Phew! I think we are ready to go! Just a final vacuuming tomorrow, double check passports and keys. With so much cleaning today, we took a break late afternoon to swim. We had big waves and everyone stayed in for a long time.

We are spoiled because this trip only has 2 flights "home" (to my sister in California) instead of our usual 3.

And somehow I also managed to get 19,000 steps in today!

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More of the same: packing and cleaning. Well, it's mostly all cleaning now.

We got the toe kicks cut, sanded, painted and installed. Lots of work and very last-minute...but the kitchen looks finished.

Time for a quick swim late afternoon. I was out near the buoy when I saw lightning, and I decided it would probably be prudent to head back to land. Zari and Eric were far away treasure hunting.

Oh, Eric hauled a huge treasure out yesterday--a chair! It was a heavy metal chair with plastic rope webbing. He thinks it fell off a yacht because it was so far from shore, and none of the nearby restaurants have chairs of the same design.

Yesterday he also found a functional Mi Band (fitness watch), which I was able to factory reset and set up for Zari!

We made peanut butter cookies with the last of our peanut butter and enjoyed dinner with our friends (rotisserie chicken from the local butcher, apple & endive salad, socca, cherry and apricot clafoutis).

Dio was yearning to eat dumplings, so he and Eric took a trip to the Asian food store. That will be for tomorrow, plus anything else left in our cupboards.

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Lots more cleaning and packing...lots of errands to run (including buying and painting toe kicks for the kitchen). We still managed to fit in a late afternoon swim, which felt amazing. Then dinner with friends & ice cream at Fenocchio's for the kids. Another day of cleaning, laundry, and packing tomorrow...

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Whew, Zari has registered for fall and winter classes! (The U of T makes students register for a full year at a time--so weird.) She has to add one of her classes next week when general registration opens, but otherwise she got into the ones she wanted.

Year-long:
Ethics, humans, and nature
Environmental science and pathways to sustainability

Fall:
Science and human values
Creating community: Art, identity, & belonging
Inventing Canada (placeholder for another class called What is Canada?)

Winter:
Quebec & French-Canadian literature (in French)
Toronto: The city where movies are made
Democracy in Crisis: Democratic breakdown and resilience in the 21st century

Lots of cleaning and packing today. For me, lots of Zoom meetings as well. A quick swim right before dinner.

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Cruel and unusual punishment

I have decided that the perfect torture for Zari is to give her a list of super interesting classes and make her pick just a few of them. Yes, she's in the middle of that torture at the moment. Enrollment is tomorrow so the pressure is on.

She's made list after list, talked through the choices about 100 times. Still just as anguished because she can't decide.

Ahhh, reminds me of myself at her age...

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Apparently Dio and his friends stayed up (quietly, whispering in the dark) until 3 am! They stayed for breakfast and lunch and then swam at the beach. After everyone went home in the late afternoon, Dio passed out on the couch.

We had dentist appointments and orthodontist appointments today. We've also started our ritual packing up with deep cleaning soon to be added.

Zari gets to enroll for her classes in 2 days and she has a long list of classes that look interesting. She's pared it down several times but it's still more than 1 page long!

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20,000 steps

I did another urban hike with my friend and Zari, this time to Fort Alban. Taking an evening walk brought my step count up to 20K. Not bad! I also went for a late afternoon swim with everyone but Inga (she was out with friends).

Dio has 2 friends over for a sleepover, and he was at the beach with his friends. We had big waves and the kids were having so much fun getting tumbled around.



Dinner was one of Eric's classics: green beans sauteed with butter and lemon juice, and smoked salmon pasta with capers, tarragon, & creme fraiche. I contributed another plum tart.

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17,000 steps

I'm loving this more temperate weather. I had my usual walk to/from Cimiez, plus an evening walk.

Zari finished her Lord of the Rings marathon today. I watched most of the last movie with her this afternoon. So many battles!

We had a delicious dinner of combined efforts. I made purple risotto (endives, onions, pork sausages, red wine, & parmesan) and plum tart. Our friends made osso bucco and potatoes. Mmmmm.....

I'm doing another urban hike tomorrow morning with my friend and whoever else I can convince into waking up relatively early.

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Wedding in Eze

I got a fun glimpse into a world I'm not usually privy to. I played in a wedding this afternoon at the Chevre d'Or hotel in Eze, a fancy-pants 5-star hotel. It was a destination wedding of Chinese-American and Chinese families, mostly traveling to France from the US.

Pretty spectacular view. The weather was just perfect, too.



I have a shoulder injury from a few months ago that still hasn't healed, and it was killing me. I was in such much pain by the end but just had to keep playing.

Other news:

I went on an urban hike around Mont Boron this morning with my friend. I'm used to doing it with kids and in my mind in was a full half-day hike. But no, we did it in less than 2 hours! Amazing how fast it goes when you don't need to take any breaks.

I had to miss out on beach time today due to the wedding.

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Reunited!

The 3 youngest are back home after 4 days of camping! They got home in time for a late dinner (homemade lasagna, made by our friends, and leftover cherry clafoutis that I made last night).

I was not feeling well by the late afternoon. I was exceptionally tired all day and developed a headache despite taking salt. I chalked it up fasting (my plan was to do another 42 hr fast through tomorrow lunch). But after I finally decided to have dinner and take extra electrolytes, I didn't feel much better. I may be coming down with something.

I get to play in a wedding tomorrow! I haven't done one since last year.

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Pont de la Cerise

When the kids are away, the adults can play...at Pont de la Cerise! It was the most perfect day, the clearest water, the best weather. I had a moment lying on a hot sunny rock, slightly chilled from swimming, staring up at the trees and sky and hearing the turquoise water roaring beside me, and feeling overwhelmed by the beauty of the moment.

 

We were back by mid-afternoon. I got lots of work done, interrupted by some pesto making and dinner eating. Zari started watching Lord of the Rings, which she has read but never seen! We finished the evening with a walk around the port (me and my freshman building-mate).

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The house is eerily quiet...on the up side, I can go to bed when I like rather than begging my teenagers to please go to sleep.

Zari and I did another runswim. There must have been some massive current overnight bringing cold water from deep in the ocean. It was COLD this morning, like late April temperatures! Our hands got numb swimming after a few minutes. Way different than the bathtub temperatures we usually have during the summer.

Here's to hoping the kids are having fun and getting some sleep!

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The kids are packing for a 4-day camping trip. We've got tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, mattress pads, suitcases, clothes, pillows...mostly in order. It will be quiet with just me, Eric, and Zari.

I wanted to drive up with the kids, but there will not be any space in the care since Eric is also bringing a few others in the car.

The waves were huge today. I snuck away with Ivy and Inga and had a great time playing. I couldn't stay long because I had another meeting, but at least I got out.

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Eric's computer turned itself on at 4 am, so I was woken up thinking it was sunrise...only to find out it was the rainbow lights of his keyboard and mouse. I didn't sleep much after that and I've been exhausted all day. I also feel like I'm coming down with something. Zari had a brief day of fever/chills/body aches a few days back, so it's not entirely surprising.

There was a big party at Cavigal for players and families: potluck dinner and big soccer game. Everyone one went except for me (I wasn't feeling great, plus it was one of my long fasting days so I wouldn't have eaten anything). I did go out on a walk this evening, shorter than usual due to the heat.

Ivy managed to get a ball kicked into her face, so she's complaining of a sore jaw and a split lip on top of her shark fight face :(

I did a few small home renovation things today getting ready for our departure. Sigh...I just want to stay.

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Rock: 1, Ivy: 0

Our friends visiting in Le Chateau made us a 4th of July dinner, French style: "hot dogs" (merguez sausages in baguettes with harissa mayonnaise, pecorino cheese, arugula, & roasted zucchini) and apple pie (a variation on a tarte Tatin). Super delicious!

After dinner, I went with Ivy and Inga to jump off the rocks at the point. They're about 2 meters high--high enough to be fun, but not high enough to be dangerous.

We were getting ready to swim back. Ivy and Inga were in the water swimming around. Ivy went under the water and ran face-first into a rock. She came up with blood streaming down her face. I jumped off the rocks and swam over to her. Nothing life threatening but plenty of blood everywhere.

We swam back to shore, and some nice lifeguards at the private beach/restaurant patched her up. She has tons of scrapes and a gash across the bridge of her nose.

She is telling people that she had a fight with a shark.

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Kitchen!

Besides the toe kicks--who knows when we'll get to them?--the kitchen is done!

I tried taking pictures with my good camera, but I couldn't get a good enough angle. So here are some phone pictures.

You can also see my office area on the far right. It's the first time in almost 11 years that I've had a desk in this apartment. Before, I was working at the kitchen table or on the couch.

I went swimming first thing this morning and decided that it's my favorite time to swim. It's a lot cooler because the rocks on the beach haven't heated up yet, and the water is glassy smooth.

One more day of school left for Ivy and Inga (but they haven't had proper classes for a few weeks now).

I was captioning videos and one of the computer-generated captions made me laugh: it wrote "atomic wrenches" instead of "tummy crunches."

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Runswim

I roused Zari at 8 am so we could start running by 8:30. We did 5k and then jumped into the sea. Ahhh! It was hot and I was losing steam by the end of the run.

I got 10 outlets wired this evening, so our countertop installation is finally done! I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow.

Eric made poke bowls for dinner and the kids LOVED it! We had: red rice, avocadoes, mangoes, marinated raw salmon, marinated shrimp, and edamame.

Oh, we had to go to the Prefecture today to pick up the kids' DCEMs. It was relatively quick (only 50 minutes' wait in line). We won't have to go back for several years and I am so thrilled! That place is so depressing.

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Backsplash installed

After months and months, we finally got all of the counters and backsplashes installed in the kitchen. (Long story--I sent the correct measurements and the quartz fabricator entered them in wrong, sent me the sink in the wrong place, and then made me buy a new countertop because I had signed off on the estimate.)

We had a long wait for the new countertop piece, which I finally installed a few weeks ago. And then finally today I mobilized the Freeze team to get the 3 backsplash pieces put in. The silicone in joints needs to cure for a day, and then we can use everything.

The last two things left for this kitchen renovation are rewiring the 5 double outlets in the backsplash and installing the toe kicks.

What else? I did lots of video editing and captioning today. I enjoyed breaking a 42-hr fast at noon today. I started with scrambled eggs, chipotle sauce, and tomatoes; Comté cheese; and vegetable purée with crème fraîche. And lots of dark chocolate!

I snuck away for a quick 30 minute swim late this afternoon. Everyone else stayed a lot later, but I had a meeting. Eric approves of the paddleboard because it keeps the kids out on the water for much longer than they would usually stay.

Dio bought a 1-month gym pass so he can work out with his friends.

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