Guus Bosman

software engineering director


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dailylife

Annemieke and Karen in DC

Annemieke, Karen and me.Monday morning I saw Karen and Annemieke in downtown D.C. They are on vacation in the U.S. and are staying with Karen's brother Ruud in Maryland.

We had coffee together in Starbucks near the Mall, where Annemieke and Karen had just seen the Memorial Day Parade. We had a nice chat and then we went to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, where we saw a collection of Asian Art.

internet

Postbank Skype

Postbank Skype.The Postbank, my Dutch bank, is introducing a new centralized phone number. It's a 0900 number though, which I can't dial from the United States. Neither Skype, calling cards nor my new phone support dialing these special numbers.

Fortunately, the Postbank is a really cool bank and has an experimental Skype number. I called it the other day, and it works great.

The skype name is postbank_jongeren. In addition to that, they also have a regular phone number that can be used when calling from abroad.

movies

X-Men 3, The Last Stand

Saturday evening we saw X-Men 3, The Last Stand, the third film adaption of the X-Men comic books.

We saw the first movie about a year ago, and two weeks ago we saw X-Men II on TV, so we were well prepared. We had enjoyed the first two movies very much, and yesterday we were very pleasantly surprised with the 3rd one.

It is not common for a sequel, let alone a second sequel, to be as good as the first movie, but X-Men the Last Stand was delightful. Intelligent, surprising story lines, good acting and of course brilliant special effects made for a really good Saturday night movie.

The movie theater was packed, and most viewers were very enthousiast about the movie as well. For those of you who are planning to see it: make sure you stay all the way until the end of the credits -- there is an interesting surprise scene.

After the movie we went to Four Courts and had drinks and a light dinner.

dailylife

Wholefoods BBQ

Wholefoods BBQ. I went to the supermarket this afternoon and I was surprised by how warm is was outside. Not super sunny, but it's at least 85 degrees, very nice.

Because of the nice weather Wholefoods put a barbecue outside to let people try sausage. A very popular snack.

dailylife

Memorial Day weekend

Eurovision Song Contest 2006.It's Memorial Day, so we have an extra long weekend with Monday a day off.

We just had breakfast outside, it's warm today, but the real sunny weather is supposed to come out tomorrow. Which is good because Memorial Weekend is traditionally the time that the swimming pools open and with a little bit of help from the weather we'll swim in the pool soon.

The Eurovision Song Contest had a winner in its finest tradition last weekend. It's been two year since we saw it for the last time, and unfortunately we missed it the show.

The BBC has a great Eurovision website, but the show itself is no unfortunately longer online. I found some recordings online of Saturday's finale, but none of them with Terry Wogan.

movies

Walk the Line

Walk the Line.Saturday night we saw Walk the Line, an award-winning movie on the lives of Johny Cash and June Carter.

The acting by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon was very, very good -- the Oscar for Witherspoon was truly deserved and I'm surprised that Phoenix did not receive more awards than he did. Both of them performed all the songs in the movie themselves.

I didn't know much about Johny Cash or June Carter before I saw the film, but I'd seen the famous concert in Folsom Prison, which place a part in the movie too. It must have been a really nice concert to attend, except for the fact that being in the audience implied that you would stay in that jail for quite some longer time.

movies

The Man

The Man.Usually I don't watch the movies in the plane but today I saw a really entertaining movie, The Man
.

Samual L. Jackson, in his role as rough cop was great but his involuntary partner, Eugene Levy, gave a great performance in his role of traveling dental tools salesman who just doesn't stop talking.

Sasha and I are visiting Irena and Jonathan this weekend, to celebrate Irena's birthday. We both arrived late last night, and this morning we went to see Ilana play her soccer game.

dailylife

In Puerto Rico

In Puerto Rico.I arrived in Puerto Rico around 10.30 pm today. I had to do some things in the office in the morning so I couldn't take the early direct flight, instead I traveled via Miami.

Based on my experience the last time, when my bag never arrived in Puerto Rico and was only located when I was back in Washington, I packed everything in my hand luggage.

I flew with American Airlines, and I really enjoy their level of service. The best part was that on one of the radio stations in the plane they had an Enya special related to her Amarante album. On both flights I listened to Enya almost non-stop. It was excellent.

It was raining in Virginia, obviously it's much warmer here. Yesterday the weather man on ABC mentioned that it would "snow on Pennsylvania Avenue" (downtown DC). I was surprised to hear that because it's been really nice weather lately. It wasn't until this morning that I realized that the weather man was jokingly referring to Mr. Snow, the new press secretary for President Bush who started his new job today.

spanish

Spanish Level II completed

Classroom in Washington Lee.The Spanish course I followed is over. It was a useful introduction, and it gave me quite some exposure to the Spanish language.

There is a summer break now, in the fall a new course will start. I certainly want to continue my study, later this year.

dailylife

American images: a Virginia house

A house in the suburbs of Arlington, Virginia.A house in the suburbs of Arlington, Virginia.

Just a few minutes from the high-rise building that we live in, you'll find typical American houses in the suburbs. A collegue calls it the "real Arlington", unlike the urban Rosslyn and Court House areas. Many of the houses are wooden.

A nice May picture with spring flowers.

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