Ah, Paris...

About this time last year I was still extremely jetlagged, but just beginning to explore Paris!  While I fondly remember those times of enduring the RER B, the crazy lady at the metro, and saving Amber from herself, I will take you on a picture tour of my journey.  First, this was the view outside my window:

Feel free to be jealous.  If I had a picture of the room I lived in, you would definitely be less so.
It took me far too long to find my room once I got there.  In fact, if I hadn't *happened* to be on the same flight as my professor who speaks French, who knows if I ever would have managed to buy a metro ticket and make it to the Cite Universaire at all.  Once I did get there I realized I had left the paper with my housing info back in the States... crap.  So I went to the only building whose name rang a bell - the Spanish house.  Unfortunately for me, the gentleman behind the desk there only spoke French and Spanish.  After a very frustrating conversation (or lack thereof) he made a phonecall and then kept making wild hand gestures while saying, "Avec *raaaaaah*, avec *raaaaaah*."  Once we finally found someone to translate, it turned out he was trying to communicate the presence of ugly gargoyles at the Cambodia house where I was supposed to be.  When Amber finally arrived the next day, I started talking incessantly until we shoved food in my mouth:

All in all, the Cite was a lovely place to stay, despite the lack of food options or even vending machines, the horribly understocked/undersized kitchens, the tiny laundry facilities that barely worked, and the shower that consisted of a hole in the wall that sprayed down the toilet and the sink and if you worked at it, you too.  But it was lovely:

And a bonus, the shorties at Notre Dame:

Stay tuned, next time we visit Maurice Ravel's village.

A bientot...

Congratulations Dallin!!!!

I would like to take this moment to congratulate a dear friend and the brother of my best friend, Dallin!!!!!  He is beginning the great adventure of matrimony today, and I can't think of anybody who deserves it more!  (I mean that in all of the positive ways, seriously.)  So in honor of him, I'm posting this, my favorite picture of him from him sister's wedding, Dallin the Towel-Swinging Cowboy:

Sisters, Sisters

I feel bad for girls that don't have sisters.  Especially sisters their age.  Or I just adopt them, like my crazy best friend.  Then again I guess not all girls get along with their sisters.  I just happened to have been born into a family with built-in best friends, my two amazazing sisters.  There's Mary Jane Watson, with her Spiderman:

Then there's Megara, my sassy little self-sustained, incredibly intelligent cowgirl, who now has her own blog: thetexascowgirlmd.blogspot.com!!!!!  Ain't she adorable?

She's available, btw. ;)
But only if I approve of you.

Dilbert

Dilbert, the fountain of truth.  It speaks for itself:



BTW, half the fun of reading Dilbert cartoons online is the geek chat that goes on in the comments.  Warms my heart. :)

Arabic Graffiti

Indy has been in Egypt for exactly 6 weeks.  In this time I have received somewhat consistent sporadic emails, a handful of phonecalls, and been able to Skype approximately 3 times.  He has sent a total of 8 pictures I believe, only 3 of which have included himself.  The most recent addition to my collection came today:

It's Arabic graffiti.  I don't get to see my husband and he sends me a picture of Arabic graffiti.  Sigh.

Girl's Best Friend

Um, I love dogs.  My adorable, wonderful Deedee got me through so stinkin' much before the cancer took her:

And after her came Sophie, the little puppy that I resented as a replacement of my fabulous three-legged shadow, but then made me laugh so much I can't imagine life without her:

 And now there is Walter.  Walter is my in-laws' Dalmatian, but I somehow merited an elevation to the position of "The Favorite."  Not quite "Mom" but "Favorite."  Probably because I didn't mind when he decided 80 lbs wasn't anywhere near the weight limit for Lap Dog.  But who could not love a needy, epileptic, neurotic face like this one?

 Yet yellow labs are still my favorite.  Why?  So many reasons.  Here's one:


I'm pretty sure Sophie could do that.

Indiana Jones en route to Egypt

My husband, aka Indiana Jones, left for Egypt this morning.  Therefore, I must make use of this blog.  We left the house at 4:30 a.m.  He's still flying.  He'll get there about 4:30 a.m. (my time) tomorrow.  Luckily, I get to make the same trip... but not for a few months.  And since pictures make blogs more exciting, here's how I feel about getting up at 4 a.m., dropping off Indy, feeling like crap, and spending the rest of the day cleaning out our apartment before our lease officially runs out:

I worked pretty dang hard on being able to make that face.  It was one of my finer accomplishments this year.