Meeting Barbara and Lauren in Paris

Barbara volunteered to bring Lauren to Spain for her semester abroad. They took the scenic route, stopping in Paris first, which is where I met up with them. Coming from the beach in New York and heading to the Mediterranean, they were not exactly prepared for the weather in Paris, which was rainy and cold enough to pass for London weather. (Note the flipflops and sunglasses.)

It was great to see them. Living in the north east of the U.S., random family visits are a commonplace, but here it's a real treat to see them even briefly while they are passing through.

Near the Eiffel Tower we saw a bunch of guys doing crazy tricks on these power riser things:

It's like your own personal trampoline. But it's an expensive toy -- they said about 350 Euros. Here's a youtube video that shows someone doing flips:

Are you registered to vote?

Pets

I kicked this massive spider out of my flat last night.

I then promptly wondered whether that was a big mistake. Maybe this guy is the one who has been keeping the cockroaches at bay lately. Oh, well. If he is my cockroach scarecrow, I'm sure there are others like him willing to take over the job. I'm pretty sure it was a smaller instance of the same spider that got stuck in one of my cockroach glue traps a while back. I let this guy go out in front of my house, but maybe I should have frozen him and sent him to Nancy.

As Bob Dylan says,

Kick your shoes off
Do not fear
Bring that bottle
Over here

I'm going to the Fest.