Village Goings-on

Last night Zach stopped in on a 30th birthday party for the guy that lives right next to us. The theme was "western" which Zach took to mean simply cowboy-style stuff. He arrived and realized that it was full-on western, as in movies, as in cowboys-and-indians. They had a huge totem pole, and he said a good bit of the people were dressed up in full costumes, from John Wayne cowboys to squaw Indian girls. It was an amusing thing for him to see, as an American, since I don't think that party theme would fly as well in the US (at least you'd be at a much greater risk of offending a bunch of people).

Then he lamented not knowing the theme better and making the joke of going as Gandhi (you know, the other kind of Indian). ; )

This evening we left D with Grandma and went nextdoor for dinner, and next to us was the group of old men that we often see in there, drinking wine and chatting. They're always a fun sight to see, and seem like a cool group to know, and Zach mentioned that he'd love it if one day his French were good enough to join them in conversation. Then later on in our dinner, I forgot how it happened exactly, but somehow we wound up talking with one of them, and Zach chatted, in half-French, half-English (as a few of the men knew English), for a few minutes.

Including getting the details from one of them about the village's open-house skeet shooting event next month. Yes, where you walk up and they give you a rifle (and some instructions) and let you fire away (they did joke that killing anyone is strictly against the rules). They'll be doing this in one of the big fields at the edge of the village. Zach is very much looking forward to this, and wants to make it a family outing. Do I want to expose D to guns already?

I have another post I want to write about my obsession with sleep (D's, not mine), but for now I'll just say he's seemed way better the past couple days. We've gotten lots of cute smiles, and there may have even been a little laugh earlier today.