MY Birthday

Gregory, amazingly, without my knowing bought a huge cake for me and (the even trickier part) got me to the skate park where everyone was going to be. When I got there a beautiful David Bowie cake was waiting for me, garnished with fruit and everything. It was delicious. I was so surprised. And today it's snowing!

ah shit

yeah, its been a while since I've written. Nothing really exciting is going on. Yesterday was St. Nicholas Day here in Belgium. That's when SinterKlaas arrives from Spain on his boat with his "helpers" zwarte pieten. Also known as black petes. Its a holiday just for children so we bought, I mean SinterKlaas left at our house, 2 remote control trucks for the twins. They loved 'em.
it snowed here once so far. I know its nothing to what you guys are getting back home, but for Belgium it was a pretty decent snowfall. We also have our decorations up. Since we're poor and don't really have enough for decorations, I went with the paper snowflake theme. Well, its not that we can't afford decorations per se, its just that they're expensive and we have finacial obligations which keep us from spending frivolously.

so the pictures you can see our tree, my pink and blue snowflakes on the window, some white snowflakes hanging from a shelf, and some stars hanging from the archway. Mom sent me a link from hallmark on how to make stars from greeting cards so I tried it. We also have snowflakes in our bathroom. There are a few other random decorations aswell, so I think for not being able to spend a butt load of money on decorations we did alright for ourselves.

so in 2 weeks I'm headed home for Christmas. Should be awesome. Pray to the snowgods to hold off their snowstorms until after I land in Boston. I reeeeeeaaaallly don't want to be delayed. Traveling that far is hard enough nevermind having to sit extra hours.
see you all soon!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Hope everyone is having a super awesome thanksgiving. I was suppose to have a mini thanksgiving dinner with an American friend but his wife is in Germany for the entire week and they asked if we could postpone it till next week. Bummer, huh. I was really looking forward to it. BUT even though they don't celebrate thanksgiving here, I put these pictures up to show that here too they kick the Christmas season off early. These we have a little tree hanging from our window!! And they're all over the city. They have lights strung up in the center aswell but I haven't seen them lit up yet. So here's to thanksgiving--the official day where you can break out your Christmas albums and get into the Christmas spirit.

It warms my heart

Our boiler has been broken for about 3 weeks now. It leaks everytime we use hot water. For this reason we haven't turned on our heat fearing that there might be a massive explosion of burst pipes our a small river through our house or even the complete breakdown of our boiler therefore not even having the opportunity to get warm by taking hot baths and showers.
WE CAN SEE OUR BREATH. Now, coming from a home where it was forbidden to touch the thermostat, and being constantly cold, my dad used to say "can you see your breath?" "no.." "then its not cold enough to turn it up" ok, fine. Add a few more layers. But what happens when you CAN see your breath and we cant turn on the heat?????? I learned you light as many candles as you can, wear a hat, 4 layers, 3 pairs of socks and slippers and still walk around like you're on an expedition in the arctic tundra.

well the repair man finally came today. Its still broken but we learned it only leaks when you turn the water on, its not the heating part. So he turned on our heat for us, cranked open all the radiators and turned on the thermostat and oh boy....OH BOY...The lovely intoxicating smell of the radiators burning the settled dust. Its heaven. The temperature is still pretty cold in here. 16°c, but it has been between 12-13°c sI'llll take 16 anydayButut now, wheI'm'm coldI i can just hug that radiator for dear life and let it pas its warmth into meLikekI'veve already done twice since the guy left a half hour ago.
life is good again.

EUREEEEEKA

today I'm wearing a pair of pants I haven't been able to fit into since before summer. I thought I'd try them on today to see if I've lost any weight. (that's my new way of measuring since I don't own a scale) any old pants that I've had before I moved I see how they fit differently than before, and since I gave away most of my old pants since most of them didn't fit me already before I moved, there's not much to go by. The pants that I wear regularly seemed to be a bit looser than normal so I wanted to see if I could fit into anything smaller and I CAN!! This has motivated me to work out more because they are a little tighter than what I would normally wear so now I have a goal. Maybe I'll be stunning for Christmas and then blow it all away with all the great, delicious, American holiday food.

three cheers for lost weight!

DEEP

"which one is Simon and which one is Garfunkel?"

"Garfunkel is the one with the great, big, giant afro."

"Does that make Simon the one with the mustache?"

"I don't know if he has a mustache or not, but he's the less crazier looking of the two."

"So do you think Garfunkel is the rock?"

"Well, if he is I guess that would make Simon the island."

"an island kind of is a rock.."

"it depends on where it is, I guess. Not all rocks are islands. Plymouth rock isn't an island."

"it was until the boat hit it."

This is Halloween..

EVERYBODY SCREEEEAM!
yes today is Halloween in Belgium. It's very different and nothing like back home. I saw kids trying to trick-or-treat last night at gregory's parents house. I told Gregory to tell them off and he did but I should of as well. They pissed me off! If we don't get to go a day early no one trying to steal our holiday should either. So the kids said to Gregory as we were literally stepping into the car (translated version) "hey, sir. Do you have any candies?" and Gregory said "Halloween is tomorrow." and the kids said "well, we do it today." and Gregory supporting his American girlfriend said "well we don't. Come back tomorrow!" hooorah!!
it's the morning now so nothing strange or unusual has happened yet, besides the fact that it's a Monday and I'm not working. We have a holiday today. Actually the real holiday is tomorrow, it's all saints day. And its kind of like day of the dead in Mexico, only without all those fun little candies. Here, a vendor stands outside the cemetery and sells flowers, and everyone goes on this one day to remember their loved ones who have died and its also a competition, I've been told, among the families at the graveyard to be the one who buys the biggest most beautiful bouquet of flowers for their loved one's grave. Apparently its just a huge marketing scam now. But anyway, a lot of people have today off because Belgium is silly and will have ANY excuse for a holiday so they "bridge" it. So not only do I have today off but also tomorrow and Wednesday aswell. Because after all saints day you have to have all soul's day to balance it out. All saints day is the day to be sad because people are dead. And all soul's day is when you're not sad anymore because you're celebrating that they're soul has gone up to heaven. (I tell you, they just start making holidays up!)
today I believe we're headed to a giant shopping mall in France to do a little shopping and get Gregory a haircut. And tonight we're going to see the corps bride by Tim Burton in the theater with some friends. It's a bit of a different Halloween for me, but o got to carve a pumpkin so it's all ok.

I Wear sneakers...for sneaking

Quote from the simpsons (my favorite)
Grampa: " Son, I've come to help you. I know who the Cat Burglar is."
Homer: "What?"
Marge: "Who?"
Bart: "Huh?"
Lisa: "What?'
Grampa: "Well, well, well! Before I was just too old and no one wanted my help. Suddenly, look who comes to old Grampa for - wait! Where are you going? Come back, I'll tell ya. He was right under my nose the whole time. He lives in my retirement home. His name is Malloy."
Lisa: "Wow! How'd you track him down, Grampa?"
Grampa: "Good question. On one of my frequent trips to the ground, I noticed Malloy wore sneakers, for sneaking. My next clue came just yesterday at the museum. We felt slighted by your age bashing and started home. Malloy said, 'I'll catch up with you.' [Malloy starts climbing the side of the building] I couldn't quite put my finger on it. There was something strange about the way he walked, much more vertical than usual. And finally, Malloy, unlike most retired people, has the world's largest cubic zirconia on his coffee table (hehehe i love grampa)

anyway, i too wear sneakers and they apparently are very good for sneaking. I gave my colleague quite a fright this morning. I didn't mean to enter so quietly but I did and he jumped half a mile. Mom always asked me "why do you always sneak into a room???" sorry mom! I don't mean to sneak around but I cant help it; its my sneakers.

Apple Pie

I made my first apple pie ever. here are the apples.
i should have put a few more apples in so it would be fuller but i didnt know any better. next time i'll have a less flat pie.
here's the finished product. its not beautiful, but again, not bad for a first try ever. it tastes delicious so i dont care about presentation.

ps-as i'm looking at these photos i'm thinking "wow, i can even smell it" but i forgot i just had a piece and the pie plate is sitting next to me. hehehe.

Brussels sprouts all the fun

How come everything fun happens in Brussels?? I don't want to hop on a train and travel 40 minutes to get somewhere just to meet people, but that's what it looks like I'm gonna have to do if I'm ever going to make any friends. The American woman's club is there, some xpat club is there. I look online and there are pictures of smiling faces and messages of "lets do that again some time!" and I wanna be apart of that too. I really don't understand why there's nothing like that in the city I live in.
I talked to one of gregory's friends yesterday and asked him if he knew of any place I could go to join a group and meet people n stuff, since he's lived in Gent for 8 years. He told me a few places to look but wasn't sure if any of them would be of help. I didn't look yesterday because he wouldn't let me leave his shop until he closed (he was bored) and I was just heading home anyway. Maybe he was trying to show me I was wanted since we were talking about lack of friends n all.

today I got my extension on my visa here (I've been an illegal alien for a little over a month now) the office in Brussels was behind on all their stuff so it was taking forever. I was getting a little worried I wouldn't get it before December, but alas my letter in the mail came telling me I was approved. In a few months we're going to have ANOTHER police officer come to our house to make sure we're STILL living together. We've already had 2. Let me tell ya, these frequent police visits are a pain in the ass.

Why I Love October

1. The air is crisp and the sun is warm

2. sweater weather

3. pumpkins!! (and jack-o-lanterns)

4. Halloween!!!

5. that campfire smell

6. It's the best time to play outside

7. Apple crisp and apple pie mmmmm

8. Haunted houses!

reasons why October is so difficult in Belgium:
1. Lack of Halloween decorations (until I got a lovely donation from mom and dad! We have the coolest house in all of Belgium)

2. Lack of pumpkins

3. No trick-or-treaters???????

4. The very new idea of Halloween so nobody knows how to do it right

5. Probably the first year ever for haunted houses which are not being called haunted houses but such things as "ghost hunt" or "haunted walk" lets get it right people "haunted house" "haunted forest" "haunted cornfield"!!

6. No one dresses up for Halloween

7. The colors of the trees are kinda turning yellow and that's it. No brilliant oranges or reds to be found

8. No fall oriented baked goods

Hersenen

or, in english BRAINS.

We've been disecting quite a few brains at work lately. which is good because we've had brains starting to pile upon on a counter waiting to be dissected, so FINALLY its getting done.

during this season sometimes i think it would be fun to take one for a halloween party, and then replace it before anyone looks. but thats just fantasy, like how sometimes i wish i were really edward scissor hands.

solar eclipse of my ass

I had to turn on "word verification for anyone leaving comments because i'm getting more ad's than i am real comments. so the next time you go to leave a comment, dont be suprised when you have to type in a crazy word.

on another note, i was forced to watch "the duke's of hazard" i hated the show, why would i like the movie?? it was terrible. saw an ad for "corpse bride" cant wait to see that. strange that in the trailor they have the music from "the nighmare before christmas" for this new movie. that would be lame if he recycled music from his other stop-motion picture he made. it still looks cool though.

there was supose to be a solar eclipse 10 minutes ago but its still bright and sunny.

Sucked into the seat cushion:call for help

It's one of those laaaaazy Sundays. Last night Gregory and I went out "clubbin". We didn't leave the house until 12am and didn't return home until 4am. We were both pretty drunk. Gregory had numerous beers and I had 3 white wines. I'm a cheap date, cheaper than Gregory at least. We had fun though. His friend matt invited us out and for the week he's had a girlie visitor from England. She and I danced the night away, made fun of people and just had a good time. I'm sorry she's leaving tomorrow because she speaks English and she's really nice. I had alot of fun with her.

needless to say any plans we had today went right out the window as we both had to struggle to move from the bed, to the shower and to the couch, where we've stayed; except for the occasional pee break or lunch break. Tonight we're going to the movies with matt and Jo (the friend with his brit girl) I hope there are some good flicks in the theater. I don't care about that though as much as I cant wait to eat salt & pepper potato chips with peanut m&m's, my favorite movie snack. Normally it would be popcorn but they have SUGARY popcorn and that tastes like crap.

I saw signs for a Halloween party that's partaking on the 15th. Halloween is a very young holiday here, its really only been coming around for the last couple of years I've been told so I'm pretty excited about seeing Halloween decorations in storefronts and signs for Halloween parties. I told Gregory we MUST attend. He doesn't want to but I assured him we will go and we will have fun. I have a super idea for Halloween for the both of us this year but I'm not gonna spill the beans yet. It should be great.
so back to being a couch potato I go.

Happy 5th Birthday

Today is Xander and Matthijs' birthdays. They're twins and cute. They're going to a pony farm for the weekend?? I'm not exactly sure what you do at a pony farm for the entire weekend. I asked Gregory and he said "shovel shit" and then said they should have invited me along. Apparently without my knowledge Gregory "somehow" promised his brother that he would get the boys a DVD player so they can join their technologically advanced generation. But a DVD player for 5 year olds?????? I think its stupid. I don't think a 5 year old would appreciate the machine. I told Gregory I think it would be more appropriate if we had bought a DVD player for one of their parents celebratory dates and then get the boys DVD's to play on it but no Gregory insists he has to get his 5 year old nephews a DVD player to make up for all his BROTHER'S birthdays he failed to buy gifts for. So again, this doesn't look like a gift for the young children but for the grown ups. So off to fnac to look for a cheap DVD player since, "the boys will probably break it", a direct quote from Gregory, but there were no cheap DVD players there. They Do exist here in Belgium, I've seen them, not at the fnac but somewhere else. I think part of the problem was they're remodeling much of their electronics merchandise is not displayed. So I left. We currently have no gift for the children but its ok because they'll be pony-ing all weekend which still gives us time to purchase something.
hoorah for pony farms, a suitable place for 5 year olds

but its ok

I went to upload a profile picture on here today. Turns out is next to impossible without using their little "hello" program. I downloaded it and tried to sign on and do all the wonderful picture things that can be done but alas, it wouldn't sign me in. "what the heck" I thought. So I went through the FAQ and it said proxy server=shit out of luck. Ok but I'm not using a proxy server. Belgium is pretty much behind a firewall. I think the internet people automatically have it so no matter what before you even do anything, you're behind a firewall. But I can upload picures into my blog posts so i guess all is well. Thats Greggerz n I just now. we're stupid looking but i guess thats normal for us so there we are in our stupid glory.
sallie mae is frustrating me. they didn't process my money correctly AGAIN. They're really beginning to piss me off.


yesterday I cut my hair. Its not great but at least I don't look like I have Charlie brown's Christmas tree hanging off the back of my head. It'll grow. That's my motto. It feels lighter and its not in my eyes so I guess all in all its better than what it was.

tonight Gregory and I are going to some girl's birthday party. Its at A...Club? I guess. Well, not her house anyway, I know that for sure. Its a 90's dance party. Get your groove on. Should be fun, I guess. Even though Gregory still doesn't know where in the city its being held so how we're gonna get our groove on tonight, I'm not sure. Plus I don't know what time we'll be leaving either. A friend of his said he's leaving at 12! I may sound like an old lady but I'm ready for the party to be dying down at 12 not starting. The doors open at 8 I don't know why we have to leave so late. I'll be ready for bed before we even get there.

numbah 1

So I'm starting this because my photo page was a flop once I reached my maximum photos and I NEVER e-mail anyone. I'm a loser. I thought this would be a little more interesting and easier (for me) than regular old e-mails anyway. not that my life is terribly interesting to account but someone out there might want to read it.

so I guess I'll start with today.
today I went to work. for those unaware I work in a forensic pathology department assisting with autopsies. right now its just temporary but I hope it'll become permanent. today there were no autopsies to perform, partly I would suspect, due to the fact that the forensic pathologist and his assistant are away at a conference in Germany. So today we cleaned out a freezer full of, well I guess now, medical waste. It smelled bad but it filled up my 4 hour work day.

with the new ipod mum and dad purchased for both Gregory and I, i have found myself venturing out doors much more. (I have self-diagnosed social anxiety) I think with the music buzzing in my ears it drowns out the paranoid, neurotic noise that tells my brain to be nervous and anxious around people. So I started running. So far so good.

Gregory is due home soon and tonight we've decided to be bold and go have a drink. Now, popular to whatever stories might have traveled home with mom and dad, we really don't go out or drink that often. We were in vacation mode as well while they were visiting. So yeah, we're gonna have a drink or two and talk about things like alien invasions and why we love the interior design of our favorite bar/lounge place. We're very deep thinkers.

on an unrelated note to this evening's planned activities, I've started knitting. Yesterday was my first day ever. Stephanie tried to teach me a while back but I just wasn't getting it. So I looked up so instructions on the trusty inny-net and I got it! So now I'm knitting away, I guess making a scarf. Isn't that everyone's first project, which in reality you're just knitting and knitting until before you realize it your straight knitting-ness can wrap around your neck and thus it turns into a scarf. I have visions of becoming really good at it. We'll see. But its fun for now. Since I really don't have my own friends here (I share gregory's friends) sometimes it can get pretty lonely and boring up in this piece. So I'm really glad I got ahold of these needles and yarn; my life has greatly improved already! in the past 2 days I've already watched less TV ad spent less time in the computer, and I guess on an educational level I'm exercising my brain aswell, so there's nothing bad about that! So that's all that's going on for now.