Cheryl on the Web

Today Tim and I decided to enjoy some appetizers after work and after that to make “poffertjes” for dinner. Poffertjes are little Dutch pancakes:

(more…)

My parents got a new dog!! Isn’t he cute? He is a Shih-poo, a Shih-tsu and poodle mix - just sneeze and you’ll sound pretty close to all of that ;) I’m jealous, wish I lived in the area so I could play with him. It’s not like I would want a dog of my own - too young to be tied down like that :) - but they’re so much fun.

Anyway, anyone else out there with a dog? What kind? Link to a pic?

This morning Tim had his first German course since we’ve been in Germany. (He took 3 years of it in high school but, believe me, you wouldn’t know it.) He’s allowed to learn German during working hours (wow!) and now he’s finally found the time and the motivation. I think it will really help both of us to put our mind to learning the language instead of being so lazy about it. Of course, we’re having problems with our heating and I asked if he was ready to call the apartment handyman tomorrow for some German practice… and he wasn’t jumping to volunteer! :)

On our way back to Germany from Holland this weekend, Tim and I stopped at a Dutch grocery store (Albert Heijn) to pick up items we can’t get in Germany. Who knows, maybe you’re curious just what we bought so I’ll tell you:

• 6 boxes of Dutch party crackers (”toastjes”)
• 2 little jars Dutch cashnew nut peanut butter and 1 big jar Dutch crunchy peanut butter
• 1 big box chocolate pieces for on bread (”vlokken”) and a mini variety pack of the same
• 6 boxes of pre-packaged spices for meals: Mexican Burritos, Chicken Siam, African Bobbito (hamburger casserole with apple), red curry, and 2 other spicy Indian dishes
• 1 container chicken-curry (”kipkerrie”) salad and 1 peanut chicken (kipsate) salad
• 2 containers “tapenade” (oil-based spread for crackers) - one sun-dried tomato, one green olive
• 1/2 loaf white (Dutch) bread, fresh of course, and a package of 6 fresh white buns
• 2 cartons yoghurt drink - orange for me, peach for Tim

We’re in the Netherlands this weekend visiting Tim’s family and our friends in Leiden. Check out what’s been keeping Tim and family busy:

Everyone is playing the bowling game that’s part of 42 All-Time Classics, the latest cool game for the Nintendo DS. You can play wirelessly with lots of people even with only one copy of the game. AND you can play online against other people who have chosen to play it online. AND bowling is only one of the 42 different games you can play as part of this one game, like checkers and chess and solitaire.

I’ll bet you’ve always wanted to know: how can I access an Oracle database from .Net in the most easy way possible? With Microsoft .Net Framework, accessing Microsoft databases is easy since the Framework comes with the required drivers (naturally). But since Windows doesn’t come with the drivers for accessing Oracle, and Oracle itself is notoriously terrible in making install packages for their drivers that reliably work on Windows, it is a royal pain to get it to work - sometimes. But now I’ve found the way - read on for the answer. (more…)