Texas

Hello dear friends!

I hear the Tramontana has stopped - I must say, that is one thing we don't miss. YOU guys, however, we miss. Here we are, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, about to BBQ and wishing each of you could join us. Some day! By the way, who is going to be the first to visit us?!!

All has gone amazingly well with our move. It's so surprising! Henk and I must have felt like beaten dogs and therefore assumed every foot was going to kick us; something about trying to make things happen and repeatedly being struck down, or told 'Non!', or 'C'est impossible ici!'. But we had absolutely no problems with the move. Go figure.

After Henk left Sjaantje, Wuzzy and me at the airport in Frankfurt, he spent the weekend in Haarlem, NL with his cousin Betty. On Monday, he drove to Zeebrugge and put our car on the boat. (There was a small issue with his train from ZB to Amsterdam breaking down and sitting on the tracks for 5 hours....) Tuesday morning Henk left from AMS and flew to Houston and then on to Austin, where his friend David picked him up.

The next morning, our container arrived one hour early! With the help of a couple of guys, we unloaded in 40 minutes. For those of you who helped load the bastard in the first place, I must tell you that absolutely nothing had shifted, fallen or otherwise! What a great job you did! Thanks again. With all of those boxes, there was only one thing that broke - a soup bowl that was already cracked completely down the middle. Better to break that way than with a bowl of steaming gumbo in it.

So for the past 4 days, we've been unpacking and organizing. I find that we are in desparate need of bookshelves and some small cabinets so Ted, could you please mail our old ones back to us?!! (What's up with the TV, by the way?) For some ridiculous reason, I enjoy organizing so these past few days have been a small, quiet vacation for me.

I'll tell you about the house: It's called an 'A - frame' construction, downstairs has a living room and dining area, kitchen, salle de bain and Sjaantje's room. Upstairs is a large, triangular loft with two sleeping niches, a bathroom (with an amazing huge bathtub and shower) plus another lounging/working area where we've put our computer. The floors are hardwood except for the living/dining area which is terra cotta tile. Very nice, except I need a large gas stove...cooking on electric just doesn't work for me.

The back garden/yard has a guest house which I will tackle next week after the real house is complete. Also, a very large playhouse for Sjaantje which she has already furnished, decorated and utilized. There is a rock fountain which flows into a small jacuzzi sized 'pool' - enough to cool off in but absolutely no diving allowed since it's only 2 feet deep. The 'pool' is surrounded by ivy, trees and potted plants which will surely and unfortunately die under my care! I'm not good with plants. The side yard is large and barren - just waiting for a real swimming pool which, hopefully, will be built soon. The front yard has a two tiered garden and grass area, lots of ornamental rock and a large front veranda (called a 'porch' in Texan). The front and side sections of the property are delineated with a large stone wall which is kind of like very fancy cinder block. We're surrounded by mosquitos and trees - one of which is a rather large fig! (Tree, I mean.)

Imagine moving to the States and, when you land, you have a house, car, phone, internet, cable television, water, electricity, etc... Immediately! I think we would have felt bumfuzzled without all of those. Henk's friend David (our friend actually!) is a prince of a man.

OK. That's it for the details. Now, adjusting to life here? Well, that is going to be a bit of a challenge. Here in Wimberley, life moves at a very slow pace. Everyone is very friendly but extremely country on the 'hick' side. (Peggy, please explain what a 'hick' is.) I know there is a large international community close by, mostly German and Dutch with a few French, but we have yet to make ourselves known to them. (!)

We went to a 'Hamburger Cookout' Friday night: down on the river (of which there are 2 flowing through Wimberley and the surrounding cities), lots of Bud Light beer, baked beans and spicy frites, country music playing on the stereo, dogs and horses running amuck and everyone sitting in rocking chairs on the 'porch'. Pretty fun, except a few of the women were wearing 'Harley Davidson' t-shirts and bragging that they had never been out of Texas in their entire life. They scared me and I really didn't find any soulmates in that group. But, you never know. In any case, the group was fun and I expect we'll be invited to the next BBQ or, even better, to go 'tubing' down the river. Side note: 'Tubing' is when you plant your butt in an inflated large truck innertube - one for you and another one for your cooler of Bud Light - and float slowly down the warm, green, urine and snake infested river. I've done that at least a dozen times before but hey, I was quite a bit younger.

Everyone in the stores are exceedingly helpful and friendly! They, too, scared us the first time we encountered them. The prices of things are not what we remembered from 6 plus years ago but I imagine that's just the way it goes. Still, I filled the car with gasoline the other day - $38.00!!!!! That, my friends, felt weird.

I went to the butcher on Tuesday to get a nice chunk of beef tenderloin - anticipating Henko's arrival and dinner - and the butcher had one eye going east, the other facing west. It's was difficult to maintain a conversation with him. But when he told me (in a Texas country accent) , 'Ya know I put me some bacon around that there meat and cook it and it tastes just fine and juicy with that bacon!' and I responded 'Doesn't that make the filet taste like bacon?', he said 'Have yourself a nice day, Mam'. OK, so I did.

The lamb here is incredible! Texas lamb is very good, but the Colorado is the best. Beats the hooves off of Catalan lamb. The prices? Around $8.50 a pound. Tenderloin of beef? About the same. Mangos? We just spent $3 for 15 mangos, ripe and beautiful Mexican ones. Hey, I bought a pack of 16 rolls of toilet paper (double ply) for less than $4. Try to do that at Auchan! Texas rocks.

Sjaantje has made a playmate, the daughter of David's friend. Her name is Hannah and, although she's a little younger than Sjaantje they have been having a blast. Common interests: bugs, nature, animals, nail polish and Wuzzy. I have some info for summer camps for Sjaantje: horseback riding, swimming and also art. She wants to go to all of them.

Henk is fine - at the moment, he is constructing a BBQ pit (no doubt for OUR hamburger cookout). He's already been 3 times to the Home Depot (Texas version of Leroy Merlin, only better) and is building a stone and metal apparatus for grilling steaks tonight. Man, the things we do for food. Henk was thrilled to discover that Home Depot is open on Sundays! As is everything else, for that matter.

We've had a few issues with the sliding glass door in the kitchen - mostly not realizing it was there. Luckily we haven't yet broken the glass but Henk did bust his lip and Wuzzy almost the same. Wuzzy is fine; I think he's finally over the massive traumatization we put him through. The other night he heard Texas thunder for the first time and freaked; charged into the house and hid in the pantry; then he went completely catatonic because the air conditioning compressor is in the pantry - I think he thought it was a jet engine. I had to pull him out by his front paws, through an immense puddle of nervous drool he had just expunged. Gross.

I guess that's all of our news. Don't forget to keep in touch. I/We think of you daily. What a fantastic group of people you are.

Gros Bisous -

Wend