HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREGORY!
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also, i think i'm going to try my hand at this project: project 365
you take 1 picture a day for an entire year. cool, huh. i think i'll start on january 1. we'll see how long i keep it up for!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Christmas ramblings
I don't really have anything definitive to say. The only big news I had has already been said in e-mail form. Here are some scatter-brained rambles:
1. I got engaged over the holiday! wheeeeee! yay! love! Hoopla!
2. I had a birthday. I'm 24 now
3. gregory's birthday is the 30th. He'll be 26!
4. Every night Gregory lights the Christmas tree for me.
5. Every night Gregory fills my new hot water pack for me to wrap my feet around at night under the covers. It's lovely.
6. My washer was broken for an afternoon yesterday but Gregory fixed it for me!
7. I peddled uphill into the neighboring town today to go to a store which carries the thing Gregory wants for his birthday.
8. They were all out!
9. Peddled all the way back home.
10. I'll have to take the bus into town tomorrow.
11. We have a party to attend on Sunday.
12. We'll be waaay drunk for sure.
13. We plan on purchasing many things in the new year.
14. We want a new TV, new bed and mattress, new couches and a puppy!
15. I've been knitting a lot lately and getting good at my stitches
16. I'm currently working on a ribbed scarf
17. I want to try my hand at crocheting again.
18. I have a feeling that you can do more with crocheting
19. For instance, I saw in a Belgian magazine a hair clip that was crocheted cherries and I want to make them. I also want to make snowflakes for next Christmas.
20. I want a million snowflakes hanging everywhere like in the movie "elf" only mine will be way prettier because they wont be made out of paper.
21. I went to an interim office on Tuesday to speak to a man who got my name and resume from gregory's boss. He said my Dutch was very good and that made me proud.
22. I'm excited about gathering ideas for a wedding (even though we're unsure which country it'll even be in yet!) I still want the luxury of gathering tons of pictures on dresses, flowers, papers and all things lovely.
23. Does anyone feel like buying me a bridal subscription?
Martha Stewart weddings
brides
modern brideany of these would make me very happy
Friday, December 15, 2006
Moonshine!
I got a cold starting the second week I was in America. I still have the cold. Though, it's moved, shifted and changed a little, I have still not recovered. Its been about 3 weeks. Right now my cold is at the stage where, every so often, I still have a nose full of snot which makes me cough. When my nose isn't full, I'm coughing regardless because I have something settled deep in my chest and it gives me a lovely barking cough and I'm pretty sure I've burst a few veins in my head from having a hacking fit.
I've already seen a doctor. I already finished a bottle of cough syrup and a small pack of cough drops. Nothing has helped. So last night, after watching "house, M.D."onTV and seeing a woman who went in for a persistent cough and ended up being terminal, Gregory, the ever so paranoid one, was convinced I was dying and needed to see a doctor right away. i told him I was fine. But never-the-less, he felt something needed to be done as the cough syrup, decongestant, and nose spray was doing nothing for the persistent chest coughwhich I told his incompetent doctor (that's another story altogether) that i had and yet he perscribed me nothing for it. Gregory dialed his mom and got her to go next door to the pharmacy and pick me up some vick's vapor rub and cough syrup for a prickling in the back of the throat and a tight chest; the symptoms i described.
when i received my cough syrup I looked at it and noticed it was in a glass bottle with a white tag that you might find on your grandmother's preserves and hand written directions on it. I said "there's no brand on here. It looks home made." Gregory nodded delightfully.
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow "you mean to tell me the pharmacist went out back and whipped this up herself?" and Gregory nodded delightfully.
"you're giving me MOONSHINE?! "
and Gregory said "yeah, its how they did it in the olden days so when the pharmacist heard your symptoms she knew of a great old remedy that works really great."
me: "this is moonshine. Is this even legal?"
Gregory: "its what they used to do!"
so I took my moonshine with a good rubbing of vicks on my chest and it was the first time I slept in 3 days. I didn't wake up with any hacking fits at all. I took it twice today and though I'm still coughing, I'm not fitting like I was. Last night's sleep wasn't great, as it was more of a pass-out than a good nights sleep, so I cant wait till tonight where I can snuggle up and sleep in and NOT hack a lung all night long.
I'm a true believer in the Belgian pharmacist's moonshine!
I've already seen a doctor. I already finished a bottle of cough syrup and a small pack of cough drops. Nothing has helped. So last night, after watching "house, M.D."onTV and seeing a woman who went in for a persistent cough and ended up being terminal, Gregory, the ever so paranoid one, was convinced I was dying and needed to see a doctor right away. i told him I was fine. But never-the-less, he felt something needed to be done as the cough syrup, decongestant, and nose spray was doing nothing for the persistent chest coughwhich I told his incompetent doctor (that's another story altogether) that i had and yet he perscribed me nothing for it. Gregory dialed his mom and got her to go next door to the pharmacy and pick me up some vick's vapor rub and cough syrup for a prickling in the back of the throat and a tight chest; the symptoms i described.
when i received my cough syrup I looked at it and noticed it was in a glass bottle with a white tag that you might find on your grandmother's preserves and hand written directions on it. I said "there's no brand on here. It looks home made." Gregory nodded delightfully.
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow "you mean to tell me the pharmacist went out back and whipped this up herself?" and Gregory nodded delightfully.
"you're giving me MOONSHINE?! "
and Gregory said "yeah, its how they did it in the olden days so when the pharmacist heard your symptoms she knew of a great old remedy that works really great."
me: "this is moonshine. Is this even legal?"
Gregory: "its what they used to do!"
so I took my moonshine with a good rubbing of vicks on my chest and it was the first time I slept in 3 days. I didn't wake up with any hacking fits at all. I took it twice today and though I'm still coughing, I'm not fitting like I was. Last night's sleep wasn't great, as it was more of a pass-out than a good nights sleep, so I cant wait till tonight where I can snuggle up and sleep in and NOT hack a lung all night long.
I'm a true believer in the Belgian pharmacist's moonshine!
Monday, December 11, 2006
island of lights and a christmas tree
in the center of kortrijk every year they do an "island of lights". all the street light bulbs are replaced with black lights, they have a huge disco ball and other large, white, abstract sculptures that capture the black light really well. the other night they had lit a million candles ( or what seemed like a million) and they also had fire jugglers and fire breathers and the sort performing for passer byers. it was beautiful!
i think on new years eve they have a party there and you can dance under the giant disco ball and count down to the new year with a bunch of other crunk party-goers.
this weekend we also bought our christmas tree. its a bit skinny but it appears that you can either get a small fat tree, or a large skinny tree here in belgium. i have seen both large and fat. but its ours and we love it.
we strung lights and hung the decorations sunday evening. it was great.
here are some pictures:
my friend janne posing for a picture
our christmas tree. it looks crooked but its just the tree. 
me posing with our tree.
fun, huh?
i think on new years eve they have a party there and you can dance under the giant disco ball and count down to the new year with a bunch of other crunk party-goers.
this weekend we also bought our christmas tree. its a bit skinny but it appears that you can either get a small fat tree, or a large skinny tree here in belgium. i have seen both large and fat. but its ours and we love it.
we strung lights and hung the decorations sunday evening. it was great.
here are some pictures:
my friend janne posing for a picture
our christmas tree. it looks crooked but its just the tree. 
me posing with our tree.fun, huh?
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Travels n things
My travels home from America were LOOONG.
first stop: Washington d.c. we had a couple hours lay over which wasn't so bad considering the international area of the airport is located in no-man's land and they make you walk there. At least in Brussels they give you the floor escalator to zoom you along. Once we made it to the general area of where we needed to be we grabbed a sandwich at a place called potbelly's. Wow. They have some excellent sandwiches there! They're all warm and you can put any sauce and veggies on the sandwich you like. It was really good. Then after a small wait at our terminal we boarded for Brussels. As Gregory and I were sitting in our seats waiting for the rest of the passengers to sit down so we could go already, I looked around and said to Gregory "I have a feeling this is going to be a bad flight." I said this because there were many loud people around us. There were also many toddlers. In my flying experience its not the baby's you have to worry about, its the toddlers.
sure enough we were late getting out of there. The lights were off which annoyed me immensely as I was trying to read a book that was lent to me (thanks maryann, I just finished it today and oh boy was it awesome!!!) then the lights came on; shut off; came on; shut off. The flight attendants came over the loud speaker "sorry, the lights and video for our economy passengers aren't working properly. We had maintainence come and look at it and were assured it was working but we can't seem to get it to work. SOOORRRRYYYY........." Sorry? SORRY?! That's all they have to say? I believe that when I purchased my ticket the price included my in flight meal, PROPER LIGHTING and a movie!!!
this wasn't even the end of it. The entire flight there was a toddler crying to the right of us, a toddler in front of me that kept peering over his seat and wailing every time his parents made him sit down. Which let me tell you, they only did that after the father would peer at me through the seat cracks each time throughout this 8 hour hell ride and give a look like "is it all right that my ugly child with snot dripping out of his nose is watching you?" and I'd shoot him some death rays that said "if you don't get that snot-nosed child out of my face right now I'm going to throw him out the window!"
the lighting began to work properly sometime after dinner. And the video began working an hour before landing. I tried watching TV but it put me to sleep....Finally. So I had an hour's rest on the plane.
I think Gregory and I are pretty much back on track with the time; we're both sick so that's making us a bit sleepy.
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in other news our roof in there veranda has began leaking. Well, it leaked since the day we got it but just a few drops here and there, now we have a puddle. We also have staining on the wall by a gutter, that Gregory says isn't draining properly. Our land lady has order us to call a guy to install a brand new gutter and a new roof for us! Which is good because our veranda roof right now is plastic! So it gets waaay too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. We're going to get a normal roof.
first stop: Washington d.c. we had a couple hours lay over which wasn't so bad considering the international area of the airport is located in no-man's land and they make you walk there. At least in Brussels they give you the floor escalator to zoom you along. Once we made it to the general area of where we needed to be we grabbed a sandwich at a place called potbelly's. Wow. They have some excellent sandwiches there! They're all warm and you can put any sauce and veggies on the sandwich you like. It was really good. Then after a small wait at our terminal we boarded for Brussels. As Gregory and I were sitting in our seats waiting for the rest of the passengers to sit down so we could go already, I looked around and said to Gregory "I have a feeling this is going to be a bad flight." I said this because there were many loud people around us. There were also many toddlers. In my flying experience its not the baby's you have to worry about, its the toddlers.
sure enough we were late getting out of there. The lights were off which annoyed me immensely as I was trying to read a book that was lent to me (thanks maryann, I just finished it today and oh boy was it awesome!!!) then the lights came on; shut off; came on; shut off. The flight attendants came over the loud speaker "sorry, the lights and video for our economy passengers aren't working properly. We had maintainence come and look at it and were assured it was working but we can't seem to get it to work. SOOORRRRYYYY........." Sorry? SORRY?! That's all they have to say? I believe that when I purchased my ticket the price included my in flight meal, PROPER LIGHTING and a movie!!!
this wasn't even the end of it. The entire flight there was a toddler crying to the right of us, a toddler in front of me that kept peering over his seat and wailing every time his parents made him sit down. Which let me tell you, they only did that after the father would peer at me through the seat cracks each time throughout this 8 hour hell ride and give a look like "is it all right that my ugly child with snot dripping out of his nose is watching you?" and I'd shoot him some death rays that said "if you don't get that snot-nosed child out of my face right now I'm going to throw him out the window!"
the lighting began to work properly sometime after dinner. And the video began working an hour before landing. I tried watching TV but it put me to sleep....Finally. So I had an hour's rest on the plane.
I think Gregory and I are pretty much back on track with the time; we're both sick so that's making us a bit sleepy.
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in other news our roof in there veranda has began leaking. Well, it leaked since the day we got it but just a few drops here and there, now we have a puddle. We also have staining on the wall by a gutter, that Gregory says isn't draining properly. Our land lady has order us to call a guy to install a brand new gutter and a new roof for us! Which is good because our veranda roof right now is plastic! So it gets waaay too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. We're going to get a normal roof.
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this weekend we plan on getting our first REAL Christmas tree. Gregory got word of a place in France where you can get large ones for relatively cheap, compared to the belgian prices. I cant wait!
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we have coupons cut out from the local paper for a new bed and new couch. Hopefully we can go look at those soon too!
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I saw on an classified website for Belgium a new litter of French bulldogs! Just what I want!!! But I think I hit Gregory too fast with that one because he didn't seem too responsive to it. I guess it can wait a little bit till we at least get our ever important new furniture.
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