Had a good Thanksgiving weekend. We left as soon as I got out of work Wednesday, which was about noon, heading for Laura's place in Ann Arbor. Just at about Fort Wayne, we realized we had left one of Alex's big presents (the train set) at home and had to turn around and go back. It was snowing hard enough to slow traffic on I-94 way down by the time we got to Michigan; we were crawling so slowly we pulled off to get the kids something to eat and a little time to play at a convenient McDonald's with a playland that was right off the highway near Chelsea. Things were moving a little better by the time we shoved off again but it was well past dinner time when we got there. The plan had been to put the kids down in her spare bedroom/den and Beth and I to sleep on the futon in the living room, but that didn't work at all because we couldn't get Alex down and he woke Missy when we tried. Both kids threw royal fits. Fits that went on, and on, and on...through walking, rocking, anything to get toddlers to sleep. Eventually, at around midnight, with Beth in bed with Alex in the den and me in bed with Missy in the living room, we got both kids to sleep. But it was still a short night. My side of the family did Christmas and Thanksgiving the same day. The biggest presents were Alex's train set (with the table) and Missy's bike. I taped the whole presents exchange, I'll see if I can edit it into a good movie later. Thursday night wasn't as bad as Wednesday (we split the kids up), but it still took a huge effort to get the kids down and Beth and I still eventually wound up with a kid each in separate beds. I was ready to skin one of Laura's cats when he scratched on a door and woke up Alex. We all took the kids to the Ann Arbor hands-on museum on Friday, where Alex got himself soaked in the water flow exhibit playing with the boats and buckets. I had to dig his boots and some dry pants and socks out of the back of the van. Afterwards we were going to go to one of the hot restaurants to eat in AA but the lines were too long and it was really crowded, and the kids weren't going to respond well so we went to a half-empty Applebee's instead, which worked out so much better for us. We headed for home after eating, and the kids were asleep practically before we got out of the parking lot. And they slept all the way to Fort Wayne...something like four hours! Since we were in FW and they were awake, we went into Babies R Us and bought Alex a new mattress, which he really needed. We swapped it out that night. Alex told us (pointing to the old mattress) "that's for babies." (pointing to the new mattress) "that's for a big boy."

Got back yesterday from Switzerland. Unusual circumstances at times...I landed in Zurich at about 9:00 am local time after an all night flight, on Sunday, when Switzerland appeared to be closed. I couldn't find anything to do so I decided to drive out to the town where I'd be working and check things out there. The hotel was also closed, with a sign on the door that check-in wasn't until 5:00 pm. Lights off, doors locked, no cars in the parking lot. And the rest of the town was about the same. So I killed a little time before deciding to just go back to Zurich to find something to do. I checked out the Bahnhofstrasse and a walking tour of the old city and got in some sights before deciding that I was too tired and had to go back to town before I was so tired I'd fall asleep on the way. Getting back to the province I tried to nap in the car a little and just waited until 5. Once I was checked in, it was another experience finding something to eat. I set out walking because driving while that tired was unwise. So I walked...a long way...and every place I found was closed, until a place some distance away where I could get pizza. It was run by (I think) Turkish immigrants who spoke no English to complement my speaking no German, but eventually I got my order, even though it took some doing before I could understand they were asking me 'for here or to go.' Anyway, bright an early the next morning I went to the vendor and appeared to take them by surprise. Nobody knew I was coming. I'm not sure why. The guy I was supposed to be working with was on holiday that week. They were very accommodating, however, and dealt with me by giving me a master key so I could come and go to do my work as needed. Which was handy, since I did so at all hours. ALL hours. Very long days. But I got most everything done, visited Luzern, Winterthur (got really really lost) and my friend Chris, who's been over there for several months now. We went to Apenzell one weekend to take a cable tram up a mountain, but it got cold cold cold while we were driving there, and we could see the fog rolling in. At one point we were in the parking lot, just after discovering the tram was closed for the season anyway, talking about what to do next, when I looked over and discovered that in the last couple minutes the tram wires had gone from disappearing into the clouds far overhead to disappearing into the clouds about 20 feet over our heads. So we just did some shopping in the town instead of the mountain. Even visited a stinky cheese store. I also got a bit of geocaching in while I was there.