Andy in Amsterdam

For some reason, I thought yesterday was Friday. The whole day, I acted like it was Friday. I started thinking about weekend activities and sleeping late on Saturday morning. I came up with a perfect Friday night meal and a nice dessert. I shopped for it and cooked it. I was completely convinced that . . . → Read More: Friday Again

FO is short for Finished Object - in the knitting world. There are lots of those abbreviations. For instance, UFO is unfinished object. This was in my UFO pile for a long time. It was only when I had to sit for a while and pay some attention to the television that I decided . . . → Read More: Pi Shawl - My Latest FO

On Sunday, Fred suggested we go for a walk in a park he’d been to with his photography class. It’s a Heempark. It means a park with indiginous plants. This was one is De Braak, which means nothing in particular. The good thing is that there are no bikes or dogs in . . . → Read More: The Edge of Amsterdam

For a long time, I saw these things on the sidewalk and I didn’t know what they were. I sort of assumed they were for drainage or something, but it didn’t occur to me what they really were until one day when I saw a blind woman walking down the street and . . . → Read More: Where the Sidewalk Ends

Last night I had dinner with a guy I know. It was sort of a friend date. We were testing out the waters to see if we thought we’d enjoy hanging out. I met him years ago when I was involved with a group called “Living with a Dutchie.” He showed up . . . → Read More: Observant Much?

Dear woman I saw today at the sandwich shop,

As I was waiting on my tuna on a bagel, I saw you walk up to the counter girl and ask - in a low voice - where something was. The counter girl answered you, pointing out the front door and  to . . . → Read More: To That Woman

Last Thursday, on a whim, I wrote to a student I had about a year ago. She’s Italian and had moved here with her husband. She didn’t want to bother learning Dutch. She thought she’d have a better chance improving her English. It was barely there when we met and it improved . . . → Read More: Masks They Wear

During our ‘out and about’ yesterday, Fred and went to the Bijenkorf, which, of course, is on Dam Square in the Center. There was something going on in front of the Royal Palace. There is often something going on there. It’s a nice big open space and if there’s a carnival in town, it’s generally there. . . . → Read More: Them Dam Krishnas

I’ve been having a little discussion with Patty. We rarely disagree about anything. However, we seem to disagree about an appropriate number of “friends” on Facebook. She wants to keep her number of friends under 100. If she gets to 100 and someone really wonderful comes along, she’ll un-friend someone. (They’re not . . . → Read More: What’s the Facebook For?

This morning, Fred and I discussed our plans for the day and we decided that we would 1) go by ‘that store’ and look at the side tables we’d seen to see if we still really liked them, 2) visit The Hermitage Amsterdam, and 3) see a movie. We did none of those things. . . . → Read More: Outsider Art in Amsterdam