It Happens Like Clockwork

I just saw them lurking near my window box. The pigeons are back. I take pride in my window boxes, they are the only garden that I have here. I just finished re-doing them for Spring. It makes me happy to look out the window and see the flowers, see the bees busily working on my flowers.



But the pigeons are the "spoilers". They want to make a nest in my beautiful boxes. One year we were gone for a few days and came back to this!



The pigeon was very protective of her work, too. It took me several days to persuade her that this is my home, not hers. Today I heard little footsteps outside the window. When I looked out, not one but two pigeons were marching proudly around my window box, examining it from all angles. When I tried to shoo them away, they were defiant, they didn't move!

I'm going to have to get out the CD's again, an ugly way to keep the pigeons away but better than losing all my plants.

A Sighting

I've lived in LA all my life and rarely see a "movie star". Once I saw Dustin Hoffman in a health food store. I think that many of the people we see in movies and on TV look less impressive in real life.

Not so with Deneuve.

I was walking home from the Luxembourg Gardens a couple of days ago on rue de Fleurus. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a crowd at the small tabac/cafe, Le Fleurus. I passed by, looking more closely at what people were eating and drinking (it was lunch time) than who was there.

A woman caught my eye. I went through the mental gymnastics. Do I know her? If so, what is her name? Where do I know her from?

I was wearing a visor and sunglasses, so I was somewhat incognito, but I was close enough that if this woman knew me, she would have said something.

I couldn't think of her name, and she certainly didn't recognize me, so I went home. About five seconds after I passed, I realized who it was -- silly me. It was Catherine Deneuve.

I'm very glad I didn't try to say "hi" now, of course. The most interesting thing, though, is that, in broad, unflattering daylight, she was absolutely gorgeous. The hair was just like in the movies. She was wearing glasses with red frames, they looked great on her. I was truly impressed.

Now I'll have to be on the lookout for more stars.

Scaffolding Is Gone!

We've had scaffolding all over our building since mid-November. Workers climbing on it Monday through Friday, banging, clanging and looking in our windows. It felt dark and closed in.








On Thursday, it all started to come down. It took two full days but by Friday night, it was all gone and the courtyard was swept, ready for the weekend.

There's only one problem -- a huge construction project in an apartment with tons of debris being put in the courtyard every day. Will it ever end?

A Power Outage Fixes The TV

Only in France!

Ever since we changed to daylight savings time, almost two weeks ago, I noticed that the clock on our TV was still registering the old time. Plus we couldn't get all the other channels that we used to get.

This bothered me a little, but since we were getting the channels we always watched, it was better not to mess with France Telecom, the Livebox, the decoder. It's too frustrating and can take many days to get to the bottom of a problem.

I was in my french class this morning when there was a long power outage. When we had a break, I got a call from Terry, saying there was a rolling blackout caused by a strike at EDF. OK, the power was back on at school and at home.

I asked Terry to check the TV and he said it was still rebooting.

When I got home, the TV decoder was showing the right time. I turned it on and, to my surprise, all our TV service and all our channels had been restored.
It only took a power outage to fix our TV.