I've just returned from an eight-day trip to Paris. I have to admit, I was really looking forward to it, and it lived up to my expectations. I had a lot of fun. There was only one part I didn't like, but I'll come back to that.
This was a business-related trip, not a vacation trip. I attended a European laboratory medicine congress, and spent the majority of my time in either committee meetings or scientific sessions. So the sight-seeing I did was limited, but I managed to enjoy what I did do.
My hotel was a nice little place called the Hotel Belfast, about a block from the Arc de Triomphe. So it was fairly centrally located and the Metro subway access was half a block from the front door. That Metro station was two stops from the convention center, so the first day in I bought a rail pass for central Paris and then used the Metro to get around the rest of the week. Easy traveling and commuting. The Hotel also had a complimentary breakfast, which was really handy.
The sight-seeing jaunts I took included going down to the Louvre and areas around it, and going to the Eiffel Tower and areas around it. And lest you don't get a feel for just how big the Eiffel Tower is, I took a picture standing at it's base. The day I went to the Eiffel Tower I walked along the Seine river until reaching the Louvre. So I did do quite a bit of walking while there. Which is lucky because I also did some serious eating.
I have to say, I had some incredibly good meals while I was in Paris. And most of them were not planned, just walking down the streets and picking a sidewalk restaurant that looked interesting. DELICIOUS food, at every one of them. I ate salmon and scorpion fish and beef fillet. At one place, we sat down and the waitress came and asked how we wanted our meat cooked. It turns out the restaurant had one thing on the menu, sliced beef cooked to order and covered in a delicious sauce and served with thin french fries. It was sooooooo good. One of my best memories though was of a cheese cake desert at one of the little places. OMG. So thick and smooth and creamy. Basically, it's amazing that I came back to the US the same weight as I left it.
I flew Business / First class, which was nice (done on frequent flyer miles). But traveling wasn't all smooth. On the trip to Paris I booked AA to Newark and BA from Newark to Paris. While I was in the air going to Newark, BA canceled their flight. So when I got to Newark, I went to the BA terminal, which required a terminal change and the little train system was delayed, taking a bunch of time to switch terminals. At BA I discovered the canceled flight. Luckily they could get me onto a United flight to Paris. But that required another terminal change with the delayed train system. All a hassle, but I got to Paris. And the biggest miracle of the whole trip - my luggage made that United flight with me. That was a miracle because the BA flight was scheduled to fly into Orly airport in Paris, so my luggage was checked from DFW to Orly. The United flight flew into Charles de Gaulle airport. I was truly amazed to see my luggage on that baggage carousel.
The only part of the trip I didn't like: The day I left, all the Paris taxis went on strike, protesting Uber. So not only were no taxis running in Paris, but they blocked roads as well, so the buses couldn't run. So I left very early and took the rail system, Metro and RER to the airport. That was a pain mostly because of my luggage. My main bag was 45 pounds, plus I had a carry-on and a large tote. So dragging that all through the rail system and train connections wasn't fun. I have bruises on my arm and leg from manhandling it up and down stairs and onto and off trains. In fairness, three times various nice French gentlemen helped me navigate stairs with the big bag.
I also forgot that my rail pass was for central Paris and that doesn't include Charles de Gaulle airport. But when I left the hotel at the first Metro stop I had trouble getting my luggage through the turnstile, so the agent there gave me a ticket to use if my pass wouldn't work, and that ticket actually got me out at the airport, where my pass wasn't good. So it worked out that I had trouble at first but it saved my later. And although it took about 2 hours to do it, I did make it to the airport, and many, many people had trouble getting there, including our flight crew.
The Congress Special Evening event on Wednesday night was drinks and hors d'oeurves at the Museum D'Orsay. That was simply stupendous. Actually seeing in person the paintings you always see in books or online was so awesome. Van Gogh and Monet and Manet and Renoir. Just to name a very few. Plus the building itself is pretty amazing, having once been an old train station.
Overall I would say that my trip was really good. The food was great and the people I dealt with were incredibly nice, helping me even though I spoke no French. I'm glad to have gone and hope I get a chance to go back some time.
After having had several years of drought conditions in this area, I thought that I would never say this again. But I just have to say . . . ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!! Good Lord! Yesterday I watched as my yard turned into a lake (and I'm on a hill!) about 4 inches deep and the rain just kept coming down. The rain gauge overflowed (it hold 8 inches worth). My Russian sage has drowned and the azalea is about to follow suit. Really. Enough already. And the forecast is for rain every day for the foreseeable future.
I suppose it's good thing I didn't have Memorial Day plans. That's not just the constant rain. That's mostly because I had the periodontal surgery last Thursday, and I'm really glad I didn't plan anything for this weekend. Besides the fact that I look like a mutant chipmunk with it's cheek pouches full, I'm sore and bruised as well. I don't remember the last surgery being this painful afterward, although it was roughly 20 years ago, when I probably healed better. Plus I only had the gum surgery that time, no bone grafting. Weirdly the left side where I didn't have bone grafting is more bruised, but the right, bone-grafting side is more painful and swollen.
The surgery itself I have no memory of, except I remember occasionally he would say, "turn your head this way" and I'd turn it. But I have zero memory of anything else. Conscious sedation is a wonderful thing. I remember the wheelchair ride to my car, and then waking up in bed later in the afternoon. I seriously see why someone has to drive you. I know we stopped to get the prescriptions filled for pain meds and antibiotics because I have a vague memory the clerk saying it would take over an hour to fill them. So my driver must have brought me home and gone back after them - and paid for them, so I'll have to reimburse her.
Anyway, I'm healing so it's all good. I got my May traveling done with no hitches so the next trip is the Paris trip the third week in June. I went online this morning and cleared 250 emails from my work email from the 2 days I was gone, so I won't be too over overwhelmed tomorrow when I go back to work. And I also tackled some of my journal editorial duties for the same reason.
I don't have any new pictures lately since who wants pictures of rain? So the pictures in this post are older pics. Addy enjoying laying outside while I'm out there. All the blooming plants on my sink and counter, along with roses from the garden. I'm also putting in this picture of the very tiny white moss flowers that bloomed under the little pine tree. I don't know that they'll be visible in the post, but they're there.
I think I have more than 2 hummers this year. I've only seen 2 at a time at the feeder, but the food level is decreasing faster this year than it did last year. The horde of sparrows is once again eating me out of house and birdseed. And that Cooper's Hawk still hunts occasionally here, scattering the little birds when he comes. I have both mourning doves and white-winged doves. Some of the mourning doves stay year round, but the white-wings leave in the winter.
Anyway, that's about it for today. Just thought I'd get a post in, even if it's just to complain about the rain and my surgery. I am glad I live mostly on a hill though. I could wish my yard drained better, but maybe that's something I can correct whenever I have to replace the old sprinkler system - which I had on for about a week in early March but have turned off since so far this year I have NO need for it.
Later.
I'm doing a lot of traveling these days, so this poor blog, which already doesn't get a lot of posts, is probably going to be even worse. I'll try to get posts in when I can. This picture is of a new plant I bought. It's called a kalanchoe. Isn't it pretty. The next picture down is another one that I bought at the same time. I just love blooming things. We'll see if I can keep them alive.
So. Traveling. In April I went to Chicago, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. Chicago was a for a symposium I attended, Washington DC was a board of directors meeting and Philadelphia was to give three talks at a review course. Tomorrow I go back to Washington DC for a committee meeting and next week I go to Seattle for a different board of directors meeting. I'm seriously racking up the frequent flier miles. Which is good because I used the balance of my flier miles to book a business class ticket to and from Paris in June for an international meeting.
So far the traveling has been pretty smooth, although I did have to fly back into Dallas from DC one Friday evening when there were severe storm warnings in Dallas. We spent an extra hour on the plane being rerouted across half the state, but we managed to land in Dallas finally. Ride was a tad bumpy, but we got here. I was really relieved because Saturday morning I had to fly back out for my next trip.
Addy's taking the absences pretty well, but I have my regular sitter back and she and Addy get along well. Which is VERY good considering how much traveling I'm doing. Addy still seems to be okay being by herself. Of course when I'm here she's with me constantly - in my lap when I read or watch anime or TV. She does love being the center of attention.
I found out that I need to have some more periodontal surgery. I was kind of hoping not to have to go through that again, but since it's been about 20 years since I had to do it before, I guess I shouldn't complain. They'll do some surgery on my gums and some bone grafting in my lower jaw. That'll be happening when I get back from Seattle, because I have a solid month at home before my Paris trip. Time for my mouth to heal.
Things in my yard are growing well, except for maybe the Russian sage and the hollyhocks. I planted 10 hollyhock seeds and I have two tiny plants coming up. And they don't look too healthy. The Russian sage also is struggling. I'm wondering if it's getting too much water with all the rain we've been having. I went out and sprayed it and my roses this week though since it does look like something is eating on them.
The hawthorn and azalea bloomed for awhile and were so pretty. My roses are blooming too, so of course I cut some for in the house. They are so pretty and smell so good. I need to get back outside and deadhead them now. The ones in the front yard need it too.
My little hummers are back and this little guys sat still for a picture. I also saw a rose-breasted grosbeak on my red feeder! Gorgeous! I saw him and thought, "what the hell kind of bird is that?!" because I've never seen one here before and he's really beautiful. I tried to get a picture but my camera battery was dead. So I was cussing and switching batteries, but he flew before I could get a picture. I looked him up though. We're not anywhere near his range, so he must have been migrating through and just stopped for some seeds. I was glad to have seen him.
I need to find time to do some serious house-cleaning here shortly because later in the month my Colorado sister and her husband may try to stop by on their way through. Her husband has never seem my place and she's only seen it once, so I hope they have time to stop by. Even if it means I need to do a little better cleaning than when it's just Addy and I here.
That's all for now.
It was such a gorgeous day yesterday, it's too bad today is rainy, especially because I'm sure the rain ruined a bunch of Easter plans. I took Friday off, partly because I had to go renew my driver's license in person this year. You never know how long the line will be at the driver's license office near me. So I just took the day off, which also let me get a bunch of other errands run, besides getting my license renewed. I got all my running around and puttering outside done Friday and yesterday. It was fairly cool out, but brightly sunny and pretty once the clouds moved pout about midday Friday.
My little azalea is blooming as you can see. All the hawthorn are loaded down with buds on the verge of blooming so they're about to become gorgeous. The weather is still flirting with cooler temps (50's on Saturday morning and this morning), but Spring is definitely here.
My hummers are back! They showed up last Sunday afternoon. The little male has taken to perching on the tip of one of my aloe early in the morning. Yesterday he was all puffed out from the cold, and this morning he was all puffed out from the rain and cold, but he just perches there. These pictures of him are far from ideal since he won't sit there if I open the door. So these are taken through the window.
On Friday I bought some more african violets to take to work and another venus flytrap. I think I'll take a flytrap to work also and see if it will survive and eat the gnats and small flies that occasionally somehow manage to get into my office. So I spent part of Friday afternoon re-potting plants from the plastic things they come in, and getting them ready to take to work.
I've decided to keep the magenta african violet here at the house. It's so pretty, and Addy's too old and not agile enough to get up on the counter, so both she and it should be safe. I just like growing things. I guess that green thumb that my sisters have always had didn't skip me after all. Well, maybe not a green thumb in that I still manage to kill things I'm trying to grow. But a green thumb in that I like to grow things.
The peach actually looks like a tree this year. The other two aren't doing as well, but are also leafing out nicely. This one is in the prime spot for a peach tree - lots of sun. The other two are in shadier places and obviously don't like that as well. My mint is coming back in with a vengeance. I'll have to watch it so that it doesn't take over the garden around the patio. The little pine is putting on lots of new new pine needles too, as you can see. I'm continually amazed that that little tree keeps coming back.
Although I'm not a big fan of rain, I'm glad for it this year since we were so dry last year. I got 1.4 inches last night, which will encourage everything to bloom and grow like crazy now. From the forecast it looks like it's going to be a rainy week this week. That'll make all the plants happy. One of my tiered trees by the back patio is so overgrown you almost can't tell it has tiers. I hope my lawn service guys trim it back soon.
I saw the coopers' hawk go after one of the doves in my yard today. He always seems to hunt here on cloudy cool days - or anyway those are the days I've seen him hunting here.
I'm glad for this puttering around the house time because I have some busy times coming up. Next weekend I'm off for Chicago for business. Then home the next weekend, then I have back to back trips to Washington DC and Philadelphia. Then the first week in May I'm back to Washington DC and the second week in May I'm off to Seattle. Then I'm home for a month before I'm off again. Oh! And that month I'm home I'll be having gum surgery with some bone grafting. How fun is that? Just got bad genes when it comes to gums, I guess. Considering how good my health is overall though I really can't complain about my genes. This will only be my second gum surgery in the last 20+ years.
And I guess I'll quit there for today. Leaving with an Addy picture of course. She has to help me when I'm outside - or at least be out there with me, checking out stuff.
Finally it's become Spring around here. Late this year. We had an ice/snow storm the last few days of February-first few days of March, and since then it's been pretty much non-stop raining up until last Sunday, but it's been fairly nice since then. So I've spent the last couple of weekends puttering around the house and yard. Things are beginning to grow and bloom finally. This is my neighbor's bradfpord pear, blooming like crazy.
Last weekend I bought a couple red-tipped photinia and planted then out by the fence. Last Fall I had my two big live oaks trimmed up, and I lost a bunch of privacy from my neighbors behind me. You can see that in the first picture. Nothing between me and my neighbors but a 6 foot fence. I didn't realize how much privacy the low hanging limbs on those trees were creating until they were gone. So these photinia should grow relatively tall, and maybe I'll get some of that privacy back.
I also planted some hollyhocks last weekend so I hope they come up. And I cleaned out shrubbery a bit and cut back some crepe myrtle. I was head to toe mud by the time I finished that planting and gardening last weekend, but the rain had finally stopped, and I was determined to get some yard work in.
I also bought a little african violet for my office and on a whim, a little venus flytrap. The little venus flytrap is so small and cute, and really seems to like my kitchen windowsill. It's directions said I don't have to feed it flies - which I don't know if that means it will catch them itself, or that it can survive on photosynthesis just fine. Either way we'll see how it does. The African violet I took to work since those little plants are pretty, but poisonous to cats.
This weekend I re-potted things that needed it. I re-potted the peace lily into a bigger pot since it had so over-grown the pot it came in. I also found a nice plant stand for it. It likes that location in the sun room, but it had really gotten too big to sit on that coffee table. I also re-potted the little venus flytrap into a pot from it's little square plastic container.
I put out my hummingbird feeders two weeks ago, but haven't seen hide nor hair of a hummingbird yet. They're late coming through this year, but that could be because things are just barely starting to bloom here. My flowering quince and the bradford pears were the only things that had bloomed until this week. This week the redbuds are blooming, and my azalea and indian hawthorne are showing lots of buds. So once things start blooming I'm hoping the hummers arrive.
I just love Spring when everything starts growing again, and it's green and flowers are blooming. The peaches are leafing out nicely now and the russian sage and the roses are all putting on new growth. The buds on the little pine are bursting into a tree-full of new pine needles. All the trees are seeming to leaf out basically overnight. My live oaks have been dropping their old leaves like snowfall with the growth of the new ones. My lawn service guys left three large sacks of leaves for the trash people to pick up this week.
Yesterday I checked out and programmed my sprinkler system. About time to turn it on for the year, so I needed to make sure it was working as it's supposed to. I'm glad to see green grass coming up also, rather than brown dead grass. Although I grow grass for Addy during the Winter, I won't need to grow Addy any more grass now this year. She can find it outside.
And that's pretty much the yardwork report for March. I won't have as much time to do garden/yard stuff in April since I'll be traveling some. I'll leave today with a picture of that last snowstorm, since I'm so happy that stuff is gone now for the year.
This is definitely the time of year when living in Texas makes the weather interesting. It's about 28 degrees outside and everything is covered in about 4 inches of snow. Last Monday we had an inch of ice and sleet. And a week ago it was gorgeous and in the mid-70s. I'm not a fan of cold weather and frozen precipitation, but luckily in Texas it usually doesn't last long. And then we get those wonderfully warm days. I'm more than ready for the wonderfully warm to come for the year and stay.
So most of the pictures in this post are from the last two weekends when I had the house opened up and it was mostly beautiful out. For shock value, the last picture in the post is what it actually looks like outside today. Anyway, my flowering quince was in full bloom as you can see, and the honeybees were going to town on it. It might have been their first meal this year, but they were really swarming it. I took pictures of them go about their honeybee business.
I also discovered that the Russian sage I planted either is dead or goes dormant for the winter. It's just a few dead-looking stubs sticking up where I planted it. I'm hoping that it went dormant. We'll see if it comes back. The Texas sage keeps it's leaves year-round. Another surprising thing is the moss in the pot with the little pine tree. The tree is definitely dormant and dead-looking, but the moss is bright green and seemingly thriving. Of course, today it's buried under a little mound of snow. I'll be interested to see if it's still green when the snow melts.
I got out and trimmed back all my roses on Valentine's Day. Then I trimmed the peach shrubs into forms resembling trees. Then I sawed and cut up all the branches and generally cleaned up the patio area. Two of the peach trees now look fairly tree-like. The third one was harder because of the way it grew, but I trimmed it up as much as I could. This last Saturday was the same beautifully warm temperatures as on Valentine's, and I again got out puttering in the yard. Then Saturday evening I re-covered my aloe out on the patio and Sunday the temperatures plummeted from mid-70s to well below freezing.
Monday I didn't go to work. I have become less likely to risk life and limb, and car, to the nasty weather when we get ice. It's actually not the road conditions that make me stay in. It's the massive number of crazy people out of the road. By Tuesday the roads were relatively clear and I drove in to work, but the morons were still out there, both the morons under-driving the conditions (10 mph on the freeway is unacceptable), and the morons over-driving the conditions (the bridges are icy! don't approach them at 80 and slam on your brakes). Then Friday it began snowing around 10:00 am and was still snowing when I left work at 4:00. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to get home, and my commute is usually 30-ish minutes. At least I didn't have to be anywhere today.
Monday while I was home I watched the birds at my feeders on and off all day. I had a Cooper's Hawk hunting the little birds out there! Big, beautiful bird of prey. He probably stooped on the feeder about 8 times during the course of the day. He may have caught one dove, but I think he came up mostly empty. The shrubbery around there is prime for little birds to scatter into, and the patio where the feeder is hanging is a little bit tight maneuvering for a bird that size. The birds would scatter and hide for awhile, and then come back. And he'd try again. I got some pictures, and this was about the best one. They didn't turn out good, but he wasn't exactly trying to hold still for the camera. I couldn't decide whether to be happy that the little birds were escaping him, or sad that he wasn't getting a meal.
The hawk isn't around today, but I have a bunch of doves about there, probably a dozen. It's a mixture of morning doves and white-winged doves. It hasn't gotten up to freezing yet today, so the doves tend to like to huddle on the patio, even when they aren't foraging under the feeder. And of course the usual sparrows, finches, juncos and cardinals are out there. Occasionally I see a blue jay.
Addy is still doing well. I have to put a picture of her in my posts of course. She did fine with the new pet sitters, but I'll be glad to have my regular sitter watching over her on the trips I have coming up. March is pretty clear, but I have three trips in April - to Chicago, Washington DC and Philadelphia. Then I have two trips in May - to Seattle and back to Washington DC. Then I have a trip to Paris, France in June and a trip to Atlanta in July. And this is just my President-elect year. Next year when I'm President will probably be worse, trip-wise. So I'm really glad Addy's health is looking okay for a cat-kid that's 19 years old.
Anyway, this isn't the latest in the year that we've had ice and or snow here, but I'm hoping it will be the last this year. I'm really ready for warm and green and growing things. Not only am I not fond of cold, I'm not fond of dead-looking plants. Plus, I know I put my hummingbird feeder out in mid-March last year and had a hummer right away. So I hope this is the last frigid weather we'll have and it'll begin being growing season soon.
This is just a quick post today, to be able to post some cool pictures I took. I had a business meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico the first week in February and just got around to looking at the pictures today. This first picture is the view from my balcony, looking out on the Atlantic Ocean. Gorgeous!
The business meeting was good, my first board of directors meeting as an officer. A couple of the directors were missing, but I think overall this will be an outstanding group to work with this year. The new directors and officers had to come in a day early for orientation, so I was early enough to take half a day and explore Old San Juan with one of the new directors. We had a blast, and walked our feet off. There are two old forts, one of which, Castillo San Cristobal, is a national historic site run by the US National Park Service. So we walked all over that, then walked to the other fort, called El Morro, and walked all over that.
I ended up getting much more exercise than a normal work day. It was uniformly beautiful, pretty much everywhere we went, and the food was amazing. I also ended up learning a few things about Puerto Rico, like how far it is out into the Atlantic. I always thought of it as Caribbean, which it is considered, but it's hardly even in the Caribbean Sea. There's also a weird feeling I got a couple of times because Puerto Rico feels so foreign sometimes, like Spanish being the native language, yet you see regular mail boxes and delivery vehicles and the National Park Service, etc. So it feels American and foreign at the same time.
The other pictures in this very short post show the little guard houses at the corners of the walls, which are called garitas, and the forts are famous for them. We also took a tour of the Castillo San Cristobal and went into the dungeon, where the figures of ships were sketched on the wall with a charcoal mixture by a sea captain prisoner back in history. Then we went over to El Morro, pictured here. And lastly, when touring El Morro, we came upon two large iguanas taking advantage of the beautiful day. This was one of them.
I've just returned from an eight-day trip to Paris. I have to admit, I was really looking forward to it, and it lived up to my expectations. I had a lot of fun. There was only one part I didn't like, but I'll come back to that.
