3.18.2010

This week I heard the phrase 'Cherchez la femme' and it's not new to me, but I never bothered looking up a translation before. I guess I felt stupid because after four (or five?) years of French, I still didn't know what it meant. What grabbed me was that it was coined by Alexandre Dumas! I just about fell out of my chair. I'm reading Dumas right now. I've never come across it in one of his works before, but he wrote like forty books and I've only read five.

Literally it is 'look to the woman' or 'look for the woman'. In context it means that if a man finds himself in trouble, the matter is probably connected in some way to a woman. Not that she's directly involved but that the man was trying to impress her or gain her favor when he did something stupid, or illegal, or both. She's the motive, so if you find her, everything will fall into place.

Now as a woman, I figured I should be insulted by that, but curiously I'm not. I'm thinking about my 2009 NaNo story where Jack keeps telling Sam that Lis is not involved in the matter but Sam's investigative 'Spidey Sense' tells him that she is. And he's right.

I also keep thinking about Gov. Sanford and Tiger Woods. When their stories broke, neither one made logical sense. Sanford said he was on the App Trail but he wouldn't answer phone calls. Tiger hit a tree at the end of his street at some ungodly hour in the morning but he wasn't drunk. Investigators just 'looked for the woman' and suddenly both situations were perfectly clear.

I giggle when I think about this phrase coming from Alexandre Dumas. Being known as a bon vivant, I'm sure it's a lesson learned from his own experience. It could have been something his friends said of him, to him, while sitting in some cafe that he thought was clever and decided to use. I wouldn't be surprised.

2.10.2010

I'm re-reading The Three Musketeers with a group on LT. Monsieur Whitney would be so proud. It always tickled him when I prattled on about Dumas in class, although he was personally fonder of Hugo. I think out of all my lit classes at Carson-Newman I enjoyed French lit the best.


In keeping with my theme, D took me to Paris! Paris Mountain State Park, that is.


The first sunny weekend in a month of snow and sleet, it was perfect for our first hike of the year. The warmth and the sunshine was enough to infect me with spring fever. We did the Lake Placid trail. It wasn't too long or strenuous, just enough to get on our feet again. It's been awhile!




I've never seen a blaze mark anywhere but on a tree. I guess they wanted to reassure us that we were still on the trail! This was our first green blaze. It wasn't too hard for us to see it, but it is winter. I imagine in spring or summer it might be more difficult.


D said "did you think I would take you hiking if there wasn't a water feature?" He knows me so well. This dam dates back t0 1898. It was so sunny. The sunlight off the water was just dazzling.


Speaking of dams, they have beavers here. We didn't see any but we could see evidence of their existence in the tooth marks they left in the tree stumps. Not quite as exciting as seeing the fingerprints in a Van Gogh, but still interesting...


D managed to capture me soaking up the sunshine. I didn't feel photogenic today.

3.26.2009

The rainy, dreary day just echoes how I feel in my heart.
This morning we went to the vet again. Neither of our usual doctors were in so we saw a new lady doctor this time around. She evaluated Alex's heart murmur as a grade 4 (out of 6). She even let both of us listen to it through her stethoscope. I never knew his heart beats so fast.
She took urine from him and found crystals in the sample. She said there shouldn't have been crystals since she took it by needle. So we sent it off for evaluation. But it's not a good sign at all.
Then she taught us how to work the IV bag and gave us instructions on using the needles. It took more effort than I thought it would to insert the needle under his skin. It's really thick. Alex did pretty well. The fluids made a lump on his back. I called him Quasimodo and he didn't seem to like that at all. D explained that any feline with Alexandre Dumas for his namesake would not appreciate being called after a character invented by his arch rival. I guess I can understand that. So, I'm doing my best to keep my head up. We do the fluid treatment every day for a week and then more blood work to see if it's helping any.