Beatrix goes Flat Cuckoo!

Guest video director:
Murfmensch

Before you play, strap yourself to your chair and get prepped for the ride of your life!

Sand Castles

We're on our way home now, but here's a little movie of Nora on the beach.

More Michigan

The vacation continues! We've been back to the beach on Monday and up to White Lake to see a lighthouse and eat some nice Mediterranean Food. The table next to us held a woman and her son - both were reading their own copy of the newest Harry Potter. I think they talked briefly about Snape and other than that continued reading. Saturday I did buy my copy, but Jason has been the one reading it. I think I'll have to save it for the trip back home, unless I break down before then and tear it away from him.

Yesterday we were back in Holland, where we visited the Dutch Village. So here's some obligatory pictures with wooden shoes:


This Flat Beatrix is for Fred:


We also went into downtown Holland, which was really delightful. Their downtown shopping area of about 4 blocks had two independent bookstores, a terrific toy store, some nice clothing shops, and a ton of restaurants including an Viennese style pastry shop and cafe and an Irish pub were someone bought someone else a football hoodie. Practice has already started.


And here's a shot of that monster grill and the Grand Marshall, who Nora is now calling Groshal.

Bend it Like Bourdieu: The Habitus of American Soccer Fandom

Guest Rant By Jason
Bend it Like Bourdieu: The Habitus of American Soccer Fandom

American soccer fanatics like me do not just root for one team, we root for the sport itself, hoping to see it better received and understood. And about half of us (including me) root for MLS, our Major League Soccer. And we worry. We worry about what Americans might think if they are told one thousand times that David Beckham is invincible and, yet, his new team is crushed by Chelsea FC. That part went fine. Chelsea was better but only won 1-0 and the Galaxy bizarre scrappy defenses were pretty exciting. (Abel Xavier is fun to watch and not just for the foot-high bleach-blond afro.)

But why do we worry? We know that jackass commentators will bemoan a 1-0 score as if there is never such a thing in "American" sports.

We also worry about what the British will think when ESPN broadcast a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament even though the US team entered the semi-finals of the U-20 World Cup. I cringed hard when this channel interviewed Jennifer Love Hewitt DURING THE MATCH. She's B-list. But perhaps her analysis will surprise. "I've never been to a soccer game. It's superexciting. It's like a movie premiere!" What will the Guardian do with this?

The recent defeat of the Galaxy by the UANL Tigres of Mexico was already cited as evidence that MLS is not "real". They looked better against Chelsea than a few of the English Premiership teams have.

But why do we worry? English pundits will say no one cares despite four million youth players and high cable TV ratings. Let them be.

As for Beckham: He only had time for one excellent pass and a good corner kick. Once the rest of the team practices with him, these will start to look very good. Next year, they will be the favorite to win but, right now, they have about a 6-win deficit below the Houston Dynamo so they won win the "Supporter's Shield" for best season. The playoffs are relatively easy to get into and then they just might win the "MLS Cup". My team, the commie-monikered Houston Dynamo, would have beaten Chelsea last night and would be my bet for both Shield and Cup.

To quote Faye Dyer: "I got to see him warm up and run around." Sarcasm from unexpected quarters means the British papers surely won't hold back.

BTW-- the Chicago Fire will premiere their new star, Cuahtemoc Blanco, for whom many Mexicans have even more love than we saw with Becks. He is an incredible dribbler and one of the most ill-tempered players in the world.

Umberto Eco and Pierre Bourdieu noted that soccer fans cannot stop talking about the sport. There is something compulsive at work. I can't seem to prove them wrong but the sport rewards knowledge and talk.

For example, here in Muskegon, I recognized a guy's Hearts of Midlothian and asked him if he saw the Celtic play here. If you, as an American, can name one team from a guy's homeland they are impressed. Except ManU and Real Madrid fans who just presume you love them.

Michigan

We're in Michigan, and while yesterday was a little exhausting, today is going very nicely. On the way up, we passed though Holland, and so we thought Flat Beatrix would like to pose for a picture for Carol and Fred. We plan to run back down to Holland sometime this week to get a closer look at their windmills and giant wooden shoe, but this is all we glimpsed from the car.


We are staying about an hour north of Holland in Muskegon. This is not as big a tourist location as the small towns south of here (Holland, Grand Haven, South Haven, Saugatauk, St. Joe) but it is a nice place. We visited the beach this morning, but we didn't take photos since we forgot the camera. The beach is part of Pere Marquette (yeah, that same guy was up here and they name parks after him up here as well) State Park and it was very nice and clean, with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan, and it's about a mile from where we are staying. Nora spent the morning shoveling sand into her pants and down my shirt, and on the beach towels and in Jason's shoes and even some into her bucket. Then we all hiked out onto the pier to see the lighthouse, then back to the beach for fried perch and fries and tator tots and mushroom burgers. It was a terrific morning.

About where we are staying... we rented a place I found on-line. It's held by a small realtor, and it's a little old and could use some new mattresses and slipcovers for the old couches, but overall its fine. If you bother to click on the link, you will see pictures of our realtor/and the house's owner, Dave, and our place is listed under vacation rentals. It's the yellow house. Dave is nice, but as we quickly found out he has a different set of priorities when it comes to vacation rentals. We have a grill in the back yard that is big enough to roast several small children and a television of similar size. It also has a terrific back yard with a view of Lake Muskegon (which is really a bay off of Lake Michigan). Oh and there is also a pool table, which is now doing a second job as Nora's changing table (don't act all horrified, it isn't a nice pool table). However, the kitchen is not what we would call well equipped. But things are freshly painted, though some of his other improvement projects are not quite as well executed. All in all it is fine for the week and now that we've revised some of my cooking plans, we are settled in.

We haven't checked out the rest of Muskegon yet, we were too tired when we got in. Although Mom and I did go to the grocery store, which was unfortunately, very similar to a Walmart Super Center - called Maijor or something like that - that was also extremely depressing and Dad, Jason and Nora explored the marina and found a very nice little grocery shop that caters to the big boats and yachts when they come in and now we are well provisioned. We plan to check out "downtown" Muskegon tomorrow when all of the bikers have gone. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that this weekend is Muskegon's Bike Festival so we saw lots of tents selling leather and tattoo services when we came into town, but haven't bought anything ourselves.

After buying all that stuff we were too tired to cook so we ordered carryout pizza and then, some of you might be aware that there was a certain game on last night with a certain international celebrity making a debut appearance for a team on this side of the pond. I'm sure Jason will make a guest commentary about that later.

Here's Mom and Nora this morning - posing on top of Nora's changing table, wearing the new apron that Grammy made her. She's ready for the beach but unfortunately Daddy and the Grand Marshall aren't up yet.


So, that's all for now. I'll post more later.

Countdown Until VACATION

We're leaving as soon as I get home for work for Michigan and I am so looking forward to our trip (despite the very long car ride). We'll be gone for a week, but hopefully we'll have time to post some during the week so you can see what we're up to. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy this picture of Nora and Jason trying sunglasses on her Smacky Bear. They also tried to put him into her purse.


Now, if only SHE would wear the sunglasses.


Yes, that is a bonnet.

Arkansas

Last week we were in Arkansas visiting the Grandparents.

We took Karl, because somehow it seemed easier at the time. Nora loved talking to him on the way down, and the grandparents are fond of him too. We all got out on the boat as evidenced here. Nora was a good egg about the floatation device she had to wear, but was less thrilled about having to remain on our lap.




We eventually relented, and let her peak over the edge....












But we both remained ever vigilant, should anyone fall in the water.








And she got to drive the boat with the Captain.

We all made it back to shore safe and sound!

Fractured Fables

I read the first in the Fables series a couple of months ago, on the recommendation of some members of an on-line discussion group for librarians who love graphic novels. And I thought it was great fun. It's a comic book (now collected in to paperbacks) about fractured fairytales - a theme I love. Fables gives us our fairytales that we know and love so well, and has brought them to our world when an army of goblins under the control of the mysterious Authority has ransacked their lands. Fables tells us how they've been getting along after the "happily ever after".

So I shelved it mentally with all of my other favorites in this area - the Gregory Maguire books, Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime books, Jon Scieszka's True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and perhaps the original- Rocky and Bullwinkle's Fractured Fairytales. I was interested enough to buy the third in the series, but I passed over the second, due to the reviews. But now I'm hooked. Bill Willingham keeps peeling back layer and layer to these stories. Just when you think you know all about Snow White and Prince Charming he changes thing up. You say okay, I can deal with that and then he does it again. I'm all out of order in the series, but I'm trying to catch up - I've got the second book on request at the library and I've already read a backstory that is making me totally rethink what all happened in the third book, and I sense that I'm going to have to plunk down the cash for the rest of the series since the library only has 1, 2, and the below pictured backstory volume, 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which uses a variety of artists - some absolutely amazing.
One last note, like the original fairy tales - these aren't necessarily appropriate for children, so don't plan on buying the set for any kiddies in your orbit.

Under The Weather

All of my obsessing about buying a vintage Fisher Price farm that might be contaminated with germs has jinxed me into getting sick myself. Unbelievably, I am recovering from my SECOND bout with stomach flu this year. Prior to 2007, I cannot remember the last time I threw up due to legitimate illness and not over indulgence in drink. (Amazingly, I never once threw up while pregnant with Nora.) Oh, yeah, and I had the shingles this year. Jason says it's as if a small, wee person is sucking the antibodies out of me, and while I don't really plan to wean anytime soon, he might have a point.