Just a few weeks ago it was still unseasonably hot here in northern Illinois, but the last week it has been freezing cold with lots of snow. I can’t remember ever experiencing such low temperatures. More »
December 6th 2008 | 9:44 pm CET | 3 Comments »One of my favorite blogs in my Google Reader is The Big Picture from the Boston Globe. Each post features a series of incredible photos from recent news stories. Here are some of my favorite features from the last few months. Click each photo to go to the post for more. More »
December 6th 2008 | 4:59 am CET | No Comments »Well, not us personally, but our dog bowl is. The issue of People magazine that hit newsstands today (cover date December 15th) has a two-page spread starting on page 124 about Barack Obama collectibles titled Obamarama. One of the 10 things shown is our Poodles for Obama Dog Bowl from our democratic CafePress store Leftique. There’s a picture of our design with the text “A Dutch expat who couldn’t vote cocreated a dish to show support – 25 breeds available”. That Dutch expat they’re talking about is me! 🙂
Today was Black Friday and many stores were open very early with special sales. Some even as early as 4 o’clock! When we got up at 5:00 we turned on the news and they were already showing helicopter views of huge lines of people in front of stores and malls. Roads around big malls like Woodfield and Gurnee Mills were already jammed. Some Best Buy’s in the Chicagoland area had people camping out in front of their doors from 3pm in the afternoon the day before! Big stores like Best Buy and Target often have so-called ‘doorbusters’, which are things like laptops and big TV’s that are very cheap but they only have a few in each store. So people want to be the first in and grab these things. More »
November 27th 2008 | 10:13 pm CET | No Comments »Last Sunday we drove up to Eagle, southwest of Milwaukee, and visited Old World Wisconsin, an open air museum with more than 60 historic structures from the 1800s. The buildings range from ethnic farmsteads with furnished houses and rural outbuildings, to a crossroads village with its traditional small-town institutions.
Yesterday we drove up to Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. The weather was beautiful again. It’s around 77oF / 25oC these days. Horicon Marsh is the site of both a national and state wildlife refuge. The extinct glacial lake is the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the United States. The refuges are known for their many species of birds. Millions of waterfowl migrate through the marsh. Here are some photos of our visit.
This morning our beloved cat Alex died at the age of 14 from kidney failure. Here are some pictures of Alex from the last 8 years that she lived with us, in Rotterdam, Leiden and the last two weeks here in Deerfield. May she rest in peace. 🙁
Today we moved our couch, a cabinet, Amy’s bike and some other things to our family in Roosendaal. Our house is getting pretty empty now, and we just have some essential furniture left. We rented this small truck at Bo-rent to move the stuff:
