Is there an app for that?

Great new business idea:  sending holiday cards, with hand-written envelopes and everything. 

Someone go start this business then give me a call.  I'm trying to actually send cards this year.  Or at least have them sent.  By someone.  Who my friends and relatives will think is me.  Dear family: if you get a card this year (don't hold your breath), it's totally from me.  Personally.  Promise. 

So many things...

.. or not.  Somehow, I'm so busy right now and have so much going on.  And yet, nothing really seems blog-worthy.  And so I will summarize my semester (thus far) in bullets!

Teaching:

• The semester has started and I'm teaching two regular classes - cost accounting and managerial accounting - and one new experimental one: I'm teaching cute little freshmen how to do research.  Like, original research that can hopefully be published someday.  I love the class and I love my freshmen, but holy hell this is a ridiculous amount of work.  I have to keep all of my research, plus their five group research projects, in my head at all times.  Just thinking about it makes me tired.
• Luckily, I have two research mentors (i.e., seniors who have done research) helping me out.  There is no way I could keep up without them.  
• Also, I somehow got me a TA for my two regular classes.  She is fantastic.  Without these three ladies, I would not have my sanity.
• Oh, btw, did I forget to mention I'm also teaching a night class at a local public university?  It's managerial accounting, which is very similar to my cost/managerial I teach at Pepperdine, but the three classes use three different books.  I'm constantly wondering which group has had which lecture.  The extra money is nice, but this schedule is getting to be a bit much. 
• Four weeks of classes/lectures left.  I can survive anything for that long.  (Rinse and repeat.)  (Even though you may find me saying this to myself as I rock in a corner.)
• Next semester:  two classes at Pepperdine (managerial and systems) and a TA.  This will leave me plenty of time for my...

Research and Consulting:

• I just got back from a 16-hr trip to San Francisco to speak to a group of women IT executives.  I met some amazing ladies and just wish I could have been in town longer.  
• I'm still juggling 12 papers, but it's looking like a few of them will be submitted this semester (crossing fingers).  I'm hoping to get these done and handed off so I can focus on new projects next semester....
• One of which is an exciting project with PayPal - part consulting, part research that I'll be conducting with the team.  We start the week after the LISA conference...
• And the LISA conference will be equally exciting.  I'm on the program committee and will be running a special CHIMIT/LISA workshop where we'll work with researchers and sysadmins to identify possible projects the group will work on over the coming year.  I've never been to Boston before, and the week after my birthday sounds like as good a time as ever.  
• Another project is a cost allocation project with a student at Pepperdine, a student at the University of Arizona, with advanced game theory analysis with a brilliant colleague.  
• One more!  We're hoping to collect data about IT use in Accounting or Finance firms.  It's looking like we have one firm interested, but are looking for one more.  If anyone has a connection at a firm with 150-200 people using a software program (like tax prep software or financial analysis software) and is interested in a free consulting analysis and suggestions on ways to improve training and use - and is willing to introduce me - please let me know.  I will love you forever and buy you a meal and beverage of your choice.  :)
• One of the fun parts of my research and consulting is the travel.  In addition to Boston in December, I'll be in Maui for a week in January (HICSS) and may be on the Big Island for a week in April (WDSI).  Those two conferences weren't planned, but I'll try to deal.
• Sometimes I even break away from my computer...

Life:

• I was working out for about three weeks, and then I was super graceful and sprained my toe.  Now that I'm better enough to work out again, I've gotten used to sleeping that extra hour.  Someone please give me a guilt trip in the comments and get me off my butt.  
• I got bored one Saturday and decided to dye my hair.  Now I'm a red head!
• Xav and I had our five year wedding anniversary in September.  Six years together.  Yikes.  As usual, I had night class that night and was too busy to remember to buy a gift.  I am such a bad wife.  Luckily, we just decided to do dinner and count the Hawaii trip a part-anniversary gift (well, the two days I'm not at the conference). 
• Uh... sorry.  I just don't have cute pictures of kids.  Or entertaining stories.  I got all excited last week when I got my data analysis to work out!  But that really belongs in my research section.  I promise my days don't seem boring until I decide to write about them.  

What about you?  I miss you guys. 

I'm lazy

... so for any updates, I'll just point you to my other website:  http://nicolefv.com/news/news.html

Basically, it's "summer break," but I've been working my tail off on research.  Three papers have been submitted (two to journals, one to a conference) and I'm hoping to get three more submitted before the semester starts.  I'm so boring.

Notes from Europe

Xavier and I are back from our two weeks in Europe (and then a week in Utah for my baby brother's wedding)... and I still feel like I'm scrambling to catch up. 

That said, I did want to share a few observations about our trip to Europe:

1. Apparently I look German.  We spent our first 8 days in Switzerland, which is part French speaking and part Swiss-German speaking.  On a train ride from Bern (where they speak Swiss-German) to Lausanne (where they speak French), the conductor walks through the train car to stamp tickets.  When the conductor got to Xavier and me and our friends, she took each person's ticket, stamped it, and handed it back.  To Xavier, she said Merci.  To our two Pepperdine friends, she said Merci.  When she handed my ticket back to me, she said Danke.  
2. I am not a cheap date.   In Europe, the cost for water and soda is the same amount - and it is on a per-glass basis.  The cost of water/soda is *more* than the cost of beer or wine. 
3. Pee whenever possible.  Public restrooms cost money in Europe - anywhere from 1 euro (about $1.50 US) to 1.5 CHF (about $2.00 USD). We all got pretty good at reminding each other to go on trains, in restaurants, etc.  
4. I don't particularly like French food.  I do like French pastries.  I mostly subsisted on Coke Light and pom frites (French fries) when we were in Switzerland.  (And bread and nutella for breakfast.)
5. I don't particularly like German food.  I do like German desserts.  I mostly subsisted on Coke Light and pom frites when we were in Germany.  
6. I will teach my children the joys of Nutella.  While waiting in line at a crepe cart in Germany, a little girl (probably two years old) spotted the chocolate-hazelnut treat and alerted her father to it.  Pure awesome.
7. I don't function very well with no sleep.  Traveling Germany old school style - or grad school style, rather - via trains and hostels sounded like a good idea.  It worked out okay until I was severely short on sleep and sick.

Someday Xavier will download and sort through the 1,200 pictures he took (not an exaggeration).  If I'm not too lazy, I'll share some. 

i am shameless

... and will create blog posts for prizes. 

I met some very sweet girls when I judged Miss Draper Outstanding Teen last night.  One of them, Heidi, married an old high school friend and has a giveaway for an adorable pair of earrings on her blog. 

Shout out to Heidi.  Yay for super cute earrings.  You can see the giveaway here, but I still hope I win.  :)