Cal Croucher's Space

Although a formal wedding celebration is still planned for April 2009, Chris and Jess decided they couldn’t wait any longer to begin their life together. So on May 3rd, 2008 they made it official with a private civil ceremony held at the Croucher Estate.

In attendance, were Chris' family - Mom (Yolanda), Dad (Cal) with his wife Roni, and sister Breanna with her boyfriend Rob. Jess' family included Mom (Linda), Dad (Zeke), sister Amanda with her baby, Mason.

While it was a civil ceremony, several elements of a formal wedding were incorporated beginning with Blairstown Mayor Frank Vanhorn presiding. The ceremony was beautiful. He said that he was thrilled to do it since he's known Chris for many years and watched him grow up to become a man. There was a unity candle on the "altar", fresh flower arrangements around the parlor where the ceremony was held, the bride held a bouquet of white and yellow roses and there was a Boutonnière for the groom.  Wedding music was provided ala Chris' laptop computer. Adorable Baby Mason served as the ring bearer with a little help from his mom Amanda (since thirteen month old Mason can't walk very well yet!) Of course there was a champagne toast to the bride and groom by Jess' Dad Zeke. The groom’s Mom (Yolanda) prepared a feast for the guests which included a lovely two tiered wedding cake with a topper. Bre's boyfriend Rob (and several other guests) captured the day’s memories with their cameras which seemed to be everywhere!

We all congratulated Chris and Jessica Croucher on the start of their new life together as husband and wife and concluded the day with some food, wine and socializing. It was a truly enjoyable day.

Well like all good things, this trip must come to an end. We've had a wonderful two weeks: Bercy Park and Village, 1/2" of snow in Paris!, the castles of the Loire Valley, The Frog!, our visit with Ed and Nat at their home in Celle Sur Morn, getting together with Dan and Adry Bosatra (not at the Frog), seeing our good friend Odile (at the Frog), dinner with Stu and Ed (at the Frog), getting totally disoriented around the Rue de Rivoli and finally our quick trip through the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.

A special thanks to Kala our waitress at our favorite pub, "The Frog". We enjoyed meeting you and wish you all the best in your Art History studies. Have fun in the South of France this summer and have a save trip back to California. 

Another special thanks to Dani, our Loire Valley tour guide. We really enjoyed the trip and learned a lot from you.

Cheers - Cal & Roni

Today we were fortunate to be able to get together for dinner with one of our dear friends, Odile (Dumont) Wojciechowski. We have know Odile since before the days of Aventis. In choosing a restaurant she of course wanted to go to a traditional French restaurant, so naturally we went to "The Frog". Being that it's a British Pub she was not amused. 

Things in the office really haven't changed that much. Time continue to march forward but in the world of HSE all things are just as they've always been, pretty much a mess to be dealt with.  The common theme from all our friends seems to be, how much longer must we continue to work. Since I've personally chosen to leave the corporate rat race and become an independent consultant, my answer is, get out as soon as possible! There's a life waiting to be enjoyed.

Taken from Cal Croucher's Space: April in Paris 2008

After a very nice dinner we walked Odile back to where she parked her cute little two seater Mini Cooper. Betsy eat your heart out!

Taken from Cal Croucher's Space: April in Paris 2008

All for now... We're still busy editing down the hundreds of photos from our trip to the castles of the Loire Valley. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have some ready to post.

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Despite heavy showers we had a wonderful day of castle hopping in a very famous area of France - the Loire Valley!

At 6:45 am we were picked up at our hotel by Paris Vision a tour operator in Paris. Our Tour Guide, Danielle De Cacqueray greeted us. Once settled in out MiniBus we met our tour mates, Beth, Debby and Mary - all from the US! We had a 3 hour ride to the Loire taking a stop on A10 the road that leads to Spain. The Loire is south of Paris. There are at least 100 castles in that region all because of difficulties with the British in the Hundred Years war. The French King made his "home" here until the British were ousted by Joan of Arc. The first castle we visited was Chenonceau on the River Cher.

Taken from Cal Croucher's Space: April in Paris 2008

Of all the castles Chenonceau had the most beautiful gardens. Known as the "chateau of the dames" Catherine de Medici lived here with her husband Henry II and his mistress Diane De Poitiers (yes his mistress!) Supposedly Diane and Henry loved to spend time here. It has been furnished with renaissance furniture of the 15th century. We were surprised at the size of the chateau - it was smaller compared to the photos we had seen. Its the bridge across the moat that gives it the illusion of size. The castle was originally built by Thomas Bohier - who was imprisoned by a jealous king for his efforts! 

The next stop was the town of Cheverny. There we had lunch at a traditional Loire Valley inn served goat cheese and salad, baked salmon with mushrooms and traditional Loire Valley Red and White Wine. To top it off we had a wonderful dark chocolate mousse cake. Yummy!

Taken from Cal Croucher's Space: April in Paris 2008

Then off to the next castle - Cheverny. This castle is a classical renaissance chateau - built in the 1300's. This reminded me of Versailles because of its ornateness.  It was also owned at one time by Diane De Poitiers (she was one smart cookie!). The paintings and glided rooms were spectacular. This was also known as a "hunting chateau" The property where the chateau stands is about 272 acres but the forest surrounding it where the hunting took place measures about 4900 acres! The chateau has a kennel with English and French bred hunting hounds (they are a cross between foxhounds and poitevins). They were used to hunt boar and stags. Several rooms had stag antlers displayed on the walls. The dogs were a lot of fun to watch.

After a 20 minute ride we came to the last chateau on the tour - and probably the best one - Chambord. Chateau Chambord was built in the 16th Century again a renaissance chateau. When you first come upon it - it looks like a fairytale castle! Francis the I commissioned its construction never really lived in it. It was used primarily as a hunting lodge (hummm some lodge!). One of its highlights is the center staircase who some believe was designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo was a close friend Francis I and was very influential in the design of the chateau.

Taken from Cal Croucher's Space: April in Paris 2008

Today we spent the day with Ed and Nathalie Holmes in Celle Sur Morin. They have a quaint house about 45 minutes East of Paris. We enjoyed great conversation. While Roni and Nat took a drive to a local boulanegrie to pick up a few baguettes of French bread, Ed and I took a really close look at his MV Agusta F4 R312. It's quite a bike!

Taken from Cal Croucher's Space: April in Paris 2008

Nat prepared a buffet lunch of fruits, various cheeses and breads. And we shared a bottle of Brut Creme d'Alsace, which is very much like champagne only a bit sweeter. One of the cheeses we had was Brie, which is made in this region of France.

Taken from Cal Croucher's Space: April in Paris 2008

After our visit we returned to Bercy Village to have a light dinner at The Frog micro brewery. We ran into Kayla, the same waitress that served us on Tuesday when we had dinner with Stu and Ed. Turns out Kayla is an exchange student from a small college in California. She is studying Art History at the Sorbonne. She is looking forward to spending the summer in the South of France before returning to California in August. She was very happy to chat with another couple of Americans (her French is much like ours... limited at best).

We ended the evening taking a stroll through Bercy Park. We have to turn in early tonight in order to get up in time to make our Loire Valley tour at 6:30 AM!

Till tomorrow. Cheers - Roni & Cal

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Late this afternoon Roni and I negotiated the Metro and made our way to the Louvre. Of course after exiting the Metro at Chatelet we circled the area for about 30 minutes trying to find the entrance to the Louvre. Chatelet is one of the largest Metro stations where you can easily get lost. But we had no problem getting out - our trouble was finding the Louvre once we were on street level! We kept getting ourselves stuck around Rue de Rivoli but what we should have been trying to find was Rue de Louvre. Eventually we found our way and spent about 1.5 hours roaming the museum. It's so huge that any more time and we just would have been too frustrated. There's just no way to possibly see everything so we set our sites on the Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo. We did get to see the Egyptian exhibit, many of the Italian paintings, some Ancient History sculptures. These were all in the Denon section of the museum. Of course we had our picture taken at the De Vinci Pyramid. I also purchased the guide to the museum. It has every painting, sculpture etc. After that quick tour, we made our way back to the metro and Bercy Village.

Taken from Cal Croucher's Space: April in Paris 2008

We ended the evening getting apricot jam laden crepes from a side walk vendor. Yum Yum! Cal had to have his Starbucks coffee too. You know we are always a little hungry after eating - all the portions are small. No wonder everyone is a size 0 in Paris!  

Well that's all for now - Roni and Cal
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Today after taking Roni over to Avenue du France (ADF) I walked around Bersy taking more pictures, some which I've uploaded to Windows Live Spaces, April in Paris photo album.

This evening Roni and I got together with Stu Dearden and Ed Holmes at "The Frog" micro brewery in Bercy Village. We had lots of fun catching up on old times. The company gossip was flying, but mum's the word on any details ... of course. 

Ed told use about his hot Ferrari red MVAgusta motorcycle. For those that may have never heard of MV Agusta F4 R312, it's an exotic Italian motorcycle. Natalie if I was you I'd be very jealous of that bike after hearing Ed tell us how much he loves to ride it!  

If all goes well we'll be visiting Ed and Nat at their home this Saturday.

All for now. Ciao
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We deplaned at CDG after a very smooth and uneventful flight. 

We arrived at the Pullman hotel at Bercy Village and after freshening up we spent the afternoon walking around Bercy Park taking photos with our great friends Dan and Adry Bosatra. It was so nice to spend time catching up with them. Above is a panoramic photo of Bercy Park which I made by sticking several photos together using the new Live Photo Gallery. Very cool tool. 

After a full day of walking around we went to Starbucks to warm up with a hot cup of coffee. I know, any excuse for coffee! Nothing more went on Saturday, that I can write about anyway...

Monday morning after the sleeping pills wore off we woke up to 1/2" of SNOW on the ground! Yikes can you believe it. It never snows in Paris. Just our luck to get it. After a little breakfast Roni and I slipped and slid our way over to Avenue du France.
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Well we're at the airport lounge waiting for our flight. Roni's been supplying me with crackers, cheese and of course... coffee. I decided to go with coffee rather than wine... or scotch (of course my favorite) so I could stay awake on the flight. Actually I was being cheap because I saw a sign listing drink prices and figured we paid enough for the flight I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for drinks in the Presidents Lounge. At least until I find out if there's any good movies playing on the way over.

Roni and I had the executive meal (gets all the courses over in one shot rather than drag it out for hours) on the way over and then watched a really great movie, "PS I Love You". It's a very sad/happy/emotional movie about a young couple who are very much in love and the husband tragically dies from a brain tumor. Think of "Ghost" with Dimi Moore and Patrick Swayze and you've got the idea. Well following his death, Holly finds letters from Gerry that seems to help her cope with his sudden death and encourage her to eventually begin dealing with life again. If you haven't seen it I guarantee you will love it. Yes Rob, it's a "chick flick" but you know Bre will enjoy it!
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Friday, April 4th:

Well once again Roni and I are heading for April in gay Paris! Ohh lala mon ami. We're hoping for some nice weather, or at least dry weather. According to friends that we'll be visiting while there, we should be prepared for cold weather so It looks like we'll be bringing a large suitcase full of sweaters.

We leave via Continental Air on Saturday, April 5th and will return Friday, April 18th. If all goes well we'll be visiting a few locations that we haven't been to in previous visits. The Louvre is top on our list. Every time we've been over in the past the waiting lines have been just too long to take. This time we'll get advanced tickets and cross our fingers. We're also hoping to take a bus trip to the Loire Valley to see several of the famous French castles including Chateau Chambord, Cheverny and Chenonceau, which is truly spectacular.

Well we're all packed and ready to go! I guess I have to close down the laptop and put it away. I'll post again on the other side of the pond... Cheers - Cal
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Well it's official, "Baby Gio" has arrived. Amanda and Justin made their way to the hospital early this morning and at 7:53 AM on February 19, 2008 Giovanni Morris was born!  Gio is 7 pounds 12 ounces and 19.5 inches.  Everyone is doing well and both Amanda, Justin and Dottie, the proud new Grandma Moretti, have been texting and phoning the family all morning.  Amanda and Gio came home on Thursday. Can't wait to see more pictures... and video!

Baby Gio has arrived!!!

 

Don't Amanda & Justin look so proud of their little baby boy Gio.

Nice job guys!

 

 

Love - Uncle Cal

I wanted to see just how well I would be able to add content to my Live Space directly from my Moto Q Smartphone.

It seems like a pretty simple process and when I'm in a pinch I guess this will work if I've got something to say and don't have access to my laptop. Gee I could blog just like on the TV show, "Gossip Girl" only I think I'd rather be called, "Gossip Guy"! Of course if you've ever watched the TV show, which by the way isn't half bad, you'd know that who ever gossip girl is, she clearly has dozens of "cyber assistants" running around Manhattan sending her loads of content  that she can talk about.

I can add pictures to my Live Space directly from my Smartphone but there doesn't seem to be any way to add the picture I take directly into my blog so any dressing up has to be done from a laptop later.  All for now...More to come later. Bet you can't wait!

Cal

Now and then I come across things on the web that I find enjoyable that I'd like to share with others.

Here is an interesting link to a free customizable streaming music service called Pandora. The service allows you to create as many "radio stations" as you like by simply entering an artist or specific song title. Pandora handles the rest by streaming music that matches the style you've entered. The content can be refined more to your liking by "voting" for each song that it plays. Simply indicate whether you like or dislike each song played and Pandora will play more songs that match your likes.  Go to Pandora and give it a try, I hope you enjoy it. Oh by the way, you can use Pandora as a guest without registoring or you can subscribe to the service, which is also still free (advertisement supported service) or you can have a paid subscription without having to view ads.  - Enjoy!