Nyon

We finally made it to Nyon Saturday afternoon..Too late for lunch at the Indian Restaurant but did find a nice place with Crepes which hit the spot. Nyon is a nice town with a mix of modern and old. We walked around a 15th century castle and then checked out the "American" store. It was fun!

Tigger and Telly's Secret Life

Ran into our neighbors early Saturday as I was on my way to the town bakery to get some fresh bread...they were sooo excited! "Do you have time this morning?...We'd like to show you where we've been taking your dogs...it's so perfect!!!" Well we had already cancelled our trip to Annecy and were now leaning on a 1/2 day trip to Nyon so what the heck..."Sure!" So we gathered the dogs and Dedi and I stepped out of our apartment. Mdme Rhoner looked at the leash and chastised me..."No leash". She's Swiss German and I've learned to obey her, quickly...I promptly removed the leashes and we crammed into our mini-orange elevator and headed out. Her husband openned the front door and Tigger and Telly dashed outside leaving behind only whooosh sound and a trail of flying dog hair. I stepped outsdie to find them sitting obediently in the back of their Subaru, waiting for their treat! We then drove to a wildlife refuge where we proceeded to hike about 3km to a beautiful valley surrounded by trees and with a small creek. We then sat there enjoying the fall weather and watching Tigger and Telly running thru trees, in and out of the creek, fighting over sticks...it was quite entertaining. We then headed back, happy to have seen what our dogs do when we are at work!

Cheers, Dave

indian Summer

We've have some incredibly nice weather the last few days. One interesting scene was the sheep outside our work window, busy doing their periodic lawn mowing. Quite the system. Not as fast as gas powered but a neat eco solution.


Went out Thursday after work and did some fun albeit muddy mountain biking and Friday at lunch I did a 30km loop to Cully. I'll start by saying that I did not get hurt. I did however slide into a car that abruptly turned in front of me. The driver did not realize that I was riding along side him in the bike lane. I almost avoided the car but in the end scraped his side door, lost my balance and fell. The driver was very appologetic but the only damage was to his car..Fortunately when I fell the impact area was my left buttock which gave me some nice shock absorption. Not a scratch on me or bike. Still a good lesson to me to be even more cautious around traffic...

Brenna and Aubrey had a halloween dance at school and both had a fun time. It's interesting how the Haloween tradition is spreading here. All the stores are stocked up with costumes and decorations.

Today we were planning to go to Annecy, France by train but we instead decided to sleep in and plan a shorter day trip. We'll be heading to Nyon, Switzerland which should be quite nice on this beautiful day. I was there (by bike) last week and it looked quite interesting. It also has an indian restaurant (oh, how we miss spicy food) and an American store that even stocks Peter Pan peanut butter! Life is good!

Cheeers, Dave

Brenna Finishes 1/4 Marathon!

555. Fisch Brenna 91 St-Sulpice VD 1:00.39,7

Not bad! Almost 10 minutes better than her goal!

Still Truckin

It's been a while since I've posted anything so here it goes...We're all doing well, settling in to the transition from Summer to Fall...leaves are changing, the air is a bit more crisp, and the days are shorter. I'm going to miss the summer...Sure would like to hear from more of you! I'm half tempted to stop this blog and start dumping directly to your email boxes!

Dedi is doing well with her new job in Geneva. She is also wrapping up her work on her Masters of Science Degree. Hopefully she will have her thesis done by the end of this month. Brenna and Aubrey are doing well in school. Brenna just took her PSAT tests...time does seem to be flying by!

Had a Dr. check up and was immediately sent to a cardiologist as they thought it was abnormal for my heart rate to run between 40 and 50 beats/sec...I tried to explain that this was the result of biking too much but was told, better safe than sorry...So I went to the cardio guy and he gave me a clean bill of health...Actually he said I was at 150% of my maximum capacity, whatever that means...

So I went back to my doctor for the follow-up....."Ok your heart is good but you weigh too much!" She then showed me the 1950 vintage chart and told to drop 8Kg ...(about 18 pounds). This would put me about 10 pounds below my highschool weight! We negotiated down to 4 Kg. which is probably fair and good motivation to step up my fitness level...Also my cholesterol has climbed up a bit since switching to the swiss diet of cheese, bread, wine and of course chocolate....(4 food groups no?)

So in the last week I've biked pretty hard...Climbed Mont Tendre in 1 hour 1 minute. I did the math and this translates to about 270Watts of sustained power assuming my bike has 100% efficiency...not bad..especially since this was after a 30km ride to get to the start.

Then on Thursday I rode to Montreux and back...about 78km...averaged 30.2Km/hour solo including stops, traffic etc...Today I rode to Nyon (about 40km) but went easy out and hard back.

Nyon is a beautiful city..we'll have to swing by there soon! Found an interesting Indian restaurant and an American grocery store! They even had peanut butter jars larger than 4 ounces! Prices though were through the roof

Other news...Brenna is running in a quarter Marathon tomorrow with our friend Cheryl. Brenna has been training hard and consistently! I hope she has fun and meets her goal of 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cheryl had the foresight to invite her marathon friends from Canada and two have arrived for the race...So if any of you runners are reading this...think about coming out for next year's Lausanne marathon!

Aubrey's into the skateboarding world and skates as often as she can (sometimes too much and unfortunately getting her grounded!). She's hooked up with some good kids at her school and they often meet at a local park in Lausanne. She also just celebrated her 14th birthday! We had a nice time but her birthday fell right on the October holiday so most of her friends were out on vacation.

So that's it for now....send me a note sometime!

Cheers, Dave

Head Cold or Not

Despite a week of hacking and coughing, I was in Sophia Antipolis France this week presenting a paper. I took some fun shots in Antebes...Lot of boat money there!

By the weekend I was feeling better and Dedi and Cheryl joined me for a pleasant Sunday ride. It was quite pretty out!

Vegetable Butterfly

Thought you might enjoy this art work displayed last week at the 2006 Comptoir Suisse...basically the equivalent of a small state fair. We enjoyed some wine and cheese tasting and all in all it was nice way to spend a Sunday.

Cheers, Dave

Hands Free Map?

After a week of good weather and a beautiful Saturday (which I wasted running errands and shopping) Sunday arrived like a flash flood. It was cold and raining putting a bit of a damper on my planned bike ride with two friends.
I had been looking forward to this ride all week...a 65km ride into the Jura mountains with a killer 10 Km stretch that climbs 1600 meters (1 mile elevation gain!)...

Knowing my propensity for getting lost, I crafted a velcro map holder and Dedi helped me laminate a few map cut-outs showing the route.Now I could ride with my hands on the 'wheel' and check my map at the same time! I was ready!

I polished off my breakfast burrito, hoping to store some energy for the ride. It was about 7:00 am and we were all meeting at 8:00, rain or shine.
I heard a few beeps but couldn't quite make out what was making the noise...The computer was dormant, the microwave was off..
It was only as I was packing up my camelback and heading out the door that I saw the text messages on my cell phone that basically read.."Sorry Dave, but I'm not about to go out in this insane weather..." or "You've got to be crazy to think I'd go out in this x#$**y weather....

Probably wise decisions but with my monster burrito at work and my mind set on trying out my new hands-free map holder, I decided to go for it and hope for a weather break.

I got out about 8:15 and took it easy as I warmed up in the rain. I had been given general directions to get to the starting point of my map, with that famous saying "You CAN'T miss it" ...

Well with visibility at about 10 feet, I did manage to do just this...and getting lost in Swtizerland on a Sunday morning is problematic at best and worse when the weather is bad. Everything is closed and most reasonable people stay indoors.Those that are out would rather avoid soaking wet, lycra clad bicyclists...My map was in place but only served to let me know that I was off the map!

I did however find a few hardy and friendly souls who helped get me quasi-oriented and wished me 'bon courage'. With their help and a bit of wandering down wrong hills and villages too small to be on any map, I was finally back on track...

37 km later I arrived at the foot of Montricher drenched but eager to find out what the climb would be like. Despite having 10 switchbacks, the small paved road up the mountain was well marked and surrounded by trees cutting the wind and promsing perhaps a better ride.

The climb from Montricher to Mont Trendre was as intense as advertised. My road bike lowest gear is 37/27 which basically means, even in it's easiest gear it doesn't like to go up anything steeper than a Colorado driveway..
I was standing up on the pedals for most of the climb but amazingly I started to feel good at about 7km. Must have been the Burrito...I notched up the bike a few gears and started to feel like I was a contender for the King of the Mountain jersey. 1 hour and 10 minutes and I was at the top...I was pretty pleased with this, as based on other rider's experiences (in good weather too) I had expected a time closer to 2 hours.

I got off my bike and noted that along with being soaked to the bone, my feet were frozen numb..It was now pouring pretty hard and windy. Views would have been nice on a good day, but today all I could see was white...There was a barn at the top, and I couldn't find a way in to get some shelter... So I did my best to wring out my clothing and put on a rain jacket without getting soaked again.. I then headed back down.

The ride down was fast and scary...very limited braking ability and lots of wet leaves on the road..Topped 55km/hour (25km/hour over the speed limit) despite doing my best to slow down...Still I managed to keep the rubber between me and the road and was soon pedaling from Montricher back home.
Called Dedi when I was about 10 minutes out and she prepped a hot bath for me...After 79km and 4 hours of riding time I was home and immersed in hot water! Absolute heaven!

We finished the evening off with some good cheese Fondue and I'm feeling great!

Hope you all are well and that your Sunday was dryer and at least as pleasant as mine!
Cheers,
Dave