Better late than never...

---

Victory!

Another crushing blow of defeat was dealt out to fellow Cloister patrons last night as the mental giants of team ESSP scored bewildering 57 points, easily crushing the nearest team by a margin of 17 and the weakest team by a margin of 25.

Ok ok, enough for the headline news style of blogging..even I'm annoyed.

So yup, another great quiz night. Do you know what day the US Declaration of Independence was signed? Nope..not the 4th of July. Apparently it's the 2nd of August. See, I'm learning. This one was particularly nice since yesterday was a crazy hot day by Netherlands standards, so we did the quiz outdoors on the sidewalk, which was interesting since cars would come whizzing past within feet of us. It also made for an interesting music round because Helmur, the quiz master, had to go home and get his car so that we could listen to the CD of song clips outside. Crafty. It was 30 Celcius at work...so if you add 40, multiply by 9/5 and then subract 40 you get the temperature in Fahrenheit. Do the math yet? No, don't double check, that number is correct: 86 degrees. Indoors, in the office! I don't know how people do it. It was miserable. I was totally lethargic and unable to concentrate....even more than normal.

Anyways, what else has been going on...
Sunday, Jen had people over for a nice BBQ, or "barbie" on her back porch which was awesome. Chicken and veggie skewers, sausages, hamburgers, pasta salads, potato salad, and even grilled chocolate-stuffed bananas. Throw a couple of Hoegaardens on there and it was a nice afternoon in the sun. Lessons learned on Sunday: 1) women can be just as territorial over a grill as men 2) Jen is such a woman 3) don't mess with Jen's BBQ. Yeah, so we ran out of starter cubes and tried to ge the coals relit using cardboard, paper, etc. I tried to contribute after Jen had given it a shot, thinking I somehow knew something she didn't. Wrong. I refer you to lesson #3.

Saturday was a chill night around the Hague...another massive meat extravaganza at Athena Palace followed by beers on the plein. Eugene made the mistake of ordering Leffe Trippels instead of Leffe Blondes, the former being a 8.5% beer. Wow. Talk about 12 ounces that will rock your world. I still claim to have felt that beer all the way through my stomach and into my blood stream.

So I think it's time for a quick installment of 'Things that Brian Complains About in the Netherlands'

1) Strikes: The police have decided to strike across the Netherlands for higher wages. Fair enough. The problem is that the Council building is across the street from my apartment and they're striking very loudly. I'm talking about 7am to 9-10 Pm, there's a bunch of cops in yellow vests with orange hats (apparently designated police strike outfits) banging on pans, blowing whistles, sounding sirens, and generally being totally obnoxious. My question is: who do you call for a noise disturbance when it's the cops making all the noise!? This strike has been going on for over a week and has basically turned into a big block party where the cops all just hang out, play soccer and card games, and be really loud. Maybe a little more striking and a little less crapping around and they might get somewhere!! Also, the train operators decided to strike on Friday too. Maybe it was because the weather was so nice.....

2) It's hot: "But Brian," they say, "I thought you were from Houston? These temperatures should mean nothing to you!" Well ok, true, 86 degress isn't that big a deal, but... WE HAVE AIR CONDITIONING INDOORS! Hello! Typing emails at your desk should not be a Gatorade-required sort of affair. High on my list of things to do: get a fan.

---

Photos

Helmur the quiz master
Gotta love quiz night outdoors...

Jen's Barbie
Notice the feigned look of adoration from Eugene and Jen... those crazy Europeans.