NaNoWriMo camp!

Happy Easter everyone! Here in Switzerland, everything pretty much closes up for both Good Friday and Easter Monday, so B and I have been enjoying a quiet weekend. I actually finished my crochet basket already - largely aided by the hours that B and I have been sunk into Battlestar Galactica. We made a big run on both groceries and gardening supplies yesterday, the only day out of four (Fri-Mon) that places were open. I've become a true Swiss, much to B's amusement; I knew we wouldn't be able to get to a grocery store for two whole days (!) so I ended up with a page-long shopping list. We've been doing a fair amount of cleaning and straightening to prep the apartment for viewing.

From tripadvisor. I forgot to take pictures.

There are still some restaurants and bars open - on Friday night B and I went to tibits, a restaurant near the Opernhaus that a friend introduced me to earlier this week. They are open throughout Easter weekend, and we very well might end up going back tomorrow. The restaurant is a self-serve buffet, entirely vegetarian, and has an amazing variety of food - cold, hot, veggies, fried - that is constantly replenished. You pay after you fill your plate - by weight - and it's one of the few places I've been to in Zurich where you can eat your fill for around 20 CHF (1 CHF is around 1.1 USD). Even B, carnivore that he is, very much enjoyed it. It's the first place I've been to that has gone on my mental list of definite places to take visitors.

Also from tripadvisor.

We woke up to daylight savings time and snow this morning - I'm hoping that tomorrow April will usher in more spring-like weather (still no start on the balcony garden). April also ushers in Camp NaNoWriMo! For those who may not be familiar with National Novel Writing Month, it's a sponsored event in November in which people (regular people, not fancy real novelists) attempt to write 50k of a story over 30 days - an average of 1,334 words per day - while continuing their regular, craze-filled life. I've attempted it twice in the past three years, and failed both times - I got to around 35k words, but inevitably laundry, chores, or my experiments and dissertation got in the way the last week.

In addition to the official NaNoWriMo, their sponsors have started virtual "camps" at two other times during the year - April and July. These camps allow writers to set their own goals - a certain word count, revising or finishing other stories, etc. I've got a story outline and plan to go traditional - 50k words written in 30 days. Hopefully without a dissertation and with the support of B (who always does the dishes), I'll finish this time! As always at the beginning, hopes are high and views are optimistic. I'd love for anybody who is interested to join me - I have one friend who has expressed interest in making it her goal to finish a scientific paper manuscript.