Welcome to the family Megan!

I (Andrew) wasn't going to start mentioning birthdays on this blog, because then I'd be blogging far more than I'd like to (I'm pretty sure I already do). But this one's special. A zeroeth birthday.

Just a couple of hours ago, my sister Diana brought our latest little niece into this world. Congratulations Diana, Clarence & kids!! We thank the LORD for a healthy delivery; may He give mother, child and family strength during this exciting but busy time.

Ok maybe not "little" niece. She's already 10 lbs and growing. I believe she's the 13th "reason" Carrie and I are aunt and uncle. It can be easy to lose count when you're a guy. Some facts just stick better, like DOS commands from 15 years ago or Pi to a few dozen decimal places. But not directions. Or stuff about cooking. Or how many kids my siblings have; just when I think I have it down, here comes another, at which point I try to remember whether I knew the particular sister was expecting. HAHA just kidding dears! (Or am I...?)

Office space

What happens when I (Andrew) am slightly bored and I should either do the dishes or make the 4.5 lbs of chocolate sitting in the fridge do something useful? See for yourself...


Now THOSE are chocolate letters. Not like those ones you get from Oma or Tante or Mom at your annual Sinter Klaas shindig... you know, the ones where you just know you've been gypped if your name starts with "I" and your sibling's name starts with an "M" -- no matter how many grams the packaging company typed on the side of the box!

After a childish attempt at chocolate creativity, I adorn my humble office with just enough energy food to last me through the afternoon. And then I get back to work. With my trusty Sylvester-and-Tweety mouse pad. Which by the way is 12 years old... almost half my lifetime!! (cough, cough)


And yes, those dishes will get done.

Snow at last

We brought some winter stuff to Geneva just in case, but for a while it looked as though those items weren't going to be of any use. Well, half an inch of fluffy stuff outside says otherwise! Or maybe a little more.

The shots below are from our west-facing windows. This is primarily because our apartment has no other windows. Notice the overpass a ways down the road. Notice also the tram parked there in the second picture. Until recently, when we wanted to get somewhere fast we would walk over to this conveniently nearby transit stop to take the tram. Then we would poke the ticket-dispensing machine for a bit whilst locals snickered at our ignorance. Then we would walk to wherever we had planned to go but were by now late for. NOT ANY MORE!! No longer do the machines mock us with their silence and their metalness and their not giving tickets... we have since become their masters.

But I digress.

No sign of winter...


What's this now? Some flakes?

Half a day later.

Well it snowed all night... we kind of thought there should be more snow.

Oh well, snow on the ground and sun in the sky (yes there is a hint of sun if you look closely), that's what winter should be all about!

All right, so we won't be building any igloos or snowmen, but snow beats rain hands down.

Where we live

Since most of our faithful readers have no doubt marked the date on their calendars when they intend to visit us, I (Andrew) thought it fitting to show you where we live. Hey, Switzerland is small, but not THAT small... and I may be tall, but not THAT tall. Actually I made up a little map and didn't like the idea of all that wasted time if I didn't use it somewhere. So, lucky are you who lay your eyes upon it...



Zooming in a little further, here is most of Geneva, with our place at the green marker. The big body of water is Lake Geneva (Lac Léman en français), with the Rhone River as its tail. The airport is visible at the top left. (Don't forget you can always click on an image for a better view.)



And a little closer. The WTO complex is circled in red, so now you know how arduous Carrie's commute to work is (500 metres as the crow flies).



And just now I found a great site that will no doubt take up a few more hours of my life: Wikimapia. In the same spirit as Wikipedia, anyone can contribute by selecting almost any area of the Google globe and naming or describing it (e.g., landmarks, buildings, parks, monuments). To date, over 2 million places have been marked.

Thanks to Wikimapia, I'm able to add the interactive map below, with our apartment building right in the centre. We're on the 5th floor looking west.



Well, that's close enough. Perhaps soon we'll post interior pics... there seems to be some demand for those.