Building a Lamp

A couple of weeks back when we were in Paris we bought a couple of old antique surveyors tripods with the intention of converting them into standing floor lamps. At the time I figured this would be pretty easy to do. I would just run to the hardware store, but a couple of light sockets and cords and wire myself up a lamp.

I had done it a million times in the U.S. making lamps out of pipes, glass jars, whatever I could get my hands on. What I didn't count on was that the Swiss are not by any stretch of the imagination DIYers. The don't do anything themselves. Any kind of home improvement task around the house can not be done by the 'man of the house' but rather must be done by a licensed professional.

So why, do I care, well this means you can't get all the same trivial pieces and parts at a hardware store like you can in the U.S. I could not find light sockets, treaded lamp rods, or lampshade brakets available at my local Jumbo home improvement store. I was floored.

Luckily, I had a chance to stop in a Home Depot during my recent trip back to the U.S. In no less than 10 minutes I had found and purchased the parts I needed and was set to pack them in my bags for my return trip.

A couple of nights ago I pulled out the parts as well as a trusty screw driver, and in about 20 minutes did something no Swiss would ever do. I turned a wrench without a local certification from some governing body. Amazingly, nothing blew up, no one was injured, life continued, and now I have a really neat looking lamp in my living room.

Where to Buy Bio Fruit and Vegtables Near Baden

If you are looking for 'Bio' or organic food near Baden, I would like to recommend Herr and Frau Suter's farm near Baldegg. I was introduced to the little farm shop a by a friend about two years ago and we have been going ever since.

We go not so much because the food it organic, but because it is nice to be able to support a local business, that has good produce, and reasonable prices.

We usually stop by the farm to pick up a few things when we are biking in the area. Today was not different, expect for the fact that the road to the farm from Baden has been under construction for a few weeks now.

When we arrived today we found a nice table set up outside with a basket of fruit, some bread, and some fresh juice. Perched on the table was a sign thanking us for coming despite the constructions.

We went in to bu our normal staples, apples, onions, and right now raspberries are also in season. And to our surprise Frau Suter was there as well putting out new food. You may wonder why I was so surprised, I suppose you have to understand that this store is nothing more than a open door to a barn. Inside there is no register, no shop keeper, just a few shelves with things nicely labeled. In the corner you find a small table with a few pads of paper, a calculator, and kasse (Change Box) full of change

The entire store is based on the honor system. So rarely do you see someone there. This being the first time I had met Frau Suter we asked a few questions and learned that besides the fact that the construction will be lasting 4 more weeks she has lived on the farm from 34 years, while the farm has been in her husbands family for over 200 years.

So, once the roads are open, I suggest you take a trip to my favorite farm store. Get on the bus from Baden to Baldegg. You'll find the shop just across the street from the Munzlishausen bus stop. You'll recognize the place by the big strawberry shaped sign.

They also have a place to park if you have a car.

Where To Find A Good Hamburger In Switzerland

It has taken me 3 years to find a good, grocery store pre-made hamburger patty. The kind of frozen hockey pucks that you can pull out of your freezer and in 10 minutes you have an instant summer grill party. Three years, but I finally I have what I want.

So what is wrong with 95% of all hamburgers in der Schweiz. The prime problem is they seem to be more often made of various forms of ground pork rather than beef, given the darn things a slightly strange flavor. Even those claiming to be rindfleish (beef) often just don't taste right to my American taste buds. The flavor of these things is a bit hard to explain, but if you've had one, and you are familar with the typical Amercian hamburger experience you probably can relate to what I am saying.

So this evening I was not to enthusiastic about the new burgers my wife had brought home from the local Denner supermarket. But what the heck, I thought I would give them a chance.

Would you believe the moment the the Findus brand all beef Farmburger from Denner hit the grill, I knew something was different. That smell, what was it, how do I place it. While my vegetarian friends won't like it, this burger just smelled right. It smelled like the smell of burning beef flesh, draining the juicy greasy goodness that is beef fat.

These burgers even grilled differently too. For the first time in 3 years, I was battling grill flame ups, as that wonderfully flavored fat dripped into the flames. I felt like letting out a primal grunt as I battled the infernal grill to ensure just the finest charing on my sacred meat. Ah, to be grilling in proper American fashion.

And finally the taste. As with all things claiming to be a 'taste of home' in this far off land the taste was close but not 100% right. But this was by far the closest I have gotten, and definately close enough to light up the grill and just dream for 10 minutes. Dream that I am in some huge expanse of a parking lot, carrying on the proper traditions of an American tailgate party. It's like NASCAR weekend at Richmond. Only this time there is no Tony Stewart, now hours of traffic jams, no hearing loss. Just me, my cooler, and a grilled, tasty, ever so savory hamburger. Mmmmmmmmm......

Searching for a New PC

Thank you to all of you that have sent me personal e-mails touting the advances and benefits of a Mac. Needless to say, your suggestions are futile. We have a mac at home already, and I really don't care for it.

As my current PC is at a little over 3 years of age, I am not suprised that it is failing. I usually coun't on hardware lasting about 3 years. I think my last laptop lasted about 5 years, which really suprised me.

So now I find myself shopping for a new PC. I've been spending most of my time on the Dell Switzerland site. I am pretty sure I will be purchasing from an online store like the Dell site for one single reason. I can order an English version of the operating system.

So after battling through the Dell Switzerland site, presented in either German or French, I have finally settled on the machine. I am pretty sure I will be going with a XPS 430 with 4GB ram. I want all the ram because of all of the photography work I do.

The only remaining question I have is should I get a 64 bit or a 32 bit operating system. The benefit of 64 bit is better handling of large quantities of data. Large photos as an example. I have checked compatibility of a few of my favorite programs and both Adobe Lightroom, and iTunes of course, are 64 bit compatible. One program that might be a bit of a problem is my QNAP 209 NAS device. The QNAP 209 is a large network storage device where I keep all of my photos. If I can find proof that that will work I might go with 64 bit. If not I think I will stick with 32 bit.

Looks like I need a couple more days to investigate before I am ready to make a purchase.

New Rice Cooker

Way back in the day we had a rice cooker. We used it all the time but decided to sell it before we moved to Switzerland thinking we would get another when we got here. The entire 110 volt to 220 volt thing was what motivated us to sell it.

To our surprise when we looked for a rice cooker in Switzerland they were priced around 80 CHF ($67) which seemed a bit extreme for something we could get in The States for about $15 at a Walmart. So for the past 2 and a half years we have really limited our rice intake and our Asian cooking has dwindled.

Last weekend we made am emergency trip to Media Markt (a.k.a. Best Buy) to check out some things and while we were out in Silbern we also stopped at the Otto store. An Otto is a strange mix between an Aldi and a Walmart. Really cheap stuff, piled up, sitting around in a warehouse. They are really small places compared to U.S. stores, maybe about the size of a typcial Walgreens or CVS drugstore.

So while we were in the Otto we spotted a reasonably priced rice cooker, on sale for 29 CHF ($24). This seemed like the best price we were likely to get so we went ahead and bought it. I think it was probably on sale because it was huge. It was not like the little one that we had back in the U.S. that would work perfectly well for 2-4 people. This is enormous, It is probably resturant size in Europe. I have a feeling that because it was so big, nobody was buying them, thus they ended up in the Otto at a great price.

On another note I haven't been writing as much as normal because of a lot of things going on at work lately. I just haven't had the free time that I usually have to sit down and write a post. I hope it will change, but I think I will be pretty busy the next couple of weeks.

Lots O' Heavy Books

My Stack O Books

So one thing we found on the cheap in the States were books. Lots and lots of books. As both my wife and I are avid readers and used to love hanging out in bookstores on a Friday night just wandering the aisles looking for something to read, being back in the States with tons of English books was a little overwhelming.

In particular my Mother introduced us to Half Price Books Records, and Magazines. The concept is similar the record stores or CD stores of old that would buy your old stuff from you and sell it at reasonable prices to the next guy. The nice thing about this chain is that it essentially has all the same sections as a normal bookstore. As the majority of the titles are contributed past reads the shelves are littered with strange anomalies.

My favorite find, Twinkie, Deconstructed, which goes through the entire Twinkie ingredient list and explains where each ingredient comes from, how it is made, and why it is in the Twinkie in the first place. It is a great read too.

The only trouble with going nuts in an American bookstore is that you somehow have to get the books back to Europe with you. We had investigated the M-Bag for sending books oversea's via the U.S. Post Office. That was an attractive option at $3 a pound but after weighing our bags just before our flight we realized we have enough weight allowance left to put our stack of books (40 inches high, 1 meter for the metric folks) in our luggage.

With four large suitcases right at maximum capacity getting to and from airports was a bit difficult but now I have what I need to keep me busy for 2009.

As a side note, I had some fun experimenting in taking the photo for this post. I have included of shot of the pile leaning against a door with different tape measures as I was finding the best angle.

Men's Shopping: European Fashions in America

At the risk of sounding a bit metrosexual I wanted to post about a recent shopping experience that I think many U.S. men living overseas in Europe might face. Where the heck can we buy clothes?

As I have posted before differences in sizing, styles, and cuts of clothing, particularly in work attire vary drastically between North America and Europe. A new job in Europe means new clothes, and potentially a new image. So how can an American man prepare or update a wardrobe to fit Europe? The answer is simple, find the right stores in the U.S. and stock up while the prices and cheap.

As my wife will attest, I am not the prolific shopper, however, when I do find the right combinations of style, price, and sizes I am known to splurge a bit. Yesterday I had such an event so I thought it was time to share some thoughts about work clothes and fashions from my experience.

First before shopping consider the styles being worn at work in Europe. As a general rule Europeans dress much better than Americans in the office. Dress pants and crisp ironed shirts are the norm, not the exception. The days of ragged polo shirts, and ratty kahkis will be long gone if you are moving to Europe from the U.S.

Black is in. Everything is black in Europe. Pants, Shoes, Belts, Jackets are all black. Brown has it's place but focus on black. To update your closet I recommend you start with a couple of pairs of basic black dress pants. Get rid of the American kahkis, they are only good for gardening and the weekend hike in the mountains once you get to Europe.

Shirts need to be fitted. Men's shirts are not as billowy as the shirts in the U.S. People in Europe are not trying to hide a gut under baggy clothing and prefer cleaner slimmer lines in their shirts. In the U.S. such cuts of shirts are refered to as 'fitted' in most stores. Give a fitted shirt a try, at first it will seem a bit tighter than most American shirts, but in the end I actually think they look much better than most Sears, or Kohl's shirts that American's may be accustomed too.

If you want to add color do it with a tie. Yes, I said tie. Can you believe it. This trend differs from office to office but ties are much more common in Europe than the U.S. so prepare yourself by brushing up on your tie knots.

So next you need to know where to get such styles and fashions. While it is easy to get such clothing in Europe you will pay the price. Good clothes cost money, and even more money in Europe. With the current financial situation and exchange rates I always bring empty suitcases with me to the U.S. and stock up where prices are cheaper, and I understand and kind find the right sizes of clothing. Below are some of my picks for where you can find European styled clothing in the U.S.

1. Express for Men

Express for Men has a good selection of dress shirts and dress pants that fit right in in Europe. Their MX1 line of shirts is a great choice. Some of their casual clothing may appear best suited for the 20 something crowd but their pants are shirts will look at home in a European office setting. Express can also be found in most larger malls in the U.S. so no matter where you are on business or travel you are usually within striking range of one of their locations.

2. Kenneth Cole

I like alot of the Kenneth Cole line. Kenneth Cole can be expensive but if you can get to one of their outlet locations you can get great deals. I was at their store at the Chicago Prime Outlet's in Aurora Illinois recently and the enitre store as 36% off. I can gaurentee you I got some great deals on shirts and shoes.

3. Calvin Klien

Calvin Klien in another line that has a good selection of styles that will fit well in Europe. Again the key is to find a good sale, or visit an outlet store to get the best deals. CK shirts are fitted, and have the right cut. Dress pants are also nicely tailored and are a great updated to you closet.

4. Gap

Now some people would question my addition of the Gap to the list. And I would agree that they are not the best place to get dress clothes for the office. However, you will probably want a few things for your leisure time outside of the office. The Gap has some great deals on pants, and basic solid sweaters that are a perfect fit for the weekends in Europe. As Jeans aren't the most common weekend fashion something like their charcoal grey surplus straight fit pants are great. Such pants in Europe would be something like 50-80 USD. While back home in the U.S. at the Gap you can get such pants on sale for about 25-30 USD.

To wrap up good luck preparing you closet for Europe and hopefully you'll have some ideas on where to start while at the same time saving some money.

Magazines, German Will Have To Do

Lately I have felt a need to catch up on the digital photography market. I haven't had a chance to really read any magazines lately and sometimes I just prefer to page through a magazine as opposed to clicking around online.

On Saturday we went to the local kiosk, similar to a news stand, to look through the titles. The Kiosk in the Baden train station has a fairly large English language magazine section carrying titles like Self, GQ, Vanity Fair, and National Geographic to name a few but unfortunately they don't carry any photography titles.

I was disappointed at first but then thought to myself, why the heck have I been taking German lessons?! I walked over the the photography sections, found about 20 titles and picked up a few to skim them so see if I could read them. Aside from a few words here and there I actually found I could follow the articles quite well. So, I chose one, walked over to the register and made the purchase.

I've been paging through the magazine and reading bits and pieces here and there. It is a challenge but the topics are things I am interested in, and it is another way to get a little German practice in. Lets see how far this goes.

American Food Binge

This weekend was a good weekend for an American food binge. I've got family coming in a few short weeks and I am sure they will have there suitcases loaded with all of the things I love. Knowing that, I had the green light to break into the emergency cupboard this past weekend.

I started off my Saturday with a wonderful bowl of Cherrios cereal. Then my wife had the great idea to bake a pan of Duncan Hines Brownies, Mmmmmm.

I had recently seen some 'American' brownie mix in the store here. A typical red, white and blue box. I didn't pick up the box, but I would assume the back was probably covered with cowboys, motorcycles and American flags. I'll have to get a box and try it but if it is like other Swiss backed goods I take a bet that it is probably a bit dry.

It was truly a flavorful weekend.

Rant About Adobe Software Pricing

I have been a fan of Adobe software products. Over the years I have used several of their software packages from Photoshop Elements, to Acrobate Professional, to Lightroom. I have also really liked their software distribution method. Immediate and fast download from their website.

Unfortunately for me I am living overseas. I have been sitting on the fence about wether or not I should upgrade to Lightroom version 2.0. I really like version 1 and after reading some reviews I think version 2 would be worth it. Since I already own version 1 the upgrade is under $100 and I don't think that is unreasonably priced.

So last night I tried to login to the US webstore to get the upgrade. No such luck. I got a message stating that I should call the customer service line. I tried to call them today and found out that they will be happy to ship me a boxed version within the US, but they will not let me buy the download version that I can get off of the web because I am overseas. I was a little ticked, not at the sales associate but at Adobe. I told the woman thanks but no thanks.

Afterwords, I started looking on the web and I found out I can get exactly the same piece of software from the Adobe store in Europe for $175 dollars. Why on Gods earth would I pay that price. Sorry, but its not worth it. Especailly when I can get the same thing for $99 in the US.

Looking on the internet a little more I see that Adobe is notorious for 'screwing' its customers in Europe, often taking the same numbers but replacing the dollar sign with a Euro sign for its European customers.

For now I think I am going to wait. I don't really think it's worth the extra cash, and I'm just a little bitter.

Backerei Wehrle, Waldshut Germay

Yesterday was a Swiss national holiday. So for the day we took a trip to Waldshut Germany just across the boarder to do some shopping. We primarily went to get some things for our annual Erste August party. While we were there we also did some shopping for clothes and had some lunch.

When we spend any time in Waldshut we usually try to find a good loaf of nusszopf, a traditional German sweet bread that goes great with coffee or tea. You can't find it in Switzerland for some reason.

We have tried several different backeries in Waldshut but my new favorite has to be Backerei Wehrle located at the west end of the old town. It is a small shop, with three or four women behind the counter, and it is always crowded. All the the backed goods there look fantastic. Although I haven't tired anything other than their nusszopf, if there other goods are as good as the nusszopf I would recommend it to anyone.

More Untertitles, The Flea Market

The city had its monthly flea market (Flomarkt) today. They changed the location so instead of being a 2 minute walk it now is just outside our door, in the plaza. We had the intention to visit the DVD guy to see if there were any good movies this month. Last month we really struck out.

I've blogged before that I like the movies because it is a good way to learn the language. I really like to watch familiar films. You'll hear the classic one liners in German and they just sound so funny.

Anyway, this month we hit the jackpot with the DVD guy. In the 5 franc bin we found a whole bunch of familiar films that will be easy to watch in German because we already know the plot lines.

Some of the tiles are still in English and others are adaptations for the German market. Lets see how many you recognize. I'll list them in order of difficulty. If you can't figure it out click the link.

• American Pie
• One Hour Photo
• Pretty Woman
• Die Bourne Identität
• Ferris Macht Blau
• Was Frauen Wollen
  
• Verlockende Falle

Jackets: What to Wear to Work

I have a situation to resolve. What type of jacket to wear to the office in the fall and winter months. Last season I survived wearing various forms of casual or atheltic (read ski) jackets for the 15 minute walk to work. As I often wear a shirt and tie I have to admit this looks a little strange, but last season I was to involved with other cultural issues to worry about finding a more appropriate jacket.

Last Christmas when I was home I did recognize the issue, and I did get a long dress coat. This coat goes fine with a suit but when just wearing a shirt and tie it feels like a bit much. So the search began a few weeks ago for the ideal light weight jacket for the walk to the office.

I must have shopped in about 10 stores over the course of the last several weeks to final find exactly what I was looking for a a store call Schild right across the street. The only problem is Schild tends to carry brands like Hugo Boss, and Navyboot.

So I found exactly what I wanted, only it was about 300 CHF. A little bit more than I had wanted to spend. So being cheap, I will continue to search. I did find what I could consider a 'knock off' of the jacket at a less expensive store for about half the price. It is not as nice and well built as the Navyboot jacket I found, but I think I can live with it. My bank account will probably appreciate it too.

This weekend I tried the jacket on with a t-shirt. I plan to head back to the store on the way home from work on Monday with my shirt and tie on since that combination is a little bulkier.

I hope by the end of the week I'll settle on something.

Follow Up on Car Sharing

I wrote a few weeks back about my experience signing up for car sharing but I don't think I really talked much about the actual first drive. From the reservation to getting the car, to returning home, I found my first experience to be generally positive.

The mobility.ch website for reservation was relatively intuitive. I could select classes of vehicles and time ranges and view availability. On problem I had with the reservation process was there there were actually two types of 'comfort' vehicles at our local depot. a Honda civic hybrid and one that looked more like a small mini van. Since I was getting the car to transport some larger items I was hoping to get the small mini van but the website would only allow me to select the type of vehicle and not the specific vehicle. This meant, at the end of the day I was forced to accept the Honda civic and I never knew if the mini van was available.

The day of the reservation I made the short 10 minute walk to the parking lot and waved by RFID card over the windshield and the doors unlocked and In I got. I started the car right up with the keys from the glovebox and away I went.

Most of the driving was uneventful expect when I parked at my friends place to pick up some chairs. I had left the car without locking it with the RFID card. After a 30 minute stop to load the car with the chairs we got back in and I tried to start the car. The on board mobility dashboard computer lit up and told me that I didn't have a reservation. I was in fear that I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with this car with no way to start it.

I took a lesson from IT and decided to 'reboot'. I asked my friend to get out. I locked the car with the RFID card and then started all over and all of a sudden I had my reservation back.

The only other trouble spot I had was getting gas. Technically I was supposed to get gas as the tank was less than a third full. In the vehicle, mobility provides a gas card with an ever changing PIN. When you take the card out of the dashboard computer it displays a new PIN code to use. I thought it would be easy enough to get gas, but this was my first time at a gas station in Europe and the pumps don't appear to be pay-at-the-pump like the US. I didn't feel like hassling with all that so I have to admit I drove the car back to the lot and left it with less than a third of a tank for someone else to worry about.

The Pants

The shopping season has started. Today was Super Samstag at the department store across the street. A perfect excuse to yet again try to find a pair of pants that fit.

To date I think I have spent a more than a full day shopping for pants and have not found a single pair of dress pants that I was happy with. Today things were different. After all, it is Super Samstag.

I managed to find a pair of dress pants at a reasonable price (Size 26) so I picked them up knowing full well that I would have to get them shortened somewhere. At home I had another pair of casual pants that I had also wanted to get shortened so I headed home to pick those up before I went to the tailor down the street.

Once I got to the small tailor shop there was a line! Everyone was buying pants today because it is the sale season (and of course all the pants come in a single length). I decided to postpone my tailor trip and head over to another clothing store I frequent for dress shirts. I hit the jackpot on the third try. Another nice pair of dress pants (Size 52) for about 32 USD that fit the way they should.

Back to the tailor where the line was still way to long, so I stopped at home for a little lunch and then made a third trip to the tailor. This time there was only one guy so I decided to wait. I got measured, left my three pairs of pants. And should have my items back in about a week.

What gets me is the sizing thing. Why not have a single sizing system. I get a 26 at one store, and a 52 at another. What is that? Those sizes aren't even close. I could understand if at one place I was a 52 and the next a 50, but 52 to 26? Sometimes I think some of these Europeans just have their pants on backwards.

Mobility

I have often found myself frustrated at times when shopping for larger items, like Christmas trees, rugs, or furniture. These items are often large, heavy and awkward to carry on public transportation. Delivery in some instances is available, but not all the time. So, what is the solution to this problem? Mobility.

Mobility is a car sharing service that lets you reserve vehicles parked at local train stations on an hourly basis. The rates are generally good. As an example I can rent a vehicle for a 3 hour shopping trip for under 20 USD. The trouble was how to sign up.

Enter traditional Swiss paperwork.

Correspondence 1

At first I signed up online to get things rolling quickly. I figured this would be much faster than filling out paper forms and mailing them in. Amazingly after about 3 days I received a response by mail.

Correspondence 2

In this second letter the company was asking for a copy of my residence permit and a copy of my drivers license. Understandable since they probably only want valid drivers using their vehicles. I hurried to work the next day to scan and print copies of the necessary documents and mailed them straight away.

Correspondence 3

In another few days I receive another letter, with copies of my contract. I was politely requested to sign and return these documents. They enclosed 3 contracts, 2 for them, and one for me. The Swiss always ask for the signature of 3 contracts. Now I'm beginning to wonder why they didn't sent this along with the last letter and request for information. Why are they wasting all of this postage? This process is really starting to drag out. Okay, so I'll sign the forms and send them back.

Correspondence 4

What I didn't mention is that in the third letter, they included a comment that they would send me a 4th letter with my PIN code. And only after I had received the 4th letter would I be able to reserve a car. I received the 4th later a day or two later and I was finally ready to try it out. Time to get online and make a reservation!

This back and forth through the mail seems like a common occurrence. I see it all the time for state documents, housing, general services and so on. For such an efficient culture this is one area I think the Swiss could improve on. A lot of wasted paper, wasted time, and wasted money if you ask me.

Who's Wearing the Pants

A departure from travel today, and back to the reality of Swiss living.

I have only bought one pair of pants since I have moved to Switzerland. Those pants were a pair of loose fitting hiking pants so I wasn't too worried about the fit. Unfortunately the time has come for me to invest in one or two additional pairs of summer weight dress pants for work.

I have been avoiding buying pants in Europe because I can't figure out the sizes. It is crazy here, and I just couldn't understand it the first time I tried to find a pair months ago so I have procrastinated.

We'll today I saw something that made me decide I had to take the plunge and figure the pants thing out. The local department store was having a great sale, the pants where half off (I'll avoid any reference to a bad Michael Jackson joke).

Okay, so I tried to read the sizing chart but I couldn't really figure it out because it had three sets of bizarre number combinations for example 25, 45, 79.

Coming from the US I like two numbers, 32,30. That is all I need and I know my size. What is 25, 45, 79? Or how about 48,54,82 That looks reasonable I guess. I figured it had something to do with the metric system but I couldn't quite figure it out.

At first I thought maybe the last number might be waist size in centimeters so I started doing conversions in my head and figured something in the lower to mid 80's should work.

About 6 pairs of pants and 10 minutes of staring at the sizing chart later I figured it out. So lets dissect if for you.

As an example 25,45,79.

25 is the size. Don't ask why, it just is.

45 if half of the waist curcumference in centimeters.

79 is the inseam in centimeters.

After 45 minutes of trying on pants I had figured it out. I even found a pair of pants that fit. Unfortuantely I was too drained to even think about picking out a pair of pants after I figured out I need a size 25. So, I'll go back this weekend when I have more energy.

Time To Buy Coke

Wow, Coke was selling for American prices this weekend. 9 Liters (6 X 1.5 liters) for 6.80 CHF. Time to stock up. We walked out with 18 liters of Coke.

Ah, shopping like Americans. How wonderful.

Your arms do get tired though.

To Germany

Our guests have arrived. We will be 'entertaining' constantly now until the Monday after Thanksgiving.

My sister-in-law has joined us for an extended stay just prior to her taking a new job in Atlanta. I'm glad she could come because I can remember how nice it was to have a friend in London a few years back. It makes the travel costs much cheaper when you have a free place to stay.

We are planning to go to Waldshut Germany today to do some shopping. The women are looking for clothes, and I'm just looking to get out of the house. We are also going to try to find some Christmas lights for our tree this year. We realized that all of our Christmas lights are basically useless because of the plugs so we'll have to get a few sets.

It is amazing how early the Christmas decorations go up here. The stores had started to put up there window display around the 1st of November. I think this is large part because there is no major milestone like Thanksgiving to identify the start of the season.

Finally I wanted to add a link to a small video that struck me as funny. A friend from work had it on his blog and I think it is quite accurate in reflecting some of my days around here.