Odds and ends

There are many different things rattling around in my brain without a particular unifying theme, so I'll just tackle them one by one. It was a busy week.

1. Sure enough, I got zapped for running a red. I missed it by six tenths of a second. The cost was indeed 250 francs. To add insult to injury, Stace got tagged for speeding the day before that. Total pain: 370 Swiss francs, about $310. Keep those pledges coming!!

2. Here were some of my evenings last week: Monday, Stace and I rode a train to the top of a mountain outside Zurich to eat fondue. Wednesday, I had a work-related dinner at the home of a coworker. Thursday, I rode a train to the top of a mountain outside Zug to eat fondue. It was a rough week.

3. As I mentioned earlier, Stace is driving to Germany tomorrow to do some shopping. I decided to take the kids to northeastern Switzerland rather than to the Italian part. We're going to take a train through the mountains, visit a monastery that's been around for a few hundred years, and see a few lakes.

4. Santa Claus is a little different in Switzerland. On Friday night, the kids left their shoes outside, and when they woke up on Saturday morning, their shoes were filled with candy. That's a Swiss thing. In another Swiss thing, on Saturday night, the kids took a walk through the woods to visit "Sammi Claus," whose job it was to praise the kids for things they had done well and to give them advice for the future. Through some myesterious means, Sammi Claus knew that one thing for Lindsey to work on was listening to her parents.

5. Monday is a Swiss holiday. Most of the Swiss holidays have something or other to do with Mary, at least in the Catholic cantons, of which Canton Zug is one. Tomorrow's holiday is to celebrate the immaculate conception. This partly makes up for the fact that I had to work on Thanksgiving.

6. Much to my annoyance, Stace has started checking in on this blog from time to time. That means we all need to be careful in what we say, because there's a slight chance that she'll figure out things that we don't want her to know about. Just keep that in mind when you leave your comments. I think I lulled her into complacency by not posting anything for a few days, so she probably won't check in for a while, but the risk does exist.