We live at the edge of town, our tard ends at a little canal and behund that rhere's a green zone. On the frinr side if the house we pip nly have ants and D's at house cats. Behind the house there are ants, snails and slugs, mice, lots of different ducks and coots and such, pheasants, bats, many different birds, and apparently ring snakes, which I choose to deny. Not all of them enter my yard though.
I'm assuming Dr. Oetker 'backin' or something like that, mouse? Used that too. All dependa in what brand is carried by the store U happen to be at when I need it.
Oh man, Tofu, that really truly sucks! Special needs pirate prostitutes sound cool though! Many vibes and such for you to get to go home soon. Oh and for Dr House to figure out an actual cure for the sarcoidosis. We always joke about the sarkies when watching House, but it's super sucky to actually have something so prominently featured on House. Yuck!
So get well soon - and tell us about the pirate prostitutes!
I actually do exchange the 'baking' (levure chimique - it's the same in NL) for baking powder 1 on 1. I once measured how much(in tsp) 1 sachet was and I'll actually use whichever I can get my hands on. Actually depending on the brand the exact ingredients of levure chimique change, also over time it's canged. I've found one brand here that has the exact ingredients of baking powder.
Anyway, I do stock up on baking soda here, but baking powder I really do exchange for the levure chimique. (I do bring baking powder with me from the US sometimes, because there's so much more in a can of baking powder than in a packet of sachets. I've also bought humongous bags at the Turkish grocer, which calls it 'karbonat'.
Oh, I once hung out at a music festival with a Norwegian guy named Kjell Rune. I still, for the life of me, cannot properly pronounce it. He just kept correcting me on the Kje part.
It really depends. On Saturdays DH and I actually take the car and go together, stop by butcher, stop by produce guy, stop by a grocery store for stuff we can't get at produce guy or butcher (like milk and soft drinks and detergent and stuff. If needed we stop at cheese guy and/or liquor store and/or bakery as well. (Yep, the grocery store sells everything, we don't need to go to 5 different stores, but you can't compare the quality, really!)
During the week if I need something extra it all depends, I might grab my bike, I might walk and I might just hop off the tram a couple of stops early to buy that 1 thing I'm missing and then walk home from there.
1, but ask me again when I have one, the number might change after I've been pregnant and have a child. Money doesn't factor in - if I had all the money in the world, a giant house with room to expand and enough cash to send 25 kids to college, I still probably only want one.
As long as DH and I both still work, I don't think having more than 1 would be great for us or the child. We both have odd hours/long days and will need to seriously work hard to have enough family time if we have 1. If there'd be more it'd probably be too hard for us to make it work and give each child the attention they deserve.
If we had all the money in the world and we wouldn't actually work anymore, I'd have to see what pregnancy does to my body, and if it's not too hard, I could go for more than 1.
San Marino is a country, like the US really (republic - republic, see, San Marino is totally like the US, much more than the UK or NL, or Luxembourg as those are Kingdoms/A Grand Duchy)
I love making wraps or really nice sandwiches for picnics, also some bread with hummus is always good, oh, and stinky cheeses, obviously. I usually add in some small 1 portion baggies of chips and some nice cupcakes-without-frosting (so usually a fancier cake that doesn't need it in cupcake liners) for dessert. I hardly ever go out to BBQ's, but when I do I often bring a nice marinated steak or a pasta salad. (Depends on if I'm supposed to bring stuff to share, or just something on the grill for myself - I've been to both kinds of bbqs.)
Honestly, mostly I just grill when the weather is nice out in my own yeard. And really, everything can and shall be grilled when the weather is nice enough! :-)
My aunt's name is Joke (pronounced Yo-kuh) which is a very common Dutch name. I love how she "gets in trouble" in the US, where sometimes people will tell her that she really needs to take application X or form Y seriously, it's not a joke. "I know", she'll say, "I AM filling it out." To which she gets replied "Well, then why are you starting with writing down that you think this is a joke."
Needless to say she's changed the informal spelling to Yoke or Yoka even maybe. She didn't like all the jokes! (Tee-hee, I made a funny :-) )
A lot of typical Dutch names aren't heard anywhere but Germanic countries, I think. Especially the Frisian names are "unique".
Oh, and we have the same double-name thingie that bugabean has. Jan-Willem and Willem-Jan are very common. I once knew a Klaas-Bert (he made his friends just call him Bert I think, or Klaas) so I once called him and his mom answered. She gave me (and later him) soooo much crap for not using his name.
The Dutch are also known for burtchering beautiful foreign names. Not changing it to Dutch form, which is fine with me, but totally mispronouncing it. For instance Valerie = FELL-uh-reey Viggo = Fee-KOW Catherine = CAT-tuh-rin
TGIF fosho! I've got a 3 day weekend ahead of me (yay for weird Dutch 2nd day of... hilidays!) so I can deal with this day of working while it's great weather. I'm working from home though, so I can't promise it won't be working from the yard
QOTD: I used to work really hard at making it work to see everyone, going to every event, club night, bar, wherever people were. I changed that attitude when I realized that some people truly didn't try very hard to meet up with me.
Nowadays, I'll share the news of my/our visit through facebook, and a number of people immediately try setting things up that work for us all, and a number of people don't respond. Sometimes, if a bunch of people can make it at the same time, we'll do dinner or go to a bar, and will inform others of this fact. Mistly we meet up at people's houses now though, and just hang out there, play with kids, have dinner etc.
I was really hurt at first when people wouldn't find time for me. I'm okay with it now. The people that are most important will always find time to make it work, the rest truly isn't that important.
Post by Cheesecake on May 24, 2012 16:47:45 GMT -5
I recall when I got my second passport (at age 8 or so) I had thought up a signature (and my signutare to date is very close to what it was then, just waaaaay less legible/neat) and I got relaly pissed off at the passport office lady who told me, when I signed my new passport, "Wow, that's really cool, that looks almost like a real signature". I was ready to strangle her. It WAS a real signature.
But yeah, my passport has always been up to date. One time, in the middle of the year with no travel plans, I couldn't find my passport anywhere and I actually reported it missing and got a new one. Funny thing was that everyone (police, pp office and such) kept asking me when I was traveling. My answer, "well I don't know, that's why I need to make sure I have a valid one."
Post by Cheesecake on May 24, 2012 12:26:36 GMT -5
Nope, when you renew it's just 5 years from the day you issue it, so basically it's actually only truly valid for 4.5 years I guess. Unless you only use it for ID in which case you're a double idiot.
I guess it is different for people who have all their friends and family in a 10 mile radius and do 1 exciting faraway vacation every 10 years, and stay within the EU every other vacation. They just don't realize the necessity of an up-to-date passport.
Post by Cheesecake on May 24, 2012 12:17:14 GMT -5
Now rhat I'm TTC, I suddenly seem to find myself wanting to take better care if my body. In an attempt to improve my overall health and fitness I tried C25K for the first time on Tuesday. I came all but close to finishing day 1 of week 1 (skipped 2 minutes of the last 3 minutes of running/did half of 2 intervals and skipped 1 altogether ). To reward myself for trying, I bought myself running shoes today and tried day 1 again. I was so determined to do better rhan Tuesday, I found myself actually completely finishing! I'm pretty proud of myself, but could use some extra cheering on.
Post by Cheesecake on May 24, 2012 10:18:22 GMT -5
She didn't respond to my 'but most countries you need a passport for require it to be valid for at least 6 more months'.
The cheapness is weird though, because the european ID card which she can also get, is about a quarter of the price of a passport. Also, she has a driver license, which is ID as well. So her 'basically an ID card' is total bullshit.
If you choose to vacation in fun countries, you need a valid passport, it's just part of the cost of traveling, like a plane ticket, or gas for your car, or GASP, spf appropriate for the climate you're in.
But I guess I'm the weird one, for always wanting my passport to be valid in case I suddenly have to, or want to, travel...
You're from another part of NL originally right? Maybe in addition to trying to build a new life, you can spend some time with friends/ family elsewhere in NL. Also, if you run, how about trying to join a running group. It'll get your endorphins going and help you make new friends. That's about all I have. Homesickness sucks!
They've never met and if it'd be up to us, it'd stay like that forever. I'm afraid that when we have kids, they'll all try to make it for birthdays, but honestly, I 'd probably prefer to try ans divvy that up.
Thing is, we know them, and know that them together is just mean to mt ILs. My dad and stepmom have nack for making everybody and their dog feel inferior. My mom just pretty much hates everyone with more money than her (and that's most people) and is very passive agressive about that. My ILs are super friendly and polite but let people walk over them quite easily. Yup, them meeting would be bad!
I get the liking kids more. I personally love cuddling tiny little babies, but the starting to communicate phase is soo fun(ny). DH 's first full sentence was "no, no, no", I just love that. My goddaughter started to speak a little and asked 'is that?' constantly. She learned to smell flowers, so when she was informed that what was on her plate was cauliflower she wanted to smell instead of eat, and water it!
Anyway, I totally understand you being ready to give up BC. If I were you I'd make the wait go faster with a nice big martini!
Post by Cheesecake on May 23, 2012 17:12:50 GMT -5
A friend of mine is whining on FB about long lines at the passport office and the fact that she'll have to go for a walk-in appt (6 hours a day mo-fri, but there might be lines) instead of getting an appointment (first available appointment is 2 weeks from now).
She needs to renew her passport as it expires in less than 3 weeks. She also plans to go on vacation in 2.5 weeks. She knew she had to renew, but she refuses to renew it any sooner than the week it expires, because she doesn't want to give the government "even more money" for "basically an ID card".
Post by Cheesecake on May 23, 2012 17:00:29 GMT -5
I prefer to sit at the window in most planes, sometimes aisle though. I often check seatguru before choosing a seat and unless the flight is 2 hours or less I never just accept a seat assignment without checking if I can do better. I stopped asking for special meals when they started to suck worse than regular meals. And I've never found an airline with truly acceptable food yet, except in First Class, which I only fly when my dad springs his mileage and it costs the same as economy on his other preferred airline (this happened once, Northwest only had first class seats left for 90K miles, United asked 100K miles for economy and 3 layovers instead of one, so I got to fly first.) If I could spare the money, I'd totally fly first on all intercontinental flights though!
My most stressful flying situation was last September at Linate, Milan. We got there on time and got in line for security and the line didn't move. It got busier and busier and the line didn't move at all. Turns out some dude ran through security with his carry on bag to catch a flight, not stopping for x-ray or anything, so they closed the whole airport, nothing was allowed to land or take off and no one was allowed to remain/go into the "secure" area. We ended up changing our flights to the next morning while we still had the chance and obviously 2 minutes after it was re-booked they opened up security again, but we couldn't get back on our old flight.
No favorite airports, I do have some that I truly dislike, like Philly. They're just too damn slow there and don't have a quick connect line at immigration if you need to connect to another flight.