Life and its little pleasures

Monkey

The monkey really likes my belly... He can be kind of cute in the evenings when he needs attention. And yes, the belly keeps on growing. To monstrous proportions... I feel like I don't have enough space inside my body for this baby. My stomach is going to rupture any day now with Alien-like hands creeping through my skin!

Mike interview on Amazon

The Omnivoracious blog on Amazon interviewed Mike on the work he did for the Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Check it out here.

My favorite question:

Amazon.com: Your name, "Michael J. Windsor," is, as anyone can easily see, an anagram for "Clown Miser Jihad." What should we make of that? Does it provide a key to Robert Langdon's next adventure?

Windsor: That’s too funny... That’s how I’m going to start crediting myself: Jacket design by Clown Miser Jihad!!!

That makes me sound like a fanatical burka-wearing circus performer. Bozo the Terrorist, and his exploding clown car...

I think I will call him Clown Miser Jihad instead of babe from now on :-)

Baby room 2

Mike finished the baby room and I have to say, it looks awesome! Some pictures below, and more if you click here. What do you think?

Frieten

I just spent the whole morning pre-frying fries and making mayonnaise for our Belgian style thanksgiving dinner tonight. The "Hollanders" are preparing the appetizer, Charlotte & Pieter are making stoofvlees, Roel is preparing dessert and Hilary is getting the wine (better to leave the drinking bit to the English...).

Hubby is in Ohio at his mom's house doing it American style and no doubt being spoiled for 4 days straight. I'd be surprised if he has to lift one finger :-). Well, let him enjoy it... Those days will soon be over!

The latest hospital ultra-sound showed that the placenta has moved away from my cervix, so all is perfect in babyland.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

My parents were awesome

I saw that Pietel was going to scan some pics after seeing this website and I thought I would do the same (again... Yes, copying is the highest form of flattery).

I do think my parents were awesomely cool when they were young! I especially like mutti's comic book dress and my dad's sun glasses.

 

I also think they still look pretty dashing today, some 35 years later...

 

Baby names

Ever since we found out that I am pregnant, Mike and I have been tossing around names to each other to see what we both like and dislike. We realized quickly that we have completely different tastes when it comes to this. I like short, 1 to 2 syllable names, that are simple. Mike seems to like weird, long and unusual names. So conversations like this happen quite often:

Me: What about Max for a boy?
Mike: Yes! Maximilian, I love it.
Me: Nono, I mean Max, just Max, nothing behind it.
Mike: Huh? But it is short for Maximilian?
Me: Nonono, it doesn't have to be short for anything... Just Max
Mike: No, I hate it

So after names like Sam, Emma, Nathaniel, Balthazar, James, Gregory, Gustaf, Hazel and Femke were quickly dismissed, we were kind of stuck. On top of that, our names had a few of our own "rules" that they had to follow.

First of all, the name has to be pronounceable by both our families, meaning both in English and in Dutch, without sounding too weird. So Wout, Tuur, Kaat, Manon, Lotte, Seppe and other very typical Flemish names are out as my family-in-law will have a hard time with those names. Luckily, English names are fine for my family, as long as they are not too complicated...

Secondly, the name has to fit with the last name Windsor. And although I thought a British royal name would be cool like Charles, Harry or William, Mike didn't agree at all... 

We both like the names Silas, Noah, Lucas, Eli, Sarah, Becca and Seth, but as we are both very strong atheists, I have a problem in my mind with these very biblical names... I don't want anyone to think I would name my baby after someone in the bible. Maybe that sounds silly, but that is just how I feel, no matter how much I like the names.

Since we are no Frank Zappa or Bob Geldof, names like Ahmet Emuukha Rodan, Moon Unit, Peaches Honeyblossom or Pixie are not really an option...

So this exercise proved a bit more difficult than we thought at first, but I think we came to a good result. For a boy, our top 2 is Cole and Miles. For a girl, we love Lily and Ella. At least for now... (response of 5 -year old Marie to the boy names: Wat? Cole? Miles? Da's zo moeilijk... Waarom niet gewoon Bertje?)

We have about 11 weeks to decide...

Champion!

My previous post must have brought them extra luck yesterday, cause our football team was crowned the champion in our league! After winning the semi-final with 6-1, we beat the other finalists with 4-1! Congratulations to everyone!

PS: @Kris The t-shirts are yellow because the sponsor is the Flemish House... 

 

Photo courtesy of Pieter Dom from mess.be

Belgians in the big city

During living in Indianapolis for a year and then London for 2 years, I never really got involved in the local Belgian or Flemish societies and organizations. In Indianapolis, there just wasn't any close by (I believe Chicago was the closest) and in London there were just too many Belgians, I guess... I also figured that if I wanted to hang out with Belgians all the time, then I might as well have stayed in Belgium instead of going out and see the world.

I did try to join some events in London, organized by the Young Chamber, but I honestly thought they were a bunch of stuck-up little boys, who thought that anyone pursuing a career outside of financial services was beneath them. And on top of that, it seems to be impossible to get off their mailing list even after having begged them to get my email address removed. So even today, while I live thousands of miles away from London, I still get invited to Young chamber black tie events and Sinterklaas happenings.

In New York, I accidentally stumbled upon the website of NY Prietpraat and joined their mailing list. I got asked whether I would be interested in joining a co-ed football team (as in soccer). I thought it would be fun and 3 seasons later, my husband is a trusted goalie (and 1 of only 2 Americans on the team) and some of the other players have become great friends. Besides playing football once a week, we get together once a month for drinks and these events have turned into somewhat "deboucherous" nights. Well, no alcohol for me though the last 7 months... and no football either, come to think of it, so I'll call myself their number one supporter.

I'm glad I got over the initial negative thoughts I had about these Belgians abroad groups. This is a pretty awesome group of people...

Home

I'm being a Pietel copycat today... (and for a lot of days to come...)

Decorating the baby room - phase 1

Mike has started on the decoration of the baby room and I'm really excited! We decided on putting up a mural with animals we both like. We just started the work, so we have a ways to go, but check out the first steps we took:

- Before we started:
 

- Step 1: painting the circles

 

- Step 2: drawing and painting the animals



 

Mike still has to add some animals, add details and do the cleaning up of the edges. But I really like where this is going!

If you have a suggestion of an animal you think we should add, let me know in the comments!