Quick quiz

I looked at a couple of houses in Lakeville while I was there last week. We're not ready to buy yet, but I wanted to get a sense of the market. One of the houses has a six-car garage. When Stace saw the flyer that I'd brought back with me, she looked at it and asked, "Why would anyone want a six-car garage?"

Dear readers, I consider the answer to that question to be obvious. There's only one right answer, but I'm curious as to what you all think. What's the answer? You can leave your answer in the "comments" section or shoot me an email. I'll tell you the right answer in a couple of days. The winner will receive either an all-expenses paid trip to Switzerland or a Swiss chocolate bar.

The sweet silence of success

My time in Minnesota was a huge success in at least one respect: there's no change jangling around in my pocket. I brought over with me a huge pile of American coins that Stace had recklessly accumulated over the summer, and I managed to spend every last penny while I was here.

It was pretty scary this morning. I had 48 cents in my pocket, and I needed to buy a newspaper that cost 50 cents. If I had to break a dollar bill, it would mean two extra quarters in my pocket along with the 48 cents that I already had. Disaster was looming. It was with considerable trepidation that I approached the counter this morning looking for one of those "take a penny, leave a penny" trays. I looked on the left side of the counter, and my heart sank--there was a tray, but it was empty. Resigned to defeat, I happened to glance at the right side of the counter, and hope was renewed. There was a tray, and it was full of pennies. I happily grabbed two pennies, gave the cashier my other three pennies, two dimes, and one quarter, and walked away with my newspaper in my hand and no coins in my pocket.

I can now head to the airport this afternoon satisfied that once again, all the hassle of flying across the ocean and putting up with the miserable Minnesota weather was worth it. My pockets are light.

Ethan Wood, human pincushion

For those of you interested in following every insigificant little detail of my life (actually, there's no one doing that, which is why I'm not on Facebook), here's a blow-by-blow account of all the needles I've had stuck in me over the past two days.

1. Tetanus shot, left shoulder
2. Flu shot, right shoulder
3. Blood draw (for my annual physical), right arm
4. Platelets sucked out of me by the Red Cross, left arm
5. The stuff that's left over in my blood after they filter out the platelets and put the rest back into me, right arm
6. My weekly shot, left thigh

In other news, it took me a half hour to drive from Bloomington to Eagan this afternoon because of the snow here in the Twin Cities. I can't move back here. I just can't.

Reality smack

I'm in Minnesota right now. This morning, it was about 15 degrees and windy. I walked outside and thought, "Man, it's cold." Then I realized that 15 degrees is about as cold as it ever gets in Switzerland, but in Minnesota, the temperature can still drop by 40 degrees or more from where it was this morning.

And we're moving back here. Why, exactly?

Life in Switzerland

You look at this picture and you think that this guy is fixing the traffic light, right? Nope. He's polishing it. Try to recall the last time you saw a maintenance worker in the U.S. polishing the traffic lights.

It'll get ugly

Here are a couple of random observations from life these days:

1. I'm a week overdue for a haircut. I'm going to be in Minnesota in a week and a half, so I'm going to wait until I'm there. I can save about $750 by getting my hair cut there, and the person cutting my hair will actually speak English. The downside is that I'm going to look something like Bigfoot until I can get it done.

2. Our car is getting serviced today, and the shop gave us a loaner car. Imagine my surprise when I started the ignition and tried to drive away only to have the motor die. It took me a moment to realize that they'd given me a stick shift. Luckily, I know how to drive a stick shift, but there are plenty of Americans who don't. It's still the norm in Europe, and it's just assumed that everyone here can drive one.

3. I put down a deposit for Tanner and me to go to Egypt in February. It will be the most foreign place I've ever visited. In contrast to our usual go-it-alone approach to vacations (other than cruises), we'll be part of a very organized tour. I don't want to try to figure out Egypt by myself. Let's hope that things can stay relatively stable in Cairo.