La vie en rose

Let's see, work today...Mélanie wasn't in, so I attempted to muddle along.  There were problems with the power meter that tells us the pump energy, so that rather put a damper on the work in the lab for a while.  I'm still not sure what was wrong or if it will happen again, but the meter started working abruptly around 5:00 pm, so hopefully all is well again.  (Incidentally, I've been having to nurse the pump laser along when I go to start it up in the morning.  I really hope it doesn't have serious problems, since that would basically shut down that portion of the lab while it was being fixed.)

So instead I spent the morning TeXing up a brief report of my investigations into spectral line widths.  Turns out that those optics lab summary reports Prof Haskell required were good practice after all.  In the afternoon, I returned to the new issue of taking Fourier transforms of spectra to infer optical path lengths inside the cavities.  Well, it's a new issue for me, but the lab group is quite familiar with the process.  After (figuratively) banging my head into a wall for a few hours, it dawned on me to ask Clément for help, and he explained what I needed in the space of a few minutes.  So tomorrow I should be all ready to analyze!  All in all, it was rather a slow day.

In the evening, Kierstin, Caleb, and I were all set to visit the Louvre, but it was such a lovely evening that we wandered in the Tuileries for a while...which became a quest to see the obelisk at the other end of the garden...which became an exploration of the other huge roundabout at the other end of the Champs-Elysées...which turned into an investigation of a side street and neighborhood...which briefly turned into a determined search for a public restroom (0.50 euro in the Tuileries, but quite a fancy, well-kept public restroom)...which then became an adventure crossing the Pont Alexandre III and the discovery of the Grand Palais and Petit Palais...

...we never quite made it to the Louvre.   I'm not upset.  There are several other weeks, and this was by far the most pleasant evening-weather we've had here so far.  Much better to spend it outside.  Additionally, in the end we fetched up by the macaroon place again, so I treated myself to that cherry-blossom one that looked so good last time.  (I found pictures of them here, if you're curious.)  And it was as delicious as it looked.  It was a satisfying evening of adventuring in Paris.  I still am amazed by the sheer ubiquity of marvelous monuments and grand views in this city.  Nearly every cubic centimeter is a treasure.

Oh, it's been a few days now, but I saw this event begin while walking around Notre Dame last Thursday evening.  I had no idea what was going on, but it looked fun.

Kierstin and I have unintentionally adopted a theme song for the week: Edith Piaf's La Vie En Rose.  It's been stuck in both our heads for the past two or three days, and bursts out occasionally in fits of humming or, in Kierstin's case, beautiful singing. No complaints from me.