Game of Thrones

A quick shout-out for my favorite fantasy series thus far - A Song of Ice and Fire. It's a seven book series, four of which have been published - Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, Storm of Swords, and Feast of Crows. I'm on the third one book right now and haven't been able to put them down since I started (maybe getting the Kindle was not such a smart thing after all).

The books are special because of the way they are written. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a character, so you see the shades within each character. There are no heroes or villains and you will start loving characters that you previously hated. The plot surprises you constantly. The storyline is unpredictable and complex, but totally believable once it's revealed.

HBO is planning a TV series with one season per book. The first season should start next year depending on how the pilot goes.

Why we travel

NYT's new photo exhibition asks readers to post their favorite summer travel pictures. Check out this gallery

This would be my addition. It's not as glamorous as the others, but this was the highlight from our summer travels.

The picture is of Gimmelwald. It's a 700 year old, car-free village located in the Lauterbrunnen valley in Switzerland. The village was able to escape development because a school-teacher got it declared as an avalanche zone. You can "tour" the village in 20 minutes by foot. You'll see a line of houses with drying laundry, tricycles and piles of firewood outside (See Rick Steves' article here).

We hiked the 2.5 hour distance to Murren, a more developed car-free village. The hike was picture-perfect with a background soundtrack coming from cow bells.

Switzerland has tons of tourists, but the real Switzerland is only a 20 minute train, car or cable car ride away.

How smart is your right foot?

Try this. I know some of you will get a "kick" out of it.

1. Without anyone watching you and while sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles with it.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand... Your foot will change direction!

Mine did and there was nothing I could do about it.

Apparently, one trick is to say "6" every time you draw "6". Even that didn't work for me.