Zurich Marathoners and Friends

While traveling, I always take a moment to admire the local attire. This woman in the blue top was wearing an outfit that looked as though she had pooped in her diaper, the cloth hung down between her legs. What fashion!

Walking back from the Marathon, we came across this fountain peppered with tulips, tulips everywhere!


Along Lake Zurich in 75 degree weather! Ah, spring in Zurich!

Do you see the man running with the Ricola pipe?

Apple Strudel - yes, it was as magnificent as it looked!

Stroll through Winterthur

Pablo and I strolled through Winterthur this afternoon and admired the Swiss' love for recycling and standards.







Ok, not quite RAW, but definately a delicacy. We snacked on crepes while strolling the pedestrian walk.

A gorgeous view of Winterthur from a high perch - the snowy mountains in the distance.

Macaroni and Cheese with true Appenzel Cheese in Appenzel, Switzerland. Ah, so delicious!

Springtime in Switzerland?

Paul arrived yesterday and i joined him today to spend the weekend together in Zurich. Silly me didn't bring my coat, since the forecast showed 65-70, I thought a fleece would do.

The Courtyard Marriott is located in the Northern part of Zurich, so I'm a short train ride from downtown Zurich. It's not worth the hastle trying to get into town during the day, so I'll wait until Paul finishes up at the office and we can venture there together for dinner. Most Courtyards in Europe provide breakfast, however this one does not. With plans to stay in Zurich until May 7th, this didn't sit so well. I think we're off to a new hotel tomorrow.

I explored this part of town today, took in some fruit shopping at the local Migros grocery store. Mom, I'm sure you'll appreciate this. Now this is a chocolate aisle!


Of course, everywhere you go, there's a McDonald's. This one is housed in the same building as Migros. Being in the real estate market, it's definately interesting to see how their signs are all the same size, but posted on the side of the building instead of a monument. It's a little too much, isn't it?

For about 30 minutes in the afternoon, I resigned myself to a tree stump to people watch while I ate my Tiramisu.

Could you tell how delicious it was?

On the short little walk from the hotel to the downtown area, I noticed that their children's playgrounds are not covered so you can't see in. In fact, they are decorated with cloth that creates these cute shapes!

Later in the afternoon, I ventured to Schaffhausen via train to visit Pablo at his office on the Rhine River. It was a short walk from the train station to his office and beautiful, since it's spring and the walk was along the Rhine. I snapped this beauty of a wild tulip next to a one lane car bridge.

Pablo and I stayed in Schaffhausen for the evening and had a tour of his boss' new home right in the center of town. What a gorgeous and spacious place! There's even a pool in the back! We walked to dinner and enjoyed dessert at a local gelaterie in town. His 8 year old daughter delighted us, "What was your favorite part of the day?" she asked me. I said "Spending the evening with you."

Tough Life

ACTION
Ah - rendezvouing for the weekend. I'm in Zurich, Switzerland for the weekend spending time with Pablo. He arrived yesterday and I came in this morning. It's officially 11am here, but 5am in Atlanta - I usually fast on European flights so that my stomach can catch up with me, but since Pablo ate at Mamma Mia last night and detailed his homemade pasta, I've had a psychological craving. Why do I have such a love for homemade pasta? It must be comforting to me, especially with the 50 degree weather. Cool temperatures make me want to stock up on carbs I guess. I don't know the routine here, is it going to be busy because it's Friday at lunchtime? My stomach isn't growling, but just thinking about pasta makes my mouth water.

I checked the weather and it was suppossed to be closer to 70, but it figures that I didn't bring my coat and it's a mere 48 degrees right now. At least the sun is shining and there's no clouds, but the sharp winds kinda bite right thru you.

FUEL
Lots and lots of water. The Delta flight attendants often giggle at me, I don't eat, but I sure do get them to fill up my water bottle 3-4 times a flight.

EMOTIONS
Yuck! I found out yesterday that my thyroid biopsy results were confirmed, highly suspicious cells for papillary carcinoma -which means that they remove the entire thyroid and I'm on a synthetic thyroid hormone for the rest of my days. Ah - the joys of discovery! Surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday since my surgeon had a cancellation. Nothing like getting it done soon! Pre-op and my ultrasound are scheduled for Tuesday and it looks like I'll be stocking up on greens and fruits for smoothies. Amy is eager to deliver Rita's to keep my throat cook and swelling down. I saw Dr. Jacobs (my new endocrinologist) right after the surgery consult and he recommended that I proceed with the radioactive iodine following surgery. I guess that it will have to wait a week or two because once I take the iodine, I need to be quarantined for 48 hours. It's a planned event, since I need to be on a low iodine diet for 2 weeks, the I get a shot of Thyrogen to jump start the process. Two days later I get a scan, then the radioactive iodine on a Friday. Which may work out well if Pablo is out of town. I'll have to make sure I have those notes correct. It seems like a week long preparation for a pill that I take on Friday morning and then am quarantined.

PHYSICAL
I like to stand up and stretch while in flight and make sure I keep all the lymphs moving with the water I drink. Flights are often hard on the body and we need to make sure we're taking care of ourselves.

SPIRITUAL
I started listening to a podcast called "A Quiet Mind," while on the plane. It was very soothing and I found myself falling asleep to it.

GRATITUDE
I am thankful that we caught the issue with my thyroid and feel at peace with the steps that are in motion to take care of it.

Water for the World 5K

As always, Sean is our resident exercise guru and signed up Kelly, Mom, Dad, himself and me for the Water for the World 5K on April 18th. Training sessions were every weekend for the past 3 weeks and I think the trainer did a great job! We all finished the 3.2 miles in less than an hour.


Dad and I crossing the finish line.


We all returned to help Mom make it past the finish line.

We had an enlightening experience at IHOP following breakfast. We all walked over to Sean and Kelly's car to get Sadie in and settled and realized. There was a long white streak the entire length of the car on the passenger side. Sean said that someone with a big white truck must have parked next to them at the race and obviously was too close to them backing up. All of us were standing there licking our fingers and trying to get off the white paint. Sean was trying to unlock the doors and realized the key wasn't working. Perhaps the battery in the key was dead? They just got the car! And then we all figured it out - at the same time. It was the wrong car....that had us all lauging for a good 15 minutes.

Not exactly what I should be doing to encourage my family to eat better, but I couldn't help myself. I figured one last batch wouldn't hurt. I think Ashley liked them!

We're off to the market!

Michele and I had a 3 hour conference call to catch up to date on all our current projects. What a whirlwind! With no clouds in the sky, I ski-daddled off to Chastain to walk.

FUEL -
A @ 7am - Smoothie Power for breakfast - 3 handfuls of spinach, 1 c froz blueberries, 1 froz banana, 1/4 c goji berries, 1 c water. I was so full from this smoothie all day that I didn't have lunch.
S @ 4pm - Flax Crackers
D @ 7pm - Apple

PHYSICAL - I walked Chastain with Jordan tonight. She's a friend from BNI and working out with Pamela . Jordan looks great, she said she's in the running for a nutritional consult with Pam based on Pam's client's who lost the most weight or gained the most muscle. Yeah Jordan! I'm keeping an eye out for Jordan - she was laid off from SBA loans a couple of months ago.

GRATITUDE - I am thankful for all the fruit and veggies at the Buford Hwy Farmers Market today. Look at our stash! organic grape tomatoes for Friday pizza night and the zucchini went into the crust. This is a Raw Food Real World recipe I'm cooking up. Behind the grape tomatos are thai coconuts, that with the strawberry jam and peanut butter is for our Peanut Butter and Jelly smoothies - yum!

QUOTE - "The heights by great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What to do when the power goes out...

Today the power was out at our building since 830am due to the heavy rains and wind that swept through Atlanta. Amy txted me during the day since she was all caught up on her magazines and was going stir crazy. I suggested a walk even though it was windy and had the potential to rain again. But I was struck down. Pablo spent some time this morning with the Orthopedist regarding his shoulder and knee and he felt that today he needed to give his knee a rest. That said, the three of us opted for dinner. After being turned down at Taqueria del Sol due to the busy parking lot, we dined at Urban Flats at Lindbergh. It was delicious! Pablo had a Gyro Flat with Tzatziki sauce, Amy had a veggie flat and I enjoyed a Brie Pear Flat with Honey Mustard sauce. Yum!

Luckily, the power was on when we got home (After Rita's of course) and Amy was able to finish up her reports. Pablo and I had a relaxing evening and zonked out at 11pm.

Easter with the Bergstroms

We met up with Amy and Jason Bergstrom this Easter Sunday morning and played with Anna Banana at the Chastain Park playground followed by lunch at Bricktops at Terminus. We always have a great time with our friends, especially in the sunshine.

Anna's beautiful blue eyes popped in this photo. Look at the sunrays peeking in too!

Veggie Omlettes and Pasta Class

Pablo has been one lucky duck this weekend. With the eggs I had leftover from making Mom's rainbow cookies, I have been creating omelettes for Pablo. And I just figured out how to make photo collages. Let's hope I don't get too carried away with it!


Mom and I took a Pasta Class at the Harry's Farmers Market in Alpharetta tonight. Finally, after the two classes we missed in March and April, we made it. Tonight we made 4 dishes, each with it's own sauce. Mom and I were on the Bolognese team with April and Linda. Our noodles were Pappardelle, which means long and thick strands of noodles.


Watch Abbatt Story as he teaches us how to feed the dough into the pasta rollers.

Dessert with Coan and Jaffe at Craft Bar

Brian and Tika came into town for Passover and Paul, Adam and I met up with them and Brian's brother Seth at Craft Bar for dessert and drinks. Tom Colliccio apparently loves the artist that does all his work. As you can see behind Seth there is a painting of a farm with sheep and "rack" on it. There was another one in the restaurant that had a painting of a cow and it said "Roast." It's all about the food.


I just looked too cute and had to have Pablo take a photo of me. I love my little pigtails in my Copenhagen hat and Amsterdam boots!

Sushi Sunday

Do we ever love our sushi! We had a sushi night on Sunday with Adam and Amy. We got the bug to run to Buford Hwy on Saturday, but couldn't make the trip in time. Paul had fun being creative for Adam's salmon roll with a little Sarachi.

Hey See-Ya Passover

I admit it, Paul and I got a late start, but we did pick up a package to bring to the Passover Seder. Nick Rosen moved to Atlanta about 2 months ago from Miami. Mom and Diane Rosen have been friends for 50 years (come 2010). Nick is all about the jazz. He's been playing all over Atlanta the past couple of months and loves the scene.




This is a Sadie self-portrait:

 
Sadie's helping Mimi blow out her birthday candles!


Our Seder plates were filled with Kelly's Brisket, Mashley's potatos, Edie's Charoset and Salad and some chicken...maybe some broccoli and carrots next time to add a little more color?

My version of dessert:

Mom and Ash Birthday Tea Party

Mom, Lash, Mary, Nathan D. and I had a late lunch at Tea Leaves and Thyme in Woodstock this afternoon.

For their birthdays, since I'm such a greenie - I stopped at Limetree Gifts to pick up Happy Poppy Bags! I use mine all the time for groceries so I don't have to get paper or plastic at the grocery store.


Mom and her cute little lunch plates.