Aaron, Nicole, and Miles' Adventures

Last bit of European traveling and then back to Texas!

2010-08-23T10:33:00.003+02:00

Hey everyone! Well, we have six days left to be in The Netherlands and we're starting to freak out! Now we're down to the last of things: the last time we visit the beach, the last time we eat at our favorite restaurant, the last time we see our friends that we've made.........sniff, sniff....no, I'm not going to cry......wahhhhhhhhhhh!

Okay, now I feel a little better. Our summer here has been wonderful, and I am so glad we got to experience it! My sister visited under the wire and got to see how the other half lives, plus her anal retentive organizational skills got me started on packing for the move! Seriously, I'm so grateful to her for coming and helping us! Thanks sis!

After Aaron's job ended in July we realized that we still had a little time to travel and see some more of Europe. We decided on a combo trip: visit family friends in Solingen, Germany and drive down to Lech, Austria! Europeans go on holiday for weeks at a time; if we had stayed a little longer we might have got the hang of it. As it was, we crammed it all in in 10 days and even that felt long to us!

We have lived in The Netherlands for 2 years and survived without a car....GASP! How is this possible, you ask? Two words: public transportation. It's really wonderful, but a little limiting as you can only go where it goes. This vaca we had to rent a car. Okay, fine, but then we remembered that Germany has NO speed limit on the highways.......Suddenly people are passing us like we're standing still. Just to keep up we had to go WAY beyond our comfort level. Okay, MY comfort level. Good thing Aaron drove the whole time.
With the help of the GPS, we made it to Solingen and our friends, Sue and Scott, without a hitch. Well, we did turn a 2.5 hour drive into a 4 hour one with Miles in the backseat "Are we there yet?" every 5 minutes. I found myself turning into a cliche: "Don't make me come back there." "I'll turn this car around." Don't worry, everyone survived, mostly intact, except for my sanity. Miles isn't the only one who has to get used to car travel again!

We were graced with great weather and hiked around their town and visited a castle. At this point the weather may have reached 80 degrees. I melted into a little puddle. I am so screwed in Texas........After four lovely days with them and their dogs, Nico and Gio (Miles favorite part of the trip!), we ventured forth to drive to Austria. Obviously, the car is German's transportation of choice because they had rest stops every 20 feet and HUGE gas stations/hotels/restaurants every 20 miles or so. WOW, they know how to do it - there was even a pasta bar!

So we reach Austria (after 9 freakin' hours, thank you traffic an road work), and the weather has gone from bad to worse. And we're going up the Alps in the dark with rain and major FOG so much so that we can hardly see the road. At this point the baby wakes up and starts screaming. fun. So I'm leaning over her car seat breastfeeding in the back while telling Miles a story about Spiderman. Aaron is trying to wind our way up the mountain through tunnels built by hand in the middle ages. It's a good thing we can't see off the side of the road because then we'd be REALLY scared!
Miracle of Miracles, we make it to our destination! Lech is a little Alpine village that I guess is a major ski area in the winter, but is really beautiful and green in the summer too. Our apartment/hotel is really nice and The Sound of Music starts going through my head immediately! There are many hikes and even a heated pool in the middle of a forest, for crying out loud!

The only downside is that vegetarians, not so high on the list. I never ate so much pizza as when we were in Austria. oh well. If that's the only downside, I can live with it. :) That and driving on little roads with lots of blind corners in the mountains with little or no guardrails, a LITTLE nerve racking. We planned on day trips to Switzerland or even to the next town - didn't really get the courage to drive until the day we had to check out. Yes, we're wimps.

One more thing about the trip - don't trust the GPS. We chose Frankfurt as a good half-way point to stop on the way back. Apparently there are not one, but THREE Frankfurts in Germany. We picked the one in the middle of nowhere, population 27. Fun. You have reached your destination, my ass. Driving around in the German countryside was nice, but come on people! Plus, never chose a hotel facing a busy street if you want to sleep AT ALL. Chalk it up to experience.....:)

So now we're back in The Hague, selling/giving away all our stuff. I thought it would be harder to part with things but not so much. It helps that most of my clothes were about 10 years old on average. The bakfiets will be hard. But we sold it and the person is letting us use it until the very last day. Looking forward to seeing our family and friends.........and Mexican food! Yea!!!

See you soon!

Love
Nicole

Top 18 Subversion Best Practices

2010-07-29T12:01:00.001+02:00

My comp

any wanted some SVN tutorials and best practices, so I compiled this list from my own experience and from StackOverflow. These are my preferences for our particular team for the types of projects we work on. They do not all apply to all types of teams and projects, so to each his own. What did I miss?

This is not a “how-to”, but everything how-to can be found for free online at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/index.html

The source for many items here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/417599/svn-best-practices-working-in-a-team

ALWAYS do an “update to HEAD” before doing a commit
commit often - as soon as you have working code after some changes you made, make sure to commit the code; this could be as often as every 10 minutes. Just make sure you’re not committing code that breaks the application or otherwise causes errors
Commit in small, discrete chunks
ALWAYS describe in detail what you did during a commit in the comments, so that other developers or you (in six months) can understand exactly what the commit included. It can be helpful also to include PeopleXS or Jira case numbers so that you can reference the particular bug or feature
If you have committed code that has special dependencies (such as database updates or needing to restart ColdFusion), then inform the rest of the team - a short email or a Yammer group is a good place for this.
If you are making a lot of changes, do an update often (every hour or so), so that you make sure to get changes made by other people sooner rather than later. Dealing with updates *later* can be a much bigger problem than a bunch of small changes *sooner*
Branch the code only when necessary, and merge back to trunk as soon as possible. A release manager or lead developer will handle this
Tag before merges, tag major releases, and tag before making sweeping changes
Establish a policy for trunk and stick to it. One example might be, "trunk must always build without errors."
commit related code changes together
The corollary is do not commit unrelated code changes in the same commit. This means don't fix 2 bugs in one commit (unless it's the same fix), and don't commit half a bug fix in each of 2 commits. Also, if I need to add some new enhancement or something to an unrelated part of the system that I then need for some other work, I commit the enhancement separately (and first). The idea is that any change anyone might conceivably want to have on its own (or roll back on its own) should be a separate commit. It will save you tons of headaches when it comes time to do merges or to roll back broken features.
If you have files that you don't want in source control (e.g. configuration, compiled files, etc), add them to the ignore list. This way you notice any files that you forget to add by always expecting an empty list of files showing as unknown to SVN.
Only advanced, experienced SVN users should do merges, and ideally someone who understands the majority of the code that changed in each branch, so that he can make good decision when there are merge conflicts.
Make sure to have updated versions of each branch before merging.
Systematically test each feature or bug fix implemented in each branch after merging.
Decide the best way to use our repos and make a clear policy for repo layout: http://blogs.open.collab.net/svn/2007/04/subversion_repo.html
All ﬁlenames and log messages stored as UTF-8
If possible, you should tie the commit to your bug-tracking system. Trac, Redmine et al. let you create links from bugs to commits and vice versa, which comes in very handy.

What did I miss?

My company wanted some SVN tutorials and best practices, so I compiled this list from my own experience and from StackOverflow. These are my preferences for our particular team for the types of projects we work on. They do not all apply to all types of teams and projects, so to each his own. What di ...

Posted via email from Aaron Longnion's ColdFusion Blog

Senior ColdFusion Developer seeking a new job

2010-07-06T18:42:00.001+02:00

After 2 years in Europe, I'm looking at new job opportunities as a Senior ColdFusion Developer/Architect, most likely in Austin, TX. I have started my job hunt in Austin, but will then broaden the search to the rest of Texas, especially Dallas or San Antonio. However, I may consider other locations around the world for the right opportunity. Also, telecommuting could be a great option.

You can google my unique name and find my up-to-date LinkedIn profile, but to save you the trouble:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronlongnion

I plan be back in the US no later than September 30th, 2010, and will be available for phone / Skype interviews almost any time.

I will be sending my resume / CV out everywhere, but just to give you an idea of what I do best:

Recently planned and implemented entire upgrade of systems from ColdFusion 9 Enterprise (64-bit), multi-server, with JRun clustering on multiple 64-bit application servers machines behind a hardware load balancer with 2 Enterprise MySQL 5.1 (64-bit) replicated databases on the backend.
Update legacy ColdFusion code to newest best-practices, optized for pure speed, high-availability and scalability
Leading and mentoring international teams of developers to become world-class ColdFusion programmers
Bridging the gap between clients, Product Management, and the IT teams to design web application solutions that benefit customers and the long-term viability of companies

Hope to hear from you, and I look forward to my next adventure!

- Aaron Longnion
email me: aqlong _at_ gmail _dotcom__

Posted via email from Aaron Longnion's ColdFusion Blog

The World Cup and other surprizes

2010-06-23T21:33:00.013+02:00

Howdy everyone! By now most of you know that, yes, I actually had the baby and am, therefore, not an elephant (who carry their kids for a year!). It's a girl - Sophia Mavourneen Longnion! She's almost 8 weeks now and growing super fast! Sorry that I haven't posted before this - she's a mamma's girl and I hate typing one-handed....

It's a whole new ballgame with two kids now. Those of you with two or more kids are now laughing behind their hands (or just openly) at us as we struggle to rebalance our lives and our minds. Miles likes being the "big brother" but he also likes hugging her VERY tightly and yelling in her face when she's asleep Sigh.....Luckily, Sophia is a very mellow baby and sleeps a lot right now. God help us when she's more awake and demanding more attention...:)
I'm now coming out of hibernation with the baby to realize that the world goes on without us. Living in Europe has given me a whole new perspective on events like the World Cup. I've never seen a country that literally shuts down at game time to watch tv (okay, the Superbowl, but that's the only other thing). I've actually seen signs in shop windows "watching the game, back at 3:30." I think it said that; it was in Dutch, so I can't be too sure. The store was closed, okay, in the middle of the day - isn't that enough for you????

Anyway, during the first game, the entire country wore orange (national color), painted the flag on their faces and tooted obnoxiously on plastic horns that I would like to stuff down their throats......oh, sorry, went a little overboard there. I like their dedication, but I just can't get into a sport that only scores once or twice the whole time. I like basketball - 100 points in one game! That's real action for ya.....

In other news, the weather is finally cooperating and we've had some really lovely days after a LONG winter. I'm still shocked to see sunshine. Of course now it's light from 4 am to 11 pm, so the other side of the coin is insomnia.....

But we're outside a lot too - enjoying parks and beaches galore. Miles makes friends with everyone and his dog. There are no strangers around him. This is good and bad. Good that he's friendly; bad that he accepts snacks and candy from just about anyone. I've tried to tell him to at least make sure the person offering it has kids too...:( It does seem to be safer here and people don't seem to worry about things like taking candy from strangers.......

Kids go to school longer here - school is not out until July 2. Then they have six week summer holiday. I've never seen a country empty out so fast. First day school is out is like a starting gun: BANG - everyone is off traveling. We can't even have Miles' birthday party the day of (July 4) because there is no one left to attend! So now the party is June 30th. Oh well, at least there will be kids there!

Miles wants everything "for my birthday." A skateboard, a bigger bike, video games, water guns, you name it, he wants it. I now realize how advertising works on kids. Anything and everything he sees on tv, he wants. He believes tennis shoes can make you fly and candy rings give you super powers. He acts so mature for his age sometimes I forget that he's only three (almost 4). But he'll learn.

That's it for now. I'll try to post again with pics of Miles' birthday and my sister's upcoming visit on July 7!! woo hoo! Hope everyone survives the heat in Texas and come visit us!

Love
Nicole

PS - the photo of Miles in the little pool was taken only after a lot of work. Never buy a blow up pool if a) you don't have a pump and/or b) you don't have a hose. After I recovered from passing out on the living room floor after blowing the damn thing up, we had to fill it with pots and pans from the sink. Not a great idea. Especially since he was only in it for 20 minutes. argh!

DIY electric car conversion

2010-06-22T12:17:00.001+02:00

http://m.npr.org/story/127883601

Aaron Longnionhttp://m.npr.org/story/127883601 Aaron Longnion ...

Posted via email from Aaron Longnion's ColdFusion Blog

Truth is stranger than fiction

2010-04-17T21:36:00.010+02:00

It sounds like a movie plot...."In a world of ice, the earth's core struggles to break free."

When I found out there was an erupting volcano in Iceland shutting down airports across Europe, I couldn't believe it! Seriously, I laughed and told Aaron to quit pulling my leg. I mean, Iceland - the land of Ice for crying out loud. Then I thought about my parents upcoming trip to visit us on April 29. hmmm.....

"Mom," I said, "I think you should get some trip insurance."

Wow, I mean, something is up Mother Nature's butt. Earthquakes, tsunamis, erupting volcanos that show no signs of slowing down......you would have thought that she was mad about something....not the hundreds of years of abuse we've been pouring on her, no that can't be it....

So keep your fingers crossed that everything settles down in two weeks, because this baby is coming and I would like my parents to be here!

Two weeks?!!! That's crazy! I'm ready but I'm not ready, if you know what I mean. We just now got a changing table together. I went to the Netherlands version of Goodwill today and grabbed a bunch of baby toys (half off today - woo hoo!) because I'm starting to panic. You would think I've never done this before. Deep breaths, deep breaths, it will all be okay.

At least I know what I don't want, thank you Mr. Miles. Sorry you bore the brunt of our floundering, inexperienced first-time parenting efforts. As first-born, you will continue to be our experiment, letting us figure out by trial and error what works and what doesn't. Maybe that's part of why we are having a second - proving we know what we're doing......of course this one's a girl and probably completely different. oh well. At least I know how to swaddle.

In other news, spring has finally sprung! We have had not one, not two but 6 whole days of sunshine and good weather! Cold weather, but sunny. My apartment is protected from the wind and I have been fooled several times

this week in going out without my coat and suffering the consequences. The last time I ran to the charity store (think I go there a lot?) on the way to pick up Miles from school and had to buy another coat just to cope! Good thing it fit, because I only had time to try one!

But we're so used to the rain here that it took a couple of days of sun blaring down on my face that I remembered, oh yeah, sunscreen would be good now.

But after a very dark, depressing winter, the sun feels so good, it's hard to not be outside when we can. Digging in our "garden" - very small backyard - parks, visits to the beach: Oh right, this is the upside to living in Holland! That and no mosquitoes, thank the lord and halleluia!

Miles was born in July, and he spent most of his first 4 months naked. It is damn hot in Texas. I am grateful that this summer, baby sister will have milder weather and be able to breathe outside without a lung collapsing from the heat! Last summer was gorgeous here, so keep your fingers crossed (and your jealousy to yourself), that this summer will be as good! If it's too hot in Texas, we have a very comfortable couch open to all visitors!

I'll keep you posted on any baby developments, but in the meantime, I hope all friends and family are happy and healthy!

Love

Nicole

PS - Ya think we like taking pictures with our Iphone now? Hipstamatic application rocks! And no, I did not swallow a watermelon in the top picture.

Pale Blue Dot video, read by Carl Sagan

2010-04-14T07:20:00.001+02:00

Aaron Longnion
M. +31 0624361474
Sent from my iPhoneAaron Longnion M. +31 0624361474 Sent from my iPhoneClick image to play video ...

Posted via email from Aaron Longnion's ColdFusion Blog

rave reviews for TwitLaughs, comedy in your pocket

2010-04-09T16:04:00.001+02:00

My TwitLaughs iPhone app, released and available for download on April 1st 2010, has a nice review online, but now the excellent reviews in the iTunes App Store are showing a 5-star average rating for the app. That's only out of 5 ratings so far, but a great start!

You can see the rating in the iTunes store when you search for TwitLaughs, or on this link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/twitlaughs/id364377596

Note that a twitter account is not necessary to use the TwitLaughs app.

Posted via web from TwitLaughs

Time Flies

2010-03-13T19:40:00.010+01:00

Hello everyone and welcome to spring in Holland. Wait, it doesn't look a whole lot different from winter in Holland. Oh well. There are a few more days where we see the sun and it is a LITTLE warmer, so I guess that's how we can tell. Tulips really do grow wild here and some of the hardier types have poked their heads out. Only to be frozen over, but I think we'll call that a good sign.

I have finally figured out that all these gray days really affect my mood. That and my waistline. I have this incredible urge to bake when it's cold and rainy out. Basically every day. I try to limit myself to healthy things with little or no sugar, but still, a dozen cookies eaten every day will still make a difference! I'm exaggerating....a little. Good thing I'm pregnant.

Speaking of pregnancy, only 6-7 weeks to go, depending on when the little bugger decides to come out! Everyone keep your fingers crossed that she won't be a week late like Miles. I think he gained a pound in that last week. Definitely would be easier if she didn't weigh close to 10 pounds like her big bro. I'm gonna give natural delivery a shot even after my cesarian section, so keep those fingers crossed tight! Think good thoughts.

Before I start to flatten cities with my giant belly, Aaron and I thought it would be fun to have one more family trip. Hmmm, where to go.......Paris! We found out that there is a high speed train that only takes 3 hours to get there. Perfect! Wait a second, there's a tiny reason why not tugging at my subconscious - oh right, that huge belly again. I can't even walk a block these days without getting short of breath (not doing so much yoga this time around) not to mention getting up and down the steps to the Metro. Let's wait on that trip. Paris will always be there.

So we decided to check out an all-n-one package - family resort with huge pool, amusement park, bowling, you name it, all in one place, with food included! Sign us up! We did decide not to go on Miles' school holiday to give him a fighting chance against bigger kids, but last weekend we took the plunge!

It's a place called Preston Palace in a town named Almelo. When we finally figured out how to say it so people could understand us, we bought train tickets and headed out. It started to snow on us by the time we finally got there and I felt so justified for blowing all this money on two nights on this indoor playground. Ha, let it snow I thought. So of course the next two days were so sunny and bright you had to wear sunglasses inside.......oh well. It was still fun.

This place had the biggest pool I've ever seen. It was more like a lagoon, complete with waterfalls, rain storms, even a fish tank IN the pool! Talk about swimming with the fishes! Miles really liked the pool and the mini golf and the bowling. Despite the fact that they only had 8 and 10 pound balls with no bumper lanes, he still managed to knock down some pins three times! Wow, I was impressed. Could Aaron and I have produced an athlete despite our slacker genes? Only time will tell. Another factor in the athlete theory: Miles can swim without water wings! Holds his breath, goes under, comes up, scares me to death, the whole shebang! I don't know where he gets it from, but he is the most physically adept child I've ever met........

So now our fun trip time is over. We're staying close to home for the rest of the time until Baby Sister is born. One new development though - Miles has taught himself to ride a bike without training wheels! I couldn't ride a bike until I was 8 and my 3-year-old is zooming away? Come on now, give me a break! But it's true! Crazy but true! Sure we're in a place that has more bikes than cars, so he has to be influenced by that. Plus we got him a balance bike with no pedals that he rode a lot, so I guess those things really work! For now we're just riding in the park where there are no cars allowed, but I guess he'll be able to ride to school pretty soon. God help us all.

Hope everyone in Texas is enjoying the spring weather that we don't have yet. Put some in a bottle and send it to me, would ya? Thanks, you're a pal.....:)

Love
Nicole

PS. The darker photos were taken by my Iphone with an App called Hipstamatic. Takes pics with old school lenses and film. I love it! Here's a little video of Miles on his bike today. I've never loaded a video on my blog so I hope it works.....Enjoy!

Miscellaneous

2010-01-22T20:38:00.009+01:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Oh wait, am I a little late on that one? Typical, I know. But honestly, with just the three of us for the holidays, it was pretty damn quiet. Where's the loudness, the laughter, the huge pile of wrapping paper, the food? Oh right, it was with our families in Texas. Sigh. But hey, it wasn't without fun.....

Picture this: Christmas morning, the sun is not peaking its first ray out and Miles is up demanding to watch tv. Not just a holiday tradition, let me tell you. He didn't even know it was Christmas until we brought out the presents after breakfast. Yep, all three of them. He had asked Santa for a firetruck (yes! easy one!), a new dragon costume (???) and a Play-doh washing machine (does this exist?). So the firetruck was there and I skipped the others and got him a play-doh set. Oh, and some glitter (now all over the house). Somehow that boy played with those three things for six hours! Go Miles!

Aaron and I gave each other the trip to Norway (see last post), so that was it. Fa la la la la la la la la la....... We did have some friends over for Christmas Eve dinner and actually made stuffing and mashed sweet potatoes and traditional food! They of course brought the meat. ugh. But who am I to judge? we all had something we enjoyed.

On to New Year's Eve. Same friends (only ones in town) agree to meet us for dinner at a Japanese Wok Restaurant. Somehow our wires get crossed and we go to the wrong one! Who knew there were two such restaurants in the same area? But after clearing that little misunderstanding up we had a wonderful dinner! And almost get blown up by fireworks on the way home. Geeze people, it's 9:30 pm!

We're walking back from dinner and I have to have Aaron run interference so they stop lighting up when I bring Miles by in the stroller! And he slept through the whole thing! Thank goodness because they kept it up until at least 3 in the morning.....

So long story long, that was our holidays. Hope everyone enjoyed theirs too.

In other news, I am currently as big as a house and working on my own zip code. I'm only six months along, but people are already asking me if I'm due next week. Or if I'm having twins. ha ha. NO! Have I mentioned it's a girl yet? Well, it is and we're very excited. Especially about the shopping! Yea girl clothes!

Small children flee when they see me waddling down the street. Feeling okay though (knock on wood) and trying to keep up with Miles. Not an easy job for the most energetic person. I think he knocks Aaron down when he walks through the door after work, he's got so much pent up energy that he can't use with me. The no-car thing is the only reason I get any excercise at all. Though walking to the tram stop can't use up too many calories.....

I am now seriously attached to my IPhone. Almost surgically. I use it with Miles to keep him entertained on the bus/tram. (yelling at him to sit still for the entire ride does seem to draw its share of dirty looks) I also use it to sleep (white noise application), read (kindle for Iphone), email, Facebook, calendar, games, clock. camera (checkout the application "Hipstamatic" - awesome!!!) crack, you name it......okay, I'm kidding on the crack, but I swear, if I don't check it at least once an hour for something, I need a fix! I would not be surprised if there was a crack application soon.....

Let's see....any other news.....we might plan one more trip before I get so big I have to use a crane to get me to the bathroom. Probably within The Netherlands, but you never know. We'll keep you posted. Miles is back in school and he still likes it. His teachers say "he's a little bit naughty, but that's normal." I think, "only a little bit?" I guess they're always better for other people. :)

I guess that's it for now. Hope everyone is having a great 2010 and I'll try to keep more current. Will post more pictures later.

Love
Nicole

Check out my HipstaPrint

2010-01-17T15:34:00.001+01:00

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Title: Miles hangin' at the park cuz the sun came out
Lens: John S
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Off

Junior ColdFusion Web Developer Job Opening

2010-01-11T12:54:00.001+01:00

Peoplexs.com, in Holland (The Netherlands), has a great opportunity for a Junior Web Developer to join me and an international team (Dutch and American) of ColdFusion developers to work on some exciting new projects. We will be upgrading from ColdFusion 8 Enterprise to ColdFusion 9 Enterprise soon; we're on MySQL 5.1 Enterprise, all with powerful 64bit servers packed with RAM. We provide:

training in-house and via 3-parties (for Advanced ColdFusion, MySQL, and other),
possible relocation assistance,
a fun and casual work environment,
there's options to work from home once per week,
time allocated to attend CFUG meetings and SOTR (http://www.scotch-on-the-rocks.co.uk/),
and we have a very experienced and senior-level group of developers and product managers to collaborate with on a daily basis.

We're excited to here from you, and feel free to ask me any questions any time. I'm happy to help.

Candidates must either currently live in The Netherlands or be willing to relocate.

Apply to the Junior Developer position now

Aaron Longnion
Director of Internet Technology
http://twitter.com/aqlong
http://www.google.com/profiles/aqlong

Posted via email from Aaron Longnion's ColdFusion Blog

Building an iPhone app called Yapitty

2010-01-03T10:48:00.001+01:00

This is the beginning of my serious of posts of my progress of building Yapitty, an all-in-one iPhone app for Twitter + LinkedIn + Facebook + Yammer (and maybe RSS feeds?). I'm a programmer (mainly in ColdFusion), but don't have experience developing iPhone apps yet. I look forward to learning Objective-C, Cocoa Touch, and the whole app development experience. I just bought my 2nd iPhone (a 3GS) and will purchase a MacBook Pro within the next week or so.

Follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/yapitty

Posted via web from Yapitty: One simple iPhone app for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, & Yammer

Christmas adventures in Norway and Germany

2009-12-21T21:03:00.017+01:00

I know you have to be asking yourself, "what sane person visits Norway in December?" Well, after our five days spent freezing our butts off, I was asking myself the same question.

Here's the deal: at five months pregnant, I wasn't about to fly the 12 hours to Texas. Sorry families, but it ain't gonna happen. So. What to do for Christmas? Again the pregnancy thing came into play - I gave myself a 2-hour fly time radius from The Hague. Looking at the geography, I wasn't really going to get much warmer in that amount of time so, I thought, why not have a white Christmas?

The Norway idea came when I saw a package tour to visit "Santa's Village." Okay, I thought, Miles is getting old enough to know who Santa is, the kids would be about his age and there's a pool at the hotel. How cold could it be?

Well, my friends, the answer to that is VERY F'ING COLD! Even the Norwegians, who are bread for that weather, were like "oh ja, it's cold aright. Coldest it's been in years." The temperature at it's lowest: -39 degrees Celsius. At -40 degrees, Fahrenheit and Celsius meet, for crying out loud. It's damn cold no matter what scale you're using.

When the place you're going to provides the cold weather gear because nothing you could possibly buy in your home climate could ever be warm enough - that's a bad sign. But this is only the first in our little series of misadventures.

First hurtle to overcome: Miles woke up the morning of our trip with a little puffiness around his eyes. Hm, I thought, that's strange. No fever. We go. Throughout the flight and the rest of the day into night, his eyes proceed to almost swell shut. We start calling him quasi-Miles and limit the amount of close up pictures we take of our strange swollen child. Luckily, one of the women on the tour with us turned out to be a Doctor! Hallelujah! She had some antihistamines with her and he slowly got better over the next day or two. We have no idea what caused that (probably a rare allergy?).

Second hurtle: The website for this idyllic little tour stated that there is a bus transfer to the hotel; we'll show a movie for the kids. A movie. Okay, I thought, two hours on the bus. I can handle that. The bus trip took 4 and a half hours!!! It was out in the middle of freaking' nowhere, 10 miles from the
nearest town.

Third hurdle: We elected to stay in apartments outside of the hotel for the extra space. No one mentioned that they were 200 meters away from the place where we were to eat all our meals, see everyone else and do everything. Two hundred meters is a lot when it's cold enough to freeze your nose off just for stepping outside! Plus, the night we got there, the apartment didn't have a working heater. Or a phone. Had to trudge all the way up to the hotel lodge just to complain. Fun.

Fourth and final hurdle (thank god): Through a series of miscommunication, few of the activities were organized well. It was a lot of hurry up and wait. That's bad when you're wrapped up like an Egyptian mummy and are melting all over the place. Plus the cold eliminated or curtailed a lot of the stuff like dog sledding, snowmobiling, ice fishing etc. Aaron did manage to go snowmobiling and missed covering an inch on his neck and got frostbite, for crying out loud. Yes, he's fine now, but come on! Then we went on a sleigh ride in complete darkness. Only 6 hours of daylight, thank you very much.

There were good things about this place. For one, it was really beautiful! Pristine wilderness, a frozen lake, the whole thing was gorgeous! Second, although it was dreadfully cold, every day was sunny and clear. Third, they had the best indoor pool I've ever seen! Thank god, because that's what saved us every day. Finally, there were only 5 families on this tour with lots of kids Miles' age. He had an absolute blast playing with them every day. Didn't even care about anything else!

So, to sum up: overall we had a good time. Never going back. Even in the summer.

We have taken one other trip that we highly recommend: Aachen, Germany! Right over the border from The Netherlands, they have annual Christmas markets that are not to be missed! But what really made the trip great was that we stayed with a family there that we met through an international organization called Servas. This puts people in touch with one another to spread peace through personal connection. I guess the theory is you can't stereotype people if you actually get to know them! There are hosts in almost any city you can think of and it tells you where they live, how many travelers they want, if they have kids, interests, etc. (That's me, the pregnant marshmallow in the pic on the left.)

Anyway, they were wonderful and showed us around their town like we were their family and not someone they just met. We ate like kings, shared recipes, and really had a great time. It didn't even matter that it rained every day because we were busy with them! We even made time for the zoo - and, while not first class, it has a lot of things for kids to play on (see climbing wall on right)! Even their 13-year-old was super nice and patient and played with Miles the whole time. We were only there for three days, but I would go back in a heartbeat!

I'm glad that we had both experiences as we learned a lot from both. One lesson: go with Servas - it's a lot cheaper! Plus you can use Google Maps to find out exactly where it is! But not all was bad in Norway and I'll try to only remember the good parts.

Hoping you have Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year!

Love
Nicole

Amsterdam and other tales

2009-11-29T21:59:00.000+01:00

Hello again my friends! How the heck are ya?

You guessed it: the pregnant girl is feeling better finally and has decided to come out of her shell to share with you this hellish experience......

Okay, you dodged a bullet on that one, because I DON'T want to talk about it! Just suffice it to say, "whose brilliant idea was this?"

ANYWAY, we have been out and about, so I'd like to update you on our dutch lives. I know you've been holding your breath since the last blog, so you can let it out now. Whew!

Well, 'tis the season, only here it's Sinterklass! And his helper Swarte Pete. I know I told you about it last year when we first moved here, but now we're finally starting to know what's going on and realize, hey, we've done this before! Sinterklass is related to Santa Clause, but, according to one parent at Miles' preschool - "Santa Clause is made up and Sinterklass is real." Okay, sure.

So, when he first comes to Holland, every year in November there is a parade in his honor from the harbor through the whole city. We went to a different place to see it and we stood in front of a butcher. Oh no, I thought, eyeing the tubs of hot dogs around, now we have to endure the meat? No, it wasn't for us - it was for the people in the parade! I've never seen anything like it in my life. All the participants slowing down in front of us to eat little weiners - Sinterklass, his helpers (and there were a lot of them), even the dressed up ladies on horseback, all eating hot dogs! I couldn't help but laugh out loud! (see pic on right)

First of all, this would never happen in the US. Never. Everything has to be shrinkwrapped in the US. But these were huge tubs of naked hot dogs (can I say that?) just being handed up to the parade people. I guess people are a lot more relaxed about that kind of stuff here. Even the candy and cookies weren't wrapped individually - just dumped into waiting hands, more landing on the street than actually hitting their target. Whatever happened to the advice "don't take candy from strangers?" Apparently that doesn't apply to people dressed up in loud colors with black makeup on! (see pic on left - all Swarte Pete's have black face on [totally nonPC], I guess because they are from Spain?)

So, that was our first adventure. Then Aaron had to go to Amsterdam again for the day so it was my bright idea to meet him there with Miles and stay overnight in a hotel. Well, all fine and dandy until I realize that I'M the one who has to get him onto two trams and a train to get there! No big deal (thank god for the movies on the Iphone) - we made it there in one piece. It was called the Fashion Hotel and I only chose it for the indoor pool. But, somehow, I don't think a lot of families stay there. Call it a hunch or all the breakable things in the lobby.......

Nice hotel, nice pool, bad idea. I forgot that we all stay in one room in a hotel and Miles wakes up early in strange environments - 5:30 am!!! AHHHHHH! So by 7:30 we were a little slap happy. Aaron gets the best dad/best husband award because he took that boy OUT to breakfast! Yea! Mommy gets to go back to sleep! And they brought me back a chocolate banana pancake! woo-hoo!

So then we all go down for a swim, and forgot Miles' swim wings. D'oh! Have to hold him the whole time, but it's still fun. With both of us there, he can practice swimming, and he can really do it! For short distances, but he's moving his arms and legs, holding his breath, the whole shebang! I don't know whether to be proud or have a heart attack every time he goes under water! Proud, proud, proud....

The sun is out for once, so we head to a park. Then we're so hungry after that, we actually eat at the Amsterdam Hard Rock Cafe. Who cares about the music, we love American food!! Go Macaroni and cheese! Miles, surprisingly, didn't like it, but hey, more for me! (the pic on the right is Miles' "No more pictures" pose)

The sun goes down early here- 5 pm and it's dark. We were totally exhausted by then, so we just headed home on the train. ah, home sweet home. Where we can just turn on the tv for our early riser and go back to bed! Yes, we're the parents of the year raising our MENSA child.

We actually celebrated Thanksgiving this year. Even though we were with our good friends, it felt weird not to be around family. But it was the first time I've ever made stuffing, or gravy. Yes, I know, I guess I'm a Thanksgiving virgin. I did find great recipes on www.veganyumyum.com, though! They turned out great! Plus Aaron made Seitan and we had two kinds of pie thanks to my friend.......mmmmm, it was Thanksgiving all right! And I'm thankful for all of you! (plus the pie; how can you not be thankful for pie?).....

Hope all your holidays are good ones and who knows, we may actually get a Christmas card out. Don't hold your breath! (again)....

Love
Nicole

Pregnancy sucks

2009-10-23T21:41:00.010+02:00

I'm a little behind on the blogging and I apologize. I have a good excuse though! For those of you who may not realize this - I'm pregnant. Yes, I'm very excited when I remember not to be exhausted and nauseated. I'm almost past the first trimester and - keep your fingers crossed - those feelings should disappear SOON!

We did this on purpose, fools that we are, thinking that it was time, I was ready, Miles is in school now....blah blah blah. And, while the timing may be right, it is so much harder to be pregnant with a kid around! They totally don't understand that, no, mommy doesn't want to wrestle around on the floor, she needs to throw up right now. Maybe that's just my experience.....

ANYWAY, what else is going on........hmmm, let me think. Ah yes, I've lost my husband to the computer. Yes, we all knew it was bound to happen some day, but this is a little sooner than expected. After Miles is asleep, I look over to our "office" (corner of the dining room) and Aaron is physically there, sitting at the computer, but really, I'm alone in the house. Yes, he has a good reason - his work and studying for his intermediate dutch class have claimed his every spare minute. But my butt spreading on the couch sure isn't going to lure him out anytime soon.

Maybe I can tempt him out of computer world with a nice, home cooked meal. Scratch that; the smell of cooking food makes me run from the room in nauseous horror. Scintillating conversation? Well, let's put it this way: watching nonstop reruns of "Friends" and (god help me) "2 guys, a girl, and a pizza place" and only leaving the house when absolutely forced doesn't exactly make me up on current events. Events from 10 years ago and I'm all over it, apparently.

It's okay, I'm not totally depressed just yet. I know we'll make it out of this slump when a) I get past this stage of pregnancy and become a blossoming flower of womanhood or (seeing how that's never going to happen) b) his class ends sometime in December. We have something to shoot for!

I just realized that I sound a LITTLE bitter. Aaron is in Amsterdam right now, living it up at a 3-day "training seminar" and I'm stuck here. No bitterness. I probably couldn't make it through the 45-minute train ride it takes to get to Amsterdam, much less live it up. (living it up is an exaggeration, right Aaron? don't answer that)

A shout-out to all the single moms out there. I never realize how much I depend on Aaron, even just being there the hour and a half between getting home from work and Miles' bedtime. How do the single moms, sorry, single parents (you go single dads!), handle being on call 24-7, without backup? How do you not lose it every weekend when it's all kids, all the time?

Anyway, once the hormones cool down (when would this be?), we should be safe to visit sometime in April 2011. That's right, 2011. Shoot right past this next year as it will probably be a bitch with me due in May and then the new baby thing through the summer. And who wants to come to the Netherlands in the winter? No one.

Anyone brave enough to weather the storm or people who are forced against their will (read: family) need to show their faces around May 2, 2010. That's the baby launch date. Please remember: Miles was a week late. Plan accordingly.

Not too leave you on too sour a note: Miles has been providing the comic relief in all this. When we told him about the baby, the first thing he did was smile really big and then a loud "nooooooooooooo." Then I explained that the baby in my belly is the reason I've been so tired lately. Later on that day, he said "I'm tired, I have a baby in my belly. He changes his mind almost daily when asked if he wants a brother or a sister. Then he does a spastic puppy routine that is hilarious! Plus he makes me get off my ginormous ass and actually do something active like go to the park or beach. I love him so much - he's going to be a great big brother!

Hope all is well with everyone! Enjoy the pictures! (the last two are from my babysitter taking him to go apple picking, an outing she suggested and didn't even charge for just because she loves Miles - she's a goddess!)

Love
Nicole

Time Flies

2009-09-10T20:15:00.012+02:00

Golly gee wilikers, Bat Man, where does the time go? It's almost been a year since we first got to The Netherlands already! I honestly can't quite believe it. This time last year, we were furiously packing and trying to sell our house (and everything we owned) and making the plunge. whew. For not a lot of forethought, we lucked out!

Now, though, we have been around the block! I know where things are - and not just the grocery store either! I can sort of speak the language (though what language that might be, some people are wondering when I try ;) I have new friends! I have a bike! I'm not afraid of the rain anymore (well, when it's combined with cold and wind, a little, but who's counting?)

You know you've arrived when people start asking you for directions and you know what they're talking about (in English, anyway). Sometimes, I even know where they want to go! Not often, but it has happened. Also, I've started wearing scarves. They say you have to be born here to know how to wear them, but no one has pointed and laughed (to my face), so I'm just going to bite the bullet.

I can ask for simple things in Dutch, but then don't know what the people are saying in reply. Just nodding and smiling on that one still. But I can read a train schedule now. Baby steps, baby steps.

So, what do I think of the country now? Still mostly good. The weather this summer was WONDERFUL (sorry all Texans reading this blog), but I'm warned that it was by far the best summer in three years. Usually cold and rainy even in the summer. Well, one outta three ain't bad, right?

Dealing with the government has been a big pain in the ass, but we seem to have done everything wrong to begin with, so sorting it out has been fun. It's a very tolerant government, but the paperwork is a bitch. Oh well. Such is life.

What else, what else.....in the past year:
-We've moved once. Not bad considering the huge move we made between countries. What's a neighborhood or two?
-We've traveled to different countries - Italy, Belgium and Denmark (oh and the US!!!) so far.
-Mastered the Euro (not hard - just try not to convert to dollars in your head or you get a big shock of how expensive things are over here!)
-Tried the local food then quickly moved on to anything non-local (lots of meat and cheese sandwiches and tomato soup).
-Rented a car; not a great idea when you have no idea of the traffic laws.....enough said.
-Discovered all the parks in 5-mile radius - a necessity with a toddler.
-Made friends from at least 12 different countries! Germany, China, Surinam, Denmark, Italy, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, France, Hungary, America and The Netherlands! This place is so international. Used to be I thought California was as exotic as it got!
-Found a family doctor, but not a dentist yet. Still looking. I do have a massage therapist if that counts for anything (a lot with me!).
-Put Miles in a Dutch preschool. WHAT? When did that happen?

Okay, that will happen tomorrow. I'm excited about it, but sad too. The end of the full-time era. When did he get old enough for school? I'm actually probably the last person I know to be full time at home with only one child. Helps that I'm in a foreign country and not allowed to work, but you know what I mean. And really, he's SO ready. He loves other kids and playing around with them. I know that I am not stimulating him enough mentally/physically so that he's actually challenged. I thought about home schooling him for almost three seconds and then laughed......yeah, that's gonna happen.....

The hard part has been deciding what preschool to put him in! Dutch, International, American, Montessori, British, French, you name it they've got it! We went with the Dutch, because, well, we're here, we might as well try to blend in. I do seem to talk at a higher volume than anyone else around me (the Loud American), but that's a different story. Plus, once Miles picks up the language, he can translate! Keep your fingers crossed that it will work out with the language difference.

Anyway, the one thing that hasn't changed much is that we miss our family and friends from back home. I think of you often even if I don't make contact. Hope all of you made it through what sounds like a horrendous summer from hell. Think of us in the middle of a rainy, dark, windy, cold winter and know that it's definitely a trade off.

:p
love
Nicole

PS - these are just random pics that I've taken lately. Doesn't Miles look so big in the one before last? Like he's 12 or something! Crazy. That he can still fit in his closet reassures me that, no, he is not 12. Yet.

culture shock in the ol' USA

2009-08-08T21:19:00.014+02:00

Hello folks,

Well, we just got back from our trip to the US. I have to say, we've finally been in the Netherlands long enough to notice a few differences now.....When did every town in the country start to look alike? Why is there a Home Depot/Kohls every three blocks? I knew it was coming - you can't ignore chain stores. Turn your back on them and they sneak into your backyard in the blink of an eye. I just thought MAYBE it was limited to Texas. Yeah, right. Turns out Illinois is infected too!

Not to say I didn't enjoy shopping in Kohls and a jumbo store called Meijers. I like picking up good deals as much as the rest of us. I just was a little surprised at how big stores have gotten. I know, I know, I'm europeanized (is that a word?). I shop in miniscule grocery stores and little outdoor markets. But do you really need a store that is as big as a city block just to buy milk and/or underwear?

ANYWAY, after we adjusted to riding in a car everywhere and the size of everything, we had a great time on our vacation to Illinois. I saw practically every one I'm related to by blood or marriage. How often can you say that about your vacations? Mostly we ate good food and visited with family. I forgot how nice that can be....we did make it out to a "Founder's Day" in Algonquin, Il (see pic above). Strange place but fun!

After being in Holland for 10 months, it was so nice to not have to translate everything. (not that we even come close to figuring out what everything means!) and ask if people speak english! I was at a little park and just couldn't stop smiling at the conversations that I could understand....people thought I was a little strange. I guess I pick up the accents of where ever I am because all of a sudden I'm sounding like a native midwestener. In the Netherlands, people have no idea I'm from Texas - they think I'm English because I can't help picking up a slight foreign accent! Oh well, I guess I could be a good spy one day if I ever work again...... (BTW, I love this picture of Miles with my cousin's kid, Owen. They are only 5 and 3, but their expressions have to be about what, 17 years old? "What are you looking at?")

Plus, not having any family here, it was really wonderful to see my parents and sister, my grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins....you get the idea. Miles had met most of them when he was a baby, but of course he didn't remember. Now, he can talk with them and interact - it was so nice! And all the babysitters - boy, I already miss that part! I always wanted to be part of a big family - we were always a little isolated down in Texas - that when I see everyone together, playing games and drinking and having fun - it's really great knowing that I'm related to all these fun people!

We spent five days catching up with my family, then spent the day in Chicago with Aaron's brother and his wife. Aaron's mom generously offered to babysit (Yea!) so it was great to check out all the sights! If you haven't seen Sears, excuse me Willis Tower lately, they have these cool glass boxes that you can stand right over the city and look straight down! Not recommended for those afraid of heights.

Then we made our way up to a cute little town called Utica, Illinois to be with Aaron's family! We stayed in a vacation home with them and got to see them much more than if we were visiting in Austin! Everyone in their pajamas, eating a great breakfast that my sister-in-law cooked, you can't beat that! We played Uno, and kept adding silly rules until we were swapping hands with people and moving all around the table. So much fun! The place also had water and amusement parks on-site and a state park down the road. We were not lacking for entertainment....

One word about air travel there and back- British Airways is the way to go! I highly recommend them. What I don't recommend is Enterprise Rent-A-Car at O'hare Airport (panic-inducing hard-to-find place) or 5-hour layovers in London with a toddler. Enough said!

Now that we're back from the States, we're settling down to our old routines, finding some new places. Friends of mine are all on holiday - Croatia, China, Scotland, Paris, Germany.....looks like we need to branch out a little on our vacation ideas! All in good time, all in good time.

Hope everyone's summer is going well and that no one has completely melted into a little puddle. There's a reason we didn't come to Texas this summer........:)

This is a picture of Miles after our marathon plane journey while we were waiting for a taxi at the airport in Amsterdam. He was the only one I was going to take a picture of after all that!

Love
Nicole

A very long blog.....

2009-07-17T20:50:00.015+02:00

Hello everyone! So sorry I haven't kept up the blogging.....but here I am again at last! I didn't do anything interesting for weeks and weeks and then BANG so much in such a short amount of time!

Let's see, the birthday went well; I don't even know why I stressed about it at all! Just a nice little picnic in the park with dips and cupcakes. My signature dish here is guacamole - being from Texas I feel I have to represent! That and hummus go a long way! Don't tell anyone they're so easy to make it's almost like cheating.......oops. Oh well. Now you know...:) We gave Miles a scooter and he's already super good! I may be a little biased.......

Also, we took Miles to an outdoor circus of sorts to celebrate on the actual day of his birthday. Strange, but fun. There was a horrible Dutch melodrama in a very hot tent - even the Dutch people weren't laughing.....and there was a silent Disco. If you haven't heard of this, it is super fun! Everyone participating had on wireless headphones and were listening to the same song.....there were silly people who led the dances too. For everyone not participating, it just looked like a bunch of people dancing in silence! But we were having so much fun, we didn't care what we looked like! If you have the chance - go! Fun for kids too!

Anyway, right after Miles's birthday (sans fireworks), my friend Sarah came to town. Yea!!! I of course dragged her all over town showing her the sights. Most of them kid friendly, but we managed to squeak in some culture too. I am so indecisive though, I'm sure it got on her nerves (I know it got on mine and it's my indecisiveness!)...should we go here or there? Should we eat this or that? Just make up your mind already, jeez! I should stress here that we had a great time (she said it on facebook, so it's for the record!)

She and I were roommates at college. Gosh, that was more than 10 years ago. tick tock tick tock, that's time flying again.....But recently (the last 5 years), we hadn't been able to meet more than once or twice a year for dinner. Having her here for three days,- talking almost nonstop except for when we had to sleep - really brought that friendship back to me. I'm so glad she came, because who else can you laugh hysterically at the smurfs with than an old friend? No I was not drunk. We were pretty tired by then though.

THEN, after she left, we decided to check out camping the Dutch way. Pretty luxurious, if you ask me. They call these little houses in the woods "bungalows." With wood floors, full kitchens, two bedrooms and a living room, I call it "bigger than my first apartment." They also had playgrounds, a heated indoor swimming pool (a must in this climate), archery, kids programs, a grocery store, cafes, bike rental and a horse and buggy, if you can believe it. Yeah, we were roughing it....

Landell GreenPark is close to Amersfort in the middle of The Netherlands, but we had no idea how to get there. This is the bad part about not having a car. Door-to-door, the way there took 4 hours. We changed trains FIVE times. Plus a BUS! Luckily, Miles was asleep for most of it. I look at it as a learning experience. Turns out we were directed to a neighboring town when all we had to do was take a train to the actual town it was in. If you're confused now, join the club. Suffice to say, we changed our route back and saved two hours.

BUT the place was super nice (see list above) and Miles didn't want to leave. The Dutch people think of a weekend as Friday through Monday. I started packing our things up Sunday morning without realizing we had another day....sure that day was rainy and cold, but we did have it :) Aaron and I were ready to go on Monday morning, but it was a nice place to visit.

One thing I never thought about before moving here, but with all the rain, Holland is really green. It's not a very big country, but they have set aside so much of the land (relatively speaking) for parks and green spaces! We rented bikes on Saturday there and the camp is in the middle of a national park - trees as far as you can see in any direction. One thing I thought was funny though - the only true roadsigns I've seen here (they're mainly on the sides of buildings) were in the middle of the forest marking two bike paths coming together. Weird. That's the one thing I forgot to get a picture of. Oh well. I guess it helps you not get lost!

Hope everyone is having a nice summer and surviving the heat (sorry to hear about that Texans). We're heading to Illinois for 10 days to see my dad's family. If anyone is in the Chicago area between July 21-31, shoot me an email!

Love
Nicole

birthday thoughts

2009-06-28T16:44:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Just thinking about Miles's birthday - July 4th! Strange to think how much has changed. I'm sad that all our friends and family in Texas can't be here to celebrate......oh well. No fireworks here either. :(

We are having a party though. Small. But it was fun looking at all the different stuff there is here. And some of the same. Here's a conversation that my mother-in-law recorded about Miles' birthday. I'll blog again to let you know how it went!

here's the email she sent:

Today, I was on the new-fangled Skype internet picture phone with my son Aaron and my only grandson, Miles. They live in Holland and I miss them terribly way over here in Texas, but at least I get to see them “Live and In Person” on the computer a few times per month.

When I asked Miles, who will turn three on the 4^th of July, what he wanted for his birthday, he first said he wanted cake and ice cream and balloons and a crown. Oh, and some presents. When I asked what presents he wanted, he said something I couldn’t quite follow but he seemed to think that he had to wait until his birthday to talk about presents. His daddy explained that he could tell me what he wanted and I could buy it for him. This is an idea he warmed up to.

Here’s what Miles wants:

- A race car

- A telescope

- A gun

- A jaguar (I don’t know if he meant a car, a stuffed toy, or a large and exotic wild animal.)

- A clothes pair (his words)

- Beer, or a pair of beer

- Honey

- Granola

- A bouncy ball (when his dad said he already had a bouncy ball, he said he needed one for daddy, and, oh yeah, also one for mommy)

- A camera (or three cameras, one for him and mommy and daddy)

- A computer (when his dad said he already had his own computer, he said he needed one for each hand, and he mimed working at his two computers, one with each hand). Then he said,

- “I don’t have one of those?” His dad said, “A printer?” “Yeah, a printer,” said Miles.

- “I want a lamp.” “We have a lamp”. “I want a lamp for my room.” (He pronounced it “wamp”).

- Of course, he needs a mirror for his room as well

- And a pair of shoes. “More crocks!” he said. “You already have two pairs of crocks,” says Dad. “I need some beer crocks.” Oh, that makes sense.

- He needs a nail for his stroller (Luckily, his dad explained that the stroller was missing a screw).

- And don’t forget the scissors.

At this point, his dad asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. “No, I just farting,” said Miles.

When I told Miles that I could probably only get him one or two presents, and asked which ones he wanted the most, he seemed unsure. “How about a race car,” said I, “and some clothes.” Yeah, “and some race car beer,” said the little darling, “so I can drive the race car really fast and I can drink some beer.” Good God!

Our funniest phone call yet.

Markets galore

2009-06-13T21:06:00.007+02:00

I think that I am possibly going to be in trouble here in the Netherlands. It is a little known fact that I love markets. If there's cheap stuff in a store, not impressed. Same stuff in a tent on the side of a street, I'm there. Europeans, it seems, love markets even more than I do. There is one every day somewhere in town. Now that the weather's so nice, they're springing up everywhere!

Now that I'm a parent, I'm especially a sucker for kids toys. This was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt on Queen's day - the one day the entire country turns into a yard sale. I went crazy, buying so many toys there was barely room for Miles in the bakfiets (box bike)! But I thought I was safe. One day a year, okay, I can handle that.

But now, I find that I'm addicted! I can't stop at just one market - I must see more and more! I just bought Miles a piece-of-crap bubble gun (like a water gun but bubbles) shaped like a mermaid because it was at a market on a shabby sloping card table on the side of the street. Broke almost instantly. Five euros for that? What the hell am I thinking? I need help!

Calm. Yoga breaths. I can do this. It's not just the toys though. They lure you in with kids activities too - bouncy houses, face painting, pony rides for crying out loud! At one place they had in-line skating demonstrations. Ten minutes plus getting miles all suited up (the boy is not even 3 yet) and he lasted about 30, maybe 45 seconds, before he wanted out. Oh well. He loves to watch the skaters and bikers in the park, but I guess he's a LITTLE young to do it yet.

But I bet we spend more on the food and the kids stuff then anything we actually buy. That's the fun, right? I'm learning though, as a parent, that you can't do everything. There can't be a "surprise" every single day. The problem is that how to get Miles out of the house when he doesn't even want to go to the park some days, without a major showdown! I don't force the boy to go play somewhere, but as an adult trapped in an apartment with a small child, I have to get out some days!

We'll find our feet eventually. Sure, like when he's 18 and off to college. He turns 3 next month and he already knows how to not only push all our buttons but to turn all of them on at once. He's like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes and Bart Simpson rolled into one. And people ask me why I'm tired.

He's great fun too, don't get me wrong. He's so cute with his face painted or on a pony for the first time. I love him so much I couldn't even begin to tell you. But in a market, where there's so many people and so many things to see and do and TOUCH, I swear my voice is hoarse from yelling MILES don't touch that! I think I'll wait a few years before I go back to a market. I don't care how good the deals are.

That's it for now. It's not all markets. We did make it out to the beach - and went into the sea! Couldn't believe it. It was freezing, but people were in laughing, swimming....not me of course, but I did send my envoys to test it for me. Their reactions didn't put it over the top for me. The beach is nice though. We biked over and found a new area that wasn't overcrowded (yet). Of course, I wasn't prepared and only had an empty water bottle to play with for Miles, but it seemed to do the trick. It was fun anyway!

Hope your spring/summer is going well! We miss the fountains in Austin. Found some here and sent Miles in to play in them and got the strangest looks. Maybe people don't do that here. No one stopped us, so we didn't care! He had a good time! Plus my mom sent us some great costumes from my nephews, so that's been keeping us busy (see pirate picture). He's so darn cute, I want to take his picture every second!

Love
Nicole

Efteling, and Keukenhoff, and Nemo! Oh my!

2009-05-24T19:37:00.014+02:00

howdy folks,

Gee, time has flown by this month! We've been outside a lot - the weather has been just gorgeous lately - only raining once a week! Let's see, after Queen's Day we went to an amusement park called Efteling. All about fairy tales. Of course the one day that we decide to do it, the morning was raining and miserable. Nothing like a roller coaster with needles of rain pelting your face.

It looked nothing like a Six Flags, that much I know. For one, the main entrance was a huge building with a thatched roof going in all directions. Look at the picture, because it's hard to describe. Then there were all these trees! The whole place was green and glistening - beautiful! Who'da thunk - all that rain is useful as well as annoying!

It was all about fairy tales, but kind of a new spin - the three little pigs turned into 7 goats somehow, and there was a cow (I think it was a cow) that pooped chocolate eggs. Remind me not to look at that again.......plus they added charaters that I didn't even know. Good to explore the different culture though. Luckily we had a Dutch friend who was with us to explain everything.

Miles is a little young yet for most of the rides, so it was good he fell asleep right when we got there. Someone had to stay with him, so I let Aaron go on all the big rides (aka four) with our friends (not much of a sacrifice as it was still raining!) But the rain cleared up after lunch so we could enjoy the park.

Miles did enjoy the little rides they had for kids, some snails on rails up high in the sky that we all 3 rode on (don't ask), the classic swing ride, and the playground. It wasn't much different from any other playground, but we had discount tickets and a ride there and back - had to check the place out! It's one of the few car trips we've been on since we moved here. Direct transportation does have something in its favor against trains.

After that side trip, my parents came to town and all bets were off! Aaron had to work that weekend, so Miles and I ventured out on our own to meet them in a little town called Haarlem, outside of Amsterdam. Turned out to be the perfect place to acclimate - not too big, not too small. My parents rented a car so we got to see the last of this season's tulips at Keukenhoff (a big deal here in Holland!) It was really beautiful!

Then they came The Hague, so we could show off our new home town! Mostly restaurants on the beach, but that's the best part anyway. Boy did we eat well! Thanks Mom and Dad! Miles still misses you (and the hotel room :)

I kind of feel bad that all we saw were parks and playgrounds really. But when you're travelling with a toddler, he's the king of the trip. He dictates what you do and when. At one point, we had to stop on the side of the road so Miles could pee. Fun. Oh well. Next time, we can have more cultural experiences (yeah, sure).......But they did get their fill of watching Miles climb, jump, yell, run, everything he loves to do ....oh and watch tv!

After a week here, Aaron and Miles and I followed my parents to Amsterdam to explore what we've only seen in day trips. After good weather the entire trip, the skies opened up and rained down on us. Not too much exploring, but we were still together, so it worked out fine. We did show them the Nemo museum, but it was a free day so too many people trying to do all the same things at the same time. Recipe for disaster. sigh. Best laid plans....

They're home now, and it's back to normal for us. All in all, we've had a great month, but this weekend we've been happy to do nothing much in particular. Relax! Enjoy! Sleep......zzzzzzzzz.......

Nicole

Queen's Day

2009-05-04T20:10:00.006+02:00

What happens when the most densely populated country in the world decides to have a garage sale all at the same time? That, my friend, would be Queen's Day. April 30th, a national holiday for selling your junk, if I understand correctly. Everyone gets the day off work, so everyone parties the night before (Queen's Night, thank you very much), then gets up at the crack of dawn and sells all the same stuff as their neighbors. what? Does this make sense to anyone else? I didn't think so.

Apparently, there is no such thing as an informal garage sale here. It's either the Queen's birthday or you can forget it. There are only a few designated spots within each city where you can set up shop a.k.a a box chalked out on the sidewalk. So everyone in that area is crammed on top of each other and the people who aren't selling are crammed together trying to look at whatever the junk is. Fun. We checked out two areas in The Hague. I guess we're gluttons for punishment.

Early on Thursday, Miles and I ventured forth, alone, because Aaron was hungover from enjoying Queen's Night with friends. Yep, I was the babysitter. (Don't worry, I don't like to drink, so now he owes me one :). We head toward the area known as Belgisch Park because a friend of mine said she would have cake at her booth. I'll go anywhere for cake.

I had the deluded idea that I could take my bakfiets (boxbike) into the sale area. It's only bigger than the Smart Car, so no problem, right? Yeah, I had to park that but fast. Good thing I brought it though because I went a LITTLE crazy. Everyone had toys to sell and you had to bargain with the kids selling the stuff in question. I talked a six-year-old down to 1 euro 50 cents for 20 toy cars. He wanted 2 euros. It was take my offer or make change for a 50 euro bill. Even kids don't want to make change!

But I had to buy the cars to go with the garage I bought for Miles. And the big crane and the giant bag o' Legos (okay, Megablocks) that I just had to have......hmmm, I don't think I should go alone into a fleamarket. I'll come back babbling "legos, trucks and rollerblades, Oh My!" When I was finally done, there was hardly room in the bike for Miles! I guess we're set for a couple of months.....never did get that cake, I mean, find my friend....

Wait. After lunch at home, AARON wants to check out the sales. sigh. Okay. We tuck Miles in the stroller this time (much easier to manuver) and we head out in the opposite direction. The same stuff, just more off it. Miles and miles of fleamarket! At least at one end there was a carnival with bumper cars and games and a park for the kids. That's what we were aiming for, it just took us a while to get there! Didn't buy anything else for Miles, though we did let him ride the bumper cars twice!

The thing that I noticed was that there wasn't a person selling bottled water every five feet. I had to hoof it a long way and spend almost 10 bucks for one measly bottle of water! Who's running this show, anyway? Next year, I'm selling water. I'll be rich!

I'm not sure what selling junk has to do with the Queen's birthday, but it's as good a way as any to spend your day off. There was a sense of connection, though, because everyone and their mother was wearing orange (including us)! Plus, I think I spent all of 20 euros even with all the stuff I bought, so it was a good day. The kids selling didn't like Miles playing with all their toys, that's for sure. The more things change....

Sorry about the lack of pics - we forgot the camera and only had Aaron's cell phone to take them with. Oh well. Enjoy!

Nicole

A tale of two cities

2009-04-18T20:34:00.017+02:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.....well, at the very least, it was a good hotel vs. one that charges by the hour.
I promised I would blog about our adventures outside of Holland and we have made two trips recently that deserve to be mentioned. Both trips were to zoos in Belgium, but really it's the little things that make all the difference.

First, we impulsively decided to take a trip the weekend of March 21-22. The first weekend with good weather predicted in forever. But where to go? We looked in our guidebook and settled on Mechelen, Belgium, partly because it had two attractions for kids: a toy museum and a wildlife park. Perfect.

Despite the fact we didn't get out of the house until 11:00 am, we had a nice journey down to Belgium. Worry free, in fact. Miles fell asleep after the train ride (great timing as always), so we had to cool our heels for a while.

Mechelen is a great town to be in - even if you're lost (which we were on the way to the museum). On the small side, it boasts wonderful architecture and cathedrals; big squares with lots of little cafes with outdoor seating; canals - really a great m

ixture between the Netherlands and France.

And the toy museum turned

out to begreat- with a little play area for kids and a wonderful exhibit on the 50 years of Legos. You would be amazed at how many things you can build with plain Legos until you see a life size statue of Hagrid from Harry Potter staring down at you.

(sadly, we didn't have a memory card in our camera, so there are few pics from that trip).

The next day we took the bus to the zoo and it was great! I especially liked how many things there were for kids to climb on; I think Miles liked that more than the animals. We even saw a lion catch a bird and eat it! What more can you ask for?

This trip seemed blessed from the get-go. In addition to the zoo and museum, there was also a big festival in honor of the first weeke

nd of spring! Percussion bands in the street, fireworks, bagpipes, you name it, it was happening. Despite all this activity, we still got a room in a good hotel, no problem!

Needless to say, we had a great time. So, what's the point you ask? Well, just keep in mind the happy trip number 1.

Now, having had such luck, we were fearless to try another trip, even though it was during Easter weekend and everyone and their mother was traveling for the holiday. This time we chose Antwerp, another city in Belgium.

First of all, we got on the wrong train. I don't know how many ways to start a trip wrong, but this is a major one. We were just doing as we were told, but somebody likes to play jokes on the Americans, cause this train didn't go anywhere near Antwerp.

For a trip that was supposed to last an hour, it turned into 2 and a half hours with a cranky toddler. Fun all around really - both for the other passengers and for us! But I ask you - shouldn't the conductor who stamped our tickets said something like "uh, gee, these tickets say Antwerp but this train doesn't even go there!" But I digress.

So we finally got there and you-know-who falls asleep the minute we get off the train.

Since we had gotten there so much later than planned (see wrong train), we decided to stay the night and go to the zoo the next day. However, trying to get hotel room in that town was like trying to find water in the desert. It ain't gonna happen.

Finally, we find one place. Yes, they have a room. Great! You have to pay extra for your own toilet. Bad. Nevertheless, we decide, "how bad could it be?" When you have to ask the question, it's pretty bad. No, we did not get any pictures of this crappy hotel.

Overlooking the seedy hotel, Antwerp looked promising. A wonderful park within walking distance. Nice weather and good ice cream go a long way to making a person happy. Then we decided to find a place for dinner. I ask you, you see two Italian restaurants side by side. One has absolutely no one inside. The other is hopping. Which do you choose? That's what I thought. But why, I'll never know, because the pizza was lousy. Oh well.

We walk around a while exploring, and it does look nice. But bedtime for Miles, so we go back to the hotel. Bad idea - the less time spent there the better. The room is so small the door hits the bed. There is a sagging toddler bed for Miles, but it's at the foot of the bed, so you have to crawl over the bed to get to the bathroom with no door. Fun. Oh well, it's just for one night, right?

We finally get Miles to sleep (hard in a new place) and start to drift off ourselves, when our neighbors start up the porn act. I can positively prove this hotel charged by the hour (maybe even by the minute) because no one can have that much sex in such a short amount of time.

It's not physically possible. It was too late to catch the last train home or I would have been outta there.

We get our revenge in the morning though because Miles wakes up a 6:30 am and is loud enough to wake the dead (or his parents who couldn't sleep with all the banging on the wall)! Breakfast is included in the price of the room and it's actually decent! Things are looking up!

We groggily make our way to eat and then hit the zoo, which is beautiful, by the way. Small, maybe not worth a special trip just to see it, but good. Early is good in a zoo - we seemed to be the first ones there. There were a lot of animals there, but the ones I like the best were the

seals. We named them - Spotty, Flippy and Floppy. They seemed to have the best time swimming.

The minute Miles falls asleep in the stroller, we hit the train station (conveniently located next door). We made the 2 pm train home and he slept the whole way!! Thank heaven for small favors. We came home vowing never to venture out without a hotel reservation in hand again.

I'm not writing Anterp off my list. It is worthy of a revisit - just not at that hotel. I did get a key chain out of it at the zoo, so it wasn't a total loss.... ; ) Enjoy the pics (you have to smile in pictures, no matter how tired you are) and we'll keep you updated if we take anymore impromptu vacations!

Nicole

PS - this last pic is Miles on his new bike we got him at Easter. I think he likes the bell the best.

Home sweet home

2009-04-10T20:24:00.012+02:00

Well, we made it. We are officially settled into our new apartment. It's seems really huge to us, after living in the other apartment, which was something like 800 square feet. Miles's old room was truly a closet with a bunk bed shoved inside. But baby, we're moving on up! There is literally room to swing a cat (not that I've done that, no, that would be wrong....;)

I think I like the kitchen the best. It's got a real oven in it (as opposed to a microwave combo) and I can see both the living and dining rooms from there. Very open layout! Miles now has a window and a heater in his room. My baby won't freeze. I'm so happy!

It's a little strange to think that we had a almost 2000 square feet in our house in Texas. Plus almost 1/4 acre backyard. How did we fill it up? We were so spoiled with all that space!

The apartment we moved out of was small, but it was liveable. Now, I feel like I could roller skate in this place. It's somethink like 1200 square feet! And, I'm pathetically grateful for a patch of grass outside. I think I could put a chair there. oooohhhh - somebody stop me before I go wild- two chairs!

The day we moved, I think we made it just a LITTLE harder on ourselves than it had to be. First, we only rented a car for one day. Who does that? I think it's cheaper to rent by the month than just one day. But we did. Oh well. Then, the move itself was smooth. Early morning, we were ready, the movers came, moved us, left. No problem. THEN, having the car for only one day, we had to go and get everything we wanted at Ikea RIGHT THEN.

Foisting Miles off on a friend, we tried running to Ikea, but got hopelessly lost and ended up taking the longest way there possible. With only 2 hours to get everything done, we ate a snickers bar for lunch (surprisingly satisfying), and started running around Ikea, throwing things in the cart, hardly looking at them. After the first 20 minutes or so of this, we had almost everything on our list! New record! Even slowing down to choose the living room rug, we did get done on time and raced back with a full carload of all our Ikea finds!

We arrived back just in time to do the inspection on our old apartment and hand over the key. Whoo. That was close. They were picky, but I think we passed!

I never would have thought it possible, but we fixed everything we had broken and spit-shined the place and they bought it! After we picked up Miles, we all collapsed in our new place and didn't come out for a week.

Now, we're exploring our new neighborhood. It's not that far away from our old place, but man, it feels so different! Plus with the bike, we can go further afield, so I'm getting to know places now that I just rode by on the tram. New parks, new grocery stores, new restaurants!!!

PLUS the weather today was actually WARM!! We put on shorts and short sleeves and didn't regret it!!! I don't know if I'm happy because of the apartment or the weather, and I don't care! Sun! More space! Closets that are still closets! Yippee!!! Cartwheels in the new place for everyone!

We are now accepting visitors. Call ahead to make your reservation! Happy Easter!

Nicole

the big move away from the beach

2009-03-20T21:10:00.004+01:00

Well, folks, it's 12 days and counting until the big move. As it draws closer and the weather is actually warming up - did I see actual sunlight over there? - I think we're slightly foolish for moving.

Let's look at the facts: we move to a beach apartment in the fall just in time for the bad weather to set in. All winter we huddle indoors, never venturing out to said "beach." The mall is our favorite haunt. Suddenly, tulips are blooming, the down-filled, nanook-of-the-north parka is coming off and there is life on the beach. Move, quickly before we start enjoying it!

The day after we moved here in September, they came with a crane and hauled off all the buisnesses located right on the beach. This past weekend, the crane came back to put it all back. Huh? Guess they know what they're doing. Miles likes to watch all the big machinery; I like that I don't have to entertain him for a while. It's a win-win.

They do have some great new places that they just put back up. These restaurants do not look like they got hauled in by a crane. They have big couches with huge pillows and fire pits to sit by. We checked out a place called "Bora Bora." The kitchen was in a converted school bus. Cool. Wasn't expecting much in the way of food but the place really surpised me! An excellent curry dish with cashews for Aaron and a delicious lasagna for me! Miles liked that we could snuggle under the blankets outside - I could barely get him to leave the place!

I will confess to this mistake - to be adventurous, I ordered a hot chocolate with rum in it. Not a great idea when you have a toddler with you. I gave him three LITTLE bites of the whip cream on top. THEN the waitress comes and when I complain about the strong taste of rum in the drink, she says - "It's all in the whip cream, you have to stir it up." WHAT! Water, Miles, drink water......

He wasn't TOO afftected (I hope), at least, I didn't see a huge difference in the way he was acting, though with a toddler, you never know whether the acting out is due to their natural behaivor or the RUM. AHHHHHHH. never again never again never again.....

Oh well. We can still come to the beach by bike. It won't be like living right on it, but what is? I know, I know, you're saying to yourself, that woman (me) can complain about anything! I am excited about having more room, though. And chairs that don't fall apart the second you sit down.

We have a big trip planned to the Ikea nearby. We actually rented a car to haul home our stuff that we plan to buy. Woo-hoo - a new toaster! Silverware! Sheets! Score! We'd also like to take a road trip, but don't know where just yet. I'll keep you posted.

Nicole

PS - sorry I know all my pics are of miles and Aaron, but what else do I take pics of? Let me think - the treasures of Europe? Nah....:)

Exploring Amsterdam

2009-03-05T19:53:00.013+01:00

Discovered a new thing last weekend - science museums are usually great for kids. Duh. I know I know, it should have been obvious. But really, I had to relearn this exciting fact. After not doing anything besides apartment hunting (see previous blog -Apartment Hunting Sucks) for months, we decided to do something fun for all of us! Aaron found a museum in Amsterdam called "Nemo."

Yes, there is a movie called "Finding Nemo" and it did confuse Miles for a while that there were no fish involved. (Don't recommend showing that movie to little kids. Too scary.). Anyway, we found it! It's a huge building built to resemble a ship, but it is not actually a ship -though there is a ship next to it that you can go on. Are you confused yet?

I will say, though, that going to Amsterdam by public transportation is not bad. An hour, I think, maybe 1.25 hours and you're there. I think by car it's 45 minutes. Plus the big passenger trains don't have a lot of stops to make, so it's pretty direct (as opposed to inner-city trams). I thought Miles would sleep on the way there, as we got a late start around noon. Nope, I guess it was too exciting. We would pay for that later.

Amsterdam Central Station is pretty awesome, I'll give ya that (The Hague central station, not so much). They have an organic store in the station! They have a healthy, fresh pasta bar right there! We promptly sat down and had some spinach and cheese ravioli with great red sauce and it was mmm-mmm delicious- probably up there among the top Italian food I've had here (and that's including our time in Milan).

Being directionally challenged, even when armed with a map, we had to ask for directions right away. Good thing the museum can be seen from a distance. But we did find it. I took a million pictures just of the building. All modern designs with the historic buildings in the background, too artsy!

The first floor of the museum was filled with experiments to delight all ages. I think the theme was part DNA and part cause and effect. Plus bubbles! Miles got really into the construction display of building a structure from foam blocks between bamboo poles. They had wheelbarrows his size, hard hats and everything! He didn't want to leave.

But of course, we had to drag him away eventually to show him all the other cool stuff (the other kids were getting mad when all Miles wanted to do was knock down their stuff and use it as a jungle gym). But we always came back to the construction. Oh well, let him go where he wants. We had a really good time. Going just for the day, we were debating whether to come back to The Hague or stay longer and explore when Miles fell asleep in the stroller. Here's where we pay for the nap not taken earlier. That and the fact that he didn't go to sleep again until 9:30 that night.

Oh well, we thought, let him sleep, poor guy (not that a hurricane could have woken him up at that point). We'll find a park. Sure. Then it started to rain. Rain, in The Netherlands? Who woulda thunk? Nope, no park today. We did find an AWESOME Thai restaurant that we'll probably never be able to find again, but it was good. Then we thought we'd come on home as long as he was sleeping anyway.

He woke up right as we got to the train station in Amsterdam. No quiet ride home. Of course, Aaron and I were exhausted and Miles was now raring to go. Timing is everything.

I'm so glad we had our adventure in Amsterdam (no red light district - get your head out of the gutter - though we did briefly consider having a hash brownie during Miles' nap). More to learn and explore!

Nicole

(finally some new pictures!)

Apartment hunting sucks

2009-02-21T20:50:00.005+01:00

For the past three weeks (seems like forever), we have been searching for a new apartment. In the states (okay, in my only time searching), you use an apartment locator, you tell him what you want, he/she drives you around, you look at 10 apartments in 2 hours, you pick one and, voila, you're done. Not so in the Hague, my friend.

While we probably did it all wrong, our search went a little like this: you look at hundreds, maybe thousands of apartments online. We call each individual agency and hope that they speak English (all did). Then you try to use public transportation to find the place, do it all wrong and have to walk 45 minutes because the bus you thought was there was nowhere to be found. Sound like fun? I didn't think so.

Oh, did I mention the toddler you have to drag with you? Even better!

One place did pick us up to show us some apartments, but neglected to mention the rough neighborhood the charming apartment was next to. We got as close as saying, yes, we want it, but before we went to sign the papers, I mentioned it to three different people. All three said it was not a good area, police called for fighting in the street. Uh, mabye not.

On the bright side, we now know parts of The Hague I have never even thought about before. But taking an hour to get somewhere to stay for ten minutes and then an hour back didn't really seem that efficient to me. I have missed my car like never before these past weeks of apartment hunting hell.

Seeing what we didn't want helped us narrow it down to what we did want. Three bedrooms, a big kitchen, all on the ground floor with a garden. Is that so hard? Apparently yes. Holland, it seems, is into tiny houses split into tiny apartments with one room on each floor. Okay, it's not that bad, but stairs, I don't want. The realtor seemed shocked that I didn't want a house with three floors.

Part of the frustration came from us, though. At first we wanted to live closer to Aaron's work. So we looked there. Then, I realized that I didn't want to start completely over with finding new friends and new things to do with Miles. So we looked in the area where we live now. THEN, after finding a place we almost signed for we looked at another place downtown. Back and forth back and forth, I felt like I was at a tennis match.

We spoiled Americans want to have it our way or not at all. Plus, I don't know if I'm a shopaholic or what, but I couldn't stop LOOKING! I always feel like something better could be out there. Aaron threatend to take away my internet connection if I didn't get ahold of myself.

In the end though, we compromised. A place closer to Aaron's work, but not so far away that I can't come back to the places and people I already know.

Funny how we had such a big house and yard (to us) in Texas and are now happy with 2 bedrooms and a patch of grass. (WARNING: Pollyanna ahead) Things change and we have to change with it. But adventures don't come easy, and that's what we came here for, by golly. What better way to get to know your new city than finding the obscure little streets and the buses that may or may not go to it?! I'm sure there's an answer to that question, but don't tell me.

No new pictures this time. Haven't had time. Promise more next time.

Nicole

American meets Iraqui in Holland

2009-02-09T15:51:00.003+01:00

I wanted to share a little story that happened to me a back November 2008 while I was on a tram on the way home from my office in Rijswijk, The Netherlands (which is right outside The Hague).

Normally, the boring ride from work to my little apartment on the beach takes at least 35 minutes, but that Tuesday the tram stopped after only about 5. The tram driver announced something in Dutch over the speaker system that made all the passengers (roughly 60) on 3 tram cars start to quickly, but not rushed, trod out of it. I tried to look around inside and outside the tram to determine what the heck was going on, but nothing was obvious, and I hadn't understood a word the driver had said. So, I just sort of asked loudly, "Does anyone speak English?!"

"Yes, he says that there was a tram wreck ahead, and we all have to find another way to go..." - a young middle-eastern man said. He was with a small group of what seemed like teenage middle-eastern guys, but being 33, it's hard to tell how old anyone under 25 is these days. Realizing I had only known how to get on the tram at my apartment by the beach 30 minutes away and at my office, I got nervous that wouldn't be able to find my way home in the dark with my lack of sense of direction. But without prompting, another young man in the group asked, "where are you going?"

"Scheveningen," I replied in my horrible Dutch accent.

"Oh, I go there, too. Come with me," he said, smiling humbly.

"Thank you."

I called my wife, Nicole, and told her we were stranded for a while, but I'd be home as soon as I could.

"I show you bus we can take. Number 20, over there," he pointed out.

"Cool. So, what's you're name?"

"[blah blah]," is all I heard.

"What?"

"Hussein... you know, like Saddam Hussein," he replied simply.

"Oh, heh, so where are you from?"

"Iraq."

[a little pause while we looked at eachother]

"Where are you from?" he asked.

"America", I said weakly. He started to laugh, and I immediately joined in as we looked right at one another, with no judgement or negativity.

Then, I saw something I didn't really hardly see, yet will never forget. People were gathered around from blocks around to look over the tram tracks. Bright lights shone on the tracks where a small rescue crew was pulling a mangled bike and a limp body away from the front of the tram that the other driver had announced earlier. The wreck that he had announced in Dutch had been between a tram and a cyclist. I reflexively turned my head away, so that I never really did see what I think I saw. Without seeing it, and despite not being the type of person to believe something I didn't see, I'm 99% sure I saw a dead man... and I wish I had never looked in that direction. Crowds of other people looked on, staring, but it just made me sickly feeling, shortening my breath significantly.

I tried to shake the thoughts of what I'd almost seen, and looked back a Hussein. He was looking back at the accident, but followed me as I made wide hand gestures signifying I didn't want to look, but wanted to move on. Right away.

We walked about 3 minutes to the #20 bus stop, and I saw one of my co-workers, a nice Danish lady named Maiken who works on the PeopleXS HelpDesk. Between Hussein and Maiken, we were able to make a new plan to get around the accident, and on our way to the other side of town (we were all going the same direction). But as we waited, we watched the city get crowded with confused, lost people. The tram accident had blocked a ton of public transit, and buses and trams for half the city were re-routed to who-knows-where to get around it.

To kill time, we talked more. Hussein said that there are hundreds of tram-related deaths per year in Holland. That sounded like a horrifying statistic until you compare it to the number of auto deaths anywhere else. However, I did have some scary flashes of my wife or son running out in front of a tram in the middle of the busy city. Why can't we all live in the middle of the country somewhere, with only horses for transportation? Oh, right. Progress.

We finally started asking each tram driver that came by where he or she was going, and eventually found one going to the Central Station, where we could switch to another tram that would take us to Scheveningen.

Maiken was fairly quiet, but Hussein continued chatting.

"I just want you to know that... er, I've always been against the Iraq war."

"Oh, no problem. I do not consider it my country any more. I have not lived there for many years, and all my family lives in other counties now."

"Oh, where?"

"Holland, Germany, and even in America. Houston, TX."

What a small world.

"How old are you, Hussein?"

"19."

"I'm 33."

"Ha, ha. My father is 35."

"Heh." (oh my god, I could be his father?!)

Then, he asked me, "Do you woman?"

"Yes, a wife. And I have a son, too."

"What is your woman's name?"

"Nicole."

He chuckled, and then said, "my woman, too".

"Uh, your woman what?"

"Her name Nicole, too."

Nooo.....?

We both started laughing joyously. Nice, round belly laughs.

"No wonder I like you, Hussein!!!"

"Yes, we both love Nicoles!"

I had completely forgotten about the cyclist I'd not really seen, and was just enjoying the good I found in humanity - an opportunity I wouldn't have probably ever had living smack in the middle of Texas. This was a conversation I enjoyed more than any in a long time. Most of my friends were middle-class anglos with a passing interest in making the world a better place and expanding their horizons, but due to a tragic accident I met someone as different from me demographically as I could think a person might be - and yet we were the same. He helped me get home when I was lost. He was a friend when I didn't know how to deal with seeing death. He is human. He is me and I am him. There is no separation - except that which is created by the mind.

Once we changed to our new tram after the Central Station, Hussein's stop was only 10 minutes away. He told me he worked at the Burger King in the Central Station, and even though I'm a vegetarian I said I'd stop by sometime to say hi. Maybe I will some day.

We exchanged good-byes as he left, and I sat thinking, alone. I sort of wanted to cry, but I did just barely manage to hold myself together. I knew what I wanted to do - hurry home, grab my little boy and wife and hold on for dear life. And I did.

- Aaron

Cabin Fever

2009-02-08T20:57:00.008+01:00

I've recently discovered what sport-loving Dutch people do when it's too cold and rainy to be outside. Well, Dutch people don't care about the cold too much, but they don't have any hills, mountains, mole hills, or even a steep ramp for winter sports.

They build themselves an indoor sports complex, the likes of which I have never seen or heard of before. They not only have indoor rock climbing and ice skating on what looks like a football (sorry, soccer) field, they have indoor skiing. SKIING for crying out loud. It's called De Uithof (pronounced "outhoff")(www.deuithof.nl) and I believe it blocks out the sun.

I found this place in a little tourist magazine they hand out in the information office. Oh, looks like fun, I thought, innocently, too myself. Maybe we'll take Miles. So the adventure begins. After many stops and starts and trams under and above-ground, we arrive. Up the many stairs, into the craziness that is Uithof on a weekend day. Kids of all ages running around, whole families in ski gear, carrying snowboards, sweaty adults climbing the massive rock walls (viewed through the window), and everyone tall, blond and in shape! Intimidating, nah.....

Finally we get up the nerve to ask what we can do with Miles and there is indeed a "kid zone." No we cannot take him to the go karts (you have to be all of 4 years old to drive those things). We are directed downstairs by the ice rink. We pass the indoor skiing area on the way. It's not huge, but it does have real snow and a rope to pull you to the top. Wow.

Well, the kid zone is not just by the ice rink, it's almost part of it. There is no separating wall or warmth of any kind in the "kid zone." As I look around at the many bouncy houses, I see toddler Popsicles with coats, hats and gloves trying to run around and have fun. They probably didn't care- I know Miles didn't - but I sure was frozen in less time than it takes to type this sentence. Hot chocolate here I come!

I guess once you put in all the other stuff, there's no room for a kid zone, literally, but it sure froze my tootsies off quick. It wasn't expensive and you could stay all day for the 4.50 euro. so that was good. Miles certainly had a good time watching all the kids. But by the end of three hours I was exhausted just watching everyone else have a good time.

It was the first time we have ventured out beyond our little area (it's in the next little town over). I was proud that we figured out how to get there using public transportation, but man, do I miss my car! We had fun and will go back, but not until I get more ski gear (they sell every sort of winter gear ever made on the premises of course)!

Nicole

PS - we didn't have many pictures from that day, so I've included some more random ones. :)

Another country heard from....

2009-01-27T20:50:00.020+01:00

I had this vision of being a kick-ass blogger. One of those responsible, dedicated people who get national attention, sponsors, guest spots on Martha Stewart.......I am not that person. For example, we've been back in Holland for almost a whole month and this is the first time I'm putting in an appearance.

Unpredictable, that's more like me. Except probably not in a fun way, just a drive-you-crazy kinda way. Oh well. Anyway, we're back and I'm writing about it. Happy?

Our trip to the states was great and wonderful and just-that-much too long. Maybe it just felt like it because for the last 5 days of the trip, my son, Miles, was puking his guts out. Okay, maybe not, but he would have been if not for our doctor calling in some medicine. The last day he was sick was on the plane ride home. FUN! It did clear everyone out of our row on the plane in no time flat. Poor guy. He's feeling much better now, don't worry.

But we loved seeing almost everyone, (so sorry to those we didn't get to see!) and I got babysitters for three weeks! Whoopee!!!! I got so spoiled that, when we got back to Holland, I didn't know what to do with the kid all by myself. Homesickness hit me right after the jet lag left.

It was weird driving a car everywhere we went again. My dad loaned us his car to go from Dallas to Austin and I remembered what we moved to get away from - the I-35 corridor. The ugliest stretch of highway anywhere in the US. But I also realized how much time I spent in my car and how many songs I sang to Miles in the car. Yes, it kept him happy in traffic, but we also connected in that way, and I miss that. It's not that same singing to him out with the stroller. I get a lot of funny looks, singing my head off about a spider or Old MacDonald in the middle of the sidewalk.

Hearing english everywhere also threw me for a second. I realized it wasn't the adults that surprised me but the kids! Almost all adults speak english here, but they of course talk to their kids in their native language. Miles doesn't seem to have a problem relating, but when I can't talk to them, or understand what they say, it's very frustrating. Body language and smiling help, but can't go all the way in communication.

But I miss everyone double now, after getting a glimpse of what I've given up to move here. Such fun, strong relationships with both friends and family, bonding over silly things our kids do, the time we've put in getting to know each other. The babysitters! The Mexican food!

It's so hard to keep up with everyone over email. I sometimes regret moving, but at the same time, realize, that given the chance, I'd still do things the same. That helps when I'm overwhelmed by homesickness and want to jump on the next flight home.

But we'll visit again, so you'd better not forget me. I still know where you live!

Nicole

PS - sorry for the lack of pictures from the trip. We lost track of our camera for most of our trip back to the states. Here are some pics we took before we left......enjoy! Rainbows, ice skating (wow, those rental skates hurt my feet!), our beautiful, if tiny, Christmas tree, and kite flying (taken after we got back; Miles was the best one!), are just part of our fabulous daily life. Feel free to envy me...;)

Milan, toddler style

2008-12-08T20:47:00.009+01:00

Let me begin by saying that there is a limit to how much pizza and pasta one person can eat in a week. I didn't think it was possible, but there you have it. I may never eat it again. Okay, that's a lie. But it will be at LEAST a week.

SO, there we were, in the Amsterdam Schipol airport week before last, crossing our fingers that the weather reports were wrong and it wasn't snowing in Milan. The trip had already had some ominous signs: the lock on our front door sticking so badly I couldn't go back into the apartment for something I forgot, including all Miles' toys and his backpack.

The news came in: we were delayed because of snow. yippee! Toddler in the airport! But it was only 3o minutes and and we were on our way. Good sign: he fell asleep on the airplane almost right away! Bad sign: the steps leading down from the plane to the tarmac had ice on them and it was snowing hard!

Milan in winter white was kinda fun. We slipped and slided all the way to our hotel and to lunch, but no accidents. Good sign: lunch was amazing and our hotel was nice! Bad sign - our room had three twin beds in it. Like camp....

The ice melted away and the rest of the week was plain old rain. Not as fun. With Miles in tow, though, we were not deterred. We saw the ancient castle at least three times on our trip. We chased a phantom kids museum, that has yet to be built I found out afterwards. I can recommend the Milan Science and Industry Museum to keep kids entertained. Planes, Traines and.....Boats! All inside the museum!

It was hard keeping Miles entertained in a hotel room for six rainey days, but I was up for the challenge. I dragged him to the Aquarium, which was nice thought small, and FREE! Good sign: I found a kid's play place. Bad sign: it was across the city and only reachable by taxi. Worse sign: the taxis, buses and trains went on strike after I got there. I was afraid that I would be stuck there for the rest of the trip! Luckily, the nice people there found a taxi willing to pick me up. Lesson (expensive) - don't go somewhere you can't get back from.

There was a GREAT Christmas market we found on the last day that had four buildings chock full of vendors selling food, jewelry, clothes, shoes, furniture, you name it! AND free babysitting! I was in my shopping glory for the 30 minutes I left him in strangers' care who didn't speak my language.....maybe that wasn't such a great idea.....

I do want to mention one more thing. In Holland, we're really lucky because almost everyone speaks English. In Milan, (I can't speak for the whole country) almost no one spoke English. Outside of our hotel, we only met one or two Italians who could understand us. Very frustrating. Yes, I was in their country, not mine, but it was a tourist area, for crying out loud, not a gas station in the suburbs! Oh well. Miming and smiling works wonders!

That's it for now. Happy holidays!

Nicole

Sinterklass and more!

2008-11-23T12:35:00.012+01:00

I love experienceing new customs! Especially ones involving giving candy away and presents. Santa Clause? you say. Nee to that, my friend. It's Sinterklaas and he came to Holland last weekend! We were there to watch the parade.

From what I've been able to observe (nothing official, mind you) Sinterklaas spends most of the year in Spain (and who wouldn't?) and travels to Holland in November by boat. He has lots and lots of helpers, all called Swarte pete, who look like jesters covered in black make-up, supposed to be the soot of all the chimneys they go down. They even have their own band (okay, more than one) called the Swarte pete band! Pretty jazzy!

What struck me about the parade is how close you could get to the participants. They had to push people back to let the busses come through! They chose to come down a pretty small street and lots of people wanted to see it. People were really excited - plus a lot of the kids were dressed like the helpers, black make-up and all! It's a big deal here, I guess!

There was lots of candy and strange baked goods being handed out, as well. Though all the Swarte petes had gloves on, the candy etc, they were giving out was unwrapped. Very trusting, I think. This would never happen in the US. All the candy would be individually wrapped and even then, I don't think parents would let the kids eat it. It just seems more innocent here, in a good way. This is Aaron and Miles with friends of ours and their daughters. Had to get the kids on shoulders shots...

I guess the next three weeks are all about Sinterklass. At night, kids leave their shoes by the window with a carrot (I don't think Santa Clause ever ate a carrot. All about cookies for him) and small presents are there the next morning. Lots of candy is involved, including huge chocolate letters bigger than my hand. I'm not sure how much of this we're going to expain to Miles this year, or how much candy we're going to let him eat!

Christmas, on the whole, is not a big deal here. But we're coming home this year, so we'll get Sinterklass and Christmas! At least we had nice weather for the parade. More than I can say for this weekend. Freezing temperatures, hail and wind up to 50 mph! Nice movie weather.

Have to quickly share my wind story...

In the morning on Friday, the wind started to REALLY pick up. Chairs and cushions were getting blown around the terrace outside. Idiot that I am, I decide to go out to secure these items. I could barely get the door even open (should have been a sign right there). I made Miles stand well away from the door. Gave no thought to my own saftey.

SO. I booty bump the door open and I am sucked outside. More wind than I have EVER experienced. My long turtleneck sweather is flying up in my face, blinding me as I try to corral the furniture and cushions. My life flashes before my eyes as a sudden gust sends me flying toward the edge of the balcony. "Woman dies trying to save plastic furniture" the headline would read. I catch my balance and hightail it back inside.

Not done yet. I then discover that the door wouldn't shut. What the &$#*^@? I finally figure out the the HINGES have broken off the top part of the door when it was flung open by the wind. WONDERFUL. I get it mostly closed but it's whistling loudly at me. Needless to say, we spend most of the day at my neighbor's apartment. Luckily, her boyfriend installs doors and has generously said he would fix it Monday.

Why did we move here? Good thing we got some nice weather in before winter came or I would be turning right around and going back to Texas. My blood is too thin (so are my jackets) for this weather. Hopefully, we'll get used to it soon and I'll get a warmer coat! No worries, we're here to stay.

Sculpture by the sea

2008-11-14T21:21:00.010+01:00

It finally stopped raining here, for one day anyway, and we immediately went outside to soak up the sun. Brrrrr! Forgot about the windchill factor. Undeterred we soldiered on. We were on a mission - Sculptures by the Sea. We live by the sea. Couldn't be too far away.

Eureka! We found it! And what weird wonderful sculptures they are too! Having finally replaced our camera, we went picture crazy, each sculpture getting two or three takes! These are just a few. There seemed to be a bondage theme going on that I wasn't going to look too closely at, with giants being held captive by tiny people, sort of like Gulliver and the Lilliputians.

But they were whimsical and delightful for all that, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself (also thanks to the large hot chocolate and M&Ms we shared as a "special treat" for Miles. It's never too early for chocolate!) The sun tried valiantly to make up for the plethora of rainy days, and it was just nice to be outside without moisture coming at me from all directions.

I knew I had was done settling in and had finally arrived when I finally bought a plastic rain cover for my buggy (stroller for all y'all americans). Whoo-hoo! You can't go anywhere in Den Haag, at least, without one of these to protect your kiddo from the rain. You can just see it all wadded up in the picture with the stroller. It's not pretty, but it works! And we're not done with with the rain yet, not by a long shot, so I am grateful to have this cheap piece of plastic sheilding my son from the elements.

The other thing I'm glad I found here is Sea Life. A friend of mine got me a deal for a whole year's pass for the price of one admission! They have a toy store AND a restaurant AND a playscape for the kids AND it's indoors! Can I love it any more ? Is there a commercial I could be in, raving about it?

Plus, there really is great sea life to see, if Miles ever stops running through to see it. Oh well, we have a whole year to teach him about fish. I didn't intend to waste it on a sunny day, but we passed Sea Life on our way back and Miles asked to go in. How can I resist? Educational AND free? But still, whenever I see the gray clouds, I know I have a back up plan to keep him entertained. If only we didn't have to walk there.

This is Miles and Aaron with the Giant Octopus. A weirder looking creature I wouldn't care to see, but this guy is pretty social and interesting too! Miles will stop and look at stuff if you pick him up bodily and force him to look in the tank. :)

That was last weekend's adventure. This weekend Sinterklaus is coming. I think it's something like Santa Clause, but he comes by boat from Spain with his helpers and then parades down the street throwing candy. There's a big emphasis here about sweets that I just don't get. I'm learning though ...:) Should be fun. Another post soon to come.

No car?

2008-11-04T20:51:00.005+01:00

Here it comes. I know you were expecting it. "How long will it take her," you wondered, "before she writes about public transportation?" Well, two blog posts in, and I can't resist.

As a general topic, decent public transportation may not be up there with such hot topics as sex and politics, but my god, how can any big city in the world not have it? It's an amazing thing! You go to a bus or tram stop, and lo and behold, a vehicle arrives to take you anywhere you want to go. No car necessary. They're clean, their quiet and people actually use them!

As a girl from Texas, our cars rank right up there with God and Football (yes, capital letters for both subjects, thank you). Not only can you not get anywhere without a car, you have to have more than one per person. My parents have five between them, including an RV, which should count as another 12. I know there are buses in Texas, but I've never been on one. I had a car, hello? I did take the train once between Austin and Fort Worth. Seven hours to go three, and I was grateful it wasn't longer. Never again. Amtrak, you have a lot to learn from Eurorail.

But here - dedicated lanes! Electric power! Fast service! Helpful people! So what if I've only used the trams to go to the park and back. I've seen the map. Trams or buses go pretty much everywhere! woo hoo! Sure, gas here is over $10 a gallon and cars are more expensive than houses....gee it's not pure environmental concerns prompting use of the damn thing? ah, I see said the blind man. It's not love of exercise that prompts all this bike riding. It's the wallet talking. But it doesn't matter why people use it, as long as they do!

How bad do things have to get in the U.S. before people actually use the system we already have? Alternative technologies are years away, but there's a bus on the corner, I promise you. Of course, urban sprawl and 10 Bed Bath and Beyonds on every block don't exist here. I for one was glad not to see the chains that plague Texas. Grateful to see designated green spaces and cleaner air. It doesn't matter how many Priuses are on the road if the buses are riding empty. There goes all the emissions you save.

I know good public transport exists. New York, San Francisco, Chicago, just to name a few. But those are the exceptions. I was just astounded to realize how far ahead of us Europe already is. Maybe we can follow them into environmental sustainability (you didn't know I knew such big words, did ya?) instead of the rest of the world following us into the abyss.

ah, apartment living

2008-10-24T21:06:00.010+02:00

I don't think we're cut out for apartment living. Don't get me wrong- the apartment is beautiful and the location supreme. It's just that the pressure of knowing you don't own the furniture or the appliances that you are using combined with a toddler with a destruction complex, makes for a stressful life.

Maybe if we didn't have a two year old, it might work. Then again, half the stupid stuff that's gone wrong has been entirely our fault. To date, (and I'm not naming names, but you can guess on most), markers on furniture, stains on chairs from day one, the shoe cabinet came out of the wall from someone (ahem) climbing on it, cushions run over on a daily basis (see pictures), a brand new American printer fried, a candle burned through the toilet tank (don't ask) and not one but two digital cameras kaput.

I think I mind most about the cameras. Sure the fire hazards have threatened my life, and I'm grateful to be alive. But the lack of a camera is really frustrating on a nagging, day-to-day level. We're in this beautiful place and I can't record it anymore! Sure, I've got the memories, but I can't prove to anyone else that I was here, damn it! We went to a zoo especially for apes and monkeys and I had to buy the disposable camera. I tell ya, the click, wind, wind, wind routine gets old pretty fast. It's also a little embarrassing when everyone else has the fancy digital and you're shooting it old school.

But, everything is fixable and we can buy a new camera. Oh vey. It's just one more thing. Just the little piddly stuff to deal with like how to open a bank account and a european credit card. Where to buy vacuum cleaner bags (I still don't know). How to mail a letter, for crying out loud!

Overall, though, I think our transition to Dutch life has gone as well as it possibly could have and that's saying a lot for people who were still sorting though stuff at the 11th hour.

I would like to state for the record, that Dutch people are so nice, it's like they are not even real! Everyone I've talked to, haltingly, in dutch and english, are so friendly and understanding! It makes it easy to approach people to ask directions or how to do something or even make friends! I've got some now, they're in my phone - it's official!

That's all for now (isn't that enough?). The pictures are the last ones I took with the now-defunct camera. The motorcycle is a loan from our very nice, very generous neighbor. So much for living at the beach. Sand, water and cameras don't mix. Learn from me.

Miles on trampolines on the Holland beach

2008-10-21T21:06:00.002+02:00

Playing tourist in Holland, our new home

2008-10-17T21:36:00.002+02:00

It's easy to be a tourist for two weeks and then go back to your normal life. What if your life is in a tourist destination, though? Aaron and I moved to The Hague at the end of September and every weekend and once during the week, we've looked for things to do. Count 'em off: the zoo, the circus, the aquarium twice, the park, a city of miniature buildings complete with Sesame Street section, AND a day trip to Amsterdam, to name a few. Is this settling in? If so, call us settled.

Amsterdam was fun and eye-opening. We tried, idealistically, perhaps, innocently, quite possibly, to take our two-year-old son to the Van Gogh Museum. Ha. That worked for approximately 36 seconds, give or take. After that, he screamed "want out" until we let him out of the stroller to play on the stairs. Aaron and I traded off watching him, the other running past the art, not really looking at any one thing. We lasted for 30 minutes, I think pretty good time, considering. After that we spent the whole day in the park. A sunny day, thank goodness.

Now I think we will have to view each city or place we visit as "what can we do with Miles." The Grand Tour of the Parks of Europe comes to mind. No museums. The Louvre, nope. Gaudi's church in Barcelona, forget about it. The Victoria and Albert Museum, don't think so. sigh. Who wants to see famous landmarks or great works of art. We'll have to be more creative. Parks are cheaper anyway.

The Hague is a pretty expensive place to live if you continue to live like a tourist! I think we're at the end of our run. For one, the bank account is shrinking and we're running out of places we can take Miles (see above). So I think, after a month, we're finally settling down to real life. And finding the free places that hopefully have a playscape nearby.