What a beautiful moment across the Atlantic to wake up to.

First beam!

Got pickpocketed the other night while walking home from a club with a friend, through a crowd of what appeared to be diplomats' kids and a couple Romanians - leaning towards the Romanians as the culprits - I've come to loathe the Gypsies with accordions on the trams - but you never know.  Didn't notice until a few blocks later, and by then, I'm sure the bumper was long gone.  It figures that despite having regularly walked the streets of Boston, Philadelphia, and Rochester alone at night, I wouldn't get hit until I was walking with a friend through one of the safest cities in the world.  Does anyone know how to get a replacement driver's license while living abroad?  The PA DMV is very keen on "in person"-ness.

I came back from Dublin to find snow on the Jura!

I have, quite obviously, been writing less and less here lately.  It's more or less because as I develop more and closer relationships here at CERN and in Geneva, people that I can talk to comfortably in person on a regular basis, I no longer feel compelled to vent to the world as a whole.  So it would be ill-advised to expect any significant updates in the near future unless some major batshit insanity goes down.  But stay in touch, ya hear?

Things have been moving along at work  smoothly, and I've been spending too much on going out.  Parents are coming to visit next week, and advisor the following week - it'll be good to see them, and I hope to squeeze some nice free dinners out of it.  Had a fondue night with a bunch of friends last weekend which went quite well - hope to have further dinner parties in the near future, though I wish my place was a bit bigger so that more than 6 people could eat at a time.  Have discovered a few small, artsy-sketchy-divey bars where the drinks are cheap - quite pleased with this.  Coldcut, a pioneer of sample-based music in the 90's UK scene is putting on a show at a local club in a couple weeks - looking forward to that.  Still miss cheap Mexican food.

four and in_alaska came to visit myself and pixieza this weekend.  I hadn't seen them in over a year; it was quite nice.  Did the requisite CMS CERN tour Friday afternoon (after getting my stitches out that morning), with pixieza providing the ATLAS analogue the following morning.  Friday night we all made fondue, which was quite delicious, and hiked it off Sunday in the trails around Lac Blanc above Chamonix.  Sporadic journeys to the heart of the Paquis for gelato were also made.  All in all, it was great seeing them again, and I hope to visit them in Cologne some time in the not too distant future.  Work lately has been a bit overwhelming, with work days running a good bit longer than I'd care for and evidence of poor planning and organization on the part of various individuals, myself included, running rampant.  It's been suggested that things will calm down around the end of October; I sincerely hope this to be the case.

Though I suspect I might find the lifestyle there not entirely agreeable, I think that from a purely aesthetic and environmental standpoint, the ancient city of Shibam in Yemen might be my ideal dwelling.

I should also note that the anesthesiologist at the hospital shaved my armpits before the operation.  I have yet to fully comprehend the necessity of such action.

Cut right index finger wide the hell open, down to the tendons (you could see them!) stripping cat5 cables with my favorite Opinel knife.  Required stitches and minor reconstructive surgery.  I still plan to continue to use the knife regularly, it's by far, of any pocket knife I've ever owned, the most resilient and consistently usable one.  I'll be proud to bear a scar where I can say, "This is there I sliced my finger down to the tendons," then reach into my pocket, pull it out, and continue "with this!"  The next few days will be follow up appointments for the surgery, filling out accident report forms at CERN (I'd just as soon move on with it, but they must have their bureaucracy), and training someone to do the task I was preforming while my manual dexterity and tendency not to bleed profusely returns.