Dining with the horses

On Friday night, our landlord took us out to dinner. She is a wonderful woman who owns the house we live in, and lives upstairs from us. She took us to one of her favorite places, the Schlosshof Dornach, and it's now one of our favorite places too. It was a beautiful, albeit hot, night so we were able to eat outside on the terrace. One of the many things I love about living in Basel is that you can drive just 10 minutes out of the city and you feel like you are in the middle of the country. The restaurant is atop quite a high hill overlooking Basel and other surrounding towns, just next to some old castle ruins. (Hence the name-- Schloss is a castle) It was a perfect night to eat dinner outside, to enjoy some good conversation, a refreshing Swiss white wine, and some food vom Grill (it must be grill season in Basel, because I'm constantly seeing signs saying "Grill Zeit!"). As we were eating our dessert, out came the horses. The restaurant is located just next to a farm, and apparently they have horses. The 5 of them frolicked in the field that was adjacent to our terrace until it was dark. What a sight! I'm not sure you can see them because this picture is so dark, but I'll post it nonetheless.





As an added bonus, we had a beautiful sunset. Sunset pictures are always good.

Coupe Romanoff

I have a new favorite dessert. It's called Coupe Romanoff. I know it won't sound that exciting when I describe it, but it's really good! We're now into strawberry season in Basel (everything has a season around here) so the strawberries are fresh and good and that's why Coupe Romanoff now appears on menus in restaurants through the region. We went out for dinner on both Friday night and Saturday night over this past weekend, and I had Coupe Romanoff both nights! Here are the simple, yet delicious, ingredients: a big bowl of cut-up strawberries, a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream, a dollop of whipped cream on top. Like I said, I know it's nothing fancy, but boy is it good.

The shoe thief

My heartfelt belief that all in Switzerland are trustworthy has been shattered. This morning, when I showed up at the gym to change into my work-out clothes, my shoes had disappeared from the locker room! At first you may think I am crazy to even consider leaving my shoes unlocked in a locker room at a gym. But the gym is in the basement of one of Kirk's office buildings, meaning it's quite secure, and everyone leaves their shoes in the locker room. That way I don't have to carry them back and forth from home everytime. I really can't believe that someone stole my shoes, especially considering I was just there on Thursday! It just seems like a very un-Swiss thing to do (then again, the organization is very heavily staffed by the non-Swiss), and more importantly, who wants to wear my dirty tennies?? I proceeded to do as much as I could in the gym wearing only my socks. Fortunately, no one else was there this morning (it's a very small gym and there are never more than 5 people there at a time), other than one woman who's a friend of mine, so at least I didn't have to deal with explaining why I was exercising in my socks. I left a note in the locker room pleading with the shoe thief to return my favorite pair of Adidas (although I didn't refer to her as "the shoe thief" in the note), and I'm hoping they will magically reappear by the time I go back later this week.

Time to clean

I'm having a bit of déjà vu this afternoon. While Kirk was preparing to leave a couple hours ago for several days of travel I said to him "Doesn't it feel strangely reminiscent of Sundays when we used to have to say goodbye?" He agreed. I'm sure no one else would have any idea what we were talking about. Let me explain. For the first year and a half that we were together (September 1996-February 1998) we were a long-distance couple. I lived in Washington and he lived in New York. We spent weekends together, and I always dreaded Sunday evenings when we had to say goodbye until the next time. It was especially hard after he left Washington and then I had to go back to my empty apartment. For some reason, as soon as I got back from dropping him off at the bus station, I would turn on some good, upbeat music and go on a cleaning frenzy. It passed the time well, and then I wasn't so sad. We've certainly come a long way since then. Now we're living in Switzerland and he's taking a taxi to the airport to fly to Hong Kong rather than having to take the Peter Pan bus (that's really the name) all the way to New York. It was a hellish way to travel, but it was by far the cheapest way to travel between NYC and DC. Anyway, strangely reminiscent of the old days, after the taxi pulled away I came inside the house, turned on my favorite Gwen Stefani CD, and found myself starting on a cleaning frenzy! It's funny how old habits come back so quickly. On that note, I had better get back to it.

Leaving on a jet plane

After a week of unexpectedly hot weather, today is back to normal Basel weather--cool and rainy. Just in time for me to get on a plane to Hong Kong, where it should be sweltering and humid (I have vivid memories from our trip last year of leaving the hotel and immediately sweating through our clothes, only to enter stores and restaurants where the air conditioning was set to "arctic").

Crazy frog

I wonder if anyone outside of Europe has ever heard of "Crazy Frog Axel F". For quite a while now, it seems to have been one of the most frequently advertised ring tones on MTV. This whole business of downloading ring tones for your mobile phone was new to me when we moved here. I had never seen ads for it in the US, but here, all four of our music video channels advertise them constantly! And many of the ring tones (Crazy Frog Axel F included) are incredibly annoying. They stick in your head even when you don't like them. Now I learn, according to an article in the International Herald Tribune, that this "song" has become so popular that it is at the top of the British charts! Apparently it's now available as a single to buy, not just as a ring tone to download on your mobile. Does anyone else think this is strange? Please, if you've never heard it, click here to go the to Crazy Frog website and watch the video for yourself. I just don't get it. By the way, it's "Axel F" as in Beverly Hills Cop. Remember that one?

Another pool day

I've now been to the pool 3 days in a row, and I will likely go back again today. That's about the only good thing to do in this weather. Apparently everyone else has the same idea because it was really busy yesterday. Kirk, on the other hand, is not having a pool weekend because he's busy preparing for his upcoming travel, but that's fine because he doesn't love the sun like I do so I don't mind hanging out at the pool by myself. It's a really strange thing to go to a pool where you run into lots of people you know, including several of Kirk's work colleagues. It's making me realize that I actually know quite a few people here in Basel (although we're all in such a small, insular world). It's also totally strange to see all these people you know in their bathing suits. No one recognizes each other at first and you hear people say "Oh, I didn't recognize you without your clothes on!". Here's a true sign that I've been living in Europe for a while now. I no longer react so severely to the sight of speedos. I still try to look the other way as one walks by, but I guess I've gotten somewhat used to seeing men in tiny bathing suits. They're everywhere!

I was quite proud of myself yesterday because I rode my bike to the pool. It was my first bike ride on my new bike, and believe me, there are a lot of hills between here and there! Somehow I made it, despite the heat and a heavy backpack filled with my beach gear on my back. It was a fun way to get there, but I think I'll give my legs a break today and take the car instead.

You know it's hot when...

You know it's hot when your dog spends the night sleeping on the floor of the bathroom because it's the only cool place in the house.

Excuse me?

In the Things-You-Probably-Wouldn't-See-Back-Home Department, it turns out there's a big music festival in Luzern every year (they love their summer festivals here) called the Blue Balls Festival.

Also, there's no rational reason why this makes me smile, but it just does: today I learned that the German name for Winnie the Pooh is either Pu der Bär or Winnie Puuh. What can I say, I'm easily amused.

Memorial Day weekend

I just realized that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend in the US, meaning it's the unofficial start of summer for Americans. That also means that everybody (in the US) is going somewhere away from home to take advantage of the long weekend and to celebrate the start of summer. In doing my daily scan of various American newspapers that I read online, I noticed lots of articles about travel headaches today. I don't miss that. I'm sure the roads are a mess. I guess I don't know for sure that the travel trend is common throughout the US, but from the places I've lived I can say that everyone in DC (or at least it seems like everyone) goes out to the Delaware beaches or the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and in Wisconsin and Minnesota everyone goes "up north". While growing up we always went up to our cabin for Memorial Day weekend, and without a doubt, it was always freezing and felt nothing like the start of summer. Nonetheless, as kids, we would go swimming (in the lake) because we refused to admit how cold it was. I have so many great memories of Memorial Day weekend. While living in DC, we never went out to the beaches for the weekend because I hate the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on a good day, and I certainly hate it in traffic! Anyway, to all of you who are traveling this weekend, have a great time and I wish you safe travels!

That's not a boogie board

For some reason I'm fascinated with this case of the Austrialian woman who was just sentenced to 20 years in prison for smuggling 4.1 kgs of marijuana into Indonesia. I guess it was found in her boogie board bag and she alleges that it must have been place there by baggage handlers. Beyond that, I don't know enough about the facts of the case, or her background, to even have an opinion on whether I think she is guilty or not, but she certainly looks so normal. I realize that's an incredibly naive thing to say, but it's true. But really, think about it. What if something like this could really happen to you. What if someone placed something in your luggage, and what if you were actually convicted of smuggling it even if you were innocent. Can you imagine the horror?

P.S. I realize this woman has a name, but I chose not to write it here because I don't want random googlers to find our blog just because they did a search for her name.

Learning to walk

I just saw one of the cutest things I've seen in a while. While waiting for a tram after visiting the Augenartzt (eye doctor), I watched a real live Basel police officer teaching little kids how to cross the street. The kids couldn't have been more than 5 years old. This was in the Gundeli, a bustling shopping area near our neighborhood where there's lots of traffic and also a busy tram intersection. They stood at the crosswalk two-by-two, and I could tell he was talking to them about looking both ways, and then away they'd go. As I've mentioned before, Swiss kids have a lot more independence than American kids, and at a very early age. Now I realize that it's not just their parents who teach them about the streets of Basel! It was another one of those "only in Switzerland" moments.

Pending craziness

For most of May, it seemed like all of my colleagues at work were traveling while I stayed back in the office. Starting next week, the tides will turn as I leave home for basically three weeks of travel: a week in Hong Kong, a week in Tokyo, home for the weekend, Frankfurt for a few days, home for one night, Brussels for a couple of days (three days at home in three weeks!). Then, hopefully, sleep for an entire weekend. I have especially mixed feelings about my trip to Asia. It's a Very Good Thing that I'll get to eat lots of yummy Asian food and squeeze in a little bit of sightseeing between meetings, but it's a Not-So-Very-Good Thing that Gretchen can't accompany me. As for Frankfurt and Brussels...feh.

My new bike, part two

I just picked up my new bike from the bike shop and it's all ready to go! I had to get the appropriate lights mounted (in accordance with Swiss law), and I also had them install mud flaps (for lack of a better term) and a rack for the back. A few days ago, I stopped at the post office to buy my "velovignette" and now I'm all set to go for a ride! I'm not still not sure I understand the purpose of the velovignette. It's basically a little registration sticker that you attach to your bike that you can show the police in case they stop to ask if you have registered your bike. But there's also a part that you're supposed to fill out with information about the bike (make, model, color, etc) for insurance purposes. It doesn't mean it's insured, it just means in case it gets stolen, and in case you forgot what it looks like, then you can look at the description you've written when you report the theft to the police. You don't actually turn it in to anyone as a registration, but instead you just keep it at home for future reference. I guess the funniest thing to me about the velovignette (other than the name-- velo is bike in French and Fahrrad is bike in German so why isn't it a Fahrrad vignette) is that you buy it at the post office. What do they have to do with anything?

One more thing about biking. We live atop the hill from hell. Seriously. It is huge. Walking up this hill from downtown is one thing, but biking up it... I can't even imagine. Day after day we see all sorts of people biking up it-- old ladies, women in skirts and heels, men in suits coming home from work-- and it seems that all of them do it with relative ease. On my way home from the shop today I had my first encounter with the hill on a bike. I made it part of the way up, but am not ashamed to admit that I walked the bike the rest of the way. I am making it a goal to bike up the hill "with ease" at some point before moving out of Basel. That will be an exciting day.

The heat is on

It's currently 86 degrees and sunny in Basel. That's hot! Not that I'm complaining... for weeks now everyone (including me) has been complaining about the cold and rainy weather, so I won't complain about seeing the sun. But I do think it would've been nice to have something between 55 degrees (and rain) and the heat of summer! I really prefer the 70s. Anyway, it's a perfect pool day, and fortunately I have a pool to go to (at the sports club which is for employees of Kirk's office and their families). Today was my first official day at the pool. Since I was gone last summer I never spent any time there (other than one day last fall when I hung out there all day with some friends but didn't swim). It was beautiful and refreshing and I plan to spend much more time there in the days ahead. Especially if this heat keeps up! The only bad part of the day is that my eyes-- after a brief recovery earlier this week-- are really bad again, so once again I can't wear my contacts. Being out in the sun all day in your glasses is totally annoying. All the pollen flying around at the sports club probably didn't make things any better either. It literally looked like it was snowing with all this white puffy stuff in the air. So now I put myself back on the antibiotic eyedrops again and if they're not improving by tomorrow I think I'll have to go back to the doctor again.

The grass is always greener

It seems that every time we go over to any of our friends' houses I always end up finding something about their place that makes me jealous. Maybe they live downtown and can walk to everything, or they have a nice balcony, or a garage, or a roof-top terrace, or more than one bathroom, or a normal cable TV system. Despite how much I like our house (or flat, I guess you would call it--it's the first floor of a huge house), especially considering we're only living here 2 years, I'm always comparing it to something better. And then the sun comes out, and it's a beautiful spring day (like today), and I'm reminded once again about why this is the perfect place for us. Just take a look at what I'm doing today:






Unlike most of our friends, we have a backyard! (Total unrelated side note: I've learned, since living in Basel, that a backyard is a "garden" in British English, regardless of whether you have anything planted in it or do any actual gardening) This afternoon I'm enjoying sitting in my pretty blue Ikea sun chair reading my book, with Grady lounging at my side. I would have liked him to be posing in this picture next to the chair but lately he seems to jump up and bark at me upon sight of the camera. There's no doubt that having a fenced-in backyard is a necessity for a dog-family like ours. I realize that lots of dogs live in apartment buildings with elevators, etc., but Grady never has and I can't imagine having to deal with all the Swiss rules considering our sometimes neurotic dog. There are lots of other reasons I love where we live. We have a beautiful field just down the street as well as lots of other great places to walk dogs, I can walk to the "selber pflucken" flower field, we have a neighborhood bakery where I can buy Zopf for Kirk every Saturday morning, there are cows just on the other side of the field which always make me smile, I often see sheep while riding the tram up to our neighborhood (someone keeps them in a small, fenced-in field on a hill), and we are surrounded by trees and lots of singing birds-- all of this makes us feel a bit like we live out in the country yet we're only a 15 minute walk (or tram ride) away from the heart of Basel. It is ideal. Now I'm going back outside to the sunshine.

The fruits of summer

I'm convinced that summer really is just around the corner. One indication is that it's expected to be in the 80s later this week! I find it hard to believe, considering it's rainy and in the 50s today (again), but we'll see... The real reason I know summer is coming because the summer fruits have started to make an appearance at the grocery store! We had our first peaches of the season over the weekend and they were delicious. When I stopped at Coop this afternoon I also saw cherries, apricots, and nectarines! They are all still outrageously expensive, and the cherries and nectarines didn't look quite ready to eat, but I did pick up some apricots and peaches despite the high prices. I'm very excited about summer fruits so I don't have to rely on just apples and bananas anymore. Does anyone else get sick of having to eat apples and bananas all winter while waiting for the summer fruit? I'm sure Kirk would say that if we lived in California we could have all of my favorite fruits (including strawberries) ANY time of the year...

Beware of the Zecken

I learned a new German word today. Ticks are called Zecken. I learned this because the woman who lets me through the security check when I go to the gym (it's in the basement of Kirk's office building) told me to be careful of the Zecken when I go walking in the woods with my dog. (She knows I have a dog) Apparently, just this morning she noticed new signs posted on the trees in the woods where she goes running that were warning of the coming of the Zecken. She said they don't always have them here in Basel, but because it's been so wet and humid it's predicted to be a bad season for them. I had to ask her to describe Zecken because she wasn't able to translate it and I wasn't sure what she was talking about at first. Her description (in a heavily Swiss-German accented English) was something like this: "They're a very little animal. Smaller than a fly. But also black. They get onto your skin and they make you very sick." Somehow I figured out she was talking about ticks. The ironic thing was that I had just finished "reading" an article (as much as I can read an article written in German) in one of the local newspapers about the upcoming Zecken season. The headline was "Bald kommen Zecken", meaning "The ticks are coming soon!" Just so you know, I hate ticks! We had them in Wisconsin, and I guess in Virginia as well, but I especially remember them when we went up north in Wisconsin. We spent summers at our cabin, which is on a lake and in the woods, and when I was a kid my Mom would often have to do a "tick check" before we went to bed. This meant she would scour our bodies (me and my sister) looking for any sign of ticks that were hiding in inconspicous places-- I especially remember her concern for behind the ears and in the armpits. Ticks are gross.

Working out

Given the recent, umm, inflationary phase that I've been going through, fueled by the abundance of good local bread and pastries, my Onion daily calendar entry for today seems apropos:

STATshot
A look at the numbers that shape your world.

HAVE WE BEEN WORKING OUT?

1. Little bit...little bit

2. Just the forearms, but what a difference

3. Oh, yeah...hardcore

4. You know, a sit-up here, a push-up there

5. Jazzercise every Monday

6. Nah, I'm too fat

7. Baby, God just made the clay, I've got to sculpt it

Random thoughts

Other than today's post about my new bike, I realize I haven't blogged much in recent days. Not for any particular reason, other than sometimes I just don't feel like sitting down at the computer and writing. So now, after a few days of not blogging, I have all these random things in my head that I will write in one monster-size post.

1. As bad as it was, I totally enjoyed watching Eurovision last night! I'm kind of sad to think I won't be living in Europe next year to watch Eurovision 2006. I'm very glad that the guy from Cyprus didn't get more than a few votes. He was a total Ricky Martin wannabe and I think Ricky Martin is a bit passé.

2. I've had to wear my glasses all weekend so that my eyes are able to breathe and hopefully rid themselves of whatever has been causing this terrible irritation. After seeing the doctor on Friday I've been using two types of Augentropfen (eye drops), one for allergies and also an antibiotic. Let's hope I can put my contacts back in tomorrow. Some people think glasses make you look smarter, but I just feel ugly in them.

3. Yesterday I took TWO naps! This is totally unprecedented. I'm not a napper. All this funk with my eyes has made me feel like I'm fighting a cold or something, so I was just feeling really wiped out yesterday.

4. Last week at Hieber's Frische Center in Germany I found something that resembles the bagel chips I used to buy at home. Only here they're called "Brot Chips" (Brot is bread in German). I bought the garlic flavor. Yum.

5. Speaking of bagels, I've been meaning to mention the bagel look-alike that you can buy at one of the grocery stores in Basel. It's called a "Sesame Laugen Bagel". (Laugen is a type of roll that's popular in Switzerland) Believe me, it's nothing like an actual bagel other than how it's shaped. But I've discovered that they are good to use for making peanut butter sandwiches. (By the way, we miss real bagels a lot!)

6. Does Paris Hilton eat anything? I'm just wondering. I sat down in front of the TV to have a snack this afternoon and saw Paris Hilton in a bikini on MTV (they were showing The Simple Life). She is so unbelievably skinny. I can't imagine she eats Brot Chips out of the bag while sitting on the couch on a Sunday afternoon.

7. Earlier today, I cleaned out and organized the food cupboards in our kitchen. It was long overdue, and I was inspired by the friends-moving-back-to-NYC-episode from a few weeks ago. Among the expired food products that I threw out (which I had originally shipped here in January 2004) were two boxes of Kraft mac and cheese, a half-used box of Bisquick, an almost full (yet solidified) bottle of maple syrup, and some old microwave popcorn.

8. I'm about 1/3 of the way through "The Time Traveler's Wife", which we'll discuss at our next book club meeting in a couple weeks. I find it really intriguing, but I keep thinking that I'm going to get fed up with it because it's so surreal.

9. I'm on day 22 of "The Purpose-Driven Life". I don't always agree with everything the author suggests, but I suppose that's good. It always gives me some good stuff to think about.

10. I really like the new Black-Eyed Peas song "Don't Phunk With My Heart". Every time I see it on MTV I sing it in my head for hours.

11. The Sopranos has got to be one of the best shows ever made. I know I've said it before, but how did we survive without HBO while we lived in the States? We have the first 4 seasons on DVD, and the other night we watched the episode where Janice shoots Richie and then Tony sends her on a bus back to Seattle. It was totally shocking.

12. Speaking of HBO, I've also started re-watching the entire Sex and the City series. My friend who moved back to NYC sold me seasons 1-4 (I already had 5 and 6) and now I have the whole set. I just started with season 1 again and it's just as fun as it was the first time.

That's it for now. Phew.

My new bike!

I am now the proud owner of a shiny new, bright blue bike! Look how cute it is!





We bought it this afternoon (yes, something was open on a Sunday) at a liquidation sale at the Messe (the exhibition hall). Kirk saw the ad in the paper this morning and we thought we'd try our luck. Considering they were advertising everything from mountain bikes starting at 299 CHF to clothes and bedding and shoes, we figured it could be just a bunch of junk, but it was worth checking out nonetheless. Who knew I would actually come home with a new Trek mountain bike? It wasn't quite as cheap as 299 CHF (I don't recall seeing any adult bikes for 299 CHF), but not much more than that. We actually got a real bargain as compared with the regular prices of bikes in the stores here. I'm also glad to support a good Wisconsin company like Trek. I've been wanting a new bike ever since I came back to Basel after my summer in Wisconsin last year. I have a bike here that I brought with me from DC, but I bought it 11 years ago when I was scraping by on the salary of a Capitol Hill staffer, and I'm sick of it. Last summer while I was living in Wisconsin, I often rode my Mom's bike (it was a good stress-reliever and break from the house), and once I came back to Basel and rode my old one I realized it was a piece of junk! I was thrilled this morning when Kirk suggested we go look at this sale. Even though I've wanted a new bike to ride around Basel I had figured that we're only here until February and it's not worth the high Swiss prices. Now I can look forward to exploring Switzerland by bike this summer! I'm anxious to go for a ride, but first I have to buy my bike "insurance" sticker from the post office and get the proper lights installed. Both are required by Swiss law, and if you know anything about the Swiss you'll know that they take their bike regulations very seriously.

Butterzopf

One of my weekend treats here is eating fresh Butterzopf. On Friday afternoons and Saturdays the bakeries are filled with the things. It's basically just a plaited loaf of bread, and yet it's so much more than that. I typically get through roughly half a loaf on Saturday and finish it off on Sunday. As much as I miss a good cinnamon-raisin bagel here, I'm sure I'll be craving a good Butterzopf when I have to return home.

(When I was in Amsterdam a few weeks ago a colleague from the States who I hadn't seen in some time said "you look healthy, like you've been...eating well". I guess when I eat a loaf of bread over a weekend I shouldn't really be surprised to hear things like that, or to wonder why my pants seem a bit snug.)

Good stuff

Well, we did it--we watched the Eurovision contest last night, and it was as bad as expected. Maybe even worse. All we could think is that we wish our friends back home could have seen it. For ancestral pride, I did much better than Gretchen as the band from Norway finished a respectable ninth--just behind the pseudo-Swiss entry--but Germany finished...LAST (and deservedly so). (After watching the Norwegian band, I still can't figure out for the life of me whether they were serious or trying to do an '80s hair-band version of Spinal Tap.) Perhaps the biggest surprise--especially given the preponderance of really bad former Eastern bloc boy bands and equally bad but beautiful women--was the woman from Malta finishing second. (Surprising because (a) she looked a bit like Mama Cass Elliot--think big--and (b) Malta doesn't exactly have a natural geographic voting bloc of support. As a matter of fact, I consistently forget where Malta is located, other than that it's somewhere in the Mediterranean. To the extent that I ever think of Malta at all, that is.) The night's big winner was the woman from Greece. I'm not complaining, and that's all I'm going to say about the lovely Helena...

Quality music

Tonight is evidently the final of the Eurovision music contest, which is sort of like American Idol meets the European football championships. Where else can you find such a combination of national pride and crappy music? As it turns out, the Swiss finalist, Vanilla Ninja (who we had a chance to see when we were in Zermatt), aren't even Swiss! They're Estonian. This seems a bit odd in light of the occasional Swiss resistance to all things foreign. I was going to get into the pride thing and say that the smart money was on Norway, until I looked at their blurb. I thought it had to be a joke, but nope, they seem to be real. As they say back in Minnesota, "uff da"...

Nein!

Once again, I can tell it's time for a referendum here because the political posters have gone up all over town. As usual, the most eye-catching are the ones by the populist/right-wing party, this time featuring Japanese anime-style faces filled with terror. (I've been meaning to post about this for a while but was beaten to the punch. Damn!) What are they so afraid of? Opening the borders, evidently. They're not really my borders so I'm in no position to say one way or another how the good citizens of my temporary home want to interact with the outside world, but the posters really play to the basest of human instinct. You'd think voting "yes" to Schengen would mean that every Swiss job would be lost to cheap foreign labor and that Eastern European mafiosi and al-Qaeda operatives would relocate to the Alps.

The other thing that will evidently be on the ballot is domestic partnerships. The arguments are probably not that different from back home, but at least the visuals for both pro and con aren't nearly as offensive/scaremongering as opening the borders. (Although the anti posters say something like "The next demand is already there: adoption and artifical fertilization for gay and lesbian couples", so the scaremongering is more textual than visual.)

All Lörrach, all the time

I've lived in Basel for over a year now (minus the 4 months I was back in Wisconsin) and I hadn't been to Lörrach until Tuesday's excursion to Hieber's. Now I've gone to Lörrach two days in a row! Yesterday I went on a walking tour of the town with a new German friend who lives in Basel, but just on the border of Germany and Switzerland. I met her at the end of the tram line (in Riehen, where she lives) and we walked about 20 minutes into the downtown shopping district of Lörrach. I'll never get over how cool it is to be able to walk from one country into another. They have quite a nice Füssgangerzone (pedestrian area) with a lot of shops and a couple department stores. She does all her shopping there because she says it's so much cheaper than Basel (imagine that...). I'll have to go back next time I feel the need to buy a few new things from H & M. That's about the only store around here where I seem to find anything that I like, that fits me, and that I can afford.

Eyes of fire

Have you ever felt like your eyes were on fire and that you literally wanted to rip them out of your head? That's what mine feel like today. I'm sure it's from allergies. Hopefully it's not pink eye like I had last summer (which went well with the double ear infection I had at the time). My eyes have been feeling progressively worse over the last few days, and this morning it was so bad that I decided I had better take a break from wearing my contacts. It can't be good to wear something that essentially traps all the random allergy-causing substances in my eyes. I also decided to call the doctor. He can't see me until tomorrow morning, but hopefully he'll be able to give me some eyedrops or something to bring my eyes back to life so that I can put my contacts back in. I hate wearing my glasses all day. It makes me feel kinda dizzy and sort of out of it. Hopefully I can also get a prescription for Zyrtec which seems to be the best allergy medicine for me. We discovered that you can buy it as an over-the-counter medication in Asia and Australia, but not in the US, so we've stocked up whenever we've traveled somewhere that sells it, but now we're just about out of our supply.

Where I've been

This is my world map of places I've visited, which is a bit deceiving because a visit to tiny little Hong Kong highlights big ol' China. With the exception of Australia, I'm pretty weak on the Southern Hemisphere:




I do much better in terms of the U.S.:




And only so-so in terms of Europe:




(Thanks to Chris at Captain's Log for pointing this out.)

create your own visited country map

That's my wife!

After having just a bit too much tequila at a recent party, Gretchen's exploits were captured on film for the world to see...

Huh?

Oddest sign seen this weekend in Barcelona, at what appeared to be an otherwise mainstream clothing store (the backdrop, a bit of which you may be able to see, added to the oddity of it) on one of the major shopping streets:



(The other incongruous sighting: a teenage girl with a t-shirt that read, in bold letters, FU**IN' FU**IN' PARTY HOUSE--except there were no asterisks on her shirt. And she was preparing to enter the main cathedral.)

My new discovery

I'm very excited about my new discovery. This afternoon I found my new favorite grocery store. It's called Hieber's Frische Center and it's in Lörrach. Lörrach is one of Basel's border towns, meaning it's just across the border into Germany. I'm sure I've mentioned before that lots of Basel expats go shopping in Germany and/or France because it's so much cheaper (and it's close). I've never been a big fan of Géant, the big store in St. Louis (a French town just across the border), but I stop there from time to time because they do have a good selection of meat at half the price of what I pay in Switzerland. I also went once to Marktkauf in Weil-am-Rhein (a German town just across the border), but for some reason never went back, despite my initial enthusiasm. I guess I've just gotten used to my usual shopping routine at my neighborhood Coop and have been too lazy to think about driving to Germany. Now I really do have a reason to go across the border to go shopping. A few of my friends have been talking about Hieber and finally one of them showed me where it is. It actually felt like a store from home. It was big, and bright, and actually pleasant! Maybe I'll actually enjoying grocery shopping rather than feeling like it's a chore. The prices were good-- not as cheap as Geant, but certainly cheaper than Switzerland. The selection was also good and I came home with lots of good food for the week.

Barcelona eating

For anyone who keeps up with our travels by reading this blog it will come as no surprise that one of our favorite things about exploring new cities is enjoying good food and drinks! Barcelona, of course, was no exception to the rule. As usual, we found lots of good places to eat and drink, ensuring that our holiday weekend was a huge success. Here I am enjoying the first meal of the trip, a late lunch on Friday afternoon in a small bar/cafe in the Barri Gòtic , one of our favorite neighborhoods in Barcelona. We were literally the only people in the place, and I don't think the owner was thrilled with us interupting his afternoon break. Nonetheless, he served up the perfect feast. In this picture you'll notice all the essentials for a good Barcelona tapas meal: pa amb tomàquet (thick slices of toast rubbed with olive oil, tomato, and garlic), manchego cheese, olives, patatas bravas (fried potatoes covered with garlic sauce), boquerones (white anchovies), jamon iberico (the best ham ever), and red wine. Yum!



Here's Kirk enjoying some anchovies and an Estrella Damm beer during our Saturday night "tapas bar crawl" during which we ate dinner throughout the night as we visited different tapas bars in the Barri Gòtic . When it comes to anchovies, I tend to prefer the white ones. Both kinds (the white and the gray/brown) are soaked in vinegar and taste very salty, but I found the white ones to be a bit milder. I especially liked the tapas bars that serve pintxos, which are bite-sized slices of baguette piled with different combinations of meat, cheese, and fish held together with a toothpick. You serve yourself (the pintxos are sitting on trays on the bar), and when you're done, the bartender figures out your bill by counting the toothpicks. How cool is that?!

Visca Barça!

I've sorely lacked the joy of major sporting celebrations in my lifetime. It doesn't help that most of my teams have been pretty lame over the years: oh, sure, the Padres (who, incidentally, moved into first place last night) have made it to a couple of World Series and the Chargers made it to one Super Bowl, but neither team has won it all and most of the the time they've been just plain bad. I was lucky enough to have both UCLA and Duke win NCAA basketball championships, and I shared in Gretchen's excitement when the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl, but none of those happened when I was there, so I missed the celebrations. Probably the closest I've come is living in New York when the Yankees won a World Series and I went to the ticker tape parade since it went by my office, but I really hate the Yankees and, frankly, championships are ho-hum for Yankee fans so it doesn't really count. (Oh, and how can I forget the dominance of the San Diego Sockers in indoor soccer when I was a child? Now THAT was a team!)

Well, this weekend we got a real taste of championship excitement in Barcelona. We learned that FC Barcelona could clinch the Spanish Primera Liga title, and that if they did, the fans would gather at the top of the Ramblas for a celebration. After a nice evening wandering the old streets of the La Ribera neighborhood, drinking wine and dining on delicious tapas, we were walking back to our hotel when we heard a symphony of car horns, firecrackers, etc. Since we were near the Ramblas, we thought we would head over and see what was going on. It was after midnight, but people of all ages were pouring into the area, with everyone dancing, singing, chanting, cheering, waving flags, etc. It was probably one of the most jubilant scenes we've been a part of, although we tried to stay out of the crush of people at the heart of the celebration. By the time we got back to our hotel at 1:30am, the streets were still filled with cheering fans and honking cars, and we were on what would normally be considered a quiet street well north of the noisiest area.

We figured that was it, but the next afternoon we were riding on a bus through the main square in town, Plaça Catalunya, and noticed that there were thousands of people milling about, most wearing red and blue and waving flags. We were told that the team would be riding in from the stadium shortly for a victory parade, which also happened to be going near our hotel. So we found a nice tapas bar right along the parade route and waited. When the team bus finally came by, with Ronaldinho, Eto'o, and Henrik Larsson in front, it was like seeing the fan reaction on early films of the Beatles. Good fun all around.

An aside

Tomorrow we leave for a weekend in Barcelona, and for some reason every time I read or say "Barcelona", in my head I hear it to the tune of "My Sharona": Duh duh-DUH duh duh DUH BAR-ce-LO-na.

(((I think this is a sign that I need a break...)))

Stay out of my airspace

This is the kind of thing I don't miss about Washington. I'm not sure what's worse: the very real risk of another terror attack that anyone who was there on 9/11 understands, or the paranoia of the countless false alarms, politically motivated terror alerts, road closures, etc. When we left, the city was starting to get the feel of an armed camp, and I can't imagine it's gotten a whole lot better since then...

Today's life lesson #2

Today I learned that it might be a good time to start thinking about cleaning out our food cupboards, even though we still have another 9 months to live here. I'm saying this because I DO NOT want to be in the predicament of having to pawn off all my old, unwanted food products to my friends who remain in Basel after we leave. What sparked this revelation? One of my friends (friend #1) is moving back to NYC after having lived here for 2 years. A few weeks ago, I went by her house to collect unwanted goods that I might like. These are things you have in your cupboards but don't love enough to take home with you. I know this process well because I went through it before moving to Basel. Thank you again, Megan, for taking all my opened flour, sugar, and other random baking products. On my first trip to friend #1's house, I came home with some spices, a bottle of Kahlua (the movers won't pack alcohol), some soba noodles, a bunch of garlic, a bottle of balsamic vinegar, a bag of pine nuts, and a container of sea salt. In other words, all good things I could use. Today I went over to another friend's house (friend #2) to collect more unwanted goods that I might like. This is because friend #1 has been staying with friend #2 since moving out of their house, so consequently friend #2 got everything that was still left unwanted! In round 2, I came home with a bottle of Frangelico that's designed to look like a Francsican monk (it even has the rope belt), more spices, a plethora of various cleaning products, a giant (unopened) bottle of KC BBQ sauce, baking soda and baking powder (both are hard to find in Basel), an unopened box of yummy cookies from Spain, and a couple tins of Altoids. There were also a number of things I didn't take. I suspect these things will remain unwanted and sitting in friend #2's house for a long time to come. This included mincemeat (!), half of a bag of black-eyed peas, some organic cheerios from Whole Foods (yes, the American store), more baking powder and baking soda, and half a box of tapioca. My very favorite thing that I found in the bags of unwanted goods was a box of scalloped potatoes from Safeway (yes, the American store). At closer examination, I discovered that they expired in November 2003! I promptly suggested friend #2 throw them out. Here's the funny part-- she then remembered that the box of potatoes had actually been passed on to friend #1 from another woman (friend #3). Friend #3, who moved back to the US in February 2004, had pawned them off on friend #1 when she was trying to get rid of the unwanted goods in her cupboards. To make the story even more bizarre, we live in the same house where friend #3 lived while living in Basel, so if I had taken the potatoes they would have ended up where they had originally started 3 years ago. It's time to start cleaning out my cupboards.

Today's life lesson #1

Today I learned that there are hidden costs to ordering clothes online from a company based in the US and having them shipped to Switzerland. A few weeks ago, I ordered a few new t-shirts and a summer cardigan sweater from Lands' End, one of my favorite hometown Wisconsin businesses. I figured it would be expensive to have it shipped here, but they do offer Switzerland as an option, and I decided it was worth it because I'm so desparate for a few new things and the clothes here are awful. I was thrilled when the clothes arrived only a few days later, especially considering I paid $20 for the UPS shipping option that should have taken 1-2 weeks. (or was it $30...) Imagine my surprise when, today, I got a bill in the mail from UPS for 28 CHF (about $25 US)!! From what I can tell (it's written in German), it's a bill for shipping my Lands' End order. I think I may have to take this up with Lands' End, because nowhere on my receipt or order form did it say I would have additional shipping costs. Does this seem unreasonable? Has anyone else living overseas had similar problems? Whatever the case, you better believe I'm not doing that again.

May 10

Speaking of the Prez, I just ripped off another page on my "Bushism-a-Day" calendar and noticed that today is May 10. That means today would have been my Dad's 70th birthday. Happy birthday, Dad. I hope they serve you an extra big mug of beer in heaven today to celebrate.

Georgia

I generally like to stay from any political commentary on this blog, but I think I can ask a simple question without appearing too political. Did anybody else think the footage of Bush dancing and clapping his hands to the Georgian music was as hilarious as I did? Did it look to anyone else like he wasn't clapping on the beat and Laura was trying to get him to stop?

New hit song

There's a new hit song that's getting lots of play on the music video channels here. Similar to past hit songs, it's a remake of an old 80's favorite-- "What a Feeling" from Irene Cara. You know the one, it's from Flashdance. This new version is by the Global Deejays, and you really need to check it out. I guess it's supposed to be a play on the old Flashdance scene where Jennifer Beals is trying out her dance moves in front a panel of judges. Except in this case, at the end of the video, one of the straight-laced female judges can no longer resist the temptation to dance along with those auditioning. She eventually pulls her hair out of the bun on top of her head, takes off her glasses and rips open her shirt to go dancing into the arms of a man waiting outside in a convertible. I'm not sure I understand the ending, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

Things we don't miss

Not that this is breaking news to anyone who has ever lived in Washington, but apparently it is now ranked as having the third worst traffic in the US, behind LA and San Francisco. I thought it had ranked as second worst for several years, so I wonder what happened. Anyway, when we went back to DC for a few days in December we were very quickly reminded at how stressful driving is there. I could see Kirk's blood pressure rising right before my eyes as he began to curse and honk at all the surrounding drivers. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was such a stark constrast to driving in Switzerland where things are generally quite orderly and people seem to actually know how to drive.

A good Basel weekend

I'm happy to report that I had a good weekend, despite staying in Basel the whole time. That may sound strange, but generally if we're in town (as opposed to traveling), and if we don't have visitors, it means Kirk will have to work at least one of the days, which means we don't usually have a whole lot going on around here. I've learned that I need to go into these Basel weekends with fairly low expectations so that I don't end up disappointed and annoyed that Kirk worked all weekend. After all, that's why we're here, because of Kirk's job, and that's what giving us all these wonderful opportunities! The highlight of the weekend, of course, was the Cinco de Mayo party. It was great to meet lots of new people and to drink some delicious (yet deadly) margaritas. I was a bit concerned that I might be feeling sort of "woe is me" yesterday while people around the world (at least in Switzerland and the US) were celebrating Mother's Day since this is the first year without my Mom, but I kept busy being a Super-Hausfrau (or a Power-Frau as my German teacher once said). I'm not sure what got into me, but after baking banana bread on Saturday I got on this baking kick and made 2 batches of cookies. I made chocolate chip (because Kirk likes those best) and snickerdoodles (because I like them best). I hadn't baked at all since moving to Basel, and now I may have totally maxed out in one weekend. Afterward, once Kirk came home from work, we had our friends Jeff and Marlis over and I grilled up a bunch of sausages and veggies for dinner. Unfortunately, it still wasn't quite warm enough to eat dinner outside on our new Ikea patio set, but summer has to be just around the corner.

Tequila sunrise

I should know better. In college, tequila was often the party drink of choice, what with the Mexican border being so close and all. So, I know all too well how it can leave you feeling the next day. I also know how it can muddy your thoughts and make you do things you later regret (not that this ever happened to me, nosirree...). Anyway, last night The Big Finn and Mrs. TBF were kind enough to invite us to their annual Cinco de Mayo party. When we got there we promptly had one of their killer margaritas, and that's when things started to get a bit blurry. After having one and feeling barely able to walk, the appropriate response would be to either (a) switch to beer, or even better, (b) switch to water. This was actually Gretchen's preference, but the evil tequila whispered to me, "one more margarita wouldn't hurt, would it?" Gretchen, too, threw caution to the wind and decided to have another. Curse you, tequila! I should add that we have become serious lightweights over the years (when it comes to drinking at least...unfortunately, I can no longer be described as a lightweight in any other way). We're lucky if the two of us can get through a bottle of wine, let alone anything stronger. So, needless to say, two of these killer margaritas and we were both three sheets to the wind. At one point Gretchen was standing there and for no reason at all, just dropped her drink and doused the feet of everyone around her (I'm usually the clumsy one). At least we didn't drive last night. The bottom line is that we had a great time, but let's just say we're both moving veeeeeeery slowly this morning. I can't even remember the last time either of us had a real-live hangover, but it's in full effect today. And the moral of the story is: Tequila is evil.

Pennies from heaven

I don't know why I all of a sudden thought of this (probably because I was balancing our checkbook...or whatever our bank account is called, since checks don't actually exist here). Anyway, there's no equivalent of a penny here--the minimum denomination is 5 Rappen (the Swiss equivalent of cents). I noticed this the first time I went to the gas station and saw that 2 Raps were added to the total to make it 70.25 instead of 70.23. This seemed like a ripoff until the next time I got gas and they deducted 2 Raps instead. So I suppose it all evens out in the long run, and it saves the hassle of having to carry one-Rap coins.

Fishin'

This weekend is fishing opening in Wisconsin. I'm sure that means nothing to most people, unless you live in Wisconsin and like to fish. Believe me, fishing is a big deal in Wisconsin! Because I wasn't even really sure how to explain it, I went to the website for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). According to the DNR:

"Opening day for Wisconsin fishing is traditionally the first Saturday in May. Hook and line fishing for many species of fish on many Wisconsin waters begins the first Saturday in May. However, to better manage Wisconsin fisheries, season dates are often specific to the species of fish as well as the water body."

I'm still not sure I know exactly what this weekend is all about, but I think it's the start of the fishing season for certain fish (mainly the ones I like). Nanci, if you're reading, please help me out!

This was always a very important weekend in my family while I was growing up. For many years, my Dad, who was a big fisherman, went "up north" for fishing opening with his fishing buddies. Our cabin, which is on a lake in Three Lakes (a small town in northern Wisconsin), had been closed up for the winter, and the first weekend in May was always the first time my Dad would open it up for the year. In more recent years (after my Mom retired), my parents would go up together to open it up, but almost always on the same weekend. This year, of course, things are very different in my family. This year my sister and her family are opening up the cabin for the year. It's really strange to think that now it's "our" cabin. I love it up there so much. Three Lakes has a very special place in my heart. With summer just around the corner and my sister's family up there this weekend I'm really missing it. I'm very happy living in Basel, but there are always things that make me miss being closer to "home". Kirk took these pictures 2 years ago. The first is the view from the cabin looking out at the lake, and the second is the view from a nearby bridge.

Banana bread

I just made banana bread and it is so delicious. I had forgotten how much I loved it, and how great the house smells after you bake it. I used to make it quite a bit back in DC because I always bought too many bananas and they would always go bad before we ate them (we're very particular about bananas in this household-- they have to be perfect or we won't eat them). Now that I'm living in Basel and not practicing the "stock-up" method of grocery shopping I don't often have overripe bananas around the house. I may have to start buying a few extras so that I can make more banana bread. It's yummy. I've always used the most basic recipe. It's from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (the one with the red and white checked cover). That's got to be the first cookbook everyone owns. I probably got it when I left for college.

Snails

I don't think I'll ever eat escargot again. That shouldn't be too hard, considering I've only eaten it twice before, both times within the last 6 months. When I took Grady for a walk this afternoon I saw the biggest snail on the sidewalk. It was so gross! It was so big that it even startled Grady. I suppose all the rain lately is bringing out all the creepy crawlies again. After I saw it I wondered to myself how anyone could eat something so disgusting, and how it could actually be considered a delicacy. Yuck.

Paris vs. the Prez

I hadn't turned on the TV yet today so a couple minutes ago I thought I'd flip it on and see if there was anything interesting to watch. Why, I don't know. Day after day I find myself flipping through the endless German channels to find something I could be entertained with (generally unsuccessfully, I might add). At this exact moment, my two options for something in English are as follows: 1) President Bush speaking in Riga, Latvia about their "stand for liberty" on CNN, or 2) the crazy escapades of Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie on the Simple Life 2 on MTV. What fabulous choices! As you can imagine, the TV was turned off within seconds.

Books

Last night I finished A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche, which probably qualifies as one of the most disturbing stories I've ever read. It's a horrifying, powerful, improbable, frustrating romance set in Rwanda against a backdrop of genocide in the form of violence and AIDS (fun for the whole family!). Not for everyone, certainly, but worthwhile nonetheless. Of course I just realised that Hotel Rwanda is no longer playing in Basel. Since the book is set at the same hotel as the movie, I'm especially interested in seeing it now. Meanwhile, after reading something so depressing I need something a little lighter, so I've moved on to The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature.

Spoiled

When we were up at Pilatus last weekend, I realised just how spoiled we've become in terms of being so close to the Alps. It really was beautiful, but while gazing across the mountains and down to Luzern it occurred to me that there are probably 100 places in Switzerland that are equally beautiful, if not more so. Probably the only thing that keeps us from taking the mountains for granted is that we don't live within sight of them.

From Pilatus to Paris

Lee tells me that the last time he was in Paris was when he was 15 and he went with his Grandmother and toured the city in a big bus. This time, we walked and walked and walked... and we saw it all! It was amazing to go from the crisp, clear air of the Swiss mountains to the smoky, pollen-filled, city air of Paris. Both places are beautiful, but what a contrast. During the day, we saw all the big sights like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre (we didn't actually go in because the weather was just too beautiful for museums, although we did eat lunch at a chic restaurant in the courtyard called Cafe Marly), Sacre-Coeur, Notre-Dame, etc. Here I am in the Tuileries gardens (note the Eiffel Tower in the background). Every other time I've been in Paris it's been raining so it was a real treat to see the sun shining and the flowers blooming.





As I mentioned in a previous post, we also did a fair bit of shopping. Check out this funky teddy bear couch at JC de Castelbajac.





The evenings, of course, were for eating and drinking. And for Lee, an ex-smoker, smoking went well with the wine and beer. He had his first cigarette in 7 years!



Sightseeing, walking, shopping, eating, and drinking... add all those things together and you have a great vacation (especially when the sun in shining and you're in a cool city like Paris with a friend)!

Pilatus

On day 2 of Lee's visit, we took a day trip to Pilatus, which is this amazing mountain about an hour away from Basel, just outside Lucerne. Again, it was such a beautiful spring day, and it was wonderful to be in the mountains for something other than skiing! After parking our car, we had to take a series of gondolas and cable cars to get to the top of the mountain. It was a bit harrowing. This picture should give you a sense of what it was like to get to the top.





At the top of Pilatus (at 7000 feet), there were a couple hotels and restaurants. It's amazing to imagine how they built them, how they installed the plumbing, how they bring up all the supplies! As you can imagine, the views from the top of the mountain were spectacular.









We especially enjoyed a grilled sausage and cold beer while taking a break at the top of the mountain. I'm not sure what's up with my hair in this picture, but Lee said I look like a glamorous movie star.





On the way back down the mountain, we took a ride on the summer toboggan run. What fun!





Rather than take the cable car all the way back down to the car we decided to hike a bit down the mountain. It was a beautiful hike through pine trees, with views of the snow-capped mountains all around.







As if Pilatus wasn't enough, we decided to take the scenic route home (aka: a longer drive) and have dinner in Zurich. Once again, it was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed walking by the lake before eating another traditional Swiss meal.

And now for some photos

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from Lee's visit. On day one, after picking up Lee at the Zurich airport, we spent the day exploring Basel. His first moment of awe was when he saw the infamous tree in our neighborhood field. He took a picture of it because it reminded him of the logo from the HBO show Six Feet Under.





Here he is on the walking path from our neighborhood on the way downtown.






That evening, despite it being a balmy, 70 degree spring evening, Lee indulged in the Swiss specialty of cheese fondue. Yum.

Philly

I just watched Real World: Philadelphia for the first time. MTV is now showing it here and I'm thrilled because I've never seen it! I seem to remember hearing that there's a guy from Wisconsin on this season, so that should be good. So, all you Real World fans, tell me, is it a good season?

My very own stylist

Over the years that Lee and I have been friends, he's developed a bit of a reputation for having quite an influence on me when it comes to shopping. It's been the subject of ongoing jokes in our household. I've never been one for treating myself with expensive styles, fancy "products" (hair, makeup, etc), or well-known names in fashion, but somehow when I'm with him I just can't resist! Meanwhile, Kirk just shakes his head in amazement. It all started back in Washington. During our years of working together, Lee and I frequently ate lunch together and, as time went by, our trips to Union Station to pick up lunch frequently became an excuse to stop in Douglas Cosmetics and buy a new shower gel, an expensive shampoo, or the latest self-tanner. He always had good advice and I always took it (well, actually only sometimes-- my wallet couldn't support all of the good advice). Despite not having shopped together in well over a year, Lee's influence continues. He wasn't in Basel more than an hour on Friday and I had already bought a fabulous tube of Juicy Tubes lip gloss from the Lancome counter at Globus. (He told me that ALL the girls are wearing it back home.) Now, as I unpack my bags from our trip to Paris, I'm reminded of all my new French "Lee purchases". I'm not sure which is my favorite, but here are a few of them: a very cute purse from JC de Castelbajac, a brightly colored bracelet and necklace from Comptoir Sud Pacifique, fabulous face powder from Yves Saint Laurent (which happens to be the most expensive makeup I've ever purchased...), face lotion (with SPF 15) from Kiehl's, hair volumizer by Phyto, and perfume (I never wear perfume!) from Collette (Collette gets a whole post on its own... stay tuned). Lee, did I miss anything? Will I look fabulous this summer or what? Believe me, he never steers me wrong...

Proud to be American

Check out these oh-so-classy sayings we saw on actual t-shirts worn by actual Americans in Paris.

"You've been a naughty girl, go to my room!"

"It doesn't suck itself" (repeated at least 10 times)

Of course, we're only assuming they were Americans. Can you think of anyone else who would wear shirts like these?

I'm feeling a bit guilty

I think I mentioned last week that our lawn was desperately in need of a mowing. When we got home last night from Paris I realized more than ever that I needed to figure out how to use our mower at the soonest possible chance. The wildflowers and dandelions that had crowded out the grass must have grown 2 inches since we left on Sunday. Then, this afternoon, within an hour of getting home from dropping off Lee at the airport and picking up Grady at the kennel I heard a lawnmower. I looked out back and saw Hans, one-half of the husband and wife team that our landlord/upstairs neighbor uses as her "household" (they clean and perform general household maintenance). Hans was mowing our lawn. I'm figuring that our landlord/neighbor had had enough of looking at our backyard jungle and figured I'd never really get to it since I'm always jetting off to Paris or Barcelona or something. Of course I thanked Hans profusely (as much as I could in my limited German), and now I feel only a little bit guilty that I didn't do it myself. I must be slipping in my duties as a hausfrau.

Happy holidays

I don't think I'll ever understand these holidays in Switzerland. Tomorrow is Ascension, and therefore it's a holiday. Kirk won't have to go to work, and all the stores and schools will be closed. I've gone to church my whole life but have never recognized Ascension as a holiday. It's especially bizarre considering that Switzerland isn't really a religous country. For what it's worth, I think it's recognized throughout Europe as a holiday. (Except, perhaps, in the UK where they'll be celebrating election day instead) Tonight I learned that not only are the stores closed tomorrow, but they also closed early today. I stopped at my neighborhood Coop at 5:15 to pick up a few things for dinner tonight only to learn that they closed at 5:00 because of the holiday! It's bad enough that the stores here close at 6:30 or 7:00 on a regular day, but 5:00 on the day before this holiday they call Ascension? What's up with that?

Lee's excellent adventure

After 5 fun-filled days of eating, drinking, smoking (for Lee, not me), exploring the streets of Paris and the mountains of Switzerland, shopping, talking, and laughing, Lee's European adventure is over. He's now on a flight back to DC, and I'm trying to recover from what feels like a 2-day hangover. I suppose I could attribute some of it to drinking too much wine in Paris, but I think it's really just about being totally exhausted. We had such a great time, and I've laughed more in the last 5 days than I have in the past year! Stay tuned for photos and stories.

Pop culture

I was walking back from my meetings this evening (and a quick and delicious dinner at an Indonesian restaurant called Tujuh Maret that had been independently recommended by both a Dutch colleague and fellow local expat The Big Finn), and passed a movie theatre where a bunch of people--mostly teenage girls--were waiting behind barricades and others in tuxedoes were entering. Hmmm, thought I, what could that be about? Well, turns out there were a bunch of signs for some new movie starring Orlando Bloom, and I heard people mention his name. So, near as I can tell, I almost had a brush with fame. Actually, since I wouldn't be able to recognise Orlando Bloom if he was standing in front of me, maybe I had a brush with fame and didn't know it.

Kinder, gentler

Since my last couple of posts were a bit snarky, let me try to be nicer for a minute:

• This has to be one of the most walkable cities anywhere...the canals and the houses lining them are beautiful, plus it's completely flat, so if you wanted to you could have a great day just walking around aimlessly.


• There are few things more humbling than speaking to someone Dutch and realising that their English is probably better than yours. Not to mention their French, German, Italian, Spanish, etc.


• I always think of New York and London as being the most diverse cities in the world, but I'm wondering if Amsterdam shouldn't be up there as well.


• As much as I complain about overdoing it in the sun, it sure beats the hell out of all the rain we've been getting. So I hereby rescind my complaints in that regard.

Room service

There's a menu posted in the elevator here, and I couldn't help but notice this tasty item: "Carrot soup with tuna". Is that a delicacy somewhere? Because it kinda makes my stomach turn just thinking about it...

Dam

Some random thoughts from a hotel room in Amsterdam:

• Yesterday was an excellent day. We took our friend Lee up to Pilatus, a mountain just outside of Luzern. We oohed and aahed at the views, had an invigorating hike, and even went for a toboggan ride. We even made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to Zurich for dinner instead of going directly home. So, all in all, a good day.



• I'm of Norwegian descent, and the part of me that isn't Nordic is a hodgepodge of English/Irish/Scottish/etc. So I come from a long line of pasty-complected people. I get sunburned if I see a picture of the sun in a magazine. So naturally, yesterday I was an idiot and didn't wear sunscreen. Now my face is beet red and I fell like my head is on fire. Good way to start a week of meetings.



• When you're already feeling sunburned and hot, there's nothing like being in an airport where they haven't yet figured out the A/C situation for the season.



• I've become what I always vowed I wouldn't: a business class snob. Today I was waiting in line to get ticketed and a bunch of people in a tour group just marched right in front and wouldn't let anyone else get tickets (and the good folks at Swiss naturally didn't intervene). I just know that someday the bad karma of my getting aggravated is going to come back and bite me on the ass.



• My stomach has been unsettled all day, and boy is that fun when you want to spend a few hours walking around town.



• Since my stomach is unsettled, I ditched my plan to get Indonesian food for dinner (Amsterdam is famous for its spicy Indonesian food). So what did I get instead? Thai food. Further proving that I'm an idiot. (Although I have to say that since I got pad kratiem (garlic and pepper chicken), it actually wasn't that spicy. But still.



• In my haste to get ready for my trip, I forgot to bring my mobile phone charger, and naturally my phone has almost no charge left. Normally not a big deal, but with Gretchen being in Paris it's pretty inconvenient. Which, yet again, proves that I am indeed an idiot.



• I've only been to Amsterdam twice before, both times in the winter. So my impression of the city is that it's beautiful but dark, cold, and wet. This time it's light, warm, and dry (at least until tomorrow). And there are thousands and thousands of people out in the streets--I'd forgotten what it was like to be someplace where stores open on Sunday.



• Took a quick spin through the Red Light District after dinner (c'mon, everyone does it!). My impression from previous trips was that the ratio of tourists to drunken Brits to strung out junkies was maybe 3:1:1. Maybe I caught it at a bad time, but this time it seemed more like 1:2:4. Much seedier and a bit more menacing than I remember, but maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon now.



• Yesterday was Queen's Day, which is evidently cause for celebration. The entire city looks like the day after Mardi Gras.



• Did I mention that Gretchen is in Paris?