There should be a drink in my hand with a little umbrella...

It is currently 87 degrees in our family room. I really, really miss air conditioning. Or at least circlating air. While our big, big windows are a plus for sunlight, they're a big, big drawback when the sun is beating down. It's about 81 degrees outside -- unseasonably warm. And while we've enjoyed our weekend of good weather, we're starting to realize what we're in for when the weather turns warm for good.

And, of course, there are no screens in any of our windows. (Apparently, it's just not a Belgian thing.) So when we open our windows, bugs inevitably follow. Plain ole bugs wouldn't be so bad, but they have these whopping bumblebees here, and I fear them getting in. I also suspect that we have a honeybee hive (nest?) in our attic somewhere, as we've had a suspicious number of dead bees up there. I'm envisioning mosquito netting over our beds (don't laugh -- I've had several people here tell me that they've done it), and I'm ready to get out our fans.

A quick list of other things I miss:

• Egg Beaters. Haven't found these yet. Just the real eggs...
  
• Nutrition information per serving (they give the information per 100 grams of product -- it's up to you to do all the math from then on)
• Ready-cooked bacon (I finally found some this week that, when cooked, turned to reasonably like bacon. But, as I discovered, you can't cook it in the microwave. Bad things happen to bacon in our microwave.)
  
• Barbecue sauce (We went to a restaurant last night and they had barbecue sauce. I must've used half the bottle on my burger -- see below -- and fries.)
• Good hamburgers. I don't know what kind of meat they're using here, but I've only had one good one. For the most part, they're very thin, pretty tasteless, and seem like they've been simmering in a pot of something (I don't know what) all day. Not good.
• Sticks of butter. Butter here comes in a giant, oh, I don't know -- lump? It's like they took six sticks of butter, melted it into a big rectangle and then laughed to themselves when they packaged it, envisioning how you were going to get this huge thing in your tiny refrigerator. Luckily, they make lump-sized butter dishes, so I had to buy one. Even so, I had to slice the top of my butter off and put it in the freezer, just to make the top fit.
  

Things I'm Enjoying:

• Lambrusco. It's "vino frizzante" -- or a fizzy wine. They have it in white and red, and I'm loving the red. It has just enough bubbles to make it fizzy, and since you chill it, it's been quite refreshing to have on these warm days.
• Make-at-home chocolate croissants. It's rather like the refrigerated crescent roll dough (which I just found -- HOORAY), but with chocolate included. I haven't actually tried it yet, but I doubt you can go wrong with bread and chocolate.
  
• Being outside so much. We make two trips to the playground each day, and we've been playing a lot on the terrace. The kids are having a blast, and I've enjoyed the fresh air.
• Not so much driving. I went out in the car only once last week for one big shopping trip (mostly to get shelf milk, shelf OJ, diet coke, coke, and all the other big stuff that's hard to get with kids in the cart).
  
• The wonderful fruit! Strawberries are in by the droves -- big ones, small ones and teeny-tiny ones -- all delicious. And finally blueberries are plentiful!
• The market. On Saturday, I got chicken, cooked ribs, homemade baklava, homemade hummus, homemade lasagna from the Italians, yummy strawberries and raspberries, plus pastries. If I do it right, I really would need to go to the store only for milk and juice. The markets really do have it all!

That's all for now. I may update this page again later. I felt a need to include a "likes" and "dislikes" on this one. I still find myself frustrated with things (What do you mean you don't open for lunch until noon??), and infatuated with others (market, market, market). This has been just a great experience so far, but I definitely still need to let go of some of my American thinking, cause some things just ain't gonna happen over here!

Amelia starts school next week, and I'm hoping to join a Moms Club-type organization over here to get me out a little more. It's hard for it to be just me and the kids all day, every day, and I get desperate for conversation (which is why my poor parents get a phone call like clockwork at 8 am). Or for some activity that doesn't require me using the word "No" in every sentence.

Thank you to all who have complimented the blog. I wish I could fancy myself a writer -- and a humorous one at that, and many of you have made me give it some thought. It's a nice thought that I can be something other than Mom/Housewife Extraordinaire. But, alas, I can't even come up with a snazzy idea for a kids' book, let alone something not requiring illustration. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Now I shall go enjoy some Lambrusco and listen to T.J. shouting "No" on the terrace. It's a good day, indeed.