On to Bruges

Bruges is a lovely town. It has become quite a popular tourist destination for Europeans on "holiday." The town hasn't changed much since the 16th Century, making it like a little trip into the past.

Here's one of the windmills that surround the city:



This is the life. Sitting on a bench and looking out over a canal. I could live here...

Deck Updates

Slowly, we are making progress on our deck. It's not going to be perfect, but hopefully no one will crash through and injure themselves. That's the ultimate goal, really.

We have posts in the ground. After this picture we taken, we completed the process of framing the exterior.

You know you wanna come over and help....

On to Belgium

To continue the European vacation story, we went from Rotterdam to Brussels for one night. We were told that was all we needed to see Brussels. It's dirty, known for its high crime and didn't have much scenery. Our main goal was to find Belgium beer, chocolates and waffles. And that's what we did!

Bittersweet Parting

As you may recall from a previous post, we were fostering a dog named Sonic. He is a great guy (except for his superhuman ability to climb chainlink fencing). He is just old, which is why it was so hard to find him a home. Everyone wants a puppy. Everyone but me, that is. I am a huge advocate for adopting adult animals instead of getting a puppy or kitten, which is why we tried to find Sonic a home.

Well, it worked. Sonic is going to a new home today to meet his new friends. He will only come back if things don't work out for him there. Otherwise, he will have a new cat roommate and will make his new home feel very safe.

We will miss him. Goodbye Sonic.

Tiniest Spook You Ever Did See

Our neighbors had a baby last week, and she is about the cutest little thing. She was only 4 lbs. 10 oz. because she was early. No one anticipated that she would need a Halloween outfit, so I jumped into action on Thursday and brought them a Halloween onesie to the hospital.

Here is the tiniest spook you ever did see:

Notice the rolled up sleeves so it would fit.

Congrats Matt and Ariana!

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

On our European trip, we spent about half of our trip in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It is the second-biggest city in The Netherlands and is the largest port city for the country. It has a unique history that I thought would bore me when I arrived. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Rotterdam was essentially destroyed in WWII. Because it served as a major port to Northern Europe, the Nazis destroyed it to control the import, export and transportation. So the city was rebuilt almost from scratch in the 20th Century. Almost all of the buildings you see in this picture were build after the war. This photo was taken from the Euromast, the tallest building in Rotterdam.


You get to sit in the "crow's nest" and spin around to see a panoramic view of the city. We took a little video so you could hear some Dutch:






Some nice German tourists took our picture and we took their picture for them:

In the giftshop of the Euromast, we found my FAVORITE souvenir of the entire trip. I didn't get these but they cracked us up so much that we had to leave we were being so obnoxious. Giant slippers that resemble classic Dutch wooden shoes.

The one on display was GINORMOUS and I could not stop myself from trying it on.

Who doesn't love Craigslist?

I love Craigslist. I buy as much stuff as I can used from Craigslist. We got our dogs off Craigslist and we sold the Mercury Grand Marquis on Craigslist. (We bought a new car--photos to come)

Now we're trying to get rid of our old scooter on Craigslist. We're not having any luck so far because it's not a high-quality name brand. It's a Chinese knock-off that has its own issues. But, we did get a good laugh when we received this query from an "interested" buyer:

"Would you trade for five large gumball machines, these cost $1000 each? They make you money."

Interesting offer, but I don't think so...