Another update

All is well. I'm well. Pneumonia is all over.

Since the last post another year of school has ended. I didn't write about it at all, but it was a good group of students. I initiated a client counseling competition for the students, and it went very well. First time any law school in The Netherlands had participated. I ended up in India with the team, one Swedish/Hungarian guy and one German. Although I was sick while I was there, I was very proud of the team. They didn't win, but I won't go into all the reasons why.

India is incredible. We were in Bangalore - not the best place to visit, but still, very much India. I was able to get to Mysore, which is someplace I've wanted to visit since I started doing yoga more than 30 years ago.

While I was there, I was annoyed by almost everything. Except the food. I enjoyed it all, but was still annoyed. In Bangalore, I always felt as though I was being taken advantage of. Having said that, it's been several months now since I've come home, and I keep thinking that I would like to do it again, but for about six months instead of two weeks. It's the first place I've ever had big culture shock. I think if I went back, I could better factor that in.

We also went to Prague. I'll try to do another post on that.

Ian's won all kinds of awards. I'll save that for another post, too.

We're also one with everything we need to do for the adoption procedure. Now it's just waiting...

And - we've made the change to Macs. We got a desktop and a laptop. I've got to say, the learning curve was a pain, but I'm glad we did it. I see now, though, that I don't have any idea how to upload pics from a Mac to here. I'll do that when I figure it out. Or, maybe I'll switch to using a Mac template instead of blogger.

OK - enough for one post. More later - and hopefully not six months from now.

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Am I well yet?

I went to the doctor Thursday morning to see if I was good to go to make the trip to Prague. She pretty much said that I was crazy to even think about it, so I guess you'll have to get your traveloghue from the Czech Republic later. Ian's already rebooked for next Spring break. I asked the doctor just how much longer I could expect to be house-bound and she said probably about 2 -3 weeks. She also said that I could start to do small things around the house and take the dog on short walks. And next week, I can even go to Amsterdam for a day if I want. I know there was a time when I would have been excited if someone told me I could spend a day in Amsterdam next week. And I do feel just a little bad about wanting to say, "A day in Amsterdam? Whoop-dee-do. But what about Prague?", but there you have it.

She said there were three reasons I shouldn't go on the trip. The first is that after walking around for 15 minutes, I will be wiped out - and Prague is a city I'm going to want to walk around in, so I would probably end up walking around in it. That won't be good for me. Also, it is damp and cold in Prague (even moreso than here, I guess, which is hard to believe), and that won't be good for me. Finally, she said that every virus on the plane and in the streets would be looking for me because I'm very susceptible to anything right now. I've caught a very small cold already, which has slowed my recovery somewhat. I thought maybe that had happened, but I wasn't sure until she looked into my throat and confirmed it was red in a way that wasn't great.
However, she also said that the rattling in my lungs is less, so I am healing. She then added that it almost always takes this long, "for someone of your age."
Those words just kind of hung in the air for a few minutes... I don't think I have ever heard them before - at least not when they were specifically directed towards me!

Anyway, it's frustrating, but I'm actually a little relieved to hear I shouldn't go to Prague. That was what the voice inside my head was saying, but I didn't want to prevent Ian from having a good vacation - he's really ready for one!

It does feel good know that there is nothing on my plate for the next couple of weeks. At least I don't need to feel guilty about doing nothing. It seems as though either "Oprah" or "As the World Turns" is on here 24/7. Maybe I'll finally see what the big deal is about Oprah. And if that doesn't work out, I can always see what's going on in Oakdale...

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TED talks

I don't know how I missed the talks that are held in my old stomping grounds. Monterey has always been a great place for new ways of looking at things, and the TED talks are keeping that tradition alive.
The vid below is one of the many I've watched over the past week. This one is a wonderful essay on creativity and how traditional education has got it wrong.

If you've ever wondered what's wrong about education today and how it could be chanaged, give it a watch.

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Closer to fine.

I went back to the doctor a couple of days ago - more x-rays and blood tests. My lung is better and my blood is clean. I feel better every day.

Ten years ago this month, my dad died of lung disease. I guess it would have been hard not to have thought about him during the last month even if this wasn't going on with me, but. . .
So far as I know, I don't have anything else going on with my health other than this pneumonia. And I haven't been anywhere near so sick as my dad was toward the end - I haven't needed oxygen, for instance. Still, it has reinforced my conclusion that if I do ever end up with a chronic condition that is not going to get better, well ... Ian won't let me finish that sentence, so you'll have to fill in the blanks yourself. I will say, though, that it's a bit unnerving to watch someone you care about work themself to the bone trying to keep everything together when you're not well enough to pull your weight.


Just sayin'...

On a healthier note, I went on a journey by bus, train and bike today - nothing major, just a trip to see a fysiotherapist in Overveen, near Haarlem. It's about 2 hours, door to door. I still have back trouble, and all the lounging around watching TV I've done for the past month has not help it one little bit. Nor did grading the papers - which I'm finally done with. So today I tried something I've read about, but haven't done before. I had some physical therapy on my shoulder and back. The guy who did it was really good. Bas Willemsen. He's been trained in Active Release Techniques® - a relatively new therapy that deals with all kinds of muscle injury. The guy who came up with it lives in Colorado Srpings. Half my family lives there, so I've tried to make an appointment with him everytime I've gone back, but I've never had my emails or phone calls returned. Since I've had nothing but time on my hands, I researched providers here and found there were a couple.
It's a little painful, but I think it's going to be worth it. Especially since it's covered by my health plan. I feel pretty good today. Time will tell.
Anyway - add Overveen to the list of places to visit in The Netherlands. I would go back even if I didn't have more appointments to get my back fixed up. I forgot my camera, but I'll take it next time I go.
And now, I'm going to bed. I'm whooped.

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Day 17

I went to the doctor yesterday for a checkup. I was feeling pretty good - I woke up for the first time in 16 days in sheets that weren't drenched from night sweats. I haven't had a fever for a couple of days. So, I was feeling pretty upbeat when I went to the doctor.
She listened to my lungs and said that I needed to slow down. That made me laugh, because I've been doing nothing other than staying in bed being waited on by Ian. (You can imagine how much he loves that!) Anyway, she said that my right lung was almost completely filled.
I guess the antibiotic they have me on (Ciprofloxine, I think) is strong, but not as deadly to bacteria as the wide spectrum antibiotic that didn't work. This one just keeps the bacteria from growing, and it's kind of up to my body to heal itself now. She said it would be at least a couple of weeks before I should do anything out of bed.
So, I left feeling a little bummed. I stopped by the store on the way home and bought some cookies covered with chocolate and toffee . I've got to say, they helped.
Ian's in Amsterdam with his German lessons tonight, so Rensa and I are holding down the fort.
Rensa's cabin fever is worse than mine. I went on a short walk with her night before last. It was just around the block - less than 10 minutes. We both needed it. I came home and couldn't move. It wiped me out.
I guess that's the sort of thing I have to stop doing.
The doc says it's serious, but I'll heal if I just don't do anything. Ian says he thinks the only thing I have left to cut out is washing my hands after going to the bathroom. Whatever. As I said, he loves looking after the loved one.
Other than that, everything is OK. It's turned cold - we had frost this morning for the first time. I think we set our clocks back this weekend. Hard to believe.

I didn't get to Maastricht to pick up my students' papers, so they're going to mail them to me. I think they'll get here tomorrow. At least then I'll have something to do!

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A little update

Has it really been almost a year since I last wrote something here?

Briefly, we spent last Christmas in the US with family in New York, Kansas and Colorado. We also went to D.C. (my first time there, believe it or not) for a conference. After that we came back home for a couple of weeks, then started work again.
I've really been enjoying my job. I can't remember if I've written about it or not. At first I decided I wouldn't because it was all new and I didn't know whether it would be appropriate. I think I've figured that out, and if I have time, I'll write more about my work later. It's been a fun and very exciting experiment - one I look forward to continuing.
The house is all but done, and we're enjoying living in it. We're going to replace quite a few windows and do a couple of other things to make it more energy effecient soon, but there's nothing that HAS to be done.
We've had quite a few visitors over the last year, and are looking forward to seeing more (including Rachael!) next year.
I started going to the gym again a couple of months ago. I hadn't realised how much I missed that - I hadn't really worked out since I moved here (well, I mean other than the noraml everyday biking and walking.).
I also discovered Facepage and have found a few old friends. I'm still looking for some, though. Anyone know where these people are? Cyndy Robertson, Jim Eldert from Santa Cruz, Sonrisa (who knows what her last name is now?) or any of the other people who lived on boats moored in the Monterey Bay harbor circa 1979-82? Anyone who used to work at Casa Maria or Tillie Gorts? Allen Posey from SF? I know there are others ... I remember reading that if you list the people you're looking for on a web page, when they google themselves, they might see it. So, there you go.
More recently, I've been sick for the past 2 weeks. It started as the flu, then turned into pneumonia. Nothing serious or painful, it's just worn me out enough that I can't go far from bed for awhile. As odd as this sound, I feel relatively strong for having pneumonia.
More than anything, I'm just bored. (Hence, this post, I suppose.) And my back hurts from being in bed for waaaayyyyy too long. I think I'm on the mend though.
I'm going to try to write a bit more. I've missed it.
After I get done with grading exams papers, we're going to Prague for a week. My camera has all but died - it still takes pictures, but the view screen doesn't show anything. As a result, the pictures are completely hit and miss. I'm going to think about whether I need another one before the trip or whether I'll wait awhile. The trip is pure vacation for me. Ian's been asked to speak at a conference there, then teach for a week, so he'll stay longer than me.
I need to come home, though because I have Dutch lessons starting up again. I'm going to try a program in Amsterdam this time. My Dutch is improving all the time, but I'm still not speaking as much as I should. I guess I'm just shy that way...

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Happy Birthday . . .

Something only the people who have known me for a long time know is that I used to play the piano. And cello. And the sax. And even the trumpet for a very short while. I started with the piano when I was probably around 4 years old. My paternal grandmother was a music teacher. Her lessons were painful in a way that only those of us who were genetically related could understand. I was the only one in my immediate family who survived them with anything close to a great love for music. I quit playing for a number of years when I was on the boat and didn't have access to a piano, but wherever I was, I always knew where I could find a piano to play.

I took it up again after I moved back to the Midwest in the mid-80s. I played in a couple of bands and toured around a bit. It was all too loud, though, so I eventually quit and went back to college to study.

My Dad was also a musician. He played trombone in college, and later sang in a babershop quartet. I loved going to sleep at night while they were practicing. The music was good - mainly because they loved it so much. And there was always laughter along with it.

After I started serious study, I think I lost a little of my love for playing. I was so critical of my playing that it was difficult to enjoy it much. By the time I graduated, I was a fine player, but what my grandmother didn't kill, the structure of a university education in music did. So I drifted away from playing.

Still, I always had a piano after that, but none of them were very good. Because they weren't good, I played even less.

When I came to live here, I didn't bring a piano with me. And I never missed it too much. As always, I spied some pianos I could have played, but I never played them.

Recently, that started to change. I let Ian know that at some point - maybe after I sold my house in the U.S. - I wanted to get a decent piano.

A week or so ago I had a BIG birthday. And I got one of my presents a little early. Behind my back, Ian lobbied my friends to help out in getting me something really memorable to mark the day. And they responded.

In our garden room, we now have a really wonderful instrument.

The tone and action is really wonderful. I've been playing a couple of hours a day - the first time I've done that since I seriously studied. I'm still a bit rusty, but it's amazing how quickly it returns. And I'm really enjoying it. I explained to Ian that it's like seeing a friend you haven't seen form many, many years. Suddenly, all you want to do is catch up.

I notice I'm playing things differently now. My ear is different. I'm different. Because of that, what I play is different. It's interesting.

Anyway, I hope those of you who contributed will have a chance to visit. If you do, and you have the time, I'll play you to sleep at least once.

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Work and a new bike

So much has happened this last year. Much of it has been taken up with work. I don't think I've written much about it. I've edited a couple of books, but the English Language European Law School in Maastricht is mostly what I've been busy with. I'm teaching some really bright students from all over Europe. That's the best part of the job.
The program is new; the first of its kind, at least here in Europe. It's a grand experiment, one that I think will be successful. The aim is to teach a systemless form of law to students from a variety of backgrounds. It's an alien concept here, but in reality, it's not so different from the way I learned law in the U.S. The US has 50 states, each with their own law. Next to and over all of them, there is another Federal law. We certainly didn't learn the laws of all these systems. Instead, we learned how to research - how to FIND the law.
So that's what I'm teaching the students to do here.
Here's a link to a student's blog I ran across - from there, you can maybe explore more of Maastricht and the university, if you're interested. Oh - and if you're British, have a background in law and are looking to teach - give me a holler.

I'm going to be in the U.S. for awhile soon. Part of it is to attend a conference in D.C. A great perk! Another was the new bike I recently got. The commute to Maastricht is about 3 hours door to door. There is a 20 minute bus ride on my end, one a little shorter in Maastricht. By bike, it's faster. To help with the commute, I got a new fold up bike that I can ride from my house and the university to the train stations, then can carry with me on the train for free. It's all courtesy the Dutch government - a way to promote the greening of the country.

Here's the bike - and I would highly recommend it if you're looking for a good one.

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A week in Tuscany. And Venice.

So. I've been teaching law in Maastricht (I love it) and it doesn't seem like I've had a chance to breathe since February.
I've got a break for awhile now, and am using it to do some editing.

Then I'll rest.

And post some pictures.

And maybe write something.

We went to Italy last week and got back yesterday. RyanAir had cheap flights into Pisa. We spent a day there, and I've got to say that I liked it more than I thought I would. I thought all it had was the leaning tower of ...


well, you know.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I ran right into a wall painted by Keith Haring.


I guess it was one of his last works. Astounding.

We went on to Venice,


then Florence.


OK - that's my short update - for now. Life's good. More soon.

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Enkhuizen

We spent yesterday with Ian's dad in Enkhuizen. Now if this doesn't just make you want to put on a pair of wooden shoes and kick your heels up, I don't know what will.

On another front, a break of at least a day or two is on the horizon. Maybe I'll post some overdue pics.

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Why I haven't written

I'm not mad at you, I'm just busy.
I got a new job in Maastricht,

we've been to Paris with Natalie,

saw Janine and Chris get married,

and spent a day with Lieke and Gert-Jan in Rotterdam.

I'll try to be better at this. Soon.

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Paris

We're back!


We spent out first anniversary in Paris with Natalie, Jeffrey and John. We chose Paris mainly because Natalie came over with her partner Colin. I'm sure that will disappoint those who find this site by typing in the search "Natalie Peck lesbian", but what can you do, girls? She's just made that way.

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It's finally spring in Holland!

Finally.

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My eye

I may write about it a little later, but last week's minor emergency found me being rushed by my opthamologist's orders to a university hospital to investigate the possibility of a detached retina. They took pictures, and it looks good - see for yourself.

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IKEA ad

Now that the Budapest posts are up, an ad that is primarily for Bente.

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Budapest, Hungary

One of the first things I learned on this trip is something I'm sure most Europeans learn as a child; Budapest is actually made up of two cities -- Buda and Pest. The cities are split down the middle by the Danube river.



Buda and Pest, as seen from Castle Hill, in Buda.

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St. Stephen's Basilica

Szent Istvan bazilika in Budapest has to be seen to be believed. It is the height of spiritual ostentatiousness, carried out by good Catholics after the Holy wars and persecutions were over (although some of us aren't quite sure the persecutions are really over yet) and they had some free time on their hands. Never mind that the people are starving, this building isn't about the people. It's about the POWER (and material wealth) OF GOD.




In case you think the entry fee to the main attraction doesn't leave your wallet light enough, you can always leave your bank account number and have a donation direct debited from your bank account, once you've sprinkled yourself with holy water and entered the chapel.


And if it's a freak show you're looking for, step right up! How about the "Chapel of the Holy Right Hand"? Uh . . . yeah. It's the petrified severed right hand of some dead holy person clutching a wad of jewels. Now if looking at THAT doesn't make you feel Holy, I don't know what will.
Looking at it, you can almost hear the former owner of the hand saying, "Don't even think about it, Your Holiness. If you want this back, you are going to have to pry it out of my cold, dead hand!"

All in all, this place made my head swim.

Once the organ started plaiying, the only thing missing to make the experience completely terrifying was a clown.

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Buda, Hungary

Buda is arguably the most picturesque of the two cities - especially its skyline as viewed from Pest.

Buda is also the oldest of the two.


Castle Hill in Buda, across the Danube as seen from Pest.


Castle Hill, seen from the Buda side.

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Pest, Hungary

Pest was (and is) the more industrial of the two cities, but has its own beauty.






The Hungarian Parliament is undergoing renovation, but is an incredible complex.



This last picture is a pan (that I haven't cleaned up) of the other side of the Parliament. Click on it to see a bit more detail.

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Budapest, City Streets

The streets of Budapest are best seen on foot.





Or maybe scooter...


Every turned corner revealed a surprise.

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Budapest - Castle Hill

Castle Hill is probably the most recognizable and visited place in Buda. It sits on top of a limestone plateau high above the Danube and is home to medieval monuments and museums.








The old town on the hill is filled with quiet retreats and beautifully painted old storefronts.

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Budapest -- The Church of Our Lady in the Buda Castle

Matthias Church,


aka The Church of our Lady in the Buda Castle is amazing.


Parts of it date back 500 years.


There is an incredible amount of handwork in the church - but it's not all gold and gilt. It's more intimate than imposing. (It's Protestant)


The entire interior of the church is painted with elaborate designs.


The old floor of the Church (below) helps create the environment of calm that pervades the place. (It also makes a great Windows desktop background.)

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Some Budapest Building facades

Again, this is a great city to walk in. Although the city is becoming more Western and modernized, there are reminders everywhere of the past.




This pic is for Mom. The present (which she'll eventually get) came from this little antique shop above.

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Budapest Statue Park

Budapest is home (or graveyard) to an incredible collection of statutes from previously socialist countries. The park isn't finished - they ran out of money - but it's still worth seeing. It was designed not to glorify socialism, but rather as a reminder. It's an outdoor sculpture garden, but has the front facade of a building. This is intentional. It signifies the socialist past -- an exterior of something big, grand and substantial, with nothing behind it.

There are many photos after the link, so if you have a slow connection it will take awhile to download.

As you approach the park, you can see the hint of the statues waiting inside.


The arches in the front facade.




















Looking at the back of the front facade.

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Budapest Transit

Although Budapest is a city to walk in, if you remove the human factor, the transit system is also excellent. There are trams,

and subways,

and buses and finiculas

that go everywhere.

And yet, only three hours after buying our week-long transit pass -- a pass that allowed us unlimited use of all transit in Budapest -- we were escorted off a tram. It turned out that in order for our passes to be valid, we had to print out names on them in capital letters. We didn't do this because no one told us to, nor did we see any information telling us to do it.
Several days later, we ran across this sign: Still though, we only saw one of these signs in all of Budapest.
And I've got to say that the lawyer in me reads the words "You are kindly asked to write your name on the ticket . . . if requested" as neither mandatory language nor something that needs to be done in advance of being requested.
Whatever. Did I mention we were escorted off the tram by FIVE of them? And, although I tried, they weren't too interested in debating the fine points of legal construction.
Nor was ignorance of the law an excuse in Budapest.
Neither is entrapment, apparently, which is what it felt like to us as we handed over the 20 Euro fine to what appeared to us to be a gang of five thugs.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I will admit that we later learned that this gang of five were not street thugs, but authorized transit worker thugs. Again, whatever. We also learned that they roam the trams and buses in groups of five because when they did it in ones and twos, they were frequently beaten up by others (who, I'm guessing, also felt they had been entrapped). At any rate, this was our first experience with what we felt was, in the kindest terms possible, unfair treatment.

With treatment like this from figures of authority, is it any wonder that in Budapest, as many cities everywhere, women on public transit spend their lunch hours dreaming of romance as only Barbara Cartland could write about it?

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Budapest Spas

You can't visit Budapest without being aware of the influence of Turkish style thermal baths, or spas. Budapest lies on the geological fault separating the Buda Hills from the Great Plain, and more than 30,000 cubic meters of warm to scalding mineral water gush forth daily from 118 thermal springs.


We visited a couple of spas, and they were all we hoped they would be. This was the first one we went to. We spent an entire day here.


If you click on the map, you can see everything that's offered and where you can find it.

The next one was also nice, but although we were supposed to get a partial refund of our entry fee, they wouldn't give it to us. Turns out we were supposed to ask for it before we left the inner part of the spa. Of course, no one told us this, and there were no signs posted regarding this rule, but ...

We were so relaxed we hardly even cared. Much.

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Food in Budapest

Budapest is all about desserts.


These were found at Gerbeaud, a place not far from where we stayed in Pest.


We read that this was a great place for pastries, and it was. However, we were a little taken back when we tried to pay for it and our waitress refused our money. Not because they were comping us our food and coffee, but because the 5,000 Forint bill (about 20 Euro) we tried to pay for it with had a little tear in it.

"Oh no," says our waitress, "I can't accept that. That is no good."
"What?" we ask.
"I'm sorry, but it has a tear in it. Do you have anything else?"
"No," we said firmly and in unison. (We were learning, by now.)
"Credit cards?"
"No."
"Oh just a minute then," she said. The "you assholes" part of her reply was implied.
She came back about 5 minutes later with our change.

Right across the way at the market,


There was more food, food, food.


And after the meal, cinnamon rolls - heated over a fire on a wooden spool.



Then some hot mulled wine to finish it off.


By the time we left we had almost forgotten about the times we had either been ripped off or hassled.

<

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Tales from the Public Domain: BOUND BY LAW?

I think I mentioned I'm teaching law in Maastricht. This interesting link to an on-line comic-book was in my University email inbox:

A documentary is being filmed. A cell phone rings, playing the "Rocky" theme song. The filmmaker is told she must pay '10,000 to clear the rights to the song. Can this be true? "Eyes on the Prize," the great civil rights documentary, was pulled from circulation because the filmmakers' rights to music and footage had expired. What's going on here? It's the collision of documentary filmmaking and intellectual property law, and it's the inspiration for this new comic book. Follow its heroine Akiko as she films her documentary, and navigates the twists and turns of intellectual property. Why do we have copyrights? What's "fair use"? Bound By Law reaches beyond documentary film to provide a commentary on the most pressing issues facing law, art, property and an increasingly digital world of remixed culture.

See the whole thing here.(Duke University School of Law)

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Chris en Janine trouwen op 2 mei!

Janine and Chris's wedding is only a month away, and Janine's bachelorette party is today! So in her honor, on the day of her party, I thought I'd share a little video of the two of them. Do they belong together or what?

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Budapest, a preview

Then,

and now.

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Budapest

We've been in Budapest, and Í forgot to tell almost everyone we were going. Internet access is spotty, so I probably won't update until we get home next week. I'm still not sure what I think of this city, other than it's an amazing mix of old and new, East and West. The people, for the most part, don't seem to enjoy their lives. That aside, there are friendly people around.
We went to an incredible spa today. It was great - we're both more relaxed than we-ve been in months.
Anyway, we'll be back soon. Sorry if we left without letting you know...

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Karaoke for the hearing impaired

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Baby it's cold outside, revisited

It is still snowy and cold here. Yesterday, I took this compilation of places I love on the way to and from my manual therapist's office (he didn't use hammers on me this time). The first couple of shots are of our street at around 9 am, the last ones are in a little zoo/park just across the street from our house and those in between are mostly in the Utrecht city center.

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Rensa

We found a dog that fits the doggy door we put in the other day, so we brought her home. She's about 4, a medium/small sized dog - a cross between a Jack Russell Terrier and a Fox Terrier. Her name is Rensa, and she's well mannered and smart. My two favorite qualities in a dog.


We brought her home via a 10 minute walk from her previous owner's house to the train station, a 30 minute train trip, 20 minute bus ride, and a 3 minute walk home from the bus stop. She was wonderful the entire trip and hasn't given us a moment of grief yet.

Timo, our cat, is a little (ok, a lot) freaked out. She spent a couple of days outside in the rain, snow, cold and slush. She's now inside, but spends most of her time under a bed. I'm hoping she'll eventually discover that Rensa is ok, for a dog.

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Still winter here . . .

The main purpose of this post is to see if a short video I took can be seen through the following link. If you're seeing this, it probably works.

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Warmth and a dog

We now have heat. And electricity. (The electrician was here for about 30 minutes and got everything going again. It was just a loose wire.)

Yesterday, I put in a doggy door. I guess it's really a cat door since we don't have a dog yet. We're going to look at one tonight, though. We're not in a hurry to get one, but we're looking.
We looked at one yesterday - a cute little mutt we found on the internet.
I'm starting to wonder if looking for dogs on the internet might be kinda like looking for dates on the internet. . . Anyway, as I said, a cute little dog.

To get to the dog, we took a couple of buses and ended up in what appeared to be a decent neighborhood. The dog lived on the fourth floor of an apartment building. We took the elevator up, and heard barking the minute we stepped out. We wondered if that could possibly be "our" dog. We got closer, and it became apparent it was.

We knocked and the door opened. We were greeted by overpowering and unmistakable smell of dog shit. And all the while, the dog is barking and running around with her tail between her legs as though she's about to be attacked.

Standing in the door was an man with a half-dressed child held in the crook of his arm, perched over his huge belly. The man tried to maintain eye contact with both of us, hoping, I think, that by doing this we would wonder what had happened to his missing teeth rather than notice that his dog was completely deranged and foaming at the mouth.

Stimulated as we were by the surroundings, we still managed to notice both. After inviting us in, we noticed that dried remnants of the dog's "mistakes" were present all over his laminate floor. After trying to convince us of what a good dog she was, he decided to leave us alone with the dog for a moment while he changed his kid. I, frankly, was somewhat surprised and thrilled that he didn't put the child on the floor and change him there. Meanwhile, the dog continued to run around and bark, completely freaked out and sounding like a banshee.

Ian and I said nothing. After our stunned eyes met, we jointly made our way to the door to give our regrets. The guy wasn't having any of it. In a last ditch effort to close the sale (75 Euros), he quickly picked up the dog with the arm that didn't have a child slung over it and pushed the dog in Ian's general direction. The dog immediately started snapping like a cornered shark, but luckily his teeth never connected with Ian's flesh.

The guy then said that, really, the only problem with the dog was that she didn't like to be left alone. Then he pointed to the hole she had chewed out of the wall; apparently as proof of his statement.

Ian and I looked at each other and said, "Huh," and again gave our regrets and made our way out into the daylight.

We're not deterred. Tonight, we have a date with another dog. This one is labeled and "a beginner's dog." We can't wait to see what that means...

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Heat!

We got our central heat working. Then we lost it. We'll have it again tomorrow. In the meantime, we DO have a working fireplace, so it ain't all bad.

A couple of days ago, workers came out and installed new gas pipes. Our central heat is by radiators. It was the gas pipes, though, not the water, that were shot. The builders confirmed we had bad gas leaks. Blow up the block bad. I still don't like the way the first builders tried to use information concerning our pipe leaks to their advantage, but they didn't lie about the gas pipes needing to be replaced.

The replacement wasn't as straightforward as you would think. For some reason, our furnace (ore kettle, as they call them here) is out in the shed. The gas line to it runs under our garden. So the gas men had to dig a hole through our backyard in order to replace the pipe.


Then they hooked up the fireplace (and our stove - until now, the kitchen had been all electric).

It was great to have heat again. And until yesterday, everything was good. The house seemed to get a little cold. I thought maybe it was all in my head. Ian didn't notice a thing.
This morning, I could see my breath again.
This time, it's something electric. All the lights outside and in the shed are also out. So tomorrow, an electrician will come.

In the meantime, I finished the fireplace.


It puts out quite a bit of heat - so at least it's warm downstairs. We're hoping the electrical problem won't require a complete rewire, but at least we'll have some heat if it does. And believe it or not, there's still some of Ian's wine left from his promotion - life's good.

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An old injury revisited.

Back in the early 80's, I lived on a sailboat in the Monterey harbor for a couple of years. That's really not really the subject of the post, but here are a couple of pictures of me, my backyard, and the schooner I lived on.









Maybe eventually I'll write down some of the stories of how I ended up buying and living on a boat, and what the life of a boat bum was like but for this story, the important thing to know is that the boat was moored out in the bay, not in a slip. That means that in order to get out to the boat, I would row, row, row my (little) boat, gently down the . . . umm . . marina

and into the harbor to my big boat.

I usually did this at least a couple times a day because I shared the boat with the best dog in the whole, wide world, Blue, and Blue, being the best dog in the whole, wide world, never ever peed in the boat. Not even on the deck.

She did throw up once in a storm while we were sailing, but then, so did every human being on board, so I didn't begrudge her that. But Blue's not the reason for this post, either, although the life we shared deserves several.

Sometimes, if there was a storm, I wasn't able to row so gently. The reason for this post has to do, peripherally, with one of those times. When the sea was rough and I had to get to land, I would frequently take a shortcut. Instead of rowing all the way in (about 6 - 8 city blocks), I would just row to Fisherman's wharf (about 2 city blocks).


Once there, I would secure the oars, tie the dinghy up underneath the wharf, then, standing on the "seat" in the middle of the dinghy, I would reach up and grab the sides of big hole in the pier decking next to an old diving bell that would take tourists to the bottom of the harbor. Then I would haul myself up through the hole. I had to do this gently, because if I pushed off the dinghy too hard, it was likely to swamp. Once through the hole, it was easy to take the stairs up to the topside of the wharf.

It was a little dicey at times because the dinghy would sway up and down with the surf and side to side with the tide. Anyway, one time while I did this, just after I caught hold of the sides of the hole, the dinghy dropped several feet before I was ready for it. I held on, but by the time the dinghy rose to the level of my feet again and I could drop down into it, I had really screwed up my shoulder. In reality, I also injured my back.

From that time on, I've had trouble with my back and shoulder going out of alignment. I've gone to lots of chiropractors but have only had temporary relief. I've said several times to friends that I feel like someone just needs to take a hammer and pound my spine back into place.

Well. Imagine my surprise today as I'm lying on the table in my manual therapist's office and I see him pick up a mallet. He then gets one of those little rubber things that docs use on your knee to test your reflexes and he places that on one side of my spine. Then, and I swear I'm not making this up, he starts hammering. On. My. Spine. With a hammer.

And you know what? It kinda hurt.

The pounding, in truth only 6-8 blows total, got progressively harder. With the last one, which was very hard, I felt an electric shock and literally saw flashes of light. Then I started laughing because it was so incredibly absurd and perfect. "Ja", he said. "Is beter?"

Ja, beter.

I love this country.

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IKEA, revisited

When I first moved here, Ian couldn't wait to get me on a tram and take me to IKEA. "You are going to LOVE it," said he.

He was wrong, wrong, wrong. I didn't love anything about it. It was too crowded, the merchandise looked cheap, and everything seemed to be lime green or some other color that I didn't like last time it was in style, either.

As I've said before, I've loved it here from the beginning. It was a good move and I don't regret it at all. Even so, over the last several years I've gone through a mysterious transformation; a kind of gradual "Europeanizing". When I first got here, I wasn't crazy about IKEA, 3 hour dinners, toilet paper that doubled as sandpaper and toilets that had cold-water-only sinks and no towels.

Now, I live for 3 hour dinners. And although I haven't entirely embraced the utilitarian spirit of the European toilet, I no longer cringe when I encounter one. (Heck, we have one ourselves, and although we try to keep it stocked with towels I frequently leave with my hands still wet.)
As for IKEA, it ranks somewhere between the the dinneers and the toilet. Sorry about that word picture. What I meant was that a lot of the merchandise in IKEA continues to look cheap to me and I'm still not crazy about lime green. But every once in awhile, I see something that is so wonderful and unexpected that it makes everything else in the store worth putting up with.

Now that we have no heat, this is one of those things:



I love these things. They were my stock Christmas present this year. I was talking to my brother about them after he opened his. He said his daughter put hers on and hopped down the stairs. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Still, we both agreed that although it's hard to walk in them, we liked everything about them. It got me thinking. Wouldn't it be great, I thought, to cut them in half so that you could walk in them? I was trying to think of what to call them. Then, it hit me - "slippers". They would be called slippers.

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Fireplace update

So. We have no heat and won't until Tuesday. And it's cold. Freezing or below for the next several days. It's supposed to warm up on, you guessed it, Tuesday.

As it turns out, our builder forgot to tell us that in order to get the new pipes in, he would have to cut through our new wood floor. We weren't too crazy about that idea, so we said that we would have to wait for our floor people to cut the hole. He said that was fine, and that he was sorry, but he would have to cut off our gas. So, because we gave the job to someone else, he did. Then he left.

He did this, of course, for our safety. The lack of gas would protect us from the gas leak. Now, remember that for the past several days the builder has known about the alleged gas leak, but didn't think about turning off the gas for our own protection. It was only after we told him that we didn't want him to do any more work for awhile that the leak became important enough to prevent by actually capping off our gas meter and removing about a foot of our pipe - which, I discovered after he left, he took with him.

I was livid, but couldn't stop him. Apparently, says Ian, he has the power to do what he did. As a result, Ian and I are sitting in our living room bundled up. And drinking. I mean, really, what else can you do?

We've worked out our plan of action. The people who laid our floor - and were great - are going come out and give us access to the space under the floor on Tuesday afternoon. We also called a gas guy who has worked for us before - and was great - and he will come out on Tuesday evening to give us heat. He'll also test to see if there ever was a leak. I think the answer to that is a coin toss.

I haven't explained this very well. I'm not sure if that's because my breath is so solid that it's fogging up the laptop screen or that the red wine is doing its job.

Whatever. In the meantime, the fireplace is set. We'll need to plaster the surround, but at least we know now what it's going to look like. Overall we like it. Ian said he likes it well enough that he would do it all again. I said that I think maybe I would rather have taken a trip around the world -- which, given what we've paid for this dang thing at this point, one of us could have done. I would probably like it better if we could turn it on and get a little warmth from it, but oh well.

The really nice thing, though, is that I couldn't be happier. Not with the fireplace, although in reality I do like it. More with guy I share my life with. I can't imagine going through this process with anyone else. With Ian, although it was touch and go around 9:30 this morning, by 10:00 everything was good and we had talked it out and decided on what we were going to do.

Now all that's left to do is to . . . uh . . . drink to our happiness.

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Ian and Scott get a new fireplace

We finally got the fireplace that's been sitting for months in three boxes in front of the chimney out of the boxes! The fireplace is one of those things that we're not doing ourselves. We've waited for three months - all the builders have been busy. But finally they've started. Three days - that's how long it takes to put in a fireplace if there are no problems.
Day 1

The main thing that happened the first day was the insertion of a big tube down the chimney. Actually, it was pulled up through the chimney. The worst thing that could happen at this step is that the tube would get stuck. Then, the chimney somehow needs to be enlarged to get the tube all the way up to the top. Luckily, the weather outside on top of the roof was clear and the tube went up without a problem.

The next terrifying step was to cut the existing chimney out so the new fireplace could be inserted directly under the chimney. The fear here, of course, is that the chimney will fall down during this step - this was the main reason we hired this work done. Again, not a problem. The chimney stayed put.

Day two (yesterday), the fireplace was inserted. This happened while I was working the first day of a new job, fighting a bad cold after the three hour commute.
Everything went great. From here it's all downhill.
Or so we thought. I found out when I got home that our gas pipes are leaking. A lot. Ian let me in on the options.
So the today (third day) the job of laying new copper gas pipes began. Another ten days and we'll have new gas lines and our fireplace should be working.
Grrrr.
I'll post pictures when there's anything you can see. I think most of the work will be done beneath the floors, and ... well, it's all about spiders down there, so until the work is above ground, you'll just have to use your imagination.
In the meantime, I think even half a fireplace is better than having those boxes in the living room.

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Bike clean up

All the work on the house has taken its toll. My back is a mess. Luckily, I've found a really great manual therapist. He says my spine is torqued and is putting me through some excrutiating pain to get it straightened out. I think it's helping. He says the migraines I have been having for the past who knows how many years should go away, which would be wonderful. I've been twice now, and he thinks it'll be cleared up in another two visits.
Anyway, I went today for my second visit. I left a little early, so decided to bike down the Oudegracht and stop in at the library. As I came back, I saw a sight that probably isn't very common anywhere but here. As it turns out, an unreal number of bikes somehow end up in the canals. As a result, they're routinely sccoped out of the canals by canal boats.


I watched for awhile, then went to the doctor to be put through, well, more pain than Kisten ever put me through, for those of you who have experienced her. I have really missed her massages from hell. The nice thing about this guy, though, is that our health insurance covers him. So for a while now, I'll get a massage on Wednesday from a fysiotherapist, then get the real deal from this guy on Friday. And it's all covered.
I love this country.

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Winter

Wow. Another month since I've updated. Here's what our front yard/street/bike path looked like yesterday evening.
Ian says that in Utrecht (15 minutes east of here on bike), they didn't get any snow at all. There's still some on the ground here in De Meern as I write this. And there's a beautiful stork on the stone wall in our back garden. Hmmm. I wonder what that means. I was going to take a picture, but by the time I got set up, it flew away.

I wonder if I'll ever get the house construction pics up? As I wrote to a blogger buddy, when I have time to blog there's not much to write. When life takes me on a ride, there's not time to write.

Ian's mom is coming for the weekend. She's bringing curtains with her. Ian and I went shopping for the material in Utrecht some time ago. Did I mention that the biggest fabric market in The Netherlands is there? Several blocks of city streets are blocked off every Saturday and the vendors set up stalls and sell fabric. incredible fabric. I'm sure I have a picture somewhere...


Here we go. This is Natalie on her last visit. I'd ask her permission to post it, but she never reads this anyway. In her opinion, blogs are all about self-absorbed people and she has no time for that sort of thing. I suppose she's right...

And here's one of the street where the market is held.


And now that I've finally posted something again, I need to pick my self-absorbed self up off this sofa, get a cup of coffee and greet the day.

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Inquietudes: Q & A, 5

Walt's Q & A, #5.

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What is your most dangerous idea?

In the past, I've somehow missed these questions from The Edge. This year, The Edge's question of the year is showing up everywhere. Still though, it's worth oversturation. "What is your dangerous idea?" is the question posed to some of the world's "third-culture great thinkers" for 2006 by The Edge's World Question Center. The answers are thought provoking. My favorite dangerous idea was Roger C. Schank's to abolish schools. Here's an excerpt:

My dangerous idea is one that most people immediately reject without giving it serious thought: school is bad for kids — it makes them unhappy and as tests show — they don't learn much. . . .

When you listen to children talk about school you easily discover what they are thinking about in school: who likes them, who is being mean to them, how to improve their social ranking, how to get the teacher to treat them well and give them good grades. . . .

Schools are structured today in much the same way as they have been for hundreds of years. . . . Schools should simply cease to exist as we know them. The Government needs to get out of the education business and stop thinking it knows what children should know and then testing them constantly to see if they regurgitate whatever they have just been spoon fed.

The Government is and always has been the problem in education. . . .

Schools need to be replaced by safe places where children can go to learn how to do things that they are interested in learning how to do. Their interests should guide their learning. The government's role should be to create places that are attractive to children and would cause them to want to go there. . . .

We had a President many years ago who understood what education is really for. Nowadays we have ones that make speeches about the Pythagorean Theorem when we are quite sure they don't know anything about any theorem.

Over a million students have opted out of the existing school system and are now being home schooled. The problem is that the states regulate home schooling and home schooling still looks an awful lot like school.

We need to stop producing a nation of stressed out students who learn how to please the teacher instead of pleasing themselves. We need to produce adults who love learning, not adults who avoid all learning because it reminds them of the horrors of school. We need to stop thinking that all children need to learn the same stuff. We need to create adults who can think for themselves and are not convinced about how to understand complex situations in simplistic terms that can be rendered in a sound bite.

Just call school off. Turn them all into apartment houses.

I agree. Anyway, go have a read. They'll make you think.

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Dutch Commercial About Learning English

I'm back into my routine. Ian and I are both working again. We've still got a bit to do on the house. The ceiling in the kitchen will go up in the next couple of days. I keep meaning to continue on with my posting updates of the house, but there's just too much going on. Sometimes it seems easier just to live.

I took my Dutch integration test a couple of weeks ago. I think it went fine. I'll get results in a couple of weeks. It really doesn't mean much - I won't get thrown out if I didn't do well. I think it's more for them to know if their system is working.

I'm still not speaking enough Dutch. My neighbors don't speak Dutch, but most other people speak at least as much English as I speak Dutch.

This Dutch Commercial About Learning English is aimed at those few who don't have a great grasp of English. It's very funny, and not explicit by Dutch standards, but it's really not very work-safe for those of you outside The Netherlands... It's worth a play though.
(Thanks for the link, Jeffrey.)

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