On Borrowed Time

The postman has come and gone for today and I am safe for another 24 hours. I must use that precious (knitting) time wisely as the stitches I am making now may be my last.

For those not familiar with Sock Wars it is a bloody fight-to-the death competition waged across the globe by fearless warriors armed with nothing more than pointy sticks and string. Those brave enough to sign on for the current battle received the previously top-secret pattern early Saturday morning along with the name and address of their first "target". The object is to knit said target a pair of socks according to the pattern and mail them off before being "assassinated" by someone else. Those killed off in the first round must then mail their socks and target to their own assassin for round two. Last one still barefoot is the winner.

Of course, those competing come from all walks of life and some are taking the little contest more seriously than others. The only relative certainty was that, barring a very speedy knitter willing to hand-deliver socks to Waterloo (or spring for Fed Ex) there was little chance of receiving anything before today. My killer has been eerily silent thus far, and I have no knowledge whereof my death socks will come. I do know that there are several competitors living in the Netherlands, so it is very likely that they don't have far to go.

As for the crafting and delivery of my own weapon, progress thus far has been slow. While many sock warriors planned to spend the entire weekend diligently knitting, I had several factors working against me doing the same.
1 - A beautiful, sunny weekend after a long and rainy week.
2- Three small children chomping at the bit to get outside after rain, school, and stomach virus had kept them in.
3 - A work-weary husband also eager to spend some quality family time.

Fortunately for me, our weekend destinations required quite a bit of driving and I managed to all but finish my first sock traveling as a passenger to Aachen, Germany on Saturday (further fueled by the Starbucks they have there!) and to Bellewaerde Amusement Park on Sunday (with some additional insomnia-induced knitting early Sunday morning - thanks AGAIN Starbucks!).


Now I need to cast on the second sock and, as Brenda Dayne would say "knit like the wind." My target can sleep soundly for another night.

Greetings from Waterloo

I suppose now that we are living on a different continent and in another time zone from most of our friends and family, it might be nice to start blogging again. The summer came and went with a whirlwind of activity culminating in our big move from Woonsocket, Rhode Island to Waterloo, Belgium.

But the fun didn't stop there...oh, no, it didn't. The very first night spent in our new house, Simon climbed into bed with Leo and me absolutely burning with fever. Of course, our stuff had not yet arrived and a thermometer was nowhere to be found. Leo ran out to the pharmacy (one of the few places around here open at all hours) and thus we were welcomed to the Land of Metric. Turns out that 40 degrees Celsius is BAD and we were also about to acquaint ourselves intimately with the Belgian medical system.

With no primary physician and no SIS cards, the emergency room was pretty much our only choice, so we decided to take him to a children's hospital. Nothing like a little baptism by fire to make one feel at home in a new country. Simon spent 7 days at L'Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola in Brussels, overlooking Brupark, with the Atomium right out his window. He was treated with IV antibiotics for a kidney infection most likely caused by the same bacteria that had made all the kids sick earlier that summer.

The one good thing to come of all this was that Leo's mom got to come visit to help us out. As much as my mom wanted to come herself, she did not yet have a passport and instead very generously bought the ticket to get us some much-needed aid. By the end of her stay, Simon was well enough to get out for a bit and we even got to do some sightseeing. By coincidence, my friend Sonja was visiting some family in Germany and also came to stay for a few days...it was definitely a full house amongst all the boxes but under the circumstances it was actually a really wonderful visit.

With all that excitement finally over we are now settling into a new school year and starting to feel at home in our new surroundings. Elly and Simon are both attending a local school, conveniently located just steps from our front door. What a nice change that is from the 40-mile round trip into Providence twice a day! I have joined the American Women's Club for a little taste of home and have recently completed their "Hints for Living in Belgium" three-week course (more on that in a future post). We are getting by with one car and I have pretty much everything within walking distance - something I have always wanted. Leo has already started his Dutch classes and is picking the language up extremely fast. I'm still in the process of blowing the dust off my French and need to get back up to speed before taking on a third language, but I am at least trying to pick up the bits and pieces that he share with me after class.

All in all, I think living here is going to be an amazing experience and I am going to make a sincere effort to share at least a bit of it here now that I finally feel like I have a little time to spare.

Our new house:


Elly and Simon ready for school:


The Atomium:


Leo holding Sophie in three countries at once (Belgium, Netherlands and Germany):