More Than Just a Crooked Tower

Just a 90-minute flight gets us to Pisa, gateway to Tuscany. We spent an afternoon here last week, before heading south to Siena. This is definitely the time to visit this area - you can count the number of tourists on two hands, prices are extremely reasonable, and you don't have to wait to enter any of the main sights or museums. And, seemingly as always, we had the luck of the weather gods yet again. The forecast was for 3 days of rain. What did we get? Three days of sun and marvelous clouds, as you'll see from every stop on this trip. What did we have for lunch? What else - pizza in Pisa!

Better Watch Out, Noah!

They say that all records are meant to be broken and, if I were Noah (of the Ark fame), right about now I might be starting to get a bit nervous. It started raining here in central Belgium on the evening of the 5th and has not stopped since. Oh sure, there have been pauses, but by and large it's been 7 straight days of the wet stuff - I'm guessing we've had something like 18 or 20 inches total. And today it's just more of the same. The cats are getting fed up, threatening to do nothing but sleep all day if this weather doesn't improve so they can go out. Oops - too late.

Another Painful Farewell

This time it was Feline Friend of the Family Lily, who at 18+ years finally came to the end of her 9 lives with us. She made it about a year longer than her sister Abby and, in human years, had to be pushing 90. Never the world's friendliest cat, she still was a beloved part of the family, howling and all.
One of our very favorite family moments came all those years ago in Maryland, when kitten Lily and her sister spent about 30 minutes thoroughly destroying a roll of toilet paper in a hallway, all recorded on video for posterity. But her time had clearly come and so we had to sadly say goodbye yesterday. Now she can howl to her heart's content, knowing that her sister, who must be nearby, is so deaf that she won't mind a bit. Goodbye, Lily - we sure do miss you already.

Color Us Happy!

I've been waiting exactly one lifetime for this moment. It's true: the last time the Giants won the World Series was the year I was born. And, to be as honest as only a lifetime fan could be, back in April if you had asked, I absolutely, positively would not have said that this was our year. But I guess Venus must have been in the house of Mars, or something like that.
But to be totally honest, I won't miss the alarm clock going off nearly every night for the past two weeks at times ranging from 12:30 to 2:15 AM. You wake up at 1, then head back to bed at 4:30 for all of an hour more sleep. It's like self-inflicted jet lag, for about 14 straight days.
Lack of sleep? A pain in the butt. The Giants as the World champs? Priceless!

Hopefully This Isn't the Source of the Cheese's Smell...

The small Belgian city of Limburg now can boast of having the Best Flemish Graveyard, announced recently at the annual Funeral Awards. You've got to be good at something: we in the U.S. have Emmys, Pulitzer Prizes, and Oscars. Here, they've got Best Boneyard.
It was evidently a hot contest between Limburg and two other cities in northern Belgium. I'm sure they were all dying to win. Sorry; it was there; I had to use it.
Nearly all cemeteries here are stand-alones, not affiliated or collocated with any particular church, so funerals are always held elsewhere. So, just what then are the criteria for this coveted award, you ask? Awards are given in the categories of services (you dig a hole, you fill it - this one seems like a no-brainer), suppliers (of what? Dirt? Shovels?), quality of website (you haven't lived until you've checked out a cemetery site), and - I'm not making this up - best idea for the disposal of crematory ash.
What I've been wondering about is just who they get to MC this annual gala event?

An Unpaid Political Commentary

This doesn't have a darned thing to do with Belgium, but having lived within a stone's throw of the Berlin Wall for over 6 years, I humbly submit the following for your consideration:
About the only people I could ever envision lauding the border policies of the former East Germany would be 1) members of now-defunct eastern European politburos, or 2) anyone else who has never gotten around to reading a single book on 20th century European history. Enter Joe Miller, Tea Party Senate candidate from Alaska (the state that has already given us the Republican's version of Albert Einstein...).
Candidate Miller was certainly never a politburo member and, as a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he most hopefully cracked open the cover of at least one history book during his four years of study. But I might be wrong.
He draws comparisons between the current border problems in the southwestern U.S. and those same nagging "problems" which tormented the East German regime 50 years ago. He states that East Germany was "very able to reduce the flow. If East Germany could, we could." The tiny, insignificant distinction between the two circumstances seems missing in his argument: foreigners hopping across our borders in search of a better life; in East Germany, its citizen-prisoners trying to escape tyranny to reach a better life, often killed in their attempts.
Say what you will about the policies of Democrats, but in this wild year of politics I have yet to hear one discuss the merits of a "2nd Amendment solution" to politicians who simply espouse views different from your own, or praise one of the most heinous dictatorships in post-World War II Europe for its effective border policing.
Assuming that Mr. Miller has in fact read a history book at some point in his adult life, it must have been published by the same company that provided Sarah Palin her book on world geography.

First Trip to Athens

As is so often the case, the weather gods (Sunnyos and Almostas Cloudlos) were on my side during a business trip to Athens this week. Once the daily work ended around 5, I put on walking shoes and hit the uneven, rocky streets, to see the sights. On Friday I covered about 6 miles in 3 hours but, as you can see, it was well worth it.
It was interesting to see that the city's stray dogs all have collars and are totally well-mannered, never approaching you, begging for food, etc. Better than humans in some cities.
The food was very good, although I'd advise the Greeks to pay a visit to Belgium see how French fries are supposed to be prepared. Apparently wanting to live up to the name "Greece," in Athens the cooks plop the fries into semi-hot oil for a minute or two, then throw them directly onto your plate, still swimming in grease and oil. If you could somehow wring them out before eating, it might be fine. But I think there's no comparison between fries in Greece and nearly everywhere else on the planet. I think they'd be better off sticking to souvlaki and Ouzo.