Sunday, February 22, 2009

Who says yard sale is hell? Pas moi!

We enjoyed our yard sale tremendously especially Ava! We heard all kinds of stories. And we have some to share. Someone wanted books and came with a scanner: thanks to the code book he knew the value of each book. But at the end when he gathered 20 books and offered 5 dollars, he got nailed: I got 25, no bargain there. Because his scanner said too much...
Then there was the endless clothes shopping looking at 100 p.cent cotton shirts. He spent 3 hours for 2 shirts. Tried, removed, re-tried, re-checked, well I found out he is not married so he could have spent the whole day shopping

The funniest was this Mexican young painter. He bought a lot of things for his 2-year old and his wife. But he was picking very large and very tiny sizes. When I asked him he answered "some for his wife, some for his "amiguita" meaning girlfriend" Someone is not losing it! What about the Italian lady who lives around here and goes from yard sale to yard sale and told me "I want to be burried with junk around me" And the cheap ones who touch, turned the merchandise upside down, tried, removed and we asked for 25 cents, they said it was too much! And the grandma who had 9 grandchildren and bought more for them than any parents for their kids. And the best is Noah. At the end of the day, I put an ad saying "10 free bags. Full of things. Just pick up" It was pouring in Tiburon and I promise you Noah came with his pick up truck and emptied my garage...He took an arch with him, promised!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Luppe Fiasco at Bon Appetit or How to Feed a Rap Star







When I heard that Luppe Fiasco was coming to USF I went on Google.Italy: I thought he was an Opera star. Well when we received his rider (In French: menu qu’un artiste demande dans sa loge pour la soiree de son concert) I got puzzled: Fried shrimp, Turkey bacon, Hebrew National Hotdogs and Fruit Salad and… “junk food” too At this moment I knew that my guy was not Italian. Well we got ready early for this “star” and plan accordingly. Since we had VIP passes we entered “his” sanctuary: massage table, pillows, presents (for his B’day : what a timing Mr. Fiasco!) We did a fabulous job but I am not sure, he did one. If you ask me, the five minutes I spent in the auditorium left me deaf for an hour. Rap Music…not sure. Mr. Fiasco as far as I am concerned, you were a disaster musically speaking but we know something, at Bon Appetit, we performed very well!

A Speeding Ticket or when a cake can save your life



I got stopped on Tiburon Blvd, because I was speeding: on Tiburon Blvd. if you drive, you really have to respect the 35-mile speed limit zone and if you do 40 (my case, or may be I was doing 45-mile an hour) rest assured than a policeman is hidden somewhere. So 7:25 am and I am stopped. I rolled down my window and with a very strong French accent; I apologize saying I was going to a meeting. My cop was not in the best mood. I pleaded my case “please I really need to go now I will not do it anymore..and my “cake meeting” was waiting for me. “A cake meeting young lady?” the policeman bent towards the platter of two cakes just out of the oven (I wanted my colleagues to try a Sorghum flour cake and an almond cake I bake without flour but potatoe starch!) “I can give you a nice piece if you let me go and I promise I WILL NOT SPEED AGAIN!” Well it worked!!!!!! And after giving my business card, I promised him to drop a full size cake at his station. Mr. Policeman: wasn't my cake delicious or what???

Suicide in Texas?


Don’t you read the headlines when waiting for a cashier in a supermarket ? I always do ...but for some reason, this one attracted my Blackberry. Sorry Mr. Bush, whatever you want to do with your life is your problem because what you have done with ours, I will not even begin to talk about.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Welcome to my "Souk" Bazar OR how to enjoy the Yard, Garage or Moving Sale?





My yard sale has been one of the funniest experiences I have had in the USA. We have advertised it with NO SIGNS on the street so we have had only a selection of people who found our ad on a famous computer web site. So I have put some fun signs around, candies for the visitors, a working tv in the background (I want to sell it so I might as well prove that it is working) a disco light, a chair (so whoever needs to try shoes can sit eh this is a 5-star Yard sale, I warned you) plastic bags (with this rain, paper will not work;-)to take your purchases (Customer satisfaction is VERY IMPORTANT HERE)and whenever someone buys something, they get something free!! So it is pouring rain since yesterday (Saturday) this is my 2nd day and we made close to 300 dollars!!! VIVE LE "CLASSY" YARD SALE!

Canada, Dominican Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Australia; WHO ARE YOU????


I got such a good feeling knowing that people from Haiti (Bonjour who??), Singapore (hello??) France (bien sur!)_Australia (Perth: Damien??) Canada (who??), Mexico (Ezio?) India (WHO IS READING THIS INDIA??) Italy, England, Israel (shalom Haverim), Monaco (Bonjour Marie Ange!) Italia (ciao), Dominican Republic (hola quien es?)and of course the United States are reading my blog! So my goal is to reach South America, Asia (China anyone?)and more especially Japan so I can use "cockroach" "game arcade" and "I have a headache"(see below "Learning Japanese")for my Japanese readers!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

It is 8 am. Raining in SF. Gym anyone?

Ava and I spotted 3 people doing abnominals and more in a small garden area in SF. That same morning while we were looking it was raining. So Madame and Mademoiselle, BRAVO. Fitness before anything!

Aloha au iā 'oe..I love you in Hawaian.

If I had to give a medal to someone in terms of Valentine's spirit, this young student deserves it! She ordered 6 huge cookies and 1 chocolate cake saying "Aloha au iā 'oe "for all her friends -girls!- No boyfriend in sight, she said but so what??? I told you love is in the air but friendship is there too.

Valentine's at Bon Appetit...Love is in the air...

We made cakes, cookies and other fun things for the students. Some personalized theirs and I have to say 2 messages were fun. The first one is the longest message anyone wanted on a cake, (actually our baker could NOT write it all so I typed it, plastified it, shaped it into a heart and voila! I did have to ask the student to sign a release form that the heart was not edible: who knows ; -) Now ready for the message? "If the sky could sing of beauty, it would whisper your name, you give me life and bring me home."

What do you do with your freezer? Snakes anyone?



So I posted a few ads "for sale" on Craigslist and I am selling my freezer. Here is the answer from a 17-year old man who obviously needs the freezer. "Hi there,
I was wondering if I could get some dimensions of the freezer. I am 17 and breed snakes as a hobby. As it turns out, fridges/freezers make great incubators when a heat element is added. However, I don't want something huge so I need some approximate dimensions. Thanks for your time. Josh" I am not joking. And by the way, if you need a freezer, mine is for sale and it is upright, full size and might hold bigger animals than snakes : -)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Burundi Recipes WANTED


If you live in Burundi and have great recipes PLEASE email them to me. One client wants to do a South African/Burundi evening and it has been a headache finding recipes with no monkey meat, elephant stew or other exotic animals. So to all of you in this area in the world, PLEASE HELP!!

Learning Japanese Language...


Steve mentioned we might go to Japan. We don't know when and what for...So we have been learning Japanese in the car. Ava and I are repeating different phrases and try our best to impress our future Japanese encounters. So here is the list of words we learn this morning. "I have a headache" "cockroach" "game arcade" "bedroom" this is lesson no. 3. We already learned the sounds. So we are wondering if lesson no. 4 (which will be sentences probably) will be "I have a headache so I am leaving the bedroom because there is a cockroach and I would like to play in the game arcade." We will let you know. Sayonara.

SMALL VERSUS BIG??? WE ARE TALKING …HOUSES!!!



What do you think we were debating about? So here is the deal: 6 bedrooms, 6 ½ bathrooms home in splendid area with magnificent views VERSUS 3 bedrooms, 3 baths in San Francisco in North Beach. Well we are debating in our home and so far….we want smaller and in the city!! So if you plan to visit us, soon, you will not have the views, or the bathroom or the private area anymore. We are moving to San Francisco!!!!!! In the Italian area, our top favorite!!! Ciao and arrivederci Tiburon!