How awkward was THAT?

The big story in today's newspaper was the State Dinner hosted at the White House last night by Brick and Michelle O'bama in honor of their special guest, the President of France.  I read that, then looked at the photo and thought, "Since when did Bob Newhart become the President of France?"

I looked closer through my steroid-eyedrop-filled inflamed eye and saw that it wasn't Bob Newhart at all, but Francois Hollande (pronounced "o-LAUND").  The awkward part was he showed up alone, or as we called in back in my yout, stag.

Poor Francis.  Poor France.  It looks like they've pretty much hit bottom.  For a while it looked like they might make a comeback when they dumped that old guy (can't remember his name) who used to be President and elected Nicholas Sarkozy.  Actually he wasn't anything special either until he hooked up with my old girl friend (before K, of course), Carla Bruni.

I first met Carla when she was a singer / songwriter...

She would sing me beautiful love songs in French.  Or maybe it was just the Paris phone book put to music, I have no idea.  Anyway, we kept our fling private, or at least she did.  VERY private.  (She used to cryptically call me Who?)

But like most long-distance romances ours eventually floundered and Nick the Shark got her on the rebound.  I really didn't mind because he was pretty much a zero by himself and now he at least had an attractive lady to take to fancy parties.

I like to think of it as my little contribution to American / French relations.

But now look what the French have gone and done.   They elected "o-LAUND", their economy sank even deeper into the toilet, he left one "companion" for another (which now looks like they had little more than a one night stand), and now he shows up stag at a fancy party in his honor.  He couldn't even get a woman to go with him on a private jet to a free dinner in America!

But as they say, all's well that ends well.  Michelle made a few calls and set "o-LAUND" up with a friend of hers on a blind date.  It was said that everyone had a nice time, "o-LAUND" agreed to keep sending us Dannon yogurt, and we agreed to keep sending France old Jerry Lewis movies.  Diplomacy at its finest.

Vive la France!  ;)

S

       

Playing "air timpani" with Enya

As my idol Alfred E. Neuman once said, "Why be normal?"


I learned long ago I wasn't coordinated enough to play "air guitar", but I can tear a timpani up!  (It's a kettle drum)  Tonight I was sitting around listening to my iPhone/Pod (Aaron Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Ray Charles, Carla Bruni, Norah Jones, Pink Floyd) and I re-discovered my Enya collection.  She's an awesome Irish female singer/songwriter, really big in Europe.  I wish she'd tour here as I would go out of my way to see her.  And if her timpani player should suddenly take ill, I'm ready!


We got a bit of a break on the heat today....until about 4 pm.  It was cloudy all day until then, and we even got sprinkled on.  Nice!  But late in the day the sun broke through and the temperature shot back up into "Oh Shit!" territory.  We officially topped out at 102 for the 25th straight day of 100 degrees or more.   :(


My favorite OCD client notified us today he was going to be out of town on business until August 8th.  Actually things will soon be much better from my standpoint as my part of his home (structural) is about finished, and now my brother will soon be taking the lead with color selections and the detail stuff.


Hope you have things going your way, too.


S

Midnight in Paris

We  made it to the 7:40 showing of Midnight in Paris at our neighborhood Angelika theatre last night, and in a word, it was SUPERB!  It was an odd sort of romantic comedy, but with Woody Allen writing and directing this shouldn't surprise anyone.  The cinematography, the sets, the cast of characters, the plot....everything was all totally first class.  My "dream squeeze" Carla Bruni was in 3 scenes, and while she didn't sing, it was enough to keep me happy.  :)


I wholeheartedly recommend you see it, so I don't want to say anything that might give the plot away.  If you insist on knowing more before you plunk down your hard-earned money, you can read about it here.

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After the movie we walked next door to Ginger Man and got ourselves a sidewalk table and a couple 'o beers.  My daughter Andrea participated in The Firefly Run for charity, and as it was over at about the same time, she and some friends caught up with us and shared a brew, too.  


Today is just a sit-back-and-relax day.  We read the paper and had a coffee out, then cruised our old neighborhood, and finally wound up at Braum's Ice Cream where we shared a strawberry sundae.

Yep, this has been a fine weekend.  Hope yours was, too.  

S

Shhhh...don't tell Kelly.....with EDIT

.....but I have a crush on Carla Bruni.  She's currently married to the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, but that's OK, as the only part of her she allows me to enjoy is her voice. I'll share.

Years ago I was at Barnes and Noble and they were playing absolutely gorgeous, sexy music over their sound system.  I went to the music department and asked who that was playing right then and they said Carla Bruni.  It was love at first....er...hear.  She was singing something in French, which might have been the nutritional label off the back of a box of cereal for all I know, but the way she sang it...oh la la!  I've since bought every one of her CD's that I could find, and love them all.  It almost makes me want to learn French, right after I finish learning English.


What reminded me of my past lust was the movie trailer that mentioned she would have a bit part in the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris, which opens next week.  You can check it out here.  Conveniently, it will be playing at our neighborhood movie theatre, the Angelika.  It's fate, I tell 'ya!  I'm hoping hers is a bit singing part.  The fact that she's beautiful is just a bonus.  *wink*


S


PS...remember, our little secret, OK?


EDIT:  Listen for yourself here.