Longest post ever

Actually, this won't be a long post in terms of writing, but it will be long in terms of scrolling because I feel like posting some old pictures. A lot of old pictures. Specifically, a bunch of my favorite pictures from our time overseas. I've been thinking more about photography for a lot of reasons: jealousy from seeing pictures taken by friends with much nicer cameras than ours, Mädchen's constant demands to look at pictures (especially of herself) on the computer, seeing some beautiful pictures posted recently on an expat blog, and thinking about how we can start making our house look more like home (after a year-and-a-half back in the States, we still haven't painted or hung everything on the walls, and the basement still has plenty of unpacked boxes).

So all of that got me to thinking about the pictures we took overseas that I'm happiest with and would think about hanging on our walls sometime. They're not necessarily pictures of our favorite places (although in some cases they are), but rather pictures that I'm either really happy with how they turned out, or ones that have particular meaning. Why just from our time overseas and not since? Partly because of the memories (pictures of travels would be inherently more interesting than pictures from around here), but also because I feel like most of the time here I'm more focused on trying to get halfway decent pictures of Mädchen than trying to take inherently interesting photos. (It doesn't help that the batteries on our nicer camera are constantly dying, so even on those rare occasions when I might have the motivation to try to get creative, I usually don't have the camera.) Unfortunately it's not in our budget at the moment, but I'd love to someday have a really nice digital SLR camera and take the time to really work on developing a better eye for interesting shots.

Anyway, if you have the patience to do a lot of scrolling, here are three years worth of favorite photos (click to enlarge) that I've given thought to framing and hanging in our house:

Grady on the train to Wengen, May 2004. Not only was he actually sitting still, but he looked genuinely happy to see the Alps. It was the first time I took him on the train by myself. It was also not long after Gretchen went home to take care of her Mom for an extended period of time, and I know it made them both smile.


Waterfall, Lauterbrunnen, May 2004. Taken on the same trip as the previous shot. I liked how the light caught the water and the leaves, and I liked how the trees helped frame the waterfall.


Vanuatu market, October 2004. The flowers almost matched the color of the market worker's muu-muu (which almost every local woman seemed to be wearing).


Trail sign, Kandersteg, December 2004. These signs are everywhere you go in Switzerland, and come in handy year-round because a little snow isn't enough to keep the Swiss from going hiking.


Matterhorn, Zermatt, January 2005. Growing up, I always thought the Matterhorn was a ride at Disneyland. Little did I know that someday I'd ski down to a restaurant to eat outdoors with this view.


Tsukiji Fish Market 4:30am tuna auction, Tokyo, March 2005. I liked how it captured not just the fish, but the swirl of action by the market workers and buyers.


San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy, April 2005. So old, but the open shutter (and maybe the blue sky) gave it life. Very Italy to me.


Mercat de la Boqueria, Barcelona, Spain, May 2005. Such a colorful and chaotic place, yet the fruits and vegetables were so neatly stacked.


Tapas, Barcelona, Spain, May 2005. After Gretchen's Mom died, we traveled with this little stuffed sheep (named Little Guy) that had comforted her Mom in her last months, and took pictures with him everywhere we went as a way of having her Mom--who would loved to have heard our stories--share in our experiences.


Cow, Rigi, June 2005. Gretchen took this one, unfortunately with a really old, low-megapixel camera. Even though I probably take 80%+ of our photos, Gretchen probably has a more natural eye for beautiful shots.


Cows, Adelboden, June 2005. We took self-portraits everywhere we went, and this is one of my favorites, partly because it actually turned out, but also because it was one of the most quintessentially Swiss experiences we had (watching the cows march from the valley up to the high meadows for the summer--a line of cows are marching behind us along the base of the small hill).


Thunersee, Beatenberg, July 2005. This is another one of Gretchen's. While I was making a presentation at a training course in the mountains, she went for a hike and got this photo between rain showers.


Sheep, Wengen, July 2005. We were sitting in our hotel room after a chilly day of hiking and heard a bunch of bells ringing. When we went out to the balcony to see what it was, we saw it was a family herding their sheep through the (car-free) town to another pasture. I just wish we had a better zoom on our camera.


Jungfrau, Wengen, July 2005. After several days of overcast and drizzle, we were afraid we were going to go the whole weekend without actually seeing the famous Alpine peaks above Wengen (which Gretchen had never actually seen). Then, as we were sitting outside having a glass of wine on our last evening there, the clouds suddenly started to part and the Jungfrau began to emerge out of the dusk.


Fjærland, Norway, September 2005. Technically Gretchen's photo, although I get an assist because I was driving (we took it from the car). We were driving up to see a glacier when we noticed these cows trying to stay out of the rain by waiting at the restrooms. When we returned, they were gone but had left quite a pile in front of the doors (I guess their hooves had trouble with the doorknobs).


Balestrand, Norway, September 2005. The fjord was beautiful in its own right (the fjords in general were stunning), but then we got lucky when a rainbow appeared as well.


Baby Charolais cow, Burgundy, France, October 2005. Another of Gretchen's cow shots. Most of the Charolais cows were massive and intimidating, but this little guy looked like he just wanted to be Gretchen's friend. (This was the same trip where Gretchen took a pregnancy test that came back negative, so she happily joined me in sampling the wines and unpasteurized cheeses of Burgundy in great abundance, only to get home and find out she actually was pregnant. Oops.)


Fish market, Dakar, Senegal, November 2005. On my two trips to Africa I spent most of my time working and didn't get to see much, but this was one of the times I was able to sneak away. Needless to say, I stuck out like a sore thumb at this market, but the sights and sounds and smells were fascinating.


Monk, Bangkok, Thailand, December 2005. We were riding on a water taxi on the Chao Phraya River when I noticed a monk standing next to me looking across the river at Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn), so I surreptitiously grabbed the camera and got this quick shot.



Jungfrau, Wengen, January 2006. Another trip to Wengen without being able to see the Alps, in this case because of a big windstorm that shut down the railways and ski lifts (and, as we found out the next day when we went skiing, blew all the fresh snow off the slopes and left an icy crust in its place). At some point the winds shifted and the clouds parted, and the mountains appeared in a burst of light.


Al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo, Egypt, February 2006. I liked the moon above the minaret. I also liked that the sky was blue, because the rest of the time I was there the city was choked by a sandstorm.


Fasnacht, Basel, March 2006. Gretchen stumbled upon this small group marching with their fifes (one of the most godawful sounds imaginable, by the way) through one of the narrow alleyways in the Basel Altstadt.


Dinner at Säge, Flüh, March 2006. The Big Finn actually took this with our camera (we were out to dinner with he and Mrs. TBF), and it's one of my favorites of the two of us. Gretchen was about six months pregnant and glowing, we were at our favorite restaurant with good friends, we were happy and I think it shows. (This one is already in a small frame in our house, and Mädchen really has fun looking at it.)


About two minutes after Mädchen's birth, Basel, June 2006. Gretchen wasn't in much of a mood for photos after 12+ hours of labor (I can't imagine why), but we were really happy with how this one turned out.


Bethesdaspital, Basel, June 2006. Teeny, tiny, crinkly little fingers.


Post-lunch stroll, Dornach, July 2006. I defy you to find anyone who stacks wood as orderly as the Swiss.


From our backyard, Basel, July 2006. Every spring and summer the songbirds in our neighborhood put on a show every morning and evening. One bird's favorite spot was the streetlight behind our house, and we were lucky to catch him before sunset one evening.


Sports Club, Bottmingen, July 2006. Thrown over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I think this was around the time it was sinking in that I was, indeed, actually a Dad.


Train home from Bern, July 2006. A nice mother-daughter moment coming back from getting Mädchen's passport on her one-month birthday.


Lake Geneva, Lausanne, August 2006. Got lucky when the flag unfurled at just the right moment.


Sitting at home, Basel, August 2006. We were always planning another trip, even after Mädchen came along.


La Giralda, Sevilla, Spain, September 2006. I wish I could take credit for the vivid colors, but we didn't have filters/tripod/etc.--just happened to catch it at just the right time of the evening.


Canal, Amsterdam, September 2006. Nothing necessarily that special, but a very typical scene Gretchen captured from one of our very favorite cities.


Kurbis Fest, Basel, September 2006. If you live in Switzerland long enough, you end up with no shortage of cow photos.


Field near our house, Basel, November 2006. Green fields, fall colors, blue sky.


Living room, Basel, December 2006. Family photo, featuring Grady, by Gretchen.


St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, Italy, December 2006. Somehow the colors came out and it wasn't too blurry despite not using a flash or tripod.


Zurich Hauptbahnhof, January 2007. Changing trains on the way home from Arosa. I like how they're still while the world races around them.


Hotel room, Berlin, Germany, February 2007. Mädchen smiles a lot, but usually stops the instant we get the camera out. Not only did we get her smiling, but she was also enjoying sitting by herself and watching out the window--in retrospect, a time when she was really becoming her own little person.


Dining room, Basel, February 2007. Beginning to discover solid (as opposed to mushy) food in the form of Cheerios.

Local flavor 2

We're avid readers of the weekly list of restaurant closures to see if any place we know had to be shut down. Usually the reasons for closure are innocuous; not having a certified food manager on duty is usually the most common reason, and that doesn't seem like that big a deal as long as there aren't other problems. Needless to say, finding out that one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants was closed because of rodent/vermin infestation is NOT exactly what we wanted to see...

Local flavor

I figure it's always a good sign when something big happens internationally (in this case, Musharraf's resignation in Pakistan), and for reaction from expats the press goes to your favorite local kabob restaurant. Which is where I ate tonight, actually, and which several cab drivers (a good source for local ethnic restaurant suggestions) have confirmed has the best kabobs in town.

Filling space

Gretchen and Mädchen are down in Florida this week with Gretchen's sister and kids. For some guys that might mean going out drinking with friends every night, but as much as I miss my girls, I actually cherish the quiet and am even more of a homebody (and, unfortunately, a workaholic) than usual when they're away. (Talk about good timing on their part: they arrived in Pensacola hours after Tropical Storm Fay came through, and they'll be leaving in time to avoid Gustav. Ah, the joys of unwillingly owning property in a hurricane zone...) That means I really have nothing new and interesting to say, but I'm also getting sick of seeing Usain Bolt's picture every time I bring up the blog so I wanted to have a new post to move it down.

So...ummm...

Well, it's good to see Americans aren't the only ugly travelers in the world. (Actually if you've ever traveled anywhere in Europe where discount airlines regularly fly from England, that won't necessarily be a big surprise.)

Oh, and I don't recall exactly how I first heard about them (probably here), but I'm kind of digging a band called The New Frontiers these days.

And I finally finished watching Generation Kill and give it a serious thumbs-up. No, make that TWO serious thumbs-up.

Sorry, that's all I got...

A breakfast conversation, part 2

This morning, we continued our tradition of looking through all the fun Olympics pictures in the the newspaper. I was excited to show Madchen the big picture of the 100-meter dash on the front page of the sports section.



Me: "Oh, look, sweetheart, what are they doing in this picture?"

Her: "Hopscotch!"

Only a two-year old could imagine Usain Bolt doing hopscotch...

A breakfast conversation

Every day, I find myself in awe of how a two-year old's brain works. Madchen is a very verbal little girl, which I guess shouldn't be a surprise considering how much I like to talk, but let me tell you... it's exhausting! She's just entering the "why?" phase. Although she hasn't started using the word "why", her favorite phrases at the moment include: "what's that?", "what's that called?", "what's that noise?" and "name?". Most of the time, she knows the answers to these questions. So I ask the question right back at her and then she answers them herself. Poor Kirk... my introverted-husband-who-sometimes-likes-to-escape-all-my-talking has just now realized that, between his two girls, he may never get a break!

A recent breakfast conversation with Madchen went something like this:

Her: "Thank you (for the) pretty flowers Mommy". (commenting on the fresh flowers on the table that Kirk bought me a few days ago)

Me: "Who bought them for me?"

Her: "Daddy buy them (for) Mommy!"

Me: "That's right. Why did Daddy buy flowers for Mommy?"

Her: "Daddy love Mommy!"

Me: "Yes, Daddy loves Mommy. And who loves (Madchen)?"

Her: "Grandma Char loves (Madchen)!

Me: Silence as my heart melts at her mention of my Mom who loves her from heaven.

(Next subject)

Her: (very urgently and pointing at the newspaper across the table) "SPORTS! SPORTS!"

Me: "I'm sorry, sweetheart, Daddy took the sports section to work today."

Her: "Oh no, I love it!" (referring to the sports section, which she insists we read to her every morning at breakfast)

Me: Laughing heartily at her love for the sports section.

Her: "You crack me up!" (seriously, she said this... obviously imitating something I must say a lot when she makes me laugh)

(Next subject)

Her: "Name, flowers?" (pointing to the fresh flowers again)

Me: "I don't know the name of those flowers, sweetheart, but aren't they pretty?" (knowing that'll never be good enough for her)

Her: (more insistent) "Name, this flower?"

Me: I start making up names of flowers, because I can't think of their real names... I do this often... "those are called fluffy flowers, those are called star flowers..."

And so it continues until I come up with a name for each and every flower in the bouquet. At least I could name the daisies.

(Next subject)

Her: "Want to meet Bucky Badger someday!"

This is for real... I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!

Tube

I'm generally not a big TV watcher. I'm not holier-than-thou about it; it's just that if given a choice I'd usually rather read, and if I don't catch a show from the start, I don't like to have to catch up later. But this summer I've started watching a few new shows based on things I'd read about them (I guess in summer lower-profile shows don't get buried in the coverage of all the new shows on the networks). And it's amazing what a difference it makes having a DVR so you can watch things on your own time. Anyway, here's what I've been watching:

Generation Kill. A 7-part HBO miniseries about the invasion of Iraq. Not only did it get good reviews, but it's by the creators of The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Street, so I pretty much had to at least give it a shot. Highly recommended. It doesn't try to tell the story of the whole war (or even the whole invasion), but rather focuses on one company's experience with the initial invasion, based on a book by a writer who was embedded with the company. I certainly (and thankfully) can't say whether or not it's actually realistic, but it feels like it is.

Long Way Down. I saw a blurb in the paper about this show on Fox Reality (a station I didn't know we had, or that I even knew existed...truth be told, as soon as I hear "Fox" I tend to be immediately turned off) and decided to check it out. The basic premise is that actor Ewan McGregor and a friend ride their motorcycles from the top of Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa. Promising so far, although I'm really not that into motorcycles and since they're not yet in Africa, motorcycles and gear have been a big part of the show in the first couple of episodes.

Breaking Bad. After only three episodes, this may be the darkest TV show I've ever seen. Which I guess isn't surprising when the premise of the show is that the lead character, a high school chemistry teacher, learns he has terminal lung cancer and decides to spend his remaining time learning how to cook crystal meth. I like dark comedies, and while this has its funny moments, its more dark than comedy. I also tend to like quirky, which this has in spades. The acting is excellent, but I'm still not sure what I think of it. I'm going to at least stick out the first season and see if I'm either hooked or repulsed.

The Olympics. Not. I'll have it on if I'm in the room, but overall I'm just not that into it (although I happened to catch the Michael Phelps race where he was toast but somehow managed to lunge to the finish and win by 0.01 second, which was kind of cool).

A week at the beach

It's a good thing I have this one photo of Madchen on the beach...



...because it's literally the ONLY time she was on the beach! Well, I guess I carried her down to see the ocean a few other times, but this definitely was the one and only time she actually put her feet on the sand. I purposefully took the picture at a distance, because she was frozen in that spot. I had to set her down so that I could help my friends take the rest of our haul (towels, sand toys, sunscreen, snacks) down to the waterfront. And she didn't move from that spot. Instead, she screamed: "Carry you!" (meaning "carry me!") until I picked her up again. We stayed at the waterfront on that first morning of our week at the beach a total of about 15 minutes. She pretty much complained the whole time about it being "too windy", "too sandy", "too hot"... and she wouldn't even sit on the beach blanket unless I held her in my lap. So I gave up, packed up, left our friends on the beach, and hung out inside until they all came in for lunch. Some people just aren't made for the beach.

Other than that, our week at the beach was wonderful. It just wasn't really "at the beach". We found lots of other fun activities, and, if nothing else, the kids just played together. I don't know if you can imagine a house full of 4 moms (who are very good friends) and 4 2-year olds (who are very good friends until they have to share), but it was CHAOS! Despite a major lack of sleep and a tortuous drive out there last Monday, it was so much fun and I would love to do it all over again (after a few weeks of rest). Of course, the best part of each day was hanging out with my friends after all the little ones were in bed.

When I first moved back here in March 2007, I went through a period of feeling very isolated and lonely as a ex-expat who had just become an American stay-at-home-Mom. Now, a year later, I feel blessed to have found such a great group of women-- who have such a great group of kids!

Sweet 16

There are few things in the sporting world I care less about than gymnastics, so I'm mildly amused about the controversy over whether or not the Chinese gymnasts were old enough. I mean, how can anyone question that these young women are all at least 6--oops, I mean 16--years old?



(Oh, I suppose I should care because it's not sporting if their passports were faked, and it's terrible what their young bodies are put through from an early age, and all that other stuff. Fine, point taken--and I will say that if there are any "sports" I hope Mädchen never gets into, gymnastics and ice skating would be at the top of the list. But c'mon...it's GYMNASTICS.)

A bridge too far

As Gretchen mentioned in her earlier post, there was a bad accident on the Bay Bridge, which is the only direct way to get from DC across the Chesapeake Bay to the eastern beaches. Basically, an 18-wheeler plunged off the bridge, and the bridge is down to one lane headed east because a crane is trying to get the truck out of the water. I first heard from Gretchen at 12:20pm, and she had just hit the traffic backup 8 miles from the bridge. Two hours later, she had moved only seven miles and was at a complete standstill. And I think she had to pee. On top of all that, what she alluded to in her post but didn't come out and say directly is that she's terrified of this bridge on the best of days. (Bridges don't generally bother me, but this is one of those bridges that goes pretty high and you just feel like your car is going to be pulled off the edge, and to make matters worse they have lanes going in opposite directions on the same narrow spans. Coincidentally, there was a story in yesterday's paper about phobias that discussed the fear people have of driving over that particular bridge.) The only alternative would have been to drive a couple of hours out of the way north to get around the bay--and, as it turns out, this would have actually saved time. Ugh.

UPDATE: While typing this, Gretchen called to say she'd driven about a half-mile in the last hour. And she still has to pee. But at least she's now a half-mile from the toll plaza, Mädchen is being good, and I try to keep reminding her that a glass of wine tonight may taste better than any she's ever had...

UPDATE 2: Good news--they made it. Nothing like a scheduled 3-hour drive that ends up taking 6+ hours instead...

To the beach

It's very common for the young, single, 20-something crowd in DC to head out to the Delaware beaches in the summer. Somehow I never made it out there, even though I had lots of young, single, 20-something days here in DC. Now, many years later, I'm finally getting my time at the beach. Later today, assuming the enormous and terrifying Bay Bridge reopens after a tragic accident yesterday, Madchen and I will be headed out to Bethany Beach. I'm fortunate to have a friend who owns a beach house there, and she's invited a few friends to come out and join her for the week. It looks like there will be 4 of us (late) 30-something, stay-at-home-Moms with our children. Yes, that's right. Four Moms and four 2-year olds. Plus one 4-month old. It will be a houseful! I'm not sure how we'll be coordinating/managing naptimes, mealtimes, bathtime, bedtime... but I do know that Madchen will LOVE having a week of nonstop play with some of her best buddies. And I'll love having some girl time (with some wine) after all the toddlers go to bed!

All I'm askin'

Not that I think she'll really need much of a boost--her Mom is a strong woman who comes from a family of strong women, and from birth she's been strong-willed beyond her age--but as a Dad I want my daughter to be empowered as she goes through life. That's the only reason I can think of that I found myself at the dinner table with Mädchen the other night while Gretchen was at the gym, singing and making punching motions to the "sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me" background from Aretha Franklin's "Respect." Since she seemed to think that was a lot of fun, as soon as dinner was over I immediately downloaded the song from iTunes so that we can play some "girl power" music whenever we need it. Add this to the list of things I never envisioned myself doing a few years ago...

Snip, snip

One of the things Mädchen seems to have inherited from Gretchen was her hair (which Guy, our stylist in Basel, called "fine"). While some of her friends had several haircuts before they turned one year old, Mädchen barely even had any hair at that age. As of her second birthday, she still hadn't had her first haircut--not even a little trim at home. The closest she had come is when she sat in Gretchen's lap once in Basel when Guy was giving her a haircut.



But lately, as Gretchen's Mom might have said, she was starting to look like a ragamuffin. Even though her hair is thin and wispy, it was getting stringy, falling into her eyes, etc.



The thought of having her get a haircut was daunting, because if there's one thing we've learned about Mädchen, it's that she doesn't like change unless it's on her terms. But we heard about a nearby barber shop where countless parents took their kids to have Miss Annie give them their first haircuts because she was so good with kids (sure enough, the walls were covered with pictures of local kids, including several friends/neighbors whose pictures we found). Despite our nervousness, we thought it might go well if Mädchen sat in Gretchen's lap, especially when Miss Annie turned on a Dora the Explorer video. But as soon as Miss Annie got close with the comb and scissors, Mädchen pushed her away.



We thought we might have to give up and try another time, but Mädchen seemed to be willing to sit in Gretchen's lap in one of the chairs in the waiting area, provided she could have a lollipop (we don't usually let her eat candy, but desperate times call for desperate measures).



That seemed to be just enough of a distraction that Miss Annie could sneak in behind her and start snipping away.



A few minutes later she was finished and our little girl had her first cute little haircut, in a style that looked not unlike her Mommy's (a "bob," I suppose it might be called?):