Pardon My French

It's been a busy month, but it's August and things are sure to slow down for the simple fact that everyone is on vacation 'round here. The girl is better, almost completely better, although she still hasn't healed 100% and I'm trying not to worry about that too much. At this point I think it's safe to say that the whole hospital stay/illness has faded from her memory (although not from mine). Kids are amazingly resilient, they are. She has a slew of new words and is running around and getting into all kinds of crazy mischief, looking like a teeny-tiny cowboy because of the scarf I keep tied around her neck to protect her scarring skin from the sun. I feel a little embarrassed on her behalf, poor thing, to have a crazy American mother who still hasn't learned the French art of scarf-tying. I am in the process of trying to craft up something to protect her neck that will look better and not be too dangerous or hot. I'm definitely open to ideas.

So, some of you may remember that the cat ended up with ulcers and ended up taking The Girl's old reflux medicine. The vet laughed a bit at my suggestion that she was stressed out by the new addition, but I remain convinced that there's some kind of jealous competitiveness going on. The proof? The cat has gone and got herself her very own operation, although not on her neck. She has a bionic knee and was also prescribed anti-inflammatory medication but since The Girl's was in the form of a suppository I put my foot down and shelled out the euros for special cat pills. I'm sorry, cat, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

The upside to this is that we're now able to price things in a whole new light. You've heard the old cliche, "costs an arm and a leg," which is pure hyperbole and altogether vague. "It costs a cat's knee" is all too precise for this household, unfortunately. I think she'll pull through all right but hasn't quite demonstrated the same kind of resiliency as The Girl.

As for the house, I think things can finally move forward since I managed to successfully leave the Prefecture clutching a form of legal papers in my sweaty yet grateful little palms. It took us a while to figure out who to call in order to get the ball rolling, but the lack of said papers was blocking our loan and we weren't going to be moving anytime soon. I would like to take this time to officially express my appreciation to the nice lady at our local town hall who did her job well and saved me the trouble of having to camp out overnight for a decent spot in line. Merci mille fois, nice mairie lady, and may your vacation be mosquito-free.