bad hair day

I'm cranky. For some reason the internet cable is not really working for a week ( thank you Comcast Ⓡ) Today my email box is a total mess. I can't send anything, and I receveid a second time all my emails since July 2004 (6067 emails+ junk). I went for a little baby shopping and it's just getting worse.

You know I have nothing against cuteness. I love anything cute. I love drawing and collecting cute things. But I'm fed up with baby cuteness. Sometimes it's too chichi, I feel lobotomised after an hour of looking for a bed spread without any teddy bear-cute bunny on it.  I just bought a car seat with a pattern of cows and stars, the cows look stoned, really.
I'm trying my best to find some cool stuff , it's really difficult. I'm overwhelmed with these patterns of sissy bears, sugar rabbits, naive birdies and other stoned tiny tiger. I mean, I like cute. But everywhere? My, let me breath!

So I did this pattern, for a change, as a reaction. It's a fun pattern for toddlers. I'd be happy to turn the Farting Giraffes pattern into a pyjama before my son is 2 so he can wears it and have a good laugh. Now I'm thinking of pooping triceratops, what do you think about it? Could be fun!

Ⓒdel4yo-Delphine Doreau 2007
You can use this seamless pattern for personal use only, thanks.

tapet_kotori

   Ⓒdel4yo-Delphine Doreau 2007

Tapet means wallpaper in Swedish
Kotori (ことり) means Little bird in Japanese
And Delphine means イルカ in Japanese, I know it's quite a shock, but it's a very cute name in France.

Tapet ca veut dire papier peint en suedois ( une bonne recherche google ceci-dit)
Kotori ca veut dire petit oiseau en Japonais
Et Delphine ca veut dire イルカ en Japonais, ce qui fait bien marrer mes potines, mais c'est un tres joli nom quand meme.

Drops and dots

Ⓒdel4yo-Delphine Doreau 2007

La pluie c'est bon pour les champignons.

All about non dairy diary

En francais ici

Ⓒdel4yo-Delphine Doreau 2007

Few people ask about the name of my blog. Of course, it's a bad pun, but there is more about it!
Non dairy products are not common in France. There is less dairy intolerance there. There, if you can't drink milk, you go without, that's it. Few replacements, no non dairy creamers.
We go for plain milk, and some people like me drink a lot of milk.
So when I took the plane to come here in California, I was quite surprised : there wasn't a drop of milk in the plane. Only non dairy creamers.  It was really a surprise. The flight attendant had to explain me this brand new concept. Because some people were allergic to dairies, everybody had to go with some weird non dairy stuff. It sounded a bit paranoiac to me. I could have had the "may contain traces of nuts" cultural shock, but the non dairy thing struck me before. A complete new world in a nutshell.
So I tried this brand new thing : non dairy creamer in regular coffee. I only had real milk in expresso before. It was quite an experience!

To me, non dairy creamer in regular coffee will always stay my first taste of America. I switched to mocha very quickly, with delight. But somehow it's a precious memory, the first of a lot of good ones, about adapting myself to a new world and a new culture. So far, so good, I enjoyed every moment of the 3 years I spent here. And I remembered this moment when I choose my weblog's name : Non dairy Diary.

So that's what the Non Dairy Diary is about : serendipty, joyfull moments, sweet memories. Enjoy!

Tres peu de gens me demandent le pourquoi du comment du nom de mon weblog. Il y en a meme qui pensent qu'il s'agit de "mon daily diary" ( mon journal journalier). En fait non, il y a toute une histoire derriere ce titre, qui veut dire " le journal non laitier "

Tout d'abord il faut savoir qu'en Anglais "dairy" est un adjectif qualifiant les produits laitiers. Beaucoup de gens ici souffrent d'intolerance au lactose, et contrairement a la France, ici il y a des produits non laitiers copiant (mal) le gout du lait, pour remplacer. Et comme les compagnies d'aviation n'ont pas envie d'avoir des problemes avec un passager en pleine crise d'allergie, paf, tout le mondee a droit au lait sans lait. C'est un peu paranoiaque, c'est tres Americain. On prevoit le pire, on ne sait jamais. Si en France on grogne parceque le ciel va  nous tomber sur la tete, ici on a l'impression que le ciel est en train de tomber. Je ne sais pas si c'est mieux. C'est different, c'est tout.

Bref. J'ai du me faire expliquer par l'hotesse le concept du lait sans lait, et ensuite j'ai teste dans du cafe Americain, qui est plus dilue mais aussi plus torrefie que le cafe europeen. C'est un tres gros choc culturel ce cafe. C'est ma premiere gorgee d'Amerique, et meme si elle etait inattendue, j'ai bien aime. Le premier petit pas vers beaucoup de changements, de nouvelles habitudes. La premiere mise a l'epreuve de mes capacites d'adaptation. C'est un tres bon souvenir.

J'en ai eu de meilleurs depuis. Mais au moment de creer mon blog, je me suis rappellee de ce premier moment, et c'est pour cela que vous etes en train de lire le Non dairy Diary.

At random

Sometimes I work too quickly and I end up making mistakes.Some are good, here's a bird coming from ⌘shiftC instead of ⌘C...I liked it and kept it.

Parfois je vais trop vite sur le clavier, je derape et ca pedale tout seul...Cette fois ci hop, un cul de lampe oiseau sans le faire expres. Tant mieux!

An empty post

Ⓒdel4yo-Delphine Doreau 2007

Comme quoi on peut bloguer a propos de rien.

Ca manquait de lapins

I neeeded more bunnies to feel at home, so I changed the spreadsheet. I feel better now!

Mushroom dressed as a lamb

This sketch came from a discussion with sweet Sam about English idioms and expressions. Of course she had to teach me a culinary one.  She didn't insist much on the meaning of the expression, and spoke more about the difference between mutton and lamb meat. At this point, remembering conversations with Sam, I have a craving for good food...meet me in the kitchen!
Sam's nosh and more culinary blog : Becks & Posh.

Ⓒdel4yo-Delphine Doreau 2007

L'espression "mutton dressed as a lamb" est une expression cockney des annes 1860 se moquant des femmes  habillees plus jeune ou plus innocement que leur age. L'espression m'a ete enseignee par Sam, qui en bon critique culinaire et en jeune femme bien elevee, a plus insiste sur les merites gustatifs de l'agneau par rapport au mouton. A ce point, me rappellant de la conversation, il faut absolument que j'aille manger quelque chose de bon!!
le blog de Sam, Becks & Posh, dont je parle quelquefois, est un blog de fine bouche a propos de notre region, la Bay Area, comme quoi il n'est pas de bon bec que de Paris!