Brussels Home: Travels, Visitors and THE CUP

Hello. How are you? I'm fine, thanks. Actually better than fine since the World Cup has started, in case you've been in a cave in Tora Bora. Even there, Bin Laden probably has a satellite dish set up so he can cheer on any team facing The Great Satan, who by the way, played one of their most lackluster, unimpressive matches in recent memory, losing to the Czech Republic, 0-3. Ouch. Regardless of the US results, it's been an amazing tournament so far, and I'm looking forward to going to Kaiserlautern to soak up some of the craziness with a couple of college buddies to hang out at the Fan Fest there while the US hopefully redeems itself against Italy. It will be extremely tough, because Italy is playing some beautiful football themselves, and even if we beat or tie them, Ghana is a tough team as well. The 'Group of Death' moniker turned out to be very fitting.

We have our friends, Carly, Leon, and their two girls visiting us at present. Very impressed that friends from LA could make the journey, and with a 3 year old and a newborn no less. Hint, hint. You know who you are. ;) It's been gorgeous weather here for about a week, but now it's back to the usual rain business. Hopefully it'll get nice again so they can enjoy visits into the city.

We recently returned from our trip to southern Sweden and Copenhagen and the Ardeche region of France. Both were a lot of fun. It was a beautiful wedding and a fantastic party, although I think Sara and I may not live down some of the Funky Chicken-esque moves on the dance floor. Take one part friends you haven't seen for a while, a couple parts godawful 100 proof schnapps, a 10 piece funk/soul band from Stockholm playing 70's music, and the kids back in Brussels with the grandparents, and embarassing times are sure to result. Anyway, here are a couple of the choice photos. We will leave out all the shots of dips in the North Sea, balls, shiny or otherwise, people passed out, etc. for now. This is not out of respect to the 'victims', bride and groom, etc. but really for no other reason except I believe the extortion value of said images could rise.

In no particular order, photos from Swensens bar on the Thursday night. The Teater Chokehold and Kiss on Cheek (If you're in a bar with my wife, you too will likely be the victim of this move). The Bride-to-be getting molested. I'm not 100% sure because I was unsober, but I think my buddy, Shag, was offering to service me orally here. Thanks anyway Chaunce. I'm sure your buddies in Southern Virginia and Tennessee will be happy to comply, so best of luck with that, wherever you end up.

In France, we stayed in this house owned by some neighbor friends of ours. It was in an amazing spot in the Rhone-Alps region, about 90 minutes southwest of Lyon. The weather wasn't great, really windy, but it was just so nice to be out in the country, spending time with my parents and my family, no phone or Internet barking for attention, etc. I hope to go back very soon, and honestly this was the first vacation to the country where I could see us living outside a big city. Brussels is great, it's like an overgrown village feel to me, I love it, and I think we'll be here for a long time, but 'the country' or at least the idea of it has much more draw for me now, with kids, etc. I like the idea of having a couple of dogs and land to walk around on and somewhere where we can really get to know. Maybe it's just a reaction to the uncertainty of getting our heads wrapped around a new city or living in the LA megalopolis for 8 years after growing up in the DC suburbs, but I don't feel like I've ever really known a place like the back of my hand like one can in a small town... Maybe after a little while it would get boring, but the idea of a refuge in the country sounds really good to me these days. Anyway, here are some photos.