Sasha took the train from Washington DC to Trenton yesterday, where I picked her up. This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and we're in Somerset, NJ.

It had been 17 days or so since we had dinner at home together, so it was fun to cook and make an elaborate meal together.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will start on June 11 in South Africa. The Dutch team starts the first round with games against Japan, Cameroon and Denmark.

The World Cup games will be broadcasted by ESPN and ABC. Check with your local Dutch club or NLBorrels.com to find other Dutch soccer fans watching the game.

Schedule for Group E:

• June 14, 2010 @ 7:30 AM ET: Netherlands vs. Denmark
• June 19, 2010 @ 7:30 AM ET: Netherlands vs. Japan
• June 24, 2010 @ 2:30 PM ET: Cameroon vs. Netherlands

The timezone difference means that West Coast viewers will have to get up really early -- some of the games start at 4.30 am Pacific Time.

"A long history of self-destruction"

Not everybody is convinced that the Dutch will become World Champions this year. The Los Angeles Times writes: "The Netherlands has the personnel to make a serious run at the world championship, but Coach Bert van Marwijk's team will have to overcome the Oranje's long history of self-destruction in the biggest matches". ESPN has the following to say: "The same way Germany can be relied upon to overachieve, the Dutch can be trusted to eventually implode. They always do, without fail. Whether they succumb to penalties, arrogance, bad luck or simply run into a better opponent while having a bad day, things will end unhappily. Like death and taxes. The Netherlands will be loaded with offensive talent but find a way to screw it up".

In the last 6 months we've traveled quite a lot for work, mostly between North Carolina and New Jersey. The plants in our apartment in Durham have survived quite well, thanks to help from friends.

We bought a few plants for the apartment in New Jersey also, to make it a little more cozy.

They are are tough enough so survive a week without water, although they look like this after that week (a few hours after getting water they will be fine again).

On Friday I drove from North Carolina to Washington DC where I'd pick up Sasha in the evening. I saw Sasha's office at the IMF (nice) and we both realized that it would be another 5 hours driving to New Jersey (not so nice).

Since Sasha would have to return to DC on Sunday anyway we decided last-minute to stay the weekend in DC. We returned to The Quincy, a hotel downtown which is unaffordable during the week but has great rates on Friday and Saturday night, and free parking on the street in the weekend.

We went for a long walk on Saturday around the monuments and downtown. We had dinner in Cafe Belga -- an outstanding meal. Sunday we visited the National Gallery of Art and saw the Hendrick Avercamp exhibition. On Sunday night I drove back to Somerset, New Jersey.