Five Months in Austin

Sunday I drove Tim and his friend from next door, Philip, down to fish in Lake Austin. The folks running the dam have drained water from Lake Travis down into Lake Austin. If you are careful, you can cast your line without hitting the weeds.

Philip and Tim kept going almost until sundown. A boat came by with a guy waterskiing behind it. The wake of the boat washed small waves up where the boys stood. Both got their feet wet, though Tim had only damp feet. Philip got soaked. We came home shortly after that.

Monday, Presidents’ Day, the girls came with us. Tim and Emma cast for about an hour. All they brought back was weeds. We wondered if the fish had gone somewhere else while the water level was so low. Tim was convinced live bait and more time would do the trick.

Samedi, nous sommes alles dans un State Park a une heure d’ici, qui ressemble a un eco-musee. Malheureusement, ce parc etait ouvert en hiver principalement car il est dedie au president Johnson, dont ce sont les lieux d’enfance et de villegiature durant sa periode presidentielle, et donc toute la partie presentation de la vie il y a un siecle dans une ferme etait sous forme de musee et non de demonstration. La partie la plus vivante de l’endroit a ete de voir les Longhorn Cows (vaches texanes a tres longues cornes) et les biches vivant en bonne entente, et de loin, les bisons. Tim, a qui le ranger avait dit qu’il pouvait pecher dans la riviere, nous a traine jusque la et avec le vent qu’il y avait, il n’arrivait pas a lancer sa ligne a plus de deux metres.

La toute premiere experience de patinoire pour Tim et Emma fut un succes. Tim n’a pris que quelques minutes pour s’habituer aux patins et s’aventurer au milieu de la patinoire, quant a Emma, elle s’est essayee prudemment pendant un petit 1/4 d’heure en se tenant au bord et ensuite au milieu avec des plots et ensuite avec l’aide de Gillian, la maman de Liliane, sa copine. Je suis pendant ce temps partie avec Diane manger quelque chose dans une pizzeria ou Diane s’est litteralement goinfree de pizza, de salades… Pendant ce temps, a l’anniversaire , Tim et Emma mangeaient eux aussi leur pizza avant de rechausser les patins. Nous sommes revenues peu de temps avant la fin et pour le gateau et les cadeaux, Lili semblait ravie d’avoir tant de monde autour d’elle. Du monde, oui, car aux USA, il parait qu’il est de coutume d’inviter a un anniversaire la fratrie des amis invites et en general, l’anniversaire ne se fait pas a la maison. Est-ce un habitude americaine vraiment ou une habitude AIS (Austin International School)???? En tout cas, je crois que chez les Craig, on refusera pour nos trois cheris ce genre d’integration…!
Bref, ravis, fatigues, et pleins de projets a nouveau, nous sommes rentres a la maison et les enfants ont commence a essayer de convaincre leur pere d’aller aussi patiner!

film des artistes

Luke wanted to see me in front of David’s truck. Both Tim and Emma took pictures, but they all turned out so blurry, I’m not ready to post anything. Besides, I don’t have a cowboy hat or a gun rack, yet.

Here is a picture of a cactus, though. This one is growing next to the mailboxes at the playground. The children used to be all excited when they saw a cactus, but that was weeks ago. Cacti are old hat. Click the thumbnail for a bigger photo.

The attraction this morning was the long, pipelike slide. At first they were content just to slide down to the end, picking up static electricity from the plastic.

By the time we were ready to leave, they were going down on their bellies, shooting out the end into the gravel. Or one would try to climb up inside, getting out of the way just in time not to get kicked in the teeth by another sliding down. I stopped them before the bigger ones try to come down with Diane on their knees.

Emma and Tim are off school today. Earlier in the week came teacher appreciation day. Now the teachers are learning.

I am “off,” too, though as usual on days off I have some work to do. Because I am a French employee, I have many more vacation days than my US employee colleagues. (Unfortunately I still have the same amount of work.)

Emma has a birthday party to attend this afternoon.

Diane has convinced herself that she should not go to school, either.

Monday is another day off in the US. Ragan calls it Mattress Sale Day.

Today I abandoned my leftovers on the counter while leaving in a hurry to take Emma and Tim to school. So when lunch time rolled around, I went with guys from work.

As we walked out to Trey’s car, Arnaud told me he had heard from Jean-Luc. They were in T-shirts over in Grenoble. We were cold here in Austin. Chill winds and near-freezing temperatures.

Dad wrote on Valentine’s day from Indianapolis.

I should get a digital camera. As I sit at my computer in my den, a snow drift right outside the window is as high as the top of my head. When I stand it reaches my chest. I guess from ground to top it may approach 5′.

Meanwhile folks are having to go high into the mountains to ski in the Alps.

Aujourd’hui, il etait difficile de rater la St Valentin. Partout, sur les radios, sur les chaines de tele, dans les magasins, devant les maisons,…. des coeurs, des fleurs, du chocolat, des cartes…!
Un vrai business dont les francais ne semblent pas encore avoir compris l’importance !!
Donc, meme pour la famille Craig, ca a ete fete ! tous ceux de la famille qui sont un tant soit peu “aimes” (!!), ont ete la “cible” de ce commerce ! Meme Mark s’est laisse avoir et a fait un immense effort pour me ramener ce magnifique bouquet de roses pas communes !! En echange, il a eu droit a une enorme “goutte ” de chocolat, qu’il a du malheureusement partager avec la plus petite, mais la plus gourmande de chocolat qu’est Diane ! Quant a Tim et Emma, ils sont rentres pleins de cartes de voeux de St Valentin (qui , Dieu merci pour Tim surtout, ne signifie pas etre amoureux !!!), de petits cadeaux et de gateaux de couleurs vives comme savent si bien le faire les americains ! Et je ne sais plus si je l’avais dit, fait exceptionnel, ils avaient le droit de ne pas porter l’uniforme, mais du rouge , du rose, du noir et du blanc ! Quant a Diane, elle semble avoir ete frustree a l’ecole car il y avait dans une des classes distribution de “treats” (bonbons et petits cadeaux), mais pas chez elle, et elle a compris que c’etait parce qu’elle ne portait pas les bonnes couleurs !! en echange, son frere et sa soeur lui ont offert chacun une jolie carte pleine de paillettes, de princesses, et de mignons petits chiens…!

Si certains se sont inquietes de la sante d’Emma, n’y pensez plus !! elle chantait a tue-tete ce matin, est partie et revenue avec le sourire aux levres de sa journee et elle a ete invitee a son premier anniversaire par une de ses copines de classes, theme “ice-skating and pizza”, tout un programme pour vendredi apres-midi : pour une petite savoyarde, chausser des patins va etre une premiere, et ce dans une patinoire du milieu du desert !!! heureusement, elle se rassure comme elle peut grace a la pizza…!

Pour une fois ou je pouvais rester “tranquillement” (a preparer les cartes de St Valentin pour demain) a la maison, a 10 heures, l’AIS, l’ecole de Tim et Emma m’a appelee pour me dire qu’Emma avait mal partout, a la gorge, aux jambes, aux bras, a la tete et etait tres fatiguee …Donc, j’ai tout abandonne pour faire mon heure quotidienne de trajet pour aller rechercher Emma a l’agonie. Bizarrement, elle dit avoir dormi dans la voiture au retour (!!!) et va depuis beaucoup mieux ! un petit coup de calcaire dans la motivation aujourd’hui ??? (malheureusement, elle avavit quand meme eu le temps de faire la dictee et de noter ses devoirs…!)

The children were playing outside when I came home early today. Nathalie had a meeting at the Montessori school where Diane is going mornings. She heard from the teachers that Diane is doing well, sometimes speaking here gibberish imitation English to do as the others do, but enjoying herself and learning things.

Our children were not the only ones outside this afternoon. It seemed like all the neighbor children were out enjoying the good weather, around 68 F (20 C) at 5:00 p.m. Tim said he met other children. He also told me that he’d done his homework in 6 minutes flat.

Emma and Tim don’t want to go to bed now. Tim’s been watching a channel devoted to golf for the past couple of days. Emma’s watching American sitcoms. High standards are the key to a successful life.

Nathalie seems to be doing better than yesterday. She’s now reading the bedtime story, which for Diane is a review of the alphabet with words in English for each of the letters.

Nathalie has been ill the last couple of days. Twice a year, her liver and pancreas seem to conk out to some extent. She then has migraines and feels worn out. We think maybe she has found a plant remedy similar to the one she usually takes in France, which includes things like extract of artichoke and horse radish juice.

So Nathalie was sleeping more than usual this weekend. But we did make it to the Austin Children’s museum. We went around the block a couple of times before we found a parking space. Then we went in and paid the $5.50 per person.

The museum is essentially a hands-on place where children can chase a model train around, measure yourself to see how you compare to the average sizes and strengths, or learn by lifting pennies how fast the power of two outgrows a constant function — Is it better to start with a penny and double your allowance every week, or is it better just to get a dollar every week?

The only butterflies we found unfortunately were generated by a projector that interacts with your shadows. All the real butterflies had gone somewhere warmer.