who knew chocolate chip cookies were so damn difficult?

yea yea i know - i'm way behind on my blog - i've got one word for you....DEAL!   :)

I'll get caught up this week but first I thought I'd entertain you with the stories of my regular everyday life.

Sooooooo as you may recall from a previous blog, here in Switzerland, it's customary to bring a treat to the office on your birthday (still weird but whatev').  Last year, I brought a few different things including some triple chocolate chip cookies which turned out to be a massive hit.  Interestingly, even though the Swiss eat tons of chocolate, they don't appear to have made the leap toward putting chocolate into a cookie.  Probably chocolate by itself is unhealthy enough for the Swiss and they aren't interested in adding butter, sugar, etc.  Crazies!

Anywho, so I thought this year I'd whip up a quick batch of cookies and I'd knock my customary obligation out of the park!

Did.not.work.

I don't know what the problem was (certainly it wasn't me) but after my third batch of really flat overcooked cookies, I threw a mini fit like a five year old and went to bed early.  Literally pans and cookies all over the counter and they stayed there for days.  I'm surprised I didn't wake up to divorce papers the next morning.  :)

I took a week to cool off and I tried again.  Mostly because during the week, we received Christmas gifts from our neighbors and so now I'm not only ducking my customary work duty but I'm also the crappy neighbor that hasn't given a gift yet.  Sigh.  So, rather reluctantly, I took the cookie dough out of the fridge (the extra from last week was frozen and thawed) and got to work again.  Over the week, I purchased a few molds that were probably meant for jello or something but I figured, I would trap the bleeping cookie dough into a shape so that it couldn't flatten itself out into a shapeless blob.  Take that cookie dough!  And it worked!!!!

I'm so festive.

And then since I only had four molds and tons of cookie dough left (and not enough patience to continue making four cookies every 15 minutes), I decided put it all into a pie plate and see what happens.  Take that Martha Stewart!

I'm going to tell them that Sophie helped.

My poor neighbors.  It's the thought that counts, right?  RIGHT???

Blogfest 2013 - #3 - Oktoberfest!!!

Yea baby!!!

So we figured that attending Oktoberfest was a mandatory event while living here in Europe.  I'll be honest, I wasn't so much looking forward to it.  The idea of sitting in a tent with a few thousand of my closest friends all hammered off their asses?  Not so much.  But I was pleasantly surprised.  We had a really excellent time.  The atmosphere there is just so much fun.  Before you even go into the tent, there are these huge fairgrounds with all kinds of rides and food and drink booths.  I do, very highly recommend, riding the rides prior to entering the tent to drink!  But anyway, inside the tent, everybody is in a great mood, the band is playing and everyone is singing along.  Sometimes while standing on the benches.  Two drunken thumbs up!

The tents are huuuuuuuuge

this is maybe 1/4 of the tent

and so are the beer steins

His and Hers

somehow, our friends managed to convince us that appropriate attire was this:

before

during

a little later

and after

The best part of Oktoberfest?  They close the party down at 10pm!

There are a ton more pictures but they will most certainly not be uploaded to the internets.  Feel free to drop by and visit if you'd like to see the rest!

Blogfest 2013 - #2 - the Swiss Grand Canyon

After a busy and hot summer, we decided to do as the Swiss do and go to the mountains for a weekend.    We found a nice hike in Flims which is about a 2 hour train ride away from Zurich.

Here's a link to the hike should you ever find yourself in Switzerland and looking for a nice half day wander through the mountains.

We took plenty of pictures of course!

Before we get started, a nice shot of a typical Swiss village:

And now, the Swiss Grand Canyon!

For next year, we must figure out how those folks got down there with rafts and canoes.  That looks totally awesome!

Andre and Sophs checking out the view

the hilllllls are alive with the sound of muuuusic!

We also hiked by the absolutely amazing Lake Cauma.  

So, who wants to come visit now!?!?!?

Blogfest 2013 - #1 - We Moved!

Sooooo, seems I've been a bit remiss in my blogging over the last few months.  Time to catch up!

First up.....we moved!  After over a year of commuting for over an hour each way, Andre finally convinced me to move apartments.  We moved to the other side of the Zurich lake.

Here's some perspective:

It's about a five minute walk from our new place to the lake which should be totally awesome (in about 10 months...).  In the meantime, we have an excellent view of the train tracks and the lake!

Here's a shot of one of Switzerland's finest trains.

The trains are a bit loud but everyone we've talked to says you get used to it.  Here's hoping that's true!

We have an excellent picture window (please ignore the boxes - we're not 100% unpacked yet)

The new place is basically the same size as the old place but our bedrooms and the bathroom are much bigger so as a result, we have waaaaay too much living room type of furniture.  Time to get on the Swiss version of e-bay and get to selling!

Our old apartment had a glass shower door so when we moved in to the new place, we had to buy an emergency shower curtain.  There's wasn't a lot of choice.  It's growing on me though!

And of course, with the new deck we have, Andre had to go out and buy himself a present...

We've already put it to some serious good use!

Coming up next...the Swiss Grand Canyon

oh and come visit!

Pura Vida!

Pura Vida!  The literal translation is "pure life" but the Costa Ricans (or Ticos) use it all the time.  For thank you, hello, please - seems like it might be similar to Aloha.

Anywho, so I just got back from Costa Rica.  I met some friends there to celebrate one particular friend's 40th birthday (he shall remain unnamed but his initials are: A.L.A.N.)   :)

Leaves and Lizards

This place was fantastic.  It's in the middle of nowhere.  You must absolutely have a car with 4x4 to get to this place.  Especially if it's been raining.  In general, the roads in Costa Rica aren't the best.  There are some paved roads but there are also a lot of unpaved gravely roads.  Driving was quite the adventure!  We were really glad to see this sign:

We stayed at the Hummingbird Hacienda which is a nice big cabin with two bedrooms and two baths and a seriously awesome porch.

The house was surrounded by some crazy colorful flora and fauna.  Some of my favorites:

Lorita helped check us in

I don't what this is but it's hot pink so I like it!

We saw a toucan while eating breakfast

One of the gardeners actually caught this guy and brought him to breakfast for us all to check out

of course, there are hummingbirds at the hummingbird hacienda

Bird of Paradise

this guy was huuuge - love his stylish orange antennae though

it's a sloth!  (mostly it's a sloth ass)

Since we were hanging out in the jungle, we did jungle-y stuff!

We're ready to zipline and repel!

uhh - you want me to what?

Here I come to save the daaaay!

I totally got stuck on the line.  So I had to turn around backwards and pull myself the rest of the way.
What you don't see is everyone on the platform laughing their asses off.

On one of the lines, we came in and hit a cork thingy.  Scared the stuffing out of me.

Repelling down was totally awesome

repelling = awesome / climbing back up = not so awesome

The famous La Fortuna Waterfall

If you'd like to see more, check out the pics in the album below:

Zipling & Repelling - Costa Rica July 2013

We also did a jungle night walk.

We thought we were wearing boots for mud.
Turns out, we were wearing boots in case of snake attacks.  Grrrrreat.

frog!

And we went horseback riding and saw some excellent frogs and monkeys!

they call the frog on the left a "blue jeans" frog

we had a delicious lunch with a view of this waterfall

Alan and I managed to get across the rocks.  Coming back wasn't so easy!

monkey!

Our last day at Leaves and Lizards and we finally got to see the Arenal Volcano!

Riu Guanacaste

After three days of rainforest fun, we headed to the beach for some sun and sand.

This guy was just catching some rays by the pool

and his cousin too

spot the tourist!

wave came right as I clicked 

hey look at that!

I love how they store the fish while they keep fishing.
oh and Go Vols!

these two dudes were fighting over the empty shell - guess it was moving day!

i thought this was one crab when i took the picture
didn't see the other guy until I reviewed the pics  :)

For more flora and fauna, check out the album below:

Flora and Fauna - Costa Rica style

and for more scenery shots, check out this album:

Costa Rica Scenery

That's all folks!  If ever you want to go to Costa Rica, give me a call.  I've got some great recommendations for you!