This is going to be the penultimate post. I think. chizzyandbryan was set up to be the blog to document the stories of our time in Europe. I guess it kind of did that in the beginning. But as we settled in here and life became routine I lost the material and the will to keep it updated regularly. I made a couple half hearted attempts at a true blog but it never materialized. I’d like to try that in the future but it will not be on chizzyandbryan.
So, yeah. We are returning to Seattle next week. I plan on doing one final post that reflects on these past three years.
But for now, one final political post.
I’m going to follow through and cast my vote for Ron Paul in the Washington State primary coming up. In fact, I’m really looking forward to voting my conscience, getting some closure, and starting to look for other ways I can contribute to the cause of freedom and personal liberty.
Our country was founded with the goal of creating the smallest government the world has ever seen. A government whose primary purpose would be to preserve and defend the freedom of the individual. We’ve failed in this so catastrophically that, over the course of only a couple hundred years, we now have the largest government the world has ever seen.
We don’t debate whether or not the government is allowed to steal from us or invade our privacy. We only debate how much they are allowed to steal from us and how much privacy they are allowed to invade. Our courts consistently rule that the government isn’t actually obligated to protect the citizens it claims to serve. Law enforcement agencies are advised that when attempting to identify “domestic terrorists” one will often refer to “their rights” or to The Constitution when being questioned.
And, yes, the one presidential candidate who firmly stands for the basic tenets of our founding ideals is so marginalized that a casual observer will either never have heard his name at all, or can only associate him with derogatory terms.
How did we get here?
I'm not using this blog for anything else at the moment, so you're getting this.
I was furious that the offices of the Liberty Dollar were raided by the FBI a couple weeks ago. They barged in and STOLE all the gold, silver, and copper that was backing the largest competing currency to the Federal Reserve Note.
Government borrowing is out of control and the dollar is falling fast. It might be too late already. You don't have to agree with Ron Paul on every issue (nobody does) but he is the only one talking about the root causes of these monetary problems.
This is a very long (one hour) interview with Ron Paul. This interview touches on many of the issues important to the people of America and Paul is given ample time to explain his positions. This is the type of environment where Ron Paul is at his best. Nobody looking for sound bites, no interruptions, and no time limitations.
If you are the type of person who is really interested in politics and want to understand where Ron Paul is coming from, this is the interview I would suggest you watch.
Grabbed this from the Nashua Telegraph.
Or for those who just prefer the sound bites and the emotional angle.
I’m here. Sorry for being gone so long. No good reason for it. We haven’t traveled too much recently though so I’d just use that to diffuse any talk of my general procrastination. Chiz did, however, fully roll the whisper of her maybe going to Singapore on business into actually being there as I type this. It’s a business trip in pretty much every sense of the term but she is staying right downtown with a walk to the office so seems like a good place to find the pulse. A couple Yanks will be showing her around but I told her that is no excuse for her coming back without having eaten something she normally wouldn’t. She’ll be back on Thursday and if you are half as excited as I am that she might regale us with her tales on this very blog then you are one third as excited I am about Ron Paul.
The main inspiration for this post though was to document my experience at the Zurich Street Parade this year. For my complete, yet very brief history, with this event check out the post from last year and see where I was coming from.
Continue reading "Street Parade 07"...Was talking to some guy in the guild from The Netherlands today. He told me his Grandfather was from the USA so he is quarter American. I've never heard it work in that direction before.
On our most recent visit back to the U.S. we found out some very interesting information about my ancenstry. My fabulous Aunt Barbara gave us a letter from the Bern archives which stated that my great, great, great grandmother (Anna Barbara Stalder) was baptized in a little town called Lutzelfluh here in Switzerland. Her mother was from a nearby town called Ruegsau and she was very Swiss indeed, maiden name is Sterchi.
Anna Barbara left Switzerland with her husband and daughter Wilhelmina to the U.S. when she was in her twenties. She died in childbirth on the boat but then Wilhelmina went on to marry a man in Nebraska. The story goes on from there until you get to me...Chizzy. Fascinating and I'm so thankful to have received that information so that Bryan and I could go on a little excursion and pretend that we were The Stalder's. It was a gorgeous day and we had nothing else to do so we hopped on the train in search of distant relatives or any clue that there are other's like Chizzy out there.
Continue reading "Is Chizzy a Swiss name?"...If it’s 5:30 AM and I am wide awake and chipper on 3 hours of sleep, as I am now, the safe money is always on “jet lag”. If it’s 5:30 AM and I’m forced by panic out of bed hung-over on 3 hours of sleep, as I was yesterday, the safe money is always on “catching the early flight”.
We arrived safely back in Zurich yesterday after a great 2 week trip home. Chizzy had the idea to start things off in Las Vegas with a long weekend before heading up to Washington. As usual, we had a great time and got by with a little help from our friends. Piro stepped up and we got to meet Megan for the first time, which was a pleasure. We spent an evening with David Copperfield and an afternoon with The Price Is Right. We bullied a group of small children at the Derby Races in the New York, New York arcade and won a small army of Incredible Hulk stuffed action figures. I broke my personal best for largest bet on a single hand of blackjack, but Piro took the prize with his ‘paper plays’ bet of over $300 on black at the Roulette wheel. He won. In the end though, no major gambling wins. More importantly, no major gambling loses. Ate at a buffet.
But the biggest news out of Vegas was the decision and announcement that Shelby and Nick have agreed to combine forces in a yet-to-be-named Super Couple. The union will be unlike anything these two star crossed solo artists have ever attempted in the past. Translation for any who need it: Shelby and Nick are engaged to be married! Way to finally man up, dude.
Phase two of the trip was spent catching up with family and attending the wedding of Chizzy’s sister Christine (the primary purpose of the trip). The wedding went off without a hitch at their fantastic new home and the catered Thai food combined with the Karaoke entertainment made for one of the best wedding receptions ever. Big congratulations to Rod and Christine. And for the record, no, Bob didn’t look the least bit out of character wearing a kilt and serving as the Maid of Honor. Keeping with the times, Chizzy has abandoned her Britney Spears routine in favor of the more grounded Gwen Stefani. If her rendition of Hollaback Girl is any indication, this could be a real career defining move for the amateur southpaw.
Phase three was the semiannual week long test in Seattle to see if we are still able to assimilate in American society. Come on. I’m kidding. We haven’t changed a bit. Although, I was afraid to order the French Dip sandwich the final dinner there simply out of fear of being mocked. That’s your problem. Not mine. It really was great to see everybody and hang out a bit. We’ll be back before we know it.
Just like our last trip back home we had major issues remembering to break out the camera. The only set of photos we took were of the progress Chizzy’s folks made on their house. I’ll put those up in a separate post pretty soon. It’s looking really great.
I will not lie. My enthusiastic reaction on Christmas morn’ to the two Bryan “Spelled the Cool Way” Adams tickets nestled in my stocking was somewhat forced. Sure, I couldn’t get enough of the Heaven video I recorded onto VHS off the MTV countdown when I was a mere grade school lad. And I cautiously added Waking Up The Neighbors to my CD collection a few years later, but come on… Bryan Adams on tour in Zurich? I was skeptical.
Chiz bought the tickets months in advance knowing the concert fell on the worst possible day. For you see, today marks what has become an infamous household event. Yes, Quarter End is upon us again. There are early mornings and late nights. There is weekend work. Essentially, you will want to avoid Chizzy at all costs and she will want to avoid you. Did the Canadian Wonder have a way of making us forget?
The plan was to meet inside the arena since she was coming from work, so I made my way solo through the Friday rush hour. The crowd I ended up walking with from the train station didn’t do much to bolster my confidence. An odd elder mix of leather clad Euros is tough to read in the most obvious of circumstances, but a Bryan Adams concert made it all the more surreal. Maybe they were just heading to the We Will Rock You show across the street? No. No, they weren’t. They were heading the same place I was. Bryan Adams beckoned. What did it all mean? How did they know him? Surely it wasn’t Prince of Thieves? Please don’t be Prince of Thieves. It wasn’t.
Bryan Adams truly is “Big in Switzerland”. Oddly big. The sold out, lyric-knowing, devoted crowd was not to be trifled with. There are no two ways about it. We ran with it. The crowd reception to Summer of ’69 was amongst the best I have ever seen. He and his black T-shirt clad band totally floored the place. They did FOUR encores. We had a great time. The fantastic gift, fantastic show, and fantastic wife, who made it out of work in time to catch the entire performance by my side, certainly made this a night worth mentioning.
It snowed here yesterday. Probably not shocking to those back home who are still dealing with some winter weather, but we were having a decent string of sunny days so it seemed out of place. Chizzy missed it because she is currently in sunny Irvine, California on a business trip. I’m really jealous of her being in The States, but it equals out because she is really jealous that I am going to Prague this weekend. I’m meeting up again with Tobin, Paty, Reid, and Reid’s girlfriend (sorry I don’t know her name yet). The main event of the weekend is a half marathon that the guys are doing. Paty and I will be providing moral support and I’m interested to see if the Czechs have a sidewalk cheer for the participants like the Swiss do. “Hop, hop, hop, hop…”
I’ll do a Prague post when I get back. It will be my first time to the city and I’m really wondering if people have built it up too much in my mind. I’ve never heard a negative word about the city and Chizzy considers it one of her favorites. I’m excited to see the city and the gang.
It just seemed like a photo was due.
Nothing going on.
Thanks for tuning in. Been having a bout of writers block lately and it has nothing to do with the release of the Warcraft expansion. I’m serious. And I’m rightfully relieved my breaking point was finally reached on this one. It is probably more of a social experience than you think it is but come on? Enough already. It was a bit of bad timing with Tobinski logging on from Ireland but I did stick around long enough to pass along my infinite wisdom. Carry the torch, little female gnome paladin. Piro, your thoughtful gift was invalid after all on the European servers. Sorry about that. I’ll keep an ear out for the DHL dude brining the replacement gift.
This isn’t to say my work habits have improved in the trade-off. Stever is holding it down and doing us proud. Coupled with rumors that Birdly felt a hint of spinal relief sleeping on straw mats in Thailand makes his weekend return a very exciting company event. My working habits were generously dubbed as “interrupt driven” sometime a while back. Interrupted from what is the question I’m not proud to answer. So I won’t.
On the other spectrum we have Chiz. Fighting hard for people and a company and a job she doesn’t even like anymore. The merger hit hard and everyone got a bit more exposure to the personalities around them. The primary problem is that Chizzy is the kind of person who just gets stuff done at work. So it is depressing to observe how much more complicated the majority of people around her make it look to get that same thing done. She normally wouldn’t care about that but she has to manage some of them. She got a smile out of me when she confessed she felt a measurable portion of the problem stems from the more socialist mindset of many coworkers. That’s my Little Eichmann.
In truth, it is Chiz who is responsible for introducing me to Libertarianism a couple months back and that has been my latest foray into molding my feeble political mind. So, I pretty much hate the government right now and this has caused the unexpected side-effect of me not being able to read much news without getting pissed/scared/aghast at what is going on the world and in the US. And right in time to watch the two-party system kick into a record breaking advertising campaign to win the right to fix your problems the way they best see fit. We can figure it out ourselves. Thanks anyway.
But we’re doing great here. We got a German class going again. We just got a private tutor we go see a couple hours a week. Not a big serious commitment to learn the language but it helps to view it more as a hobby now. You don’t need to speak German to get by in Zurich. But I won’t deny it could certainly help. Just last month we finally received our 2005 tax forms to mail to the Swiss authorities. This was three days from the deadline. After two lost mailed copies (?) and as many weeks, I went face-to-face last week with an actual tax authority to hand deliver the damn things. Sadly, I wasn’t able to defend any of our honest attempts at prior delivery because the gal didn’t speak a word of English. I ended up bowing out of the office not really knowing if we were all cool now.
I also couldn’t pass by a chance to deal with a little bureaucracy, US-style, the other day. I was due for a passport renewal. They really try to push the mail-in option for renewal. But I was fresh off “Die Post” concerns surrounding those important tax documents and the US Embassy was just down the tracks in Bern. I got to bus a little outside of old-town Bern and I really got further appreciation for that city. That Bern is one nice city. I was further rewarded that I got to speak to an authentic American. A New Yorker. A New Yorker with the accent. It made me smile when the first words she barked at me were, “These photos are not going to work”. This began a pretty contentious relationship for the next hour but the worst I could do was, “Why did you ask me if I want to keep my Passport if I can’t really keep it?”
Later
We hope you all had a super fantastic holiday season. We did end up getting a tree and this is what it looked like.
Pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Piro rolled into town right in time for Christmas. We greeted Piro with a Rivella at the airport but he didn’t like it and ended up throwing it away. Milk serum isn’t for everyone. We’ve seen apprehension to it in the past.
Notice there is no snowboard on his person. It got lost along the way. We weren’t too concerned because we had several days before we were heading to the mountains but he did try to make things as interesting as possible by not having our address or phone number with him when he reported the lost bag. Fun fact: Did you know some airlines outsource their call centers to India?
Santa Claus comes on December 6th here in Switzerland. In this spirit of early gift giving we decided to hook Tolsty up with some new digs. Actually, it was because he broke his other ‘perch’ with the extra weight that comes with his abnormally large size but we would never tell him that.
Yes, we carried this through town and onto a tram. Judging by the amount of smiling head nods I’d say people had a pretty good idea what a fun time the furball was going to be having.
Yeah, we sprinkled the thing with catnip to sweeten the deal, but he didn’t need the extra incentive. He knew this was his the moment he saw it. Yet he still will only scratch the furniture. The idiot.
Didn't see this one coming at all. Chizzy says to me the other day, "Thanksgiving is tomorrow." Normally an odd one to miss but it happen and I don't really know what it means. Even though she technically figured it out before I did, I think it came as a bit of shock to her as well. It did ignite a mini-mission though that required a bit of online recipe reading. Stuffing. Chizzy felt like whatever meal I came up with that day should definitely involve stuffing. Immediately, I mentally went down every aisle in my home away from home but stuffing mix just didn’t feel right. I just couldn’t picture where it could be on a shelf in the Coop on the corner. I’d have to cook it. (Just so I’m not misleading anybody, my culinary skills have only just recently got to the point where I can even debate whether things like Stove Top stuffing could classify as cooking.) The stuffing worked out great and it actually tasted and kind of looked like the stuff…ing. And I guess if people just called it “bread stir-fry” like it seems to be it would take away some of the tradition mystique. I’m not onboard with keeping it secret any longer.
Real potatoes were mashed but gravy was out. For that we ended up with a box of ‘gratin’ sauce if you can picture something like that. Turkey wasn’t there but we knew it was going to be a little chicken anyway.
We are sorry we weren’t able to spend it with anybody but the holiday was still able to do its job. We thought about all the things we are thankful for and there is a very good chance that if you are reading this you were a big part of those thoughts. We hope you all had a good one.
So, I guess it’s Christmas time then too? They get into the Christmas thing here pretty well so we’ll get sucked into the spirit. Although after convincing me a tree is the way to go, Chizzy surrendered unprovoked yesterday. Bold move. What’s behind it? Stay tuned in to find out…
And I don't mean George Michael from Arrested Development, although he's cool too and it's a pity there's not a 4th season.
On Thursday, October 26th we went back to our school days and witnessed a legend in action. There were naysayers who thought he would sing off key and that he had lost his magic, but I assure you he did not disappoint. George Michael took the stage at Hallendstadion with a bang. His stage was set up with three levels of his band on both sides of the stage. Once again these pictures are from my phone so I apologize for the poor quality, but you can kind of get an idea. The band is where the blue lights are shining.
It was quite a spectacle. We were dancing fools to old Wham hits like "Everything She Wants" and "I'm Your Man." We heard some lively songs including "Fast Love" as well as classics like "Father Figure," "Faith," and "Praying For Time."
We started on the left side of the crowd and after intermission moved a little closer and to the right. This is the best crowd we had seen so far at any concert in Zurich and it consisted mostly of people our age and older. You can't go wrong with these tunes. Everyone was out of their seats, singing & dancing. There was no banter from GM, he performed like a professional and sounded fantastic. After two encores he ended with "Freedom " but I could have stayed there all night listening to every song he's ever done. GM, I'm your fan and you did it right.
That was the slogan used on the billboards and posters around town that were promoting the Zurich Open tennis tournament. Despite all her long working hours Chizzy still manages to keep an eye out for random happenings that we might be interested in. Not that we are big (or medium) tennis fans, but we know who Maria Sharapova is. So, we had tickets for the semi-final day on Saturday which featured the two singles matches and the two doubles matches.
We got to our seats a few minutes early and caught this gal finishing warm-ups and signing autographs. It turned out to be Daniela Hantuchova who would go on to play in the finals match the next day.
“ARE YOU READYYYYYY?!” After the music and light show, the entrances were a bit lacking. They just came out of the tunnel and gave a little wave to weak applause. Good effort though.
Sharapova was playing in the first game against Katarina Srebotnik. You just knew there was no way a ‘otnik’ was going to win out against a ‘ova’.
We pick up with the story back in Zurich where Nick and Shelby made plans to hang out for the entire week. The first full day we had there was Sunday. The city is a bit dead on Sundays since nothing is open, but the weather was great and we took advantage with a hike up to Uetliberg. I guess I didn’t take any pictures from the top, but I do have this one from about half way up the trail. This trail features a nice set of stairs to reach the top. Legs held up. I take what I can get.
Still going with that.
This hike also marked the final time the four of us were able to hang out together during the day. After an intentional effort to plan around Chizzy’s quarter end work schedule, the merger her company went through a while back essentially ended up making the timing a worse case scenario for being able to hang out with her. Chizzy didn’t have any time off from work from that Monday-Friday so the three of us set out to conquer alone.
One of the blogs I read every day is The Daily Dish with Andrew Sullivan. He has this ongoing feature where he posts photos that people from around the world have taken from the window where they work or live. I decided to submit my photo, and he freakin posted it the next day!
Here is the post with our view from the office room. I wonder if any of these neighbors read him?
I guess the next best thing after the World Cup in the soccer world is the Euro tournament. Essentially it is the same format as the World Cup except it is a Europe-only competition. The next one is in 2008 and is being co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria. I guess this is a huge get for these countries because the countdown is officially on.
Counting down in Paradeplatz
On one of our first visits to Zurich we were able to see the Alps pretty clearly looking south across the lake. We imagined this was a pretty typical view at the time. As it turns out, it is fairly rare for the mountains to make an appearance on the horizon. There is always this haze that obscures them on the clearest of days. But every once in a while something happens and they show up. This happen just the other day. It was such an event that Chizzy commanded me to walk out to the lake to get some pictures.
Views from Zurichhorn September 1, 2006
I’ve been pretty good lately about picking up the guitar a couple times a day and strumming a bit. Still no marked improvements, but I manage to keep myself entertained. Here is the latest for your slightly uncomfortable amusement. (1,244KB MP3)
You really should hear (and see) how this ought to be done though. Please check out the clip that I blatantly stole this from. This dude can actually sing and play and does the entire song with Polaroid shakes and everything. J sent me this clip and I couldn’t resist giving it a try.
WARNING: It is not advisable to give my version a second listen after watching the real one.
I still don’t get out very often and I haven’t made any acquaintances worth mentioning, but there are a couple people of Zurich I am able to identify. You know. The kind of characters that when you live in a place for a while you just start to recognize and associate them with certain things?
For example, I can point out the creepy tram guy. He’s this older dude who just seems to ride the trams all day long for the fun of it and insists on always standing right in somebody’s personal space no matter how empty the tram is. Essentially, this guy loves to put his crotch as close to your face as possible. Very strange dude.
Another guy I can point out is Rollerboy. I have no idea what the locals really do call him, but I’m sure he has a moniker. This dude always wears the same outfit and shamelessly rollerblades along the most busy and popular streets of the city. He usually has some sort of paint on his body and face. He can often be found skating right next to or behind a tram. He skates during the rain, sun, and snow and he never seemed like a very friendly guy. I recently got confirmation of this during the weekend of the street parade. I saw him coming down the Bahnhofstrasse while I had my camera with me. I had a good laugh when I looked at the LCD screen and saw I had captured him in true form.
The joke is on me. That ‘TOT’ on the leg that is showing is German for ‘dead’ but I don’t know what his other leg says. I can imagine it might be the German word for ‘drop’.
P asked me yesterday what the status with Chizzy’s job is and I realized we haven’t been good at updating with the merger news we’ve been getting. Essentially, it looks like everything is totally secure in terms of the office staying open and Chizzy keeping her job. In fact, her position looks as solid as ever as she has already been in meetings with the new CEO of the company. And I have to say I was pretty impressed when I heard who the CEO was. I didn’t realize they had such a big name executive running the show there.
We just wanted to send out a few huge congratulations to all you crazy people living your lives out there.
Two huge congratulations go out to Rodney and Christine for their new sweet house AND their new engagement! We are really happy for you two. We saw some pictures of the new place and it looks amazing. Looks like there will be plenty of room to move about with the new ball and chain attached. Kidding, of course. Congratulations!
Another “huge congratulations” to John and (especially to) Sarah for the arrival of their new baby girl Leah Anne this past Thursday. One minute we are at your wedding and the next you have a baby girl (the times are not literal there if you are wondering). We can’t wait to see her when we are back next. We will keep up-to-date on your blog in the meantime (if you have time to update now!). Congratulations!
You want more babies? You got em. Crespin and Sue have brought Aurelius Crespin Rodriguez into the world and they couldn’t be happier. And we couldn’t be happier for you two. We don’t see enough of you guys, but we know you are doing well and Aurelius is one lucky little guy. Congratulations!
You want more babies? Don’t have any more, but we do have a wedding for you. Brian and Janelle tied the knot this past weekend. Congratulations! I remember when Brian used to come running back from work each night just so he could tell everybody what great things Janelle had done in the office that day. OK, I made that part up, but that is how I see it in my mind. Congratulations and we are sorry (for ourselves) that we couldn’t be there!
And last, but certainly not least, a huge congratulations to Bob and his new job/apartment/life out in Denver. It is a big move and we are really happy to hear that things are off to a great start. We already miss you.
We only had one night of rest in Zurich after returning from Venice before we were off to Ireland for four nights. Ireland was not a completely random choice. Peggie, having some Irish heritage, has always wanted to see Ireland and Chizzy was happy to plan a trip there as part of the folk’s vacation here. At first, she started looking into hotels in Dublin but we figured that probably wasn’t going to be the kind of Irish vacation everybody wanted, so the hotel search quickly changed to a cottage search somewhere on the west coast of the country. She found a great one on Galway Bay in a little area called Bishops Quarter.
OK, fine, it’s a little house. Whatever. It was all ours for four days. Along with this rental car in the driveway.
I never did end up doing a post about the quick weekend trip to Dublin when I met up with Piro who was there on business. I did tell a few people about it, but the general gist was simply that I didn’t really care for the city very much. Or maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it that weekend. Anyway, we think our instincts worked out for the best because we had a very relaxing time in the beautiful area of County Clare.
I’ll get to the Ireland post soon, but I wanted to show you some of the 2006 Zurich Street Parade first. We knew about the annual street parade and had heard it is pretty wild but we were out of town last year and we missed it. Not this year.
Essentially, one day a year every single night club in Zurich and others from around Europe set up camp outside. It is a monster rave on the straight-laced streets of Zurich. It is insane. People dress up in full night clubbing gear and hit the streets. Not streets on the outskirts of the city. For those who have been here; it takes over the entire heart of the city running from Hauptbahnhof to Bellevue from north to south and from Limmatquai to Bahnhofstrasse east to west.
We were just out for a couple hours around 3 pm on Saturday. We know we only saw the tame stuff and were only catching glimpses of what was to come later. And in case you don’t know us that well; no, this is not our scene at all so we didn’t try to make it back later in the evening. We’d take a pub 100% of the time over a night club if we were ever asked while taking a survey.
Imagine coming unsuspectingly into Zurich that Saturday afternoon on a train to this main station.
The sound. I didn’t have anything to capture it with, which is unfortunate because it was a huge part of the experience. Zurich was pulsating. Like I said, the clubs just moved outdoors and tried to make it as loud as it would be indoors. As we walked, each time we were getting a little too close to conversation level din the music from a new mobile dance floor took over where the last one let off. They ranged from huge party trucks to spontaneous street dancing circles. You have to add the repetitive thumping bass to each of these pictures. We heard it from our apartment. I’m talking loud.
Bellevue
Burkliplatz
Opera House
Limmatquai
There was a lot more skin around than these already risqué pictures suggest. I am proud to say I didn’t capture anything too bad on camera. Here are some of the partiers decked out in clubbing clothes on the street.
The bratwurst vendors even seemed different this day.
And don’t try to claim Jesus can’t party with the best of them. Same techno bass going on here too.
These pictures didn't fully caputure it. If night clubs and partying is your thing you should try to make it out next year. It is not world famous for nothing. You have a place to crash.
We just got in the door from a very long travel day to finish up the visit from Chizzy's parents. They are packing as I type this and will catch the plane back to Seattle tomorrow morning. We had a really great trip and I'll do posts on them very soon, but for now I just wanted to leave you with the two views we had during our stays.
The view from our hotel room in Venice.
The view from our cottage on the west coast of Ireland.
Had the camera on the wrong setting, but you get the idea.
Been back a week or so now and have been slow to update. Here are some things that have been happening (or at least being thought about).
Just like it seems each flight back and forth is getting easier it feels like the jet lag that accompanies them is as well. The only side effect we each had this time was waking up at around 5:30 am for a couple days. Big difference considering the first time we came out I was waking up at 5:30 pm (or 17:30 if you prefer the European way – I don’t. Although, I will admit to actually preferring the date format of putting the day before the month like 25/7/06. Common sense and whatnot.). I think the heat wave we are going through may have played a roll in this as well. Not really possible to sleep much past 9:00 when it is already 80 degrees (27 Celsius) in your room. I know you are all going through this right now about 5255 miles (8457 km) from here.
I hate to keep apologizing for it, but I just want you to realize I am fully aware of the increased spamming to the comments. I finally put a call in to the big guns on this one. Imagine The Wolf from Pulp Fiction rolling in and taking care of it. Yeah, it’s J.
Speaking of J, he let me borrow the second season of Arrested Development on my way out of town and it is possibly the best comedy show ever created. I tried to catch these on TV back in the day but wasn’t fanatical about it. Check them out on Netflix or something if you haven’t gotten into it. Tobias alone is worth the price of admission.
One other quick thing about DVDs. I think one of my long standing hypotheses officially transitioned to a theory with this box set. Never turn on DVD commentary for a show that is being done by the actors. It is beyond painful to hear them pat each other on the back during each scene and comment on how good/bad they looked that day and how great/poorly they delivered a line. No matter how cool the character appears on the show, you will lose all respect for this actor once you listen to them do DVD commentary. Find commentary done by the writers and directors and you might have a chance to prevent ear bleeding.
Chizzy is doing great. I know you never hear from her, but it is just because she doesn’t have blog updating anywhere near the top of her priority list. What she does have at the top right now is Top Model. Actually, it would probably be work first. Here she is on the beaches of Grayland.
Grayland? What an amazing segue into my next topic. The Chizrents are coming! They arrive on Saturday and are staying for a couple weeks. Highlights will include Irish countryside and the canals of Venice. Of course, there will also be lots of fun in Zurich as well. The big ferris wheel is up in Bellevue and Chizzy promised she would go on it this year. This is all going to be very exciting.
In a more blunt transition. I mentioned to everybody who knew him that I ran into one of the “neighborhood kids” on this trip back playing in a local band, but I also want to plug them on the site for anybody interested in that kind of thing. Mark is the drummer for the Ian McFeron Band and it was really great to catch up with him. You may have heard of the band if you are into KMTT. Good stuff and I’d recommend checking them out if they are playing near you. If you don't know him and awkward conversation is your thing just go ahead and approach Mark during the set break and tell him that you know me. “Oh you know Bryan? Cool… cool…. good guy… yeah… knew him growing up… so… nice… thanks for coming out.”
Pulled the trigger on a medium sized Weber grill this weekend. Since I don’t have the slightest interest in cars or power tools, I sometimes try to compensate with hot coals. Actually, I enjoy BBQ/grilling a lot and I’m sure Chiz will appreciate it as well once I figure out how to work with the type of ‘lump charcoal’ they use over here. Haven’t seen any briquettes here, but the Internets are telling me that natural charcoal is the way to go so I’m going to figure it out. The inaugural meal on Sunday was shish kebabs but I just didn’t have a good handle on the heat and Chizzy stubbornly refused to eat raw meat so the oven had to be embarrassingly called in. Unfortunately it is not cheap to experiment with meat here. Two chicken, two beef, and two veggie kebabs cost 45 freaking francs ($36). That's only like a pound of meat tops (500 kilograms). Of course, we did buy the pre-made ones from the swanky market so we are not totally blameless.
Here are some long shadows to end the post.
The trip back home seemed like a long one. I guess almost three weeks would make it feel that way. Seemed like we got in a good balance of work, play, family and friends and we had a really great time.
The 4th at Ned’s consisted of the usual hijinks. Even though some past winners were engraved on it, the presence of the official trophy was too much for some to handle. The desire to be immortalized on it left too many people thinking about what it might take. When you get down to it though, it is really quite simple to win the award. You just need to fall down drunk a couple times. Or you can take the fast track and win with just a single fall but you must end up in a.) the lake b.) the fire or c.) the bathtub.
Despite that bit of background and the following damaging photographs, we really are just a bunch of aging wimps who mostly retire to our tents around midnight relatively sober. It was great to see everyone and we are glad we returned for the festivities. And to answer the inevitable question that always comes up with the topic of beer bonging… no, we are not in college anymore. It’s a tradition on the 4th. Deal with it.
That’s right. Get a bit of food in first.
Now let the foam die down just a bit.
Finally, pour it down your throat to the amazement of your friends and the embarrassment of your family.
Ned watches on like a coach waiting to admonish The Warrior at the first sign of any sub-par technique. I think this attempt was met with a resigned “that’s respectable” from our host.
Fresh from the Northeast, Marlo prepares for her job interview with a respectable law firm.
Canadian Adam is generally upset with the quality of the beer.
More Canadian representation. What can you do?
“What’s that, Warrior? You want me to do two?”
“Fine then. I’ll store the second one in my cheeks for later.”
A true spectators sport.
Things getting a bit more civilized as the sun goes down.
It isn’t all drinking. We got out on the boat as well.
Eagles nest.
A crazy mist was covering this part of the river.
Wacky stuff. Wacky wild stuff.
Other events included competitive ping pong, fireworks, Spiffy’s, swimming, naps, and talks around the fire.
That can only mean we are back in Washington at the moment. Been having some good times so far which is nice since this first week was primarily a work week. Came into town during the heat wave weekend and met it head on at Chizzy's sister's place for a day. Been in Fremont since Monday and commuting to the eastside. Big weekend in Mossyrock and then a few days with the folks is coming up. Chizrents are officially living in Grayland now so there will be a visit to the new Crandberryland garage.
Bern and I went to see Superman yesterday at Cinerama. Chiz and I made a half-hearted attempt on opening day with J and CM but we missed the cut. If nothing else, this movie will remain memorable to me as being the first movie I’ve ever attended with a 5lb block of pepperjack cheese. I’m being literal there. I didn’t come out of it thinking it was great, but the itch to watch it again is growing fast. There is some very cool stuff in that movie.
World Cup watching has dropped off, but was able to catch both games live today and was pretty happy with the results. The George and Dragon was in full swing. Very cool to see it completely packed at 8 in the morning with soccer fans watching Germany v Argentina. I decided not to watch it there, but the Bergomery’s (not a real name) live two blocks away so I didn’t miss anything.
We have the camera, but haven’t used it at all. When we packed we felt like we should be taking pictures. I think that we haven’t means it feels like we are home.
Very bummed about the World Cup exit, but the team simply didn’t look good. They may have ‘outplayed’ Italy and Ghana in those games, but it’s hard to argue that they don’t deserve to be heading home after this round. It’s pretty clear the US still has a few more years of catching up to do. I had a ton of stuff going through my head during the past couple weeks that I think could make for good blog posts later down the line. For now, I just have to leave you with some photos since we are busy packing to catch a plane back to Seattle in a few hours.
By the way, Nuremberg is a great little city. Of the handful of cities I have now visited in Germany, Neremberg is at the top of the list of places I would recommend visiting. We would have liked to stay another day, but it just wasn’t possible. Cologne was a very cool city as well, but I think the soccer revelers helped that city look livelier than it usually is. Nuremberg seemed like a great place to visit regardless of what was going on around you. Don’t bother with Munich if you ever have to make a choice between these cities.
For the US v Czech game, we had a very difficult time getting to the stadium on time. It wasn’t our fault. We were just trying to use the public transportation to get to the stadium from the city center (4 miles). We gave ourselves over two hours to make this trip and we barely got to our seats before the national anthems were played. When I recounted this story to Chiz, she got worried and made me promise we would give ourselves plenty of time in Nuremberg to get to the stadium. It worked out really well because the Fan Fest was being held about a 25 minute walk from the stadium, so we chilled there for a few hours and took in the scene which Chizzy described as “mini America”. If any of you ever find yourself in a situation where you are trying to defend American ambivalence toward soccer you might remember these photos. I’ve never seen such an enthusiastic patriotic display in my entire life.
A lot more photos...
Continue reading "At least the fans came through"...Going to be in Nuremberg by tonight.
Players taking the field for the national anthems at the US v Czech game.
Don't wait to get to Germany to buy your USA gear. I think the only country in the tournament not represented in this display is the US.
Keep up to speed with Tobin Blog to get better game commentary.
Even though I realized a tie last night would probably technically leave a glimmer of hope for advancing, I didn’t realize until later that the scenario for moving to the knock-out rounds isn’t too insane.
You would think with just a tie and a loss after the first two games the scenario would involve a minor miracle. It doesn't. If the US beats Ghana and Italy beats the Czechs, the US is in! Not completely unimaginable those two results could happen. Those games, by the way, will be played simultaneously on Thursday (it will be morning for you in Seattle).
So, my dejection of last night has been replaced by sheer and utter joy with the fact that the game we are going to will have significant meaning. In fact, all four teams in the group have scenarios in which they can either advance or go home. I feel a bit sad if you don't care about this.
The revolution is happening. This shot was also taken in Gelsenkirchen. That is the image of US coach, Bruce Arena, if anybody was wondering.
The day after the US v Czech game, Reid and I saw ourselves on BBC World in a still photo they showed. We hoped we could find it online and when I looked at my email right after the previous post I see that Reid came through. He found it at ussoccer.com here.
I'm the one with the red shirt holding up the scarf a bit below the flag. Reid is in the blue garb next to me.
I may have more to say later.
Two quick ones
1.) The two tackles that ended in US players being sent off the field, in both cases, the players’ feet touched the ball before any contact was made. For those of you who are soccer fans, you know what I’m saying. For those of you who aren’t, I think you can figure out the difference.
2.) Why the F******CK was Keller kicking the ball to the other keeper or the defense of Italy during the last 10 minutes of the game?
Crushed
I'm kind of sad to hear you guys are heading back and the Europe journey is over. Anyways, have a safe trip home. I'm glad to hear another Republican is returning to the states. I've been debating doing a political post on our site so stay tuned.
Perhaps you'll blog again more after you return to the states and are bored without all the travels.