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Showing posts with the label observations

The Numbers in Paris

It took me awhile to get used to some of the number conventions here in France. And not just the obvious ones. So let's talk numbers ... What Time Is It?! There was a lot of paperwork when we first moved, so I was quick to remember the convention for dates: just flip the month and day. For example, July 14, 2019 is 12/7/19. It's the day/month/year, where is we do it month/day/year. You get it. Time is told mostly on the 24-hour clock so, to assimilate, I challenged myself to think of 21:00 as bedtime, instead of always converting it. The trick is to subtract 12 (in most cases) to get the 12-hour clock time (eg. 18:00 - 12 becomes 6:00pm). But the kids are still confused by the time and they constantly ask me "what time it is?" when they only see the digital clock in the kitchen. And we have an analog clock in the hallway, so that messes them up further. Of course, everything is in Celsius and the metric system, as it is everywhere else in the world but A...

Eating in Cars -- Something We've Noticed

This seems to be a very midwestern thing to do because we've not witnessed it on with coast we've lived in. Enter fast food place (with ample seating, mind you), order and pick up food, exit building, turn on car, and eat food IN THE CAR while it idles in the parking lot. They don't even drive anywhere. They just sit in the parking lot, in some instances staring INTO the place they got the food, and eating their food. Then, at some point later, they drive away. Now why is that?! ** Editor's Note: I'm doing my best to make this about the behavior of eating in the car and not my personal repulsion of most fast food chains. It's not about the crap they are eating but the way they are consuming the crap. 

Out Walking -- Something We've Noticed

We live in the midwest in a very-outer-tier suburb. So for obvious reasons it's not a very walkable area. But here's the totally weird thing we've noticed: On the coldest and snowiest days, we will see someone walking along the side of the road. And not for exercise or away from a disabled vehicle. Just walking along. The odd thing is we don't see people walking in the summer or even spring months. Nope, when it's so cold we drive the kids the bus stop -- those are the days when we see people walking along the road side. Now why is that?!

Why I love Football Season

I haven't actually sat down and watched a game in, well, years but (as I've mentioned before) I love football season. Mostly because of this ... Thumbs Up! My adorable football fanatic husband will watch the NFL Red Zone channel for hours and do load after load after load of laundry.  I can putter, run errands or take the kids to a play (as I was about to do just before I took this picture) and he'll just keep washing and folding. Marvelous. Related links: More Family Room posts