The art of being happy

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."

- Henry Ward Beecher

Prepping for time travel

Getting ready for this weekends' themed soirée

Electrical Pass

Nice picture. What the h*ll is it?

It's a picture of the little tag they put on your house after you pass
inspection.

China foto

Dear Lottie, et al.:

Some pictures of my Chinese escapades for your enjoyment! I have finished sorting through China (and Leslie's new baby's portraits), but have not yet made it through Japan or Singapore. Those are up next.

For now, here are story-tellin' some favs. I will add a few more to a link here (because it is easier and quicker to load a batch than on blogger) but this will give you the inside scoop on the story behind the photo.

Tienenman Square and the front gates to The Imperial City (the Emperors palace), which is the center of town.

Proof that I was there.

L: You get through one set of gates, and there is another, and another....
R: my buddy Fabiano, the Brazilian co-worker who is 8 months in Beijing and lucky for me, loves sight-seeing and accompanied me for the day

L: the obligatory "pinch the monument" picture

R: because nothin' says love like your toddler helping you light up your ciggy.

Chinese exhibitionism at it's finest: people filled the park dancing as if they were at a WSP show. This lady was my favorite-- she was feelin' the flow...

If you aren't up for dancing, bust out some ribbons and twirl! Here, see The Pro. It was all serious business for her.

And now behold: The Novice. Bless her heart - she was having some difficulties (and somehow tied a knot in her ribbon)

"Welcome To You!" (just checking that you're paying attention)

Hiking The Great Wall
Pierre, my hiking buddy.

Yes, I hiked all of that, and then some.

Proof I was really there. And yes, that is snow.

My new best friend, Christina. Best known for forcing me to grope her belly or shrieking at me to say, "Lady, this is a joke, right? You are joking me! Come on, lady. ....Lady... I really like you."

4th anniversary

Framed

All these degrees and no office to hang them...

200!

Wow- Price Posts has 200 posts (actually 201 if you count this one).

That is a LOT of rambling.

I think it keeps me quieter at happy hour. It certainly empties my head of it's swimming thoughts and memories I cling to. Good times, good times.

Murphy strikes again & other odds and ends.

Why do things wait until you leave to break?  We returned from a magical week in Paris to a green pool.  The timer apparently slipped and instead of running 14 hours a day, it ran 1 hour a day.  Awesome.

 

So far, we've dumped enough chemicals in the pool to pay for at least one, maybe two really nice dinners (with too much wine), the robot has been running ~7 hours a day (usually 2 hours a week), the pump is on continuously, Joe has made 3 trips to warehouse supply and 2 trips to leslies, and one to wally world for chemicals and water testing.  Can't guess how long he's spent on it already and  it's only monday and it's still green.  like, can't-see-deeper-than-12-inches-into-the-pool green -- which is an improvement over Saturday's 2 inch visibility. 

 

And if I think about it, I can easily come up with several examples of simple things breaking as soon as we've left for a long weekend or vacation that turned into a massive pain.  why is that?

 

On a separate note - the electrician 'promises' (whatever that means) that he'll be here tomorrow to finish/correct all the things that made us fail inspection.  Once we pass this inspection: 3 more inspections (and subsequent trips from the subs to fix things) and on to insulation.  Woohoo.  Progress.

 

Funny thing is that I rarely think of it until someone asks me about it.  Seems there are much more pressing and/or interesting things to think of (or blog about) than the upstairs.  Isn't it odd that I have a master suite upstairs that is unfinished? 

 

Finally - my goal is to -within a week- go through my pictures from Asia and post some favorites as well as Paris pics.  Thanks for keeping on me about this one, Lottie.  Asian escapades coming up soon! 

 

Okay - going to bed.  strangely, i'm feeling VERY jet lagged.  you'd think that the 3 weeks and 12 hour difference would have been tougher than the 1 week/7 hour time difference...  go figure.

 

night, night.

Journal: Jour 6 & 7

Day 6 (Wed):

 

• up and breakfast in the room
• walked to Jardin du Luxembourg delicious long lunch in a cafe watching passers-by and finished with cafe (espresso)
• meandered through Luxembourg and found a couple chairs that looked out over the carousel with a view of the palais and eiffel
• more walking through the gardens
• Musee Rodin  (one of my favorite museums, of which, I have very few) and saw "the kiss" and "the chapel" as well as the more famous 'gates of hell' and 'the thinker' where i did the obligatory mimicked picture below to match the one done 9 years prior.  we found a lovely spot to sit  and chill and watch the light through the beautiful trees and gardens
• headed over to Invalides and saw the Cathédrale Saint-Louis des Invalides as well as Napoleon's tomb - whoa!  that thing is huge.  And to think, all that for a small little man.  never seen it before, so it was kinda fun to check it off my list.
• wandering out of Hotel du Invalides we decided to 'pass through' the Musee de l'Armee on behalf of JP.  Which was fine with me because I had to use the toilette and going to the Museum provided that opportunity.  The 'passing through' of the War museum ended up as an hour of War history through the eyes of the Frenchies.  It was, actually,  pretty interesting, likely because my Great Grandfather (Annie's dad, Papa Gene) was in France for WWI (The Great War) after lying about his age and enlisting.  Joe's Grandfather and my Granddaddy were in Asia for WWII, but had significance for us, anyway.
• We walked through the exit door as they started announcing the Museum was closing (excellent timing) and of course, it was pouring rain.  Luckily, we had our trusty ponchos with us and headed to the Metro while the other suckas had to wait inside Invalides massive doors awaiting a break in the rain-- which was not to happen for quite some time.
• made it home through the rain and by then, I was significantly congested (boooo) and sneezing.  JP went to the pharmacy for me and we relaxed for a bit
• headed out towards ile de saint louis for dinner at Cafe Med.  lovely dinner.  LOVE that island.
• walked home

 

Day 7 - May 14 (thurs):

 

• JP was up at 7:30 this morning and by 8:15- walked to Notre Dame and went in again, then walked through the Latin Quarter and to the Pantheon, by the Sorbonne and back down Saint Michel - went to the Starbucks and got a cafe Americano, then strolled over to Pont Neuf then found a pastry shop on Rue Dauphine and picked up some eclairs, macaroons and croissants before heading back to the apartment.  All before I even work up.
• After breakfast in the apartment, we headed over to the Archaeological Crypt of Notre Dame (not really a 'crypt', but the Roman ruins that are under what is now the plaza in front of Notre Dame. 
• In the Notre Dame again, sat down and spaced out.
• Lunch at the 'ol favorite cafe - Cafe Panis - and enjoyed a lovely cafe lunch and I felt much better after some tea.
• Strolled over to ile Saint louis for some gelato - Mmmm.... and walked the length of our favorite little island before finding the perfect bench to sit and space out some more while watching boats go by on the Siene and the sun peak out of the clouds over the top of the Eiffel Tower.
• Time for Coffee (and another eating adventure)!  So we headed to the nearest cafe and got some cafe (delicious) - spaced out some more watched people pass by
• picked out my standard keepsake of any/every place I visit - which is to collect postcards.  Loitered and perused the vendors on the wall above the river, thinking/trying to buy something but couldn't convince ourselves of anything we really wanted
• back to apartment and pack up [most of] our stuff; showered and got dressed for dinner
• stepped out only to realize it was raining again and we'd just retired our broken umbrella to the trash as we packed up.  Sooo... Mr. Price trippity-tropped on down to the souvenir stands and picked up an 'elegant' umbrella. YAY!  Problem solved.
• with wine in tow -along with the handy plastic champagne flutes we picked up at the grocery story earlier this week- we found a marble bench on the river banks below and had some vin rouge to toast our 4th anniversary. 
• when we'd had enough, he headed up the stairs to le Caveau du Palais to dinner (less than 1/2 mile from our apartment and quite lovely, albeit snobby)
• fantastic dinner included escargot, steak tartar, white asparagus, truffled risotto, a fish I cannot identify but was divine, and lots and lots of butter. finished with creme brulee, of course.  then home in a flash--which was good since it was raining.

Tomorrow: leaving for  CDG by 9am via RER.  Home to Austin by 8:30p Friday.

Other Parisian Observations

-Frenchies now wear jeans. when here in 2000 & 2001, you could pin point Americans from blocks away because they were wearing jeans. Now, about 1/3 the population is in them. (and there are far fewer Americans than during the dot-com crazed early 00's)

-LOTS more cameras and much more picture taking. i couldn't count how many DSLRs i see walking the street on any given street block- but I assure you there are many. If not a DSLR, a herd of folks with mini pocket point-and-shoots they are standing in line behind each other to al record the same thing. you should see the museums - it's like a scavenger hunt to just snap a picture and be on your way to the next famous painting, forget the admiration- that's for later.

-worth mentioning again: sadly, grafitti has caught on here- it is everywhere. i don't mean the occasional initials carved into a tree, i mean brooklyn-style, huge colorful block letters in places that make you stop and think: "now, how in the hell did they get up there and how on earth did no one see them doing it??"