In like an aardvark, out like a wombat?

"Always forget..." - no wait - "Never remember..." - how does that saying go again?

Well the months of 2009 are just marching on by. We're not running beam, I haven't taken a single shift so far, but it feels like my plate is more than full.

Maybe it's because I won an all expenses paid trip to exotic Torino, Italy! Or I could trade it all in for what's behind door #3. Well, maybe not "won", and maybe not all expenses... What actually happened was that I was assigned a time slot for giving a talk at a CMS workshop on CRAFT results on some stuff that I worked on a couple years ago. Here's a link to the workshop website. (The agenda is restricted to CMS-oise access). See if you can find me!

So I've been feverishly preparing my talk, trying to get it all spiffed up. At the same time, I finally came down with the cold I'd been trying to avoid for a month (been singing the bass section lately). The kids have had a cold each for weeks now. G was up four times last night because her nose is all clogged up, and because of the dry air. So you can pray we all get better before Wednesday morning when we leave for the workshop; Thursday morning is when I have to give my talk. I actually also give a practice talk tomorrow (Monday) afternoon in front of my colleagues.

K has been so wanting to get to Italy that when this opportunity came up I couldn't imagine not trying to find a way to bring her along. But bringing along both kids, outside of their normal comfort zone without all the amenities (and toys) of home? Gee, maybe that would be worse than just staying at home. B is our chief concern, so what we tried to do was find a family from church that could take B in for the 3 days while we're gone. We thought we had it lined up, but it fell through, so now we're back to taking him with us. Fortunately, a colleague of a colleague who resides in Torino gave us a reference of a hotel that has quite a few amenities, including a kitchen, all for about the same price we were seeing elsewhere. It's called Residence Sacchi.

Rather than take the bus we'll be driving the car - it'll be packed with both kids and what little we can stuff in the trunk - the double stroller, the pack-n-play maybe, where will the luggage go? It's a three+ hour drive that takes us through the infamous Mont Blanc tunnel.


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We hope to be getting some sightseeing together at the tail end of the workshop. And hopefully we'll have good pictures to upload on our next entry.

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Here's a quick little blurb for those who follow pop culture. Check out who was here at CERN for a photo opportunity. Read about why here (scroll to the bottom).

Hopefully more to follow soon...
-PKBGD