..............

The post below was written from my car using free wireless. If you read the contents during the hours of midnight and 8:00am Belgium time, I apologize. It was a mess. I have fixed the fractured sentences and dangling participles and it is now much easier to read.

I was out at midnight trying to pick up Maria. She went to see the play Othello with some friends. It was loosely described as a school assignment but there was sushi involved which means there was quite a bit of fun experienced also. My GPS is broken, caput, dead and I was using Google Maps to get myself from point A to point B. I can honestly say I am not that bad when it comes to finding my way around in all of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri or Tennessee. I have lived in these places without a GPS and never ever got as lost as I have since my GPS broke. None of the streets are in any sort of a grid-like pattern. If you think you are going in the wrong direction and you take a left and another left to go back where you were, you will end up far far away from the original point. And Google Maps is really not that good of a guide. Last night I was instructed to veer right for .35 kilometers. This was a key instruction which would have led me right to where I needed to go. The "veer" was really a hard right onto an unnamed street looking more like the entrance to a factory instead of the path to my freedom.

I eventually picked up Maria. I tried to share my plight with her but she was too busy explaining the racism and sexism of Othello. She also told me that sushi with friends tastes better than sushi with your parents. When I was 17 my friends and I ate at Dairy Queen. It also tasted better with my friends than my family......

Housers explained

As I said in my last post, we had "housers" last weekend. Now I will explain in more detail the definition of a houser. I had some friends email to guess, but all of you were wrong. Sorry!! Whenever sporting teams travel, they have to have a place to stay. Picture this. Every time our football, basketball or rugby teams play a game, we have to find schools with similar programs to ours. We play teams from Paris, London, Germany, Luxemboug, etc. Since the comute is so far, the teams have to stay overnight. The families of the team puts up the kids from the opposing teams in their homes for the evening, usually "housing" 2-3 kids in each house. It is a common practice.

On this particular occasion, our school hosted an international Math competition. Kids traveled to our school from places as far away as Africa. There were 200 competitors in all so many families volunteered to help with the housing of the visitors. We took in 3 girls from Bilbao, Spain. They were cute, quiet and spoke great English. We had a good time and even met up with another family housing 3 boys from Barcelona. There were 16 of us at a Valentine's Day dinner. It probably wasn't the best night to bombard a restaurant which such a big party, but we had fun anyway.

Housers

We have "housers" staying with us this weekend. I will let you ponder what you think a "Houser" might be..................................

My newest illness...Don't worry it's not what you think

Polish Pottery has now replaced my obsession for Vera Bradley which replaced my obsession for Longaberger baskets. It's an illness!

Yesterday I went to the Polish Pottery outlet in the Netherlands. Streaming through the outlet nonstop were carloads of expats buying the best and most creative pottery ever created. It is really made in Poland and sold only selectively at a handfull of outlets. You rarely see it in stores although there is rumor that every once in a while, they have a few pieces at TJMaxx and Marshalls in the US. We can also find it at bazaars and special events in our area but never as cheap as at the outlet.

We drove for 2 hours and my thoughtful friend had brought coffee that we drank out of Polish Pottery cups! When we arrived I was in shock. I can only compare it to the Vera Bradley sale in Fort Wayne minus the waiting in line and hordes of people. There was so much pottery that I was slightly overwhelmed. After I got my bearings, shopping was no problem. I focused on the pattern "spring garden" and anything that had the peacock circle pattern. Jackpot!! I had a wonderful time. The picture above shows a sample of the handpainted pottery. It was all so pretty and I spent a little more $ than I thought I would!

Let's just say God put that outlet 2 hours away for a reason; so Julie couldn't go there very often!!

Wear Red Day!

Hi friends! Please wear red tomorrow, Feb. 6, in honor of the American Heart Association's Wear Red Day.

I hope all of you are doing well and are enjoying great heart health. I know I count my blessings to be able to celebrate Wear Red Day right along with you.

You can check out the link below to find out more about this celebration of heart and stroke awareness.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200000