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August 21, 2007
From the Didn't-Think-of-That Department
There are several power sources I could image for an artificial arm, but a rocket? Check it out:Military tests rocket-powered bionic arm
Posted by pgutwin at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2007
Careful About The Facts
Andrew Sullivan noted the passing of the Weekly World News in In Praise of Scoops on Heaven, Hell and, Yes, God - New York Times.
My favorite quote: "Don't fact check your way out of a good story".
Posted by pgutwin at 5:58 PM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2007
A Higher Beer
I have been to Davos several times, but never had Monsteiner beer while I was there. When Becca and I were visiting Tim last, we were in the store picking up some things for our train trip to Breig, and I grabbed a couple of bottles of Monsteiner beer for the trip. I didn't drink those beers on the train, nor any other time while in Switzerland, but brought them home and finally had one last night.
I have good news to report: The beer is excellent. I'm not sure it's quite up to it's hype, but it's very good. However, you'll have to invest in a trip to Davos to sample the beer. Perhaps not worth the trip in itself, it's something to look forward to if you're headed that way.
Posted by pgutwin at 2:50 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2007
Becca's Excellent Adventure
I've been busy. I was cleaning up my PC this morning, and found a couple of pictures I was preparing for a post about the trip Becca and I made to Switzerland in May and realized that I never really found the time to write about that trip. 
More's the pity - a good time was had by all, despite a few difficulties.
I don't think a detailed enumeration of our activities would be useful here - the interesting part was the journey. We arrive in Zürich as expected. Well, sort of - Becca was bringing my "vacation" clothes with her in a separate suitcase, which of course didn't arrive with her. But she and her cartage did arrive safely. So off we went to Tim's place in Davos. Our next major event was a hike which got washed out - we decided to take a day trip over to St. Moritz. This proved to be both more and less than we expected. Less because St. Moritz was a virtual ghost town due to it being between seasons with most of the shops/restaurants closed. More because we landed at the Steffani hotel restaurant for lunch where many locals were hanging out. Our waiter had a personality of epic proportions, and we quickly became a part of the local scene, although more as a pawn of our waiter, but enjoyable none the less.
It was here that I had a risotto that practically made me cry it was so beautiful. Thinking of the smell and flavor of that dish instantly transports me back to the Steffani. What a treat. Shortly after this adventure we bid Tim a due and continued on our own. Our planned bike trip in the Rhone valley was (again) washed out. We revised our travel plan to go to Zürich where we discovered the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe: Hiltl. I loved the place because the food was so good, and insisted we eat there for two consecutive dinner meals. To Becca's chagrin, we had the same waiter both times. I thought this was a boon though.
We had a wonderful bike ride along the shores of Lake Geneva which I could easily write about for quite a while. Suffice to say it was an almost perfect day. Traveling in a foreign country is somewhat stressful, and I think this was one of two days during the entire trip that both Becca and I were completely relaxed.
We ended our Swiss holiday in Basel, my personal favorite city in Switzerland. I'm not exactly sure why I like it so much, but it just seems like home. We went to the Kunstmuseum Basel on Sunday, our last day of vacation, and this was the other day I felt we finally relaxed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Becca was as interested in the superb collection there as I was. We had lunch in the courtyard cafe at the museum (another memorable meal for me), and then a relaxing stroll along the Rhine river.
There were a few difficult moments - apparently Becca was daunted by the volume of cheese in the typical Swiss diet. There were other communication issues, but all in, we had a good time, and I can't wait until Becca takes me on an excellent adventure.
Posted by pgutwin at 8:36 AM | Comments (1)