OooooHiooooO

This past weekends agenda: nothing. This past weekends goals: rest, relax and rejuvenate. This past weekends destination: Ohio baby.

For the second summer in a row, we happily accompanied our friends (and neighbors) Mike and Sara to Mike's family's "farm." As you'll see below, we were really, really roughing it.

Here is the bunk house – the air conditioned bunk house with a fully functioning toilet, shower, washer and dryer and fridge. It sleeps up to four Ruggles residents.
This is the main cabin. It's deceivingly bare from the outside…
…but fully equipped from the inside. Charming as all get out.This is the loft of the main cabin where Shawn and I cozied up for a couple of the nights and where I took the greatest 2 or 3 hour nap. I lost all track of time. And, it was great.This is a nice sneak view of the main cabin walking up one of the trails from the pond.
Our view off the back porch of the cabin onto the fire pit and natural backdrop. Mind you I was sitting in a wooden rocking chair while taking in the serenity. Rough, I know.Mike Woodruff doin' what he does while sporting the awesome shades we all got to rock out.Sara Woodruff doin' what she does while sporting the cutest baby bump which contains Bigglesworth.The ladies, assuming their position.The gentlemen, assuming theirs. (Mines the one in the blaze orange hat - shocking.)Another view – this one from the barn down by the pond looking out at the dock and Dirty Dancing log.
Us on the last day just wanting to stay. I'm of course, el natural and therefore sportin' the hat.The countdown has officially began until next summer's return…

Norman Made a Friend

Meet Norman's newest buddy… Kodiak.
(with his owner and boss, senior Wilson)
Kodiak is 7/8 Lab and 1/8 German Shepard.
He is just 8 weeks old and cute as a bug's butt.This wasn't the actual first meeting between strangers, but similar. Norman came a chargin' and Kodiak immediately surrendered. His paws went up, his tail went down and the saddest little whimper came out.
After time, and some convincing, they became friends.
Norman looks forward to Kodiak's next visit… by then, Kodiak will be able to kick his arse.

Paris By Pictures, As Promised

In exact opposite order of visitation, below is a sequence of our stops in Paris. You cannot take a bad photo in Paris and you cannot visit a bad site. My only advice, spend more time there then you think you need. That way when you've hit all the must-see landmarks, you can spend a little time living life according to the Parisians. Slow and steady.

Luxembourg Palace: Ironically enough, this was our last and most relaxing day. We were museumed out at this point, had stopped for some tasty gelato and strolled to this lovely landmark and it's gardens. We found two chairs, sat and people-watched. It was fantastic.

The Panthéon: Our hotel was in walking distance to this site, however, we never ventured in. Like I said, we needed more time. Guess we'll have to go back.

View outside our hotel room: We stayed at Hotel Acte V located at 55 rue Monge. It was a great location within walking distance of the metro, a boulangerie, a street market and the Latin Quarter.

View in line for the Catacombs: This was our longest wait - I think close to two hours. Honestly, I could've passed but Shawn enjoyed himself and it was an enlightening experience which is all I could ask for.

Steps to Sacré-Coeur Basilica: This was our longest commute on the metro and also the most sketchy. We made it safe, sound and satisfied with the view. From these steps, there is an amazing panoramic view of the city. Pure contentment.

Rodin's The Kiss: This was personally my favorite museum and this piece happened to reside in Rodin's former house, now the museum. We also received a quick French lesson upon entering and therefore had a nice little convo with some locals.

Rodin's The Thinker: This is the first sculpture along the zen path outside the Rodin museum. Each is almost hidden among greenery and is larger then life. It was a perfect day to stroll the statues…

Louvre Pyramid: This marked the entrance to the enormous museum. I believe this was the first we visited and also the greatest undertaking. We hit what we wanted to see and were impressed by the volume of art but instead chose to watch Pigeons court in the courtyard.

Arc de Triomphe: By far, this was the easiest place to find but the hardest to get to. The metro entrance drops you off right next to it, but thanks to the nature of the roundabout that surrounds it, you have to walk underground to get to it. The view from the top is well worth the trip.

St. Chapelle: Everyone at Notre Dame kept referring to St. Chapelle for it's original stained glass windows. We brushed it off as a helpful reference should we make it to see them. Knowing now how breathtaking they are, we are grateful we were pleasantly amazed. It's probably one of our most memorable reactions, ever.

The Conciergerie: We had never heard of this place but were impressed to see and read about the prison that held the people awaiting the guillotine. Including none other then Marie Antoinette.

Notre Dame Cathedral: With all the history and symbolism that exists in this church, I think we truly could have spent an entire day here. It's beautiful, it's huge, it's architectural, it's historic and when you see it, all these things are magnified.

Eiffel Tower: This makes me smile. This was our first site on our first night in Paris. As we were on the metro, it started to play hide-and-seek with us, right in the middle of it's light show. It was a giddy tourist moment when we finally approached it in it's entirety, however, I'll play the giddy tourist anytime I get to see something like that.

Fiscal Irony

Last week I was able to catch up on the laundry and even had time to wash our sheets. As I was making our bed with a spare set, my mind wandered to where it always does when making the bed; I want new sheets. We’ve had the same two sets of sheets since we’ve been married and both are stretched, faded and have a few random holes. Having wanted new sheets for a while now, I came upon an interesting inquiry. Why is that we spend money on certain things that really have no lasting relevance, but refuse to spend money on others because they seem too expensive or not really worth the price?

I’ll give you an example. I recently colored my hair again. It was easily over $100 to do this. Granted I only get this done twice a year but I, rather effortlessly, spent the cost equivalent to a new set of sheets, or two. And sheets, as I’ve just explained, last at least four years! Here’s another. I had my eye on a light fixture for probably close to a year. It was being sold at Pottery Barn and feeling their merchandise is highly overpriced, I kept watching for it to go on sale. Sure enough, it went 50% off. Not good enough. I decided to wait until it was at least 75%. This light fixture would probably hang in our house for the rest of our existence here but I just couldn’t pull the trigger at half off. Even though I really, really liked it and haven’t found anything since. I, on the other hand, have no problem buying a new pair of shoes or going out to eat on a regular basis or spending a good chunk of change on cable each month. These easily add up to the price of the light fixture.

This one is even worse. In fact, it may not have anything to do with money, but shear laziness. We’ve often times been in the middle of cooking something when we’ve realized we’re missing an ingredient. Instead of running to the grocery store, which is about three to four blocks away, we’ll run to the neighbors to see if they have what we’re missing. Why not just buy it? Surely the missing ingredient isn’t that expensive and we’ll more then likely need to use it again!

I just thought of another one. Razors. Razors are so expensive! I cringe every time I have to pay close to $15 for razors yet I’ve been known in the past to buy “special” shampoo for close to $25 a bottle. We’re even so cheap with razors, we share. Here’s another one… we’ve been saying for quite some time we want one of those boxes that you wind your water hose into when you’re done but for some reason, we can’t get ourselves to spend the money. We did, however, enlist the help of TrueGreen for an entire summer at well over $100 without putting much thought into it. You know for a fact that box would’ve down right decomposed before we actually rid our entire lawn of every weed and problem.

I find it frequently perplexing the things I’ll spend money on and the things I won’t. Even more interesting, what I’ll indulge in and what I can convince myself isn’t important. It’s even intriguing what we’ll buy generic and when we can’t bring ourselves to buy anything but the name brand. I’m guessing I’m not alone in this fiscally ironic battle. Any confessors?

La Bibliothèque

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I admit it. I know I have yet to talk about Paris. It’s coming. I know I’m still telling stories from a vacation we took in April. I’m sorry. Despite these declarations, I’ve decided to comment on a completely unrelated and out of the blue discovery. Well actually, a rediscovery. I have recently rediscovered… the library. Yes, la bibliothèque (an ode back to Paris), the public library, or in my case, the Ramsey County Library.

I don’t know if it’s memory loss (I did frequent the library as a kid), the previous economy of buy, buy, buy (as opposed to rent or check out) or simply a stigma, but I hadn’t been to the library in ages. I do know that if any of these were true, they no longer matter. I (re)love the library.

I can’t come up with one reason someone shouldn’t immediately head to their local library, apply for a library card and then stop by a couple times a week. Books are FREE. Granted I’m paying $0.25 a day to rent, “Always Looking Up” by Michael J. Fox but that’s because it’s a best selling, new release and when compared to the $27.00 price tag a new copy costs, I’m getting a fabulous deal (granted I can get it read in 108 days). I could wait until it is free, however, I just finished his first book, “Lucky Man” (which I bought for $2.00 at Half Price Books annual warehouse sale, before my rekindled relationship with the library) and liked it so much I couldn’t wait.

What’s almost as great as reading books for FREE? Renting DVDs for $0.50. Prior to a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t even know you could rent DVDs from the library. Not just old DVDs either, new releases. Now again, that’s $0.50 per day, however, you could have it an entire week and not reach the total for a Blockbuster rental. If you’re diligent, it’s pretty easy to run to the library after work, grab a movie for the night and return it the next day for little to no gas money. Also, even though it’s a lost format, you can rent VHS movies for free. Did I mention they also have the Internet for free?

Maybe I’m alone. Maybe everyone has always known (or remembered) the greatness of the library or has already rediscovered it in this economy. If that’s the case, I apologize for being so slow. Luckily I have a frugal husband who happens to teach AND go to school and therefore visits the library constantly. With his persistence and encouragement, I’ve seen the light. I’ve drank the Kool-Aid. I’m ready for my library card.

In Bruges

I'm about to relay the most important piece of information for anyone thinking of visiting Bruges. Here it is:

Everything in Bruges closes at 5p.m.

Stores, museums, restaurants, tours. Not-so-shockingly, we learned this the hard way. Granted we visited on a week day so maybe the weekend hours are a bit... extended? All I know is that on Monday, June 6th, 2009, everything closed at 5p.m.

We arrived in Bruges, I believe, just after Noon. We first bought our train tickets for the next day's trip to Paris (tres important!), stopped by the tourist office for a local map and then trekked on foot to our hotel. Upon finding it, we learned that we could not check in until 3pm. I'm sure I had that highlighted somewhere. Huh. Anyways, we then made a quick change of clothes in the bathroom (we were a bit ripe after the walk), stored our luggage and set out about Bruges to find us some food!

After much deliberation, we decided on... Pizza Hut. I know, I know. I can hear what your thinking because we too were like, Pizza Hut? Really? In our defense, Shawn was on the recovering side of food poisoning (seafood pizza) and we needed something cheap, easy and something we knew would be good. Plus, we needed to restore our faith in unauthentic greasy Italian/Americanized food. It was great. We were revived and ready to go. First stop, canal boat tour. Oh wait, before that, dessert run. Shawn purchased ice cream while I chose some delightful little chocolates with marshmallow inside. Can't come to Belgium and not get some chocolate! Two thumbs up!

Back to the canal tours. We found the tour entrances easily enough, bought our tickets and waited our turn. While we waited we got to witness a little tourist girl hurl on the deck of the canal. Poor thing. We knew it was coming; she did not look well. They rinsed it off in time for us to walk over to our boat. Aside from the mental images of the little girls lunch, the tour was lovely. Our guide spoke many languages, including English. Note: English is always translated last and requires about 25 less words than every other language. The guide would rattle of something very elegant sounding for about five minutes and would finish in English with something like, "This is the oldest bridge." We giggled.

Towards the end of our canal boat tour, we learned that the Belfry tower was actually open until 5pm and with 30 minutes to go, we felt we could make it on time. According to our guidebook, which was obviously outdated, the Belfry was closed on Mondays. I KNOW I had that highlighted. In any case, we gambled on our good fortunate and took off for the tower. At 15 minutes until 5pm we came to the stair entrance and saw a sign that said we were too late. No more people were allowed up. I'm telling you, if we had been 15 minutes earlier for everything up to this point on our trip, we could have seen a lot more. However, we would've spent a lot more so... hindsight's 20/20.

With the Belfry climb scratched, we went in search of the chocolate museum. That's right. Being an addict, I was pumped! It took us a while to find it but when we did we were greeted with a familiar sign. The museum closed at 5pm. Grrr. I believe we tried one other stop, I can't remember what it was, but when it too failed, we conceded. We headed back to the hotel, checked in and Shawn took a nice, long nap.

When he was good and rested, we ventured out for supper. By this time it was close to 9 or 10pm so our options were limited. I believe we ate at a place equivalent to McDonald's. Continued shame, I know. With our train departing halfway early in the morning and all our other efforts turning up a bust, we wanted to squeak out as cheap and simple as possible and gear up for Paris. On the upside, we got to eat outside and people-watch. My favorite. We were in the Market, the main square of Bruges. The Belfry was lit up as were all the gorgeous street lamps. Very old world. Very calming. We ate, sat, meandered about the square and then headed in for the night. Beautiful, charming city. Would've been great if more things were open late. I'm not asking for Taco Bell late either... heck, we'd settle for 15 minutes.

The Market Square in the middle of the city. Not sure what the monument was...

The infamous Belfry. On second thought, maybe missing the climb wasn't such a bad thing.

Evidence we were in fact in Bruges on the the boat tour.

We did learn on our tour that the a person's wealth was displayed by how many windows their house had because taxes were figured per window. Also, at the top of nearly every house was a tiny little hole for, you guessed it, passenger pigeons.

P.S. No, we have not seen the movie. A lot of people ask. Since we just cancelled Blockbuster, we'll have to wait for it to appear on cable.

In The Words of Mr. Rogers...

"It's a beautiful day in this BLOGGERHOOD,
A beautiful day for a FOLLOWER,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?"

"It's a neighborly day in this BLOGGERHOOD,
A neighborly day for a FOLLOWER,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?"

"I have always wanted to have a FOLLOWER just like you,
I've always wanted to live in a BLOGGERHOOD with you."

"So let's make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we're together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my FOLLOWER?"

"Won't you please,
Won't you please,
Please won't you be my FOLLOWER?"

"Hi BLOGGERHOOD FOLLOWER, I'm glad we're together again.... "

No, I've not gone silly, I'm just trying to recruit you as an official FOLLOWER of this blog. You're obviously visiting the site, you're reading the blog, you're looking at the screen right now so I'm talking to you. Look to your left and you'll see that at the time of this posting, I have one, very lonely, but devoted FOLLOWER. Staci needs a buddy and I need affirmation from readers so if for no other reason then to prevent another Mr. Rogers sing-a-long, answer me this - won't you be my FOLLOWER?

I amsterdam

And now... for the rest of the Dutch story.

When we weren't in route to Beerta, we were experiencing the Netherlands main show: Amsterdam. While some of your minds are already assuming images of marijuana and prostitution, let me distract your attention for a bit because there really is a whole lot more to this crazy city then the aforementioned examples.

First of all, it and all of it's historic canals are gorgeous and unmatched anywhere else we went. There is literally a canal between every street. It's not so much trying to find a destination by it's street address but more by finding which canal to follow to get there. We ventured out one afternoon by ourselves and did quite well, only asking for directions once. Well, actually, the kind stranger saw us looking at a map and offered up some help. That's another GREAT thing about Amsterdam, English is spoken very accurately and very often.
As unique as the canals were the rows and rows of houses. Almost all houses are connected to one another and most are very narrow, but very tall. Quite a few have slanted roofs, windows and doors thanks to the homes leaning on their neighbors, but they're still standing. No space goes unnoticed and no alley goes unused. The same day we ventured out on our own, we made a stop at arguably, the skinniest house in all of Europe. It was no wider than Shawn when he reached out his arms. Talk about narrow-minded!
We also visited some wonderful museums including the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House, as well as some beautiful attractions like VondelPark and the Keukenhof (tulip) gardens. You cannot visit Amsterdam without visiting the tulip gardens. The tulip is my favorite flower so to visit this attraction was like following my flora mother ship home. It's like Disneyland for tulips. A tulip garden on steroids. Fields of tulips, sculptures of tulips, greenhouses of tulips, tulips grown in the shape of tulips. Tulipmania. It was ridonkulously amazing and I now have lots of beautiful photos to display and admire should I never receive another tulip again (although I hope that's not the case!).
The greatest thing I found to do in Amsterdam was people-watch! If I could, I would sit at a cafe all day and just watch all the people, rolling by on their way about their day. The main mode of transportation in Amsterdam is the bike. No, not a Harley. A real, two-wheeled, peddled bike. Everyone rides a bike. Men in suites and women in skirts on their way to work, mothers with children in wooden boxes on the front of their bikes, kids riding two to a bike, people out running errands; you name it, they got there on a bike. It was fascinating and we were very envious of everyone's physique. Needless to say, they're a fit bunch.
One remaining fun area was one we walked by nearly every day, Dam Square. There happened to be a carnival occupying the space at the time with some of the scariest rides I've ever seen. Note: I do not enjoy scary carnival rides. It was funny to peruse this area because everything was labeled by the area we were in. So you would see signs to restaurants that read: "Dam BBQ" or "Dam Pub". We got a giggle out of it.

Yes, yes, okay, okay, we did stroll through the infamous red light district and meandered by some coffee shops but were not amused by either. We saw them just to see them and be able to say we saw them when we were asked if we saw them so yes, we did see them. Should you ever visit, I'd highly... er, greatly recommend opening your mind and experiencing the rest of this diverse and very colorful city!

The Farmer from Beerta

DeBoer means “the farmer” in Dutch. Naturally, having a Dutch name, we were delighted to travel north of Amsterdam to Beerta, birthplace of Shawn’s grandfather. To set the scene up, let me first describe the happenings of the night before.

We went to a lovely little pub and sat right next to a canal and enjoyed some hearty beer and an appetizer, I believe to be a special kind of meatball, amid the lights at night. We had warmed up with beverages at Brad and Aubrey’s, so by this point, we were really beginning to enjoy our evening. Afterwards, we headed to an Italian restaurant where we enjoyed some wine, some food and the company of a few stray cats (not mangy cats; healthy, friendly, right-at-home-in-Amsterdam cats). Note: Brad, Aubrey and myself all ordered some pretty common Italian food. Shawn, on the other hand, while he did order pizza, he ordered… seafood pizza. Mussels and everything. After everyone was finished, we went to the next establishment, had a few more amazing beers and then jaunted home while telling some really bad and cheesy, and at the time, hilarious jokes (ie What do you call a fish with no eyes? What are the two horniest animals in the barnyard? You get the point). We all went to bed, none the wiser. Come morning, almost everyone felt well. Everyone expect Mr. Mussels. At first it appeared he was just hung-over. However, as we were in the car, road tripping north to Beerta, we noticed his symptoms were not subsiding. Let’s just say, Shawn DeBoer left a little bit of him everywhere possible on the way to, and in, Beerta. He marked his heritage territory with “Gatorade” rather then with pee. Poor guy. We later diagnosed him with a combination of a mild case of food poisoning washed down with a decent, but not damaging, amount of delicious beer. By the time we got home late that night, he was feeling better and was up to eating some good ole fashioned Mac N’Cheese, shipped specially from the U.S.

Now, to recount what we saw on our journey. We headed out in the morning and leisurely made our way north. We stopped in some quaint towns and even stumbled into the most picturesque little town on the North Sea. Adorable little lambs roamed the hills, cobblestones roamed the streets and fake snow was covering everything. They were shooting a movie! Granted it’s a Dutch movie, but still, what are the odds? They were preparing for a scene set on a bridge. The cast and many, many extras were all decked out in charming, old, winter apparel and all stood on their marks. Finally, action was called and we watched them go through a very quick scene where an ancient car crossed the bridge surrounded by clapping people. It only lasted about 10 to 15 seconds, then they all backed up, returned to their marks and prepared to do it again. Very cool. After the scene was finished, we strolled through the rest of the town and found it to be nothing short of lovely. Too bad I can’t recall the name. Guess we’ll just have to go back someday.

After a couple more stops, we finally ended up in Beerta; birthplace of Shawn’s grandfather! Had he felt better, I’m sure he might have appreciated it more. Although he did get out of the car to take the obligatory photo by the Beerta sign. And then quickly proceeded to the neighboring house to upchuck some more. After he was finished, we drove through the very small town and came to a very large church. We got out to explore the cemetery and did come across a couple of DeBoer tombstones. Long lost relatives perhaps? Not sure, but we took photos of the headstones to see what information we can dig up. We’ll have to keep you posted. Having not much else to see or do there, we finally called it a day and headed the two hours home. Shawn enjoyed some fruit in the car and snoozed on and off until we arrived back at the Ragers. It was a good day and although it was tough for Shawn to go, it would’ve been tougher had he missed out on this chance to see and tell his family about Beerta, home of the farmer.