paris pics

pics from paris can be found HERE.

there are a lot.

and it's not even half of what i took.

this was l'elephant's first big excursion since the loss of monkey (may he rest in peace). we were all devastated by this great loss, however, through the healing powers of paris we have soldiered on. (l'elephant spent the majority of the trip drunk in my purse - hiccuping his way around the city with only a few minor accidents that fabric cleaner will surely take care of.)

:)

back on the rock....

well...we're back. and i'm happy to report that the leaves are starting to come out onto the trees here so it's not quite as dismal as when i left.
paris was FANTASTIC. words can't describe how great that city is. we had a blast and i can't wait to go back. i don't have time for a big blog entry right now (i have to study, surprise, surprise!) but here are a few pics to tide you over.....

me, attempting to look suitably impressed but not totally gob-smacked.

notre dame - flying buttresses and rose window galore.

walking by the louvre....i'm holding my hands to keep from
flapping them about in fits of excitement.

much art was seen and many sculptures photographed...
i really am a lover of stone and bronze...

at a cafe after walking up to sacre coeur and strolling
around montmartre in the grey drizzle.
mine is, of course, the wine.

still awake

i'm still awake. i can't sleep. i'm too excited.


*SIGH*

i had a bunch of things to say...

i totally had a bunch of things to say and now i forget them all. huh. that's irritating.

today was a deceptive day. the sun was brilliant, the sky a deep crystal blue, and the air? frigid. i think it was maybe 6 degrees. yoiks. you can almost imagine it's warm outside until you realise that there are no leaves on the trees. what the hey, mang? it's still very very early spring. *sigh*

only a few hours left until paris. i'm under 24 now. i'm excited. but tired. i went to bed around 2 last night and was back up at 7 (well, i was awake at 7 and then i proceeded to pretend i was sleeping while listening to the cbc morning show for an hour. whoops.) i need to get packing. there are clothes strewn everywhere, shoes in every corner, half knit socks - it's crazy i tell you. crazy. i'm trying to go totally carry on - why, you ask? just because i can. i don't need much....so we'll see. also, when we get to paris vernon and i will switch suitcases and he will take the little one back and i'll take his giant one. he got dinged flying within europe with such a big bag - but the international restrictions are of course a lot looser, so i should be ok with it. so nobody worry - you're presents will all make it home with me.

i had my performance evaluation at work today. needless to say i'm doing juuuuust fine thank you very much. yup. i'm still totally awesome. too bad my boss can't mark my exams for me (although he's a very honest man and he'd fail me, too).

*update...several hours later...*

i'm almost finished packing. pretty much everything is actually in the suitcase i think. now i'm just tired. *yawn* i'm listening to As It Happens on CBC and Barbarb Budd just said, in reference to the funky song they were playing, "get down with your funky self" in that dry dead pan way that only she can. i'm so tired, that it really made me laugh.

alright - off to bed with me...

study break

this afternoon, for my first study break of the day, i went over to vernon's and picked up his car. he had asked me to drive it once while he was away to get the juices flowing. so off i went to see if it would start....it sure did! like a charm. so me and the red jellybean drove out to cape spear. that car handles like a dream. a dream that is cranky and about 4 inches off the ground, but still. i love cape spear - windy and windswept with great sweeping vista of coastline. it's a great place to tromp around and waste an hour.

because of the camera incident with stuart mclean (and lack thereof) - i, of course, had my camera in my purse. so here you go. my study break in pictures.

you can see in this photo (click to make bigger) some wispy bits of fog lying over the ocean.
that is part of a larger fog bank that was rolling in while i was there.

this random stranger is standing at the eastern most point.
it was windy and cold. as per usual.

here's the point looking back towards the city and cabot tower.

the fog bank rolling ominously in.....

judging by the speed at which the fog bank was bearing down on us, i high tailed it out of the fog horn zone lickity split.

the old WWII battery (part of it. the part with the big gun.)

creepy tunnel part of the old WWII battery...i did not go into the creepy tunnels today.

my favourite coastline vista.

one more time, for the cheap seats in the back!

"fog eats coastline! locals not surprised."

day eight

according to my sources, it's 18 degrees already. and it's only noon. I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE TO STAY INSIDE AT THE COMPUTER.

*sigh*

day...five? six?

i can't remember what day it is. that's really too bad for me. last night i was at the office until 11pm. fun! now i'm just waiting for my boss to call me to go back in tonight. i have basically two more things to do until i can say the financials are done for the month. unfortunately i actually need some info from him before i can complete them. and he can't get back in until later. so we'll be there until all hours again. and because we were there last night late i didn't get any studying done then, and now i'm really tired and can't focus (which will probably come back to bite me later when i'm at the office too, hey?). i'm super grumpy.

on a side note - only 6 big sleeps until paris (i'm counting tonight as a big sleep even though it will probably be tiny). it's actually 6 big sleeps until i leave and 6 big sleeps, one tiny-broken-crappy-airplane sleep until paris. SWEET.

today was another beautiful sun shiny day. and sort of warm. or warm-ish. basically if you are as desperate as i am for summer right now, you could hallucinate warm. which is potentially what i did. i'm also sort of thinking that the nice weather might be a city wide mind melt. we are all just so desperate to not be in winter anymore that we've conjured a group sun sighting. somebody should really study that.

day two

it's snowing. barely, and it's certainly not going to stick to anything. but there are actual white flakes coming out of the sky.

i know. i feel the same way.

edited to add: just got an email from Vernon. his camera was stolen in st petersburg. he's sad. it was a very very nice camera. sh. it. ty.

day one

no more vernon. now - what to do?

1. listen to TWO weeks of lectures (week 5 and 6, both of which are past and both of which passed without me listening...) DONE!
2. register myself and Karen for adult learn to row classes at the rowing club. the goal is to have biceps perceptible to the human eye by august this is basically done. i picked up the forms, the person who needed to take our money had "gone for a walk". seriously. gotta love this town.
3. run/stroll/drag butt around quidi vidi lake DONE!
4. get two questions completed on the midterm assignment (due the day i leave for paris)
5. mail off some packages and letters that are lying around
6. stare at navel and think about missing vernon some more DONE!
7. finish charity knitting (2.5 4 items down, 2.5 1 to go. these are hats, quick and easy)