Rambo vs. The Ladies of Prague

Brandon decided to invite the guys from our church fellowship over this past weekend for a "Rambo-Fest". That's right... 8 hours of Rambo-viewing "pleasure". Needless to say, it became very apparent that girls were not allowed! Lydia and I were scrambling for a new "home" for the afternoon/evening. Thankfully, Emily Stone saved the day and invited us and all of the ladies from church to her home for Girl's Night. Ok, so we didn't have quite as much freedom as the guys had since toddlers were also invited to Girl's Night, but we still had a great time! We watched Monster-in-Law, ate lots of yummy food (kudos to Emily for her amazing quiche with a crust made from scratch!), talked alot, let the little girls run and run and RUN, and did I mention... we ATE?!?!

Meanwhile... back at the Killing-A-Thon, the men were consuming Red Bull Energy Drinks, mass quantities of frozen pizza, peanuts, peanuts, peanuts and fresh squeezed fruit juices (I gave Brandon a juicer for Christmas).

The jury is still out on which party had the better Smorgasboard O' Gluttony, but the men and women do agree that both parties were a hit! Personally, I'm counting my lucky stars that I am testosterone deficient; A Rambo Trilogy sounds rather painful to me.... I'll take quiche and a chick-flick ANY day!!! :-)

Kiddie Heaven

Today we ventured to "Tramtarie" with Emily, Eloise and baby Lillian. It's an indoor play place with slides, tunnels and more coin-operated rides than should be allowed under one roof. Lydia and Eloise even sat close enough to each other for us to capture some pictures. A rarity to say the least!

The rides were a hit. The pizza was yummy (and cheap!) And we left feeling like conquerers of a foreign land -- "Prague Winter... try as you might, you can NOT, WILL NOT, keep us from having fun!!!!"

A glimpse of the future: Our two little beauties hit the town in their red convertible. Watch out world!

Pass the Bottled Water, Please.

Water came back on around 6:00 PM yesterday. However, it is quite dirty, even though we ran the water continuously almost all evening. I suppose it's good enough for washing dishes and doing laundry (don't really have a choice in that matter)! But as for cooking and drinking, I think we'll stick with bottled water.

Lydia is still hanging in here. She hates it that I won't let her drink milk since I think it adds to the stomach upset. Mostly we're just dealing with the diaper end of things, and surviving by watching LOTS and LOTS of movies. I might put her snowsuit on and get some fresh air this morning. We decided we should stay home from church so we don't infect the other kiddies. Brandon still went, and I am going stir-crazy so some outdoor time might be good for all of us. But first, let's finish watching Madagascar...

Pitna Voda

That's "Drinking Water". Nemame Voda. (We do not have water). And the timing couldn't be worse. Lydia has come down with a stomach bug that is affecting both ends of her body. Hence, lots of laundry -- sheets, blankets, shirts, pants, socks, you name it -- and no water. Thankfully our friends, Jon and Emily Stone, allowed us to use their washing machine for an emergency load so we'd have sheets on Lydia's bed tonight. We were told we'd have water back this afternoon, but when the Truck O' Water showed up, we got the feeling the wait may be a bit longer than that. So, Brandon took advantage of the water truck and filled our bathtub. At least we can do the dishes!

I Fought the Law and... We BOTH Won!

So this morning I had to quick run into the store, but it is located in an area that is notorious for it's lack of parking spaces (and overabundance of parking patrol). I found a spot really close, but had to park with the rear half of my car in the crosswalk. Lydia and I ran into the store and returned to the car no more than 5 minutes later only to find a policeman studying my car. Knowing what was coming, I first decided to play dumb: "Oh... mluvim anglicky" (Oh... I speak English). This didn't get me out of my transgression as he proceeded to explain with gestures that I had parked in part of the crosswalk, therefore blocking the path of pedestrians. He informed me that a little of the car in the crosswalk is ok, but I had too much of the car hanging over. He asked me for my passport, which I did not have. I gave him my U.S. driver's license instead. While he was intently studying my license (and knowing what was about to transpire) I quickly fished out my wallet and emptied it of all cash, stuffing it in the backseat, except for 200 Kc ($8). He again explains my parking violation primarily through hand gestures and informs me that the fine is 1000 Kc ($40). "Ooohh" I reply, and apologetically show him my wallet with only 200 Kc. He sighs in disappointment but replies "Ok... 200 Kc". Then he gives me a receipt and in the process determines that we are now comrades. He says "I am English pupil. Speaking Czech good. Deutsch (German) ok. English I am school boy". I tell him he is speaking English very well. He tells me he has been a pupil for only 6 months, repeating: "I am school boy". I tell him I am a "Czech pupil". And we all leave happy.

Hey. If you can't beat 'em at their little parking violation negotiation game, join 'em!

The Czech-USPS Alliance Hard at Work

This year's "Relative Who Unknowingly Exhausted All Postage Fees" Award goes to (drum roll please)..... Phil and Sherrie Van Voorst of Mount Vernon, Washington. Yes, Uncle Phil... your Christmas card from our family to yours traversed the globe from Prague to Washington State and back to Prague with the equivalent of only 50 cents postage. I'm still amazed it found it's way back to our mailbox! I hope you have not been sitting on the edge of your couch and checking your mailbox daily just waiting for our Christmas letter to arrive. Maybe I'll drop it back in the mail for another international excursion. Late is better than never, right???

Lydia and her techno-color, multi-function blankies. (oh, and plastic food-stuffs too)

A spot of sunshine on a gray Eastern European day!

So, it's already a semi-distant memory, but I wanted to share a glimpse of our kiss of sun in December. For those of you who don't know, Brandon and I celebrated our tenth anniversary this year. We decided it would be a good idea to celebrate a bit early, take advantage of the availability of grandparents, and take a 5 day trip to Puerto Vallerta over Christmas. We left on Dec. 26th and returned Dec. 30th. What can I say? It was beautiful. It was gorgeous. It was relaxing. It was exactly what we needed. Digging back in the archives, our honeymoon was a semi-disaster with me being intensely sick for the majority of the time. We called this trip to Puerto Vallerta our "2nd Honeymoon" but truthfully it was probably our 1st real honeymoon. Really, how can one complain about 85 degrees every day without a cloud in sight. And the guacamole!!! I am now a believer that one can indeed develop a guacamole addiction!

The view from our hotel room. Two amazing pools with the beach only steps away. The only complaint? Anxious resort-mates who claim their sun loungers at 8 am by placing their towels on them. I refused to let this kind of silliness stress me out, so we didn't participate. We always managed to find two suitable chairs, although sometimes it required a bit of physical exertion to move them to a better location. We were able to sleep with the windows open and the sound of the ocean waves.

Adventure! We went on a tour that took us carabening in the high jungles of Mexico. We slid along 14 cables, attached by a harness around our waist. It was incredible!

See that dot in the sky? That's not either one of us, but it was about 20 minutes earlier! Crazy! And we definately weren't in America... they didn't even require a helmet!

The "boardwalk" was home to some of the craziest sculptures I had ever encountered!

We concluded our trip with a dinner on a remote island, no roads and accessible only by boat. A bit "Survivor-esque" but a great ocean-side dinner after sunset and a quite amazing show depicting the marriage rituals of the ancient Mayans.

The Modem from the Same Place as the Christmas Tree

Upon returning home from our Christmas trip, our modem promptly went on strike. We've already had to exchange this modem two times, so it was with a lot of grumbling that I packed up Lydia and our lame modem to see if the "friendly" faces at Eurotel could help us out. After explaining my situation, the young man informed me that they could exchange the modem, however I would need to come back with all of my paperwork, software and cables... not just the modem. You see, they now offer a completely different modem so mine is obsolete. Grrrrr...

Day 2. Return to Eurotel, Lydia in tow. Modem, software, cables, and other misc. paperwork I can scrounge up and stuff in the bottom of her stroller. Now we're getting somewhere. This time I left the shop with my brand-spanking-new modem and a skip in my step. I couldn't wait to get home and install the software so I could be reconnected! After promptly installing the new software, my heart sunk as the error message appeared. "The remote computer is not responding". What? Where is this remote computer? Why has it chosen to ignore my pleas???

Day 3. Return to Eurotel, Lydia in tow. NEW modem, software, cables, AND notebook computer in hand. I have lost that skip in my step and replaced it with a permanent scowl. If only one didn't have to do EVERYTHING IN PERSON in this country! Where is email support. At this point, I'd even pay for a long-distance call to some techie outsourced in Nigeria! After explaining my problem once again, the "software specialist" checked a few numbers. Turned Norton Utilities software on and back off again and Wah-lah. Works like a dream! I returned home, immediately connected to the internet so I could check my email and have been connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting all afternoon, just because I can!

So there you have it. The reason there have been no new pics as of late. Check back soon. That is, unless my modem decides it's time for a holiday. At least it was made in Korea... don't Koreans have a pretty good work ethic???

The tree from....

Whoever wrote that song with something about a Christmas tree and it's beautiful branches must have been insane! Either that or they hadn't just travelled for 20 hours and returned home to a tree that I am convinced was being held together by the 450 lights I had strung on it. Let me tell you, this tree was D-E-A-D. There was nothing beautiful about recovering from jetlag while de-ornamentizing the tree and sweeping up the 13 billion needles left along its evacuation route. Next year's tree just may have a little more plastic in its composition...

This is what 1K status buys you on United. A little room to roam and a little sanity for mom and dad. Unfortunately, Brandon will lose this status next year and we will once again be relegated to coach.

Merry Christmas 2005 from the Verbrugge Family!

Cousins have a lot in common! Lydia and Jake enjoy a new "Hermie" movie.

A rare shot of Lydia NOT fleeing or whailing when a family member gets near. Here is Lydia playing with Grandpa and her current favorite... stickers!