Les Flâneurs

France in 2016

We're going back to France this year. We've got our airline tickets -- burning up air miles on British Airways is always fun -- and plan to spend about three weeks. The plan so far is: we leave Michigan 11 September, drive to Dick and Dorothy's house where we will leave our car. We then fly out of Boston on 13 September, arriving Paris on the 14th and take the train to Lille where we'll spend a few days with Glen and Christina.

On Monday 19 September Richard and Pauline will pick us up in Lille and the four of us will spend the next four days traversing and touring the Somme and Ypres battlefields from World War One. It's the centennial of those horrific events and we're eager to pay our respects.

After we say adieu to Richard and Pauline we head off to Paris on the 23rd where we will remain until flying home 4 October. Susie is already scouting potential professional development classes while I will tidy up any loose ends in my forthcoming Guide to more than 1,000 Sculptures in Père-Lachaise. (You can find the website I created that complements the guidebook right here.)

Right now we're exploring options for renting an apartment in Paris, always an interesting experience. Anyway, I hope to post the results of my research here so so stay tuned.

Update from Grand Rapids - remodeling

Quick note today -- this is an ongoing record of the remodeling of our condo so bear with me here. Anyway, the painters are here right now so things will look quite a bit different by the end of the week.

For the moment, though this is where our kitchen stands: cabinets are in and appliances set back into place; we're waiting for the countertops to be fabricated then the flooring goes down and finally the backsplash. Probably two to four weeks out for completion.

Mardis Gras, a puff pastry presentation and kitchen remodeling

Well, it's been a while since I posted here; sheer laziness I assume. Our lives have been busy and, I must say interesting but then we haven't really done much either. Quite a contradiction of sorts, I suppose.

We had a fun time last month at the Alliance Française's Mardi Gras party. The next day Susie made a tasty presentation on now to make puff pastry to a group of curious folks at Aquinas College.

yep, Napoleon won for best costume

The big news right now is our house is in disarray, a consequence of our ongoing remodel challenge, this time an entirely new kitchen. Cabinets will be delivered this week and the template fabricated for our countertop. But here's where we stand so far:

before. . .

and after the walls came down

Donald Wade Soper Junior turned 80

Right off let's say it -- I'm a jerk. I forgot my brother's birthday, his 80th birthday on February 22 and I'm not proud of that. But I am proud of him. He survived some terrible things in his life and came out the better person for it.

And as for me, well, if it hadn't been for him I wouldn't be typing these words right now. In one of the first postwar dysfunctional families my big brother was always there for me.

We're twelve years apart in age, rarely speak, and since we live a couple of thousand miles apart haven't seen each in years. We rarely agree on anything -- except when it came to our dad. We never had to think twice when he was involved in our lives or us in his.

Happy birthday Big Brother and I hope it was a blowout.