It'll feel like DC again

On Saturday we leave for a week in Hong Kong, so I just checked the weather and at 4:00 in the morning it's 82 degrees with the humidity cranking the heat index up to 91. At 4:00am! I fear we've gotten conditioned to the relatively cool Swiss summer and may melt upon arrival. And if I don't kick this $@&# sinus infection soon I'm not going to be a happy camper.

Zolli

While Henriette cleaned our apartment, I mean flat, this morning, I went to the zoo. Baslers love their zoo, which they call "Zolli". One of the free morning papers occasionally has a "Zolli-Report". Yesterday's report was about the baby Himalayan Tahrs. It must be baby season because I saw lots of young animals. My favorites were a fuzzy black penguin baby and a couple young gorillas. I like the picture below of the Malayan Sun Bear even though he's not a baby. Here's another fun zoo fact for you: Flusspferd (literally, "river horse") means hippopotamus in German.

Amerika

(It's a musical night around here, evidently.) Regarding her earlier post, Gretchen actually found the Rammstein video for "Amerika" (you need Real Player). It's worth watching if for no other reason so you can hear them sing "We're all living in Amerika, Amerika, it's wunderbar."

iPod with a brain?

I just read and enjoyed this article from the NY Times about people who are convinced that the Shuffle mode on iPods isn't really random. So tonight I used Shuffle for the first time, and out of around 3,000 or so songs, which one came up as the very first song? None other than the first dance from our wedding ("When You Say Nothing At All" by Alison Krauss)! Then just a few songs later, there was one by Garbage...one of whose members lived across the street from Gretchen's parents (even though he moved, to this day we still sometimes call it "the Garbage house" even though we know the current family much better than we knew the Garbage dude). Now there's a techno song playing...and we live near Germany, the home of techno music. (Not only that, but it's a song by Dave202, and we just got an email from our friend Dave who works in DC...with area code 202.) Coincidence? I'm not so sure...

Sounds like a good name for a band

All this talk about music reminds me that my favorite band name here so far is Die Toten Hosen, which I believe translates as "the dead pants". I don't really care for what little of their music I've heard (hard rock), but it's an excellent name.

The hits

Speaking of MTV, I just caught a glimpse of a very intriguing new hit by the German band Rammstein called "Amerika". Apparently the single hasn't actually been released yet, but MTV started playing the video last week. It's primarily in German, but the line I heard in English goes something like this: "We're all living in America... Coca-Cola, Wonder Bra..." HUH? Another big hit on MTV these days is a remake of the old 80s hit "Break My Stride" by a band named Blue Lagoon. Who thought it would be a good idea to bring that one back? It was bad then, and it's still bad now.

Who is Wade Robson?

And why does he have his own show on MTV here? It clearly is an American show, but I've never heard of it until now. For those of you who are with me on being clueless about this guy, the point of the show is for Wade to pick a dancer for one of his music videos. They start out with 4 dancers who all think they're really hot. They have to "freestyle" dance to random music, and learn a dance routine from Wade, and eventually 3 are eliminated. Can someone fill me in on this guy?

Just because I feel like it...

...it's our nephew Lemuel:

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

I just found out that I will have my first German lesson tomorrow! I am very excited. I have some knowledge of German from a couple college courses, plus from my semester abroad in Vienna in 1991, but I am very anxious to be able to speak/understand more easily. It looks like I will be taking semi-private lessons twice a week with another American woman whose husband works with Kirk.

Extremism in Switzerland?

No worries, evidently. And the Swiss seem to feel safe...

Schokolade

Well, this would certainly be good news if true. Maybe I'll actually get healthier from eating lots of good Swiss chocolate...

Da blog

Thought I was making some minor tweaks to the blog tonight and inadvertently ended up making some major changes. So, things like comments may be a bit screwy while I try to figure out what I did...

Handball?

This morning we were treated to a rousing women's handball final, in which Denmark beat Korea in a shootout after two overtime periods. (Incidentally, I was happy about this not only because the Danish team was cuter, but also because with names like Daugaard, Vestergaard, Mikkelsen, Jørgensen, Brødsgaard, and Fruelund--actual names, not Ikea furniture--I felt a Nordic bond with them.) Anyway, handball isn't at all like what we played in elementary school back home. Near as I can tell, it's sort of a combination of soccer, water polo (minus the water), and basketball. It also seems to be pretty popular here. Last time I got a haircut I was talking to the guy who cuts my hair about Olympic sports and he was shocked when I told him that Americans just don't really get into handball. Dodgeball, on the other hand...

Tastes like chicken?

Yesterday we drove past a sign for the local Pferdemetzgerei. Let's see, Pferde=horses and Metzgerei=butcher shop. Hmmm... Yes, it's true. I've actually had to be mindful when I've been grocery shopping because right between the salami and the Bündnerfleisch (yummy air-dried beef; think prosciutto but different animal) there are various horse-related luncheon meat products available that don't look much different from the rest. They also serve the occasional Seabiscuit-related delicacy in our cafeteria, although I haven't brought myself to try it...

Madison

Last week, a group of women from my Mom's church hosted an estate sale at her house in Madison. My sister and I had taken out as much as we wanted and my stuff is now being stored at our cabin in Three Lakes. As you can imagine, sorting through 40 years of stuff and deciding what was worth keeping was totally overwhelming. It's not like we necessarily wanted all of it for ourselves, but it was also really hard to let it all go knowing it was part of our parents' house for so many years. Everything seemed to have meaning and significance and a memory attached. Anyway, we were told that the sale went very well, and almost everything sold. The few remaining household items were donated to charity immediately following the sale. My sister drove over from Milwaukee yesterday to do some cleaning (the house has also seen a steady flow of realtors and prospective buyers) and found an eerily empty house. I've never been to an estate sale, but I have a feeling they attract some crazy people. The sale started at 8:30 Wednesday morning, and we heard from a friend that 10 people were already lined up by 6:00 AM! But it gets better... we heard from a neighbor that one guy actually slept in his van in front of the house so that he could be the first in line. I wonder if he was pleased with whatever kind of treasures he discovered in our house.

Only in Switzerland

I finally made my first trip to the neighborhood flower field. It's a huge field full of all sorts of different flowers (carefully planted in neat rows) with a sign that says "Blumen selber pflucken", which essentially means you can pick your own flowers. To me, this falls in the category of something you would find only in Switzerland, and certainly not in the US. There's a price list for each type of flower, little knives you can use to cut down the flowers, and a couple buckets where you leave your payment for whatever flowers you take. What fun! Can you imgaine such a thing in DC? Choose your own flowers and pay on the honor system. What an amazing concept. I brought home 5 beautiful gladiolas which cost me a total of 5 francs. I can't wait to go back again in a couple days to see what's blooming.

Bread

There are so many good kinds of bread here that there's really no need to ever buy regular old pre-packaged sliced bread, but Gretchen picked some up when she first got back into town, and it turns out it's aptly named:

Frischen Himbeeren

That's right, fresh raspberries. That's what I bought from the young man who rang our doorbell about 6:30 last night. I was reluctant to buy them at first, because I'm always hesitant about anyone who comes to the door-- that's the American in me, I guess. When I lived on Capitol Hill in DC I had lots of strange people come to our door. One guy always wanted to make a few bucks by washing my car and I was usually suckered into it. Another guy was bold enough to knock on the door one time and straight out ask for money because he wanted to take the metro back to his house and he was broke. I said no. Anyway, back to Basel... our landlady, Helga, who lives upstairs and bought three containers of raspberries, insisted that I buy the two remaining containers, so I did. And they were delicious.

Yellowjackets

There was a story in yesterday's paper about how wasps are a bigger problem than usual this year (at least I think that's what it said), which isn't too surprising since last weekend I think we had to kill at least six yellowjackets (or the Swiss equivalent) in our house. Windows here by and large don't have screens (mosquitoes are only a minor nuisance), so when it's warm and you open the windows, you get all sorts of little critters--most of which fortunately aren't as menacing as yellowjackets--in the house. This gives Grady endless hours of amusement, as he sharpens his reflexes trying to catch flies and moths. [On a tangentially related note, we were walking Grady one evening last week when he all of sudden tried to pounce on something. We pulled him away and there was an animal of some sort that looked a little like a porcupine (or echidna, for our Aussie friends), but since it didn't stick quills in any of us, we think it was probably a hedgehog instead. Fortunately no harm seemed to be done; it curled into a ball and Grady went merrily on his way.]

Good dog

No, not Grady (although he's good too). I just remembered that last Saturday when we went walking around downtown, we stopped in Globus, which is one of the high-end department stores, to buy some pasta (they have an excellent gourmet food section). Anyway, as we were walking in, laying right in the doorway was a huge St. Bernard-ish dog looking completely unfazed by the hundreds of people walking around him (who were equally unfazed that a big dog was laying in their way). I keep trying to imagine an average American dog laying in the doorway of Macy's in New York without either running away or causing a customer traffic jam, and somehow it's hard to picture. (Granted, Globus in Basel and Macy's in New York aren't exactly comparable, but you get the point...)

Asian cooking

At home, we could always just go out when we were craving some Asian food. That's a little more difficult here in Basel. That's why I'm so excited about my new favorite store -- the New Asian Market. They seem to have everything one would ever need for cooking a variety of Asian cuisines. Yesterday I picked up turmeric, cardamom, garam masala, and some fresh ginger and pineapple. Last night I made two recipes I found on epicurious.com, Asian-Style Shrimp and Pineapple Fried Rice (minus the shrimp), and Pork Chops with Ginger-Soy Glaze. Tonight I am going to attempt to make Tandoori-Style Chicken and Cucumber-Mint Raita from the August issue of Bon Appetit. I'm not saying that it's going to be anything like Sonali's cooking, or like Raaga, our favorite Indian restaurant in Arlington, but hey, we're living in Switzerland. We've got to take what we can get. I'm expecting gasps from the peanut gallery... did anyone know I could cook?

My favorite time of the day

I just got back from taking Grady on his morning walk. It is a beautiful time of the day. The church bells are ringing, and the neighborhood is buzzing with people going to work and school. Of course, I love the fact that I'm not going to work or to school! Every morning, we walk by lots of people (both kids and adults) waiting at the local tram stop, and past the neighborhood bakery and butcher shop as they are opening for the day. Apparently school started a few weeks ago, and there are signs everywhere reminding us "Schulanfang", which is probably the equivalent to signs I've seen in the US saying "School's in session". I'm amazed at all the really young kids who walk to school-- or to the tram-- by themselves here. I remember walking to school in elementary school in Madison, but I wonder how common it is these days in the states.

Don't be too jealous...

...but I'm now the proud owner (and wearer) of a t-shirt that reads:

I HEARD THE LOON CALL
AT THE HEART OF THE NORTH
MERCER LOON DAY
2004
There's a drawing of a loon to complete the scene--if you can't quite picture it, maybe this will help:

Vana-who?

So I was just asked to go speak at a conference in late October in Vanuatu. Where, you might ask, is Vanuatu? Well, more or less in the middle of nowhere--in the South Pacific between Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia (near as I can tell, the shortest flight will involve at least 3 stops and 30 hours). With any luck I can take Gretchen along and maybe take some holidays in that part of the world...

G-Dog

We need a little color to liven up the blog, so here's a random picture of Grady.

Death

There's a happy topic! But appropriate, as I just read an article in today's Washington Post about the death of the woman whose work was instrumental in establishing hospice care (and who, I might add, happened to be Swiss...see, there is a connection to our life here). That probably wouldn't have even been a blip on my radar a few months ago, but after our experience with the hospice in Madison, it caught my attention.

Alas

FC Basel was soundly beaten by Inter Milan in the Champions League tournament last night, knocking them out of the tournament.

How is this possible?

Of all the possible issues out there, how on earth is it possible that Bush is getting traction on service in Vietnam? OK, I understand Kerry made it a big focus during the convention so the topic is fair game, but I'm still flabbergasted that Bush--who, at a minimum, used his family connections to get into the National Guard and quite likely never even completed his service--is able to get away with it. (Oh, that's right, they're entirely on their own and not working with the Bush-Cheney team at all, not one bit, nosirree.) It's no great secret that I would love to see Dubya sent back to the ranch in November, but I haven't exactly been blown away by Kerry either--he certainly has vulnerabilities. You'd just think that of all the issues they could use to legitimately go after Kerry, the one where they'd be at the biggest disadvantage would be their comparative military service. But now the whole question of what happened 40 years ago seems to be dominating the news cycle. Iraq? The economy? Oil prices? Health care? Hello? Unbelieveable.

[OK, I'm done ranting--no more politics for a little while. I seem to be coming down with a cold so I'm extra cranky this afternoon...]

Just in case...

It looks like the airlines are trying hard to entice you into traveling to Europe, or more specifically, to Switzerland, this fall and winter. Sounds like a great idea to me! Looks like Swiss has nonstop flights from NYC to Zurich this fall for $660 and down to $586 over the winter. United now has a direct flight from Dulles to Zurich and I found prices as low as $556. Anyone interested?

Coca-Cola Light sucks!

I feel really naughty using that term, because my Mom never liked me to say that anything "sucks". She did, however, grant an exception this summer by allowing me (and her hospice nurse) to frequently say "cancer sucks!". Because it does. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I miss my Diet Coke! The Swiss version, Coca-Cola Light, just doesn't compare. I'm drinking one right now as I work on writing thank you notes, etc. and it leaves this weird after taste. I suppose I could give it up entirely and just drink coffee and beer and wine and fizzy mineral water and other European drinks, but I love Diet Coke! I think next time I go back to the States I will have to smuggle some back to Basel. And I think anyone who visits us will be required to bring me one.

I am the grillmaster

Well, not exactly... but I did manage to cook dinner on our "grill" last night. Consdering I was gone most of the summer, this was my first Basel grilling experience. It's quite a production. The previous Americans who lived in this flat left us the grill. They also left us a couple bags of "kohle", which looks nothing like the charcoal I'm used to using in the States. Keep in mind I went to the Dick Krumbiegel school of grilling, so I learned to grill the real way on a Weber with charcoal-- foget about the "convenience" of a gas grill. Anyway, I attempted to start a fire on Monday night, but quickly learned that either a) we didn't have enough charcoal, or b) the stuff we did have had been sitting outside for a year and was likely wet. After staring at the lame smoldering coals for a while and becoming quite frustrated, we decided to go to the Sports Club for dinner instead. So yesterday I went out to OBI, which is sort of like the Basel equivalent of Home Depot, to buy some coal and a grill brush which I used to scrape a few years of yuck off the grill rack. It is really strange-- grilling seems to be very different that what I'm used to-- none of that good grilling smell, and the fire takes FOREVER to get hot. But, after waiting patiently, we did have some good grilled sausages for dinner. I think the bottom line is that everything just takes longer in Basel (kind of like doing laundry).

Reading list

According to 20 Minuten, it turns out some of the books that are popular back home are popular here as well. Here is their top 10:

1) Melissa P. - Mit geschlossenen Augen
2) Michael Moore - Hurra America
3) Dan Brown - Sakrileg
4) Tomm Jaud - Vollidiot
5) Allen Carr - Endlich Nichtraucher
6) Jamie Oliver - Genial kochen mit Jamie Oliver
7) Milena Moser - Die Putzfraueninsel
8) Dan Brown - Illuminati
9) Blanche Merz - Orte der Kraft in der Schweiz
10) Bill Clinton - Mein Leben

The word is spreading

Hey, my favorite female weightlifter made it into a story on ESPN's website--I guess I was way ahead of the curve (no pun intended) on this one...

Reality TV extravaganza

It's a rainy day, and I feel like I'm still fighting off the remnants of my pink eye/double ear infection illness of a few weeks ago, so I figured it was a good day to lounge on the couch a bit and perhaps even take a nap. I picked up the remote and did my usual flip through all the stations, knowing there's nothing for me to watch other than CNN or MTV. I can only watch the German broadcast of the Olympics for so long. Imagine my delight when I discovered that MTV has added two new (or should I say old) reality shows from the US to their daytime lineup. First, an episode of Real World Hawaii. You remember that season-- in this episode Amaya is trying to get over Colin by dating a keyboarder in a local band and Ruthie has just returned from her month away from the show at rehab. Then, an episode of Surf Girls. For some reason, that show never got much attention, but I love it. I bet most people don't know that I have a secret desire to be a surf girl. Too bad I grew up in Wisconsin and am sort of afraid of oceans. By the way, I did take a nap which ended when someone across the street starting working with a chain saw. Now I'm cleaning and organizing closets. Isn't life in Switzerland exciting?

Just wondering

When did "track & field" become "athletics"? Or is that just a European thing?

Henriette

I met Henriette for the first time this morning. She's the French woman Kirk hired while I was gone to clean the house once a week. By the time I left the house to walk Grady at 7:00 am she had already finished ironing our shirts and folding our laundry in the basement. Kirk has convinced me that we should keep her even though I'm back and can certainly clean the house myself. Frankly, I don't miss ironing shirts or cleaning the bathtub. I also like her because she gives Grady a hug when she sees him. But I have to admit I did feel like a bit of a slacker sipping a latte at Starbucks while she cleaned our house. What kind of hausfrau am I? As for Starbucks, I know that makes me sound like a pathetic American, but their big velvety chairs are just so comfy. Not to mention that it's one of the very few places in Basel where smoking is verboten (not allowed).

The perils of blogging

This is old news for readers of Wonkette, but a couple of weeks ago the Washington Post Magazine had a long story about a Hill staffer who recorded her multiple sexual dalliances with various Washington politicos on a blog that, when it ended up being publicised, ended up gaining her quite a bit of notoriety. There are multiple angles on the story depending on your interests--sexual politics in DC, the meaning of fame in this day and age, gender and sexuality, the sometimes bizarre world of Hill staffers (probably Gretchen's favorite angle, since she used to work on the Hill and knows how warped things can be there), etc.--but what really interested me was how something intended to be private can become public quite quickly in the digital age. I never, for example, figured anyone other than perhaps a small group of friends would ever read this blog--and I wasn't even sure if a small group of friends would be interested! Nevertheless, I know that at least a few other folks have stumbled across the blog (which is good). It's easy to see how, if I didn't filter myself from time to time, things could potentially spin out of control if the wrong person saw the wrong thing on the blog at the wrong time. Of course, getting a six-figure book deal wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen...

Life is good

After a long, yet relatively low-stress day of travel-- including a 3 hour bus ride from Milwaukee to O'Hare, an 8 hour flight from O'Hare to Frankfurt, and a 3 hour train ride from Frankfurt to Basel-- I arrived home to Basel about 3:00 Friday afternoon. I have to say that it feels really good to be home. It feels surprisingly familiar-- almost as if the last 4 months were a dream and that I was gone just a week. Kirk had several surprises for me. While I was gone he bought some new furniture at IKEA, hung pictures on the wall, and bought me my very own mobile! (Remember-- we're in Europe now, it's a mobile, not a cell phone) Other than my gigantic suitcases which remain upacked and cluttering up our room, I have to say that the flat looks really good with Kirk's new decorating. As for Grady, he wasn't sure that he remembered me at first and I suspect it may take him a few days to adjust to me being his primary caregiver and walking partner. Nonetheless, he makes me smile.

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...

Yesterday we were watching the Olympics and couldn't figure out which country had "SCG" as its symbol, so we went online to see what we could find. We started with the website for one of the German TV channels, and imagine our surprise when there was a picture of a naked woman (tastefully done, of course...and with links to more pictures!) on their home page. I'm trying to imagine the public outcry and Congressional hearings that would ensue if NBC or CBS had a picture of a naked woman on their website. (Oh, and eventually we found out that SCG was Serbia-Montenegro...that seems logical, doesn't it?)

Oh, my...

I'm not quite sure what the opposite of an aphrodisiac is (cold shower, perhaps?), but whatever it is, I experienced it this afternoon when Eurosport showed non-stop, live womens' weightlifting from the Olympics. (Gretchen fell asleep with the remote so I couldn't change the channel.) The sheer volume and intensity was indescribable (my favorite Polish hottie is pictured below)...

The eagle has landed

Gretchen is home! Yeah!

Speaking of the Olympics

I try not to be too political on here, but I enjoyed this article about the Iraqi soccer team being pissed off that they are being used in a Bush advertisement. (Well, I do live in Old Europe now...)

Olympic diving

This story is the sort of thing I've missed by not having the Olympics in English (of course, I've also thankfully missed out on hours of human interest stories and excessive coverage of U.S. athletes, so it all evens out)...

"Tomorrow, tomorrow..."

Gretchen is scheduled to leave tonight and arrive tomorrow the morning in Frankfurt, where she'll catch a train to Basel. At last! It's been about four months to the day since she left for what was supposed to be a 10-day trip, and what a four months (and especially last month) it's been. I guess this means I'd better clean the apartment...

Good for us?

By and large, the Basel Airport is a ghost town. It didn't used to be that way, but when Swissair went out of business a few years ago (reconstituted as Swiss), evidently flights from Basel were cut way back. They have a brand-new, large business lounge that is one of the nicest I've seen, yet there have been times I've been the only person there. It's almost creepy how deserted the airport can be. So it's probably good news for Basel--and us, if we want to take any discount flights--that easyJet is relocating from Zurich to Basel.

Wisconsin alert?

In these times of heightened (perhaps even politicised?) terror alerts, you can always count on The Onion to put things in perspective.

All I'm saying is...

...don't even think about messing with my little nephew. (No word on whether my brother Derek lost a limb after taking this picture...)

Just in time

Thank goodness Gretchen will get back to Switzerland for Schupfart. I mean, how can you possibly miss Schupfart?

Wunderbar!

Yesterday at lunch I stopped at a pastry shop to pick up an apfelstrudel (apple strudel...slowly working on my Basel 15). As I was paying, the older lady standing next to me asked "blah blah blah...incomprehensible Swiss German...blah blah blah...Apfel?" Under normal circumstances I get terrified at the prospect of someone trying to engage me in any sort of conversation in German and promptly freeze up and say my number one German phrase: "Ich spreche kein Deutsch" (I speak no German). But in this case I used my powers of deduction: I'm standing at the counter of a pastry shop and she just asked me a question with the word "apple"...maybe, just maybe, she's asking if what I ordered had apple in it (either that or she was telling me I was the apple of her eye, or that she was going to the Big Apple, but I concluded that was less likely). So I summoned up my best introductory German and loudly proclaimed "Ja, ist mit Apfel!" ("Yes, is with apple!") and walked away while I was still ahead. It was satisfying to know that not only was I able to help someone (at least I think I did), but I only looked like a partial idiot instead of a complete idiot. And that has to count for something.

Hot hot hot

As if California didn't have enough to deal with, now it's climate change. (Having said that, I still wouldn't mind living there--well, except for L.A.--again someday. And if it's going to be hot, you might as well make the most of it, right?)

My life

The good news is true. We found a wonderful, loving home for Molly. She is going to live in McFarland (a small town outside of Madison) with a nurse named Shelly and her two kids. My sister and I feel really good about it and are so relieved to have found a good home. We know that our Mom would have liked Shelly as much as we do. I will drop Molly off at her new home on Wednesday. Also happening on Wednesday... our house will officially be on the market (yikes) and the ladies from our church will be here to start pricing everything in the house for next week's estate sale. It is such a strange feeling to be selling the house where we grew up along with all of its contents. What a strange mix of emotions... I am very sad to be leaving this house in two days, especially after all that I've experienced during the past four months. But I am also so excited to return to my beloved husband and neurotic, but lovable, dog. I have much to be thankful for and am really looking forward to restarting my Swiss adventure!

That time of year

It seems like every summer, there comes a day late in the season where something just feels different. Something about the light and the air signals that fall isn't far away. Today was that day for me. There was something about the quality of light this evening--as if someone was filtering the western sky--that made it feel like the days of summer are numbered. That's not to say it's going to cool off or that the leaves are going to change anytime soon, but if this evening was any indication, we've somehow reached a turning point in the summer.

Good news

Gretchen found what should be a really good home for her mom's dog, Molly.

Our Haus, in the middle of our Strasse

Just in case anyone is thinking (hint, hint...) about visiting our humble Swiss apartment chalet, it looks like fall and winter fares may be starting to drop somewhat.

'Til the cows come home

I've been doing a bit of reading about things to do in Switzerland now that Gretchen is coming back (this Friday!), and I stumbled across this in one of our brochures: "Alpaufzug Engstligenalp (festival marking the procession of cows up the mountain)". I am SO all over that next year! I found more here--if you have a high-speed connection, be sure to watch the documentary film. Cows are so stereotypically Swiss, but they really are cool (as cows go) and they really do wear big bells.

What the kids are listening to these days

The latest Top 10 from Radio Basel 1, most of which I don't think I actually know:
(1) Alcazar - This Is The World We Live In [a really bad techno-pop reworking of Genesis' "Land of Confusion"]
(2) Maroon 5 - This Love
(3) Die Fantastischen Vier - Troy
(4) Hoobastank - The Reason [I'm telling you, hearing a French DJ say "Hoobastank" is about as good as it gets]
(5) Kelis - Trick Me
(6) JoJo - Leave (Get Out) [Is anyone else a little disturbed by this whole JoJo phenomenon? I mean, I understand Britney Spears was also underage when she was doing her whole sexy nymphet thing, but at least she was almost 18 at the time. Isn't JoJo like 13 or 14? That's just kind of creepy. Or maybe I'm getting old and cranky. Or all of the above.]
(7) Dante Thomas - Get It On
(8) Uncle Kracker - Rescue
(9) Shifty - Slide Along Side
(10) Baschi - Diis Lied

Wilco

I'm stuck inside on a beautiful Sunday afternoon doing some writing for work, but at least I have my music (and Grady, of course) to keep me company. I wouldn't have expected this, but lately I've really been digging Wilco's latest, a ghost is born. It's a bit dissonant for my usual tastes and I could probably do without the song that features about 10 minutes of white noise, but otherwise with every listening it burrows further into my brain (I recently learned that there's a German word, Ohrwurm, which means "ear worm" and evidently refers to music you can't get out of your head). Plus I could spend hours trying to interpret the lyrics.

when the devil came
he was not red
he was chrome
* * *
spiders are singing in the salty breeze
spiders are filling out tax returns
spinning out webs of deductions and melodies
on a private beach in Michigan
* * *
there's a random painted highway
and a muzzle of bees
* * *
I invented a sister, populated with knives
* * *
I attack with love, pure bug beauty, curl my lips and crawl up to you
and your afternoon
and I've been puking

Expat Central?

The other day I heard a family around the corner calling out to each other with British accents. Then I passed a house down the street and heard someone say "Oh my God!" in a distincly non-Swiss voice. Two teenagers getting off the tram yesterday could have been at any high school in the U.S. A father and daughter were just walking up the street behind our place talking to each other in clear English. Has my neighborhood had a high concentration of expats all along and I didn't know it? I guess it's not so surprising I'm clueless (beyond my normal every-day cluelessness, that is) since, by and large, if you're walking down the street here and pass someone you don't necessarily say hello (at home we would give at least a cursory "hi" to someone in our neighborhood whether we knew it or not). And if you do say hello to someone, of course you use a local greeting. So far all I know, I've been walking past other expats and not realising it because we either ignore each other or say "grützi". Then again, maybe I should start suspecting that anyone who greets a stranger on the street is actually an expat since it doesn't seem an especially Swiss thing to do.

Sneak preview

I just finished watching the Olympic opening ceremonies (it's nice not to have everything on tape delay this time). Not great, but not bad...a bit avant garde...thankfully the interpretive dance was kept to a minimum...I'm going to have nightmares of a glowing womb...try as I might, I just don't "get" Bjork and am not sure I ever will...it was kind of nice not having Bob Costas and Katie Couric (or whoever is doing it) talking me through the whole thing...the U.S. outfits were really lame...I always want to see the athletes parade in, but I forget just how many friggin' countries there are in the world...

That's my boy

This evening I was walking Grady along a quiet path in the neighborhood where we seldom see anyone. As it turns out, we happened to pass just one person this evening, and right as he walked past, as if on cue...Grady farted audibly. That's the kind of thing Gretchen has been missing out on all these months.

[I know you're thinking "oh, sure--blame it on the dog", but if you know Grady you know it's a very Grady thing to do.]

Football is back!

No, not the American game (as a fan of the ultra-pathetic San Diego Chargers, I'm entitled to be down on American football at the moment)...I'm talking European football. Soccer, baby! The other night, local favorites FC Basel tied Inter Milan in the first round of their two-game series in the Champions League competition. I couldn't watch the match because we don't actually get any Swiss TV stations (don't ask...), but I could hear anguished screams from nearby houses throughout the evening.

Oh, great...

...neo-Nazism on the rise in neighboring Alsace. [Registration required, but it's the NY Times, so you should be registered, don't you think?]

I'm SO all over this

I was just reading in one of the local papers that they're having a contest for the next generation of Basel hip-hoppers. I wonder if I've got what it takes?

Speaking of rain

In DC I had an interior office; not only did I not have my own windows, I couldn't even see anyone else's from where I sat. So there would be days when Gretchen would call and ask if I could believe the weather outside and I'd have no idea what she was talking about. We could be having a severe thunderstorm or a blizzard and I wouldn't have the slightest clue because I was in my own little hermetically sealed world. Well, no longer. I have big windows that look out over part of downtown Basel (nothing exciting--mostly apartment buildings, ugly towers, and smokestacks...oh, and Germany), and the sky just turned eerily pitch-black. It normally doesn't get dark until 9:00pm or so, but it's 5:00pm right now and it's literally as dark as night. Weird. If they had tornadoes here, I'd say it looks like tornado weather. (Then again I'm from California, so what do I know about tornadoes?) Ooooooh, I can't wait to get home and walk Grady in this!

Woe is me

I see that Kirk already posted an update on my delightful health status. After returning from my second trip this week to urgent care, I can confirm to you that I have a double ear infection. I was told by the doctor "I wouldn't be surprised if your ear drum ruptures today". That sounded scary to me, but my sister tells me that her kids' ear drums have ruptured several times during bad ear infections. Apparently then at least the pain will go away. Pink eye and an ear infection... what am I, five years old? Aren't these things only kids get? Anyway, it really sucks. I feel miserable and I have no time to be sick right now considering how much I need to get done in Madison before returning to Basel. Does anyone feel sorry for me?

When it rains it pours

Gretchen was probably due for a bit of a let-down after the past four months, but she's really had a rotten run of luck. First she came down with a nasty cold last week. Then, earlier this week she woke up with her eye swollen half-shut and had to go to Urgent Care, where she found out she had pinkeye. (Which was interesting because when I was in Madison I had to go to Urgent Care for the same thing the morning of the memorial service, only instead of pinkeye it turned out to be just a really bad irritation from allergies.) Just when her eyedrops were starting to kick in, I heard from her last night that she had an awful earache. On top of that, she's still trying to (among other things) find a home for her mom's dog, prepare the house for an estate sale, have her mom's ashes buried up north, and get ready to fly back here a week from today. Hopefully when she gets back she can just sleep for about a week...

Maybe this is Part 4

I think I'm one of about eight people in the major industrialised nations who hasn't yet seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies, and since I'm not likely to see them once Gretchen gets back into town, I thought I would rent the first part of the trilogy this weekend and see if I like it. There's a service here similar to Netflix back home where you can order DVDs online and have them sent to your house, so I did a search on Lord of the Rings. All three parts of the trilogy came up, as did a film from 1978...and then one called Lord of the G-Strings: The Femaleship of the Strings. Is that part of the series that I didn't know about? The synopsis sounds fantastic: "A diminutive and seductive Throbbit has been entrusted with the task of destroying the all-powerful G-String that can grant its possessor untold powers." And best of all, it's rated G (for G-String, no doubt)! I guess I just missed this one in the theaters...

We're not alone

I was driving to the store in Bottmingen at lunch today and all of a sudden realised the car in front of me--which was all over the road--had Florida plates. So I'm not the only one in town making a fool of myself on the road! Hurrah!

Is it that time again?

I'm sure it's a function of only having one English-language station and not being bombarded with ads around the clock, but if it weren't for the internet, I would have no idea the Olympics were starting soon. As a matter of fact, I don't even know exactly when they start or if I'll be able to watch any of them. I can't say I'm going to miss the 3 1/2 hours of human interest stories, 1 hour of commercials, and 30 minutes--if that--of actual sports that they tend to show each night back home, but it's still a little strange to be blissfully unaware of such a big event.

Where is the cow?

This is bizarre yet vaguely Alpine...everyone loves Magical Trevor (high-speed connection required).

A way forward?

I saw a big picture of Moqtada al-Sadr on the front page of today's FT and had a sudden brainstorm. All I'm saying--and I know this is probably terribly insensitive--but if we really want to solve the problems in Najaf (just work with me here), maybe--just maybe--what we need to send in isn't the army, but--and I'm just thinking aloud here--perhaps we could instead send in (am I a bad person for even suggesting this?)...dentists. Lots of dentists. A coalition of the drilling, if you will. Forget hearts and minds, we should be thinking bicuspids and molars instead.

$2 per gallon doesn't sound so bad

When you pull up to a gas station here and it says the price is 1.48, that doesn't sound so bad until you realise that's per liter, not gallon. Even then it doesn't seem too bad because, if you're like most Americans, you haven't a clue how many liters there are per gallon, but it's got to be close, right? So then you look it up and realise there are almost four liters per gallon, so the price is actually CHF 5.62 per gallon. Translating that to dollars knocks it all the way down to a mere $4.48 per gallon. Bottom line: filling my relatively small tank this morning cost about 77 francs, or around $61.

New home

I posted this late Friday and didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle of weekend craziness...Gretchen is looking for a good home for her mom's dog, Molly, and some of her leads haven't panned out yet.

I think I'll pass on this one

This Tuesday there is a big swimming event in the Rhine, the Basler Rheinschwimmen. If I don't like to swim in lakes, I'm certainly not about to go jump in a river that's lined with chemical companies, thank you very much.

The dog in the night-time

I'm a little more than halfway through the children's edition (which is supposedly the same as the adult version--go figure) of the novel described in this article, and it's quite fascinating, innovative, and really well-written.

GOJE?

One more thing about the Street Parade (by the way, here is an article in German--if you click on "Zurich tanzt den Techno" some pictures should pop up): it was the ultimate test of the "Gay or just European?" game. (Hey, when you're at something like this on your own and you don't speak the local language, you have to come up with ways to entertain yourself, especially given the dearth of nudity.) I mean, you'd see guys wearing outfits that screamed "GAY!" (not that there's anything wrong with that...), but they were walking arm-in-arm with their girlfriend. I suppose that's a key element of the event--you can dress however you want and to hell with what anyone else thinks. It was kind of funny to see couples who were dressed up--in some cases, you could tell the guy was really into it, and in other cases you could just see on the guy's face that his girlfriend had made him wear the outfit and that he'd rather chew his arm off than be walking around town in tight shorts, armbands, and bodypaint, but he was resigned to his fate.

Incidentally, I was standing under the trees in the left-center of this picture at the bottom of the bridge before I left, and judging from the size of the crowd, I'm glad I left before the actual parade arrived:

Huh?

At one point when I was walking around Zurich this afternoon, I came across a place called the Hotel California (there was plenty of room). Anyway, what really caught my eye were the flags above the awning: California flags (homemade, not authentic) interspersed with Confederate flags. Excuse me?! I mean, I'll readily admit that I'm ignorant about a lot of European history so I shouldn't be the first to cast stones, but I thought it was pretty obvious that Confederacy=South, California=West. (It would be sort of like saying the Swiss are the same as the Germans.) That's not to say that there aren't parts of California where people may fly the Confederate flag to make a statement of some sort, but probably less than just about any other state (except for possibly Hawaii). Virginia, on the other hand...

Street Parade

To set the context for this post, there are two things you should know about me if you don't already. First, while it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, I can still get pretty claustrophobic if I feel trapped in a large crowd. Second, I don't handle hot weather very well because (a) my Nordic skin burns in about 45 seconds and (b) I tend to not drink enough water and get dehydrated easily. (OK, I'm a wuss. There, I said it.) So what did I do on a hot day today? I decided to join hundreds of thousands of my closest friends to check out the big Street Parade in Zurich today. Not surprisingly, I was probably a standard deviation or two above the average age, although I certainly wasn't the oldest person there. Everywhere you went in downtown Zurich there were people dressed outrageously and techno music thumping at deafening volumes (I think it could cure a heart arrhythmia to stand near one of the stages). You couldn't escape it--even the main hall of the Zurich train station had a huge stage with a techno party going on. I'm not sure what was funnier--how people were dressed, or the looks on some people's faces when they walked past. Given how warm it was, there were lots of outfits that looked terribly uncomfortable--lots of nylon and various unidentified fuzzy substances. And there was disappointingly little nudity involved (c'mon, my wife has been out of town for four months so I'm allowed to say things like that). Anyway, after walking around for a few hours and absorbing the ambiance (and the sun and not nearly enough water) I realised the actual parade itself--which seems to be an afterthought compared to all the parties--was still nowhere near coming by where I was, plus I had to get home to walk Grady, but all things considered I felt like I got the general feel for the whole thing.

Speaking of dogs

This is how newsworthy things are around here these days: the other day, the lead story in one of the local papers was about how an area of Basel "stinkt zum Himmel"--stinks to heaven--because dog poop bags aren't being picked up often enough. Seriously. Front page. Top of the fold.

Looking for a good home

One of the things Gretchen promised her mom before she passed away is that she would find a good home for her dog, Molly. She is a 4-year-old, 70-pound lab/collie mix (but looks a little bit like a golden retriever with a funny pink nose--we hope to post a picture soon). She's low maintenance, affectionate, gentle, and loves people and dogs. Char always called Molly her therapy dog. She needs a fenced yard and it would be best to be in a home where someone is around a lot (e.g., stay-home parent or retirees) because she's always lived in homes where her owners have been home all day. Gretchen has a couple of possible leads in Wisconsin, which is preferable from a logistical standpoint, but those leads may not pan out, so if you or anyone you know might be interested, drop us a line.

THIS JUST IN--a few recent pictures of Molly (and Gretchen):

I like this picture of our nephew Lemuel...

Freak factor

You know, if I were to grow antlers and breasts, contract leprosy, and walk around on stilts, I still don't think I would get stared at as much as I am when I drive around Basel with Virginia license plates. People don't think twice about literally stopping in a crosswalk in front of the car to look at my plates, then at me, then back at my plates before moving on. And don't even get us started on the border guards--we pull up and you can see their eyes light up as they get ready to look at all our paperwork. Luckily there is an unmanned border crossing into France if we just don't want to deal with it.

(I know the solution is to get Swiss tags, but this involves dealing with the local motor vehicle bureaucracy--some co-workers have nightmare stories--and I have a year to drive with my current tags, so I've been avoiding it.)

Police state

Seeing what's happening back in DC with security around my office, I'm kind of glad to be here. Not that I would be afraid to be in DC, or that I don't think anything could happen here, but the sheer grind of our commute would really be a drag. I suppose that's the price you pay on some level, and it's probably about time security is tightened around the Fed (after 9/11, when every other sensitive building in DC was surrounded with concrete barriers, all we got were orange traffic cones, which are quite a deterrent), but there's something a little sad that life in DC--ostensibly the capital of the free world--has come to that.

Books and more

Last night I finished a novel that I really enjoyed despite it being...well...the sort of book that wouldn't be out of place on Oprah's book club. Anyway, it's called The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer. I had given it to Gretchen's mom as a Christmas gift without knowing much about it, and she absolutely loved it, so I figured I would read it in part as a tribute to her. I have to say that despite occasional wordiness, long descriptions of sewing, and sex scenes written from a woman's perspective (not that there's anything wrong with that...), it was really well-written and thought-provoking. One of the best I've read in a while, actually. It probably helped that it was set in two of my favorite cities, Madison and New York.

If that makes me less of a man, I can compensate by watching The Sopranos on DVD. After watching the first seven episodes of the first season, I'm thoroughly and utterly hooked. Why did we never have HBO?

Sounds good right about now

Ever since I spent my first July 4 in Wisconsin with a fire in the fireplace a few years ago, I've kidded Gretchen about the weather in Wisconsin. So I was prepared to give her a hard time when I saw that the forecast where she's staying up in the North Woods said it was supposed to get down to 37 degrees Fahrenheit tonight, but after a few days of hot and muggy weather with no air conditioning and inadequate air circulation in our flat, 37 degrees all of a sudden doesn't sound so bad...

Maybe next year

This weekend is the Street Parade in Zurich, which is supposed to be a massive techno party akin to the Love Parade in Berlin (which was evidently cancelled this year). There's a part of me that says this is something I shouldn't miss because it's so very Euro and so not DC, but then there's the more rational part of me that says I'm about 15 years too old to enjoy spending a hot day in a crush of roughly a million people listening to electronic music at eardrum-busting volumes.

Political humor

Many folks have probably already seen these (high-speed connection recommended), but what the heck: Will Ferrell in a faux Bush ad, and a more balanced poke at both candidates.

A well-deserved break

I can only imagine the excitement that awaits Gretchen today at Loon Day in Mercer, Wisconsin (Loon Capital of the World!). All I know is she'll be having a bratwurst and a beer before noon, which is a healthy Wisconsin tradition. She's taking a much-needed mini-vacation at her family's cabin up in Northern Wisconsin before wrapping things up in Madison and returning to Basel in a couple of weeks.

What the hell

Most of the articles in the daily news clippings I get at work are pretty dry (central banking can rank right up there with watching paint dry on the excitement scale), but every now and then there will be something out of the ordinary. In this case, researchers at the St. Louis Fed have found a possible relationship between economic growth and a belief in hell.

This must mean something

I've been feeling a bit disoriented being back in Basel today, and it didn't help that I had to drive through the worst intersection in town at rush hour to pick Grady up from the kennel (there are no stoplights, so this webcam understates how harrowing it can be for a novice):



At one point I was stuck in another intersection not knowing who had the right of way, trams on all sides, and a bunch of pedestrians pointed at my Virginia plates and started laughing and/or staring, and the only songs I could find on the radio were the French rendition of the old Mary Wells song, "My Guy", and "Maniac" by Michael Sembello from the Flashdance soundtrack. Good times. Anyway, when I was driving home from dinner tonight, I flipped to one of the local stations, Radio X (sounds edgy, doesn't it?), and they actually had an English language program I hadn't heard before. It was just wrapping up, but to close out the show they played a country/bluegrass remix of the Guns N' Roses song, "Paradise City" by some group called Handsome Hank and His Lonesome Boys who are evidently quite popular in Switzerland and Germany. A most surreal welcome home, I must say...