France has better food.

The French work a 35-hour workweek and get an average of 37 vacation days per year.

France’s healthcare system consistently tops the list of best in the world.

Oh, and the French are better parents, too. (Watch the video and tell me those American women don’t sound crazy.)

The Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, crepes from street vendors, the Louvre. And don’t forget Provence, fields of lavender, Marseille, Versailles, Julia Child, the ex-pat literary figures of the 1920s, Van Gogh, Pasteur. Croissants.

Tomorrow’s high temperature in Paris: 26.

Tomorrow’s high temperature here: 64.

…

Well, then.

North Carolina for the win!

[Somehow, the topic of New York City comes up...]

Erin: “A., do you know anything about New York City?”

A: “Yes.”

Erin (surprised): “You do? What’s that?”

A: “A. lives in New York City, where he has cats.”

(I don’t believe A. has ever been to NYC, nor does he have cats.)

[Later, after some drawing...]

A: “Look, Erin! Three candles on table!”

A: “Look, Erin! Smoke coming out of a smokestack!”

[Later, A. draws a train and then adds three lines above the train...]

A: “These indicate that the bell is ringing.”

On Friday, I mentioned the fact that I’m very often thinking about food. So, what better way to start the week than by discussing the weekend’s food?

The highlight, of course, were the crepes. I made them in my new Bialetti Aerternum nonstick frying pan of awesomness. (Christmas present from my parents.) Seriously, this pan is amazing. It’s not Teflon, but food literally slides around in it. Cleaning it is a joy. And it’s cute, too. If you’re in the market for a new nonstick pan, may I suggest one of these? And then, may I suggest you make crepes in them?

The Nutella crepes were delicious and were eaten in about thirty seconds flat. (Recipe here, video here.) I could have eaten a dozen. Next time, I’m doubling the recipe.

My Nutella snack was completely justifiable, in my opinion, because this is what I had for lunch that day:

An enormous salad with homemade French vinaigrette with Dijon mustard and shallots (recipe: here). Jesse and I were quite proud of our vegetable intake on Saturday. Now, if we can just keep that up…

On Sunday, we had lunch with good friends, which was wonderful. Once we’re done with some of our leftovers, I’m going to try my hand at homemade tortillas. Exciting!

I’m easily amused, and I must say–I like it that way.

Make crepes

Buy olives

Boil eggs

…Well, I think that about sums up what I’m usually thinking about. (Read: FOOD.)

The resolution has been building for a while now, but it was articulated this weekend. And I began the resolution in earnest, finishing two books I’d been working my way through, and starting one I’d bought at a thrift shop in Titusville over the holiday.

The idea of a resolution set me to thinking about other things I want to do. Not this year, but sometime. Those things–ranging in plausibility from “Yeah, that might happen,” to “Well, we all have dreams…”–include the following: bake apple turnovers, move to Paris, make my own laundry detergent, keep the house clean on a weekly basis, embrace the sillier sides of my personality, find a way to afford to eat more locally farmed foods, make a chocolate souffle, visit Vietnam and India, get another degree.

For now, I’ll stick to: read more books and spend less time on the Internet. Speaking of which…

It’s not that he doesn’t like babies. He just doesn’t have much experience with them, and therefore resists holding them. To him, they seem fragile and unpredictable. When babies become toddlers, he becomes the “fun one,” the jungle gym as it were. He’ll let S. climb all over him, and it’s pretty adorable.

Babies, though, he usually observes from a distance.

The other night, the Kings were over for dinner and the premier of American Idol, and I wanted Jesse to hold Baby D, the cuddliest, sweetest little boy there ever was. I figured, if we’re going to have kids in the next decade or so (don’t hold your breath), we should start getting Jesse a little more used to the “under-three” variety of children.

So, though he protested a bit (not as much as I expected, mind you), Jesse agreed to hold Baby D for a while but made me promise to take him back as soon as the baby started crying, which Jesse was convinced would happen before too long.

Two minutes later, we look over and see this:

The baby fell asleep! In no time flat! No crying, no fussing, no squirming. How many times has this child fallen asleep in my lap? Zero. Jesse has him for a few minutes–out. We all laughed.

The two of them stayed that way the rest of the episode. It was so freaking adorable, I could hardly stand it. Baby D really is the cuddliest baby ever.

What Google has to say.

Wikipedia’s take.

ABC News: About the blackout. 

We had a lovely weekend, one of those fun but calm weekends, a time to ourselves. We ate out, lounged in Barnes and Noble, shopped at the outlets in Myrtle Beach (Christmas money!), did a bit of laundry, napped. Not much work got done, and that was just fine. Last night, I made an artichoke mushroom lasagna, and now we’ve got plenty of leftovers for lunches this week. What a nice way to launch into this week, rested and happy.

At least one of my classes this semester–after only one class period with me–can testify this is true. The computer in that classroom lacked a regular mouse, so I had to use the wireless one, which meant in the process of getting the syllabus, schedule, and assignments to show up on the projector, I looked absolutely ridiculous, swinging my arms around trying to get the cursor in the right position, and trying to click things while simultaneously holding the “do stuff” button on the mouse. (And, yes, that is its technical name. So there.) Or maybe it was, holding down the button while swinging my arms around and then clicking…something…oh, whatever.

I lack hand-eye coordination, which Jesse blames on the fact that I didn’t play organized sports as a kid.

(I argue that I didn’t play organized sports as a kid because of my lack of hand-eye coordination.)

Toward the end of the class, I gave up on one of the assignments and said something like, “Oh shoot, I’ll just email it to you.” (I don’t know if I said “Oh shoot” out loud or if that’s just how I remember it.)

Shockingly, no one has dropped the class yet. A miracle! And, I found a regular mouse to use next time. It’s all up from here, folks.

The other day, I got my latest copy of TurboTax and, like every year, I’m anxious to install it and get started. TurboTax is a game you might actually get money for finishing. Of course, the past couple of years, it hasn’t worked quite like that for us, but that doesn’t keep me from getting my hopes up every January…at least we can be pretty certain that we’ll be so freakishly poor this year that we are bound to get a nice return next year.

In the meantime, I should probably spend some time with that wireless mouse when I don’t have twenty-two people staring at me. Just in case I ever have to use it again…