Swimming and Opera

On Saturday afternoon we returned to the Zürichsee to go swimming.  We went to the Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen.  We secured a spot on the grass for our stuff and went to dip our toes in the water.  ZDG decided to get wet by diving off of the diving board.  We found a nice place with some shallow steps and slowly got more and more into the water.  It was a bit chilly at first, but comfortable once you were in.

There are a couple of floating docks about 50 meters from the shore and ZDG decided to take LGG with him.  I decided to try and join them, but quickly learned that swimming in a lake with lots of waves is very different from swimming in a pool.  Fortunately a couple of kind souls helped me back to shore before I got myself into more trouble.  After ZDG and LGG returned to shore, LGG and I stayed closed to the shore while ZDG continued to jump off the diving boards and swim to the dock.  After a break for ice cream and a little more swimming we packed our things up to look for dinner.

The previous night we had passed a barbeque stand on the fan mile set up for Euro 2008 and that was our goal.  After stopping for some Indonesian noodles for LGG we found the barbeque stand with the very long line.  The beef was good, the pulled pork okay, and ZDG was disappointed about the lack of potato salad and other traditional fixings, but what do you expect?  As we came closer to Bellevue and saw the huge stadium set up for Euro 2008 viewing, we noticed that the stadium was filled with people.  I guess they were taking advantage of a football-free night to broadcast a performance of Carmen.  There were no more seats left in the stadium, but we found a place where we could see the screen and we sat and listened for a little while.  And then we headed home.

Live from Utrecht, It's Sunday Night

I'm on the road this week, adding another country to my life list: The Netherlands. Right now, I'm in my hotel room in Utrecht, a large-ish university town about 25 km from Amsterdam, and it's a late Sunday evening.

Random observations gathered from Schipol airport and the trip here... This area is really, really flat. Yes, I have seen a stereotypical Dutch windmill. They sell tulips in bags in the airport. Dutch has an amazing number of vowels and reminds me of a strong mix of English and German; no doubt someone will point out the links between English, Dutch, and German...

Note: Spain has just won the Euro 2008 1-0 over Germany. BBC says this is the first major championship Spain has won since 1964. I'm sure it's noisy back home, as we have several neighbors who have been rooting for Spain...

And now off to bed. Cheers.

Kelly Green

I'm not a fashion expert or anything, but I'd have to say that this year's summer color is kelly green.  

It seems like a lot of Swiss bloggers are quiet this week and I would hazard a guess that they are on holiday, playing in the sunshine, or taking a nap when they can because it's too hot to sleep at night.  If we're not complaining about the rain, I guess we have to complain about the sun.  I spent Tuesday morning by myself and Tuesday afternoon with LGG hunting down another fan.  Our very important lesson learned for the day:  when taking the bus home at 5 pm, avoid the side of the bus that will be facing the sun.  Especially on the non-conditioned buses.  

During the Euro 2008 tournament, the Migros Familypark has been open.  It's set up near the China Garden at the south end of the fan mile.  There are climbing structures, slides, things to bounce on and other fun things to do for kids.  We decided to go down Friday evening because it would hopefully be less crowded and also there were only three more days.  We had visited previously almost two weeks ago, but it was raining and the bouncy things weren't set up.  Last night, a lot of Zürich was out, in their bathing suits, lounging wherever they could.  LGG enjoyed jumping and sliding, and then after dinner we walked along the Zürichsee feeding the ducks bread and putting our feet in the water.  It's about 70 °F -- so there's a chill when you get in, but it becomes bearable.  Even though it will be crowded, we may have to go back this weekend before ZDG goes to Amsterdam Sunday night.

Random bits of silliness

Here are some random bits of silliness from our world...

The man with two brains

On Sunday, we went to the same pool that ZMG and LGG had gone to the previous weekend - it was so hot we had to go swimming, and we didn't feel like dealing with sunscreen. This pool has a diving pool with 1- and 2-meter springboards and a 5(ish)-meter platform. LGG likes to jump in pools but had never used a springboard before, but I talked her into trying the lowest board and she loved it. In the end, we had to drag her away.

She: "Dada, if I'm brave and try the diving board, you can be brave and try the high dive."

Higher brain: "OK, sweetie." Directs body to climb ladder to high dive. Directs body to jump into water below. Ready for liftoff, we're in motion, everything is looking good.

Reptilian brain in self-preservation mode, with your grandmother's voice: "Exactly what do you think you're doing?! Stop that right now!"

Outcome: a very silly ZDG ends up frantically grabbing the rail at the end of the platform, dangles for a looooooooooooooong few seconds until he regains balance, and sheepishly walks back down to the 2-meter springboard. Look for me on Youtube - I'm sure someone will post the surveillance video!

Our silly LGG

We have the only 5-year-old on the planet who refuses to say goodbye or I'm sorry the easy way. Compare:

Normal 5-year-old saying goodbye in German: "Tschuss!" LGG: "Auf Wiedersehen!"
Normal 5-year-old apologizing: "I'm sorry." LGG: "I apologize."

To quote Dave Barry: "I swear I am not making this up."

The $500 Stereo Cable

To again quote Dave Barry: "I swear I am not making this up."

A certain company out there that markets high-end stereo equipment to people with more money than brains truly dedicated audiophiles is now selling a, um, cable. A very high-end cable, as you can see from the summary on Amazon.com:

"Get the purest digital audio you've ever experienced from multi-channel DVD and CD playback through your Denon home theater receiver with the AK-DL1 dedicated cable. Made of high-purity copper wire, it's designed to thoroughly eliminate adverse effects from vibration and helps stabilize the digital transmission from occurrences of jitter and ripple. A tin-bearing copper alloy is used for the cable's shield while the insulation is made of a fluoropolymer material with superior heat resistance, weather resistance, and anti-aging properties. The connector features a rounded plug lever to prevent bending or breaking and direction marks to indicate correct direction for connecting cable."

O.....K.... So if I understand this correctly, they are essentially selling a 1.5-meter-long Ethernet cable for 500 USD. You know, the kind you can get in 25 foot lengths for under 20 USD...

Needless to say, I'm not the only one surprised by this "deal". Check out the reviews on Amazon - they are classic. Personally, I think this one, this one, and this one are hysterical, but seriously, most of the reviews are classics. Please, if you do buy one of these cables, be sure not to plug it in backwards - you might cause a rip in the space-time continuum.

Thanks to one of my favorite blogs, boingboing.net, for sharing the link to the Amazon reviews. Great for a lot of laughter this morning.

Fitting in...

June is a big month for sales here in Zürich. This weekend, we decided to take advantage of the sales to get two items that are very common in Swiss households: a grill and man-capris.

LGG and I went off into the hot and humid weather by bus, and unfortunately, LGG lost her favorite pair of "cool cat Hawaiian" sunglasses - she was in tears and it took some time to calm her down.

After that crisis, I bought the last Weber grill they had, and as it was the floor model, I bargained the guy down a bit. It's easier than you think to do that in German: "Wie viel kostet? OK, aber es ist nicht in einer Karton. Konnen Sie kleiner machen?" (I didn't say it was good German, just that it works). Short version: 10% off, it was assembled for me, and they held it for us while we continued shopping.

Next stop: man-capris. Officially, these are called "3/4 hose", but they're capris, and they are very common on men here, so "man-capris" or "man-pris". LGG helped me pick a pair and as you can see in the picture below, I look somewhat silly in them (please note that I am also wearing the Swiss-standard ankle socks with my sandals - except they're not black). But they're much cooler than pants and dressier than shorts, so we'll see how they go.


We also got LGG a new pair of sunglasses - 30 CHF! (Note to self: lose sunglasses in the US.) She was thrilled to find a pair that look like cows:


She tells us they are "moo-ilific"...

We went back to get the grill, bussed home, went to the store for grilling supplies (real charcoal, not briquettes, and firestarter chunks, not lighter fluid) and food, and went home to cool off with lots of bubble water. Crisis: it's 20 minutes until the stores close and we have no beer! Crisis averted after a quick trip to get a nice Alpenzeller.

We inaugurated the grill on Saturday evening with bratwurst and schnecke (curly, skinny sausages whose name means snail), but realized in the process that our roof terrace is too dang hot for the summer, so we ate inside. Note to self: get an umbrella.

We wrapped up our hot, sticky Saturday with a semi-spontaneous trip down to the Euro 2008 Fan Zone in central Zürich. We stopped off for coffee and ice cream, and a chat with the friendly woman at the shop who hails from Washington, DC, and then watched the first half of the Netherlands-Russia match on the big lakeside screen, along with 500 of our closest friends. It turns out that having a 5-year-old along exempts one from security pat-downs - or at least I didn't get one on the way into the Fan Zone.

Finally, we waded back through the sea of fans - and Zürich youth, who seem to love spending weekend nights hanging around the downtown train stations, smoking, drinking beers, and flirting ostentatiously - and rode on home in time to watch the rest of the match.

Some potentially useful Swiss German sites

Earlier today I was clearing out my ridiculously full email inbox.  I drive ZDG nuts because I don't really file my messages.  I found an old message from our Swiss friend inviting us over for Zvieri at 4 pm for cake and coffee.  I decided to do some searches on the internet and ran across some useful websites about Swiss German.  Someone told me that it would be about three years before the Swiss German would click, but it couldn't hurt to learn a word or two every once in a while--especially since we receive notes from the teachers referring to things like Znüni (morning snack).  And Zvieri means afternoon snack.  According to this page, Znüni comes from zum Nüni (to/with 9 o'clock) and Zvieri comes from zum Vieri (to/with 4 o'clock).

So here they are.  Have fun!

A wikipedia entry on Helvetism.  This includes a long list of Swiss German words

A wikipedia entry on Swiss German linguistics.  

And this Swiss German Children's Dictionary.  

Later in the evening after I published this post I stumbled across this sticky from englishforum.ch listing resources for learning Swiss German.  

LGG's kindergarten trip to the zoo

Yesterday was LGG's field trip to the zoo and I have to admit I was a little nervous.  She doesn't tend to eat sandwiches, so I packed her some "pancake moons" (basically thin slices of very fat bratwurst) and a soft pretzel along with snacks and crossed my fingers.

The morning didn't start off well.  The only backpack we have for her is the one from preschool, which has wheels and a handle to pull it.  Which means it's not very comfortable to wear on your back.  The whole walk up the hill she complained about how much the backpack hurt.  But we made it to kindergarten and I told her we would get her a more comfortable backpack.  I waited with another mom to watch the kids march off (LGG in the last row of three).  It's pretty impressive, three adults chaperoning nineteen kids onto a trolley, two trams and the walk to the zoo.

ZDG and I had debated where to go out for lunch.  We both love to dine out.  I love to eat (and especially when someone else cooks and does the dishes) and ZDG likes to be out in a restaurant setting.  However, I just can't bring myself to pay Zürich prices for some of the food.  Zürich has a Michelin one star restaurant, but it's Asian fusion and I'm not sure I want to spend my dining CHFs on that type of food.  Maybe if someone else is paying.  So we decided to try the Indian restaurant near one of the bus/tram stops we frequently use.  I made a reservation (in German!) for us on the terrace because it was a lovely day.  The buffet had a small selection, but was also affordable and we thought the food was good.

I ran a couple more errands and then when back to the kindergarten to wait for LGG and her class.  And waited.  And waited.  I started to worry that my slow-poke daughter was slowing down the whole class, but then the first of the kids started running up the hill.  The teachers said that she did great and had played with the other kids (and napped on the bus home).  She says her favorite part was being in the beehive with a couple of other girls and saying "schneller, schneller" (faster, faster) to the boys swinging them around.  And she did eat the lunchmeat (well, the bag/foil holding it didn't return in the backpack) and most of her pretzel.

After a much needed water break we headed back to bus stop (LGG-"I want to go to another bus stop, I've already been to this bus stop twice today").  It was our last chance to play with LGF before she returned to the U.S.  While her parents were furiously cleaning the apartment LGG, LGF, and I blew bubbles and played football.  I then took them to a park where ZDG met us to play a little bit and then corral the girls back to the apartment.

A very full and tiring day!  

French and Italian are also useful

On Wednesday afternoon ZDG took LGG to see the doctor to have her fine motor skills evaluated.  And it was a good thing, because he was able to communicate with the doctor better than I probably could have.  My German is better than ZDG's because I studied German a long time ago in high school and one semester in college, but his French and Italian are way better than my German.  And the doctor's French and Italian were better than his English.  So ZDG and the doctor were able to communicate in French and Italian.  The doctor has recommended that LGG gets some physical therapy, but unfortunately there's a waiting list so she might not start until the fall.

I attended my first German class this week.  It's on Wednesday night from 8 to 10 pm so it's not my optimal learning time, but an easier time for ZDG to babysit.  There were nine students and I think it was the right level for me.  There's nothing like being in a classroom setting to make you actually speak the language.  Unfortunately the instructor didn't always correct the pronunciation of the other students, so that means he probably won't always correct my pronunciation.  But I'm sure that LGG will continue to do that for me ("Mama, why do you say it that way when it should be this way").  There are three more classes before the classes stops for summer holiday and then it will continue in August.

It turns out that the primary school associated with LGG's kindergarten will also offer German classes on Wednesday and Friday mornings in the fall.  However I wanted to get started with something and now that I have the books I can hopefully spend some of the summer holiday reviewing the first two thirds of the course that I theoretically already know according to the test (ack!).  

We don't get a lot of notice...

A couple of examples of being given short notice by the school system:

LGG's kindergarten teacher has noticed that LGG's fine motor skills are not quite where they should be, so with our agreement, she requested the school doctor evaluate her fine motor skills.  On Monday (ie two days ago), we received an "invitation" (Anmeldung) to visit the school doctor.  We could call and reschedule, but with the end of school approaching we thought that it was not a good idea to try and reschedule.  I guess there's a reason I check the mail every day.

This morning LGG came home with a flyer announcing that the class was going to the zoo tomorrow, and rather than the usual 8:20 am to 11:50 day, they would be in school from 10 am to around 3 pm.  We need to pack her a snack, lunch, and drink in a rucksack for her and fortunately we still have her preschool backpack from CO.  

What will I do with myself?  Originally I was going to run to IKEA in the morning to get more hangers, but now I have a lunch without LGG.  We'll have to see if there's a lunch date with ZDG or it's me and the meatballs.

An afternoon at the Hallenbad

It's June 14th and I'm pretty sure that it's outdoor pool season in Colorado (I just checked and where we used to live is currently 88 °F), but today in Zürich the high temperature was 63 °F.  So it's still indoor pool (Hallenbad) as opposed to outdoor pool (Freibad) time.  Since ZDG was going to be busy attending a conference in town all weekend, we decided to check out a pool suggested by the parent of one of LGG's kindergarten classmates.

Originally my plan was to eat lunch at home and then go to the pool, but ZDG called and had forgotten a crucial adaptor for his computer (he was giving a talk in the afternoon) so we needed to deliver it.  We met ZDG at the tram stop and headed to the pool.  This particular pool had a restaurant, so LGG had some chicken nuggets and I had a pair of wienerli, potato salad, green salad, and a roll.

We paid admission and after a couple of tries I finally figured out how to use my card to get through the gate (turn the card over so the scanner can read the bar code).  We went to one of the changing rooms to change into our bathing suits.  After a couple of visits to another pool we have learned that the lockers are not very wide, so it's important to bring your stuff in bags that will fit.  Also, you usually need a coin for the locker which you get back in the end.  At this place it was CHF 2.  We went downstairs and showered and went to the pool area.  There was a diving pool, a "swimmers" pool, a "non-swimmers" pool, and a two story water slide.

The "non-swimmers" pool was about four feet deep so LGG was happy that there were various pool floats that we could use.  Her favorite one was a red one that had a smiley face.  It reminded me of the Spitzbuben cookies that we see here.  The pool wasn't too crowded at this time and there were other floats available so I didn't feel to guilty about using it for so long.  We went back and forth many times, sometime with her on the float, sometimes with her holding onto and kicking.  Eventually she got cold and hungry so we went to the "picnic" area for snack (in the restaurant area they ask you not to eat food from home--however I sneaked LGG some grapes while we were waiting for her chicken nuggets).  

When we returned to the pool it had become more crowded and a two different groups of older kids were using all of the floats (ie stacking them up very tall).  At one point LGG tried to grab her favorite float from a stack and the boys told her no and offered her the blue surfboard float.  At this point she kind of broke down.  I remember hearing other parents talking about how emotional kids get at age five and we're certainly seeing more of that.  She didn't cry, but was close.  I talked to her about how it wasn't that nice that they were using all of the floats, but we would have to wait (I didn't think there was any point in saying anything to them).  

Eventually the older kids stopped playing with the floats and they became available.  However, I was too slow to get her favorite float.  We kind of stalked the family with the float until it became available, but another family grabbed it.  However I figured a parent might be more receptive than a kid so I asked in my bad German if we could have it when they were finished (I said:  Können wir haben, wenn fertig? and the correct way is:  Können wir das haben, wenn Sie fertig sind?  So I guess I'm still forgetting a lot of words).  He said yes and when they were done we took it for a couple of rides.  On our way out we went to check out the water slide.  We climbed up to the top, but she decided it was too scary so we took the stairs back downstairs.

We actually didn't stay as long as I thought we would.  I think the water was not as warm as the other pool we've been too and the other pool is shallower so maybe she was tired of not being able to stand on the bottom of this pool.  But she really liked the float so maybe we'll be back.  And I know that ZDG will like the diving pool and the water slide.

Our new evening ritual...

We've had some really big lightning and thunder storms recently.  Quite magnificent.  However, we're not too eager to have them fry our computers, so now when the storms start, we shutdown the desktop and unplug it and unplug the laptops from the wall.  

Switzerland was knocked out of the Euro 2008 last night by Turkey.  That games was played in Basel and it was *really* raining there.  Earlier in the evening Portugal defeated the Czech Republic.  In this area, the flags we see the most after Swiss flags, are Portugal flags.  We thought we would hear some celebrating, but it was relatively quiet.  

Bye Bye Tooth

A lot of people leave their hearts in San Francisco, but I've managed to leave a tooth in Zürich. Don't mind me as I go sulk in the corner.

ZDG and LGG are at the Gemeinschaftszentren (community center) but thunder just started up so I think they'll be home soon. I sent a text message requesting chocolate ice cream.

CHF 9 pretzels?!

This morning I went to the grocery store.  Almost every item has a bar code.  You have to weigh the produce and get a sticker that has a bar code with the total cost.  The only things that don't get bar codes are produce sold by the piece (ie some melons) and baked goods.  I picked up a couple of soft pretzels for a snack for me and lunch for LGG.  They were CHF 0.90 each.

When it was time to check out,  I noticed two items scanned for CHF 9 each.  I'm usually aware when I buy expensive items, so I asked the cashier which items were CFH 9.  It turns out she entered the wrong code.  Whew, that was close.  The pretzels are good, but not *that* good.  

First Weekend of Euro 2008

We had a fun and busy weekend.  

Our longtime friend A arrived on Saturday.  He was in Europe for business and had the opportunity to route himself through Zürich.  His arrival also coincided with the first weekend of the Euro 2008 Football championship.  We contemplated whether to watch the games at home or downtown in the "Fan Zone" and decided it was best to watch the games at home so LGG could play.  It was a little too overcast to go up to the Uetliberg, so we thought it might be fun to go downtown to see what was going on.  Food booths and TV viewing areas were set up all over the place.  We had a late lunch at a kebab place in the Niederdorf, stopped by Coop City to pick up souvenir chocolate, fed the ducks at Burkliplatz (if it sounds like we do that a lot, it's because it's true).  LGG had a bratwurst, we visited our favorite climbing tree in the Arboretum, and then ZDG and LGG rode the big ferris wheel.  We then went the the Sprüngli cafe at Paredeplatz for some refreshments and Luxemburgerli.  We then headed home and watched Switzerland play well against the Czech Republic, but they lost.

On Sunday Morning, our mutual Swiss friends joined us for brunch.  And they brought the Nespresso machine, so everyone had coffee.  After eating and chatting for a little while we went for a walk in the woods and then returned to have the dessert.  (LGG thought the brown part (the cake) was good but she didn't like the pink stuff (Raspberry mousse)).  Mutual Swiss friends had driven over, so they took A and his large bag into the city to drop it off at the Hauptbahnhof and we joined them shortly later.  We found them at the 01 Bar on the Limmatquai.  Beers were consumed and afterwards we continued to wander around.  At the base of the Fraumünster was a living statue busker.  LGG enjoyed chasing it around and received a lollipop for her efforts.  The final set of the French Open was being shown in many places and we stopped in a tent to watch the end of the match and have some brats and refreshment.  We walked along the canal and then back to the Hauptbahnhof to see A off.

Monday night was the first game played in Zürich.  The son of ZDG's colleagues had been chosen to accompany the players at the game, so we invited ourselves over to watch the game with mom and little sister while dad and big brother was at the game (their TV is also way bigger than ours).  We did see big brother for two seconds before the cameras moved away.  LGG had fun playing with little sister while we watched the game and chatted.  

This afternoon LGG and I wandered back downtown to feed the ducks at Burkliplatz.  I wonder if fewer people have been coming down to feed them, because they seemed a little more eager than usual.  When we sat down to have a snack, LGG learned why it's not always a good idea to sit under a tree, but fortunately it was a small bird and I had wipes with me.  

Reasons to learn German/Swiss-German

For the most part I can function with my very basic German.  No deep conversations, but I can ask for help, purchase things, and be polite.

However, there are several reasons I need to get up to speed:

1. So I can understand and talk to kindergarten and neighbor kids.  

2. So I can talk to the parents of other kids.  In LGG's class of nineteen kids, four of them are kids with parents that speak English.  Two of those families will be leaving this summer.  And there might be more kids with English-speaking parents that we haven't met yet.  But that's still a lot of non-English-speaking parents that I can't talk to (beyond hello, it's a pretty day, etc.).

3. So I can understand the message on the dentist's phone.  Fortunately ZDG's office mate can kind of understand Swiss-German and was able to tell me the phone number of the dentist's other office.  Unfortunately the tooth that we're trying to save by root canal fractured a little bit today.  I wanted to find out if I needed to be seen immediately, or if it could wait until next week.  I'm trying to not let it get me down too much, but it's frustrating to have dental issues in another country.  

LGG didn't have school yesterday or today due to teacher training.  I knew it at one point, but forgot, so we did not have alternative activities arranged.  And it's raining again (which is nice temperature-wise but harder to play at the playground).  I love the little girl, but sometimes she will not stop talking.  Last night we had LGF and parents over for playtime and dinner and this weekend we'll have a visitor and a brunch to keep us busy.  And some Euro 2008 football matches to watch (2 a day for 12 days).

Things I wished we had moved, Version 1

When we moved from the US to Switzerland, we thought of it as an opportunity to purge our possessions.  Throughout the summer and fall I spent a lot of time on Craigslist and Freecycle finding people willing to pay or take our surplus of stuff (like my big bag of leftover yarn, or the excess fabric from my curtains).  We also were not sure how much of our moving expenses ZDG's employer would cover, so we were motivated to move as little as possible.

Here is the start of the list of things that I wished we had moved.  All easily replaced, but you still feel silly for leaving them behind.

1. French Press Coffee Maker.  

We received one for our wedding 14 years ago.  However we rarely used it.  I didn't drink coffee regularly (not after breaking an expensive piece of glassware during an internship a long time ago) and ZDG mostly drank coffee at work or when in Europe.  It was glass and breakable, so we decided to sell it.  

This weekend one of our friends is visiting, and we're having him and our mutual Swiss friends (he introduced us to them) over for Sunday brunch.  And we don't have a coffee maker of any sort!  Hopefully tea will provide enough caffeine.  We are contemplating buying some sort of coffee maker, but I think we need to do a little more research (ZDG really likes the Nespresso machine one our friends have).

2. Keyboard

We had a mini electronic keyboard.  I don't know what I was thinking but I was in purge and eliminate mode.  Now it would be useful for paying melodies of songs for LGG.  Currently I have to do it on the Xylophone, which only has eight notes.  We also have a harmonica, but I haven't figured out all of the notes on it (it's a 20-hole Mississippi).  If we get desperate, our downstairs neighbor has a piano so I can see if I can use it.  A couple of LGG's friends take keyboard lessons at the nearby music center, but she still says she wants to learn violin.  We'll see if we end up getting a keyboard of some sort.

How to ensure a good dream, and what happens if you touch a slug's butt

LGG told us today that she had a bad dream last night - apparently she was swinging in "a spider web swing" when "deep water" came.  It took us a while to work out that she meant a flood came and washed things away.  I think she had this dream because it was pouring rain last night and she was subconsciously aware of it.

She was worried about the dream coming back, so she wanted to know how to stop it.  I gave her some tricks to try -- imagine a tree full of butterflies to look at, or slugs to poke*, or silly games with me or ZMG -- and told her if that didn't work, she should call us and we'd come to give her hugs.

It looks like LGG decided to take action herself:

That is our old buddy, Biko the Gorilla, hugging her. 

*It has been raining here a fair bit recently, and LGG is fascinated by the slugs that are coming out.  We had dinner with some friends on Saturday, including a stroll through the countryside nearby, and our friends showed her what happens if you touch the eyestalk of a slug.  Since then, she has been asking, "When can I do that again?" and as we cleaned the bathroom together tonight, "Daddy, what happens if you touch a slug's butt?  Can I try it?"  Yet another entry on the list of questions I never expected to be asked...