Flo's Blog

New yoga studio!

2010-01-23T15:23:00.000-08:00

There is a new hot yoga (Birkram) studio in Fairfield. Its nice, clean, colorful, big, and lots of other good things. Go check it out:
http://fairfieldhotyoga.com/

2010-01-03T16:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the bag and ROO

2009-10-17T10:58:00.001-07:00

the bag is the un-paper bag. You can find the pattern on purlbee.com :) It was super quick to make. All the fabric is from Ikea!

I finished Roo and I made abag this morning!

2009-10-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Bag in upper left. Soon my little jacket will be off to Switzerland where winter has just started!

My Roo Coat

2009-09-19T14:41:00.001-07:00

This is my how my coat looks from the side (back piece) :D
Pretty neat!

New project

2009-09-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

This is the coat i am going to knit for my cousins daughter. I will make it in dark blue (as per request). Half a sleeve is already done.
I think once I am done I will make one for me ;-)
The pattern is from kate gilbert, the name of the coat is Roo.

more pics

2009-09-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

Almost done with my coat!

2009-08-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

How exciting. I tried on the coat I had been knitting for 3 months now. It's very warm. The only thing I still have to do is sew the last 2 petals on the hood (there are only 3 at the moment). I ran out of yarn, and I have been waiting for almost 2 weeks for my yarn emergency package from Canada now. :D

petals on the back

2009-08-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

Irish Soda Bread from Stephanies on Newburry

2009-07-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

4 cups of flour

1/4 lb butter

1/2 Tbs Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup currants

place flour, baking powder, baking soda salt and sugar into a bowl. Incorporate butter into flour until mixture represents cornmeal. In a separate bowl add eggs to the buttermilk. Whisk thoroughly then add to the flour mixture. Mix until all liquid is absorbed but do not overmix. The dough should not be smooth. Shape dough into 1 egg loaf or for mini scones scoop a 1 Tbs. of batter onto baking sheet. Score an X mark on top pf each loaf. Bake at preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 1 h.

the buttons for the coat

2009-07-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

the back is done

2009-07-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

This is how it should look when its done...

2009-07-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

I am knitting a coat

2009-06-09T18:26:00.000-07:00

this is what the back looks like. Where the weird plastic things are - there's going to be flower petals.

I finished my Noro socks!

2009-05-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Planned was to finish them on the plane - but DH said metal knitting needles on the plane is probably a bad idea. So During secutiy check I asked. Apparently even plastic knitting needles are " NOT OK"

cuff diagramm

2009-05-10T11:35:00.001-07:00

2009-05-09T16:00:00.001-07:00

2009-05-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

Horse hat

2009-05-06T16:29:00.001-07:00

It is freezing cold here. It was -21.5 C

2009-01-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

So I made hats for Ben and me.His is the dark one (slightly bigger). And he wore it already when he was removing the ice from our driveway. Now that is a good sign!

I went to NYC today. And everyone, everyone (women, men, children, embryos) wears handknitted earflap hats. Some with pom-pom, some with with braided things coming down from the flap. So I am trying to reverse engineere a hat and post it here. Wish me luck.

Which one is cooler?

2008-12-17T19:05:00.000-08:00

New hat - his and hers

2008-12-17T19:00:00.001-08:00

Ok. This was not my idea. Eliza from ravelry (the knitting community) made those exact hats. One is light blue with dark blue stars, and the other one uses the same colors but inverse. This is my hat, the "hers" - "his" is still under developement.
But I am already thinking about my next project. I want to make a skull hat. I have two patterns. Not sure which one to make though...

Finito

2008-11-28T12:27:00.000-08:00

Progress on my sweater

2008-11-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

Hey hey, one sleeve is done! 1 to go. And then I will stop knitting for a while. I hate my pink metal knitting needles. They "click" everytime I knit - I feel like an old grand-ma. Plus they are metal, really cold to touch in winter. :(

Cable sweater!

2008-11-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

I am back knitting. This is what I am currently working on. I love the sweater so much I spend all my free time knitting it. I am about 30% done, maybe I can finish it before new years? Then i have at least 3 months of wearing it. And no, I did not take this picture on a cow - this is the cowhide we brought back from Argentina! :D

crochet-ing again - Baby Booties

2008-11-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Ok. So I saw these really, really cool cowboy booties. Problem - they are not knitted. No, they are crochet. I haven't done anything in crochet since uhm... I tried to crochet a Bikini (which by the way turned out aweful). So.. I took out my orange Book from School and got started to re-learn HDC and SC (halg double crochet and slip stiches) :D
And here it is. Originally I wanted to make them for Skylar baby who lives in Texas. But I got so many requests, I have made 4 pairs so far!
And in case you want to make them too, instructions are from here:

http://hometown.aol.com/fourleafcl1064/page69.html

view from the ferry

2007-03-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

This is the inside :)

2007-03-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

My emergency bag

2007-03-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

It's official. I have an emergency bag now! In fact everybody at UBS in New York has an emergency bag now!! Wanna see what's inside? Check back tomorrow :)

Tarte Tatin

2006-10-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

Ok.. My brothers famous apple pie. While the pie is cooling I will quickly type up the recipe for you all. By the way, thank you Emma for the apples :)
Melt a little bit of confectionnairy sugar in a pie dish on the stove. Once the sugar is brown add lots of butter. About 125 g.
Once the whole soup is bubbling throw in the apple slices you previously peeled and cut. Then put a layer of puff pasty dough over the top - make some holes with a fork and slide in the oven.
At 200C or 400F for about 20-3o min - until the dough is all brown.
Then take out and quickly flip the dish onto the oven grid (please do over the sink as it will make a mess)

Ta ta.. tarte tatin.

Print your own picture card and send it anywhere in the world!

2006-06-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks Baba!

Use Code : Freecard

for your first card.

https://spc.swisspostnet.com/home_in.do

Kewl!

Preparing a luxurious dinner in Adliswil

2006-06-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hello!
We went back to Switzerland for a wedding. Philipp and Myriams wedding. We got there last Friday and it rained. Saturday (wedding day) rain in the morning.. but sunshine for the wedding. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday rain..
then I arrived in NY and it started raining here. In fact it hasn't stoped since I arrived. I even had to buy an umbrella. For those who know me there are 2 things I hate: gloves and umbrellas.

On Monday I took the ferry home. It was raining really hard. And for some reason there were a lot of people at the ferry terminal. Apparently the Lincoln tunnel (one of the main ways to get into New Jersey was closed). So there where hundreds of people waiting to buy a ferry ticket. Usually the guy who sells the tickets has nothing to do. Not so on Monday. The line went twice around the whole ferry terminal.. people begged me to sell them one ferry ticket. (I didn't have any) And the poor guy selling the tickets was completely freaked out. Only one person selling tickets :D When I got to the other side I thought that there would be no bus anyway, so I went into the Sheraton hotel to ask them to get me a cab. (still raining very hard).But then, oh luck.. a bus comes around the corner. I run with my umbrella in one hand, and my bag in the other to catch the bus. I step in a couple water lakes and I finally get to the bus. But the bus driver closes the doors and drives away!!!!
But: the bus behind him (who is out of services) sees me and opens the doors. Just for me! He turned on the lights and drove me home. He didn't even take my money! That is so cool! Only person in the bus. No annoying people. :D

I am a member of the Equinox gym since a couple of days (www.equinoxfitness.com). It's the gym for the gay and wanna be celebrities. The gym opened 7 years ago - but they still have the grand opening sign hanging outside with the balloons. I already met a model for FHM magazine, a wannabe rapper and the guy who gives my fave class: cardiokickboxing is a Marine. My friend Emily and I call him "the crazy dude". Because if you take his class you can feel your abs for the next 4 days. And I mean it in a bad way. ha ha.

Uh, I feel in writing moode. What else can I say? I know. Today was ladies lunch at work. Just women from the various credit teams. I thought we would rate all the guys in our team according to our rating scheme, C5 for the hotties, C9 for the not so hotties. But we talked about diversity. Interestingly one boss mentioned that diversity regading race, or sexual orientation doesn't guarantee that people will have different opinions (which is the whole goal of the diversity exercise). She continued to say that she for example as married white woman has a lot in common with her homosexual not married co-worker. So everybody was like, what? Who? Gay? I didn't know! Really? But then once back in our team we generously shared the gossip with our male collagues and speculations started. We like to bet on things but since we can't really go and ask we decided not to bet. So as you can imagine we had a fun afternoon...

Here a couple of websites I like: www.mobissimo.com for flights, www.fatwallet.com for online deals, www.flipclips.com for flipbooks

Klassenfreunde.ch

2006-04-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

connect with your old friends from school in Switzerland!

Statue of Liberty + Mami

2006-04-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

We took a boat tour around Manhattan yesterday. It was 30C warm!

A sign

2006-03-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I was all grumpy.. then I saw my slice of bread and it was kinda funny.. it said: BE HAPPY!
or no?

I know it's a little late for that picture

2006-02-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

but these are my christmas tree left overs. A real tree is really nice.
But then in january when you need to get rid of the tree and put it in a plastic bag (all by yourself) it's a pain.
I tried and the damn thing was really hard to get into a plastic bag! And then once it was in there i didn't really know if more
of the tree was in the bag or on the floor :D

Car wash! yeah yeah yeah!

2006-02-26T17:23:00.000-08:00

Splash car wash! My car was so dirty so we decided to have it washed. The car wash place was so cool they had 2 soap guns with which you could shoot soap at your own car. I swear I didn't even think of trying to aim at the car wash guys.
Anyway here you see me washing my car.
Best car wash place I have ever been to. It's far into Connecticut land in a little town called Norwalk. Ben and I checked out houses in that area this weekend.

my Valentines Flowers!

2006-02-26T17:16:00.000-08:00

These are the flowers I got from my husband for Valentines day! They are the most beautiful flowers! Red roses in a red sequin bag! :) I was so happy when I got them.
But then I noticed the little red bag had a hole. I could't put any water in it. Of course I tried but it just came pouring out of the hole. (who would have thought..). So I called the flower company and told them. By the way, it's a bad idea to try and call 1-800- flowers on valenties day. Luckily my timing was good and after an 1 hour gym work out somebody picked up the phone right when I was checking if someone was on the line :P
So they sent me another nice red bag with red roses. This time the bag had no hole but the flowers came delivered upside down. So basically they were not usable anymore. But combined I had the most beautiful valentines day bouquet. Thanks!

Today was a good day

2006-02-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

I got my business cards! Now I am official - at least I hope so.
It was very cold today. They were saying in the news that a big snow storm was coming.
I wonder how it is like to be on a ferry during a snow storm.. hmm
The whole week I was looking forward to today: Penne Bolognese in the canteen.
Then finally the big day arrived. I saw the Penne but no bolognese.. no meat sauce instead
tomato sauce with broccoli. !!!! I noticed there was broccoli in every single dish there.
Probably they needed to get rid of their inventories. So canteen = bad.
On Tuesday and Thursday they have an omelet station in the canteen in the morning.
There is always a huge line and you can choose what you want in you omelet. Of course
locals choose all kinds of stuff like pepper, cheese, sausages, chips and fries (just kidding hi hi)
But this is true: the breakfast buffet has fries and burger meet (the round meet things you put in
a burger), they have scrabled eggs (and scrambled egg whites for the "I am on a diet and can't eat egg yolks people")
Then they have a fruit station with all kinds of stuff and a bread station a toast station and most importantly a
bagel slicer station.

Baby boots I knitted

2006-02-09T20:19:00.000-08:00

It's really easy. Takes about 2hrs per boot. I made them out of Cashmere wool. If I was a baby I would like Cashmere :)
The shoe laces are functional - not just for decoration.
I made them for Ben's sister.

It's 8 pm

2006-02-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

Last picture of the day. Going home always feels special. Leaving the city and going back to my quiet "Edgewater".

Guess in which building I am working at

2006-02-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

NY here I come!

2006-02-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

The ferry ride takes about 7 minutes. First the ferry turns around and then full speed. They are going really fast.

On the ferry now

2006-02-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is the Hudson River. I wasn't allowed to take a picture of the ferry boat. For terrorist threat reasons.. I was told. (of course I didn't know and got yelled at...)

Ferry Terminal in Wee

2006-02-09T20:09:00.000-08:00

This is where I take the ferry every morning. On the right you can see a little waiting station (the round thing). I guess it's a good thing to have when it rains. But last week it did rain and it rained in. So it's not really helpfull :)
Please also note todays newspaper headline... :D

UBS In Wee

2006-02-09T20:07:00.000-08:00

UBS is in this blue building. Swatch is in there too. This is the reason why I can go on the ferry for free. It UBS "incentive" to get people out of Manhattan. And because these people have to go back in the evening the ferry is free all the time.

2006-02-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

My bus 158!

2006-02-09T20:04:00.000-08:00

This is the bus I take every morning for about 17min. It picks me up right outside our building and stops right by the ferry. Here I am in Weehaken already.

Good morning NY!

2006-02-09T20:02:00.000-08:00

View from Ferry Terminal in Weehawken

My average work day

2006-02-05T19:18:00.000-08:00

I usually get up at 6.15 am in the morning. I try to make it to the 7.15 bus and then I take the 7.30 ferry. On the ferry I usually talk with Nicole she is swiss too. This is my swiss german morning chat. Then at 7.38 I get on the bus on the other side. The bus drives right to UBS. When I don't sit right at a window I am always lost and I have no idea when to get out. I need to remember some landmarks so I know when to get off. So far I never over shoot but I got off too early twice last week. Well, that's not too bad. That way I get some fresh air at least :)

I have a huge NON-flat screen computer. It's funny because people in Europe always think of America as soo advanced. Not so!
At around 10 we have breakfast together. (for swiss people it's probably more lunch). They have burger meet, sausages, scrambled eggs bacon, all sorts of different toast, bagels. I always take a whole wheat sesame bagel. Then I put some margarine on it which everybody think is odd because you are supposed to put cream cheese on it. Oh well. Cheese at 10 am? I don't think so!

Then at 1 pm we usually go to get some lunch. We either go outside or underground through the cold zone. The cold zone is called cold zone because you don't really need a coat in winter (it' underground) but at some point when you enter Rockefeller plaza you go through a some doors which are connected to the outside - hence cold zone!

I usually have pizza or pasta or terriaky chicken. Then back to work and eat in front of your computer. At around 7pm I get out and back home.

First day!

2006-01-31T17:45:00.000-08:00

I think I am really really going to like my new job!
On my way home I missed 2 Ferry buses. :( It took me 1.5h to get home.
This is why: In the evening the bus makes a huge de-tour. It passes 50st
street and then goes on to 57th and then back though 49th street.
Because the bus is free the bus driver though I was just trying to sneak
a free ride up to 57th street. Which of course I was not. I just didn't know
where the bus stop on 49th street was - that's why I waited on 50st.
Oh well afer freezing to death and standing in the rain for 45min a Ferry
bus driver had pitty with me and stopped. He said he though I looked confused
and he explained me the whole thing.
Would have been even nicer if they had explained that on the timetable DOH!
The way to the office in the morning only took 40 min. door to door. Cool!

Ok stopping my report now because Bush is starting the State of the Union
speech. Ha ha now that I am a tax payer I need to see where the money is
wasted :)

UUaaah! First day

2006-01-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

Here the strange things: I have a "floating holiday". That is so people with certain religions can take a day off when they need. A the moon is crossing the sun holiday or a pre-summer holiday or a Alan Greenspan is leaving holiday. So basically everyone can take one day off whenever they want. (I guess I take my birthday?)
Then I have 2 personal days. I guess that is for going to the doctor and stuff..

Here the cool things: I got a culture card! For free entry to museums and operas and music stuff. How cool!

The stupid thing: I have to walk around with a huge badge with my picture all day!

My mom's Doppeldecker (Apple squares) recipe

2006-01-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

This is the best pie I have aver had.

You need for the dough:

600g flour
250g sugar
250g margarine
1-2 eggs
1 1/4 packets (15g) of baking powder
1 packet of vanilla sugar (in the US just use liquid vanilla flavor)
1.5 dl milk
1 pintch salt

Combine margarine and flour and mix. Then all other ingredients. Let dough rest for 2hrs.

Filling

8-10 apples peel and grate into small pieces
1 egg
1 cup of sugar ---> hey this is a swuss cup, so use 1/2 american cup :)
2 tbsp of bread crumbs ("Paniermehl")
cinnamon
2 tbsp finely grated nuts

Then take half of the dough and roll it out in a large black baking sheet. Layer filling over the top.
Then the tricky part:
Roll out the second part of the dough on a kitchen towel with lots of flour on it. Once rolled out to the same size of
the other layer (the one that sits under the apple layer) put some more flour over the just rolled out dough and roll it up.
Transfer the layer over to the pie and roll it out again. Voila.
You have one layer dough, one layer apple and again one layer dough lid.

Punch some venting holes with a fork. This used to be my favorite part as child!

Bake for 25 min at 200C

It's a beautiful day la la..

2006-01-17T08:51:00.000-08:00

I will get an offer from UBS today! So I am 99.99% sure I have a job! Finally.

That's a good reason to host a Fondue-Party this Saturday, isn't it? :)

Nikolaus Eierwaermer

2005-12-29T12:32:00.000-08:00

Instructions on how to make a Santa Eggwarmer can be found here:
http://www.apoplexy.de/Eierwaermer_Shop/index.html?strickanleitung_babyschuhe/strickanleitung_socken_stricken.htm

talk to a human

2005-12-29T12:08:00.000-08:00

This is a link you will find very useful if you live in the US.
It 's a cheat sheet to directly connect to a human when calling american companies.

http://www.paulenglish.com/ivr/

Progress report on gloves

2005-12-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

Uiii look at the sunset today!

2005-12-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

Out of my window! I brought my ibook to the apple genius bar today. My shift button didn't work anymore. I did a hardware check and also looked in the support database online. Nada.

The genius looked at me and smiled: You have the handicapped setting on! DOH! Took him 1 sec to figure it out.

Tonight I am going to a party in the westvillage. The bar is called: Lederhosen! Should be fun. I will take some pics. It's Ken's birthday. Ok I am off to the city.

If i don't post anything by tomorrow I got stuck in the public transit strike that is currently going on here.

Oh and this Toussant guy, he looks evil - doesn't he? Like a movie villain.. a dark voodoo priest.. Bloomberg was really pissed at him.

newest project: gloves for moi

2005-12-20T17:30:00.000-08:00

here is the link http://hobbiefrau.de/handarbeit/hand-art01.htm
if anyone wan't to join me knitting gloves. we make those with fingers of course. it's fun. join in. i will post a picture with my daily progress ha ha

My mini sock!

2005-12-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

I kind liked how it looked. I couldn't wait to put in online - that's why there is still a thread hanging out the sock :). Well I guess having way too much time helps to do such things too. Here are the instructions for any other stranded at home wives with no kids: ---> (hint hint Ursina)
http://www.teddys-handarbeiten.de/images/forumbilder/mimisocken.htm

So yesterday I got a call from UBS. Oh my, I have been waiting for that call for sooooo long. So what they said was they have 2 approved positions in Manhattan for next year. I need to go for another interview in the city this week. This is kinda where the problem starts.. this week is bad because there is a public transportation strike in NYC. No buses, no subway and no trains. You can only drive into the city by car if you have 4 passengers. It's a complete mess! Oh well.. if they call me for an interview I will just have to walk. This time I will take my running shoes and then change shoes just before I get there. I can take the ferry in - because the ferry is not on strike.

I got up at 8 am this morning just to see the traffic. And as far as my eyes went..(with binoculars) traffic jam!!!

On Sunday I went shopping. It was really cold. So when I got to the car with the shopping cart I was tempted to just leave the cart next to the car. "The hell" I thought, I am not bringing the cart back it's too cold. Then I heard my moms voice: "But F., if everybody would do that..." kinda the good angel and bad devil thing on your shoulders.. "but mom everybody is doing it ALREADY! Look" Dozens of shopping carts where standing around in the lot. It's so easy to adopt bad behavior. I brought the cart back, and I always will! Even if I am the only person bringing it back!

Last night

2005-12-15T10:38:00.000-08:00

At 1.30 am I woke up. Somebody was in the apartment. I heard steps.. I thought either Ben just came home (unlikely as he told me earlier he would stay in the hotel) or it's Santa. Of course I know Santa doesn't exist - but I thought maybe some criminal dressed up as Santa is in the apartment. A robber would't make so much noise!
So I took all my courage got up walked to the closed bedroom door and opened it. My heart was beating really fast. It wasn't Santa. It was a robber!

Just kidding. Ben had decided to come home. :) Ok, today I finished the Socks for my brother. I thought I have to finish them because they need to arrive in Swissy land before Christmas. Now I am looking for a new project.

There might be a public transportation strike in NYC tomorrow. That will be fun. Maybe I should rent a rick-shaw (no idea how to spell that) with a bike and offer my transportation services.

Christmas Tree -upside down!

2005-12-14T06:41:00.000-08:00

Check it out! This is our tree. We got it on Sunday and it was really cold when we picked it from the Christmas tree lot that usually is a parking lot. So once inside we realized how big the tree really was. It's even taller than Ben! I put the green pickle on the tree Robyn (last - following the old German tradition).
Can you see it on the pic? Of course our tree is upside down. . That way you don't need as much space and you are able to put presents under the tree. It's an old Swiss tradition to hang your tree from the ceiling upside down. http://www.hammacher.com/publish/72376.asp

I had a job interview 3 weeks ago and they told me they would get back to me in the middle of December. That means this week. I check my email every few hours and make sure the phone is charged... waiting... then yesterday the phone rang. A name I have never seen appeared on the phone. My immediate though.. the HR lady is calling me. But no, just another chilies call. (Our phone number is very similar to Chilis Restaurant so I get at least 1 Chilli call a day.) I am knitting socks for my brother. It was his Christmas wish. Last night I finished the tricky part of the sock - the heel. Now I am a sockxpert. :) A sock expert. So far I have knitted: 1 pair of socks, 1 pair of knee socks, a jacket, gloves (with fingers), 2 hats, a bikini. Time to get a job!

It's -9C today but sunny. Ben is working like crazy so I will probably have to drive up to his hotel where he is staying at to bring him a couple of suits for his presentations to come. I am really proud of him - he is doing an amazing job at work. He is not reading the blog so theoretically I could say whatever I wanted :)

crafty crafty

2005-12-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago I fell in love with the Louis Vuitton bracelet. The silver one JLo holds in fron of her face. With the LV charm. Well, it's too late to buy it since it's "at least last years" collection. And on ebay they only have ugly ripp offs. So i decided to make my jewellery line. ;) I designed my own bracelet and this is what it looks like.

Pizza ice cream

2005-12-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.konopizza.com/prodotti.htm

That's even worse than the american Corn Dogs. (Breaded and fried Hot Dogs)

Knitting FEVER!

2005-12-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

Three dozen of Austrian Grand-ma's knitted this huge bunny - located on a 5000 feet mountaintop in northern Italy. The beast is 100 feet long (60m) . Why pink? Because it was the cheapest color they could find.
Meanwhile grass is growing out of the rabbit so it has a green beard and chest. Twenty years from now not a lot of wool will be left. Check it out - until 2025!

Snow!

2005-12-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

It snowed today. It started at 4 am and just stopped. I had to go out at 9 am and park my car in a different lot. I have to do that every morning because I don't have a parking spot. (All the spots that belong to our building are rented!) So at night I park in the municipal lot until 9am and then I take Ben's spot.
So when I went out at 9am I had to dig through the snow to 1)find my car 2) take the snow off my car. Nightmare. Whenever I was done with one side the other side was covered in snow again!!!
No need to mention I don't have boots or the sorts.. Just high heels.. Oh well. I don't like winter boots. They are ugly. All of them.
There is a good thing about the snow too. Nobody was in the grocery store. I was one of a few customers. It was great - I could choose from all the veggies, nothing had been touched before! Amazing. Normally you can always see fingernail prints on all the produce. Not this morning!
Then when I was done shopping I wanted to take the shortcut back to our apartment. Well, it wasn't possible anymore. There was a huge pile of snow along the parking lot. I had to walk on the road with cars to get back home (sidewalks were full of snow too). And as I mentioned earlier: In high heels!

My brother the Zwerg

2005-12-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

This is my brother. Let's call him Tofu. Check it out. Pointy hats run in our family.
Had some fun photoshopping him a white beard.

Oh and check out http://www.StrangebutTrewe.com/knitGI.htm
There is a knitted digestive system. Very kool.

This is a Hersey Kiss

2005-12-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

It's chocolate and honestley I have never tried Hersey's chocolate.

Funny things you can read on american Products:
Hair dryer: Do not use while sleeping
Serving suggestion for frozen Pizza: Defrost
Pizza: Product will be hot after heating
On my chinese christmas lights: For indoor and outdoor use only
Children cough medicine: Do not drive car or operate heavy vehicle
On a chinese knife: keep out of children

My hat - the Hersey Kiss

2005-12-08T08:05:00.000-08:00

Hello hello. That was fast. The hat took only about 4hrs to make. And since I have 24 free hours a day. Peanuts! :) I went to Granny's Knitting Place to get the wool. The store is only open from 11-4. That's a hell of a work day. I should be talking. Anyways, I am pretty sure the "granny" doesn't read this blog so I can diss her. She looked like a witch. She was really old - but had a perfect black hair wig. She also had the mandatory witch big warts in her face. So I will wash my hood before i wear it..
She also wanted to sell me skin colored wool. Please, who wants to wear a flesh colored hat? It would look like one was bald (hairless) but she insited it was cool. Anyways. There it is. Looking for a new project for today now...
I thought I could wash my car but it's -6C. So that's not an option. Running isn't either caus I went yesterday for over 1h and my feet are not really happy about that.

Knitting a hat

2005-12-07T10:07:00.000-08:00

I would like to knit a pointy hersheys hat. I think it looks cool.
Which color shall I make it? I thought brown, black or orange or red.
Any suggestions? I will post a picture when I am done! Promise.

Turkey! from bens' parents window

2005-11-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

I saw them! This is a picture of a few wild turkeys. Ironically we saw them on thanks giving. No eating allowed, they are protected :) I always confused turkeys with the other animal that puts his head under the soil. hmm that thing that can run really fast. But this year I finally found out what I had been eating for years. Oh well.

Another thing I learned. Yesterday was black Friday. The day after thanks giving where stores have up to 60% discounts on all items. Wal mart opened at 5 am! Target at 6 am. (You only get the deals for a few hours). Of course there was a women badly injured because the crowed stepped over and on her on the way to the cheap merchandise. And this coming Monday is Silver Monday. That's the day when everybody returns from work and shops online. Apparently most online sales are done from work because of the better Internet connection. So on Monday the deals will be online.

On Thursday (the real Turkey day) was the parade in NYC. Macy's sponsors these huge balloons (so big a couple of people have to hold them, there is even a guy guiding the balloon holders!). They even have wind measuring things on the street lamps so the pointy lamps don’t damage the balloons. But this year a huge balloon knocked over a street lamp, which then fell on 2 people who got badly injured!

Milk - unhealthy?

2005-11-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

Please.. anyone heard about milk being not healthy?
I always thought it's good for your bones and cleans your blood.

Anyone? :(

Ben said my addiction to hot chocolate is not healthy.So I need to proof him otherwise.

2005-11-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday

2005-11-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

we had a pasta party.
I got a pickle (gurke) from Eric and Robyn. Apparently it's a tradition in Germany to put a pickle on your chirstmas tree.
It has to be the last thing you put on there and it's supposed to be good luck.
Well pickle of course means something else in german. So I explained that it means spot. And they were ahhh.. a "bimple".
So I just left it at that. ;)
So tonight is highwire at botanica. I don't think I can make it because I have been getting up at 6 am with Ben every morning.
8) this is how I look. The 2 DJ's look exactly like on the picture. Really funny.
Oh and yesterday I thought I clean a little. Ok, I was bored and had nothing else to do. So I "pledged". Pledge is the stuff americans use to clean wooden furniture. Well because it was dark I also sprayed some on the floor. I did't remember this morning so I did a full wipe out. Luckily i didn't bang my head on the mirror. I am sure it looked very funny.

I don't have much to say - rip a dvd

2005-11-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

I am pretty bored! yawn.
I ripped a few dvds. Oh for all the people who don't know how to do this, here a short tutorial for Mac users.

1. download Mac the Ripper
2. download Handbrake

Then put in a dvd and start mac the ripper. The software will remove all the encryption and put the whole movie on your harddrive. Takes about 20 min. Then rund handbrake to convert the movie into quicktime format. Open handbrake, select the just created folder (created by mac the ripper) and look for video_ts file. It just takes a quick scan. Then select the size, I usually select 700 MB so I can burn it on a disc and in case something happen to your original disk you always have a back up.
This takes about 8hrs. And then you are done! :)

The swiss halloween Party

2005-11-13T16:46:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give a short update. Last week I went to a swiss halloween party. It took place at Chelsea peers on a boat. The frying pan. The ship was really old and "halloweeny" http://www.fryingpan.com/ check it out.
And here is a picture of Anita and I. Since my decision to go was last minute I went as Asian Waitress. :) Not very innovative, I know..

Manhattan

2005-11-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

I went shopping with my cousin Anne-Sophie the other day.
To show you how extraordinary NY is here some things we saw:

There was a guy walking around with a Cat on his head.
Living cat - not dead cat!

There was also a guy selling knitted hats. And while he
was standing at his booth he knitted them too. I have never
seen a person knit so fast!

Newest trends in NY boutiques: a paper tube to put over
your head so your make up doesn't stain the clothes. Yes,
it does look ridiculous!

I wish I had taken a picture of the Cat guy though.

Otherwise not much news. Ah... yes.
I got lost on my way back from the job interview. A 45 min
drive ended up taking over 2.5hrs. I have no idea what I did
but normally the only bridge I have to cross is the GWB bridge.
Yesterday however I crossed 4 bridges and one tunnel! Oups!
And I got a parking ticket too. Today I wanted to go and pay it
but I couldn't. Edgewater Election day. So I thought while I am there I can
ask if I can vote too. But Swiss people can't vote. :( Even though I
live here and I am probably one of a few people speaking english
and not korean only!

Back

2005-11-04T12:21:00.000-08:00

ok, I can't hide, I am back from Switzerland.
It was great. I got lot's of chocolate "Kinderschokolade" and other stuff. Btw they finally replaced the kid on the Kinderschokolade. the guy with the brown hair and withe teeth. :)
I take a pic hold on.. New guy is on top. Which one do you like better?

Ok, here the big news: I have a real job interview on Monday! @ UBS. :D

Helloween ghosty

2005-11-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

Check it out! This is my handmade halloween ghosty. I got lots of candy and even went to get some more when I was running low. Funny: The kids only took Milky Way and Twix no one touched my Lindor-Kugeln. haha.. more for me!

Halloween

2005-11-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

Off so hobbits land

2005-10-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hobbits = from lord of the rings. Ben and I think Switzerland is like Hobbits-land.. people live at their own pace and completely ignore the rest of the worrld : Switzerland.

I'll be in Switzerland tomorrow, Wednesday in Paris and then back in Swissy for 1.5 weeks. Nice. Can't wait to eat a real Japonais from Migros. Hmm dessert!

But I have my new ibook, so I will keep you up to date. UBS lunch was great. I hope they find a little spot for me in their organization. They have a great corporate culture and very bright people.

Ohh.. storm is coming. We live so close by the river sometimes I can see the helicopter pilotes flying up and down the coast. They fly so close by our apartment I can swear the pilots eyes were brown. ha ha. Sometimes it's the traffic chopper, sometimes police, army (with 2 propellers one on top and one in the back) well I am sure I have seen them all.

By the way: Check out i-hacked.com they have cools hacks for e.g. Coke machines. I have no idea if it works..

Hello

2005-10-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

We went to the Cuban place..
I don't remember what I had for dinner but it was good.
Remember the American Express job interview? I got the job. But I didn't accept the offer because I found out yesterday that it was a temp and subcontracting position. Ha. Nice to tell me. And the best, i only found out because i asked a couple of unusual questions. Otherwise I would have started there not knowing that I was a sub!! Scam!!
So on Saturday this guy calls me and says he is excited about my resume and if I was interested in a position with Citibank. He didn't tell me what the job is but that it included "helping people". Weird. From the address I found out that the interview was at a hospital at 6pm. So I politely declined. :) Weird.
Tomorrow I have lunch with somebody from Risk management at UBS. Maybe I get a job there?

Where shall we go tonight?

2005-09-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Where shall we go tonight?

2005-09-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Kanye West and Switzerland

2005-09-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

True story:
A swiss friend of mine lives in a very nice appartment in Hoboken. When they ( Swiss family) moved in they went to their neigbor and introduced themselves and invited the new neighbor for a cup of coffee. It was a little weird though: The neighbor used a full size bus to go to work and he also had a big screen TV in his bus. Later they found out (through their nanny a huge Rap fan): Neigbor is Kanye West!

Kanye doesn't like G. Bush, listen to his new (Bush adjusted) hit Gold Digger:

http://www.archive.org/download/George_Bush_Doesnt_Like_Black_People
/GeorgeBushDoesntCareAboutBlackPeople.mp3

Caroline and NY Skyline..

2005-09-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

She made it! :) So that is Caroline - a future diplomat.
Caro and I went to Sharper Image and she bought an umbrella - well not just any umbrella, the worlds smallest full size umbrella. At the register the guy said: "And your total would be X dollars today". Caroline replied: "And tomorrow?" :) Then she says: "I have been to long with her" points in my direction, then: "I mean not WITH her" It was sooo funny..

I mean it's true. If your total today is X dollar, what if you decide to buy something else in that store on the same day? Your total wouldn't be X dollars but Y dollars. OR would the second purchase be free? Luckily we didn't ask the guy as I am sure he would have called security.

Newest fashion in NY (as seen in the Guess store with Caro today) : A bra with sequins and swarovski cristalls on under a 75 % unbuttoned blouse. Nice try guys!

Caroline is coming today

2005-09-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Her special someone - is studing at NYU, so she came to visit. Let's se if she makes it here ok by bus. The weather is nice so we might go to the mall outside and maybe to the big one inside. I'll post some pics.
What else.. ahh.. I have a recruiter interview tomorrow. It's Robert Half Financial and they are professional. I dealt with them in Toronto before. Talking about Toronot, Ben is going there tonight. A busisness trip and he'll be back on Thrusday. Hopefully. Ok, not I have to bring the place to a shine, Caro is coming! ;)

A glimps into my job hunt

2005-09-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

On Friday a lady called me regarding my resume (Monique!). Of course I tried to call her back. In fact i tried 3 times.. nobody picked up ever, no answering machine either. So this moning Monique calls me. "I don't know you, why did you call my number 3 times?" I explained and all of a sudden she remembered. So she switched hats and all of a sudden I was talking to a recruiter. (Still Baby crying in the back though). She made me wait for "a second" while I heard some kind of juice being poured into a glass and a "ahhhh". She then told me about this incredible job opportunity with this ever expanding company. I asked some questions on my own, like if this was a commission based position and how big the company was and what my job dutities would be. She replied she was only the recruiter and had no answers to my questions. But she urged me to come for an interview so she couls tell me more about the job. (More? She didn't know a damn thing on the phone already, so why??)

Different recruiter: I went to meet the lady 1 month ago. She made me wait for 2.5hrs in her office (which was in the Chrysler building, so it's ok.. :)). She said she would transfer my file as she only recruits temp staff. I called her back and emailed her at least 5 times since. I NEVER heard back from her. So yesterday I decided to call until I would get through. (American approach!) I called the receptionist, she told me my recruiter would take my call at 3. I called she said try again at 4. I did, she said call again at 5. I did, she picked up the phone - hung up on me and didn't pick up anymore!

Look this is the iPod case i made for Ben

2005-09-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

Please post any compliments you may have :). It's made out of black and red felt.

Another job interview

2005-09-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

So today I went to a job interview with American Express. A 155 year old company. The people were surprisingly young and dynamic though ;) They have great offices (not the typrical "worn out carpet, old non-flat computers and super large doors so their biggest employes get in too" american office). I was thrilled!I took the ferry over to Manhattan. It just takes 12 min. to cross the Hudson river. Unfortunately there was a traffic jam on the way to the ferry terminal. So I parked 10min away from the ferry. And I had to walk in high heels across a construction area. (autsch!) My black shoes were covered in dust and on the boat I realized I had forgotten my resume and the job description. Well the job description was stupid anyways... e.g. "Be able to demonstrate ten key skills with speed and accuracy." What does that mean? I don't think I have ten skills with speed an accuracy.Well, luckyli my fellow sufferer ("Leidensgenosse") Ursina explained to me that I needed to be able to describe my ten key skills with speed and not ten speed skills. Thank you Ursina!Too bad they closed the outside pool for this year. There is a day called Labor day, after labor day the summer is officiallly over. And because the summer is officialy over - you can't swimm outside anymore. No matter it has been 30 C every single day since the summer is over. Another big no-no is white clothes. Summer is over and in winter people wear beige!
So today I went to a job interview with American Express. A 155 year old company. The people were surprisingly young and dynamic though ;) They have great offices (not the typical "worn out carpet, old non-flat computers and super large doors so their biggest employees get in too" american office). I was thrilled!

I took the ferry over to Manhattan. It just takes 12 min. to cross the Hudson river. Unfortunately there was a traffic jam on the way to the ferry terminal. So I parked 10min away from the ferry. And I had to walk in high heels across a construction area. (autsch!) My black shoes were covered in dust and on the boat I realized I had forgotten my resume and the job description. Well the job description was stupid anyways... e.g. "Be able to demonstrate ten key skills with speed and accuracy." What does that mean? I don't think I have ten skills with speed an accuracy.

Well, luckily my fellow sufferer ("Leidensgenosse") Ursina explained to me that I needed to be able to describe my ten key skills with speed and not ten speed skills. Thank you Ursina!

Too bad they closed the outside pool for this year. There is a day called Labor day, after labor day the summer is officially over. And because the summer is officially over - you can't swim outside anymore. No matter it has been 30 C every single day since the summer is over. Another big no-no is white clothes. Summer is over and in winter people wear beige!

Good morning

2005-09-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

Look Mami,
here is a picture of the CH sticker you sent me :) Ben and I had the car washed just to take the picture. Unfortunately we got stuck in the car wash and the "stop" "go backwards" and "go forward" signal all flashed at once. There was water splashing everywhere and the car was soaked in soap foam and we didn't move one millimeter for minutes. That was fun - because I wasn't alone in the car! Yesterday we went to Chinatown. Hey Baba - I saw the Pomelofruit! It's about as big as a Honigmelone. The ones the sold in Chinatown were still green, I don't know if that's their final color or not.
And then we went to the Apple store and got an Ipod nano. Wow, 2 days ago I thought the Mac mini was the coolest thing on earth - now it's the most old
fashioned thing I can think of. Stay tuned for the new nano pic! I am off the the bookstore, I need a book about Resume writing as I am still unsuccessfull :(

Oh Katrina

2005-09-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of pictures somebody took of Katrina. I got the pix from Tanya (I never know how to spell her name :( )

Waiting for the hurricain

2005-09-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

so apparently Ophelia is passing the NJ shore tonight or so.
In order to be prepared I bought 10 gallons of water (under our bed) and an LED flashlight and body heat reflecting aluminium blankets at Target. I think it's the same ones you get after a marathon.
The led flashlight is cool. The bulb will last for 11 years if used without interruption. With 2 batteries you can light for more than 300hrs! Wow!
All set up now, Ophelia we are ready!
I will go to the Swiss Expat event on Tuesday
http://expatswiss.meetup.com/3/ should be fun. They have meet ups for really everything.. check it out. Oh and if you like art (photography, jewellery etc.) check this out too http://www.22bumblebees.com/ it's Illarias boyfriends website. And yes, that on the picture is him.

Cliff Couple

2005-09-16T06:41:00.000-07:00

Couple hanging out on the Cliff in Block Island..

Olivier

2005-09-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

The house we stayed at had a full glass front.. nice! The house is called Olivier just in case you want to go there too :)
http://www.blockisland.com/olivier/

Cliff

2005-09-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

On our moped tour we stopped at this beautiful spot Eric had shown us 3 years ago... On the bottom of the pic you can see the stairs leading all the way down to the water. We were too lazy to go down - so just enjoy the nice picture from the top he he

2005-09-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

As we finally made it to BI we rented a moped to tour the island. I don't know how big the island is - but I think we toured it a couple times that afternoon :)

2005-09-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

This is me on the ferry. It was pretty cold. We had to get up very early to catch the 10.30 am ferry. Mapquest said it takes 4.5h from our apartment to Point Judith - it took Ben less than 3 hours (including breakfast break at - of course - McDonalds)

Blcok Island

2005-09-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

This is Point Judit RI (Rhode Island) on the mainland. On the right you can see the "slow" ferry. On the slow ferry it takes about 1 h to get to Block Island, on the high speed one 30 min.

Movies we like

2005-09-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ben's alltime fave is : Lost in Translation he doesn't like the Cell anymore.
I liked the Che movie: A motorcycles diaries
and since you like Kevin Spacy, have you seen K pAx? I loved it.

The other movies we got (not yet watched): Team America, world police
Millennium Mambo, Maria full of Grace (drug trafficing movie), Criminal, then I choose: Remember me, my love.
Oh, we also have The manchurian candidate, cool movie.
I am also desperately waiting for The march of the penguins to come out. That is supposed to be a great child-friendly movie. :)

Where shall we go tonight?
	Arthurs (Port Imperial)
	Sabor (Cuban Restaurant in Edgewater)
	A cool Restaurant in Hoboken
	Movies

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