Aachen

I've just returned from a wonderful (wonderbar!) week at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany. I have never been in the midst of so many equestrian enthusiasts. The two photos that follow show the crowds in the stands on the final night of the dressage competition which featured the top 15 riders in the world. On the several days that I attended the competition, I sat with a couple from Germany, a woman from Holland with her elderly mother, a Dutch horse breeder who was also a dentist, a couple from Perth, Australia and a woman from Finland who will soon move to NYC (I was able to suggest some barns for her to look at for her horse!). Fortunately, they all spoke perfect English. I really tried with the little German I know, but every time I said something auf Deutsch, I was answered in English!





The town of Aachen was decorated with many horse-themed things, including the articulated busses and the articulated bus horse!





Of course, there was the dom, with doors and the earliest part dating from the year 800.



But my favorite sight was the wurst trash can, pictured here with me (and my umbrella). You deposit your trash at the red arrow that is on the underside of the left end of the wurst!

On Chicago's Navy Pier

IMG_0530
Originally uploaded by Papa, aka Don.

While we were in Chicago for a meeting Maryanne usually attends in August, we met up with Gregory and Michael de Foy for an afternoon and evening practising our tour-guide skills. Here they are at Navy Pier, where we walked around for an hour between the architectural tour along the Chicago River and dinner at Flatwater, a trendy new restaurant near our hotel. If clicking on this photo leads back to the batch posted on flickr.com, as I think it might, you'll see some of the architectural splendors of Chicago, plus a few more photos of the brothers de Foy.

- - - - - - >>> Overland Crappsie

If you haven't yet clicked on that new link on the right, I'd like to recommend Ned's recent blogging at The Overland Crappsie Report. I'm sure you're wondering what that title means, but he does explain! Great pictures, narratives, book reviews, etc.

Kids in Sand

To continue patching over the bare spot in the blog: Last month Jean and I were able to snare a couple of weeks in between our old and new jobs (we've both changed places of employment), which we used for visiting the de Foy homestead in Belgium. Summer in Belgium is a lovely weather-season, bearing no resemblance at all to that torrid fug that hung over New York all last week. More importantly, look how cute our nieces and nephews are! We spent a day at the Mer du Nord and planted them.





A pleasure for some, but not all!



Here’s another version of cuteness—the well-known de Foy potty-training method:



Thirty-four pictures of the stay in Louvain-la-Neuve, the Abbaye Maredsous, and de Foy clan having ice cream right here. Click Me!

More on the BBB (Bill's Birthday Bash)

Thanks for a great party last weekend, Barbara, and thanks for re-kindling the blog posting effort! As you can see below, Bill did a great job going through the motions of turning 60, even though his actual day isn't until the 20th of this month (yes?)







Here is the full party documentation--loved that new speedy version of croquet we played.

I have a long list of material that I've been meaning to throw up here, including: cute nieces and nephews buried in the sand at the Mer du Nord in Belgium, Jean's and my Swiss trip, and Ned's very cool new blog. Once everyone has had a chance to enjoy the ones of the birthday VIP above, I'll try to fill in some of these gaps!

Three generations gather for Bill's birthday

Here we are in Ridgewood on July 30, 2006 for an early celebration of Bill's 60th.