Casino Night

Recently we had a family/ladies night out at the casino, I love the casino!  I enjoy spending time with my in-laws, so a dinner & casino night seemed like a great start to the summer.  Despite my excitement I physically and mentally tried to sabotage the evening (again, my wording is extreme, I am a storyteller).  Before I get into the details, I'll let you know we all had a good time and will do it again.  My issues started weeks before, we kept having to reschedule the date of the night out thanks to someone (you know who you are, ha-ha!)  This waiting built my excitement to a level I could barely contain.  It was a problem I had when I was younger, I would get so excited about an event that by the time the event came I had a headache, felt sick, and made it miserable.  Seriously, I thought I was over this! 

The next problem (self created) was my perfumed body lotion.  I don't generally wear perfume, I find the smell too strong and it easily gives me a headache, plus I have allergies.  So what did I do an hour before going out, I lathered my body in perfume lotion, I ended up taking an aspirin before I even left to meet everyone.  My next issue, I started drinking at the restaurant.  I don't get many child-free nights out, so I wanted to take advantage of it.  During dinner I managed to drink 2 beers, which doesn't seem like much, but like I said I was already having mental & physical issues (excitement + perfume).  I enjoyed dinner, but to be honest my head was focused on the casino and the hundreds of euros I was going to win.  I wanted to prove to my husband that he's not the only one that can rake in the mula (money) at the casino, which I didn't.  Now I've added alcohol and pressure.  I'm lucky I didn't throw up! 

And last but not least, I get nervous while playing roulette.  I don't like any other game at the casino besides roulette, I seem to hold on to my money longer at the roulette table than anywhere else.  Why do I get nervous, who knows, maybe because I'm a tight wad and hate losing money, maybe because I feel like all eyes are on me???  The best way I could explain it to my mom was, I felt like a kid playing an adults game, but c'mon I'm 30 yrs old, I'm allowed to be there.  So, excitement + perfume + alcohol + pressure + nerves = stuttering at the table while speaking Dutch to the dealer, shaky hands while playing chips, spilling my beer all over the table in front of the in-laws (I had 2 more), & breaking into random sweats, plus a general unwell feeling!  But like I said, all in all it was a fun night out, and according to my mother-in-law I wasn't annoying in the slightest, ha-ha!

Wordless Wednesday #7

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Hair Salon : √

Well, I think I finally found my new permanent hair salon, Coupez in Eindhoven! 

Like I mentioned in a previous post about hair salons, I've been searching for a decent salon for some time now.  My last two cuts didn't turn out quite like I hoped, nothing to do with the salons but the stylists lack of experience.  The stylist at Coupez, Rachel, also owns the salon and takes pride in her work, and her experience shows.  She listened to what I wanted, gave some advice, and the result was a great cut!  For the first time in ages, I left the salon and actually wasn't embarrassed.  Usually the stylists give me some ridiculously large, product filled hair style, that I want to run home and wash out, but not this time.  I actually felt like a million bucks.  The stylist is friendly & knowledgeable, the salon itself is cute & clean, and the price was worthwhile.  And to top it off she's within walking distance, making it a quick trip.  She also cuts children's hair, there's a cute chair and tv screen for the kids.  Up until today I only knew of one other salon in town that catered to kids.  (Maybe when my daughter turns 3 yrs old, we'll get her hair cut for the 1st time.)  The true test of the cut will be after I have washed and styled my own hair, but as of now I am very content.  I definitely plan on returning to her salon (even when it moves down the road in September).

Park Observations

I wish I could say this post is about the great sculptures in the parks around Eindhoven, or about the beautiful landscape in the center of town, or even about the silly signs the city is putting up everywhere, but it's not.  It's about random yet semi-disturbing (a bit extreme, how about bothersome) things I saw in the park on the walk home from toddler swimming class. 

The first was two large black birds eating a field mouse.  I spared you the close up, but here's a photo from a distance.  It's nature, it's the food chain, it made me want to lose my breakfast!  Pushing the stroller with one hand and shielding my 2yr olds eyes with other I rushed passed, but something in human nature makes us look back.  It's fascinating and vulgar at the same time, the way the black birds pecked the mouse and flipped him violently was almost too much though.  And yet I stopped to take a picture, maybe I'm the gross one, ha-ha!

The next thing I observed was the fact people actually shave their dogs in the park.  Maybe to dog owners brushing and shaving their pets in the park is normal, but to people like me with a kid running around it's actually just nasty.  Sure my stomach was still queasy from the black birds, but the clumps of matted dog hair were repulsive.  Of course I had to take a picture, otherwise these random blog posts might not be as interesting.  What were these people thinking leaving these hair/fur clumps behind?  Are they just hoping they blow into the wind, get shredded when the city mows, or get recycled by birds for nests? 

And the last thing I have to complain about is an old shopping cart situated next to a trash can.  Again, what are people thinking, maybe they hope the city will pick it up when they collect trash?  The amount of rust and the odd & end items (one being a child's bike seat) in the shopping cart did spark my curiosity though.  Was it fished out of the bottom of a nearby canal when they recently redirected it?  Was it buried for ages in the tall shrubs, recently found by the city worker as he cut the grass?  Is the 50 cents still in the coin deposit? 

I thoroughly enjoy the parks here in the center of Eindhoven (our own Central Park), but today was a let down.  Or was it... I did get a blog post out of it!

Wordless Wednesday #6

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Sticker Graffiti (#2)

Ever since I wrote a post about sticker graffiti throughout Eindhoven I can't stop seeing stickers everywhere I go!  And neither can my dad because he's sending me his own shots. 

The first photo was taken in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA.  (You can't miss the palm trees in the background.)  If you look close enough there's also a reoccurring theme to the stickers on our drain pipe, apparently cats & light bulbs are popular among taggers.  Since I wasn't there to take the photo I can't make out too many of the stickers, at the top I do see Wa* though.  Of course I Googled this, I couldn't find anything matching it, but it did seem to bring back a lot of results for the Japanese word Wa, which is the oldest recorded name for Japan.  Maybe my dad has some background on the stickers...  Dad, a little help?

The next shot my dad took while he was in New York City, NY, USA.  Here the taggers take a different approach, they use the sidewalk (as well as everything else).  I'm actually surprised the stickers have held up so well with all of the pedestrians in NYC.  This photo has quite a few legible stickers; and keeping up with my last post about sticker graffiti, I'm going to list off what I see.  I'll let you do the background work and if you see something I don't, let me know!  Cr8 Your Fate, Decon, 10Deep, a paintbrush, some guy with a  crew cut, Asian triangle guy, and a heart.  O.k., o.k., I couldn't let it go, I looked one up, I'll give you a heads start, Cr8 Your Fate.

Like I mentioned, I can't get away from the stickers here in Eindhoven, NL, so here's a photo I took of a door near the center of the city.  In the bottom left corner you can see old friendly Gato & Reus (cat & giant), they're also on the drain pipe outside of our apartment.  And obviously a lot we haven't seen before, luckily the graffiti artists haven't gone this crazy on our drain pipe.  Some of these I actually bothered to look up (I promise, I really do have better things to do, ha-ha!)  There are a wide range of stickers, some stickers are protesting against the treatment of animals prior to slaughter, some are just advertising music festivals, and some are marketing their own companies.  Some are a bit more interesting, like Big Daddy Gun, he's a graffiti artist (sticker-sticker, funny), and you can find him on You Tube.  And there is even one promoting a band through MySpace (wow, does that still exist). 

No matter what, each sticker has some sort of story behind it.  Maybe the sticker itself has little to no meaning and the story lies within the act itself.  In my teenage years I definitely stuck random stickers around town, what a silly adrenaline rush!

Potato Tacos

Yes, you read this correctly, I'm blogging about mashed potato tacos.  You're probably thinking WTF??!!  Because that's exactly what I thought when the recipe popped up in my email box.  I subscribe to AllRecipes.com and receive new recipes daily, and generally they have decent suggestions.  But this, mashed potatoes stuffed into a taco shell, c'mon!  Was no one paying attention when they sent out the Daily Dish that morning?  I love mashed potatoes and I love tacos, but together, I'm still trying to grasp this.  You know what is even crazier, they recommend it as a good snack for kids!!!  And we wonder why there are so many over weight people in the world.  I couldn't just let the email go by without checking further into it, when I opened the site I saw the recipe received 4 out of 5 stars!  One persons comment even said it was a good idea as a vegetarian meal, now I know a few vegetarians and I doubt they would eat this.  I guess the name of the site proves correct, AllRecipes.com, not GoodRecipes or HealthyRecipes, but AllRecipes.  If any of you are brave (hungry) enough to try this, please let me know if I am missing something!

Wordless Wednesday #5

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