Life Goes On Without Me

Back at home, life hasn't put itself on hold while I'm in France. The Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup, and not only was I not there to witness it, I missed every single second of every game. My friend Jeff's annual How Men Cook party, a much-anticipated annual alcohol-soaked orgy of grilled meats and loosely-organized music, came and went, most likely without anyone wondering, "Hey, wonder what the ol' Frog is doing right now?" (watching Trinidad vs. Serbia-Montenegro in the World Cup, most likely). Babies were born. Somebody fell in love. I know all of this intellectually, but it's hard to avoid wishing that these things could be put on hold until I got back. I don't want to miss anything.

Apologies for the longer-than usual delay between posts. My mom arrived in town on Wednesday to help look after Boog when V and I are in the hospital, and I've spent most of this week wrestling with furniture, whether given to us by an affable Aussie colleague who's leaving town (is "affable Aussie" rendundant?) or picked up from IKEA in a shopping expedition so farcical that I don't even want to recap it. But things are going well, more or less, and I think now we're about ready for the baby to come.


Today's unrelated picture is of one of the beaches at Parc Miribel, a big park on the eastern edge of town, out past Villeurbanne. This is one of the few places we've seen that has barbecue grills, picnic tables, everything you'd need for a day at the park. The water was a little cold yet on this day when Boog and I went, but some people were swimming regardless. We may do the same pretty soon, as it has finally decided to turn summer here.

Yesterday was the Fete de la Musique, and I'll post about that next time I remember to upload pictures.