Anybody But Duke

"Every year on Selection Sunday, I make my own choice: Anyone but Duke.

I am not alone in this growing anti-Duke sentiment. In fact, more Americans root against Duke in the NCAA tournament than rooted against the Soviet Union in the Cuban missile crisis.

Some might figure this is just a reaction to the Blue Devils' remarkable pattern of success. Actually, no. We just don't like the cut of their jib."

This Norman Chad column eerily mimics my methodology for picking the NCAA tournament.

Also, apologies to readers who had trouble with yesterday's post giving my picks. I've fixed it. Not shown below is my pick for the final game -- Kentucky over Wake, 87-80.

NCAA picks

Read 'em and weep.

Wine Update

Only 4 wines to mention since our last update. We also had some enjoyable wine in Paree, although it was not always something we can get back home.

2002 Cousiño-Macul Cabernet Sauvingon

We definitely enjoy Chilean Cabs, and we loved the Cousiño-Macul Antiguas Reservas. We haven't found a Chilean Cab under $10 that we've fallen in love with, and this continued the trend. Enjoyable, and I'd consider buying it again, but I don't feel we have to pick up another bottle.

2002 Tyrell's Pinot Noir

We continue our search for an enjoyable Pinot Noir. This time we turned our attention down under, to Tyrell's. More disappointment. Not bad, not wonderful. I doubt I'd buy this one again. I'm beginning to think we'll have to spend a little bit more to find a Pinot we can really enjoy.

2003 Graham Peck Pinno Pinotage

On the other hand, maybe if Pinot doesn't float our boat, Pinotage will. Pinotage is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault that is a South African specialty. It was very tasty, and on the lighter side, so maybe it's a good Pinot replacement for us.

2002 Charles Back Goat-Roti

After the success of the Goats Do Roam, we thought we'd try something a little bit pricier in the same family. It was very good (I have not met a South African wine I haven't liked), but I don't know that it was better than the Goats Do Roam, which was about half its price.

Robo Rally Cake

Earlier, I had promised more detail on my birthday celebration. Here's a little more...

Christina ordered a "Freeze Frame" cake from Baskin-Robbins. She copied an image of a board from Robo Rally onto the cake. The cake looked like this (picture courtesy of Ben)...

The Tower

Well, we're back home...but our luggage isn't. We saw it in Chicago, and they're supposed to deliver it...well, a couple of hours ago.

The last touristy thing we did in Paris was to go up the Eiffel Tower. Here's what it looks like when you're waiting in line...



Here's a view of our hotel from the tower's second level. Those soccer fields were right in front of our window; the Hilton is the building directly to the left of them. You can see the Seine in the background.



It had gotten dark by the time we got to the top. Here's the Palais de Chaillot at night.



Afterwards, we headed with a colleague to the Latin Quarter to a small restaurant (bistro?) called Le Petit Vatel for a wonderful dinner to close out our Paris experience.

And to close it out completely, our luggage arrived as I was typing that last sentence.

Toupary

We had the conference dinner for the second conference of the week at a restaurant called Toupary.



It was on the 5th floor of a department store on the bank of the Seine. Here is a view from the restaurant window of a ship going under the famous Pont Neuf bridge.



We enjoyed ourselves at the banquet.



Especially dessert.

Another Picture

There's another picture from the Louvre over at Christina's TravelBlog, for you fans of The DaVinci Code.

Mona Lisa Overdrive

Yesterday, after the first conference I'm here for ended, we went to the Louvre. It's open late on Wednesday, so we were able to get a few hours in. They say you can spend a whole month there, but since I'm generally interested in more modern works (a preference Christina shares to some extent), I think we had enough time.

We started out with some Egyptian antiquities...



Then we made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Mona Lisa...



There she is!



One of their Vermeers was in Frankfurt, but they still had "The Astronomer" around.




We amused ourselves by making up fake captions to some of the pictures. My caption for this Reubens was, "Can I get a little help here?"



My favorite painting may have been Hieronymus Bosch's The Ship of Fools. And not just because I like saying "Hieronymus Bosch." It's a fairly cutting satire of religion...see the nun in the center playing the lute and attempting to take a bite out of some sort of food. (Sorry that the image isn't clearer, but it's hard to take pictures without a flash.)



Despite the best efforts of the museum staff to fail to give us directions, we made our last stop at the Venus de Milo. Perhaps because of the lack of crowds, perhaps because of the size of the piece, perhaps because of the setting, she was more impressive to me than the Mona Lisa.

More Images of Paris

Yesterday, between the conference and banquet, we snuck over to the Musee D'Orsay. Sadly, it closed at 5:45. This was particularly sad since the sign said they closed at 6. Ah, Paris.

Here's Christina with Whistler's Mother...



Here she is with a Degas painting...



When we woke up this morning, it was snowing. It make look pretty, but it makes getting to the conference a little tricky. (The coffee never arrived at the conference due to snow delays. Luckily, I don't drink coffee.)

Here are a couple of pictures out our window.

Images of Paris

Greetings from Paris. I suppose I (or Christina) will have a travel commentary later, but I need to run to lunch soon. So in the meantime, enjoy these pictures I've taken.

The first one is of Paris from the Pompidou Center. I kind of like the "artistic quality" of this one.



We went to see the modern art museum in the Pompidou Center. Here's Christina walking through one of the pieces.



Here's a piece called "Fibonacci Crocodile".



If you look closely, you see the Fibonacci numbers coming out of the crocodile.



Here's Andy Warhol's "Ten Lizes".



Here's the Eiffel Tower from our window. They have a light show every night that is actually fairly tacky.



And here's Christina on our walk home from dinner last night.