Our Family is Growing!

After a long period of silence on the blog, it's only appropriate to resurrect it with some big news: Michael and I will become Dad and Mom on or about January 4th, 2010!

Here is the first picture of the baby with some key features identified (click to enlarge):


The picture in the upper left shows a nice profile of the face, and in the lower left picture the face is being partially obscured by a little arm.

I'm now 15 weeks into the pregnancy (25 more to go...) and am really happy to finally be in the second trimester. The first three months passed in a bit of a haze that seemed to last forever - I was feeling sick almost every day, no appetite, and so tired that simple activities such as taking a shower left me so exhausted that I needed a nap. Lately though, I've been getting my energy back (thanks, placenta!) and it feels great to be able to do a little exercise and play mario kart without feeling dizzy.

We're well into the baby names discusssion (currently on the table if it's a boy are Luca, Oscar, and Andreas and if it's a girl Hazel, Raphaella, and Zoe - but these are subject to almost daily change), and the pregnancy is starting to feel "real" enough that we've also started browsing the catalogues of the local baby stores - a truly intimidating experience (there are more models of strollers than cars!).

So now that I have something to talk about, I'll try to do more blogging. Up-and-coming topics to include: the joy of heartburn, the joy of elastic waistbands and of course, the joy of hotdogs.

If...

You had to eliminate a single type of insect permanently from the earth, what would you get rid of?

Anybody Need a Burger?

  The sun has finally revealed itself from behind the clouds here in Belgium! You know what that means! Barbeque time! Unfourntinely for us we had left your good old Canadian Tire grill back in Chapel Hill. We spent the last season using an old charcol hibachi, which was not going to cut it for us this year.

  

That is were our new friends at 

Standard - AHZ come in and save the day. I didn't want to get another grill that was just going to rust and needed to be replaced in a year or two. We had looked at our local Brico and didn't like anything we saw, still don't know what that side burner is for. So we headed east to Leuven, just about 20 minutes from our house, to Standard - AHZ. We were greeted with more choices then we could ever imagine, and a few beers! We quickly decided upon a good old Canadian made Broil King Signet, no side burner in sight.

Anybody Need a Burger?

If...

... You could occupy the world described in a novel, which would you choose?

Neef Matt Bezoeken België

...or he might say "Kusin Matt besök Belgien" since he now lives in Sweden.  For those of you in the Americas that would be "Cousin Matt visits Belgium."  Anywho we had our 1st visit of the year, we are off to a good start.

  We had grand plans of going to Ghent and enjoying some pintjes' and some traditional Flemish food at "Het Grote Vlees Huis" but after our night of heavy snow here in Vlaams we only made it to Tervuren.  

We had been decided to check out some of the trees at the Arboretum.   I often ride my bike or run on many of the trails but I had never been down there with snow on the ground.  Not being prepared for the snow we wrapped up as best we could and set out for a little trip to check out the Giant Sequoia Grove.  Nothing like what you would see in Northern California but still massive tress.

It was great visit but short.  Jane and I are planning a visit up to Sweden in the summer.  We hope the weather will be nicer then it was for Matt's trip here.

It has been how long?

  Wow we made it through our 1st year.  As we settle in here in Belgium and become accustom to the customs we have neglected our pour blog, sad.   However,  with the new year we are going to commit to posting more.  We may not always be posting about Belgium, the Beer(me) and the Chocolate(Jane) have a few adventures in the works.  As well, we have our up coming 20k of Brussels at the end of May, fun!  I have already started training and Jane will be starting soon too.  Where else to display our training progress but our lonely blog. 

We are looking forward to an interesting year full of adventure.  We extend our best wishes to everyone in this year of the OX.

Straks.

Entropa

Entropa

Today was the official unveiling of Entropa.  Entropa is a satirical sculpture created by controversial Czech artist David Černý and commissioned by the government of the Czech Republic.  Having been alerted to Entropa by Jane earlier in the morning and after reading the NYT story about it I had to go.  Justus Lipsius, the building where the exhibit is being hosted and also the home of the Council of the European Union, is only a short bike ride away 10k.  With the sun shining and a clear sky (yes I said clear sky in Brussels) I set out to see what this hoax was all about.

The design is that of a brand new set of model or puzzle pieces each, "lampoons the socially activist art that balances on the verge between would-be controversial attacks on national character and undisturbing decoration of an official space".  

Austria, a known opponent of atomic energy, is a green field dominated by nuclear power plant cooling towers

A view from under Entropa

United Kingdom, known for its Euroscepticism and relative isolation from the Continent, is "included" as missing piece (an empty space) at the top-left of the work

Sweden does not have an outline, but is represented as a large Ikea-style self-assembly furniture box, containing Gripen fighter planes

Spain is covered entirely in concrete, with a concrete mixer situated near the Basque country

Slovakia is depicted as a Hungarian sausage (or a human body tighten by Hungarian tricolour)

Slovenia is shown as a rock engraved with the words first tourists came here 1213

Motto for 2009 in French

Motto in English

Sardinia

Romania is a Dracula-style theme park

Poland has a piece with priests erecting the rainbow flag of the Gay rights movement, in the style of the U.S. soldiers raising the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima.

Portugal is shown as a wooden cutting board with three pieces of meat in the shape of its former colonies of Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique

 Netherlands has disappeared under the sea with only a several minarets still visible; the piece is supposed to emit the singing of muezzins

A closer look at Entropa

Luxembourg is displayed as a gold nugget with "For Sale" tag^[7]

Malta is a tiny island with its prehistoric dwarf elephant as its only decoration

The lower left hand corner

Lithuania has the Brussels landmark of Manneken Pis urinating on its eastern neighbours

Latvia is shown as covered with mountains, in contrast to its actual flat landscape

Italy is depicted as a football pitch whereupon the North and the South of the country play against each other, with moving players holding their balls in the "strategic position"

Ireland is depicted as a brown bog with bagpipes protruding from Northern Ireland; the bagpipes play music every five minutes

Hungary features an Atomium made of its common agricultural products melons and Hungarian sausages, based on a floor of peppers

Greece is depicted as a forest that is entirely burned, possibly representing the 2007 Greek forest fires and the 2008 civil unrest in Greece.

Germany is a series of interlocking autobahns, described as "somewhat resembling a swastika", though that is not universally accepted. The cars move along the roads.

France is draped in a "GRÈVE!" ("STRIKE!") banner

The Floor

Finland is depicted as a wooden floor and an [apparently drunk] male with a rifle, imagining various animals 

Estonia is presented with a hammer and sickle-styled power tools, the country has considered a ban on Communist symbols

Denmark is a face depicted in Lego bricks, reminiscent of the cartoon controversy

 Czech Republic's own piece is an LED display, which flashes controversial quotations by Czech President Václav Klaus

Cyprus is jigsawed (cut) in half

The Crowd

Crete

Bulgaria is depicted by a series of connected "Turkish" squat toilets

Belgium is presented as a half-full box of half-eaten Praline chocolates

Captions curtisy of Wikipedia