Moved In ... Almost

So 2 weeks ago we picked up Vinny! He was quite stressed out the first few days, but he's definitely settling into a bit of rhythm now and is just like the Vinny we all love so much. Right after we got him, we had a "fun" weekend with no furniture except for a blow-up air mattress and our clothes. Oh yeah, and a wine opener with its little knife was our only utensil!

Alas, our furniture arrived on Monday last week, after a bit of problem with the shipping company. It seems that the guys responsible for unloading our stuff showed up on Monday, but the container of stuff wasn't to arrive until Wednesday. Well, Annelies took care of that right away and we got most of our things on Monday! One of our couches wouldn't fit in the elevator, so we'll probably have to sell it.

In the meantime, I had to travel to Paris and Hamburg for work (meeting with Google and Yahoo for FR and DE...). I left poor Annelies alone with Vinny to start unpacking some of our things. She did a great job! This past weekend we spent all day on Saturday and Sunday unpacking our items. At this point, I would say that we're about 80% done; the place is starting to feel much more like home! However, we've had to be a bit creative to fit all the items of a 3 BR house + garage into a small 1 1/2 BR London flat w/ no garage. :) I suppose we'll go through another round of throwing things away until we get to the right size!

Last night we booked a holiday vacation to go to Seville & Granada (Spain) over the Easter holiday. In the UK, you get a 4-day weekend for Easter. So we're taking an extra day off and heading for the land of sun and Sangria! We can't wait!

I'm hoping to have broadband internet access at home by as early as March 10th (that's right, almost 3 weeks away...this is record fast around London ;). Then we should be able to start posting more pictures on the blog; so stay tuned!!

VINNY ARRIVED!!!

Vinny arrived!!! ALIVE!!! It took him a couple of seconds to realize who we were!!! He is generally very friendly to people, but when he recognized us he went crazy and was very vocal! We discovered that dogs don't suffer from jetlag. He had so much energy!
We took him to a park and he played for an hour with other dogs, including a pug... it's funny how pugs just bond!
He also slept with us every evening and enjoys sleeping in the middle.
Today our furniture arrives! It will be nice sleeping in a bed and being able to unpack our cloths and finally cook again!
Jason is off to Paris and Germany this week and will be back on thursday!
HAPPY VALENTINE and Happy Birthday to Liesbet!!!

Crazy Indoor Softball

(Posting by Jason)

So this weekend I went with an American friend (Tiffany) to play indoor softball at the Brixton rec center. I haven't put on a glove in months, so I really wasn't sure what I was in for. This game is honestly something quite unique!

The Rules:
Indoor softball can best be described as PURE INSANITY! The field is inside 1/2 of a basketball court (they put a divider right down the middle) and everything is in play, except for the ceiling. That's right, you even play off the walls! To keep it moving FAST, there are only two innings of 5 minutes per team. That means that when your team is batting, you're batting constantly for 5 minutes. Outs are counted completely different than in normal baseball/softball. There are still 4 bases, but second base is on the other side of the gym (you'd better run fast to get there!)

Scoring:
You get 1 point for hitting a single, 2 points for hitting a double, and 5 points for hitting a home run (basically a home run is when you hit a certain part of the back wall). You also get 1 point for crossing home plate. And here's the catch: you LOSE 1 point if you are get out while on the bases.
Only one pitch per batter - you'd better hit it or get a walk, 'cause we ain't got time for strike outs! This game moves fast, and some of the scores were 18 to 42, 32 to 25, and -17 to 28 (we lost that one bad!).

Fielding:
There are 8 fielders: 1 catcher, 1 pitcher, one idiot who plays about 15 feet away from the batter towards the left side (i.e. 3rd baseman...me!), another person playing 15 feet away from the batter on the right side, a 1st baseman and a shortstop, and finally two "outfielders/second-basemen". Generally, it appears that the best way to play is to shut your eyes, pray, and hope that you catch the ball and throw it in the right direction...

What it looked like:
On the first pitch of the first game (I was playing third base), this guy hit the ball harder that I thought a spongy softball could possibly go. Before I even looked down, the ball bounced off my thigh (ouch!), ricocheted to the right side of the field and landed in the first baseman's glove. An out! "Cool," I thought, "I can get the hang of this!" It turns out that I really had no idea. As the game progressed, people in matching team jerseys were sprinting all around the field. Balls were flying left and right (sometimes at the same time, because of the wall), people were throwing, people were catching, sometimes people were dropping the ball too. I ended up on the ground during several plays (sometimes just to get out of the way!). By the end of the inning, I had broken a sweat and acquired several nice bruises. Batting was a little better. Hit the ball, run like hell, listen to screaming teammates, and watch out for flying softballs (and flying fielders!). No problem! Through no help from me, we ended up losing the first game 36 to 18. As we progressed through the other games (5 total during the afternoon, we won 2!!), I decided that third base wasn't any longer for me.

I moved to short stop (not much better performance...) and then finally to the outfield/second base. Here's when I really excelled: a long fly ball is hit to my side of the field; I get a read on it and realize it's coming off the wall. Therefore, I turn around, face the wall and wait to catch the bounce. Unfortunately (for me), the ball actually gained velocity on the rebound and landed squarely on my forehead! The shock of the impact knocked me off my feet and I hit the ground with my back. For my serious-minded teammates, this presented an opportunity: "Tiff, catch the ball off the rebound and it's an out!" they shouted. Instead, Tiffany doubled over with laughter. :)

3 days....

In 3 days we move to our new apartment, and most importantly, VINNY WILL ARRIVE!!! As I had expressed before, we miss him so much and will have all sunday to 'spoil' him until our move arrives on monday when he will probably stress out again!
The last 10 days we have been staying in a hotel, which allowed us to find some great restaurants. We found a good mexican restaurant, an argentinian place (still have to check it out) and some 2-4-1 burger and beer places!!!!
This past weekend, Jason went with Tiffany to play indoor baseball... yes with the british weather it is hard to do it outdoor on a regular basis. He had a blast. That evening we also went out with some of Katies' and Tiffany's friends, the majority are australian and are all very nice!!! Sunday we explored Chelsea which is a beautiful and fun neighborhood!
I am currently at my first sales meeting at Rashleighs, which is an old mansion that has been converted in a meeting facility (including a hotel) and is owned by Nestle. It's very nice and 'british'.
We'll post some pictures of Vinny on sunday!!!