Bayocean Peninsula

The weather is finally getting nicer. Well, who knows how long it'll last, but this weekend was GORGEOUS! A nice mid-70 and sunshine. So, we headed back to Bayocean Peninsunla near Tillamook for a nice long walk on the beach. We also had a little hat-wearing contest (*grin*):

 

UFO IX Davos 2013

I was fortunate enough to attend the bi-annual UFO conference again this year. The organizers have a knack for picking nice places (e.g. Monterey in 2011 with the Banquett in the Aquarium and a tour of NIF to boot) and this year was no exception: Davos, Switzerland. And they offered short courses on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, which meant that
a) I had to arrive on Friday and
b) the opportunity to Ski on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Good stuff!

Thanks to an unusually long winter with lots of snow, skiing conditions were still excellent. Sunshine and no wind made things even better!

 

BMW had a marketing event for their new 'xDrive' (no, I didn't win the car...):

Overall, very beautiful scenery and great conditions:

View from my hotel room wasn't too bad either:

After the short courses we had a traditional Cheese Fondue up on the Jschalp. There I found out that Ursula Keller (the inventor of the SESAM) and her husband are not only avid skiers (as one might expect) but actually enthusiastic Windsurfers, too - who knew?? I invited them to visit us in the Gorge for some 'real' windsurfing...

Monday evening was Apero time in the Bolgen Plaza: a chance to meet old friends and new acquaintances from around the world and discuss the impact austerity has had on the various scientific communities. 

Wednesday evening: Conference dinner at the Schatzalp - apparently the place that inspired Mann's 'Zauberberg' - very nice place. The sledding in the late afternoon was a bit disappointing: the snow was too wet and correspondingly slow, ah well. 

Thursday afternoon's program consisted of visiting the highest beer brewery in Europe ('Monstein') and a snowshoeing excursion. I bowed out of that one - jetlag and a mountain of emails needed to be worked through...

Friday evening I had a chance to visit Nina in Zuerich, which I hadn't seen in many, many years and meet her husband Robin for the first time. Good times! We had dinner in 'Kaufleuten' and I enjoyed two rare treats: their company and a 'real' Wiener Schnitzel!

Pictures of the conference may follow (if the organizers make them available). 

Oh, the actual conference? Yes, talks were great and plentiful! Next stop: China, 2015...

Look what the cat dragged in!

I found a few more photos from Christmas/New Year's that I thought are worth sharing. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve is here! And it looks like Santa brought us lots of goodies!

 

Everyone is excited - some more so than others ;).

Posing before we could open the presents:

And miraculously, nobody took any photos while we unwrapped the presents!
But we did take some more right before dinner (fondue, as always).

Christmas tree and cookies!

Today we got our Christmas tree. And what a beauty it is this year (can't believe it was only $30!). We got it from "Todd's - you cut/we cut noble firs" on SW Bell Rd [hello future Michaela&Jan, here's your reminder :)]. It's still in the garage to fully dry (guess what, it was raining when we picked it up, what are the chances!), but I'll add pictures of the fully decorated beauty later of course.

In the afternoon we started our cookie production. We have all the dough, but have used only roughly have of it so far. After all, it's supposed to be fun (and it was!) and not work. The rest will be baked tomorrow or Tuesday evening. All are gluten and dairy free this year, so they taste a little different. Still very yummy :).

 

Home made (well, kinda) bread

After having tried pretty much every gluten- and dairy-free store bread that Fred Meyer offers (all rather yucky), I stumbled upon a mix from Bob's Red Mill that is easy to make (takes about 2 hours in total, with maybe 10 minutes of actual work) and tastes oh-so good. Mom, this is how the bread looks like:

 

Ikea

Two trips to Ikea and a good 5 hours of work later, and we have
1) two new lamps in the living room,

2) a new dining room (the old dining table has moved to the loft, turning it now into a cute little grading spot for me),

3) a new entrance.

So worth it! I love our downstairs now.


What else? Days have gotten chilly (and wet) again. Which means that the fireplace is now much appreciated, by everyone: