Wednesday are the elections for the Lower Chamber in the Netherlands.

Mieke sent me my voter's card a few weeks ago which I signed and returned. This way she can vote for me tomorrow.

Let's see if Mr. Balkenende (CDA) will get a 4th chance to come up with a strong and stable government. He has had plenty of time to practice.

The VVD left Minister Verdonk on the candidate list and even placed her on number 2. This is the minister who tried to strip Hirsi Ali of her Dutch passport and thereby made a fool of Dutch politics worldwide.

I've never really trusted the VVD too well and I guess this reinforces my thoughts. Given Ms. Verdonk's bad judgment calls in the past and her incompentent behavior in the case of Ayaan Hirsi Ali she should never have been placed on the candidate list.

It will be no surprise to regular readers that my vote won't go to VVD or CDA.

We did some relocations at work and since a week I have a new desk.

This is the first time I actually have a cubicle -- in my previous jobs I've always sat on open desks.

Time of course for a little office humor by Scott Adams:

What do you call a sociopath in a cubicle? (answer, a coworker)

Sunday afternoon I went to see Ultimate Fighting Competition episode 65 at Mike's place.

Mike and Maya had recorded the pay-per-view show which was broadcast the Saturday night before and they organized a nice BBQ to watch the show with a group of 10 people.

I had never seen this type of show before -- I saw some WWF wrestling games but those are scripted (fake) games and really not that exciting. I really enjoyed the UFC games which were relatively short (between 3 and 15 minutes per game) but full of action.

The most interesting game was between Sylvia and Monson. Sylvia is a very tall guy (6"8) and Monson is only 5"8 although they're the same weight. So it was the big, long-armed boxer against the short fujitsu wrestler. Sylvia was defending his title and after 4 round Monson could not capture the title, but it was an entertaining game.

I was supporting Hughes when he fought against St. Pierre, but St. Pierre dealt some severe kicks and basically knocked out Hughes with 1 feet kick to the head followed by a kick. George St. Pierre, the Canadian, is now the UFC Welterweight Champion. Later a Dutch guy played also, and I was happy to see him win. The food was good too - I tried pickled onions from Winston Salem, NC, and devilled eggs.

It was a very entertaining evening.

A wonderful movie on Youtube.com: Give us back New York.

I like the quote in the beginning of the movie:

"What is your biggest fear? What are we be becoming?

My biggest fear is that we become Holland, all right, that we are the Netherlands."

There's a website for this movie: giveusbacknewyork.com which seems to be associated with an (online) advertising agency.

(through AllesAmerika.com).

A week ago I celebrated my 28th birthday.

In the morning we had cake for breakfast (with birthday flowers in the background) and Sasha gave me a beautiful jacket as a present. It was a very nice morning and I enjoyed to look at my website early in the morning and see so many comments there already.

At work we had cake also and in the evening I invited my colleagues for drinks in the Flying Saucer in Raleigh. The weather was great so we were sitting outside. Sasha met my colleagues for the first time and we met a lot of their 'significant others' also which was very nice.

Thanks everybody for the congratulations, presents, cards, comments and everything!

Cake for breakfast, birthday flowers in the background.

Some of my presents, including a very nice Dutch DVD that Jaap and Mieke gave me, "Dutch light". Woody gave me nice presents, including a DVD of the "Andy Griffith show", a piece of North Carolina culture.

At my work, cutting cake.

As requested, here is more information on the interesting parking meter.

I took a picture of the backside of the pay box, as well as an action shot of somebody using the parking meter to pay for parking.

I didn't see any restrictions on how long you can park, so presumably you can park the whole day for $3.

Somebody is paying.

The back of the pay box.

Today is my 28th birthday!

That is, in the Netherlands it is my birthday already -- here in Durham it will take a few more hours.

This is my 3rd birthday in the U.S., and the first one in North Carolina.

For the confused reader: my birthday is on November 10th.

The holiday season has started here: Starbucks is using the winter cups again.

We ran out of coffee so for the last 2 days I visited a Starbucks before work. I now drink mild coffee in the morning, the Starbucks breakfast blend.

The cups are nice and red with snow flakes on them.

I generally don't take pictures inside restrooms.

At the State Fair I saw a sign that I couldn't resist.

"Please - no foreign object in latrine. No M.R.E.'s, ammunition, feminine hygene products, etc... thank you.".

M.R.E. means "Meal Ready to Eat", a military term. I suppose this latrine was provided to the State Fair by the military.

Mieke has a birthday today -- congratulations from both of us!

The Halloween season is really over now, last night I heard the first Christmas songs on the radio.

The radio station I was briefly listening to, Sunny 939, is playing only Christmas music from now on. A bit to early for my taste, luckily most other stations are still not in Holiday mood yet.

The Halloween decorations on the sign of the apartments opposite the Belmont.





The decorations in the leasing office of the Belmont, our apartment complex.





End of season.