These pictures are from that evening when I mentioned staying for dinner. They're also to show you another aspect of the quasi-European diet and why it's so effective at weight loss. Eating dinner with my international friends that evening, the French were kind enough to share with me the Saucisson they had received in the mail that week. Yes, in the mail. Not, from what I could understand of the conversation, in a refrigerated special delivery package... and from the looks of the actual sausage, it couldn't have been stored very specially. But they were really excited to received it, and really glad to be eating it, and savored every moment.

(I found this article while trying to figure out exactly what it was I was eating:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/03/saucissesauciss.html




Just in case you can't get the full appreciation for how scary this item looked (and you can imagine the smell, too!), here is a closer cropped version.




So, can you see why I'm losing weight here now?!?










Another aspect is how things over here are just not what they are back home. Take, for example, this French dressing. Seriously, this is straight off the shelf, not a reused bottle. I tried to explain to them that this is ranch dressing, maybe a garlic ranch after I tasted it, but certainly NOT French dressing. They said the store just did it to sell more. Because, of course, if it's associated with the word French, everyone will buy lots of it!











Apart from the saucisson, we also had some nice hot saucisse, lamb chops, and a few other dishes. So to cook the other meats, they fired up the grill. I took lots of shots, but this is my favorite... to me, it looks like a clown jumping on a trampoline. See the little legs and the big belly and the arms flailing in the air?









After dinner was a lot of sitting around and lounging by the pool, as usual. They swiped my camera from me, so I figured I'd show you how I'm looking these days.













And, finally, here is the moon from that night. This was one of only three pictures I managed to take where I didn't only get a white shape, so I really need to get back into studying my photography rules/tricks. Anyway, it was a beautiful moon that night and I always think of Fievel and the song "Somewhere Out There" when I'm looking at the moon here.

Oh! And I found out tonight that Get Smart and The Dark Knight are both still playing at the theater here, so I'm probably going to see at least one of those unless you guys tell me that it would be a waste of time... but I imagine Get Smart should be pretty good. Let me know, guys. Thanks!