amplifier rewiring

One consequence of constantly moving is the accumulation of many little plug converters, the occasional actual voltage converter, and sometimes the rolling up of sleeves and rewiring of high current devices. I finally had a chance to rewire my tube amplifier today. It was delivered to me in France more than five years ago, wired for 220V. I then rewired it for 110 when we moved back, and I just re-re-wired it for 240V. Happily, I ran into an electronics guy here just as I was getting ready to wire 220, and he informed me that France has been slowly ramping up to 240 from 220, so 240 was a much better choice. Here are some amplifier guts:

It all worked great and no explosions as of yet.

Carnival day!

lab ski day!

at Alpe d'huez




it was quite icy, but decent (and better than the alternative!)

more snow!

also, on call all weekend... sucks.

Touring with mom

Today we set out for the mountains. My plan was to show her either St. Christope en Oisans -- a quaint mountain village steeped in the lore and history of mountaineering, or perhaps La Berarde, with it's steel corrugated roofs and proximity to many of my beloved peaks. Unfortunately, we didn't get very far at all because the road was blocked. Undaunted, we continued on along the mountain roads up past les Deux Alpes and Lac du Chambon

and finally to La Grave. La Grave also has a pretty significant place in the history of climbing and mountaineering, but nowadays it is the home of world renowned skiing , and a very pretty town to boot. We'll be vacationing past la Grave in Monetier this summer -- bike riding the famous cols, and crushing limestone with our gym honed kung-fu grips. Anyway, it was a bit of a whiteout up there, with wind swirling through the middle of town and slamming shutters against sills.

We stopped at an overpriced, but cool cheese and ham place and bought some local sheeps cheese, appenzal and local speck. After getting buffetted for a while, we retreated to a cafe for espressos,

and then headed back to Grenoble. After a brief stop at the mysterious and exceptionally French store that the locals call 'Ikea', mom and I hit the town for lunch (unfortunately my favorite Lebanese place was closed) and antiquing. Amazingly, we ended up in the same antique store that Chloe and I had started out Quest for Armoires in more than five years earlier! OK, so not very amazing in itself, except she had the exact same two armoires/hommes debouts!! The price was about the same as well, and I thought she was saying "vendu" again! I was very sad not to see the great grand mother there, and I did not want to ask the grandmother if she was still with us.
Afterwards we stopped by Pignol

to buy some macarons, tartes, and other delicious things. The macarons are *fabulous*, but I can' help but think that they are an extremely high profit margin item: a box of 15 costs 17 euro!

Road trip to Serres, Sigottier, Orpierre

We drove down the N75 to Sigottier, which we spent a whole five minutes enjoying, and then to Serres. Serres is kind of a dump, and we went to an awful cafe

after eating our picnic lunch. Both towns were easily and happily forgotten as soon as we left the city limits. During the drive down, Zoe greedily hoarded the bag of Cape Gooseberries that Chloe had packed for us. When we asked for one, she would give us a big toothy smile, say "noooo", while moving the bag away from us, and stuff her mouth full of them.

The third town was one that I had been hearing about for years: Orpierre. Most climbers will know the name, and to my great embarrassment, I have never actually climbed there, despite owning the climbing guide. I thought this would be a good chance to scope out the city and crag, and am very happy that we did! The first order of business was to let Zoe at the small playground near the church. They have a climbing wall which she showed no interest in climbing, but lots of enthusiasm for jamming little pebbles into:

She also made mom and chloe get into a little house with her:

and made us watch her go down the slide


The town is surrounded by beautiful cliffs


And has some wonderful narrow cobbled streets. Some pictures:






This is what happens when you take a tissue out of the hands of a 2 year old:

Bad daddy!
But I was forgiven soon enough

We took a few ill advised turns on the way back which ended up bringing us over snowy cols and narrow, fender scraping alleys, but we eventually made it home for an american version of Raclette:

mom

figured out the buses and spent most of the day in Grenoble. I was happy get her phone call from our house (rather than Lyon or Turin).

Grandma with Zoe

awesome lunch at le Tour de Sens

carrot emulsion with lobster risotto

Three kinds of foie gras (the one on the right was amazing: a foie gras creme brulee

Langoustine

Cabillaud (Altantic Cod?)

Veal

Cheese from les alpages

Best french toast in the world

Palatte cleansing emulsioon of yogurt with pineapple (oh yeah, and choclate minicake)


None of us ate dinner today. Absolutely fantastic!

mom here!

picked mom up from the train station on tuesday!

They call me Mr Mom

I had a crazy morning. Chloe is in Paris for a job interview, and I am here with the kids. After wasting almost 20 minutes looking for a pacifier for alex (Day care tends to get very offended and snotty if I don't bring one), I finally dropped Alex off. On the way home, I noticed something strange about my shoes:

I have this single parent thing totally down.

woo!

alex slept from 10PM to 6AM!

proud

We went for a walk near the MJC in le Fontanil today. Along the way Zoe exclaimed "CLIMB ROCK!", and we were obliged to let her try her hand at escalade. She immediately went to the steep section

but then relented and climbed the slab

Langoustines

hard to find in the states, but plentiful here. Our local fish guy has them, and we had an extravagant Langoustine lunch. Not surprisingly, Zoe loved them and we were barely able to keep up with her

boarding at the 7 laux

decent.

The toll plaza

One difference between US highway driving and French autoroute driving that you immediately notice can be seen in the two photos below:
I80 Bay Bridge Toll plaza:

and the toll plaza near the Lyon Airport:


Notice anything different between them? If your answer had something to do with the lack of lane markings on the autoroute version, then you are correct. Specifically, there is a noticeable lack of lanes or markings once you are through the barriers.


After a few seconds you find yourself vying for position in an ad hoc drag race. The only thing missing is a scantily clad flag girl and the cops. It's a remarkable departure from the usually fantastic etiquette on the autoroute. Think about how much better traffic would flow on Bay Area roads if the passing lane (you know, the one on the left) were actually only used for passing. That's how it is here (except in heavy traffic situations of course).

Dog in a trailer

now that's a stylish dog.

aaargh

Dropped my bike chain five times today... in the pouring rain

Biking along the river

It was a perfectly still day along the Isére today. There was a man out on a skull, and it looked beautiful. Of course, no decent camera, but I got an iphone photo:

alex not sleeping

well, not exactly, but he typically wakes up 3-4 times a night, which is really starting to wear us down. I'm just glad I'm not operating any heavy machinery during the day.