odds and ends.

I know I've been terribly sporadic with the blogging lately, friends...some days, TOO MUCH! Other days, no blog in sight. Well, get ready for some overkill. I felt the need to post these photos/thoughts today, because--if nothing else comes up--we're going to spend the weekend in Locarno, an adorable town in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland (Ticino). I suspect I'll have more to post after we get back, but so as to avoid MASSIVE over-posting then, I'm settling for only SLIGHT over-posting today. Here are some random bits from the last few weeks.

Just so relieved that we didn't end up with an apartment at the top of these stairs--of which there are many in old town.

Hear them now and believe them later...this shoe store is here to POMP you up.

Throne chairs at Indian Palace restaurant. Pretty good food, but REALLY fun seating.

So the giant green glass thing dwarfs it, but on the left is the Freitag building--17 cargo containers they've put together to make a store, wherein they sell bags made entirely from recycled shopping bags. HOW UTTERLY COOL OF THEM.

Naturally, it wasn't open on the day we found it, but this is the markthalle at the viaduct: a giant shopping center/market built underneath an old, but still in-use, train bridge. NEATO.

My new favorite store: Bogen 33. Super cool secondhand store in a bomb-shelter basement. We WILL be buying something(s) there. 

Peace between teh kittehs! Temporarily, anyway.

Someone is growing forsythia (and other things) in a bathtub overlooking my street.

Utterly phenomenal chocolates from Belgium. Undoubtedly the best chocolates I've ever had. (Sorry, Belvedere: we had a good run, though.)

You know it's especially black and shiny because you can SEE me taking a picture of it. (For some reason, I thought it was hilarious that they needed to state that the front design was, indeed, black and shiny...)

We all know I'm not a huge fan of bottled coffee. This, however, is something entirely new and delectable. 

And there you have it, folks: a weird and disjointed photo survey of the things that strike my fancy on a daily basis. More to come.