Learn French Avec Moi - Verbs I (-er verbs)

I need to learn more French and what better way is there to learn French then to learn it with everyone else. Every Tuesday I plan on learning a new thing in the French language and share it with everyone. I will as well add six new words to my vocabulary!

I wanted to start with verb endings, I believe that they are one of the most important thing to learn when you start learning French. There are couple of reasons for this. First of all, you need to learn those by heart and second of all they are damn annoying so it is better to learn them early on the journey to learn French.

Let's start with the grammatical person:

je - I	nous - we
tu - you	vous - you
il / elle - he / she / it	ils / elles - they (masculine) / they (feminine)

This is only part one of the verbs and only the first part of regular verbs. Today, we will go into the -er verbs.

What are -er verbs?

What do manger (to eat), appeler (to call) and nettoyer (to clean) have in common? Well they all end with the letters -er. 

Why does that matter?

It matters because that is how we determine how they will change when we change the grammatical person that follows these verbs.

Let's check out how endings for the -er verbs change (in present tense) when we change the grammatical person.

je - e	nous - ons
tu - es	vous - ez
il / elle - e	ils / elles - ent

If we continue and look at the verb manger, first we need to remove the infinitive ending and just look at the stem of the word: mang

je - mange	nous - mangons
tu - manges	vous - mangez
il / elle - mange	ils / elles - mangent

The same thing goes for appeler and nettoyer.

Today's vocabulary:

exactement - exactly	la phrase - sentence
le malentendu - misunderstanding	rhume des foins - hay fever
la poire - pear	la tête - head

Next week, we will go on with verbs and check out the -ir verbs :)

Bisous 

Patrick the Snail

I would like to introduce y'all to a new member of this family.

First a little back story. I have always loved snails. I don't know why but there is something about them that I love. When I was younger I used to have snails as pets and it was amazing.

Back to yesterday, I saw a snail with a cute brown shell and I picked it up. Sadly the shell broke but the snail seemed fine. I decided instead of leaving him to be eaten by birds I would bring him home and heal him.

I would say that 95% of his shell is gone but there are no scratches on his skin and he wasn't squeezed at all so he should be fine on the inside. He has been eating a bit of a peach and cucumber. I tried to give him some celery (high in calcium) but he wouldn't touch it and at the moment I am testing if he would like to eat some fresh basil.

Tomorrow I will go and get him some cuttlefish bone to increase his calcium intake for his new shell.

He has been quite active, "running" around and generally showing that he is fine. I wasn't sure he would survive his first night after the incident but he pulled though.

I think I can see some of his shell forming again so I am hopeful that in some weeks time he will be even better.

That is it about Patrick today. I will definitely write more about him later with information on how he is doing!

Book Review: Prey by Michael Crichton

I am not big fan of books written in first person, there is just too much rambling and I find it, to be honest, annoying as hell. I was happily surprised by this book! Even though it is written in first person the rambling is not that bad.

Michael Crichton is probably best known for writing Jurassic Park, which was the reason for Mr. Handsome to bring this book home.

Prey isn't about dinosaurs but about about micro-robots. The main character is a software programmer that is a stay at home dad named Jack Forman. He is married to Julia and they have three children (Nicole, Eric and Amanda)

The book covers seven days of their lives. It is in two parts called HOME and DESERT. The home part is more mental thriller, since Jack doesn't know what is happening whilst in the latter part it is all pure physical thriller.

The main problem for Jack in the first part of the book is the fact he believes that Julia is cheating on him, she stays at work all the time and he believes she is acting differently. 

In the second part Jack is working in Julia's company and is staying at the laboratory in the middle of the desert. He finds a swarm of micro-robots that he needs to destroy and find out the mysteries of the laboratory. 

I turned to see two additional swarms coming around the shed. They immediately swirled over our car, front and back. I felt like we were in a dust storm. I looked at Mae. She was sitting very still, stony-faced, just watching. (Page 318)

There is this one thing I didn't like about the novel. It might be because Michael is a man or it might be just how he writes or it even might be just this book since it is the first one I have read from him. But the problem I am having is how he projects the female characters of this story, they are nagging, bitchy, cheating, weak, easily manipulated and a tad stupid. On the other hand they are pretty, gorgeous and otherwise objectified. I am not sure if he uses such a stereotypical prejudice in ever book that he writes but I don't think I will read another one to find out. 

The baby cried louder, tried to turn away. One of the adhesive tabs pulled off. The diaper slid down. Amanda was now rolling toward the edge of the dresser. Julia pulled her back roughly. Amanda never stopped kicking. 'God damn it, I said stop!' Julia said, and smacked the baby on the leg. The baby just cried harder, kicked harder. 'Amanda! Stop it! Stop it!' She slapped her again. 'Stop it! Stop it!' (Page 21)

Even early in the book when everything is supposedly fine he shows Julia in a bad light. Just because she is a working mother makes her a bad parent? Smacking her 18 month old baby on the thigh. If you have read the book you might think it has something to do with the ending. I don't think so. There is nothing about the ending that would explain that kind of behavior. 

Prey can be bought from amazon for $9.99 

P.S. I just joined this Kindle Book Club, check it out if you have a Kindle :)

Review: Biotherm - Baume Corps - Oil Therapy - Nurti-Replenishing Body Treatment With Apricot Oil

Since I have already quite a lot of make-up and other sort of things I wanted to review everything so I have it around for whenever I want to mention it. Today I want to review my other lotion. Yes, it is true. I pretty much just use two different lotions. I am not a lotion slut, I stick with my lotion until it is finished.

I love the scent of this lotion, it has apricot oil in it and you can smell it. My skin is as well super smooth after I use it. 

The lotion is quite thick but it gets absorbed quickly into the skin.

There are couple of things that I don't like about this lotion and they are all in the ingredients list.

According to the webpage of Biotherm the ingredients are:

Three precious oils for the most precious skin:

- Musk Rose Oil: Omega 3 & 6, with REGENERATING and FORTIFYING properties

- Passion Flower Oil: Omega 3 & 6, with NOURISHING and EMBELLISHING properties

- Apricot Oil: Rich in essential fatty acids, with SOFTENING and SMOOTHING properties 

In the real world these are the ingredients:

Aqua, Zea Mays, Glycerin, Paraffinum Liquidum, Isopropyl Palmitate, Petrolatum, Dimethicone, Propylene Glycol, Triethanolamine, Paraffin, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Prunus Armenicac Kernel Oil, Glyceryl Stearate, Phenoxyetanol, Parfum, Tocopheryl Acetate, Sodium Lauroyl Oat Aminio Acids, Carbomer, Glyceryl Linoleate, Limonene, Dimethiconol, Methylparaben. Glyceryl Oleate, Propylparaben, Xanthan Gum, Disodium Edta, Vitreoscilla Ferment Extract, Hexyl Cinnamal, Benzyl Salicylate, Linalool, Glyceryl Linolenate, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Biosaccharide Gum-1, Benzyl Alcohol, Citral, Geraniol Citronellol, Ci 15985.

Yes, that is a really long ingredients list and it scares me. I am not sure if I will buy this again, I've finished over half of the bottle. I think I'll probably try to find something else with a much shorter ingredients list.

The Biotherm Lotion can be bought from amazon for $37.50

Bisous

Review: Yves Roches - Tribal Attitude Lip Gloss

I love going to the Yves Rocher stores and just browsing around. This time when I went in they had the Tribal  Attitude their summer limited edition make-up and I just really wanted this lip gloss. You can see the entire Tribal Attitude collection here. 

The lip gloss applicator has an unique shape, the shape is very useful for putting on the lip gloss. The follow the curve of the lower lip perfectly.

I chose this lip gloss because I really like the light shimmer of it. It feels super smooth on the lips and not at all sticky (I hate sticky lip glosses). The only thing I don't like so much about this lip gloss is it doesn't stay very long on the lips but does colour everything the lips touch! I've been leaving trail of lip glossed glasses and spoons everywhere around the apartment and I can't blame it on Mr. Handsome when there are lip gloss stains on them! 

As you can see on the swatches the colour is very raspberry like, the lip gloss is supposedly supposed to have raspberry extract in it but since I can't find the ingredient list anywhere I have no idea if that is true or not. I love the little glitters it has, it gives the lip gloss that extra shimmer without going overboard. 

All in all I am very happy with this lip gloss and I will definitely use it often. 

Buying information: 

Yves Rocher - Tribal Attitude Lip Gloss - Sienna Red - $5

Make-Up Monday #10

Stress is my middle name these days and it just keeps on piling on. Therefore, I have been hiding on my couch like I do in stressful times!

Today I am using the same things I used at Make-Up Monday #5 except for today I am wearing an eyeliner as well.

Skin -

(Clinique SPF 30 - $19 SPF 50 - $19)

Eyes - 

(Clinique Butter Pecan (04) - $19.50) (4-5)

(Clinique - High Impact Mascara - Black - $15) (3)

(Lancôme - Le Crayon Khôl - Black Ebony - $25.50) (2)

Lips -

(Sears.com - Maybelline New York - Color sensational - Red 547 - $6.50) (1)

I love wearing lip liner as a lip stick, I find it easier to use and it stays on for such a long time. It as well gives me the matte look I am after. If I want some shine I just add a lip balm on top and it is glossy! 

At last, here are the swatches! 

Bisous!