quatre vingts huit et douze font shoot me now

The last few sections I did in my French book have dealt with fairly complicated grammatical points, so when I turned the page and saw that I would be learning numbers, I was thrilled.  What could be easier?

Oh. My.  Goodness.

It started off easy enough: un, deux, trois, one, two, three.  Direct correlation.  But then I noticed something funky going on when I got to the number 70.  The number 10, I had learned, is dix. The number sixty is soixante.  70 is soixante-dix, literally "60-10."  

Hey, that's not how we do it in English!  That's addition!

I kept going, and it kept getting worse.  80 is "quatre-vingt," literally "4-20."  That's multiplication!!!  Are you ready for 99?  It's "quatre-vingt-dix-neuf."  In other words, "4-20-10-9."  So first you have to figure out that 4-20 is 80, then add ten, then add nine.  Or 19.  It's all the same.

At the end of each section of new information, there's a section called "Reading Preparation," which is basically like a little quiz where you go through a bunch of phrases and try to figure out what they mean before looking at the translation.  Guess what.  For the numbers section, the phrases are actually Math Itself.  [shudder]  

For example, "Quatre-vingt-deux et douze font-quatre-vingt-quatre/quatre-vingt-quatorze."  Et means and (or plus) and font means makes.  The bold parts are the two answer choices.

SO.  I first have to figure out what the first number is: quatre-vingt-deux (4-20-2 but actually 82).  Then I have to figure out the second number: douze (12).  Then I have to add them.  This takes a minute.  94.  Then I have to figure out which one of the answer choices means 94.  Either (4-20-4 but actually 84) or (4-20-14 but actually 80-14, which is indeed 94).

There were 38 of these problems.  I'm going to go cry now.

can't get a date

Tuesday I met my friend Leslie at La Colombe in Rittenhouse Square to study French.  Of course, considering that Rittenhouse Square is smack-dab in the middle of Center City's shopping district, the French was merely an excuse.  After the study session, we hit up Anthropologie, where I finally spent 1/3 of the gift card I got for my birthday last October.  What can I say, I'm a hoarder.  

I was also excited to be able to make my way to Trader Joe's, which is just a little Northeast of the park.  I had a very specific mission: to buy dates.  I'm planning on making an appetizer that uses them (thanks for the recipe, Mom!) and figured TJs was a good place to start.  The recipe also calls for pecans, and TJs is a great place for nuts.  However, I was disappointed because the only dates they sold were really gourmet and expensive, and I'm working with a budget here.

Later that night I did some internet research (OK, I googled "Mediterranean grocery" and "Philadelphia") and the first item that appeared was a place right next to Pat's and Geno's!  For you non-natives, those are the most celebrated cheesesteak establishments in Philly, and they are less than a mile from our house.  Alas, Bitar's also only sold really expensive dates.  I kept going to the Italian market, and after poking my head into several establishments, found dates at a significantly reduced price.  Lesson learned: start close to home!

Later that day, Greg and I poked our head in the Italian specialty store at the end of our street.  It opened a few months ago, and we hadn't looked in yet.  Boy, we were missing out.  Sitting at the cash register was a large man with a gold chain and his shirt unbuttoned down to his belly button.  He chatted us up, informed us that everything in the store was straight from Italy, and then made us some espresso free of charge.  I'm convinced it's a mafia front, but the espresso was good, so I'm not complaining.

summer fun: weddings and travel

Greg and I went to a wedding this weekend and had fun dancing the night away.  The bride was Greg's good friend and longtime neighbor Lauren, who he says is responsible for the fact that he passed his high school math classes.  Greg grew up in an almost Norman Rockwell-like neighborhood, where all the neighbors know each other, there's a traditional Christmas party, and you can always run down the street to borrow sugar.  It's an experience far removed from my own (I grew up on the mean streets, baby) and I get a real kick out of hanging out with the neighborhood crew.  

It was also a good chance to spend a little time with Greg's parents before their upcoming trip to Spain and Paris.  They're going to see some friends who they have hosted in the past as foreign exchange students, and about whom the well of stories never runs dry.  Greg and I are super-jealous, but wish them a lovely trip.

However, we do have a trip of our own scheduled for later in August--we'll be heading out to Chicago to see our friends Jamie and Jimmy, as well as to watch the Phillies play the Cubs at Wrigley Field.  (Three guesses as to who is more excited about that.)  

The only problem is that, as the date draws nearer, we are getting more concerned about actually getting there.  You see, we are flying US Air.  

If you have flown US Air before, I probably don't even need to say anything else, but if you haven't, let me clue you in.  DON'T FLY US AIR.  I started regretting my decision as soon as I booked the tickets, but they were so much cheaper that I couldn't resist.  When I have flown US Air in the past, it has almost always been an experience of delayed flights, no communication from the people in the know, lost luggage, and even having things stolen out of our luggage.  Oh yes, and the time that we had to get off the plane after sitting on the runway because the luggage truck had CRASHED INTO the plane while loading the suitcases.

Our fears are only compounded by the sorry state of air travel in general right now.  Andrea's friend Amy recently tried to get out to Indianapolis for a visit, only to be delayed for over 24 hours.  

Sure enough, last night I had an email from Orbitz.  It was very cryptic, something along the lines of this:  "Mr. Gregory James Cesare, your Orbitz itinerary has changed.  Please call this number 1-800-OH-CRAP and enter the following record code: !@#$%^&*()ABCDLKE))*WERNSDLKFNWERS.

I called the number, and in a reasonable 10 minutes, had managed to connect to a real live person and enter the code (and get dinner on the stove).  20 minutes later, the operator informed me that our flight out of Chicago would be delayed by 2 hours.  As she prepared to dismiss me, I asked, "Will that affect our connecting flight?"  She seemed confused by the question, but eventually managed to inform me that: "Your flight arrives in Pittsburgh at 11:36 AM, and your connecting flight departs Pittsburgh at 11:28 AM."  Long pause.  "And I can tell you that that will be a missed connection."

She put me on hold, I put the phone on speaker, and Greg and I proceeded to eat dinner and watch an entire sitcom before she came back on the line, only to let me know that she had to put me on hold again.  When she finally came back, I was so overexcited to grab the phone that I actually hung up on her.

Jamie, I hope to see you in August, but it's not looking good.

the great debate

THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS

VS.

THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE

It's time for me to weigh in on another debate on which my opinion doesn't matter at all and is obviously ridiculously biased: Philly vs. New York.

The Philly vs. New York debate is a big deal to Philadelphians; less so to New York.  It's like how the Colts hate the Patriots and the Pats don't even really notice, but at the same time, the Colts don't realize that folks in Jacksonville hate them.  Peyton's like, "Jacksonville?  We play them sometimes."  The point I'm trying to make here is that when there's a rivalry between two unequal players, the smaller fish tends to make more of the rivalry, and that's the sense I get of the Philly/NY thing.  New Yorkers might make a disparaging comment about Philly being the Sixth Borough, but they don't think about it much.  Meanwhile,  Philadelphians are fuming and declaring not only their independence, but their superiority.  (And then, there might be someone out there writing a Lancaster vs. Philly great debate blog entry.)

Well, Philadelphia, I am convinced.  I haven't lived in New York, so I am not terribly qualified to speak on the matter, but I now consider myself a Philadelphian and have compiled a list of reasons as to why Philly is better.

1)  It's a big city, but it's still small.  I live in South Philly, work in Old City (which is as far east as you can get) and go to school in North Philly.  I can easily get to any of these locations in half an hour.  We have friends in suburbs and in South Jersey, and we can get to them (driving) in a half hour.  If you lived in Queens, worked in Manhattan, and went to school in Staten Island, it would be much more complicated.

2)  Underdog status.  Living in New York's shadow, with perennially losing sports teams, a Philadelphian can always claim underdog status and get some sympathy. 

3)  History.  I didn't pay much attention to the historical aspect of Philly until I started doing Ghost Tours (a woman once asked me where the Liberty Bell was and I couldn't tell her) but I'm starting to realize how significant it is that this is where it all started.

4)  Perhaps most importantly, the reason I choose Philly can be best explained by this NY Times article.  It's about people who buy houses and end up having to do a ton of work renovating them, a process with which I am familiar.  I was reading the article and really identifying with it until the story mentioned some of the price tags for these fixer-uppers: $699,000, $770,000 and so on.  Holy cow!  I know it's a cliche to talk about the high price of New York real estate, but seriously.  In Philly, a beautiful condo in the absolute nicest part of town will run you around half a million.  And a fixer-upper in South Philly costs far, far less.  

AAAUUGGH!!!

And, cockroach.

HOT HOT HOT

Yes, that's Greg, my exceedingly handsome husband.  We took this picture during his two weeks between regular school and summer school, during which he refused to shave or, in fact, take part in any kind of grooming at all.

But here's the rub, and this is why I'm posting.  The little old ladies of Mercy Street have themselves a new hunka hunka to keep their eyes on, and they are doing everything short of throwing themselves at him.  Luckily, I keep my man well-trained, so he reports back to me whenever one of them attempts to seduce him.  

Trina* is the most forward, and unfortunately, the most attractive.  Her gray curls are expertly styled, and her muumuus are most fetching.  This was the exchange between her and Greg the other day, when Greg was walking back from his parking spot:

Trina:  Oh, you didn't find a spot on the street?

Greg:  Nah, but I'm not far.

T: That's too bad.

G:  I don't mind.

T:  I bet you don't mind too much, you're too cute!

Hello?  Ladies, he is married!!  The next day, Greg stepped outside and there was a big open parking space in front of our house.  Trina told Greg that if he wanted to go get the car, she would LAY in the SPOT for him to save it.

!!!!

*Names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.

you might be wondering...

...what exactly I've been doing with my time, now that most of the house stuff is done, I'm not in school for the summer, and I only do ghost tours in the evenings.  The idea is that I'm supposed to be spending my days doing things like exercising, learning French for an exam I have to take in the fall, and preparing for the class I have to teach in the fall.  

Alas, progress is slow.  I've barely gotten through the first few chapters of my "French for Reading" book, and I've only read the first few pages of the First Year Writing Program Instructor's Handbook (to say nothing of the actual books for the class.)  Months ago, when the weather was just getting warm and I was spending every moment either writing papers or painting walls, I dreamt about how much I would get done in the summer, how I'd spend the mornings on the French and class prep and spend the afternoons on other projects, like reading for personal and professional edification, finding conferences to give papers at, planning for what happens when I'm done with coursework.  Now that it's turning to the dog days, I'm simply hoping that I'll have been able to do the bare minimum by the time fall rolls around.

With that said, then, what have I been doing?  For one thing, I set up my workspace (pictured above.)  That has to come first, right?  I've also done OK with the exercise in the last few weeks, finally getting comfortable using Temple's gym (which I have free access to.)  I've never been a gym person.  The idea of sweating in front of others, who I imagine to be much fitter, tanner, more beautiful people, is not my idea of a good time.  However, I've found that if I get there early enough, it's not too crowded.  And the guy who is usually on the treadmill next to me has such an overwhelming stench of B.O. dressed with cologne that I feel much less self-conscious. (Horrible but true, and by the way, I have a real soft spot for this guy because he runs at the same miserably slow pace I do.  I don't even mind the smell.)

I've also been distracting myself trying out new recipes, checking out the market, and doing nest-y things like blanching zucchini and freezing it for when it's not in season.  I am aided in these kitchen activities by my best friend, the internet.  Here are some of my favorite websites for recipes and general cooking advice: 

thekitchn

Yes, it's missing an E, I don't know why.  But this blog updates with new entries almost 10 times a day, making it hard to beat for browsing.  They feature recipes, ingredient spotlights, kitchen tour slideshows, and features like "learning to cook without recipes."

101cookbooks

This natural-foods focused blog is written by a cookbook writer/photographer, and it's a beauty to look at.  She posts new recipes once or twice a week, and they always look delicious and expand my awareness of healthy ingredients.

smittenkitchen

My friend Rachel turned me on to this site, and I enjoy the author's (or maybe authors'? Not sure how many there are) sense of humor and writing style.

pleasepassthepie

Since I have no baking experience aside from the cake in the last post, I haven't tried any of the recipes featured so far in this blog.  AND YET, I read it religiously because my witty and lovely friend Abbie writes it, and it is muy entertaining.

kiplog's food blog links

If you enjoy reading food blogs, check out kiplog's list of food blogs.  It is tremendously lengthy--back when I "worked" at TV Guide and didn't have anything to do all day, I spent weeks going through each and every entry...and the list has only grown in the intervening years. There's a food blog on here for everyone--vegans, carnivores, people who only eat at restaurants, bakers, even shakers probably.  I enjoyed all the international ones--quite a few from Singapore.

Now you too can spend your days not doing what you should be doing.