Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Is Basel going smoke-free?

I read a very exciting thing in one of Basel's free newspapers today. Starting today, the restaurant in Manor, one of the big department stores downtown, will be smoke-free. This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but there are very few smoke-free restaurants in Basel, and even when they have a "no smoking" section, smoke seems to be everywhere you eat. I only recently discovered the Manor restaurant, and it's a really nice place to stop in for lunch or even just a dessert or coffee. It's funny how many of the big department stores and/or grocery stores in Basel have restaurants, and what's even funnier to me is that they're always really busy! While I don't care much for the Coop and Migros restaurants, Manor seems to be a notch above and I especially like their salad bar. Now I can go there and enjoy a smoke-free atmosphere! Let's hear it for Manor!

But wait, it gets better... after getting together this morning with the ladies from my prenatal class at Starbucks (which is also smoke-free), two of us (plus a baby) went on a search for lunch. (For those of you who are keeping count, 3 of the 6 women from our class have already had their babies, one didn't show up today because she thought she was in "early labor", and 2 of us are due in 3+ weeks) It's no surprise that we ended up at McDonald's. Fast food has been my weakness during my pregnancy, and apparently that is also the case for many of the other new Moms or Moms-to-be! As we walked into the big McDonald's at Barfüsserplatz, we were pleased to read a sign on the door that said something like this: "Our customers have indicated to us that they would prefer to dine in a smoke-free environment. Starting today this McDonald's location will be smoke-free." This must have been our lucky day!

Sorry, all you smokers out there, but there are many of us who are very happy about these changes and are hoping that the current trend continues!

A nice November day

I know we spend an inordinate amount of time and bandwidth griping about the weather here, but can I just note that people are wearing scarves and topcoats? On the last day of May? As of 11:00am the temperature was still in single digits centigrade (40s Fahrenheit), and Gretchen and Grady got caught walking in a hail storm yesterday. Just to make it more fun, it can be bright and sunny when you look out your window and decide to step out for some fresh air, but pouring rain by the time you get down the elevator and out the door. I'm happy for Gretchen that she doesn't have to deal with a heat wave (knock on wood) in her final weeks of pregnancy, but this is just wrong on so many levels...

[Oh, and I'm happy to report that one of the Brit-icisms that I have most definitely not adopted is saying "touch wood" instead of "knock on wood". For some reason I can't help laughing when I hear someone say "touch wood".]

Monday, May 29, 2006

On its last legs?

Let's say it's a miserable, rainy Sunday and you have two choices for how to spend your day:

(1) Do your US taxes, which are due soon (expats have an automatic extension) and which will be even more complicated than usual this year because of the settlement of Gretchen's mom's estate; or

(2) Go through your CDs to see what you haven't yet loaded onto your iPod.

Want to guess which I chose? I was surprised at how much of our music we hadn't yet put into iTunes. I ended up spending hours loading songs, which really wasn't so bad, especially considering the alternative. Plus, I managed to purchase these gems on iTunes in a quest to fill some gaps in our collection:
Erasure: "Oh L'amour" (and no, I swear I'm not gay)
Wall of Voodoo: "Ring of Fire" and "Mexican Radio"
The Beat Farmers: "Lost Weekend" and "Happy Boy" (great college memories from a local San Diego band...rest in peace, Country Dick Montana)
Talking Heads: various early songs
Tom Tom Club: "Genius of Love"
Thompson Twins: "Hold Me Now" (are you sensing an '80s theme yet?)
Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz: "Get Low" (a request from Gretchen--seriously)

The only problem? By the time I finished there was more music loaded into iTunes than space on our iPods. In trying to get around this, I first accidentally deleted all of my meticulously constructed playlists from my iPod. Then, tonight I took it one step further and somehow managed to delete the entire contents of my iPod. Luckily I figured out how to get it back, but when I was transferring all 15 gigabytes worth of songs, the battery on my iPod died. This wouldn't ordinarily be a problem, except I had just charged it overnight and unplugged it less than an hour ago. This doesn't bode well--I fear my poor iPod is finally on its last days. I've always heard that low battery life is the bane of iPods, and since mine is now a couple of years old I suppose I should be grateful it's lasted this long. Tomorrow may be a very sad day...

Ich bin ein Berliner

I only had a few free hours during my trip last week to Berlin, but I still managed to get out and see a couple of sights close to the hotel in the Mitte area. I saw the famous TV tower, which has been turned into a soccer ball for the upcoming World Cup:



I saw the kind of public art (could it perhaps be an advertisement?) that only seems normal in a place like Berlin:



I saw the inside of the Reichstag (Parliament):



And I saw the famous glass dome at the top of the Reichstag:



Perhaps best of all, I saw something I've never seen before in Europe--a guy walking around wearing a bratwurst grill:



The bottom line? Berlin is not a beautiful city (World War II and years of division took care of that), but it's one of the more fascinating cities I've visited. Hopefully we'll have a chance to get back before returning to the States (it's on a long list of places to see over the next 8 months or so).

Visitors

Under normal circumstances we probably wouldn't be scheduling visitors during Gretchen's ninth month of pregnancy, but we've actually had two sets of visitors who happened to be passing through the past two weekends who were luckily easy to host. Last weekend Gretchen's friend Beth was in Switzerland for work and decided to hop over to Basel for a visit. They go waaaaaay back (grew up together in Wisconsin, she now lives in Minnesota)...I don't know exactly how far, but enough that Gretchen just told me to "be sure to post the picture that looks like we're still in sixth grade." So, here they are:



Then, this past weekend our friends Alexis and Jay stopped by on a trip to Europe (mostly Barcelona and Germany) to celebrate their 10th anniversary. We spent a nice day with them in Luzern trying to avoid the rain, then had a nice Alsatian meal at a little Winstub in neighboring Saint-Louis (that's pronounced "san loo-EE" if you're keeping score at home):



A good time was had by all, but now we're ready to just hunker down and try to prepare ourselves for Baby's impending (yikes!) arrival...

Friday, May 26, 2006

Healthy glow

I often tell Gretchen that she glows these days, and as much as that's a stereotypical thing to say to someone pregnant, it's really true--everyone who sees her tell her how great she looks. So when I saw this blurb in The Onion, I had to chuckle...

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Auffahrt and other random thoughts

Today is Auffahrt in Switzerland, which is Ascension Day in English. I'm always amused at how many obscure religious holidays are national holidays in Switzerland, especially considering that it's not really a church-going country. I grew up in a church-going, Christian home, yet I never remember hearing anything about Ascension Day. So it is very quiet around Basel today. I just took Grady for his mid-day walk and it was even quieter than a Sunday in our neigborhood. I suppose that's because schools usually take a few days of holiday around Auffahrt so many families may have gone out of town. And of course this means that all stores and businesses are closed. I made the mistake of shopping at Coop yesterday at 3:00 (just an hour before closing time on the day before a holiday) and you would've thought it was the day before the Super Bowl in the US or just before the arrival of an anticipated blizzard in DC. Complete chaos!

I guess in Germany the holiday is called Himmelfahrt. That actually makes a bit more sense to me, since it translates to "going to heaven", as opposed to
Auffahrt, which translates to "going up" in Swiss German. My German teacher LOVES to correct me whenever I use a Swiss word, as opposed to the appropriate Hochdeutsch (German) word. She doesn't like when I say I took the Tram to class today (it's Strassenbahn in German), or that I made Poulet for dinner last night (it's Hähnchen in German), and certainly I should never make the mistake of saying Gruetzi to her! Please, get over it, I live in Switzerland and these are the words I use.

I realize I haven't blogged much lately, but that's because I just don't have a lot to say! My days have become very different lately as I'm slowing down a bit. My due date is 4 weeks from tomorrow, and considering 36 weeks is considered full-term, I guess I would be considered full-term as of tomorrow. I'm trying to take it easy and stick around the house more than I used to... still working on cleaning and organizing and getting things ready for Baby's arrival. I nap more, I sit on the couch and read more, I pee more (my bladder is now super tiny) and I eat more little meals throughout the day (because there's just not enough room in there for big meals!). I'm also trying to get together with friends as much as possible for coffee or lunch or just a chat, knowing that the day will be coming soon when I won't see them as much as I do now. Between taking Grady for his regular 3 walks a day and doing the shopping and cooking and cleaning and laundry I'm generally exhausted at the end of the day. How do all these working women keep up at their jobs when they're Hochschwanger like me? I just learned that word in my German class, it means very pregnant, which I am now.

I'm off to fetch Kirk, who is just arriving back from his work trip to Berlin. I hope we can plan a trip back there this fall with the little one, because it's been six years since I've visited that amazing city and I really want to see it again. Thanks to Auffahrt, Kirk doesn't have to go into the office today, so he'll be at home with me working on assembling Baby's new changing table!

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Wo ist Friedrichstrasse?

Let me just say that one of life's hidden pleasures is giving directions to someone in a city you don't live in, and in a language you don't speak. Even if all I did was wave my arm in a vague westerly direction and say "die nächste Strasse", it's nice not to be the clueless one sometimes.

On the other hand, it's not one of life's hidden pleasures to walk to the solemn Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe on what appears to be a relatively clear day, only to have a lone rain cloud open up right when you get there. Oh, and you didn't think you would need an umbrella so you left it at the hotel. And you're wearing a business suit and have to return to your meeting, preferably not looking liked a pile of soaked rags...

Monday, May 22, 2006

Berlin bound

After an extended travel drought (I just can't count a night in Frankfurt), I leave in a few hours for one of my most favorite cities: Berlin. At least it was one of my favorite cities when we were there 5 or 6 years ago--I can't imagine how much it's changed since then. Unfortunately I'll be working most of the time, but should at least have a few hours to walk around this afternoon/evening. Gretchen is intensely jealous because she would love a visit to Berlin, but it just wasn't realistic for her to tag along in her current state. So that just means we'll have to find time this fall to take the baby with us and see if we can get a cheap EasyJet flight there.

I'm actually on a self-imposed travel ban, but this is an important meeting and I figure I can get back relatively quickly from Berlin in an emergency (we've asked the baby to please wait until I get back). Otherwise, after this I'm sticking close to home and waiting for the big call...

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Reading list

I like being surrounded by books. I don't collect first editions, I mostly buy cheap paperbacks rather than hardcover, and I keep them on cheap Ikea bookshelves. Still, I like having them around, to the point of preferring to buy a paperback rather than check it out at the library. This despite having less and less time to read these days (and I expect in a matter of weeks that my available reading time will dwindle to nothing).

Why am I bringing this up? Because we're finally trying to get the baby room in some semblance of order. Friends are coming over to help us move furniture around, and one of the moves will be to take a big bookshelf that is crammed to overflowing down to the basement. I could just put them in boxes, but I can't bring myself to do it. I draw comfort from knowing that I can go down and pick out just the right book for someone, even if I almost never actually do so.

All of this reminded me that I had read a few books over the past year or so that I enjoyed and thought I would do a public service and spread the word. I've had others I've mentioned along the way, but I think these are the ones I glossed over at the time:

The Locklear Letters - Michael Kun: One of the easier, and funnier, reads. A story told through letters to Heather Locklear from a sad-sack whose life is slowly falling around him. Clever and funny, and can be read in a day or two.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore: As indicated by the title, it's the missing Gospel as told by Christ's best friend, Levi who is called Biff. It's actually not as sacrilegious as it sounds, and even though the story is completely absurd and loses momentum as it goes along, it's quite clever and at times had me laughing out loud.

The Beach - Alex Garland: OK, so pretty much everyone of a certain age or less have already read this or seen the (supposedly awful) film version. For some reason I hadn't done either, so when I saw it on sale cheap in Thailand--and since it's set in Thailand--I had to pick it up. Very Lord of the Flies-esque. While I never did the backpacker thing, I still think I appreciated the book more now that I've done more traveling. I was prepared to be thoroughly disappointed, but it was actually an enjoyable page-turner (albeit dark, at times to the point of being almost sickening). I'm willing to concede, however, that maybe reading it on a beach in Thailand contributed to my enjoyment of the book.

How Soccer Explains the World: An (Unlikely) Theory of Globalization - Franklin Foer: Like many Americans my age, I grew up playing soccer but quit by the time I got to high school and never took to it as a spectator. I had started to rediscover it prior to moving to Basel, and now that I'm living here I find myself following European soccer more closely. While I thought this book's attempt to link soccer to variety of global trends wasn't always that interesting or effective, the actual stories of the background behind some of the biggest rivalries in the world was fascinating. (Which reminds me, with a huge scandal brewing in Italian soccer, I should probably go back and re-read The Miracle of Castel di Sangro.)

Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family - Charles Bowden: Non-fiction exploration of the drug trade across the US border as told through a single murder. Not a very linear narrative if that puts you off, but intriguing, disturbing and upsetting. Let's just say that almost no one comes out of this smelling like a rose.

Friday, May 19, 2006

It's that time again

After watching last year, there was no way Gretchen was going to miss this year's Eurovision song contest. Last night were the semi-finals, and while I only watched in passing, what I saw was deliciously bad. (If you go to the website and click on "Multimedia Lounge", you can be lucky enough to hear or see some of these artistic gems. No, really--I dare you.) While my heart is of course with Norway (who were already in the finals), based on what I saw last night I've gotta go with Lithuania. Not only did my mom live there and I once visited Vilnius, but their song is most excellent in an ironic sort of way. And I'm sure The Big Finn will be happy that the metal band from Finland are still in the running. The finals are Saturday night, and I have no doubt that it will be as wonderfully execrable as always...

The ultimate sin

Someone call the trash police-- I did something naughty!

Household trash is collected twice a week (Tuesday and Friday) in our neighborhood. All trash must be put in the official Basel-Stadt blue bags (Bebbi-Saggs) which can be purchased (at a high price) at the grocery store. Trash collection is a serious business here. You only put household trash in these bags, not recycling products. And you certainly don't put big items out on the curb thinking the nice garbage men will just take them away. No way. Take them to the dump (also known as my new favorite place in town)!

For some reason, they never pick up the trash on our street until around noon. That has always seemed strange to me. Doesn't it seem like trash should be picked up at 7:00 or 8:00 am? Anyway, there's really no hurry to put it out first thing in the morning, although I do generally get it to the curb by 9:00. Today, however, was the big exception. I had to run to OBI this morning to buy some big plastic storage containers for another one of my nesting projects, and I got started on my organizing right away this morning. By the time I took the trash out it was about 10:30. I had three bags today, which is highly unusual, but I've been cleaning the basement so I had a lot of junk. Imagine my surprise when I got out to the curb and saw that there were NO blue bags on our street! The trash people came early today and I had missed their pickup! What to do?! What to do?!

An hour or so later, while walking Grady, I noticed that there were still plenty of blue bags on one of the streets just a couple blocks away from our house. My mind went to work right away. I see an opportunity to get rid of my stinky garbage, I thought...

So after dropping Grady off at home, I threw the three Bebbi-Saggs in the back of the car, and drove around on the streets where trash had not yet been collected until I found a good spot to pull over. I was careful to pick a place in which there were plenty of trees separating me from the houses in order to lessen my chances of prying eyes spotting me out their kitchen window. I left the car running, put it in park, quickly threw the bags to the curb and sped off. I felt like such a renegade! I'm quite sure that some nosy old lady was watching somewhere probably writing down my license plate numbers so she can call the police. The fact that I feel even a little bit guilty about this trash violation tells me that I've been living in Switzerland too long.

I'm also reminded of the time several years ago when my Mom went driving around Madison until she found a neighborhood that was having trash pickup that morning so that she could dump her trash on someone's curb. I think she and my Dad were going out of town or something, and my Dad had just cleaned a bunch of fish to eat for dinner the night before (he was a big fisherman) and they didn't want to leave stinky fish guts around our house while they went on a trip. Looks like I inherited this naughty streak from my very own mother...

Brain cramp

Just curious, but am I the only person in the world who has to look at my own business card every time I give someone my mobile phone number just to make sure I've got it right? It used to be I simply couldn't remember the number. Now, I think I remember it, but I'm never 100% certain so I still have to check just to make sure I've got it right. You'd think after two years it wouldn't be a problem, but c'mon, how often do I call my own phone? (For that matter, other than Gretchen, how often does anyone call my mobile? I'm quite lucky in that very few people from work--with the notable exception of my Spanish colleagues--ever call me on it.)

By the way, as much as I may have adopted the occasional Euro habit--and I suppose saying "mobile" rather than "cellphone" could be considered one of them--I absolutely refuse to call my phone a "handy", which is the term of choice here. "Handy" is kind of dorky, if you ask me...

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Cutting the cheese

Evidently it was a bit of a big deal that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger visited Switzerland to get in touch with his Swiss heritage. Now ESPN has picked up on the story as well, with lots of obligatory jokes about cutting the cheese (is that just an American expression?). Best of all may be the reminder that the soccer team in Bern is called the "Young Boys"...I just have to laugh every time I see that. Was "Girly Men" already taken?

Are you ready?

Everyone wants to know... Is the baby's room ready? Do you have your bag packed for the hospital? The answer to both of those questions is, actually, no! OK, so maybe not everyone wants to know, but it seems like I've been hearing these questions a lot in recent days. Understandably so, because I'm sure I've made it a habit to ask the same questions to every other pregnant woman I know once she gets to a certain point in her pregnancy. After all, I'm just getting ready to start my 35th week, and they consider 36 weeks full-term (even though your due date is at 40 weeks). So in other words, what am I waiting for??!!

Now for some explanations. First of all, we don't really even have a "baby's room". We have two bedrooms in this place, which means all the baby stuff will somehow have to fit in the room that is currently used as an office and guest room. We're hoping to have some friends stop by this weekend to help us move furniture around (my ability to do heavy lifting is a bit impaired at this point), making room for the baby furniture (some of which Kirk will have to assemble). So far we have just the glider put together, but that's really the most important anyway, isn't it? I don't really know what else we would need to do to have the baby's room "ready", considering we're not doing the whole decorating with a theme and painting with a border thing. Nothing against all the Mom's out there who've done so, but a whole room done in Winnie the Pooh or something is just not my style, not to mention the fact that we're renting and will be leaving this place is less than a year. For the first few months, the baby will be sleeping in a bassinet that we're borrowing from friends, and really, what else needs to be ready at this point?

Then there's the issue of the bag for the hospital. I suppose I should get organized with this one. I made a list of things I wanted to take quite a while ago, but haven't gone beyond that. I know it's important to take a few things along with you, but seriously, Kirk will be coming back and forth from home and the hospital throughout my stay (5 days is standard in Switzerland, 8 days if it's a c-section), so can't I just ask him to bring things to me as I need them?

I also haven't washed any of the baby clothes yet, another thing that you're supposed to do before you leave for the hospital. Seriously, people, I'm not in denial about all of this! I realize that we're having a baby very soon, and that perhaps I should be a bit more stressed about being prepared, but I'm just not. Somehow I know it'll all come together. At least I bought my first couple packs of diapers the other day... boy, was that weird...

Ole, ole ole ole

I'm sure the entire North American continent was riveted by last night's Champions League final, right? Well, we were anyway. Since our visit to Barcelona last year when we got to experience the sheer Catalan joy of FC Barcelona fans, we've sort of adopted them as one of the teams we like. Bandwagon? Sure, but at least for a good reason. I actually like Arsenal as well, but last night we both found ourselves pulling for Barça in what turned out to be quite an exciting match. Even Gretchen, who doesn't follow soccer football and goes to bed early most nights, found herself staying up and watching right up to the end, gasping along with every shot. I imagine there are a lot of very tired, very hungover, but very happy people in the great city of Barcelona this morning...

Dump run

Just down the road from our family's cabin in northern Wisconsin is the town dump. So for all the summers we spent up there over the years we never had garbage pickup. That meant whenever we wanted to get rid of garbage we had to take it to the dump. I always thought it was pretty cool that we were so close to the dump, since other people had to drive from miles around to get there. Although I guess it wasn't so cool when they used to burn everything and then the toxic fumes blew our direction. When we were little, my parents would sometimes take us to the dump at dusk to see the bears. OK, that sounds weird. But we weren't the only ones who did it! It was quite a show! Looking back, I realize now that my Dad always loved making a "dump run", because he saw it as a bit of a social event. My Dad actually saw everything as a social event because he undoubtedly ran into someone he knew no matter where he went-- even the dump! He'd come back and have to report to us on everyone he chatted with and what he learned about any news in town. That was my Dad... everyone's friend.

Anyway, I made my very first dump run yesterday, right here in Basel! Thanks to The Big Finn's tip of the week, I just learned a few days ago about a dump not far down the road in Reinach. I was thrilled to find out about this because I couldn't figure out what to do with the junk around the house that doesn't fit into the official Basel garbage bags. It's not like home where you can just put anything out on the curb on trash day! We have so much random junk in our basement, partly because the previous tenants (who we know) left stuff for us in their rush to move out (I suspect), and I've always been too lazy to do anything about it. But now, we're trying to make more room upstairs for baby-related stuff/furniture, which means we have to take somethings downtstairs, which means we need more room in the basement.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the dump. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised... we are in Switzerland, after all, but it was just so orderly and organized. As soon as I pulled up, a nice dump worker told me which bins to put my stuff in (sorted by wood, metal, plastic, etc). I had a few questions for him about some other things I want to bring over (eg. a broken TV), and after having this conversation in very broken German (mine, not his), he asked me if I was German. No, I'm American! I guess he figured if I was speaking German, but not Swiss German, I must be German! Should I take that as a compliment? Once all was unloaded, including old mops, broken lawn chairs, a broken coat tree, etc., he asked that I pay 10 CHF (you have to pay to dispose of garbage in this country), and I was on my way. I was hoping he didn't notice my "BS" license plates as I drove out, as I had seen a big sign that said the dump was only for Reinach residents, which means I should have had "BL" tags on my car, but thankfully he just said goodbye and directed me out. How pleasant and efficient! I'll be sure to return with more junk next Wednesday. In very typical Swiss fashion, the dump is only open 2-5 on Wednesdays and 12-5 on Saturdays. I've heard that it's a zoo over there on Saturdays, so I'll stick to Wednesdays.

In our continuing quest to clear the house of excess junk, I stopped after my dump run at a huge Brockenstube in nearby Muttenz. I guess I would compare a Brockenstube to a Goodwill store. We have some old furniture we need to get rid of, and I had heard that this place not only takes donations, but picks them up in a big truck! Again, what a pleasant experience. I started off asking the woman at the information desk in German if I could donate furniture, but thankfully she switched into English and told me that she would have her Chef (boss) call me tomorrow to schedule a pickup. How easy! Granted, it may not be for two weeks, but regardless, I'm just so glad to have figured out what to do with this stuff.

All in all, I had a successful day of junk removal which was made especially easy by friendly Swiss people. Why was everyone so nice to me? Is it the fact that I look like I'm carrying a basketball in my tummy?

Monday, May 15, 2006

Strange currencies

Since I finally realised I'm not going to get back to the States anytime soon, I decided to bite the bullet and do some shopping here. Specifically, I've just about worn through the soles of several pairs of work shoes, so I couldn't wait any longer unless I wanted to start wearing tennis shoes with my suits. (It's not just a matter of cost--after all, the cost of the flight home tends to override any price differential--but rather a matter of ease. What is my shoe size here? How do I ask for help if I don't speak German? Do I need to ask permission before I try this on? Things like that are always easier back home where you know the drill.) Anyway, I found some shoes to tide me over last week at a shop in downtown Basel, but I realised I still needed a pair of comfy generic black shoes that I can travel with and wear with both a suit and jeans. I had found one store that seemed to have a really good selection, but since I was out of time and patience I figured I'd go back this week...until, that is, I saw in today's paper that the store burned to the ground on Saturday. That must have been quite a scene, since it (was) right in the heart of the downtown pedestrian shopping district. I guess the moral of the story is: you snooze, you lose.

In other Basel chaos-related news, on Saturday evening FC Basel was playing their archrivals from Zurich in the last match of the season with the championship on the line. All they had to do was finish in a tie and Basel would be champions, but Zurich scored as time was expiring, giving them the championship in dramatic fashion. Evidently the local fans were not so pleased with this result and evidently decided to do their best imitation of English football fans and had a full-on riot. You'd really be hard-pressed to find a more mild-mannered and law-abiding people anywhere than the Swiss (they're right up there with Singapore, but without the caning), so this is quite shocking, really. Perhaps all the rain just finally got to them?

The birthday boy

Today marks a very special day in our household. Today is Grady's 10th birthday! I mentioned it to Kirk this morning, and he said "Do we really know that it's today?". I keep track of these things, he doesn't. Just to be sure, I looked through our "dog" file a few minutes ago (the file where we keep all his important papers) and confirmed that he was born on May 15, 1996. Exactly where he was born, I can't be sure. We adopted him at age 3.5, and he had spent the first few years of his life bouncing around from various training programs where people tried to train him to be something he's not. First, it was the Paws with a Cause program in Michigan where he was supposed to be trained to help the disabled, and later it was the US Customs Service in Virginia where he was supposed to be trained to snif for drugs. Ah, yes, what a sordid tale it was...

We've come a long way with him. Only those of you who knew us back in 1999 truly know what a disaster of a dog he was when we adopted him. He was so wild that we literally could only be with him for a few minutes at a time. For the first several months he had to be contained in just one room of the house for most of the day. After all these years, he still has his quirks and he's still a bit neurotic, but I love him and he makes me smile every day.

His latest obsession is eating sticks. I realized recently that, since moving to Switzerland, he missed playing with sticks. In Arlington, our yard was filled with big trees so there were always lots of sticks. So sometimes when I'm out walking I pick up a few sticks to bring back for him (because our yard here in Basel has only a few, small trees that don't seem to drop dog-worthy sticks). The point was for him to chase and retrieve the sticks. But instead he chooses to eat them. I try to discourage this because it only results in him throwing up later, but sometimes I just can't be bothered. He enjoyed eating sticks in the backyard yesterday as I planted some flowers... and who was I to complain? At least he wasn't disturbing my gardening! Happy Birthday, Grady!

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Schönen Muttertag

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! It occurred to me the other day that this will be the last Mother's Day of my life that I won't be a mother... although I suppose in some ways I already am a mother. The reality of what is to come hit me hard this morning as I just got the exciting news that 2 of the 6 women in our prenatal class gave birth in the past 2 days!

Yesterday, Kirk bought me a beautiful bouquet (OK, I actually picked it out because we were downtown together and he wanted me to choose one I liked) for Muttertag. Later in the day, our landlord (who lives upstairs) brought me a bouquet of Maiglockchen (May bells) that she picked from the garden "to celebrate the day of the mothers". Now our house is blooming with fresh flowers, which I love. Wow... I'm going to be a mother. I was blessed with a truly amazing Mom, who's life was unfortunately much too short, and I will be happy if I can be even half as loving and supportive of my daughter as she always was of me.

Frauen Parkplatz

On Thursday, our friend The Big Finn discovered the perks of shopping mit Frauen (with women), and I captured it on camera! After very generously driving me up to Germany to pick up our new glider, I went along with him on his shopping excursion to Ikea. By the way, I accomplished something that day that I didn't think was ever possible. I left Ikea without spending a single penny! I had just been there a couple weeks earlier, so I didn't really need anything new. But still... not spending money at Ikea is sort of like not spending money at Target.

As TBF was looking for a parking spot, I suggested he go to the front row to the Frauen Parkplatz. Yes, that's right, there are a number of parking spots reserved just for women! Sure enough, we found one. And look how proud he was to park there!



These reserved parking spots are quite common around here. We frequently sought them out during our recent driving trip through Bavaria, and often found them at rest areas along the motorway. This is a big bonus as a pregnant woman who often needs to find a bathroom quickly!



I'm wondering why they don't have more of these in the US, especially in shopping mall parking lots which can actually get pretty creepy (especially in the evening). As opposed to the Ikea parking lot in Switzerland which doesn't quite have the same creepy element... Nontheless, I always appreciate a Frauen Parkplatz and will take advantage whenever I can.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Destination: relaxation

Life is good in Basel this afternoon, because I was finally able to assembly my our new glider chair. Since The Big Finn (a) is gainfully and happily unemployed, and (b) has a big-ass car, he was kind enough to take Gretchen to Germany to pick it up and carry it for her. So now I'm we're ready to rock my our cares away.

(As happy as I am to have this chair, Gretchen will probably be even happier since we went to a doctor appointment yesterday and he took one look at the ultrasound and said "it is a big baby!" He must have said "big baby" at least 5 times, and I don't think he was talking about my fear of becoming a father or Gretchen's desire for an epidural...)

Friday, May 12, 2006

Ring my bell

I'm on a mission...before we go back the States, I'm absolutely obsessed with finding a genuine Swiss cowbell (Kuhglocke) to bring home with us. I don't want one of the little touristy cowbells that you can buy in any shop in any mountain town, nor do I want a brand-new one. I want a big bell with an actual leather strap that an actual Swiss cow has worn around its actual neck while grazing on actual Alpine meadows. The problem is, where to find one? The most obvious place would be an antique store somewhere up in the Alps, but in our trips to the mountains thus far we haven't actually found such a store. (We did find one at an antique shop in the Alsace, but with all due respect, I don't want a French cowbell.) So now I've taken to checking the Swiss eBay site a couple times a week to see if there are any good Swiss Kuhglocke up for bid (I never even used eBay back home and now I'm trying to figure it out in German).

So if you know of any good Swiss antique shops, or even a farmer who is looking to upgrade his cowbells and wants to get rid of last year's model, let me know. I gotta have more cowbell.

Make your own joke...

So I picked up the free weekly at lunch today, and there on the back was a full-page ad for none other than...the Blue Balls Festival!

(And keeping with that theme, imagine my surprise when I saw this on the website linked above. Frankly, I'm glad I don't speak German in this case because I don't think I want to know...)

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

I'm no longer ladylike

Not that I ever really considered myself to be especially ladylike, but I at least have always tried to have good manners. This included knowing how to sit properly in front of others. All that seems to change when you're 8 months pregnant. The most comfortable way for me to sit now is like a man. Up straight in a chair, legs spread wide apart. What a sight, huh? I suppose I can feel OK about it because the instructor from our prenatal class advised us not to sit with our legs crossed this late in pregnancy. I guess it's not the best for circulation or something. Frankly, I can't sit ladylike with my legs crossed these days anyway, so that's not a concern for me! As I looked through the pictures from my baby shower on Sunday, I was struck at how un-ladylike I appeared while sitting in a chair to open presents. Here's a good example. Oh well, no one wants to criticize the pregnant one, right?



Speaking of the shower, here's a nice picture of the gang enjoying a delicious brunch.



In all honesty, I was sort of dreading the fact that my friends may decide to play silly shower games. I really don't get into shower games. But there were just a couple activities (other than eating and opening presents!), both of which ended up being fun. Here I am trying on a string for size. Everyone had to cut a piece of string that they thought would fit around the biggest part of my belly. I was thrilled to see that everyone cut pieces that were way too big for me! I fooled them all!



For the other activity (notice how I'm not calling them "games"), everyone had to predict the arrival date of Baby, plus her height and weight upon birth.



I suggested they add a column and guess the name! This was especially fun because we haven't told anyone (other than my sister) our name ideas. We have it narrowed down to a list, but we really haven't made any decisions yet. Here are the names that were suggested by the shower-goers: Camille, Caroline, Emma, Clara, Natalie, Stella, Marianne. and Tara.

In case you're curious about what we're thinking, let me give you a hint... none of these names are currently under consideration...

The price of living in Switzerland

We all know that it's expensive to live in Switzerland. Considering we've been living here for over two years now, we've had to get over it. So what if I pay the equivalent of $10 US for 2 chicken breasts? At least they're good. So what if we pay the equivalent of $5+ US for a gallon of gasoline? We love having a car and will drive anyway. There are certain things you can't live without, so you pay the price. Here's a good example. Today I finally bought contact solution. I've been procrastinating, because I've been meaning to pick it up in Germany or France where it's cheaper. But I finally gave in. I don't want to use anymore of my small travel size containers for everyday use. They're too important to have when it comes time to travel (and that time will come again!). I paid 24.90 CHF for a container of contact solution. It is the exact same thing (and same size) I would buy at home. 24.90 CHF is the equivalent of $20.30 US. How much would I pay for this product at home (at Target, for example)? Most likely $6.99 US. So there you have it. That's the price of living in Switzerland.

The best package ever

Last week I got a package in the mail from the States. The contents had virtually no monetary value, but were absolutely priceless to me! My very thoughtful friend Nanci sent me two 6-hour video tapes filled with uninterrupted American TV! I have no way of knowing what's on them other than to watch them. She just put the tapes in her VCR, turned on the TV, and hit record. Commercials and all. I'm loving it!

As I've mentioned before, our TV situation sucks. CNN International is the only totally English channel we get on our landlord's satellite. I watch MTV as well, because they show lots of stupid shows in English (with German subtitles), like Date My Mom, My Sweet Sixteen, Pimp My Ride, Dismissed, Room Raiders, and Next. I would probably never watch these shows at home, but here I'll take anything I can get. I also watch MTV and the other music channels here because they actually show a lot of music videos! Believe me, I'm very up on the pop music scene in Europe. Other than that, I've been known to get wrapped up in a few German shows as well, including Wer Wird Millionar? (the German version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire), Deutschland Sucht Den Superstar (the German version of American Idol), and Germany's Next Top Model. But that's about it.

Some of you might say, why don't you turn off the TV and read a book? I often do. But it's a fact-- I like to watch TV sometimes. I like to be entertained, and especially these days when I'm becoming more and more of a homebody. Thankfully we also have quite a good supply of DVDs, and I just borrowed season 1 of Desparate Housewives from a friend, so I should be set for a while. Thanks to Nanci, that is!

This afternoon I watched some reality home improvement show on HGTV that Nanci recorded. A guy wanted a new kitchen in his house, and 3 designers competed to redesign/build his kitchen with a budget of $65,000. I kept thinking that the host of the show looked and sounded really familiar, and I've just now figured it out. He's the guy who hosts The Bachelor/The Bachelorette! Can't wait to see what's next on the tape...

Monday, May 08, 2006

King of the party

This weekend was The Big Finn and Mrs TBF's annual Cinco de Mayo fiesta. Luckily, this year we took it much easier than last year--I guess it's always good when your 33-weeks-pregnant wife doesn't get tanked on margaritas. You'd think being more sober would make us less likely to have an accident like last year, when Gretchen just dropped her margarita on the floor for no reason. But then, you'd be wrong. First, I tried to open a beer and it promptly foamed up and overflowed all over the floor (strike one...but let the record show that two people after me did the exact same thing, so I think someone went in and shook up all the beers to mess with us). Then, I was trying to get some ice and ended up dumping the lid of the ice holder, along with a bunch of ice cubes, all over the kitchen floor (strike two...and this may have been the most egregious violation of all, since finding ice in Switzerland is like finding fresh papayas in Antarctica). Then, we were standing outside and all of a sudden without any warning my margarita cup literally crumpled in my hand (strike three...yer out!). TBF made a comment about my Kung Fu grip, but I think there's no coincidence that it happened right after Gretchen told someone that the baby could be born that night.

Anyway, back to what was supposed to be the main point of this post: King. Neither of us are cat people, and Gretchen in particular can be violently allergic to them. So naturally, the TBF's cat King made a beeline for her as soon as we got there. When we sat down to eat the tastiest enchiladas this side of Allschwil, King planted himself firmly in front of Gretchen. Then, just in case she didn't notice him sitting there, he would occasionally reach out and tap her on the leg with his paw to try to get her to slip him some Mexican food (without success, I might add). Despite my usual disdain for cats, King gets a big thumbs-up because he seems to have just a little bit of dog attitude in him. Here he is perched hopefully in front of Gretchen's plate (and pregnant belly):

The nesting continues...

Remember that pregnancy nesting instinct that I posted about a few weeks ago? Well, it continues. Today's project: cleaning out kitchen cupboards. It's an ugly job, but it has to be done! It's been a gray, rainy day in Basel, so I figured it was a perfect opportunity to get started on the kitchen. Man, we sure have accumulated a lot of junk over the past 2 years! We are really fortunate to have tons and tons of kitchen storage space-- far more than we have in Arlington-- but more space means one tends to be much less organized. Things get totally lost in the depths of the cupboards. I filled 2 trash bags (Basel bags, not the huge US trash bags) with junk. Expired food, old rags/sponges, food I finally admitted we'll never eat (like totally untasty "Thai" rice that I bought once at Coop--don't try it--it didn't taste anything like Thai rice), and empty storage containers and old cookie tins that are just cluttering up the cupboards. It's quite liberating, really. Not only did I throw stuff out, but I also managed to take everything out of the cupboards and wipe down the insides of the cupboards. They get really dusty, don't they?

Are Germans orange?

This Sunday's New York Times mentioned an article in Spiegel Online explaining the love of tanning. I'll be interested in reading their Germany Survival Bible and seeing how much of it applies to Switzerland as well...

Giving thanks

We've often said that one of the hardest things about living abroad is being far away from friends. Returning to our friends next year gives us something to look forward to knowing that leaving Basel (and our transition back to DC) will be hard. While we can never replace the great group of friends we have at home (nor would we want to) I feel so fortunate that during our two (plus) years in Basel, we've made an incredible group of new friends. I was reminded of this yesterday as a group of my girlfriends threw me a baby shower. It was a beautiful party, with lots of laughs and good conversation, yummy food (many of my friends are good cooks!), and lovely gifts for baby. (By the way, as we haven't decided on a name yet, we have chosen to call baby "Baby" for now. It suits her well.) It was quite a surreal event, this baby shower. I've been to so many baby showers in the past, but this one was for me! Anyone who knows me knows that I never mind being the center of attention, but even I felt a bit strange going over to the party, knowing it was all about me (or all about baby, actually...). But like I said, it was a beautiful party, and as I looked around the room at so many great friends who were there to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby I felt totally blessed.

I know that a million pictures were taken, but none of them are in my possession yet, so I'll post a few once they're emailed to me so that you all can see an updated photo of the big belly. 33 weeks and counting! And growing!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Dugong

It's the cow of the sea.

(Yes, it's bizarre, but watch it for a minute or so and just see if you can get the song out of your head...)

Life changes

Things are going to be really different around here. No, not because of the baby (well, maybe a little bit because of that). I'm talking about finally, after months...nay, years...finishing season 5 of The Sopranos. Big, BIG thumbs up. It took us so long that a bunch of our friends here were able to borrow and finish our season 5 set before we were even finished with seasons 3 and 4. What will we do with our evenings? (Never mind--Gretchen just borrowed the first season of Desperate Housewives and is already hooked, so I think I know the answer to that question. And maybe I can start watching Lost again now that I don't have any long flights scheduled, especially since Ms. Mac was kind enough to lend it to us ages ago and we've quite rudely held onto it while sloooooooowly trying to get through The Sopranos...)

Saturday, May 06, 2006

News of the Day

The Swiss Guard has evidently now served at the Vatican for 500 years. Normally I wouldn't really care, but since they wear funky outfits and we saw a few on our trip to Rome this winter, well...uh...I really have nothing of interest to add.



Congratulations to Heather at Don't mention the skiing for a stunning victory to make all us expats proud in the competition for Best Swiss Blog.

Finally, the Swiss Post evidently has a line of new stamps coming out with a cow theme. Given the fondness we have developed for Swiss cows, this is sure to make Gretchen happy.

Oh, and we bought a crib. Or rather, we ordered one. This whole baby thing gets more real every day. (It was our second visit to an excellent store near Mulhouse, France...and you get extra points if you guessed that it's pronounced "muh-LOOZE" rather than "MUL-house"...and both times we've run into a couple from our prenatal class. As the folks at Disney might say, it's a small world after all.)

Do we have exciting lives these days or what?

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Pool time!

A true sign of spring... I had my first outdoor swim of the season today! It seems like all the outdoor pools in the US are open only from Memorial Day to Labor Day (so that's late May through early September for you non-American readers), but here, our pool opened already on Monday. It's not technically "our" pool, but it's the pool at the private club that we belong to through Kirk's work. Today, it was truly what you would call a "private" pool. Check this out!



When I first arrived, there was only one other guy and the lifeguard at the pool. By the time I left a couple hours later, there were a few more people, including some kids who were obviously very excited about the start of pool season. But now I can tell you why I practically had this pool to myself today. BECAUSE IT'S FREEZING! This is coming from a Wisconsin girl who grew up swimming in cold lakes. I actually prefer a refreshing swim to a bath water swim, especially when the sun is hot. But the pool was cold. It took me many, many minutes to make my way down the stairs into the pool. That's usually Kirk's way of getting into water. I usually just jump in. I wonder what baby thought of the cold water. When I swam in Thailand she moved around a lot while I floated. But not in this pool! The lifeguard told me (before I ventured in) that the pool temperature was 25. That sounds perfect, doesn't it? I've always thought of 25 as the perfect temperature (on the Celsius scale, that is). Well, now I know that 25 in water temperature is still too cold to swim! Nonetheless, it was great to be back at the pool and to lounge in the sun, even in my ugly maternity suit with my big belly sticking out there for the whole world to see.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Ding!

There's something inherently funny about German rap music, but lately Gretchen has brought my attention to a song playing on the video channels that's not just funny, but actually kinda fun: "Ding" by Seeed. (I suspect one of the main reasons she likes it is because the video features what look like badgers.)

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Bugger

Seeing this article in today's Post literally made my skin crawl. In the couple of years prior to leaving the DC area, we experienced the full wrath of the Asian tiger mosquito, which seemed to find our backyard especially welcoming. Despite trying to never allow standing water to collect, I think rain water would form little pools in the leaves of an ivy patch. From late spring until the chill of fall set in, I basically couldn't go in the backyard without wearing mosquito repellent and/or long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, none of which is ideal in the steamy heat of summer. It kind of takes the fun out of having a yard when every trip outside is fraught with peril. I'm getting itchy just thinking about having to go back next year. (For some reason they hardly bothered Gretchen, and even when they did bite her she hardly reacted. I, on the other hand, looked like I had chicken pox and wanted to go on a Benadryl drip to stop the itching after spending 5 minutes outside.) We do have the occasional mosquito in summer where we live now, but it's quite manageable since we're not near water and they're not that aggressive (which is especially fortunate since windows here generally don't have screens).

A weekend at home

At one point, we had thought about going to Lugano this past weekend. After all, it was a three-day weekend (yesterday was Labor Day in Switzerland), and we haven't spent any time in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, and we can only take short trips by car and/or train at this point, so why not? But after spending a long Easter weekend in Bavaria, followed immediately by a week of fun during Dave's visit, we decided that we all (Grady included) could use a quiet weekend at home. A weekend in Basel is not a bad thing, especially now that spring weather is (finally) here, but it does seem a bit unusual for us not to be taking advantage of a three-day weekend with some travel!

Perhaps the most exciting thing was that Kirk managed to stay away from work and not go into the office for the entire weekend! That is quite an accomplishment... if we are in town over the weekend he almost spends one of the days in the office. I suspect, however, this may change once Baby arrives. (Or so I like to think...)

On Saturday, we made our way back up to the Baby One store in Gundelfingen. The trip was just as much about stopping at our new favorite German restaurant as it was about baby shopping! It was a successful trip, with a delicious (and heavy) (and cheap) German lunch, followed by making two key purchases at Baby One. We bought a changing table/shelving unit/bath (all in one, if you can believe it), and, lo and behold, a glider chair! As I was testing it out at the store, Kirk asked "Do you think we should buy two so that you can have one as well?" As we've written before, Kirk is very excited about having a baby so that we have an excuse to buy a glider. Unfortunately, it didn't all fit in our car, so we still have to go back and pick up the already-purchased glider with a friend who has a bigger car. The sales woman at Baby One was nice enough to offer to send it to a Baby One store that is just across the border (which doesn't normally carry gliders) so that we don't have to drive an hour to pick it up.

The highlight was Sunday was a trip to the zoo! I frequent the zoo and have an annual pass, but Kirk has only been there once before. It's a nice zoo. Of course, Kirk likes to make snide comments like "Well, it isn't the San Diego zoo", but not everyone can be so lucky to grow up with the San Diego zoo in their backyard! For a city this size, the Basel zoo is just perfect. As we've mentioned before, the Basel zoo is supposedly known for its breeding program, which means there are always lots of cute baby animals. Our hope was to see the 2 baby lions, who were born in December and only recently made their public debut, and sure enough, we got to see them curled up sleeping next to the big adult lions. It was a beautiful sight, especially for an animal lover like me. We saw lots of other animal babies as well, including a giraffe, a gorilla, a chimpanzee, and lots of baby pygmy goats. 'Tis the season, I guess!

Kirk already wrote about yesterday's excitement at the farm open house. It was definitely one of those "only in Switzerland" events. I was amazed at the number of people who were there-- families and old people alike. At noon, the line for food was a mile long! They were grilling sausages and pork steaks, plus selling salads and drinks and yummy desserts. I had a pair of Wienerli (little sausages that could maybe be compared to American hot dogs, but so much better) served with fresh farm bread, homemade apple cider, a berry tiramisu for dessert. Nothing better than sitting at a Swiss farm (in our neighborhood!) on a sunny day eating a good lunch with friends.

Other than that, we spent some of the weekend continuing our "nesting" (or at least I did...), getting together with friends who we haven't seen in a while, getting caught up on Sopranos (we only have 2 episodes left!!), relaxing, and going to our final prenatal (antenatal) class. I guess that means we're supposed to be prepared now. Is anyone really ever prepared for childbirth?!

So not the most exciting weekend, and not the most exciting post, but hey, considering our traveling days are over for a few months, this is as exciting as it gets! I'm off to the gym to float my big belly in the pool for a while. Feeling weightless is a good thing these days.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Making a list

Tonight is our final prenatal class (or antenatal, as they say here). So, in theory at least, as of tonight we'll be fully prepared to have a baby. Although the due date is still about seven weeks away, we're getting perilously close to that "anything can happen anytime" stage. So Gretchen has diligently read a lot of websites and books in anticipation (filling me in as appropriate), and we've both attended these weekly classes. Thankfully we never had to watch a video about the miracle of life or anything like that, but otherwise we seem to have covered the important details.

The different stages of labor? Check.

Breathing exercises? Check.

Braxton Hicks contractions? Check.

Visit to the hospital? Check.

Who and when to call when labor starts? Check.

Episiotomies (if you don't know, don't ask) and c-sections? Check.

Epidurals? An emphatic check from Gretchen.

Breastfeeding? Check.

How to be a good parent? Still waiting on that one.

We know it all.

We don't know a thing.

Oh, crap

Not only is today Labor Day (and hence a holiday), but it is also the Tag der offenen Bauernbetriebe, or Day of Open Farms. We got a notice in the mail that 50-60 farms around Basel would be having open houses with farm animals, tractors, etc. We saw that the local farm that sells pumpkins in the fall was on the list, so we arranged to meet friends who were bringing their kids. It was packed with people and just as charming as can be. I suppose one could be cynical and say it's all just part of a campaign to boost the image of the friendly local farmer (and perhaps preserve costly and inefficient farm subsidies), but you know what? It worked. Farms really do seem to hold a special place in the culture here.

Anyway, among the various activities and foods, our clear favorite was this:



If you don't speak Swiss German, that roughly translates as "Name that Poop!" Sure enough, they had nine little plates of poop set out, and you could take a quiz that featured a list of animals where you matched the poop to the animal that made it. Brilliant! Sadly, we didn't take the time to give it a go (so to speak)...