We're going to need a couple of raincoats

The weather here in Basel has drastically changed since I posted about the heat on Monday. This morning when I got up to walk the pups it was 60 degrees and raining. Not a downpour by any means, but a steady rain that made it feel pretty chilly outside.

With that said, I quickly discovered this morning that I'm going to need to find two weenie dog-sized raincoats. Here in Basel I've only been able to find waterproof coats for them. They don't need coats yet, but something waterproof would be helpful.

As I've mentioned before, I never thought I would be one to put clothes on the dogs, but the raincoats would actually serve a purpose. Without a raincoat Tanner sulks along and proceeds to look absolutely pitiful for the entire walk. He is also constantly stopping to shake water off of himself. Toby, on the other hand, loves the water and could care less if he gets wet. The problem with him though is that long hair. When he goes out and it is raining, I'm pretty much forced to blow dry him as soon as we get back home. This gets really old, really fast. If I don't blow dry him he will immediately run around the apartment, jumping on anything possible, rubbing on couch pillows, rugs and other surfaces to try and dry himself off. Gross- I don't need the apartment smelling like wet dog all the time.

The search will be on when we come to the US in the next couple of weeks. I've added this to my growing list of things we need to buy while in Texas. If I'm going to walk them for three hours a day, even on the rainy days, I may need to invest in some waterproof pants for myself as well. I'll be outfitted in a whole slicker suit before you know it!

Sending out an untested product

For those of you who have somehow missed this, I really enjoy baking. Since we arrived in Switzerland, baking has been somewhat of a challenge, forcing me to convert all of my American recipes into metric measurements. It's a process.

The funny thing about my baking is that I typically don't eat a lot of what I bake. I like to bake for other people. In the US I would take half of what I baked to my office and send the other half with BK to his office. I also enjoy baking with people. My friend KR and I would often find recipes and give them a try, and typically when BK and I see our niece, HGM, I let her pick out anything she wants to bake and make it with her.

The thing that I've found a little strange in Switzerland is that I haven't just been sticking with the recipes that I know and have baked numerous times. For some reason, I find myself trying all of these new recipes that I find, or ones that someone over here suggests, which is what I did tonight.

One of BK's colleagues knows that I like to bake, and asked me one day if I ever baked cheesecake. She really liked it when she visited the US and had not been able to find anything like it in Europe. So I told her I would make cheesecake soon.

It's not something that I make often, and I especially don't make the kind that you bake in the oven. My mom has a recipe for cheesecake that you just have to let chill in the fridge, which is what I'm much more familiar with. But as I'm always up for a challenge, I decided I was going to bake a cheesecake...and here's how it turned out:

Nothing too overly exciting, but hopefully it's a good, solid cheesecake. I didn't make any toppings to go with it, but only because all of the good fruit that goes on cheesecakes is out of season here, so you either can't get it, or it is extremely expensive. The only other challenge I faced with this was that we don't have graham crackers over here. I used butter cracker/cookie type things as a substitution. When I crushed them up and mixed them with butter and sugar, the crust pretty much looked the same.

The only thing I don't like about making cheesecake? Because it's in a cake form, I am sending out an untested product. I really want to somehow sneak a bite just to make sure it tastes good and is up to the standard that I want, but it doesn't seem that it can be done. My other option is people thinking they got some kind of leftover cheesecake, from which someone has already eaten off of. I can't have that either. Oh well. BK will just have to let me know how it goes over tomorrow. I'll have to let you know.

In case you're interested, here's the recipe I used.

42: The Jackie Robinson Story

BK and I spent this past weekend relaxing, which was a nice change of pace. We weren't preparing for or trying to recover from a trip, and just spent time hanging out in Basel. We don't watch nearly as much TV over here as we did in the US, but Friday night we logged onto Apple TV and found 42: The Jackie Robinson Story to watch.

I've never really done any kind of movie or book review on the blog, but I thought this one deserved some space here. This is a really good movie and has even more of an impact because it's based on a true story. The movie takes you through Jackie Robinson's progression through the minor leagues and eventually to the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African-American baseball player in MLB.

I found the role of Brooklyn Dodgers GM Branch Rickey (played by Harrison Ford) very interesting. Whatever his underlying motivations were, he braved standing up for what he knew was the wrong practice, that is, having separate leagues for different color players. It was also eye opening to see that Jackie Robinson had to have felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

The cruelty that is displayed throughout the movie is tragic, but happened then, and still happens today in so many arenas. Something else that struck me as well was the number of white players who often said to Jackie Robinson, "I just want the chance to play ball." His reply back to them was the same, that he also just wanted the chance to play ball. Strange that so often when discrimination happens the group being discriminated against just wants an equal chance to have what is available to others- not to have something handed to them, but simply to have the opportunity.

A couple of other tidbits I picked up from the movie include:

• In 1997 MLB retired the number 42 for all teams; this is the first number in sports to be universally retired.
• The only exception to this is April 15, Jackie Robinson Day- which commemorates his first day in MLB, when all players wear the number 42 to honor the breakthrough he made.

This was a great movie to watch, and I would recommend it if you have the time. It's a great portrayal of two men and the lengths they went to alter the course of history.