thebeetgoeson

Andy celebrates my winning the contest for L'Essentiel readers.

One of our little local newspapers runs regular contests for readers. You send in a text message, and maybe you will win tickets to a concert or something.

I have entered before and won (tickets to see Kate Nash, which I was unable to use, alas). I have entered before and not won.

On Tuesday, the contest was “Win a Chat with the Schleck Brothers and Laurent Didier.” (Didier, another Lux pro-cyclist, will be on the new RadioShack-Nissan-Trek team with the Schlecks.)

Perfect sort of contest for me, you would think, right?

Except I didn’t see it. read more »

So last week was Christmas.

Our street–nay, the entire Grand Duchy–was deserted as residents fled for the slopes or warmer climes. read more »

Yeah. Like THAT ever happened.

Yesterday, my kids reported, in an almost off-handed manner, that, oh, by the way, we had a chef prepare lunch in the school cafeteria. He was someone’s dad.

Yawn.

Today when I picked up the local newspaper, I saw this article. Seems the chef, one Renato Favaro, was recently named Luxembourg’s Chef of the Year by Gault et Millau.

Although only the 7th graders got to participate (and neither of my kids are in that grade), in addition to Favaro, Michelin-starred chef Rene Mathieu conducted a workshop for 23 students. But being the bon vivants we are, we have all experienced Chef Mathieu’s cooking at the Bourglinster Chateau (but I confess, I did not know he had a star when we ate there a few weeks ago).

So what do fancy chefs make teenagers for lunch? read more »

The mall on November 1. Too early? Or just in time?

I had a cultural misunderstanding last week at the mall.

I arrived bright and early one morning to discover that the entire mall had become a winter wonderland.

“Noooooo!” I groaned to myself. “It is waaaaaay too early. Sheesh! Even in Luxembourg?”

Then, this morning, I heard Mark Weedon discussing this very thing on ARA City Radio.

The decorations are not up early at all. Not when you have Kleeschen coming on December 5.

Thank you, Mark! read more »

You spoke only a word or two in German. No French. You wanted a couple of pastries for you and your kid, but you didn’t know how to say that. You wanted to politely point at them through the glass.

The woman working behind the counter knew what you meant.

“Have a seat on the restaurant side, and one of my colleagues will serve you there,” she said. In French.

You didn’t understand, so she repeated it. All very kindly, but still in French. read more »

I apologize for being such a lousy correspondent lately.

It is not that anything bad has been happening. Far from it. Life is just chugging along, but not much of it is either very amusing or very noteworthy.

I will share two good family outings you might enjoy if you have kids or guests or friends you need to entertain. or if you just like these sorts of things. I would go to them even if I didn’t have kids. read more »

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Text messages from this summer. I was writing to one of my favorite-est people ever–a wonderful, hilarious woman who was my colleague back in the day. When I was part of the working class. Pushing health insurance for The Man.

I share this as a reminder that these trips back to the USA are not vacations. The good news is that they can be rife with blog material.

Me: You’ll love this. At MIL’s. TV on, as always. Never mind we are only here 5 nights. Tonight’s special feature: the RAPE episode from All in the Family. With the Closed Captioning on just in case the kids miss the details.

Me: The Spouse says, “Mom, the kids are here.” She replies, “You can go out on the porch.”

Me: Best of all? It’s a two-parter. read more »

How much do two kids need?

I’ve been provisioning for Back to School this week.

Good grief, but it is complicated.

When I was in high school, I went down to the drug store and bought me a package of Bic pens and a couple of spiral bound notebooks.

You should see the list of supplies the kids need.

In addition to the textbooks I have to buy at the French textbook store. This year the French textbook store kindly offered a Book Cover Option, which I elected. This means that for a small fee, they will cover the kids’ textbooks with clear plastic. To help make my textbook euro go that much farther. read more »

Candy Bar Andy--they even got the skinny profile down.

I have heard people mention that many shops around town are now sporting signs in their windows exclaiming  ALLEZ ANDY! not unlike the LET’S GO PENS! signs we used to see in Pittsburgh.

[An aside: The Spouse, never one for professional sports of any kind, first arrived in Pittsburgh during Stanley Cup playoffs. This being a foreign concept to him, he thought the signs were enthusiastically promoting a particularly 'Burg writing instrument: the Let's Go pen.]

But I digress.

I have not seen any ALLEZ ANDY! signs around town. (And, yes, I have ventured out of the house and away from my big screen teevee this week. Shut up.)

But today at the mall, I spotted something even better. Starting with the Official Chocolate Bar of the Tour de France here on the left. read more »