Guus Bosman

Today I went for a walk through our neighborhood.

Last week when I went to the supermarket after work, I locked myself out of the car at the parking lot. I had forgotten that I had put my keys in shopping a bag, so I closed the trunk with a satisfying "bang" sound and realized right away that I wouldn't be able to get into the car.

It was a beautiful afternoon so I decided to walk home. And so I did, and I realized how rare it had become for me to walk from the supermarket to home. When we lived in Arlington we didn't have a car, so we would do all our grocery shopping on foot. Not always convenient but at least we would walk and see the neighborhood.

So today I went for a walk again, to explore the area. A few months ago I had seen an interesting stone formation not to far from our house, and I thought that perhaps it's a monument or something historical, so I decided to walk to there.

A website that shows Ads vs. Reality.

Advertisements for food paired with actual pictures of that food.

I was up bright and early this morning, and I was at the Festival at 8.00 am to get tickets for 2 shows that were sold out in the advanced ticket sale. The line wasn't very long and I got my tickets.

The Festival has nice tables with good coffee and wireless access. I'm on my way to get in line for the next show that starts at 9.30 am, 2 movies about Africa.

The Washington Post did an interesting social experiment a while ago.

"No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.

His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?"

Read the complete article here (through Mark).

I tried to go to the Farmers' Market in downtown Durham this morning but I couldn't find it. Today's the first day that the Market opened, it will be every Saturday morning throughout the summer.

Since a few months there is a Starbucks store in Kroger, the supermarket we usually go to, and I went to pick up two cups of coffee.

In a few weeks there will be the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 and last night we saw video clips of some of the participants. It promises to be a wonderful show of bad musical taste again. It would be awesome if we could see Terry Wogan's show somewhere, although the chances of that are slim...

The Dutch participant, Edsilia Rombley, won't stand a chance with a boring performance. The Bulgarian participants, Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov, aren't too bad, but to win the competition more extravaganza is required. Titles as "Push that button" or "Shake It Up Shekerim" are more likely to score high, as is the "vampires are real" act from one of the small European countries.

Yesterday evening we went to Southpoint Mall to do shopping, which was very nice.

This morning the weather was absolutely gorgeous and Sasha and I ran our errands together. This afternoon I'm reading on the balcony, in the sun.

Last weekend when we were in New Jersey we could still see melting snow on the streets.

In Durham spring is clearly starting. As I am writing this there is a bird singing outside, which is somewhat annoying but a hopeful sign of spring.

Last night we had dinner with Belén, Estéban and Hernan and we had a really nice evening.

This morning I went to pick up our car and after a cup of coffee I'm on my way to Southpoint to get a haircut. A good hairdresser is another of those important amenities to have around, but I haven't really found a good one yet. Regis is not bad but it's in the mall and quite far.

Today I ran some errants: I went to the post office, super market, shoe maker, library, dry cleaners and Target all in one afternoon. Since nothing is close to each other that means a lot of driving.

Shortly after we moved to Durham I found a good shoe maker nearby, one of the important amenities to have around. It's a family owned business and they do shoe repair and clothes alterations. I've been at Butlers a few times and their work is of high quality.

The only downside is that it's hard to get to their store as the entrance for cars is very steep. If you're not careful the car won't get enough clearance and you'll hear a loud scraping sound under the car -- not nice.

A few weeks ago I had my first appointment at my new dentist, and today I went back for some additional things.

The office is right next to ours which makes it convenient to go for an appointment. I really like their service -- very professional, very friendly. They gave me a tooth brush and and little tube of tooth paste.

In lighter news, a Duke graduate has invented a beer-tossing machine:

"It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a minifridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing machine, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload."

Today is Sasha's birthday!

In Bulgaria and the Netherlands that is -- in the U.S. she still needs to wait a few hours before the big day.

Happy Birthday!