Zac Brown at Chastain Park

Nothing like a little post beach weekend spent at Chastain Park with the Zac Brown band. Gotta love it!

Destin for Memorial Day 2009

Amy, Pablo and I made the trek, to Destin to spend Memorial Day with Jaffe. Ah, sunshine!

Rules of Destin:
1. Never let a day go by without a trip to the Donut Hole.











2. No Destin trip is complete without a visit to the Boathouse.


3. You must make fun of yourselves, or someone else will.











4. Get dinner at the Back Porch and try not to get rained on.











5. Always smile!

Emily's Getting Married!

Pablo, Lash and I attended the wedding of the year! Emily and Patrick tied the knot. I could not be happier for them! The best part of the whole weekend was seeing the smile plastered on Em's face. Patrick was so honored and since the last time I saw him, had lost so much weight, I almost didn't recognize him.

Em's Matron of Honor, Julie, was so delightful and it was fun to see her parents again. Leslie and Felix, Em's sister and brother were so happy for her!

Fex and I even did a little dance entering the party room. Let me just tell you those NJ folks know how to throw a party. Em and Patrick had a party van take us from the church to the reception and the groomsmen helped Patrick finish off a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label. Very impressive, especially that they didn't spill. The weather turned out spectacular, a little warm, but dry. Il Tulipano turned out to be a fabulous venue with lots of Italian Jersey men running the place, it was definately out of The Sopranos.

NYC with Lash

Lash and I ventured into the city to meet up with Kimmie and her boyfriend. We dined in Little Italy and I had just enough time to catch some Chinatown Ice Cream, Almond Cookie, with them before taking the Path back to our car in Hoboken. Ah, Almond Cookie. So delicious!

Back at the hotel, I had a very exhausted Pablo on my hands, having just flown in from Kansas, we was wiped out. Em's rehearsal was at the church and then at an Italian restaurant where there was SO much food! Gotta love the NJ crowd.

Wake Up Call

So, at about 3:40 am this morning I woke up out of a dead sleep after I felt my body rolling back and forth across my bed. I thought someone was in my room shaking me order to wake me up, which is a freaky feeling when you are in a strange hotel with no lights on. After turning the lights on and realizing that no one was there I figured I had a real weird dream and woke myself up but then I got to work in the morning to find out that we had an earthquake. Crazy! - Pablo

Recovery

I had my thyroid removed on Wednesday and with all the happy blessings, it has been a speedy recovery. No pain meds since awakening from surgery and I was so lucky to have two loving and attentive nurses, Mom and Janice.

Amy, Adam and their respective pups sent me a mouth-water basket of chocolate covered fruit. What great friends, they read my mind. For the days following surgery, that fruit was so soft and juicy!

Lash brought me these vibrant Gladiolas. Who'd have guessed? Would it be too honest to say that I've never known what a Gladiola looked like before this day? I must admit that they are almost as tall as me and I refused to kill their talented heights.

Pablo was in Switzerland working during my surgery and with me slipping into someone else's cancelled appointment, he could not make it home. In his stead, he sent these magnificent purple iris' and pink tulips in honor of our last weekend rendezvous in Zurich.

This sculpture greets you as you come into the new entrance. As my favorite season, this piece struck me and I was in awe of the vibrant colors.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It rained the night before and I caught this visual art piece in the entrance to the Conservatory.

Lash snapped this photo, but I edited it a bit and thought that the gentle female face captured serenity with the light water above.

Bog plants that catch water in their bellies to save in case little rain comes again.


This piece market the path in the children's garden. It made me smile, hope it does the same to you.

Sadie's just over 2 feet! Must be them good genes!

Some of the gorgeous flowers and plants on display.

Mom and Dad recently purchased a family pass to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens a couple of weeks ago, marking the first time since living in Atlanta that they have been there. What a great time to purchase it! Ashley, Mark, Evan, Nathan, Sean, Sadie, Mom, Dad and I had planned to go strawberry picking, but didn't want to risk the one hour drive to Dallas, Georgia with the impending forecast of rain. Not only did it not rain until later in the day, but we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the beautiful gardens. Sadie tried to eat some orchids, Evan gave a high-five to the cow and I spied on Ashley snapping photos.

A nice short run?

At the direction of the concierge, I headed to the Zurich Zoo, not to go to the zoo but rather to run on the trails near the Zoo. I guess you have to set expectations with people because I told him I wanted a nice view filled run and well, he was in part right. I headed down the trail to the first official marker which let me know that I had made it to the start of the trails after running into the woods for 4 miles. Unfortunately, I think the concierge thought I was an extreme runner because the trail distances ranged from 1000 miles to 4000 miles. Ummm, yea right. So I headed back the way I came and found a nice little walking path with a view over lake Zurich. In the end it was a success. - Paul
Gotta love those concierge! Paul, check out this site, it shows routes, timing and scenic runs. -Edie

Labor Day in Switzerland

So, it turns out that Labor Day, which is today across Europe is celebrated completely different over here. I was told yesterday by some people in Schaffhausen that Labor day used to be a day off work where the young people would go to neighboring towns and steal street signs (Sound familiar Michele) or flowers from peoples gardens and then the people would return the items over a beer and laughs, which seems to be in line with the rebel nature of this region, Unfortunately, I found out today, when I got to Zurich, that things have changed. Now days, the young people who represent the far left in politics here use this day as a day of anarchy against capitalism (I thought they were Socialist? Haha). I still didn’t take that very seriously considering what typically constitutes a rebel here but I was notified by the Marriott to stay out of the city center because of the situation that will happen. So, I still wasn’t buying it but it did spark my interest enough to see if I could find a video talking about it. It turns out that there are quite a few videos showing what happen of Mai (May) 1st. In fact, Zurich and Berlin and ground zero for what the call “Anarchie” or anarchy or complete chaos. So enjoy the videos, they are from very different perspectives, Edie you will probably recognize some of the areas, and know that I will be at Marriott all day, all night and into the late morning of tomorrow if you need to reach me. Love you all!

This one is a little long but actually pretty funny, language barrier or not. You can pretty much understand what is going on. He is essentially asking different yet interesting people what this whole is all about, with a lot of action in between. The water cannon is always a favorite but the use of bean bag / rubber bullets makes it even more interesting. Who would have thought those corky Swiss would have had it in them. - Pablo