Well, not us personally, but our dog bowl is. The issue of People magazine that hit newsstands today (cover date December 15th) has a two-page spread starting on page 124 about Barack Obama collectibles titled Obamarama. One of the 10 things shown is our Poodles for Obama Dog Bowl from our democratic CafePress store Leftique. There’s a picture of our design with the text “A Dutch expat who couldn’t vote cocreated a dish to show support – 25 breeds available”. That Dutch expat they’re talking about is me! 🙂

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This morning our beloved cat Alex died at the age of 14 from kidney failure. Here are some pictures of Alex from the last 8 years that she lived with us, in Rotterdam, Leiden and the last two weeks here in Deerfield. May she rest in peace. 🙁

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Today we moved our couch, a cabinet, Amy’s bike and some other things to our family in Roosendaal. Our house is getting pretty empty now, and we just have some essential furniture left. We rented this small truck at Bo-rent to move the stuff:

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After sending off our boxes yesterday we heard back from Worldwide Baggage Services today about the costs and schedule. The costs are pretty close to what we had already calculated on their website, which is great. This is the only company that we could find where you could just fill in details about your shipment and destination online and instantly get a quote. Good stuff. Our things will be transported on the ship on the photo below (this actual ship!). It will leave in about two weeks and then arrive in Chicago two weeks later:

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Today we have finally shipped out our boxes for our move to the USA. Yippee! They will be shipped by boat and should arrive in Chicago in 6 to 8 weeks.

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Yesterday we took the cats out for some fresh air. We bought harnesses and leashes for them. They will have to wear the harness during our upcoming flight so we thought to try and get them used to wearing them.

Alex was off and running!

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Today we have finally set a date for our big move to America. We bought our plane tickets today and will fly from Amsterdam to Chicago with our two cats Arby and Alex on Sunday 21 September. This means we have only 85 days left from today to arrange a lot of stuff, get rid of a lot of stuff, and move all the stuff that’s left. We’re going to have a busy three months!

The tagline at I’m Voting Republican (imvotingrepublican.com) is You’ll Get What You Deserve. Here are some good reasons to vote Republican this November.

Read more about the segments in the commercial here.

Are you still voting Republican? If not, you might like some of the funny, original Obama t-shirts for sale at Leftique.

Last weekend we drove to the Alsace region in France and visited the area around Strassbourg, especially the Vosges Regional Nature Park in the south and north of this region. We visited the Caves of Han in Belgium, Strassbourg, Kintzheim, Munster, Gérardmer, Épinal and La Petite Pierre.

View from Kintzheim Castle

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Five years ago today, on 28 April 2003, we did one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done. On this day we made a hot air balloon ride over Luxor and the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Seeing the sunrise over the Nile was a wonderful experience. Here are some photos of this exciting journey:

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