Elevation 681 ft.

Dutch folks keep track of their elevation. Especially when below Normaal Amsterdams Peil - the normalized zero elevation level in Holland - we need to know.

Most floods in North Texas are caused by excessive rain. A rising sea level is less of a concern up here. Nevertheless someone placed an elevation marker at the pond down our street last month. It's good to know that we're at an elevation of 681 ft. And that Sammy's head is at least 684 ft above sea level.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Ever since I came to this country, I wondered why people would voluntary dress up in ugly sweaters during the holiday season. Elderly ladies would conquer the shopping malls and the workplace with blindingly extravagant designs with wildly mismatching colors.

More recently, ugly Christmas sweaters have become cool. Hip ugly Christmas sweater parties are being thrown all over the country. The parties are said to have started in 2001 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The market for ugly Christmas sweaters has picked up, leading to dedicated stores and even more stores.

New designs are created, staying faithful to the ugly sweater tradition, but touching on contemporary themes. The Occupy Wall Street movement inspired the creation of this sweater where baby Jesus is casually pepper sprayed by a police officer.

't Heerlijk Avondje

At least once a year, Greg and Sammy remember their Dutch heritage. Usually around December 5th, when 't heerlijk avondje is around the corner. They will start reciting Sinterklaas songs - well, just one actually:  Sinterklaas Kapoentje - and will be working their wish lists.

We are never sure Sinterklaas will make it across the Atlantic. But when the weather is cold, windy, and wet like today, we're hopeful that Sint will feel right at home in Texas.

Cowboy JPG

We visited the Dallas Museum of Art today to see the exhibition on Jean Paul Gaultier - from sidewalk to catwalk. The show included many of the iconic sailor boys, religious madonnas, Madonna corsets with pointed bras, Mohawk tartan punks with leather jackets, and Eiffel tower decorated catwalk wear. A pretty cool feature was that the mannequins appeared to be alive through the use of video projectors displaying faces on their white heads.

Gaultier traveled to Dallas to open to show last week. He had created two modern day cowboy outfits displayed at the show's entrance. Perhaps his next collection will be inspired by Texas and Parisians will wear stetsons, big buckled belts and ostrich leather boots.

The Tailgate Party

Andromeda FC, Sammy's soccer team, held a tailgate party at FC Dallas today. A tailgate party is a social event held on or around the open tailgate of a vehicle. They usually occur in the parking lots around sports stadiums before the game. Tailgating often involves grilling food and drinking.

After the tailgate party, the boys and girls from Andromeda were invited on the FC Dallas field to create a tunnel for the players of FC Dallas and the Vancouver Whitecaps to enter the stadium. All this was topped off by watching FC D. beat the Whitecaps by 2-0.

Mending Fences

The boys have been playing a lot of soccer in the backyard. The fence behind the goal has been hit hard, shaking loose the nails and even breaking several beams. Today we used screws and wood glue to put it together again. Hopefully it will last. With all these soccer balls flying, we may soon have to shop for a new fence.

Barcelona vs. Club America

We went to Cowboys Stadium to watch the 3rd match of Barcelona's North American tour. After losing to Man. U in DC and to Chivas in Miami, Barcelona finally recorded a win. Club America from Mexico City lost 2-0 to the Euro champs. The crowd of 65,000 were about evenly divided between the two teams. Sammy was certainly on the Barcelona side. Ina took lots of pictures of heart throb David Villa.

The shopping cart

Everything is big in Texas, even the shopping carts. The latest model shopping cart is developed by Fiat. It's an evolution of the classic 500 model, and it's slightly bigger than the more traditional hand pushed shopping carts. The Fiat 500 shopping cart can be purchased at Fiat of McKinney. Please note that Texas law requires this shopping cart to have a license tag if you want to take your cart out of the store into the parking lot. This pink Texas tag shown in the picture reads: "I ♥ BACI"

The fortune cookie

We have been waiting for over two weeks for Ina's passport to be returned in the mail. Earlier this week, we finished a dinner at a Chinese restaurant with the traditional fortune cookies. Ina's cookie read: "a small lucky package is on its way to you soon". And sure enough, today it arrived. Yay!! Just in time.

Lightning Medicine Cloud

Over 2,000 Indians from across the U.S. flocked to Lakota Ranch in Greenville, TX, near Dallas, for a big celebration. The reason for this gathering was the birth of a white buffalo which is a very rare occasion.

White buffalo are considered to be sacred signs in Indian religion. The Lakota Sioux believe that Whope, the goddess of peace, once appeared in the form of a white buffalo calf, and the belief is that the goddess will return once four such calves are born. The calf born in Greenville is the third one that has ever been born. To qualify, the calf had to be male, have a black nose, black eyes and a black tipped tail. This one had all the features.

In a ritual naming ceremony, the native Americans named the calf "Lightning Medicine Cloud", as he was born during a thunder storm. At the ceremony Arby Little Soldier, wearing elaborate beading, a feathered headdress, held a spear above his head as he rode his horse into an arena. He then thrust the spear into the dirt declaring it sacred ground. Then a small group of tribal leaders moved to the center, offered a prayer, then smoked a special pipe.

Beat the Heat

Beat the Heat! Beat the Heat! We don't watch much basketball throughout the season. March Madness passes us by. But we did watch the last quarter of the NBA Finals games this year as Dirk, Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, and JJ Barea beat the Miami Heat superstar team. Tonight they brought home the NBA title to Dallas for the first time ever.

#23

Sammy's favorite number is 23. Here's why:

23 is a odd number

23 is not an even number

David Beckham is number 23

1x23=23

15+8=23

Maine is the 23rd state

Benjermain Harrison is the 23rd president

14+9=23

23 is a comonly cited number

GCF=1

LCM=1

23 is abundant

23 is not perfect or difficent

I was born on October 23

Twenty three is divisible by 1

19+4=23

7+16=23

11+12=23

72-64=9+14=23

If 1 = $1.00, 23 would be $23.00

26-3=23

25-2=23

24-1=23

My house is 23 miles away from a mall

My house is 23 feet away from a friend

My room is 23 inches from the stairs

Half of 46 is 23

The egg hunt

Sammy and Greg had no idea that the Easter Bunny had left eggs in our yard. It was Carly who found the first egg. She was trying to hide it like her other treasures, mainly bones. But the pink egg she found set off an egg hunt that's still raging.

Sammy's animated video

Sammy had a creative moment with the HP mediasmart webcam. You can also watch this video on Sammy's facebook page.

Cupcakes

Cupcakes are taking the nation by storm. Hip cupcake shops are springing up in every city. LA gave us froyo, New York gave us cupcakes. Chains like Crumbs, Magnolia, and Buttercup Bake Shop originated in New York. Cupcakes are nostalgic, they're creatively decorated, they're bright and festive. But will they last?

For now, Greg and Sammy are enjoying their cookiemonster cupcake. Happy birthday, Jasper!

Put it in D!

Here's Greg driving a car for the first time. He does a good job parking it in our driveway. Using the proven stop and go technique, Greg applies three firm pushes on the brake until the car comes to a complete stop.

What's that passenger in the back thinking? He can't wait to get out of the car. He's opening the door while the car is still moving. He appears just as nervous as Yoyo, the hilarious taxi passenger in Night on Earth who is not completely comfortable with Helmut Grokenberger's driving skills.

The Soccer King

The Soccer King (Koning Voetbal) probably does not live in the US. But with a rapidly increasing Hispanic population, he stepped up the frequency of his visits. Last night, he attended FC Dallas vs. the San Jose Earthquakes. Greg did not want to miss the opportunity to have his picture taken with the one and only Soccer King.

Mondrian Salt Flats

I came across this stunning picture of Mondrian Salt Flats in Redwood City, CA. The actual name would be Cargill Salt Flats, but since this picture displays such Mondrian-esque scene, the Infrastructure edition of Pictory magazine renamed it.

After over a century of salt production, Cargill Salt announced plans in 2006 to decommission the flats. Now, five years later, environmentalists want the 1433-acre plot to be restored as bay wetlands, while Cargill hopes to develop housing for 30,000 residents.

Sam the Sun

I am Sam the Sun, I live in the Milkey Way Galaxy. There are 8 planets that rotate me and yep i`m that cool. The planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiture, Saturn, Neptune, and sometimes Pluto. Every time the planets complete a rotation around me it is 1 year. I am just a averege size star. You should see my dad beetlegeuse he`s the biggest star in the universe. I am 1,392,000 feet in length. Don`t call me old but i`m 5,000,000 years old if you round me to the nearest million. I`m not aloud to leave these planets or my dad will get steaming angry, he will turn from orange to red!!!!!! So basically i`m the one that keeps you as i heard “humans” alive so people should thank me. I could fit at least 1,000,000,000 Jupitures and earth, pluto, venus, mars, mercury to many to count. Pangea did exist 260 million years ago. Well i`m out of stuff to talk about, Pease the universe is intresting.

By Sammy T H

Welcome to 4G

The Packers hung on to their lead and beat the Steelers 31 - 25.

Tonight's best Superbowl commercial, I thought, was this one from Best Buy for their wonderful buy back program. It shows Ozzy Osbourne promoting a 4G phone. The phone is outdated before the commercial is halfway over, and Ozzy switches to promoting a new 5G phone. That one too is old before the end of the commercial, and so is Ozzy. He's shoved aside by Justin Bieber and his new 6G phone.

Superbowl XLV halftime show

After years of horrible halftime shows with aging rockers like Tom Petty and the Who (who dat?), the NFL finally decided on doing something that's still relevant. We just saw an exciting halftime show by the Black Eyed Peas with guest appearances of Slash and Usher. Nice light effects on the clothing of the peas and the dancers.

So far, the Packers have been disrespecting the beard. They're taking a 21 - 10 lead into the locker room.

The giant winter storm

A giant winter storm dumped at least 5 inches of snow in 21 states from New Mexico to New England. Chicago received 20 inches, while Dallas was covered by a thick layer of ice for days.

NASA has a stunning animation that shows arctic air plunging down the great plains on January 31st and then moving Northeast across the country on February 1st and 2nd.

School has been out since Tuesday. The boys were having a blast building snow forts and riding their sleighs down the hill. Ina left her steamboat in the garage all week. And I... I escaped to California a few hours before the storm hit Dallas. I got back in last night and worked from home today as roads were covered with a fresh blanket of snow.

The NFL Experience

Superbowl XLV is coming to town, and the excitement is building. Sammy and I went to the Dallas Convention Center today to visit the NFL Experience. This is a fair about all things NFL: memorabilia, games to play, real NFL players, and lots of things for sale.

Sammy, who is a big Ravens fan, really enjoyed being immersed in all things NFL. He did not mind the lines waiting to run a football, throw a football, or kick a field goal. He also had his picture taken in a lot of different NFL team outfits.

Rachel's challenge

Sammy was recognized as a Longhorn Leader during a Wilmeth Rally at his school this week. One student from each of the classes of his school was chosen by their teacher. Longhorn Leaders are students who have shown exemplary friendship and leadership as well as given 100% best effort on their school work. Congratulations to Sammy!

The rally was part of a Rachel's Challenge. A high school student from Colorado, Rachel Scott, had a theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same.

Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for one of the most life-changing school programs in America to spread kindness and compassion.

Video footage of Rachel's life and the Columbine tragedy is used to teach students to positive change in the way they treat others.