Goodbye 2006- the year of intermittent sleep

Despite battling the flu; sinus, eye, and ear infections; a nasty sore throat and long nights of coughing; we have emerged from the last week of the year relatively unscathed. Its been such a blur I'm not sure who was sicker with what, when, but we have all had something or the other in the last month. Mike even had the pleasure of sharing James' conjuctivitus.
We did manage a nice Christmas day- our American neighbor Neko and friends Judith and Niels joined us for turkey dinner and some competitive Scrabble and dominoes. Attempts to take pictures and movies on Christmas morning were fruitless; not the year for capturing the moment between a toddler's manic actions and virally debilitated parents.
This year with James has been a steep really enjoyable learning curve. Recent skills include opening screw tops (clever but not always handy- he even once managed a childproof ibuprofen bottle: empty of course, after our weeks of sickness), fetching socks (one of his favorite words), 'helping' carrying the groceries in from the bike, and hugging. For our part we have learned to try to always have a plan (and a back-up), be flexible, and take the time to communicate with each other. Well, that is ideal- we are still working on all of it.
We have been in a bit of a warzone for the past couple of days- fireworks are legal in NL for New Years and the week before it (technically it is from 10am New Year's Eve till 2am, but that rule is pretty well ignored) and people really go crazy. Anytime day or night there is something exploding somewhere in town. Our first year here was really crazy; all we really knew about the town was that there had been a huge fire that razed a whole section of town when an illegal fireworks factory exploded. Check out the 'fotos' on this site. That year we just sat inside wide eyed at the amount of fireworks going off on every street- it went on non-stop for hours. The next day we couldn't believe the ankle-deep layer of paper and trash in the streets. The next year we went with friends to Copenhagen for New Years and there the chaos was on an even larger scale. People were wearing protective goggles and ear plugs against what I would call municipal-size fireworks going off all over the city. Even when were driving home on the evening of the 3rd, you could still see them going off in towns all the way through Germany into the Netherlands. Without kids or dogs, I'm sure it would be a blast.

We are really looking forward to 2007- Katharine will finish her thesis (and hopefully hear something positive from all the job applications), I plan to begin training as a timber framer this summer. There are still a lot of things up in the air for the next year- selling a house, moving (where?) but one thing we are really excited about is the pending arrival of a new member of the family sometime next fall- and I'm not talking about getting another dog! Yet another Maier grandchild on the way...
More soon-
Gelukkig jaarafwisseling allemaal! Happy New Year's!

Lang zal ik leven...

Yesterday I, Mike, turned 35 and had a great birthday (the title is from the Dutch song they sing here). I first got to sleep in until 845, something that hasn't happened in 16 months. Katharine took care of James most of the day; when I went to the gym in the afternoon some friends surprised me with a bunch of balloons and singing as I was walking out of the showers- a very successful surprise- I pretended I was bright red from the exertions of my workout...
We are excited about Christmas- here they even have First and Second Christmas day (25th and 26th); it is more for family and visiting than Sinterklaas. New Year's is called Oud en Nieuwe (old and new). Since we didn't wind up with sufficient leftovers from our Thanksgiving we decided to have a turkey for Christmas dinner. We are trying some ideas from the BBC- they have some great cooking shows- will let you know how it turns out.
In sickness news (I think I remember being sick every year for my birthday till I was well into my twenties, its just the season...), James woke up with some gummy conjuctivitus this morning. To keep up with a long-running Maier tradition we had to ensure some photodocumentation.




My Dad is the biggest proponent of this technique- somewhere I have some great shots of me post wisdom teeth; even better the picture of my sister Dorothy's head staples after her brain surgery.
James has also had some good times with a few early Christmas presents. We figure he is not really cognizant or a stickler for any of the details this year anyway- and we also found out how difficult it is to completely hide stuff from children (it makes it harder to try and keep something away from a little sick kid...)

He really digs his new rolling duck-car (thanks ML and Pablo):





For your cultural exchange/Dutch lesson of the week?
You know the aardvark? Dutch for 'earth-pig'. Consider yourself slightly enlightened.

End of year wrap-up

While I would not say that we are all "well", things are much better in our world this week. In case it has not been adequately described on this forum, since James began day care he has consistently had a runny nose (our expert-mom-force assures us this will last a year or TWO at least-- quick tip: buy stock in tissue manufacturers now) AND has had a few fevers and an ear infection. However, for at least the last week things have looked (and felt) much better. James is definitely feeling better, and is so much happier and more fun when he is well. We also can see he loves school, and though it is only two mornings a week it makes a world of difference.

It has been a little clearer in Enschede this week, and much colder. Though the forecast calls for snow, I think that is not really accurate. I traveled by train Monday to catch a bus, to catch a ferry to visit the Wadden island of Ameland. I was going to speak with someone about a restoration project on the island. Unfortunately, the first link in my chain broke, and my train was almost an hour late. I was so disappointed; I called my contact from the train when it was clear I'd already missed my bus. So frustrating. As it is winter, there is limited ferry service, only one trip per day. Without the ferry I was doomed. My contact was VERY KIND, and understanding. We have rescheduled for January. I was able to get a lot of work done in my 5+ hours on the train. That at least is good.

I (Katharine) took a few days off last week for illness and just to have a break. I may do the same this week. I did manage to send off all job applications I was interested in at this point. It is a little weird-- my contract is not officially over until December of 2007, but most colleges hire in the Fall of each year. It is a toss up whether to
-rush a little, finish early and start work immediately, or
-finish at the proposed time and potentially wait a few months for
employment.
After many weeks of not being able to decide what to do (either could be really beneficial or difficult, depending on the details) I applied only for a very few jobs I have a lot of interest in.
I am focusing on the Northeast. Though we have talked about Portland or Seattle for years, and despite the sweet job at Humboldt State, we decided to stick with the East coast for at least a few years. We would like to be closer to family. Besides, housing prices in California are insane.

My four applications were to Albright College, Wheaton College, Keene State College and Green Mountain College. In Reading, PA, Norton, MA, Keene, NH and Poultney, VT respectively. Mostly New England, all small colleges (GMC weighing in at a diminutive 750 students), and nearly all private (Keene state is public). For us the container deposit legislation in most of these places is just a bonus.

We are planning to visit Den Helder for a few days soon. A friend's parents live there and have offered us the use of their house while they are in Enschede. What a treat. It is at the tip of the province of North Holland (Noord Holland). This is the home of the Royal Navy, and also the point of embarkation for another Wadden Island, Texel. Apparently you can visit a seal education/ rehabilitation center, too... waiting for the details on that. We may just stay put and enjoy walks along the dune paths in Den Helder.
Well, now that you have patiently sat through the boring details of our everyday lives, on to the star of our show--- little James. He is such a sweet bean, and is developing a very funny personality. We think his first official word may be "socks"-- something he hears a lot because his dad always lets him know when it is time to put on shoes and socks. He is making so many noises and sounds, but nothing much we would call a word yet. "Socks" he at least repeated back to us for a few days. Then stopped again. Photos are from the decorating of the tree, and include several shots of James wrestling with the box, and one of him and his (favorite) dog ghost.

Mid-winter traditons

There are some really cool things cultures come up with to get through the darker (literally in Northern Europe) times. Two winters ago, we lived in a more rural area (in a customised mobile home I'm proud to say; they label them with the slightly more romantic 'caravan' here) and we had the chance to hear the midwinterhoorn. It's a ghostly, lonely sort of sound, but somehow very fitting the long dark nights. If only because space on the internet appears to be unlimited (especially for Google) For those of you who don't subscribe to the Utnieuws studentenkrant I'll paste an article I wrote 2 years ago for lack of knowing how to make a cool link to it- or whatever. Feel free to skip ahead to the pictures of James.

'Echoes of winter: midwinterhoornblazen

If you spend time in the Twente area during the winter you may notice some odd sounds in the evenings. Among the cacophony of modern noise is a unique tone with roots in some of the earliest human societies in Europe. Is it a train whistle, canal boat horn, or a plaintive bird? Listen carefully after sunset in parts of Enschede and many villages in the region, and it is possible to hear the call of the midwinter horn, a handmade instrument traditionally sounded during the long winter evenings from November to early January. It is a primitive and raw sound whose story and traditions date far into the past.

Once common across the Netherlands and surrounding areas, the horns are heard today mainly in the Twente area, though similar instruments appear in the history of several Nordic and Germanic countries. The horns themselves are simple and elegant constructions made of wood and usually a meter or more in length. Scholars suggest that the earliest uses were to contact far off neighbors, drive away evil spirits or wild animals, or as a warning system in times of need. Though its true origins are unknown, the earliest written record in Dutch history appears in 1485. History shows several groups using the horns as warning systems, including Catholics hiding mass from state-sanctioned Protestantism and smugglers avoiding the law. Like many pagan traditions predating the arrival of Christianity, horn blowing was eventually incorporated into the rituals of the Church and became connected with the birth of Jesus.

Now linked with Christmas, horn blowing takes place between the first Sunday of Advent and ‘Epiphany’ or the arrival of the three kings in January. 17th and 18th century records show that horns were played all over the Netherlands but after 1800 the tradition remained only in Twente, mostly in the northeast region. Nearly lost in the interim, the practice was slowly revived after World War II and grew in popularity in the 1970s. Players testify to the difficulty of mastering this ancient instrument; most people can make only four tones, very good players can attain seven or eight. Often played over a well opening to resonate the tones, the instruments are played like a trumpet without valves, with each player having his or her own mouthpiece. Demonstrations, contests, and workshops on how to build and play the horns are held in many locations in the area.'

Other notable traditions here are FREE postage for christmas cards, which I think is very cool, and Sinterklaasgedichten which are traditional poems that accompany gifts (usually on Dec. 5). Basically you write a short couple of lines about the person you are responsible for giving something to (in the name of the Sint) and it is a chance to poke fun at the recipient. For example, the Sint ridiculed the fact that our bathroom is unfinished and our yard is dangerous because its full of construction trash- that sort of thing...

Without further ado-

James dressed up like the Sint:



Ghost tolerating James' attempts at provocation...



Restrained from touching the tree...




In other news, James was truly frustrated all last night with what turned out to be an ear infection and is now on his first run of antibiotics. November 16th was his first morning at daycare and he has had a cold or worse every day since...

Visitors from Tryptophan

Well after a very busy week we are finally beginning to recover from overdoses of fun and excitement. We only really throw one party a year consistently, and it has to be Thanksgiving- our favorite American holiday.
This year we had 35 people (including 10 kids, 5 under 3 years) in our tiny house. Unfortunately in the melee, I somehow managed to erase all the pictures I took off the camera and the computer. It's never the best occasion for the cook or the hostess to take very good photos anyway- most were a blur.
With the help of my neighbor's oven we had three (small- 7lb.) turkeys ready by 5. Everyone else brought a dish or drinks and we provided the birds, dressing (some people call it stuffing or filling) and accoutrements. It was a real smorgasbord- au gratin potatoes, 2 kinds of cranberry sauce, smoked salmon quiche, pumpkin pie from scratch, tiramisu, curried lentils- plenty of everything.
We had a really interesting crowd this year, and I think everyone had a good time. For five of our Dutch friends it was their first ever Thanksgiving, and all gave enthusaistic responses. As soon as the turkeys came out and were cut up people were digging in, I would do one more next time with so many people as there weren't any leftovers (though the 3 carcasses made awesome stock). Our friends Allen and Vicki stayed with us the long weekend and really ended up helping out a lot. This is a picture of them in Amsterdam where we went to meet them on Thursday. It is always nice to get into the city, and we (actually Allen and Vicki)treated ourselves to an awesome lunch at the cafe de Beiaard which has their own in house brewery and great food. James slept through the whole meal after we had pushed him through the Rijksmuseum; he didn't even wake up when an extremely loud group of football fans sat next to us and started singing . Allen and Vicki were great houseguests; they are now off for two months touring Africa, hopefully we gave them a good send off.

Keeping it turkey

Ten days since the last post- all of us caught the first wave of flu since James began going to the germ repository (daycare). The day after his first day he had a fever and has been going through all the syptoms of a flu since. Other than the flu, james loves going in twice a week with the other hummels. I (Mike) luckily (?) avoided most of the worst of it but Kat and James are bearing the brunt. In the morning its like being surrounded by Darth Vaders with all the constant heavy breathing. James showed promise blowing his own nose for a couple of days but then suddenly lost the skill recently.

We are busy getting ready for our Thanksgiving this Saturday and looking forward to meeting friends in Amsterdam on Thursday for a couple days visit. (Just three Mom, I know, fish and guests...)

On the future plan front- no word from Allbright yet- and not really expecting any- and a polite rejection from Cornwall. Disappointing to get your hopes up, but part of the kooky academic game. A hopeful sign this week though, as we found something that could benefit everyone's long term ambitions with the chance for Kat to teach in New Hampshire at Keene State. The guide book open next to James at the breakfast table is for New England. We'll see.

We have gotten into putting everything on our heads recently (I don't know where he got the idea...)




And being a ham regardless of the snot quotient/cranky pants...

De Sint komt!

It is that exciting time of year again, when Sinterklaas arrives in Holland on his steamboat from Spain. You all know the story! We caught up with him this midday as he arrived in Enschede (by train) and then rode his big white horse through town, surrounded by Zwarte Pieten. Its pretty difficult to get close to the main man as the crowds of kids and parents can be thick.



The Piets were impressive, climbing around and repelling off buildings and sending down cadeautjes on long wires. James made friends easily with the generous Piet handing out candy.







One of the nice things about towns here is that twice a week there is a big open market in the center with all sorts of fresh produce and meat, fish, cheese; a big farmer's market but also plants and wooden toys and socks and pretty much anything you can imagine. One of the great things about this time of year is the seasonal foods. Especially good are oliebollen, basically a huge fried donut hole with powdered sugar. The market also sells boatloads of kibbling, fried fish, and James tucked neatly into that today for lunch. Okay, not so neatly.



It was a beautiful day, relatively warm and no rain so everyone was outside. We hit the park on the way home so James could move leaves and acorns around (he will do this for as long as you let him) and ride his favorite swing.

This is important James, where did you put the remote?

Hours later...

Danger! Danger!

Its amazing how mobility has changed the way James sees the world- and how we see his interactions. For this 15 month old, there is nothing more attractive than the most dangerous place within reach. Over and over again. It's a wet climate here, so we have gotten used to the change of clothes after repeatedly falling into mud puddles. The past couple of weeks have seen a few more incidents than normal however. You can't keep your eye on them every split second- I've tried and its completely exhausting. Plus, they have to learn, right?
I wonder sometimes, if it is a Mr. Mom syndrome that he ends up in these situations- do women keep their kids from getting into things more?
By getting into things, I first mean that last week James got bitten by the donkey. Not the little baby one (she actually bit me-) but the big Dad donkey at the petting zoo. We were giving them some of the grass they can't reach from outside the fence and I was trying to make sure he kept his little hands safe but all of a sudden I blinked and the baby fingers are stuck in the teeth and there is screaming and I have to coerce the donkey teeth off. No open wound and it seemed much worse at the time, but a sore hand and hurt feelings nonetheless. And a little blood. Around the fingernail. But it was fine soon enough; and of course he just wanted to go back with more grass.
Then there was the next day at the pool, in the very shallow kiddie pool mind you, where I look over in a split second and see James fallen backwards flailing and gulping water, while it takes me an eternity to make my way 3 feet and pull him out. No blood, no foul- just some water swallowed and of course- he wanted to go right back to playing.
Okay, so a week later, but still in the activity level/painful injury continuum- today he falls on the corner of a cabinet, right on the forehead. One of those wait a full 30 seconds before the cry can even make its way out kind of reactions. Here he is playing away after some consolation. It was like a cartoon bruise in about 2 minutes, all bumped up...




We have reached the stage where the line between clearly dangerous and relatively safe can be pretty blurred. Its easy when they are little grubs- once they are exploring (and ecstatic to do so) things are very different.
So- what about chicken bones, you may ask? I was eating my leftovers for lunch today and he (another part of the stage) had to have what I was having. Years of raising dogs has made me paranoid about this but I knew he wasn't going to manage to crack them open anyway...
The following is dedicated to my sister Mary 'Hoover' Liotta; James loved them:

Motherboard Resurrection

One way to learn how dependent you are on computers is to have your PC break down. Perhaps its my fault; every couple of months I open the case and q-tip the dog hair and dust off the fans and just try to generally clean the rest of the case out. Its an unavoidable condition carried in the Maier genes.
After going through these motions last week, I hooked everything back up, powered on and got- nothing. No scary blue screen, no error message, no input signal to the monitor. As our former roommate/tech geek was out of town at the moment, I went directly to my neighbor who is an electrical engineer of sorts. After an hour or so of, well, running through logic trees, we ruled out anyhting mechanical or any of the main hardware components. His final guess was a kapot video card and we tried a replacement the next night. If you don't want to spend a bundle on bringing the thing into a shop, it is invaluable to have a neighbor with a bunch of spare computer parts. With no result there, we began to get hopeless and I considered the options for getting a new system. We've learned that this is a typical cultural difference at least here- to an American, when baby wanty, baby wanty NOW (we are pretty comfortable with this); in this case the cheap, Dutch patience of Ronald prevailed and as he read through the motherboard manual online (you always have to have another computer to fix the first one) we spotted a few other little things we could try. For the geeks- we reset the CROM, making sure to use a wired keyboard when atempting to boot and everything came back to life. Now computer worky. Thanks Ronald.

Waiting Game/James' girlfriends

We have been trying to keep ourselves busy while we wait to hear back from the universities Katharine applied to. Its kept us both frantically busy, trying to consider all the possibilities/ pros and cons; 2007 is going to be an intense year, new jobs, international move etc. Academia involves a boatload of waiting it seems, but now we have another possibility in addition to Albright in Pa. Friends we met through the UT just found work at the Exeter campus in Cornwall and recently let Kat know they were hiring someone in policy with a focus on the environment. We talked a lot about what it would mean for all of us; the bottom line is it checks off enough boxes to consider. It would be easier socially in a culture closer to America, there is a considerable amount of timberframing in Britain, its a beautiful natural area, health care and vacation are advantageous (free and at least 5 weeks paid + 21 weeks paid maternity). Anyway, we'll see what our options are when we get some responses.
James gets more mobile everyday- check out the all-terrain jumpsuit!



When the weather is really bad I try to wear him out walking up and down the stairs; there is also a mall with an indoor playground that is pretty handy. We recently had some healthy and reasonably peaceful interactions with James' 2 pals Anna and Lina. Our friend Kristin's daughter Anna is a little older and dextrous; she pretty much took control of the situation as James followed her around trying to grab stuff from her.



We also babysat the neighbor's little girl Lina. It was hilarious watching them interact. James was mostly sweet, though a little jealous, managing to 'inadvertently' step on or very near her when she was lying within reach.



In other big news, after a long evening of plumbing, we finally have a toilet downstairs again. Life-changer.

Cat man cometh

We don't talk about it much on this James D.-centred blog (tending to focus on the easy positive aspects of an adorable and generally entertaining subject) but life in a little provincial Dutch town can get boring and lonesome at times. Don't get me wrong, we have made good friends here that transcend the cultural gaps easily and who make life enjoyable. I guess the difference is with other places we've lived in our own culture; after a couple of years you expect to feel pretty comfortable and set in some sort of social scene. The general feeling you get with most people here (and I mean in the region we are in- Amsterdam and the east are quite different) is that maybe you have something weird on your face, or your pants are on inside-out. Not immediately friendly, lets say. We've tried to get past this- its not a fair comparison to living in the sometimes overdone, outward friendliness in the American South, and I'll repeat that its not everyone but its just still weird. The expression here is that 'you have to watch the cat out of the tree', which confused us for quite a long time but means basically you can't go up to the locals and expect them to jump at the chance to meet a stranger; you have to be patient enough until they decide to trust you. The longer we are here, the more irritating this expression becomes to me- we may be leaving in six months- will we wave goodbye to the cat still in the tree?
We went to a party at a friend's house the other night (only the second time James has had a babysitter) and had a great time until exceptionally late. We talked to a Dutch man there who worked for Heineken and had lived in Africa for seven years and other places in the world. I though it was really interesting that he considerd it much more difficult to adapt to a culture that was seemingly similar to your own than one vastly different. He said in Africa there was no choice- you loved it or hated it; but that here where most people assume that differences are minor because of the apparent similarities (wealthy, mostly white, Western, Anglo Saxon based) there are more misunderstandings because the really fundamental differences are below the surface of society. What are they? We didn't quite work that out.
What prompted this whole entry though, was something hopeful that happened last week on our little block. Its taken a while here, but some of the neighbors are pretty interesting, if not wild about actual interaction. There is of course our neighbor to the left, an Indonesian man who cranks his moped up at 4am every morning to go to work. We often get Reader's Digest books to give to him from the mailman- we call him the Troll because he is always hiding in his backyard and he has a poster from the movie on his front door. There are also the people across the street whose dogs HATE our dogs, making random street conversations difficult. They also have two cats that the wife occasionally hangs out the top half of their 'Dutch' door for some fresh air. But the real cat man is down the street on the right. I often felt a little sorry for him- every time I walk the dogs by he is in there by himself, feeding the 15 cats that are always crowded around him.
Last week it rained really hard for a couple of days in a row; I'm always meaning to clean out our gutter but just haven't managed the time since the spring. Well, about the third day that it was pouring down, I came home from the gym to find the cat man, covered in filth, on a ladder leaning against our house. He had gone down the street cleaning gutters because, well because he apparantly has a heretofore unknown streak of niceness. When I thanked him profusely, he just said it was no problem and laughed when I told him of my best intentions for house maintenance. Does this mean the cat has been watched out of the tree?

Dog war

Keska wins.



Ghost wins.

Fiets vervangt en een nieuwe ezel

Katharine went with a little sportier model for her replacement bike; its lighter and rides smoother than the stylish 'oma' fiets and even has the light dynamo integrated into the hub (this makes me much more excited than her).



It does fit better and we were lucky we have insurance. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but they are absolutely mad about insurance here- we have about six different kinds- if someone steals something from our house, if you spill wine on the carpet at someone's party (that's the example they use), if your dog bites somebody, if your bike falls and dents your neighbor's car (happened to us- the damage was 1000 euros just to fix a little dent; another reason we have no car).
Buying a bike, used or second hand is quite the event here; the whole process took us 4 hours on a Saturday- though that included biking 30 minutes to the store where our insurance counted (we had bought the bike in the town where we used to live). Everything involves a lot of discussion of pros and cons and many cups of coffee. Luckily they had a big table full of toys for James.

In other big news, the donkey family at the local 'petting zoo'- I like the Dutch name better- it's literally 'Children's Farm' - anyway we go there pretty much twice a day because James loves the animals and it's by the dog park (let me just stop here and apologise to the donkeys and our readers for this terrible sentence)- the point is the donkey family has a new addition. I'd never thought I'd get excited about a baby donkey, but James loves the thing and it is pretty @#* adorable.



Even Keska was charmed.




In other, other news we have been slammed here with preparations for a possible early exit. Katharine found out about an opportunity to teach next year at Albright College in PA. It would be too good a job to pass on at this point and would mean that she would finish her thesis early (impressive considering the 4 months off for the pregnancy) and that we may move to PA sometime June/July 2007. I have felt increasingly like a spinning wheel here in Enschede so its pretty exciting just to think of coming back to the States and being closer to friends and family- there is also a green build/timberframe company in Reading- luckily. Not to throw out the chicken with the bathwater- or is that count the baby before it hatches? , but we are waiting to hear if they even want to fly her over for an interview; should be within the next 2 weeks that we get the word.

Here is James with his favorite flavor (fish risotto- is that not weird? it smells terrible, like that flake stuff you feed goldfish- but we still get it because he loves it so much and the ingredients don't list anything frightening...) prepared food all over his face:


He is walking all over the place now- it is pretty hilarious...

Classic bath photos

Everybody gets this, not just the first kid- the classic bathtime photos:





We also recently dug deep and bought some new 'real' shoes that fit for James. We tried to guess (going between European and US sizes) last Christmas in Target but the ones we picked out are still too big. James is really standing up from sitting and walking all over, when he feels like it- his favorite thing now is to get chased around by anyone who is willing...

Pech

It rhymes with our slang 'blech' (like, gross!) and its been the overarching sentiment of the past few weeks. It means bad luck or misfortune- the opposite of 'mazzel' or for all you linguists out there, and well, I guess everyone gets their string of it.
I'll blame the unusually long delay in posting on it without hesitation. Before I go into my litany I have to remind myself that others have it, and are having it oh so much worse, and our little complaints and temporary setbacks shrink in comparison to real problems, but...
I'm hoping that a little bitching will at least end the streak.
I find it personified in this picture of poor James.



It all started at Heleen's birthday party almost 2 weeks ago. It was one of the other little attendees that was brought sniffling to the party that gave James the flu, but Heleen did her best to hug (wrestle) him into submission. The day after the party he had his first fever, a pretty scary experience for us- he was totally limp and listless and super-crabby and burning up for almost 24 hours. Then it was gone and he was cranky and runny nosed and disatisfied for the next week which made me so exhausted I easily picked up the same bug the next weekend and spent a miserable 24 hours hot and cold and desperately trying to rest. When this all happened, I was still inwardly fuming about missing my flight, then Katharine's bike gets stolen, and then to top off our transportation woes, somebody backs their car into my bike locked to the tree in front of our house and tacos the front wheel (I don't remember when that happened, but I think it was the day I was finally beginning to feel a little better...). Oh, and one of the dogs (okay, my dog) had diarhea for four days.
As James was finally beginning to feel better, it was time for his consultatie bureau visit and two (2!) nice big vaccine shots. We forgot it was this visit but I gamely held him down (I even had to keep his thumb out of his mouth because one of the shots was going in the arm) while the doctor got everything ready. I thought, great she's really taking her time to have it all in order so she can just do both quickly- of course after the needle in the leg, she putters around aimlessly looking for something while I try to hold squirmy still so she can get the second one in his arm.
Anyway, it has to be getting better- James actually did okay today till the late afternoon which is fine after 2 shots. I however, smell burning milk coming from the kitchen and the now sad beginnings of my au gratin...

Mijn Fiets, Mijn Fiets!

There is nothing quite like the feeling of walking out to the bicycle parking area of the train station after a long day away from home, to find your bike has been stolen. First you think, 'surely I parked it here', while you walk up and down the entire row of bikes looking, then you know beyond doubt that your 2004 Batavus Old Dutch with customized gear addition, in beautiful red, the so called oma fiets is gone forever.
Never to return.
Then, you have to walk home.

It is insured, but of course that is not the point. The insurance won't cover the whole price... so I am not sure what I will replace it with. Probably a great bike, a lighter bike -a more practical bike- but I loved the grandma for the least practical reason-- just for the way it looked.

We went to the police station on Friday as a family outing. Mike filled out the forms while I watched James crawl about. They did offer therapy if I felt traumatized by the event. That was a nice touch. Mike assured them he was covering the therapy portion of the recovery.

Ensche-day

The commercials on television tell us that we have only 2 days until autumn, but we are enjoying another beautiful late summer in Enschede. We biked on Sunday to the Volkspark and enjoyed the scenery until James ran into his first brandnettles (aka fire nettles-- it feels like fire ants and it is not fun). Once we realized what had happened and dried the tears, the wee man was back to crawling about.
When walking through the city the other night I saw that the "architects of air" display was set up in front of the Oude Kerk (Old Church). Think of a jumping castle, but molded into turrets illuminated with sunlight when you walk inside. We dropped by today, and it is the IDEAL baby environment. The light effects can get a little woozy, but it is all crawling space with soft corners-- perfect for James. He loved it, charmed the crowds as usual, and we had a fun time. Here are the photos.

Old update

Things are moving along here in Enschede; I don't know if it's James' presence or that stage after you have moved someplace new but we are beginning to realise how soon we will be leaving- about a year from this December. The sort of longer view that comes with getting older has certainly kicked in- Katharine has always been a big planner but I rarely looked so far down the road until the last few years. Now 2 or even five years seems like nothing at all. We spend a lot of time now planning for potential moves after Katharine defends her thesis.
Before we started this blog while we were waiting for James, in February of 2005 we travelled to Egypt for 2 weeks to visit our friends Brian and Eugenia Cayce. Though Brian was called away to work- we had a great chance to stay with Eugenia in Cairo and travel around the country a bit to see some truly amazing things. I promise I'm working on a short story called 'Wake Up Mohammed!' about taking a taxi through the Sinai desert. I'll let you know when it's published...
I've put up some photos from the trip for several reasons- a lot of our family and friends haven't seen them- and some friends from Alaska are coming through to visit us in December on their way to Africa and wanted a look at our Egypt experience.

In other news, James began taking some solid steps in earnest last week. I'm afraid our enthusiasm may have scared him a bit though, as he still mostly crawls or knee-walks around the house. We have also moved to a single nap a day which is quite a change- still sleeping 14 hours in the night but it completely reorganises your day to have a more energetic baby little guy around. Not quite a self-feeder yet, James has also made great strides with his spoon and sippy cup.

Best laid plans, or making lemonade

Yesterday I (Mike) was supposed to fly to England for a weekend away at Frame2006, a sort of timberframing conference. I was looking forward to talking to a bunch of guys, in my own language, about old buildings. Sadly, it was not to be. Despite, or in spite, of the fact that we do a lot of traveling, sometimes you just forget things. Maybe it was because this was my first solo trip in 3 years and I have really gotten used to my wife arranging all the details... Anyway 30 minutes into my 2 hour train ride to get to the airport an hour before check-in, I realised I had left my passport. Quite boneheaded. Long, sad story short, turning back and catching the next train, I missed my flight (something I have never done.) We buy cheap non-refundable tickets and there was no way I could afford another one.
So, lemons. Bitter, stressful, lemons.
Luckily it was a beautiful fall day in Amsterdam and while Katharine and James came to join me to go to the Artis Zoo for the afternoon, I walked around the canals and saw some beautiful old buildings anyway.
I think the last zoo I went to was the Bronx zoo when I was ten years old; we all had a good time and look forward to going back and seeing the 2/3 we probably missed. James did play on the cool big kids playground but he mostly wanted to climb up the big slides as kids came down.


Note to fellow bloggers- our ability to comment on other blogs is frozen due to blogger-beta use and I've also heard its difficult to comment here for the same reason, they promise to fix it soon. If I had the time I'd probably switch back but hopefully it will be ironed out.

Exciting Times

Neighbors Ronald and Maaike came over with baby Lina for a belated birthday celebration- James got a very cool ball-hammering toy (a-la whack-a-mole) which he loves. Though sometimes he smashes his own hand... don't we all sometimes?
He has also become quite the proficient stairclimber- always under constant supervision on the open stairs of course- but I can't help be proud...

Real Danish Wedding

The highlight of our trip to Denmark was the wedding of our friends Keith and Dorthe. They live in New York and already had a civil service but this was a traditional wedding for Dorthe's family and everyone else who could make the trip. It's great to have a wedding with such a small crowd- you actually get to talk to everyone and it makes the whole thing more intimate. The church service was partly in English and partly in Danish. What was really interesting for us was all the different customs. The service was at three o'clock so we took James to the church though I held him in the outer aisle for fear of interrupting, he never made any outcries. The church building itself was beautiful and of course, very old, begun in the 1100's and 'remodeled' in the 1700's. After coffee and cake following the ceremony, we headed to the coast where the reception was held at a beautiful spot overlooking the bay. Danish tradition includes a lot of food, songs, dancing, and very long toasts (the longer the better they say). Dorthe picked the menu and even helped prepare some of the excellent food for about 70 guests. We actually went around the room and introduced ourselves after everyone sat down initially. I felt like we were at camp or something but it was very interesting and entertaining. The directions were to tell your name and how you knew the couple, which every Dane did almost without exception- every American on the other hand had some funny story to tell and made a big show of the whole thing which was hilarious. Most of the relatives and a lot of Dorthe's friends had prepared a speech, a game, or a song (lyrics were handed out to everyone and included an original by Dorthe's mom that had at least a dozen verses sung to 'Clementine'- luckily the guitarist stopped every couple of verses for a toast of 'Skole!'). We sang 'When I'm sixty-four' which we think should be done at every wedding. One of the best traditions that we should also import is that when the bride goes to the bathroom, all the women in the room line up and kiss the groom (and vice-versa) in a long conga line- very fun. Then of course there is the cutting of the socks; everyone picks up the groom after he dances the first dance with his wife and pulls off his shoes and cuts his socks in half. I thought they were making that one up but they did it anyway.
James spent the night with a nice neighbour of Dorthe's mom (I have to say many, many Danes look like supermodels and this family- we met them all the day before- was no exception) where he played with his first Legos. We were the first people to leave at about midnight because we had to pick him up and go let the dogs out, but the dj was just starting up at that point; apparently 12 hours of reception is pretty normal in Denmark. They even have a second round of food for the late night. Interesting cultural differences aside, it was an AWESOME wedding, one of those you don't forget and was enjoyable from the first toast. Cheers to the couple and their families!

Fun in Finland

Beyond the very cool dry toilet conference, we did make an effort to turn this trip into a sort of vacation by staying in a cabin on a lake for the week and seeing a little bit of Tampere and Helsinki. People were really friendly in general and it was relaxing to see some nature and do a bit of hiking. We only went out to eat twice, but it is always fun to check out the local grocery store to see what you can find and what the weird differences are. Turns out Finns, or those around Tampere anyway, are master pickle makers. Must be the long winters suitable for canning, but we had some really high quality examples. The exotic local dish was a kind of blood sausage and other than that it was northern europe potatoes and swine. Apart from the excellent pub in Tampere, we ended up at a Nepalese (mostly Indian menu) place in Helsinki after the sushi place we were looking for was closed. James even tried some tandoori and liked it! Helsinki also had a very cool antique/second hand market; we arrived just as people were setting up their stalls outside and the early birds were digging through boxes as people unloaded their cars. The lake was beautiful and peaceful even on the weekends; though we checked most nights we didn't see the Northern Lights this trip.

The parting shot

more from the dry toilet village

(see post below). Blogger is only letting a few photos go in at a time.

where to begin

We are now slowly recovering from our busy two weeks of travel. If it is any indicator, James had two SOLID 2 hour naps today. Maybe he is growing, or maybe he is recovering from the excitement. We have many posts that relate to our time away, so we will begin at the beginning: the dry toilet conference.
Let me say-- it was AMAZING! People just do not show up to the dry toilet conference unless they are pretty interested in the idea. There were probably about 200 attendees, and all were gung ho for the toilet technology. My talk was in the "big" auditorium, and it was in front of about 100 people. Whoa! My last conference presentation was the last session, on the last day, in the room across the street from the main venue (so about 20 people, okay-- really 10-- were there). It was crazy and I was nervous, but it went really well and the audience had some positive things to say about my presentation.
My presentation was about waterless urinals that were installed as a part of the "Green Building renovation project" at the College of Charleston. In a nutshell, we had a $10,000 grant to make a 200-year-old Charleston single house on campus as "green" or sustainable as possible. Part of this project included installation of waterless urinals. My presentation was about how the waterless urinals, a highlight of the sustainable technologies in the building-- were kind of a disaster. First they were installed incorrectly by campus facilities staff, and then (maybe still), campus staff clean them improperly, ruining the odor-barrier cartridge that is integral to their success.
Well, waterless urinals are just the tip of the iceberg. Waterless urinals are all about saving water-- but composting toilets are a lot more. The idea is to envision waste not as "waste" but as compost. Though I think this is applicable worldwide, it is really being promoted in developing country situations, where all of the compost produced by a family can be used to grow vegetables and so forth.
Part of the conference included a tour to the "village of the dry toilets"-- I have to be honest-- I expected this to be a hippie village featuring a few shacks. It was nothing of the kind. There were eight beautiful homes (very Scandinavian, with a lot of windows and light-colored wood in the interiors). The families had varied ideas about sustainability-- some had gotten all of the sinks and windows for their houses second-hand. They all had composting toilets (and beautiful gardens). They also had a communal heating system where wood chips (this is Finland, where wood is plentiful) were slowly fed into this massive furnace that was hooked up to all eight homes. Some even had solar panels on their roofs. It was cool to say the least.
So, to begin our blog report of our wonderful journey to Scandinavia, first we feature the dry toilet conference. Here are a few actions shots. Me in the BIOLAN demo set up at the conference (Mike made me sit on it-- please note this is not a working model).
And some photos of the dry toilet village in Kangasala. First a photo of one house's sunroom