... i have a furiously purring kitty on my lap! am typing one handed as the other hand is stroking her while also trying to make sure she doesn't fall off her precarious perch! :p
It's still raining outside... hasn't let up a whit since i commented on it 5 hours ago. ugh. it's a wet wet wet halloween :p
~~
Success: have finished knife of dreams!! I keep saying this, but it's true: this is the most satisfying Wheel of Time book in YEARS!! Now for the 2-year wait for Book 12 :p
One unfortunate side effect to my reading: my nails have been bitten all the way down again... I tend to do that when reading :(
~~
My little 2-sen worth of thoughts on Halloween: it was a horrible sight while in switzerland to see that commercialism has reached its greedy fingers out to Europe... what was once never celebrated is now starting to be observed: orange & black; spider webs; grinning pumpkins... Europe didn't use to make All Hallow's Eve as much as they marked All Saints Day. And certainly not the way the North Americans do. And yet, that is slowly changing. I find it's a pity. How soon before celebrations unique to a certain region or people are taken over or swallowed by this beast called, err, what IS it called? globalisation? commercialism? whatever :p
~~
I started LOL-ing watching the preview for last week's Smallville (taped, not yet watched): Remember I was excited that the fella who played Spike on Angel/Buffy was going to be joining Smallville? This episode which I will start watching in an hour or so, is about vampires. Looks kinda lame... but... I *have* to watch it perhaps for no other reason than to see in context what was used in the preview: a 5-second clip of Spike saying "Vampires? Everyone knows there's no such thing as vampires." LMAO! (For those who don't understand: He played a vampire in Angel / Buffy).
~~
Me going stir crazy. :p
Let's see how long I can stay sane :p
Monday, October 31, 2005
It's Halloween tonite!
Activity for today:
1. 25min walk to the gym
2. 30 min elliptical thingy @ over 250cals
3. leg press 1x10@90lbs, 1x15@110lbs
4. torso twist 2x12x90lbs each side
5. 10mins rowing @ 70cals
6. 25mins walk back
All that done by 1115am.
Once I was done with shower, fixed a salad for a light breakfast, looked out the window, and it’s raining! Wow, good thing I did what I did WHEN I did, otherwise I’d be going stir crazy already :p
What I’ve got planned for the rest of the day? Finish off Knife of Dreams so I can return it to the library… it *is* overdue by about a week… and I *should* have it finished today… It’s only like 10 cents a day, so the cost is not an issue: it’s the guilt at delaying another Robert Jordan fan form his/her opportunity to sink their teeth into the best book RJ’s published in years!! I’m now at page 633 and Perrin’s rescue of Faile is starting. Of course, it happens to be the same day Faile decides to escape by her own means. Ta’vernen? Probably :p
So, off I go… may blog again later, otherwise, check back tomorrow, k? I certainly have a little bit to say about Halloween, so stay tuned :D
Btw : back to using OLD Mac on dial-up connection. Boohooohooo!! Took a few tires before I could get a connection, then to get into blogger to post this!! Aarrrgggghhh!
1. 25min walk to the gym
2. 30 min elliptical thingy @ over 250cals
3. leg press 1x10@90lbs, 1x15@110lbs
4. torso twist 2x12x90lbs each side
5. 10mins rowing @ 70cals
6. 25mins walk back
All that done by 1115am.
Once I was done with shower, fixed a salad for a light breakfast, looked out the window, and it’s raining! Wow, good thing I did what I did WHEN I did, otherwise I’d be going stir crazy already :p
What I’ve got planned for the rest of the day? Finish off Knife of Dreams so I can return it to the library… it *is* overdue by about a week… and I *should* have it finished today… It’s only like 10 cents a day, so the cost is not an issue: it’s the guilt at delaying another Robert Jordan fan form his/her opportunity to sink their teeth into the best book RJ’s published in years!! I’m now at page 633 and Perrin’s rescue of Faile is starting. Of course, it happens to be the same day Faile decides to escape by her own means. Ta’vernen? Probably :p
So, off I go… may blog again later, otherwise, check back tomorrow, k? I certainly have a little bit to say about Halloween, so stay tuned :D
Btw : back to using OLD Mac on dial-up connection. Boohooohooo!! Took a few tires before I could get a connection, then to get into blogger to post this!! Aarrrgggghhh!
Friday, October 28, 2005
getting back on track in the u.s. and other ramblings
Ugh. I'm out of practice wrt tips!
1. I had images & memories of my late grandfather come to me unbidden at odd times during the 5 days I was at my g'mas's place last week. He passed away in 1998; I last saw him in 1995 when I dropped by after graduating. I was back in switzerland in the year 2000, but didn't actually stay at the house on the hill. Plus I was on holiday with someone who had never been to switzerland, and kinda lost language-wise, so it's not like I had time to myself for thoughts. :p And in 2003 stayed just one day there, with parents. Not conducive to flows of memories :p
2. Portrait of G'ma # 5 (missed out #1-4? Click HERE)
G'ma is reading an article about persecution of Christian Chinese in China.
She then says "China is such an immense country. Switzerland is so small compared to China. Do you know how many inhabitants it has?"
Mom has no idea, and guesses "800 million."
G'ma thinks about it for a while. Then asks "Do you think they all wear/have wristwatches?"
No idea where that came from!
3. I'm so used to having to mentally "switch" the direction I expect traffic to come from after a trip, cos usually it's a Malaysia <-> U.S. or Malaysia <-> Switzerland trip. Switzerland and the U.S. have traffic driving on the right (not necessarily correct! teehee!) side of the road; while Malaysia on the left, one of those remnants of british colonisation. Anyhoo. So for some weird reason, I was constantly confused over the last two weeks, not quite knowing in which direction to expect traffic to come from. So crossing the road involved much more left-right-left turns of the head than I already do. Weird :p
4. What's in a name?
I *am* on a rambling roll, aren't I? :p
... and here's more ramblage:
5. Did you hear about births to unmarried U.S. women have set a record? I won't shove the statistics down your throat, the article does enough of that :p What struck me is that births to older single women (ages 35 - 49) have continued to increase over the years.
Perhaps this reflects choices these women are making in terms of perhaps their career, and, more importantly, their independence. Choices they are now able to make. I think the stigma (and burden?) of being an unmarried mother is less potent (for lack of ideas for another word) when you're a successful business executive, let's say, than when you drop out of school / college and interrupt your education in order to have a child. And are then limited in your "career" options because you need to take care of the kid. As opposed to the people who are 35+, who probably have already carved a niche for themselves in their workplace, and can probably get more flexibility to handle raising a child. And can afford it too.
My mind jumps to these "late births" - in general, not specifically for the older single mothers... For my generation, I think our parents had us in their mid-20's (which was already "late" compared to the previous generation who got married & had kids in their late teens / early 20's). So when we finished college and joined the workforce, we were about 23 y.o. and they were 45-ish. But soon, those who have kids when they're 40-ish will see their kids enter the workforce when they (the parent[s]) are over 60y.o. And if the same trend continues, these same parents may be 80y.o. before starting to get any grandkids.
If they last that long.
I mean,,, life expectancy may have improved over the past few decades as we make advances in the treatment (and in certain cases, eradication) of things like polio, smallpox... then now we have to deal with more "modern" diseases like adult onset diabetes, cancer, cancer, cancer and did I mention cancer?
Where am I going with this? I dunno... I think i've rambled myself out of words :p
Be back later. Maybe.
*yawn!*
Had a breakfast-cum-lunch all by my lonesome, the bill came up to about USD6.50. For some reason I thought 20% = 65cents, so I gave a 1 dollar tip. Only while walking back did I realise that I shoulda given at least 1.30, probably would have rounded it up to 1.50. No, I didn't turn back. Too bad lah. After all it's just a few cents. But imagine if I'd made this mistake for a much larger total?! Ugh. I really don't like the whole tips thing, but well, it's part of the American thing I guess... will have to try to remember for the next time I pick up the tab at a service restaurant :pOn to other news... More Swiss-related thoughts:
1. I had images & memories of my late grandfather come to me unbidden at odd times during the 5 days I was at my g'mas's place last week. He passed away in 1998; I last saw him in 1995 when I dropped by after graduating. I was back in switzerland in the year 2000, but didn't actually stay at the house on the hill. Plus I was on holiday with someone who had never been to switzerland, and kinda lost language-wise, so it's not like I had time to myself for thoughts. :p And in 2003 stayed just one day there, with parents. Not conducive to flows of memories :p
2. Portrait of G'ma # 5 (missed out #1-4? Click HERE)
G'ma is reading an article about persecution of Christian Chinese in China.
She then says "China is such an immense country. Switzerland is so small compared to China. Do you know how many inhabitants it has?"
Mom has no idea, and guesses "800 million."
G'ma thinks about it for a while. Then asks "Do you think they all wear/have wristwatches?"
No idea where that came from!
3. I'm so used to having to mentally "switch" the direction I expect traffic to come from after a trip, cos usually it's a Malaysia <-> U.S. or Malaysia <-> Switzerland trip. Switzerland and the U.S. have traffic driving on the right (not necessarily correct! teehee!) side of the road; while Malaysia on the left, one of those remnants of british colonisation. Anyhoo. So for some weird reason, I was constantly confused over the last two weeks, not quite knowing in which direction to expect traffic to come from. So crossing the road involved much more left-right-left turns of the head than I already do. Weird :p
4. What's in a name?
Before boarding the plane at ZRH, all passengers were again subject to standard questions about who packed the carry-on luggage and whether it had been out of your sight/possession at any time. The person I had ask the questions was someone I'd noticed from earlier, because he looked like a typical Malaysian, perhaps a Sarawakian. But his name was a typical german/Swiss name of something like Hans Zimmerman! It was such an unlikely combination that I kept looking at his nametag instead of at him when answering his questions. It occurred to me later that he may have been among the many Vietnamese refugees adopted by Swiss families. Really not a big deal, but it was really weird to see such a typical german name attached to someone obviously Asian.
On a related topic: I think I was told that in Iceland, those tho emigrate there and/or get citizenship, are required change their names to typical Icelandic names. You know, like Gunnar Ericsson, or Gunnhild Ericsdottir. Imagine that attached to someone who obviously is not Scandinavian.
Similarly, in an attempt to enforce homogeneity in a multicultural, multiracial and multireligious society, Indonesians all have "typical Indonesian names." The most obvious effect of this ruling is seeing someone who is obviously Chinese with a name like, ugh, I can't dig those names out of my memory... nvm just take my word for it :p (I *did* find a page someone was trying to compile Indonesian names, if you're interested, see HERE)
I *am* on a rambling roll, aren't I? :p
... and here's more ramblage:
5. Did you hear about births to unmarried U.S. women have set a record? I won't shove the statistics down your throat, the article does enough of that :p What struck me is that births to older single women (ages 35 - 49) have continued to increase over the years.
Perhaps this reflects choices these women are making in terms of perhaps their career, and, more importantly, their independence. Choices they are now able to make. I think the stigma (and burden?) of being an unmarried mother is less potent (for lack of ideas for another word) when you're a successful business executive, let's say, than when you drop out of school / college and interrupt your education in order to have a child. And are then limited in your "career" options because you need to take care of the kid. As opposed to the people who are 35+, who probably have already carved a niche for themselves in their workplace, and can probably get more flexibility to handle raising a child. And can afford it too.
My mind jumps to these "late births" - in general, not specifically for the older single mothers... For my generation, I think our parents had us in their mid-20's (which was already "late" compared to the previous generation who got married & had kids in their late teens / early 20's). So when we finished college and joined the workforce, we were about 23 y.o. and they were 45-ish. But soon, those who have kids when they're 40-ish will see their kids enter the workforce when they (the parent[s]) are over 60y.o. And if the same trend continues, these same parents may be 80y.o. before starting to get any grandkids.
If they last that long.
I mean,,, life expectancy may have improved over the past few decades as we make advances in the treatment (and in certain cases, eradication) of things like polio, smallpox... then now we have to deal with more "modern" diseases like adult onset diabetes, cancer, cancer, cancer and did I mention cancer?
Where am I going with this? I dunno... I think i've rambled myself out of words :p
Be back later. Maybe.
*yawn!*
Guess who's back, back again?
No, not "Uncle Em",,, the "opposite" actually,,, ME! :D
Oh boy what a trip.
@ ZRH
Maybe it was just because it was Switzerland, and they take things really seriously? Or because it WAS an American Airlines flight? Or just because it was a U.S.-bound flight? But my oh my, before being able to check-in, I was already interrogated by "security" and had to explain that I'm on an "extended vacation" in the u.s., that I visited my grandmother in switzerland, yes my grandmother is swiss, yes I have a return ticket to malaysia that's valid for another six months or so, no I didn't accept any wrapped packages from anyone, yes I packed it all myself, last night and early this morning, no I will not let my carry-on out of my sight.
First time ever: I had to get my carry-on weighed. Typical Swiss! LOL!
So, I'm all checked in by 830am. My flight's at 1020am. I slowly make my way to the terminal. My heart drops. Looks like a bit of fog out there (remember my time at LHR?). A bit later I look out the window again: Oh my.... it's all white outside! What is it about me and travelling and fog recently? I ask myself.
I then lose myself in my book: next thing I know they are starting boarding soon, and it looks bright and clear outside. Kewl! No delay :-)
ZRH - DFW:
At least this time I made sure I got an aisle seat. But my "special meal" was nowhere to be found. I will complain to American Airlines again. So far it's been great that they've not served hog meat, but I'd rather not risk it, y'know? Like there was once I flew Singapore Airlines, and they ran out of the chicken/beef dish and had only pork so I didn't eat. and this was a U.S.->singapore long-a** flight! :p
But I digress.
My neighbour was a pleasant man based in McKinney, TX, back from a business trip in Poland, and originally from Moline (one of the Quad Cities) Iowa. He also consumed a bit more alcohol than I would have expected (beer (chased with tomato juice?!); white wine with dinner, followed by a cognac later). Perhaps that's why he was quite friendly? :D It was funny, I was trying to make conversation cos he'd mentioned Dallas and Fort Worth as two separate entities, so I asked what the distance was between the two. About 30miles. And the airport is right in the middle. Then i got an informative lecture about the towns in the area, how the population has just exploded (tripled in less than 10 years), how Plano is kinda like THE place to live (Troy Aikman is there) ... all sorts of stuff... It was entertaining, for a while lah :)
Also amusing to see quite a few cowpokes in the flight. Not really lah, but got lah a handful of caucasian males with cowboy hats on. In the plane. I was amused.
once my neighbour went to sleep, I devoured my other book.
As seems to be the case for my last few travels, I was unable to sleep.
Oh, and due to "unusually favourable winds" we got in almost one hour EARLY to DFW.
Yay? I already *had* a long wait to my connecting flight, add an hour to that?? *sigh!* I was half regretting not having to hang around the baggage carousel, just to kill time waiting for luggage, y'know? I half welcomed the check of my bags at customs. I had declared cheese & choc & wine, and they wanted to see it. I think they also made copies of my passport or something. Also took down Kosh's name & birthdate, maybe they wanted to check if I was fabricating the whole fiance thing? I don't wanna know. I got thru, that's all that matters :)
Then, I had so much time to waste.
DFW - Dumb f*ck Dubya?
I was done with customs & immigration at 215pm. My next flight was scheduled for a 733pm departure. about 5 hours to kill. Fun.
Explored a little bit of the airport - I remember it as having two horseshoe-shaped terminals (from over 10 years ago lah). Now it's got FIVE of those. And they've got a "sky link" you can hop on to get from one terminal to another. Kinda cool.
Walked around a bit. Got to "my" terminal. Hung around. Walked around. Played tetris and solitaire on my phone. Read book. Walked around. Hung around. You get the idea.
One thing that struck me: one of the "proudly Texas" themed stores had teeshirts for sale that read "Texas: Bush Country. "W" stands for winner". u sure not weiner? :p
Anyway.
Then i find out the flight's DELAYED. aarrrgggghhhh!
DFW - CDI (CID?)
Plane finally arrives. Pasengers disembark. "Routine maintenance" takes longer than expected, not nothing to worry about, says the captain. Finally get to board the plane.
I was expecting to be asked to check my carry-on mini suitcase thingy planeside. Noone said anything. So I brought it into the plane. Air stewardess took one look, and instead of asking me to check it planeside, she said to try and see it it fit in the overhead bin or the under the seat in front of me, otherwise bring it back up to the front *fast*.
Hmph. I was assigned a seat in the 3rd last row. By the time I got there, tried stuffing the thing unsuccessfully in either locations, looked back twds the front of the plane and saw the way full of people.
Couldn't stuff it under the seat in front of me cos I was sitting in the single window/aisle seat. So I slip it under the neighbouring 2-seat next to me instead. Good thing the fellow who ended up sitting there was gracious enough to accomodate my imposition. And that the flight, while pretty full, was not FULL full, so I could get away with it.
Finally got outta there about 40mins late. Arrived at Cedar Rapids around 1005pm. Ugh. Can we say "braindead"??
Had McD for quick easy dinner (what better way to mark my return to the u.s.? LMAO!), then passed out.
The morning after...
Drove kosh to work so he wouldn't have to go thru the hassle of driving to a parking lot & taking a bus in to the hospital.
Thot I'd pass out again once I got back, but decided to get online for a bit.
Since I'm pretty much on my own till this evening, when he's done with work and we pack to head to the folks' (2 hours away) tonight, then from there to Urbana tomorrow, I'm gonna go find some food in a bit, maybe bring the book along too so I can finish & return it once we arrive in Urbana! Only 300 pages to go :D
Yeah. braindeadness coming back. Time for some zzzzz's I think.
Laters!!
Oh boy what a trip.
@ ZRH
Maybe it was just because it was Switzerland, and they take things really seriously? Or because it WAS an American Airlines flight? Or just because it was a U.S.-bound flight? But my oh my, before being able to check-in, I was already interrogated by "security" and had to explain that I'm on an "extended vacation" in the u.s., that I visited my grandmother in switzerland, yes my grandmother is swiss, yes I have a return ticket to malaysia that's valid for another six months or so, no I didn't accept any wrapped packages from anyone, yes I packed it all myself, last night and early this morning, no I will not let my carry-on out of my sight.
First time ever: I had to get my carry-on weighed. Typical Swiss! LOL!
So, I'm all checked in by 830am. My flight's at 1020am. I slowly make my way to the terminal. My heart drops. Looks like a bit of fog out there (remember my time at LHR?). A bit later I look out the window again: Oh my.... it's all white outside! What is it about me and travelling and fog recently? I ask myself.
I then lose myself in my book: next thing I know they are starting boarding soon, and it looks bright and clear outside. Kewl! No delay :-)
ZRH - DFW:
At least this time I made sure I got an aisle seat. But my "special meal" was nowhere to be found. I will complain to American Airlines again. So far it's been great that they've not served hog meat, but I'd rather not risk it, y'know? Like there was once I flew Singapore Airlines, and they ran out of the chicken/beef dish and had only pork so I didn't eat. and this was a U.S.->singapore long-a** flight! :p
But I digress.
My neighbour was a pleasant man based in McKinney, TX, back from a business trip in Poland, and originally from Moline (one of the Quad Cities) Iowa. He also consumed a bit more alcohol than I would have expected (beer (chased with tomato juice?!); white wine with dinner, followed by a cognac later). Perhaps that's why he was quite friendly? :D It was funny, I was trying to make conversation cos he'd mentioned Dallas and Fort Worth as two separate entities, so I asked what the distance was between the two. About 30miles. And the airport is right in the middle. Then i got an informative lecture about the towns in the area, how the population has just exploded (tripled in less than 10 years), how Plano is kinda like THE place to live (Troy Aikman is there) ... all sorts of stuff... It was entertaining, for a while lah :)
Also amusing to see quite a few cowpokes in the flight. Not really lah, but got lah a handful of caucasian males with cowboy hats on. In the plane. I was amused.
once my neighbour went to sleep, I devoured my other book.
As seems to be the case for my last few travels, I was unable to sleep.
Oh, and due to "unusually favourable winds" we got in almost one hour EARLY to DFW.
Yay? I already *had* a long wait to my connecting flight, add an hour to that?? *sigh!* I was half regretting not having to hang around the baggage carousel, just to kill time waiting for luggage, y'know? I half welcomed the check of my bags at customs. I had declared cheese & choc & wine, and they wanted to see it. I think they also made copies of my passport or something. Also took down Kosh's name & birthdate, maybe they wanted to check if I was fabricating the whole fiance thing? I don't wanna know. I got thru, that's all that matters :)
Then, I had so much time to waste.
DFW - Dumb f*ck Dubya?
I was done with customs & immigration at 215pm. My next flight was scheduled for a 733pm departure. about 5 hours to kill. Fun.
Explored a little bit of the airport - I remember it as having two horseshoe-shaped terminals (from over 10 years ago lah). Now it's got FIVE of those. And they've got a "sky link" you can hop on to get from one terminal to another. Kinda cool.
Walked around a bit. Got to "my" terminal. Hung around. Walked around. Played tetris and solitaire on my phone. Read book. Walked around. Hung around. You get the idea.
One thing that struck me: one of the "proudly Texas" themed stores had teeshirts for sale that read "Texas: Bush Country. "W" stands for winner". u sure not weiner? :p
Anyway.
Then i find out the flight's DELAYED. aarrrgggghhhh!
DFW - CDI (CID?)
Plane finally arrives. Pasengers disembark. "Routine maintenance" takes longer than expected, not nothing to worry about, says the captain. Finally get to board the plane.
I was expecting to be asked to check my carry-on mini suitcase thingy planeside. Noone said anything. So I brought it into the plane. Air stewardess took one look, and instead of asking me to check it planeside, she said to try and see it it fit in the overhead bin or the under the seat in front of me, otherwise bring it back up to the front *fast*.
Hmph. I was assigned a seat in the 3rd last row. By the time I got there, tried stuffing the thing unsuccessfully in either locations, looked back twds the front of the plane and saw the way full of people.
Couldn't stuff it under the seat in front of me cos I was sitting in the single window/aisle seat. So I slip it under the neighbouring 2-seat next to me instead. Good thing the fellow who ended up sitting there was gracious enough to accomodate my imposition. And that the flight, while pretty full, was not FULL full, so I could get away with it.
Finally got outta there about 40mins late. Arrived at Cedar Rapids around 1005pm. Ugh. Can we say "braindead"??
Had McD for quick easy dinner (what better way to mark my return to the u.s.? LMAO!), then passed out.
The morning after...
Drove kosh to work so he wouldn't have to go thru the hassle of driving to a parking lot & taking a bus in to the hospital.
Thot I'd pass out again once I got back, but decided to get online for a bit.
Since I'm pretty much on my own till this evening, when he's done with work and we pack to head to the folks' (2 hours away) tonight, then from there to Urbana tomorrow, I'm gonna go find some food in a bit, maybe bring the book along too so I can finish & return it once we arrive in Urbana! Only 300 pages to go :D
Yeah. braindeadness coming back. Time for some zzzzz's I think.
Laters!!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
... found while surfing ...
FOUND: AWESOME photos of Tornados and other Extreme Weather Phenomena, from Kirby's blog
~~
FOUND: the "worth" of my blog (at 00:45hrs Swiss time)! So cheap, mah?
(tip o the hat to: Incurable Insomniac)
~~
okay, by the time I post this, then shut down the PC, brush teeth, wash face, change into sleep clothes and get into bed, it will be past 130am. Have alarm set for just before 6am. Wake, shower, dress up, final packing, then off to the busstop latest by 715am, to catch the 7:40am bus, that will bring me to the airport at 8am. Then check in, by which I mean get my boarding pass. I am not checking in any luggage! Ah, the freedom of not having to wait at the baggage carousels! Then hang around the airport till my 1020am flight. So so so so so looking forward to getting back to the u.s.!!
~~
FOUND: the "worth" of my blog (at 00:45hrs Swiss time)! So cheap, mah?
(tip o the hat to: Incurable Insomniac)
My blog is worth $7,339.02.
How much is your blog worth?
~~
okay, by the time I post this, then shut down the PC, brush teeth, wash face, change into sleep clothes and get into bed, it will be past 130am. Have alarm set for just before 6am. Wake, shower, dress up, final packing, then off to the busstop latest by 715am, to catch the 7:40am bus, that will bring me to the airport at 8am. Then check in, by which I mean get my boarding pass. I am not checking in any luggage! Ah, the freedom of not having to wait at the baggage carousels! Then hang around the airport till my 1020am flight. So so so so so looking forward to getting back to the u.s.!!
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
pieces of ...
Just found this site by Serge Izoard, thanx to Little Neo, which I thought I'd highlight.
I always have my ex-colleagues in mind... things to keep them "occupied" at their desks when they are essentially not having anything to do...
This one is for the jigsaw puzzle enthusiast in you :-)
Click HERE to get to the page.
Yes, it's in french, but it's easily navigable :)
On the top you can scroll left/right to select the picture for your puzzle.
On the left, where you should see the number 30, is a drop down menu for you to choose the number of pieces for the puzzle, ranging from 6 to 100!
The owl with 30pcs is fun.
Haven't tried the others yet.
I'm not THAT much a jigsaw puzzle fan :p
But I like it enough to pass this link along.
So go check it out, k?
Enjoy, people!
I always have my ex-colleagues in mind... things to keep them "occupied" at their desks when they are essentially not having anything to do...
This one is for the jigsaw puzzle enthusiast in you :-)
Click HERE to get to the page.
Yes, it's in french, but it's easily navigable :)
On the top you can scroll left/right to select the picture for your puzzle.
On the left, where you should see the number 30, is a drop down menu for you to choose the number of pieces for the puzzle, ranging from 6 to 100!
The owl with 30pcs is fun.
Haven't tried the others yet.
I'm not THAT much a jigsaw puzzle fan :p
But I like it enough to pass this link along.
So go check it out, k?
Enjoy, people!
Catching up : October 22nd - 26th 2005
Saturday 22nd October 2005
Train to Bnn.
G picks us up.
Drive to Dss, which is on the plateau of a mountain overlooking Lake Bienne, or is it Lake Neuchatel?
Meet up with other cousin, Jim, who is also waaaaaaaaaaay taller than I am. Geeez I remember babysitting him and Grant. Again. I feel short and old.
I get a pleasant surprise, as I had indicated earlier that I would like to get a few bottles of regional Swiss wine back to the U.S. : turns out not only is Uncle Marty a wine enthusiast, he is also involved in some major purchase & redistribution of wines in relation to his job. I ended up doing a pseudo sampling, and chose a really good white (Pinos Gris - has never heard of it till now) for myself.
A quick check online showed that only ONE LITER of alcoholic beverages are allowed customs-free. Ugh. That translates to 2 bottles totalling 1.5L. Okay, I suppose I need just one more bottle, make it a bottle of red. For that, he chose a Chianti, I think. Not of the immediate region, but Swiss nonetheless. And they were gifts for me. Kewl.
Had an autumn lunch of game (roe deer and stag meat), along with the swiss "pasta" spetzli. delicious!
A bit later, we went out for a drive - the weather was kinda iccky, raining on & off, but it had started to clear up. Drove in between the lakes of the region, then on to an old town of Morat / Muerten. Here, my mother almost broke many bones in her body.
We were walking around, looking at some of the shops and stuff, and for some reason my mom and Marty wanted to go in this modern-looking furniture store. Maybe to get ideas to furnish the new apartment my parents are gonna be moving into (in PJ). It's an old building, renovated, with unexpected corridors (we would not have found the stairs to the 3rd floor if the owner hadn't pointed the way!). And up there was an admittedly awkward doorway of sorts. Bottomline: mom was too busy looking up left right wherever that she tripped over the step, then tripped again as she tried to right herself, with the end result of her tumbling fown sprawled on the floor. I go to her to see if she is okay, but seem to be ignored. Okay, no problem. I was faking it anyway.
So she kinda lies there for a bit, catching her breath, getting over the shock. She responds to my aunt and uncle. Fine by me. She says the pain's receeded, is helped up, and declares no broken bones. She limps on down, and we walk slowly to a cafe so she can rest her feet over some tea. I take great care in pointing out uneven steps on the way (it *was* a cobblestoned street, so my sarcasm was slightly covered), and I have visions of her tripping and falling, this time onto a passing car, because she STILL doesn't seem to be looking where she is walking!
We get back to Dss & have a light supper, and my crankiness shines through. I get very defensive when asked about my eating habits back in the states : bloody hell, why on earth do you ask what I have for breakfast there? I get defensive because I interpret it Marty looking for an indirect explanation for my weight gain. Really, why else ask such questions? So, yeah, I'm cranky at the table. I feel rather ashamed inside, but on the surface I put on my impassive face. I invite no questions. I am even MORE sarcastic than ever with my mom too, who got it into her head to make assumptions about my eating preferences and declaring it loudly at the table.
Yep, high time to get outta there, and away from her.
Marty and Dinny drive us back to Tln. Me & Marty walk up first, Dinny accompanies my limping mom. Up the hill. Up the stairs to the door. Which is locked.
Why my grandma decided to lock the door, that night of all nights, is beyond me.
My mom only has the key that opens the front door downstairs.
Remember that my g'ma is essentially deaf. Totally no way to wake her up even if we made a huge amount of noise on the door.
My cousin Nate who lives downstairs was not back yet from this Harvest Festival thingy they were having in the village.
I'm thinking great, what are we going to do, drive all teh way back to Dss, crash at the house, then try to get back when g'ma is awake??
Turns out there was a simpler solution: The neighbour across the hall has a copy of the key, for emergencies. And he tends to stayup late watching tv.
Dinny knocks on his door. We all hold our breath.
He opens the door & peers out curiously. Whooohoooo we are saved!!
Mother roots around the medicine cabinet for bandages, and I wrap both her feet tightly. One is particularly swollen. Fun.
Sunday 23rd October 2005.
Sunday is the day of rest.
Nothing is open. By law!
The weather is also extremely iccky : drizzly rainy iccky.
I catch up on reading.
I get a bit stir-crazy.
The rains looked to have stopped: I go out on the pretext of buying some pastries for supper, from the ONLY shop that is exempt from the nothing open on Sunday law: the little 7-11 equivalent at the railway station.
I head there, with umbrella reluctantly on hand in case the weather takes a turn for the worst.
it actually seems to be clearing up; by the time I get to the station, i decide that after buying the stuff, I'll take the long way home via the fields behind the cemetary.
When I get out of the building, it's raining. Yep, raining. great.
So up goes the umbrella, and onwards, towards the house on the hill, I trudge.
I dunno what I did to keep me occupied the rest of the time. I couldn't really concentrate on the book. And by this time, I had introduced my mom to Sudoku (I figured if she was going to be houseboud for a while she might as well have a variety of things to occupy her time), so I couldn't like bury myself in THAT and finish off twenty of those puzzles in one sitting. In the end, I think mom had brought out her laptop and asked me for help on a presentation she's working on in Power Point. Ah, yes, once she was kinda done for the day, I took over the laptop, and played minesweeper (just. didn't. quite. manage. to finish. the expert level. grrr!) over and over and over, then switched to Spider Solitaire. Oh man has it been a while since I last played either game!!
And yes, I suppose you might say that minesweeper and spider solitaire were the highlight of that Sunday. Sad, eh?
Monday, 24th October 2005.
Woke from my first good night's sleep since getting here! Maybe it was knowing I was leaving to head back to Zurich?
Managed to pack the wine and other stuff into my teeny suitcase.
Said my goodbyes, wondering if it was gong to be my last sight of my g'ma on this side on the veil.
Mom walked with me, or rather, behind me (I was walking so fast! I suppose the joy filled me with lots of bouncy energy?) to the station. Said my goodbyes. Got on the train. Wave as the train leaves the station. Then get out my phone and text a happy happy joy joy message :D
I spend the afternoon in Bnn, just walking around, not looking for anything in particular and therefore not really finding anything. That's when I found the deathmaiden book, btw. Which i then start to read while on the train back to Zurich.
Once I arrive at my bro's apartment I dump the bags then head back to the train station area to go check out the Migros and Coop (the two main supermarkets in Switzerland, found in almost every village and town). I find one of the things I'm looking for: instant flavoured cappucino by Nescafe. and a small slice of cheese. Okay back to the apartment. Start hanging out online, till he gets back. dinner. hang out online even more. 5 days worth of emails (not THAT many lah, but still...) to catch up on. Stuff to get off my chest. And just glory in being back in fron tof a PC.
Sad, eh?
What was cool was I was up so late that I actually managed to catch Kosh for a chat on YahooMessenger. Bonus!
Tuesday 25th October 2005.
Spend most of the day walking Zurich, looking for some souvenirs and perhaps some advance presents for the holiday season. Nothing too spectacular, plus I'm not sure of the tastes of the people I'm potentially buying for, so in the end I don't have too much with me when I get back that evening.
Supposed to go chocolate shopping with my bro, but he's delayed at work till really late. No prob with me, I goof around online, and figure can hit zurich again tomorrow, or just check out the shopping center I'd explored my first day here, fr the chocs.
Wednesday 26th October 2005.
Bro picks me up at lunchtime, and we do the chocolate shopping (plus misc other purchases).
Weather is great.
Unfortunately, my feet aren't. There's this one toe that sometimes get majorly blistered up: and it was again, from the walking in zurich. So bad that I had to go ahead and poke & drain the thing. Didn't think it would be too comfortable for the trip back! Yeah. So my last day in switzerland will have been spent again hanging around online.
To my credit, I haven't started playing any MonkeyRoyale league games yet. Yes, earlier today I logged in; yes, I checked out the rooms where some tournaments were either being held or going to be held. But I neither entered tourneys nor played a game. I'm proud of myself. :D For those who know of my "Monkey" phase from a few years ago, you'll know what an achievement it is for me to not be tempted... it's not time yet, somehow, i feel, for me to get back into that. Soon. Maybe in a year or so. :D
aaaanyways. so here I am... it's just about 8pm as I type this sentence. At least I've caught up with most of my trip. I'm pretty much packed, and will do the final touches early tomorrow. Br is getting me to the airport around 8am; my flight is at 1020am. If all goes well I should be in DFW at 230pm local time, then hang around till almost 7pm, get the DFW-CDI flight, arrive around 9? 930pm? don't remember anymore.
Looking fwd to getting back there, lemmie tell ya.
Funny thing; Kosh is more nervous about my being let into the country NOW than during my two other entries. While *i* am not worried now compared to before. After all, before I didn't really have good answers to give the immigration officer, but now I know what the both of us are planning and I can confidently tell the officer that they don't have to worry about me overstaying or whatever.
Okay.
I think I've blogged myself out for the moment.
humming to self: I'm leeeeeeeeving, on a jet plane.....
(out)
Train to Bnn.
G picks us up.
Drive to Dss, which is on the plateau of a mountain overlooking Lake Bienne, or is it Lake Neuchatel?
Meet up with other cousin, Jim, who is also waaaaaaaaaaay taller than I am. Geeez I remember babysitting him and Grant. Again. I feel short and old.
I get a pleasant surprise, as I had indicated earlier that I would like to get a few bottles of regional Swiss wine back to the U.S. : turns out not only is Uncle Marty a wine enthusiast, he is also involved in some major purchase & redistribution of wines in relation to his job. I ended up doing a pseudo sampling, and chose a really good white (Pinos Gris - has never heard of it till now) for myself.
A quick check online showed that only ONE LITER of alcoholic beverages are allowed customs-free. Ugh. That translates to 2 bottles totalling 1.5L. Okay, I suppose I need just one more bottle, make it a bottle of red. For that, he chose a Chianti, I think. Not of the immediate region, but Swiss nonetheless. And they were gifts for me. Kewl.
Had an autumn lunch of game (roe deer and stag meat), along with the swiss "pasta" spetzli. delicious!
A bit later, we went out for a drive - the weather was kinda iccky, raining on & off, but it had started to clear up. Drove in between the lakes of the region, then on to an old town of Morat / Muerten. Here, my mother almost broke many bones in her body.
We were walking around, looking at some of the shops and stuff, and for some reason my mom and Marty wanted to go in this modern-looking furniture store. Maybe to get ideas to furnish the new apartment my parents are gonna be moving into (in PJ). It's an old building, renovated, with unexpected corridors (we would not have found the stairs to the 3rd floor if the owner hadn't pointed the way!). And up there was an admittedly awkward doorway of sorts. Bottomline: mom was too busy looking up left right wherever that she tripped over the step, then tripped again as she tried to right herself, with the end result of her tumbling fown sprawled on the floor. I go to her to see if she is okay, but seem to be ignored. Okay, no problem. I was faking it anyway.
So she kinda lies there for a bit, catching her breath, getting over the shock. She responds to my aunt and uncle. Fine by me. She says the pain's receeded, is helped up, and declares no broken bones. She limps on down, and we walk slowly to a cafe so she can rest her feet over some tea. I take great care in pointing out uneven steps on the way (it *was* a cobblestoned street, so my sarcasm was slightly covered), and I have visions of her tripping and falling, this time onto a passing car, because she STILL doesn't seem to be looking where she is walking!
We get back to Dss & have a light supper, and my crankiness shines through. I get very defensive when asked about my eating habits back in the states : bloody hell, why on earth do you ask what I have for breakfast there? I get defensive because I interpret it Marty looking for an indirect explanation for my weight gain. Really, why else ask such questions? So, yeah, I'm cranky at the table. I feel rather ashamed inside, but on the surface I put on my impassive face. I invite no questions. I am even MORE sarcastic than ever with my mom too, who got it into her head to make assumptions about my eating preferences and declaring it loudly at the table.
Yep, high time to get outta there, and away from her.
Marty and Dinny drive us back to Tln. Me & Marty walk up first, Dinny accompanies my limping mom. Up the hill. Up the stairs to the door. Which is locked.
Why my grandma decided to lock the door, that night of all nights, is beyond me.
My mom only has the key that opens the front door downstairs.
Remember that my g'ma is essentially deaf. Totally no way to wake her up even if we made a huge amount of noise on the door.
My cousin Nate who lives downstairs was not back yet from this Harvest Festival thingy they were having in the village.
I'm thinking great, what are we going to do, drive all teh way back to Dss, crash at the house, then try to get back when g'ma is awake??
Turns out there was a simpler solution: The neighbour across the hall has a copy of the key, for emergencies. And he tends to stayup late watching tv.
Dinny knocks on his door. We all hold our breath.
He opens the door & peers out curiously. Whooohoooo we are saved!!
Mother roots around the medicine cabinet for bandages, and I wrap both her feet tightly. One is particularly swollen. Fun.
Sunday 23rd October 2005.
Sunday is the day of rest.
Nothing is open. By law!
The weather is also extremely iccky : drizzly rainy iccky.
I catch up on reading.
I get a bit stir-crazy.
The rains looked to have stopped: I go out on the pretext of buying some pastries for supper, from the ONLY shop that is exempt from the nothing open on Sunday law: the little 7-11 equivalent at the railway station.
I head there, with umbrella reluctantly on hand in case the weather takes a turn for the worst.
it actually seems to be clearing up; by the time I get to the station, i decide that after buying the stuff, I'll take the long way home via the fields behind the cemetary.
When I get out of the building, it's raining. Yep, raining. great.
So up goes the umbrella, and onwards, towards the house on the hill, I trudge.
I dunno what I did to keep me occupied the rest of the time. I couldn't really concentrate on the book. And by this time, I had introduced my mom to Sudoku (I figured if she was going to be houseboud for a while she might as well have a variety of things to occupy her time), so I couldn't like bury myself in THAT and finish off twenty of those puzzles in one sitting. In the end, I think mom had brought out her laptop and asked me for help on a presentation she's working on in Power Point. Ah, yes, once she was kinda done for the day, I took over the laptop, and played minesweeper (just. didn't. quite. manage. to finish. the expert level. grrr!) over and over and over, then switched to Spider Solitaire. Oh man has it been a while since I last played either game!!
And yes, I suppose you might say that minesweeper and spider solitaire were the highlight of that Sunday. Sad, eh?
Monday, 24th October 2005.
Woke from my first good night's sleep since getting here! Maybe it was knowing I was leaving to head back to Zurich?
Managed to pack the wine and other stuff into my teeny suitcase.
Said my goodbyes, wondering if it was gong to be my last sight of my g'ma on this side on the veil.
Mom walked with me, or rather, behind me (I was walking so fast! I suppose the joy filled me with lots of bouncy energy?) to the station. Said my goodbyes. Got on the train. Wave as the train leaves the station. Then get out my phone and text a happy happy joy joy message :D
I spend the afternoon in Bnn, just walking around, not looking for anything in particular and therefore not really finding anything. That's when I found the deathmaiden book, btw. Which i then start to read while on the train back to Zurich.
Once I arrive at my bro's apartment I dump the bags then head back to the train station area to go check out the Migros and Coop (the two main supermarkets in Switzerland, found in almost every village and town). I find one of the things I'm looking for: instant flavoured cappucino by Nescafe. and a small slice of cheese. Okay back to the apartment. Start hanging out online, till he gets back. dinner. hang out online even more. 5 days worth of emails (not THAT many lah, but still...) to catch up on. Stuff to get off my chest. And just glory in being back in fron tof a PC.
Sad, eh?
What was cool was I was up so late that I actually managed to catch Kosh for a chat on YahooMessenger. Bonus!
Tuesday 25th October 2005.
Spend most of the day walking Zurich, looking for some souvenirs and perhaps some advance presents for the holiday season. Nothing too spectacular, plus I'm not sure of the tastes of the people I'm potentially buying for, so in the end I don't have too much with me when I get back that evening.
Supposed to go chocolate shopping with my bro, but he's delayed at work till really late. No prob with me, I goof around online, and figure can hit zurich again tomorrow, or just check out the shopping center I'd explored my first day here, fr the chocs.
Wednesday 26th October 2005.
Bro picks me up at lunchtime, and we do the chocolate shopping (plus misc other purchases).
Weather is great.
Unfortunately, my feet aren't. There's this one toe that sometimes get majorly blistered up: and it was again, from the walking in zurich. So bad that I had to go ahead and poke & drain the thing. Didn't think it would be too comfortable for the trip back! Yeah. So my last day in switzerland will have been spent again hanging around online.
To my credit, I haven't started playing any MonkeyRoyale league games yet. Yes, earlier today I logged in; yes, I checked out the rooms where some tournaments were either being held or going to be held. But I neither entered tourneys nor played a game. I'm proud of myself. :D For those who know of my "Monkey" phase from a few years ago, you'll know what an achievement it is for me to not be tempted... it's not time yet, somehow, i feel, for me to get back into that. Soon. Maybe in a year or so. :D
aaaanyways. so here I am... it's just about 8pm as I type this sentence. At least I've caught up with most of my trip. I'm pretty much packed, and will do the final touches early tomorrow. Br is getting me to the airport around 8am; my flight is at 1020am. If all goes well I should be in DFW at 230pm local time, then hang around till almost 7pm, get the DFW-CDI flight, arrive around 9? 930pm? don't remember anymore.
Looking fwd to getting back there, lemmie tell ya.
Funny thing; Kosh is more nervous about my being let into the country NOW than during my two other entries. While *i* am not worried now compared to before. After all, before I didn't really have good answers to give the immigration officer, but now I know what the both of us are planning and I can confidently tell the officer that they don't have to worry about me overstaying or whatever.
Okay.
I think I've blogged myself out for the moment.
humming to self: I'm leeeeeeeeving, on a jet plane.....
(out)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
about two months later...
... hi again. This return to blogging is really not working out, is it? Actually, I am writing, three pages of mind vomit and affirmations ...