March 16

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Hmm.  That's a lot of footprints in the road, all going the same direction...........

Ah.  Of course.  The runners are back.

Glowing edges, just because we can.....  I'm still surprised by what it does and doesn't do with color......

Branches which fell in the big snow a couple of weeks ago, waiting to be picked up and recycled.

Glowing edges, rotated a bit (to show off the various footprints), and cropped.

The usual "view out the front window".............

I haven't shown you these cute little lemon meringue confections in a while. 

Almond croissant, with pain au chocolat in the background.....

Bostok is my daughter's fave.  It is yummy.

Working on trip planning.  I showed you the original of this pic (without glowing edges) a couple of weeks ago, and had tried the glowing edges on this image in the mean time.  I like this version, and it fits here, subject-wise, so I'll slip it in.......

My daughter and I spent some time talking about iDevices, and what they can and can't do.  She talked about novels and guidebooks she has on her phone, and mentioned that she'd gotten a free dictionary app, which was terrible.  That led us to think about other ways to translate things....

Do you remember the tv commercial (I think it must have been for an iPhone) where a young man (who was obviously traveling in Europe) looked at an elderly man, and then spoke into his phone:  "My grandfather grew up in this village."  The traveler showed the phone to the other man, whose face softened as a connection was drawn between them by technology.....

On the 16th, we had fun talking to my daughter's iPhone, asking it important questions like "where is the bathroom?"

The phone's screen shows what it thinks you said, in your original language (in small print), and then shows its translation (into whatever language you ask for) in much bigger print.

Have I mentioned that this is majorly cool?  Wow...............................

Anyway.

Applesauce with rhubarb was one of our favorite discoveries in France.  We happened across it in a grocery store, but when we went back for more the next day, we couldn't find it.  We didn't know how to say "applesauce" in French, nor "rhubarb," but given what we could say, and a lot of gestures (like peeling the aluminum-foil top off a single-serving container), the clever sales person in the store managed to figure out what we wanted.  As big fans of rhubarb, we were so glad to have discovered that there is applesauce-with-rhubarb in France, and we enjoyed it nearly every day for the rest of our stay.

On the 16th we asked the phone how to say "Do you have applesauce with rhubarb?" in Italian.............

:-)

I wonder how many tourists, having figured out how to say "where is the bathroom?" next wonder how to say "do you have applesauce with rhubarb?"

:-)


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