My tax refund this year will not cover a pedicure.

My tax bill last year was larger than my salary.

I guess I'll take what I got.

nm down to the penny and spot on

toodling through provence

They are not all there, but here you go.

the new year

Starts tomorrow, one day after the last Tuesday of the old year without a candle to jump over, an alter that graces the front hall table because I thought I had another day.

I will be attending to this shortly.

I love Nowruz, I love the idea of a spring celebration, I love a new start, especially the house cleaning and removal of last years problems.

For those of you who know what we've been going through, hearing good news last week was the best new years joy anyone could imagine.

Thank you for your prayers and good vibes.

Paris finally

Sadly my trip is ending. Th and I spent the morning in Versailles with Marie Antoinette's sheep and the afternoon with macarons.

Life is good even if the dollar is in the toilet and every one seems to on edge.

Sheep, laduree and a view of the eiffel tower can solve a lot of problems.

Nm
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Sunday all day driving with a stop for nougat and a visit with marie antoinettes sheep!

I wish ernest was with us

Nm letting them eat cake
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Its saturday still, right?

Happy Saturday! Ours took us to les bauxs (overrated)n la camargue (we kind of picked the wrong side to visit)n found an errant aquaduct, the pont du gard, aigues mort, uzes and a nice dinner in st remy. Tomorrow is a long drive to versailles. After hitting one hypermarche for waffles (done) and the haribo store, I am done shopping.

Nm
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The Var and Haute Provence underrated if you ask me

Um sitting here at bastides de moutiers eating breakfast and plotting our drive through the luberon toward the alpillies

Xo

Nm
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Yellow roads

Lots of them today and gorges!
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Really it doesn't matter

Nonstop or connecting -- flying takes it out of you. Chatty seat opponents, lack of comfortable sleeping positions and lack of earplugs do not help.

As much as I have ragged on american airlines, I will miss their lie flat seats and billions of episodes of ugly betty.

Nm hoping that her gate hasn't changed to. Marseilles
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Really, I must be going

see you next week, okay, maybe before.

flickr me people.

the lure of technology

I think my next trip will be techno free. Every little gadget looks so adorable by itself, but together they are forces to be reckoned with, weight wise that is. My D50 is not that heavy, but when you bring the battery charger, which weighs less than a battery, it adds up. We're borrowing J's GPS on C's recommendation. The GPS is lightweight, the hook up isn't.

Add a cell phone to the mix and we're taking up more and more precious bucket bag space.

I'm not sure I can do without the camera, I love to take pictures and some love to see them.

I'll be photoblogging on the road in support of NaPoBloMo (sounds dirty doesn't it?), so keep in touch.

ou est la fromagerie? dit nm

moderate sunday

I love daylight savings time. I don't even mind the dark mornings for the first few weeks. As a gardener and dog walker, the ability to be outside in the light until 7, 8 and even 10 pm is worth it. This week we leave our light until 7:25 evenings to go to France where they have not adopted our fantastic desire to give me more gardening opportunities. However, the cheese is better and they have better haircuts.

Today I dragged TH out of bed at a very early hour of eight to go look for a red plum tree. For your information, the tree just does not exist and we settled for a pie cherry and hopefully one day the magical tree will appear.

We wandered around a nearly empty nursery with our favorite presidential candidate and picked out some herbs for my parents and a few more bare root loganberries for ourselves, it felt like we had really turned the corner.

Yesterday I spent just one hour moving some stuff around the year round p-patch and another hour today and things are ready to go. I am excited for the gardening season, mostly because I think we have finally gotten into spring and I'm happy. I know the last frost for my area is a scant few weeks away, but for some reason, I am throwing all doubt to the wind and have planted lettuce, arugula and radishes in the faint hope that they will be up in the next three weeks.

The two pictures above are of the p-patch, south and north beds, its not much to look at right now, but come June's gooseberries, lilies, roses, raspberries, lettuce, strawberries and the last of the asparagus, we'll be quite happy and full from our own bounty.

nm who pulled out rhubarb with her bare hands

Shameless self promotion part 2

I hate to do this to you all, but I'm walking the Seattle Komen for the Cure walk in September with my friends, the Bodacious tatas.

I hate asking for money and thank you for all of you who have donated, I send you smooches and
will thank you every step.

So now, for today, I ask if you haven't or didn't know that I was doing this with Missy and Tracy and hopefully some other fine women, that you consider donating. I have always been skeptical about these events and the amount of money that ends up going to the organization and for research after all the overhead is taken out.

Well, they have trimmed that and money does go towards education and research, so I'm in.

So, reasons to donate:

1. you need the tax deduction
2. you want to support me
3. you really want an ernest sticker (limited time offer)
4. you wish you could walk, but really don't want to spend your Sunday's in August walking 18 miles with only three stops for bathroom breaks and coffee, which leads to more bathroom breaks and makes nm's quite cranky
5. the look in my eyes when I see another donation added to my total, I get teary, I really do
6. well, you know, its the right thing.

Here's my link, I really haven't updated anything, I am planning on it.

My link for the 3 day!

This weekend I'm planning on doing about 10 miles, four one day, six the next. My half marathon schedule is off, April for the Whidbey, May somewhere (Tacoma), June in Seattle and July starting those long walks.

Really long walks. It makes me realize that after this, Portland will be easy.

recession proof nm hah

Quickly before the end

We have imposed a sabbath of sorts here, before that schmuck Mark Bittman wrote about his wireless free weekend. So far so good, exceptions made for quick am blogging and earthquakes that send me to work. Okay, must dash....

Nm cracking forward
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TGIT.

Moved lots of worm casings/compost today. Fava beans are up. We may see sun on Saturday and Ernest turned two today.

My baby is growing up.

Freaky

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Our DSL still blows, so I'll make this quick.

Ernest is rocking the free world.

I am not.

more later, if I can get a connection.

a few random things about today

1. I have the cutest optometrist in the world; thus visiting every other year is a joy
2. I killed five snails today on our walk. Happy Spring.
3. Our wireless is currently blowing.
4. I have great doubts about posting on the blackberry while in France
5. It rained and it was cold
6. Antibody treatments against horrible diseases is an amazing technology, but the side affects also blow
7. TH and I believe that you should buy locally, thus you should be a locacompro is comproloca better?


Okay, must dash, there is some squeaking my future

things I could have been doing while not watching Superbad

1. ironing
2. taking the dog for walk
3. sleeping
4. watching something else
5. writing thank you emails

B dropped the dvd off for me (thanks), but it just wasn't that funny.

nm who is superbad

Rabbit

To do:
1. take dog to get a pawdicure
2. drop off stuff to donations
3. shovel wood chips and move them
4. wonder if there will ever be calm from the chaos on the right side of my desk
5. walk dog four more times today
6. walk with Missy
7. go grocery shopping

My life is pretty freaking boring.