Straight up BUSTED.

The mail Gods have not been with us this week. Yesterday we got slapped with a 99,95€ (about equal to $138!) tax on a jacket I bought, making the tax almost half the cost of the coat. Today, this:


We ordered a case of an assortment of beers from a distributor in Belgium after our beer-filled tripped to Brussels a few weeks back, and it finally came today. And when Madame la poste took it out of the truck and was walking it over to me, a bottle of beautiful, delicious Delirium Tremens fell out the bottom of the beat-up box and shattered into a million pieces. I shed a single, silent tear.

The driveway however, smells lovely.

Here's hoping that when we go to la poste in the morning the rest of the beers and glassware don't look as man-handled as the box itself did.

Two lessons learned:
1. Never have anything shipped to France from the US unless it is sharpied, glittered and painted with the words "GIFT."
2. Pad driveway.

A la prochain friends...

A week in pictures...

So this week, we received the wonderful news that a long awaited package had FINALLY arrived. Apparently la poste was holding onto it for 2 months, and never gave us a slip to let us know it was there. (Thanks la poste!) But inside were the most wonderful wedding/housewarming presents from a truly wonderful friend.


[Crack.]


["Off my Kool-Aid..."]

Also in the package were snuggies! I'm not sure if snuggies have hit Europe or the world at large quite yet, but seriously, youse don't know what you're missing. Check them out here! (The website is hilarious by the way.) There were two in our special package: one for me emblazoned with the amazing logo of the Philadelphia Phillies, and one for Dan with his favorite MLB team, the St. Louis Cardinals. Anyone who knows about snuggies can tell that we are obviously wearing them backwards. Blasphemy!


Also this week, I went apple picking with one of my friends and her adorable little girls. Well, we attempted to go apple picking.


Our travels found us going back and forth between France and Switzerland for a good two hours looking for a PYO of any sort. We found a really cute little town called Coppet while in Suisse that was cute and sleepy and had a great Chocolatier (of course we had to buy some!).


We did find one farm in Switzerland where you could pick your own fruit, but apple picking would not be available until next year. I guess PYO farms really are a very American thing, because I think everyone we asked about it looked at us like we might be a little bit crazy.



On our way back though we did find a farm that was selling bags of already picked apples, so that would have to do for this year. It didn't matter to me though, I was happy so long as weren't coming home with apples from Migros.


[Pay by honor system - pretty common here.]




[Pomme trees.]

Oh yeah, and we did some canning this week too! This was the first time either of us had ever tried to can anything, but all of the jars made that popping noise they're supposed to make if they are sealed, so hopefully they'll all keep.



I think after two batches we've perfected the recipe. I hope we can scavenge enough figs to do another batch or two, maybe a little fig-cayenne pepper confiture...yummm!!!

Have a great weekend everybody! Hope you've got some fun fall activities planned. We'll be getting in some bike riding, some running, some apple pie making (I do have all those apples to use up!), and most importantly, we've got another jam packed weekend of sports coming up - the NLCS starts on Saturday night (2 am start) and continues on Sunday afternoon (dinner time game - HUA!), as well as a ton of college football.


[Bromance.]
Pic via here.

GO PHILLIES!!! Take down them Giants! (OH, and hellllo to Pat "Tight Pants" Burrell, it will be good to see you again! Too bad you'll be in a Giants uni...)


Pic via here.