I'm back and I brought chocolates!

Medieval house painting in Lucerne.



I loves me a good castle.



The Lion of Lucerne



A view of the Jungfrau from patio of my hotel.



Entrance to the "Cemetery of the Rich" in Milan.

Hello all! This time around I have a good excuse for having not posted. I was out of the country! I was lucky enough to have the chance to take a trip to N. Italy and Switzerland. It was one of those tours hosted by a local news person; in this case, it was a local weather man. I knew going in it could be a little bit of a rough ride. I was the youngest person on the trip. Everyone else was at least in their upper 50's or older. Needless to say, I heard a lot of "I'm cold" and "I'm tired" comments during the trip.

Milan reminded me of Rome in a way. Cool stuff to see, but the general vibe of the city made me uncomfortable, like I didn't quite belong. The Cemetery of the Rich was super cool. It is huge and no one in there has a plain head stone. Everything is massive and expensive. We were told that art students come here to study the sculpture that mark several of the grave sites. One family even had a huge representation of the Last Supper at their final resting place. The cathedral was great and the square in front of it was filled the day we were there. Just off of the square is the Galleria (I think I'm spelling that wrong...sorry). Once a marketplace for farmers and merchants, it is now a major hub of fashion. Prada, Louis Vitton, D and G, you name it and they are there...plus some guys promoting a free Africa with "free" friendship bracelets. Oh, skinny jeans. Lots and lots of skinny jeans.

We next hit a few of the lakes, including Lake Cumo where George Clooney has a place. I can see why he wants to live there. The area is filled with beautiful hills and beautiful lake front views. We lucked out and had excellent weather for all but one day. The sunny skies definitely show off the land to its best advantage. We took a ferry across Lake Lugano and stayed in one of the best hotels I've ever been in. The dining room had huge windows all the way around so as we ate would could see the city and the lake. Breakfast was out on a flower filled terrace. I wish we could have stayed there for more than one night.

Switzerland proper next. Cows, mountains, chocolate, amazingly smooth roads, quaint towns, expensive items (a soda in a restaurant or bar was about $4.50, that's last time I complain about paying $2.25 here), and my bus load of crazy older people. I think one guy in our tour group needed a new hearing aid because all he did was yell. I heard a lot of "WHERE ARE WE GOING?" during our various walking tours. Usually about 30 seconds after our guide had described where in fact we were going.

I took my opportunities where they came up to explore on my own. I checked out the Rosengart Collection in Lucerne. I enjoyed the Klee collection there the most. Lucerne also featured an excellent history museum (I got see see a guillotine up close!) and great medieval architecture. It was like opening a present when walking down the medieval streets. You would see the street open up into a square and almost every building in the square had paintings on it. From what I could gather, the owners of the building are responsible for the upkeep of the paintings. You could really see how proud the city was of its history.

Zurich seemed a little more fast paced than Lucerne. It probably didn't help that our hotel was right at the start of the major shopping street in the city. One square meter of space costs $7,500 a month. As you can guess, pretty much only the major players were there so there was pretty much nothing I could afford...except for the chocolatier (sp?) where I got some cool truffles for my mom. Besides being close to the major shopping street, which was pedestrian and tram only, we were right next door to the train station which was right next to one of the absolute best history museums I have ever been to. Everywhere you looked there was something interesting. Much like an art museum, the each room/section had it's own vibe that really expressed some aspect of the part of history being shown in the displays. The displays were innovative (I really enjoyed walking amongst the knights in battle poses showing off the armor. You could get right up and examine each piece as opposed to looking at it from behind a piece of glass). It and the history museum in Lucerne were definitely highlights of the trip.

Another highlight was seeing the Rhine Falls. Damn, that water moves fast. I was able to take a boat out into the river and go right up to where the falls come down. There is a bit of rock where the boat can dock that is nestled almost in the center of the falls. You can take some pretty steep steps up to an observation deck. It's not quite as wet as going to Niagra, but it is still cool.

Finally, we have the mountains. I saw so many mountains, I can't remember all their names. I made sure to snag the front seat on the bus when we drove through one of the mountain passes. I took a cog rail train up to one town to then take a cable car up to another town, Murren, that is perched on the side of a mountain and that gives you the best view of both the North Face of the Eiger and the highest point in Europe, the Jungfrau. Thanks to the excellent weather, we had clear skies most of the time so you could really enjoy the awesomeness of the mountains around you. Speaking of the Eiger, our hotel in Grindelwald was essentially at the base of the mountain. The view from my room included some cute houses and cows (yeah Brown Swiss!).

I think I ended up taking almost 400 pictures. I'm still working on getting them loaded so I can post more of them. I think it took me almost the whole week to recover from jet lag...and to get back into the swing of things at work. Now, I need to finish getting the photo album organized and things written down before I forget. Project time!

No really, I'm still here

I have a friend, Amy, who is a bit of a renaissance woman. She's a mom, photographer, and a damn funny blogger. I have a link to her blog, Just Barely. I'm thinking I should rename my blog and call it Just Barely Blogging.

My current excuse is going to be the usual "busy at work" and the newly added "busy preparing for my trip." More on that in a second. But first, let's talk about the lovely Michael Cera.

I'll admit that I came in late in the game as far as Arrested Development is concerned. Brilliant, funny, and too damn good for television. Michael played the awkward George Michael on the show and I've been in love with him ever since. In his latest movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Michael plays Scott. Scott is a young 20 something living in Toronto, playing bass in a band and sharing a tiny apartment with a young Trent Reznor. Actually, it's Kieran Culkin, but he looks a whole hell of a lot like a young T.R. Scott is not the best guy to date and after his last dumping, he is playing it safe by dating a 17 yr. old who personifies the term "newbie." Then, at a party, he meets Ramona. She is entirely different and he is instantly smitten. It takes a few tries for her to warm up to him, but she gives in and next thing you know, he has to defeat her 7 Evil Ex's in order to continue having a relationship with her.

If you haven't already guessed, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is based on a comic book series. The movie is directed by Edgar Wright, the fiendishly, brilliant mind behind Spaced (Brit tv series), Shaun of The Dead, and Hot Fuzz. He, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are responsible for some of the best entertainment to come out of Britain in the last 10 years or so.

I absolutely loved this movie. Wright fully understands both the original medium and the pop culture that is a part of it. He embraces the use of motifs used in video games, music videos, and comic books without over doing it. The music is amazing (thanks to Nigel Godrich, producer of many a Radiohead album, and Beck, who wrote a good number of the songs). The visuals are impressive and the action sequences stand up to pretty much anything out there. The actors playing the evil ex's are obviously having a good time, as is the rest of the cast. It was fun to see several actors who often get stuck with dull small roles get real parts to play. I don't know that you have to be a fan of video games and/or comics to enjoy the movie, but I think you will get more out of the film if you are.

Here's some of the music. The actors are playing and singing. I tried to find something for "Threshold," which is my favorite song, but no luck. Instead, here's another good one, "Garbage Man." Not quite as rockin', but still a really good song.




The first girl in the video is the 17 yr. old, the girl with the pink hair is Ramona and the dark haired guy yelling "YEAH" at the end is Kieran Culkin, aka Trent Reznor.

Here's a link to the movie's website.

It's getting close to lunch time so I think I'll wrap this up by sharing yet another my co-worker's suck story. The preggers one didn't come in till 10:30 on day because she had to take some tests. A couple of days later, she had some follow up tests that made her tired so she texted the sales engineer we share and said she was not coming in that day. I ended up having to take care of two of her projects. Disney has decided to put her house on the market and buy this other house in the same town. One big problem, they don't have any money (partially because they over spent on all the renovations they decided to do this summer) so the only way they can afford the house is to sell theirs. They have not had their house appraised and are trying to sell it on craigslist. Because they aren't done changing up their house, no one can actually go inside until this weekend. Murmur about the office is the owners of the house Disney is looking to buy want some sort of financial commitment. That hasn't happened yet and I noticed that they too have put their house on craigslist. All this means Disney is roaming around outside a lot on her cell phone. This wandering puts a cramp in her work productivity which resulted in her sneaking a file and invoice to process into my office while I was posing a question to one of the engineers in his office. She didn't have the balls to come up to me and say "since this was your job originally, I thought you might want to do this." This is a phrase used often by both of them and was actually used by the preggers on earlier that morning. GRRRRRRRRR.

Twisted

Once again, it has been forever since I have updated. As usual, I will begin with an apology. Sorry.

Okay, that's done. So, is it just me or has this been a pathetic excuse for a summer movie season? There just hasn't been much that has compelled me to go to the theater. Thankfully, Christopher Nolan makes up for such a dire summer.

Inception is hard to describe. You don't want to give away anything, but you want to talk about the movie once you have seen it. Nolan has essentially become the leader in non-linear storytelling in film. Most of his movies, especially those that he and or his brother have written/created, explore psychological themes and issues. Inception is no different. The basic premise revolves around Leonardo DiCaprio's character working as a sort of corporate spy. He goes into a person's dream state and collects information to be sold to a competitor. All sorts of mental tricks are played in the dream state to pull forth that info. Leo has people who go into the dream state with him. Someone is technically the dreamer, someone is the architect who creates the "reality" within the dream, etc. The idea that moves the plot is literally an idea...or the idea that you can plant an idea in someone's head and they will believe that this idea actually originated in their own mind (hence, inception).

Visually, this is a stunning movie. Usually when you see environments that are CGI you can always see something that is off; something that gives it all away that it isn't real. I don't know how they did what they did, but everything is soooo smooth and realistic. You can easily get caught up in each of the environments and loose track of what is a dream and what is reality.

Keeping track is not impossible though. You can follow this movie. You have to work a little bit and pay attention, but for as much of a mind f*** that it is, it is still a thrilling story. It may fall just a bit short on a couple of emotional moments. None the less, you get connected to the characters. Even the small roles feel fleshed out.

The acting is all top notch. I'm a big Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan and I really enjoyed his performance. And, he kicked butt in his big action sequence while working a vest and tie. Sweet. I'm appreciating DiCaprio more and more as he gets older. He seems very comfortable portraying characters around his age and doesn't seem afraid of not always being the boyish-ly attractive lead. Which isn't to say he doesn't look good in an all black suit...

Just go see the movie and enjoy the ride.

Not much else to report. Project Runway started up again and as usual, I can't remember any of the designers names when there are 16 of them. The only one I do recall was Casanova, who sent out a model dressed in what essentially looked like a belly dancer's outfit. I think he'll be around for a couple of episodes. He is like this season's Ping. A little out there and a little hard to understand.

Work is work. Disney seems to have recovered from the raccoon incident, but apparently there is some other new issue. One day last week she went outside twice to talk on her cell phone. Once for about 20 min. and once for about 40. In between those phone calls, she was in her office with the door closed for between 1 and 1 1/2 hrs. That's what I call a productive day! Of course, she still left at 4:30 and I believe took at least a half hour lunch.

Now, you may be wondering how I know about all this activity. Let's just say it helps to be friendly with people in different parts of the building who feel free to comment on when they saw Tara walking past their window with her phone to her ear. It also helps to be in the breakroom when she snuck out the back with her phone and then be up front waiting to talk to a sales rep when she wanders back inside (that was the 40 min. call). Our owners are paranoid enough that they have been tossing around the idea of installing security cameras. Part of me really wants them to do so in the hopes that she gets caught. Sort of evil, I know. I just want people to do their jobs.

Next weekend is the big Mad Dash for Generation United. It's a fund raiser set up as an Amazing Race style competition. I'll try and take my camera to get some photos.

Finally, a friend of mine brought this video to my attention. She is also a big Jane Austen fan. Enjoy!

Things that go bump

It's been a weird week at work. Everyone was trying to recover from the holiday weekend. You know the drill...even though everyone knows you have a day off they send you an email anyway. On Wed., I can hear Disney's princess-ey (and not in a good way, but in a breathy, annoying way) voice down the hall from my office. I can't quite make out what she is saying, but it's DRAMATIC and VERY IMPORTANT. At one point I hear her exclaim, "That must be it! I bet that's what did it!"

Next thing I know, she and our boss are walking outside. I ask our office manager what is going on. What follows is a prime example of why some people should not be allowed to procreate.

Seems Disney was driving along, at high speed, minding her own business. At some point along the way, her car starts over heating. I'm not sure if she pulled off the road a few times or not, but she described it as over heating repeatedly. Because she's on her phone all the time at work and left her charger at the office, her cell phone was dead so she couldn't call anyone for assistance. She gets to work late and immediately starts telling her tale to our boss. Because, being a guy, he automatically knows everything about cars.

She just can't figure out why her car would be overheating. Our boss asks her if her radiator was leaking. This path of inquiry assumes Disney actually took the time to look over her own vehicle before coming in to share her tale of woe. She didn't know. Our boss asks if there had been any recent damage to the car. You know, like accidentally pulling up too close to one of those cement parking lot block thingies. You know what I'm talking about. I have scrapped my front bumper on those things on more than one occasion.

Disney thinks about it and then says something along the lines of..."I hit a big raccoon on my way to work this morning. It made a big thump. That must be it!"

And now, a brief interruption for an editor's comment.

ARRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to our story...

Disney was clipping along, probably way over the speed limit. She readily admits to driving fast most of the time. She was probably trying to figure out why her cell phone wasn't working too. She sees a raccoon in the road. SHE ASSUMES IT WILL MOVE OUT OF THE WAY WHEN IT SEES HER COMING.

Editor comment: WTF?! She thinks raccoons have the agility to out run a speeding car? More importantly, she thinks they have the mental ability to comprehend what is about to happen and dodge her?

She saw the raccoon people. She had enough time to recognize the animal and think "oh, it'll move." She could have slowed down and let it scamper on its way.

Nope. She just kept going, was surprised that it couldn't dodge her car (or maybe it had a death wish and it was staying in the road on purpose), and more importantly, she was still unable to put 2 and 2 together and consider the possibility that hitting a medium size creature hard enough to hear a thud UNDER your car as you kill it could maybe, just maybe, do some damage.

Our boss looked at the underside of her car as best he could and he was able to tell that 1) something, probably the radiator was leaking and 2) it looked pretty ripped up under there.

The rest of the day was spent on the phone with her husband and with the car repair place. Our office manager had to follow her to the car repair place and give her a ride back to work. Disney had to call several people through out the day and recant her story. And she still left half an hour early like usual. Then, yesterday, she forgot to bring her lunch. Instead of considering the option of walking a few blocks to a couple of possible locations, or nicely asking someone to pick up something for her if they were already going somewhere, she goes back to talk to the owner's son (who runs the parts department) and he sends his kid out to pick something up for her. The enabling must stop people...otherwise, how will folks ever change...?

And people wonder why I want to ram my head into a wall when I hear the sound of her voice...