Day 283: Band Practice and Pot Luck for Turkey!

Every Sunday Frank and I go to the place called Novanois. It's across town, but luckily there is a Tram that is two blocks away from our house and it's just one long tram ride there. It's a nice place that allows anyone who plays anything to play as loud as they want in a sound proof room. It's great! That means Frank can play as loud as he wants. Just recently we had two of our friends join us for a jam session. It didn't go too well cause none of use practiced and don't know each others songs. But still fun. And when we're done there is a great tasty pastry shop a block away or we can have durums if we want.

Since we were away from Thanksgiving and we don't own an oven we didn't have turkey. But what we did do was get together with our friends and everyone brought a plate to eat and we stuffed outselves. We didn't plan it too well cause we had a lot of meat dishes and no veggies and stuff. But it was really good food, and everyone did a great job. Frank made Flan for the first time and it came out great! I know Frank will make more of it.

I also found the perfect pair of boots for myself. Now I can walk around Belgium and take any type of random weather it can throw at me. My pants and toes won't get wet. Although my shoes aren't impenetrable. Frank was kicking snow and it got in my shoe. So, I can take anything except snow kicking!

Also we bought a new tv. Twice as big as the old one from the store across the street. My French came in handy. The guy said,"quatre-vingt" [4-20] which means 80. So I knew what the price was without him writing it down! And he asked where was our car in French, and I said, "No car, we live, and pointed across the street" So it's not perfect yet, but I have been getting better. I can hear certain words better, and I'm trying to expand my vocabulary.

Great times are had by all! I hope everyone had a great T-day, and I can't wait to see everyone around X-mas time!

Day 276: More Snow!

Frank stayed home from work cause he wasn't feeling the best. We didn't do much. I walked outside int he rainy/snowy weather to buy groceries, but it wasn't too bad. Enjoy...



By the way, it's not my cat.

Day 273: Just fun random pics I like.

Day 272: It's My Birthday!

At Midnight Frank showered me with gifts! I got a Pucca desk cup thingy, super cute, Pucca Wallet, Hello Kitty slippers, overly cute and funny, it's 2 giant HK heads, and a Cat comic book that I recommend to any cat lover called Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations by Jeffrey Brown. So it was fun. After that we went to bed and in the morning I woke up before Frank's alarm clock could go off and I noticed it was set an hour and half later then usual, so I figured out he was staying home, at least that's what I assumed, so just in case, I set the clock to the time he normally wakes up for work. It went off, he woke up very confused cause he knew he set the clock later. I jumped out of bed and he told me he took the day off and rolled over back to sleep. I continued to jump around very excited them calmed down and went back to sleep too.

For the day we went out SHOE SHOPPING! We didn't buy anything cause I'm super picky when it comes to getting things for myself, but Frank was a very good trooper for letting me drag him into tons of stores for a couple of hours and not get anything. That was the best b-day gift anyone could get me and he didn't complain one bit. He was very helpful and keep showing me boots that I sorta liked. I give Frank a gold star. Then we went out to dinner at a new place. It wasn't amazing food, but it wasn't horrible. I'd say the equivlant to Applebee's. So whatever your opinion in on that, that's the type of resturant we went to. My opinion isn't too high.

And after dinner we walked a little bit to find the center of Brussels littered with drunk people. Giant trucks fill with drunk people singing and playing music and everyone on the streets had their own mug of beer. We don't know where they came from or what festival it was that they were celebrating, but it was a nice surprise.

We were going to go to the Bodies Exhibit here in Brussels but we were tired from the shoe shopping and we've seen that exhibit 2 times already so we skipped it to spend the rest of the night home.

Also for about 2 weeks I will not be having French lessons with my friend Stephanie. She will be spending that time in the Sud du France [South of France, I hope I got that right] But! thanks to my friend mike who found me some great Podcast with free french lessons and pdfs. I will learn and study a lot, hopefully to surprise Stéph with the big advancement in French when she gets back.

And our Tv is busted. I haven't played wii in a week!

Day 264: Veteran's Day and WWI Day

Frank had off due to the historic event of today. It was nice to just bum around and do nothing. We drew a lot today. I'm trying to come up with a charicter and Frank is doing a short story about a Monk and a Yetti. I tried to make Breaded Eggplant, but it was very plain, and I blame the breadcrumbs for that! We didn't get the seasoned kind. And we watched Death Race. It's a good bad movie. I recommend it!

Day 262 : Wine Review

Sandeman Imperial Reserve Porto

So I'm not a wine expert, but I thought I'd share my two cents now that I'm drinking more beer and wine. Sandeman Imperial Reserve Porto is really good. It's a nice dark wine taste, but fruity and fun enough for those who don't love wine to like this one. Full of alcohol, so even if you hate it, after a glass you'll still say,"Can I have another?!"

It was just another day. Tortilla night! We got all the ingredients so it was extra yummy. Frank surprised me with him being off tomorrow. Turns out It's Veterans Day in the States, and WWI Day over here. So everyone gets off! His boss surprised him with that info 5 mins before work ended.

We saw Tropic Thunder and I have to say it was the best acting I have ever seen. Robert Downy Jr plays a black guy extremely well. And Tom Cruise...well it's just his best roll ever cause for once he doesn't play Tom Cruise! And it was pretty funny over all. I'd recommend it if you were bored.

On day 259 I baby sat Chimène [pronounced She-men] our friends baby, maybe 6 months old? Due to schedule conflictions they needed someone. Luckily mom kept her up most of the day, so when i watched her she was sleeping for 2/3rds of the time and didn't cry for the last part.

And we're actually keeping track of expenses. And just like the figures in our head, the numbers match up. Now it's the part where we have to lower those numbers.

And Frank managed to make not a horrible mess in the kitchen when he decided to make a dessert from scratch. It was good, I'll admit. But he says he can make it better...that means another clean up night for me. [smiles]

Day 252: Halloween

Halloween fell on a Friday. A wish I ask for every year. I bought Frank a viking helmet and he bought me cat ears and tail with bow tie, cause cats wear those. I did the usual dress up sexy cat. I liked to call myself a Japanese Crime Fighting Kitty Cop who takes the law into her own paws. We just went to the bar with some friends. Some new people from Frank's company too. Very cool. No one else dressed up. I read on the first web site search that Belgium lights a candle for the dead. Borrring.
At the bar we actually got approached by Trick-o-Treaters. ONe dressed like a witch, another, a fat ghost, I think. Not much time or effort was put into the second kid's costume. No one had any candy so they just gave them like 10 cents to leave.
Frank got asked if the bar tender could wear his helmet for a while. And as I went to the bathroom I got an actual, "Ooo la la" out of someone. I didn't know they really said that! And it was a cold Halloween for us.
Can't wait to do a blow out costume for next year!

Day 251 : Sutra

I had my first French lesson. It was basically on introductions, which I kinda got down cause that's the one lesson i do over and over again when I want to learn French. The instructor? Frank's co-worker's wife Stéphaine. I've been out here for how long? 251 days, and that's...about 8 months and just NOW I'm learning French. Stupid Americans. We all are friends and hang out. So we did about 1.5h of French and went to the opera house to see Sutra. It was a choriographed dance with Shoulin Monks and the guy who created it. It was a little abstract, no words were really spoken, Him a bunch of monks, a kid and giant wooded boxes that fit bodies in them. It was really good and open for interpretation.

Day 246: Access to the Attic to find out it's Day LIght Savings

We're still kids. Saturday we went out costume shopping and skateboarding. We went to a big costume place to see if we could find a little something for Halloween. The first store had nothing, but by luck we found a second shop and I ended up getting my default Halloween costume. Cat ears and tail. Frank might buy a Viking helmet. Then we went to the skate park. I watched just like all the other parents that bring their kids to the park. And we were joined with our friend Camell. [Probably spelt his name wrong] It was nice, a little chilli, a little crowded, but still nice to be out.

And because we were out and didn't feel like going home we continued our day at the mall to pick up a cheap mp3 player that Camell wanted. And then he ended up buying a lot of other thigns. We laughed a lot as to how many times Camell can forget his skateboard. It was about 2-4 times in one day. We also picked up large sodas at GB [which is like a stop and shop] and Camell got a 2 euro toy from one of the vending machines. It was a pretty impressive Dragon Ball Z action figure. We had a quick dinner at the best fry place in the center along with a bodin sandwhich. A bodin is kinda like brotworst, but not exactly and it was good.

Then we went to the train station to catch a train to Lier to see our friend perform with his band at some bar that they have been playing for years, about 10! And of course the train was delayed 30 mins. So then our friend Allen couldn't pick us up at the other end of our journey. So when we arrived we had to figure out the map and make our way to the bar. And of course Frank likes to take the alternative route. Somehow through a park that was no where near where we had to go. Nice stroll along the river, looking for a bridge to corss, over course we crossed the wrong one. We ended up going in one giant circle. And started over sticking to the original route, while also asking for direction. We made it, but missed the first half of their 10 year reunion show. [band called Access to the Attic] And it was pretty good. It was really funny to see the changes the band went through all those years, like most people embarassing hair cuts throughout the years. Met some new people. Saw 2 others bars in another town that was about 40 mins over. Went by car which was really nice of our friend to drive us. And the whole night I'm sure everyone was thinking, should we just call it a night, cause Allen offered to drive us back to Belgium if the night started falling apart. Camell and Me fell asleep in the car ride over. I continued to sleep in the second bar. [I was half awake] Got made fun of by a new guy we met up with. But then I was making fun of him in the 3rd bar. Cause he fell asleep in that one. And just hung out till 6am till the trains started up again. Very cold in the morning. Saw the sun rise on the train. Not that imprssive cause it's Belgium, and cloudy, so just pretty colors, no sun. The guys fell asleep on the train so I kept watch for stops.

When Frank and I got home, we just headed for bed, it might of been 7 or 8 by this time. Funny thing is we ended up staying an extra hour out cause, and we didn't know, Day light savings!...woo hoo

Day 230-234 : ONION FEST O8! GERMANY

WARNING THIS IS A LONG ENTRY.



Link to Part 2 of pictures taken by Kat's camera!

Day 1- DIE WARTBURG DIE
Frank took 3 days off from work. He can do that, he's freelance. And I had a feeling Frak was misreading the train tickets. He kept going, "It's ok, the train leaves around 10ish or so" Deep down in my gut I knew something was wrong. I checked, the trian leaves at 7am! So we got up around 6, too the tram to the station, got on the train and took off. We arrived in Frankfurt at 10. So Frank had the right number just wrong time. [Did that make sense?]
Switched trains and got off at Eisenach. Which is about 2 stops early from the closer train station by our friends house. They met up with us there so we could explore a Castle Wartburg. Our friend Kat has been there about 3-5 times I'd say it's the equivalant to Frank taking people to Bruge or the Atonium. Kat describes it best as, "The classic Castle" What do you want from a castle? It's got it! It's actually the more famous of castle, as I like to think, cause it was where Luther himself hid out and stayed undercover. [Bear with me, even though I went there, I'm still horrible with history] It's where Luther translated the Bible and faught the Devil! At least my favorite story walking away from that place is that he was fighting with the devil so he threw his ink well at the Devil and it splattered across the wall leaving a stain. So Tourist can come up to it, and slowly chip away at it and keep it. That part is now roped off and kids have carved their names and gang signs into the wooded walls. So disresepctful.
And a funny story is, the tour guide picked up that we didn't speak German. So he handed us very informative 3-fold panflets on the place. There was an older german couple going "I want a panflet" and the tour guide is going, "you don't get one, you speak German" and they still insisted on having a panflet. Even though they don't read English, they still wanted one. It was like, "how come those people over there get something for free?"
And a warning from Kat and Stefan is that people stair in Germany. That's just what they do. So we did get a lot of stairs. Just for the fact we were walking down the street speaking fluent English, all the way down to, "Hey they got sandwhiches in their bag, I want a sandwhich, What else do they got?" For some reason on the train ride home, as we were showing and sharing our goodies we gave to Kat and Stefan, the people around us practically stuck their head in our section of our seats to see what we had. Very weird, but that's just what they do over there.
So the castle, and then train ride back to the house, followed by beer and diner and pre-onion fest. Just to get a taste of what Weimar is like before the heavy crouds came. And it was really quite. Really nice, but the moment Friday and the weekend hit, it was so crouded.
Day 2,3,4- Zwiebel Mart or Onion Fest [and I was slightly sick the whole time]
We basically walked around and had lots of beer and lots of food and just enjoyed ourselves. We slept in for most of the time. But saturday was the day we got up around 5 to go to the opening ceramony of Onion Fest which is at the center to see the Onion Queen! Something like the Onion Princess is from the closest town which is where most of the onions come from, and the Onion Queen is head of the festival. Silly, but it was fun, the mayor was there and my friend and I walked around with onion necklaces and I tried all this German beer and had Brotworst all the time. It was a lot of fun, but it was more fun just seeing friends.
Most of the nights we went to a local, very close bar called The Falcon, something translated its, Toast to the Falcon. Frank had fun drawing on the walls. They had a crappy pool table. And I got to play Terminator Pinball...classic. And we found ourselves saying "PROST!"[Cheers] Very chill bar and Stefan knows the bar tenders every now and then. So It was a nice way to end the day.
Somehow, due to all this German food, but I blame the saurkraut. We had horrible farts! Like...HORIBLE..farts to the point where we just left the window open. Kat also made chilli, but I don't believe that was the reason we had bad farts, I think it was the sourkraut.
And at the end, due to my sniffing and sneezing and coughing, I know I managed to get Kat sick. Totally unintentional. Totally.
For suvineers Frank walked away with a pelt, which is really warm and soft. And a drinking horn from some African beast. And what was cool, cause we spent a lot of time in the mid-evil section of the fair. We had a leather maker personally make Frank a horn holder for his drinking horn. So it's cool, Frnak can either wear it with the strap over his shoulder or attatch it to his belt. It's pretty bad ass.
There was a lot of good music too. but also we were slightly disappointed. Cause I think in America, when there is a band playing, most of the time it's their own music. But there were a lot of cover bands. And we were soooooo pumped for this one band called THOR. Come on, a name like that, and their description is METAL, ROCK...no...they cover. They started off with Rammstein, which was REALLY GOOD, the guys German just was on the mark. But then it got really pop-musicy, and not Rammstein, not metal, not rock. So we lost intrest. And there was a really good Jazz/blues band. But all their stuff was covered too. But with Jazz and blues, you can cover a song and it'll be different, so I give these guys credit. Playing songs you knew, but still with their own stlye.

Day 5- Water Park!
Somehow, due to kat's amazing abilities. We were able to go to a indoors water park before our train took off. And go shopping! I bought a flat iron, cause for some reason it was cheaper in Germany and they have the same power outlets. We went to the local mall, then drove over to the indoor water park. Which is was 50+ day, so there were a lot of older people, who don't care if they are naked in the showers. I mean. I'm just not used to it, and I don't mind it, but it's still a shock to see other naked women. Other, older...much older, and don't care, naked women. But it was fun. Frnak made the biggest splash coming down all the sllides. They had a lazy river. And some tube tunnels, and a fast tunnele, and a in-the-dark tunnel. It was great and a lot of fun. And I have the worst baiting suit for water parks...my top came off the first go round. Slightly embarassing, but hey, I'm surrounded by old people.
It was a cool set up, you get a coin, that goes into the key, for your locker, then you change, shower, swim, and vis-versa. But it was a cool layout how they did it. And after the water park, we squeezed in McD's and hopped on the train and Frank slept the first train ride. I also taught him how to play Spit. So that occupided most of our train ride. I think in total it's about 6-7 hours by train and transfering to go to and from Brussels to Weimar. Not bad. The trains hit 230 or more kph? Not what we go by mph, the other stuff.
It was very nice of our friends to put us up for the week. We stayed in the guest bedroom of their apartment, which actually is the top half of Stefan's parents. In Germany the houses are big, but tend to be split between 2-4 families. And I'm so proud of our friend Kat who's German has gotten better. She can now watch German tv. That's a lot more then what Frank and I can do in Belgium.
Oh, I'm sure you'll see in the pictures somewhere. But if you can imagine the smallest suitcase that has wheels that you use as a carry on an airplane, that is the suitcase Frank chose to pack with for Germany, but not just his stuff, my stuff, and the wii. And seperately I carried the sandwhiches and Belgium beer and chocolates we gave to our friends. But...just...Oh come on! I don't understand why he gives himself these challenges. Somehow he fit all our cloths, for 5 days, and the wii, into one tiny suitcase. It's just amazing some of the things he does.

Day 212-No Car Day

Well, this is a small update. I haven't said much in the past. Probably been like two months, and by then I've lost all popularity with anyone who might of chance actually read this. Why go on?
A lot has hapend. And I'm not gonna share any of it with you. Enjoy the photos of NO CAR DAY. For some reason, I guess once a year Belgium decided that no one should use their car on a Sunday. Which is totally understandable. Save a little gas, help the environment. And on Sunday everything is pretty much closed so you wouldn't have anywhere to go with your car anyway. So there were lots of bikes instead and no pedestriane cared to follow walking signs or normal walking behavior. I guess cause the lack of threat of high speed cars. So everyone was on their bike, and every parent who didn't teach their kid to ride a bike taught them on this day.
And since there's no cars, what better way to celebrate the day then with a festival! It was like Festival Weekend! Friday we went out, had some drinks, later I found out the group played pool. Saturday [or Zaterdag, in dutch] we bought darts for whatever dart board we could find in a random bar. And just a block from us, it was like Ultimate Garage Sale day, if anyone had a garage out here. And there was good food, and lots of people's crap. But always fun to look at. This little festival went around like 5 blocks, practically half way to the center of the city.
Sunday we played Darts, and it was no car day, and there was Carvinal-like festival, with again more food and crappy games to play. And just EVERYONE was outside. Our friends and ourselves voted to not hang out in the center cause it was just too many people, and head to our place's area for drinks and darts and food. Overall a great weekend.

P.S. Perhaps that's why there are lack of entries, we made friends out here, and hang out now. And Friends definately made this place a better place. Enjoy!

P.S.S. If you get board with the pictures below, here's a link to our friend's photos. It's from another day, and same day. He's a better photographer then I am. I hate photography. Carlo's Photos

Day 168- Olympics

I wish I had more post, but it would be me just blabbering about my day and how something was off, like yesterday, I tried to sleep. Oh how I tried! But instead the world wanted me up. We got up early to send Frank's sister and grand-dad off in a taxi to the airport. con voyage. Frank went to the gym, i stayed up for him, tried to go to sleep when he went to work, but then the post came and had a delivery for me, and a bill for 10 euros to pay, then construction workers decided to fix something right outside our building, I have no clue what they were fixing, cause there wasn't anything there, and 3 feet over was a giant hole. So either there's something I didn't know about, or they just miscalculated where they should of did the construction. I vote for the second choice.
Today is the Olympics, and for some reason, I'm very excited. I remember 4 years ago, I was 18, the olympics came, and I don't think I showed much interest. I was dating a guy who was very much into sports. But I've seem to blanked out if we watched at all. Or maybe we watched, and then found it boring. I can't remember, go ask him.
This year I'm excited and Frank doesn't seem to care too much. But I know he thinks it's pretty cool. And we debate if the mystery mist around the ugly Bird's Nest is pollution or mist. [All art, even though I'm a fan, I find ugly, especially those sculptures at Pratt. I think Pratt should be know for it being a great school, but also be known for having ugly sculptures too. The only cool thing that was there was there was the big white square, and then it has this cantalever, long black box/recetangle, and that box slide up and down the white box....How do they do it? Ok back to what I was saying...] I vote mist, come on, the Chinese Government wouldn't lie to us! [A government lie? Never!] Frank thinks it's pollution, he's probably right.
Lately we've been obsesses with the Montauk Monster. For those who don't know what that is. I suggest Google it. But if you're squeemish, don't look! In short, people claim some "monster" unknown being washed up on the shores of Montauk, NY, and 3 ladies took a picture of it. UGLY. And people think it was an escaped research animal from a government owned island that's not to far away, some people think it's a bever/pig/dog from back in the day that we all thought was once extinct. I think it's a bloated pig with it's face scrapped off from the ocean. Frank is waiting for more evidence before he makes an opinion as to what it is. My friend Mike said, "It's a cat" and I don't know if he was saying that to hurt my feelings, but I will not except that! Makes me sad just thinking about it...thanks Mike. And I'm scared of it, but I just keep looking! The body disappeared, so no scientist can look at it, although someone somewhere said some scientist is looking at it. And there are others that say they have the body. Just LIES UPON LIES!
My other vote, "It's Man-Bear-Pig!" -south park, Al Gore and he's super serial!

But the real reason why I'm blogging today is the update on our health. Frank is just surpassing me and the average population in being healthy. He's doing AMAZINGLY WELL! Somehow we've managed to buy fresh food, and more veggies, and leaner meat. Sure our food bill exceeds our budget that we planned, but that's ok, it's better for us.
Frank joined the gym, for those of you who don't know. In fact, most of you don't. And we've gotten into a very good schedule/system. We both feel good throughout the day and better about ourselves and we're both losing weight. So we wake up at 6:30am, he gets to the gym at 7. I walk with him, then come home and prepare his lunch which is on average grilled chicken sandwhich with fruit and stuff. He gets back and gets ready for work around 8. I have his lunch and Breakfast ready. We eat together. He finishes getting ready and leaves around 8:45. I clean up the big mess I made in the kitchen from cooking, and around 10, I do my work out, wii-fit or maybe even billy banks, 8 min abs, and 100 push up workout. And then I get ready for lunch. While Frank's at work, I somehow spend about 3-4 hours on the internet or drawing or cleaning. And then He comes home from work, eats small meal, goes to the gym around 7 or 730, and comes home around 8 or 830. And then we end up doing some artsy-fartsy stuff till 11pm. The day is full! But it's good, and we don't get tired, and we're eatting all through the day, but good stuff. And I really like it. I never thought I'd get used to something like this, and it is hard to wake up every now and then, but I have to say, it does feel good. We consult a website almost every day. It's like a myspace, but for body builders and just people loseing weight and getting fit. So my people I know we all think we need to get more healthy. And it's always on our minds, but it's good to actually do stuff. How long will this health kick last? who knows, I think though by Frank signing up to the gym, and paying, I think that'll help keep us motivated. And even though so far it's worked out to a euro a day, I still feel I need to get my monies worth of the wii-fit! So I'm still using it. More motivation. I think in our warped minds, we're picturing us to be like, the Hulk and some small ninja, so we can tear down lamp posts, and climb buildings, maybe fight crime, or just cause havoc, either way, it'll be pretty cool if we can get some routine down. Maybe be street performers, cause there are PLENTY out here in Belgium!
And just real quick, we also had company over for 2-3 weeks. about 2 weeks with us, then Frank's sister and grand-dad went to London and Frankfurt, but touched down at our house while switching form one country to another. It was very nice of them to come out. Nice to have mostly english speaking people come visit. Even though his grand-dad can speak english, he chooses not to, and his poor sister, Terry, has to translate for me. And we walked all over Belgium, and I got to see everything all over again, and some new things. I'd say I'm a good tour guide now. So for whoever wants to come visit, I promise a good time. You're welcome to stay at our place or a hotel of your choice.

Day 149 - "Why would anyone want to go to F'N Belgium?" -In Brüge

So I have guest, well family, Frank's family. And it was great until Frank came home. Yeah the first few days I just took them all over Brussels, showed how you can walk to everything even though after it all you're very tired. It was good cause I got a better handle on the city myself. I'm not one to be head strong in going to do something or see something. I figure in my life time, it'll happen. And it was so! I got to see Mini Europe! I love mini-things. Frank wouldn't take me to go see it. But it's cool. I figure between all the people who come to visit us I'll get to see it all in Belgium, or the surrounding countries. Last time when we had visitors I got to go to Brüge, now with the new set I got to go to Mini Europe and got a better handle on the city.
Oh it was so cute! Fate is just telling me, "GET A F'N CAT!" ...TELL ME THIS ISN'T A SIGN! In Mini Europe, there was a stray kitten...KITTEN!...and he was sleeping in the CENTER OF BELGIUM! He was just chillin' in a mini center of Belgium. Porportion allowed one's imagination to be like, "A Bird! A Plane! GODZILLA! NO! GIANT KITTEN! Meeoooaaaarrrr! " He was so cute, and so chill and so 'TAKE ME HOME WITH YOU!' I don't know if Frank's sister said this to make me feel better, but either she or grandpa saw this boy try and sneak him home. So Maybe that kitten just found a great home to stay with. But this is like the 3rd time I could of taken home a stray cat! I WANT ONE SO BAD!
We went to Brüge today. As I like to call it Brick-opolis! Got to see the same stuff as last time, and I can't wait to see it again for the 3rd time. [j/k] It's a great place, and it's even better if one goes to see the movie In Brüge. It just makes the town a little more barable. If one isn't ready to soak up information of the past one can think about a joke from the movie, laugh, and then the walking won't be so bad. I also go to chow down on a giant pot of mussels. Normally I'm not one to order it, but in my opinion it's the best thing on the menu, but that's only cause they don't know how to make anything else. I didn't go on the boat ride around the town, or through, I figure whenever my parents come to visit me my dad will want to go on it, cause he loves boats. Again proving my point I'm not all Gung-hoe to do things. I just figure it'll happen eventually.
Brussels is a great place to live. The people are nice and there's a lot of english, and it's just like America, just the soda isn't as bad for you. Frank's decided that it's best if a I take a language class. Ya know give me something to do, but after his time in America, he's chosen I learn Spanish. I don't want to learn another language by myself, and Frank doesn't want to learn French, and we both agree we'll never use Dutch again, unless we want to have a secret code of chatting in America. So Frank feels Spanish is best. I learn it, and he freshens up on his grammer. Sounds like a good compromise, but it doesn't help me feel any better in a country that speaks half French and half Dutch.
Let's see...I've seen most of Brussels in the past 4 days, AGAIN. But the family is great. Frank's sister, Terry, cooks and cleans. I wish I had her as a room mate over Frank. Seriously, they come from the same family but he doesn't do anything she does. So I'm learning some pointers on cooking, like add oil, and stuff. I am a very plain cook. She knows how to spice it up. I'm also learning what it would be like to have grandparents around all the time. It's mostly corney jokes and stories. Terry does a great job of translating for me.
Oh yes...Let this go down in history, I am the first person to get sun burn in Belgium! Seriously! Who does that? I got a rosie face, and top of scalp. All the signs point to slight sun burn. The other night my cheeks were itchy, and I couldn't figure out why, I didn't want to believe it was sun burn, I figured I was allergic to something I ate, even though I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary and today the very top center of my scalp was itchy. That top of scalp being itchy is just the finish proof. Am I really going to have to purchase sun screen? They do sell a lot of it at the grocery store. And I thought they were being silly. No one gets sun burn in Belgium...MYTH BUSTED!

P.S. I finally cracked after having some beer with grand-dad. I opened a can of tuna and started dropping it in the neighbors yard. So just picture this. A girl who's a story or two higher then the ground, dropping bits of wet food that goes SPLAT on the tile floor and then cats flocking to it. Yeah, that was my night. The cats seemed very happy to get it. Ate it all up, and even meowed very loud for more. Frank had to come out on the launch pad to get me back into the apartment. I cracked cause the neighbors haven't touched their curtains for the past 3 days, so I felt it was safe that they weren't watching. I hope the poor cats have food. They didn't look or act starved, just happy to recieve some random tuna. If only we can figure out a way for them to get to the launch pad. Then they'll be my kitties!

Signed,
Crazy Cat Lady aka Catherine

Day 142-Memmooorrriiieesss

There hasn't been anythign too exciting. Frank went home to the U.S. for a few days to get some paper work done or possibly to see all the great hit movies that came out this summer cause he couldn't wait for them to come out here. And only update with me is I've lost a sold 2kg. I don't know where it went, cause I dance in front of the mirror and just see the same old me and then wonder why I'm dancing in front of the mirror. But hey 2 kg is better then no kg.
I'm almost near complete of watching every episode of BATMAN the animated series! Really good. Every volume the style of animation changes a bit, but it's nice to hear the same voice actors and I can't wait to watch more Batman or maybe even Justice League. See how everythign ties into each other. Maybe get to see Lobo!
We're having company come shortly. Frank's Grand-dad and sister are coming out for 3 weeks to explore Europe, mostly Belgium. So we get to go through the same routines as we do when a new person comes to visit us. We are expert tour guides!...well Frank is, I'm not, but I'm his semi-helpful assistant. So things have been busy, but quiet, but I'm sure that will all change in a few days.
Frank also got me a guitar, so I've been practicing, remember all the same old songs I could play and trying to take on new ones. I would really like to be able to master Stair way to heaven, but I kinda stop at the 34 second mark. And I learned a Cowboy Bebop guitar song which makes me think I belong out on the prairie watching space ships take off into the night sky.
And I've been doing a lot of remembering of old shows such as Ren and Stimpy, Family Guy, and Adult Swim. You know useless information that my mind stores and endless quotes that only a few people would get. "Hey Lois, Diarrhea!" and "...Bannana....I love you" and "Memories" and "Noses on dowels" and "Doppelopaguse!" and "Hellloooo" and "You could be the producer. A producer tells the artist what to do, then he takes all the credit!" or "You want to know what killed the dinosaurs? They all got a relaly bad cold. They cough, sneezed and farted all at the same time! They exploded!"
And I've still been playing non-stop Mario Kart, but I am not the best in the world, and I clearly know that cause the internet tells me so when I compete. I would just like to know these people that hold the high record of these test! Then again, maybe I don't. I spend a good amount of time getting better, but these guys...how many hours did they spend?!?!?!
I also complete the series Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy. Such a good book, and I recommend it to all.There's just so much to it, that I know I can read it again and not remember that I read it. So I won't mind reading it again.
I also got to experience the Euro Cup...still not my cup of tea. But it is something wonderful to see an entire country cheer all together. Before the final match came up, just people in the streets celebrating when their team won. Cars honking their horns, people cheering when a goal was made. It didn't feel safe to walk outside at that time, I felt people were more concerned with cheering then watching the road. I saw a guy do donuts at a cross section while traffic was trying to conduct itself. It's just neat, cause I'd never hear or see that at home. I barely hear the house next store yell, "Happy new year!" So the Euro cup came down to Germany vs Spain. Frank and I went to a sports bar with some people from his job. Everyone except for me and Carlo was cheering for spain. We were on the German side...and we lost.

Day 123 Ate Frank and other comments and suggestions.

Food supplies down to minimum. Didn't know how much longer I'd last. I knew the rice would keep longer then Frank, so I ate him...Just kidding. It was by request of my friend Mike. He suggested since I blog like I'm stranded on a desert island I should have a title like that. I agree. Also I'd like to apologize for not keeping up with the two week updates. My dad complained and said, "More entries! Anything less and you may be disqualified from blogging and relisted as an occasional letter writer!" And I for one take that in offense...I'd soon be seen as if I'm one of those Dear Cathy Newletter Columnist, discussing how to get grease stains out of a favorite doilly, or what to do if you think your husband is cheating on you. For now I'll try and stay away from those subjects. Also my Aunt Lulu agrees with my mom that the new color background is better. So for now, it's gonna stay the way it is for a while.

Ok I am not happy with the way the sun has been acting these days. Sure it's been sunny, a nice cool breeze, and the sun to light the way...BUT ALL DAY. Check the weather forcast people...this is the times the sun rises and sets...5:28 am - 10:00 pm. Global Warming!!! [not really, but everywhere else, YES] If I don't have my eye mask/patch on, I can't sleep. It's horrible. The curtains are closed, I got my eye patch on, and it still bothers me. It's not right being awake this long of hours. [Even though probably the average person is up for that long] So at times I find that I'll be up for a very long time. Also I never thought I'd be one of those people who sleeps with an eye mask. A pillow used to work fine, but not here. In fact I've been considering sewing another piece of fabric over the eye patch, cause it's still bright with it on! Jimini Crickets!

Also I think I'm loseing weight. Nothing noticeable except if someone was weighing themselves to the 1/10 of a kg [which I am] Maybe its the seasons changing [probably] or maybe its the wii fit [probably not]. I've been working out on it, nothing crazy, just like 30 mins a day, simple exercises and I notice that I am definitly 1 kg less then when I first started...which probably was a month or two ago...so at this rate, what? 5-6kgs a year, apx 10-13 lbs a year...as the wii-fit would say, "I'm approaching my goal at a nice, healthy pace." Yeah slow as a snail, but I don't mind. I do feel better about myself, knowing that I'm doing exercise [believing it's doing something] The one thing I have noticed is that, I don't get neck pains anymore. I am one who will have a neck pain like once every 4 days. Too often, and it leads to headaches, but the wii fit, I don't seem to have that problem...I only noticed this cause I woke up with a neck pain, and was like...Wow I can't recall the last time I had one of these. So I am more happy about the wii-fit. I can hold my arms straight out longer then normal, not that I go around Belgium with my arms straight out or anything.

I also cut my own hair. And I didn't do that good of a job. Kinda looks like the bottom half of a hexagon, but the flat end at the bottom. The first time i cut my own hair, I did a good job, not this time...maybe next time.

And cause of the sun, I woke up at the crack of dawn, watched the Pink Panther, and for some reason, it's in English, like the signs are in English, but I believe it was orignially a French cartoon. I could be wrong, and probably should do some research on Wikipedia before I type this, but this is easier. Also played Mario Kart, then Frank woke up. And just today I went food shopping at the center, so I didn't have to eat that much of Frank. And we grilled. It was nice. Chicken is amazing when you grill it, and grilled also some pinapple, and peppers and onions, and hot dogs. A nice, yummy feast, and easy to clean up.

P.S. Latest obessions, Lobo, The Maxx, Y the Last Man, Batman the Animated Series, Mario Kart wii, The New Hulk Movie, and not having a support beam in our bed...we sleep like angels, well till the sun rises, and Frank sleeps like a log, and I get up annoyed. Also fountain pens, learning to play the harmonica, drawing awesome/crazy/rediculous wrestling comic, and Gwar's latest album, Beyond Hell.

Day 116 Grey Hair

I found a grey hair! I think I found one a ways back, plucked it out, never saw it again, somet imes in high school. And the past month I've worried I might go grey, or thoughts of grey hair would come soon. And so I was right. ONE GREY HAIR. It's over, IT'S ALL OVER, I'm no longer young. Just some old lady that teenage kids will make fun of, and hobo's will laugh. But I did feel better when Kat said, "Better grey then bald!" It's true, that made me feel way better. A lot of my guy friends are going bald. And we're so young! We're ageing too quickly. I feel bad for the generations to come.

Day 100- Just a little update.

Yeah, I see my pattern is about every 2 weeks I update this thing. I changed the color background cause my mom said it was hard to read with the black background, but I really don't like these colors, so who knows maybe my mom will just have to learn how to change the font size on her computer. Let me know if others are having a hard time with the colors.

Ok so update. Thee most important thing right now, not person, THING, is Mario Kart Wii. I love it soooo much. It's everything I imagine and a little bit more. So it makes me happy to play, and I'm surprised Frank hasn't asked me to stop playing and see if I can do something else more productive. Anyone else out there who has a wii and wants the exchange wii-numbers, let me know. I like, wii-mail.

I have a small goal, and that's to learn web. I'd like to be able to put stuff up on the web, besides this crappy blog. You know, just kinda like, a website for me and anybody else that wasn't made, or related to google, even though they are great. So today I actually sat down and read a book! Learned a little and let's see where it goes from there...

And the funny/not so funny thing that happen today. Frank was shacking up a can of lemon juice [it's kinda like the powder mix you use to make lemonade] And of course, him not paying attention, he just shook the crap out of it. So much that the cap just flew off and open, and sticky lemon juice just went everywhere. Our first reaction was, "SAVE HAN SOLO!" [for those who haven't seen the apartment photos we have a poster of Han Solo who we like to eat dinner and breakfast with every now and then, where Frank can give him the old fist to chin check, our little "breakfast nook"]

So of course it's not a nice watered down liquid, it's concentrated TO THE MAX, kinda oily, very sticky...EVERYWHERE. So we split the job in half, anything that splatter above 5 feet Frank cleaned, everything 5 feet and down, I cleaned. Unfortunately there was more under 5 feet then above. But I have to say, Frank did a good job of coating the kitchen with lemon grease. and now that there was a layer of lemon grease, my house keeper instincts have kicked in, tomorrow starts, DEEP CLEANING. I'm gonna just wipe down everything. It's that time to deep clean the apartment, so whatever out dust bunnies, Catherine's coming for ya!

We also went to our local comic book store. It's soooooo sweeet. We picked up two Lobo comics, in english. And sat down to enjoy them.

Frank's also semi-perfected breaded shrimp. It's really good, like well coated and the shrimp cooks well, he adds a dash of garlic powder.

Ahhh yes, and the movie of the night was, No country for old men, also in the past we've watched Wayne's World, Juno, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Futurama Bender's Big score, and I'm sure there's more...Did I mention Indiana Jones? If I didn't, Sooo cheesie, but I loved it, and Harrison Ford, even though he's getting up in years, he's still the same actor. Love it! And my American Gladiators obsession has taken over, and I'm enjoying watching it online. It helps motivate me to work out, even though that hasn't happen lately. Frank and I both stopped working out on the wii fit. 2 weeks and nothing drastic of a change in lost of weight. It might be the breaded, fried shrimp, but the wii fit tells us we're on a good course to not lose weight too fast, if we even are losing weight. But we both agree that we need to climb back on the little white board and step on and off it a lot more.

Age Calculator

Here's a link I found, apparently according to yahoo it's in the top 10 of this searched on the internet today...Day 86...

Click here to go to Age Calculator

It says I'm gonna be 84, which I can believe I've had a healthy lifestyle growing up, and I"m still trying to improve it now. Frank got 88. I thought for sure I would out live him. Let me know what you got, I can either post it, or if not, its just fun to know.

A little update, it's been 2 weeks of working out with Frank. Pretty much straight, we've slacked maybe two days, but that's not bad, a little rest here or there. According to the wii fit our results are slightly lower, we're doing better, but I feel it's a long road ahead if we want to look like comic book heros...scratch that for Frank he says, "I want to look like a Viking, or a very scary homeless man."

Ah yes and we watched Casino Royale

Day 78 -Walking, Wii Fit, and Grillin

Felt like a slow day until we decided and somehow convinced ourselves to go out. I like shopping, even window shopping, Frank...not so much. But somehow we convinced ourselves to go to the art store. My hidden agenda was to find bubbles, hopefully where I found sidewalk chalk, but we couldn't find any bubbles there. Then somehow Frank convinced us to go to the hardware store to buy grill supplies. For 18 euros you could get a complete [but crappy] grill set, with two layers for hotdogs and toasty buns! Cute, portable, but NOoooo, Frank wants just the grill face, cause he already collected a tone of bricks. So he bought his supplies and in the hottest moment of the day, went to grillin'. We started the charcoal pretty well for our first attempt. I like to think it was due to my advice and some google research.
After a great chicken shish-kabob we tricked ourselves in buying Mario Kart and Wii Fit. Our point was...We're gonna buy it anyway, we should buy it sooner so we can enjoy it longer! And then we promised ourselves to go job searching together. We haven't done that yet.
So we went out to the center of town, tried all the big stores, again nothing, just like when we originally bought our wii and 2nd remote. No Mario Kart, No Wii Fit. But we found the only wii fit at a small store, hidden.
We played Wii Fit and watched Indiana Jones, Temple of Doom...GREAT MOVIE. Frank's rated as obese in wii fit. I'm ideal, but closer to over weight. So hopefully we'll get a little bit more fit and lose weight. I think Frank believes in it more then I do, but he does like it for the games. I'm a little skeptical on how much weight a person can lose, but we've been exercising for a week straight with wii sports, and now we're kicking it up a notch with Wii Fit. And I think our diet isn't too bad. We'll definitely keep you posted on all this.
Funny side to buying a wii. It was hot today, standing and walking in the sun and grilling was not that much fun. But Ice cream sounded really good. I suggested it, but I could of went either way getting it or not, deep down I REALLY WANTED IT, but would be fine if passed up. Frank was so set on getting a McFlurry, but then he realized, he's caring a wii fit. If we walk into that McDonnalds we'd be VERY HYPOCRITICAL. That right there convinced Frank to pass up on sugar. We went home and played Wii Fit!
Fun side story, the previous night or so we went on a walk to the closest park. After watching the sun set forever [cause the sun takes a long time to disappear, the sky stays orange-ie-rainbow forever] we walked home and came across a lot of trash art! Ugly prints, but GREAT PAPER! We took it all home in hopes I can make a cool book out of it. And in the slideshow of pictures you'll see what look likes the Hulk's arm cut off. We found it crappily pasted on a window at a car dealer ship.. We took that home and it's hanging up in our kitchen. I like it a lot. I think it's really cool to have original work from street art. Also on some of our walks we pass by more art work from the same guy, we want to tear it down but the moment hasn't felt just right.

Day 69-72 Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind

Slideshow of Brussels and Brugge
Day 69- We got our first visitors!!! Katerina and Stefan [her boyfriend, and name I can now properly spell thanks to the wii] came over and spent 4 days with us. It's awesome! It was a Thursday morning, Frank and I woke up at like 8...cause we didn't finish cleaning before our guest arrived. Frank sent me out to buy groceries while he did deep cleaning, like mop floors and clean the tub. I went out on my adventure, only to get shut down at the bank, cause they didn't take Frank's card, and to find out the grocery store was closed. As I took a moment to look around, I then learned EVERYTHING was closed. We figured everything was closed cause it was Assension, but then we learned it was cause I was just out too early. So around 9-ish I was able to drag Frank with me to go food shopping, and we came back with sooooo much stuff. When we packed the fridge we thought that it was thee most filled we've ever seen it. Frank washed the floors, and I got stuck doing a million dishes. I really don't know how the place got so messy, cause we purposly cleaned it on Sunday, and the place looked great.
With the apartment cleaned, we waited and waited. Finally a phone call, it's from Kat and she's in Waterloo, which means she over shot us by 20 mins, cause we live on Waterloo Street [Chaussee de Waterloo] we learned that in order to see where Napoleon died you'd have to pay 8 euros to walk up a hill. Kat said, "No way am I paying 8 euros to walk up a hill!" Turned her car around [really her boyfriends] and drove back to our place.
They arrived, and we helped unpack. We took a walk around our place, took them to a park or two, continued to walk to the center of town, and walked around it, where we bought some beer, waffels and fries. I think that's what's Begliums for! We did a lot of walking and ended up eatting at the local food place at the end of our street by our apartment. Great food, like always, we figured this was the most authentic Belgium food we could find, instead of over priced places in the center of town.
After our exhusting day, we just relaxed back at our place and played some wii. We made Kat and Stefan in our wii. They both came out really good. We had a boxing tourtament...where I came in last, I got beat by Frank and Stefan...AND IT'S STEFAN'S FIRST TIME!!! But Stefan got beat by Kat, and we could tell it was going to be an on going battle for the rest of the weekend.
[insert some pics of the day here]
Day 70 - It's Friday! we voted to go to the Atonium, it was a beautiful day, very clear and perfect for the Atonium. Unfortunately all of the other tourist thought so too. The line was forever long, like an hour wait to buy tickets, then a 2 hour wait to go up into the place. So we said, "screw that!" And explored around it. Frank and I finally got to explore the parks around it, cause in the Atonium you see the above view of the park, and the houses in the distance, the nuclear power plant, and a birds eye view of Mini Europe! So the park was cool, it definatly felt like it came from another planet, and the plants ate all the grounds keeper and started to grow uncontrollably. there are long rows of trees planeted in lines, but the trees are huge and grow a little funky. There were old bridges, trees shaped like squares, lots of bugs that didn't bite, small rivers, ducks, and pretty flowers. I think someone was taking some care of the plants. But we all agreed, at the times you spoted the Atonium from the forest, it definatly looked like it was a space ship that landed. [Interesting fact, the Atonium was built in 1958, closed after the worlds fair was over, then re opened in 2000 to make a lot of money to tourist, it's the year 2008 so it is the 50 years of Atonium!]
Since we couldn't go to the Atonium, we said let's go to Mini Europe, which was right around the corner, unfortunatly so was the line to get into it. So we said, "Screw that!" And looked for a place to eat. We found one, food was ok, propotions small, we weren't too happy, Kat and I were cause we got a yummy chicken with a crappy salad and fries. We also contemplated to see Iron Man at the IMAX theater there.
Since it was early, and we didn't want to wait around for 2-4 hours for Iron man, we went back home and just walked around, found a really chill bar to sit and eat at. Their onion rings tasted like WHITE CASTLES!!! It was amazing! And I got to try more authentic Belgium beer, which I love!
We saw Iron Man...AMAZING, THEE BEST MARVEL MOVIE TO BE REALEASED! And luckily the movie theater we saw it at they have the version OV which means Oringinal Version, so it was in English..THANK GOD, it had sub titles, and I caught myself reading them a few times, but they didn't distract me too much, THE MOVIE IS AWESOME! I RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE!!! BETTER THEN SPIDERMAN!
Best quote. I caught Kat looking into Stefan's eyes saying,"You're my Iron Man."
Day 71- Bruge or as we like to call it, Brick-opolis. It was swarming with tourist, worst then the Atonium. Of course, it's the town with the most bricks, on a Sat., on a 4 day weekend. So being that we're not a fan of tourist, [I might be] and even though we are technicly tourist, even though Kat played the, "Frank lives in Belgium" card, so she calims we're not tourist, I think we are. Bruge was very nice, cute shops, lots of lace and chocolate, lots of bricks, that's about it. After walking around, excaping the madness of the tourist we ended up in a peaceful park where there was another round building, made of brick, that was zip-tied closed, so we didn't go in, and then we just walked back. I think we saw the "real" side of Bruge.
We ate outside at, I'm gonna guess, a fancy resturant, cause the prices were high and the porportions were small. Kat got mussels, and they were so yummy, with fries. Stefan got a bowl of soup, Frank got crokettes[?], they only gave him two, and I got Prime rib[?] it was real good, but so small, with a tiny tiny salad. I think Kat's fries helped us all not starve to death. The service was slow, real slow. It felt good cause we were walking so much, but it also felt real slow, like I'm gonna miss my train if the guy doesn't move - slow. And for the first time, I was thinking of dining and ditching. I don't recomend it, cause I'm an honest person [most of the time] and these people work, weather they want to serve you or not, they are working, and then to not get paid. That just sucks, but so does waiting around for over 30 mins for a check, when the sun is setting and there are things you want to do. So I suggest we just leave, it was taking forever, let's just leave, no ones coming out, no one has come out, no one came out to even check on us. So I got up, followed by Stefan, of all people Frank wasn't leading this protest, it was me. By the time Stefan and I made it half way to the corner of the street, the lady came flying out and Kat caught her and paid. Kat's a saint. I was annoyed cause I thought we'd actual get away with it. Poor judgment on my part. But again, I don't recommend dinning and ditching, it's not nice.
So we got home, Frank cooked up one of his special chicken and shrimp rice combo. Really good, like always and more wii. Stefan went through training, really practicing to beat Kat at the game. Then we pooped out and fell right to sleep
Day 72- Sunday, and we're all still tired, all that walking the whole weekend, so tired. So we just chilled, and played wii, then Kat and Stefan took off. Frank and I didn't do much the rest of the day. But I think we got someone new hooked on the wii. We shall see what happends, tune in next week, see if Stefan buys one.
Things that happen this weekend that wasn't mentioned...Frank started a brick collection. I doubt it was inspired by Bruge, more like Frank really wanta Man-made grill. So we now have bricks set up on the launch pad. Almost complete, for now it looks like a Mario pipe. Each time I see it, I expect Mario to come climbing out, dust himself off and triple jump onto the next lunch pad in the neighbors yard and hear some cat hiss or freak out. And a little re-cap. It was really nice to have Kat and Stefan come out. Saved some of my sainity. Just nice to see old friends, catch up, discover new stuff, and speak english. It lifted our spirits. Oh and again, why Kat is a saint, SHE FOUND BACON! GLORIOUS BACON! We haven't found any at the two closest food stores. Now maybe we're just not looking hard enough, cause I don't shift through the isles looking for it, but she spotted it, IN A TRAIN STATION??!!! So we picked up two packets, and now we will enjoy the bacon to it's full extent!

Click to View Photo Album of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind

Day 44 A glorious walk in the park!

Oh it was a great Sunday! Frank made what I like to call an egg pie. It's like an egg omlette on steroids. It was really good. Then we went out for a walk around the apartment and town.
The walk was great. A little cold but we got out before it got colder and before it snowed/rained. Frank showed me the largest Prison in Brussels, it's not too far away from our apartment, but you'd never guess it cause it looks like a 14th century castle, if they had castles in the 14th century. I'm really bad with timelines. Ok...it looked like it came out the movie The sword in the stone. And a funny ironic thing, right across the way is the Justice complex. Which I don't even know how to describe. Then Frank showed me around at the park. We explored. We watched these green birds make their nest in the trees. basically they fly from the house to get twings and fly the twigs back to the top of the trees and make their nest.
We also got to see lots of dogs with no leashes enjoying themselves in the park. We kept a doggie bag. I think its really neat that they have these bags that you can us to pick up the dog poop. The bags have a dog logo on it and other pics. [insert picture of doggie bag] Of course I'm an odd collector of things and had to keep a bag, and I'll probably swipe some more on our next walk out. Try and do some art-ie fart-ie project with it. I remember once that designing a doggie bag was a classroom assignment. It was a small challenge. Designing an international doggie bag.
[insert Frank's drawing of his day]
After our walk we watched Krunk's new grove and yesterday we watched Emperors new grove. Then we did wii boxing, I went pro in wii bowling. I owe it all to my glory days on the bowling team in highschool. And then we watched Flushed Away.

Day 37

It's Sunday, a cloudy, rain on and off, day. Not too bad, not cold. we got up around 10, had a waffle and headed out to the market. We got steak and hamburg, fruits, strawberries, bananas, cantalop, mangos. We'll see hot it turns out. I now know my way to the market on Sundays.
When we got back Frank went straight to the wii. I lechtured to him that we should do our chores 1st. He put the controller away and we started to sort out our clothes for laundry. Then we suited up like Ninja Turtles [our laundry baskets look like turtle shells, just not as shelly, and more like vinal mess shells] and we proceeded to the laundry place! It makes me very happy to do laundry, cause then there aren't giant hills of clothes scattered around the apartment.
Besides coming away with clean clothes, the laundro mat allows you time to yourself, to think and relax, and reflect. Frank went off to the bank to see if he can pay for our internet. We're averaging about once a month to the laundro-mat.
Frank was able to pay the internet bill through a do-it-yourself banking machine. the apartment got cleaned up, we ate crepes, played wii, napped, ate cantalop, played wii, then went to bed.
Oh!!! and we fixed our bed! [Didn't know it was broken???] The center of the bed droops down. It feels like there is a hole missing in the support. So without effort you roll into the center of the bed. Which isn't fun for me. I'll end up there and without effort Frank will too, right on top of me, and all of a sudden I loose feeling in my arm and have trouble breathing, then I realize there is someone snooring in my ear!!! Not fun, or comfortable, or easy on the back.
What was wrong with it? The center support has, funny, no supporting in the center, so it droops. This entire time, all 36 days we've been sleeping with a slope in the center of our bed. Very uncomfortable. I'm surprised neither of us woke up with back pains.
So how do we solve the problem? the frankie sizzle way, we get some bricks from "the launch pad" and use some of the pizza boxes we've been saving for the 3d moonites project, fold them up. The beam doesn't perfectly fit where it should be. But this feels soooooo much better.
[insert drawing of bed frame]

I somehow made spicey spagetti for dinner, I think it was the onions. But I made dinner all by myself. Pretty much because I was more hungry and Frank just woke up from his nap.

Day 36

It's a Saturday and we woke up late. Lately we've been discussing a Nintendo Wii for a week now. One of Frank's co-workers showed us a website for things, REALLY CHEAP. For some reason we don't trust it. But somehow that site pushed us enough to go out and buy ...A NINTENDO WII!!!!!!!!
We had to buy a second nunchuck and controller. I think we bought the last wii remote in all of brussels. We walked to all the gamer stores to see if they have wii's and their prices. We ended up buying it at Media Mart, I kinda felt a little bad cause I like to support the smaller shops. We also bought Mario Galaxy and Rayman's Ragging Rabbits and nunchuck, but no 2nd remote. But they had one and it was pink, but we wanted to get an actual one, so we walked again all over and couldn't find any remotes anywhere. So we walked back to the original place and bought the pink one. So I now have a PINK controller it's Barbie pink. But I like it alot. At the store some small kid mistook Frank as his father. He came right up to Frank going, "Pa pa Pa pa wii wii!" or maybe he was saying Oui Oui, but either way it was soooo cute!
We came home and immediatly set it up. We played sports and a little Rayman. Frank cooked Tacos, we napped and then watched Harry Potter The Prisinor of Azcaban then MORE WII
Also Frank forgot to pay the internet bill, so we discovered we have no phone or internet. But it didn't matter cause we are occupied by the wii.

Day 24 Getting a new lock.

Lately we've been having trouble with out major bolt lock on our door. It a safe neighbor hood, and we probably don't have to lock our door. We're on the second floor and you need a key to get in through the front door and our neighbors seem very nice. But anywho somehow Frank and I were about to go out and get some groceries but as I tried to lock our door the key got stuck and the lock froze. Frank's mighty strength couldn't fix it either.
So the guys came to fix our lock. The same guys who sealed up our bathtub from when it was leaking into our downstairs neighbors apartment. Basically they looked at the lock, tried the key, then asked me if I gave them the right key.
They couldn't figure out what was wrong so they went out and bought a new lock. We now have 3 useable sets of keys, but only to our apartment lock. Not that we need to lock it, but we do everyday even if we're home or not. We believe it's because of the neighborhoods we grew up in.
So I could see the guys trying to figure out how to do the least amount of work to install the new lock. It's very similar to the old model, but slightly smaller. they did an ok job and it was slightly amusing watching them. [insert pic of door without lock]

website with a pet cheetah

Lobo Drawing!

Now, I didn't just make this up. This was an original Bisley drawing from a Lobo comic book, I just decided to draw it for myself. I like it alot! I first sketched, then on acetate inked it. I hope you enjoy it at much as I do.

Virtual Sea Monkeys!

Well Frank and I have discussed about getting a pet. So far the answer is no. We know the landlord isn't too crazy about pets, and we know we have no one to depend on to watch the little Scout if we went away for our Euro trips, or America trips. So no pets for now, although I am seriously considering sea monkeys.

I finally passed the virtual sea monkey game! So it makes me feel a little better about getting some.


Click here to play Virtual Sea Monkeys, then click play this game

Day 23 : We Cleaned!

The apartment looks great! I woke up @ 11, Frank @ 12, eggs and Frank had a hot dog with his for breakfast. We went to cleaning! I washed windows, dishes, bed tables, action figures, Frank washed the floor and kitchen. It went fast, sorta and I'm so happy the house/apt. is clean. When we finished we had some kawala cookies, yum! We went to go out to buy some food, but just as we were going to leave I had problems with the lock. Now we can't lock our door. Landloard says he'll send a guy tomorrow at 4:30pm. Frank just went to the grocery store. We made an early dinner at 5, rice noodle, garlic chicken. Really good! Perhaps one of my favorite dinners. And we watched Life aquatic while we ate. Great food, great movie. Then I straighten up a little more and took pictures of the apt!

Apartment

Frank washed the floors, even sqwee-geed it dry. He did a great job! And Frank noticed that the weather is getting nicer. Its been great during the day and rains at night.
I had 2 beers tonight and they were great Belgium beers.
It feels great that the apartment is clean and we messed around with the wiring and extension chords. I have full power to my desk and we now have more lights everywhere, so the place looks great.
I believe Frank can break the world record for most hand claps per second or minite. your choice.
Go to youtube.com type in world record hand clap or Toast French hand clap. You'll see what we're talking about. We practice almost every night for 10 seconds to see if we can beat the clap.

Day 22 IKEA

Day 22 Sat. March 15, 2008
It was a very productive day! Woke up around 12 noon. Went to IKEA! Frank hates that place and believes no man likes it and they only go because their girlfriends drag them. I loved it! Our list consisted of a small matress and a plastic flooring, to protect the hardwood floor from his rolling chair.
Frank figured he and me could carry these things back on our own, using public transportation. I was a little skeptical, but thought we probably could do it. Of course upon arrival at IKEA
the list instantly grew. Somehow we ended up with a shopping cart. We bought a small matress, garbage can, plastic flooring, two feather pillows, a desk for me, hamper, rug for kitchen, stew pot, cooking utensils, mirror and mini lap desk. During our time in IKEA we thought
long about if I got a desk we'd never have to go again. Frank likes that thought. It was fun and we came to our senses that we couldn't carry all that we bought, we got a taxi, for 30 euros and the guy was nice, the driver that is. Took us two hours to wind our way through IKEA. I felt we did good and Frank didn't complain too much. He was very good. The matress cost the most about 30 euros, then the plastic flooring 24, stew pot 18, then my desk was 17!!! Not the most expensive thing. I think that's funny, it even comes with a sliding keyboard holder, even though I have a little trouble with it. Can't put any glass on it, I could see it flying off and shattering, cause it gets stuck every now and then, but a sketch book is better.
There is a Coca Cola guilding right across the way! You would think IKEA would sell coca cola with their products at the end when you're dong shopping, but they don't. We did stop for the cheap hot dogs and soda in IKEA, which of course is the best part of it.
When we arrice home frank sent me to Brinko, like Home Depot but smaller, to buy extension chords, so I can get some power to my side of the "office" area. When I came back Frank surprised me by putting the desk together and the rest of the IKEA pieces in their proper places. It was a very nice to come home to. It makes me feel like we're moving in. We know it won't totally feel like home because we know in a year or two we'll be moving out and hopefully selling everything.
Then we didn't slow down we went to the center of town and hit the major toy stores. We walked away with 2 revoltech "action figures" and Frank also got 2 other action figures. One of the Recoltech's is a gift from Frank. We don't really know the background of our characters, but we know thye look bad @$$ and they are super poseable!!! It's awesome!!!! Their poses are just super fun to play with, cause anything you do, it looks real, its really great to just do whatever! I stongly recommend this as a toy, any Revoltech, cause its just awesome! 5 stars!
We walked around, saw two music stores, both closed, but maybe next time. I want to pick up a billion guitar picks, cause that's what I do, I collect them, I got a handfull from Hawaii and shared them with my friend D'von. Now I want to have a bunch, just like Halloween and hand it out to all the trick or treaters [I'm talking about those who visit us!] We had some french fries as a snack. But it was a lot of fries. Frank stays American and gets ketchup, I like to have a choice and every now and then opt to get mayonaise. I like it! While sitting a band marched by. I don't know why, but most people in the band wore pure black makeup, all across their skin. And they had a black manakin, I didn't see one black person in the march, I don't know what it was for, but it was most amusing for that minute of my time. I wish I had my camera.
We also saw a crowd of goth kids, and we found a heavy metal sotre with reasonable prices! Frank showed me the palace where the King lives. It's huge, but beautiful, with a lovely garden. But I don't believe he lives there.
We came to a mass amount of steps and opened one toy. We were approached by a stranger, first we thought he was homeless and ask for money, but a second look he was just dress like how Frank dresses and spoke to us in clear English. He was curious about Franks toy. We were very skeptical, I was worried, Frank not so much. Frank wouldn't let him touch the toy and I put my leg in the backpack strap so he couldn't grab something and run away. Frank's street smart meter was very alert because he grew up in the hood. Frank was not as worried. Frank and him talked a bit, then we left. Either people are really nice out here, which is what our landlord says, and we are not used to it, or we almost got our toys stolen.
We were very tired and took the Tram home. Got chinese food, watched I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry, cleaned a little then played with our toys. Long, but productive day.
Oh and now that we have a second matress, the entire bed is leveled, I used to be up one. Frank now can easily roll over on top of me and sophocate me. I wasreal nice having my own side. No giant foot or arm sneaking over making it uncomfortable to sleep. That luxery has vanished. In the night I was greeted with an elbow to the head and a leg taking up my leg space...ahhhhh discovering boundaries of love is so much fun.

Life's like one big stage, not everyones pays for a ticket.

"Life's like one big stage, not everyone pays for a ticket"-Me
3-13-08

So let's discuss this, I left this explaination on one of my friends comment boreds... So I was thinking about this quote, hopefully not too hard trying to find the true meaning behind it. I kinda thought it might be cool to have people up on the side, I picture tall walls, outside concert, and people are sitting on these huge walls listening in to the performance, but I thought, maybe its the people who are closest to the band, you know? they never pay for a ticket, and they are the closests. And maybe you have both. But still its pretty cool to have people sneak their way to listen to you, anlthough that's money being lost...hmmmm...and then you have people who just don't pay and have no clue the event is going on. But they are trapped in suits going to work, they're lame, so it's alright. Wow...I think someone could write an entire paper on this subject.

Just immediately I think the bad and the good at the same time. Not everyone pays for the ticket, meaning they don't want to see your show, but then there are the ones climbing walls to watch and hear the performance, and then there are also those who would love to go, just can't afford [I have no idea what meaning that could bring] and then you have the ultimate ones who didn't pay and end up on stage watching you live.

Please what's your input. Cause all I know is, I'm putting on a show, anyone paying? Or are you all in for a free ride. Which is totally cool...oh which brings me to another quote that I don't wish to discuss that much. But are you giving or recieving? Cause I think i'm being selfish and recieving, and that makes me upset cause not enough people give in this world. I'm trying to give. give what? I don't know advice? this blog? kindness?

Day 18 Day Time Television

We don't have great cable tv. We don't have a great tv set up. Small tv, and on top of that you can't just be lazy to flip up or down. You have to hit one button to choose C-channels or hit it again for S-channels. Then proceed to hit your channel of choice, 11, 25, 44 that's about all that's in english, but times that by two cause you have either C or S.
I don't really watch much tv during the day. Frank watches the news in the morning, CNN or BBC, but I think the main reason is because its in english. And there is a cute show called Brain Jitsu, its some english accent guy in a karate outfit explaining to the view what each excersise does to the brain. Then they put a bunch of kids agasint each other to figure out the tasks. The only thing asian about this show is they have one asian who does an example of how to do each task. But aside from morning tv, I on the other hand am home during the day and my choices are the news [thumbs down] or French "as seen on tv" programs or the lottery puzzle games.
Today is Botoliss - its like botox but on top of the skin, like a lotion you apply with a plastic needle. Yesterday was a metabolism, lose weight product. It looked like it works cause they have computer generated simulations. Therefore IT MUST BE TRUE! and I wish I could play the lottery puzzle games, but I don't know the language. I was soooo into it! That's pretty good cause I don't know the language, I picked up my laptop to translate over the internet what the question was. They were asking for a 9pts animal word. And on the left side of the screen was like Yahtzee/Scrabble. With 16 or 25 letters each assigned with pts, like 1-3pts. I was playing even though I had no clue how to spell the animals. If you get the answer you win 300 euros, but I think each call cost 1.50 euros.
It's amazing how you don't need to know the language but know exactly what they are saying. Frank better be careful, I come from a long line of people who order through the tv...oOOOooo now they are selling a light weight steaming vacuum cleaner. I better change the channel...crap its the lottery channel...crap its the news, TV OFF.

Day 15 - Washer - Dryer - And no floss

March 8, 2008
Today we woke up at a normal time and took off to the art supplies store. We picked up pens and acetate. I learned how good they take care of their paper. The guy wraps everything up with such care and talent. I was impressed, then I learned from Frank that is how most places will do it, I'm used to our over-priced school and their "store". They just kinda throw everything into a bag and over-charge you. But it was nice to be treated so well for just a clear piece of paper.
On our way to the art supply shop, out of the corner of my eye I saw floss on a counter top. Frank was baffled on how I saw that. I wanted to pick it up and Frank said after the art store we'll pick it up. By the time we got back they closed. I couldn't understand this. I swore it was open when we first walked by it. Then I announced out loud that this country just doesn't care as much of their oral hygiene as America does. I've searched in many stores for floss, and they just don't have it. They have every other teeth product out there, but not floss.
After that attempt Frank then spotted out of the corner of HIS eye a vintage store. We went in, saw some cool things. Old army jackets, ugly purses and lots of boots. They had a little pin of the little boy that pees, which is Belgium's mascot [note to self, paste pic of it in this post] Frank spent most of his time doing a voice over for a dead animal fur scarf. And I caught myself talking back to it.
And this is the second favorite thing we did today, maybe 3rd, we did LAUNDRY!!! I was shocked at how well Frank had it down to a science. And for some reason, people don't do their laundry in the middle of a Sat afternoon. And whenever someone does do laundry, they just put their clothes in and walk away. Frank and my background, that just blows our mind. We'd never do our laundry in a public place and walk away. But they do. Maybe its just that safe of a neighborhood. But it was pretty empty and most Belginians probably have better things to do then to watch their wash. But not Frank and me. We sat and watched our clothes tumble over and over again, realizing how dirty the water was and I was arguing if our clothes were actually getting washed or not. But it was good staring at the washer and dryer, I sat and drew them. I haven't drawn in a long time, so it was good practice. Simply shapes and objects, helped me realize how bad I can draw.


During that time some guy was honking his horn, very annoying outside. I figured it was some jerk yelling at someone to move their car. turns out he was honking out of annoyance/politeness, some idiot parked their car in front of his driveway, so he couldn't get out. He was trying to get the attention of the person who owned the car. It was pretty sweet cause I watched the guy call for a towing service. At least I think he did, cause after that, he stopped honking and just waited. Finally the owner of the car came and drove away. I was disappointed because I wanted to see the car get towed.

Then the question crossed my mind. What if someone paralleled parked in front of someone's driveway, a car in front and a car in back, How does the towing truck get the car out. Frank said then they'd just put a boot on the car, but that can't work cause that doesn't solve the problem of the person's driveway being blocked. Does anyone know how you tow a parallel parked car? I should youtube it.
Cute little thing that happen today, we heard 2 little kids come up the stairs, singing their lungs out. Frank laughed out loud and you heard the adults go, "SSSSSShhhhhhh" to the kids, of course the kids payed no attention and just kept singing their way up the stairs. It was cute.
Frank was inspired to cook dinner tonight. All because he saw someone cook the same recipe on tv moments before. He went to the store to buy whatever ingredients we didn't have and started cooking. Using ever dish that was clean to do it. But he was very good cause he washed some dishes too. Dinner came out pretty good. I'd call it some Cajun chicken and rice thing, Frank calls it, "awesome" He even threw in some Frankforts bits...not sure why, but it was good.
The other bright side of Frank going out to buy the rest of the ingredients is we discovered Lipton IceTea MANGO!!! my goodness its awesome! We drank it all in one sitting.
After dinner we watched the movie STARDUST. I will recommend this movie. It's really good. If you have no clue what movie to watch, and everyone has an opinion and no one can agree on one movie. I would recommend this one.
We drew at night. I started inking my Lobo drawing on the clear paper, and Frank inked one of his drawings in his sketch book. I feel bad that I cut out my sketch out of my sketch book to ink it. But I felt inking it was pretty important. Now my sketch book is lame again. Just filled with words and bad drawings of a washer and dryer.
And then Minesweeper took up the rest of the night.