Our quick trip to Paris

We had a lovely trip to Paris this past weekend. We flew in late Friday night and left Sunday afternoon. The trip started out a little rough because Cooper decided not to sleep a wink during the flight, so when we got to our hotel at 11:00pm he was a total nutcase. And since we didn't have his elephant that he sleeps with every night, he woke up twice during the night (totally not the norm these days) and cried for almost an hour each time. I was positive that I packed Cooper's elephant, but it was no where to be found when we arrived in Paris. When we got home we found it hiding in a little seat in the corner of the living room...we think Cooper must have taken it out while the suitcase was open just before we left. So yeah, it was a rough night, but after a shower, a delightful buffet breakfast and this lovely fruit basket waiting for us in our room, I knew the weekend wouldn't turn out to be so bad after all.
We started out on the tube, but then walked the rest of the day.

The weather was perfect. I mean really, really perfect. I don't recall ever being cold or hot. I was just perfect all day and all night. It was so nice.

We went to see the Notre Dame Cathedral.
We basically just walked the streets of Paris all day and took in the beautiful sights. I was surprised at how clean the city was. Berlin is full of graffiti, but Paris was not.
We ate lunch at a little cafe and the nice man at the window gave Cooper an ice cream cone to snack on.
It totally sold him on the French.
It turned out not to be such a bad thing that Cooper didn't get much sleep the night before because he ended up falling asleep in his stroller so we didn't have to go back to the hotel for his nap. (He was just kickin' back for his nap)
And he slept for 3 full hours! Such a bonus for us! It was so nice to just stroll and not worry about entertaining the little monster.

Just how we like him... (pictured here with his frog, an inadequate substitute for his elephant, but perhaps a good napping companion?)
We went to the Louvre.
But didn't go inside since apparently I'm one of the things that's restricted?
We walked in the adjacent park and sat at a bench for a while and just relaxed.

More on this location later.
We then walked up the Champs Elysses where most of the street was barricaded off in preparation for a little bike race that was ending there the next day.
We walked all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. There were tons of people.
There are twelve roads feeding off of the roundabout that encircles the arc. It is an automobile mad house. There are no signals and no lines so people just drive out there and push their way through the traffic. It was chaos. It made me a little nervous just watching.
Then we went on to the Eiffel Tower. It was quite spectacular.
Doesn't it look fake?
Later in the day we came up with a brilliant idea, which I don't know why we hadn't thought of previously. Cooper goes to bed around 7:00pm so we're generally tied to home after that point, but we decided to try and put him to sleep in his stroller and then go out for the evening. It took him a little while to fall asleep, but once he got there he was out. During the day he is a very light sleeper, but at night he's pretty much out like a log, which was the case this particular night. It was great. We were able to enjoy a nice long dinner without having to pay for a babysitter. So great!

Here's Pat with the name of the restaurant, Le Carre, in the background.
Pat had the house special chicken. He looked much happier after he had a bite, I promise.
And I had the duck. It was really good!
For dessert I really wanted to try the "hot up side Apple pie makes house" but opted for the creme brulee instead. It was good, but not great.
We had a really great time. I was sad to come home so quickly. But it was also nice to be home at a reasonable hour. I hope I get to go back to Paris one day. The place just makes me happy.

Greetings from Paris

More to come...

There are two things I am powerless against...

For some people, it's crack and booze. For me, it's chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and banana bread with chocolate and walnuts. I have zero self-control when it comes to these two things. For example, this pan of banana bread (I don't have a loaf pan, so it's more of a cake) came out of the oven last night at 9:30 pm. It is now 8:00 am and I think Pat has only eaten one square. (why does blogger flip some photos??? can anyone help me out here?)
In my defense, I halved the recipe and it's made with whole wheat flour and honey and dark chocolate. So it's good for you, right? And bananas...we all need to eat fruit, right?

Email Fiasco

The last two weeks I've been getting emails intended for some other Lindsay Young. I think some chick with the same name as me has set up a new gmail account but keeps accidentally giving people the wrong address. I've gotten a couple emails from eHarmony, an evite to Daniel's 30th birthday, a few UPS tracking notifications and a couple from the girl's parents. The first email I got from the girl's parents I thought might be spam or some phishing scam because it simply said "test". So of course, just to be cautious before I replied, I googled the couple's name and found their website which had pictures of them and their kids including their daughter Lindsay (it wasn't me by the way). I thought I would be nice and reply to them just to let them know I wasn't the person to whom they were intending to send the emails. Here is a string of our conversation.

Couple that I don't know: test

Me: Hi there - I think you have the wrong email address. I don't think I'm the Lindsay Young you're looking for.

Couple that I don't know: hello there. i will use this

(I didn't respond to this email because I was pretty sure they meant to say, "I will not use this" but just forgot to type "not". I do it all the time...leave out the important words. But no big deal right because I'm never gonna hear from them again? So then I got an email from them a couple hours later. This time I responded and tried to be more clear.)

Me: Please do not send me emails. You have the wrong email address. Thank you.

Couple that I don't know: what is the correct one?


What??? Seriously???

Am I not being clear enough? Any suggestions how I should respond?

What we've been up to...

I haven't really been in the mood to blog lately...I've been tied up reading, cooking, eating and shopping (mostly groceries). It hasn't left much time for anything else. We also had visitors. Here's a little peek at what the last few weeks have been like.

Grandma and Grandpa Young came for a visit.

We went to Prague.

And the Freiberg Temple.
We hung around Berlin.

Ate good food.

Played in fountains.
And on playgrounds.
It was pretty much way fun. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for such a great time!!!

Hijacked!

It's been a few weeks since the last post, so I thought I (Pat) would help get the ball rolling again. Rather than backtrack, I'll start with today with this lovely gem of true love, captured while we ate pizza at Vapiano's.

Is that true love or what? Who says the newspaper is on its way out? Can you possibly surf the web and hold hands at the same time? Of course not. Love will save the newspaper!

Cardboard Home

Our friend (and babysitter), Tramaine, is here in Berlin doing an artist's residency. Her project is taking recycled cardboard and turning it into furniture and other things for her living space. She had an open studio the other week, so we dropped by to check out her stuff. It was really cool.

We had to put on slippers before we went into the studio.
Cooper liked the floor.
This is a dresser. It actually holds her clothes. So functional!
A cute little Japanese style table. (Cooper knocked it down, btw...oops)
Sleeping quarters with partition.
Curtains and cherry blossom branches made from popcorn! So cool.
This is another partition to divide the space. I should have gotten more detailed pictures...the design was so intricate.
And here's the Coop in another person's open studio. They were playing Outkast and Cooper was loving it. He just kept stomping his feet to the beat and bobbing up and down. So funny! Also, don't mind his little tuxedo tail. It was kind of cold that day so I wanted to put a long sleeve shirt on him and all he had was an old onesie that was way too small so I couldn't snap it shut. I just tucked it in, but you know, with all that crazy dancing it wouldn't stay hidden.