Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist


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Topic: 

Motor!

When we were running on the trail yesterday we heard the sound of a large group of motorcycles. On Wednesday, September 11, there will be a motorcycle rally in DC and I think these bikers were arriving early.

In any case, Nora is impressed by "motors" and when we reached the high school I stopped and we watched the traffic from the bridge for a while.

Distance: 
4 miles
arlington

Vlag!

The house with the big flag that we always pass during our runs will be demolished.

It's about time -- the house is in very bad state and it really looks ugly.

But Nora will be disappointed! It's one of the highlights of our run -- from far she'll start saying: "vlag! sterren!".

dailylife

Frying Pan Farm

Today Nora saw her first cow. We visited the Frying Pan Farm in Herndon, about 30 minutes away.

Nora woke up 6.45 am, early for her, so she was a little tired but she greatly enjoyed seeing all the animals. We arrived at the farm a little after 9.00 am and the first thing we saw from the parking lot were a cow and a bull, grazing in a pasture. Nora first thought was "paard" (horse), since those she had seen before.

Frying Pan Farm is a beautiful farm and great fun for kids and adults. We saw lots of animals: cows, sheep, horses, pigs, goats, turkeys, peacocks, chickens... Nora was impressed. The animals dutifully made all sorts of noises. We heard the roosters crow, and the cows were mooing. The goats were a little scary.

I also pointed out some of the farm machines, including the plow (ploeg) and when we gave Nora a sandwich later and asked: "wat zagen we op de boerderij?" (what did we see on the farm?), she answered: "ploeg!".

work

At the Jersey City office

Friday I was in our Jersey City office. It was the first time I visited there and a day was too short to meet everybody I wanted to meet.

The office is located on the river front and has a great view of Manhattan.

Topic: 

Running in the rain

Nora likes going for a run. She says "rennen! pappa!".

It was raining a bit this morning, so when we went out for a run I wrapped her legs in plastic. She always brings Wafwaf on her run, and often a small flag too. She will play with those during the first half of the run, and then often doze off during the second half.

Distance: 
4 miles
dailylife

Switching languages

It is a lot of fun to see Nora learning to talk. She speaks Dutch with me and Bulgarian with Sasha and switches between the two languages effortlessly. Nora is now at a stage where she'll say "no" to everything -- even if she means "yes". It's very funny when we both ask her a question. To Sasha she'll reply "не!", to me she'll answer "nee!". In both cases she might mean... "yes", haha.

Here are some other words:

- "kaa'" vs "гау гау ки" (кашкавалче) (cheese)
- "коремче" vs "buik" (tummy)
- "brood" vs "хлапче" (bread)
- "морковче" vs "orteltje" (carrot)

dailylife

Translating "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes"

We were in Barnes and Noble today and bought two books for Nora. One was a Richard Scarry picture book, the other was: "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes". We gave this as a baby gift a year ago, and really loved the story and the rhyme. When we read books to Nora we want to do that in Bulgarian and Dutch, and I've translated several American books so far.

Translating it into Dutch was not easy. How to do justice to these iconic lines?

And both of these babies,
as everyone knows,
had ten little fingers
and ten little toes.

I ran several translations by Nora, and while the Dutch word "teentjes" is very cute, she seemed to prefer "tenen". There is actually an official translation, and on Bol.com I saw a few pages of it, but the meaning and the rhythm of the book was modified too much for my taste, even introducing names for the babies in the book which is a distraction.

dailylife

Fourth of July parade

It's the Fourth today and we walked in the Lyon Village Parade this morning.

The parade is a short walk along Key Boulevard, and several classic cars participated as well as Uncle Sam. Nora was deeply impressed by the fire trucks that also took part. We've been reading about the "brandweer" for a while now and it was fun to see them in real life, if a little scary.

At 12:30 pm Nora went for her nap. When she wakes up, the Zane family will be almost here. They're visiting us for the first time in the new house.

dailylife

What does the cow say?

We asked Nora, "waar is de koe" and she pointed to her cow and said "koe". Then we asked "къде е кравичка?" and she pointed to the cow again and said "вича".

When I asked "wat zegt de koe" she dutifully answered "boe!" and when Sasha asked the same thing in Bulgarian she said "муууу!", much to our delight.

I gave her a new book to read for dinner and it had a picture of a bird. She said "duif?" and then "ogetje" (for "vogeltje"), followed by "tjielp tjielp!"

dailylife

Visit by Jennie and Ronald

Our friends Jennie and Ronald are making a trip along the East Coast, and yesterday they arrived in Washington, DC.

They came to see us in the morning and we had lunch together -- it was very nice to see them.

After a few minutes of shyness Nora enjoyed meeting them, and she was very happy with her gift, a big inflatable pink cow. Koe! Koe! Koe!

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