New Record

It's hard to believe -even for me-: I stayed at the office until 2am yesterday. It's a new personal record.... By far.
We're very close to launching a new B2B web product, and the deadline was so aggressive that we have to stay late almost every day. Anyway, I'm not complaining, the job is great.

I still had time to go out a little bit with Gillou, who was visiting NYC with his girlfriend Sophie and their friend Guillaume.

Look at the pictures: aren't they cute? ;-)



Gillou, Guillaume, JN, aka the Paul Smith boys.

This was probably the last friend visit of the summer... We had a great time, I think they enjoyed my Manhattan walking tour.

On my to-do list, before Elise comes back:

- Probably spend the labor day week end in Quebec (city)

- Go climbing again (At least try)

- Try to find a bit of personal time (I mean socializing time, not just work and Facebook) in the evenings, which involves going to work earlier in the mornings;-)

Washington DC and road Trip

Carine is not the only one roadtriping accross the US!

Road Trip to Washington, DC ; Delaware and NJ

Crammed in our small, but stylish rental Mitsubishi Eclipse, we had a road trip of our own. Ok, not a real Grand Open Spaces style roadtrip, but still. I think we drove 550+ miles over the 3 days week end.

Dan, Anne, Barbara and myself spent 2 days in Washington, in a really hotel that Mr Priceline let us book at what I call a reasonable price :-) DC was a really nice change compared to Manhattan: the mall and all its museums kept us busy... and walking. I was particularly pleased by the National Gallery of Art, even though I was first refused admission on Saturday. It was partly my fault, I had a knife in a bag, used for a picnic at lunch.... Whatever. I was reminded that here, The rule is the rule! We had to come back on sunday. At least, they let me take pictures of us in front of the White House!

I was also delighted by the restaurants we went to: a vintage style brasserie/microbrewery (Elise would have loved it) and an Oyster bar where I had the best scallops of my life! Reminds me we have to go again to that small low-key lobster restaurant in Keyport, NJ...

On monday, we came back to New York traversing several states: 5 of them in one day (DC, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey arriving by ferry from Lewes, DE and then NewYork). The water in Cape May, NJ was too cold an too rough for swimming, but strolling accross the old Victorian mansians in town was a very pleasant alternative. Very touristy too :-( It is after all the oldest beach resort in the US!

The day after the explosion around Grand Central , part 2

The day after the explosion around Grand Central

New job and stuff

Lots of things have happened to me recently but I have not felt inspired to write about them... Sorry, now is the time to compensate.

First, I got a new job. Woohoo! This is a big deal! Since I have a work visa, it is not very easy for me to get a new job in the US, as it adds quite a few constraints to the potential employer. But a startup become interested in my profile and decided to hire me, I am so glad!
I actually started last week, and they immediately put me on a project, and have high expectations! Pressure is on me! The cool thing is that we have those rooftop parties. Our exclusive, Treo equipped reporter, Don already posted about this on his blog. On the last day at my old job, I managed to gather quite a lot friends and co-workers for an after work party at a sleek place in midtown called LEA. Almost 100% of the invited guests came, I was really glad! Of course, as per the new tradition, we ended up to SMAC after the drinks, where Caesar expected us.

Two weeks before, as I was heading to the subway, I came close to taking part of History: I was on the site of the steam pipe explosion near Grand Central 20 minutes before it happened! While there was only one person dead in the incident, it was a big shock in Manhattan (see picture).
A few other impressive photos on cnn.com.



In the days following the explosion, midtown was a mess around Grand Central, and I took several pictures of crowds of commuter walking in the streets closed to traffic. I had never seen so many people in Grand Central. Add the heat, humidity, and the rumor that the air was filled with asbestos (this proved wrong later) and you can imagine the scene...

Don was really close to the explosion: he took some live pictures when he got out of the office here.

Other than that, everything is great, my ankle feels more and more flexible. I can't wait for the days when I can run or climb again. Yesterday was the NYC 1/2 Marathon that I missed... For now, I enjoy the week ends walking around the City (Brooklyn, Oh Yes!), enjoying museums such as MOCADA, where we saw an interesting exhibition by a Russian-Brazilian-French artist about the immigration in France and the riots of 2005, and work most of the rest of the time. The really bad news is that, after me, Richard broke his ankle and his tibia two weeks ago, and that Gunks season is definitely over for him too... Maybe climbing is really dangerous after all....