What made you smile today?

Anastasia and I are back in Holland - though, thank God, just for the holidays!

My family picked us up at the airport yesterday - my father (late a bit, of course) and my sister and her oldest, now 4 years old. Today we spent all evening there, mostly playing with the kids - not much opportunity to do anything else, with two raucous young boys in a small house! But it was wonderful.

The oldest kid is a big, tough little guy, very playful and serious at the same time, when building a castle of blocks for example (and then gleefully throwing it apart again).

He loves me. This morning the folks of a friend of his called, if he could come over to play, and my nephew said: no, but I cant, I will be playing with uncle Nimh! (My sister kindly explained that I would only come a little later, so no worries..)

We were building stuff with Lego, and he asked me if I had any at home. I said no, alas, I have no Lego - grown ups dont get to have Lego! When my sister brought him to bed afterwards, he proudly explained to her what he had all built with uncle Nimh, and that it had been a really good idea of his to play Lego with me, because poor uncle Nimh at his place doesnt have any of his own!

My sister's youngest kid is just 1 years old. He is a cloud of an adorable little boy, curly blonde hairs and angel eyes. But as active and assertive as his older brother. I sometimes feel sad I can't get to know him like I did his brother when he was small - when this youngest was born I was already in Budapest, so the only times I've seen him was once a four, five months on visits.. he doesnt really understand who I am, at least not on the first day. He's absolutely adorable though, a winning kid. He loves clapping his hands and waving, he just learned to wave and can wave at you for 10 minutes on end if you keep waving back...

We celebrate Christmas tomorrow, in our family's low-key type way. But Stas and I did get little presents for everyone - we went to this artisans' / artists' fair in the (beautiful) Museum of Applied Arts that's held there one weekend a year, I got some cute little stuff there. Some original-looking alternative Christmas decorations, a monkey handpuppet, a shotglass that has a sculptured face hollowed out from the inside.

A happy Christmas to you and yours, nimh.

When we flew into the country yesterday we were lucky - the most amazing sunset nearing Schiphol. Fiery layers of golden clouds interspersed with fluffed lines of shadow. Underneath, a grey, flat and misty country looked dreary in a kind of mythical way: like the looming lands of Mordor.

The coolest thing was that while the sunset radiated at one side of the (almost empty) plane, the moon was visible in the sky on the other. Just that big coin of a moon, and underneath, a perfect colour spectrum from blue through orange, yellow, without a blemish.

That reminds me of something I had wanted to post here some time ago. A month or two ago I flew to London for a meeting. It was dark by the time we approached England, but the sky was clear and cloudless. Stars above and the countryside layed out neatly below like a topographical map. Roads, fields, trainlines, villages and towns.

But the cool thing was that it was Guy Fawkes night. Bonfire night! It was the impeccably British captain of the plane who pointed out that we were in for a treat, so I looked down.

At first it seemed like there were random camera flashes going off, continuously, across the countryside. Flick, flash, snap; you didnt see anything but pinpoints of light flashing up and out. As we approached London and the plane flew lower, the flashes of light turned into more tentative, wavering flickerings. Lower still, and we could make out the actual fireworks. The flash of light appearing, then breaking and fading out. Lower still, and you could see the fountains of sparkle as a single piece of firework erupted and rained down in sparks.

Amazing to see from above, especially to see just how low the fireworks remained; it was like seeing Lilliputters taking off in mini-rockets and coming down from minute height again.

Inside London, there was much less fireworks, alas. But it was one of the most special things I've ever seen from a plane.

Merry Christmas to you, too!

Merry Christmas all!

I never talk politics, nor am I extremely into it, but I found this kind of funny. Talking to my sister last night, who is a complete genius(pediatric surgeon), and find out she's a Republican. On top of it, supports Bush. What was funny was the typical weak comments about how he was right to go into & stay in Iraq.

There goes my "most right-wing people are mostly dumb hicks" theory.

Slap, I understand. Just proves how uncommon common sense can be.

My best friend is a moron...(thinks he's the guvenator....) and he went to college, too.

RH

Don't feel bad Slappy, my brother is on the same side and lives quite comfortably. He and my sis inlaw take their dogs to doggy daycare ;-)

I have a friend who has a total of four university degrees (one of them from Harvard). Get ready for this. He's a born-again Christian and believes in Creationism and the rest of the claptrap that goes with it. Go figure.

If he is your friend, you would not talk such of him. Are you sure he is wrong? :wink:

Are you sure you're on the right planet, Intrepid? Go home for Christmas. Peace.

The ice is gone from my driveway. Gone. Gone. Gone. I can drive in and out with no problems.

Watching the dogs romp and run and jump and tunnel in the wonderful untouched snow we can find in the parks and schoolyards around here. Everyone seems to have left Kingston for the holidays - so those of us who came for the holidays have a great play space.

Bailey's spent most of his outdoor time buried in snow - he's been acting like a crazy crazy puppy.

Love your avatar, ehBeth.

What made me smile? Getting through chapter 30 out of 51 Yahoo. [size=7](Now, if only I could remember it)[/size]

A mother told me painfully of her fear that her young son was becoming a sexist. He presented his mother with the riddle: Why doesn't Helen Keller drive a car? Answer: Because she's a woman.

A mother told me painfully of her fear that her young son was becoming a sexist. He presented his mother with the riddle: Why doesn't Helen Keller drive a car? Answer: Because she's a woman.

Helen Keller severely burned her fingers trying to read the waffle iron.

But that is a subject for another thread.

My brother and his wife sent two gifts. One was the exact same set of beautiful tea lights that I sent to my best friend in Chicago. The other was a whimsical set of chimes that I came this close to purchasing for myself.

And my hubby's gift, a new Bose SoundDock for my ipod. It sounds so good it's stupid.

The great tragedy about Helen Keller was that she couldn't play the piano and sing at the same time.

But, as Gus has already said, that's a subject for another thread.

seeing bailey and cleo - ebeth's dogs - gobble up their dinner and seconds later appearing at the table pretending that they hadn't been fed for days - a very sneaky couple - of course , they look so convincing that we all believe them