Thinking by writing

I'm not generally much of a Michael Gerson fan since half of his columns are about what a Wonderful Person our former president is, but today's column about "the importance of writing to the process of thought" really hit home. Maybe it's because I like to think things through via writing, or maybe it's because I've written enough speeches for others to know how much each word can matter, but either way, I could relate.

Time goes by

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of our departure from Basel.

I wonder how many more years I will mark this anniversary. I wonder if we will ever NOT miss our life in Basel. Don't get me wrong, we're enjoying our life here, we're not living in the past, and we have (finally) settled in well. But Kirk and I do still get nostalgic for our expat life, especially for the travel we did and for the friends we made. And when I think about relaxed Swiss Sundays (who thought I'd ever miss that?!), or skiing in the Alps, or taking public transportation everywhere, or visiting neighborhood farms, or eating yummy Swiss bread... We still have conversations about "what if we moved back..." (although that's not very realistic, nor is it necessarily truly what I want to do).

If nothing else, we will have a lifetime of memories.

Hardest job around

Way back in the day, I was a high school teacher for a few years. It was a fantastic experience that I wouldn't trade for anything, but it was also the most draining and emotionally taxing (not to mention worst-paying) job I've had. One of the things that was difficult about it was that you always had to be "on"--maybe on a very rare occasion you could be lazy and show a video, but by and large you couldn't ever just tune out. But at least I could go home at night when it was all over--Gretchen doesn't have that option "working" with a two-year-old. With the exception of the occasional Dora or Little Einsteins show, she basically has to be "on" all day, not to mention being on call around the clock. So this seems to be a pretty good explanation of why, even though I've been working pretty long days lately, SHE's the one who's really exhausted at the end of the day...

Poohsticks

I wonder how upset Gretchen would have been if Mädchen had fallen in the water while throwing sticks because I was taking a picture instead of holding onto her? I'm going to go with "even more angry than when I rolled her stroller." That seems about right.


(Thankfully, all was fine. And she's got a heck of an arm.)

Sign o' the times?

Not too long ago, if we ever wanted to give something away but didn't have the energy or room in the car to take it to Goodwill, all we had to do was take it to the curb and it would be gone within hours. There was no need for Craigslist--this was as good as guaranteed. One side of our neighborhood is along a busy street with lots of big apartment buildings with a large immigrant population, and our guess is that there were always folks who didn't have a lot of money and were happy to get a piece of furniture. (Although our next-door neighbors also claimed items on several occasions.)

So when Gretchen cleaned out our basement in anticipation of the mold abatement guys (I don't want to talk about it), she found a couple of old things from Ikea that we'd had forever but clearly weren't going to use again. So we figured we'd just take it to the curb (one more reason for the neighbors to be happy!), label it "free," and be happy that it found a new home, especially with the bad economy.

Much to our surprise, a couple of days went by and nothing was taken until today, when someone finally took a bookcase and some old posters. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if the economy is actually the reason things weren't being taken. When we moved back from Basel, we heard that the cost of housing had priced a lot of the immigrant population out of the area, which was reflected in a big drop in enrollment at our neighborhood elementary school. Now, one of the sectors of the economy that is being hardest-hit is construction, and I'm guessing that a large percentage of the folks living nearby work in construction and may have had to relocate to find work. So a lot of the people who a couple of years ago might have lived nearby and driven around looking for bargains may no longer be here. I could be wrong, of course, but that's my theory for now.

Won't you be my neighbor?

Oh yeah, with a yard like this, who wouldn't want to be our neighbor? It would be even better if we had (a) the hose running from our backyard to the front, (b) lawn ornaments, or (c) either a vehicle on blocks or assorted car parts. Just give us time...

A good weekend

Sunny skies and lots of laughs...

Getting my Kirk on

I've never been much of a sci-fi fan (the Star Wars series aside, which I'm not sure even counts as sci-fi). I'm sure much of my antipathy to sci-fi arises from simple personal taste. But a contributing factor is probably that, as a kid, every time I'd introduce myself, people would say things like "Oh, Captain Kirk? Beam me up, Scotty!" Yeah, that's really clever--never heard that one before. So, while I don't care for the genre as a whole, I'm especially irritated by Star Trek.

Where am I going with this? Oh, right--I was browing today's New York Times and saw a link to an article titled "Get Your Kirk On." Since "kirk" means "church" (more or less) in Scotland and at least some Scandinavian countries, I thought it might be an interesting travel article.

Ummmm...no. Instead, it's about people who have replicas of the captain's chair from Star Trek in their houses. DORKS!

Just for the record

(1) Last night we caught the second mouse, and I safely released it outside this morning. I just hope mice don't have an innate sense of returning from whence they came (kind of like those dogs and cats you sometimes read about who somehow wander hundreds of miles back to their home after being abandoned by their owners).

(2) The only reason I did several posts last night was because Gretchen told me she was sick and tired of seeing Clifford and me every time she brought up the blog, and she insisted I make it go away. Never mind that she could have accomplished the same thing by actually doing a blog post herself...

My girls

I never forget how lucky I am to have these two in my life:

Free music

I'm as unhip as they come, but saw a review in today's Post of a free download of a remixed Outkast song. Turns out the price was right for the whole album (i.e., free), and after one listen, it's kind of fun (assuming you even remotely like hip-hop music). I could see it making its way into the iPod rotation, especially the aforementioned Outkast song.

Nude hiking

Just for the record, this is something we never saw when we lived in Switzerland, nor is it something I plan to try if I'm able to visit in a couple of weeks.

Mouse in the house

At one point on Saturday, we were all in the kitchen and Mädchen all of a sudden pointed toward the dishwasher and said she saw something moving. She wouldn't go near it, but we just figured she had been spooked by a reflection of some sort and didn't think anything of it.

So imagine Gretchen's surprise on Sunday night when she went back into our family room and there was a small shrew or mouse running frantically around the room. We really felt like we'd had our fill of wildlife in the house this winter, what with the recently evicted squirrels in the attic (which, knock on wood, have not returned), but no. I may not be good for much around the house, but this was clearly my problem to deal with. So I went in, and sure enough, there was a tiny little guy just sitting on our kitchen floor. Catching him couldn't have been any easier--I got a lid from a puzzle box, tossed it on top of him, slid a placemat underneath, walked him outside, and released him a safe distance from the house. Mission accomplished!

Until the next day, that is. I was watching basketball Sunday afternoon when all of a sudden another little guy came running into the living room. I tried to catch him, but to no avail. Later that night, we were watching The Amazing Race when he reappeared at least 2-3 more times, freaking Gretchen out exponentially more with each appearance.

Last night we set a live trap, but no luck. Tonight we're going to switch to peanut butter as bait and hope we have better luck. We are absolutely at our wits' end in terms of everything going wrong in our house, but at least we've had consolation in learning about all of our other friends who have also had rodent problems. ARGH!!!

Self-portrait with Clifford the Big Red Dog

Return?

I don't want to jinx it, but it's looking pretty likely that I'll be attending a meeting in Basel in a few weeks. Woohoo! I haven't been back since we returned to the States, so I'm really looking forward to it (assuming it actually happens). As if Gretchen weren't jealous enough already, I got in touch with good friends to see if they would be in town the weekend before, and he said they were going up to the Alps with a bunch of other friends that weekend, so why didn't I join them there? I still need to make sure that would be copacetic (leaving her alone with Mädchen for close to a week is not a decision to be taken lightly, although it helps that she'll be leaving me alone with Mädchen for the weekend after I get back), but regardless, I'm really hoping to get back and see old friends and familiar places...

All good things must end

I've known this day was coming for some time, but that doesn't make it any easier:

As of the end of February, I no longer have Senator status on Lufthansa.

Back in my globe-trotting days, I got spoiled by the extra benefits that came along with this status: shorter check-in lines (usually), priority luggage arrival at baggage claim (at least in theory), and most importantly, access to the lounge even if I wasn't flying business class. As someone who loves to travel but doesn't like to fly, having a little calm before the flight was always a big plus. (The exception being Frankfurt, where the lounges are just as crowded and unpleasant as the rest of the airport--but once Lufthansa bought Swiss, I could use Zurich Airport instead, which is infinitely nicer.) So, for example, when I flew to Mexico City a couple of times last year, I could still use the lounge even though I was flying coach. A big plus, especially when a few days in Mexico have you feeling exhausted and not feeling well.

Lufthansa is fairly generous in that you keep your status for quite a while. In my case, I last reached Senator status in 2006, and since they sent my card in early 2007, I was somehow allowed to keep my status through February 2009.

Alas, now it's back to hanging out in the terminal with the hoi polloi! I'll just need to use my iPod to tune out the world and create my own virtual lounge amidst the chaos...

(And just for the record, no, I don't expect any sympathy.)

Top 20 Albums

Here's another Facebook post that I figured I'd put on the blog as well...

* * * * *

"Think of 20 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people and emotions. When you finish, tag 20 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill."

I wasn’t actually tagged for this, but saw someone else's list and was so intrigued I decided to do it anyway. It was harder than I thought, and made we wish I could be as eloquent as someone like Nick Hornby about the music that really moved me over the years. I’m probably forgetting some albums that I used to have but lost somewhere along the way, and I definitely feel like I’m missing some from high school and earlier. Then again, singles were bigger then (ask your parents, kids). These aren’t necessarily the “best” albums, and aren’t necessarily the ones I listen to most frequently (there are a few that I listen to constantly, but I don’t necessarily have a strong emotional attachment). I'm not going to tag anyone, but do it if you're feeling so inspired. In rough order of when I discovered them:

1. Abbey Road – The Beatles. I had a big Beatles phase in high school, which preceded my country music phase (a time when I actually thought being a redneck was a good thing). This was my favorite of their albums.

2. Who’s Next – The Who. This coincided with my Beatles phase. While I liked some Led Zeppelin, I never got into them as much as I got into The Who. Hard to top the combination of “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” for air guitar fun.

3. Synchronicity – The Police. My last year in high school, I was still listening to a lot of country music and was reluctant to get into so-called New Wave music. This was the first step in getting over that reluctance. This album was probably the closest thing to a soundtrack of senior year.

4. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd. I didn’t go through a stoner phase, but this even blew me away sober. I associate it with long road trips and drinking outdoors with friends. I still listen to it on long flights.

5. Avalon – Roxy Music. This was either the first or second CD I ever bought (the other was Sting’s “Nothing Like the Sun”), and is still one of my all-time favorites. “More Than This” is absolutely brilliant—just typing that inspired me to play it.

6. The Hurting – Tears for Fears. In college I finally gave into the New Wave thing, and while there were a lot of great songs from the mid-‘80s, I always liked this album as a whole. (Also in contention: Yaz’s “Upstairs at Eric’s.”)

7. The Joshua Tree – U2. Blew me away at the time. I happened to be in Tempe, Arizona when they opened their U.S. tour in support of the album, and even though I didn’t go to the show, we had listened to it while driving across the desert, and it was all anyone was talking about. Shortly after that I saw them at the San Diego Sports Arena. I probably listen more to “Achtung Baby” and “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” (which brings back its own memories of our time in Switzerland) now, but nothing takes me back to a specific place in time like “The Joshua Tree.” And “With or Without You” is still a favorite.

8. Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes. My sophomore year in college, I went on an exchange program for a quarter at Dartmouth. My roommate there introduced me to the Talking Heads and the Violent Femmes, and while I’m probably more likely to listen to Talking Heads now, Violent Femmes defined the times. (I went back and forth between this and the Rave-Ups’ “Town + Country,” and I’m still not entirely sure I made the right choice.)

9. The Trinity Session – Cowboy Junkies. Another one that’s still an all-time favorite. In a time of New Wave pop (which I liked) and bad hair bands (which I didn’t), this album was almost revolutionary. It just has such a mellow vibe.

10. In My Tribe – 10,000 Maniacs. The first album I strongly associate with my post-undergrad days. I guess it was a little more grown-up than what I had listened to in college. Saw them in concert at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley (with openers Camper Van Beethoven). They seemed destined to go on to greatness at the time. Go figure.

11. Out of Time - R.E.M. Maybe not their “best” album, but one that I listened to constantly. It still holds up quite well.

12. Pet Sounds – Beach Boys. Not sure why I didn’t discover one of the greatest albums of all time until my mid-20s. I was dealing with an ill-fated attempt at a long-distance relationship at the time and this album spoke to me on the long drive back to the Bay Area from L.A. It used to make me wistful; now I just appreciate how great the music is.

13. Passion – Peter Gabriel. I never actually saw The Last Temptation of Christ, so I’m not sure how I got into this album (other than already liking Peter Gabriel). I did a lot of thinking to it.

14. The Road to Ensenada – Lyle Lovett. I’ve got most of his CDs and went back and forth between three or four of them for this list, but I ultimately settled on this one because I probably listened to it more than any of the others. I still listen to his music all the time. Helped me realize that I still liked good, intelligent country music, and didn’t have to be a redneck to do so. (This just as easily could have been Mary Chapin Carpenter.)

15. The Downward Spiral – Nine Inch Nails. Most of my list is on the mellower side, but this CD helped me get through grad school. There were many late nights when caffeine wasn’t enough, and this gave that extra jolt. Plus, it sounds freakin’ awesome with headphones. Gretchen would call this my “angry music.”

16. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. I don’t remember exactly when I discovered this, but “Ode to Joy” still inspires me and sometimes gives me chills.

17. Massachusetts – Scud Mountain Boys. I discovered this at a music store in Chicago on a cross-country drive to Seattle. The trip ended up being something of a nightmare, so this CD helped keep me sane. Another one that I still like to listen to, and another one with a strong country influence.

18. So Long So Wrong – Alison Krauss & Union Station. Like Lyle Lovett, I could just have easily listed anything of hers. But this is the album that turned me on to her music, and I have a very strong association with the giddy whirlwind days when Gretchen and I were first dating.

19. Songs 1993-1998 – Moby. Even though this is technically a greatest hits compilation, I didn’t know any of the songs on this CD prior to owning it. (And I’m still not entirely sure how I discovered it.) I was doing a lot of international travel when I started listening to this, and the more atmospheric songs were great to sleep to on red-eye flights to Europe. I can’t hear this without thinking of waking up to flight attendants serving breakfast as the sun was rising a couple of hours before landing somewhere in Europe. (Same is true of Moby’s “Play” CD—many of the songs from both are on the “Sleep” playlist on my iPod.)

20. Ibiza Chill Session 2006 (various). When we took a tour of the maternity ward at the hospital before Anneliese’s birth, we noticed that each birthing room had a CD player. One of my jobs, therefore, was to pick out some music that would help Gretchen relax. I went to the MediaMarkt and picked up a few random trance CDs, and this ended up being the best of the lot. I seldom listened to it before or after, but it makes the list because it was the soundtrack of our daughter’s birth.

(Honorable mentions that almost made the list: Body and Soul – Joe Jackson; Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen; Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen; Rabbit Songs – Hem; Someone’s Got to Pay – The Wilders; Time*Sex*Love – Mary Chapin Carpenter; Whatever & Ever Amen – Ben Folds Five; The Essential Yo-Yo Ma; Hotel California – The Eagles; Siamese Dream – Smashing Pumpkins/Nevermind – Nirvana (tie).)

Christmas in March

Last weekend, friends invited us over to their place for dinner. Gretchen and her friend met through our daughters, and Mädchen and their daughter are good friends.

When we finished dinner, their daughter asked to sing a song. Turns out they have a tradition that when they've finished dinner and their daughter has been a girl, she picks a song and they all hold hands and sing together. So we sang something basic like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and prepared to get ready for dessert.

But then Mädchen decided that it was only fair that she should get to choose a song to sing also. Fair enough--at least until she decided she wanted to sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." We tried to convince her to choose something else, but to no avail. So there we were, all six of us holding hands around the table on the first day of March, singing about Rudolph (at least it was snowing outside at the time, so there was a holiday feel to it).

Add this to the list of things I never in a million years would have imagined myself doing...

Scary news from Basel

Yesterday I heard from a colleague that a colleague/friend and her husband had been in a bad accident in Basel. Turns out they were walking in a crosswalk in one of the busiest/craziest intersections (Aeschenplatz, if you know Basel) and a car plowed into them. When you're a pedestrian there, it's easy to get complacent because you have the right of way and most drivers are very diligent about it, but all it takes is one time.

A former colleague noted that there was an article about it in the local paper, which of course identified them as tourists because they speak English (never mind that they've lived and worked there for three years)...which probably also means they'll somehow be blamed (unless, as another friend pointed out, the driver was Turkish, in which case the authorities will assuredly find him to be at fault).

It sounds like their injuries are moderately serious but not life-threatening, which is good news. They're supposed to be moving back to the States at the end of the month and this will be a heavy load to bear, so if you have any good karma to spare, send it in the direction of Basel.

(On a much happier note, I just found out that I will most likely be going back for a meeting at the end of the month. That will be my first trip back in over two years, which would make me very happy and make Gretchen insanely jealous.)

Mr. Smooth

When I got home tonight, one of the first things I said was: "It smells like B.O. in here--did you make tacos?"

Based on Gretchen's reaction, that's evidently not how one's wife prefers to be greeted at the end of a long day. Duly noted.

(And for the record, she had made white chicken chili, which was delicious. But the house DID smell like B.O.)

That'll work

The snow we got this week? Awesome.

Forecast for 75 degrees on Sunday, as well as the start of daylight savings time? Even better.

Book 'em

Tuesday night when I went to my car to go home from work, I was irritated to discover that one of my tires was completely flat. (This was especially bothersome since I just had to spend hundreds of dollars to replace two of the other tires.) I had noticed driving in that it was pulling a little funny at times, but I was also driving over a lot of ice and snow so I figured that was the problem. If I did drive in on a flat tire, I just hope I didn't do too much damage. But I digress.

After taking a cab home on Tuesday (during which I received a soliloquy on the merits of a wide range of firearms) and then back again Wednesday, I was finally able to get AAA to come out Wednesday afternoon. I went and met the driver and had him pull up to the guard station leading into our garage. When they asked him to pull his truck over to get searched, he waved me over and asked if they were going to check his ID. I told him I didn't know, at which point he asked if I needed a tow (which he couldn't do) and informed me that his dispatcher told him I had a dead battery and that his jack was broken so they'd need to send someone else out. Huh.

It seemed a little strange, but it didn't really register what had happened until one of the guards came over and said that, based on the way he was acting, he was pretty sure the driver must have had warrants out for his arrest. Which certainly would explain the intense nervousness about having his ID checked and his haste to depart the premises.

Luckily another driver came out an hour later and, after determining my tire couldn't be repaired, was able to put the spare on and send me on my way. I've always had great experiences with AAA over the years, so I'm just going to assume that sending out someone with warrants was an outlier...

Miracles happen

While not quite as much as originally expected, we ended up getting 4-6 inches of snow overnight. Woohoo! Since our roads weren't plowed, I decided to stay home this morning, and now I think I'll just end up staying home this afternoon too. I'll have to burn a vacation day, but we so seldom get a halfway decent snowfall that it's worth it.

Even better, when we took her out for a cold walk (22, wind chill of 3) this morning, Mädchen actually LOVED the snow. She's always cried in the past, but this time she had fun kicking the snow, walking in it, grabbing little handfuls and pretending they were snowballs, etc. Next year it might be time to strap on the skis...

Fingers crossed

As previously indicated, snow forecasts here tend to end up being duds. The local forecasters get everyone fired up, and then...pfffffft. Well, now they're saying we could get a fair amount tonight (although 4-8 inches is less than predicted yesterday). We'll see what actually happens, but we would be thrilled to actually get enough to make tomorrow a snow day.

Catching up

So, what's been up with us the past few weeks? Well...

-- Our good friend Dave, who Mädchen absolutely adores, moved back home to L.A. to be with his partner. We're really happy for him, but are also sad to see him go.


-- After the lightest dustings of snow, Mädchen actually agreed to try to walk in it. Given her usual reaction to snow, this was actually a pretty big deal (although tomorrow may provide a more realistic test if it snows like they say it might tonight).


-- Gretchen and Mädchen went to Wisconsin to visit Gretchen's sister's family. Among other things, Mädchen watched her cousin Natalie play soccer, handled large firearms, and tried breakdancing. How can you top that?





-- While they were away, we had the inside of our house painted. When we bought it in 1999, we were happy with the colors the previous owners had used. Then, when we moved to Basel and rented the house we just had the whole thing painted white. Things were looking really dingy, so we finally got around to making it look the way we wanted (actually, Gretchen gets all the credit for picking colors, etc). You can see how drab our dining room was here, for example; now it looks like this:


-- Mädchen tried to eat a sandwich for the first time (see above photo).

-- Also on the household front, the squirrels seem to have returned to our attic. Only now the pest control company thinks they may be flying squirrels instead of regular squirrels (we didn't even know we had flying squirrels here). Not that they're flying around our attic, but evidently they're a little smaller, which would explain why the traps haven't caught them.

-- We had someone out this week to check our basement for mold, and we do indeed appear to have some as a result of our leaky dishwasher. Now we're just waiting to find out whether it's contained to a small area or whether it has spread in the basement. We don't have any reason to think it's spread into the main part of the house, but it's something we've definitely got to deal with.

-- When they were in Wisconsin and the house was being painted, I went and stayed at a friend's house for a three-day weekend and basically did nothing but read, watch movies (in particular, Anchorman: The Legend of Run Burgundy and No Country for Old Men), and not leave the house except to eat. For me, a dream weekend.