Day Trip

Izzi and I did a hike last weekend. We went to Oeschinensee, mountain lake about a hour train ride from here. We hiked from the town of Kandersteg up the mountain (about 1500 vertical feet from the town). the place really was beautiful, the lake is COLD, filled mostly by glacial run off, and up to 180 ft deep. It is probably just a little smaller than Lake Calhoun.




Izzi under one of the waterfalls that feed the lake. We had to do some mountaineering to get here. It was good that Kim wasn't with us, she would have freaked. We had to walk along a ledge maybe 18 inches wide with a cable strung up to hang on to. Izzi couldn't reach the cable all the time. If we would have fallen, it would have been a 25 foot drop into the ice cold water.




On the way down we took the gondola, but first we discovered the Alpine Slide. You can tell from Izzi's face what she thought of it.

The Elusive Swiss Octopus

We had a plumbing fiasco in our apartment. Actually it was the apartment above us, but we were heavily impacted by it. About three weeks ago, it was discovered the pipe above us was leaking. Two holes were ripped in our bathroom to find and repair the leak. After that, the wall or our bedroom was ripped out and these dryers were brought in to dry out all the water in the floor and walls. We have had no use of our bedroom for about three weeks (a few more to go). we now get the joy of dickering with our landlord about getting compensation for the limited use of the apartment and general pain in the butt it caused.

The broken arm

The magoo is still on recovery. The docs didn't put him in a cast. The break is right on the ball of the big bone of the upper arm. I guess that a cast doesn't really help that much and the big thing is to keep the arm from going straight.

He had several rough nights since he typically sleeps on his left side or stomach. Since the phot he has been back to the doc and had the sling readjusted so it is bent up even more. He wears his shirts with his arm tucked under. For the most part he is doing pretty well. He goes back to the doc October 6, hopefulkly everything goes fine.

the below picture doesn't show the bruise as bad as it really was.

Saturday Excitement

Our Saturday was going along just fine. A trip to the Communication Museum, some general putzing around and I even got a nap in. at 3:30 things got a bit exciting.

Izzi and Xavier went outside to play, Kim and I hung out inside. After about 20 minutes we here the boy crying and Izzi screaming for us. When we get outside, we find Xavier in a heap beneath the tree he likes to climb. Blood on his lip, a cut on his chin and very hard crying. Xavier has a high tolerance for pain, Kim and I both knew something was bad. After spending some time he explains his left arm really hurts.

We get him inside, lay him on the couch and start cleaning the blood off his face. His left arm around the elbow is swelling bigger and bigger. We decide to go to the kinderspital.

Xavier and I hop in a taxi and head over. Get in quickly and then wait for Xrays. He fractured his humorous. They didn't put it in a cast, but he needs to keep it in a sling for 3 weeks. he goes back on Tuesday so they can adjust the sling, his elbow was too swollen to get teh right position. He is doing pretty good, but it was a fairly stressful Saturday afternoon.

Knives in Schools

In the US kids are getting suspended from school for bringing a finger nail clipper. The other day Izzi, Xavier and I spent quite a bit of time studying and purchasing pocket knives for them to take to school. Xavier's class likes to whittle and Izzi needed one for field trips in case she "has to cut something".