And Baby Makes 3

A pretty good month for Ruby. She learned to babble and stick out her tongue. Looks like a Thighmaster "Before" picture too as she fattens up. She's wearing 6-9 months clothes now.

Upstaged

I promise real pictures of the new house once we close and get moved in. Let me get past the inherent panic one feels over a big purchase, then maybe I can write about it. One thing I can write about and is oddly fun is the process of getting my house ready to sell. Each of you pause and look around your house. Look at it as a potential buyer instead of a homeowner. It is bizarre. If I look at my house normally, I see the day to day work I need to do. Wipe the floor, dust the shelves, put away dishes. If I look at it as a buyer, I see worn door nobs, scratched kitchen cabinets... a whole new array of work. Argh!

As we get ready to put our house on the market, our realtor advises us to "stage" the house if possible.

Here is a nice definition of staging a house.

Home staging (British English: House doctoring) is the act of preparing a private residence prior to going up for sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to sell a home quickly, and for the most money possible by attracting the most amount of potential buyers. Staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest amount of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale. Staging often raises the value of a property by way of reducing the home's flaws, depersonalizing, decluttering, cleaning, improving condition items, and landscaping. For vacant homes, rental furniture is used to create a living space the buyer could "see" themselves in. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features while minimizing flaws.

In reality, staging is the process of making a home look like that guy from 'Sleeping with the Enemy' lives there. Why this makes a house more appealing, I cannot say. Do potential buyers see an unfurnished house and find it unbelievable that furniture could go there? Or do they perhaps wallow in confusion over what the purpose of a room is?

Potential Buyer: Honey I just don't know about this house.
Buyer wife: I agree. Our couch would never fit in this room with the sinks and the toilet. How could we possibly live here?

I think the only argument that holds water is if someone is that OCD about every little thing, they must have taken excellent care of the house. The interesting line to walk is leaving enough stuff that it actually looks like someone is living there. Well, regardless, its a tough market and if having a few pieces of furniture around help sell it, great. Jamey and I can live with a bed and a couch for awhile. We will be moving Ruby's furniture. I haven't decided what to do with that room yet that would be believable and wouldn't require me purchasing anything.

Potential Buyer: Look at this room! Let's get this house.
Buyer wife: I agree. I've always wanted my very own Tupperware Display room!

Hoody Towel of August - late again!

I DID take this picture in August, but am just now able to make a post. We have an offer out on a house (more on that later) and if it goes through, I will probably not have many posts this month. However, I hate to leave my adoring fans with no odd baby photos, so here is Ruby pretending to be a frog.



In other news, her daycare has a curriculum each week. This week is learning about ducks. I sure hope next week is something more useful like learning to sleep through the night. Ruby has regressed and my sanity has suffered!

My Crib is Rockin'

Ruby had her first cold! Daddy stayed home with her and decided she needed a hat for her fever. When I came home at lunch, I took a picture of my gangsta baby.

Next Month, Calculus!

This month Ruby learned to smile, laugh, move her hand to her mouth and bat at items. She slept through the night more often than not.

An interesting fact, at this point, babies have no concept of object permanence. If you hide an object under a blanket, they won't look for it because, once out of view, it ceases to exist. Having said that, Ruby cares not at all when I cease to exist after dropping her off at daycare.

Its Whats for Dinner

I wondered why Bumbo was talked about by all the recent parents we met until Ruby started using it. We put her in it probably too soon, but she didn't mind. Since Ruby is not a fan of swings, it was hard to find something for her to do while we eat dinner. We stuck her in the Bumbo and she loved it, therefore earning us dinnertime peace. There isn't really anything for her to do in it, so I'm not sure I understand its appeal. Still, I'm not going to argue its success.


After Ruby outgrows it, what can we use it for?

A realtor, a mother-in-law and tree rat

A realtor, a mother-in-law and a almost dead baby squirrel... Unfortunately, that's not the start of a joke, it was my Monday this week. I decided to invite my realtor over to look at my house. I want to sell it next year or so. I decided I would get her opinions on what improvements I need to make so I can start working on them. Ruby was hungry Sunday night, so I winded up getting up several times to feed her. I was so tired Monday morning, I decided I only needed 30 minutes to straiten up the house before she showed up at 10:00.

Once I dragged my lazy self out of bed and got Ruby fed, I placed her on her tummy time mat and started straitening the house. Picasso had been doing something annoying which I can't remember so I locked him outside. Suddenly, I heard what sounded like a fire engine on my back porch. I opened the door and looked around for what was making the noise. Picasso ran in and I concluded it must have been him, but couldn't figure out why he had made such a crazy sound. As I put away some stuff downstairs I let out an undignified girly scream. A hairless baby squirrel was in the middle of my living room carpet. I'm no real estate expert but I can't imagine that is a plus when showing a house. I examined the squirrel and determined that Picasso's teeth marks were not life threatening but the squirrel must have fallen from the tree because it looked like it might have a broken leg and other injuries. Deciding that the mother squirrel is a much better squirrel doctor than myself, I picked up the creature with a plastic bag and started to take it outside when I heard Ruby screaming.

Running to the nursery holding a probably germ ridden baby squirrel, I noticed she had learned a new trick of scooting backward and had managed to wedge her head on a pillow she had been propped on. I immediately adopted a new parenting philosophy "If they cryin' they ain't dyin'" and continued on my way to take the baby squirrel outside. I placed it under a likely tree and ran inside to get Ruby and wash my hands (in opposite order). I grabbed Ruby and she immediately quit crying (that girl doesn't know how to hold a grudge) allowing me to hear the doorbell. Crap crap crap. The realtor is here and my house is a cluttered mess. Oh well, a bra on a dresser and some boardgames on the floor don't change a house price and perhaps improve it in some markets.

Realtor took my flustered appearance in stride as I babbled about a scary baby squirrel and not suffocating baby. She had very little we have to change. She advised painting our cabinets so they won't be white and painting our shower so it won't be gold. Interesting.

As we were taking the tour, I hear the air conditioner quit working. 'sigh' In this heat (for those of you not in Bham, it's been over 100 degrees for a week now) the circuit trips occasionally. I try to tell realtor what I want in the next house while also thinking about the poor baby squirrel I need to check on and that I need to reset the air conditioner. While starting my kitchen requirements (very important I might add), there is a knock on the door. My mother-in-law is here unannounced (again) towing my 2 year old niece who has been promised she can hold baby Ruby. Since Ruby is asleep in the crib at this point I try nicely and not so nicely to kick them out, but they promise to stay out of the way and go to look at Ruby. My realtor leaves me to my company so I don't get to finish my bratty house list. Drat!

I am not as nice as my realtor so I ignore my company and go check on the squirrel. The mama squirrel is at the base of the tree and runs back up. The baby squirrel is still there. I had left the baby squirrel on the plastic bag to keep it from ants. Maybe that frightened her or maybe she decided it s a goner. I take it off the plastic bag and leave it on some bark. I'll check on it after I kick out the visitors and restart the AC.

One restarted AC and kicked out visitors later, I hop on instant messager and bemoan the baby squirrel's plight to my friend that we will call "Scary Mad Scientist (SMS)". Unfortunately, I didn't save the conversation but here is a gist.

SMS: Does it help if you think of it as a tree rat?
me: uh, no.
SMS: Well, it took me awhile to get used to killing them when I started this job.

Ah, yes! I forget SMS is a monster who experiments on rats for very little money! Awesome!

me: OK, How do I do it?
SMS: Shovel to the neck.

SMS goes on to describe a mouse guillotine used at work that will give me nightmares. I head out to the newly dubbed tree rat, shovel in hand, heavy of heart. Will this help or hurt my karma? The squirrel is still there. Ants have started crawling on it. Time to do it in. Wait! It's not breathing! Yippeee! Oh wait, curb inappropriate first response. I meant, oh the poor thing, it didn't make it. I shovel it into a bag and place it in our new garbage can. I really hope those garbage men think it looks like the one that got repoed because dirty diapers and a dead squirrel won't be pretty after a week or so. Hell, they aren't pretty now.

Can I go back to work now? Please?

Come on Baby, Don't Fear the Repo

Saturday we were getting ready for my brother's 30th birthday party when Picasso barked at the window. After throwing him in time-out (our dogs get sophisticated punishments), we realized he had barked at some men running up our driveway to steal our trashcan. We watched helplessly as they drove off in a Budget Rent a Truck. After staring for a second in disbelief, I called my brother-in-law who is a cop and asked him what I should do if my garbage can was stolen. He decided I should report it since it could be a ring of identity thefts. We let Picasso out of time-out and told him he was a good boy. Now we have a really confused dog. I then jumped in my car and tried to find the truck but it was long gone.

I called our local Sheriff who sent out a nice cute patrolman who liked our trashcan protecting dog. He explained that he had heard of missing trashcans before and couldn't remember the outcome but thought that the trash cans had not actually been stolen. I remembered that my neighbor had been looking for a trash can a few weeks ago and walked next door to see what the outcome had been.
My neighbor explained that he had chased down the garbage truck that day and found out they had accidentally dropped his trashcan into the truck. (I don't know why they didn't stop and tell him, but I would have liked to seen my seventy something year old neighbor face down the garbage man.) I mentioned our plight to the neighbors and they were discussing buying shredders for their mail when I left.

As I came back to my house to tell the Sheriff, I saw that he had pulled over a Budget rent a truck on my street. That's good police work! He came back to the house and informed us (quite nicely) that the driver was a repo man and had written authorization to take our trashcan since we had not paid our trash bill. This might be a good time to point out that my husband is in charge of the bills and never even knows what day of the week it is. I went next door and informed my neighbors that there was no need to run to Staples.

Karen and I promptly went to Lowe's and purchased a similar looking trashcan. They were fooled and took our trash that week. Jamey did, however, also send in the bill.

Ruby weighed in at 10.15 lbs. She was 23.25 inches and her head was 15.25 inches.

Length = 95th percentile
Weight = between 50th and 75th percentile
Head Circumference = 75th percentile

I found this amazing considering how giant her head looks to me. Then, I looked at daycares and saw some of those 95% head babies.

She also got 4 shots and some oral vaccinations and was super good for them. She yelled for shots 2-4, but stopped as soon as they were over.

Most important in her progress is that she has learned to smile!

Eat Your Corn Syrup

Ruby is, as I have probably mentioned in previous posts, an incredibly good natured baby. However, she has one issue that can turn her from an angelic cooing happy girl to a screaming hellion. In short, Ruby is the rootingist tootingist baby. The gas, which is simply entertaining when adults get it, is painful to infants. She will wake up from a sound sleep screaming and tooting. Our doctor recommended switching her formula to a lactose-free milk based version. My sister had mentioned that Good Start did best for all her children so I decided to try it first. There are no real firm directions on how to switch a baby's formula. The ever helpful can directions state "When switching formula, do it gradually." That is vague enough to bother my right brain. Does gradually mean mix it and the old formula in the same bottle or alternate bottles or what? Anyway, it was a moot point because even with half a bottle of it, she was miserable and screamed constantly instead of a little. Next, we tried Simolac Sensitive which is the lactose-free milk based version. She liked the taste so much better that it prompted me to read the ingredients.

Corn Syrup Solids, Sugar, Milk protein Isolate, Safflower oil, coconut oil, soy oil...

Whoa! I am feeding my baby liquid sugar. All the online research I did and books declared that it is perfectly fine to feed infants this and there would be no developmental results. The vitamins are the same. Just for fun, I tasted both this formula and the regular Simolac. I agree the Sensitive was sweeter, but I don't think I would want to drink either. However, bottles are kind of fun to drink out of. Wouldn't that be a cool bar? It would make sure you didn't drink too much at once. On second thought, it reminds me of when pacifiers were in for Raves. never mind.

Well, in the end, I don't care what its made of because she is so much better and since we switched she sleeps through the night fairly often. It does cost a little more, but what price, happy baby? Speaking of which, you always hear how expensive formula is. I was ready to really shell out the dough. However, it works out to about a dollar a bottle. Considering I've thrown down $4 on a mocha from Starbucks, I have a hard time getting worked up over feeding my baby for less than $10 a day.

Meet the Real Rosalynn

Recently, Ruby went to meet one of her namesakes, Rosalynn. Actually, Rosalynn has never used her name because her father wanted a boy. Therefore, he called her Boy. When she turned 13, he finally conceded that she was not going to be a boy and began calling her "Bo" which she was known as for the rest of her life. I would love to know what Bo's mother thought of all this. When I met Mama Bo, she was still sharp as a tack and told me a story of wanting to marry Jamey's grandfather. Jamey's grandfather proposed to Bo without asking her father's permission (I guess he thought he wouldn't get it.) Bo was on a toll bridge with her dad when she brought it up. By the end of crossing the bridge, her dad had consented that if she truly loved this boy, she could marry him. Bo was so excited she lost the toll ticket and they had to pay a large fine to exit the bridge.

Mama Bo is very happy at her new nursing home and it was very nice. She has horrible short term memory, but pretty good long term memory. It's a circle of life type realization when you take a baby to a nursing home. Both Ruby and Mama Bo require bibs to eat, lots of care from others and are happy with their lot in life. It's a good reminder to live life to the fullest while you are physically fit.
The nice thing about the short term memory is that you can tell Mama Bo over and over about her namesake and she is completely excited each and every time. Again, a trait Ruby shares except that she garters a little more information each time.

Ruby: What is that?!?
Ruby: Oh, my hand.
Ruby: What is that?!?
Ruby: Oh cool. A hand. What are those?!? Oh, fingers.

Hoody Towel of July!

It's amazing what you miss when you don't stay at home.

Jeff talked to our elderly, deaf next door neighbor who seemed inordinately interested in our empty trashcan. Apparently (dispite a piece of mail addressed to Jamey sticking to the inside), he believes that ours is his since his trash can is missing. Jeff assured him ours is not in the garage and is, in fact, the one on the street.

That hasn't stopped him from investigating it again after Jeff came inside. I tried to get a picture of him with his head in our baby-diaper scented trash can, but he finally gave up after checking 4 times. Maybe he found his. Anyhoo, he entertained me as I watched him from our dining room. It doesn't take much these days. Since I didn't get a picture, here is a hoody towel of July.

A Decent Proposal

November 27, 2006
Stacy had guessed Evan would propose on the vacation. Her major clue? Prior to departure, Stacy mentioned striking Antwerp, the diamond capitol, from our itinerary. Evan was insistent that we keep that destination. So Stacy felt confident she was right. It’s good that Evan did propose. Otherwise, Stacy might have kicked him.






November 27, 2006
Well, we didn't learn our lesson apparently. Despite all our beliefs to the contrary, our flight leaves at 12:15, not 12:57. Whoops. All the time we padded in for customs, tax forms, etc was gone. However, we managed to shop, drop off forms, shop some more and make it to the plane on time [and the plane had ice cream and a puppy (not all to eat, of course)]! It was a great trip and hopefully another one will be forthcoming to attend a wedding! About time!

November 27, 2006
The woman sitting next to us on the plane is bringing home an 8 week old Golden Retriever puppy. It's slept almost the whole way, and didn't receive any tranquilizers. Over the state on New York, it woke up and nibbled on some bread. Overall, the puppy performed a little better than Picasso did when we took him on a two hour flight.
Stacy interjects:
-Picasso was only 6 weeks old,
-had just been separated from his mom,
-and had less bonding time with us.

This ends our trip back in time. I'll return to the world of real-time (or near real-time for those I work with) blogging. When I catch up, I'll ready to go back in time again for a ski trip journal that has never been published. After that, I guess I will need a new vacation!

Romancing the Stone

By this point in the journal, Jamey and I are as entertained by Evan and Yvonne as we are by Belgium. Jamey captures the moments.











November 26, 2006
The art museum in Belgium is awesome. We had to rush through sections or we wouldn't have finished.
Some of the surrealist paintings and sculpture that we were interested in seeing weren't on display due to a special exhibit. In particular, we were disappointed to miss out on a large portion of the James Ensor paintings. Still there was plenty to entertain.
In the religious paintings, anything referring to the temptation of Saint Anthony Daade made it worth the walk through countless depictions of crucifixion.




November 26, 2006
Wittamer is the best hot chocolate in Belgium. This is the result of an extensive search starting in Brugge and ending in Brussels.
The secret is simple. Milk was getting in the way. Wittamer's takes just enough milk to melt the chocolate and you are then ready to enjoy your 5000 calorie drink.




November 26, 2006
We set out for some Christmas shopping, but many places are closed on Sunday. So instead, we shopped for ourselves at one of the few open stores that interested us.
Stacy got me a present for our anniversary. I bought her a present yesterday, so now we've both been sufficiently prized.

Tomorrow, a miniture time travel within this time travel as Evan recreates the proposal.

When you gonna ring it?

Saturday, we took a train from Brussels to Antwerp, a major diamond cutting center. Evan took the romantic setting of the train ride to casually ask Yvonne if she wanted a ring. Antwerp also has a very nice church that we visited and some touristy stuff like waffles, shopping and statues of fries?





November 25, 2006 - Jamey's lunch entry in Antwerp
The Grimbergen Dubbel is dark like an English porter. It has a nice head, like all the Belgian beers, and an almost fruity finish.
The Vedet Extra Blond has a penguin basking in the glow of a red sun.
We picked up waffles from a street vendor. They were perfectly sweetened. I think they coat them lightly in syrup, and then reheat so that the syrup bonds to the crunchy exterior. The insides of the waffle had the texture of soufflé.
The cathedral in Antwerp is outrageous. The collection of stonework, painting, stained glass, and sculpture within overloads the senses. I think it was more impressive than any churches I visited in Paris. For more modern architecture, Central Station is also amazing. Evan pointed out that it looks like the "Station' background that shipped with Microsoft Windows 95. I'll have to Google it later, but I believe he's right.
For lunch we went to Appelmans near the cathedral. This restaurant/absinthe bar is sandwiched between several Italian restaurants. Food was good and reasonably priced. The goat cheese on Stacy's salad was my favorite. I had a meat casserole - similar to a dish I cooked a few weeks ago in anticipation of this trip. Mine was better.

Romance is dead!






November 25, 2006
If you're too stupid to make it off the train, don't worry. The nice ticket taker who knows there are Americans aboard has a special key he can use to prevent the train from departing.

Next time, the fabulous art museum in Brussels and the best hot chocolate in the world!

Rockin the Kasbah

A morning of chocolate shopping in Bruges and we were off to Brussels. Brussels, like any large European city mixes history and modernism sometimes not very successfully. Still, there is so much to see and do.

November 24, 2006
Back and forth across the streets, we ricocheted in and out of chocolate shops. I'm carrying Stacy's purchases and it feels like about two pounds. We stopped at "The Tea Shop" for the daily hot chocolate break. But they are out of hot chocolate. That's a good thing, because the seasonal Christmas tea is fabulous. Yvonne and I had the black tea version. Stacy had green. Evan passed on the caffeinated drinks and complained of sleepiness.

The Museum of Musical Instruments was interesting. With your ticket purchase, you receive a pair of infrared headphones that activate with sample music when you stand in front of certain exhibits. It's a cool idea, but it was a bit flaky. The sound was staticy. Sometimes you got music in one ear, but static in the other. Sometimes you got the music for a neighboring exhibit. The result was museum-goers articulating their heads arhythmically to try to catch the tune. You would think the sound system at the music museum would have received more design input from audiophiles. The exhibits were great though. The collections of pianos, harpsichords, and violins were my favorites. In those collections, the museum did a good job of showing the heritage of the instrument.

November 24, 2006
Kasbah Restaurant was empty when we entered, but is filling quickly now. We're lucky we got here early (around 7). Brussels is a bit livelier on November Friday evenings than Brugge.
We asked the waiter to order for us. It looked like way too much food when it arrived, but it's gone now.
The highlight was a lamb shank cooked in a clay pot. We also had shrimp skewers, lamb skewers, beef, grilled chicken, grilled sausages, and vegetables cooked in broth and served over cous cous. The Moroccan food was a nice break from Belgian seafood - especially for Stacy who requires cultural culinary temporarily diversity more than most. And she's also sick of crackers.
We're all stuffed from dinner.

So Stacy ordered a pastry for dessert.

November 24, 2006
After dinner, we walked to "The Music Village." They have Jazz on Fridays and Saturdays. Tonight is the Judy Niemack Band. The drummer didn't show, so they substituted a pianist. To me, the pianist and the bass player are stealing the show. Judy uses a digital vocal sampler to create harmonies during some songs. She'll sing a few back-up phrases, play two or three at a time, mute them, then return the volume without a hitch. I thought that was an impressive testament to the group/s ability to keep time without a drummer.
Judy sneers like Elvis at times.
Other than one guest pianist, the band is from New York.

According to the calendar, Django Reinhardt's grandson, David, and David's cousin played here in October. I'll have to let Bill know they're on the scene.

Tomorrow, a pathetic proposal and a not so pathetic ring.

Thanksgiving is such a great time to travel to Europe. There are no crowds and you already have 1-2 days off that week. Plus, you usually get a crazy Thanksgiving meal. I love Thanksgiving food, so I work all my favorite dishes from Thanksgiving into Xmas dinner requests of my mom! Today's installment begins Jamey's move to comic book artist. I don't know why I am portrayed with fangs, but Jamey assures me that indicates something sweet.


November 23, 2006
We went on the guided tour at Huisbrouwery de Halve Maan. Today the beer is made in modern equipment - the type you see on display at any microbrewery/restaurant. But the tour took us through the old rooms that were used for mashing, cooling, and fermentation. The cooling room was a giant wall-to-wall copper basing with open air windows to allow the breeze to pass through. The roof afforded a great photo spot. At the end of the tour, we all had a glass of the Bruge Zot, the same blonde beer Evan had last night with dinner. We learned that herbs and spices play an important role in the secret recipes for beets at this brewery. The only actually brew here three days every fortnight, and they weren't brewing this day. The table by the fireplace at the end of the tour made up for this small disappointment.
November 23, 2006
Between shopping, we stopped at Tongerlo for snacks and beer or hot chocolate - or in Evan's case, beer and hot chocolate. I ordered toast canibal (toast with raw meat) chopped beef mixed with horseradish on a slice of toasted white bread. It disappeared in a flash. In Belgium, each beer is served in a glass from its brewery. Evan's Kwak was one of the strangest of these we've seen so far. It looks like a beaker from high school chemistry lab. It must be painful to clean. If I ever open a bar in Belgium, we probably won't serve Kwak. Even though it's a fine beer.

November 23, 2006
I can tell Verdi is my kind of place, because there is a wealthy man with a top hat on the sign. We stopped in for another hot chocolate break, because the girls felt cheated by the last cup. I'm not sure why the expected hot chocolate from a bar to live up to that of the frou frou tea houses. But Verdi did not disappoint. It was the now familiar hot-chocolate-erector-set. But instead of assorted sugar cubes (which would have been ignored) there were two block of chocolate on stirrers per cup. I had the warm wine. We're the youngest people in the restaurant by thirty years.

November 23, 2006
We played cards at Verdi until time for dinner. It was Evan and Yvonne's first time to play Gin Rummy.
We didn't realize what day it was until we were through the main course. But Thanksgiving dinner included:
Scallop carpaggio
Raw oysters
North Sea fish stew
Beer tartar
Filet of Turbot
Pheasant
Steak with béarnaise sauce
Curry ice cream with pineapple
Crème brulee
Chestnut pancakes with poached apples
Happy Thanksgiving, Brasserie Belge!

Tomorrow, its off to Brussels.

Hats, Sights and Sea Wolfs Oh My!

The sights we saw our first full day in Brugge convinced us its the most beautiful place in Europe. If you look closely, even Yvonne's hair was smiling. I must insert a quick Ruby update. She slept through the night last night. Wonder of wonders!



November 22, 2006
Today we all tried on hats like we were part of a 1980s' American teen movie montage. Evan's head is really big. It's only one US Evan head, but over here it's like 60 or 61 kilo-heads.

November 22, 2006
"It's a matter of taste"

Today we're at tea room-Carde Diem for our hot chocolate & snack break. The hot chocolate employs a method similar to that of yesterday's cup. But this time, the chocolate is a solid block on the end of a stirring stick instead of melted. Stacy preferred today's cup because the DIY step was easier. Yvonne said the solid chocolate robbed too much heat from the finished product, and she preferred yesterday's cup. Stacy preferred her crepe with raspberries and pralines while Yvonne preferred her chocolate slathered waffle. I hope the two ladies end this constant bickering soon.



I ♥ frambozen pannenkoeken
krokante pecannoton, slagroom en vanilla iss
choc-o-lait.be

November 22, 2006
Today we took a boat tour on the canals, so I got the see the men's restroom of the hospital of St John from the other side of the window. It was empty, but I wonder if anyone on yesterday's canal tour was as surprised as I to be looking at each other through the open window.

November 22, 2006
The Trappist beer Orval is one of my favorites tried so far. It’s brown and has a nice bitterness. Evan got a Brugse Zot. It's a nice wheat beer. Both have cool logos.

Jester beats fish in looks, but Orval beats Zot in taste.

Last night, we had the restaurant to ourselves for dinner. So we assumed we could get by without reservations at De Snippe. It was raining, and Stacy and a hard time rousing herself from a nap, so we had the hotel hail a taxi. That was fortunate, because De Snippe was closed for renovations. Our cab driver recommended an alternative, but it was also closed. We told him we wanted seafood, so he dropped us off near the square where the outdoor seafood market is held five days a week. Here there were several restaurants - both opened and closed. We read the menus posted outside and chose Vistro de Mosselkelde. The place was great. They offered five fixed-price menus and a huge variety of a la carte items.

One of the menus we perused that night (but did not choose)had an interesting dish. I don't know what sea wolf is, but any meat raped in bacon would probably be good.


Tomorrow, Jamey draws his first journal comic strip and the journal will never be the same again.