Well, our lives now revolve around Dane. We, the parental units, no longer
sleep through the night, and that is OK, because he is a great kid. He is
noisy as all get up though. His first nickname was Squeaky, because he
squeaks and sighs and cries and moans night and day, even during his
sleep. At first this was really cute as we listened to him and wondered
what he was dreaming. Now it is still really cute, but his nickname has
become Grunter. Kathy and I have become very light sleepers since Dane
came into the world as we are constantly waking up to check on every
squeak. We are happy to report that they have all been healthy squeaks.

We are just totally in love with this kid – all of his noises and habits
and cries and smiles (yes, we have had several confirmations of actual
smiles not followed by a fart and they have been very well received).
Actually, there have been five so far, all in the morning after we changed
his diaper – any correlation? Now he is 7 weeks old, and his cries are
evolving from one ear-piercing shriek that causes Kathy to spray milk to
several different types of cries (that still cause Kathy to spray milk,
but mean different things) thus beginning a more effective communication
between us. Earlier this week, he visited the pediatrician, and we learned
that he has grown 4 inches and now weighs 11.25 pounds, leading to a new
nickname, Piglet!

Anyway, enough about him. Let’s talk about where he has eaten. We took
him to Paris for a three-day weekend, and then on a whirlwind tour of
Italy and Switzerland, where he dined on breastmilk prepared in Florence,
Venice, Siena, Milan, and Zermatt. Gotta love those Belgian holidays!

First Paris. We decided to drive there (big mistake). We stayed in the
Latin Quarter at the Hotel Mont Blanc – only because we thought they might
have an inside line on getting some pens cheap. Although this was not the
case, the room was nice. We did a lot of walking around, down the
Champs-Elysee, over to the Eiffel Tower, and on to the Rodin Museum.
“Augooost” (of course, we use this name when in France – they dig it,
although they all say “C’est un nom ancien” as if we did not know this
fact) has had his picture taken at many Paris landmarks. Look for them
soon on an Internet near you.

To be honest, he slept through most of Paris, because he was only three
weeks old and in the stroller most of the time. Consequently, he (we) did
not sleep at night. However, we learned some new things about Paris: 1) we
will never drive there again, 2) the Metro is not stroller-compatible (too
many stairs), 3) they have the best Gyros we have ever had, and, 4) always
call ahead to see if Kathy’s favorite restaurant is open and not closed
for vacation before walking an hour in the rain with a screaming infant in
tow!

Now Italy (read this with an Italian accent). We-a took-a dee plane-a to
a-Milano, and caught a train-a to Firenze (Florence). It is a bea-u-ti-ful
city. We-a saw-a dee David and-a dee Duomo. It-a was-a very hot-ta, but-a
the food it was a dee best-a Italian food we-a have-a ever had. We-a
found-a two of the best-a restaurants, and are just a-aching to-a go-a
back. The first-a night, we had-a a little bit-a of trouble with-a Kathy’s
a re-a-living her-a summer in Firenze. She-a wanted to stay in her-a old
pensione, which-a was-a alright, except-a for the-a punk rock/elevator
musica band that-a played out-a-side our-a window. They-a played and-a
played all night-a long the same-a lousy Whitney Houston and Bee Gees
hits. And-a the singer, she was-a terrible. Ah, but-a the second-a
hotel-a—it was-a out-a-standing – a 15th century villa with a tower
(torre) from-a about-a the 13th century.

The Torre di Bellosguardo is perched on a hill overlooking the city of
Florence and is in fact named for the beautiful view (bello sguardo). We
arrived a little too early to take possession of our room so Michele at
the front desk suggested we relax by the pool. No sooner had we arrived
poolside when Paolo appeared from behind the shrubs to arrange cushions
and towels for us (especially-a for the bambino!). Drinks? Sure. Insalata
Caprese? That would be fantaaastic. “Don’t worry,” Paolo said, “I picked
the tomatoes this morning and I’ll pluck the basil off my plant right
now.” It was a damn fine start of two lovely days lounging by the pool;
leaving the hotel only to search for our next meal. We also met a
delightful honeymoon couple, Audrey and Eric, and introduced them to one
of our favorite Florentine restaurants. For those of you who are familiar
with Kathy’s penchant for collecting travel magazines, you will be happy
to know that this hotel was one she had read about and dreamt of staying
in.

From Firenze, it was off to Siena. Siena is a very interesting medieval
city. We stayed with the Toti family on the main Piazza – Piazza del
Campo. Their apartment, which has been in their family for over 800 years,
looks out over it. This is the Piazza where the Palio is run, and each
family member is, naturally, in a Contrada. In fact, the first thing
Roberta’s grown children did was insist that we watch a video of when
their horses won – 1993 and 1990. Notice that I said “horse won.” The
riders go bareback and only the horse has to cross the finish line. The
children are in different Contradas, which are their second family, and
they are baptized into it. In the late night and during the day,
spontaneous celebrations by the Contrada (Giraffa) who had won in June
erupted in the Piazza below our window. They proudly paraded their flag
throughout the town while playing drums and trumpeting long horns. They
even dressed in Renaissance garb. This show was not for the tourists- it
was for themselves and their Contrada.

Venice was the next stop for us. As you probably know, Venezia has so many
canals that the only way to get around is by boat. Even the taxis are
boats. As we were low on money by this time it was great to know that the
baby stroller was inflatable. We just inflated the stroller, then swam
along side it! The water felt good in the heat. The only other way we
found to beat the heat as we walked and walked was Haagen Daaz, which we
still believe is better than 95% of the gelato we had. We saw the island
of Murano and toured the glass factory/high-pressure sales floor. Some of
the stuff was nice, but was way overpriced.
No matter where we went though, Dane was the hit of Italy. All of the
Italians loved him – old, young, male, female, single, married. Almost
everyone made a fuss over him, wanting to hold him and touch him and make
faces at him and ask how old he was (cinque settimane) and so on! It was a
pleasant aspect of our visit to Italy. If they didn’t ask to hold or touch
him or proudly display pictures of their own children, they would just
point out the piccolino bambino to their girlfriends or parents or
children as we walked by, always following with bellino!

Switzerland was also great. Zermatt is at the base of the Matterhorn, and
is just beautiful. There are no gasoline-powered cars there – only
electric carts to get around. We did some hikes and some shopping (the
dollar is sooo strong right now against European currencies) and concluded
that, just like it is “in” to wear black in big cities like LA or NYC,
it is in to walk around in hiking gear with a 50 lb. pack, ropes, helmet
and ice shovel in Zermatt. We just weren’t “in”.

I did bust away for a mountain bike ride one morning in Zermatt. I figure,
even though I have only ridden two times since Dane’s birth, I must
mountain bike in the Alps, given the chance. So I rented a bike from a
local shop, threw on a rain jacket, street shoes, and Quicksilver swim
trunks, and headed in the direction of the Matterhorn! It was a rainy day,
and as I climbed and climbed, I eventually went into the clouds where the
steady drizzle turned into a steady rain. I was reminded of the ride with
#1 and #2, except that this was on pavement. Who wants to be on pavement
in the rain on a mountain bike?

Fortunately, I happened along a little trail that was designated for
biking and took it (realize that such trails are very rare in Zermatt –
Hikers Rule here!) It turned out to be a single-track descent through the
woods that meandered down half of the mountain and contained 8-10 steep,
hairpin switchbacks with the appropriate penalty should you not
successfully maneuver the turn. In this case, the penalty was even more
severe because the rental shop would not lend me a helmet and the rocks 15
below looked very unforgiving. The trail had just enough rain to provide
excellent traction and plenty of low-hanging tree branches to create
excitement. At the end, I was dumped back on the original road again (Yes,
at a lower altitude – if only Escher DID design bike trails!!), and I did
what all of you would have done – climbed the hill and went down it again!
This time I discovered some shortcuts from one section to another – these
looked like the equivalent of chutes that I recall falling down with
Susan, Rich, #2 and Kathy off Headwall at Squaw – where you have no room
to execute a full turn of your skis down a heart-stoppingly steep chute.
In this case, there was no room for your rear wheel to slide as you
involuntarily locked your rear tire with your white-knuckle grip on the
brake! I decided that living through one of these used up enough
testosterone, and I would save the rest of the MTBs chutes to do with
Roger or Rich and a helmet!

From a Zermatt-uh, we-a headed back-a to-a Milano, where-uh we-a searched
and-a searched-a for some good-a pasta. We found-a some, visited-a dee
Duomo, and came home-a Sunday, the last day of our Tour and THE Tour.

Until you live in Europe, you cannot appreciate how important the Tour de
France is to Europeans. In Belgium, it is broadcast live on three stations
in three different languages. Then, in the evening, it is rebroadcast in
its entirety! Incredible! That is all for now!

Voila! In your hands (or computer) is Update #4, appropriately named “The
Birth,” because it is official! Our lives have changed. We are not the
same Besser family who left for Europe three months ago. We are officially
parents! Yikes! Be afraid! Professor Dr. Hubinont (Belgians love titles!)
decided to induce labor at 8:15am (Central Europe time) at Universitaire
Clinique Saint-Luc in the commune of Woluwe, Brussels, Belgium. After ten
hours of hard labor, Kathy was not dilating, in a hell of a lot of pain,
and not winning at cards with the Nursing Staff. So a Cesarean section was
deemed necessary, bringing August Dane Besser into the world at 6:15pm. It
was a tough start for the kid, actually, as his head was wedged into
Kathy’s pelvis so tightly that it required three doctors’ efforts and 4
minutes to extract him. He also had a little trouble breathing for about
15 minutes, but then he was just fine. Kathy and baby are both fine in
fact. Thank goodness Kathy’s mom, Patti, was there with us. We relied on
her delivery room nursing experience to know what card games to play and
that Kathy needed a C-section in a hurry. We knew we were in good hands
when we noticed that the operating room had the machine that goes “BING!”
(Those of you who have seen Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life” will
understand this obscure reference.)

We stayed in the hospital for a week. Notice the verb – stayed – I did not
say that we slept there – that would be lying. I was on the floor and
Kathy was in a bed, but neither of us really slept. And it was time for
Paul to understand some things about pregnancy and babies. Like, when a
pregnant woman walks around, a gentle swaying motion is created in the
womb, and the baby sleeps. At night, when she is still, the baby is awake.
We are learning that the transition from sleeping during the day to
sleeping at night is a slow process! But we are all learning about each
other, and it is great. He is a good kid. He is not that fussy and is
recovering well from when I dropped him (just kidding). The hospital was
great – a much better post-natal experience than we would have had in the
U.S., we think. The nurses and doctors were very attentive. An example of
this was the second night at 3:30am, when we were struggling to get Dane
to latch on. A nurse appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Kathy’s breast,
grabbed Dane’s head, stuffed the former into the latter’s mouth, massaged
the former for a few minutes, issued the obligatory Voila!, then turned
and was gone in a flash! C’est magnifique!

The Belgians believe in having the mother and child stay for a week –
standard. So when you leave the hospital, the mother is relatively rested,
mother and child are in somewhat of a routine, the milk has come in, the
baby has learned to latch on, the cord maintenance is complete, and the
father has been repeatedly tested by three shifts of nurses on his ability
to change a diaper and bathe a baby. A bonus feature of the hospital was
the fact that they had TV and Cable! Yowza! I got to watch two X-Files
episodes back-to-back without commercials and Beavis and Butthead on MTV,
undubbed, every night.

The front runner for Dane’s nickname is Squeaky. He continually lets out
little cries and squeaks while sleeping or being picked up or while
sucking on my pinky (sometimes the only way other than a nipple to get him
to relax when he is tense). He has (relatively) long reddish-blond hair
and dark blue eyes. I am told that he looks like me (now called Daddy) but
my hairline is not nearly as receded and he fortunately does not have the
dreaded Besser chin…. yet. He loves baths. Well, he loves floating in
bathwater, at least. He is totally calm while immersed. He knows us both
by voice and smell, and allows us to calm him. He repeatedly falls asleep
on my chest or in Kathy’s arms. Scary aspect about Dane – he is a gas
machine – easy to burp and plenty of “boopses.” We, the parental units,
just love the little guy – he is pretty damn cute, and definitely lovable.
Especially after a visit to Kathy the Chuck Wagon! He runs through a
series of involuntary facial expressions that Kathy affectionately calls
“facial gymnastics,” whereas each limb is completely relaxed.

Now, of course, Kathy and Dane are home, and Kathy’s parents have returned
to Sacramento. It was great to have them. They were so helpful. Patti and
I were Team Delivery, supporting Kathy throughout the birth, together. And
Patti and Paul are so low maintenance. We are sorry to see them go. Kathy
is doing extremely well. She has shined through this experience and is an
inspiration. She accepted the challenge of childbirth, faced it with her
head held high, and graciously kicked its ass!

I would like to thank all of you for your support. We have received an
outpouring of congratulations over the last two weeks. Patti and Paul
Holland were there in whatever capacity we needed them. Also, both IMEC
and AMD sent beautiful floral arrangements, and our new American friends
in Belgium, Laura and Joe, came by every day to help us get started. And
so many of you have called or written emails or sent cards to congratulate
us. Thanks. We look forward to seeing y’all in early September!

Update Three

Voila! Here is the third one of these. We have been here for almost two
months, so it is time to say that Europe is officially a good place to be
most of the time! The biking is really fun, the beer is great, and the
weather has been awesome recently. We just miss our friends and our puppy.

We have to start out by finishing the story of Dave and Dave. We had to
resort to just calling them #1 (Kausch) and #2 (Holland), for it was much
less confusing. I believe when we last left off, #1 and #2 were in
Amsterdam, exploring the Dark Side of the Force. When they returned, the
four musketeers departed for Hornberg, Germany for a three-day weekend.
(Belgium has sooo many holidays in May!) We stopped off in Metz, France,
because that is my brother-in-law’s last name. This city was one of two
unexpected gems of our weekend, and quite possibly Europe. We stopped in
for lunch, but (Voila!) fell in love with Metz before our second beer. It
is a gorgeous town – clean, old and beautiful. It thankfully lacks the
soft-coal-burning-black-soot-covered stone facades (I’ll bet there is a
Dutch word for this that is equally long) associated with the buildings in
many other cities in Europe. The people were also very pleasant.

In fact, for the whole weekend, everyone was nice to us and really went
out of their way to please us. We decided this was because our itinerary
took us to towns where few out-of-country tourists go – Metz, Hornberg,
and Baden-Baden. These are less touristy towns, except Hornberg, which is
a tourist town for Germans. We rarely ran into someone who spoke English.
Anyway, I would recommend stopping in Metz if you are ever near it.

After a long drive, we arrived in Hornberg late in the day Saturday.
Because of the length of the drive, the car was abuzz with disparaging
comments about Kathy’s choice for the weekend…until we entered the
valley. Hornberg is exactly that, a valley town nestled between two steep
mountain ridges on the edge of the Schwartzvald – the Black Forest of
Germany. As you enter the town, you first catch a glimpse of the Hotel
Schloss Hornberg – a four-story yellow house halfway up the mountain and
perched precariously overlooking the valley. It is adjacent to a stone
wall, the remaining portion of a castle.

The hotel was immaculate – nice rooms, and a dining room overlooking the
valley. But the service took the kirschtort! (that pun was for Roger and
#1). Kirschtort is Black Forest Cherry cake, for those of you who haven’t
seen “Young Frankenstein”. We asked if it would be possible to rent some
bikes for #1/2 so that we could go mountain bike riding. The receptionist
said she would take care of it; she just needed to know what time we would
ride in the morning. OK, 9? The bikes were ready to go and pretty nice,
too – Raleigh USAs with STX components. Oh, and here are your helmuts. All
the way to Germany, and yes, the U.S. bikes are the best. Good sign.
Patrick wants to know if we know where to go? (map and trail guide
provided) It’s pouring rain, do we require ponchos? (Here you go, #2). The
ride was awesome. The rain did not deter us. #1, #2 and I took off into
the Schwartzvald. We started out on a fire road and did a lot of climbing.
Fortunately, it was not too steep, since it was the first mountain that I
had ridden in two months, and the first time that #1 had ever been
mountain biking. This is worthy of further comment, since #1 lives in
Portland which has excellent trails – and he rides the exercise bike at
the gym? Tsk, Tsk. I predict he will buy a bike this summer and begin
riding more – he is a natural… Eventually we came across a single-track
trail off the fire road. Yes, we took it, and climbed even more. The
vistas were stunning and we felt as though we were the first ones to reach
this remote area in years, until we saw the German Boy Scout camp at the
top of our climb!

We took some solace in the fact that none of the boy scouts passed us up
the hill, and after a couple of s’mores, we headed back down. The wet
trails were challenging because there are quite a few flat rocks and lots
of tree roots crossing the trail. But we pointed our front tires downhill
and had a good time letting our rear tires do what they had to do. We
returned to the hotel muddied from head to toe and all testosteroned out.
A good time was had by all. Special thanks to Patrick, who disappeared
with our bikes to clean them and prepare them for the next day’s ride.
“Tomorrow, I will school you California boys!” he exclaimed as he turned
away.

After showers, a beer, and surviving lunch in a local German restaurant
(thank God #1 brought a German translation book), we headed off to
Baden-Baden. It was a 1.5-hour drive in the rain that #1 and #2
conveniently slept through. B-B is the second gem of Europe. It is another
immaculate town, but is even cleaner than Metz. There is much more money
in B-B, and it appears cleaner because more buildings are painted in
pastel colors, which we Californians dig. The biggest attraction for us
was the natural mineral spas. B-B is famous for them. We had two options –
either buy bathing suits and enjoy the fairly new bathhouse with 100
people milling around the front lobby, or, go ‘au naturelle’ at the
Roman-Irish baths next door.

The choice for us cheapo, art lovers was easy when we checked out the
price of bathing suits in the lobby and saw the naked women in the
brochure for the co-ed Roman baths. The baths were built in the 1800’s –
very old and very grand. It seemed very odd to us that there should be
separate mens’ and womens’ showers in a clothing un-optional co-ed
bathhouse, but we went along with it. ‘The boys’ traded our Tevas and
shorts for sheets and entered the baths. It is actually a circuit, where
you start out with a shower and move into a series of progressively warmer
saunas, prior to losing your sheet for another shower and a cold plunge.
Up to this point, it has been all men.

Conveniently, after the cold plunge, we entered the same warm shower we
first had, only to encounter our first female – Voila! Face-to-face with a
17 year-old babe with her head thrown back while washing her hair. She got
quite a kick out of our response – utter confusion coupled with open
mouths and wide eyes! After stammering around for a minute or two cursing
the effects of the cold plunge, we headed over to the steam and communal
bath sections.

Here we mostly found old folks – 50 and up, and silently vowed never to
eat raisins again. The unofficial poll of attendees suggests that
circumcision and aerobics are less common in Europe than the U.S. But the
bath section itself was stunningly beautiful – a Romanesque rotunda filled
with statues (of naked people, of course). In addition, we were reunited
with Kathy, all 9 months pregnant of her. She looked (and still does)
awesome. Predictably, she and her brother tried to avoid each other most
of the time, until Dave’s dolphin kicking, double-cheeked Moon under the
Dome broke the ice! Surprisingly, we were fairly adult about the whole
adventure; the towel guard only scolded Kathy once for sporting a towel in
front of her brother, me once for the splash fight in the cold plunge, and
#1/2 once for not staying the requisite four minutes at the warm towel
station! Aside from those events and the weenie jokes over bratwurst and
beer, we were fine…until we started running into people around town that
we had seen much more of in the spa!

I thought that MB rides did not get better than the ride on Sunday, but
Monday’s mountain bike ride with Patrick was better than the first. He
took us on a different mountain, and it was sunny and beautifully warm.
The ride was longer, more difficult, and with a more aggressive pace, but
the traction was excellent. It was one of the best rides I have ever been
on, despite the fact that #2 rode his brakes down every hill, heating up
his rims so much that he got flat after flat after flat (was it 3 or 4,
Dave?). No matter, for it allowed the nerves in our forearms to cool off
between downhill sections! Eventually, we realized that the rim tape was
slipping and the spokes were piercing the tube. We made it home to the
hotel, gave each other high-fives, and then sadly had to depart from our
home away from home, the Hotel Schloss Hornberg. After a quick stop in
Newark, NJ’s European sister city (Strasbourg, the armpit of Europe), #1
and #2 were off for Prague, and Kathy and I returned home.

My sister, Ruth, and her husband, Neil, also visited recently. We had a
wonderful time together. We checked out Brugge one day and Waterloo
another. Waterloo is slightly uneventful, as the only attraction is the
Butte de Lion, a statue of a huge lion at the crest of a small, man-made
hill. Ruth and Neil treated us to dinner at de Kleine Zinke (traditional
Belgian food) one evening, and we cooked dinner together the other night.

We also got to see my other sister, Colette, and her husband, John, and
son, Anthony. They live in Kaiserslautern (refer to Update #1). We met
them in Trier for the day. There are some Roman ruins in Trier and a very
beautiful church that claims to have the robe that Christ wore on the way
to being crucified.

No other major scandals in the Besser’s Belgian Life. We went to the
Brussels Jazz Marathon last weekend with our friends Laura and Joe (Kathy
met Laura through the American Women’s Club). The Jazz festival was held
throughout Brussels, but we went to the Grand Place where we saw Fabrien
DeGryse and his (boring) band de Guitares, and the Phillip Catherine
Quartet. At Iban, The Minstrel’s put on a great sound of New Orleans
Dixieland jazz. We also had some rip-roaring Indian/ Indonesian food. We
have been to this restaurant three weekends in a row – it is sooooo tasty.
They make a coconut milk-based curry called Chicken Sri Lanka and an
excellent Chicken Biriyani. Oh yeah, and I had another “rendezvous avec
Nathalie” (the real term for appointment used by the French). They call it
a coiffure, but it is sooo much more! Joe has started “rendezvous-ing”
with Nathalie, too. I can’t wait to find out what the referral fee is –
maybe an extra long massage!

I also went biking after work on Wednesday. Luc and I did a serious 60 km
off-road ride! There are these trails called the “Mountainbiketrails” (the
Dutch love to make long words out of short word combos of English words).
It was a very long ride, and some sections were really hard, but the ride
was fun. Belgians like to ride really fast.

Well, there is only one thing to talk about yet…. Dane. Funny that the
most important thing in our lives is last in the letter. He is due in less
than 2 weeks, and Kathy is ready for him to arrive. It is probably more
accurate to say that she is ready for him is depart her body! She has
taken to drinking Raspberry Tea and using the trampoline in the backyard
in an effort to induce labor. I will let you know if she starts drinking
Castor Oil and going on mountain bike rides with me or as soon as I know
something more. Since the best way to communicate is email, expect a very
brief note soon after the birth. Kathy’s parents arrive June 6th. They
will be here (off and on) for 2 weeks to help us out with the transition
to parenthood, and to cook and clean, so they say. We are looking forward
to their arrival – our fridge is empty and the apartment is filthy and way
overdue for a cleaning!

Update Two (written by Paul, edited by Kathy)

Well, we’ve been in Europe for officially one month. Only 5 more to go…
This letter is the second update of our personal travels that I am sending
you. Please write back and let us know what is new with you because we
love to get news and letters from home.

Kathy and I are finally acclimating and recovering. The first month was
quite difficult, but things are looking up. We met our doctor and saw St.
Luc, the hospital where our child will be delivered. It is only 20 minutes
away and very nice, and Dr. Hubinont is great. Less than 4 weeks to go!
Kathy is counting the hours, though. Only 720 to go! Pregnancy is not the
most comfortable experience in the world, but we are sure that the end
result will make it all worthwhile (at least I am sure- Kathy is still
debating this). During our last ultrasound, we learned that we are having
a boy. He appears to be healthy and normal. The Besser name will live on!

If anyone can figure out a convenient package, please send us some
California sunshine! We need it! We would even accept East Coast sunshine!
It has been a wet spring in Europe, which is probably normal, but we still
miss the bright sunshine of our home. If we want rain, we’ll just fly to
Oregon for the weekend, dammit! The rains and somewhat warm weather (60’s,
oh boy!) have facilitated greenery on most trees and hillsides. Belgium
has beautiful forests and rolling hills. It is hard to plan events outside
with the weather, though. Spot showers are common every day. But I am
still trying to get some biking in.

I have gone biking a couple of times. There is not much of a shoulder to
ride on around here. I rode with one guy at lunch. He works at IMEC, too.
He likes to go fast, …real fast. No warm-up needed for this guy! No,
let’s just ride as fast as possible for one hour. At least he showed me
one of the bike trails in the area. As there are no hills, I could hang
with him. He was only fast for the first 1/2 hour, so I assume he was just
“seeing what I had”! He must have mistakenly thought I was Canadian or
something. I also did some riding while we were in France last weekend,
but I am really looking forward to some warmer (and dryer) weather to get
more biking in. The days are really long here – it is light until at least
10pm already. We have found that we are adjusting our day to go to bed
later at night, because it is difficult to go to sleep when it is still
light.

Kathy and I are still coping with our sorrow over Reilly. But we are
improving. I am not sure we will ever get over it – he was such a great
dog and just an awesome soul. We have progressed though, and our periods
of despair are reducing in frequency. Irritability is commonplace, but it
is only a mask for what is really on our minds, and we are both quite
aware of this and talk about it all the time. We have taken to spending as
little time as possible at home – it is just too quiet. So if you cannot
reach us by phone that is why.

We are considering picking up an answering machine. We thought about
picking up a used TV, too, but it is a lot of money for the tube, then you
HAVE to buy cable to get more than 2 stations (neither in English) and you
HAVE to pay tax on the tube – $200 a year! So we listen to a lot of music
and go for walks every night and read. We did have one dinner party, which
was fun. We invited Marion (she found our house for us) and her husband
for dinner, along with two other friends and served a bottle of California
wine. It was well received by the guests. Dinners seem to last a long time
in Europe. We started at 7pm and finished dessert at 11. However, it is
very relaxing. Another way to keep busy has been to host visitors. Our
friend, Rachel, came to visit last week while I was in the U.S., and Dave
(brother) and Dave (friend) are here this week. Kathy took Rachel to some
section of Belgium near France and checked out some castles. It is nice to
have guests, so plan your trip now!

We are finally done dealing with the Belgian bureaucracy for a little
while, as Kathy and I now have residence permits. It was such a pain in
the ass. In fact, I even had to fly back to the U.S. to get my visa, so
that the visa could be stamped by Customs as I entered the country. I flew
back for only three days – one day in California to discuss the impact of
the re-organization of AMD’s development group with my new manager, new
director, and VP (all of whom were tremendously supportive, as supportive
as they could be – it is difficult to get such news while you are >5000
miles from AMD), and 1.5 days in Los Angeles to get my visa straightened
out, plus at least 1.5 days flying to and from the U.S.A. (BTW- the
service and food are much better on British Air than American, although
American did serve Caymus, a wine I cannot afford very often).

My theory is that no government pays state workers very much money, so
intelligent people don’t work for the government. Most of the ones here in
Belgium are pretty clueless, except the last guy who helped us. The
government also wants to charge me $1,000 in taxes because I brought a
computer into the country. AMD shipped it to me after I got here, and
Customs held it up saying I owed taxes. IMEC called and said it was
personal property, but it did not matter – it had an AMD barcode. I told
them to send the damn computer back to AMD if they had a problem. The
laptop arrived shortly thereafter. I think that if they had really wanted
their money, they should have held the laptop ransom until I paid.

Work

It was ugly for the first three weeks, but now things are really
improving. I got here and three out of four tools I needed were down. I am
delayed at least three weeks, possibly four. Hmmm, a one-month delay in a
5-month assignment. I had better send some really good chocolates to my
management…

Travel

This is the section you all want to read. Where have we been, you ask?
Well, last time we left you, we had been to Amsterdam, Brugge,
Kaiserslautern and Antwerpen. Add to your list Waterloo, the French
countryside, the Loire Valley of France, and Brussels. It was a slow three
weeks, mostly ’cause I blew a 4-day holiday weekend to travel back to the
U.S. for the visa snafu. The Loire Valley in France was the best. Last
weekend was another 4-day weekend because of yet another Belgian holiday.
The drive is long (550 km), but worth it. Kathy found a very charming B&B
for us to stay in while there, and our room was the pick of the manor. The
entire room was decorated in white and beige with just a few pieces of
antique furniture as accents. The bed had a partial canopy (sort of a
sheer bronze silk) that came out from the slightly vaulted ceiling and
provided a central focal point for the room. The antique Venetian mirrors
(nope, not on the ceiling) were stunning and the Louis XV armoire (real!)
was just incredible. And best of all for us was the profusion of
monogrammed linens (with “B” for Binet, the proprietors, or Besser as we
liked to think of it) on the bed, chairs and sofa. The bathroom was very
modern with white ceramic tile and a corner tub and shower – everything
accented with a few items in a golden yellow color. The overall effect was
both luxurious and comfortable. The rest of the house was beautifully
decorated as well – pale golden walls and more incredible antiques. They
had even turned an antique infant’s bed into a window-side settee. We had
dinner at the Inn twice during our stay – Monique Binet is justifiably
famous for her gourmet cuisine and we enjoyed the locally grown
vegetables, fresh lamb and pork, as well as the delicious desserts.

We went to a local restaurant one night and regretted it because
everything on the (limited) menu was very heavily sauced. Kathy can’t
stomach creamy foods these days and classic French cuisine seems to rely
heavily on sauces to disguise the poorer quality of the beef, chicken,
etc. Next time we go, we are dining exclusively at La Paqueraie. We
visited several chateaux (in between the rain showers) and especially
enjoyed the formal gardens and beautifully appointed furnishings in many
of the castles, particularly at Chenonceau and Villandry. The Binets have
asked us to return after the baby is born and we are thinking about going
back in September when the weather is more stable.

The weather was the only downside of the weekend. The people we met were
nice, we got to speak lots of French, the B&B had a big lovable puppy, and
all the chateaux were beautiful. It was funny at dinner when we were
talking about the baby… they asked if we had a name, and I said August.
And they were all excited that we had named the child Augooost! They just
shouted Augooost in unison! The French crack me up. I’ve decided that my
favorite word in French is “Voila!” They say it all the time, and I just
love it. They put your dinner in front of you, “Voila”. Like it just
appeared out of thin air and they are taking credit for it! They give you
your change after paying for something, Voila! Walk into a meeting late,
Voila! (I have arrived!). Pass the bread to you at dinner,
Voila!

I don’t know why, but I love it.

We have started to explore Brussels more. There are some beautiful
sections to the city. The forest section is nice, with some very large
houses. The International School of Brussels put on a garage (junk) sale,
and we checked out the stuff, picked up some bagels and a couple of used
paperbacks. We checked out an open-air market, too, and picked up a
quiche, some cheese, some salami, and lots of fresh, cheap veggies. We
also went to a mall and I got a haircut. Hairstylists treat you nicely
here. They cut my hair in kind of a standard way, but “Natalie” was very
talented. I showed her a picture of me with a haircut that I liked, and
she reproduced it, only better. She used a combination of scissors, shears
and a straight-edge razor blade. Then, she asks you if you want a Coke or
a coffee. OK, I’ll play, make it a Coke. She brought it and wrapped my
face in a lemon-scented, moist, hot towel and massaged my
face…OOOOOHHHWWWEEEE. This is service!!

On other fronts, Dave (brother) and Dave (friend) arrived this week from
the States and took off for Amsterdam this morning (Red light district,
don’t you know it!) and they depart for Paris tomorrow night (culture,
they say). They return on Friday evening and we are heading to the Black
Forest region of Germany on Saturday morning. We’ll be staying at a
beautiful hotel that is either a former castle or home of a minor noble.
(It looks a lot like a castle though – it is pale yellow and is perched
above the trees on the side of a mountain). We’ll stay there until Monday
morning and have planned a visit to the town of Baden-Baden, famous for
its natural mineral springs and spas. I think D&D will need to recover
after the debauchery of Amsterdam and the rich food of France. I’m just
looking forward to mountain biking and Kathy to a massage or facial. Dave
& Dave plan to head to Prague on Monday and we’ll return here since I have
to go back to work on Tuesday (Monday is yet another Belgian holiday – the
5th day off since we’ve been here).

Food

Belgian food is funny. It is sort of like food anywhere else; at least it
starts out that way. They are just more adventurous – serving more game
than other places. Then, the Belgians do something amazing. They overcook
everything, and then put a sauce on it! The sauce is usually quite rich.
And the amazing thing is that every restaurant serves identical dishes. So
we have taken to eating at home a lot. When we do eat out, we eat dinner
early to avoid the crowd. Seinfeld has an opinion about this I am sure,
but the advantage is that by avoiding the crowd, you avoid the cigarette
smoke that comes with the crowd. Two things the Belgians do very well are
chocolate and beer. The chocolate is incredible. Even the cookies you get
in the store rule, man! For a buck, you get a box of cookies that are
loaded with dark chocolate.

Beer/Wine

This is a huge dilemma, and the jury is still out. The wine is cheap. We
found this bottle for less than $5 that we use as a table wine (Chateau Rasteau,
the name even has a good ring); we even served it at our one dinner party.
It is equivalent to most $15 California wines (sorry no comparison to
Oregon wines). Add to this the fact that the Belgian’s make, hands-down,
some of the best beers I have ever had! They kick Germany’s ass! I think
the key is the extra alcohol. I prefer the Trippel’s which can have up to
10% alcohol. Not only do they have a good kick, but they have a better
flavor. So, here is the dilemma. Good beer or good wine with dinner? To
make matters worse (or better), beer and wine are cheaper than water in
most restaurants!!! Talk about making the choice easy for you!

Movies

We have taken to watching more movies than we did in the past. Reason:
they are in English. If you get adventurous and want to learn more French
or Dutch, there are always subtitles. We went to see “The English Patient”
which was a really good movie; however, in retrospect it probably would
have been better for Kathy and me not to have seen a movie with so many
people dealing with death…but it was a good movie. We also saw Ransom
and 101 spotty dogs. If anyone has seen a particularly good movie at the
theaters, please let us know, because I am sure it will be here six months
later.

Drugs

Well, to change the subject… We went to Amsterdam for the day. We found
a neat place, too. This place, the Blue Bird, actually has a catalog of
“grass” and “hash” (one catalog of each) with a description of the stuff,
and a sample “bag” of what you actually get. There must have been 25
varieties of each in each catalog. This just blew me away! Of course, we
were just investigating so that we knew where to take people when they
visit! That is all for now. A bientot!

I thought it might be a good idea to start (or re-start) this blog with a
bit of background, specifically our initial foray into parenting. Our
story as a family actually began a few years earlier when Paul and I met
on a red-eye flight to Chicago (we sat next to each other). We fell in
love fairly quickly and married about a year and a half later. A short
while after our first anniversary, we learned of a great opportunity to
spend 6 months in Belgium so that Paul could pursue an in-depth
investigation of a promising material (cobalt salicide) for his
semi-conductor industry company. We decided that having a baby in Europe
would be a grand adventure and thus embarked on our journey when I was
seven months pregnant. I’ll let Paul take it from here…

Update One (written by my husband, Paul; edited by me)

Our first two weeks in Belgium- this is kind of long!

I am thinking of distributing an update letter periodically to our friends
describing what is new with Paul and Kathy (your friends who moved to
Belgium a while ago). Well, we still exist and I am writing you this
letter to let you know what is going on as part of our European tour of
duty. I am horrible at hand-writing letters, but can type pretty fast; so
this is all you’re gonna get from me, probably. Kathy, on the other hand,
does not have email yet, so postal mail makes her day. She loves the fact
that it arrives at 7:15am. Before I forget, our mailing address in Leuven
is St. Jansbergsesteenweg 103, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium phone 32-16-295052,
and there is a 9-hour difference. So if you call at 9am California time
(Noon on the East Coast), it is 6pm in the evening our time.

The first two weeks have been very challenging for us. We arrived
unscathed from San Jose. The flight was long and turbulent, but it was OK.
We took a day’s layover in Chicago so we could get some good pizza before
rushing off to Europe. While there we visited Winnie the Fu at
Northwestern University. He is finishing up his MBA at Kellogg (Is that 2
L’s and 2 G’s? Who cares?) Winston is almost finished and has an awesome
job that will bring him back to the Bay Area in August.

Upon arrival we picked up our dog, Reilly, who was a little upset from his
flight experience, and grabbed a taxi from Brussels to Leuven. Our Hertz
car was waiting for us at three times the quoted value + mileage – par for
the course in a foreign country. Hertz had tried to take advantage of the
difference in currency. This was corrected a week later by renting
directly at the Brussels airport which is 20 minutes away.

Anyway, we piled our junk into the dental and headed off to our apartment.
Bottom line, the place is drop-dead gorgeous, much nicer than what we have
in Cupertino. It is the entire second floor of a very large house. The
house is recessed off the main road and the grounds are very nice. The
owner likes wildlife, so he has built a fenced-in “preserve” where he has
some deer, chickens, ducks, and a peacock. They also have a fenced-in
grassy area out back and a garden in front. The place borders on a small
forest. Our kitchen and bathroom look out over the garden. They have two
ponds separated by a little bridge, a gazebo, and a path that traverses a
beautifully manicured garden of
rhododendron, boxwood, roses, etc. and leads to a 20′ high stone monument
of some sort at the end of the yard. You really must see it.

The inside is also quite nice. The entry area is larger than the office of
our old apartment. The living and dining areas have windows on both sides
that provide good morning and evening light. This room is larger than our
yard in Cupertino and is decorated with three huge pieces of old and dark
wooden furniture (including a dining table for eight) that are in
excellent condition. These, coupled with the burnt-orange drapes, big
hearth, hardwood floor and wooden chandeliers (complete with candlelights)
give this room the feel of a dining hall from the Dark Ages! The kitchen
continues this castle-like imagery with a beautiful red-tile floor and
lots of wood cabinetry. It is nice to have a large kitchen once again,
even if the kitchen sink is rather small. The bathroom and bedrooms
deviate from the medieval theme by incorporating some modern designs. The
bathroom is nonetheless still beautiful and is huge – with two sinks and a
full bathtub. The bedrooms are a little small (about the same size as the
one in Cupertino) but as with the rest of the apartment, there is plenty
of storage and great natural light!

Our first couple of days were OK. We were introduced to the bureaucracy of
the Belgian government when they required some very specific documents for
Kathy that we could not produce. We went to the U.S. Embassy for some
help, and found out where we had to write to in the U.S. to get
“Apostilles”. We now have these Apostilles, thanks to fast work by DHL and
the Secretary of State for both Maryland and California. Now, we just have
to get them translated into Dutch! The second introduction to the Belgian
bureaucracy was the effort required to get our belongings through customs.
Letters and faxes were flying between me, IMEC, AMD and the moving company
daily. IMEC finally produced a letter in Dutch that made the government
happy, and our shipment arrived the next afternoon.

We also introduced ourselves to the country a little. Since we had to run
to Brussels, we made a day of it. We explored the Grand Place in Brussels
and went to Brugge that afternoon. Kathy, Chuck, Reilly, and I had a great
time. Chuck is a friend of mine from Miami (actually Boca Raton) who was
already in Europe and met us at our house the day we arrived. He had been
in Europe for a few weeks and we were his last stop before heading back to
the U.S. Anyway, it was fun to tool around Brugge. It was a day for
Reilly, actually. He had a great time. We had already gotten into the
habit of taking him everywhere. He went to the grocery store, into the
government offices, on walks, and even went to eat with us. Reilly was
really enjoying Belgium. While we ate, he would lay down under the table
and mind his own business. He had a great doggie day in Brussels and
Brugge. He played with other dogs, some kids, and us, he got to run, chase
birds and even took a dip in one of the canals. He was quickly adapting to
a European lifestyle.

On Thursday, our European trip took a sad turn of events. Most of you know
this story, but I will repeat part of it for those who have not heard.
Chuck left for Paris that morning and I took Reilly for a walk in the
woods. Reilly had taken to chasing rabbits, and we found some woods behind
our house to walk him. I guess he chased a rabbit onto a freeway 200 yards
away from where I was walking him. I heard the brakes squeal, but silly
Paul assumed that the rabbit had been hit, because, as I came out of the
woods, Reilly ran all the way back to me. I remember it so clearly.
Somehow, on strictly love, he ran all the way back to me from the freeway
and buried his head into me, as he always had when he needed my help or
was scared or hurt. I picked him up and heard a sigh. In retrospect, this
was the moment he died, but it did not dawn on me right away… He died in
my arms, where he was always happiest… He never once cried. Just ran all
the way back to me, for me to make it better. He just wanted to be with
me.

It has been a tremendously tough time for Kathy and I. Emotional
rollercoaster is the only way to describe it. It seems like months, but it
has been less than two weeks. I am doing OK. Well, not so hot. Wednesday
of last week was very tough. We had to go pick up Reilly’s ashes near
Antwerp. We also got some pictures developed of our day in Brugge – the
day before he died. So I was extremely depressed and sad all day, and so
was Kathy. Before this, we had both been up and down, but this was our
worse day – we were both down. We started keeping a diary of our feelings
toward Reilly. Someday we may throw it away or we may never read it again
or we may keep it by our bed. Who knows? But right now it really helps to
write things down. Reilly was like our kid and such a part of our lives…
He gave us so much love and we gave him so much love. So we are searching
for some lessons to learn from this experience. There are few, but we
found some. We just want Reilly to be safe and happy, and not waiting for
us, because we know that he did not take to others well. He only wanted
Kathy and I, and was happiest when we were all together. I miss him.

Well, to change the subject… Chuck returned that Friday. On Saturday we
took him to Amsterdam for the day. He left Sunday. Our empty house has
been exactly that for the past week. We are trying to keep ourselves busy.
In fact, we went to Kaiserslautern last weekend. K-town, as John, my
brother-in-law, calls it, is about 1.5 hours southeast of Frankfurt. My
sister, Colette, John, and Anthony (my nephew) live there. We had a great
weekend with them and their German Shepherd, Chief. My nephew, Anthony, is
going through a shy phase which means that Uncle Paul barely exists.
Fortunately, he liked Kathy a lot – probably because her breasts are like
giant searchlights that just focus his attention. Supposedly, kids can
tell when women are pregnant and gravitate to them, but I think it is the
boobs. It was a beautiful drive, only four hours from Leuven to
Kaiserslautern. We did 140 km/hr most of the way. The town is cute, and
the air force base is 20 minutes away. There are something like 20,000
troops there. It is little America – the currency is even dollars. Colette
took us on base to the commissary so that we could pick up some essentials
that we did not have yet. The prices are really cheap, and it is a store
just like you would find in the U.S. – it was really nice. We tooled
around K-town most of the weekend, and it was great to get away from our
house. On the way back, you could just feel the change in Kathy and I just
as the thoughts of Reilly and being alone in the house without him started
to come back. We will always have fond memories of Reilly but wish that we
still had him.That is all for now.

Next letter – preliminary beer, wine, sex, drugs, pregnancy and work reviews.

[Photo credit: Mila/Veer]