The Past Week in Running

I am currently in the second week of training for the Hyannis Half Marathon at the end of February.  Coming off my PR in the marathon back in November, I have decided that for this training cycle I would concentrate more on speed workouts and less on total mileage.  I will also be switching back to running six days a week, instead of five, which shouldn't be to bad as my total volume of running is down.  Hopefully the weather continues to be fairly mild, as any snow could possible mess up my speed workout days.

The past week in running:
Monday - 3 easy

Tuesday - 5 total, with 7 400's at 5k pace.  Need to start doing these on the track again as doing them on hills is not fun.

Wednesday - 3 easy

Thursday - 6 total, 45 minute tempo run.  Hills around here again made this fun.

Friday - 3 with two at around HMP, still trying to figure out exactly how fast I am going to try to run this Half in.

Saturday - Off, as  I has been out partying the night before.  I actually could have gotten up and ran, but just wasn't feeling it.

Sunday - 10, felt fantastic.  If anything, I know covering the 13.1 miles is not going to be hard, it is a matter of how fast I want to do it.

Bringing it back.

I haven't written a blog post since September, as I have been super busy with school this semester.  However, with the semester ending, I am going to have a lot more free time on my hands here soon, and thus will be posting again soon.  Let the countdown begin...

Barney: By announcing the time, you ruin the suspense. You have shown your hand! 
Marshall: And as of 3:00 PM tomorrow, your face will show my hand.

My ten years later.

I graduated high school in the spring of 2001.  In less than a month, I will be returning home to attend my ten year high school reunion.  I haven't seen some of my fellow classmates in years, and there are many I haven't seen at all since graduation.  I am sure we will talk about good times from high school, and the shenanigans we participated in.  We will also chat about what each of us are doing now, and where our lives have taken us.  What I am sure we will not talk about, however, is what impact 9/11 has had on our lives.

Like many who had graduated that year, by the end of the summer in 2001, I was ready to head into the next part of my life and start attending college.  Since the university I attended started classes before Labor day, I had already spent a few weeks at school by the time September hit.  I came to the conclusion, however, that I was not ready for college.  I wasn't ready to be away from home and I wasn't ready to devote myself to a full time work load, so I withdrew.  I just happened to withdraw on 9/10/2011.

On the morning of 9/11, I was feeling happy and excited that I would be returning home.  One of my friends had driven down to take me and some of my stuff home, and we decided to go out to breakfast.  We were having a good time in the restaurant, laughing and joking around.  We were totally oblivious to what was going on.  Sometime while we were at the restaurant, or on the way back from, the first plane had hit.  When we got back to the dorms, there were a bunch of people sitting around the TV's, and that is when I first found out that New York had been attacked.

The rest of that day and the week now is just a blur.  I remember making it home sometime, and hanging out with my friends and talking about what was going on.  We were sitting on the main street our town, and at some point my friend Luke just felt like he had to do something.  He made an impromptu sign that simply stated  "Honk for America", and proceeded to stand at the cross section of the two main streets in our town.  Almost everyone who went through that intersection honked.  We continued to do this every night for the rest of the week, each night attracting more people and signs, till on our final night when we had a candle light vigil.  I remember standing there that night, waving an American flag and thinking I needed to do something more.  A few weeks later I enlisted in the Navy.

And here I am, ten years later, reflecting on how much a single day has affected the last ten years of my life.  I served our great country for six years, and while it was tough at times, I never forgot why I was doing it.  Two of my brothers have also served in the military since that day, one who tragically lost his life serving in Iraq, the other who continues to serve.  And despite all the grief and tragedy that occurred not just on that day, but since as our troops continue to serve overseas, there is a bright spot in my own life that has occurred.  While serving I met my future wife, who's care and love has been much appreciated since we first met.

My many thanks for those who served, and continue to serve this great nation.

To those who lost loved ones on that day, and the days since, my heart and sympathy goes out to you.

Never forget.

Really House of Representatives, really?

So for those of you who have not heard, last week the House Judiciary committee passed a bill that will require all Internet Service Providers (ISP's) to log all of their customers internet activity for a year. Named the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, the aim of the bill (so claimed) is to try and catch child pornographers. You can read some details of the bill here or here. While the intention of the bill is of course good, the method that the House decided to go with is just a bit absurd.  As mentioned in one of the previous articles, there are currently around 272 million internet users in the United States.  The current estimated population of child pornographers in the country makes up less than one percent of all these users.  The plan is to log all the internet activity of every internet user in the country, including sensitive information such as credit card and bank account numbers, hand this data over to law enforcement officials, and have them search through it all to find this small population of child pornographers.  Anyone every try finding a needle in a haystack?

This bill seems entirely pointless to me.  Besides the issues of searching through all that data, anyone can set up their computers so that their ISP can't see the internet activity of that individual.  Any one trying to hide anything (say child pornographers), can easily set up these tools.   How many people does the government really plan on catching using this method?  While I am sure they will catch someone, did they really need to log all the activity of every American to catch that one person?  I am sure there are more efficient ways to go about it.

The question must also be asked, what does the government plan on doing with all this data once they have it?  Granted I have not looked at the fine details of the bill yet, but I can almost guarantee that they will not be destroying it.  No one destroys data anymore because they never know when they might need it.  Also, are ISP's going to keep a copy of the data, and what will they be allowed to do with it?  This year has also been a big year for hackers, and this data is going to be a prime target.  I wouldn't be surprised to see all of our internet bills going up to pay for both the extra storage, and the cost to keep the data secure.

I for one, am just outraged by this so called "bill".

Hello July

Here we are, July already, and first things first: Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife!  Wishing you all the best!

July also brings the start of marathon training, and I am already three days in and it is going well.  This year I am switching some things up, instead of running 6 days a week with only one rest day, I am looking at only 5 days of running and two rest days.  I plan on topping out my weekly mileage at 60 miles per week (won't be there till sometime in the middle of August), so with less running days, I will have to run more miles on those running days.  The hope is to concentrate mainly on endurance this year, so I can handle the last part of the marathon better.

On the golf scene, shot the best round I have shot in years this past weekend, which is good.  Still have a long way to go til I am happy with my golf game, but starting to see improvements.  Need to straighten out my drives and long irons, and get the chipping and putting thing back down, but my short iron game is really coming along.

Also, I have now been out of school for over a month, and I am reaching that point where I am extremely bored and just want the next school year to start already.  Two more semesters, and then done, really looking forward to it.



“Here is how you run a Marathon…Step One: Start Running. Step Two: There is no step two.” -Barney

Productive Week

So since my last blog, the wife and I have been fairly busy.  First though I must point out that Karina was rear ended by a hung over Bruins fan this past Thursday.  She stopped to let a pedestrian cross the road, and apparently the guy behind her wasn't paying enough attention.  She is okay, had some minor whiplash, but seems to be recovering well.  Her car is going to need some work, but the rear bumper worked exactly how a bumper should.

Speaking of cars, we finally got a second one.  Since we are planning on moving out of our current apartment to an area where I wouldn't be able to take public transportation to school, was going to need a second car.  I am now completely mobile and don't have to bum rides off of people, which I am sure those people who I bummed rides off of are happy.  While we were out working out the details for the car, we got a call from one of  the apartment places we were looking at.  The apartment we wanted had become available and we needed to put a deposit down to secure it before someone else snatched it up.  So we ended up with a new apartment and a new car all in the same day.  On top of all that we changed up some financial stuff, and came to the realization that we may very well be growing up and becoming more responsible.

On the running scene, I am in the weird post event/race phase were I am just running to maintain fitness, and not training for anything in particular.  This is a actually the hardest time for me because with nothing to focus on, tend to start feeling lazy and want to skip runs.  However, I need to keep at it as I need to be ready to start marathon training in a couple more weeks.

As a final note, spent some time on the golf range the other day and am proud to say I didn't slice a single ball.  Hit some fades, but I can live with a fade if I can cut back on how often I slice.  I attribute this feat to going back and relearning some golf basics, such as the proper grip, and remembering that you don't hit a golf ball, you swing a golf club.

New England Relay - Done.

So I have now ran/driven through all of New England.  It was a bunch of fun, and I will consider doing it again next year if they hold it again.  Officially I ran 26.4 miles, but according to my Garmin it was closer to 27.  If you add up my times across all three legs that I ran, I would have ran the distance in 3:32:00, which would be a massive marathon PR for me.  The question now becomes, how well would I have ran across a full 26 miles with out stopping and resting for up to 8-9 hours between legs.  I don't know if it still would have been that fast, but while running this past weekend I noticed that I am a far stronger runner right now then I was last year.

Leg 1: 8.1 officially, 8.45 on my Garmin.  I ran this leg in 1:08:59, or 8:09 minute per mile pace.  This leg started with a 300 foot climb within the first mile and a half.  What was great was that when I started the leg I couldn't see the hill, and I was running along a nice flat section for about an eighth of a mile.  Having hardly ran at all on our honeymoon, my legs were nice and rested and I was thinking to myself, man my legs feel great.  Then I took a right turn and saw the hell and went oh hell.  I am proud to say I didn't stop to walk at all as I went up the hill, though my quads were starting to hurt a lot by the time I got to the top.  From there the entire run was almost completely downhill, and in case you didn't know, it is actually far worse on your legs to run downhill then up.  It can also be a bit dangerous as gravity kind of just drags you along and you can reach speeds that are hard to slow down from.  One of the things I was trying to do was to keep my paces relatively slow as I knew from my overnight relay last year that your legs could just be completely dead by the time you reach the third leg.  With all the downhill running though it was hard to keep the pace around 8:30, so this leg was a bit fast.

Leg 2: 6.9 officially, 6.97 on the Garmin.  I ran this leg in 53:15.  Out of the three legs, this one was the most fun, nerve racking, and speedy of the three.  Fun because it was ran late at night in the rain, which running in the dark can be fun and I enjoy running in the rain; nerve racking because it was night and raining and I was running down route 9 in New Hampshire, so the few cars on the road were of course flying down the road; speedy because again the run was mostly down hill.  This leg again started with a 300 foot climb.  As soon as reached the top of this hill, I immediately started the speediest section of all three of my legs as I started a downhill run that was just over one mile in length.  While there were a couple more uphills over the rest of the leg, it was pretty much all downhill till it flattened out just after mile 5 and by the time I was able to carry my momentum till the finish.  Because of the long downhill, my average pace for this leg was 7:38, way faster than I wanted, and I could tell by the time I finished that my legs were really tired and that the third leg was going to be tough.

Leg 3: 11.1 officially, 11.45 on the Garmin.  I ran this leg in 1:31:04.  After running the first two legs faster than I wanted, I knew that I was going to be tired for this leg.  This leg thankfully didn't have a 300 foot climb at the start, and while it did go from 400 foot back to around sea level, it was stretched over 11 miles, so I didn't really notice the downhill running as much.  I must have psyched myself up a little because my first four miles were all around or under 7:30 pace.  After that I started to slow down some, but overall I generally kept the pace under 8:30.  By the time I hit the last two miles, part of me wanted to stop and walk some because my quads were just done for the day, but I knew if I stopped that I would not be able to get going again, so I toughed it out and finished, though I did walk for about 30 seconds over the final hill.

I am really surprised at how much stronger a runner I am right now then I was a year ago.  If my marathon training goes well this year, it will be interesting of what my time goal will be for the marathon.  I currently have a goal in mind and I may have to adjust it slightly just based off of how well I ran this weekend.  But for now I just have a few weeks of maintenance runs, and then marathon training starts at the beginning of July.

Here comes the New England Relay...

..but first, for those of you who have been following the blog to catch all the honeymoon details, since we our of course back, I must warn you that there will be no more blogs about the honeymoon, our from Karina (at least not in the near future).  I have no idea if Karina plans on ever starting her own blog, so those of you that loved her blog posts will need to bug her about.  However, since this is my blog, be prepared to read my random thoughts on numerous subjects.  If you were just following for the honeymoon, this would be the time to stop following this blog. So without further ado...

So we have been back almost a week now, and I must say that while I miss being on vacation, I am also in a position right now where I don't have any classes till the fall, and I am only working twenty hours a week, so I really have a lot of free time.  Heck, I will have a three day weekend the entire summer, so needless to say I am going to stay pretty relaxed till September comes around.  This will of course give me plenty of time to focus on my marathon training, which doesn't officially start until the beginning of July.  But before I can think about that, need to get through this weekend first.

I am running the New England Relay this weekend, which is an overnight relay.  For those of you that don't know what that is, an overnight relay is a relay race consisting of teams running from one location to another with the course length usually measuring around 200+ miles total, broken up into 36 legs.  There is 12 members per team, with each member running 3 legs each.  The team is split into two vans, so there is 6 runners in each van.  From the time we start tomorrow morning till our last team member crosses the finish line there will constantly be someone running (thus overnight).  This relay will be starting in Rhode Island, crossing into Connecticut and then Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and then finishing in Maine, thereby running a little bit in every New England state.  I have been chosen to run the 3 legs that when totaled together  will equal 26.4 miles, or what is known as the "marathon leg".  While I may be running more than any of my other teammates, and after coming back from our honeymoon where I hardly ran at all, I am actually feeling pretty good about this.  I will have about 6 hours or so between each leg to rest, so as long as I pace myself properly I will be fine.  I actually did another overnight relay last year on the Cape, and had a blast doing it, so hoping that this one will be just as good.  Will be writing about how it goes sometime next week.

From AMboise to AMerica

Well we are home after an amazing two weeks abroad. First day back at work today and while it was good to see my friends, if they could all have just joined me in the Loire Valley I would be happy to see them there too.

Ahhhh the Loire Valley, what more is there to say really except that the whole experience was amazing, almost religious. I felt instantly connected to this beautiful place the moment we stepped out of the small but tidy train station. Even though we were about a mile from the city center and there was not much around, everything was so calm and so peaceful - there was such a positive energy there. We stayed in a town called Amboise in a perfectly perfect B&B called Le Vieux Manoir. Anyone traveling to this area, I encourage you to check this place out - outstanding rooms and outstanding hospitality.

There are more photos than usual in this blog as I could not decide which photos to include so I included a few more than you are all used to.

First a few photos of this AMAZING B&B - as beautiful as the website was, the real thing will blow you away. The photo below is of the front door

This photo is of the house from the front, capturing the gorgeous fountain that plays a pivotal part of the landscaping.

A view of the house right in front of the front gate, with the guest cottage on the right side - it is also rented out

We arrived in Amboise on Wednesday and after dropping off our things, we headed out for a tour of several of the area chateaus. The first one we visited was Cheverny (pictured below)
This is one of the smaller chateaus (even though it is still pretty damn big) and interestingly enough, the current owners still occupy one of the wings of the house - they have a separate entrance but are frequently seen around the house and the grounds by the tourists. This house has been owned by the same family since it was built several hundred years ago which is a rarity as we learned from our tour guide since so many chateaus changed hands as a result of wars or in invasions.
Another interesting thing about this house is that the current owner keeps 100 hounds as hunting dogs, one of which can be seen below. They are all kept a few hundred feet away from the main house where visitors can see them playing.


The next chateau we visited was Chambord. This chateau is the second biggest in France after Versailles. There are over 400 rooms, over 300 windows, and 30+ fireplaces. Francois the first, who built this chateau as a sign of his immense wealth and extravagant taste only spent 29 nights here in total...EVER. After hearing this, it's not hard to see why there was a revolution. I mean wouldn't you revolt if your king built a castle that could house a small village and then never spent any time in it? Talk about a show off.


Well out of 400+ rooms, only 70 have furniture in them and out of those only 17 are open to the public so needless to say there isn't a ton to see inside (I mean let's face it, it IS mostly about the exterior don't you think). One thing that WAS very interesting was the double staircase that was created by Leonardo DaVinci (duh). Chris and I experimented since I, being ever the skeptic, did not believe that this fancy shmancy staircase was the real deal...well I was wrong, it is the real deal. After about 15 minutes of explanation, I think I finally understand how it works (clearly I'm not the biggest chateau in the Loire Valley when it comes to this science stuff). Not surprisingly we were could by our tour guide that this staircase was used primarily to avoid awkward conversations between wives and mistresses.


Here is a photo of a small church on the Chambord grounds that I just thought was nifty


We finished off out first night in the Loire Valley by going to an UNBELIEVABLE restaurant in Amboise called L'Epicerie. There, we sipped on some of the local wine while having a four course meal that blew us away (the highlight was OF COURSE the cheese....oh the cheese...I don't think I will ever forget that cheese...this cheese was like the Prince William and Kate Middleton of cheeses...so yes it was worth all the hoopla : )

The next morning, having missed our second tour (my ONE planning faux pas of the entire trip) we decided to spend the day in Amboise (well we didn't decide as much as we didn't have a choice because we didn't have a car) but luckily there is plenty to see in Amboise so we were never bored.

We started out at Close Luce, the home of Leonardo DaVinci for the last three years of his life (1516-1519). Legend has it that this house was connected to an underground tunnel to the Chateau D'Amboise and DaVinci could see the chateau from his bedroom window which he loved.

The next two photos are just a few of the ones i took in the Garden right after walking out of the main house (unfortunately no photos allowed in the house)
The color of these roses was sickeningly perfect. The most pure pink I think I have ever seen.


There was a lot of ground to cover in DaVinci's "backyard". One photo I have included here is of a densely wooded area in which hung almost transparent versions of some of his greatest works. It really was rather mystifying.


And last but not least a view of the house itself. Not too shabby, eh?


Now jump to the chateau in Amboise. Next up, is the man himself (or his (second) final resting spot). Yes what you are looking at is the final resting place of Leonardo DaVinci. I say his second final resting place because he was actually buried elsewhere on the chateau grounds but was moved after several hundred years. He now resides in a chapel that is located high above the town on Amboise - a great tribute to a great man.


Here is a view of one of the main streets in Amboise from atop the chateau

Here is a view of the back of the castle. This is a pretty massive castle to begin with but can you believe that the current size of the chateau is actually only 1/5 it's original size?!?! Due to several "conflicts", parts of the castle were destroyed over the years leaving only what we see today

Here is the hubs standing along one of the beautiful paths in the garden behind the castle. Notice the perfectly pruned trees and shrubs


A big tree

And here is where it all comes to an end - below are photos of my wonderful husband Chris and myself at our last dinner in France. Notice the delicious glass of wine in Chris' hand - oh how I miss it!



Our honeymoon may be over, but the memories and the fun we have had will undoubtedly live on forever - this really truly was a journey of a lifetime....GO TEAM!!!

oh and by the way Skittle - we lost Beth!!

French Immersion

I think I have found my favorite place in Paris...

...And I am sorry to report that it is a cemetery...but more on that later

Well we have now been in Paris for three whole days and have seen alot of what the city has to offer. In the last 2 days, we estimate that we have walked about 15 miles which is no small feat for someone like me whose feet are constantly a source of pain and aggravation (thank you Merrells).

Yesterday we hopped on an early morning train to Versailles, not early enough apparently because when we arrived, it was already a lot more crowded than we anticipated. Luckily we did not have to stand in line to buy tickets, only to go through "security" which was of course the bigger of the two lines but it did more fairly quickly and we were into the main palace in about 15 minutes. We started the day by taking a tour of the royal apartments. As you can imagine or for those of you that have been, the palace at Versailles is ENORMOUS. Louis the 14th who was responsible for building the palace was in no way short on ego or cash apparently because the place is huge. The royal apartments cover a very small part of this sprawling estate and with all due respect, were not impressive. Perhaps it was the fact that we were trapped between various loud and rowdy tour groups at all times or perhaps it was the fact that it was just rather boring walking from room to room and looking at chairs that were 400 years old. There were of course a few interesting pieces, the chandeliers were rather extravagant as were some of the statues but all in all I do not believe that it was worth the pain of squeezing between hoards of people all trying to take a photograph of an ottoman Marie Antoinette may or may not have sat on. I found the gardens to be far more impressive (although as the French would say "une grande rip off" because we were forced to pay 8 euro each to enter. Normally with our museum pass it would have been free however since it was Saturday and on Saturdays in May they have something they refer to as a "Festival" of musical fountains (I use the word "festival loosely) we were charged entry to see it. This festival basically consisted of them turning on the fountains, blaring music through the loudspeakers and....well that is pretty much it. Needless to say, we were less than thrilled to be charged but of course we were not going to miss the gardens. It is hard to describe the layout of the grounds. First of all, everything is immaculately maintained. There are groves that resemble hedge mazes. I was kind of hoping to run through the Shining style but it was not to be, they were fairly easy to get out off - I could definitely outrun crazy Jack Nicholson in one of those groves. I have included some photos to better show the grounds (unfortunately the camera died pretty early on)

Of view of the sprawling grounds from the back of the palace

A view of the grand palace from wayyyyyyyy off in the distance (via the zoom on my camera). We rented bikes to see as much as we could of the grounds and this photo was actually taken from one of the farthest points from the palace itself

Mr. and Mrs. Baughman in front of one the musical fountains (pre music) - rip off

The orangerie. The Sun King (aka Louis the 14th aka the guy to be when it comes to Versailles) was said to be so full of warmth that he could even make oranges grow in chilly France. Proof below.

Just some cool shrubs and a great example of the immaculate landscaping.

We spent about 5 hours at Versailles and then headed back into the city to see a one man show that I had booked before we left. This show was called "How to Become Parisien in One Hour" and it was hilarious. It was a one man show done be a man names Olivier Giraud (my new facebook friend) where he comments on the social differences between Parisien society and that of the rest of Europe and the states. It was exaggerated of course but at times, quite true.

After the show we returned to the Marais neighborhood where we had been the day before had possibly the BEST falafel ever!! The place suggested in our guide book was closed but the place we went to was equally incredible.

This morning we got a late start, didn't leave the hotel until just after noon, but boy did we make up for it. First up was the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, home to such famous souls as Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and of course, the one and only, the one everyone goes there to see...Jim Morrison.

This place is magnificent. The moment we walked in, we left the noise of the city behind us. It was perfectly calm and perfectly pleasant throughout our entire journey through the cemetery. It was not morbid at all, in fact it was very uplifting in a way to know that so many people had been immortalized there in such a beautiful way. I hope that photos that I have posted below will provide some sense of what this peaceful sanctuary was like but I anticipate that short of seeing it for yourselves, it will be hard to convey its true beauty.

Many of the graves at Pere Lachaise are actually family plots with some sort of monument paying tribute to the entire family. These monuments along with many many graves are all jammed into Pere Lachais. One would almost think they were placed one on top of the other but under closer scrutiny you can see that everything is very carefully laid out with small walkways separating all of the stones.

A shot down one of the narrow walkways taking you deep into the rows of graves

Here lies Oscar Wilde, a pioneer of his time, and now the memorial which stands to commemorate him is kissed all over by women we wearing red lipstick

Here lies Edith Piaf, the "little sparrow" and singer of the famous French tune "La Vie En Rose"

Another picturesque view of Pere Lachaise

Here lies Moliere

The final resting place of one James Douglas Morrison.

A better view of his grave. There are gates up blocking access to the grave itself but apparently that did not stop one lady from throwing her bra in there

A few people sitting and drinking champagne near Jim's grave - pretty cool if you ask me

Here lies Frederic Chopin. I really wanted to get a shot of the man who seemed to be conducting a symphony in front of his memorial (after which he proceeded to plant a big wet kiss on the stone) but it just didn't feel right.

The majority of the day after Pere Lachaise was spent walking around. We started at Notre Dame...

And proceeded down around Ile de la Cite and Ile St. Louis...

We then walked over to the Left Bank (la rive gauche) and proceeded to walk...and walk...and walk...

sorry, no anchors allowed

Al the way until we reached...

La Tour Eiffel!!!! Even though it was almost 7 o'clock in the evening by the time we reached it, it was MOBBED. There was absolutely no chance of us going up given how long we had been walking in the sun so we decided to take a pass for the time being and instead ate dinner in a charming cafe close to nearby Rue Cler.

Tomorrow is a new day and it is off to Montmatre and then back to Rue Cler for dinner. Hope you are all enjoying reading this blog as much as I have been enjoying writing it.

Bienvenue a Paris!

Ahh Paris! The moment we stepped out of the Gare du Nord (after our trip through the chunnel from London) I felt that "vibe" that Paris gives off. For one thing, it felt damn good to see people on the right side of the road again, but more than that - Paris is so unique and for me, I felt it instantly. We arrived at our hotel, the lovely Hotel Wilson Opera and checked into our delightful room. Our hotel is very boutiquey, small lobby with very personable and friendly staff - great place to stay so far! Last night we mostly got acquainted with the neighborhood, went to the neighborhood supermarket to pick up some breakfast items so as not to always be buying breakfast in the city and had dinner at a cafe where I had the steak tartare - I have been waiting soooooo long to dine on steak tartare in Paris that I actually had some for dinner tonight as well.

This morning we set off on day #1 of our Paris adventure by making our way over to the Arc De Triomphe.

At this point you are all going to have to bear with me while I work in quotes from one of my favorite movies, French Kiss (highly recommend it if you have not seen it). In this scene, Kate (the protagonist) is on the phone with the mother of her now ex-fiance (he left for for a leggy Brunette named Juliette) and she says the following... " I will triumph! She says it while in a phone booth in front of the same site that you see below

I must say... the arc...much bigger in real life

I turned around while gazing at the arc and got my first glimpse of....

La Tour Eiffel! Now alot of locals think that this tower is an eye sore and perhaps if I was a local I would agree with them but I'm not so I don't - I think that part of its magnificence is that sometimes, without even realizing it, it pops up within your view. It kind of sneaks up on you, you turn around and there it is! Because of it's size, it can be seen from many locations throughout the city, we happen to be relatively close to it where we were so it wasn't too hard.

Next we started off down the famous Champs Elysee. Many things caught my eye, expensive restaurants, Cartier, fashionable women walking with old men and little dogs - but the photo below was definitely one of the coolest. The Louis Vuitton store on the Champs Elysee displays in their window, A WHEEL OF HANDBAGS. Now I'm actually not a huge fan of Vuitton but the wheel I was a fan of.

We popped into the Nike store to see what was going on in there. Mostly the same stuff as back home, except I did like this quote they had displayed along the stairs. I guess that means I'm an athlete.

Next we walked past the cinema, and saw a poster for a new movie coming out. I like how the French get right to the point when translating American movie titles. I suppose in the end, it was a very bad trip.

Another view of the tower as we got closer to the Louvre. As I my photography, I have discovered that I have a talent for photographing lamp posts (and also signs - I love photographing signs) so here we have a lamp post (you all should see how many pictures of lamp posts I have that I have not included in this blog - it's alot, lamp posts love me)

Here is Chris in front of the Louvre. The pyramids in front of the Louvre (designed by I.M. Pei) are another "eye sore" according to many of the locals but I think their modern look interacts so well with the old fashioned design of the former royal palace, the two really strike a balance - it all works in my mind.

Thanks to our Paris museum passes we were able to skip the long lane snaking around the big pyramid and walked right into the museum via the super secret side entrance. The photo below is one that I took from inside the Louvre. I love the look of the bars over the window. It kind of makes you feel like you are in a very well decorated prison.

The next photo shows my favorite statue in the musuem - The Winged Victory. She stands at the top of a staircase at the end of a long hallway and looking at her from afar is almost eery. It might be because she is missing her head, or it might be because she has wings or a combination of the two but whatever it is, it really is chilling and invigorating at the same time. More on her in a bit.

The next stop on our tour was the world famous (and rightfully so) Venus De Milo. There she stands in all her glory, beautiful and graceful as ever. Her sculptor is unknown, in fact not a lot is known about her and the mystery surrounding her past is part of what makes her magical. I will also say that I am particularly drawn to her because she is a favorite of my mom (shout out to Rita!)

Also, I have to say, and I hate that I even have to say this but it's my blog so I will say what I want - people that get their photos taken WITH priceless works of art make me mad, really mad. The piece of art is not your friend, it does not want to be photographed with you - nor do you deserve to be photographed with it. Ok I am done now and I apologize to those friends of mine that enjoy taking pictures with art, to each his own

Ahh back to the beautiful Winged Victory. I'm not sure if you can see from this photo, but she is actually standing on the bow of a ship (which makes it EVEN eerier). Imagine her gliding along the water on the front of a majestic vessel, her wings extended. To me, she is a great symbol of power.

Next, the obligatory shot of La Jaconde (aka the Mona Lisa). Most of our time in this gallery was spent waiting for people to move their heads so I could get one decent shot to put up on the blog. For those of you who have never seen her, Lisa is relatively small compared to her enormous reputation. To be honest, I don't know the history behind the painting and the detail with which this painted was created is certainly impressive but she really isn't any more impressive than any other painting in the joint besides her obvious stigma.

Next is a photo of your truly, underneath one of the upside down pyramids on the sides of the Louvre. If you believe the Da Vinci code (please tell me you don't) Mary Magdalene is buried below this pyramid.

Next a beautiful flower in the Marais neighborhood where we decided to take a walk after we toured the Louvre.

Me on a see saw near Victor Hugo's house. SOMEONE (and I'm not naming any names) refused to play on the see saw with me - that's what I get for marrying a party pooper

A lock on a gate that looks like a face to me

A shot of several amateur artists sketching the fountain in front of them. One of the many amazing things about Paris is that you can always find people relaxing in the small parks throughout the city. Whether they are there to have a picnic and drink some wine, sunbathe or practice their art, the interaction between the city and its people is truly something to be envied.

Here is Skittle posing - I made him turn his head in a dramatic fashion to once again practice my photographic skills

One of my favorite places in Paris - LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU!! (now imagine me saying that in an obnoxious exaggerated french accent and you will begin to understand what Chris has been putting up with all day). This very industrial museum is the home of modern art in Paris. We didn't get a chance to go in today but there is a lot to see in there - hopefully we will get the chance to go back before we leave

Well that's it for this blog folks. After Pompidou, we headed to the hotel to relax for a bit and then popped out for a bite at one of the local restaurants. It is 11 o'clock at night here right now and I gotta go to bed for tomorrow it is off to Versailles! Stay tuned for the next blog to see our day as honorary French royals (minus the beheadings of course)

Bon nuit mes amis!