Everything fits inside the cupboards. I love not having stuff sitting out everywhere (well, there still is stuff everywhere, but it's renovation stuff).

We took a long walk in the rain today to look at countertops, only to find that the store was closed exceptionally becuase all of the people were away at a big job! So weird. We'll go again tomorrow as they assured us they would be open. We'll probably order and DIY the quartz again, like we did in Le Chateau, but we'd like to see the samples in person first before we order.

That's about it for Freeze Family news!

Read more ...

Going gray

Big day today--our cabinet doors and drawer fronts arrived! To be precise, the 2nd order arrived. The first order had the green ones that we loved so much in the online pictures. But in person, the green was a really ugly, depressing shade of green--think of a dark muddy brown-green.

I was so disappointed because the pictures of the green cabinets were much brighter and lighter. So we made the decision to go gray and I love it. The kitchen definitely feels lighter and the cupboards won't overwhelm the room.

We have the plywood sub-countertops installed and 3 coats of water-based poly brushed on. This will get us through the 5-6 weeks it takes for the quartz countertops to arrive, once they are ordered.

Ivy is still super sick with The Plague, 5 days in! Still has a fever and now has started to have a deep cough. I'm trying to decide if I should take her to our family doctor to listen for pneumonia. I'm usually a "wait until it gets better" kind of parent and, short of it being pneumonia, there isn't much to do about it anyway.

I started feeling sick last night. No fever yet, but definitely feeling icky. Will I have The Plague tomorrow? I hope not!

Read more ...

Ivy has been super sick the past 3 days: high fever, super achey body, a bit of a cough. She had to miss school today and I'm not optimistic that she'll be well tomorrow.

Our plumber came this morning and crimped all of the connections. In and done in less than 10 minutes! He'll be back next week to hook up the drain lines. Once the plumbing was done, that allowed us to install the rest of the base cabinets as well as the washing machine.

I also installed a shallow bookshelf that goes next to the fridge. It took a bit of head-scratching and oh, did I mention that we accidentally discovered electric lines buried shallowly in our floor when we installed an L-bracket to hold the bookshelf in place? Yeah, who would have thought there would be live wires (135 volts as measured on our voltmeter) somewhere in the floor's concrete? Obviously we had to take the L-bracket out and go with plan B that didn't involved putting a screw into the floor.

The adventures never cease.

Lots of rain today so we had to cancel Freeze Family Soccer evening yet again.

Read more ...

Ivy is sick with a fever, so she had to miss her soccer game today. Eric is the coach, so he still went. Her team lost 3-2; they were also down a goalie and so were greatly disadvantaged with the loss of two important players.

Inga had a game later in the afternoon; her team won 5-0 and Inga scored 2 goals, one while playing defense (which is not her normal position) and the other in the last 5 minutes when she got put on offense.

Zari and Dio helped plan, shop, and cook dinner: Mimi Thorisson's Pirate Chicken with lime cilantro rice and green beans as the vegetable. It was super delicious.

Read more ...

Let there be light(s)!

Picture from 2 days ago...we're missing two under-cabinet LEDs but otherwise the cabinet lighting is all done. We poured some self-leveling cement in an area where the previous people had just stopped and left some big unfloored areas.

Otherwise we're at a standstill because we have to wait for our plumber to change the location of the water lines. We were going to do it ourselves--we even bought all the supplies, fitted everything together--but the big crimping tool that the plumbing supply store lent us wasn't working. So now we have to wait.

2 soccer games tomorrow for Ivy and Inga. I told Zari and Dio that they are in charge of helping plan and make dinner, since my mom has been cooking a lot due to me and my dad renovating so much.

Read more ...

Upper cabinets!

Between breech meetings and video analysis/editing and publication editing, we managed to put up the upper cabinets! I also have several sets of doors on, after I took the photo.

We're starting to get our living room back now that the pile of boxes has been significantly reduced.

It's late so not much else to write.

Read more ...

42-hr fast

I wasn't super hungry in the morning so I decided to keep fasting a bit longer until lunch. And then I enjoyed leftover chicken & bell pepper fajitas (minus the tortillas because I'd rather eat the good stuff) and dark chocolate with peanut butter for my lunch.

We have the rails almost installed--all holes drilled, a few crowns chiseled down. But they are not yet screwed in all the way as we're waiting for some of the MAP to set overnight. Tomorrow we'll shim everything in as we go and then start hanging cabinets!

Speaking of shims...I can't for the life of me find them here! I called every hardware store in central Nice, and either they didn't have them, or they had these huge plastic wedges that looked more like doorstops than shims. Even the big Leroy Merlin doesn't have wood shims that resemble anything like a shim I am used to working with (you know, a thin piece of wood that tapers down to nothing on one end and is maybe 5mm thick on the thickest end).

So we're just going to have to make our own shims!

Zari had her second first day of class--this week most of her classes start (but not all of them!). It's really confusing because classes start over a span of several weeks, not all at once. She was on Valrose campus today, which is a gorgeous space with beautiful buildings that look more like castles than university classrooms. A nice change from some of her other campuses that were built in the 1960s.

Dio has a terrible crick in his neck and can't turn or tilt it to one side. We were able to get him in to see our kiné friend this afternoon. He's still in a lot of pain and his head is tilted to one side! Poor kid.

Ivy and Inga had orthodontist appointments today. Inga switched over to clear elastics, while Ivy went with dark blue.

Read more ...

I was feeling a bit off this morning, so I thought I'd stay home and take it easy. But then I saw the kitchen walls just crying out to be sanded...and then when the sanding was done, I figured, "I might as well paint them." So by the end of the day I had 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint up on the nice smooth walls! Oops, how did that happen?

Dio and Zari both had soccer games today. Zari's was 2 hours away so she was gone all day.

I switched my fasting day to today instead of tomorrow just because I wasn't super hungry. I am hungry now, of course! But it's almost bedtime and I am so excited to sleep. I get extra cold and tired on fasting days.

Tomorrow's plan: install the top and bottom mounting rails and then start hanging cabinets!

Read more ...

Luminescent

My sister made me all sorts of glass art, mostly in the form of little dishes. But 3 pieces were purely decorative, and I am so in love with them! I finally got them mounted in Le Chateau, above the kitchen sink.

This evening our family went to a sound & light show called Luminescence at the Notre Dame Basilica. Ivy said, "It was amazing! It was the best concert I have ever been to!" The show traced the history of the basilica in Nice via a 1-hour concert, narration, and choreographed lights inside the entire cathedral.

Inga and Ivy both had games, Inga's lost 1-0 and Ivy's lost 2-1. It was a disappointing day for everyone.

Read more ...

Immigrants, they get the job done!

We went to The Place Where Hopes & Dreams Go To Die (aka the Préfecture) and...amazingly...they didn't die this time! We received our long-term visas, which has been a process spanning over 10 years and several rejections. We are now officially immigrants and not just on a visitor visa. We can now work in France and don't have to go back to the Bad Place for 10 more years!!!!

Let's go back a few hours earlier, though. We were woken up at 6:40 am by the Ikea delivery people, ahead of schedule. About 3/4 of the order was delivered and our living room is taken over by bags and boxes.

Our next stop after the Préfecture was Ikea, and we were so happy (and hungry) that we celebrated by eating a hot meal at the cafeteria. I would have been fine with a 1 Euro vegetarian hot dog, but instead we splurged and got a proper meal.

Next stop: Leroy Merlin, the huge home improvement store. We popped in just to look at cabinet pulls and handles, but then we realized we needed a few more supplies for the kitchen renovation (wall smoothing compound, screws, anchors, blue tape).

We got home around 2 pm. Eric went into his office to work on his next book. My dad and I got to work applying wall smoothing compound (enduit garnissant) and we got it all done in just 2.5 hours. We were on fire!

Tomorrow we will sand the walls and prime. Well, maybe Monday, but knowing me, I'll probably work on it some over the weekend 🙂

Read more ...

Let there be light! (and power)

I tested about 2/3 of the outlets and switches I had wired, and everything worked! I love that feeling. I joked, "I am so skilled. I can tell my colors apart and I can push wires into holes."

Tomorrow our kitchen arrives from Ikea (most of it--we're still waiting for most of the doors and drawer fronts). We'll be applying the skimcoating (enduit de lissage) and if we get that done by the end of the day, I will be very happy. Maybe we'll also get a few cabinet boxes assembled.

Read more ...

Inga is Baron Harkonnen

We discovered that baby Inga, in her "Dude, where's my neck?" stage, is Baron Harkonnen's doppelganger.

Renovation news: although it looks largely the same as the end of yesterday, we did a ton of work--mostly wiring and plastering in several outlet boxes. Almost everything is in that can be installed prior to the cupboards.

I had some breech meetings today and worked more on some upcoming publications.

Ivy feels sick. There's been a nasty flu going around and she may be the first victim in our family.

Zari has yet another college application to finish tonight (McMaster). We are getting so good at shortening essays down to the exact word limit!

Read more ...

Wiring

Major upheaval in the Freeze household...our living room is almost taken over entirely by the dining table and there is stuff everywhere and of course dust on top of all of the stuff. But the work is coming along on schedule, maybe even a bit faster than I had anticipated. We have all the wiring run and most of it plastered in now.

Between this work, I also did video editing and other breech stuff and met a friend at an apartment she's buying; she had all sorts of contractors and engineers there to give her their opinions. Very interesting.

Read more ...

Messy, dirty work today...so much dust that we could only see a foot or two in front of us!

But the electrical lines are all cut into the walls now...all the kitchen stuff given away...big Breton armoire carried downstairs

Read more ...

Dio had a soccer game this morning, which I watched. It was a lovely sunny day. His team lost 3-1 but I think Dio played well.

Zari had a game in the afternoon--they lost 8-0!

I took a walk with Inga, Ivy and my mom. We stumbled upon the "vide grenier" in the port, which was fun. I think it happens twice a month.

I've spent so much time trying to give things away, waiting for people to show up and then them not showing up (and some who did, thankfully). This reminds me why I don't like giving things away to individual people! For the 30-40 messages I've sent, it's not worth my time.

We started a new series tonight: Silo. Last night we thought we were watching the 3rd-to-last episode of Travelers, since the first 2 seasons had 13 episodes. But no--episode #10 in this season was the last one! It took us all by surprise.

Read more ...

Demolition!

Everything is disconnected and demolished. Tiles and wallpaper removed. Trying to give away the leftover cabinets & oven to avoid hauling them to the landfill. The subway tiles came off easily. It was so satisfying to pry them off, especially when they came off more than one at a time.

I've drawn a schematic of the electrical work that needs to be done. My goal is to get it done by Friday (when the cabinets arrive). We'll probably spend Monday prepping the room, sealing it off with a big tarp, etc. Then we can cut the wall channels on Tuesday, wire and patch up the walls on Wed & Thursday. It's optimistic but I think it's doable.

Ivy and Inga had soccer games today. Zari and Dio went to a sport activity, playing volleyball and chair soccer (similar to ballon prisonnier but with chairs and soccer balls).

Read more ...

Au revoir à la cuisine

We're giving away our kitchen tomorrow morning! Everything is unhooked, cleaned, and ready to be taken away bit by bit. (We're keeping all appliances except the oven, which is a non-standard size and won't fit in the new cupboards).

Our "kitchen" is currently residing underneath the piano in Le Chateau. We'll be eating there with my parents for the next several weeks.

We took a trip to Ikea today to order the new kitchen. Those lovely green-gray cabinets are so new that they don't even have any samples in the store, anywhere! The employees haven't even seen them yet. We ordered them anyway with big hopes 🙂

The order arrives next Friday (yikes!) so we're super motivated to get everything prepped in time. The biggest task will be electrical--we have to run a few new lines for the other wall of the "L." And there are always unexpected hiccups.

I had a late-night breech consult (family in Australia, colleagues in the US, hence the weird time) while the others watched 2 episodes of Travelers. Soccer games tomorrow for Ivy and Inga.

Read more ...