The week that was and the end of the stone age...

Hopefully this will be the last of the entries made from outside the comfort of our home – at least by choice. Tomorrow is a big day. Not only should we be receiving our shipping container of all of our household items, but we will also have our home lit with the beauty of Internet connectivity. It’s been a long road to hoe, but the end is in sight. Keeping our fingers crossed that it all works out. Have to admit that being without Internet has been more challenging than originally anticipated. And it’s making Fantasy Football research and playing much too difficult. And for those of you counting at home, I did win my first Fantasy game of the 2010 season – thank you Peyton Manning for a big week.

Speaking about football, our Huskers rolled through the Washington Huskies last weekend like a Midwest tornado. No Heisman for Jake Locker that’s for sure. Sorry Seattle and UW friends. We were very much hoping to see that game before the move to Lux came up, but it’s nice to know that Big Red took care of business. And to our Seattle Husker friends Jeff and Katie, we hope you guys survived. I’m sure we missed a good time. I’ll end the college football talk there as I hear KU didn’t fare as well.

So last Thursday, I had my first French lesson. It went well, but it ain’t gonna be easy. That same day was also the first dinner party we held in Lux. We invited our neighbors (and landlords) and I cooked from the old reliable cookbook in my head – Butternut squash risotto, radish crostini, simple salad – as the cookbooks were still somewhere floating through the Atlantic on a container ship. It went well and the neighbors are great. Cracked a few bottles of wine and really enjoyed their company.

Friday night we stayed in and had leftovers, and Sat morning we woke up and headed to Belgium and the Orval Abbey. Luckily we have organized friends over here who did the research to and found that this was only one of two weekends a year that the Abbey (a working Trappist Brewery) is open for self-guided free public tours. Thank you Sarah Jane and Maarten. Now I’ve been through a few breweries in the States in my time, namely the Miller Brewery in Milwaukee (thanks to Mike Johnson and a college spring break trip to Brew City and Marquette circa ’96) and to the Sprecher Brewery also in Mil-Town (and thanks to brother Jim O who like a true beer man had his rehearsal dinner there). But this, friends, was something completely different. The Orval Abbey was founded in 1070. It was later destroyed during the French Revolution but would re-emerge from ruins in 1926. In 1931 a brewery was established in the abbey to help finance the construction of a new monastery (last several sentences taken from the brochure we picked up at the front door). Basically, the brewery was a castle.

And a little more entertaining background from the brochure re: the “Name and the Legend of Orval”…

Around 1076, the Suzerain of the area in which Orval was situated was Countess Matilda of Tuscany (Italy). Seated beside a clear gushing spring, she accidentally dropped into the water her wedding ring which had been given to her by her deceased husband, Godfrey the Hunchback (really). In despair at having lost this keepsake from her husband, the countess prayed most fervently to the Virgin Mary. Soon, a trout came to the surface and returned the ring to her (more evidence that the Holy Family fly fishes). Filled with wonder at this miracle, she cried: “Here is the golden ring I was looking for! Blessed be the valley which has returned it to me! From now on and forever I want it to be called ‘aurea vallis’ or Orval – the golden valley.” The emblem of Orval – the trout and the golden ring – has perpetuated the charming memory of this legend. As to the spring, it still supplies water to the monastery and its brewery.

At the end of the tour, we were treated to a complementary beer in what seemed to be part of the loading docks. Really cool scene with a ton of people in there drinking and chatting in different languages that I didn’t understand, but all enjoying beer together. Although it had a strange “chemically” taste akin to a urinal puck, we all happily finished our beers and went looking for more. We left the Abbey and drove to a nearby restaurant and had lunch and another beer. Lunch was fab and we all had whole fried rainbow trout except for Sara who for some unknown reason got herself a grilled cheese sandwich (she is still the worst food-orderer ever). Following the light fish lunch we took a hike several kilometers back up to the Abbey on a trail that skirted into France. I liked what I saw of it – forest – and am looking forward to seeing more of it.

On Sunday we went to a natural foods expo where we bought lots of sausage and Rudy and I had our new favorite – a sausage baked inside a pastry roll. I’m sure I’ll learn the official name for it soon, but needless to say, since Sunday Rudy and I have had two more at the local “confection shop.” After Roo’s nap on Sun afternoon we drove down into France (only 20 km away) as our neighbor who owns a movie prop company was selling off a bunch of his inventory and we were in the market for lamps, light fixtures, etc. We never found the place and ended up blowing about 2 hours of our Sunday evening, but it was still fun to get out and explore (at least for Rudy and myself; Sara, unfortunately, had one of her “car moments” and almost drove us into oncoming traffic several times b/c she was so pissed about not finding the place. Ah the joys.).

Also on Sunday, I was scheduled to play my second Fantasy Football game, still don’t know if I won or not, but I should find out later today. H, if you’re reading this, please let me know.

Monday was a great day as it was the 33^rd b-day of my brother Cris. Happy b-day bro! Wanted to skype with him, but we couldn’t get our timing down. That night I made meatloaf from what turned out to be pork meat or some kind of beef/pork mixture. Now, I know my beef. I know that reddish tint that ground beef holds as compared to the more pink-colored look of pork. Well, this looked beef-red, but it was most certainly not cow meat. But no matter, it turned out great. Had some sautéed fennel, garlic, shallots and young leeks stuffed inside the meat and it was wonderful. Had to really exercise some self control in order to leave a helping for lunch today. Good boy.

That’s it. Moving forward, I’m hoping my posts will be more frequent and less lengthy. Oh, and they’ll also have pics embedded in each post.