how to go crabbing

Harry and Jack took me crabbing at the quay yesterday. I will admit that I have been looking forward to going crabbing since they told me about it weeks ago. I will admit I had a slight obsession with it as something that I've never done before and something that I wasn't sure I would ever have the opportunity to do again. There are a few things needed prior to the expedition.

1. a bucket
2. string
3. a weight
4. a small netted bag
5. this is the most important...bacon

So with all these tools of the trade in tow we headed down to the quay. Apparently bacon is the bait of choice. Everyone on the dock had some. In all honesty I would never even begin to be able to guess what sort of bait would be needed so bacon seemed logical to me. OK to start, fill the bucket half way up with water from the sea, second put a bit of bacon in the netted bag that has the weight attached to it and make sure it all is firmly attached to the string. Lower the bag in the water just off the dock. Make sure it settles into the seaweed, that is where the crabs like to hid. Finally wait. The waiting part is the hard part. We were sitting on the concrete quay and I didn't bring anything to sit on or anything to hold my attention unless you count making sure the boys didn't fall in.

After waiting for what was probably only about 5 minutes or so Harry pulled up the string and there was a crab attached to the bag! We didn't have the bucket handy so as soon as we got the crab up to the quay he let go of the bag and scampered to the edge and jumped back in. No worries though, we got back to the task and soon we caught another crab and this time we managed to get it into the bucket. It was quite satisfying to have caught a crab. We poked around some more and ended up catching a second crab. Like with the first we missed the bucket but I decided I was going to go after it. I managed to pick it up while avoiding the claws and put it in the bucket. By now Jack had already given up and gone back to the cottage so Harry and I took the cabs back to show him and then we returned them to whence they came.

It was quite a fun adventure. I think next time I will bring something to sit on as well as a book or something to do while I wait for the crabs to take the bait!

Got Speedo?

A few weeks ago I took the kids to a swimming pool here in France. The pool is over in Saint Louis and before we went I was informed that the boys had to wear Speedos. Apparently it is practically French law that in any public swimming pool boys have to wear a Speedo. I was told that it had to deal with hygiene. I don't care if they cure illness there are some men in the world that should not be allowed to wear Speedos. It doesn't matter how fit you think you are, don't even go there.

There were two types of Speedos being worn.

Type A:
Type B:Now the boys weren't thrilled that they had to wear a Speedo in the first place so of course they went with type A...actually, to be honest, I'm not sure either of them own the second type. With young boys it doesn't matter much but for older, balding, gross looking men they just shouldn't be allowed out if their only option is a Speedo.

schools out for the summer!

Today is the last day of school for the kids. I used to love the last day of school. There was always a lot of anticipation for the coming summer holiday and even a bit of sadness with the closing of another year. Oddly enough as I sit here writing this, I can't really remember any of my last days of school. I can remember some events from middle school, the excitement of finishing the 6th grade, pure joy of finishing the 8th grade, but it seems that once I went to high school the dread of finals as well as the eagerness to be done outweighed the anticipation of that last day. As a senior there was no final bell as our finals were held a week before the rest of the schools and in many cases there was no actual final, just a paper or a project to be completed.

The same thing happened in college. For most as soon as that last final and completed it was an immediate departure from campus saying goodbye to whom you could when you could. I think it is so funny that when in elementary school we made such a big deal out of the last day, weeping a tearful goodbye to a friend that we would soon see again and swearing that we would spend an amazingly fun summer together as many times as possible and as it would end up you would see them twice and survive just fine. There was so much drama and many a crisis growing up. I suppose it is a testament to growing up when you can complete a school year without being nominated for a Tony Award.

I am so glad that there are easily notable moments for growing up. Being able to look back on things seeing the ways that I have changed helps my self-esteem when I think I am going nowhere fast. Life is a constant flux of new replacing old. I recently read a fantastic column about change (shameless plug for my mom's last column) and in it Heraclitus was quoted as saying "Change is the only constant". That, I would most definitely have to agree with. Embrace change and let it work in your life.