Spaghetti with Ricotta and Walnut Pesto, Truffle oil, and Rucola

Spaghetti with Ricotta and Walnut Pesto, Truffle oil, and Rucola

Just the other day, I was admiring all the pretty colors of fall–oranges, yellows, reds, browns–and I thought to myself, I should walk around town and take pics, à la my springtime blog post…  but suddenly–all the xmas decorations are up in the city, and it’s SNOWING!  :O  I guess winter came and smacked me in the face without me even realizing.

I guess I do realize it, because with the shorter days and colder weather inevitably comes the hacking, winter cough.  ACK ACK ACK…  it started off as a sore throat on Monday morning and then transmuted into a killer headache with a hacking cough for the rest of the week.  Now it’s Saturday night, and I’m miserable at home alone, not feeling well enough to go to my friend D-‘s goodbye party.  😥  Oh well.  

Paleo Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Paleo Slow Cooker Pot Roast

It’s cold in Switzerland now…  cold enough for me to switch back to Celsius on my smartphone.  >.<  I tried to convert to Celsius when I first moved here, but anything over 2 °C didn’t mean anything to me–I always had to convert back to Fahrenheit to figure out how to dress for the day–and then finally one day I just followed my American friend M-‘s advice and switched back to the Fahrenheit setting on my phone.

Since then, I know that if it’s 70 °F, then it’s nice and warm…  if it’s 60 °F, then I bring a light jacket with me…  if it’s 40 °F, the I wear a thicker jacket (and maybe a scarf)…  and if it dips below 35 °F, then it’s time to switch over to the Celsius setting and pull out my down coat.  😉  

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.  

Home-Style Chinese Fried Rice

Freshly cooked fried rice–yummy!

I’ve been on a semi-cooking kick throughout Swiss National Day long weekend.  Mostly because I made one dish and had leftovers…  so then I had to doctor it up to finish up the leftover food…  which resulted in another dish.  And then I even took the leftovers from that dish and stretched it out for another meal the following day.  Absolutely awesome.

This also means that I haven’t been eating my usual diet of cold cereal and peanut butter, so I think I’m been packing on the pounds the last few days.  And all the munching on ice cream bars to cool down in the heat probably hasn’t helped either.  :O  

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!)  

Chocolate Walnut Brownies

I turned 36 last Tuesday.  As the years go by, my birthday ceases to be a special occasion and I don’t feel much like celebrating it.  This year would have been no different, except for the fact that it happens to be the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac, and my brother and sister-in-law came to visit me for the first time since I moved to Switzerland in 2009.

It was just a coincidence–my birthday wasn’t their original intention for visiting–but I was very happy that they could come visit both Switzerland and Europe for the first time and also be with me on this special day.