For teeth

I thought this was strange but maybe it's not--four of Miles's baby teeth have come out since we moved in August. Another one just today! These have all received euros at EUR 1 = USD 1.115. One was on his birthday so it got extra.

A birthday in Paris

Miles said he wanted to spend his birthday in Paris eating crepes and sailing boats in Luxembourg Garden so we took the slow cheap train from Brussels for a couple of days to do just that. We managed the crepes anyway. Le Jardin du Luxembourg a été fermé, unfortunately, but

More TV time!

We are almost all done with Lost in Space, wherein all the emotional hardships are indeed coming home to roost on poor Will Robinson. That poor kid. We've picked up watching Derry Girls! Fantastic, of course. The other show we've started is called Ghosts and it&

Cheese time 1

Phil had une bonne idée! He thinks we should try different cheeses and see which ones we like best. Fine, good, I say. Today we bought a small slice of tomme de 3 laits to be our first in this cheese trying. It's nutty and sweet and earthy.

Saint Stephen's

I was in Dublin but saw almost nothing of the city beyond the very nice hotel where we held our busy and complex annual conference. I did walk in nearby Saint Stephen's Green to clear my head once a day so I got to know that pocket. It

Into the Woods

Brussels is a proper European city-city, with roundabouts and trams and buses, gravel path parks with fountains, lots of cobblestones and narrow streets. It has plenty of human-created opulence like gothic gold-plated spires all over the Grand Place, which has only been destroyed a few times since

In which I possibly steal a bike

Something interesting about Brussels is the à donner culture. This is when people put their unneeded items outside for passerby to take, first come first serve. It is nice because there's obviously a generalized agreement here that things may be useful to someone else, even if you don&

Waffle is here!

Phil and Waffle have finally arrived here in Brussels! It sounds like the flight went well, even considering the anxiety of smuggling a slightly-too-tall dog on board. I'm just glad we are together again. Lots of walks in the Zoniënwoud in our future!

I miss the pool

In the last couple of weeks before we left Atlanta I went swimming every morning, first thing. The rest of the day was always filled with packing and schlepping and figuring things out for the overseas move, but I could start out by swimming laps. I really like swimming laps.

Brocante!

If you spend any protracted time with me, sooner or later we end up at a thrift store. This is because when I was born, there was a fairy floating around Upper Manhattan who granted new baby wishes at St Luke's Women's. Like a social worker,

In the suburbs of Dragon City

My new job sent me on a fast trip to a cool place: Ljubljana, Slovenia. Because right now neither Waffle nor Phil are available to stay home with Miles, he ended up as my plus one to a conference. We almost missed our flight out of Brussels! Thomas the Train

TV time!

Miles and I are watching Lost in Space (the 2018 version) every night followed by at least an episode of Friends. Believe it or not, I never saw either one when they were first out on actual TV, so it's new to both of us. Lost in Space

The stove is in charge

In this house, as any new house you move into, there are quirks and differences from what you had previously. Some can be solved or worked around in some way, like maybe moving furniture around or just getting new pillows or something. Sometimes it is more difficult, but you can

Officielle / officieel

I did manage to obtain my Belgian identity card! It was not too difficult because I have two things that simplified things considerably: EU citizenship and a job. The first visit was to declare residency, what I told you about already where I got lost, then the community officer came

What about the new job?

I should say a bit about what it’s been like starting at a new position here in Brussels. It’s my first real new job in 18 years, which tells you something right away. I did switch around what I did at CDC within those 18 years, of course,

Plums

The backyard of our house in Brussels has an apple tree, a plum tree, some grape vines, and raspberry bushes. It also has a hammock swing, a laundry line, a trampoline, a shed that I can't get into, and a tiny pond with one lonely goldfish. Lots of

Landing

The last few weeks before leaving the US were really difficult. Every day was a fresh assortment of problems to solve that took precedence over all the sadness of leaving our life. It was a miniature military operation and there was no room for anything but logistics. Efficient logistics are

Happy birthday to me

It costs a lot of money to move a household internationally. Even a small household like ours. It's wasteful too; there are all sorts of things I wish I had brought with instead of giving them up or paying (more money) to store thousands of miles away only

News

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