And the winner is.............

Jim Long won first prize at the Osheim hosted first quarterly couples bunco held last Saturday evening. His lovely wife, Connie took the low score prize, very appropriate. Low score won a big box of valentines chocolates. Tom was the second prize winner and I heard his winnings were earmaked for a computer part for his wife Jen. We sent invitations out to 5 fun couples, do we know any other kind? Of the 12 attendees only three had ever played before so there was a small learning curve, no problem though-easy to play if you can count and throw dice, you can play. Other winners included Cris, Leona and I believe Mike.......

We are already looking forward to the next bunco party at Jim and Connie's, they have a traditional German courtyard home that has summer BBQ written all over it! We can play outdoors and may end up playing with 16 instead of 12!

Of course we had one, maybe two slight mishaps on the evenings festivites. We had a last minute couldn't be helped cancellation, so there was a Saturday morning scramble to find another couple. Terry and I were both making phone calls, my biggest worry was that we would both find subs. Of course it all worked out Mike and Cris came thru and as Jen said they made a nice addition to our group. I am quite sure they will remember the night for a while, the mirror hanging in the entry way gave out when one too many coats were hung, spilling the contents of three oil candles all over their jackets and almost sending them up in flames........Luckily Terry was Johnny on the spot and put out the fire and just in case Connie was right behind him ready to douse the flames..........

All in all a fun time was had by all, here you see Tyson the mighty banker exhausted from trying to keep up with who had the last bunco......... Or could it be that he was so tired from all the brisket Terry fed him or the cookies Chris shared!

love and miss you all!

There I was.......

I will start out by saying that the evening started out uncomplicated enough........

Last Saturday was dinner out with the Nadeau's, Tom and Jen. It was a celebratory dinner. We wanted to treat them to a night out as a thank you for Tom putting together our new computer, and Jen for putting up with Tom putting together our computer. Dolly Dimples is an Irish pub in Sittard and we were told served great ribs, plus they have a cider called Strongbows as well as Guiness on tap! Tom and Jen drove over to our house and the four of us headed out in our truck. The restaurant was not crowded, and in true German fashion we enjoyed a lesiurely dinner. The food was okay the company was better. And if you ask Terry the beers were delicious!


We finished dinner and as we were leaving, Terry noticed a little pub area attached to the restaurant. He thought is would be grand if we went in. "It'll be fun," he said and we had the whole place to ourselves. We got house darts and after a couple of games of cricket and a few good laughs we noitced the bar was about filled to capacity. It got loud and noisy and smoky in the time it took Terry to beat first me then Tom at darts. Time for us to make our exit. Ahh, the cool night air felt ever so good as we headed towards the truck. I was the designated driver and off we went, but wait just a minute.....there at the end of the street is a barrier blocking our exit. Hmmmm Tom and Terry get out to see if the pole can be moved, NOPE. No buttons to push to make it go down-nothing to indicate how we are supposed to get out.


Back up everyone tells me, find a place to turn around. I must tell you at this point Tom, who also was a designated driver offered to drive. I think perhaps I should have listened. Especially judging by the way the pedestrians, now on the pedestrian only street, were scurrying out of the way. Finally I get backed up and turned around only to find the street at the other end closed to vehicles, but there was just enough room to just barely squeeze the truck thru.........into an area filled with the evening crowds of strollers, once again moving quickly to get out of the way of the crazy Americans.......We were quite amused. Whew, finally onto auto friendly streets and turn the GPS on to head for home. At this point the GPS was telling me to make a left and Terry insisted we go right-Jen from the backseat said I think the GPS is right and Tom once again offered to drive....I, being the good wife that I am, listened to Terry. Once again, and I must say, to Terry's amusement, I found a dead end street-this time a construction area and this time it was bunny rabbits scurrying to get out of the way!



love and miss you all

Adventures in Amsterdam

What a city! Amsterdam is all that and more. Where shall I begin to tell about our weekend adventures? How about the bikes, have you EVER seen so many bikes in one place? Here is a picture of a bike garage. WOW! Bicycles are everywhere! It is nothing to see a young man riding a bike with his girlfriend/date riding sideways over the back tire while she is snacking on a paper cone of food with her legs crossed at the ankles, just as pretty as you please. Another time we saw a mother carting 4 kids.....two in a cart being pulled, one behind her and one the front. The bikes are also every color imaginable, I guess that would help you identify yours in and amoungst the thousands.......



It took us about 2 1/2 hours by train to arrive at the city's center. We purchased a 48 hour "package" called I AMsterdam, this included a pass to ride the metro system, a canal tour, admission to 13 different museums, discounts to numerous resturants, gifts at designated stores, lunch and a delicious cup of coffee. For us it was the perfect way to experience as much as we could in a 48 hour window, it reminded me of a scavenger hunt. Everywhere we went people were friendly and helpful if we looked remotely confused about where we were going, someone would stop and ask...."can I help you?"

check out the building listing starboard.....

Amsterdam has something for everyone, such diversity...... canal boats, 2,500 house boats, over 1,200 bridges, the high end shopping, the high end "coffee shops", the red light district, the tourists gawking at the red light district, such a fast paced city rich with history and proud of the "anything goes" attitude. It is easy to imagine when the weather warms there are even more sites to see , many out door cafe's so it would be easy to sit and watch as the city life goes by.

Mickey D's right next door to what would normally be on "the scary side of town, not here.... just business as usual.

And here you see Terry so happy to have found find a real "English Pub"

We toured and walked and gawked out way thru as much as we could in the 2 1/2 days we stayed here. I can promise you we will go back the only question would be when........oh and by the way not a single Startbucks..........hmmm.

love and miss you all