One more week until the CFA exam!

Correct:  One more week until this "CFA charterholder candidate" gets my life back after taking the "CFA level I examination"

Incorrect: I'm getting me my C next Saturday, so that I can be a C-FA!

CFA Institute Guidance: Standard VII: Responsibilities as CFA Institute member or Candidate: Reference to the CFA Institute, the CFA Designation, and the CFA program: "The Chartered Financial Analyst" and "CFA" marks must always be used either after a charterholder's name or as adjectives, not as nouns."

Well, the LAST time someone sent me 10-dozen red roses...

Now this is something you or I may never experience.  I have a colleague with, well, an admirer.  Since I've been working here, this is the second time he's sent her a triple-digit-number of red roses.  If you saw her in person, you might understand why someone would send her 120, that would be 2 bouquets of five dozen red roses each.  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY roses.  Now, you or I may never have this experience... but imagine if that were YOU, getting 2 of these honking things delivered TO YOUR DESK AT WORK... on a bi-monthly basis.  Yeah, that could be a little embarrassing... not like you can really blend into the crowd with this one

It is easy to miss what 120 roses really looks like until you realize that Felice (not the recipient, just a willing model) is not a miniature person but a NORMAL SIZED HUMAN BEING.  She could curl her entire body into a smaller space than these babies!

A good and proper French lunch (sushi)... away from the office

My colleagues took me for lunch today... here is Boris and Joanna

Laurene and Joanna

Lizette and Felice

I really do work with a cool bunch of people :)

The waitress loved getting six different credit cards to split the check.  Thanks, guys!

You didn't need that piece of paper did you??

You know what is really satisfying? Shredding paper!

The little confetti is fun.  

Paris and candles and sushi, oh my!

Before it was gone, it looked like the Louvre...

Who knew they came in different colors?

The Thirty Nine Steps

Last night my mom and I saw Alfred Hitchcock's The Thirty Nine Steps.  Incredibly clever and funny.  Highly recommended.  

Next Broadway show on my list will likely be Shrek the Musical (this summer when my sister and brother-in--law visit.

Good times

What do you mean you didn't cook this for me???

But there is still some left in the bowl!

Oops...sorry... 

Excuse me, can I lock up my unicycle next to your Kebab stand?

I saw a guy riding a unicycle this morning on the way to work. We were BOTH on our way to the office, it seemed. He wore dress slacks, black dress shoes, and his coat tails were sort of flapping, perfectly symmectrically behind the wheel. Couldn't see under his coat, but I imagine there was a tie too.

It was quite a tall unicycle too. No helmet though.

The guy rode on the sidewalk along 52nd street, so seeing him on this particular route, unfortunatley, left me still a little unsatisfied about the logistical details of how exactly does one ride a unicycle to the office in New York City?

For example...

* What happens when you get to a stop light? Do you just hop off the thing, or just kind of "balance" in place?
* What if you can't avoid a sidewalk with scaffolding? Can you lower the seat, or do you have to stop and walk to avoid hitting your head?
* Hills? Both inclines and declines?
* Can you ride with a purse or briefcase? Do they make little unicycles with baskets?
* Where, exactly, would you put the lock on your cycle?
* Do they make a special helmet with an attached mouthpiece-whistle-contraption since you can't exactly attach a bike horn to your (non-existent) handlebars?

A little wrench never hurts anyone...

Especially like a blizzard in Colorado.  My mom's first flight yesterday was cancelled in advance of the snow that started yesterday morning.  All the school districts closed for a snow day.  Now, in New York (tri-state area), people kind of panic when it starts to snow, and they will cancel or delay schools because the WEATHERPEOPLE ARE PREDICTING SNOW.  No matter if it is currently 70 and sunny, if the forecast is snow, schools are cancelled.  

In Boulder, where I grew up, the rule of thumb was that unless the school buses were literally buried in so much snow that they couldn't physically LOCATE the buses, our education was more important. 

But they closed schools yesterday because the roads were so bad.  In fact, the highway itself was shut down, and my mom couldn't GET to the airport.  So for a few hours during the day, the trip was off- we figured we'd re-schedule for April or May instead.  It broke my heart to imagine not getting to see her, but yeah, a blizzard legitimately fits into the category of "things we can't control."

I even offered to my boss the Broadway tickets we have for Saturday night for The Thirty-Nine Steps.  French people, however, do not like Broadway.

BUT... the story has a good ending... we got her on an 8:00 am flight this morning (He-llo 4 am airport shuttle!) arriving this afternoon.  

Good thing this trip didn't end up BORING or anything!