Billet du Tour

(Ticket to Ride)

Mois et Mois (Months and months) of mile collecting has finally paid off, or at least half paid off.  Nous (We) have booked nos billets á Paris (our tickets to)!  Only our billets to Paris the website did not have flights scheduled pour Août (for August) next année (year) yet.  Though je suis ( I am) less worried about the vol maison (flight home) than le vol to Paris.  Je wish je could say that booking le vol was easy after all the pain of accumulating miles, but of course ce n'est pas (that is not) the way.  Quand nous (when we) decided to book notre vol la nuit derniére (our flight last night) nous hoped to be celebrate with a tasse de vin (glass of wine) at the end.  By the time nous were done weighing our different airlines , comparing the different miles rewards specials running, picking the exact date,  which airport to fly from, comparing different seat sizes on planes, realizing we had lit (read) the website wrong and throwing out the last heure de travail (hour of work) and starting over nous étions fatigués (we were tired) and were more than a little snippy with each other... so no vin last nuit (night).

For the important part:
We are flying out of Atlanta, GA on vingt juin (June 20th) on British Airlines .... Business Class!

So la premiére question (the first question) tu (you) may be asking is why Atlanta, GA as we live in North Carolina and n'y a pas il (isn't there) a international aéroport just un heure trente minutes (1 1/2 hours) away? Because British Airways only lets you use your frequent miles in un petit (a small) list of aéroports in the USA.  Nous n'avons pas su ceci (we did not know this) quand nous (when we) signed up for notre (your) BA carte de credit (credit card).  No problem, Atlanta is only cinq heures (5 hours) away et Daniel has cousins that live there and hopeful will drive us to la aéroport  then watch our Jeep for the été (summer).

Duexmiére question (second) why schedule it pour l'anniversaire de Daniel's (Daniel's birthday) because everyone wants to spend their anniversaire stuck in a plane with deux cien (200) strangers pour neuf heures (four 9 hours)?  This is a longer answer.
About cinq semaines (5 weeks) ago ma soeur  (my sister) got engaged and elle (she) hopes to be married next Juin (June).  Since ils (they) just got engaged they haven't exactly booked venues so ils doesn't have a firm date.  While it would have been nice to book notre billets (our tickets) once we had exact dates, miles seats were running out so we took an educated stab at a fly date.  Luckily BA allows you to change your vol (flight) without much penalties if we need to, hard to say how much a headache it actually would be.

Side note: One of their deux (two) best dates is our cinquiéme anniversaire de mariage (fifth anniversary) et nous volerions (we would fly) quatre jours (four days) later so it would be like taking our honeymoon all over again.

Last question may be Business Class seems awful cushy doesn't it ... oui il est (yes it is)... do tu (you) really have that many miles?  Oui et Non (yes and no).
We will be blowing all our BA miles flying to Paris and then will fly home on Delta miles (most likely coach).  BA has this crazy essence (gas) tax so you are paying about tres cien (300) dollars in taxes on each vol, et le essence (and the gas) tax is the same price no matter which class you are flying.  So we decided to just unload all the miles flying in in style and pay considerably smaller taxes on the return flight with Delta.  After nous (we)  book our return flight je will be out of miles but there will be enough time to build up miles before nous do another trip this grande.

Side Note:  Since the US Government can't collect flight taxes at the moment international Delta flights have taxes for like 5 dollars.

Morale del'histoire (Moral of the story):
Flight is booked! Email conformation sent! Freaking out about how trés petite français je sais (very little french I know) started!

Tonight's Picture:

Cette fille va á Paris! 

Pervious Picture:

The lamp is made of paper flower and I want.

Il Prend une Famille

(It takes a family)

Je appreciate all of les petites choses (the little things) ma famille font (my family are doing) pour m'aider á apprendre le français (to help me learn french).   Cet été ma belle-mére (this summer my mother-in-law) has emailed moi dans français (me in french). Elle also mailed moi français magazines that elle (she) picked up durring a petite layover in Paris.  C'est le premier (it is the first) magazine where j'amine (I like) the ads most of all.  Le sentences are short, so there is a better chance je can lu (read) et understand them.  Il y a (there are) way too many mots dans (words in) the articles pour que je comprenne. ( for me to understand).  Et (and) photo captions, j'aime (i love) photo captions, they are the adulte (adult) form of picture livres (books).   Ma belle-mére étudié français dans université (my mother-in-law studied french in college) so elle (she) has a starting point in aide de moi (helping me).

Je suis aidé ( I am helped) by mon non-speaking français famille as well.  Ma maman (my mom) got me a movie for a recent gift giving occasion and made sure elle (she) picked a DVD that also included a french audio version.  Je n'ai pas ( I have not) had a chance to watch it dans français ou anglais (in french or english) yet.  The lastest aide de ma famille (help from my family) came in the form of a pocket bible.  Le frére de ma mére, (my mother's brother) was going through a duexiéme main livre (second hand book) store and came across this pocket taille (size) français Nouveau Testament.

Side Note: Nope, je n sais pas (I don't know) "uncle" yet, which is funny since that is normally le duexiéme semaine de français un zéro un  (the second week of french 101) mais je suis (but I am) half way through the duexiéme level of Rosetta Stone and have not touched on extended famille yet.  Go figure.

It looks tres vieux (very old) because it is from 1950's. Mille neuf cent cinquante-deux (1952) to be exact.  This lead moi to regale la famille of my ability to translate tios mots á la fois (three words at a time) around la table de cuisine (the kitchen table).  Ils (they) were highly entertained, nothing like famille to humor tu (you).  

It is tres bon (very good) to know toi famille y a il (your family is there) to support tu. Je need to step up ma français to make use of all of these tools that je keep receiving.

Tonight's Picture:

Le lampe est fait des fleurs de papier et je veux.

Pervious:

The young bride rides the fake horse.  

Je meant "young" as "new" not young in age, in case anyone was wondering.

   

Éspouse de Maison

For someone who has as little to do as je do te think je would be posting more.  Je may be splitting my attention between too many projects.

  Je suis une éspouse de maison cette été ( I am a house wife this summer.)  This has been keeping me fairly busy.  Who would have guessed, probably all the femmes (women) who are house wives.  Je fais cuire tres repas un jour (I cook three meals a day).  Et (and) by cuisinier (cook) , je suis (I am) up scrambling oeufs et légumes pour petit déjeuner á sept trente chaque matin (eggs and vegetables for breakfast at 7:30 every morning.)  Daniel comes maison (home) every jour (day) pour déjeuner (for lunch) and I normally prépare salades pour nous (prepare salads for us).  Et then I cuire dîner.  (and then I cook dinner)

Despite épouse de maison (ing) for almost deux mois (two months) now, je still struggle to find mon stride sometimes.  Jeudi (Thursday) was a great épouse de maison jour (day).  Je suis allé (I went) to Westport pour le matin(for the morning).  Je shopped at a deuxiéme main (second hand) store et got a few choses (things). Then I spent un heure (an hour) in my favorite store trying on robes c'étaient tres cher (dress that were very expensive) et then achat choses de (buying things from) the sales room.

Je then allé (went) to the farmer's market and bought fromage, pain, fruit, et  biscuits (cheese, bread, fruit and cookies) for a picnic dîner.  Had la température not been so chaud (hot), je ne sais pas le mot pour (I do not know the word for ) sweltering, je would have stayed longer.

Quand (when) je got back, je put everything away et est allé (and went) to the café et had un café froid  (and had a cold coffee) and blogged.  These are the jours (days) j'amie being a épouse de maison (I love being a housewife).  These are also les jours les paraboloides (the days the dishes) pile up dans l'évier (in the sink).  Sadly, je ne sais pas un épouse de maison avec (I am not a housewife with) une maid. Je also don't have a allowance so tres peu jours (very few days) include shopping.

Je might as well enjoy the next deux semaines (two weeks) of being une épouse de maison before it is over.  My l'été (the summer) flies.

Tonight's Picture:

La jeune mariée monte le cheval faux. 

Why it pays to stay till the extrémité pour la fete.  

Pervious Picture:

The poor woman has no hands.

Aucuns Vols Faciles

(No Easily Flights)

Trip Update:
Nous avon (we have) acquired enough frequent flyer points to cover notre (our) round trip billets (tickets) to Paris ensuite été (next summer).  Je (I) can only imagine this is what it feels like when your stock vests.  It is actually kind of funny after spending mons (months) trying every random survey, trial membership and mailing list to acquire enough Delta miles to cover our flights and with one simple carte de credit (credit card) nous earned both of notre billets (our tickets) on British Airways.

But bout nuit (last night) nous realized a petit catch in notre (our) plan.  Though British Airways flies out the Charlotte aéroport (airport), which is only une heure et demi (an hour and half) away, one can not book a vol (flight) using reward points from this aéroport.  The closest aéroport that nous can book from is in Atlanta, Georgia, cinq heures (five hours) away.  Not all is lost Daniel has cousins there, who may be getting a phone call for a favor et (and) nous will just add un jour ou deux (a day or two ) to the trip.  Je sais (I knew) this was being way too easy.

Oh and Delta has recently reconfigured their reward flights so the it takes substantially plus (more) miles to qualify for a international flight.  The strange silver lining to this nuage (cloud) is that is only vingt pour cent plus (20% more) miles to qualify for a first class billet (ticket) on the same vol (flight).  So who knows nous may be fly out on BA and back first class on Delta?  It would mange (eats) up most of notre miles but je bet nous pas (we will not) being taking a trip like this for awhile.  Je vous tiendrai courant (I will keep you informed).


Aujourd'hui (today) I had one of my worst jours (days) of Frenching to date.  I always score badly on the écrit (writing) section and it is not unusual to have to work that section trois (three) times before je receive a passing score and that is fine.  Je ne peux pas ( I can't spell) in English why would je think it would be any better in Français.  But, aujourd'hui je (today I) scored a zéro! Je have never scored that badly, don't get moi (me) wrong j'ai eu (I have had) some really bad scores but never a zéro.  Ce jour (that day) off really did not pay off.


Tonight's Picture:

La pauvre femme n'a pas des mains.

De ma visite au musée. (From my trip to the museum)

Pervious Picture:

The fake cherries and eggplant sit in the real flowers.

Et en tant que toujours (and as always) feel free to french back

Mémoire d'Etsy

(Etsy Store)

So je suis (I am) sure some of vous avec (you have) noticed the side bar with the pictures of ornaments et (and) lately bijoux (jewelry), et si vous n'avec pas (and if you haven't) mon marketing plan has failed.  The pictures are a link to mon mémoire d'etsy (etsy store).  J'ai vend (I sell) ornaments et ayez (and have) since Christmas dernier (last).  Je started the shop when j'étais (I was) between travail (work) right after graduate school.  Je decided since j'ai eu le temps et étais (I had time and was) trying to save argent (money) je would make ornaments for the famille (family) members nous (we) were going to exchange gifts with.  Ma mere (my mom) has been making these simple hand stitched fabric ornaments for gifts for ans (years) now.  Since j'ai (I was) going to be making a bunch of them and came up with the idea with plenty of temps (time) je figured je would see if je could vend (sell) any.

Mon primiere (my first) sale happend really rapide et ils acheté (fast and they bought) half of the items je had listed.  Super excited je listed beaucoup (a lot) of ornaments to have only un (one) additional sale that season.  J'ai (I have) had only trois (three) sales since then oh and deux (two) of those were famille.  Je will admit j'ai only half kept up with it.  Semaines ou mois (weeks or months) will go by without moi posting a new item et (and) then je will post trois ou quarte (three or four) then do nothing for semaines again.

Je sais (I know) much of que (what) makes a shop travail et (work and) how to make it more successful, je just don't commit myself to it.  Mon (my) hope was to travail on it over cet été (this summer) et hopefully still will.  Je did stitch deux plus (two more) ornaments aujourd'hui (today) so those maybe clogging up votre (your) facebook feed soon as well.  The plan was to expand beyond the petite hand sewn ornaments since je started, since je actually know how to sew and build things all the time.  Je believe if je ever just committed to doing the site then je would get around to figuring out que (what) else je could do.  Always ouvert (open) to suggestions.


Tonight's Picture:

Les cerises et l'aubergine fausses s'arrêtent en vraies fleurs.

Of course ils sont de ma mémoire (they are from my store).

Pervious Picture:
I cook in the kitchen


Et en tant que toujours (and as always) feel free to french back.

Écriture de Lettre

(Letter Writing)

Ma belle-mere m'a  écrit une lettre en français. (My mother in law wrote me a letter in french). This was tres (trés) sweet of her as this is exactly what je was hoping for en écrit this blog.  Je did put off écrit her back for several jours (days) as je knew it would take beaucoup de travail (a lot of work).  Et il était. (And it was). Je spent le meilleur (the better) part of une demi-heure écrit elle (a half hour) back.  Et c'est un email trés peite. (And it is a very little email).  Mais l'a écrit que j'ai fait. (But wrote it I did)

Daniel et je (and I) have realized notre été dans (our summer in) Paris has a huge amount of logistics to work out.  Norte vol et hôtel (our flight and hotel) seeming least of all. So I am trying to start working out some of those details.

Side Note: Since we (the english speakers)  spell Paris the same way the french you should just read it with the français pronunciation for me. (Pare-ie) Merci.

Additional Side Note: So je suis allé dehors ( I went outside) to escape loud fille (girl) dealing with a mid life crisis only to have her follow me dehors to smoke.  Last temp enfants (time children) cette temp (this time) mid life crisis.  Is there no relief en mon cafe (in my coffee shop)?

Tonight's Picture:

Je fais cuire dans la cuisine.

Pervious Picture:

The weather is hot and sunny on the dock.

Un An

(One Year)

A couple of nuits (nights) ago over cafe (coffee) in what has already become our neighborhood coffee shop, Daniel et je (and I) started planning notre (our) trip to Paris.  Well more we started planning planning notre trip to Paris.  It is exciting but a bit daunting.

Side note:
My quiet aire de travail (work space) at the coffee shop has been overrun with peites enfants (little kids) alright so maybe there are only trois (three) but je find it trois un trop grand nombre (three too many). How quickly suis devenu vieux (I have become old) and crotchety.  Have je mentioned they are clogging up the salle de bains (bathroom) when je suis dans le besoin (I am in need).

Aujourd'hui je (Today I) learned tense, future and past.  This was a peite (little) encouraging as the program has advanced enough I am no longer parroting vocabularity but working on more complex thoughts. I am also trying to use plus français (more french) in casual conversation, and am pleasantly suprised by how often je can make a complete thought entirely in français. Though je think ils (they) would still turn me away from enrolling in kindergraten as under developed.

While the program is much more focused on creating complete sentences there is always new vocabulary in each section. Aujourd'hui, j'ai appris aujourd'hui (today, I learned today), I just wrote that sentence to make me laugh. I also learned dictionnaire, "Oui est le dictionnaire?" (Where is the dictionnaire?) Which I thought was silly, "Oui est le contrôle de charme?" ("Where is the spell check?") Seems much more helpful dans ces jour et âge (in this day and age).

I have mentioned a few times how learning a foreign language really makes tu (you) think about ton (your) own language. As I was reciting my new words enveloppe et email (envelope and email) it makes it kind of obvious quand (when) some words came in to being.  Sure email is a concept that occurred when globalization was well underway and it makes since that most romantic based languages will use the same word for it, but how about envelope.  Are the words just taken from one another or did this become a common word while the world was growing smaller?  I know all a bit off track for me.

Je will wrap up this post before it becomes any plus (more) random et stream of conscious like.

Tonight's picture:

Il fait chaud et il fait de soleil a le port.

Plus photos de (from) Norwalk!