My mom’s friend Dawn has a die cut maker. A while back she gave my mom the cuts below:
Dawn wants Mom to start a scrapbook with the family tree, as I personally am not into genealogy that much yet. So it’s up to Mom! For now.
Chicago (Or: Ferris wheel at Navy Pier)
I never had the guts to go on this ferris wheel. It’s taller in person than it looks.
Navy Pier ferris wheel in Chicago, December 2011
Height: 150 feet
Seats: 40 gondulas seating up to 6 each
Time: 7 minutes
Navy Pier information (Wikipedia)
Chicago (Or: Wrigley Field at Christmas)
It’s hard to believe that it has already been 11 months since Marco, Roger and I visited Chicago for Christmas 2011. One of the places we visited was Wrigley Field.
I actually did go to one game back in the day during college (I forget the team the Cubs were playing) although traffic and parking was horrendous enough that we didn’t get into the stadium until the 5th inning.
We also found a pretty decent sporting goods store (Sports World) nearby where Marco and Roger bought some sporting items — one I remember was a Cubs ball cap.
names of Cubs fans carved into the bricks outside of Wrigley Field
Countdowns (Or: The passage of time)
Yesterday I helped my mother sort old family pictures (barely making a dent in the huge piles!) But one of them I found was of Oreo as a puppy. Before she learned how to sit properly…
She didn’t get much bigger than that in the last 14 or so years, although she did get… heavier. We just say she is big boned.
In other news, the WordPress countdown widget is now under a month, and is counting down days!
Yay…
Dessert (Or: Dutch oliebollen)
We’re under a month until we land in the Netherlands! Oliebollen is one of the Dutch desserts that I am looking forward to. Here’s a picture Marco took last week:
Oliebollen is the precursor to doughnuts and are traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve in the Netherlands (although they are sold a bit earlier in the year as well). They are really good with powdered sugar (poedersuiker).
I am enjoying this vacation — nice and relaxed so far. I spent most of the morning sorting books into two piles in my old bedroom – keep and donate. Thankfully the keep pile was much, much smaller than the donate pile! 🙂
It’s official! (Or: Plane tickets to NL purchased)
Marco, Roger, and I booked our plane tickets to the Netherlands! They are going to arrive on the 7th of December, and all three of us are going back on December 17th. So it seems my blog countdown was right all along – I am setting foot in the Netherlands on the 18th.
Of course, the cheapest way to do it was through Aer Lingus, as they do not penalize you for buying “only” a one way ticket (see an earlier post here). So each flight has a layover in Dublin (for 6 hours and 4 hours!). But we are leaving early enough before Christmas that we won’t have to pay an arm and a leg — my ticket was only $584. It goes up $100 the next day, and then $200 each for the next few days before stabilizing around $1050ish that weekend. Yowch.
We also booked a NYC hotel room for two days – Dec 15 and 16 – so we are actually leaving my apartment for the final time on the 15th, not the 17th. That way we can just go straight to JFK from NYC itself, rather than deal with a really long, tiring train ride to get there.
In a more emotional sense, I definitely had watery eyes after the tickets were purchased. FINALLY! It’s been a long time coming. And of course, the way my body operates: stressful situation resolved? Let’s bring on a cold! Figures. 😛
Trains, planes, buses (Or: Off to Chicago)
This morning I am heading off to Newark Airport to visit my parents and brother in the suburbs of Chicago. In terms of getting there, it seems (I hope) that luck is on my side.
After the damage that Hurricane Sandy caused, most of NJTransit’s train lines were out of commission. Slowly but surely the lines have been returning, although the North Jersey Coast Line, Gladstone Branch, and Direct Morristown Lines are still suspended. Most of them will come back Monday.
My own line (Pascack Valley Line) returned for weekday service only this past Monday, albeit without the option to transfer at Secaucus Junction. Most commuters transfer there to get into the city. Amtrak had to repair the substation before allowing a higher number of trains into the city, so that was how they artificially restricted flow – only a few lines can get into the city directly without needing to take a ferry or bus at Hoboken instead.
As I needed to be able to transfer at Secaucus Junction to get to the airport (and also needed weekend service!) I was out of luck for that option. I decided to take a 5:29am bus to the city, arriving at 7:03. Take the 7:15 or 7:30 bus to Newark Airport, and arrive around 8am ish.
But I saw on the NJTransit website Thursday afternoon that weekend service would be returning to the Pascack Valley Line (and other lines) this weekend. Trains would also be stopping at Secaucus Junction on the weekend. And it lets me sleep in an hour later! I really was not looking forward to setting my alarm for 4:15am.
Just in time for Thanksgiving…
Sinterklaas (Or: Zwarte Pieten on a bike)
From Marco…
Saturday is an important day for every kid in the Netherlands.
It’s when Sinterklaas arrives. Sinterklaas (or, “De Sint”) is the Dutch version of Santa Claus.
In fact, Santa Claus is based on him.
Unlike Santa, Sinterklaas doesn’t just visit one day, he’s in the country for three weeks! Though he gives you gifts on December 5th, his birthday.
So tomorrow, the 18th, is that day. Most towns have their own Sint arrive,
and then there’s the “tv-Sint” and they broadcast his arrival on national tv.
Here’s a picture of some Sinterklaas decoration at a bakery.
Zwarte Pieten (Black Pete, his side kick) on a bike!
Ikea trip (Or: It’s all about the pencils)
From Marco…
This evening Roger and I made a quick trip to Ikea to look at the furniture items I wish to buy.
It’s mostly storage space but also a new coffee table. The main thing I need to get is a good bed. Which of course was the only thing they didn’t have in the show room…
Now the thing with Ikea is that it’s hard to not leave without something new in your bag. This time was no different. It wasn’t furniture but I did end up with a few pans. My current ones are pretty old and these new ones were dirt cheap. So yeah, bingo!
Now of course we NEVER leave Ikea empty handed. There’s always a few pencils to take home. Roger gives them to his mom who uses them to write on her crossword puzzles. We behaved ourselves this time and got only about ten of them. Much better than when we were there last year with Niki when we had about 25 between the three of us 😉
Here’s Roger, taking the first one of the night.
And here’s the loot at the end.
Soon I’ll go back to order/get the actual furniture. We’ll aim for 20 pencils then.
Moving (Or: Nagging thoughts)
Both Marco and I are getting a bit antsy. The to do lists are looming, with things like closing my credit card account (but merely changing the address on my debit card, to keep paying my student loans) to signing up for short term health insurance, and everything in between. But nothing we can’t handle.
Actually, it’s kind of nice. I had set up a “Stuff to buy & do” document on Google Docs last year — or Google Drive, if you prefer the new name. As it allows simultaneous collaboration, Marco could see my real time typing and vice versa. You will even see a little bit of color to highlight where the other person’s mouse cursor is.
At work, I have started to prepare for my replacement although we are not sure who it will be yet. Little things like typing up notes to help get the person up to speed, or removing my name off of the handouts and making the contact information a bit more generic. I think the most random thing I did this week so far was updating the library Twitter page, so that it uses the newish header feature.
But it still feels all too normal to me, not that that is a problem. Maybe things will change after Thanksgiving. We’ll see.
Life in the Hague 