2. Taking my shoes off.

3. Enjoying the minibar. My hotel doesn't have one!!!

4. Riding the mechanical bull at the Saddle Ranch. Thank GOD there are no pictures from last year!

5. Doing ANY bad things. Boytoys, you're out of luck this year. Trixie is TAKEN. And you don't want to mess with a Marine's girl!

I AM actually doing some work while I'm here. Thursday evening was the opening ceremony of the Imagine Cup. It was held at the super-swank Hotel de Ville (City Hall). I developed a ten minute crush on Paris' Deputy Mayor Jean-Louis something (don't worry Marine, he's like 150 and I didn't even talk to him). Yesterday Video Monkey and I filmed some interviews with three of the finalist teams in the Game Design track: Brazil, Germany, and Korea. The other three teams were presenting to the judges so we'll interview them today.

Other than work I've been sightseeing and nearly dying of happiness. Yesterday Mom and I went to Notre Dame. It's mind-boggling to think that people who couldn't read, who maybe lived to the age of 30 if they were lucky, that lived in squalor and disease and had nothing to look forward to except the promise of Heaven could build something like that. I've been in many famous and beautiful cathedrals in my trixietravels, but Notre Dame pwns them all.

Last night I had dinner in a café near l'Opera with Mom, Staci from Xbox, Video Monkey and his lovely daughter Brett. I had duck sausage and profiteroles for dessert. The waiter was RUDE. After dinner we all went to the Louvre which is open late on Fridays. Staci and I checked out the amazing Egyptian and Mesopotamian collections. We saw Hammurabi's Code. The REAL THING. Incroyable! My mom went in a different direction and saw Charlemagne's sword. We need to go back again; I've got to see the Dutch and Flemish paintings, Raft of the Medusa and Charlemagne's sword before I go.

Tomorrow we have a day off and are taking the train to Versailles where I may pass out from pure joy when I see the Hall of Mirrors!

This trip would be completement parfait if my Marine was avec moi.

Bonjour from Paris! Here's the lowdown so far on the City of Light

The Good:

• Haven't met a rude Parisian yet.
• The food is amazing. Nearly suffered the petit mort from my first bite of quiche in a sidewalk café
• Diet Coke is plentiful!
• I can see the Eiffel Tower from my hotel balcony

The Bad:

• Tourists taking photos of artwork in museums. Seriously, wtf? You need a photo of yourself with Venus de Milo to prove you were here? Consider "Mr Pink," a Teutonic douchebag in a pink shirt standing in front of the Mona Lisa talking loudly into a cellphone and taking digital photos while a bead of sweat ran down his fat face. I came very close to violence.
• My luggage arrived at my hotel TWO DAYS after I did. Despite the fact that my mother had medication in her suitcase that she needed, Air France in its wisdom decided to sit on their lazy derrieres rather than bring us our luggage in a timely manner. You have an angry Trixieletter headed your way, messieurs.
• Because the chargers for both my laptop and my cellphone were in my suitcase, I was completely cut off from civilization once the batteries all went tits-up. This sucked enormously and put a very cranky and paranoid spin on my first couple days in Paris.

The Magnifique:

• Paris is a total artgasm. Mom and I went to the Musee d'Orsay where I encountered Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Whistler (and HIS mom) and all the Impressionist boys.
• The Louvre was amazing. Walking up to it I really felt like I was in Paris. I nearly wept (for reals!) when I finally stood in front of Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace). We only got through Greek and Roman sculpture plus Italian Painting before I needed to skedaddle back to meet up with co-workers.
• I'm eating pain au chocolat as I write this. Mom went out to a patisserie and brought back yum-yum. I'm getting powdered sugar all over my keyboard but I don't care!!