A Special Day!

Some days are just special. Today was one of them.

It was not the day that...

...a guy suddenly walked in front of Mom as she was sitting at her computer in front of her bedroom window on the third floor!
Yikes! Where did he come from?!

That was pretty unusual but it was just the day that the scaffolding finally arrived at our floor. Exciting yes, but nothing like today! (There's special and special, right? Like the day Papa made...

...scallops with port wine and lime for Mom after work because they had translated the recipe together the night before and sent it to Babs for a special Christmas dinner she was attending (for any newcomers, Babs is Mom's eldest sister...

...who lives in KC, Missouri. Here are three photos of her at three different ages : 4, 14 and...um...34.)

I must say, it was pretty special for Mom to come home to unannounced scallops but still, it was nothing like today!)...

...And, no, today wasn't the day it snowed in Paris either (that was a few days later actually and deserves an entire post of its own! Snow is almost too exciting for words - I find that only shouts of joy and photos truly do the trick where snow is concerned.). Today was special because today was the day, well, let me tell it from the beginning :

Everything was pretty normal until about 4pm. Then I learned that my teacher would be on strike the next day! That meant I - Malcolm that is - would not have any homework to do that night nor would I be going to school the next morning! Yeah!

I raced home with my friend Louis - he didn't have any homework either so he came over to my house after school to trade Pokemon cards. (Louis is a great Pokemon afficionado like I am.) But just figure our delight when we realized that not only were we NOT going to school the next day, not only would we NOT be doing homework that afternoon, well, not only all that but, but, but that afternoon, (yes, that very afternoon!) was the moment Mom finally chose TO OPEN the EASY-CUT COCONUT!!!!

Here's our best shot of it before it was entirely open.

Mom and Stella brought the coconut back from the States ages ago. Stella and Monique had bought the nut with the intention of opening it in while Stella was with them on the shores of Wolverine Lake but, what with...

...pie baking...

(Stella and Monique made the first one which, even if we had to serve it with a ladle, was delicious!) and...

...pie eating (John made these next FOUR!!!!)...

...and what with...

...beer brewing and...

...beer bottling and...

...burger eating, somehow they never got around to cracking that nut!
So Mom, who's an expert packer decided to bring it back to Paris. Henry and I have been waiting to open it every day since they got back but Mom has always said "NO, we've ALL got to be together." Then, every few days, just to keep our hopes up, Mom would go "OK, we'll open that coconut tomorrow because we'll ALL be together." Unfortunately, when tomorrow dawned, we never really were ALL together. So Mom kept putting off the grand opening of the coconut and putting it off and putting it off to an ever later date. It was beginning to feel like we'd only do it when chickens had teeth or when the cows came home or on the week of seven Fridays...It began to feel like we'd NEVER open the darn thing EVER...

So you can just imagine how pleased and surprised we were today when Mom announced that today was the day! Even if Max was not home...

...(No no, Heaven's to Betsy, don't jump to conclusions!
Max is FINE!
He had just gone on another class trip. That time they were visiting the lovely killing fields of Verdun...)

...So, even though we were not ALL here this afternoon, Mom decided that there were six of us today so today would be the day!

Lucky Louis, huh?
The opening ceremony began with an ode written by Stella and performed by Henry and Stella together. (That's Louis back there in the back ground rolling the EASY-CUT COCONUT around on the table.)

Here he is drinking coconut milk! And he really is especially lucky because he LOVES coconut! Much more than we do in fact. And he LOVES coconut milk too. His presence was an unexpected plus!

The cracking of the nut was a serious business...


...after the first WHACK! even Le Fish got interested...

EASY-CUT, EASY-CUT, easy for them to say...

...Louis thought otherwise! Une sacré prise de tête en fait!

We even had to take a break to drink a bit more coconut milk as we were waiting...

...finally, Mom had to get involved...

...then things started coming together or rather coming apart...

YEAH!!!

I was so happy I immediately started making coconut music!

Once we'd eaten our fill, Louis and I quickly got back to some even more serious business...

Trading Pokemon cards! This is what I got! Pretty groovey, huh?

After much thought, steeped in cigar smoke and Malibu, I, Malcolm Paret, the new CEO of EASY-CUT COCONUT COCKTAILS INC., really wish Monique and John Magee of the Old Sloshing-Forth Brewery would try making some EASY-CUT COCONUT ale! Might be tastey, huh?

Bye folks, and many happy coconuts to you!

No Tears on the Blog!

Mom and Stella have been back from Detroit for over a week already. I - Henry that is - just can't believe it! When they got here, we were all so happy to see each other again...

...I had asked Papa to prepare an apéritif for their arrival (here I am opening the champagne for them). We were having a such ball; we all put on our Elf hats from Susie, Max put on his new Detroit Lions football T-shirt, Stella her Michigan Spartans sweatshirt...

...Mom and I were cuddling on the pouf, listening to Don White, laughing-crying and drinking Lipton Iced Tea and champagne; I was walking on air...

...flying high...

...with a little help from the indoor furniture which, if you remember rightly, is all we Pontoon Pirates have here in Paris. (Everyone we know in the States also has outdoor furniture, hamacs, treehouses, pontoons, Christmas lights and such, but not us Parisians, noooo; we have to make do with ye old indoor furniture when we're feeling frightfully happy and don't have time to run over to the Eiffle Tower for a climb of joy.)

Yes, we were happy that night. Then something went wrong...I don't quite know what or when but within about a week I was telling Mom "Je ne veux pas d'une soeur comme ça!" I was laying down ultimatums (that's the cool American word for the Latin ultimata, I believe...) for Papa : "It's me or her! Either SHE goes to boarding school or I go!" Well, looks like it'll probably be her. Last Tuesday, she finally did get herself properly kicked out of school...

...Hard to believe, huh? She looks like such a nice young lady.

(Um, she's the one on the right for any newcomers. The lovely lady on the left is Miss Brigitte of the Bounce-Back Café.)

But, Mom said, "No tears on the blog!" and that was final. So I can't show you any of the photos of Stella and me fighting and screaming and crying. None of Stella pouting and crying about being kicked out of school either. Nope, Mom says it's our job to be "uplifting" here on Pontoon Pirates. We must keep the Paret-Darnay-Magee Pirate Chronicles "light and humourous" she says. So, No Tears on the Blog, not even Monique's at the airport when she was saying good-bye to Mom and Stella!

(Sorry folks.)

Besides, we prefer her as she is here anyway...

...bright and smiling in Grosse Pointe Farms, on her way up The Hill to the drug store to buy red and white striped CANDY!!! That was the day Mom and Stella left.

Once again, they had great flying weather that day.

But just then, they were still enjoying some of Grosse Pointe's little known marvels...

...the print of a leaf in the concrete of the sidewalk...

...a hidden gargoyle...

...(ain't he a beaut?)

Plus, some truly original outdoor furniture!

They enjoyed one last meal with Monique, Opi and Omi...



(which had to be photodocumented by everyone, of course!)

...then it was off to the airport and good-bye Detroit!

City of contrasts.

Mom still wishes they'd seen the Avedon exhibit, but you can't do everything, right?
At the airport there were some last minute surprises! United Airways was running late and Mom and Stella would have missed their connecting flight in Philly if an extremely kind and efficient stewardess - no photos available, sorry - had not got them on an Air France flight direct to Paris!!!

Although this is not Paris, it's just Stella at Macdonald's in the duty free zone.

The flight change gave them a bit more time to spend with everyone at Detroit Metro! Basically, it sure looks like they had a great last day, n'est-ce pas?

Stella did have to take her shoes off to go through the silver gates...

...but they finally reached the airplane (last photo taken in Detroit). And soon they were home...

...And they were really sure they were home because as soon as they got far enough through the front door to see anything, Malcolm was showing them his new Pokemon cards! (First photo taken in Paris!)

But don't think our tale of Mom and Stella's adventures in the US is over yet. No, no. They told many more stories which we are looking forward to sharing as soon as we can!

Here's a foretaste of one special lunch at Zeff's Coney Island restaurant... So do stay tuned, there'll be more than just Marilyn and Mustard, Pirate's honor!