Can't stop me now

See how good I am...you even got a picture of me taking a picture of me. Yes, that's fur on my lip...look at the damn Eiffel Tower. I found the Jardin Des Tuileries...a giant park off of the Rue de Rivioli

This is the Rue de Rivioli...its really amazing, I learned that Paris was relatively untouched in WWII.

I'm being artistic...

I'm a tourist...sort of

You all know that I have several small, tiny even, idiosyncracies. One of those is that I hate taking pictures by myself in public. I also knew that if I didn't get out and see some sights while in Paris...there would be hell to pay. So look! I took pics!

These shots are from Place Charles De Galle - even the sign says so. I took the Metro earlier to an appointment in an office area which was tres confusing call La Defence. I even walked by IBM! Afterwards I had escargots and coquille St. Jacques. My list is complete!

Ladies and Gentlemen - The Arc de Triomphe!

The obelisk and the Eiffel tower

Parisian Snow

This is a view from my hotel room yesterday morning during the "snow storm". Hey, Laura, it was a level 4 emergency! Airports closed, people couldn't get to work...Disasta!

Yes, they are a little shaky...what do you want from me? I had three hours sleep cause I was WATCHING THE STEELERS WIN THE SUPERBOWL!!!!! SHOUT OUT TO SANTONIO HOLMES - OSU GRAD AND MVP! Seriously, do you know how difficult it was to watch with french commentary? Thank you Paul and Cara for keeping me company through i.m.

An American in Paris

No, I couldn't think of a more original title. I (Jennifer) didn't want to clog up all your inboxes with pics, so I thought this would be a nice way of letting everyone know how my little business trip abroad is going.

The Hotel Castille is wonderful. It was once three separate buildings, with a hotel in the center. Now those buildings have been merged to create one hotel. Very cool. This is the view from my room.

Critters

I don't call it Vaclav's Hovel for nothing.

Starting last week, I could hear something scratching as I sat in my bedroom reading. I called Cara in to check my sanity. It wasn't Fifi - sometimes she scratches a bare 2x4 in the room. It went away when I banged on the wall so I forgot about it.

But this morning it started again, louder, and longer.

I opened up one section of the wall

to see if I could peak into an eave and find out what it was. Nothing. I even jammed a camera on a stick in there and got a bad shot of the rafter vents.



Nothing.

I walked outside to see if I could find a hole somewhere, and from the ground there was nothing. Then I figured something might be chewing it's way in through an eave that I can't see without a ladder. So I stuck a camera on a broomstick:





and found this hole:





(the video is washed out, it's hard to understand what is going on, but at about :10 into it I center on a hole chewed into a small section of roof.)

The hole is on this low, small piece of roof under the eave:

This Is To Get Chris To Shut Up

We got some Ikea furniture for Finn - a desk, a chair, and a shelf with milk-crate like thingies.

Merry Christmas From Vaclav's Hovel

Various images from our Xmas jaunt in Manhattan, December 23rd.

1- Saks Fifth Ave window display of "A Flake Like Mike"
2-Rockefeller Center
3-Angel at Rockefeller Center with Saks light show in the background
4-Finn with the Macy's Santa, the best there is.
5-Light Show, Grand Central Station