Holiday!

Today was absolutely delightful and I am ecstatic that I have tomorrow off work too! We got up around 8:30 and spent a lot of the morning being lazy; watching French cartoons (they actually help with learning French because the vocabulary is basic and they speak slower) and I did some reading. At about noon we decided to walk into town to get some lunch and go to the grocery store. We went to this pizza place that we walk past every day and that always smells fantastic. We walked in and it was packed full of people speaking Italian, which also seemed like a good sign. The pizza was absolutely fantastic -- thin crust and cooked in a wood oven. It was busy and with our pizzas and having a cup of tea/espresso after lunch, we were there until about 2 pm. We went to the grocery store, but it (and the butcher and the bakery) were all closed for lunch until 3. In some ways, this is incredibly frustrating that places are closed for between 90 minutes and 3 hours in the middle of the day. It is often, however, the same person who runs the store all day so giving them a break doesn't seem like a bad idea. We walked back to the apartment. I did some straightening up, and was ecstatic to realize that 1) the Drive-By Truckers have a new album out; 2) there are a bunch of live DBT and Patterson Hood performances available for free at the internet archive project; and 3) that my favorite public radio show, American Routes, ever has finally put their archives online, so I can listen to any of the shows for the past 10 years whenever I want!
After some downloading, I realized that we really didn't have anything to eat for dinner and decided to trek back into town and go to the butcher, grocery store, and bakery. I went to all three and explored the town some, headed back, and made chicken and leeks with a cut up melon on the side. Now I am listening to the American Routes episode on songs about road trips.
Also, I am sure many of you would like to hear from Matt on the blog too. He will probably blog something in the next few days.
Hope all of you are having a great Thursday and getting ready for the weekend!