The weather is all over the place. Some people are wearing shorts and t-shirts and others are wearing their heavy winter coats- they are both right. People 'in the know' tell me this is the kind of weather you can expect in winter, overcast, raining, cold but then the sun comes out and it becomes hot -very confusing. I went to a meeting today and the topic, again, seemed to be the difficulty in getting out of bed with weather like this. It’s funny but a lot of people seem to have a choice on whether or not they need to wake up- it’s Thursday for Christ sake- go to work (said the man without a job)

We did have a nice surprise, I thought my brother and family were coming tomorrow but instead I find they are here today. They also decided to move to Paris. They were jet lagged but we walked around the 8th arrondissement- very chic. Their children, ages 9 and 7, were excited about the move but 9 year old boy observed that the French walk very quickly and his sister chimed in that they talk too loudly. Are Parisian’s ready for this? My nephew and I discussed the fun you can have with Mentos and diet Coke, trying to figure out a park in which we could carry out our experiments. The talk got bigger and grander until it ended with us both agreeing that gunpowder makes everything better and being a good pickpocket could be advantageous when things got tight.

Tomorrow Kelly and I travel to Brussels to visit another brother and his family. I’m lucky to know how important family is- maybe not gunpowder important but important none the less