Back home

well we got back home about 6 hours ago, we went to get our cats at the cat hotel, and came home with one more... LOL
Yup, they had found a little abandoned kitten somewhere and have not found the rightful owners yet. They do have some candidates to adopt her, but right now she's too young to eat on her own, so I was asked to care for the little one until she's old enough and eats on her own. I did tell them I wouldn't do it without the agreement of our two other cats, but so far they seem to be okay with the new addition to the household. Wonder how they'll react when it's time for the little one to go on to a new home... We'll see how it goes the next few days, if it doesn't work out they will ask someone else to train the kitten. She's very playful, exploring her new temporary home and definitely not shy at all!! She's on my lap as I'm typing this! Forgive me for any typos I don't catch... The cat did it. LOL

Nobody tried to guess where we were??? Maybe you need more hints, huh?? Or maybe this blog just doesn't have enough readers?? ahum!!! You can always share the link with your friends of course...
 So, here are a few extra hints... oh err, kitty is finding my fingers dancing over the keyboard very interesting and is trying to catch them! (grin) It's funny to have a little one in the house again. :-))
Okay, more hints to where we've been... Let me think, I don't want to make it too easy either of course...
- it's a world famous city in Europe
- very touristy
- there's a Hard Rock Café which made Jan very happy
- they have a long tradition of craftsmanship and handmade items which made me very happy
- if we had gone by bus or train we would still need to have taken the boat to get to the hotel and the city center
- to get there we had to cross Germany and Austria
and I'm not gonna say anymore or I'm gonna give it away! LOL
Okay, I'll make it a contest. Out of all the correct answers I'll draw a name and I'll send you a real snail mail card if you give me your address. Deal??? Deadline of the contest is one week from now -Monday 24th, so I'll draw the name on the 25th. Have fun! It's really not all that difficult!! I promise! :-))

I wonder if kitty is ever gonna go to sleep... She hasn't sat still for a minute yet since she got here, has eaten pretty well with some help from me and is still playing... pheww, I had forgotten how tiring this can be!! But it's just impossible not to like her!!

Hugs,
Wezz

Ahh travel pics!

As Club Scrap is closing the forum we just came to know a year ago, and where we had so much fun during the Pro Scrapbooking League, I will be transferring my artwork to my blog now that I still have the possibility to do so. I will miss that forum, but ClubScrap has started a new one right here, AND there's another one right here that is not company linked. It's called Paper Artists Online. Or in other words, "PAO to the people"! LOL
Feel free to join me there!!

Now, when transferring my scrapbook pages to this blog, I will try to put them up in an order that makes sense. LOL
I don't necessarily scrap in chronological order, you see. ;-))
Most of my pages will be about our traveling, both through Europe and yes of course, our trip to the States! Enjoy!

These first few pages are about our little visit for a weekend to Heidelberg in Germany. We visited the castle on a cloudy and rainy day, so maybe scrapping it on pink isn't so bad. Makes it look a bit brighter.



Of course, what happens when we walk around the old town center looking for a drink and something to eat for dinner? Yep, we come across a Hard Rock Café! Ten horses couldn't have dragged Jan away from there!! haha!!


Now we have a Heidelberg HRC kitchen clock in a proud place in our home! ;-))

Hugs,
Wezz

The rainy city

On our way from Shipshewana to Chicago we caught the I-80/I-90 tollway again in order to regain some of the extra time spent in Shipshewana. Jan's time schedule gets screwed up easily when we stay longer than he planned. It's just that he never tells me his time schedule... LOL

When entering the tollway there was only one (yes, one!) toll booth open to take a toll ticket. To our surprise the ticket was distributed manually (usually you have to push a button to get the ticket) by a very funny red haired and moustashed guy. The conversation went something like this:

"Hi there,thank you so much for choosing my toll booth. Where are you folks heading?"
"We're going to Chicago"
"Ooh, have a nice trip. Will I see you again tomorrow?"
"We seriously doubt that! We're only for 2 nights in Chicago and will then be heading for Galesburg after that."
"Oh what a pitty ! But have a nice trip anyway. And thanks again for using my tollway!"

Or how you can turn a dull boring job in the pouring rain into something funny!

Some people warned us about heavy and difficult traffic to get to downtown Chicago. What was that supposed to mean???? Even the massive roadworks don't make the rush hour stop. Traffic was slow, but still we advanced. You should see this in Brussels!!! This is regular traffic there, so you can imagine the rush hour!!
So finding the hotel downtown Chicago was just a piece of cake, thanks to Jan's very good roadbook of course :-)

Once settled in in the hotel we had a short nap and then went for a drink at the hotel bar, then we went out for dinner to the Hard Rock Cafe (Jan's favorite, you know, and he's even got a membership card now!! LOL). The Hard Rock Café was right across the hotel so Jan was a happy camper!
Right across on the other side of the HRC there was that all american FOOD chain McDonalds. The biggest one we ever saw. It sure was funny to see several limousines pull up there.... LOL
After dinner we went to the "Blue Chicago", a blues bar just around the corner of the hotel. The live music was fabulous, if you like blues, but we didn't stay till late because we were kind of tired. An extra hour in the day will do that to you I guess. It was kinda neat though to cross the time zone near South Bend and gain an hour that day, so that meant that the time spent in Shipshewana wasn't too much after all (all according to Jan's schedule of course). But I know that even if it had meant we would only have arrived at the hotel at midnight or so, we still wouldn't wanna have missed any of the laughter while meeting Sallyann and her friend!! He told me so. Oh and I wouldn't wanna have missed the local stamp store where I could shop and shop without him complaining!!!! LOLOLOL

The next morning I called Judy to see if she was gonna come and meet us for lunch or dinner somewhere as we had been making undefined plans in that direction way before. We had been looking forward to meeting each other for a long time now! But unfortunately she had a family emergency that day, so she couldn't make it, but at least we talked on the phone!! She sounded like a NICE lady!!
In fact, all those that I've talked to on the phone or met in real life are really NICE people!! :-))

Our plans to visit Chicago that day literally fell into the water. First it was just raining but that turned soon in real showering. :-(((
And strong wind!! We experienced in real life why they call Chicago the "Windy City"!! Another one of my weird pictures: a broken umbrella in a trash can. LOL :-)
After all this picture kinda sums up our big day out in Chicago. hahaha!!!
We walked along the Magnificent Mile for a while, before sheltering in a large mall somewhere near the John Hancock building.
Then we went to see the lobby of the Drake hotel. Wooow! Jan had stayed here for a
whole week for his job some years ago. Wooooow again! By then we needed some warming up and went for a cup of hot coffee at... you guessed it.... a Starbuck's of course!!
Then we walked some more along the Magnificent Mile. Hey, we weren't gonna let the bad weather beat us!!! We were there to visit the city, and by golly, that's what we were gonna do!! We got soaked to the bone, but there was no stopping us!! Oh no!! LOL
We wanted to see the city, not the insides of a museum, or the Shedd Aquarium. Besides, Jan had already been to the Shedd so I wanted to do something that was new to him too, and not bore him with old stuff. Although I bet he would have liked to show me all the things he had seen back then. :-))

Finally we did get tired of walking in the rain and we were freezing (it was only 35 degrees, I don't know what that converts to in Celsius, but it's COLD; let me tell you that!!) so we took a taxi to the city hall, and from there went to have lunch at the famous Giordano's, near Sears Tower. Apparently THE pizza place in Chicago. But it doesn't even come close to Luis' pizza at the Il Fornello pizzeria in our home town. Janet knows how good THAT pizza is from several occasions already. She even invited Luis to come to Texas!

Because you couldn't see even half of Sears Tower, the clouds covered the top completely, and we wouldn't get a nice view of the city in the rain anyway, we decided NOT to go to the top. Instead we took a ride with the "EL" train which we know from films and TV series like ER. Told you we were gonna do something that most tourists wouldn't do, and by the looks of some of the people that used the "EL" I can see why too.... We still had fun though!! (grin)
After that we took the bus to see some sightseeing while staying dry. Boy, that
was a phenomenal mistake! First we waited like FOREVER at three different bus stops as it wasn't very clear to us which bus would stop where. Some were passing by the numbers, others (the one we think we needed) we didn't get to see even once. Finally we did catch a bus that would take us at least close to the hotel. But sightseeing on the bus???? Noooooooo.... We couldn't see anything through the windows because of the humidity, so we returned to the hotel.
Oh yes, btw, I took a picture of a USPS truck as a tribute for all the swaps these guys carry around for us! Guess that's another one of my "weird" pictures!! Jan saw me run out in the rain to take a picture and wondered what I was doing. But he got it fast when I explained it to him. He said "of course you need that picture!" LOL

That evening we went for dinner in a nearby mexican restaurant. Very nearby, coz it was still pouring. When we entered two staff members were chatting and just before us a family of 5 had entered. Neither of them got up to show them or us to our tables. Up til now we've always been treated in a really nice way in any place we went to eat. Not this time.
When we finally were seated and got the menu, we got our waitress for that evening. We jokingly said to each other they must have forgotten to give her laugh muscles in her face at birth. Even the littlest of smiles seemed too much. For someone living of tips, that seemed very strange to us. Usually waiters/waitresses are very conscious of "their" tables and will make sure everything is okay. This time we had to ask for just about everything, usually calling another waiter, coz our waitress seemed to have disappeared. Then I went to the restrooms and passed the last table in the row. There she was!! Chatting with her colleagues and not paying attention to any of her customers anymore. I very well know that when you start chatting time seems to fly, heck, I'll be the first to admit that. But I expect them to do that in their own free time, not on the job, not while customers are waiting on the check to come, which we had to ask for by calling yet another one of the waiters. Well, her non-service attitude showed in the tip of course. We aren't even used to the tipping system, so this was even more strange. We don't have the tipping system in Belgium, the prices on the menu are tax AND service included. Doesn't mean you can't leave a tip, but it's not common practice.
Ohhhh and then something else that got us puzzled in most of the eating places we had gone to already on our trip. When you see the menu you first get the list of the appetizers or starters, right? And then they mention a list of "entrees"??????
Bwahahahaha!!!! "Entree" is the french word for starter, and that is what you'll find on most menus in Belgium for the starters!!! I thought they would call the bigger plates the main course or something like that. Imagine us flipping through the menu several times trying to find these. It sure gives us a giggle each time we see this!! LOLOL

Hugs,
Wezz

Crafts 'n' Rock

We're still very amazed at the amount of road kill we see along our route. And not just the amount but the SIZE of these things!!!! If you'd hit these head on your car would be total loss!! Or at least in Belgium it would be...
In Belgium we'd have the occasional cat or small dog run over, but nothing
like what we see here. Of course, there's a lot more wildlife here
than in the denser populated Belgium. You'd have to go to the Ardennes
to find some more wildlife, not where we live.
And then the signs that say "FOOD - McDonalds"!! They still crack us up!!
You know, people in Belgium just think good things of you guys??? Everybody there believes americans alllll stick to the speed limits, whether that's on the interstates or on the secundary roads. But not so!!!! Another desillusion... Darn!!

After a good drive we arrived in Akron and I called Debi-Ellen and Stephanie (you know, I gotta use that US phone now!!) to meet them at Hollo's Papercraft in Brunswick, Ohio. Stephanie was already there with her little boy when we arrived
and we started exchanging goodies on a bench outside, so Debi-Ellen could see us when she'd arrive. Of course she drove right past us and had to turn back... LOL

Hugs all around, coz we've known each other for years without ever meeting before!
The fun of exchanging goodies is just indescribable. I know some have mentioned this about me, but it really goes for everyone!! People's faces light up when you give them something nice that may be hard to get for them and even more so when you present them with something handmade. That excitement alone makes this trip worthwhile. Sending goodies is just not the same, coz you can't see their face when they open the package.

But then!!! We went inside the Papercraft Store!! Man, I thought I had died and gone to heaven!!! What an amazing array of cardstock, paper, envelopes, precut cards, and more!! Jan thought this was just yet another one of my biiiiig mistakes. I'm pretty sure this will end up in his top 10 of the big mistakes of this trips... LOL
Back to the paperstore now. I got me some 12x12 cardstock for a scrapbook. I needed black background cardstock for that "crazy" picture of the black truck that I took in the rear side car mirror!!
See, I do plan ahead and know what I'm doing... ahemmmm....
Got just a little bit of sheet sized cardstock, patterned, structured, and whatever I KNOW I won't be able to find back home. Stephanie had to leave early, and her boy didn't think the cardstock was all that exciting, even if we did think so.
I also got some stickers, well, actually they were some kind of photo corners, sooo
pretty!!! And won't they come in handy when I finally get down to actually start scrapping?? LOL
Got some patterned vellum too, just the "had to have" kind. Not my fault!!! LOL
Debi-Ellen just exaggerated on my shopping spree! ;-)
Meanwhile, Jan had gone to a bar next door. No way he was gonna come in with
us for looking at paper. Where's the fun in that, huh?? LOL
He was already waiting for us when we came out the store... Seemed to last like enternity to him, or at least that's what he says. Hmmm....
The plan was to have lunch with Debi-Ellen but we were kinda running short of time (though we agree that we did NOT stay too long in that store, regardless what Jan says!! LOL), so we had to say our goodbyes and head for Cleveland where we visited the Rock 'n' Roll Museum. That was fun!! They also had a section where you could see the development of the equipment used over the years. How the first radio started up until the development of the I-Pod!!Very interesting!! Then of course we hit the museum's store. LOL

Jan was not gonna leave Cleveland without having gone to the Hard Rock Café of course so that's where we went for dinner. Happy me from meeting Debi-Ellen and Stephanie and going to the paper store, happy Jan from visiting the Rock Museum and eating at the Hard Rock Café (and of course buying another t-shirt. See, I'm not the only one with shopping on my mind!!! haha!!). Perfect day for everyone!! :-))

We hit the road again, and around 9:15pm we stopped at Fremont, Ohio, to find some place to sleep. Most places do seem to have wireless internet, so that's nice coz I like to check some e-mails before going to bed. :-)
Addicted?? Who, me???? Naah....

Hugs to all,
Wezz