Lagging Behind

Well, I'm behind on my blogging. I've been sick and not felt up to a big blog update. I've been staying busy with AWCA activities and preparing for my parents' visit. I went to Venice, Italy last week with several women from the club, and I need to post about that for you guys too. This past weekend we did a little shopping in Rotterdam and layed low. We have lots of trips coming up during my parents' visit so we wanted to take it easy. I did take one picture in Rotterdam I thought you guys would find interesting.

This is a "coffee shop". From the looks of it they offer more than just coffee. We didn't go in, but I'm assuming that little green leaf is also on the menu. Maybe I'll investigate further when Eric's cousins come to visit in May. We'll be doing several days in Amsterdam then.

We also have Oscar again this week while Stephanie and Mike are back in the States wrapping up some wedding planning. He's still cracking us up. Today we took a nap together on the couch since I'm a little under the weather. I think Oscar was having an intense dream because I woke up to him quietly barking in his sleep! Could it be he was remembering that big hunk of bacon he scored the other weekend? Eric is such a pushover.

The other day when we came home I couldn't find him anywhere. I started to get worried and then I realized he was snoozing in one of the living room chairs. I don't know how he got up there. He's short and has a bad back so I didn't think he could make the jump up. I guess I was wrong.

Another quirk of Oscar's is that he will only eat if you are at home with him. And he doesn't like to eat out of his bowl. He likes to dump his food out first then eat it off the floor. Usually he dumps it in a small pile beside the bowl. But more recently he's decided that he'd rather dump it out in a long string spanning the length of the entire living room. So this is what meal time looks like:

Tomorrow we head to Berlin for the Easter weekend. We get back Monday night and my parents arrive Tuesday afternoon. I'm sure I'll continue to lag behind since we'll be doing so much with them. I'll try. Maybe I should lower my expectations and be okay with shorter posts for you guys. Hope everyone is well!

Dogs, Dinners and Dances - Oh My!

Hello, All! Still having a great time here staying busy with all the great new friends we've made. Eric was getting jealous of my social calendar, so I tried to fit in a few husband-friendly events towards the end of the week.

Last week we watched my friend Stephanie's dog, Oscar, while she was in Berlin and Normandy with her dad and brother. It was nice having a critter around. Oscar is 17 years old, so he's pretty set in his ways. But he kept Eric and I laughing with all his quirks and grunts. He usually sleeps about 20 hours a day and the other four he's mildly awake for 3.5 hours and semi-energetic for the other half hour.

Here's Oscar before I try to rouse him for a walk:

And once he finally decides to acknowledge me:
A big stretch before a walk:
And I asked him to pose for this one:

Wednesday I went on a tour of Antwerp's City Hall. We had a great tour guide who was very informative and I really enjoyed hearing the history of the building. And it was a treat to see the inside since it's often off limits to tours when official city business is being conducted.

These are pictures of the front facade of City Hall which faces into the Grote Markt.

In the summer, flags of 63 (i think) different countries are hung on all the flagposts. I'm looking forward to seeing that. I'm sure it's really colorful.

And this is a mural that hangs in the wedding room. Everyone who wishes to get married in Antwerp must first come to City Hall for an official civil ceremony. Then you can go on to have a ceremony in your church of choice, or use the space available in City Hall for a reception. There are several murals on the walls of the wedding room all depicting wedding from different eras. This picture depicts a wedding from the 15th century. The bride and groom (the names escape me) were both traveling and were supposed to meet in Antwerp to wed. A special church was even built just for their wedding here in Antwerp. But the story goes that they met one day earlier in a town just north of Antwerp and they couldn't wait one more day to marry so they married in that town and the Church built for them was never used. The story also goes that the groom/prince dies early in life and the bride/princess can't accept it so she travels around Europe with his body and goes a bit crazy.

Thursday I went on a tour of a local micobrewery, the 'T Pakhuis. We got to sample their three beers, Atwerps Blond, Antwerps Bruin, and Nen Bangelijke. We were told that Bangelijke is slang used by college age kids and it means "extremely good". I'm guess they think it's extremely good because its alcohol content is 9.5%!

Thursday night a group of friends went to dinner at Las Manas. Steph, Mike (her fiance), and Steph's brother and dad were in Antwerp before heading out to Normandy so we all decided to get together for some Spanish food. It's Mike, Stephanie, Eric, Me, Nicole (remember her from when I went to the indoor ski place?), her husband, Sean, then Jason, Steph's brother, and Steph's dad.

After dinner we headed to De Vagant for some Jenever. Jenever is a form of gin that comes in many, many flavors. So far I've tried sour pear, blood orange, kiwi, mango, vanilla, tripple berry, citroen, chocolate, and apple. They're served cold in shot glasses and I think they are intended to be sipped. I'm not saying that's always how they go down, I'm just saying some people sip, some don't.

And on Saturday night we attended the American Women's Club's annual Diamond Gala. It's a fundraiser and the charity chosen to benefit this year was Het Spinneke which means "the spider". The purpose of the organization is to help create a network, or web (hence the name), for families with handicapped children. There's a silent auction to help raise money. There were 40 items on which to bid ranging anywhere from paintings to trips to certificates for spas and dinners at Antwerp restaurants. I helped to prepare for the auction by way of wrapping the gift baskets so I knew what would be available. And early into the evening I had my eye on a hand-painted tea box from Hindeloopen, Holland. I watched the bids, and right before bidding closed, I made my move.

And here's my new tea box:



We had a really fun time. I got my hair done, and we got all dressed up. Dinner was great, and Nicole, Sean, Eric and I were the last four on the dance floor.

Sean and Nicole:

Putting those accounting skills to use... helping to tally up the auction proceeds. We made over 12,000Euro!
Once the auction was wrapped up, we could finally get our boogy on. Nicole and Sean dance to Meatloaf:
I think Nicole even got some video of us dancing. I'll see if I can get my hands on that to upload for your viewing pleasure!

And, of course, one of my hair:

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up last week. We still haven't decided on what to do this weekend. Maybe a day trip somewhere?

Oh, and one more thing..... do none of you people find Ausfahrt funny? Have you no sense of humor at all? I thought I'd get at least a comment or two on that one. You disappoint me!