Andy in Amsterdam

One more shot of the Clapotis. It was begging for more pictures. This is à la Fred.

Tomorrow morning at 7:15, my plane takes off to Paris, where I will change planes and take off in another plane to Cincinnati. That’s where I’ll spend the Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve been going to . . . → Read More: Off to Cincy

Big Red spends a lot of his day hanging upside down like this. To the untrained eye, he looks dead, but he’s just sort of zoning out or meditating. I think that crook in his spine occasionally messes up his buoyancy and his ability to stay upright. It seems like it’s difficult . . . → Read More: On Back Aches and Foot Pain

Today was my last SameSpraak with Lydia until early February. She and her husband will be in Asia for a two month vacation. When I told Fred, he said, “That’s how they baby boomers are. They just go on vacation whenever they want.” That got us into a whole conversation about what . . . → Read More: Miss You, Miss You Not

I finally finished the Clapotis and got it blocked. These are some of the photos. It’s such a nice piece of fabric. That’s sort of all it is. It’s just a giant swatch of fabric that’s 140 cm long and 45 cm wide. (That’s about 4.5 feet long and 18 inches across.) I wasn’t crazy . . . → Read More: The Finished Clapotis and Pondering Lace

When Ada, Bart, Vera and Ton were here last night, they gave us some interesting “host gifts.” I’m always on the look out for good ideas in terms of host gifts. We usually take wine or a bunch of flowers when we show up at someone’s house for dinner. They’re dependable gifts. People here . . . → Read More: Host Gifts

Fred and I have a number of dinner parties that we’ve either scheduled or need to schedule. We’ve got some regulars and a group or two that either of us has brought up as a ‘good mix.’ Tonight was one of the dinner parties - two of his sisters and their husbands. We’ve had . . . → Read More: Thanksgiving - Round One

(This is backdated. I’m pretend I’m writing on Friday.)

This afternoon, a bunch of Amsterdam bloggers got an email from Jase and Hannah. They will leave Europe for good after a two week swing through various cities. They’ll head back to their native Australia to continue their lives. They were here on an . . . → Read More: Balance

In a word, no. I’ve decided that - for me - NaNoBlogPo means thirty blog posts in thirty days. Due to my work schedule/social schedule, I seem to be going almost straight through from Thursday morning to Friday night. And on Friday night I’m exhausted - too exhausted to blog. To complicate things, we . . . → Read More: Am I Giving Up?

Today is St. Martin’s Day, which is a holiday that people think of as sort of like (but not really at all), but kind of like Halloween. It’s similar in that children dress up and carry lanterns. They sing a song and people then give them candy. I don’t know . . . → Read More: St. Martin and the Very Old Fish

I’m a little late to the party. I just “discovered” Google Earth Street Map. I’ve always enjoyed Google Maps, but the problem was always that it was a bird’s eye view of everything and you could only get so close. If you get too close, it’s all blurry. And I’m not fabulous . . . → Read More: I Spy with My Little Eye