Welcome Abby

There's tension in our house. Everyone's on edge. Well, at least, Denny and Friday are wound up tighter than a drum. In their eyes there is an intruder in the house. After one and a half years they finally settled on a truce and it seems like Denny's behavior is bringing Friday out a bit more. All good news but then I had to go and say that Denny needs a playmate. One casual look at the local PetSmart later (granted, I did fill out a form) we were being bombarded by volunteers offering up their kittens for adoption. Being critical we said no to several of them and I have to say that makes you feel very small indeed.
Anyway, yesterday we ran into Abby. She's a tiny little thing and we brought her home. For me it was a foregone conclusion that Friday would be freak out, but I would have expected a little bit more hospitality from Denny. Hissing at someone who weighs 1/6 of what you weigh...... tsk tsk, pick on someone your own size! As time goes by he's getting a bit closer though. He's very curious but also very hesitant. I think they'll be friends. Make that "I hope".......

Tips for traveling to the US

It's strange that it has never occurred to me to give my friends from outside the US some tips on how to make traveling to the US a little easier. There are some hurdles to take and knowing what they are beforehand might not make them go away but it will make it easier to deal with them. First of all if you're traveling from Holland and you are Dutch you don't need a visum, just a valid passport. Secondly, there is only one airline that flies directly from Amsterdam to Philly and that, unfortunately, is US Airways. I know that everybody who travels on a regular basis has their travel horror stories and in most cases a least favorite airline. In my case US Airways is that airline. Their planes are old which I can understand given the economic hardships for the airlines nowadays but what I can't understand is why each and every flight attendant (stewards and stewardesses for the older readers) is grumpy. Okay, let's not linger on this since it's not really a travel tip. What is useful to know is that you will have to pay for head phones on the plane so bring your own. It's also useful to know that passengers on trans atlantic flights get preferential treatment. 2 bags or suit cases of 23 kg's each are free of charge and non alcoholic drinks are complimentary as well (that means free in airline speak). Just so you know how good you have it, when flying in the US water is $2. Oh, the meal is free for you as well and with any luck they will even have enough meals to feed all the passengers (again a luxury compared to US flights).

Aside from the movie on the big screen or on the twist-your-neck-in-impossible-angles small monitors the US government will provide some entertainment as well. With your boarding pass you will receive 2 forms. The Customs Declaration Forms just wants to know how much merchandise you're bring into the country and how much mad cow disease you're bringing as gifts to your friends. The Arrival Departure Record Form is the real kicker. This form wants to know whether you want to kidnap any kids, whether you are bringing illegal substances and even the question shown below.

Seriously though, it is important that you fill out an address where you will be staying in the US. I've been in the situation once where someone was picking me up but I didn't have an address. The immigration officer (I know you're not immigrating, but that's what it's called) was not amused and wouldn't let me pass. A helpful stewardess pointed out that each city has an Oak Lane and very probably a house with number 1 on that street. Luckily I did not have to resort to that since I managed to get in touch with the friend who was picking me up but it was interesting to see that the immigration officer was perfectly happy not to let me into the country. This brings me to my next tip. These officers are not picked for their sense of humor. In fact I get the feeling they're picked for their lack thereof. Don't try jokes on them. Just be polite and friendly.

And as a final final note keep in mind that although there are tons and tons of counters for immigration waiting time can easily be half an hour to an hour. The shorter, faster lines are the ones for US citizens and US residents. Just listen to the town criers who are posted at regular intervals to instill a sense of guilt into you as much as providing some guidance to the poor, lost sheep that just stumbled off the planes.

Phillies in the World Series

It's been pretty much a year since I posted some stuff here. It's not that nothing has happened but more of too much happening and never having the time to sit down and write about it. Okay, I admit, there's the motivational factor as well. In short, we've been busy. So what's happened now? Well, the Phillies (remember the 10.000 losses post a while back?) have made it to the World Series. Of course there's nothing that helps you bond more with a sports team then them actually achieving something. I now have a Phillies t-shirt (Chase Utley's name on the back) and I check their website several times a week.
The second good news is that they're facing the Tampa Bay Rays in the finals. The alternative was the Boston Red Sox but almost everybody here in the US will agree that the Boston sports teams have had entirely too much success of late. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and 2007. The New England Patriots (american football) won the SuperBowl in 2001, 2003 and 2004 and what's more, they almost won every game last season. Only the last one in the SuperBowl prevented them from achieving a so called perfect season. And finally, the Boston Celtics (basketball) won the NBA championship this year.
It's not that I begrudge those teams their success but it makes dealing with people from Boston a bit harder in every day live. Whenever sports get mentioned they put on this air of false modesty.
To get back to the topic of baseball. I'm sure some of you are wondering whether I have something to say about the name World Series. Well, to be honest I used to think it was funny, but if you get into baseball a bit more you find that it's not half as funny as most of the other stuff. Teams that just pick up their stuff and move to other cities like the Brooklyn Dodgers who decided in 1957 that they could do with a vacation and became the LA Dodgers. The number of statistics that are being gathered in one baseball game. The seventh inning stretch. The Philly Phanatic shooting hotdogs into audience over loooooong distances. Oh, I almost forgot the guy who caught a ball in a Chicago Cubs game a couple of years ago. He was fan in the bleachers who reached down and caught the ball just above the glove of a player. He had to be escorted out of the stadium because some other fans took this the wrong way. Then the media posted his name and address and the poor guy couldn't even go outside anymore. Did I mention that the Cubs lost that game? Not because they played badly of course.....

Peace on Earth

No really, I mean it, peace on earth. The slogan is of course courtesy of Christmas ™, but I just watched an amazing display of peace and it gives me hope for the middle east.


To be honest, less than 5 minutes after I took this picture I heard Friday hissing and hostilities resumed per normal programming. It reminds me of the story of how the French and German troops celebrated Christmas together in the trenches during World War I. After that was done they went back to lobbying mustard gas and what not at each other like it never happened.

It's good to keep the definition of peace in mind at times like these: "A temporary cessation or suspension of hostilities". I guess that concludes my Christmas thoughts for the season. You can resume being jolly now.

Halloween 2

It's been pretty quiet in our little corner of the US, but now things are picking up a bit. The holiday season is in full swing. We've just had Halloween, Thanksgiving is right around the corner and all the shops scoured their warehouses for Christmas decorations weeks ago. I have to admit that I'm not one for all this jolliness. Halloween especially scares me. In the Netherlands there's a similar tradition called Sint Maarten, but it doesn't quite have the same following as Halloween here. Last year was the first year I got to endure the local Halloween festivities. At 4 o clock the doorbell rang. Kids dressed up as spidermans and pirates were holding up their bags for the candy that I did not have. Parents were looming in the background with double frowns on their faces. The first frown said "Don't touch our kids!" and the second one said "What? No candy? Outrageous!". Meanwhile Maria was racing home with newly purchased bags of candy. Once she got home I cowered in the corner and let her take over. She has much more experience with this and even engaged the little ones in some harmless banter that seemed to lighten the frowns on the parent's faces a bit.

Oh, almost forgot, the fact that one of the left over bits of candy broke a filling completed the traumatization process.

This year I was slightly better prepared. Bags of individually wrapped candy, check. Bowl for easy grabbing, check. Clocks synchronized, check. Maria was still not going to be home before 5:30 so that left me a good 90 minutes of dealing with looming parents in the fading daylight. I decided to take the initiative and not let the kids grab but just dump a handful of candies into their bags. My first clue that this approach was flawed was a fairy walking away with a whispered "Wow!". The parents were not going to like this. When maria came home and took over she did the same and got a complaint from a tiny Dracula that she was making his pumpkin too heavy. The looming and frowning seemed to drown out what was left of the daylight at the that point. Maybe we need to book a vacation next year around Halloween.

Birthdays galore

Again I have to admit that it's been a while since I posted anything. We seem to be busy a lot. Part of it is good old fashioned procrastination, but we also do have a lot of stuff going on. Busy at work, finishing up taxes, preparing a trip to the old home country...... did I mention birthdays? I guess that probably has to do with the fact that we like our birthdays quiet. So don't worry, you did not miss a party. However, I have to say that it's pretty cool to have a baker in the family. Danny, Maria's brother, came by last week with some goodies for Brent's birthday (family in Maryland) and gave us this cake.


Sorry, I'm not done with the subject of birthdays just yet. I just learned a new bit of americana. My brother-in-law, Brent, whose birthday I just mentioned was celebrated with a crab boil. For those of you who don't know what this is (like me before last weekend), a bunch of crabs get together in jolly celebration in a huge pot of boiling water. They have a luscious bath of vegetables and then are helped onto a large table where they have a huge hangover. For those crabs who don't have a hangover there are helpful assistants seated around the table with mallets who will pick out a poor hangoverless crab and spread the cheer.

Touring the Glen

Yay, another road trip! This time we went to Watkins Glen in New York for a so called Driver's Ed event. This is what the Porsche Club here calls track days although, to be honest, there is definitely a lot of education going on. While the track days were on Monday and Tuesday we went up on Saturday to have a look around the area and enjoy the wine festival that was being held at the track on Saturday and Sunday. Because of this festival most hotels were already booked for Saturday and we had to settle for an Econolodge. If you think that sounds cheap you're right. However, they had overbooked 14 of their 22 rooms and redirected us to the Relax Inn around the corner. The name might sound a little better, the rooms definitely weren't. I woke up several times to look outside if the car was still there. Another immersion into American culture for me I guess.

The good news is that the days after that we stayed at a winery inn which was overlooking lake Seneca. Very nice indeed. The day you arrive you get a bottle of wine, a glass of champagne and a glass of port. Not really necessary after the wine festival but nice gestures nonetheless. The wine festival was a bit of a disappointment. In the Finger Lakes region in New York there are a lot of wineries, but we really did not find anything that we considered worth buying. It was relatively easy to leave the festival sober, which was a good thing considering they had police officers posted at the exit with breathalyzers. Amazingly enough I appeared sober enough (a miracle after sleeping at the Relax Inn) to be let through without a test.

Next day, track time! Compared to what we're used to at Zandvoort and Spa this was organized in a very relaxed way. Most people knew each other and everyone was friendly. There were lots of instructors and classes for the people who were interested. The other facilities were a bit minimal, but considering there were less then 100 people I guess it did not make sense for lots of catering stands and shops to show up. So we did what we usually do:


We were promised the use of garages, but the people from the wine festival did not put any effort into clearing out their stands. At the end of two days they were still not done. Apart from the rain at the end of the first day everything worked out fine. Maria went about with the new camera shooting over 800 pictures and I went about trying to keep the Porsche in one piece. It's a pretty cool track but you do need to know how to drive it. There are guardrails close to track almost everywhere which doesn't leave much room for errors. Oh, almost forgot, the Porsche rocks! :-)