Self-Cleaning Toilet

I still can't post videos here so I'm gonna have to use YouTube. As promised, here is the self-cleaning toilet. Apparently these are all over Germany (search 'self-cleaning toilet' on YouTube) but this is the only one I've seen here.

We are off to the Dominican Republic early in the morning for some much needed (by me) sunshine and warmth. It's just a coincidence that we are going on Thanksgiving week. I've had to explain Thanksgiving a few times over the last week. And pumpkin pie. They make lots of pumpkin soup, but the idea of pumpkin being sweet is totally foreign to them. I think I might attempt a pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner.

Oh, and I finally tried horsemeat the other night. One of the cafes across the street makes all of their burgers from horsemeat. I'm not brave enough to order one but I had a bite of Andy's. It tasted good but....yeah.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We'll be back on the 4th.

XOXOXO

Soup in the Snow

Casse-Croute (Bjorn and Ellen's soup/sandwich shop) had another outdoor event today. There is a business park under development (still just a muddy construction site) that is going to be totally wind-powered and they were hosting an Open Werf today to educate the public. The project is called Evolis.

We did some shopping in the morning and then stopped by to have lunch and help out a bit. It was ridiculously cold!!! And after we'd been there about a half-hour yesterday's wintry mix turned into a full-blown snow storm. But they had some nice fire things and if you stood right next to one and drank hot soup at the same time it was almost bearable.

Afterwards we went home and thawed out with some hot chocolate and a movie. It was still snowing like crazy and it finally got cold enough for the snow to stick. So when the movie was over we looked out and saw this:

So we decided to bundle up and go for a walk in the park. Our 'front door' is a garage door:

Looking back at the house from the front of the church, you can just see the living room windows:

The Day of the Yummy

Today was the Dag van de Smaak which loosely translates as the Day of the Yummy. There were food booths in the Grote Markt and a plan to break a record for the longest sandwich in the world - 1302 meters (1302 is an important number here because Kortrijk won it's independence from France in 1302, and the pub sponsoring the sandwich is named 1302).

Unfortunately the weather is not yummy. Starting last night it has been alternately sleeting, slushing, snowing and/or hailing with pretty strong wind. It's not quite cold enough for anything to stick. Only a little on the rooftops and the cars. You can see on the bottom right that it was 1C when I left this morning:



The tables for the sandwich have appeared but the sandwich (for obvious reasons) has not:

Andy's brother and sister-in-law have a soup/sandwich shop next to the Grote Markt where all the booths were set up, so they had a booth. I helped a little with the setup and then hung out at the booth for a couple of hours. They had to take down some of the tents because of the wind and it was raining, snowing or hailing mixed in with a little bit of sunshine here and there. But we managed to have a nice time. We ate some hot soup with gesmelten kaas and bread and wine, and actually had a few customers. And then I came home because I couldn't feel my toes anymore. You can see the sleet all over the table:

The Belgian Elvis:

Also, I have a video of a self-cleaning toilet that I encountered earlier in the day. I'm going to try to post it but I have had lots of problems posting videos in the past...

This, That and the Other

Hi everybody!

I've decided to try to use this blog as more of a blog rather than just a photo stream. And to post about more mundane things rather than waiting for an event or news to write about. I've never kept a journal or a diary and I've always had a pretty strong aversion to putting personal things in writing. I tried a few times years ago but going back even a day or two later and reading what I wrote always made me cringe. So I have practiced avoidance for the last 20 years. But I'm finding it hard to keep up with everyone individually in email. And I'm feeling like a broken record saying the same things over and over in different emails. And some people are definitely getting left out because I run out of time. So here goes....

I finally found some good peanut butter! The supermarkets always have a whole section of chocolate spreads, Nutella (chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate and white chocolate swirl, bla bla bla), Speculoos spread (Speculoos is a kind of cookie), hazelnut butter, almond butter, etc., etc. But peanut butter is virtually non-existent. Mostly, if you do find it it's Jif. Yuck. But after lots of looking I found some at our neighborhood supermarket. Down at the bottom. In the corner. And they actually have two brands, one of which is just peanuts and salt! The consistency is still a little creamy for me but I'll take it!!

I am on day 9 of Ibuprofen and rest for my foot pain. I am supposed to be taking 600mg, 4 times a day. I don't know how that compares to a normal dosage I have a feeling it's a little extreme. But don't worry about my liver, I am terrible at remembering to take pills so most days I have only remembered to take it twice. I have only taken 4 in one day maybe two or three times. And as for rest....well. I've tried. We never borrowed the crutches from Andy's Dad. It just seems unnecessary. I have made do with walking on the heel and inside of my foot so that there's no pressure on the painful part (it feels like it's in the bone connected to my fourth toe). I don't have any pain during the day anymore (sometimes I forget and put weight on my whole foot) but I do notice it still when I first get up in the morning or of I get up in the middle of the night. That is a big improvement though. The doctor said that if it wasn't cleared up after 10 days they would do a bone scan (the x-ray of my foot didn't show anything but he said there could be a hairline fracture that is too small to see). I am thinking that is not necessary. I'd rather give it a couple more weeks.

After some shopping over the last week or two, we ordered a dining table and chairs last night. We had some ideas about chairs: the Phillippe Starck Mademoiselle chair or the Maarten van Severen 03 but were having trouble finding a table. And then we discovered Pastoe and we fell in love with the Trave table (ordered in matte black with an oak top) and the Box chair (ordered in matte black with smooth black leather). To see them on the website, choose english -> collection -> tables (or chairs) -> Trave (or Box). There is an images link in the bottom right corner with more photos so you can get a better idea of what the ones we ordered will look like. We couldn't find an example of the chair anywhere to see it in person but one of the design shops here has an example on the way. (We had to go ahead and order them because there was a sale that ended yesterday.) We did get to see the table. Here it is with the oak top but with a silver frame (and the very popular Ghost chair):



And here are some baby Ghosts...they are so cute and so very scratchable within minutes of letting a three-year-old anywhere near them:



There are two jobs that I am hoping to get an offer for this week. One of them is with ING in Brussels. It is an application support/development position. I've had two interviews with them and both have gone well. They've said that they will be making a deicision soon but I don't know how long it might take. The other is with a consulting firm based in Antwerp. I've had two interviews with them as well and they've said they would make a decision this Monday and let me know either Tuesday morning or tomorrow. I didn't hear anything yesterday so I'm still waiting on that one, too. If neither of those work out, it is back to the drawing board for now. But I am not panicking just yet.

We are getting ready to go to the Dominican Republic for a week on the 27th. We're looking forward to some sunshine and sea. It's a trip that Andy earned through the company where he buys his paints. So we'll be traveling with other clients of that company. Most of the time we'll be on our own but at least one of the days they have a surprise excursion planned for everyone and there is a beach party on the last night.

We've ordered the curtains and blinds for the bedroom but it's going to take a while before they are ready. And the bedside lights haven't arrived. So we are at a standstill on that project for the moment. There is one more coat to go on the special wall but that will probably happen over the weekend. And then we can hang the door again.

OK, that's a good start. I've got some ironing to do now. :)

Het Schilderen - The 'Ice' Wall

Over the last few days Andy put layers two and three on the 'special' wall. The first three layers were paint, the first one white and the next two in color. I think all of them had a little sand in them. Here is layer two (the first one in color):

And we picked out the curtin fabric. It's going to be floor to ceiling and wall to wall with some sort of blind underneath that we haven't totally decided on yet because the same blind will need to be used throughout the house:

The last two layers are applied like plaster. It's thick and gritty and shiny. Andy is doing the first layer now and will do the second one tomorrow and then that's it:

Het Schilderen - More Finishing Touches

Early afternoon yesterday the bed went back in and the radiator went back up.



After that we took a break and went to a small holiday open house at a couple of shops that specialize in flat screen TVs. Andy eventually wants a bigger one for the bedroom. We had a little champagne and cheese, got some info and saw some very nice home theater systems. And then went to a cafe in the Grote Markt and had a coffee and a pannekoek (pancake).

When we got home we hung a painting in the new room (a gift from one of Andy's clients that is normally in the living room but we decided that we like it better in here now):

And he put the final coat on the baseboards and the windowsill:

So that's where we are now. We put the paper back over the windows (for sleeping - there are bright lights in the parking lot) and will be looking at fabric samples for curtains tonight or tomorrow night. The bedside lamps are on order and should be in by the end of the week. The remaining 4 layers on the special wall will get done over the next weeks as time permits and then the TV will go back up. At some point we'll also be buying new pillows and linens. And Andy has found a carpenter who will be designing and building bedside tables, a low shelf with storage space that will wrap around the two walls and also closet shelving/rods. So as those things happen I'll post about them, but that's it for now.

Het Schilderen - Finishing Touches

I put a second coat on the baseboards (they are a shade darker than the walls and glossy):

Andy put the final coat on the walls:

And finished the lights:

Then the plate covers:

And we took the plastic off of the floor:

And added a small band of the ceiling shade around the top of the walls:

Het Schilderen van de Slaapkamer - Phase 257

It took until around 11p but Andy managed to finish everything as planned, except that he decided to install the lights instead of doing the second coat on the baseboards because we were excited to see the new color in the new lights.

So after dinner last night, the first layer went on the special wall, including the door frame and the side of the door that will be inside the bedroom. It's just a white primer but it has a little sand in it:



Then the second coat went on the rest of the walls. You can see the contrast here between the primed wall on the left, the ceiling which will remain that color and the rest of the walls that we made a shade darker:



And then the lights went up (they will be recessed but are hanging for now until the ceiling is finished). There are four of them and they are halogen and make a really nice soft light:



So bright and early this morning Andy is busy sanding everything (except for the special wall) to get ready for the final coat:



After he's done sanding I've been told that, due to my satisfactory performance yesterday, I will be allowed to put the next coat on the baseboards while he does the last coat on the ceiling. Yippee! So far I've mostly just been keeping him company, handing him things and in general feeling like a loser.

Raise your hand if you're bored.

Het Schilderen van de Slaapkamer - Monday Night

OK, so we spent part of the afternoon running around getting an x-ray of my foot because it's been hurting for over a month now and I was afraid I had a hairline fracture (compliments of a cannonball that I did in the shallow end of the pool the weekend before I left). I've been meaning to go to the doctor for a couple of weeks now but the timing has never been right and today it was.

I saw the doctor, went to a different location and had a foot x-ray, went back to the doctor a half-hour later with x-ray in hand and bought a prescription for Ibuprofen all within a couple of hours and for about 85 Euros - and that's the price without insurance (I have a travel policy that will re-imburse me so I just paid the normal prices). Yay, socialized medicine!!! I will gladly pay more taxes if it means that I can have more experiences like today (and if I was working and paying taxes I would get almost all of that 85 Euros back). No fracture in my foot but it's possible that it's too small to show up on the x-ray. There is definitely something wrong in there and it has gotten a little worse over the last week. I will be taking massive doses of Ibuprofen and using crutches (borrowed from Andy's dad) for the next 10 days to see if that clears it up.

And now back to the bedroom....

Andy sanded the last round of plastering and then sealed the edges:

And right now he's putting a second coat on the ceiling and the first layer (there are five) on the wall that will get the special treatment. After that we will have dinner and then I think he's going to mix the new color and put a second coat on the rest of the walls and baseboards. That leaves for tomorrow: installing the lights in the ceiling (they are already wired so it's just the fixtures), a final coat on the walls and baseboards, and the second layer of the Ice treatment and then we can move the bed back in. The special wall can be finished later.

SouthPark with Dutch subtitles:

Koerperwelten

Yesterday there wasn't anything I could help with in the bedroom, so I took the train to Brussels to check out Body Worlds (or Koerperwelten in it's original German). Andy wasn't really interested in seeing it, so it was the perfect afternoon excursion for me. It was in the Cellars of Cureghem. Photos are not allowed in the exhibit so you'll have to check out what they have on the website, but there was an enormous market above the cellars, complete with Pony-Go-Round and cheap panties:

It was one of the biggest markets I've seen. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, linens, small appliances, produce, kebab stands, etc. I actually got lost trying to find the entrance to the exhibit, which turned out to be on the other side of the equally huge meat market. I swear the whole thing was at least a square mile.

As for the exhibit, it was great!! Besides the full figures in various poses, they had smaller exhibits for all systems of the body. So I saw brains and hearts and lungs and kidneys and spleens and livers, both healthy and diseased.

There was a full digestive tract, as well as a full nervous system (the large nerves, of course) laid out flat and pinned. Also, lots of preserved cross sections of things, including whole torsos. There were fetuses from 6 weeks up to 9 months and a gorilla that was freaking huge. You could fit a baby in it's large intestine.

There were only a couple of the full figures that made me feel a little queasy. At first glance they were splayed out like some kind of horror movie (and they all have eyes), but on closer inspection they were really interesting and lost their gruesomeness.

And now I know what you look like on the inside. :)