Move over, alligator!

Friday night, we went to our friend Amy’s graduation party at her parents’ house. They live in the East Bay and we left our cozy house and crossed the Bay Bridge to get there. We were driving peacefully through the hills of Pleasant Hill until the Highway Patrol all of a sudden stopped us. As a kid, though my parents didn’t allow me to watch much TV, I knew and loved the Chips Highway Patrol officers. This Chips-like officer looked more serious and I was afraid to get a ticket or, God forbid!, lose my license. He asked me to roll my window down. I remembered my Miranda rights and laughed sheepishly at the officer, hoping that would show our good intent. I felt even more sheepish when he shouted through his megaphone that I had left the gas cap open.

Stimulus Weekend in Napa Valley

Anneliens sympathieke ouders, Herman en Marianne, hadden wat ontspanning nodig na 6 drukke maanden in Boston. We namen hen mee naar een wine tasting in de chateaux van Napa Valley, the perfect excuse om in het midden van de dag al te pintelieren. Je waant je in de jaren '50, toen het nog bon ton was om te ontbijten met een flinke whisky on the rocks. We leven nu echter in 2009 en onze generatie kan duidelijk niet mee met de vorige generaties. Nadat Annelien en ik aan een paar glaasjes hadden genipt, lieten we de ouders achter bij het zwembad en reden wij op onze fietsjes door Napa Valley.

Very strange dog

I wonder what kind of dog lives behind this fence. If it would have been a really strange dog, the sign might have said "super strange dog" or "extremely strange dog" or "the strangest dog you've ever seen".

Californians loooove superlatives. When the bag says that the chips are lightly salted, they are heavily salted, but just slightly less than the really salty stuff. Californians yell 'I loooove you' and they mean 'hi there, how are you, what's your name again?' Despite all the stereotypes, we love the Californians – not as in “I loooooove you” but really as in “Je t’aime”.

Miles per Gallon

I just realized how successfully we are blending in. I think in Miles Per Gallon and no longer in liters and kilometers. Toyota Prius is my favorite car and I love huge cups of coffee. I drink milk from 1 gallon bottles (3.78 l) and I manage to pour myself a little milk without losing control of the heavy container. The glasses that we brought from Belgium look very small compared to our new American mugs in the kitchen closet. There’s only one thing that needs improvement. I like regular plain coffee with milk. That is very hard to get here. If you want French vanilla roast with 0.1% fat skimmed milk and organically manufactured orange juice sugar in a cup of specially recycled 80% post-consumer materials, it’s easy. If you just want plain old coffee in a mug, you are a difficult customer! Or French.

Hearst Castle

You see Annelien near the swimming pool at the gymnasium of the mysterious and fabulous Hearst Castle. She looks very much at ease in the setting. She is probably thinking of our own little hot tub at home.