L'échatillon de chaux - jour 2, or will you be my bouche-trou?

I swoon

Last evening, minun aviomies returned home from the hospital well after dark (it will soon be time to change the clocks back an hour) and asked, "Alors, qu'est-ce qu'ils ont fait aujourd'hui?"

Oh, that I could have shown him!

I took him by the hand and led him out into the pitch dark (the lamp has been down since they removed all the old stucco), no moon even.

"Ils ont fait le premier essai?" Yes, they made the first chaux sample, "mais tu ne pouras pas le voir."

He pulled out his keys and flicked on his tiny little flashlight thing. The ochre turned a ghostly, ghastly blue-ish green-ish shade. I pushed his hand down and laughed, "You can't look at it with that!"

I suppose he stopped to look at it on his way out this morning. I didn't hear a yelp of horror, so either he liked it, or I was already out like a light again. I am returning from living American and French hours simultaneously. I can't make any promises, but it might hold. You know how it is, when you are happy, you don't feel the fatigue.

....

Bouche-trou

Today, they returned to mix more unpigmented chaux to fill the holes along the street facade. The put up a galvanized lath over the wood timber with galvanized nails to hold it in place.

Georges is mixing the chaux out on the sidewalk, and José is trowelling it on [trans: Georges prépare la chaux et José l'applique à la taloche].

They had to remove everything behind the old stucco that was loose to provide a solid surface. Don't want the new chaux falling off, and this left holes, especially at the exposed beam ends and sides, where they just appled the stucco directly to the wood.

Once all of the holes are filled, they can begin to cover the walls in lath.

Moving right along.

Tomorrow, they're back to the window preparation (inside if the weather is poor) and Joachim is due back sometimes soon to make a couple more samples for me.

....

CHAOS family affairs

"So, it's come to that!"

BarrelMcRaven: morning, SK.
Teachkids: SK, where are the Toshiba power cords? [for those of you unfamiliar with CHAOS, Teach is SK's mother, and yes, they do live in the same house. This took place before school hours.]
... [indicates miscellaneous, unreported chat]
Fleur_de_Paris: you have to talk to him here?
Fleur_de_Paris: Pots, they have a computer in every room, too!
Pots: Even they can't get outta here.
...
Teachkids: I'm lazy.
Teachkids: SK, what?
....
Fleur_de_Paris: be quiet everyone, Teach is trying to talk to SK.
...
Signkid: lol
Teachkids: OK
Teachkids: Watch your quotes young man [SK had just typed the Obama line, "It's not that John McCain doesn't get it, it's that he just doesn't care."]
Fleur_de_Paris: lol
Signkid: What?!
Fleur_de_Paris: told off on chat by your mom
KiwiMisty: he's giving good quote teach :-)
BarrelMcRaven: *whispers* Morning, Teach
Fleur_de_Paris: that's a new one
Teachkids: I spoke too soon
Fleur_de_Paris: lol barrel
Mergatroyd: Yes, Barack says McCain doesn't get it
TeachKids: So, SK, I need the power cords. Where are they?
Signkid: Okay
Fleur_de_Paris: lol
Signkid: For what? [what mother hasn't hear that?]
Pots: lol Teach
Mergatroyd: Yeah, where are the power cords!
TeachKids: the PC laptop
Fleur_de_Paris: I thought he told you!
Skeinchug: lol
TeachKids: I missed it.
Pots: he didn't
Fleur_de_Paris: SK, go see your mother!
KiwiMisty: I think this is the Internet version of a mom yelling down the stairs to her son :-)
Signkid: one is sitting in front of me
Belgian: LOL
Signkid: I don't know about the other one
Fleur_de_Paris: oh my god [laughing so hard picturing this she was nearly prevented from breathing -- home with the Fosbacks!]
Pots: See how hard this is Teach???
TeachKids: I only need one.
Fleur_de_Paris: this is a great sketch
BarrelMcRaven: Obama balls [referring to Rotterdam's recipe for meatballs]
Signkid: Okay, cool
Pots: We need better pay to watch the sign
Signkid: let's meet in the kitchen
Signkid: it's more neutral
Signkid: lol [cracks himself up]
Pots: lol [cracks Pots -- Protector of The Sign -- up]
BelgianCHAOS: LOL! [really cracks Belgian up... I am too busy taking notes, now to laugh]
TeachKids: Sounds good. You can unload the dishwasher.
Skeinchug: Oh dear, it's come to this LOLOL

...

The advertising space on the window

SK added ad space for sale
I assume proceeds will go to the Obama campaign!
it's a joke

Pots: I thought you were working? Watcha doing?
Fleur_de_Paris: I am. Working on my blog and the drawings.
Fleur_de_Paris: not that either is worth my time [well, the drawings, if I ever get them done, will be]
catgirl: what drawings?
Fleur_de_Paris: for the renovation of the house
Pots: advertise Fleur
Fleur_de_Paris: I don't think anyone would pay me for that space
Fleur_de_Paris: oh, you mean me
Pots: yes
Fleur_de_Paris: then I'd be big for my britches [when I saw SK's new ad space offer, I said he was getting big for his]
Pots: I'm gonna sell humidifiers there [I think he meant on the Fosback's den window]
...
Fleur_de_Paris: They are getting funnier and funnier
Fleur_de_Paris: quite the pair
Fleur_de_Paris: my son is a little too cool for that
Pots: lol
Fleur_de_Paris: you can advertise on my site for free, Pots
...
Pots: I can't sell to Europe
signvoyeur: Fleur... are you can expat living near Paris? Your English is very good.
Fleur_de_Paris: I am read in the US, too.
Fleur_de_Paris: we can add a disclaimer.
Fleur_de_Paris: or pass the orders through my mother [whoops, that won't work... she's in the US. OK, my mother-in-law]
Pots: we can do that.
Fleur_de_Paris: Mais merci, mon chou, voyeur!
Fleur_de_Paris: I am bi [OK, that was deliberately... what is the word? Ambiguous?]
Pots: What?
Pots: Fleur...
sassiewas: come again?
Pots: lol
catgirl: lingual?
sassiewas: :-)
BarrelMcRaven: rotfl

....

More CHAOS links and news

Bluwiki -- not very interesting, but...

Daily KOS, "Updated: CHAOS breaks out over Obama yard signs", October 3 (not first piece)

Jezebel, What a Stolen Obama Sign Teaches Us About Humanity, Sept. 30, 2008

WSJ, "In Sign of the Times, Global Village Gathers to Watch a Sign", Christopher Rhoads, Sept. 29, 2008

Huff Post, "Hey! Don't Steal That Obama Sign, The World is Watching", Pat Lawson-Black, Sept. 22, 2008

The Oregonian's Orgeon Live, "Tired of thieves, Portland woman lets the world watch her Obama sign", Joseph Rose, Sept. 22, 2008

For the Portland Evening News TV segment, click here.

And KGW 11PM news:




And, for Signkid and CHAOS memorabilia, don't miss Zazzle.com.

....

Obama HQ Chicago calling

Watch this:

I thought this was why a lovely woman, older and white as far as her voice could say, called from the campaign headquarters, not to ask me for a donation -- oh! they don't need to do that! -- but to ask me for my passport number.

Yeah, my passport number. Proof of my US citizenship. I was surprised, to say the least. She tried to put a positive spin on it.

"Well, the Obama campaign wants to be sure they are in strict compliance with US campaign law!" I heard that exclamation point. I did. I didn't buy it. If they did, there was a reason.

"My goodness, I have never been asked for that before, and I have made numerous contributions to other US campaigns since I moved abroad, and I have never been asked for that."

"Well -- do you have that passport number?" They don't want to say it.

Thank you, Katherine for pointing me to the answer from Chris Matthews.

It's true, folks. They're checking inside the campaign so they can return any money that might be used against them.

I gave her my passport number.

If you have 11 minutes and 42 seconds more to spare, watch the segment with Peggy Noonan and The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, in which Chris Matthews says that he sees a pattern in the recent Palin appearances -- an attempt to lilnk 3 points together: Barack Obama's associations, his middle name, and his list of donors.

Accidental or intentional?
That's Chris Matthew's question.

"But with only 30 days out, what does it say that this is the topic. It says something weird -- it says that they're avoiding, it's almost as if history will look back and say "Look at the point we were at, and this is the point they were talking about?"
-- Peggy Noonan

Just listen to Palin dripping with sarcasm in her speech. Her smile and "Oops! I don't know anything!" tone full of her anger and derision, from "golly gee wizz" direct to the below-the-belt for the KO. You're looking at the new face of the KKK.

Let's hope the Republicans are trounced so their go find themselves some new supporters.



To wash that bad taste out of your mouth, just take a look at these numbers for Joe Biden and Sarah Palin:



Whoo-hoo! You go, Joe.

"Oh, say it ain't so, Joe," she whimpers into her pillow at night, "I'll get that Joe Biden, I'll get that Barack HUSSEIN Obama." Just like Yosemite Sam.

....

The financial meltdown,
or a teacup to bailout the Titanic

For my most recent opinion, see the update at the top of this post from Friday the 3rd, Bailout Day.

Let us say that we are still not convinced, even if we think there are some really nice and caring people in congress who mean very well and who act from the finest motivations.

What we need is real change and real leadership for a change.

Wait, that was repetitive.

....

My own kid just came home from school depressed. Worst yet this year. Worse still, he's too old to want me to come up and try to cheer him up, or lecture him. Lessons to learn, he has.

Get it or not, he will.

Love her son, the mother she does.
....

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