Urtenen Part 1

A few shots of the village. I love all the old farmhouses. For those of you who are wondering- yes they are still active farms.
Yes, farmhouses really are attached to the barn.
Drive up haylofts...


If you thought the bells were just for cows...

Thuner See and Schloss Schadau

This is Schadau Park on the banks of the Thuner See (Lake Thun) and Schloss Schadau (Schadau Castle). We went there the afternoon of the day I arrived in Switzerland.


Hard to make out, but that's Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau (names of the mountains) in the distance.

Kathi and Helen

After walking around a bit we stopped for a drink at the restaurant in the castle.

Snowpocalypse

As you have probably heard, DC was hit with another huge snowstorm this weekend. It's actually still snowing, but the heaviest is gone by (if the weatherman can be trusted, which he can't). This one was even bigger than the Dec. snowstorm. Ellin's friend Walter wrote this song, which I think is great and exactly the attitude around here over the past week. Below I have attached some photo's of the snow, primarily digging out my car this morning.

SNOWPOCALYPSE
Bailey/Johnson
(to the tune of Metallica's MASTER OF PUPPETS)

Atmospheric chill
A peaceful calm to kill
Something's brewing in the ocean
A thousand miles away
Closer day by day
Mother Nature's deadly potion

Falling from the sky
No time to question why
Media hypes the lie
Shoveling till we die

Nature cryptic
Snowpocalyptic
A winter septic
Snowpocalyptic

Snowpocalypse calling, time to make haste
Inches of white piled up to your waist
In a prison of crystal you're soon encased
Snowpocalypse coming, no time to waste

Snowpocalyptic

Snow Storm

Last weekend we had a big snowstorm here in the DC area. We got a little over 2 feet of snow here at my place. It's a lot of snow for this area, so it took a while for everything to get plowed. As a result we were snowed in Saturday during the worst of the storm. Sunday and Monday some roads were plowed, but there was no guarantee. Here's a few photos I took from my balcony during the storm (I had a little visitor) and a couple shots of my car on Saturday afternoon. It took me an hour and a half to dig my car out when it was all done on Sunday! Fun times :)

A teaser...

Update on my new place:

I closed on my new place on Thursday. Settlement was supposed to be on Tuesday but it had to be delayed. I am so glad that the whole thing is finally done. It ended up being such a huge hassle trying to get the seller to do the things he agreed to do on the inspection notice. But it's all over and the place is mine now!

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I've started painting this weekend since I need to have the spare room done before I move all my stuff in. It's fun to pick out colors but it's also really difficult. I tested a couple shades of yellow and decided they were all too dark, so I bought a much lighter shade than I had originally been thinking and it looked good on the first wall. Now that the first coat is on all the walls- it seems very bright. Hopefully once the white trim is done and the furniture is moved in it will seem less like looking directly at the sun on a clear day.

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Other stuff:

After my last post I realized the event I forgot to mention was my cousins wedding! Sorry Brian and Jen!!! I have some pictures from the wedding to post (like everything else- someday in the future). I drove up to New Jersey for their wedding and had a great time seeing them as well as my Aunt Doris and Uncle Jim (Brian's parents) and my cousin Andrea who I hadn't seen in a long time. But I just have to ask one thing. What is it with the East coast and toll roads? Don't we already pay taxes for the upkeep of the roads??? It seriously cost me almost $30 in tolls round trip (for the non-east coasters, it's a 3 hour drive from here to NJ).

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Since several people asked when I was going to post photos from Balloon Fiesta, here are a few teasers until I have time to look through all the photos I took. These are in no particular order.