Boxes, boxes, and more boxes!

Wow. Trying to find a spare moment in these next days will be tough.  Better take my few moments now to give an update of the move...

This is what my home looks like now:

This is my pantry.  It's all on my table.

I feel like going crazy. Even though it's all in plain sight, I can't find a single thing.

It makes me sad...

Moving on...hahaha...no really.

*laughs*

Okay, back to business. A while back, we decided that since we're moving to CT and then to France, we'd make two piles for packing.  In theory it should have worked. In reality, it was organized chaos. We would pack something up and then we'd look around and think: We need that still!  or That would be very useful in France! So out it would go from the box and be put on an open space until we could pack it up again.

We had an international mover come in to give us a quote to move a table, a desk, a keyboard, guitar and five boxes. They gave us a quote.  We had our jaws fall to the floor (luckily it was over email and no one was actually present to see that). We then rethought everything.  Goodwill got to know us very well.  Grad students at the University nearby loved the fact that we were selling furniture and within 20 minutes of sending an email of our furniture to be sold, we had 5 people contact us asking for the items.  It was cool. And then it was sad.

Goodbye rocking chair, named Bessie.  Goodbye pantry. Goodbye chest of drawers, also named Bessie.

( I seem to have a slight obsession with naming inanimate objects Bessie...hopefully no one will take offense to that. The name just suits.  Even my Honda is named Bessie.  But, she's called Beula on a bad day.  Again, I hope no one will take offense to this name)

Anyway, we then decided that since we were not using the international movers, we would do it ourselves and hopefully save a lot of money. Plus, Tuesday we found out that we were approved for a furnished apartment in France. Major blessing! 1 bedroom, 1 bath with all the amenities you could think of.  Not to mention the fact that it's over a French Bakery. Yes!!  Thank you God! :-)

So, we did not need the desk or the table.  And, I also found out that leboncoin.com will probably be a great place to find musical instruments for cheap, namely a keyboard or "piano numerique", so no need for the keyboard here. Also, ikea.fr and amazon.fr will also be great helpers too.

So, with 4 suitcases pre-packed with clothing to check on the flight and then deciding to ship boxes to France with our good old post office, it will cost 1/5 of what the moving company quoted us. Voila! Our boxes!

You pad everything with winter clothing.  Makes sense!

This is how we do it! (*this is how we do it*) Oh yeah, bringing back the  90s.

Say hello to my leeetle friend:
Tapemaster.

*hugs* I love this thing

 And we are ready to move to France!

Friday we pack up the U-Haul.  Saturday we move to CT, then the next Saturday we're off to Gif-Sur-Yvette. Oh yeah!

Maple Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Preparing dessert for vegan or lactose intolerant friends? I've got just the recipe!

Maple Coconut Milk Ice Cream:

You will need:

4 cups coconut milk, unsweetened ( I used Trader Joe's)
1/2 c Agave Nectar
1/4 c and 2 tbsp Maple Syrup (you can also cheat and use a Maple flavored syrup)

Mix all the above together until smooth.  Put in ice cream maker and have fun! 

If you have an ice cream ball, follow the directions and rock and roll with it. It takes about two games of "I'm going on a picnic", broken up with a draining and scraping period, to get the right consistency. I suggest scraping with a rubber spatula to a wooden spoon (less spilling occurs that way).

Side note: I'm all for word games for long activities. Just ask Mr. K! Or should I say Dr. K now that he is a PhD. (we're so proud of him)

Anyway, back to directions.
Put in freezer for 3 hours or overnight and enjoy!

Always hard to take a picture of ice cream in a warm kitchen; please excuse the melting.

Walt Whitman and friends

Went to the Walt Whitman Museum of Long Island a few days ago with friends.  It was great! Tour guide was drier than toast but that's okay.  We still enjoyed getting out.

The man himself, er, in bronze...

 Then we went into the house.  It was so pretty outside, and very tiny inside.  I liked the custom stairs.  The footplates were smaller as you went up to prevent falls and also to prevent children from falling down them later.

The Whitman home from Long Island.

Look at the butterfly!

Borrowed this little man from a friend...he was not as into Walt as we were, poor guy.

 Then we went to Northport and had lunch at the Copenhagen Bakery.  My Grandpop B would have been so proud of us for visiting the town where his cousin (from Sweden) resided.

If you have never eaten there, you should.  It's quite a treat (literally) and you get a chance to look out on the harbor.Not to mention that the food is really good. I liked their potato leek soup and their sourdough bread was fantastic! 


We went for a stroll in the town of Northport, even though the weather was not as nice.

Main Street of Northport

Vintage shop on Main Street

Sewing table near a store.  Thought it neat.

Had to do a picture stop in front of the toy store.  Perfect setting.  Even saw a chocolate house from Germany.

Rain buddies!

I just couldn't stop taking pictures of this little guy!  Too adorable.  Looked like a Gordon's Fisherman poster!

Such a calm smile.  So charming and sweet.

My friends

They had me get in the shot too. I felt like singing "Singing in the Rain".  It was perfect weather for it.

As we were leaving, I saw this cute bistro set. So inviting and French, n'est-ce pas?

Rain drops keep falling on my head...

We have been having weird weather today! Sunny and bright one minute, then "whoosh!" storm clouds came in. Thunder and lightning was everywhere!  Two hours later, we still have eerie light but the good news is that from my window just now I saw this:

Rainbow!!!

I love my rainbows (or my lovely refraction and dispersion of the sun's light by rain). :-) Enjoy!

It's beginning to get real busy here...

What a great day today!  Beautiful sunshine, partly cloudy, mid 80s to low 90s.  Lovely!

Mr K and I have been busy trying to get all our visa things together. Just got our certified translations of our birth certificates and marriage license back in the mail today.  Check that one off our list.  Next we need to fill out the form, one for a researcher visa (Mr. K's, but I will fill that one out too), another for a long stay visa (that one's for me to fill out, I think) and make two copies of each.  There's another form (OFFI) to fill out, but only half way.  The other half we fill out once we get to France at their prefecture to complete the visa process (make 2 copies of that for our records).  Have to keep the same form though.  We have to bring in 2 passport sized photos (but we're going to bring six), our passports (plus 2 copies of the inside info each), Brendan's work contract (plus two copies of that), our birth certificates (plus 2 copies of each), our marriage certificate (plus 2 copies) and then we'll just throw in our driver's licenses and extra pens for good measure. Good thing I have a red folder to keep it all together.
Hopefully after the appointment we'll get the visas!

On the home front in France- we have none as of yet.  Still searching.  We thought we had a nice one, but it got let to someone else. Bummer!!!  So, we're still looking. I know there's going to be a nice little home/apartment with 2 bedrooms for us.  Just have to be patient.

I've been busily trying to pack things.  We just organized our DVDs into a leather case, alphabetized by category. Next is deciding which books to bring (I'm shooting for just 10). Mr. K is lucky.  He has a kindle and is able to pack lighter. But, I like my real books.  There's just something missing when you read a Kindle. It's almost as if you're doing "reading lite" instead of true reading. I guess that's just me with my love of the feel of books, the smell, and the ability to just toss them in a bag and not worry too much about a screen cracking.

In the spirit of moving to France, I made a Tarte aux Cerises et Framboises. Very easy to make and very tasty.  You do have to bake it (but only the crust) so you do get some heat in the home...it's not too long though.  It's worth it!

Mr K said he wouldn't mind terribly if I felt I had to make this again. :-)

For the Tarte crust you will need:

1 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup butter
1 pinch of salt
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 480F. Mix together the butter and the sugar and salt until creamy. Add the egg and mix well. Add the flour and mix until a dough. Make a ball and put in a greased tarte pan ( used Crisco to grease, no flour needed). Push the dough out to the edges with fingers and push up the sides. Make the dough pretty evenly spread out ( to help with the cooking).  Prick with a fork all over. Place in preheated oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes.  Look and see after 12 minutes if it's golden. Take out and let cool.

To fill tarte:
1 cup raspberries (washed and individually dried so as not to be crushed)
1 cup pitted and halved Rainier Cherries

Place on the tarte in any pattern you like.

I made a target! Unintentional, of course.

Glaze:
1/2 cup boysenberry jam
2 tbsp water

Heat at low heat mixing continuously until coats spoon but still runs off. Pour over entire tarte, coating each berry and getting into the crevices.

Serve with ice cream or Cool Whip. Bon Appetit!