Friday Night in Brussels

You know what? I just realized that there are people who shell out thousands of dollars to fly across the Atlantic & pony up hundreds of dollars for hotel rooms just to spend a few summer days in the capital of Europe. They travel all around the beautiful city of Brussels taking in the grandeur of the Grand Place, they walk in search of the little boy taking a whiz Mannekin Pis & marvel at the Atomium. They dine on mussels and frites & tantalize taste buds with to-die-for, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate and make thigh fat cells scream with delight as authentic sugar waffles fill them up with happiness that only butter, and lots of it, can deliver. Yes, folks all over Brussels are experiencing the best that this city has to offer.

Except for me. Here I am living in an enviable, primo-European location & I spent my evening enduring the most mundane of HausFrau tasks. I reinvented leftovers for dinner and called it chicken quesadillas. I loaded the dishwasher and handwashed the leftover dishes. (You don't? I guess that's why I get to non-competitively be the HausFrau.) I lovingly encouraged my children to pick up after themselves. OK, not really, I actually yelled raised my voice at Laze-E to clean up the popcicle wrappers off my office floor & growled at MiniMe to bring in My (Her) Little Ponies from the threatening rain. I even thought about doing a load of laundry. Briefly. But I didn't make a big enough deal about it to actually walk downstairs and start a load.

And, I just finished watching a song and dance routine by MiniMe dressed in her tu-year-old tu-tu that is about tu sizes tu small. Man was supposed to be watching too. I know he wasn't, but he actually lied and said that he was when specifically questioned by MiniMe. Yes, sweetheart, I'm watching both the TV and the computer screen you.

Yes, that is America's Most Wanted in the background. It's on AFN so if fairly safe to say that James Gonzalez was probably apprehended 6 months ago and is back out on bail.

Yes, that is a glass of powerful antioxidants. OK, so it's red wine & you would know, wouldn't you? It's Merlot to be specific & watered down with sparkling water so I can drink twice as much without a hangover to make it last longer.

Criminals, tu-tu's and booze. I really need to have a talk with her.

As I finish up this blog entry, I'm being serenaded by my children. It goes something like this:

Laze-E: Moooo-om, tell her to get her feet out of my butt.

(OK, I know that sounds wrong on many levels, but does it help if I say that are both laying on the couch watching Season 1 of Beverly Hills 90201?)

MiniMe: But(t), I can't!

Laze-E: Mooo-om!

MiniMe: Mooo-ommy! She's making me poke myself in my boobies.

Me: You. Get your feet out of her butt. And, you, quit making your sister poke her boobies.

Yeah, I know. Clearly, I shouldn't have watered down the wine.