NERD ALERT

Things have finally settled back into a routine in this Swiss household. The last two weeks were school holidays, and the kids were off for two weeks - not just off of school, but all other extra-curricular activities. While the kids were with their grandparents two days out of each week, it's really exhausting to have two small children for 10-11 hours a day, especially when you can't communicate well. Last week I went out almost every night to get away. This week I'm staying in - for two reasons. One, I'm exhausted. Two my friend Heather just lent me a big, fat book and I'm devouring it.

Tonight is a perfect book-reading night - it's cold, rainy, and there is a beautiful fire roaring in the fireplace. I'm so excited to curl up with my book, and go to sleep early. Tomorrow I have the afternoon off, and needless to say, I am so excited to have hours to sit and read. I might even build a fire if it's cold and rainy.

Some of you might be wondering what book I'm reading... ok fine. I didn't want to tell you because it's so nerdy. I'm reading Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, the third book in the Eragon series. Lame, nerdy, I know, but I've invested in the first two books, I have to read this one. And I just found out he's working on a fourth book, so it's no longer a trilogy, it's a cycle. Great. I'm going to be bound to nerdy dragon books for a while.

I mean, there's a dragon on the cover. How nerdy is that? I took this with my macbook, which is a mirror image camera - that's why the text is backward. And nerd glasses to go with the nerd book.

Speaking of nerds and dragons, my brother and I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire together a few years ago. Lawrence and I read nearly all of the books together, with the main exception being the 7th book, as he was in Ireland and I was in the States when it printed. Anyway, Lawrence and I share a special Harry Potter bond, and while were in the the theater, making fun of all the nerds dressed up like Harry, we noticed the guy in front of us was drawing a dragon. Not just a little dragon on a scrap of paper, a big dragon on a huge sketch pad. And it really was a very good sketch. Lawrence points it out, we quietly laugh at what a nerd that guy was, and then Lawrence says (loudly), "What a nerd! Who let him out of the nerdery? And that dragon sucks. I could draw a dragon that could puke on that dragon." And I was SO embarrassed, but I was laughing so hard, because for some reason I think my brother is hilarious, and I think I cried because I was laughing so hard. And then I reminded him that we, too, were (are) nerds, and even though we thought we were cool, we were still at the midnight showing of a Harry Potter movie. And after the movie, in true nerd form, we talked about how wrong it was from the book, and how the book was better, and got angry at how they changed it, and then we probably went to Krispy Kreme and tried to eat whole donuts in one bite, but it gets a little fuzzy at this point.

Well, that's it for now. I'll let you know if the book is any good.