art, food, leaks and spa

went to art gallery to an exhibit organized by a school mom, of photographs of egyptian rebels of the “arab spring”. the photographer lit the photos dramatically, like caravaggio; they were beautiful, but it was quite the aggressive sales pitch. she had said there would be a gallery talk of “contemporary art market”, but it was instead all about the quality of the photographs, how long they would last and why one should buy one.

afterwards went to the hammam with louise.  the hammam is a public steam bath in the mosque of paris. part of the muslim culture.  it was very “middle eastern” in its worn off paint. i hadn’t been in decades and wasn’t sure of the protocol. we used to go to the japanese spa in san francisco together. so we just got naked and put our clothes into the locker – which cost 1 euro to lock. we walked out into the room and saw that everyone was wearing bathing suit bottoms and some bathing suit tops. hmm. not sure if we’re making a faux pas here, being totally naked, but we weren’t going to spend an extra euro each to open up the lockers. so we just wrapped our towels on our bottom halves. we just went to the various steam rooms. i didn’t get a massage or gommage. the last time i had that, in morocco last year, they scrubbed and scrubbed my skin very hard, and it HURT! so i decided that i wasn’t into it this time. we just sat and sweat. afterwards, we had mint tea in the tea room. came home and painted.

got sick of the leak in the kitchen so went to the hardware store to find some pieces to hack a solution. want to run the water down to the sink. i ended up using tarp taped into a tube and guided the water straight down to the sink. it worked perfectly. now no more emptying plastic containers twice a day! made dinner – salmon teriyaki. bought more cheese for the appreciative maguires. got some st marcelin, brebis, edam with cumin seeds, and reblochon. we were talking and their oldest daughter c, turns 18 soon. so incredible. she was saying she wanted a big present for her big birthday. her parents said “present! what do you mean, present? you’re going to have to start paying rent!” i laughed and then said, “yes, that could be the present – first month free!”. it has been so much fun having them here. we hadn’t seen them in so long and we have laughed a lot. Print this post