behang papier

or otherwise known as wall paper.

new wall paper on the chimney to go with our new white walls.
retro print. its not for everyone, but its def for us.



close up of print:

8 days till lift off

8 days till i go on holiday to visit all my peeps in the states.
what fun!
can't wait!
already have my packing list made.
already have the list of things i want to bring back made.
all thats left is packing it all together, getting there and having fun fun fun fun fun

90's and today

I know history happens all around us every day and has been doing so since time began, but it just feels like its happening so fast these days. I think about the future and think how funny things will sound to my grandchildren. I can tell them about the time where there wasn't a "digital world" (no digital TV, no digital cameras) when they first came out with disposable cameras, and then underwater disposable cameras and then digital disposable cameras. before 1 hour photo processing. when video games were new, when a car phone-a phone literally plugged into your car was a HUGE deal and no one had cell phones. People knew how to use pay phones (and a local call was only 10 cents), and also how to use a card catalog in the library. When we didn't have computers at home as a young child and they weren't introduced into the classroom until 6th grade. Before ipods, when walkmans first came out. A little thing called vhs and the cassette tape. The day we no longer had a world trade center. A time where Pluto was once considered a planet and the day they decided it wasn't. A time where you couldn't travel into space unless you were an astronaut (but were in the works of making it happen) when flying in a plane wasn't scary and you didn't have to worry about people sticking explosives up their butt and blowing everyone up.

the future is going to be CRAZY! I can't wait to see what else lies ahead.

Better Home and garden

This past week has been insanely hectic. As gregory's 1 week holiday he decided that instead of going to the south of France, Spain, Portugal,or even the ardennens, he would do home improvements. I agreed because I too wanted that poo-poo brown color gone asap, even though I would have preferred staying in our friends house by the beach in the south of France for free with free food and drink but whatever.

day1: thrift shopping for new furniture. Found the perfect coffee table and a small lamp aswell. 2 gold mirrors for a look we're going for in the living room and even a couple of trinkets for my little sewing room/spare bedroom (that has no spare bed) lunch. nap. DIY store for paint n shit. Other visits here and there. 7pm: begin 1st coat of paint in the living room. 12am: fall into bed.

day2: 2nd coat of paint first thing after breakfast and dragging gregory's near lifeless body out of bed. Tried to go to a place called depo-rama because we're looking for a "L" couch but we cant find the right one. But depo-rama is closed until september3. Belgian's and their insane holidays. Few hours later 3rd coat of paint.

day3: 4th and final coat of paint to nicely cover all the poo-poo brown. Went to other thrift stores but didn't find anything appealing. Pealed off the paper on the chimney. It left a mess. Decided we needed the help of gregory's dad to patch up the mess. That wouldn't be until the next day. Went out for a drink instead of doing more work.

day 4: pretty exhausted. Cranky all day. Visited gregory's dad's house and grandfather's house to gather supplies to prepare the chimney for new wallpaper. Drive to gent to go to a wallpaper store that sells retro 70's print. Pick out paper. Visit 2 clothing stores and get nothing for me! Buy a stupid CD for Gregory. Go home. Sleep on the ride back. Not long enough. Watch a movie at dimitri's and fall asleep on his couch. Go home at 1.30am

day 5: slept till 10.30am. it was aweome. Gregory and his dad put up sheet rock or whatever for the chimney. I did girlie chores like putting my kidie pool away and washing bathrooms n stuff. Gregory went to the skate park to get drunk (considering how he is on holiday n all) didn't come home till 2am. I was pissed. He puked and I was glad.

day 6 (today): STILL putting shit up for the chimney (how many men does it take to fix 1 tiny wall?) I went to spinning. It was hard today, the last 20 minutes the lady didn't stop at all and I thought I was going to dehydrate and turn to dust right there. But I didn't. I made it and sucked down all my water at the end. Got home and the paper STILL isn't put up, surely this afternoon I'm told. Gregory sitting on his ass while the house is a disaster. Couldn't be bothered to pick up I suppose.

and that's been my crazy week with Gregory home. Oh yeah, this was also suppose to be "crazy Dutch week" but we only made it through 2 1/2 days of consistent non stop Dutch talking.

Dear Friday,

10 highlights of the week:

10. cooler weather. i love the feeling of early fall. mm.

9. e-mails from old friends

8. spinning

7. the good feeling from spinning

6. laughing lots

5. out of laundry detergent so i didnt have to do laundry this week

4. finally getting into my book

3. eating take out chinese with friends, and getting the chips with it too!

2. gregory coming home at 5 one day

1. my tax return money from the U.S. treasury!

crikes

I just found out about the terrorist threats that happened in London yesterday. wonderful that I'm flying to London to Boston, eh.

apparently in London there are no carry on bags allowed anymore. Does this include purses? Because if so I'll be pissed. You cant carry any liquids on, including toothpaste and cream! Or have any bottles of any kind!! So when I'm dying of thirst I can no longer reach into my carryon and pull out that bottle of water. when I think my skin might fall off I can no longer put lotion on. I think if they're going to ban this stuff they need to invent a new way for people to stay hydrated and moist on a plane.

in all seriousness though I think that's really scary. Those crazy terrorists keep thinking of new ways to bomb planes. I don't understand why though. What happened to the days where people flew for pleasure, not for killing people?

pretty soon no one is going to be able to bring anything on a plane with them. Everyone will have to be stripped down of their clothes and handed an airport issued, disposable jump suite with feet (like feetie pj's) and perhaps after a while of that, they'll loosen up and hand out little free sample size of vaseline. Maybe those evian spray bottle thingies. All kind of free sample toiletries you can purchase for a one time use. There will be bathroom monitors. But I guess you risk someone shoving some kind of explosive up their butt, and since their suicide bombers anyway, they could always still take a shit and blow the plane up that way.

feeling: scared

theres either an insanely huge rat trying to gnaw its way through the wall, a ghost making a bunch of racket, or my neighbor doing something crazy on the other side. but let me tell you, theres alot of unexplained, scary sounds coming from my wall. and if its my neighbor, i should throw meatballs at his back door. because before i figured out the area of the sound i thought for sure someone had broke into my back door and was making alot of noise throughout my house. if its an insanely huge rat..i'll just arm myself with bug repelant (the only available thing thats highly poisonous and conviently packaged into an airisol can) and a high stool until the boy comes home to save the say. if its a ghost: well, lets just hope it isnt, ok.

Let's go fly a kite!

last night was perfect kite flying weather. unfortunatly dimitri's backyard was not perfect kite flying grounds, with the trees, powerlines and general house stuff for the kite to get caught in. we managed for a little while, though. the next time it gets windyenough we're going to a field by our house that is perfect for kite flying because theres nothing in the way.

gregory's grandpa gave me this super awesome kite thats superly old. gregory flew it as a child, as did his dad! its of an indian and the kite has the loooongest tail, which is the indian headdress. or is it impolite to say indian these days? i think they're going with "first nation's people." yeah so i have a first nation person kite. (indian sounds cooler)

i tried to have pictures taken but, as we were flying it after 10pm, it was a bit too dark for good pictures. i have a few that i was able to brighten up:


silly pictures:

SQUIRRELS ATTACK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4489792.stm

this is for all of you who thought i was so crazy for being afraid of squirrels and thinking they would gnaw off my knee caps.

2 years ago the squirrels ate everyones pumpkins (i'm not sure about last because i wasnt there, so you make the judgement call) this year, whats next? all the little jack's in the world? and then all the bear dogs? this just goes to show that i am NOT too far off from the truth, people. watch your backs, your backyards and your dogs.

Survival tips for a Belgian Heatwave

1. Keep all shades down and hide inside your brick house
2. Wear the least amount of clothes as possible
3. Cry when the heat wave has gone on too long and the brick house that once kept you sorta cool has now turned into a nice little brick oven.
4. Now try and open windows for air
5. Cry when that doesn't work, either
6. Try and find ways to keep cool
7. Sink to new lows
8. My new low recently was making a tough decision between American prepere or meat salad for Gregory at the butcher's shop. I stood inside the cold air conditioned building for quite some time making a spectacle of myself.
9. Cry when you have to finally leave the only cool place in town
10. Stick your head in the freezer.
11. Melt like a crayon on hot pavement into your bed at night hoping that maybe, just maybe it'll be better tomorrow

A day by the sea

Friday was a national holiday here in Belgium. Since I really wanted to see the sand sculptures we decided it was a great day for it. Nothing else to do, and 95 degree weather, what's not to love? Unfortunately for Gregory: everything. He was very dehydrated and over heated and had an enormous headache for the entire day. Plus he hates sitting in the sand. So I was unable to actually go on the beach. We had a great day anyway.

when we got there it was about noon so we decided to have lunch first. We walked towards the beach and browsed through some of the shops on the way. We then sat at a restaurant terrace over looking the beach and the sea. We ate mussels and fries, a traditional Belgian summer dish. They were very good and filling. After lunch we made our way to the tram station to catch a ride down the road to where the sculptures were.

this years theme was "stories from 1001 nights" which for those who may not know, are Arabian tales. The exhibit was HUGE. Actually, they weren't even finished with sculptures. We saw a couple of the artists still working on small things while there. I was a little miffed. Why let people in if they're not even done?? Or maybe that was the plan--so you could see how its done?

by the time we finished with the sand sculptures it was around 3.30 or so. Even though I didn't want to leave, Gregory really wasn't feeling well. Turns out its good we left when we did because there was an accident along the way which caused us to have to switch trains and it ended up taking us 2 hours to get back home!

I had videos of the day taken with my camera but I don't think I have the necessary technology on my computer to make it play here for you. Sorry! Also, it appears I reached my maximum upload capacity for flickr for the month so you'll have to wait till I come a knockin to see the rest. Here's a few to wet your appetite:

<--this one is my favorite because i think it represents how gregory was feeling that day



http://www.flickr.com/photos/m-dee/sets/72157594211209773/

a few summer photos

my biggest triumph this summer is getting a pool! not just any pool--a rooved pool. cant get any better than that, really.

(i could totally model for the cover of the box. all i need is a "competent supervisor" standing by the pool with me)

the next photos have really nothing to do with anything. it was a nice summer evening on a square drinking and having a good time: p.s. its actually very dark and like 12am but my nighttime setting on my camera makes it look like day time.

gregory looking like a 10 year old at a baseball game.



me looking like a chipmunk

Dimitri looking like Dimitri and smoooking

the next 2 pictures are of the moon. its been hanging so low and fat like its about ready to explode, lately. my pictures dont do it justice at all. you can't see just how big and close it is. but you can see that it was bright:

**************

Gregory (as i was walking out of the house to meet him at his car): *giggle giggle*

me: what's so funny??!!

gregory: you look funny

me: why do i look funny?

gregory: because you're wearing BIG sunglasses and little shorts.

me: isn't that what summer is all about?

Success

Yesterday was the birthday of our friend, Vanessa. To celebrate, her husband decided to host a barbecue. Since Gregory ans I had only been informed the afternoon beforehand, we didn't have enough time to go buy her a present. So instead, I decided to contribute to the barbecue. I decided I would bring veggies. So yesterday while Gregory toiled away up in his office working on his translations, I toiled away in the kitchen. I made a whole vegetable platter with whatever veggies that I had in the fridge and also a separate bowl of lettuce, because Belgians do things weird here. Most people will just have lettuce and call it "salad". I also made a quick simple dip to go with the veggies and a big bowl of pasta salad. Now, the dip I was a bit weary about because I had wanted to make a different kind but was missing 1 key ingredient. So the one I made was an alternative to the one I wanted and I really wasn't sure how people would like it.

turns out, it was a hit! The whole platter of veggies were gone so fast and everyone was all "mmm..mm..oh yeah this dip is awesome..mmm so great yeah mm thanks" which I was happy about. And then during our meal everyone said the same thing of the pasta salad!

going there I told Gregory "I'm sure everyone wont eat all this food but I'm just going to bring it home afterwards and then it's already prepared so that's easier" yeah. Was I sorely mistaken. All the veggies were gone. There's some dip left but a lot of good that does me when I chopped up all my veggies for the barbecue! There's some lettuce left and probably 1 serving left of the pasta salad. I was so surprised! It's ok though, I was happy that everyone enjoyed it and I was happy to contribute in a way that no one else did.

now here's the big question: who's going to clean my kitchen?????

because i'm bored, thats why

one of those stupid survey thingies that no one ever cares about.


1. What is your middle name? Beth

2. How big is your bed? not big enough! i always have gregory lying on top of MY pillows!!

3.What are you listening to right now? the sound ofthe old radio making a noise because the volume is turned up too high, yet i cant hear the music

4. What are the last 4 digits in your cellphone number? 1924

5. What was the last thing you ate? only the awesomest lunch EVER. a thick, rustic-style piece of bread, carrot sticks, cucumber slices, a bit of lettuce, a couple of chucks of tomato, cottage cheese, a few pieces of pineapple, tartar suace for diping and cranberry juice for washing all the yumness down

6. Last person you hugged? gregory

7. How is the weather right now? sunny and hot. i want to go swimming!

8. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? umm gregory..last night when he called me for no reason from work.

9. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? The mouth. i dont know why. and the first thing i notice about the same sex is the eyebrows. i'm weird.

10. Favorite type of Food? junk food

11. Do you want children? some day

12. Hair color? blonde.

13. Do you wear contacts? no. though many people think i do because my eyes are so blue.

14. Favorite holiday? halloween

15. Favorite Season? autumn

16. Have you ever cried over a love lost? i guess?

17. Last Movie you watched?umm..mean girls. last night on Prime movies waiting for the time to hit 11.30 so i could hop into bed.

18. What books are you reading? NONE! i went to the bookstore in town over the weekend but they didnt sell any english books. i have to make my way into gent for that. hopefully this weekend. i've read about every fashion magazine there is in both dutch and enligh though! right now on my table waiting to be read is Flair, a flemmish beauty magazine; which i like because they often attach a little booklet of deals on hotels or spas. this week its a booklet of hot beach destinations in belgium and holland and places of interest at those destinations.

19. Piercings? i have 2 in each ear although i only wear earrings in the first holes.

20. Favorite Movie? i dont know this is hard. its always been the labyrinth but i havent watched it in forever.

21. Favorite college football team? umm none.

22. What were you doing before filling this out? killing bugs heh

25. DOGS: love em.

26. Favorite drink? cranberry juice or apple juice

27. Favorite flower? lillies

28. Have you ever loved someone? uhh... yeah. everyone loves someone

29. Who would you like to see right now? my mom and dad!

30. What color are your bedroom walls? creamy white

31. Have you ever fired a gun? if a bb gun counts then yes.

32. Do you like to travel by plane? i love it because flying by plane generally means i'm going faaaar faar away, and i like that idea.

33. Right-handed or Left-handed? LEFT! i'm proud of my south-pawedness (even if it has left me handicapped in that i cant cut bread, or anything for that matter, straight. DAD.)

34. If you could go to any place right now where would you go? the beach. better with some friends from the boro

35. Are you missing someone? Yeah.

36. Do you have a tattoo? i do

37. Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday mornings? no. i dont like the dutch-dubbed over verisons.

38. Are you hiding something from someone right now? ummm..no?

39. Are you 18? and then some.

40. What is the wallpaper on your cellphone? a picture of gregory all sleepy-faced

41. Are you afraid of the dark? yes.

42. Favorite hangout: most recently my backyard. but before it was def the pink flamingo in gent. i havent been to any amazing bars here in the burbs yet. theres one at the end of our street but its lame and thats why gregory likes it, but i dont so much.

43. 3 things you can’t live without?(not saying the obvious choices, which don’t need saying to be true) sunglasses, books and inside jokes

44. Favorite songs? ha! its lame but 'rood'. i dont know the singer, and i mentally block out the whole first half of the song. for me the song doesnt begin until it picks up, buts its so catchy i cant help but sing it all the time so i guess thats why its my favorite "vandag is ROOD. de kleur van jouw LIPPEN." love it.

45. What are you afraid of? the dark, teletubbies and SQUIRRELS

46. Are you a giver or a taker?i'm a taker in a different way of what i give. but i'm def both.

47. What are your nicknames? most everyone calls me mandy. i thought for sure that no one would call me that after highschool but its still going strong, right on into belgium. gregory calls me mona lisa, zoetje and babe.

48. What is your dad’s middle name? bwaha the BEST ever..DUFF. thats right, the ORIGIONAL Duff man. don't even try. no one can top that.

49. What do you sleep in? my bed?

50. Stuck on a deserted island, and can only bring one thing? sun glasses

51. Favorite TV commercial? i guess it would be that one where the kid's family turns into a bunch of hot babes. its kinda funny. i HATE the one where that fucking woman says "aan tafel" or those stupid cheese commercials.

52. First thing you’ll save in a fire? gregory's (more than likely) sleeping ass. because if i dont do it, who will?

53. What is your favorite color?red

54. What are the things you always bring with you? sun glasses, chap stick, sweatshirt

55. What did you want to be when you were a kid? a surgon

56. What do you usually do when the alarm turns on? i shut it off. then i sleep until i'm not tired anymore, which is still earlier than what gregory gets up. his alarm sounds all morning

57. What color is your bedsheet?something ugly. i want new bedding in the worst way

58. Who do you want to meet?Alive or passed on? i dont really know..

59. What do you think about before you go to bed? usually the most random of things

Spinning into Hell

I had my first ever spinning class this morning. Lets do a little back round check on myself:

for years now I've done nothing in the physical activity department. Perhaps maybe a brisk walk across town if I was running late somewhere but not much else. If someone's muscles can atrophy and their body become weak in just 1 week, lets all think about what YEARS can do without exercise.
flash forward to the class:
it was hell. It was painful. And it was embarrassing. I was unable to keep up and had to sit my ass on the seat repeatedly. And I was sweating like a crazy person. However, I don't really mind that I did such a bad job in class because it was my first day in years doing physical activity. I don't have the muscle capacity to hold my ass up as long as I needed to. My heart and lungs just weren't used to working that hard. So I don't care because at least I did something. At least I'm going in the right direction now. It can only get better from here. So even though I'm nervous about the next class I'm excited as well to start getting back in shape.

not only am I going to get in shape but Gregory aswell. His goal is to lose his beer/m&m's belly in 2 months. His friend said if he does it he'll buy him a bottle of some nice champagne. And then there's me there to make it more interesting. I said "oh, I thought we were going to do a pool. Guess how many inches (or in their case centimeters) he can lose around his middle in 2 months" his friends liked that idea and whether its been forgotten in the midths of a drunken evening or it'll stick, we'll see. Gregory didn't like the idea of people making money of his weight loss success or failure but he did agree that it would make trying to lose it more interesting. So he said no more m&m's, no beer for 2 months, he'll eat any veggie I put in front of him except eggplant or peppers, he'll go skating 2 times a week and run every other night in between.

so beware, come November Gregory and I might be two hot shitheads! Assuming I can complete a proper spinning class.

A Blossoming Romance

I have a new love. He makes my heart pump so hard it feels as though it just might beat out of my chest, i'm sweating bullets and my legs are shakey. He makes me feel free and alive!
"he" is my new bike. not new new but rather, new for me, old in use.

today was my first ride. i havent done anything in the physical activity department in a long time so it was pretty tough for me. not to mention its hot as hell outside. but it felt awesome to me using the muscles god gave and intended for me to use. he's probably looking down right now rolling his eyes and mumbling "finally.....".

it was a bit nerve racking for me because here in belgium bikers dont care about cars and the cars dont care about bikers. *I* am not belgium. i havent been brought up to ignore the possible hazords of a car running you over. yes, i am probably the only one in belgium that *gasp* LOOKS before crossing the street, and even more shocking, i even LOOK before crossng at a cross walk. or, if you really want to see some belgians die of shock: if a car is coming i dont walk out in the street with the mentality that they have breaks and they can slow down, because if they're close, i can wait the 5.3 seconds it takes for them to drive on by. yes, i will wait until it is safe to cross a street. i am Amanda, afraid of the european drivers.
where we live is right on the edge of nowhere. many tiny winding roads through corn fields and cow pastures. its nice for a bike ride. but what one must remember is, is that many people drive their cars down these roads. and i know that if you drive backroads everyday, you start to drive fast on them. i know this because i would ride the backroads from route 1 all the way home everyday of my life since the age of 17. i would often go 40 or sometimes over. (you can thank justin for that, mom) anyway this is what made me nervous. the fact that the roads are only wide enough for one car. literally, you have to pull over if another car is coming. so having cars drive really close to my sometimes wobbling bike was a bit scary. but i'll get used to it. at least there are no trams here to kill me like in Gent.
i did a modest bike ride without getting hit, beeped at or killed so i'm pretty happy. i even drove on the more main road where you have to drive with the cars. i made it around a rotery with no accidents!

i think my bike and i will get along nicely!

the dog days of summer

last year at this time:

it wasn't a good summer. though we had hot days, alot of it was cool and rainy. i spent my days indoors because there was no place to go and just enjoy the weather when it was good. we went to 2 barbeques. we went swimming a few times, which i would say was the highlight of the entire summer. i never got to go to the beach and never got see the sand sculptures.

now:

its been hot. this past weekend alot was in the high 90's and it'll be in the 80's-90's again today. i sit outside everyday. infact, just yesterday gregory and i did nothing except sit outside on our patio, under our umbrella, read magazines and listened to the radio while he sipped coke on the rocks and i icetea. it was the best day ever. we've been to about 8 barbeques already. we haven't gone swimming yet but i hope we will soon. still on my list for the summer: hit the beach, and see the sand sculptures.

100 euros

Yesterday evening Gregory and I went to our friend, peiter jan's work. His father owns a company that sells garden furniture and lots of plastic goods. We went just looking for a patio set, bust while we were there why not pick up a few other things we need?

so after looking through the catalog and deciding on some furniture, we went to the warehouse to go get it. Since we're friends and all pieter Jan wanted to give us a deal and in order to do that we had to take the furniture that no longer had sets to go with them. So he got a display room table and 6 "left over" chairs. It all goes nicely together, it just wasn't meant to be sold together by factory standards. The table is a charcoal grey with a glass top and the chairs are also charcoal grey and adjustable. They're very comfortable to sit in. We also got a lounge chair that's super comfy for lounging in the sun. An umbrella for our table that has an adjustable top to angle it at the sun. Then we got a plastic container to hold our winter clothes and extra blankets n stuff and 2 plastic containers to hold our trash bag and recycling bag nicely. All of this came to 100 euros; you can't beat that, really. I don't think we could of gotten a whole patio set for 100 euros never mind they few little extras we got.
too bad its raining today..Otherwise I'd be sleeping in my lounge chair.

pictures

i posted pictures up on flickr of my house. i labled it house BEFORE because everything still isnt in order and we also plan to get new furniture and all that jazz. so when looking at the photos dont be scared at all the messiness we're trying to fix that!
although a picture of my bedroom isnot on there because my camera battery died at the last minute. but there is a charming picture of gregory and you can kinda sorta see some of the bedroom. heres the link. have fun.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/m-dee/sets/72157594167624385/

here are a few pictures from my garden. i havent taken any other pictures yet because we've been doing alot of work and theres still a bunch of crap lying around everywhere. our yard. we have a great sized pattio , a working water pump and a beautiful shed. this picture was taken half way through the weeding process. and these are all the weeds i pulled. 5 large bags and 2 boxes. plus a couple of busted up hands.. and a sunburn.

we also have an evil goose next door with a little duck buddy. yesterday i saw the goose standing on the duck and looking down on him, kinda like how dogs show their dominance. after the stare down the little duck got up, shook hilself of, and waddled into his house. the goose hisses constantly, but for whatever reason i couldnt get him to hiss at me for his picture. stupid goose the goose stalking me from across his yard with his duck in tow. i like to think of them as the duo from "the christmas story" the goose is the evil red-head and the duck is that little squealy kid . the goose staring me down and the duck clearly dissinterested.
my neighbor, the owner of this goose, wont say hi to me, even after i wave my arm frantically with the biggest, most charming smile i can make "Heeeeeeeeeey!" i say. nothing. dad suggested i ask him, to break the ice "whats the deal with your fucking goose." and i did. but i didnt think he heard me. but he might have because we've graduated to a wave back. thats something.


this last picture has nothing to do with the house but is for dad. gregory wearing his shirt. i forgot i took a picture of it for you . he looks stupid because he wouldnt stop moving and i was following him around trying to get a shot. thats his "i'm looking for something and i have a girl on my back" look, i guess.