Geneva Graffiti - Part 1 of many I hope

Hello all,

As a response to my friend Chris' blog graffiti stories, I thought I would share some of Geneva's fun graffiti here too.

I will try to upload a few a week now that I have a proper camera on my new phone.

Here the first two shots, captured just round the corner from University in the Plainpalais area.

Back online - and it's about time!

Some of you might have heard that I was battling with my hosting provider after months of not being able to post here. It is FINALLY resolved!

I had cervical osteoarthritis and severe pain in my neck and right arm. The prodecure I went through is called "Cloward's procedure". The disk between my C5/C6 vertebrae was removed, the bone spurs closing the spinal canal also and the disk replaced by a carbon box.

It spent a week in hospital and now started my recup time (could be up to 6 weeks off work). I will keep you guys posted here.

New Painting

The painting I bought arrived home yesterday. A Jeff Schaller's encaustic painting, it conveys carefree happiness in an inspiring fashion.

I fell in love with it in the art gallery ... and now it hangs in my living room (OK at a certain cost but hey!). Would be glad to hear what you think!

Louise RIP

My beautiful cat -- Louise -- died a few weeks back and I still can't quite get used to her absence... to the fact that she won't come under my cover and sleep on my arm while I read in bed in the evening, that she is not there when I get home, waiting for a cuddle and to play in the staircase. It is a weird feeling after 13 years of almost daily life together.

I lost a lot of sleep in the past months thinking of the day I would have to take her to the vet for the last time. As I saw her become weaker and weaker, I knew that the end was getting closer. One day there was no more escaping the hard reality. She could not really eat anymore, was getting thinner by the day and almost never moved from het cot in the kitchen. The time had come.

We took her to the vet for what would be the last shot. In the waiting room I had trouble keeping my tears back especially when another customer saw her and said how gorgeous she was. And this is true, even in her last moments she was still utterly gorgeous: big green eyes, tiny pink nose, beautiful grey coat.

Lately, her Mom Bonnie, who is the only remaining cat in our house, has taken up the habit of miaowing frantically from the top of the house. Is she looking for Louise? Is she lonely, bored? Does she do that only when we are home? Should we get a kitten to keep her company?

Complicated (and gritty) keyboards

Complicated (and gritty) keyboards
Originally uploaded by egoes

Here a pic taken by my friend Enrique while on the road in Thailand. Made me smile because I have had quite a few keyboard discussions recently, so it just seemed fitting.

Let me tell you more about why keyboards are a topic of discussion...

My work keyboard has a broken "leg"... that is, it won't stay level and it is driving me bananas. So I ventured out and starting looking at potential replacements.

I fell in love with the flat Mac keyboard, sooooo "sweet" but the alt and apple key are reversed compared to a PC keyboard (sigh). I guess I would get used to it :-)

Then I thought that a keyboard with a touchpad (aka a cat) would be cool to have. With that I could reduce the time my arm spends extended over a mouse and -- thus -- help reduce my shoulder tendinitis (still going on - re-sigh). I found a few but so far it does not look good for a Swiss French layout (re-re-sigh).

Then my friend Chris asked if he could borrow a keyboard to enter some stuff faster into his iTunes library. "Sure!" I said. Off I went and found my old keyboard in the attic (white - yuk!) and happily brought it with me for him. Silly me forgot that the PS/2 adapter is no more a fixture on modern laptops (re-re-re sigh). ended up having to "borrow" a keyboard from a colleague's desk... but don't tell anyone!

So you see keyboard are at the forefront on my mind these days. Fascinating life I live!