Finally out of PA!

After being stuck in Pittsburgh for a few days due to the ice storm, Joe and I are finally in Nashville! Driving through Ohio today was a nightmare. Ohio has earned a D- for it's poor ability to clean the roads. We had to drive on this for all but about 40 miles!!

Even though Kentucky looked as if they got more ice due to the number of snapped trees, there roads were amazingly clear. They earn an A in my book!! Here are some photos of the ice destruction in Kentucky....

Then the sun came out as we entered Tennessee...

Then we took this cool little motorcycle taxi with Warren from our hotel into downtown Nashville for dinner and back again. Here's a view from inside the passenger cabin...

We're on the road!

The movers came bright and early, 7:45am to be exact, on Saturday and picked up all 3600 lbs of stuff we own and we've finally started our trek from PA to Dallas! Of course, due to the weather we've already had to alter our travel plans and are stuck in Pittsburgh for an extra day. Then we'll skip Kentucky and head straight to Nashville on Wednesday morning as long as the roads are clear. Hopefully we'll have internet at the upcoming hotels so that I can keep everybody updated.

Hope you're all staying warmer than we are in frigid PA!

Here are some picks from the pickup:

-half of our boxes

-the moving truck

-the truck is on it's way to Texas!

Back in the USA!

We're back!!

We've been keeping busy entertaining ourselves since we've been back.

-Christmas

-rabbit hunting


-New Year's Eve
unfortunately, we never got our cameras out on NYE, so I don't have any photos. But it was damn cold that night... walking home at 3am and it was only 16 degrees F outside!!

-Bridal Fashion Show for the shop where I got my dress

-Jacqui's visit (Yuengling Brewery & Penn State)



Since we're currently in a hotel at PSU, I've finally been able to upload some pictures. Hopefully this will tide you all over until we get to Dallas and have real internet again!

Super busy and stressed!

Everything's a bit strange right now. We're getting ready to move and we're trying to finish up our stuff in the lab. Christmas is coming. It's cold and snowy in Lausanne, which it's never been, at least in the last 5 winters I've been here, in December. I'm applying for jobs in Dallas as often as I can... it's a lot of work writing cover letters!

We have done some fun stuff recently, and I'll add some pictures below, but it'll be a while before I upload pictures on flickr since I don't have much time to get them all photoShopped, etc. I can't believe we're leaving so soon... it's so sad :(

here are some recent photos.....

-Stéphanie & Tristan came up for lunch last week. Here's Tristan in the lab!

-We went to the Montreux Christmas market on Sunday with Jacqui and her mom. Here we are with the beautiful sunset in the background.

-Luca & Lolly are in town visiting all the way from Australia. Of course we met up with them at the Great Escape.

-It started snowing Tuesday night and it still hasn't stopped! Here's the cathedral in the snow.

Dinner with Stéphanie & Tristan

Last night, Stéphanie invited me and Maya over for dinner since Manu was in Barcelona for the night. Now that Tristan is only on formula, we were able to have an apero with Stéphanie for the first time in 10 months!

-Stéphanie & Tristan enjoying their drinks

-Tristan sleeping... due to his colic, this only lasted for 5 minutes

Carolyn's been a bad blogger...

Yes, I know, it's been a while. I got sick the last day of our trip in Brussels and got behind in doing things, so finally I've gotten around to blogging 2 weeks later. Joe and I had a nice time in Brussels enjoying the Belgian beers and cuisine. Here are some pictures:

-Eating a Brussels waffle with strawberries.

-Joe getting peed on by the Mannekin Pis.-A candy shop.

-Joe enjoying a Belgian ale in the Au Bon Vieux Temps bar.-The Atomium outside of Brussels.

Now we're enjoying our last month in Switzerland and it even has snowed one last time for us in Lausanne. It's all nearly melted by now, but it's supposed to snow again tonight. can't wait!

Election Day!

Sporting our 'Vote for _______.' shirts yesterday, Joe and I supported the cause for everybody to get out and vote... unfortunately, nobody who saw us wearing the shirts could go out and vote because they were either americans who had already filed absentee ballots or they were not americans.

But I got to go hang out with Stéphanie and Tristan last night and finally got to hold him! It's the first time in a long time that I've held a wee baby. But after the first minute all that babysitter knowledge came flooding back to me. See!!


And for the first time, after his long nap on me, he was awake and making lots of fun little noises and being very photogenic. Unfortunately, I had the flash off so that I didn't blind Tristan, so this is the best shot I got. What a cutie!!


Then, Joe took about 3 hours to make french onion soup, which was well worth the wait, as was the victory by Obama!! We stayed up until ~12:30am and then got back up around 5am to see McCain and Obama give their speeches.

Yeah for a new president! Hopefully we don't get harrassed in Brussels this weekend.

Happy Halloween!

On Friday night, Jacqui hosted a huge Halloween party. She even convince her friend from home, Janine, to fly down from BIF (Jacqui's home town) and party with us. I left work early to help set up and Jacqui let me carve the jack-o-lantern...she actually had no idea how to do it, so being the resident American it was up to me!

-my pumpkin

-the bishop/pope & Sarah Palin

-Princess Leia & Alice in Wonderland (Jacqui & Janine)For more Halloween pictures, check out the flickr page!

Weekend update

After the last 2 party filled weekends, we had a 'low-key' Friday night at the Great Escape. On Saturday morning Jen and I went shopping with Jacqui to get ready for her Halloween party this Friday and then Joe & I had a quiet night at home making one of my favorite Swiss dishes- Papet Vaudois. And on Sunday Joe decided to bake some bread! He added his homemade pesto to the bread and it sure was tasty!


On Sunday afternoon, we had a nice stroll along the lake with Stéphanie, Manu & Tristan. We went over to their sailboat so that they could get a couple pictures of Tristan with the boat. How cute!!

Here are some more pictures that I took while we were out along the lake on such a beautiful fall day.

Alice's thesis defense

Alice, a PhD student in Joe's lab that started with us back in 2004 had her thesis defense last Friday, followed by a Celebrity party. The pictures.

I helped Jen and Jacqui with their 70's hair, since they were going as Charlie's Angels.
Joe dressed up as Celebrity Chef, Bobby Flay (a bunch of people in my mom's office think Joe looks like Bobby Flay)... though, I don't think the real Flay would use his tongs for evil.

and I dressed up as Special Agent Sydney Bristow from Alias. Me and my angels....

Sai's going away weekend

Sai has grown wings and left Switzerland for the wild world of Austin, Texas. But before he left, we had a weekend full of crazy fun.

Day 1, Friday: Sai and Ed's big PhD party...some sample photos:

-Sai & me

-Joe & Sai

-Is that little shieldsy?

-Sai & ...who is that wearing a blonde wig and glittery hat?

Day 2, Saturday: Sai had been saving his change since he moved to Switzerland...that's nearly 5 years of saving change. He decided that we were going to go out to the bar and buy a couple rounds with all the change. I just realized looking for pictures that I never took a picture of all the change.... Sai had nearly 300 francs worth of swiss change and another 40 Euros in change!

-One last night at the Great Escape

Day 3, Sunday: Sai was frantically cleaning his apartment the entire weekend, but was able to sneak out Sunday for a couple hours to grab one last apero by the lake.

Here's the link to all the fun pics from the weekend. We'll miss you Sai!!!

Welcome to the club, Dr. Reddy!!

Yesterday, Sai had his public thesis defense, followed by his 'what I did while I wasn't in the lab' slideshow, which I put together over the last few weeks.

-Sai laughing at the presentation I put together

After the apero in the auditorium, Jacqui graciously hosted Sai's Indian dinner extravaspectacular....aka... Sai cooked a crapload of Indian food for his friends and colleagues to feast on.

-The spread

As always, it was HOT HOT HOT!! and I couldn't eat it. I at least tried this time, which resulted in a numb tongue. Once everybody was done chowing down, Jen got all of the guests into position, especially Sai, for a special presentation that Jacqui and I were going to give for Sai.

Just a tame little striptease....

It appeared to have been a bit hit. Will post more later!

Welcome Tristan!!

Stéphanie & Manu's son, Tristan, was born Friday night and I got to go visit all 3 of them yesterday at the hospital. Tristan is soooo cute! See!!


Unfortunately, all the non-pink outfits were dirty, so Tristan got to wear pink yesterday, if you were wondering why he was wearing pink. He slept the entire time I was visiting, so I had a chance to sit and chat (and drink bubbly! -but only with the new daddy) with Stéphanie & Manu. I also got to watch Tristan blow bubbles! Here's a little video:

I also got to give them the cute little onsies I ordered from BabyGap. They're so cute!!
They'll be heading home today or tomorrow for some nice quiet home time and they'll let us know when we can come visit so Joe can meet Tristan. If you want to see some more pictures of Tristan, you can check out their website for Tristan.