I feel like a poubelle

No comptuer again. But they got a comptuer so I have been using theirs at night to check my email. But this is good as I spend my nights eaither seeing my lads and ladies at the Pub or sitting in my room with a good french film - absorbing the language and actually being productive as making letters for family and friends or for my walls. But in the past few days I have contracted a new cold! Hoooray! number two in 3 months. I have been much harder on my body before this and not contracted a cold easily. Is it true that kids are crawling with germs and viruses? I cut back a lot on my cheese and dairy... they buy me soyja! But wow its pretty darn cold here. I have been wearing G-fathers russian fur hat. It goes well with my new french jacket I bought. I showed the hat to my russian friend Nelli and she said its quiet the big deal as its from THE SOVIET UNION. ge golly G-father, how did you get this hat? Mama, auntie anne, josi, kathy did G-father go to Russia during the Soviet Union and retrieve this wonder?
I have gotten many compliments on it!
I had the most lovely day with my friend Evan Miller's mother Shoshana. Pictures will be posted soon...ish. We went on a tour of Montmart and Sacre Cour. They took my poor toush out to lunch and we did some window shopping. I ended my day to have to return to the runts at the Champs Elyssay (sp? i know i should know it but i really dont care) where i had planned to meet with them again today and bring them some grapes but my sickly pauvre self couldnt get out of bed. I felt like I was going to gerbe...
So now I wish I could call my people on thanksgiving but I cannot as the telephones here are not working and my comptuer does not work and JP is gone... lame...
send me pictures of your festivites!
nick and jas i want to see Preston with some food in front of him... i guess he cant eat solid food yet?

I LOVE YOU ALL

I wish you all could meet this baby. When I have kids I want them to be as happy, sing songy and load laughing as her. I will make a video of her constant ramblings of mimicing noises and running through the house with her music boxes singing along.

clubs arent my thing i have discovered... its waiting outside with others and than drinks are 15-20 euros for a glass filled with mostly ice and you can't hear anything. most of the music has just been 'umph-chic umph-chic umph-chic". if i could sing with it or something i think it would be more entertaining.
do you know of a good place to go in paris? but most of the poeple i play with just want to go clubing...
and its too cold out so i have tons of garments that i have to keep an eye on once i am there.

life here is now pretty nomral... i'v met parisians and my days are filled with playing with others and the children.
computer cord will be bought soon.
nice friend sammy lent me his cord for the night. and then the chinese sell cheep stuff in paris - sammy is handy to have. its good find poeple in the area.
when i take pictures of my excursions i will load them on here.
but its late and i spent hours just playing on the computer doing nothing (well watching Whose Line is it anyway was a lot of muffled laughs)

i spent 60 euros on some lovely shower oil, face loiton, face wash... wow expensive body stuff sure does make my skin happy!
when you move to the other side of the world your skin gets mad at you as many of my friends and i have discovered. so now i treat it nicely.

ok here i go. goodnight.

annie

NAZI AND ANNI GO TO CLUB CUB
P¨QRIS

Oh My Garden!

Hello Chibbies;
well the computer cord issue is slowly but surly being solved... bright note Nicoles computer cord can charge my computer so I will have random but short amounts of time on the computer. I cannot stay on too long eaither so as to conserve battery.
But oh life here is lovely and gets lovlier everyday! I will write a longer post when I have more time.

Annie

CRISES

no computer for an unknown amount of time! battery cord burnt out.... lameass european outlets...

Caitlin said it nicely;

OBAMARAMA TWO-THOUSAND-GREAT!

Brussels (sprouts?)

Do Not Worry. I am still alive.
So after a wendesday, thuresday and friday of having no children and the house to myself I made the trip to Brussels finally. This was a relief, as much as I was excited to have the house to myself the workers were there during the day - irritating and the nanny but we bonded! But the nights were really scary as the workers left once it got dark so I was by my lonesome in a big house with big windows and the rabbit makes a ton of random scary noises. Also I got addicted to another TV series called Dexter about a crime scene investigator who is also a serial killer so that didn't help to watch while being alone in a big house with a lot of windows...
So Brussels through photos;

So did you know that Tin Tin actually started in Brussels? Neigther did I... its decieving because Tin Tin is in French but Belgium is actually a Bilingual/Trilingual country. They speek Dutch, French some parts close to Germany speek German and than everyone seemed to know english. So lucky... I wish I new 3 - 4 languages. So this picture above was taken in the train station upon my arrival. Now I didn't have a phone at the time (I just bought one yesterday!) because my last phone that the family gave me jumped out of my pocket... stupid phone. So Annelies and I had to go old fashioned and hope we would find each other. I should have just stayed in one place but I didnt... and ran around the station looking for her and failed. So I literally asked 10 people where and how I could use a pay phone but I had to buy a card. After an hour I managed to call her with the most help from two security guards who I batted my eyes with.

Food. Yes. Gastronomy of Brussels; waffles, choclate and beer. But this was a delicious first meal. The beer was good but I am sorry to say it doesnt even come close to the find brews of Portland.. I have yet to be impressed in Europe but I will not give up. I tried many kinds and had a favorite but can't remember the name.. should have written it down... but here I ate a sausage with potatos and carrotts.

Annelies got this... I sort of wished I had gotten it but it would be so easy to make and I had a bite of hers. Its a bread with brie, pears and honey and salt drizzled over the top. Jules I thought of you with I took a bite. I think I should start a cafe of my own when I get back to Portland.

Here is the Grand Place. Stunning. Yes the weather was not at its best.. the greyness doesnt help with the photos. But these buildings were stunning. I would love to live in them.... or just stay the night... play hide and go seek! Annelies explained the buildings to me but sadly I have forgotten what she said.. aint that the truth... wikipeadia it.

The things you see that look like phone poles are actually lights that I find to be not a tastefull idea. But Antoinne (Nicoles boyfriend) said that the artist is a profession decorative light-er? He lights measuems and all sorts of things... Antoinne's brother knows that guy. So I know Antoinne - 6 degrees of seperation? I think he could have done something better than phone pole lights that would work with the awsomeness of these buildings and didnt obscurr my pictures.

Anyhoo. Annelies is "tres popular" to say the least... she knows a lot of things going on in Brussels - a lot of art exhibits as she is an artist and does graphic design and teaches graphic design. So we went to an exhibit of Budist and aisan art. There was a lot of reading and she said it wasnt the most revihting exhibit but I had fun. There was this ENOURMOUS budda stattue that we started at for a while pondering how they got the baby in there.. but a closer inspection proved that they had to break it into pieces and put it back together again. This is didn't imagine because how can you break a buddah into pieces? But it was true....

If you read the thing above.. if you can see it... this lady makes bowls but connects with them spiritually when she makes each bowl... I liked how they displayed them.

So I made a best friend at a cafe we went to that night. I told him about Mia and he said they would probably get along. I agreed. He had a lot of engery and wanted to play a lot. But I told him that Mia is a beast so she could take him and he got scared. But he sat on my lap in the cafe and I petted him. I miss my kitten....

HOLY MOTHER this wrap was AMAZING. we went to a market on sunday morn and this was 3 euros of extreme goodness. I think it was turkish or something... olives, creamy fetter, peppers... a lot of things i didnt know the name of.. but then they drizzled honey into it.

Cool art work on the walls of an ally way.

"Tomorrow I stop"

Good view!
It was here that I than tried the waffle. There are carts all over the place that sell them for like one euro. The Belgium waffle is what the crepe is for the french; plentiful and delicious. There is surgar on the inside. sooooooooooo goooooooooood.

Annelies and I were pretty pooped sunday night so we rented a movie and had little finger food and some amazing champagne I brought for dinner. It was lovely. She has a stunny and ideal apartment.

I didn't believe this was a rabbit at first. This was when I was leaving on monday that I peered into the window of this shop. Huge rabbit with a lot of fuzzy furr.

So my friends Antoinne and Nicole and Nicoles friend from Germany who is staying with them for the week picked me up and saved me the 40 euros back on the train. It was a lovey ride. I love these people. Before we left we had a quick beer and hit the road. I got home just in time that the kids were going to bed but I got a wonderful welcoming from the children that made me swell up inside. They wanted me to read to them and I put Charlotte and Thibault to bed.
It was a perfectly timed holiday. I got to get away from them long enough to be happy to come home and it felt good that they missed me or were happy to see me arrive.
Next trip will be for christmas to Croatia. I am very excited for this.

Hey my birthday is coming!
21 OH YEA! But its not as exciting here but I will make a big deal. I will probably go to the Irish Pub and have my friends sing happy birthday to me.. that way I will probably get a free drink?

LOVE