Deliciously Unrefined

Try the veal

2008-12-10T09:18:00.004-06:00

We introduced the kids to the Muppets this week and it hasn't taken long for the genius of Fozzy to rub off.

After finishing her breakfast this morning, Sophia struggled to dismount from her chair.

Sebastian: "Did you take a spill there, sister?"

Sophia, without missing a beat: "No, I just fell off."

On the tube

2008-12-01T08:20:00.005-06:00

The only tube that matters these days, that is. Check out what Cindy's been up to here. Among our favorites is Sebastian throwing dad under the bus for his his long-term financial outlook and a heartfelt rendition of a Little Mermaid song, which is pictured here.

This one deserves to stand alone

2008-10-18T23:02:00.003-05:00

Man, he hung tough all day. He downed nachos and all the other grub we threw his way, threw the football all over Stankowski Field and was a vocal Tiger fan well into the second quarter.

But then he started to lose his shoes, dropping them under the bleachers. And then he began drifting in and out of the game, alternating between being bored and jumping up and down as the Tigers almost pulled it out late. And then he struggled to walk all the way to Flat Branch for a late dinner.

And when the food finally got to our table – it was 11:30 at this point – the game was up. Not one bite of chicken made it past his lips.

M-I-Z...

2008-10-18T22:30:00.009-05:00

Trying to drive from Nashville to Columbia, Mo., on a long Friday night after a long week: Hopeful

Touring Mizzou's campus with old friends on a perfect early fall Saturday: Beautiful

Sitting in field-level bleachers and hearing just how loud a full Faurot Field is: An ear full

Watching your team lose for the first time since 2002: Painful

Taking in your three favorite watering holes in the course of 13 hours: Just plain full

Sharing your alma mater with your babies: Extremely joyful

A house visitor

2008-10-18T22:00:00.003-05:00

Sophia is hangin' with Oma and Opa in El Paso, taking in the desert landscape another time, creating lots of art and enjoying the occasional outing to Applebee's. She also went to the wedding of one of Opa's co-workers, where she (of course) danced away most of the night.

He's got the right idea

2008-10-18T08:44:00.001-05:00

A recent back and forth at the breakfast table:

“Buddy, just wait until Sophia and I have kids, too. You’ll be a triple uncle.”

“I’m gonna move out.”

'I look like a boy!'

2008-09-10T22:21:00.007-05:00

So Geert gets a phone call at the office this afternoon: "Daddy! Daddy! I look like a boy! I look so cute!"

At some point earlier in the day, Sophia had gone AWOLBWS — absent without leave but with scissors — and parked herself in front of the big bathroom mirror. The result is what you see above.

Sure, she looks more boyish like this — perhaps even a little like Jim Carrey in "Dumb and Dumber." But anyone who knew Veerle at any point between 1979 and 1984 would be hard pressed to differentiate the two.

From the photo booth

2008-08-23T19:43:00.007-05:00

Hey there. It's been a while, so here's your quick update.

Natasja and Sebastian are back in school and lovin' it. One of Natasja's class projects her first week was a collage of funky photos taken with Apple's PhotoBooth software. She asked if we could give it a try at home, so here we are.

Elsewhere, Geert and Sebastian had their first soccer practices of the season last Sunday and Tuesday, respectively. On Monday, Natasja will lace up her boots for the first time since last fall. Then, next week, she'll officially start life as a Junior Scout.

Why the silence this time about Sophia, you ask? Well, she's in the middle of a three-week mood. Must be the full moon. It better be.

But all that is small news compared to this picture, which is of lovely little Ella, Brittany's baby princess.

She was born on the 10th and weighed in at six pounds, eight ounces. She's a placid little one who, even when she's fussing, sounds like she doesn't really mean it.

Mom's doing well, though the nightly toil is taking its toll. But all in all, things are going very smoothly and Brittany plans to move to Northern Kentucky this fall so she can start nursing school at the turn of the year.

Baby talk

2008-08-03T10:55:00.004-05:00

Sophism: A confusing or illogical argument used to deceive someone

Sophia-ism: A quick turn of phrase that goes soooo much further than its literal meaning. (See 'Heaven and ...' below.)

Two very recent examples: During a bedtime reading session, we decided to pull out an Dutch picture book for a change of pace. Without missing a beat, Sophia spits out, "But I'm just like mom!"

And yesterday, as Cindy prepared to don a spaghetti-strap shirt for work by putting on a strapless bra: "I like the boobs you have on today, mom. Mmmmmm..."

Take me out to the...

2008-07-06T09:10:00.011-05:00

After the usual last-minute packing and cleaning, we hit the road to visit the family in Cincinnati. But rather than regale you with copious amounts of detail, we figured we'd recap our trip to the Queen City with an update to the All-American ballpark tune...

'Take me out to ol' Loveland
for some fireworks and food.
Drinking and playing some volleyball,
a grand time was had by one and all.'

'Take me out to the country
for four-wheelin' and fam
Playing some cornhole and having fun
Kids splashed happily under the sun.'

'Take me out to the ballgame,
where the Reds won 3-2.
Becky Hegge took photos by phone,
Then snagged a jersey for her boys at home.'

Hey, give us a break. We're a little short of sleep.

Turning back the clock

2008-07-02T09:16:00.005-05:00

Tell you what: Oma is one special lady. Not only did she and Opa host Natasja and Sebastian in El Paso for an extra two weeks – during which buddy hit a golf ball "a few miles" at sports camp – but she also has the uncanny ability to get younger.

On her way to a leisurely few weeks in Belgium, she dropped off Natasja, who had sufficiently recovered from a case of the desert pukies. We surprised her with a little early-birthday apple pie and ice cream. She even blew out all five candles – we did say it was a little pie – in just two tries.

Desert beauty

2008-06-10T17:26:00.009-05:00

The sun is blazing and this desert part of West Texas has gotten even less than its average 2 inches of rain in the first five months of this year, but there's still plenty of green.

The first shot is from Oma and Opa's neighborhood on the west side of El Paso, the second a leftover from our stop at Guadalupe Mountains National Park about 100 miles northeast of town.

And then there's one of our own natural beauties. Buddy shed any and all roller coaster-related inhibitions this trip. He went from being as reluctant as his dad the morning of our time at Six Flags to being the only one in our group who wanted another crack at The Rattler, an all-wood monster that gave everyone else the jitters and achy joints the rest of the day.

He also lost another front tooth this trip - woke up early our first morning in San Antonio and just tugged at it until it came out. We'll have photographic evidence soon enough.

It's a Sea World after all

2008-06-10T11:28:00.019-05:00

Day one was such a good time and the weather cooperated so nicely – it was 'only' 95 and there was a nice cloud cover – that we had to go back a second time to catch the water park and the coasters.

We fed and petted the dolphins, saw a couple of shows (Shamu being one of them, of course), romped in a vast playground, climbed the 70-odd steps to the top of the water slide five times and cruised in the lazy river for the better part of an hour. The brave ones among us – you know who you are – also rode the Steel Eel coaster twice and endured the insane drop of the Journey to Atlantis ride.

Throughout, we downed ungodly amounts of water and soda to stay somewhat hydrated. A very nice time, even if it wore us all out.

Into the darkness

2008-06-06T20:35:00.004-05:00

After a very smooth trip from Nashville to El Paso through Dallas – chalk up a small victory for beleaguered American Airlines – we settled in for a few days of pure R&R by the pool at Oma and Opa's house. Nice.

Now we're in San Antonio, where we'll take in Sea World, Six Flags and the Alamo, among other things. But first, a few pics from southeastern New Mexico, where we stopped off first at Guadalupe Mountains National Park – photo at left – and then the Carlsbad Caverns.

The latter was well worth the trip: Water and sulfides have over the years mixed to hollow out a ridge about 25 miles south of Carlsbad, creating a network of caves as deep as 1,000 feet under the surface. In many places, the water is still dripping down and mixing with the limestone and other minerals to create stalactites, stalagmites and other rock features. Very cool.

At sundown, we gathered with a few hundred of our not-at-all-close friends at the entrance to the cave complex to observe the emergence of the thousands of bats who live underground. They came out in dozens of waves of about 300 each, circling upward counterclockwise before heading off in search of water to the south. Also sweet.

Heaven and ...

2008-05-24T15:52:00.005-05:00

Yeah, we've been gone a while, we know. That life thing gets in the way sometimes.

But we've got a good Sophia-ism to welcome you back. In the car with Geert the other day, she relays chunks of a heaven-and-hell conversation she'd recently had with Cindy. Only some information appeared to have gotten lost along the way...

"When I get to heaven, I'll see you up there, right, dad?"

"Sure. We'll all get to hang out there."

"Good, 'cause if you don't go to heaven, you go to Green Hills."

For the non-Nashvillians, here's the Wikipedia entry on Green Hills, where the mall (pictured above) is the material, spiritual and commuting center. Wikipedia is much too nice and factual, though. It should say something more along the lines of, "Well, there's only one main road in and out and it's clogged like a cheeseburger lover's arteries from 7 in the morning till 6 at night. Oh, and good luck turning left without an arrow. Yeah, you can take some back roads, but that'll take just as long because every alley has a stop sign."

The little girl may have nailed it more than she knew.

Graffiti for the seati

2008-03-15T14:25:00.003-05:00

Not much to add, really, except to say that Sophia didn't actually sign her name. Sebastian discreetly added that touch after our youngest hooligan had left her mark.

Another lyric butcher

2008-03-14T17:41:00.007-05:00

Poor girl. With these bloodlines, she never had a chance.

It's long been an established fact that Opa has an uncanny ability to thoroughly destroy just about any song's lyrics, whether the tune is from the '60s or '90s. He's spread this memorable talent across the world's time zones and shared it with millions.

More recently, it has come to light that Cindy is equally blessed at butchering lyrics so obvious you have to really work at getting them wrong. Her most famous instance: Steve Miller's "Big Ol' Jet Airliner" became "Big Ol' Carolina" – even though the entire freakin' song is about traveling and planes.

Now Sophia may have topped them both, as well as every other karaoke hack on this planet. Last night at dinner, Natasja was eagerly telling us about her upcoming third-grade field trip to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. Not two seconds after she uttered the word "Alabama," Sophia broke into song.

"Sweet'N Low, Alabama..."

What would the boys above think of that as a new – and slimming – tourism slogan for their beloved state?

Caught somewhere in time

2008-02-16T11:35:00.012-06:00

Just like Casey Kasem, we're kickin' it old school this week with our two little princesses.

First, Cindy got Sophia to sit still long enough to take some Valentine's shots. Then, Geert and Natasja went to the Girl Scouts' daddy-daughter dance, which had a '50s theme this year.

There, they danced the twist, the cha cha, the electric slide and the macarena – well, dad sat that last one out. And, as has become tradition, they chilled out to "My Girl," although this year's twist was that they ate a moon pie while doing so.

Rock around the clock, y'all...

Dorothy lives

2008-02-09T16:44:00.000-06:00

It's been a busy and action-packed month. Geert started his new job at NashvillePost.com after New Year's, the kids got back into the learning thing soon after, Cindy took a road trip to hook up with some old Cincy friends and Sophia's been playing dress up pretty much ever since we got back from Texas.

Other notables: We had to scamper to the neighbors' basement during the recent nasty storms and Natasja is on her second Harry Potter book of the year. Oh yeah, and the Patriots got their butts whipped on Geert's birthday. Let's move on.

The picture at left shows our No. 1 Dorothy fan before she and Cindy went to a performance of the Wizard of Oz that featured our neighbor Jacque. She was - no surprise here – the center of attention after the show as she and Jacque toured backstage and met the 'real' Dorothy.

During the show, Cindy said she also had a few choice comments, including a classic, crystal-clear "AGAIN?" during the reprise of "Somewhere over the rainbow." If they ever bring back the Muppets, there's a place for her alongside Statler and Waldorf.

West Texas grab bag

2008-01-05T12:00:00.000-06:00

Before we headed back to Franklin and Veerle and Line jetted back to London, we had a few more lovely days of chilling, eating and enjoying the fine (if incredibly dry) air of El Paso. (Wanna have a few hours of fun? Pick up Apples to Apples and a few bottles of vino and you're set.)

The sweetly adorned P-40 Warhawk pictured here is from the cool War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa, N.M., just a few miles west of Oma and Opa's house. The specimen below? We're still not quite sure where she came from.

On the road again

2007-12-28T13:28:00.001-06:00

Cindy got this nice shot on the way back from White Sands. We're headed southwest on U.S. 70 with the southern section of the missile range on our left.

White Sands

2007-12-28T13:02:00.000-06:00

This was a pretty darn cool day trip. From El Paso, we headed west a little to Las Cruces and then north to White Sounds National Monument. There, we found the world's largest gypsum dune field.

The 275 square-mile site was created because there are no rivers to carry away rainwater or the melted snow from the mountains. That means the sun can bake the small lakes that form, leaving behind large gypsum crystals that are then worn down into sand grains by the whipping winds.

And boy, did the winds whip up on us yesterday. It was about 45 degrees and the sun was very nice and warm, but the gale didn't let up for a second. Good thing we dressed for the occasion and got to climb, stand atop and then roll down all the dunes we wanted to. We will definitely go back in the summer - buckets, small shovels and sliding devices in hand - for a picnic and what is advertised as a one-of-a-kind sunset.

Why we love the holidays

2007-12-26T20:04:00.000-06:00

1. We don't ever really have to change out of our PJs.

2. We get to watch English soccer on the tube pretty much every available second - and the boys get to wear their new jerseys.

3. We try out/on all our presents in a dizzying 15-minute session, then rediscover two-thirds of them over the next three days.

4. Food and drink.

5. Seconds and nightcaps.

6. We get the chance to escape with that book we've been meaning to start since August.

7. We catch naps during the slower parts of that book.

8. Board games, baby.

As close to an official photo as we'll get

2007-12-17T10:19:00.000-06:00

Happy holidays, everyone. May 2008 bring you plenty more of the fingerlickin' good stuff that came your way in '07. And may all the crud that crawled into your life this year stay there as you move on with a smile on your face.

Go Speed Racer

2007-12-01T08:53:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick photo from our very nice Thanksgiving trip to Cindy's sister pad in Sevierville. After a filling brunch at Flapjack's, we drove down the road a little and landed at the NASCAR Speedpark.

Unfortunately, there was no open-wheel wonder in sight, but both Sebastian and Geert took a turn burning some go kart rubber. Buddy was Joe Cool, all sunk low in his ride and focused on the obstacles ahead. It took him a lap or two to get in the zone, but once he was in the zone, he was flat out. Good stuff.

I hereby recognize you

2007-11-17T08:53:00.000-06:00

We had a busy few days last week. Oma visited from Texas to get away from unpacking boxes, watch Natasja's performance in the American Girl fashion show fundraiser for Special Olympics and to take part in Sebastian's leaf-pile-jumping birthday party. The big man also had his last soccer game for the season, which was followed up by a pizza party.

Earlier, Cindy drove all the way up to Clarksville to see Brittany receive an award from Workforce Essentials for her work in the Jobs for Tennessee Graduates program over the past year. Rock on.

More Mizzou pics

2007-11-05T21:07:00.000-06:00

Here's Geert with Kim at the game. And no, she was not wearing a veil. Not this time.

So the big if debate has started inside Geert's head: If Mizzou (8-1, No. 6 in the BCS) wins out — bludgeoning KU along the way — and if it beats OU in the Big XII championship and if both LSU and Oregon lose one more game along the way...

Yeah, that's right: The world is only a small handful of ifs — six favorable results, in fact — away from seeing the University of Missouri Fighting Tigers play for the freakin' national championship. Chew on that for a while.

And while you're chewin', imagine this monster flying a few hundred feet over your head before kickoff. Sah-wheat. Double sah-wheat.

Rudolf burger, anyone?

2007-11-05T20:54:00.000-06:00

At Natasja's request, we're posting her recent snappy report on the Old Continent. It covers a lot of ground in a short span and makes trusty Laplanders out of a lot of people who we're sure had no clue they lived in reindeer country. Hey, I'm hungry. We'll have two Rudolf Rump specials with Prancer's Milk. Hold the fur, thanks.

Tiger time

2007-11-04T20:57:00.000-06:00

Geert headed up to Mizzou last weekend to watch the Tigers' game against Iowa State. He met up with his friends Kim, Deana and Kevin Pape and hit the old haunts: Shakespeare's, the 'Berg and Flat Branch.

Saturday night, they stopped off at a Halloween party with supremely cool decorations that started 50 feet in front of the house, featured chainsaws and a fog machine and didn't stop until you were startled by the hairy bat over the sink in the bathroom.

The game was a good time, even though the Tigers didn't have their sharpest outing. (We realized soon afterward how thrilled we would have been five short years ago to win a game 42-28, so we didn't fuss for long.) The weather was freakin' awesome, the flyover rocked and we had plenty of opportunities to flinch as the ROTC boys fired the cannon.

The forecast and an APB

2007-10-06T18:07:00.000-05:00

Missing: Mr. Autumn

Nickname: Fall Guy

Description: An old friend who shows up in these parts around this time of year and shacks with us for about three months. A cool dude, but often moody and unpredictable. Will bring lots of water and colors with him, but no hot air.

If found, please return to October so people can feel like life is still somewhat normal and so they don't have to worry about displaced polar bears washing up on the shores of Florida.

Running in the suburban rat race

2007-10-06T17:52:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been marked by a lot of running. We've been runnning to and from school events where the kids have been running — first in Moore Miles (where Natasja teamed up with her friend, Lauren), then in a mile run around Pinkerton Park. In between, we've shuttled to and from play dates, soccer practices, Girl Scout meetings, house guests, doctor visits, pirate parties for mom. Somehow, we've squeezed in the occasional nap to make sure we can keep running.

Coming up: Parent-teacher conferences, a pack of dentist appointments, Sebastian's birthday and Geert's road trip to Mizzou.

But our scampering doesn't hold a candle to what Oma and Opa are doing. They're moving this weekend - from Singapore to El Paso, pictured below.

Prancing princesses

2007-10-06T17:44:00.000-05:00

By now, we're closer to Sebastian's birthday - the camera kept disapperaring when we needed to download - but we still need to post these shots from Sophia's recent birthday party. It was a nice night at home with friends, a big castle cake and a couple bottles of vino.

Nature perseveres

2007-09-09T09:32:00.000-05:00

One of Cindy's favorite photography themes is the details and colors of nature. And amazingly, despite the hottest and driest August ever recorded in these parts, there is still plenty of color to be found. Easy on the eyes, good for the soul.

Strong debut performances

2007-09-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

Both Natasja and Sebastian played their first soccer games of the season yesterday. Natasja's Pink Flamingos came out on top 3-1, buddy's crew won so handily we stopped counting after a while.

Talking to the media, their coaches both said they liked what they saw given that it's early in the season, but that the key to winning a championship is constantly improving and pushing yourself.

Our big metalmouth girl - the braces went on three weeks ago - played well in the field in the first half and kept a second-half clean sheet in goal.

Playing after a downpour drenched everyone to the bone, Sebastian hustled around the field, scored four times and had a hand in several other goals. Man, was he spent come seven o'clock...

Wishful thinking

2007-08-25T15:58:00.000-05:00

Why the placid snow scene, you ask? Especially in late August, which is shaping up to be the hottest on record for the Nashville area, with temps topping 100 by 10 o'clock?

Geert's feeling a little bitter about the weather because he raked leaves in the back yard for a good part of the morning in that heat. We finally got some good rain last night (maybe the third shower in six weeks) but it came much too late for one our trees, which began shedding two weeks ago and will be naked by Labor Day.

Upbeat thought: He won't have to rake them in November, when they're all soggy and stinky...

Pandas, apes and booze

2007-08-03T21:35:00.000-05:00

See that snoozing black-and-white lump? That's kind of how we felt after traipsing up and down the hills of the San Diego Zoo. (Yeah, I know we said we weren't going to post any stuff from that day, but the public (well, Cindy) called for it, so here we go.)

There were some highlights, including the gorillas, where a young 'un was quite the entertainer as he wrestled wiith an adult and tried to goad Big Papa in the picture into a quick scrap in the dirt. No luck with that: Big Papa was not much fun.

Before that, the sea lions were a good laugh, but there really wasn't much else to wow us. The panda was snoring, the turtles were stationary and we were tiring quickly.

What to do? Why, let's order the biggest freakin' margarita we can find in SoCal! Holy hangover, opa...

"Hey stud, wanna foxtrot?"

2007-08-02T16:43:00.000-05:00

Somehow, Cindy found the time and the outfit to do a little glamour session on the hotel grounds in San Diego. If you've got it, flaunt it, right?

California dream

2007-08-02T15:53:00.001-05:00

Wow, what a week. Our trip to San Diego was a blast. We mixed fun excursions with a few days at the beach and some nice chill time. The Legoland and beach pics will come first, 'cause we still need to download all the Sea World shots.

Legoland was a great day. The park is well laid out and has a good mix of rides and Lego attractions. We saw a couple of 4D movies to get warmed up, then did a coaster or two before getting down to business with the big water ride. Opa teamed up with Sebastian and Natasja went with Geert, who got nice and soaked by people shooting water cannons mounted on the fences.

Miniland, the collection of building and city replicas, is very impressive. The San Fran, New York and D.C. sections are the highlights, although the detail throughout is sweet.

We spent two afternoons on the beaches of San Diego. The first was in La Jolla, where we walked onto a patch of sand right next to a collection of rocks jutting out into the ocean.

We hung out to watch the tide come in and the seagulls peck and pull at a giant hunk of sea meat before driving south through the coastal towns and down to Belmont Park before turning inland.

The beach pics here are from beautiful Coronado Beach, which is rightfully recommended as one of the family-friendly places to catch some rays. Coronado is a strip of land that sits across the bay from downtown San Diego. It features some very pretty beach homes - a quick price check shows a 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom Victorian at $1.6M - as well as the famous Hotel Del Coronado.

We met up with Cindy's cousin Tisha and her family and had a blast playing in the sand, boogie boarding and chatting. To the north, we could watch the fighter jets from the Naval Air Station take off and climb into the clouds. Aside from a jellyfish-related clearing of the waters and Sebastian disappearing on us as we were getting ready to leave, it was a very nice afternoon.

What you very likely won't see much of in this or future posts is the one disappointment of the trip, the renowned San Diego Zoo. We were all very underwhelmed by both the layout and many of the animals. Oh well, one down day out of seven ain't bad...

Making a splash

2007-07-16T21:21:00.000-05:00

"The water is your friend. You don't have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move."
- Aleksandr Popov

Snapshots of a visit

2007-07-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

We had a blast with Sasja before she got back on the plane last Friday. During the week, we played laser tag (where Geert sweated like a pig in the heat), took a nice stroll through most of downtown Nashville and went to a rockin' Sounds baseball game.

In between that, the fam checked out the Rainforest Café, played glow-in-the-dark minigolf and chilled out at the pool. Cindy even got a hold of her for a few minutes to do a photo shoot. Good stuff all around and we can't wait until the next time she visits...

Grab bag o' thoughts

2007-07-08T14:23:00.000-05:00

Geert's cousin Sasja is visiting from Belgium. She was nicely jetlagged after an 18-hour trip that included having to turn back to Detroit due to an undisclosed mechanical error. Gulp. She joined the neighborhood for a cookout on the Fourth and we've been out and about to the movies and downtown Franklin since then. Today is a shopping day with Cindy.

After each spending some time with granda Eileen in Kentucky since the end of the school, all the kids are at home. We've signed up Natasja and Sebastian for the local fall soccer league.

Just six days until Geert and Jon from up the street head the speedway for the local IndyCar race. Then he'll head to the Kentucky race in August with some other friends. Before then, the whole crew will head to San Diego.

That crew will include oma and opa, who recently told us they'll be moving to El Paso this fall. Won't that be a nice change from the 14-hour time difference to Singapore? We are going to be good friends with the folks at Continental Airlines...

Told ya they'd be random thoughts. Why not throw in a random photo? (Well, not that random - it kinda follows the post below.) If you can tell us what year this photo was taken, you'll get an amazing prize in 2028.

Everybody needs a reputation

2007-06-16T11:38:00.001-05:00

So we're kicking back on a beautiful Friday night in Tennessee with some neighbors. Sophia comes outside with the coaster pictured here. She and a friend made it with dozens of little plastic rings and glued them together with heat. Very nice.

Her friend says, "Sophia, is that for your daddy's water?" Nope, she quickly counters. "It's for his beer."

Britt's big day

2007-05-24T19:59:00.000-05:00

So here we are.

Our big girl is going to graduate in two days. And doesn't she look the part? We've got plenty of family coming to town to help her celebrate her entrance into the real world and the weekend party schedule is filling up nicely. A little Wildhorse Saloon here, a little kickin' back there... It's all good.

Next up? A nursing assistant course this summer, a phlebotomy certificate from the Tennessee Technology Center this fall and then on to a nursing degree. Coming soon to an arm near you: Britt with a needle.

Ride cowboy ride...

2007-05-19T18:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Rodeo Day at buddy's school and he was definitely dressed for the role. Well, for about 20 minutes anyway...

Cindy went to school to help paint faces, run the various games and keep the chaos factor at a manageable level. It was all good fun and there was plenty of ice cream and candy available to keep the kids up and at 'em.

School pictures!

2007-05-11T07:39:00.000-05:00

Uh, there's really nothing else to say, is there...

Hands up if...

2007-05-09T21:12:00.000-05:00

...you sucked your thumb as a kid.

We still don't quite know where she got it, but Sophia began doing so a few months ago. Geert will give her a hard time about it, but it's turned into a game, especially in the mornings as he's getting ready to go to work. If he busts her with thumb in mouth, she'll pop it out and hold it two inches from her mouth's wicked smile.

Then, very deliberately, she'll ask Geert, "Daddy, when you goin' to work?" Chances are Geert's on his way out the door, so he'll pretend like he's really leaving, turn the hallway corner and five seconds later pop back into the room just as Sophia is reinserting her thumb. Yell! Scream! Giggle! And Geert's on his way for real this time...

OK, so now this: Hands up if you still suck your thumb...

Da heat is in da house

2007-05-02T20:48:00.000-05:00

No, not the cops. Our upstairs AC unit went out a while back. It wasn't that urgent to get it fixed when the highs were in the 70s and the lows in the 50s.

But just like that, the temps jump into the 80s and don't drop below 70 at night, leaving all of us red-faced for a good part of the day. Urgency? Um, yeah. Good thing the Y and its pool are right down the street. And we've got our summer trip to San Diego to look forward to. We'll test that popular notion that it's always 74 in San Diego by heading out there the last week of July. If we all get heat strokes from testing a little too much, you'll see the evidence here first.

So Geert recently got a set of professional shots taken for work. Here's one - and only one - 'cause he's being stingy with 'em.

What else? The kids are counting the days until school is over, Cindy's cousin Nicole is stopping by tomorrow with her baby and Geert is steamed that the American Idol crew of kooks did a flat-as-warm-Coke rendition of 'Paint It, Black' for a Ford ad.

So you're telling us that, even though they charge $625 for a back-row seat, the Stones need the licensing revenue? Besides, there are certain songs you don't cover...

Now he's happy because he just realized that it's less than 75 days until he gets to watch Dan Wheldon and the rest of the IRL dudes and dudettes fly around Nashville Superspeedway. And there's less than four weeks till Indy. Always thinking happy thoughts, that guy.

Diatribe is over and we out.

Web power

2007-04-14T11:51:00.000-05:00

Aah, see what technology can do? Our complaints on this forum that we didn't have any pictures from Oma's visit here last month quickly sparked a massive global campaign of outrage that has produced the result we asked for. This Internet thing has legs, man, long legs...

More photos...

2007-04-07T16:16:00.000-05:00

...that I was hiding from you. Geert paid me massive royalties for these, so you'd better like 'em. Well, there is this one professional family shot from the cruise. This is photo no. 469 out of at least 800 taken during various sessions. It's a good thing we weren't paying the photographers by the minute. We'd still be working to earn that wad o' cash...

The second shot is from a recent trip to the Nashville Zoo, where they have a nice carousel and have been adding a good number of new exhibits in recent years. As you can probably tell from the rosy cheeks, Sophia completely ran out of gas soon after this shot was taken. Let's just say it was a quiet ride home.

The shot of Lower Broad was taken from the second-floor patio of Rippy's at Fifth and Broadway after we had recovered from laughing non-stop for 90 minutes at Jim Gaffigan's show at the nearby Ryman Auditorium. At 617 feet, the BellSouth Tower looming over the district is the tallest building in Tennessee. See the phone design element at the top?

So what's been goin' on with you?

2007-04-07T15:18:00.000-05:00

Aw, not much. Geert started his new job at Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock in late February. He's diggin' it big time. Check out this story about the office he's in – it's a converted horse barn with feng shui comin' out its ears.

Then Oma came to visit so Cindy and Geert could go to Florida and the Bahamas on a three-day cruise to celebrate Kelly's 40th. There was plenty of chillin', layin' back and hangin' out. Oh, and we rested up a bit, too. Good times. (By the way, how did we not get a photo of Oma while she was here? Shame on us.)

The kids had a good spring break with terrific weather. Natasja's riding her bike like a fiend and buddy's doing a great job at school these days. He got to bring home Jack, his class' shared doggie, last weekend. We took him to Publix among other places.

Then Sophia got to a be a flower girl for our friend Amy's wedding. Things went relatively well (That's code for 'Geert had to gently yank her out of the ceremony to sit quietly with him') and we had a good time at the reception afterward.

Then we booked our summer vacation to San Diego. Shamu, here we come! And we'll of course stop by Legoland and the zoo along the way.

Like we said, not much goin' on.

Hearts, frost and afros

2007-02-17T13:17:00.000-06:00

Sophia wants to wish you all a happy belated Valentine's Day. She made you the card in her hand here, but then glopped so much of the glue stick on it that it was no longer safe for human hands. But hey, it's the thought, right?

We've got snow here again today — but again, it's what passes for snow 'round here. All the kids had the day off Thursday after less than an inch accumulated overnight. And yep, you guessed it: Both Thurday and today, the white stuff was gone by noon.

The icy image comes courtesy of Becky Hegge, who captured some of the wintry punishment the Cincinnati area has taken of late. We're glad to be a few hours south of that mess.

Finally, Natasja took Geert dancing to the Girl Scouts' annual Daddy-Daughter Disco last night. A groovy good time was had by all even though the DJ didn't play any Judas Priest or Iron Maiden. Word is the theme is changing next year. Here's one vote for the Metal Gods option.

The white stuff

2007-02-03T16:39:00.000-06:00

No school! No school! Everybody outside before the snow melts! And don't come in until your toes are completely numb.

By seven, much of the neighborhood had gathered to enjoy the inch or so that had accumulated. By a quarter after seven, the kids were sledding from across the street into our yard. By a quarter to eight, the first pair of wet jeans was taking its toll. By nine, there were chocolate chip pancakes to be had at Lillian's. By noon, 90 percent of the snow was gone. By three, the boys were playing soccer on grass. Welcome to winter in Tennessee.

Check this out, Chuck

2007-01-31T21:54:00.000-06:00

Nothing major to report other than that we paid another of our semi-regular visits to Chuck E. Cheese's. There, Sophia dipped her toes in the entertainment world by auditioning for an athlete's foot commercial. We'll find out soon if she got the gig.

Catchin' up...

2007-01-26T14:50:00.000-06:00

...with some totally random art. So what's been going on? Well, the kids are back in class – where Brittany can see the light at the end of the high school tunnel – and Cindy's been chopping locks all over the place while directing home improvement projects left and right.

Mother hen is in the 'Nati this weekend so we should have some girls weekend shots soon. Meanwhile, Natasja is selling Girl Scout cookies and Sebastian is mastering the world of Yu-Gi-Oh cards – which, by the way, are a fine way to teach kids about numbers. Think about it this way: Most of the time, the only monster in math class was the teacher, right? And she was nowhere near as cool as Summoned Skull or Red Eyes Blue Dragon.

For his part, Geert's been busy hunting down job opportunities, executing the home improvement projects, selling Girl Scout cookies and getting hooked on Yu-Gi-Oh. In the process, he's making great strides in making sure each of the almost 4,000 songs in his iTunes library has been played at least once.

Only 57 days to the IRL opener. They're testing at Daytona next week. For more info, click here.

Oh yeah, the family shots...

2007-01-07T21:50:00.000-06:00

So we may have forgotten about these for a little while. We're only human, right? Plus, Geert was distracted dreaming about Arsenal's FA Cup killing of Liverpool and the Patriots taking care of the Jets.

The lake is almost 14 miles long and almost 7 miles wide.

Kicking back after a hard day with the water buffaloes.

A little East Asian culture

2007-01-07T21:25:00.000-06:00

A promise is a promise, so Oma settled down in front of her new PC and sent over plenty of shots from Myanmar, which she, Opa, Veerle and Lina visited over Christmas. They are every bit as cool as advertised. Believe the hype, baby.

Here is some info on the areas they visited from Myanmar Travel Information and Wikipedia as well as other places: Bagan, capital of the first Myanmar Empire, first became a major city in the 800s AD. The old walled city was at the center of a network of roads that gave it command over many plains and contemporary cities.

The town — its sweet formal name is the City of the Enemy Crusher — covers more than 16 square miles and features more than 2,000 pagodas and temples from the 11th to the 13th centuries.

During this time, Bagan became a center of Buddhist studies, attracting monks and students from across South Asia. The Mongols then overran the city — join the club, right? — but many of the area's ancient Buddhist shrines have been restored and are again being used.

The shots that feature water are from Inle Lake, which lies some 2,600 feet above sea level and is at most 10 feet deep. Many of the area's 150,000 people literally live on the water, cultivating massive floating gardens and organizing markets for trading.

Is it live or is it Memorex?

2006-12-28T21:20:00.000-06:00

How much egg nog and/or booze of your choice have you had in the past two weeks? If you have to double-take here to see which one is the real baby, you've had too much, my friend...

On another note, we've been promised some cool pics from Myanmar courtesy of oma and Veerle. We'll get 'em up ASAP.

Back from Kentucky

2006-12-28T20:43:00.000-06:00

So we were going to head to Northern Kentucky on the 26th to surprise the family gathered there. Then, on the morning of the 22nd, our doorbell rings and in walk Lori, Dan and Ted. After hanging out for a while, they head back out on the road to Illinois and we're standing in the hallway... "Why don't we just go up today?" Why not, indeed. Hey, if it's a good surprise one day, it's four times better four days earlier, right?

We arrived late Friday to kick off a blur of parties, gift exchanges and chow-downs separated by bouts of sleeping in big time and the obligatory visit to Skyline.

Santa, of course, made his appearance at grandma's. The kids, of course, loved their new toys. And Geert, of course, spent way too much time assembling one of them – in this case, the slurpee machine that takes 20 minutes to turn a can of Coke into half a cup of icy Coke.

And Natasja, of course, lost another tooth. Oh, wait, she actually didn't this week. But here's that toothless grin we've been promising for a while.

'Tis that season

2006-12-20T18:53:00.000-06:00

The season, that is, to sit in an obnoxious amount of 2 p.m. traffic on the way back from your eighth wedding anniversary lunch. (Big thumbs up for Stoney River, by the way.)

So has half the world still not heard of the Web or amazon.com? The older Geert gets, the more he wants to scurry squirrel-like out of a shopping mall the moment he walks in.

But that's all secondary to the point of this post, which is to show off some cool pics as well as our quasi-official Christmas 2006 family portrait. While you check them out, here are a few quick updates:

• Britt only had to take semester exams for two of her classes. Girlfriend is acing the others and sprinting toward graduation in May.

• Natasja has lost yet another front tooth, meaning she's now officiallly one lost tooth away from becoming best friends with cottage cheese and milk shakes - all day and night.

• Buddy is quickly becoming a Yu-Gi-Oh master and is dragging Geert into that netherworld of blue-eyed white dragons and lightning beetles.

• Sophia's phrase du jour: "I like you. You're very nice to me." And surprisingly, she doesn't say it immediately after she's gotten herself in trouble. (She has plenty of other things to say when she's in that situation.)

All the best to you and yours this season and here's a glass raised to kickin' 2007 off to a screaming start. Only 114 days till the green flag drops on the IRL season. Sigh...

Thanksgiving and the kitchen sink

2006-12-03T18:30:00.000-06:00

So it's been a busy few weeks. Here's a recap with visual aides alongside. Natasja's soccer team wrapped up its season with an emphatic 5-0 win, to which Natasja contributed her second goal of the campaign. A good time was had by all, both there and at Mellow Mushroom afterward. Trophies and high fives all around.
The Christmas tree went up the Sunday before Thanksgiving – we're still waiting on the icicle lights, Geert - in an amazingly efficient piece of family teamwork. The tree came down from the attic a little after 11 and was good to go by noon. Everyone chipped in with the ornaments, even Brittany in her first-minutes-of-being-awake funk. (No, we're not posting those pictures. Even three weeks later, they're a little scary.)

Then to Northern
Kentucky for Turkey Day. A very quiet drive once we got out of Nashville and great weather while we were there. Like last year, Geert played golf with Doug on Thursday morning, but didn't have to contend with snow this time. Britt did a terrific job helping out grandma Eileen with the grub for the day and we got down to the serious business of early Christmas presents after dinner.

Cindy and Geert hooked up with Doug, Kelly, Becky, Mandy and other women whose names ended in -y to hit the town a little Friday night. Next time you're in downtown Covington, Ky., check out the third-floor deck at Chez Nora. Killer view of Cincy, outside bar and the inside jazz gets halfway muted. Good times.

Back home, brother bear
had his stick horse parade and Natasja is growing some preshistoric things in a small tank in the kitchen. Just downright creepy-looking, but get this: They were seeds three weeks ago and apparently they only 'hatch' when they come into contact with enough fresh water.

Another of those instances Robin Williams talked about 20 years ago: "If God drinks, then he might get stoned. Look at a platypus. I think you think he might."

Sailing the high cheese

2006-11-02T20:34:00.000-06:00

We recently attended a pirate bash in West Nashville, which was a very cool time that featured a rockin' Music City band. Geert had to go home early because he had strep or some gunk like it - or maybe it was the non-alcoholic ginger ales he pounded. Cindy stayed to dance the night away with her pirate posse. There are plenty of other pictures, but only a few should see the light of day. If you want a private peek, just pop a bottle of Captain Morgan in the mail.

The faces of fall

2006-10-28T16:17:00.000-05:00

So fall is definitely here now, giving Cindy plenty of options to snap some very cool shots. Here's a few, in no particular order.
Of course, fall has brought with it a sackful of viruses for everyone to battle. Sophia and Geert have been fighting off a cough-runny nose combo that won't quite break into a full-blown cold but also won't go away. Somehow, they've managed not to pass it to everyone else in the house.
Soccer update: Natasja's team won for the first time this morning, 4-1. The girls played a very good game, with Natasja doing her part both in goal and out in the field. Geert's team has bagged 12 points from its first five games and is in second place in its league.
Sebastian turned the big six the other day. Mom visited his class to help celebrate and then he and Geert went to the store later on to pick up a sweet Lego X-Wing Starfighter – with wings that move, mind you - and a binder to hold all of buddy's Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Next up: Halloween and the neighborhood chilifest on Tuesday. The husbands get to hang in the driveway this year, which means it's time to put together an iPod playlist of spooky, brooding and just downright evil tunes. Come get your candy, kids...

Opa's fly-by

2006-10-21T16:54:00.000-05:00

Opa was here last week for a quick stop between Sao Paolo and El Paso. (He makes it sound so cavalier, doesn't he?) The gang went to the Nashville Zoo, where the elephants were on parade and the little giraffes were learning to walk. Beside that, Opa got to hang out with everyone and go to Bleachers to watch football.

And then there's today's big news: Natasja - aka the Soccer-Playing Toothless Wonder – scored her first goal! She took a pass from her teammate on the left wing, sped past a defender, headed for goal and put one between the goalie and the post. Bravo! And here I was worried about all those gaps in her mouth increasing her wind resistance...

Fyah twukk!

2006-10-11T21:28:00.000-05:00

Don't really have a whole lot to say, but this shot is just cool. By the way, Natasja lost another tooth the day after the picnic. With three gaps for the world to see, she's now officially the Toothless Wonder. We're still trying to get a good photo of the situation, but there's too much black space whenever we line it up... Sit tight.

Autumn's arrived

2006-10-01T08:21:00.000-05:00

We went to Geert's company picnic Friday. It had been rescheduled from July, when a nice storm quickly ended things. We had a great time playing games, stuffing our faces and going on a quick cruise on Percy Priest Lake. Natasja and Sebastian had a blast bobbing for apples. Things got exciting late on when Natasja lost a tooth munching on one of the apples. Pictures of the gap are on the way – her soccer team photo shoot was the day after.

Oops. Introductions then.

2006-09-23T16:12:00.000-05:00

Told ya we were unrefined. Here's a visual introduction to the group. Clockwise starting at about 2 o'clock: Cindy, Sophia, Brittany, Natasja, Sebastian and Geert. Did we get everyone? Good. On to the next thing...

We've arrived!

2006-09-23T15:48:00.000-05:00

So we figured we'd start this blog so Cindy wouldn't have to cuss out me and Yahoo every time something went wrong as she's trying to e-mail pictures to folks. Deliciously lazy, you might say.
Anyway, check in regularly to see what we're up to. We've got plenty of stuff planned; we just don't know what it is yet. Be prepared. Be very prepared...