Is it April? No joke, but I can hardly believe it. I've had my head - and the rest of me- under a rock for the last few months, under construction myself (minus the brewskis...), hunkered down finishing a project. And now I have time to breath, take in the city, and go out in the sunshine that has just poked out and have fun. Yay!

Er, not so fast, buckaroo. I got an extension for another week and am buried this first week April, then I can have some fun (when cynical me assumes it will start raining..) There are a ton of new places, especially pastry shops and restaurants in Paris that I have been dying to try out. (And can I go see Skyfall now?) So I don't have much to report this month...unless you want to hear about what it's like to sit in front of a computer reading lots of text, and guzzling water and coffee, with a few emergency peanut M&M's at my side. And if you do, boy, do I have some exciting stories to tell you about my desk chair! Um...

Fortunately I was able to leave my desk to pick up some fresh corn tortillas at the all-new Tortilleria Mil Amores. I'm so excited that just pop in and buy freshly made corn tortillas on Saturday afternoons that I want to do a Mexican hat dance, in spite of any funny looks I'd get on the streets of Paris. I made a delicious turkey mole to roll up as enchiladas with the ones I didn't immediately heat up and gobble down with French salted butter melting all over them. (And me.) I was in multicultural heaven. And then, the following week, I had some homemade chips to go with the batch of guacamole I whipped up.

(And for those who think that same-sex marriage and gun control are controversial, try posting a recipe with cilantro as an option ingredient- ¡Ay dios mio!)

As much as I love French baguettes, it's been nice to smear guacamole - with or without cilantro in it - over real tortilla chips, rather than les baguettes de Paris.

I returned to a new favorite restaurant, Le 6 Paul Bert and had another wonderful meal there. It was food without gimmicks; no foam or square plates, and the cooks focused on good ingredients and cooking them well. Okay, the bread came in a little brown bag, but actually, it was a good idea as it took up less room than a wide basket on the cozy tables.

I didn't write about going to their sister restaurant, Bistro Paul Bert, earlier last month because I was with actress and talk show host Aisha Tyler, who I didn't realize was well-known in France. I kind of felt like a nitwit because not living in the US for over a decade, I wasn't aware of all she's done. (And I thought I was busy?) She's on a talk show called The Talk presently, and was on CSI, or as the say, Les Experts in France, so she got some attention from some of the French diners in the restaurant. Being from San Francisco, too, we had lots of chat about and it was nice to find her down-to-earth, smart, and a fun dining companion. And that girl loves to eat! I'll be a guest on a television show she was taping here Paris at an upcoming date, and will note on my Schedule page when it airs.

But Paris isn't all dining out with Hollywood (or San Francisco) stars, and I had an irksome restaurant experience in Paris, too, which involved me cooling my heels for an hour before splitting due to lack of food. I was miffed, but a night out with pals at a local bowling alley brought me back from the brink. And the bottle of rosé didn't hurt, either. I don't want to brag, but I won the bowling match. Although all of us barely broke 100 points, so am not sure any of us has the right to call ourselves a "winner." #dorks