Mommy visits, I forget I have a blog ... etc.

Yes yes, poor showing overall. I know. I'm sorry. I think it's a side effect of knowing my time is short, and thus making me more reluctant to sit around on my computer. I'll try and find a happy medium ...

Catch-ups -- My mommy came to visit! But she has all of the pictures, except of these cool violin chairs we saw together.

It was a super fun visit :) Yaaaaay for mommy time !!!

Le New York Times?

Saw this ad for a play, 'Margaret's Dreams.' Made me laugh ...

Surreptitiously (read: sketchily) took a picture of these two kids carrying American football gear in the métro. Whaaaaaaaat?!

Carrie, this is how I picture you giving your hearing tests. Hahaha!

Paris having a frat competition?! Where AM I?

Dear Kelly, I found your house. I hope it's a bar.

In the Lebanese restaurant today at lunch ... The 'Best Of' of the week's NYT ... Translated into French. I didn't even know that existed. I want THAT job.

After a 'week-end de travail' (read: six hours of rehearsal Saturday, four hours on Sunday), I'm feeling exhausted. Dress rehearsal tomorrow night, Elgar concert Tuesday ... Again on the 22nd, and finally Poulenc on the 24th. It's the the Spring music festival at the Sorbonne :)

I wonder how you sing the Bounty jingle in French ...

This is what happens when I run errands. I take pictures of Mr. Clean (Mr. Propre, excuse me) living out his double life in France.

And then I forget to buy honey. Cuuuuuurses.

Benny Strikes Back, Return of the Benny, A New Benny?

Flashback ... The other day Julien and Maxime discovered Benny in my purse, where he has spent the last few months languishing (since Potter gave him back to me and told me to make it good).

Lucky, too, since the boys have better ideas than I do. For you, Potter (and everyone else, too).

Benny in his new digs.

His château.

Recreating that memorable scene from Titanic ... On a pirate ship?

Just chilling in his new wheels with his ... homies? I suppose homo sapiens isn't the term.

View from the Window.

With his new friends ...

Being eaten by a lion ... BEING EATEN BY A LION ?!

And threatened by a pirate.

Bringing about world peace, negotiating a truce (or finding a common enemy. I told them his name is Dave).

I'm sure there will be more here and there ...

Sydney is my hero. The end.

So roughly a month ago Sydney responded to my anguished cries for peanut butter, but accidentally wrote the wrong postal code. The French postal service needed roughly three weeks to figure out what she meant to say, and then wouldn't let me have my package until I gave them my passport. Jerks.

WORTH THE WAIT.

Yup, you saw correctly. I have an apple, a spoon, and a jar of peanut butter. That's a wrap.

I think I'll just eat this for the next week. Or until it's gone.

Amsterdam

After my Swiss Adventure, I spent a fun weekend in Amsterdam (Thank you, Europe, for helping to counteract my American sense of the distance between neighboring countries).

We stayed in a hotel in the Leidseplein. Saturday we passed this building, whose name made me laugh, on our way to the Rijksmuseum.

In front of the Rijksmuseum was the one, the only: A REAL AMERICAN HOTDOG stand. I did not indulge. I guess we could call this cultural imperialism.

In wandering at night, we discovered that this bar was right near the hotel (the pictures I took of the huge neon sign didn't come out, I was bummed). The neon sign said, in bright red, "Three Sisters Grand Pub." BAHAHAHAHAHA.

On Sunday we saw a concert at the major concert hall, the Concertgebouw. It's a beautiful concert hall, and in addition to a moderny thing (Manneke) they played Beethoven's Third. Love that one, especially the first movement. After that we went to the Van Gogh museum, and took a boat cruise through the canals (we passed the Anne Frank house, but I can't swear to having seen which one it really was).

Amsterdam Centraal on our way out of town. The weather was beautiful and sunny ... And FRIGID. Or maybe I've just forgotten what it feels like to actually be cold. Might be that.

I really liked Amersterdam, although it was nice to come back to Paris. Not that it has ever been anything but.

Skiing at Verbier

View from one of the peaks at Verbier ... I took the craziest lift of my life - A big box that can hold 150 people standing with their gear. Oh, and it like, SWINGS over the last crest. Mini-heart attack.

Partway down the slopes ...

View from the balcony of the 'chalet' we were staying in! Not nearly as snowy as you'd think, which is because they haven't had a real snow since December (apparently those snowstorms hit the US instead).

From the 'télécabine' (gondola) on my way down to the train station ...

Sometimes it was a bit steep ...

Like dropping off a cliff steep.

Regional trains, weaving through the Alps ... From Le Châble to Martigny to Lausanne to Geneva to Paris. Pheeeeeew.

Pretty pretty.

For you, Gennie. Vevey is its own station.