Andre is in the House

Ok, so it's been a while since there has been a man in the house. I must say, I am enjoying it.

My memory of having a man in the house is that they are a lot of work... there is a lot of following them around and picking up things that seem to fall out of their hands, there is much ignoring of annoying habits and poor table manners, and there's much general need for patience and tolerance. All of this is true with Andre... but, I'd forgotten some of the very, very nice things about having a man in the house.

Today we spent the day doing diy projects requiring him to climb on tippy ladders and nail things at high altitude without killing himself. His patience with this, despite requiring 4 trips to the hardware store (which he actually seemed to enjoy) was impressive.

As I'm writing this, Andre is in the kitchen making homemade leek soup for us.

He also seems to be making some kind of a fish dish with mushroom sauce, and, as he's from Nova Scotia, I'm sure it will be delicious.

I guess I wasn't really sure about how it would work out with Andre here. He and I are so different. He is a French poet-musician with no apparent self-consciousness... and I'm, uh, not. But it seems to work. He has interesting political opinions, a cute french accent, and can carry very heavy items without complaining. Andre is from my hometown in Nova Scotia... he's very much 'de la region', yet he's also very different from most of the people we know. Many of the people who know him regard him as eccentric. I guess he is. What I enjoy most about him is that he is calm. I also love that he's musical. Yesterday we spent part of the day at the lake near my house. We talked and laughed and he played harmonica*, and it felt just about right.

* Every woman should date a harmonica player at least once in her life.