Do they have cats there?

Loots!
Originally uploaded by hellomizk

That was the most entertaining question I was asked while we were visiting friends and family back in the US last week. "Do they have cats there?"

It will probably take a couple entries to get through all the fun things about our trip and I need Mr K to upload his photos for some things, so I'll start with what I have photographic evidence of - our shoppings! This is mainly my loots - Mr K also got several DVDs and Wii games and things of that nature.

The day after we arrived, we hit Best Buy - Mr K was beyond thrilled. Among the gems from that trip are Veronica Mars Season 3 and Ren and Stimpy on DVD! I also got Cooking Mama 2 for my little Nintendo DS and it is the funniest little game. A few days after the initial Best Buy trip, we had to return after Miz J showed us two episodes of Flight of the Conchords and we were completely hooked.

Another important stop - the grocery store. I got the giggles, standing in an aisle of canned goods bigger than my whole grocery here. I picked up random dry goods like taco seasoning that isn't all "weird and Swiss" (no offense to our local buddies) and onion soup mix for onion soup dip - trashy comfort snack. I found bizarre flavors of Jello and I stocked up on a few spices I was missing - namely Old Bay and Chipotle Chili as well as a big emergency back-up chili powder.

Next up - Borders! I was good and only got 3 new books but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have grabbed a few more. I also picked up, of course, a ton of new cooking magazines.

Last stop of interest: art supply shopping! I got plenty of watercolor paper, since I've been running through it pretty quickly recently. Also got some crazy new paper called "Yupo" that I have never heard of - it says it is good for watercolor, but has the texture of a really smooth bristol - I'm interested to try it out. I also got a box of cakes of my favorite brand of watercolor - opaque instead of the transparent I use now.

In upcoming entries I'll babble about:

• Seeing friends and family again (including my lil bitty niece)
• Food, of course (I'm looking at you, FT in Bern...)
• Western Sizzlin' (now I'm looking at Mr K)
• Visiting my old college
  
• Visiting my old place-of-employment-during-college

Post-link-including note: When I added the links of the pictures of Best Buy and Borders I was blown away again by how huge they are. To any non-US types reading this, Best Buy is all electronics, dvds, and cds. Borders is a massive bookstore.

Shoes....

Happy Boot Year
Originally uploaded by hellomizk

Afternoon, all! I was goofing around on Picnik trying to make my boring boot photo just a bit more entertaining. If you haven't played with Picnik yet, I recommend it - you have to pay for the really cool Photoshop-like stuff but plenty of fun little photo editing toys are free.

So why the boots? Well most of you who know me know I'm not exactly the sensible shoes type. Apparently the threat of two meters of snow is enough to change a girl's mind because the festive boots you see in the picture are now all mine! Now, before you get all excited, we don't have two meters of snow here - we don't have an inch of snow here. We are spending New Years Eve at our friend's cousin's wife's mother's chalet! There will be seven of us total and Mr K and I are so excited! I don't think I've ever seen more than a foot of snow in one place before.

In preparation for the trip, Dani took us shopping on Thursday night. We both got new jackets and snow pants and gloves and what is easily the most expensive, least sexy undergarments either of us has ever owned. We both have long sleeved undershirts and long pants for under our snow pants and jackets. I also got my megaboots. And megasocks. Once the cashier rang everything up, I paid and then with Dani's help lifted Mr K's unconscious body off the floor of the store and carried him home. Through the skillful application of bourbon and beer, I think we've put the worst behind us and he's going to pull through - until the credit card bill arrives next month! (The links are similar to what we got but not identical - ours were all on sale!)

Aaaaanway, all goofiness aside, I think we are now officially prepared to deal with mountains and piles of snow. We're leaving tomorrow morning and coming back on Tuesday or so. Mr K is hoping to make another time lapse movie, so keep your fingers crossed!

One more side note: thanks so much to our family for putting up with the time and expense involved in making sure our Christmas presents got here along with various American drinks and snacks we've missed. I now have more brown sugar and corn bread and canned green chilies than I could ever hope for! Thanks for the wonderful gifts and we'll see you soon!

Random things I'm wondering while cooking chili

Hello to those of you who live in Switzerland - I have some questions. As I stood in my kitchen, making Cincinnati Chili and listening to Ladytron, I started thinking about my typical meals and that led me to wonder about Switzerland. If you have a second, please comment and fill me in! What is a typical breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Which meal is the biggest meal of the day? Do most people cook or eat out? I absolutely love to cook and am looking forward to all the new foods I can try and all the fresh foods we can eat.

I do my grocery shopping at a big big big grocery that is about two blocks from our house. I walk and pick up groceries about every other day, but most people around here drive and buy groceries once a week or so. Most people also eat out very frequently - we used to eat out two to three times a week, but we've cut down on that - too fattening! I try to plan out a menu for the full week on Sunday or Monday, leaving one day empty for leftovers and going out. I started planning the menu out in advance because when you buy fresh herbs around here, you get a big bundle of them - way too much for one meal. If I have a meal one day that calls for fresh basil or something, I know I need to find at least once more meal that also calls for it, or it doesn't get used! We have a farmer's market near the house every Sunday during the summer so thats when I stock up on yummy farm produce and fresh breads - the tomatoes from the grocery store taste like sand and water. Yuck!

For breakfast, my husband is a huge fan of breakfast cereal. In fact, before we met, I'm pretty sure that's what he ate for most meals! I like toast and fruit and eggs. Eggs are one of my favorite foods ever and I'm happy to eat them at any meal. For lunch, my husband goes out to eat and I usually have salad or leftover dinner from the night before or a frozen entree (blech!).

Anyway, thats it for food-related posting right now. Have fun!