Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

I just phoned my credit card company. I could swear that they’ve hired Penn Jillette as a service rep.

We’ve had a nice couple of weekends. In no particular order.

• Went to a concert / sing-along of Handel’s Messiah.
• Went to Outback Lodge (not to be confused with Outback Steakhouse). Kangaroo… mmm.
• Alma came to visit. Very, very good to see her. We’re blessed with friends that we can see once every couple of years and still get along like a house on fire.
• Found a beer shop in the Zürich HB station. Very good selection.
• Walked around the old city in the late afternoon / early evening / night for the last two weekends. I’m really starting to love the city.
• Found Glen Fahrn in the old city. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better selection of Scotch… although that may be because I was too drunk to remember some of the shops in Scotland properly.
• Asked some questions of coworkers about things that we need. DIY stores, good restaurants, beer stores, baby sitters… things are starting to fall into place.
• We (“we”) plugged a bunch of American Christmas lights into our transformer. Last night, it blew a fuse. The plastic casing around the transformer is warped and brittle. Oops.
• Borrowed a hammer drill from one of my coworkers (thank you Mario!). Finally have some lights / artwork / mirrors / clocks / etc. up on the walls. It’s starting to feel a bit more like home.
• Still slowly making friends. We’re worse at it than we used to be. Having a kid really saps your attention to detail (some people are naturally good at making friends… I tend to need to remember to be nice and social).
• We’ve started actually studying German (as opposed to just taking in the lessons we’re getting). It’s helping. I can string together sentences now and read a lot of the advertisements and signs that I see.
• I enjoy the Christmas markets they have here. Christmas is much more enjoyable for me here than it is at home (maybe it’s because they’re big on celebrating St.-Nicolas’s day?) I think that it’s less crassly commercial.
• Saw the inside of the Grossmünster (I liked it, sturdy. Need to see the cloister (closed on weekends) and the tower (187 steps, not good with my knee.)), the Fraumünster (including 5 stained glass windows by Chagal), and St.-Peter’s (looked more like a ballroom inside than a church).

All in all, life is good. Having Alma over for the weekend reminded us that we’re a bit lonely… but it also reminded us that we have wonderful friends.