We took it very easy today, and mostly remained in Le Sappey, the small village where we are staying. We walked downhill into the center of town, had an excellent prix fixe lunch for 10 euro (a first course of salad and a leek tort, which was like a flatter, cheesier quiche, followed by veal served with a strong, dark red sauce that Suzie says was a red wine reduction) […]
We made it to Le Sappey en Chartreuse after a long, long day of hot travel. Everything was hot: the air conditioning on the flight to London wasn’t working right, we had a three-hour layover in a mostly unairconditioned Heathrow Airport that included three long, long waits in what were (logically) unnecessary lines, a long hot wait in Lyon to go through passport control, it took a long wait for […]
Our vacation got off to an unofficial start on Sunday, when we went to pick up the Barrands, the French family with whom we are exchanging homes. Their flight was uneventful; they arrived on time but were slightly delayed through customs. Unfortunately for them they arrived on the hottest day of the year, made worse by the fact that there were some troubles at their motel (the Sandman, one of […]
Elsie as a Puppy with Chester While cleaning up the house for our French guests, Suzie found this old picture of Elsie and Chester, when Elsie was just a puppy. She’s so young that her eyes don’t quite work right yet. Larger photo here.
Oui, you read that right … we are off on another trip to France (and Italy) in a week. So it’s time to make sure the blog is still working. Here is a picture I took during a recent short trip to Lake Tahoe. The picture was taken looking Northeast while on the way up to Virginia City, Nevada. Remember that clicking on the picture will bring up a larger, […]
In my hometown of Iowa City, Iowa, there is a well-known and well-loved breakfast/lunch diner-type joint called the Hamburg Inn No. 2. It has great cheap food (scores of different omelets, including my favorite, the Iowa Omelet), and is always crowded. Two U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, have eaten there. You can see pictures of Clinton here (oh my, Bill, you are seriously overdressed for the Hamburg Inn); […]
A very interesting recent study evaluated the “lifetime energy usage” of various vehicles, by looking not only at their fuel economy, but all energy costs associated with the design, manufacture, delivery, and disposal of those vehicles. The surprise? Hybrids don’t fare especially well in this analysis. For example, the Honda Accord Hybrid has an Energy Cost per Mile of $3.29 while the conventional Honda Accord is $2.18. Put simply, over […]
We went to Tahoe for 5 days over Spring Break, and spent two of them hunkered down in our cabin waiting out an incredible late winter storm. It dropped 25 inches of snow between Saturday and Sunday, with horrendous winds (60 mph on Saturday at the top of Alpine Meadows, which convinced us not to ski that day). It was fun in a way to be forced to stay in […]
The Grump must confess that he has not followed the Valerie Plame/Libby Lewis leak story in detail. But one thing the Grump recalls firmly is the absolutely unequivocal statement by George Bush shortly after the row started, to the effect that leaks were wrong and that if someone in his administration leaked something, well then he was going to bring the hammer down on them. Now we hear the President’s […]
This has been the longest, most gloomy winter I’ve experienced since moving to California … holy crud, it’s almost 19 years now! Here’s pretty much what it’s been like all the time: Want a bigger view of gloom? Click here. No wonder the Grump is grumpy. He’s wondering why he ever left Seattle.