It has been a productive weekend in some ways, not so productive in others. But do you ever have a day or two where you say “Okay, no matter what, I am putting my enjoyment first?” That was pretty much theme of this weekend. I think I did pretty well.
Usually there’s projects that need to get done. Sometimes this means I work on them from dinner until it’s about time to go to bed, minus a bit of time at the end where I write the nightly ritual of an email to Marco of course. Occasionally with a cup of tea and speculaas cookies. But after a week of 2-3 hours a night, I said no más! The weekend is mine.
Before one of my trips to the Netherlands, Marco was trying to be a good boyfriend (note: he passed with flying colors and double rainbows). He knew that I use cotton balls to wash my face each morning. So he had the bright idea of getting me some cotton from Albert Heijn:
Yes… he got me a bag of watten (cotton) … but it was not in ball form at all. Nope.
As it turned out, I also brought some cotton balls on the trip, as I didn’t know that he had gotten anything for me. But, as unluckiness would have it… I had packed my cotton balls and my face cleanser in a sandwich bag. But I didn’t realize that the cleanser wasn’t fully closed, so all of the cotton balls were wet and ruined when I opened the luggage. So Marco’s odd zigzag cotton saved the day!
But let me tell you, it was a bit weird to pull apart bits of cotton to use. Usually I got a piece that was three times larger than I needed! I think that stuff was better intended for arts and crafts projects.
But thank you, Marco, for saving the day yet again!
A long time before there was Marco in my world, there was Colonization.
1994, in fact.
It was my first time learning about the Dutch (who knows how accurate it really was). Colonization is a Sid Meier computer game where you can choose from one of four nationalities (Spanish, English, French, or Dutch). Your goal was to leave the Old World to come colonize the New World of the Americas. As it was a ‘city building’ type game, it was right up my alley, along with the Civilization series, Sim City, Caesar, and Pharaoh/Cleopatra.
You see a pattern of what games I like to play? I don’t like to fight much, though I’ll tolerate it if it’s not the main focus of the game.
In Colonization, every nationality had its own perk. For instance, English was into immigration, so you got an extra immigrant at the start of the game plus more immigration bonuses later on. The French interact better with the native Indians, while the Spanish get a bonus when fighting the Indians. But the Dutch… the Dutch get better prices, and they get an awesome Dutch galleon ship at the start of the game which can carry 6 units of cargo.
From colonizationfans.com. The Dutch look to be taking over the world… or at least this part of South America. There’s some Indian cities on the left (the grey cities with the cross and exclamation points) plus an Indian in a loin cloth, and an English settlement in the upper right.
So for most of my time playing Colonization, I played the Dutch. I am all about trading and cargo and getting money. Although my second favorite choice was the English for their immigration benefits.
A view from the city’s production screen. Note on the lower half in the middle, they are currently loading a Dutch galleon with its coveted 6 cargo spots. Currently it has muskets in the first cargo hold.
The one thing you always have to be weary of is making some cheap money by selling muskets and horses to the Indians. You think they won’t use them against you 30 turns later? Ha.
The goal of the game is to declare your indepence from the Old World… but when you click the revolution button, you better be prepared for the wave of revolutionary army units which appear right off your shores 1-2 turns later. The more cities you have, the more units will appear. You’ll see that this particular city is not looking for a revolution that much, as in the lower left only 2 colonists (19%) want it, whereas 11 colonists (81%) still prefer not to rock the boat. But that will change. That will change.
It’s almost enough to make me want to download a copy of the game again. Hmmm…
If you’re interested in a nicely detailed strategy guide, check out the Civilization wiki (both games are Sid Meier titles).
Heat: Two days of soaring high temperatures where frying eggs on the sidewalk is not completely out of the question. Both were 36C+ with temperatures feeling like 40C+ (105F) today.
But only two days’ worth. It breaks tonight, and then the thunderstorm rolls in. Of course today the bus was a bit late due to an accident around the Lincoln Tunnel, so standing at the bus stop in that kind of heat for 40 minutes was… not fun. (Of course, this is where I have to admit the driver of my bus occasionally reads this blog, so if you stumble across this post Mr. bus driver, I know that you are not to blame! :))
Heat: Here’s hoping the Miami Heat don’t win the NBA championship tonight. I would at least like it to be a series.
Not Heat: Continuing the fountain theme of the last few days, here’s another picture of the fountain at Rijkswijk. Marco took it for me last month.
Would you jump into this fountain on a 36C+ day?
The amusing thing about this fountain is they do clean it about a few times a year… and it goes back to green within 2 days of the cleaning. It’s near the Bogaardplein.
Another busy night! But I did receive an email saying that someone had found my Where’s George? dollar bill and put it in the system. Someone from New York City.
It started in Maryland back in June 2006. I was only a year graduated from college at that point. Hadn’t met Marco yet in person! It got to Pennsylvania in January of the following year. Then me last month (over 5 years later!). Then someone today in NYC.
It’s a hot day here. With that in mind, here’s a nice cooling picture of the Binnenhof fountain. Just don’t drop money in. It can’t be tracked if you do!
I found myself working on another project for the game I play. Of course, that meant the night slipped away faster than even I could have imagined! The good news is I got a lot of work done and am almost about to wrap up the project. Which is a very nice feeling.
In the meantime, while I salvage the last few remaining minutes before bed, here’s a picture I took last week of the beautiful landscaping around work:
Yesterday I was idly looking through my WordPress widgets – the things on the right like the categories, search box, signup, etc. I came across the Milestone one and decided to open it. This is the widget that says how many months/days are left until the big day. Currently it counts down to Christmas day, but I will change that once we officially book the plane tickets.
When I opened up the Milestone widget, I found myself chuckling a bit at the message that will be displayed on the day the countdown expires… but I will leave that big reveal until the big day. I am trying to imagine December 18, but it’s sort of hard even though it is so close.
Tomorrow is the birthday of Marco’s mother, so today Marco and her went out to eat at Sumo, a Japanese restaurant.
But Marco devised a scheme – before she arrived, he and I would start up a videochat, and then surprise her. I will say that when she arrived, it was nice to hear her voice again (off screen), with its Dutch accent and happy nature showing through. He asked her to open up my card. After she read it to herself, he took the card back and repeated what I had said in English, line by line. She translated it into Dutch to show that she understood what I was saying.
Afterwards, at an opportune moment he had me say “Happy birthday, Henny!” as he turned around the laptop to show her my grinning face. Her reaction was predictable – instantly flustered, for whatever reason! 🙂 Probably suddenly having to speak English! It was nice to speak with her again, since it has been almost a year since I seen her (last August). Marco and her stayed at my place last year for her birthday, so it was hard to be an ocean apart this year.
If you like m&ms (milk chocolate or peanut) you will like this post! During one of Marco’s shopping trips he came across Holland edition m&ms, for the Euro 2012 tournament.
Holland edition peanut m&ms for Euro 2012… the orange m&m always looks so scared that you are about to eat him.
So much chocolate in one place. I approve.
Red, white and blue for the Dutch flag. Orange because that’s their national sports color.
The set also comes with a brullie, which is head gear sort of like a lion’s mane (since the Dutch “mascot” is a lion). You can see a quick example at this 11 second M&M brullie video.
My friend Roger had an interesting work assignment today …outside. Of course, this meant that Amsterdam was experiencing horrible downpours at times today!
Once a year his company volunteers somewhere. This year, he and his coworkers were asked to spend a day with kids. Most of his morning was spent preparing for their arrival, as the organization decided to host a barbecue dinner outside (but still underneath a party tent). This entailed cleaning out a barn, setting up tables and chairs, and hanging balloons.
