The set-up.

Let's face it. I'm running a tad low in the "catchy title" department. Had to happen sooner than later. So what? Is that it? We're done?
I suppose though before I completely give up, I could pass along a couple snippits. If you happen to be reading this in the afternoon and are in need of some nap material, do read on.
Got back late on Thursday night from Paris. Somewhat bushed from a few hours at the wheel, so Friday is a bit of a blur I'm afraid. I do seem to recall sleeping in just a tad, and that the weather sucked.

Which...makes it all that much easier to sleep in I find.

The weather continued to suck on into Saturday and I was glad to have use of the car in the morning to first take Gabe to a hair appointment, and then to pick up a couple things, grocery wise.

Left for Herkenbosch after 11:30 which meant that we were going to be late, even before we got into the car. We said we'd be there around 1:00.
Herkenbosch is down in Limburg, about 25 kilometers this side of Maastricht.

No, we did not get any cheese.

Nor did we sign any treaties.

In terms of the big picture, we were on our way to visit with some total strangers.
Let me attempt an explanation. The lady whom we were gong to visit, is the daughter of Gabe's older sister Anna's God Mother (now deceased). Got that?
In other words, a Slovenian connection (and I just now thought of what the label for this post will be...)
It probably didn't matter too much, but stupid GPS took us down through Germany. I watched the speed limits this time, no worries. However, there are places where the Autobahn is simply a spiders web of choices, so we chose to come home by way of Nijmegen when we returned, sticking to the much better highways on the Netherlands side of the border.
It rained all the way there, and down around Oberhausen it came down in buckets. Not fun.
So you have to understand that, in spite of being "total strangers", the "Slovenian connection" can be quite the phenomenon.
Here's what I mean:
Using one's Canadian sensibilities, one would not expect anything more than perhaps a cup of coffee and a biscuit or two. But NO! Deep in the recesses of my now much more learned psyche, I had a sneaking suspicion that there would be more. Let's just say that the items I bought for our supper on Saturday had to be left for the next day, since here we are, having a full meal in the middle of the afternoon.


You cannot leave without being fed! That's all there is to it!
(simply remember this, if asked "are you hungry?", answer: "yes, you are".)

This was of course after there had been a great deal of picture perusing, both in digital format, as well as the old fashioned kind.


We should really have been taking notes, since I'm now kind of sketchy on a couple (a "couple" he sez!) details.
Marti, the lady on the right looking at the photo, was a little more astute, and was making little notations from time to time.

Suffice to say, we had a wonderful visit.

So now, if your kids ever complain about learning another language, just kick 'em in the pants and tell them to get over it. Here's why: Marti and I spoke mostly in German, with a smattering of Dutch. Harry (her husband) spoke English quite well, but Marti spoke Dutch to him, and Slovenian to Gabe.
Hope you can sort that out, since I can't very well do any sort of drawing, schematic or otherwise.
Since I have a certain amount of Russian under my belt, I could pretty much follow the Slovenian, (and so could Harry btw) but every so often there would be a word or two that didn't register, so then I'd get the explanation in German.

A regular flippin' United Nations.

Let's move right along to the title of this entry shall we?

A while back I mentioned the additon of a wireless keyboard and mouse. Monday (forget Sunday...another lazy day) I decided to pedal my arse to Media Markt and pick up a video cable, since the new TV that Jenn brought a week ago has a few more bells and whistles than the old CRT that we had been using.
So here you go....I can now use the TV as a computer monitor.
So big deal, right? Well, some of our videos are not dvd, but are divx, and can only be played on a divx player. We have a divx player at home, but the player that I shipped does not happen to have that particular feature.
D'oh!
Matter of fact, neither did the computer, but thanks to the internet, I was able to simply download the program.
So now we can watch movies in what ever format they happen to be in, which is good, since we have a few that we have yet to see.
Thanks Rob!
As good as this set-up is for movie watching however, for typing it can be a tad onerous, since I need to be no farther away than about two metres, or I can't really see what the heck I'm doing.

I'll just have to suffer.