Lily thought it was super fun to sit in her chair and make it fall backwards. And then do it again. And again…

We took a little trip to Europe to see Brussels and Amsterdam. Brussels was very nice. It offered a great deal of old architecture, lots of different winding roads and alleys to walk through, and some good food. We tried their famous fries slathered in mayonnaise served in a paper cone. We tried some of the famous Belgium chocolates. We even bought some from the same shop that the Pope gets his chocolate from. Maybe you could call it divine?

Many Belgium beers were consumed via .25ml glasses. There seemed to be quite a variety of beers to try. One of the bars we went to actually had a menu of over 400 beers you could order. Even the beers I did not like were still better than they typical beers we have here in the states (ie Coors, Busch, Miller…). The two stand out beers I have held in my memory are Juplier and Bush. Juplier seems to be the common beer of Brussels. Its everywhere, cheap and tastes is mild enough to drink a few. Bush beer on the other hand I tried based on its liquor content. It is a 12% amber ale. A small glass was pretty powerful. I read that it is touted as the strongest beer in the world. I don’t think it is even able to be sold in America (mainly because Americans are not allowed to make decisions for themselves).

Check out the photo set of Brussels:

Amsterdam was awesome. We had beautiful weather to match the beautiful city. All the roads seem to circle around the center of Amsterdam. It seems pretty hard to actually get lost, probably because you dont really need to travel far to find a myriad of coffee shops, pubs, restaurants, stores, whatever you want…

The standout meal in Amsterdam was the Caprese Intense at Barneys Uptown. It was basically a thin pancake (or crepe) wrapped in a big ball of buffalo mozzarela, covered in pesto, pine nuts and basil leaves. To top off the meal and to give it the Intense name, it is then sprinkled with chunks of some savory marinated chicken.

Bikes Everywhere! Bikes here, bikes there. I loved it. Small cars, small bathrooms, small roads, small living spaces, small food portion sizes, and tiny drinks. What more do you need? It felt very comfortable to walk anywhere in the city. I didnt notice any shady parts. There were occasional drunk people, but they pretty much stayed to themselves.

There was a police presence but it was not in your face like any popular US hangout city. You should see the cops that are out on a Friday night on South street downtown Philly… The people also behave more like adults in Amsterdam. Maybe its because people are allowed to make their own decisions? In the US, decisions are made for people. There are strict laws over such minuscule things in the US (and many other parts of the world).

I really enjoyed Amsterdam and would gladly go back. I am sure there is way more I could say about it but just take a look at the pics.

Lily is going to think she grew up in New York with all these photos of her there. This past Monday Lily took Aunt Ginger to NY to show her around.

We were stuck on a bridge because of a burned out Dually truck that was trying to pull an RV trailer into Manhattan. The only problem was the truck burst into flames and was completely burned to a metal shell.

We were able to see the Statue of Liberty from the highway. We drove by the World Trade Center Memorial site. Not much to see by car. We walked through Times Square and went to Central Park.

This dog was running around Central Park chasing a ball. Lily was running after the dog laughing and laughing. Lux does not chase balls at home.

View more of the New York pics in this slideshow.

Lily took her Aunt Ginger to the Grounds For Sculpture in New Jersey over the weekend. Lily had a great time running around and climbing on, in, and up things. Aunt Ginger had a great time trying to take pictures of a quick Lily.

After looking at all the sculptures, Lily fell asleep for the ride home.

View more of the Grounds For Sculpture photos in this slideshow.

Koala Bear Gets Glasses Punched Off Because He is Mouthing Off.

Joe Wilson yelled “Liar” at Obama during a speech to Congress about Health Care Reform. Congressman Wilson later apologized for his actions. I dont know if the apology was for the causing a disruption immaturely, the phrase “liar”, or disagreeing with Obama. I think he apologized because he was told to.

Lily wore herself out at Longwood Gardens. She ran through fields, wandered around the kiddie area, inspected flowers and splashed through every fountain she could get her hands in.

She wore herself out. So cute.

Lily loves having her Olivia books read to her. She loves her Olivia doll. And now she can even watch Olivia on TV.

Happy 30th Birthday Ginger. Enjoy your cake on a stick*.

*photo

The feudal society was constructed for one reason: security. ( Sounds like how the Bush administration got away with taking away some civil liberties in order to fight terrorists. )

The nobles wanted the security of maintaining control over their far-reaching kingdoms, so they were forced to delegate power to local control. ( State and local governments. In some cases large corporate entities. ) The peasants ( the middle class ) wanted security from marauders and barbarians from neighboring lands. They also wanted security from invading armies. ( Terrorists aka. militant Islamists ) And thus the development of the feudal system and the fief structure was almost inevitable. However, all this came at the great expense of the common man. He gave up many freedoms for his security. ( Our current “state of emergency”, searching everyone at airports, arresting protesters, fighting a never ending war on a theoretical enemy… )

*The italics are my thoughts*
The original text came from library.thinkquest.org.

I am no expert, by any means, of history or politics. This is just to start a conversation with people much more knowledgeable than I in this topic.

aihedpsg52

Lily chasing and harassing Lux with her wooden alligator pushcart. I think Lux is entertaining her.

Lily and Ava being silly, originally uploaded by suche2525.

Splishing and splashing in the pool. Too cute.

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were “Piss Poor”. But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” & were the lowest of the low. The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500s: · Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water!” 

 Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip an d fall off the roof. Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt.. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, “Dirt poor.” The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold. (Getting quite an education, aren’t you?) 

 In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

 Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake. 

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus,someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer…

And that’s the truth…Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

I don’t know the last time Lily saw anyone actually play thre drums. She sure remembers how to use them. She even remembers where the foot pedal plugs in.