Bunnies Arrive Safely

The children were thrilled today when our two pet rabbits arrived safely. They were carried by Air Animal's Swiss Associate, named "REX". We put the two critters out on the deck, and they are quite happy with their new home.

I got my new mobile phone, a Blackberry 8800, which I really like so far. The pointer is a track-ball in the center of the phone, and it took some getting used to, but I really like it now. I used the Treo for a few seconds, and hate it, and am fully ready to send it back to the US for disposal^H^H^H^H^Hreassignment.

Tomorrow (1 August) is the Swiss version of Independence day, called National day, ( but they call it Confederation Day here). The same rush we had on Saturday was replayed today, as we made the mad rush to get to the grocery store before they all closed at 1700. This time, we went to the Migros down the street, on Hessestrasse, and came back with a shopping cart worth of groceries.

We are going through milk, and chocolate milk at obscene rates, requiring multiple visits to the store per week. For dinner, I went to the local pizzeria that we visited earlier this week, and the lady recognized me. When I asked for one pizza with no tomato sauce (unheard of apparently), she remembered our odd order, and replied, "Just like last time, right?" (she did it in German, though)


We got some interesting junk mail today. I read it through, and discovered it was some sort of political advertisement, asking citizens to vote on a new referendum, seeking the immediate expatriation of foreigners.

Oh. Not just any foreigners. Foreigners who murder, traffic in prostitution, deal drugs, etc. But that was down at the bottom. You can imagine my moment of consternation.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on taking the kids to the Party in downtown Bern. Here's the screen-shot from the "berninfo.ch" website.

One of the cool things about this holiday, is how all the food changes. There are lots of decorated eggs, cakes, stuff like that, that are available near Swiss National Day -- we bought some hard-boiled eggs painted red with the Swiss Cross, and there were some nice cakes we bought today with the Swiss Weiss-Kreuz painted on them.

Another thing that doesn't seem that strange is the rampant celebration with fireworks a few days before the celebration. (Not much different than back home). What would surely be illegal fireworks back in Virginia are displayed like an exploded ordinance factory. I hope it doesn't keep the kids up.