Voila! French telecom has arrived

13 December 2007- A working home phone and reliable internet connection, what more could we need. Oh yeah, Chad wants American television programming. Even satellite tv would mean we would get nothing of value until the middle of the night. I think he just needs to accept the fact that we are in a foreign country and he might have to branch out and read while not sitting on an airplane. So if you have any DVDs of TV shows that you are currently not using, feel free to ship them our way. We have both kinds of DVD players so whatever format is good, we can get it to work. We will soon get our cable hookup but I have been told, what you get in English is spotty and something you may never have watched in the US but now in France, anything in the home language is worth it.

Now with the rolly cart, I am unstoppable at the store. It still amazes me how varied the price can be for certain items. Turkey breast cutlets are so much cheaper than chicken. vinegar (again the land of wine thing) is practically free and all varieties are available. Cat treats are non-existent(again send 'em if you got 'em) and I saw a cat toy for 3 euro. It was a small mouse with feathers on it. Make a ring with your index finger and thumb and think smaller than that. What??? But a bottle of Mimosa or otherwise champagne, less than the cat toy. Even Tabasco sauce was cheaper. Lighting fixtures are really expensive, good thing we got ours from a returning ex-pat. I guess eyeglasses are at least 85 euro per lens. Again good thing I used my vision insurance before leaving Harris County.
I bought us a very French Christmas tree. It is red felt and packs flat for easy storage. It even included the decorations. I threatened to buy a real one but figured I should have an easily packable tree. They sell a 2D tree which sticks on the wall with its own decorations. I would have gone for that one but the boxes are in the way. Christmas or Noel is coming and the city is ready for it. All the stores which are typically closed on Sundays are open through the 23rd. Streets are decorated with lights. Our little market street is really cute (picture later, Chad is in Germany with my camera today). The French love Christmas but are not tied into the typical color combinations. IKEA has khaki and black stockings, another store Habitat had red, pink and brown trees and last night on TV we saw a PSA for purple, pink and black trees. What ever color you would like, you can have it for Christmas in France.
They are installing the kitchen as I type. I am surrounded with parts of cabinets and lots of appliances. The demo went fast, we shall see how long the install takes. This would have been a lot easier with the lift from the moving company. Too bad that couldn't have been coordinated.
And yes Chad is off to Germany today. I think once we get the apartment together I will able to join him in these locales he is jetting or training off to. With his terrority of Scandanavia to North Africa and Portgual to Moscow, I hope to see a lot of country. Again all while the poor guy is toiling away at work. When he gets home tomorrow we are going to try to see the rollerbladers leave from the central train station. They do 30 km all over the city on Friday night in a large pack. We will just be spectators as this is very rough cobbles and such. I have seen Chad try to ice-skate, he is better on solid ground with at least a bike under him. I hope he gets me some nice Christmas presents from Germany.