Dinosaur Prank

In our house we're always watching great tv shows via You Tube like America's Funniest Videos (funny personal home videos) or Benidorm Bastards (staged pranks by the elderly).  We love a good laugh!  A while back on Daily Mail (gossip news site) I stumbled upon a great prank, the dinosaur prank.  The set-up is a nest of eggs for people to stumble upon while walking in the park, then out of the trees a t-rex comes running out to protect the eggs.  To be honest I was surprised at some of the reactions, some people barely flinched!  I know myself, there would be a lot of screaming and running.  But to me the most surprising reaction was the mother of two.  When the dinosaur comes roaring out of the trees, she throws her hands up and starts to run, but hey wait, she forgot the kids??!!  If you want a good chuckle, click here.

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Wordless Wednesday #64

Link up here for Wordless Wednesday!

Our curious camera compilation can also be found here...

Makes Me Laugh (#2)

Around town I'm always seeing things that make me laugh. When I saw this I burst out laughing and just had to take a picture for everyone.

Would you buy clothes from this guy?

Queen's/King's Day

Queen's Day is was one of my favorite Dutch holidays.  (Since I've been blogging for a while now this isn't the first time you've heard about it.)  But this year's Queen's Day is the last one for a long-long time.  The Dutch Queen has stepped down and her son has taken over, so next year we'll be celebrating King's Day instead.  Not really sure if that will have an effect on the fun holiday or not, a holiday known for its markets, music, and of course orange clothing/accessories.  Since I've lived in The Netherlands I have participated in as many Queen's Day (April 30th) celebrations as possible, and this year was no different.  Well, the atmosphere was different, more subdued... maybe I'm getting older or maybe the Dutch were just more focused on the Queen's abdication.  Last year there were dj's everywhere and lots of space to dance and party.  But this year, there were a lot of tables and chairs, and the weather was cooler, all of which have an influence on the day.  It didn't stop us from having fun though.  And this year I lasted twice as long as last year!  Last year we found one great bar & dj and basically stayed there, this year, we were all over the place.  We hit up at least 4 or 5 venues and squeezed in dinner at an Indian restaurant in between.  As usual I took a ton of pictures, with 7 people roaming mass crowds there was always something going on.  We were even separated for a while!  A couple holidays ago I realized it was quicker and cleaner for me to walk back to our apartment to use the bathroom than wait in line for a port-o-pot or use one at a bar.  First bathroom break went well, second one (after a few more drinks) ended up in a 30 minute search to find our husbands again.  I told my husband we should have picked a meeting point, oh well!  As I mentioned we had dinner reservations, I seriously doubted we would make it but we did, and it was great.  We even had half the restaurant to ourselves, thanks to a partition wall.  In all of my Queen's Days I've learned to stock up on the orange accessories early.  I bought a pair of orange sunglasses for 80 cents in the weeks leading up to the holiday and while we were in the middle of the crowds I saw someone selling the same ones for 10 euros, crazy!  I've also learned don't take anything you value, because you'll either lose it or get it so dirty you'll want to toss it afterwards.  You can only imagine thousands of people littering their food and beer cups everywhere, not quite nice to walk through by the end of the night.  I'll leave you with pics as always, and a big thanks to the old friends & new friends who helped make the day a blast!  And to my in-laws for babysitting!!

And of course, happy birthday Mom (next year the day is all yours because King's Day is on the 27th)!!!

Someecards

Obviously you have all heard of Someecards by now, and if you haven't you have probably seen them and just didn't know where to find them.  I'm a little behind but I finally went on the site and took a look around.  For people like me without a Facebook account you can still manage to make a card and pass it on if you like.  (Why is everything Facebook related!!!) 
I'm sure this will not be the last time you see a silly ecard pop up on my blog.

Crazy Cat Lady

Not sure how many Simpson's fans I have reading my blog, but maybe since the show has been on for over 20 years you've possibly still heard of the Crazy Cat Lady.  I am far from the Crazy Cat Lady, I'm not middle-aged, I don't live alone, and I'm not addicted to cats, but that didn't stop me from earning the title years ago.  At one point prior to my tot coming along, I was easily feeding 11-12 stray cats on a daily basis.  I'm not really sure what happened first, feeling sorry for the cats when winter hit or seeing stray kittens.  Needless to say, it was like the chicken vs the egg, it was an endless cycle.  As soon as some cats would disappear another would get pregnant, and on and on it went.  When you're just tossing out leftovers you don't think much about it.  But eventually, I found myself spending our hard earn money on stray cats.  I would buy canned food and even bought a basket for them to sleep in and put their babies.  I was giving up towels so they would stay warm.  It was going too far.  When my husband mentioned this little problem of mine to some friends, they immediately thought of the Crazy Cat Lady from The Simpson's and all this time later I have not yet been able to shed the nickname.  I stopped feeding the cats when I was pregnant, I didn't want to risk my baby being exposed to strays.  I knew if the food supply stopped they would disappear, unfortunately the neighbors didn't get the memo.  In the past 3-4 years the cats have stopped lurking around our back door and all of the familiar faces are now gone.  Getting a dog really helped, ha-ha!  But now I'm afraid I'm about to earn a new title Crazy Dog Lady.  Sure, I take my dog on walks, it's part of being a good owner.  But there are often times I can't just leave the house, for instance when my tot's asleep.  Luckily in our parking lot there are a few patches of dirt and plants (this really helped with potty training the dog in the city).  One particular tree and patch of dirt has become my dog's back-up toilet.  This patch is off to the side and only us and our next door neighbors even pass it.  But that doesn't mean you can't clearly see us from the parking lot.  I'm a stay-at-home mom, I often wear pajamas, it's cold in The Netherlands, so I often wear jackets, there are times of the day I have on no make-up and my hair tossed into a ponytail, and yes, there are plenty of times I let my dog out looking like this.  So for some neighbors they never seeing me looking acceptable, they see me in mismatched pajamas covered in a beat up ski jacket, oh yea, not winning any fashion awards!  And then for those who don't see me, hear me.  The patch of grass/dirt is located under let's say 20 bedroom windows, so every time my dog has diarrhea in the rain or snow, or when I'm freezing waiting for her to decide on just the right place too pee, or when she refuses to get in the patch of dirt and protests in the parking lot, they all get to hear my choice words.  So I guess, for those neighbors who don't know I'm actually a fairly normal person, I am officially the Crazy Dog Lady.

Crazy Clothes

Yesterday my husband wanted to do something fun for our 3yr old, and out of every option he chose to dress up in a crazy combination of clothing.  At home this wouldn't have been bad but we were headed to the grocery store!  I threatened many times to stay in the car, but it's important to teach your child confidence.  So I just pretended he was dressed normally and mostly went about things that way.  He claims it was our daughters idea, but it was completely his idea.  I at least convinced her to wear a princess gown over her clothes and under her jacket so at least people thought there was a themed party or something, ha-ha! 

Let's take a close look at his outfit choice...  It starts out with a base layer of pajamas, t-shirt & plaid cotton pants.  Then he added slick basketball shorts over the pants.  Then a random volleyball sweatshirt.  Followed by a corduroy dress jacket.  Then he added carpenter boots and a belt.  And finished the assemble off by wrapping himself in his Snuggie which he also tied behind his back and tucked into his belt. 

Some people glanced and continued walking on... some people did double takes... some people actually stopped to take in the entire outfit.  At least one man spoke to us normally, he must have gone with the they-were-at-a-party idea.  And once we headed to the parking lot, me taking a breath of relief, we ended up helping a lady push her broken down car, what a sight!  I think this is just the beginning, because my husband keeps reminiscing about the crazy clothes combinations his father used to wear when picking my sister-in-law up from social events.  Maybe I should be worried for me & our tot!!!

Guest Blogger???

Since I have an upcoming trip to The States planned, I'm looking for a few guest bloggers to help keep things interesting around here while I'm gone.  My blog is pretty random so I'm not looking for one theme in particular.  It's always fun to connect and also to promote other blogs... you know I love promoting blogs, stores, music, etc.  Maybe you just want to write about yourself and your blog, maybe you want to write about something on your mind, maybe you just want to ramble on, maybe you want to talk about expat life or parenthood, maybe you want to write about struggles or triumphs... I'll take it all into consideration. 

If you're interested please email me at :
danicasthoughts (at) upcmail (dot) nl

Please submit your name, contact info (including your blog address), and your idea for a post.  If you happen to already have a draft or finished post, you can also submit this via mail.  I also post pictures with every blog post I write, so also consider what picture (drawing, photo, etc. or even just a blog logo) you'd like to use.  In return I will let you know if it is something I am interested in and we go from there.  I'll be accepting applicants all this week and possibly into the following weekend.

Carnaval Time

It's time for "Carnaval" in The Netherlands again (well technically it's almost over).  To be honest I have never really bothered to look up the meaning behind all of the Carnaval celebrations.  I know it has it's backgrounds in the Catholic roots and ends on Ash Wednesday.  To me Carnaval is just a big celebration where the Dutch get dressed up in Halloween-ish outfits and drink & party for a good 3-5 days.  Oh yeah, and there are also parades on the weekend leading into Carnaval.  Of course all of the partying has it's up and downs.  For those of us with children trying to carry on our normal lives, the drunks and trash littering the streets can easily be hindering.  Plus there are also the people that decide to get violent, nothing like a 3-5 drunken celebration to bring that side out of people.  Last year my husband was actually involved in a fist fight while trying to help some teenage girl out of a bad situation.  When this year rolled around neither one of us felt like dressing up and joining the raging party in the center of town, but some how or another, there we were.  We had a babysitter for the night and after dinner with friends we ended up at one of the few acceptable bars, Dr. Ink.  But since we were not dressed in a costume we were harassed, which inevitably sent us home to come up with some sort of outfit.  Since we live within 5 minutes of the center this wasn't a crazy plan, not to mention I desperately needed to use the restroom but the one at the bar was beyond dirty.  We popped home with a friend and grabbed some of our masks, combination of el-cheapos that belong to our toddler and an old Frankenstein mask that's been handed around our friends.  But since this just wasn't enough my husband also lent us all some of his sports jerseys from when he was a kid.  Now, I wouldn't quite call this a thought out costume, but it was enough to make us look colorful and silly, which would keep us from standing out (as funny as that sounds).  When we returned to the bar, no one said another word, it worked!  It turned out to be quite a night - we started it out by losing our money before even entering the bar, eventually being forced to use the disgusting bathrooms, and there was some girl unhappy with my dancing (I guess I kept bumping into her) - among all of this we had a great time.  My husband promised to take pictures for me while we were out so I didn't need to take my purse, but once the night started going he didn't appreciate the shots I wanted to capture.  I did get him to take at least 5-10 pictures and now it's been like pulling teeth to get them off his phone.  I did manage to get at least 3 pics from him.  The first was on the way to the restaurant, it was still day time and things were still on the fun family side of Carnaval (entrance to one of the busy party streets).  The next pic was me in a mask but before changing into the jersey (I eventually ended up trading masks with our friend and I think I possibly lost mine by the end of the night).  And the last pic was of the bikes covered in snow, we didn't expect it to be so cold, much less a small snow storm, but by the time we walked home we weren't feeling much.  Overall Carnaval has been fun this year, my toddler loves seeing all of the people dressed up in costumes, we're inside by the time the crazy people come out, and our night out was expensive but still worthwhile. 
(Oh yeah, and the gloves my husband blames for losing the money were ones I forced him to wear because they're for smart phones, since then I've missed placed all of my gloves, borrowed these for a trip into town today, and lost one somewhere near McD's, I guess that set of gloves was doomed from the start!)

PhotoFunia

Just a quick tip for anyone who enjoys playing with photos, it's called PhotoFunia!  It's a fun app, that you can download for free.  I don't manipulate many photos, but if I do, I tend to use Picasa and then add just a boost or something simple.  But on occasion it's fun to go a step further.  This app allows you to apply all types of pictures (mostly human faces) to around 298 options of photo fun.  I've included one original picture to show you what you can do with the app, and I've also included a few other fun ones we have made.  (Wow, so far I've used the word fun, 5 times!)

Belly-flop

No matter how old I get a good amount of alcohol can make me do stupid things!  Over the weekend the Netherlands played Denmark in the UEFA Euro 2012 (soccer/football to those of you unfamiliar with the European Championship).  We were invited to a friends house to watch the game, but somehow I ended up being the only woman there.  I don't mind, there's just no one to reign me in when the drinks start flowing, and men tend to drink far more than women during these events.  The get together started at 5PM and we headed home around midnight, you can only imagine how much beer (oh yeah, can't forget my fav vodka/redbull) you can drink in a 6-7hr period.  On the bike ride home with our friends we cut through a skate park.  I was sitting on the back of my husbands bike when he thought it would be funny to scare me.  We were already biking quite fast and he decided to beeline it towards one of the skateboard ramps, all the while threatening to shoot us up the ramp.  I can be quite  a wimp at times, so I panicked, the last thing I wanted to do was crash the bike with us on it.  I often go to the playground with my daughter and as we're swinging I leap from the swing mid-air and land on my feet to impress her.  So when my husband said we were headed for the ramp I thought, I can do this, just like the swing I can leap off the bike.  Thanks to the alcohol, I didn't factor in the speed or the angle.  When my feet hit the ground they were immediately swept out from underneath me!  Boom, I landed on the hard pavement like the people you see on Funny Home Videos, body parts flying, basically a belly-flop on the pavement.  I was dazed but I jumped to my feet, something the adrenaline always makes me do.  I guess I had to see if I was still capable of moving.  The first thing I noticed was my ribs killed and I was extremely winded.  My husband and his friends ran over to me, all checking me over, especially my face.  Apparently it looked like my face slammed into the pavement, but luckily for me it didn't.  I was embarrassed but still too dazed to focus on that.  I had been telling a story earlier that night about relaxing when you fall, so it was perfect timing for one of my husbands friends to get his wise cracks in.  That night as I went to bed I knew my shoulder and knee hurt (opposite sides), and I kept waking up checking myself, it was hard to believe I didn't break something.  The next day the shoulder ache was gone, but then I started to feel like I had been in a car wreck.  Now two days later, my abdomen aches a lot, like I side the first thing I noticed after jumping was the pain in my ribs.  My knee is aching and a bit swollen, and I still feel like I hit a brick wall.  Oh yeah, and the embarrassment has definitely grown.  It's not often my husband invites me to tag along during a guys night out, and I doubt that'll be happening again soon! 

Night at the Museum

Not everyone can say they have spent the night at a museum, but my husband & I can!  It's probably not even crossed most people's mind, even after seeing the Ben Stiller movie.  A couple years ago two of our friends wed at the Historisch Openlucht Museum (Historic Open Air Museum) here in Eindhoven.  It was an incredible experience.  I wish I could say the point of this blog was to fill you in on the details of their wedding but actually it has more to do with what happened the next morning.  Yesterday morning my daughter & I were out for a long walk, and when we passed the museum I couldn't help but chuckle thinking of the fun we had there.  I've told the story a million times, but now I actually have pictures to better explain it.  Our friends married twice that day, once in a traditional Dutch ceremony and again in a Wiccan ceremony at the museum.  (The museum is based on a glimpse of what Dutch life in the middle ages would have been like.)  After the ceremony, and a few fun events like wood chopping and bread baking, it was time to celebrate.  The museum allows you to borrow clothes & dress in character, sit around bonfires playing guitars, and eat & drink well into the evening.  A small group of guests were even allowed to spend the night, what a treat and privilege.  I had packed a bag, like we were supposed to, but my husband thought he'd wing it.  In the wee hours of the morning it was finally time to retire; everyone had returned their middle-age costumes, everyone except my husband.  After quite a few drinks he decided the comfy loose costume was going to be better to sleep in then his Hugo Boss suit (I had mentioned quite a few times he should pack pajamas).  But according to the rules of the museum the costume had to go back.  So at some time after 2AM we head to the sleeping quarters.  The sleeping quarter was a thatched roof building (much like the ones in the above picture), dirt floors, sticks for beds, animal skins for blankets, and a chicken walking around.  Awesome, if we had maybe thought to bring more than one sleeping bag.  Luckily the alcohol helped the sleeping situation, especially when other wedding goers started filtering into the wooden hut an hour or so later - everyone slept in the same open building.  The next morning we were up early, maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the rooster crowing.  We were supposed to stay for breakfast, eating the bread we had helped make the day before, but we missed our young daughter.  Not wanting to wake anyone, we decided we would find a way out of the museum ourselves and explain things later.  We packed up our things and headed for the exit, but it was locked.  We walked a bit further to the emergency exit, but of course it too was locked.  The museum overlooks a large pond, so we walked to the edge and looked to see if there was a way around, but there was a fence all the way to the water.  Apparently part of the deal is if you stay the night you get locked into the museum, and one of the guests holds on to the key until the staff return the next day.  We didn't know who had the key, and like I said, we didn't want to wake everyone up.  So my husband had the brilliant idea to jump the wooden fence lining the museum.  Here's a picture of the wooden fence.  It's easily almost 10ft tall!  We were on the inside so there were slats we could use to climb up, but once over the top it was a long drop, not to mention the stakes at the top!  As I clung to the top I panicked, I didn't want to hurt myself.  Maybe 10yrs ago I would have jumped but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  All the while my husband is encouraging me do it, pushing me up by the butt trying to help me over.  At some point I started laughing, kind of hysterically, I laugh when I panic.  Refusing to do it I try and climb back down but my husband will not let me, he didn't have the view of the stakes like I did.  I start squealing (and laughing), we're making quite a commotion at this time.  Assuming (you know what that does) everyone was asleep we kept on at this for a good few minutes, then we heard one of the wedding goers behind us, "is everything o.k.?"  I was mortified.  My husband then let me down, and I began trying to explain how I ended up clinging to the side of the fence in what looked like a prison escape.  Luckily she knew who had the key and within minutes were outside of the museum.  I'm sure she had an odd story to tell everyone over breakfast, I can't imagine what we looked like!  And if our friends who hosted this event happen to read this blog, we truly did have a wonderful time at your wedding and party, this is just another notch on things we've gotten into together in the years we've been friends!!!

Carnival Chivalry

Carnival (Dutch = Carnaval) celebrations aren't high on our list of priorities but we do occasionally join in; most years we don't even bother to dress in costumes or even step foot in the city center.  The idea behind it is fun; dress is crazy costumes, get drunk, and listen to Carnaval music while crammed into a dangerously full bar.  But the level the Dutch take it to can sometimes be intimidating, drinking for days on end, all hours of the day, can make most foreigners shy away.  I have nothing against alcohol or even getting a babysitter and having a wild night but I just can't hang with the Dutch when it comes to Carnaval.  I've heard rumors that some people are actually afraid to go into the city center during the celebrations because the level of aggression and drunkenness is too high.  This has never affected me or my husband until this past weekend.  Friday night my husband and a friend decided to head into the city center during Carnaval and grab a drink at a couple of our favorite places in town.  They first stopped at Popocatepetl, a Mexican restaurant that was selling beer outside for Carnaval (that's where the above photo was taken).  After that they headed on to Dr. Ink, a unique bar we pop into occasionally.  Then between Dr. Ink and their next stop, O'Sheas Irish Pub (another favorite of ours) they made a chivalrous decision that ended in a fight!  "Fight" is a strong word, it implies everyone was fighting but that wasn't the case.  "Jumped" that's also strong, it implies a group of people attacked them, which didn't happen.  I'll just get on with the story... my husband and his friend noticed a young man in his 20's arguing with a girl around 15 yrs old.  He was forcing her along, yelling at her, while she pleaded for him to stop & let go of her.  Ryan hoped it would diffuse without his involvement but it kept on, she would get away and the man would again latch on to her.  The couple weren't alone, all of the friends with them (guys & girls) were also trying verbally to get the man to stop.  When my husband & his friend realized he wasn't going to give up and he was going after the girl again (she had managed to break free for a moment), they yelled and caught his attention and told him to leave her alone.  Ryan said all he could think about was our daughter and that he would want someone to help her.  The man, his face painted white for Carnaval, decided to then unleash his anger on Ryan & his friend.  Ryan's friend, dressed in a Sumo costume, took the first punch.  The man hit him in his face sending his glasses flying, he ended up getting punched in the face 2-3 more times.  My husband doesn't like to fight, he is anti-fighting, so when the psycho went at him he was smart enough to block his face.  The man put him in a headlock and repeatedly tried to punch my husband in the face.  Ryan blocked all the shots but one, when the psycho clipped my husbands forehead causing him to bleed he had enough, put him in a headlock then forced him to the ground.  The man jumped up and continued yelling at Ryan & his friend, but eventually conceded and ran off.  The girl luckily got away and the man luckily didn't pull out a weapon or involve his friends, but my husband & his friend ended up with cuts & bruises just for trying to help out a young girl.  They never once threw a punch and yet were attacked repeatedly.  I sometimes wonder what this world is coming to, I'm just glad my husband got involved.  People think they can get away with everything these days, they think people are afraid of them, and will not step in.  But guess what, there are still decent people in this world, people willing to help and willing to get involved even if the person at risk is a stranger.  In this day and age everything goes viral, there's always someone standing around with a phone/camera, so of course I checked You Tube.  A guy in Sumo suit getting punched in the face or a brawl in the middle of town near the main cathedral is something I thought would end up online, but it hasn't.  We'd love to be able to take the video to the police, but then again being that it was Carnaval and the man's face was painted it would make it hard to identify him.  If you happen to have heard anything about this, please let me know.  I've included a photo of my husbands forehead, hope no one is squeamish.  Despite this incident it does not make us fearful of Carnaval or going out in Eindhoven, we've enjoyed Dutch celebrations and the city center for years with pleasure!!!