One of Mike's favorite bands is The Red Chord and a couple of years ago, one of his best friends, Paul Romano introduced them. Since then, Mike has done some artwork for them, including the art for their latest album: "Fed Through the Teeth Machine".

You can hear one of the band members talk about Mike and the art by clicking here. See question 8 and 9.

Mike used a lot of his sketches on the inside of the album and I although I'm not a great fan of the music, I really like the work he did, especially on the lyrics pages.

19 December, they are performing in New York together with GWAR, and if everything goes according to plan, I'll be watching the gig from somewhere backstage. Unless GWAR wants to fake-deliver my baby on stage in an awesome blood-spewing show! :-)

Check out some more of the artwork for the album below and on Mike's site:

With only about 7 weeks to go, I'm glad that our apartment is finally coming together. I really feel at home here and the eclectic mix of colors and stuff kind of makes it funky (in my humble opinion). The baby room still is waiting for some of the decorations, but I don't want to show those yet as they give away what sex the baby will be. The bedroom could be better, but having to share that room with a gigantic drum kit kind of limits the possibilities... Here are some pictures. 

The monkey really likes my belly... He can be kind of cute in the evenings when he needs attention. And yes, the belly keeps on growing. To monstrous proportions... I feel like I don't have enough space inside my body for this baby. My stomach is going to rupture any day now with Alien-like hands creeping through my skin!

I saw that Pietel was going to scan some pics after seeing this website and I thought I would do the same (again... Yes, copying is the highest form of flattery).

I do think my parents were awesomely cool when they were young! I especially like mutti's comic book dress and my dad's sun glasses.

I also think they still look pretty dashing today, some 35 years later...

Ever since we found out that I am pregnant, Mike and I have been tossing around names to each other to see what we both like and dislike. We realized quickly that we have completely different tastes when it comes to this. I like short, 1 to 2 syllable names, that are simple. Mike seems to like weird, long and unusual names. So conversations like this happen quite often:

Me: What about Max for a boy?
Mike: Yes! Maximilian, I love it.
Me: Nono, I mean Max, just Max, nothing behind it.
Mike: Huh? But it is short for Maximilian?
Me: Nonono, it doesn't have to be short for anything... Just Max
Mike: No, I hate it

So after names like Sam, Emma, Nathaniel, Balthazar, James, Gregory, Gustaf, Hazel and Femke were quickly dismissed, we were kind of stuck. On top of that, our names had a few of our own "rules" that they had to follow.

First of all, the name has to be pronounceable by both our families, meaning both in English and in Dutch, without sounding too weird. So Wout, Tuur, Kaat, Manon, Lotte, Seppe and other very typical Flemish names are out as my family-in-law will have a hard time with those names. Luckily, English names are fine for my family, as long as they are not too complicated...

Secondly, the name has to fit with the last name Windsor. And although I thought a British royal name would be cool like Charles, Harry or William, Mike didn't agree at all... 

We both like the names Silas, Noah, Lucas, Eli, Sarah, Becca and Seth, but as we are both very strong atheists, I have a problem in my mind with these very biblical names... I don't want anyone to think I would name my baby after someone in the bible. Maybe that sounds silly, but that is just how I feel, no matter how much I like the names.

Since we are no Frank Zappa or Bob Geldof, names like Ahmet Emuukha Rodan, Moon Unit, Peaches Honeyblossom or Pixie are not really an option...

So this exercise proved a bit more difficult than we thought at first, but I think we came to a good result. For a boy, our top 2 is Cole and Miles. For a girl, we love Lily and Ella. At least for now... (response of 5 -year old Marie to the boy names: Wat? Cole? Miles? Da's zo moeilijk... Waarom niet gewoon Bertje?)

We have about 11 weeks to decide...

My previous post must have brought them extra luck yesterday, cause our football team was crowned the champion in our league! After winning the semi-final with 6-1, we beat the other finalists with 4-1! Congratulations to everyone!

PS: @Kris The t-shirts are yellow because the sponsor is the Flemish House... 

Photo courtesy of Pieter Dom from mess.be

During living in Indianapolis for a year and then London for 2 years, I never really got involved in the local Belgian or Flemish societies and organizations. In Indianapolis, there just wasn't any close by (I believe Chicago was the closest) and in London there were just too many Belgians, I guess... I also figured that if I wanted to hang out with Belgians all the time, then I might as well have stayed in Belgium instead of going out and see the world.

I did try to join some events in London, organized by the Young Chamber, but I honestly thought they were a bunch of stuck-up little boys, who thought that anyone pursuing a career outside of financial services was beneath them. And on top of that, it seems to be impossible to get off their mailing list even after having begged them to get my email address removed. So even today, while I live thousands of miles away from London, I still get invited to Young chamber black tie events and Sinterklaas happenings.

In New York, I accidentally stumbled upon the website of NY Prietpraat and joined their mailing list. I got asked whether I would be interested in joining a co-ed football team (as in soccer). I thought it would be fun and 3 seasons later, my husband is a trusted goalie (and 1 of only 2 Americans on the team) and some of the other players have become great friends. Besides playing football once a week, we get together once a month for drinks and these events have turned into somewhat "deboucherous" nights. Well, no alcohol for me though the last 7 months... and no football either, come to think of it, so I'll call myself their number one supporter.

I'm glad I got over the initial negative thoughts I had about these Belgians abroad groups. This is a pretty awesome group of people...