Ahhh...vacation in Paris

Once again my blog has fallen by the wayside. But I have a good reason this time - I was away in Paris! It was my mom's birthday and what better way to celebrate than a week in Paris? The weather was a tad cool and rainy over there (while it was unseasonable hot and sunny in Toronto, go figure) but who cares, I was away on holiday. We saw all the touristy sites, ate great food such as crepes and red wine (my fav was this great Merlot that was only 2.21 Euro for a whole bottle!) and even had time to relax and explore the city. My favourite area was Montmartre, where I spent a wonderful Saturday afternoon and even had my portrait done by one of the artists.

The Louvre

The Eiffel Tower

Sacre Coeur

Crepes!

So, what else have I been up to? Well let's see...I went to the Wine and Cheese Show and sat through a "naked tasting" seminar (not as interesting as it sounds, sadly it was a "blind" tasting rather than the "naked" tasting it was billed to be). The show itself was pretty interesting and offered many, many wines, beers and spirits to be sampled but was surprisingly lacking in cheese! I almost made it out to some interesting HotDocs films (sorry V-pants, next year I promise), saw a taping of the Rick Mercer Report, enjoyed Mahler Symphony 4 at the Toronto Symphone Orchestra and...wait for it...resigned from my job! Yup, you heard me, I quit!

I decided that things were just too busy for me right now and that I really needed to put all my effort into finishing my dissertation and completing my degree. My last day will be May 1st, which will hopefully give me enough time to pull together the first draft of my dissertation for May 12th. I think things will go much more smoothly once I have the time to really get into my research again. Having some time off this summer (while I wait for revisions to be reviewed by my committee members) means I might actually have some time to do some crafting and hang out at the cottage.

Well, that's all the exciting news I have for now. Hopefully, I'll be posting again soon. Over the next 5 days I'll have seen Dirty Dancing, gone to the Opera and left the job I've held for the last 3 years and 8 months. I should have something to talk about!

I'll leave you with some pictures I took early this evening when out walking the dogs.