A new Schnügel has been discovered!

OLINGUITO UNVEILED: A new mammal was revealed as the first discovered animal species of its kind in 35 years. The olinguito weighs 2 lbs. and looks like “a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat.”

—NBC LA, August 23, 2013

A new Schnügel has been discovered!  😀  Well…  I’m a little behind in my blog posts, so technically, it was discovered back in August, but I didn’t get a chance to blog about it until now.  😛

I ♥ Schnügels.  It’s my favorite Swiss word.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, let me backtrack a bit and give you a brief history on my introduction to the origin of this word. 

Run 4 Kids 2013

Got a company T-shirt with an official bib!

Today I participated in the run4kids 2013, a charity run of the Swiss Finance Forum.  I’d never heard of this organization or this event prior to this, but apparently the Swiss Finance Forum is one of the most important platforms for the financial and IT industry in Switzerland, and they sponsor this run every year.  My friend J- told me some of his team at work was going to run for charity, so I figured I might as well take part, too.  After all, I needed to get some training in for the Swiss City Marathon 5 Mile Run next Sunday anyway, and run4kids is for a good cause, so I might as well join if my company was already sponsoring a team.  Win-win all around, right?

So this morning–despite a miserable night’s sleep–I dragged myself out of bed and made my way down to Rentenwiese park.  It was kind of exciting to check in at the tent and get my personalized bib with race number.  Gosh, my first race bib!  I felt so official.  😉  

The International Comedy Club

Woot, woot, I finally went to my first Funny Laundry show this past Friday!  Of course, they’ve now changed names to The International Comedy Club, but still…

I first heard about this gig via English Forum a couple of years ago.  At the time, I was mildly curious but never actually got around to going because:

1. I wasn’t sure about my tolerance for British comedy (ya know, it’s still not the same as American humor),
2. I was a bit cheap back in day (still not quite over the sticker shock of moving to Switzerland), and
3. I wasn’t sure who to go with (I wasn’t brave enough to attend on my own).

So I put this thought on the back burner and promptly forgot about it.  

Howdy folks, I’m baaack!

Howdy folks, I’m baaack! Yup, after two months of falling off the blogging bandwagon, I’m finally ready to write again. I was getting worried that I was turning into one of those bloggers that started off strong and then fizzled off over time.

So what’s happened in the meantime?  I guess life happened, that’s what.  

Make awesome music with Incredibox!

I’ve been feeling kind of blah lately, so I decided to have a low-key chill night by munching on homemade brownies and dry cereal while catching up on my Yelp reviews.  (And yes, I did eat a healthy salad loaded with beans and cheese and fatty creamy dressing beforehand, so I did have a “proper” dinner before my munchies.)

But then my friend E- sent me this link:  http://www.incredibox.com/en/play  

Friday is Bridge Day (well, at least one of them)

This Thursday is August 1st, or Swiss National Day.  It’s kind of funny, because we’re used to saying Independence Day in the United States, but Switzerland didn’t have to achieve independence from anyone, so it’s just Swiss National Day.

Today my Slovenian colleague J- asked me if I was taking a bridge on Friday.  Being the smart cookie that I am, I immediately said yes.  Then I thought about it…  how the heck did I know what he meant?  I guess I just picked up the meaning of that word from being in Switzerland.  

I’ve gone to the dark side

It’s in the mid 90’s now and sweltering.  Even though I’ve been in Switzerland for about 4 years now, I still switch to Fahrenheit when the temperature gets above 3°C.  All I can tell is that when the temperature is about 0°C, then it’s freezing.  Literally.  Probably snowing.  If it’s below 0°C, then it’s damn cold.  I remember snowboarding during -21°C weather in Davos last winter.  That was REALLY DAMN COLD.  (But what an experience though!)  

Time to get a tan!

I just ate my last frozen cupcake from the cupcake decorating class.  Yep, I didn’t even wait for it to defrost…  just mauled that baby while it was still rock hard, savoring the decadent sweetness of the dense frosting and the chewy cake between my lips and tongue…  tearing off chunks with my razor-sharp teeth, swallowing bite after bite.  Mmm…

I had made a sorry attempt to freeze all my baked treats in an effort not to eat everything all at once, but sometimes I just can’t help myself and dive into the freezer to help myself to a succulent bad boy.  

Finally got on the Candy Crush bandwagon

After seeing countless posts from my friends on Facebook for Candy Crush Saga, I finally got on the bandwagon and installed the game last Monday so I could check out what the madness was all about.  It’s remarkable how widespread this game is.  Even my 67-year-old mother has heard of the game.  :O  

I blog for myself and for… Huffington Post?!

Howdy, folks!  I’m baaack!  It’s been a while since my last post, since I was busy playing Hostess-with-the-Mostest and Tour Guide to Switzerland for my family the past two weeks.

I just sent my parents off to the airport this morning, ran some errands, did three loads of laundry, converted my temporary bed back into a futon, baked some brownies to bring to work tomorrow, and still need to clean my place (it’s amazing how much of a mess five people can make in a two-bedroom apartment within two weeks).

Now I have a lot of blogging catch-up to do, but the break was definitely worth it.  It was really great to see my family again after a whole year–especially since my brother’s visit also coincided with my birthday–but more on that later.

Right now I need to write about something exciting that happened yesterday…  I got contacted by HuffPost Live to join one of their live web segments!