Bored....

So, Joe's up in Norway for the week doing experiments and I'm stuck here pulling my hair out trying to finish my poster for my next scientific meeting. Nothing too exciting is going on over here at the moment. Over the weekend we had Adrian and Stephan over for raclette and then we headed to Teodora's going away party. I somehow managed to get Joe out of there around midnight and then I broke out in hives on the way home... that was creepy considering I hadn't done that since I was 8 years old. No idea what set it off, but thank goodness for Benadryl & Zyrtec. Other than work, I've been keeping myself occupied with TV shows on DVD. After 2 full discs of Family Guy I now understand why my brother loves the show, and well, now I can't wait to finish season 3. And then I'll move on to the Sopranos... everybody at work loves that show, so now I have to get caught up in the insanity of Tony Soprano. Couch potato here I come.

Since nothing else exciting is going on I thought that I'd post some pictures from a couple weeks ago when I went out with Joe, his advisor & her son, Sai and Stephan.

When in Rome, eat!

Last weekend Joe and I spent an amazing weekend in Rome eating and seeing the sites. I can't describe how yummy all the food was and there was a wonderful selection of food without tomatoes, thank goodness. We ate lots of pasta and pizza and even ate dinner twice on Sunday just because we could.

When we left on Friday it was a beautifully clear day that left us with breathtaking views of the Alps as we flew south from Geneva to Rome. The pictures didn't turn out as clear at it really was, but they're close. In this picture you can see lake Geneva on the left hand side with the French and Swiss Alps on the right.

Saturday morning we got up early and went straight to the Vatican to see St. Peter's Basilica (below) and to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel.
Saturday afternoon we spent walking around the Roman ruins of the Forum and the Colosseum. It was really cool to be around such old structures.


On Sunday it rained a lot, so we spent a lot of time inside eating, saw the Pantheon and visited the Spanish Steps again. For more pictures visit my flickr account.

Valentine's Day

Since Joe and I are going to Rome this weekend, he let me pick out flowers at the market on Saturday morning so that I could enjoy them. It's not a typically Valentine's Day arrangement, but since when am I typical! And for tonight, I'm making fondue.... our favorite Swiss food! Yes, I know, it is just melted cheese, but it's not as easy as you'd think to make it properly.

what a busy week

Last week was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. There were lots of things at work to keep me busy with my thesis project plus Wednesday was Stephan's birthday and Friday was Arnie's birthday and due to Joe's mini project of trying new restaurants around the city we ate out a lot last week. And so I decided to have a lazy cleaning-filled weekend at home while Joe worked his butt off in lab.
Last night we had a fun night out. Randomly, a friend of Stephan's from UT appeared in KingSize pub. Turns out she's on vacation and they happened to run into each other. Then we headed up to the Great Escape for dinner, where much craziness occured, like usual. Boys will be boys!

Superbowl XLI Switzerland style

What a long night..... in Switzerland the game airs from midnight to 4am on an Austrian channel and had sub-par commentators who were obsessed with talking about cliffs, or something. Sai, our resident Chicago native, hosted his second superbowl party and even decorated his living room in Bears colors.
I did watch some of the live CBS feed over the internet and got to see a bunch of the commercials. I highly enjoyed the Bud 'rock, paper, scissors' one and the nut one with Robert Goulet lurking around the office. After the first quarter we thought that we'd never hear the end of it from Sai about the Bears, but that didn't stop anybody from digging into Joe's famous halftime-made Nachos Supreme.but in the end, the Colts dominated, Sai was sad, and the Swartz lab will be free of Grossman photos plastered above Sai's desk.

Girl's Night -Lutry

After 4 months, I finally got around to organizing another Girl's Night. Since my apartment was crowded last time, I decided to organize it at my favorite wine cellar, the Caveau in Lutry. They serve great locally produced wines, with the grapes grown on the hills along Lake Geneva. Of course I took pictures. We're such a cute group!

-Sitting: Delphine, Carine, Me, Stéphanie, Alexandra; Leaning: Kristen & Jacqui

-Kristen, Delphine, Carine, Me, Stéphanie, Jacqui & Alexis - My artsy photo of wine stuff.

-Me and Jacqui... we're hot!
for more pictures, check out my flickr account. Email me and I'll activate you as a contact for my flickr account.