snowstorm?

What time did this snowstorm start? I went to bed late, at 5 AM. I do not remember seeing a snowstorm starting at that time. It must have been snowing and I was so out of it I didn't notice.

When I woke up at 2:30 PM there was no snow falling. But apparently, in between, I missed a major snowstorm. School closings, traffic issues, I see the tractor working away out in the parking lot. Missed it all. Man, I was tired.

Look at this cute pic from the weather site, captioned: "A night's snowfall dashes someone's plans."

Hapoo... or as they say in French: 'apoo

Excuse all these posts about improving my French. I had a very emotional week. Other than events like cats dying, which is a very specific type of Emotional Poopiness, it's been at least 15 years since I've gone through something like this. Longer. So just as when Sherry was sick and dying, I obsessively comparison shopped for purse organizers on etsy, now I'm anchoring myself to the stability of Language Learning. You can just skip it all and then pat me patronizingly on the head. I'll understand.

I'm building myself a little repertoire of online tools. When I want to compose something in French I've got two sites that correct both grammar and spelling, with explanations of why. They catch different things which is why I've taken to using both. They also contradict a bit, which is why, you know, don't let robots take over the world.

[As I write Minion is going apesh*t all over the apartment. She had a long nap after supper so now she's filled to the brim with beans. I think Haley's hiding in her cupboard box until it's all over. Fernando left his coat on the treadmill to dry, and Minion's sitting up top on it, doing a real number on it.]

[Oh there's Haley! Wow, she was nearby after all. Brave cat.]

[Now Minion's cake-facing her attentively.]

So anyway. I've got a good French dictionary widget, which I've just discovered has a verb conjugation function! But my Fr-Eng widget SUCKS and I can't find another.

And now I'm tired and I don't know why I'm still up and writing this.

Movies in translation

I'm pretty happy with this new French channel I subscribed to. It's amazing how many movies look "good" when you're picking them for language practice, and not just for entertainment.

They have a couple movies I've always wanted to watch but haven't yet... (This one's about a small town where the statue of a "little Negro," like you see on the cover, goes missing from someone's lawn.)



They have a couple of my top faves, which should be funny to watch in translation. Especially musicals? (That's a weird translation. Why not Sept femmes pour sept frères? The Seven Brides of Red Beard??)



Amadeus is a must-see because the first time I saw it was in the theatres, in dubbed French, with my French-speaking cousins, when I first moved to Quebec and only spoke English. I did not understand a thing. I didn't even know the movie was about Mozart, going in. Since then I've seen it a zillion times.








And there's fun movies I've seen in English but it's been awhile so I'll enjoy seeing again in French:



And they have a bunch of fun old movies, mostly 1950s-70s. Though nothing will persuade me to watch Deliverance again. I don't care what "squeel like a pig" is in French.

 Today was Fernando's day off. We didn't watch French TV, but for a few hours we spoke French. I said one thing to him in French and he said (in French): If you want to get better in French we should be speaking it all the time! I said (in French) that'll get very tiring. But he refused to give up, even though his French is worse than mine.

He went to English schools and he's dyslexic so he doesn't really remember rules well; but he grew up in Quebec, and his work place is much more bilingual. More importantly he's not embarrassed to speak in French no matter how broken it is--he just confidently barrels ahead. That's what I was complimenting him about.

Then he tried to tell me I had to write all my 365 letters to him in French! He gets a little carried away mon mari. I said, when I have the energy, chérie. ;-)