POW-WIENER!!!

Yup...we're going to Bangkok, and we leave tomorrow morning.
I'm excited. This will be my first time in Asia. Mrs. TBF? It's old hat for her. She's been to Asia several times THIS YEAR!
A couple of months ago she asked me if I'd like to accompany her on a business trip. Before I said yes, I made one demand. You guessed it....BUSINESS CLASS! I'm sorry...I'm 6'5" tall and there's NO WAY I'm flying coach for thirteen hours. I am a Travel Diva, but only out of necessity. The worst part of it is that Mrs. TBF wasn't able to get me BC with miles, so...I made her BUY me a ticket. OUCH!!!
We're going to be flying on Singapore Airlines - which everybody (including Mrs. TBF) raves about. Apparently they serve satay, noodles, and a bunch of other stuff that Mrs. TBF says I'll love. First we fly to Singapore, and then we connect for a 2+ hour flight to Bangkok.
I'm going to have a fair amount of time on my own in Bangkok since Mrs. TBF has meetings. I've been telling people that one of my goals is to never have to bathe myself. No...I'm not talking about never bathing. What I'm talking about is having other people do it for me. You know...soapy,soapy-washy, washy! Is that just a Japenese thing? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Stay tuned. I'll be posting pictures and commentary from Pow-weiner (a.k.a. Bangkok).

Sneaker!

I didn't walk with Mrs. TBF to the tram this morning because she "sneaked"! This is what we call it when she allows me to sleep in.
Normally I'll wake up when she's in the shower, or when she brings me a cup of coffee, or whatever. However, on mornings when she "sneaks", she'll come give me a kiss on the cheek and say: "I'm sneaking." Usually I'll offer some minor protest like: "Noooooo...zzzZZZZZ!"
I had big plans for this morning. I was going to get on the tram with Mrs. TBF and go to the gym for 8:00. Instead, I woke up at 9:30 a.m. Doh! What's worse is that I then fell back to sleep and woke up at....10:30 a.m.!!! Slug!!!
But, I'm happy to report that I'm back on track. It's noon, and I've already cleaned the house. Now, I'm going to go walk Sam and George. Then, I'll go to the gym at about 2:00.
I have to step it up a notch and get into high gear. We're leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. More about that later...

Ich Bin Ein Basler!

"What da Hell is dis ting???" That's what King said (Bob is having a seizure right now!) when we arrived at our home on Sunday evening and placed the Kennedy head (probably the most highly-prized acquisition from our trip to Chicago) on the floor for his review.
The Kennedy head is about forty years old. Mrs. TBF's parents had a liquor store on Grand and Menard in Chicago for many years, and they sold these Kennedy heads in their store in the mid-60s.
When I was in Chicago this past spring, I noticed the Kennedy head collecting dust in Jo's closet, and I asked her if I could have it. Unfortunately, my suitcases were too heavy and I had to leave it behind. But, this time I was able to fit it into a carryon bag. Let me tell you, it was a big hit going through the x-ray machine at O'Hare. The lady at the x-ray monitor called over her co-workers, and the had a good laugh about it.
I'm happy to report that "the head" made it safely to Basel, and now it has a place of honor on a shelf in our T.V. room.
The Chicago chapter is now officially closed! Whew!

Going...Going...Gone!

We've already been back in Basel for a couple of days now. However, I thought I'd post a few more pictures from Chicago.


This is me with a couple of my old work buddies - Ed (left) and Dave (right) after we had a nice "meaty" lunch at Wildfire. One time in the office, we were horsing around, and I managed (in a five-second burst of energy) to tear Ed's rotator cuff AND send Dave crashing into the wall with a nasty "Big Finn" stiff-arm. Of course, I was about forty pounds heavier back then.




Here's a picture of me with my parents - Kirsti and Leino. As you can see, I'm quite a bit taller than they are. I guess you could say that I'm an example of what happens when you eat U.S. beef injected with growth hormones your entire life.
By the way, my mom's birthday was a couple of days ago (October 16th - of course I called her!). My dad's 70th birthday is this December - of course I've already booked a return trip to Chicago for December to celebrate that milestone!


We went out for a nice Mexican dinner with Bob and Jackie at one of my old haunts - Taqueria Fiesta - on Friday night. Here's a picture of them with their sons Marty and Brian, and their dog Zoe.
Bob admitted to me that he HATES (I think he actually said it makes him cringe and shake with fury!) when I write on The Big Finn's Big Blog about how our cat King's "voice" has a heavy Chicago accent and that he has businesses all over the world. Look for a lot more from King in the future!



Finally, a picture of Perry and Jo. Perry (with the same expression that he has in just about every picture I've ever taken of him) turned fifty in September, and Jo turned seventy-five yesterday! Perry was four, and Jo was twenty-nine, the last time the White Sox went to the World Series (that means nothing to the Europeans reading this blog). DAMN!!!

Chicago Has a New Official Flag!

Here it is!!! I saw it all over Chicago this past week.

More Chicago Stuff...

I went out to eat with Mrs. TBF and her work colleagues last Wednesday evening at a place called Roy's. During dinner, a few of her colleagues asked me what I had planned for the next day. "I don't know...the schedule's not out yet..." was my typical response. When we go somewhere, I prefer not to plan everything down to the last minute. Instead, I like to "go with the flow". There are many factors to consider - weather, how I feel, what time I wake up, etc.
So, Thursday morning rolled around, I looked out the window and faced beautiful blue skies, and I decided that a boat cruise on the Chicago River to take in Chicago's great architecture would fit the bill.


The verdict??? Excellent! It was 90-minutes of blue skies, great scenery, and tons-o-info from a tour guide that had to be pushing ninety years old. I just can't believe how much the city has changed in the last five years since we moved to die Schweiz!


After the tour, and still being in the tourist mindset, I walked a few blocks, and parked myself at an outdoor table at Pizzeria Uno for a little deep-dish pizza. Mrs. TBF HATES their pizza - and I have to admit that it's not the best Chicago has to offer - but it was convenient. And, I was kind of into the whole "taking in Chicago through the eyes of the tourist" thing.
About one-minute after my pizza had been plunked down in front of me, I heard some mumbling over my right shoulder. I turned to find a very gaunt homeless man saying something to me. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?". All he said was something like: "MMMM-mmm slice-a pizza." "You want a slice of my pizza?", I asked him. He nodded. It was too much for me to eat anyway, so I handed him a slice. He took a bite, thanked me, then proceeded to flag down the waiter...TO ASK HIM FOR A NAPKIN. I guess he didn't want to get grease on one of the three winter coats he was wearing.


A couple of hours later, we checked out of the hotel and took off for Dave and Shannon's house for dinner. We even made it in time to see little Stella before she went to bed.

A Three-Hour Tour...

I just spent a good three+ hours FREEZING MY ASS OFF (look at that look of disgust on my face!) on one of the Chicago Double Decker tour buses. Please don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed it, and I'd do it again in a second. But...it was TOO DAMN COLD! Naturally, I toughed it out by sitting upstairs instead of sitting inside - but I could have used a coat. Thank God I at least had a fleece vest and a long sleeve shirt.


It didn't help matters any that the little piece of paper the turndown service maid left on our nightstand last night showing today's weather forecast predicted that it would be 67˚F and sunny. Wrong, Wrong, WRONG!!! It was actually 58˚F and gloomy. But...I still thought the tour was excellent.


Isn't it funny? You live someplace for almost forty years, and it takes moving away to really appreciate what was under your nose the whole time. We were kind of lulled into the suburban mindset of rarely venturing into the city. Too much traffic...too expensive...too much of a hassle...blah...blah....BLAH!!! I'm telling you right now - if we ever move back to Chicago, we're going to live downtown! I'm talking 312 area code!

From The "Small World" File...

We ate at Charlie Trotter's last night. It was really, really good. But, it wasn't the best meal I have ever eaten in my life - although it WAS the most expensive! But, what the heck? Our 18-year wedding anniversary is coming up, and we decided to splurge a bit.
We opted for the 8-course "Grand Menu" with the accompanying "Wine Menu" which matched up a different wine to each course. Some of the highlights: Big Eye Tuna with Bok Choy, Young Coconut & Prince Edward Island Mussels; Bison Tenderloin with Brussels Sprouts, Black Eyed Peas & Chanterelle Mushrooms; Arkansas Rabbit with Braised Escarole, Pearl Barley & Thyme Infused Consomme.
My friend Dave told me that I would leave the restaurant hungry, but I was absolutely stuffed. Maybe it's because I've "drawn up my stomach" (as Mrs. TBF says) since I started my Weight Watchers diet on September 5th (OK...cat's out of the bag. I lost 15 lbs. the first month!).
So, here's the "small world" portion of the evening. Our main waiter's (I think we had about eight different people waiting on us.) mother comes from Basel, and the waiter's been to Basel about ten times. It was an unbelievable coincidence!


After the meal, he asked us if we'd like to see the kitchen. Of course we said yes. Afterall, we are cooking/restaurant geeks. It was about 11:00 p.m. at this point, so they were already cleaning up. We were very impressed to find out that they completely scrub down and power wash the entire kitchen every night. I mean there were guys scrubbing the vent hoods.



We even got to go down to the wine cellar where we saw a $20,000 bottle of wine! No, it wasn't one of the wines in our "wine menu".



As far as I'm concerned, the restaurant tour kind of "made it" for me. TBF's rating for Charlie Trotter's?

Bread: 8.5 Circuses: 10

Gloomy, But Still Beautiful...

Here's the view from our hotel room. Mrs. TBF has a couple of days of meetings, and we're staying at the Westin River North in downtown Chicago. The weather's supposed to be a bit gloomy for the next couple of days, but that's not going to stop me from doing a little exploring. First, I'm going to go workout in the fitness club, but then I think I might jump on one of those double-decker buses and just ride around this beautiful city that I miss.

Adventure Travel!

We (me, Mrs. TBF, Perry, Renee, and Jo) made the trek to downtown Chicago this past Saturday night to The Capital Grille to celebrate Perry's 50th and Jo's 75th birthdays. We had a really nice time, but the combination of a 24 oz. steak (something I'm DEFINITELY not used to eating) and jet lag took its toll on me. I slept in the car on the way back to the 'burbs. Fortunately for the rest of the crew, I wasn't driving. Unfortuntately, I forgot to bring my camera along (I'm blaming that on jet lag too). But before you think that it couldn't get any more exciting than that, let me tell you about the even more exciting stuff we've done.

On Monday, Mrs. TBF and I went to the dentist, ate some Italian beef and combo samitches for lunch, and then we went grocery shopping at Dominick's. Yesterday (Tuesday), we went to see my cousin Greg the eye doctor and had our eyes examined. I'm proud to say that at the tender age of 43, I still don't need glasses! I ROCK! However, that doesn't rock as much as all the cool equipment that Greg has in his office. Plus, he's held eyeballs in his hands!!! Now THAT rocks!!!

kids...Kids...KIDS!!!

EVERYWHERE!!! I don't know how my sister does it. Mrs. TBF and I went out for brunch this past Sunday with my parents, my sister, and the kids (our brother-in-law Colm was back at home manning the Open House for the sale of their house). After an hour of the kids using me like their own personal monkey bars while I tried to sneak in bites of corned beef hash, I was spent. As you can see from this picture, I was pretty much ready for a nap.


Speaking of napping...our niece Sinead sure is a pro at it. I saw her with her eyes open yesterday morning for the first time. Here's one of the many pictures I have of her napping. Where the heck did all that dark hair come from?

SASSY!!!

Here's Mrs. TBF with her new haircut. SASSY!!!

Greetings From Glencoe, Illinois!

I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Glencoe, Illinois with Jo the mother-in-law at 11:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Mrs. TBF is having her hair cut, Jo just drank a Frappucino, and I'm blogging away.
I'm happy to report that the flight on BA went very well except for the fact that the business class seats on BA aren't big enough for TBF.
Sorry...I just had to tell Jo to "zip it for eight minutes while I blog"...where was I?
The seats of BA go flat, but if you're over six-feet tall...forget about it! I slept for about 10 minutes, Mrs. TBF slept for about 90 minutes...all is well.
The flight went by very quickly, and without any gastrointestinal distress on my part - which was a very good thing indeed.
The first stop after the airport was my sister Diana's house where we saw my parents, our nephew Finn (I wrestled with him for a couple of hours), and our new niece Sinead. My dad drove me to the car rental place, I negotiated a better deal than I booked on a Chrysler Pacifica (which I had never heard of/or seen before), and then we went to Jo's house.
After freshening up at Jo's, we went to a local mall where we made a few purchases off of our "U.S. shopping list", including: DVDs, underwear, Bose noise-reduction headphones, and some books and magazines.
Then, we went out to a terrific sushi dinner with Jo, Perry (Mrs. TBF's brother) and Renee (our sister-in-law) at an old favorite of ours - Kobe East Sushi Bar. It was FANTASTIC!!!!! Jo thought it was incredibly expensive, but we thought it was incredibly cheap - especially when compared to Swiss prices. We gorged, and it cost $175.00 for five people. Amazing!!!
We went to sleep at 9:30 p.m. with happy tummies, and we woke up at 5:45 a.m. this morning. Not too bad!
So, now, like I said, we're in a Starbucks. After Mrs. TBF's haircut, she'll check her e-mail and then we'll be off for more shopping. Tonight we're going to go out to celebrate Jo's and Perry's birthdays.
More about that...later.

From The "Too Much Info" File...

T.G.I.N.F!!! Thank God It's NOT Friday!!!
This Friday, Mrs. TBF and I will leave for Chicago! We will take an early morning flight out of Basel and connect in London for our flight to Chicago. Mrs. TBF actually has meetings in Chicago next week so she'll be flying in Business Class compliments of her company. She also has gazillions of miles on British Airways. Therefore (donc in French. It's my favorite French word so far. DONK! DONK!), yours truly will be sitting next to Mrs. TBF in business class. I keep telling ya!: I AM THE TRAVEL DIVA!!!
We're really looking forward to this trip. We're going to see our one-week old niece - Sinead - for the first time, we're going to be celebrating Mrs. TBF's brother's - Perry's - 50th birthday, and we'll also be celebrating Mrs. TBF's mom's - Josephine/Jo's - 75th birthday (DAMN SHE OLD!!!). Also, I'll tag along with Mrs. TBF when she's in the city for her meetings, so I'll get to spend some time in downtown Chicago! A couple of months ago, we booked a romantic dinner for two at Charlie Trotter's for while we're in town, and we are DEFINITELY looking forward to that!
So...why am I glad it's NOT Friday? Well, I'm glad you asked. But first, a fair warning: THIS IS THE "TOO MUCH INFO" portion of this segment. You may want to cease reading at this point.
Last night, I came down with the worst case of diarrhea that was on par with when I had the flu earlier this year in May. I woke up several times during the night, and I read several magazines in "the library". All I can say is: Thank God this wasn't taking place during the overseas flight from London to Chicago. It would have been very distressing for my fellow Business Class passengers - let alone the entire airplane. Afterall, you can't bring matches on planes anymore!
Fortunately, the worst of it seems to be "behind" (sorry!) me. It's after 4 p.m., and I just ate for the first time today. Unless I have a relapse, I think I'll be good to go for Friday.
See? I told you you should have stopped reading. You just couldn't resist could you?

Five Years....FIVE YEARS!!!

Five years ago today, I boarded a Swissair flight at O'Hare Airport with Dominique (our now-deceased dog) and King (our now full-o-piss-and-vinegar-seventeen-year-old-cat) in the cargo hold (I was in business class, and I still have the slightest bit of guilt over that one) to meet up with Mrs. TBF who had already been here for nearly three months.
Originally, the plan was that we would be in Switzerland for maybe "two to three years". I was going to take about six months off of work to get us settled in, and then I was going to look for a job. Well, somehow the job search never began, and here we are five years later.
What does the future hold? Who knows? When people back in the U.S. ask us how much longer we'll be here, I now say "I have no idea!" I've been saying "...a couple more years" for a couple of years now, and I think that family and friends are tired of hearing it. I don't know if we'll live in Switzerland forever, if we'll move back to the U.S., or we'll move to another country next. Ich habe keine ahnung!...aucune idée!!!
A lot has changed in the past five years: Mrs. TBF's job switched from Basel-to Nyon-and back to Basel; we moved from Reinach to Binningen; Dominique is no longer with us (sob!), several ex-pat friends have moved back to the U.S., England, etc.; I now speak passable German and I'm working (believe me...it's going to take a lot of work) on learning French; we've traveled to many European countries (with many still to see), we eat cheese for dessert, we prefer using a duvét to tucked-in sheets, we don't speak loudly in public, etc., etc. And, this doesn't included all the changes that have taken place back at home with family and friends which are too numerous to mention.
So...where will we be five years from now? Stay tuned!

Aren't We Just Soooo Cute?

I've been very negligent in updating the blog lately. I was going to post more pictures from our weekend in Nyon, but one distraction lead to another, and now Nyon is but a fleeting memory.

So, here's the last picture from Nyon. Jeanette took this picture of us on her balcony in our matching Frenchy shirts that we bought at a shop in Yvoire earlier that day. Mrs. TBF's shirt is too big, and mine's a little snug. But that's OK because men seem to wear their shirts a bit tight around here anyway.

SOX WIN!!! SOX WIN!!!

The Chicago White Sox have clinched the AL Central Championship. Thank God! They were 15 games ahead of the Indians about six weeks ago, and their lead slipped to just 1.5 games last week. But none of that matters now. They're in the playoffs, and that's all that counts.
Since Expatter's team - the San Diego Padres - managed to somehow sputter into the playoffs with a less than .500 record (the Sox are more than 30 games over .500), there's a chance that the 2005 World Series could end up being Expatter vs. The Big Finn.
Stay tuned!

Telling It Like It Is...

I had to call our Swiss bank today regarding a question concerning our account. When you call the bank here, a recording tells you that "...your call WILL be recorded for security purposes!" I like that. They're tellin' it like it is. In the U.S., the recording says (unless it's changed recently) that "...your call MAY be recorded." Is it, or isn't it? I'd kind of like to know up front. I think it would also help for U.S. over-the-phone customer service. In the past, I've had to say to an especially cocky or rude customer service person in the U.S.: "I hope to God that this call is being recorded 'for security purposes' and that your boss decides to have a listen." MAY??? - They're thinking: "I'll take my chances." WILL??? - "(gulp!)"
Anyway, I called the bank today and selected #4 "...to speak with a customer service representative in English." The man came on the phone and began speaking in German. I began speaking in English, and he told me that he didn't really speak English and that he would find an English-speaking person for me. I told him not to bother and that I would try to ask my questions in German. First, he had to ask me a bunch of security questions in German, and I guess I passed because he then asked me how he could help me. I muddled my way through the questions, I think I understood the answers, we said goodbye, ...und jetz habe ich viel Stolz. I conducted banking business in German, people!!! But don't tell Mrs. TBF. If she finds out about this it might get her to thinking that I could pass the German certification test...and (God forbid)...she'd tell me to get a job...(gulp)!
I would, however, kind of like to have a copy of this history-making phone conversation. I know that the conversation WAS recorded. I wonder if they'd burn me a copy onto a CD so that I could listen to it when Mrs. TBF isn't around.

It's A Finnish Thing.

That's what Mrs. TBF said when I told her that I gave money this evening to an accordian player who was busking near the Basel train station. I don't know what it is, but I just can't pass up an accordian player on the street without reaching into my pocket to pull out a couple of francs.
Maybe it's the fact that I'm impressed by the fact that somebody would openly admit in public that they know how to play the accordian (fairly high on the nerd-alert scale as far as I'm concerned). Or maybe it IS a Finnish thing. Afterall, Finland IS a country where the accordian is VERY popular. Don't believe me? Here are a few pictures that I snapped off of the T.V. at my Aunt Leila's house when I was in Finland this past summer.


These pictures were taken as I sat dumbstruck in front of the T.V. watching the Finnish National Accordian Championships. Yeah, it's kind of amusing. But, I have to admit that I kind of began getting sucked into all of the action. I had to - my dad and aunt were pretty serious about watching the hoopla, and I was just being shushed each time I tried make any comment whatsoever.


OK...OK!!! So what if the winner was announced by a hand puppet? It doesn't take anything away from the fact that great accordian players in Finland receive near rock star status.



And who was the junior Hopeinen Harmonikka 2005 Voittaja (Silver Accordian 2005 Winner)? None other than a young lad with the very un-Finnish name of Joni Stein! I'm telling you...this kid has groupies!! There's no doubt about it!
You might think that this was about all the excitment that the Finns could handle in one year. But no!!!! The Finnish National Tango Championships were taking place the following week. I'd say that that might be the pinnacle of all Finnish competitions. But, alas, that's for another blog on another day.
I need to rest now.

Voila! Nous Allons a Paris!

Does anybody know how to do the backward French accent on an Apple without switching to the French keyboard? I just can't seem to figure it out. Also, where's the damn Euro sign?

We're going to Paris in mid-November. I just booked our tickets on the Air France website, and I did it...COMPLETELY IN FRENCH! At least I think we have airline tickets booked on Air France for this November. It was actually cheaper on Air France than on EasyJet. Isn't it amazing what a little competition does? Plus, we get to leave Basel at 10:45 a.m. instead of 8:10 a.m. which means an extra 2.5 hours of sleep! Mrs. TBF has stated that she'd like to go to Paris at least once per year (TBF: "Who wouldn't???"), and it looks like we're covered for 2005 (...at least I think we are.).
Maybe, just to be safe, I'll bring the confirmation to my French lesson tomorrow and ask Charlotte (our teacher) what she thinks. I'm having three French lessons on my own this week so that I can try to catch up with Mrs. TBF who's currently in New Jersey.
You gotta love the airlines! I know I've ragged on them before, but it's kind of ridiculous. Our tickets cost only 118 Euros. The taxes are 119.08 Euros. And, there's a 10 Euro frais de service - which I think means service charge. If you do the math, I believe our 118 Euro airline tickets just cost us 247.08 Euros. I understand that the airlines have no control over the airport taxes. But, a 10 Euro service charge for an electronic ticket that I booked myself on the internet?
If you ask me, that's a bunch of merde!