Happy St Nick's

I don't know that they really do St. Nicolas's day here, it strikes me as more of a Germanic thing.

If you tried to read my blog yesterday, the site was down, all of Blogger, actually, so that's why you couldn't read anything. But it seems to be working again now.

I put up a few more photos from Stuttgart on my flickr site, including this one of me and Rm:



But basically yesterday I didn't leave the house; spent the day unpacking and regrouping. Had a marvelous sleep and woke up in a very good mood. There's a partial strike today, so I took the bus to Châtelet and then walked to Les Halles to pick up my train from there. It's funny to walk around the 1st arrondissement mid-morning, there are trucks loading things. I got a lovely apple turnover at a bakery and ate it on my way, causing one guy who stepped aside to let me get around a truck, to say, "Bon appetit!"

Once in Saint-Denis, I stopped at a little sewing shop by my office to pick up a wool needle, since I will need it to finish Js's hat (I'll take a photo of it when it's done so you can see it). I didn't know the word for needle and was trying to explain; the guy there asked what language I spoke and I said English, so he said, in English, "Well, then, why don't you just speak English?" Turns out the word is "aiguille," and two wool needles set me back a whopping three euros! I will never get used to what is cheap here and what is expensive.