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.