I'm Baaaack!!!!!!!!

Hello Everyone!
I got back to New Orleans on Sunday night. I always hate leaving Murren, but there's nothing like a flight across the Atlantic Ocean to make you really happy to be home! I never mind the flight to Europe because I sleep through most of it, since we get to Switzerland in the morning. But since we arrive in the US in the evening, I try to stay awake during the flight home in order to minimize my jet lag. So of course, after a few hours all I can think about is how much I want to be home!
Of course, Murren was wonderful. Skiing was great. I skiied during both the mornings and afternoons on all but two of the days (due to afternoon rain- boo!), and I think I really improved. I am particularly proud of my parallel turns.
A lot of my improvement is due to another year of ski school. I loved my instructor this year- she was a grandmother in her 60's who used to be on the Swiss Ski Team named Vreni (pronounced "Frannie") and she was so much fun! Vreni was incredibly cheerful and upbeat, and she had a million metaphors to describe what we should be doing. (As best I can tell, I'm supposed to be a snowflake-bird with Ibex horns and heavy luggage- which is a summation of all of the different metaphors she used.) She also liked to exclaim "It's a feeling!" while side slipping down a hill.
When I skiied with my darling fiance and his family, we did a bunch of off piste skiing, which is pretty much my favorite thing in the world. :) I also tried a few new things- I skiied at Birg, which is a lot higher in the mountains that I normally ski. You have to take a cable car to get there, and it's so high up that there are no trees. I also learned how to take a T-bar lift (the secret is not to sit down on the bar).
We brought a flip video camera with us this year, so we have a lot of videos up on you tube. Here is one of me taken on our second to last day of skiing (I'm in a red and white jacket). You can compare that to my skiing earlier in the week to see how much I improved. I'll link one more of a little off piste run in Winteregg that we really loved, but feel free to check out the other videos that my darling fiance uploaded (he and his brother recorded videos while talking in California accents and calling each other "ski bro" that were absolutely hillarious). I will also be putting photos online soon. :)
In other news, last night we finally introduced Homer to Pancake. We put Pancake in a cat cage and let Homer sniff around him for about an hour, then we let Pancake out. The meeting was mercifully anticlimatic. Homer occasionally hisses at Pancake and has tried to smack him once or twice, but there have been no serious cat fights. I am thrilled! Pancake is pretty thrilled too- he's making himself right at home. He even slept in the bed last night! Of course, he's also been meowing excitedly pretty much non-stop, which is less thrilling, especially at 5am. :P
Before I go, I should also write a packing recap. I get better at packing every year, but my bag was still a shameful 51 lbs. The mistakes I made were packing a bag of self heating glove warmers (that we keep bringing but never use, actually- I really wasn't thinking when I packed it) and letting my darling fiance put a very heavy power converted in my bag at the last minute. (I can't complain too much about that though b/c it allowed me to use my flat iron.) I also could have packed 3 books instead of 4, I really could have gotten by with 2 instead of 3 pairs of pants, and 2 pairs of PJ's. I also took a couple extra shirts that I didn't need and too many pairs of underwear and socks (which I will probably do again b/c I still like to have extras). I was worried that my new boots wouldn't be warm or waterproof enough (I put waterproofing wax on them before the trip), but they were fine- even when it was raining and snowing. My new ski pants worked out perfectly, which makes me so happy. $30 ski pants rule! I actually didn't use my new black sweater as much as I thought I would (I didn't really feel very cold this year), but it was very comfortable and cozy when I did wear it. I think next year the only thing I will add to my packing list is a pair of slippers. My darling fiance brought his and I was totally jealous.
Anyway, I'm sure I had a million other things that I meant to write, but I can't seem to recall them right now. Blame the jet lag!

Rather Busy

This is the time of year in which I live by my to do list! I am pooped and am staying in tonight. :) I must say that I have accomplished a ton this week- both in terms of socializing and in terms of getting important tasks out of the way.
On the social front, I went to book club. We read The Help, which was really good. It's been my favorite book so far. Up next is Cleopatra's Daughter. I also went to a holiday happy hour hosted by my local sorority alumni club (Kappa Alpha Theta, if anyone is curious, and I'm actually the treasurer of our club this year) at the Swizzle Stick Bar (one of my favorite places for creative cocktails), and I had dinner with my friend Heather last night at Il Posto Cafe.
On the task front, one of the most notable things I did this week was get two of the four remaining outside cats fixed at the Southern Animal Foundation. Trapping the cats was actually kind of scary because they went nuts when the trap door closed and I had to wear work gloves to move the boxes because I was afraid that they would bite or scratch me through their cages. However, I am really glad I got it done because the two cats I caught were actually both girls. I'm so glad I prevented two more litters from being born this year! The remaining two cats are boys and I have an appointment to trap them and have them fixed in January.
In other news, I am psyched to say that I got a pair of Spyder ski pants for $30 yesterday! They are actually little girl's pants- my current ski pants (which fit but are old and kind of out of date looking) are a girl's XL (ski clothes run really big!) and I looked at the measurements and realized that I could totally fit into the Spyder girl's size 18. They were marked down to $80 from $100 on Amazon.com. I also knew that my mom had gotten me an Amazon gift card for Christmas. I thought it was for $25, but when I called her to get the number, she said it was for $50. Score!! My pants should be arriving Monday. :)
Today I was as busy as can be. I'm facing a big deadline at work, and I had a bunch of errands to run afterward. I actually trapped the cats last night and took them to the vet this morning. After work, I first dropped by Massey's for waterproofing spray for my new snow boots (Amazon sales have been good to me this fall), then I stopped and looked at the bridal shop (Pearl's Place) down the street. It recently occurred to me that since I want a fitted dress and I don't want a train, a good option for me might be to order a Bridesmaid's dress in white. A lot of bridesmaid's gowns were too shiny, but I really liked this one. It's significantly less expensive than a standard wedding gown, but what I really like is that it weighs so much less than a wedding gown! I know it's a weird thing to be excited about, but I was walking through the store trying to get a better look at some of the wedding dresses, and whenever I would even move one on the rack, all I noticed was how heavy they were! It made them very unappealing to me. Anyway, I think that the dress is really cute on me too. I love the single shoulder strap and the horizontal pleating. I took a picture on my camera phone (please ignore the weird face I'm making and my strange hair)- what do y'all think? You have to picture it in white, of course. After that I went to Symmetry and priced wedding bands (because we have been working out our budget this week- fun stuff), and was pleasantly surprised that my initial guess for that part of the budget was too high. :)
After that I picked up a couple of Christmas presents (I'm officially DONE!) and then went and got the cats from the vet.
Tonight I still need to finish wrapping presents and then wash the dogs because tomorrow is my family's Christmas party in Gulfport. I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog but for the past few years I've gone skiing in Switzerland with my darling fiance and his family during the actual Christmas holiday (hence the snow boots and ski pants), so I celebrate with my family early. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I got everyone some great presents and I can't wait for them to open them.
Okay, less blogging, more work! Have a good weekend everyone!

Rough

This week has been pretty brutal. My trip to Houston began with me getting up at 5am on Tues. to fly out there. The meeting I had on Tues. (which was the only reason I flew out on Tues. instead of Wed.) was rescheduled for Thurs. at 7:30 am practically the moment I stepped off the plane. Otherwise work was pretty uneventful. I had sushi for lunch, and pizza with goat cheese and prosciutto from Bistro Provence for dinner. Yum! I also had the good fortune of getting upgraded to a suite the size of my apartment. I had to make a point to sit in the living room area, at the dining table, and in the chairs in the bedroom. Then I sat around and watched HBO's Bored to Death, which was really funny. I'm sad that I can't see full episodes online though because they only played the first three episodes when I was watching.
Wednesday morning, I showed up for my 8:30 am appointment only to get an email asking for it to be postponed till 9. Since I was already at the office building, someone else let me in and told me that they thought the person I was meeting was actually in New Orleans unexpectedly and that I would have to sit in his office and teleconference with him. I was not happy to hear this, but I set up my computer and waited until 9 to find out what was up. Fortunately, the person who told me about New Orleans was wrong- but I spent 30 minutes being a very unhappy camper! Wed. I got a lot of work done, and met a cool couple at dinner in the hotel restaurant. They had been married for 55 years and had set foot on every continent. That is my new life goal. :)
Thurs. morning I had my appointment at 7:30, followed by an appointment with the person I was working with on Wed. to finish our work. As I was walking into the building, I found out that my 7:30 appointment was canceled. Is anyone starting to see a pattern here? I ended up having the meeting I was supposed to have, just with someone else on the same team, but I would rather have just slept in. I don't sleep very well on work trips, especially when I have to get up early b/c I wake up every hour and check the clock. Aside from that, work went well and I was able to get a ton of work accomplished. I left for the airport on time for my 5:55 flight. Unfortunately, the flight ended up being delayed until 7:30, which meant I walked through the door to my house at 9. What made things even worse is that my darling fiance called me when I was stuck in the airport around 5:30 to tell me that one of the feral cats who lives under our house has a broken leg (he had to leave for night float and couldn't catch her in time, plus he went straight to the airport from work and will be in NYC until Sunday). Of course it's Mo, the nicest one. I just sat in the airport and thought about how much it would suck to have an untreated broken leg and hated the fact that I couldn't get home sooner so I could try to catch her. I couldn't find her last night,but she was around for breakfast this morning. I fed her some turkey I'd brought to lure her into a box so I can take her to a vet. She ate the turkey out of my hand, but ran away when I tried to pet her, which is something she generally allows. So I have to get her trust up enough so that I can catch her. Of course, she's so not stupid. She sat just out of reach under the house, looking at me like "I see that you have brought down a big crate and are wearing work gloves and a denim jacket so I won't scratch you. Good thing I'm cat enough to steal turkey and still get away from you even with only 3 legs!" Then she disappeared further under the house and I haven't been able to find her since then. I am taking a little comfort in the fact that she is eating and getting around. But I hope she'll stay relatively okay until I can catch her. I'm so afraid she is going to get sick or be attacked by an animal or just get worse.
Poor kitty. Hopefully I will be able to get her at dinner time.
Of course, I had to tell my boss that I was going to be late due to attempts at cat catching this morning and when I got in, he kindly asked me if I was ok. Which made me cry at work. Ugh.
On the plus side, Tyler and Kate (my soon to be brother in law and his lovely girlfriend) sent Halloween/Engagement cookies to my office, which was perfect because I have never needed a cookie more!
In other happy news, congratulations to my friend Xiujuan who gave birth to baby Michelle this week and to my friend Bonnie who defended her dissertation!! Actually I think Xiujuan defended as well (if not, she will be defending soon!). Three cheers for my PhD friends!!
As for the rest of the day, I need to clean the house because our friend Ryan is coming in town and staying for a few days, and the house is in it's usual state for a Friday- a complete mess! I am also going to get groceries I think because I have to run 11 miles tomorrow and I'd rather not go to the store after my run. Other than that I am staying in because I am wiped out. I took a nap when I got home from work but it just made me feel more exhausted.
Sorry to be less cheerful than usual, but it's been a rough few days.