Hello from Amsterdam
Yikes! Looks like my blog has been down the past few days. My webhosting service and Blogger do not play well together. Sorry about that.

However, we are in Amsterdam. I'm about to run out of time at the internet cafe, so I'll do a full report when I get home. We're having a great time. We head back to Brussels today, and we're flying out tomorrow. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

Bags? Packed.
So I guess we're really doing this thing. We're heading out to the airport tomorrow morning no later than 7:00am. We're both worried about the connection through O'Hare, since there is bad weather up there. We figure that as long as we make it to Chicago, we can make it to Europe. There is a London Heathrow flight that leaves at 10:00pm that is wide open. I would prefer if we were able to make our Brussels flight earlier that afternoon, so that we wouldn't have to change any plans.

Miraculously, we've packed all of our things into two rollaboard carry-on bags. I have my sister's bag, which converts into a backpack. Handy for train rides, which we'll be doing. Victor is using his usual bag. I figure that if we buy enough stuff while we're there, we can just get a cheapo duffel bag to bring the rest of the stuff home. Earlier today I bought a comfy pair of shoes, so hopefully I won't get too many blisters. My toes are still recovering from our last Boston trip - every day they turn a different shade of purple.

I guess we're ready to hit the road. I've never been to Belgium or the Netherlands before, so I'm really excited to see something new. Victor hasn't ever been to Europe, so he's super excited. I don't think our B&B has internet in the room, but I'm sure we can find an internet cafe somewhere to check email, so I will try to post at least once.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

The best laid holiday plans...
So we have finally decided where we are going for Thanksgiving. First it was Ireland, but it turns out that most of my friends there are gone right now, and hotels are pretty expensive. Then it was Switzerland, until the flights to Zurich filled up. We thought about Munich or Prague (via Frankfurt), but that flight filled up too. So now we're going to Amsterdam and Brussels. We fly out Thursday to Brussels, take a train to Amsterdam, spend three days there, then head back to Brussels for one more day before flying home. We have reserved a cute room in a B&B in Amsterdam, and we figure we'll just wing it for our one night's accomodation in Brussels.

Of course, this is all assuming the flights to and from Brussels don't fill up before Thursday.

I'm interested in seeing some museums and Anne Frank's house. Victor is excited about possibly seeing Ajax (the best Dutch soccer team) and the Red Light District. Who knows what else we will get up to in that city of loose morals...

Tonight is the Thanksgiving dinner for our apartment building. It's being held in the sister building just a short distance away. It's a potluck, so I have made some Cranberries in the Snow to take. It's my favorite holiday recipe. Yesterday I made glazed yams to send with Victor for his work's potluck.

Also, thanks to all of the well-wishers about my new employment status. I am excited to start work in a week and a half.

Finally!!!
I got a job today. All of the interviewing finally paid off. I'm going to be working as a trainer for an outsourcing company. I really enjoyed the interview, and it seems like a fun place to work. I start December 6.

No, I didn't forget you
It's been busy around here. Sorta. I've been interviewing for jobs right and left. Hopefully someone will turn up with an offer soon.

This weekend, we went to Austin for my friend Kat's 30th birthday, which included dancing, a scavenger hunt, and a party. You can read all about it on her blog. After the birthday festivities, Victor and I got clobbered by Aaron and Debbie at Dr. Mario, despite all of our practicing. Debbie, Victor, Mark, and I stayed up until the wee hours talking about things. We capped off the weekend with a yummy shepherd's pie at Mother Egan's. Yummy!

Also, Ryan came to town on Sunday night because his film won the Founder's Award at Outtakes. Yay for Ryan! He and I had breakfast Monday morning at Breadwinners, which I had always heard about but never tried. It was worth it. Very tasty.

But you had to start illin', tryin' to make a killin'
I've become a video game widow. Yes, with the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, I am now relegated to entertaining myself for several hours a night while Victor fights gang wars, pimps out his hos, and controls the hood. The good thing about this game is that it has a fantastic soundtrack, comprised of several radio stations that you can choose while playing.

A lot of the music is gangsta rap and old school hip-hop. I don't profess to be an expert on either, but I did enjoy the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg era in the 90's, as did Victor. I've since lost my mixtape of gangsta rap, and Victor's copy of The Chronic was stolen several years ago. I can still do the entire first verse (and most of the rest) of "Gin and Juice," though, and we're going to have to rebuy some stuff.

But our nostalgia has been mainly focused on another genre: New Jack Swing. I had forgotten that there even was such a thing, but it turns out there are websites devoted to it. There is a radio station on the game that plays nothing but this music (think mainly early 90s R&B). I had forgotten how much of that music I owned. I had Cooleyhighharmony, as did Victor and much of the rest of the planet. I also had albums by Johnny Gill, Babyface, Hi-Five... maybe more than I'd care to remember. Whatever... some of that music was really good. Don't you recall when Babyface and L.A. Reid dominated the music industry? Remember how good Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel" (written by Face and L.A.) was? How many funerals or breakups were soundtracked by "End of the Road" or "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," and how many people got laid to "I'll Make Love to You?" I guess songs like these will always be a guilty pleasure to me.

So while I'm a widow, I have been enjoying revisiting my junior high years. I know I have some of those albums at my parents' house still... maybe I'll have to get them next time I'm home. Maybe I can also find my Janet Jackson Official Fan Club Member pin while I'm at it.

The search is on.
I'm still jobhunting. I have another interview tomorrow with a staffing agency. This particular agency has helped friends of mine get jobs, so maybe I'll get lucky too. My interview last week went well, but that agency didn't have anything for me at the moment. It seems I'm way too qualified for many jobs, but not enough for the rest.

Victor and I are planning a trip for the Thanksgiving holiday. We were thinking of going to Dublin, but it seems that my two closest friends are going to be abroad (India and Korea, no less), and I've pretty much lost everyone else's phone numbers and email addresses. I guess I should have been more diligent at getting information out of my old computer before I chucked it. Plus, accomodation in Ireland is pretty expensive. So we're also considering other parts of Europe (where the dollar is weak against the freaking euro), or maybe Latin/South America (where it's warm... I'd like to go somewhere colder), or possibly Japan (where a short trip might not work well). I know, boo hoo, huh?

Ryan and Mark were here over the weekend. Ryan's film is in the OUTTAKES festival here (it's showing next Sunday night at the Magnolia), so he was up to participate in a panel discussion, and Mark was along for the ride. We went shopping and saw Sideways, which is a must-see.

FTP issues
I'm having FTP problems with the new website, so it may be down on occasion until I can get it fixed.

Don't rain on my parade
As promised, I have downloaded my pictures from the Red Sox World Series victory parade, and I have uploaded them to share with you. Well, some of them. It was rainy, there were lots of people bumping my arm, and I was a few rows back, so most of the pictures are either blurry, the back of someone's head, or just a bunch of raised arms. However, here are some that didn't get ruined:

Victor and Gabi at the parade:


Orlando Cabrera and David Ortiz:


Some people watched out of their windows:


It was a great parade. Rainy, early in the morning, and very crowded, but such a wonderful feeling! I got five blisters walking around, two of which were at least half-dollar sized. My toes still hurt. Everywhere we went, the city was celebrating (read: drunk). Victor videotaped the parade, so I'm going to learn how to hook his camera into my computer's DVD burner. His footage is really good... I guess it helps to be 6'4" with long arms.

And finally, some scenes from Fenway:

Construction time again
I'm going to lay low for the next day or so as I move this site to a brand-spanking new domain. When I get back, look for fresh content, more links, and even some pictures from this weekend's Red Sox victory parade.