A nose job

Greg had a little surgery this morning. He has been a mouth breather all his life, and often times his nose is stuffed up. His doctor recommended a surgical removal of his adenoids. It is a simple procedure that only took 30 minutes, even though it required a complete anasthesia. 

Greg was back home by 10:30 this morning, and he's doing well.

The Alamo

We doing a short tour of Texas with stops in Houston and San Antonio to apply for new passports, do the riverwalk, visit some friends and to see the Alamo.

Originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts in San Antonio for nearly seventy years. Construction began on the present site in 1724.

San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam led Texian and Tejano volunteers against Mexican troops quartered in the city. On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. Today, the Alamo is remembered as a heroic struggle against impossible odds — a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

300 dollars or an iPhone

Dear Santa,

I want 300 dollars or more for Christmas please.

Please Santa, I don't think I'll save enough. :-(

Greg

Flacco please

Dear Santa, 

this is all I want for Christmas,

Love

Sammy

Third Monday Trade Days

Greg and I went to Third Monday Trade Days, a flea market that's held once a month a few miles from our house. Greg was looking for airsoft guns. I was enjoying the wild collection of Texas memorabilia. Carly was getting lots of attention - everyone wanted to pet her.

A winter concert

Greg is playing violin in the Cockrill Middle School orchestra. Tonight they are performing at the McKinney High auditorium. They will play Twinkle, a theme by Mozart and a Christmas march.

A Sinterklaas surprise

Once a year, Greg and Sam consider themselves to be really Dutch. In early December they have a lot to gain from being Dutch. Despite that, I had to remind them last night to put out their shoes, just in time for Sinterklaas who traveled to the US overnight to deliver the last remaining presents.

Sammy was surprised to learn that Sint made his own giftwraps. When you deliver that many presents, it pays off to do your own. He obtains his giftwrap designs at sinterklaaspapier.nl .

Joep Maatje

Sammy has been playing Fifa 09 on his Nintendo DS. He is usually playing with Sweden. With the Swedes, Sammy has beaten Italy, England, Germany, and Argentina countless times. But mostly he's playing against the Netherlands.

There's something strange about the Dutch team. Unlike other teams, the Dutch players' names have been changed into fantasy names. I looked them up on the internet -- my favorite is Joep Maatje:

Starters

Arie de Baer - Edwin van der Sar

Henk Kleynhans - Jan Kromkamp

Hans Balabaster - Khalid Boulahrouz

Albert Peers - Andre Ooijer

Giuseppe de Horenbout - Giovanni van Bronckhorst

Michelangelo van der Poel - Rafael van der Vaart

Casper Zeeburg - Clarence Seedorf

Pim Steinmets - Wesley Sneijder

Ron Kieslaer - Klaas Jan Hunterlaar

Hans de Noteboom - Ruud van Nistlerooy

Bert Ronhaar - Arjen Robben

Subs

Michiel Terwilleger - Maarten Stekelenburg

Jurgen Googstra - John Heitinga

Mies van Joppel - Nigel de Jong

Bastieen Kennen - Boudewijn Zenden

Joep Maatje - Roy Makaay

Laurens Montanje - Hedwiges Maduro

Kasper van Koperen - Robin van Persie

Happy Thanksgiving

Spot the turkey...

The mighty ducks

Greg, Sam, and I are in the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Dallas Stars just tied the game at 1 versus the Anaheim Ducks. Greg did not see it. He's watching Nickelodeon in the back of the suite.

Genoa

This is Christoffer Columbus' home town. And where they make the best pesto in the world. Nice to be back in Italy after more than 13 years.

Field trip to the DSO

Sammy's class recently made a field trip to the Meyerson Symphony Center to attend a rehearsal of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Music director Jaap van Zweden was out of town. Ina chaperoned the kids, and made this slide show.

Falling home prices

Much of the current economic turmoil has been attributed to problems in the housing market. Falling home prices have caused many home owners to be upside down: i.e. having a mortgage debt higher than the value of their home.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index tracks home prices in 20 metropolitan areas. All of them saw the median home price fall between August '07 and August '08.

Metro Area	Median Home Price	One Year Change
Atlanta	124,820	-8.50%
Boston	162,750	-4.70%
Charlotte	132,100	-2.80%
Chicago	149,530	-9.80%
Cleveland	110,540	-6.60%
Dallas	122,900	-2.70%
Denver	132,640	-5.10%
Detroit	92,440	-17.20%
Las Vegas	150,520	-30.60%
Los Angeles	189,180	-26.70%
Miami	183,480	-28.10%
Minneapolis	141,940	-13.80%
New York	192,840	-6.90%
Phoenix	144,830	-30.70%
Portland	171,930	-7.60%
San Diego	168,230	-25.80%
San Francisco	151,420	-27.30%
Seattle	175,240	-8.80%
Tampa	174,300	-18.10%
Washington	194,860	-15.40%
Composite 20	164,570	-16.60%

The Zone

Sam and Greg had their birthday party today. They invited a bunch of friends to the Zone for some laser tag games, moonwalk bouncing, pizza, and birthday cake. Five of the guys are staying with us for a sleep over. They all want to sleep in the media room. I'm not so sure there will be much sleep at all. Good thing there is no school on Monday.

In line

I'm standing in line at the Best Buy. And it's not even holiday reason yet. But lines have been forming at every store that advertises Wiis. Legally you can only advertise something if it's in store. Sammy wants a Wii for his birthday. So i showed us at 9:30 this morning at our neighborhood Best Buy. The clerks were out to hand out tickets. I have number 5. They have 11 Wiis. I hope Sammy does not read this blog.

A $60,000 Lego gift

One of the most anticipated holiday catalogs is always that of Dallas-based retailer, Neiman Marcus. The colorful, upscale book is famous for its over-the-top fantasy presents (with their equally over-the-top price tags). Financial meltdown or not, Neiman Marcus issued their 2008 Christmas book today.

As if $2 trillion has not evaporated, Neiman Marcus offers luxury gifts such as

• A NM limited edition 2009 BMW individual 7 series sedan: $160,000
• An authentic Guinness home pub: $250,000
• All 18,400 of the 45 RPM vinyl records that were listed on the Billboard Top 100 Rock and Pop charts from Jan. 1, 1955, through Dec. 31, 1990: $275,000
• An entire Dallas Cowboys Texas Stadium end zone: $500,000
• A Jack Nicklaus custom designed backyard golf course: Beginning at $1,000,000
• An exclusive luxury wedding at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, California: $1,300,000
• A stable of 12-15 thoroughbred horses from the world famous Three Chimneys Farm: $10,000,000

But if you lost too much money recently, you can always buy some Lego toys for your loved one. Acclaimed artist Nathan Sawaya fills his New York studio with more than 1.5 million LEGO bricks, and he can sculpt anything out of them. Send in detailed photos and measurements, then Nathan gets to snapping a one-of-a-kind, life-size sculpture in LEGO bricks. For only $60,000.

Opryland

The Gaylord Opryland in Nashville is the largest hotel in the US. It features huge atriums with lush tropical gardens that are connected by rivers. One of the atriums has a New Orleans style street with restaurants and shops.

The hotel is next to the Grand Ole Opry, the stage that made Nashville the country music capital of the world. Live shows from the Opryland are blasted daily across the country on 24 hour TV stations like Great American Country and Country Music Television, radio station WSM, and YouTube.

Twelve

Greg turned twelve today. Hooray! Happy birthday to Greg. He got a huge Lego Star Wars ship, a telescope, a microscope, and some birthday money.

From the money, he bought a samurai sword at Third Monday Trade Days, Texas' oldest and largest flea market. It is located just five minutes from our house, but somehow we had never been there.

Ina found Indonesian pottery at a trader that buys stuff from Indonesia to sell wholesale to furniture stores.

Ike

After having made landfall in Galveston and having ravaged Houston, Hurricane Ike passed by east of us this afternoon. Ike brought lots of rain, but not too much wind. The cat 2 hurricane had already been downgraded to a tropical storm, but with a diameter of several hundred miles, it was hard to avoid the impact of Ike.

All soccer games were cancelled, and we spent most of the day inside. According to the forecasts, the rain will continue through tomorrow.

Framed

This week, Darling Homes started the home next to ours. They poured the concrete foundation on Monday and started framing the house towards the end of the week. In a couple of weeks it will have windows and a roof. The early stages of house construction go so fast.

Our neighborhood is filling up quickly, there's just one empty lot left in our street. Pretty soon the builders will have left.

The island at the center of the world

"Nadat de Kamer Amsterdam der West Indische Compagnie op 22 April 1625 last had
gegeven tot den aanleg van het Fort Amsterdam en tien bouweryen daarnevens heeft de koop van het Eiland Manhattan dien aanleg bevestigd welke de grondslag werd van de stad New-York"

This is the Dutch inscription on a monument in Battery Park memorizing the Dutch establishment on Manhattan.

I've been reading this great book by Russel Shorto called "The island at the center of the world". It's is a chronicle of the early years of Manhattan, when it was known as New Amsterdam in the relatively short-lived Dutch colony of New Netherlands. According to Shorto, this period in New York history is crucial to understanding the development and character of New York City and the United States. As the first "multi-ethnic, upwardly mobile society on America's shores ... Manhattan is where America began.

Shorto traces New Amsterdam's character, naturally, to Amsterdam and Dutch society. He points out that Dutch society was the most tolerant in Europe at the time, a place where dissidents and controversial thinkers could come to escape persecution. The book is filled with examples of this enlightened atmosphere, from philosophers like Descartes and Spinoza to the interesting fact that one-half of all books in Europe were published in the Netherlands. Fresh from the highly resented imperial rule of the Spanish, the Dutch were particularly sensitive to liberal notions of free-speech and self-determination. Furthermore, Shorto suggests that because New Amsterdam was a company town, and never intended to be a settlement colony, attitudes toward religious and national differences were put aside to a remarkable degree. Business is business, after all, and distractions were unwelcome in this market society.

New Amsterdam was not entirely a reflection of Dutch society, however. Indeed, Shorto points out that because Amsterdam was a pleasant place even for the poor, only the very lowest order of society could be convinced to populate the far-away outpost of New Amsterdam, and thus the city became populated with a particularly rough-and-tumble crowd. Through court records he brings to life some of these figures, and this time spent with various average residents is one of the more delightful aspects of the book. He recounts a lively atmosphere full of drunkenness, casual violence, and casual sex, all of which help to make the book entertaining to a popular audience. (courtesy of Michael Wescott's review on Amazon.com)

Liberty Island

Today we made the trip to the Statue of Liberty. It was a cool day with showers in the morning, but a bright and sunny afternoon. Liberty Island offers great views of New York harbor and Manhattan. Lady Liberty was happy to have her picture taken with us.

Top of the rock

We're in New York for a couple of days. It's a great city with many things to see and to do. Sammy got a Mets shirt at the original Macy's store. And Greg felt like he walked the New York marathon.

At the end of the afternoon, we went to the observation deck on top of the Rockefeller Center. It's not as high as the Empire State Building, but it has a nicer observation deck, and has great views over Central Park and the Empire State Building itself.

On the subway ride back to the hotel, we enjoyed some guys drumming plastic buckets on the platform. Pretty cool, New York.

Live TV up in the air

We were all on a Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta to Newark yesterday. At 8:08 pm on 8/8/08 EDT we were probably right over Lynchburg, VA. Most passengers, like us, were watching NBC's broadcast of the opening of the Beijing Olympics on Delta's in-flight entertainment system. Isn't it great to be watching live Dish Network tv at 35,000 ft.?

But wait, NBC did not even show the opening live. It was at least 12 hours delayed until prime time in the US. And it was conveniently interrupted many times for commercials, without missing any of the action.

NBC was much criticized for their decision to delay broadcasting many of the Olympic events. And they even hold off streaming on their website until after it has aired on tv in all timezones. As a results, NBC found itself plugging holes in the Internet yesterday. Live streams of the Olympic Opening were leaking into the US from foreign websites.

To me, these delays don't matter. I rarely watch live tv anyway. I prefer to record and delay shows, so I can skip commercials. But I have to admit that it took away from my live TV on an airplane experience.

Mason

Greg's best friend Mason is visiting from Georgia this week. He traveled all by himself on a direct flight from Atlanta. Greg had been looking forward to his visit so much, he was counting the days. They played X-Box 360, went swimming, saw movies, and caught up with everything.

Today, we played Monopoly. The Atlanta properties, Atlanta International Airport and Centennial Olympic Park, were in high demand. Sammy built a hotel at Texas Stadium, Mason had major real-estate at Pioneer's square in Seattle, and Gregory made a killing with the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.

8 visitors

We had eight visitors staying at our home last weekend (not this weekend, I'm a little behind writing this blog). Four little rabbit babies, and four Dutch tourists.

Carly dug up the rabbits from a hole in our backyard. She treated them like little toys. We never saw the rabbit mommy, but she must have been there since the rabbits kept growing. After the weekend, they disappeared. One of them came back after dark for three nights in a row. I'm not sure what happened to the other three. It's a dangerous world out there with dogs, snakes, coyotes, bob cats, and birds.

The Dutch tourists were our friends Hans, Petra, Feiko, and Mila. They are traveling from San Francisco to New York in an RV. Since Dallas is half way, they stopped by to spend the weekend with us.

Help

In the end, Greg and Sammy became a little too creative finding new photo opportunities.

David Blaine

We were not the only ones making the trek from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon. Who was that balancing that ledge? It was the modern day Houdini: David Blaine.

Two years ago, I wrote about David Blaine in this blog. Today, he did his tricks in the canyon and took the time to sign Greg's and Sammy's hats, and to have his picture taken with them.

Grand Canyon

We walked the South Rim of the Grand Canyon today. At 7100 ft. (2200 m.), the canyon rim was 25 degrees cooler than Las Vegas. We enjoyed the views of the canyon. Being a mile deep and 10 miles wide, it is truly grand. And once we walked a little distance away from the parking lots, we immediately lost the crowds, and had the canyon to ourselves.

What's the plan?

Nixon said in 1970 that the US was importing 20% of its oil and that by 1980, it would be 0%. That didn't happen. It went to 42% in 1991, and it's just under 70% now. A lot of the trouble we're in is caused by our dependency on foreign oil.


T. Boone Pickens, a legendary Texas oilman, corporate raider, shareholder rights crusader, philanthropist, and deep-pocketed moneyman for conservative politician and causes, presented the Pickens Plan today. He wants to cut USA's demand for foreign oil by more than a third in less than a decade. Wind power should drive the shift away from oil. By launching a massive ad and awareness campaign, he will force the presidential candidates to talk about this.

One of his stongest supporters are the Sierra Club. They don't usually see eye to eye, but in wind they found a common cause.

Las Vegas

We're spending a couple of days in Las Vegas. This refrigerated city in a scorching hot (110 F, 43 C) Nevada desert is certainly not winning any green awards. But it has evolved from a rowdy booze, gambling, and sex town, to a sophisticated entertainment center. Mind you, the rowdy booze, gambling and sex is still there. But Las Vegas has added ultra high end shopping, fine dining, art exhibitions, great shows, and extravagant architecture.

We watched the dancing fountains at the Bellagio, looked at the Forum Shops at Ceasar's palace and the Wynn Esplanade, enjoyed the landscaping and the interior design of the Wynn resort, and saw Mystère, one of the five permanent shows that Cirque du Soleil has in Las Vegas.

Fotboll

So Germany lost, and Spain won Euro 2008. No big deal for Sammy. He had already given up his shortlived support for the German team. He was wearing his Swedish jersey while watching the final.  And he proudly wore it to the McKinney Lightning end of season soccer party that we attended after the game.

Out of Jimmy's head

It's hard being in when you're out of your head

Illustrated by Gregory

Hiddinkgrad

We watched most of the Euro 2008 games. Live during the weekend, and 5 or 6 hours delayed ion weekdays. For interviews, Cruyff's analyses, and gossip, I turned to the NOS website. That's where I found this short movie about Varsseveld, the town where I grew up, and hometown of Russian coach Guus Hiddink. 

Don't you wish...

Moon over Vegas