Alan dropped by this afternoon to return the washed, empty glass souffle dish the tiramisu was in. He had finished it off. We went out tonight with Ron & Hilary and Alan brought along a small portion of the tiramisu he had saved out for Hilary. She loved it. She was raving about it and only allowed Ron a small teaspoon of it, keeping the rest for herself. They thought it was perfect and absolutely not too much booze.

I'll have to make it again but next time I will make it when we're all having dinner together so we all get reasonable servings.

I spoke to Andrew and Joanne - they are just a delight - and Andrew is going to have a try at making a tiramisu soon I hope he enjoys it. The recipe book describes it as "Heaven in your mouth". It is.

The tiramisu was lovely and lush and silken - and very alcoholic. Mea Culpa, next time I will use less booze and a lower alcohol content version as well. I used a very high alcohol rum because that was all I had available. It was delicious anyway, but more suitable for Baba au rhum than tiramisu. It was still much better than anything commercial I've ever had in a restaurant.

My finace was moaning about it being too alcoholic but I completely discount that as he had eaten half the serving dish at that point and protested my taking even a single serving.

TIRAMISU - Don't try this at home kids!

Ok, I made it at home today. It's a special treat for my fiance. It can be very nice at restaurants that make it carefully, don't cut corners. But it's not sublime. I wanted to produce a sublime tiramisu. So I ignored all the easy-make, quick-step, derivative, and variations on tiramisu and looked for something that, given my knowledge of cooking , had the right feel to it. I found my perfect recipe in Lorenza di Medici's Basic Tiramisu. The recipe is:

Ingredients

* EGG YOLKS, 3

* EGG WHITES, 3

* SUGAR, superfine (castor), 4 tablespoons

* VIN SANTO, or MARSALA, or BRANDY, or RUM 1-1/3 cups (I used rum)

* ESPRESSO COFFEE, very strong, 1/2 cup

* MASCARPONE CHEESE, 8 ounces

* CREAM, 1 cup (This is UK double cream so in the US get heavy whipping cream. NOT UHT crap, please.)

* SAVOIARDI (LADY FINGERS), I believe I used 18 of them for the bowl I used.

* Cocoa powder - the highest quality, pure cocoa.

* dark chocolate - I used a super high quality bar of black african chocolate - 86% which is amazing since the highest I've ever previously seen was 72%. This was dark, silky, and sweetly intense.

You will need 3 mixing bowls for this and 1 large glass souffle dish or any glass serving dish with high, straight sides - I recommend 4" high.

Directions

1. Make a zabaglione by beating the egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in the top of a double boiler until ivory colored. (I used a large pyrex mixing bowl with a handle over a pot of boiling water and a hand mixer.)

2. Add 1/3 cup liquor and whisk over gently simmering water until the mixture begins to thicken. Let it cool.

3. Stir about 1/4 cup coffee into the Mascarpone. Taste and add a teaspoon or so of sugar if desired, I did. I also added a bit more coffee to get the soft, silky texture I wanted.

4. Whip the cream to soft peaks.

5. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the zabaglione.

6. Dip the lady fingers into the remaining liquor mixed with the remaining coffee and line the bottom of a 9-inch bowl or individual containers (wine glasses work well).

7. Cover them with half the Mascarpone, then half the zabaglione, then half the whipped cream.

7a. Dust with cocoa powder after the zabaglione layer before you add the cream.

8. Repeat the layers, starting with more dipped ladyfingers and finishing with the cream.

8a. Dust or sprinkle lightly with cocoa. Shave the chocolate bar over the top so chocolate curls/bits scatter all over it.

9. Refrigerate for several hours (4-24) before serving.

9a. Alan says add more shaved chocolate on top before serving.

Whew! I finished the tiramisu and it's now sitting quietly chilling in the fridge, the flavours maturing and mellowing.

We'll have it for dessert tonight. I'll know if my work paid off after we've tasted it. It looks gorgeous and smells gorgeous so I have high hopes.

If you have a dishwasher, this isn't any more than a horribly huge amount of fussy, careful, skilled work. If you have to wash it all up afterwards by hand, as I do, this is almost unspeakable. But one must suffer for beauty.

If you want quick and easy - get an "apple pie" at MacDonalds.

Bye-Bye Betty

Betty Frieden, one of the founders of American feminism, died Feb 4th, on her 85th birthday. I was still a child when her book The Feminiine Mystique was published. I remember older friends talking about the then radical idea that a woman might need, not just want but need more than a husband and children.

I had conflicting opinions back then and after decades I still have conflicting thoughts about the whole subject. Of course women want and need more than the narrow little role of wife and mother. I have no conflict with that. But what has always troubled me is how those who rejected traditional roles denigrated and condemned and ridiculed those who chose to retain the roles or attempted to integrate a wide variety of roles. Fundamentally it was just a switch in the gender of who was telling us how to live. So we discarded the male lifestyle direction of women for female lifestyle direction and surprise! the females trying to direct our lives were as uncaring of individual women's needs and wants as their previous taskmasters! Fourty years later stay at home mums still are not respected and people still ask them "do you intend to go back to work?". Ha! Anyone who asks that should be sentenced to raise 3 young children without extra household help for a few weeks. All women work. Some do it in the home and some in a office, but they all WORK. Dont ever fool yourself about this. The most high-pressure, techically difficult project management job I ever worked on was a freaking piece of cake compared to daily care for 3 children (or more sometimes).

So back to Betty. I always liked Betty and what she had to say. My arguement was with the come-latelies like Gloria Steinem. The ones who weren't interested in giving women a choice, the ones who kicked the concepts of equality to the side. My arguement was with the All-females-are-dykes-under-the-skin radical and men are the anti-christ crowd. The ones who imposed a conventionalism on the new feminism that was as narrow and confining in its own way as that previously imposed by men. Is it better for the gulag to be guarded by them or us? We are still in the gulag.

Bye Bye Betty. You fought the good fight.

I'm not too keen on any organized religion. Much like professional sports, organized religion is a machine. A business set up to empaower itself and control the rest of us.

I'm disgusted with Islam in the same way I am disgusted with Christianity. I have no problem with people practicing their beliefs in the privacy of their home on a fully consentual basis. But the moment anyone tries to impose their faith-based beliefs on me , I have absolutely no use for them left.

Dear muslims,

If you do not like my country, please leave.
If you do not like the way our women dress, please leave.
If you do not like our separation of politics and religion, please leave.
If you support violent responses to criticism of Islam, please leave.
If you support terrorism in any way, shape or form, please leave.
If you cannot accept satirical cartoons in our newspapers, please leave.
If you do not support democracy or the freedom of speech, please leave my country.

SBrant http://face-of-muhammed.blogspot.com/

Comment on the Danish cartoons

This said it well so I'm copying it-

Friday, February 03, 2006
A Moment of Truth

A new non-political international movement is rising.

4000 terror attacks after 9/11, the world was still slumbering. But 12 innocent satirical drawings in a Danish newspaper, the kind of cartoons printed daily by the thousands in newspapers all over the world, have changed the geopolitical situation.

Suddenly, a new understanding is emerging across political differences.

In recent years, the world crisis between Islam and the non-Muslim world has been discussed in thousands of books, countless television debates and millions of articles across the globe. It did nothing but divide us. Even former western allies were divided, and a wave of anti-Americanism has swept even the free western societies.

Now ridiculous circumstances have changed all that. A sense of humour has changed what all the debating could not.

For 1400 years, Islam has waged war on all surrounding non-Muslim civilizations. During the course of history, Christianity was reformed, Europe colonized the world and set it free again, dictators lived, reigned and died, and totalitarian regimes emerged and vanished.

But Islam stayed, unreformed. And today, it imprisons more than 1 billion people, moderate and radical souls alike, in a huge gap of difference to the rest of us. Across political divides, across national boundaries, across various degrees of freedom, across race, people or religion, black or white, rich or poor; it stands out as our opposite. Only Muslim reformists seek to lessen the gap. And their voices are quickly silenced.

In modern times, waves of immigrants from Muslim countries have entered Europe. All European countries have been subject to islamization; the process of slowly incorporating Islamic values and Muslim customs into our way of life. Far East countries like India, Thailand, Indonesia and China are experiencing the Muslim Jihad. Israel lives with it. America feels it. Africa suffers from it, and is too weak from disease and poverty to resist.

It is suddenly coming to our attention that Islam is not, cannot, and will not be integrated or assimilated to the values of freedom and democracy. Islam is not only a religion; it is a totalitarian and expansionistic political ideology.

It is now a moment of truth. The current events unfolding all over the world are opening our eyes. 12 cartoons have touched the soul of the free societies: The right to speak freely without fear.

The drawings did not cause this. But they catalyzed a world conflict dormant since the birth of Muhammed.

Now we know what his face looks like. And we are still in majority on this earth to stand up to it.

The current events will eventually lead to either a 3rd world war or finally some sort of Islamic self-realization that has been 1400 years in the making.

posted by sbrant

ITS SNOWING! IN LONDON!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me. This past Saturday was my birthday. Pretty crappy, actually.

I'm feeling trapped in a status quo prison of silence, with steep slippery slopes that have no possibility of escape.

I guess I've been a bit too depressed to write about anything here. This getting a VISA situation is a nightmare. Also things at home are not exactly brilliant. We ran out of coffee a few days ago and I feel really shitty not being able to have at least a cup of it in the morning. Not so much a caffiene addiction as the hopelessness of it all. If you can't buy coffee, you are really in trouble.

I have to rethink things and see what I can do to seperate myself from all crazy things domestic, get my Visa, get a job, get my own life back. I feel like I am becoming a non-person.

Today I received a brand new IBM Thinkpad T43. This was the end result of a whole long saga that started with Alan's IBM Thinkpad T23 dying last summer after 2 1/2 years of heavy use. I'll explain the whole megilla later. The Thinkpad is tres nift. I do need a mouse for it tho. Laptop pointing devices are still basically crap.

Hey Andrew and Adam - I miss you so much.

We're foster caring for 2 sweet kitty sisters while a local pet charity looks for a new home for them. They're black and white and have very lovely sweet personalities.

I'm still struggling to get the damn UK passport. Nightmare.

Wow almost the whole month of September has passed since I last posted here. What a nightmare this has been!

I've moved to London and in fact, today move into the new flat. Oh my god, I am so happy. Have to get the phone access sorted and the Sky TV and the Broadband internet, etc - all the utilities but that's a mere detail.

Have I mentioned how happy I am?

More later.

I've been gathering the paperwork for my UK visa. What a nightmare of bureaucracy this is. And insanely expensive! Over $500 for the application fee. Not exactly welcoming with open arms, are they?

Wow! I hadn't realised how long it's been since I posted here. So much has happened in the past 2 - 3 weeks. A lot of it I can't discuss online yet.

I have to really haul ass and start looking for a job in London now. This is complicated since I don't have a work permit yet, but I want to try to get work beforehand - something that will let me accumulate some desperately need funds for some plans I have in gear.

It's finally warmed up here in Switzerland. The summer has been extremely cold except for a few sweltering hot days in late spring. Then things slipped into the cold setting and we even went into the 30s a few nights. Many days barely made it up to 60. This is not what I call summer.

Like most Americans, regardless of where in the world we are, I've been following the disaster in new Orleans. I'm revolted at the looting and sniper attacks and the rapes. I'm disgusted at people who sat and demanded to be taken care of and made no attempt to organise and help themselves. I'm disgusted with people who demanded the impossible, who wanted the laws of physics defied to get recovery teams and supplies in without regard for real world logistics and distances. I'm really disgusted at a city so sleazy that they had no emergency shelter system, no stockpiled supplies, nada. But they could open their mouths and demand everyone take care of them.

On the other hand, I saw video footage of the evacuees at the Dome, and one small child's face broke my heart. One little black boy, filled with the immense dignity that children can have, struggling desperately not to lose it, not to break down and cry. His beautiful little face twisted in concentration with the effort to keep control, not to cry, to remain silent and not break down at the complete misery of hunger and thirst and everything. I would give anything to help a child like that.

Sadly, it was more smirking and arrogant faces I saw everywhere else.

I'm still feeling somewhat under the weather from a nasty bout of sinusitis the past week. The pain was unreal, hour after hour, usually worst at night. Seems to have cleared up now. But wow was that awful. I couldn't think, could barely function. Total lost week.

Another cold, wet, gray day. Further proof that Asti's cats are not normal - I cleaned their litter boxes this morning and refilled them with fresh cat litter. Normal cats would be all over a freshly filled litter box, in fact they'd be climbing in under your hands as you poured in the litter. But no, these three basically ignored me and just strolled by or found a comfy perch to watch me at this gross activity. I wish I could train the cats to be vaccuumed; the cat hairs float all over, every piece of clothing, every piece of furniture, everything has cat hairs. I vaccuum the house every day to keep it at a minimum but still find cat hairs tickling my nose or irritating my eyes.

On the other hand, they truly are not ordinary cats. They are exceptionally clever little beasts especially Sweetpea, the huge white Maine Coon cat.

Love's Labour's Lost - 2000

An update of the classic Shakespeare story, director Kenneth Branagh shot this movie like a classic 30s musical. Love's Labour's Lost tells the story of four best friends who swear off love.

This was really GREAT fun watching tonight. Andrew would have enjoyed the 30's feel with swing dancing and very clever use of famous 30's show tunes. My goodness, this was a really good job. The nice part is they kept Shakespeare's beautiful language.

Dead Pets Are Fun?
http://www.deadpetsgame.com/

To promote a book, called Dead Pets, about pet cemataries, cruel animal death in movies, the stunt doubles that make that happen, pet afterlife and its religious implications and, yes, recipes for cooking pets, book publisher Canon Gate has launched a microsite, with ghoulish music, where you can play "whack a pet with a bat." I'm sure it's all done humorously. I hope.

The music is not bad. Ok, it's slightly amusing. But keep the kids away from this, please.

I need an Athens account! Not for myself, I just need to use someone's account briefly to get a couple of files. But it's now 10 days that I have been asking, even begging friends, aquaintenaces, hell, I've even pleaded to strangers! But no Athens account.

So what, you may ask, is an Anthens account. Simple, it's a sort of clearinghouse/gateway to a wide set of information and research databases in the UK. The entire thing from research to databases/archives to Athens.org are paid for with taxpayer money. And, Athens accounts are supplied free to UK Univeristy and Further Education students...but NO ONE ELSE.

BASTARDS - ATHENS ORG AND ALL ITS MINIONS SHOULD BURN IN HELL

I politely called Athens.org to arrange a short term account. I need the thing for less than 1 day, we're talking a couple hours work here. So I thought, ok, there must be short term accounts or perhaps a 1 time access scheme for people doing research outside the University system - like museums and libraries routinely do.

But NO! You are either a student or you are the dirt under their feet. The man I spoke with in Athens Support actually laughed at me.

Bastards!

There must be someone out there who has an Athens account and can help me. There must be!

Yes, I'm feeling very bitter about this. I do research for other people all the time, come up with the work/help/file/access they need, often desperately need. But the one time I need serious help, I'm banging my head against a wall. I'm really frustrated.

OK whoever you are reading this... Can you help me get access to an Athens account?

piratesarecool4

piratesarecool4, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.

Damn, damn,damn, I knew there was something I was supposed to buy. A new black inkjet cartridge. Damn, I'll have to make sure to buy one tomorrow.

Sadly, I wasn't able to get 1010WINS net radio to work today. It was fine yesterday but no way today. The popup window just freezes part way. This happened previously when I first tried to listen to 1010WINS on the net. I have no choice but to use their screwy non-standard proprietary setup tho. They don't broadcast in any way that I can figure to recieve by any normal standard. Arrgh.

Thank you, lord, thank you ! I was finally able to connect to 1010WINS radio's internet stream. Oh my god I've missed listening to 1010WINS, I've missed having the radio playing in the background all day - IN ENGLISH!

Ok, big sigh of relief. Yes, of course I would prefer a local Basel station -if it was in English. But there isn't any and you get so isolated without people speaking your native language. I love Basel and think it's an incredibly wonderful city, a little gem. But, I can't wait to move to London. And yes, I actually do have a favorite local London morning drive show radio station and for the rest of the day there are several local stations I enjoy listening to.

We've just had the worst hailstorm I've ever experience in my entire life. It's the equal of or worse than the one I experienced many years ago in Richmond VA where the hail left dents in cars. The hail just now ranged from sugar cube size to ping pong ball size! And most of it was in the larger range. Bye-bye terrace plants. The older established trees and bushes are fine. But all the new tender seedlings and herbs I had recently started growing are ripped to shreds by the hail. The wind that drove the hail was very high and horizontal gusts banged open every window not double secured. The mess in the house is unreal. Water and chunks of ice driven 12 feet or more past the windows - all over the floors, furniture, papers.

And yes, there are dents in some of the cars from this hail.

I just made chopped chicken liver. Now that may not sound delicious and enticing and start craving rising within you, but that's only because you've never tasted my homemade chopped chicken liver. This stuff is gorgeous. It's better than any professionally made pate or terrine. It's simply perfect.

There's fresh chicken livers from organic grain and flower petel fed free range chickens, sauteed in Brittany butter and then finished with lashings of moscato grappa. There's 2 very large onions and 6 large garlic cloves chopped and sauteed in lots of butter. There's 3 hard boiled free range eggs. Everything is individually prepared first. Then the eggs are shredded on the fine side oif the grater. The onions and garlic are then mixed into the eggs and freshly ground pepper and salt added. The livers are roughly chopped with a large knife and then tossed into the cuisineart machine with their butter and grappa enriched juices. A few pulses with the knife blade of the machine grind them to almost the perfect course texture. Then the eggs and onions are dumoped in and the whole thing pulsed a few times. Voila, perfect texture. The taste is perfect, no need to adjust seasoning. Then the mixture is packed into a plastic container and put into the fridge to allow it to cool and the flavours to blend and develop and mellow.

This is going to be killer eating tomorrow. (I'm sure it will be the target of a late night tasting raid, tho.)

This is all the spin off of our massive grocery shopping in Saint Louis, France yesterday. We drove into France before 9am and stopped at a local patisserie hoping that a croissant would sooth and control our hunger before we reached the supermarket. It didn't work. We went nuts - the food was gorgeous and the prices were unbelievably low. Meat was cheaper than New York City prices. We were in grocery heaven.

I bought fresh roquefort cheese and made creamy dressing from it last night. I had a salad for lunch today and the creamy roquefort dressing was all I had dreamed. Oh lord, is it good!

Supper tonight is coquilles st jacques. Yumm! With apple tart for dessert.

(Tom - we bought almost a pound of local made double smoked bacon and about as much genuine black forest ham. The black forest is just up the road and local farmer still make the traditional hams on small family farms.)

14th Century houses along the River Thur

14th Century houses along the River Thur, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Remnant tower of the outer castle ramparts

Remnant tower of the outer castle ramparts, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Center of Thann

Center of Thann, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Taken standing in the forecourt of St Thibault Church.

Rangen Vinyards

Rangen Vinyards, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

The Rangen (Knight) is the most southerly vineyard in Alsace. Thann is the only locality in Alsace which can boast that the totality of its vineyard area is classified as Grand Cm. The 18,81 ha of the Rangen are planted with Riesling, Tokay Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer.

Chapel in the Regan Vinyards

Chapel in the Regan Vinyards, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Thann along the River Thur

Thann along the River Thur, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Thann along the river Thur

Thann along the river Thur, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Houses on the left bank vary from 14th to 17th century and are still occupied.

Looking towards the Rangen Vinyards.

Looking towards the Rangen Vinyards., originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Church St-Thiébaut at Thann

Church St-Thiébaut at Thann, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Started towards 1320 as church of pilgrimage, the Church Holy Thibaut became parochial in 1389, then Collegiate Church in 1441.

Witch's Eye -Thann

Witch's Eye_Thann, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Remains of the donjon of 13th century Engelsbourg (Castle Holy Angel. In 1673, King Louis XIV gave order to demolish the castle. During the demolition, the round donjon broke itself in several sections among which one lays on its edge and is since called "Haxenoïg" or Witch's eye.

Witch's Eye

witch's eye2, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Remnant of donjon tower at "Engelsbourg" or "Castle Holy Angel"

We were supposed to go to France today - it's sunny and warming up again and a friend loaned us his car for the 2 weeks he'll be away on summer holiday. So we packed up our backpacks with cameras and extra batteries and cigarettes and whatnot. We had to hike over to the Opel dealership where the car was parked. We arrived at 1pm to find they had already closed for the day at 12 noon. The place was dark and deserted and locked up. This is the sad/crazy part of a country that keeps severely limited work hours. In the US, at least a few of the mechanics would still have been hanging around talking and smoking and poking at their own cars and we could have thrown ourselves on their mercy and kindness and talked the into letting us have the car. But the place was empty and we had to hike all the way back home.

Monday we'll get the car and take a nice drive into France. Finally.

Meanwhile Asti arrived home safely late last night. I also spoke to Andrew and was relieved his surgery went well.

I hadn't realised how long it's been since I posted here. My ribs are healing pretty well. Most of the pain from bruising is completely gone. The ribs themselves still hurt if I bend or twist my torso quickly or carelessly. The real problem is they still hurt when I lay down. This makes sense of course since that's when there is direct pressure on them. Makes it a bit difficult to get a good night's sleep. But since I'm healing much more rapidly than is usual I shouldn't complain.

There was a terrorist attack on London today. Bombs on the tube and buses. Asti was at Liverpool St station when the first bomb exploded there. Luckily she wasn't actually down on the platform. She's fine. She just had to delay her flight home till tomorrow.

Tomorrow Andrew goes into hospital for foot surgery. I'm keeping fingers crossed all goes well for him.

It's going to be a long night.

I don't remember if I mentioned that I didn't just bruise myself really, really badly in that fall. I actually fractured a couple of ribs. The pain has made the past 9 days a genuine living hell that is impossible to convey to anyone who hasn't experienced it. I'm told that in the US, Vicodin is the standard prescription for cracked rib pain; that should give you a guage of the level of pain. Of course, I'm not in the US and I've been stuck taking ibuprofin which is basically useless crap. Wednesday night I finally got some aspirin & codiene tablets which were able to reduce the pain enough to allow me to sleep for more than 1 hour at a time. Not remove the pain, mind you, but reduce it enough that I didn't feel like I was trapped in an endless hell. Pain is so destructive to your life. It's not just a matter of enfuring it physically, it destroys you mentally. You can't think, can't sleep, can't do anything but exist in a strange horrible fog.

I'm toled fractured ribs take weeks and weeks to heal, sometimes months. I can't allow myself to believe this because I can't face the possiblity of such prolonged pain.

It's Saturday evening and I'm still in pain from Wednesday morning's fall. It actually hurts worse at times than when it happened. I can't lay down to sleep or the pain increases monumentally and I'm unable to breathe except very shallowly with great and concious effort. Not a good thing. So I stay up till I'm exhausted and then fall asleep sitting on the sofa with my legs propped up on the hassock. I'm taking a combination of super strength ibuprofin and a muscle relaxant every 6 hours. That basically takes the edge off the pain. You'd think after 4 days the pain would be easing. I'm hoping tomorrow is better.

On the other hand the weather is warm and sunny and beautiful. The herbs are growing well. I've had several really great phone calls with my friend Bo; always so enjoyable and gets me right out of the dumps and smiling again.

I made fricadeller with sauteed onions for lunch today. Haven't made that in years.Last night we were so hot and tired Asti suggested we have a breakfast food supper. So we made french toast topped with sliced bananas in butter, brown sugar, and rum sauce and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Divine!

Today is house cleaning - Asti has been scrubbing down the kitchen and running the washer/dryer. Later when it cooks off a bit, I'll vaccuum all the floors and then wash them. The parquet floors really need a thorough cleaning especially with the cats.

I miss being able to casually call Andrew and Adam on my cell phone whenever I liked. I'm going to have to find one of those cheap pre-paid phone cards like I used to use for the UK. I love you guys and miss you tremendously.

This morning it was finally warm and sunny. I decided it was time to move the herb seedlings out to the terrace. So with 3 planter of herbs in my arms, I went out to the terrace. Unfortunately, when I opened the door to slip out, the damn white cat slipped between my feet and escaped. I dumped the pots on the terrace wall and ran after the cat to recapture it. That wasn't too bad, but he was displeased and showing claws. So I wrapped him in my arms, pushed open the door to the living room and stepped down ( it's a 9" drop from the terrace to the parquet floor of the livingroom). The problem was, I was barefoot and the terrace was a bit wet and had some leaf bits left from the storm. So I stepped down and my wet heel hit the polished parquet floor and I slid, and slid and SMACK! I cracked my side onto the floor - which is really wicked because the parquet is laid on a cement foundation. I also sliced open the front of my leg on the metal sill of the terrace door.

Anyway, the wind was knocked out of me, I may have blacked out from the inmpact for a couple of seconds. I just lay there, waves of pain rushing over me. Not able to break, almost paralysed from the shock. After a few minutes I was able to breathe a bit better but couldn't control my body enough to get up. I wriggled to the sofa and pulled myself up.

The rest of the day has been one of intense pain. Even a strong dose of painkillers only takes of f the edge. Luckily no ribs broken but lots of deep tissue bruising along the whole side esp in the chest. My leg's pretty painful also. I just took a very hot shower and that helped ease the muscles a lot. But the pain is returning now so I'm off to bed for a while.

Herb planting update

I'm delighted to report that the basil and dill seeds have indeed sprouted. The 4 pots where they are planted are filled with tiny bright green seedlings. Yay! Now, fingers crossed, the peppermint will soon sprout.

Printers and Drivers and updates, oh my!

First let me say how very much I hate Installshield. I don't need this piece of crap bloatware bullshit for dummies application. I can install my drivers or whatever else needs installing all by myself, thank you very much!

I especially do not need that damned brain-dead Installshield to install a complete 130 MEG! set of drivers because you see, Installshield is a STUPID application and functions on the LOWEST level possible. The manufacturer of a piece of hardware supplies a vast array of drivers and other files so that EVERYTHING is available to find just the FEW files -YOUR- computer needs to run that device. But because Installshield is stupid, all it does is install ALL the drivers regardsless if your machine needs them. Lets talk about massive wasted hard drive space, shall we? And that isn't even getting into how picky Installshield is, so if everything about your computer's setup isn't precisely the way Installshield wants it, you are FUCKED. That's right boys and girls. Installshield demands you install every update to your system IT wants to see there regardless whether YOU need it! Regardless whether you have chosen NOT to install whatever it is it wants. And it wants whatever it wants for ITSELF, not for your device to work.

So to skip to the chase, Astrid bought a new Canon MP130 photo quality bubble jet printer/scanner/copier and asked me to install it while she was on holiday in Greece. So today I got this lovely item out of its box and prepared to install it. And btw THANK YOU CANON! This is a really gorgeous little printer. I truly like it and it truly produces the quality output you promised.

So I set up the printer, install the print head and the ink tanks, and then we are ready for installing the printer drivers. So I slip the supplied CD into my machine and click on install and voila, Installshield starts up, tells me it doesn't like something in how I have MS Office 2000 set up and shuts down. Now, you may ask yourself, like I did, what the hell does installshield have to do with MS Office 2000 and where does it come off demanding I update it? As it happens I can't update MS Office 2000 because it means I insert the original CDs. Yeah sure right, I'm going to have the original CDs 5 years down the road? No way, Jose. God alone knows where they are now, and even he probably hasn't a clue. Do they offer an alternative to Installshield? No.

I was determined to get this printer working tho, so I used Explorer to look at the CD itself and locate the drivers. Now, remember, Installshield told me that package was 130 megs! Well yes, indeed it is, because that includes ALL the drivers (remember I mentioned this previously), All the drivers for Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows 98. Well, SURPRISE! I don't run ALL those operating systems on my tired old laptop. I only run Windows 98. So I don't need all those drivers. Quel Surprise. So, I manually copied over the WIN98 driver folder to my PC. Then I plugged in the printer's USB connection cable. Yes, this is a USB printer, no more serial cables. My laptop's plug and play window came up and asked me if I'd like it to look for files to install the printer. I clicked ok, my laptop looked in the WIN98 drivers filder I copied over and picked out the 5 drivers it thought I needed and installed them. Ah ha! So Install shield doesn't even actually install the drivers. All it does is copy over the files from the CD to your hard drive, the rest is up to your machine's plug and play setup. How STUPID is that? Anyway, once the appropriate set of drivers was installed, I printed a test page, and voila, gorgeous! Then I deleted the WIN98 driver folder with all the excess drivers to clean things up. And I was finished and had a perfectly functional new printer.

So, you may be wondering how much of those 130 MEGS of drivers did my computer actually NEED? How does 24 Megs sound to you? Much better, eh?

I HATE INSTALLSHIELD.

Thus endeth the lesson. Go in peace.

My herb seeds seem to be starting to sprout. It's the basil and the dill that are showing signs, the peppermint is unchanged. (But peppermint is very difficult to start from seed) Nothing dramatic yet, but I can see tiny bits of green just barely pusing at the soil. By monday I bet they are really visible.

Today's recipe: Red Pepper, Onion, and Potato soup

It's still unseasonably cold here. I had decided the house needed a thorough cleaning today. A full hoovering, not just the floor but the furniture and woodwork. Then dust all the furniture and polish the wood with orange oil. Scrub the bathroom and kitchen including getting all the fingermarks and smudges off all the kitchen cabinets. I also did all the laundry and dishes. So a busy and tiring day. I needed something warm and comforting to eat for supper.

I thought potato soup would be a nice idea, but then I wanted a bit more flavour. So I dreamed up a new recipe.

I sauteed 4 chopped medium onions in a mix of butter and extra virgin olive oil. While the onions were gently cooking away in a soup pot, I diced up half a large ripe red pepper and tossed that in. Then I peeled a pile of new potatoes. They weren't the really tiny ones, sort of medium size new potatoes. I would guess I used about a pound or so. All amounts are very approximate here. Then I added salt and freshly ground black pepper and a load of dill, a good amount of basil, and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. I added water to cover all the vegetables- and enough to reach and inch or two over that. Then I covered the pot (the cover has a steam vent) and when it came to a boil, I lowered the heat and let it slowly simmer for a couple of hours.

After about two hours- I'm guessing here - I was still cleaning and let it simmer till I was done- I turned off the cooker and got out the blender. I blended the soup in 4 small batches; using the lowest speed I let it blend till it was smooth. The puree was dumped from the blender into a new smaller pot. (That's so you don't have to dump the puree back into the pot with the unprocessed soup)

Then I brought the puree up to a boil. It was perfectly (strongly) seasoned so I didn't have to add anything except a good swirl of full cream (that's heavy cream for you in the states). A reasonable amount of cream just smoothes the flavour and texture and makes the soup perfectly creamy. Voila. Soup.

Oh yes, it was delicious. I had a bowl of it with ruchbrot and butter. This soup can be frozen. I set aside the portion to freeze before I add the cream so it keeps longer. When I want to use the frozen soup, I reheat it and then swirl in fresh cream before serving.

I know this is more information than most people want, but I figure if Adam or Andrew wants to make this, I might as well give them the details now.

One major difference between the Swiss and the Germans is, while they both have the most incredible collection of rules for society that must always be obeyed precisely, the Swiss manage to make you feel that they are soooo sorry, that they would make an exception for you if they could, that they understand your frustration and pain and anger, and if only they could. The Swiss will also try to help you by thinking of alternatives to make the situation less miserable for you. That's what makes the insane mountain of rules here bearable, gracious caring. People really care, there's no sense of that pervasive German shadenfreude. And that makes all the difference.

Kill Bill

Have you seen Kill Bill? It's a Quentin Tarantino film. I just saw it yesterday and I was impressed. I don't usually watch kung fu films or very bloody films, this isn't the style film I would watch at all. But I did- bored to death and it was the only thing on cable in English.

So I fixed a nice drink and sat back on the sofa with drinkie and cigarette in hand, feet up all comfy on the hassock and watched.

Wow! Uma Therman is hot and the action is fast and tense. Ok yes, it's also rediculous and over the top. But QuentinTarintino does it so well.

Definitely worth watching.

I suppose sometimes it sounds like all I do is cook, watch films, and visit museums. I'm actually also working very hard on Fed2's game and business development. Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle. Hell, ot always feels like an uphill battle. But better to live in interesting times than boring ones, I suppose.

Film: HOLES (2003)

I highly recommend a strange and gently charming film I just watched. It's called Holes. Well worth putting on your Netflix list.

duxelles tarts

douxelles tarts, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Puff pastry with a filling of duxelles, chopped tomato, whole fresh cream, topped with shredded ementhaller. Baked 20 min @220C

It was cold and overcast today and then it rained. Something warm and tasty was called for!

History Museum of Basel - Chapel

History Museum of Basel - Chapel
Originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

The rear chapel of the History Museum.

History Museum of Basel

History Museum of Basel
Originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

This is the entry hall of the History Museum, a former medieval cathedral. The view is looking back towards the entry doors.

View from Museum in Basel

View from Museum in Basel
Originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Last week I went to the History Museum in Basel. This is the view from the terrace in front of the museum.

I planted herbs today. Asti had some brightly coloured glazed ceramic pots sitting on a shelf on the terrace - doing nothing but holding some dead flowering plants. So today it was out with the old and in with the new. I tried to buy proper potting soil at the plant area of the supermarket/mall but when I opened the bag at home it was so sort of compost mix. Better than reusing soil from potted plants anyway. So I planted 2 pots each of peppermint, dill, and basil. Green thumbs crossed everyine - lets hope something grows. It's still so cold here I have to keep the pots indoors.

Tomorrow I have to go down to the post office and send out Adam's birthday present and an end of term present for Andrew. I hope they like them, the presents are small but I think they are rather nifty.

I'm tired of the cold. Where's the warm weather? We had about 3 days of heat a couple weeks ago and now it's gone back to winter.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Yesterday was my son Adam's birthday. I "talked" to him via IMs late the night before to wish him a happy birthday. Tried to phone but couldn't connect to his cell phone in the states and he said his father had "cleaned up" and misplaced the reciever. I won't comment on that. Anyway it was frustrating not being able to phone him.

Regardless, I hope you had a great birthday. Love you lots.

Oh my god it's SPRING here! Yes, the sun finally came out today and its 72 degrees already. Whew! At last.

I cheated the other night and instead of apple streudel I made apple/almond danish. It was great, too. Last night I made bananas in rum custard pastries. It's interesting trying out new flavour combinations in tiny batches. (Yes, that's right, I only make a very tiny batch of each, just enough for us for 1 dessert each)

Right now there's a pot of beouf bourginon simmering away in the kitchen - well, I had no choice really. There was half a bottle of excellent red wine left over from yesterday. I had no choice.

Anyway, the monstoon level downpours have done their damage here. A downspout, which wasn't routinely cleaned for the past few years by the realty company, overflowed into the roof/ceiling and ultimately the living room floor here. Since it happend while we were sleeping, not sure if it actually dripped out of the ceiling/wall above the window where we saw 12 feet of water stains or from the edge where wall meets floor. The water was flooded all over the top of the parquet flooring and after we'd mopped it all up, more water was seeping up from underneath the wood floor for several hours. Yes, of course it got worse, the parquet strips swelled and buckled. Then they started to dry and warped and buckled some more. The livingroom floor currently looks like the Alps - after an earthquake. Very ugly. The realty manager came by and then returned with some craftsman who discovered the stopped drainpipe. She returned today with another craftsman who inspected and tested the roof, the attic, etc. Waiting to hear when they will return to replace the fllor. The entire livingroom floor is ruined. A dangerous buckled and warped mess.

I'm going out to walk about in the sunshine. Perhaps take some photos.

Apple Strudel

It's been cold here. And wet. And windy. Ugh!!!! And I do mean cold as in 40's F during the day and pouring rain and wind so strong it drives the rain horizontally at times. This is Not a Good Thing.

So today Asti & I went grocery shopping in that brief period interval between cloud bursts. Not having had breakfast first you can imagine what that was like. And that's why we succumbed to the temptation of strudel dough ready made in the chiller case.

So, I'm about to make homemade apple strudel.

Photos of Basel

Photos from Friday's walk, see previous post for some details.

Friday took the tram to the farmers market in the cobbled square in front of the Rathous. It was right out of Julia Child dreams. I bought some freshly baked bauernbrot to take home for supper. Tasted samples of cheese and dry sausage. Had a grilled bratwurst with mustard and a hunk of bread for lunch, especially tasty because I'd had no breakfast. The sausages were grilled on an open grill which gave them a gentle smoky taste. They are served bare on a plate, a big dollop of sharp mustard on the side and a hunk of excellent bauernbrot. People stood around several nearby tables to eat their quick lunches. Well dressed businessmen, mums out with the kiddies, ladies in flowered dresses and hats! All eating their choice of grilled sausage - with their fingers. Yes, no forks, no rolls. I watched and copied. You snap off a section of sausage about an inch or two with your fingers, dip it in the mustard, and then nibble or bite the bit. Bread is eaten separately, torn off the hunk in bite size bits. Delicious. A quick wipe of fingers with a paper napkin and off you go.

I'll post photos I took of the market.

Then I strolled down to the Rhine and across the bridge, taking photos, walked down crooked old streets, taking photos, and over another bridge taking me to the Kunstmuseum (art museum). A modest collection compared to the Met in NYC or MOMA, or the Guggenheim, the British Museum. But, this was quality over quantity. Each painting or sculpture was a gem. A treasure. I lingered here, staring, my eyes loving it.

You may add the following to my wish list for Christmas:
Hans Holbein -Organ stall painting (mural) 1528, Basel Munster
Franz Marc - woodcuts ( I didn't like his paintings, the woodcuts are wonderful)
Max Ernst - Father Rhine
Paul Klee - Ad Marginem 1930
Giorgio de Chirico - The Enigma of Fate
Any of the Kandinsky's, the Braque's, the Picasso's.
Any of the Modigliani portraits of girls.
The Rodin scupture in the courtyard of the Burgers of Calais - check out my photo of this one.
Yum, what a wonderful collection! I finished up my visit with an excellent coffee at their cafe.

Another stroll, taking more photos. Then a tram ride home the roundabout way. The tram passed through a nearby forest! Yes, a nature preserve close by. With a Rudolphe Steiner shule. And acres of wild raspberries. In a few weeks I'll return and pick bucketsfull to make into preserves.

Exhausted when I got home. But a great day.

I used to think Barney was the worst children's TV show ever. But then, I watched it in German. Nightmare!

The stuffed cabbage came out gorgeous. The meat filling was moist and dense and intensely flavorfull and the sweet and sour tomato sauce for it was perfection! Yummy! Oh my god it was good! And the Basel bread? It's heavenly. A crusty white loaf, a sourdough I think. It's so good you could live on it.

Dessert will be crepes with strawberries.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something wonderful will go just right and work out for a best friend of mine. In fact, I'm pulling out all the stops and wishing on a star for him as well.

Ramble, Ramble, I'm off to torment myself with another dose of strange continental television

I risked the stairs this morning when, after an endless wait, it was apparent the elevator just was not coming. I had a hunch it was an issue with the exterior door somewhere not closing properly or something to do with the signalling.

Anyway down all 6 flights I trudged. And they are loooong flights even going down. I walked to the bakery by the train station. Yay! I actually knew where the train station was (guesses correctly from memory), so score 1 point for me on orientation.

Bought a loaf of fresh Basel bread and a cinnamon pastry then headed over to a discount supermarket that's basically caned and packaged products, not fresh food, to get the tomatoes and flour, etc I need for today. I'm making stuffed cabbage in sweet & sour tomato sauce. Dessert is crepes with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream or ice cream. I've sliced and marinated the strawberries already.

Lucky for me, my guess on the elevator was correct. When I got back to the house with my heavy shopping bag, the elevator was waiting on the ground floor and worked just fine. Someone needs to sort out the door signaling circuits, tho.

My coffee should be ready now. Ahhhh first coffee of the morning!

What a monumental downpour here! It's been raining on and off all day, often severely with gusts of high wind. But about sunset the sky cleared and it warmed up and we had a sunny end to the day - or so I thought.

Just now a load of lightning and thunder and massive storm rolled in. The rain is so loud you can hear it thru the double or triple paned glass. The entire skyline flashing with lightning and massive rolls of thunder. Wow! I closed the terrace doors. I presume the cats have sense enough to be inside. If not, I'm sure they'll make the fact known soon enough.

I'm going into the livingroom now. Going to turn off the lights and watch the storm. The livingroom here has, essentially, a glass wall onto the terrace. The view looks out over the city onto the Jura mountains. We're on the 5th floor (by European style counting) or the 6th floor (by American style counting). Yes, we have an elevator.

Rosti - Swiss National Dish

How was I to know that I've been making the Swiss National Dish for most of my life? I see all this nonsense about "rosti" on the news here, on cooking show discussions, at the supermarket. Loads of anxiety from the women on the cooking shows about their abilities to cook this mysterious "rosti".

Being curious, I finally checked it out at the supermarket. (I know, I should have goggled it, and I finally did today) What do I find but that it's just a big old potato pancake like I first learned to make by watching my Great Grandmother many, many years ago as a small child. Instead of making the pancakes in small 3-5 inch diameter cakes, the Swiss make a large pan-filling thick cake. Big deal, that's exactly what my Great Grandma used to make to plop on the table when there were a houseful of my Great Granpa Izzie's friends. They'd cut it in wedges and eat it along with glassfuls of Balentine's Ale.

So what is the big deal about that? It's a nice simple peasant dish. Warming and filling and tasty. But for god's sake, a national dish? That you get all aggravated over? Wow.

Anyway it's storming here; massive downpour and high gusting winds and cold. Quite a change from the bright blue sunny skies and almost hot weather yesterday. At times the rain came in almost horizontal waves. Severe enough that I had to close the windows even though we are surrounded by covered terraces.

I'm not going out in this awful weather. Tomorrow will do for a trip to the supermarket to buy tomatoes for the sweet and sour stuffed cabbage I planned for Wednesday's supper.

My First Solo Excursion in Basel

Not a very exciting or extensive excusion, I'm afraid but quite enough for the first time.

I really needed to get groceries. Asti drinks cream in her coffee. I'm a coffee with milk sort. Also I needed some bread or rolls and a modest assortment of fruit, veg, and meat so I could prepare normal meals rather then nibble on junk or eat out. Luckily, being a New Yorker, I had a large canvas tote bag one could stuff with groceries to carry home. No worries about the paper or plastic decision on the continent. They simply bypass it by not providing ANY bags at all. You bring your own. Period.

I have a transport pass so I planned to take the #14 tram down to the farmers market. Great idea. I go out, walk down the block to the tram line where trans stop going in both directions. Very convenient. Except, which way did I want to go? Hmmm. No idea. I was totally disoriented. No map, of course. (Note: get city map of tram routes!)

Giving up on taking a tram at random with the certainty of getting thoroughly lost in a city where I din't speak the language, I decided to walk to the local supermarket. That at least I remembered from a walk with Asti when I first arrived. So down 2 blocks to the supermarket.

Reasonable enough. Of course I only had a 100 swiss franc note and no change so no shopping cart for Barb. I grabbed a small plastic handbasket and perhaps that was just as well as it reminded me clearly to limit my purchases to what I could reasonably pack in my tote bag and carry home.

Prices are shockingly high for one accustomed to NYC supermarket prices. They are evn high for one accustomed to Waitrose supermarket prices in the UK. Try almost $8 a pound for chopped meat! Insane, eh? How about $2.40 a pound for the lest expensive apples? And $6.25 a pound for peppers. Ok, so we're not going to have stuffed peppers for supper this week, I'll make stuffed cabbage. (I have to go back for tinned tomatoes tomorrow, too heavy and bulky for today.)

I thought I was doing pretty well though. I even braved the meat counter and spoke to the butcher. I managed to make myself understood when I ordered some great looking bratwurst. Hands held apart the length of bratwurst I wanted. She lifted the long coil of sausage and eying my hands asked something in a burst of incomprehensible to me, German. I nodded and said, "alles", she nodded and twisted off exactly the length I wanted. Success! I managed to order 100 grams of Swiss farmer salami as well. It looked really lean and beautiful.

It was interesting wandering about and trying to figure out which were the equivalents of the products I'm used to, which new products looked interesting and appealing. From years of shopping at Waitrose in London, I'd gained the false assumption that supermarkets everywhere were basically the same since Waitrose is almost exactly like a better class NY/NJ supermarket. The one here wasn't. It was geniunely alien. Not bad, it was actually qiuite lovely. Just very alien.

The total for the small basket of groceries I bought was shocking. It was 57.75 swiss francs which is $48 US. I guestimate the same basket of groceries would cost me about $35 in the US. Ah well, I'll get used to it. At least it gives me a good guideline on what sort of salary I need to target here.

So, enough for now. It's noon and I'm ready for a roll and butter and a bit of that lovely farmer's salami.

Sipping coffee this morning in front of my computer, outside it's glorious spring in Basel. I can hear early morning birds and looking out the room-wide windows in the home-office, it's bright and sunny and warm and the sky is a pale blue right out of an impressionist picture.

I am falling in love with Basel.

Yesterday, Asti said lets knock off this computer thing and get out in the sunshine. What a good idea!

We walked to the tram and took that down to the Rhine. It was really very warm and sunny, summer weather, almost sultry. We walked across a bridge over the Rhine and on through crooked, narrow streets - many of the houses, perhaps most, dating from the 14th century. We ended up at Ueli-Bier stube in Kleinbasel. This bier stube brews their own well esteemed biers on the premises. We sat in the rear garden and had their specialty brew Tut Ankh Ueli. http://www.lupi.ch/ex/tutanchueli/tutanchueli5.gif
This beer's recipe is based on the analysis done on residue found in drinking flasks in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Probably the earliest known actual beer. This brew was excellent, and those who know me and that I don't normally drink beer, will understand that that means a lot.

The smell of saurbraten was driving us wild with its warm yumminess so Asti and I shared a platter. Oh lordy, lordy! That was good!

After a while we continued our day out walking along the Rhine to the next bridge. There are fountains everywhere. Basel loves water and they are very proud of the quality of their water. As we approached the next bridge over the Rhine we saw an area taped off with people and police standing about watching for something. And suddenly Zoooooooom! there they were and there they went...it was the annual Basel rollerblading marathon. So of course we watched the skaters zoom by for a bit, then continued on to the bridge and over the Rhine again. This time we walked all the way home, stopping here and there along the way. We detoured briefly at the Kunstmuseum (art museum).

In the front courtyard of the Kunstmuseum is The Burghers of Calais by Rodin. (You can read about the story behind their sculture and see photos of it here: http://www.answers.com/topic/the-burghers-of-calais)

We window shopped and stared at architecture the rest of the way home. By the time we arrived home close to 9pm, we were hot, tired, desperately in need of huge diet cokes with loads of ice, and very pleased with our day out.

Asti had a mad packing session as she was off to Belfast on a 6am flight this morning. From Belfast she'll drive to Cork and then back to Basel on Wednesday. Thursday it's back to London for a day.

It's May day here - and they actually celebrate it. There are May poles in the parks. I'll go out this afternoon to watch the dancing and celebrations.

I returned to Basel on Friday from 10 days in the UK. Asti and I flew over from Mulhouse airport to London City Airport. Then a mad 100 mile journey accross London from the extreme east to the west in a massive arc to avoid the 5 quid congestion charge. Arriving at Alan's we drank his coffee, gobbled up some really nice cheese salads, and off we went to Oxford for the ACCU spring 2005 conference. Both Alan and I did presentations and they went very well. Asti and I were also on a panel on Women in Computing. It was really an excellent discussion, too bad they scheduled us directly opposite Bjarne Stroustrup's keynote talk. Despite that, those who did attend enjoyed the session. A highly successful conference on all fronts including networking and deal-making.

We also discovered a really great and really cheap noodle house just around the corner from the Randolph Hotel. Yay!! The Singapore noodles were the best I've ever had!

I didn't walk around Oxford very much aside from a few short strolls with Alan to look at the Colleges and drop in at Blackwell's. The weather was cold and drizzling. Lucky us had a suite at the Randolph Hotel tho - courtesy the lovely ACCU organizers.

Anyway, we drove back to London on Sunday morning. Asti was off then to Surrey and returned to Basel on Tuesday. I stayed on in London with Alan till Friday. Besides a IBgames business meeting on Tuesday, we just wanted a few more days together.

I'm in Basel. Definitely somewhat culture-shocked. My over 10 years commuting to London simply didn't prepare me for this very German and in many ways, very old fashioned culture. There's a great deal that is lovely here and I'm enjoying it. But it is definitely alien.

I just watched The Last Samuri. I really enjoyed it, was very impressed. Of course, it was shown with German sub-titles.

The cable here is premium but still shite for all that. The English channels offered are limited to BBC world service, some crap called BBC prime that shows the cheapest/crappiest of old BBC shows, ESPN, CNN-some special inferior edition. It's really awful. German TV/cable seems to be focused on sex. Perverted sex, depraved sex, bizarre sex, more sex, weird sex, sex sprinkled into totally inappropriate shows, sex. And that's the regular channels, not the porn channels. I'm certainly no prude but the obsessiveness of it is a bit distasteful.

My project to revive Federation II is going well. Last night we made the Top 10 list at The MUD Connecter. Starting to get more new players checking us out already! Yay! In fact we're #9 at the moment and moving on up.

On the home front, I'm at the end game of my move to Switzerland. Exactly 24 hours from now I leave for the airport. I actually packed the first of my suitcases this morning. I have 1 more large suitcase to pack and then my carry-on bag which has to hold my extra laptop and some fragile stuff as well as things like jewelry and cameras that can't go in the checked baggage.

The 2 "large" suitcases I have are not really very large at all. Not by any definition. I really wish I could have managed to get 2 really big ones, the ones I have aren't anywhere near the size the airline allows as standard.

So I'm sitting here juggling things in my mind. Triage. Trying to figure what to take and what to leave behind. Anything left behind goes in the garbage. So it's a very final and draconian choice I have to make.

I'm still grieving over my books and CDs. I had to leave all those here in New York. My son took them and will store some for me to retrieve later, but most will merge with his collections and well, such is life.

But I'm grieving over the loss of so many of the little things that had meaning to me. I can only pack and take with me so many things, the rest must all remain behind.

And in the end, well, insert some profound quote here. I can't think any more. Just so tired and want this to be finished.

Oh yes, to add to my delight in this process, my housemate has been more than his usual inconsiderate self lately. I've been suffering from bouts of massive abdominal pain both Sunday and Monday. Symptoms seemed like classic food poisoning. But from what? Nothing I could think of. Today I figured it out. I sniffed the milk carton and there's a faint scent of decay. Arrgh!!! It was fresh milk when I bought it Saturday. Absolutely fresh, just delivered and icey cold and I rushed it home and into the fridge. So how did it spoil so fast when it was stored under good conditions? Ah ha! Idiot housemate late Saturday night put a large boiling hot casserole next to it in the fridge. I have told him not to do this. And especially not to put hot stuff next to the milk. But, he never thinks about anyone other than himself and always what is absolutely easiest for himself. So, the milk had a jolly nice warming. Since my 2 episodes of pain followed drinking a large cup of coffee with milk, that was a lead. Today, discovering the funny smell of the milk, I discarded it, bought more and today so far, I'm fine. Looks like spoiled milk was the source.

I will not miss Mars (my housemate). He has been an unreal experience. I can well understand now why his housemates don't last longer than 6 months, most only 3. The other housemate here had his fill of Mars a few weeks ago and simply disappeared. Left. His room is intact. He simply walked away. He's found a new life elsewhere and just decided not to every return to this place.

How sad. I was so joyfull when I moved in here before Christmas. But I was also ignoring that I was spending unreasonable amounts of my time and energy cleaning up after Mars. All the filth and mess he left in the kitchen and bathroom every day. When I realized what I was doing and stopped, that's when the true proportions of the situation became clear. Things like washing all my dishes and cookware before I went to bed. Then in the morning, going to make breakfast, discovering that Mars had used it all, and left it strewn around the kitchen all dirty and greasy, or worse, it had disappeared - he had taken it into his room and it would be weeks before I saw the item again, and then usually because it had broken. He didn't use his own stuff because that was already filthy and unwashed, piled up in the sink or on the stove. Besides, he liked my things better than his. Well, of course he would. My kitchenware was top notch, the dishes were really lovely ones from Finland, the cups slowly collected and large and well balanced and comfortable to hold. His pots were cheap sheet metal or discards from former housemates. Mine were heavy, t-fal lined, glass lids, carefully chosen. It was a constant battle in the kitchen, a losing one. Always losing because he simply didn't care, simply had no respect at all for other people or their property.

So, enough of all that. I must get back to packing and discarding.

I'm moving to Switzerland next week.

Those who know me either already had an email about it this morning or can email me directly.

Last Sunday I went to Central Park to see the Gates. WOnderful. I'll post some photos. Perfect weather-sunny and 58. Perfect winter day. The park was mobbed. Paper says was almost 1 million there - the Gates are drawing everyone. They're worth it.

Went to another 2 job interviews on Tuesday- back to back. Nothing from either of them yet. Anther 2 bite the dust. I have another interview scheduled for next week. Friday I'll send out more resumes and set up next week's interview schedule.
It may be that I am just paranoid. Tho one rational point is, I seem to be the first person they interview most of the time. And I've read several studies that say the first interviewees are almost never hired. It's the last 2 or 3 that get picked. But how do you change interview order?

The Federation relaunch continues sucessfully. Not easy, I have to kick Fi and Alan back into line constantly. I'n determined the game will succeed.

I need coffee and it's so cold.

I'll play catch up for a moment.

I spent Christmas in New York. Blech! I usually spend it in London. I love London. I love Christmas in London. I love going to the Christmas market in Covent Garden with Alan and poking about from booth to booth- especially the German ones. I love meeting friends for a jolly Christmas Eve dinner. Even nicer is the quiet Christmas day walk to the pub for lunch with friends. How deliciously scandalous and decadent that feels to an Amercian, sitting in a pub on Christmas day. I love New Year's Eve with my friends, listening to Big Ben strike the hour.

But not this year- well Chistmas 2004. It wasn't my idea either. It was one of those sort of bullying decisions Alan makes without consulting me. At least this time I let him know how unhappy about it I was. His excuse was he needed to get to the Data Center in NJ to upgrade several of the servers' OS. My take on that is, that's even worse. That turns it from Christmas together into a business trip where I am a side issue. Frankly it's also much more expensive in NYC because Alan always weasels us into going out to eat constantly. I don't like this, not just the insane expense, but I don't enjoy all this outside dining. I like eating at home, especially now that I'm in the new apt and I cook and bake exceedingly well.

At least Christmas Day we had a nice dinner. I made a large succulent duck with all the trimmings. Andrew joined us for dinner. It was quiet, good food, good conversation. Lots of warm affection. Then dessert, a very boy's dessert. Dark chocolate fudge brownies with vanilla bean ice cream on top and that topped off with candied orange peel - all homemade, even the candied orange peel. The peel was a surprise hit- it was nibbled away entirely in very short order. Good thing I made 2 batches of it. I used the leftover peel and all the pulp to make homemade orange marmalade. Bottled sunshine.

Alan bought me a magnificent slipcased edition of an archeology book on the Inca.

It was a very close 2 weeks but in some ways a remote time. There were questions and answers that needed to be said but weren't. And then Alan left 2 days before New Years to go back to London. That was very miserable. I spent New Years alone. Well with friends online. But no matter what people say, they are lying. It's not the same.

I've made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that next Christmas will be spent in London. Period. Or Else.

So that was my Christmas hols. Pah!

After New Years I had expected to go back to work for the Tech firm. The Manager had assured me of it, several times. But I waited and nada. It wasn't just me. The others emailed and asked if I knew hat was going on. Delays delays delays in the contract. Who knows. Instead of right after New Years, it's the middle of February now and we're still waiting. End of February he's saying now. Ha We'll see.

I'm getting loads of job interviews but no job offers. I guess they hate me when they meet me. Who knows. It's depressing. At least I get lots of quick responses to my resume even if they only interview me.

So January has passed. Now February. I spoke with AQlan on the phone for almost 2 hours on Valentine's Day. End of January, Federation launched. My new business plan is looking successful. Slowly turning the tide. Definitely on the way up. Fingers crossed.

I did get one job but it lasted only 1 day. Very BOFH situation. The money from that 1 day's work was gone immediately in paying 1/2 February's rent. It was a very long 11+ hour work day with no lunch or breaks. I'd probably have gotten ill between the stress and the long hours but the money would have been terrific. Ah well.

So here we are at the brink of the President's Day long weekend. And that is 2 months trimmed and condensed into 1 post.

Astrid is back safe - almost

This morning's news is that Astrid is back safe from her amazing adventure in the East - almost. She phonedme from Berlin airport this morning to let me know she was safe and waiting for her Swissair flight back home to Basel. She's had some amazing adventures on the Trans Manchurian Express and the trip back was not uneventful - she had to reschedule and wing it all from Irkutsk when eveything went pear-shaped at the border and they ended up with Russian Border guards surrounding them with Kalishnikovs.

I'll leave the rest for later or a link to her blog when she finally gets settled in, unwinds from the trip, and writes up her tale of adventure on her blog. (Or phone me for details- assuming the reader knows me)

I'm not the Phoenix Church of God

Really. I am not now and never have been the Phoenix Church of God. So why do people from Phoenix keep calling me on my cell phone saying thAat's the number of the Phoenix Church of God.

Damn, if I was an evil person I could tell them sure, I'm the Church secretary, just send your cash to me.

The calls for the church are driving me nuts!

I'm not even a Christian. Never have been.

So I'm moved into my new apt. Even bought a new bed - and very comfy it is. Alan and I have been relaxing, set up some bookcases in the living room and unpacked all the books. Next project will be to move the bed around to the other side of the bedroom to maximize free space. Then when I go back to work, I need to buy some storage units and get all the clothes and stuff stored away neatly.

But it's really lovely having a genuine kitchen again. I made crepes for breakfast a couple of days ago. Also made beef, mushroom, and barley soup - yum! Last night I picked up a duck for Xmas dinner. I wanted a goose but none at the supermarket. I probably will ask the manager if he can get one for me anyway if it's not insanely expensive.

This afternoon we're going out to New Jersey to the Lunarian's Christmas Party. Hopefully a nice day. We went to the Museum of Natural History this week. That's always sort of like going home again. We just looked at the meteorites and the hall of minerals and of course the orgami Christmas tree.

(Note- any of you who are reading this blog- I'm job hunting! Email me for a copy of my resume if there's any work available at your company.)

Moving Day

Moving Day- words to strike terror into even the hardest heart. All went relatively well, however. We went out for a Rreally excellent meal afterward at the fabulous chinese/japanese restaurant on Broadway & 100th Street. I managed to get the laptop hooked up to the cable modem and working - obviously since I'm online now.

Now I have to set up the bookcases, unpack, scrub down the refrigerator, etc. And buy groceries. And most important, buy a bed.

Profound thanks to Adam and Andrew for interrupting their lives to slave away at a miserable task for me when they had so many other important things to do. Also thanks to Tom for helping with everything.

I have to transfer my landline here on Monday but meanwhile my cell phone does it all quite well. This place has connectivity unlike my other place which was in a completely dead zone.

I'm still feeling very happy about my birthday Friday as family and friends surprised me with a stream of phone calls and flowers. Definitely an excellent cheerer-upper.

Today's my birthay.

The good news is that I found a new apt. Adam and Andrew will help me move on Saturday. I'd really, really like to get started bringing over the small stuff today tho. I tried yesterday, packed a shopping cart with stuff. But when I got out the door, it started to rain, icy stinging rain. I had to turn around and go back inside. What a bummer!

Still job hunting. Asti helped me polish up my resume so fingers crossed that will help.

Books- I just finished reading, "The Bookseller of Kabul". Excellent book, highly recommend you read it. A view of post Taliban middle class society thru the life of a bookseller's family. Fascinating.

When does the Christmas season start?

Growing up in New York City, I always knew when the Christmas season started. It started as you stood, shivering in the cold, on Central Park West, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the moment the Santa Clause float passed by. Period. End of question.

Then you stopped for hot chocolate with your family before you all piled into the subway to go home for your Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner.

Viewing the Santa Claus float go by was like the figurative flipping of some celestial switch that started a clockwork mechanism that initiated an orderly progression of events. These events continued in proper sequence, year after year for decades, culminating in the day we all returned to school in January.

Part of the clear and visible seasonal protocol was that christmas carols were not played or broadcast, decorative lights were not turned on, and season window displays were not installed in windows till AFTER Thanksgiving.

And it was good. Very good.

After the parade ended, the lights suddenly switched on, carols were broadcast on the radio stations and in stores and public buildings. All along 5th Ave the stores vied to offer passersby the most opulent, gorgeous, amazing Chistmas themed window displays.

A week later the lights were turned on on the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. That signaled the start of ice skating.

Each familiar traditional event triggering the next -

The Nutcracker Suite at the NY State Ballet, Ahmal and the Night Visitors at the Brooklyn Acadeny.

Orgami classes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and decorating their orgami tree.
A visit to the Central Park Children's zoo to feed the seals and look at the polar bears.

Weekend visits to Central Park to go ice skating at the Wollman rink, ride the carousel - the moving horses on the outside for us kids, the stationary sleigh seating for the parents.

Buying roasted chestnuts, freshly spun cotton candy, or red candy apples from street vendors.

Strolling down 5th Ave looking at the marvelous window displays. Neidermyers for hot chocolate.

Visits to F.A.O. Shwartz's. Macy's toy dept and then a session with the real, genuine, Santa. (Macy's Santa is THE real santa - see Miracle on 34th Street)

And yes, watching the Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland on TV on Thanksgiving day - it was always broadcast. And then watching the original B & W Miracle on 34th Street, which imho is still the absolutely best and perfect and defining version of the story. (And please note this- they NEVER showed that horrible piece of crap It's a Wonderful Life -ever- during the season. That film all by itself can kill every last shred of holiday spirit and good will towards men within me.)

Going to Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center to sing the Halleluia Chorus - audience and stage singers, all together, a cappella. Glorious! If you've never done it, do it!

Christmas day we all stood on line for the (CHEAP cheap cheap) matinee show at Radio City Music Hall - usually another magical Disney animated film and the wonderful Rockettes, a ballet, the Christmas spectacular with a live nativity, and the awesome Wurlitzer panzer-organ. Well, this was the tradition in MY family for Christmas day since we were not Christians. I had no clue what Christ was, what the religious part of Christmas involved, untill I was 9 years old I had only the vaguest idea what Christians were to begin with and if you had told me what it was I'd have thought you were winding me up, that no one could possibly believe such obvious nonsense.

New Years Eve meant crowding and squashing together in Times Square to watch the ball drop. Kissing the one(s) you loved was absolutely required ritual. Regardless if it's family or as you grew up it was your romantic partner- if you didn't kiss the one you loved on New Year's, the whole year was somehow ruined.

I've left a lot out of this, but you get the picture.

When did/does the Christmas season start for you?

Thanksgiving Day

I went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Hadn't planned to. Just one of those things. Tom emailed me asking what I was doing for Thanksgiving. My reply: nothing. He said he had no plans and was wondering if I could think of anything interesting to do. I suggested the parade. Shortly thereafter Adam calls to say he's coming into NYC and wants to go to the parade with me. So 8:05 am I was standing on the corner of 66th St and Braodway waiting to meet up with Adam to watch the parade. His dad came along with him. Late, as usual. However, we were still early enough to find a good viewing space on 65th and Broadway. I've watched the parade from that corner almost my entire life.

It was nice being with Adam for a few hours. After the parade we strolled back to Broadway and settled in at a cafe with tables outside. This meant we could smoke with our coffees, so of course we lingered. The weather was quite warm, in the mid-60's at least. Adam gave me a new cell phone and switched my sim card into it. I'm in the process of rebuilding my phone addressbook so anyone I know who is reading this, please send me your preferred contact phone number to add to it.

It was early on a warm summer's evening in the 1970s, as I stood in a palm plantation high on a green hillside in western Java, that I saw for the first time, silhouetted against the faint blue hills of faraway Sumatra, the small gathering of islands that is all that remains of what was once a mountain called Krakatoa.

-Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester

Two interesting web sites recommended to me by a friend.

The Pilgrims of Russian-town 70 Years Later, Stephen Scott

Linguaphiles' Journal

Two product warnings -

The US post office. Don't be mislead by their fraudulent so-called Priority mail. There's nothing priority about it except the name. Mail sent this way costs 20 times First class and doesn't get there any faster. In fact, it often gets there slower.

Second warning is Firefox. I'm very sad to say that while I tried Firefox and really liked it when it was in Beta, when they recently released the final official version 1.0 what they released was complete CRAP. I have no idea what happened but the nice program that did what I wanted it to and was fairly stable has turned into a complete and utter pice of crap. Of course, like most open source software, they think they are doing you a favor and therefore can be arrogant and rude and not supply any documentation. They can also not supply any help or tech support or explanations.

On a nice note, Andrew's in Vienna. I hope he has a fantastic time. I have 5 days off from work and plan to catch up on sleep. I've been suffering from major fatigue due to too little sleep and the disruption of my entire day/night activity cycle. I had intended to walk a bit today but it's raining so that's a great excuse to slob around the house instead.

Andrew is off to Vienna today. I hope he has a wonderful time there, takes loads of photos. I loaned him my digital camera. I was very excited about that camera when I first got it but it's amazinghow fast things change and now what I want is a really small thin one.

I'm listening to the Dresden Dolls, "Coin Operated Boy". I need to get more of their music and see if it's as good as this song.

Night work is still messing up my energy/sleep cycles. I'm off for 5 days for Thanksgiving. I'll be working on my resume and looking for a new job. I really need to get back to a normal day job.

I can see I'm babbling. I had something I wanted to blog about but I've forgotten.

Awesome, awesome solar video website!

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/spaceweather/lenticular/96_01seq_new.mov

You MUST see this! Simply must. 'Nuff said.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!

Yes, today is Andrew's birthday. He's 21; an interesting milestone in life.

So, we met this morning and went off to have a birthday brunch (with a small side trip to the bank to deposit my paycheck which FINALLY arrived - only 2 weeks late).

Amyway, a pleasant morning meal with Andrew - and he will stop by again in a few days to pick up his birthday present. I also loaned him my new digital camera for his trip to Vienna next week. I look forward to seeing the photos he'll take.

I won't go into any philosophical outpouring about Andrew's birthday. He and I had a very nice conversation over breakfast this morning and I'm not particularly inclined to share with outsiders. It's not that kind of blog.

One thing we did talk about, and agree about, was people who live too much of their lives on the net. We substitute the net for a life and think that that is functional. It's not. The internet is not now and never has been "a life". Entertainment, hobby, employment, relaxation, distraction, information but not life.

I'm feeling pretty crappy at the moment. I just finished my second full week working installing/migrating/configuring computers and still haven't gotten paid yet. So that's actually the first partial week and then 2 full weeks pay they owe me. We were told so many different stories about when we'd be paid that I've gone thru all the stages of annoyance to anger to despair. The latest story is that they were delayed and rolled the first partial week's pay into the first full week's pay and then after being told several times that the checks were being processed and sent out, finally, in writing, told tthe checks were mailed out Thursday and should be here Saturday. Yeah, right. It's Saturday and the mail came and, what a surprise, no check.

FUCK!

Possibly it will be here in Monday's mail. The post office has been VERY slow delivering mail the past few weeks. My postlady claimed it was the massive amount of Xmas mail starting early. This is also bullshit.

I don't know what it is but it seems to me the bullshit level of life has recently increased to impossible levels. I don't think it's just that I'm looking at things through jaundiced eyes because I'm depressed. I think it's really so. All around me I see people just going through the motions. Doing as little as possible, as slowly as possible, with as little thought or effort as possible. This infuriates me because I sincerely always try to give what I do my best effort. Perhaps I should change my style and start becoming a slacker, too?

Anyway, I'm terribly upset at not being paid yet. Mind you, it's a 90 minute commute to work in New Jersey and the transportation costs me about $15 round trip each day. And this is to work that awful 5pm to 12 midnight period that screws up your sleep and wrecks your day. So my personal and financial costs for this job are a daily strain.

Arrgh, I don't usually rant quite like this. But this is simply awful. Simply awful. I feel like I'm no longer looking into the abyss but IN it. Damn, someone has to help me find a better job, a real job.

The work situation in New York City is really terrible. There are just so many people looking for work and so many companies laying off people. We are becoming a society of migrant cyber-workers. Buy us by the dozen, we're anonymous hands. Buy us by the hour and toss us away when finished. New hands always available. Easy-peasy. No wonder companies are getting away with forcing their staff into unpaid 60+ hour wook weeks. I've lived with that myself. Full time, permanant staff are all classified as exempt (ie no overtime) by a series of sleazy manouvers and ebnding definitions and rules. Snap, people routinely working 9am - 8pm and later, working weekends, working, working, working. So easy for companies to use/abuse workers now. So easy to outsource. Anyone who says outsourcing doesn't hurt the economy, doesn't hurt American workers is not just a liar, they're a damn liar. And they know it.

Yes, I'm ranting again. But the middle class is shrinking. The sides are pulling apart. And the ugly consequences are becoming very visible.

Hope your lives are more settled and positive. We now return you to your own realities.

First night at work went well! Commuting there takes a long time but it's relatively straightforward. Going home, I got a lift to my door from one of the other techs who lives in Brooklyn. Hopefully we can work it out so he'll do that every night. That would be ace.

Friday Andrew came over and we went to my local post office to apply for his new passport. Turned out, my post office had a clueful woman behind the counter. She was careful but helpful! What a shock ;) WIthin the hour Andrew's papers were certified and accepted for processing. He didn't need me at all- which is how his local post office *should* have done it on Thursday. I really hate incompetent civil service people, esp USPS jerks who seems to make a complete speciality of being the biggest jerks possible.

Anyway, having a relaxing weekend. Work starts for real on Monday.

So it's all set. I go in tonight for a training session, then Monday start a 3 week work contract. Get paid for the training tonight and paid each week. I'm a happy bunny.

Just spoke to Andrew. He has to renew his passport and his local post office are not only complete morons but giving him grief about it. He's going to meet me tomorrow morning and we'll go to my local post office instead and he'll renew it there. If there's any aggro, I can legally "identify" him.

Looks like I've got a 3 week temp gig doing an XP rollout for some financial institution. It's in NJ but not a bad commute from the Port Authority terminal. It's at night so my days will be free to continue job hunt and interviews.

My contact for temp jobs says my resume needs redoing. He's right, I haven't been happy with it. I -HATE- doing resumes.

Anyway, this means cash flowing in to Chez Barb again. I'm much relieved. If I could be sure of a steady supply of temp jobs I would be tempted to stick with that for a while. I'm in the middle of making some major life changing decisions - and this would give me some wiggle room untill I know what country I really want to concentrate my job search efforts on.

Ah well, we shall see. First I need to do this work successfully. I've already googled the specific tasks involved and done some serious refresher studying.