For you iPod users out there, I just discovered this --- iSkins. Nice way to personalize your iPod and protect it. I must say, the carrying case that came with my iPod is kind of useless except to simply protect it when I'm not using it. It completely covers the device up and you can't change songs or anything unless you take the entire iPod out of the carrying case. (although I could use the remote control..but then that's another accessory to drag along) I've been so incredibly happy with my iPod. So far, I've downloaded about 6GB of music..and have so much more to go. I recently bought one of those cassette tape adapters so I can attach my iPod in the car...no more need to find a bunch of CDs for a long road trip--I just have to bring my iPod and I'm set. Love it.



Some scandalous news about Sarah from Joe Millionaire---ha ha!

blegh. what a rainy, icky day it is in seattle today. and my website is down--and my friend that hosts my website is in africa....i'll just have to wait.



i'm finally back in the swing of things at work and starting into my new project in addition to taking care of my annual self-evaluation. it really took me awhile to get my mind out of vacation mode.



on a good note, i've had the time to go snowboarding again. since coming back from paris, i've gone to steven's and snoqualmie with friends. Check out the pictures I took when we went to Snoqualmie. This weekend, I'm going snowboarding with team members from work...and then for a weekend trip to Whistler the following weekend! Wahoo! Heading to the mountain is really the only thing that gets me through a Seattle winter.



i just found out that wil has to stay in germany for a possible 6 more months :-( he told me recently that the only reason why he would have to stay would be because they're going to deploy him....eeks...



so Joe got rid of Mojo! I was surprised---thought it'd either be Melissa or Zora that would get the axe next. I guess that $1MM check really freaked him out. My predictions: Melissa will get kicked off next, Zora will win and it'll turn out that Joe really is a millionaire--causing a surprise to the TV viewers. ha ha. wouldn't that be great?

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted...been a bit overwhelmed coming back from Paris and settling back into my regular 'ol Seattle life.



Suffice it to say, Paris was a blast. I met a lot of really great people, ate yummy food, visited a lot of places--all at a reasonable pace. I actually spent a lot of time on my own since I'd been there before and didn't want to go to some of the sites that the group was going to (as I had seen it before). All in all, it was fabulous. Other sites visited: the Catacombs (creepy), Musee Rodin, Musee Picasso (very good), the Latin Quarter, Galeries Lafayette (shopping!) and a Tour of the Sewers with Marissa on the last day!



I have one negative comment about Paris: the airport security seriously concerns me. There is absolutely no proof in my passport that I was ever in France--same goes with the other friends I traveled with. I walked off the plane, picked up my luggage and walked out on the street. No customs, nada. And when I left Paris, not a single soul asked me the usual "Did you pack your bags? Have your bags been in your possession the entire time? etc etc." I was surprised considering how major of a city it was. At least security was tough in Amsterdam.



Check out my photos from Paris here.



Since coming back, I've been hanging with the boy, catching up with work email and trying to get myself back on track with things pre-Holiday. This last weekend I killed my body: went to the gym for the first time in weeks on Saturday, snowboarded on Sunday, and went salsa dancing for the first time in almost 3 weeks yesterday. My body aches.



While in Paris, got a chance to catch The Pianist, which was so moving. I loved it. Adrien Brody carries the entire film from scene to scene. It's heavy emotionally...but oh so good. I highly recommend seeing this. I'd like to watch it again here; the last half of the movie is all in German...and since I watched it in Paris, it was only subtitled in French...so I had to rely on my romantic language skills to guess the content.



Have you checked out Joe Millionaire? It's awful...yet, it freakin' draws me! The basic premise is that some construction worker who makes $19,000/year poses as a guy that's just inherited $50MM and is looking to settle down. In come the bachelorettes who are all going to get set up to be gold diggers no matter what their reason may be for not liking the guy in the end---uh...like, the fact that it's one big fat lie! It's one thing if everything was true except for this guy's net worth...but they're lying about EVERYTHING, including his actual name...and the guy is such a horrible liar..he stumbled over coming up with a middle name when asked. I didn't expect to find the funniest element in the show to be "Evan".



One of these days, I'm going to have to get out to CES in Vegas. I'm such a gadget girl--my whole family is (except for my mom). Jon reminded me today how many gadgets I have...and I must admit, I love my toys. Have I mentioned my newest toy? A 20MB ipod. Oh yeah...love it. I'm slowly uploading my entire CD collection onto this thing...no more finding CDs to take on road trips or leaving CDs at work...I'll have it all in the palm of my hand.

I've done so much in the past few days here in Paris (luggage is all safe btw)....now I'm sitting in an Internet cafe near my hotel IM-ing with my family. Brrr--it's freezing. The weather suddenly turned cold today and a snowstorm swept into the city today, leaving it white everywhere. My legs are so weary from the amount of walking I've been doing---a lot of sites I hadn't visited from the previous times I've been here: St. Chapelle, Basilique du Sacre Coeur, Centre Pompidou, Opera to name a few. Asides from sightseeing, I've been getting to know a lot of Jigna's college friends who are all awesome and fun to hang out with. We have a good group of people here--usually about 8 of us...though on New Year's, we had 13...including Jaume and Tove who drove down from Brussels---so nice to see them and catch up. I've been taking a ton of pictures and have a whole 60 min. worth of video footage from this entire trip.



Anyhow, gotta run..will write more later...but everything's been great. I can't believe I have to return to work in 2 days (I'm insane..I plan on going into work after I get off the airplane) So nice to have put my brain on vacation mode for so long. I need to take more of these 2 week vacations.

I decided to join a little tour of Amsterdam and am back now. I guess there are enough people that have lengthy layovers in this airport that they've made a business of giving "between flight tours" of the city. It was a basic bus tour of the main downtown plus a visit to a CHEESE farm. Nothing terribly exciting (as I've been to Amsterdam before)...but it definitely helped me pass time here quickly. Eager to get over to Paris and take a shower. I'm just praying that my luggage is all safe and sound---Northwest/KLM is notorious for losing my luggage...additionally, I was bad and checked in a bit late in Seattle (blame my jet lag from Hong Kong)--so my luggage is labeled as a "late check" and I got an official warning that it might not have made my flight. [sigh] I'll just have to wait and see what happens when I get to Paris...

In the past 3 days, I've logged in a total of 25 travel hours and who knows how many thousands of frequent flier miles. By the time I reach Paris from Amsterdam, my total travel time will increase to 32 hours (long layover here). My body has no clue what day it is and is confused how my meals jump from breakfast to dinner. The 1 day I had in Seattle just flew by..though it was nice to sleep in my own bed and unload everything from Hong Kong. I even went out with Felix to see Gangs of New York---a very long movie, incredibly bloody, a good story...though somewhat predictable.



The flight over here to Amsterdam wasn't bad actually---the 3 seats to my right were all empty so I had plenty of room to stretch out, read a book and get some sleep. I now have a 6.5 hour layover and am debating what to do. Much to my surprise, the Amsterdam Airport ROCKS! It's so clean, modern, high tech and is full of fun things for a typical layover passenger to do. There are tons of shops, restaurants, cafes, internet docking stations (for 5.9 euros/30 min.), a CASINO and these fun "big mama" chairs as the signs indicate (big round red chairs that look like they're from IKEA)...practically enough to keep me plenty entertained for the next few hours...although I'm really tempted to take a bus/train into the city and check out the Rijksmuseum or the Anne Frank house. The weather is rainy and blegh..so I'm not in the mood to just wander around.



I'm annoyed--the batteries in my iPod ran out on the flight over here..and I was dumb and didn't bring the charger. ah well.



I don't know if I'll be able to find an internet cafe again before tomorrow...so if not, Happy New Year to everyone!

herb ritts has died: what a loss..so young..so talented.